10 Times Star Trek Stole From Itself
7. The Naked Now
The Naked Now was The Next Generation's third episode and none of the characters had been well defined by this stage. Gene Roddenberry wanted a script that would rapidly detail the wants and needs of the crew. In The Original Series, the episode The Naked Time had served to deliver this well.
However, he didn't want to be viewed as simply retreading the other series. He assigned D.C. Fontana to write this episode, though once it was handed in, the script underwent heavy rewrites. She stated that his method was to take scripts once the second draft had been completed and rewrite them - all of them. Where possible, he would insert sex scenes which, Fontana believed, debased the female characters. She requested that her name be taken off the episode.
The final result was played for comedy but came up short. George Takei described it in his autobiography as a case of 'children dressing up in their parents' clothes', while producer Maurice Hurley said the episode represented an example of 'Don't we have a new idea?'
Swing and a miss for early TNG.