10 Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Were Almost Made

Paul Schneider was a television veteran who wrote “Balance of Terror” and “The Squire of Gothos,” two classics from Star Trek’s first season. But even pros have their off-days, and his third script for the series, “Tomorrow the Universe,” was an unmitigated disaster. Producer Bob Justman didn’t mince any words when he read it, calling it “undoubtedly a new low for professional writers.” It was not produced.

In the story, the inhabitants of the planet Spurlos have transformed their society into a spitting image of Nazi Germany, complete with swastikas, tiger tanks, sieg hails, and even Adolf Hitler. It seems that several years before Kirk and company’s visit, another Federation starship was accidentally destroyed there, leaving behind a set of damaged historical tapes (conveniently, they stop in 1941) and a sole survivor: a power hungry half-Vulcan woman named Speen.

If all that sounds vaguely familiar, you’re probably thinking of “Patterns of Force,” a similar tale of a Nazi planet written by John Meredyth Lucas for Star Trek’s second season. When Schneider caught wind of the episode, he filed an arbitration claim with the Writer’s Guild, feeling his work had been used without credit, but the Guild sided against him. Once the matter was settled, Schneider sent a note of apology to Gene Roddenberry, but it’s obvious he still held a grudge. On a copy of the script in his personal papers, a note appended by Schneider reads, “my original 1st draft (unproduced, but later copied without giving me credit).”