10 Star Trek Production Secrets Behind These Cliffhangers
4. Homefront And Martial Law
The grim ending of Homefront, showing Starfleet officers appearing fully-armed on the streets of New Orleans, was a misdirect on the part of the producers. They wrote the first part of the episode to build up to an all out assault on Earth, then revealed in the second part, Paradise Lost, that this was never coming.
As an idea, the end of the episode works. However, this cliffhanger is a far cry from what it was supposed to be. Initially, it was designed to be the third season finale, which we will address again on this list. Toward the end of the third season, the producers changed their minds, pushing these episodes out. Then, between the end of season three and the beginning of season four, the showrunners were instructed to do something big, leading to The Way of the Warrior.
This robbed Homefront and Paradise Lost of the budget required to execute this plan. Homefront ends with barely six or seven officers arriving on the street, instead of the dozens of soldiers that had been planned. Paradise Lost didn't fare much better, although the battle with the USS Lakota goes a long way toward raising the visual spectacle.
Showrunner Ira Steven Behr lamented how this two-parter ended up, keeping a little post-it on his desk for years later that simply read 'remember Homefront/Paradise Lost'.