As a new series or film is being developed, characters are named, given a little backstory, maybe a plot point or two, but through revisions and rewrites they are dropped. Trek has a few examples of this, some better known than others, such as Lieutenant Xon from Phase II (who would become the basis of Data). I found an article about four lost characters from TWOK (Weapons Officer Charles Waters, Communications Officer Diana O'Rouke, Navigator Thal Arctos, and Doctor Uti Sorbayo) and it got me thinking, who else was on an early draft script or series bible that never survived the development process? If anyone knows of any of these lost characters please share them.
I can't think of a character who didn't survive the development process. But scenes with Colonel West in TUC were heavily cut. I can't remember this character as he never played an important role onscreen or he didn't make any impression on me other than Valeris who was the most obvious traitor. So to me the West character is as good as lost.
I went to a sci-fi convention in Glasgow in the early to mid-90s (Michael Dorn was a guest), and remember a flyer being handed out with some rough details about the new Trek show being planned, called Star Trek Voyager. It had outlines for the main characters' backstories - no lost characters as such, but lost interpretations, such as Captain Janeway being called Elizabeth, and decorating the bridge with potted plants, and having a scientist father and an astrologer mother, instead of being the Starfleet brat daughter of an admiral.
Number One. "Audiences not ready for a female first officer". We think of Cage as the pilot but that's not how it was originally aired.
Off the top of my head I‘m thinking of Leslie Crusher, the original female version of Wesley. Would have been cool to have another female character on TNG. Having a girl in the stories they wrote for Wesley – i.e. not traditionally girly stories – would have been interesting and potentially inspiring for little girls at the time. And even though I love love love Kira Nerys, having Ro Laren on Deep Space Nine would have provided interesting possibilites to develop that character as well. Also, not a specific character, but it would have been nice to actually get the various gay characters they were teasing during the Berman years. The characters from the unproduced ”Blood and Fire“ for example.
The guy from Star Trek VI with the glowing hand who comes and picks up the TOS cast in his flying car.
Numero Uno "Roddenberry's wasn't ready to re-cast the role." How would that make a difference? Any reading would simply be different in individual star systems, or depending on where a starship was in interstellar space.
Perhaps. Still interesting whether an overarching system would develop, or that it would remain a loose knitting together of local systems, and probably for a random location in interstellar space (not near any solar system) an entirely new system would have to be developed anyway.... And suppose in system A your chart predicts a very negative time to come, could you avoid that by quickly relocating to system B where outlooks aren't so bleak ? (This of course from the viewpoint of a 24th century believer in astrology)
Totally forgot to include that in the original post. Here you go: http://forgottentrek.com/lost-characters-of-star-trek-ii/
I'm glad that got nixed. I would hope that no one that far in the "enlightened" future still believes in that nonsense.
That wouldn't be so different than being advised to seek a new job, change cities, dump a bad lover, etc.. Deanna Troi believes in fate, Tuvok's wife believes in the power of prayer, Riker (?) believes in destiny. Why not astrology? YMMV.
Because we already know today that it's complete nonsense? It's almost impossible to believe that in the advanced, scientific future of 400 years from now, people would have regressed so far as to believe something so obviously ridiculous. Maybe there's flat-earthers too?
There are luddites in the Discovery era. People who eschewed technology post-WW3, so a form of astrology might exist among people in some of the more kookier anti-technology groups.
Orville did an episode about astrology. Oh shoot. I have to pay a tithe to the coin jar now, don't I?
I'd love to see how The Orville was developed, what character ideas were like when the idea was first dreamed up. Creating a new universe would've had boundless possibilities--not that I don't love the characters, they're all great in their own way!