Star Trek: 10 Things We NOW Know About The Holodeck
8. I Think Therefore I Am
How important can one piece of paper be in the grand scheme of things? According to Maurice Hurley, it can make or break an episode and change the fate of a character entirely. In Elementary, Dear Data, one piece of paper resulted in a changed ending and an unanswered mystery.
Quoted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 2nd. Ed., Hurley described a deleted ending to this episode, one in which both Moriarty and Captain Picard were playing a very different game. According to Hurley, Picard was tipped off to Moriarty's hand:
...he knew because when Data came out and showed him a drawing of the Enterprise...When he knew that paper had left the holodeck, he knew that Moriarty could as well, so he lied to him.
Picard, knowing that the paper could leave the holodeck and thus that the holodeck's fail-safes were no longer working, lied to Moriarty to convince him to relinquish control of the Enterprise. Though this version of the ending seemingly sets the stage for Ship In A Bottle nearly four years later, it was removed by Gene Roddenberry.
According to Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, Hurley believed that Gene felt it made Picard's deceit of Moriarty seem underhanded, or less than stalwart. Hurley disagreed, believing that it made Picard seem clever. Though Hurley would leave the series by the end of that year, this plot would finally be revisited in the show's sixth season.