10 Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes That Were Almost Completely Different

A contribution to this list from a one Ronald D. Moore here, whose originally envisaged ending to The First Duty - or the That's Not Tom Paris, Honest episode - would have made it a completely different story. Granted, we're not talking "completely different" in the same way Picard having Christmas Dinner with Kermit Bob Cratchit is "completely different", but I do take his point.

"In the aired version of events, Wesley steps forward even though the court of inquiry is about to let them all off the hook. In so doing, Wes commits an act of moral courage by standing up for the truth and being punished when to remain silent would've allowed him to go scot-free."

"Now, let's assume the circumstances had been constructed so that the Nova Squadron was going to be kicked out of the Academy by the court if they kept silent about what really happened. Say that the team had made a decision not to finger the one among them who came up with the idea on the "we all hang together" philosophy. In that scenario, Wesley coming forward to tell the truth is suddenly an act of moral cowardice because it appears that he's only trying to save his own skin at the expense of one of his teammates."

"If that had been the story then Picard's impassioned speech to Wesley about the morality of coming forward to tell the truth is suddenly a scene where the Captain tries to convince a young man not to throw away his own career in order to protect one of his friends. In the end, Locarno (the true culprit) comes forward on his own in order to save the rest of the team. As you can see, it's a very different kind of tale even though the essential "plot" is relatively unchanged."

And do you know what, he's not wrong.