Despite making history as one of the most screwed-over Trek characters ever, Thomas Riker was nearly given the upper hand by producers, who wanted to kill off Will and replace him with Thomas. The plan was to "reboot" the character, putting him in the Ops position and having him work his way back up the ranks. This would provide a far more realistic excuse for Riker continuing to be on the show instead of constantly deferring a promotion to captain. Also, as Thomas was still very much in love with Deanna Troi, this would introduce a new potential romantic subplot to the show and provide an element of tension about whether he might, uh, breach her warp core.

CBS Television Distribution Or alternatively, dock in her Shuttlebay 1.

Ultimately, the writers decided that killing OG Riker would be going a little too boldly where no one had gone before, so they beamed Thomas off to the planet of unresolved plotlines. They also felt it would be more interesting to have both versions of Riker floating around the galaxy, leaving the door open for awkward get-togethers in the future. A door which they utterly forgot about forever.

Apparently, the production team had a hell of a time deciding if Picard should sound English or French, so Stewart performed some scenes (including the opening narration) with a French accent, just to take it for a test drive. Which means we came terrifyingly close to exploring "Space, ze final fronteeah."

In addition to working out what Picard would sound like, Stewart's hair -- or lack thereof -- was another sticking point. Gene Roddenberry was adamant that a bald English dude couldn't possibly be "the new Captain Kirk," and was initially opposed to Stewart trying out for the part of Picard at all. Even though Roddenberry warmed to Stewart, he wasn't budging on the hair issue, and even had a wig flown from London to Los Angeles for Stewart to wear during a tryout.

CBS Television Distribution Make the Federation Great Again.

As you may have noticed, Picard did end up bald, which means Roddenberry eventually caved and realized that members of the Federation would probably be more concerned with Romulans than Rogaine. Roddenberry even stated that Picard was bald because "hair doesn't mean anything in the 25th century." Which sounds hilariously naive to modern ears, now that we know how important beards are to first officers.

According to writer Ronald D. Moore, the planet's Kirk-obsessed population would "have conventions" and "know all the adventures." His vision was "to send the [DS9] characters to a Star Trek convention" as "a kind of comment on fandom, and people's involvement with the show from afar." In short, there'd be an entire planet of Trekkies.

Producers eventually put an "all stop" on the plan, since it'd be almost impossible to do without making fun of their viewership and talking down to them.

The concept didn't completely die, though, and the core idea was revisited years later in the Voyager episode "Virtuoso," in which the Doctor becomes a celebrity on a Delta Quadrant planet.

CBS Television Distribution Voyager: where ideas that couldn't cut it on TNG and DS9 finally got their day in the sun.

In case you're a little foggy on the premise, Star Trek IV is "the one with the whales." When an alien probe threatens to destroy 23rd-century Earth if it can't talk to some whales -- which are extinct -- Kirk and the Enterprise crew travel back in time to 1986 to retrieve some.

Paramount Pictures This is one of the better Trek movies, believe it or not.

So why wasn't Murphy in the final version of the film, hanging out with Kirk and Spock and having a whale of a time? Turns out he was super interested in going to space, but considerably less psyched about, uh, "coming to America." As Murphy put it, "I wanna be in space! I wanna beam up! I don't wanna be in San Francisco." While Murphy later got his space on in the timeless classic Pluto Nash, the sidekick role was reworked for Catherine Hicks, who joined the cast as a whale biologist and love interest for Captain Kirk.

When Gene Roddenberry first pitched the series in 1964, he envisioned a "wagon train" concept, featuring "characters who travel to worlds 'similar' to our own, and meet the action-adventure-drama which becomes our stories." One ship, the S.S. Yorktown, would do most of the ferrying, and her "skipper," Captain Robert April, would head up the cast of characters for the "space western."

CBS passed on Roddenberry's pitch, citing its similarity to Lost In Space. And while we're confident Fox would have eventually picked it up, called it Firefly, and cancelled it to the dismay of viewers everywhere, Roddenberry decided to revise his premise. The result of his editing was the TOS original pilot, called "The Cage," which interested NBC enough for them to order a second, revised pilot, and eventually the entire series.

And so history was made. Roddenberry got his show, Shatner didn't have to get that dusty, and we never had to sit through any tedious episodes about Klingons rustlin' space cattle.

CBS Television Distribution Shatner would have almost certainly still bagged several green alien farm daughters a season, though.

Do you like Star Trek? Do you like horses? If you answered anything above "meh" to either question, then you'll love William's Shatner's book "Spirit Of The Horse: A Celebration In Fact And Fable."

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