During the
fourth season,
Manny Coto wanted to do a story featuring
Colonel Green (with
Peter Weller as Green). ("
Terra Prime"
audio commentary)
Garfield and
Judith Reeves-Stevens devised a story which was not only about Colonel Green but additionally concerned the
NX class Columbia as well as the opening of the first
starbase, which was called Starbase 1. The Reeves-Stevenses also used the narrative to refer to a political movement called the Optimum, which the writers reused from their
novel Federation; the organization was linked to Colonel Green. The story additionally involved
Malcolm Reed, establishing a heretofore secret connection between his great-grandfather and Colonel Green. "
We had Malcolm crawling over the outside of the ship," commented Judith Reeves-Stevens. "
It was wonderful."
The Reeves-Stevenses took the story idea to Manny Coto. "
We'd worked it all out in our office, on cards, and we went in there," continued Judith Reeves-Stevens, "
and I wish we'd had video of us doing this incredible presentation, where we were smacking those cards on, one after another, so Manny was so excited and said, 'I can't wait to do this episode.'" Garfield Reeves-Stevens added, "
And so, Manny said, 'Yeah, I love this story. Write the outline.' So, we did an entire beat outline, took it to Manny, [he] said, 'Yes, this is great,' and Brannon [Braga] took one look at it and said, 'It's too dark.'" ("
Observer Effect"
audio commentary,
ENT Season 4 Blu-ray special features)
Ultimately, the story was also not accepted because, in the words of Judith Reeves-Stevens, "
Its lunch was eaten by the Soong," or, in other words, it became hard to do another story featuring genetically engineered Humans. (The
Augment trilogy was actually conceived with Green as their leader, but the character was instead made an ancestor of
Noonien Soong, to accommodate the fact that
Brent Spiner was interested in appearing on the show.) Green (and Peter Weller) later featured in "
Demons". ("
Terra Prime"
audio commentary)
One detail that would have featured in the undeveloped episode was a flag first seen on
Q's
World War III uniform from "
Encounter at Farpoint," which would have been tied to Green's faction. A flag featuring the emblem was produced for "
In a Mirror, Darkly," with the hope that it could be reused, but this never came to pass.
for the Star Trek books all over again?
