10 Star Trek: Voyager Episodes That Were Almost Completely Different
6. Living Witness
Living Witness, directed by none other than Tim Russ, is often considered to be one of the best episodes in Star Trek: Voyager's run. It is about as close to a mirror universe episode that the show approached, using its what-if scenario to tell a tale of a badly garbled interpretation of history.
The one thing that was constant in all versions of the story was the image of the Doctor awakening in a museum of the future. There was some debate as to where the museum would be, with Rick Berman putting his foot down - it had to be the Delta Quadrant, so that the show could avoid confirming that Voyager ever returned home.
In the early drafts, the Doctor discovered that he, in the past, had inspired cybernetic lifeforms to push for great reform in society, thus leading to their acceptance as equals on this world. While that was certainly an interesting idea, the writers also felt that it was more of a Data story, rather than a Doctor story.
The change of arc - from returning Messiah to witness of a very different history - completely flipped the story around, turning what had been quite a charming story of positive impact into a cautionary tale of how the truth is often misinterpreted and twisted.