Imagine Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard fighting against Brent Spiner’s Data in the Star Trek franchise. The fight is not some casual or lightweight training but a fight to the death! Well, that was one of the ideas for a Star Trek film that didn’t make it past the producers!
The ever-expanding franchise started in 1966 with Star Trek: The Original Series. The series received a sequel titled Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 and it was after this show that an idea for a film was made for the franchise.
Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard Was Going To Kill Data!
In the show, Patrick Stewart portrayed the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the ship USS Enterprise. Alongside the captain, an ensemble cast of characters and actors worked and the show ran for 7 seasons.
One of the characters was called Data. Portrayed by Brent Spiner, Data was an android, and his on-screen bonding with Jean-Luc Picard was quite recognized worldwide.
Acting like they were blood brothers, Star Trek: Insurrection writer Michael Piller wanted to turn the duo into actual… blood brothers. According to the book The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years (via Looper), Piller had written a script that was quite dark.
Piller revealed in the book that he wanted to depict a fight between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data. It wasn’t going to be an ordinary fight as Piller revealed that one of the characters ended up dying in the original idea.
It was Patrick [Stewart], frankly, who said, ‘This is dark and dreary and it’s not fun,’ and he was the one who put us back on the fountain of youth course that ultimately really leads the story to its current state.
Piller went on to reveal that the fight would have ended with Jean-Luc Picard having to kill Data in order to achieve victory! Although it was a controversial idea from Piller’s side not many people were on board with it.
Co-writer Rick Berman further revealed in the book that the producers of the franchise had a certain suggestion about the tone of the movies and Piller’s tone was not on point with that of the franchise.
Many People Had a Problem With Michael Piller’s Script
Of course, Patrick Stewart was one of the first people who refused the idea and suggested that they could pursue a different route instead. Michael Piller’s idea was quite bold at that time and people didn’t exactly like it.
Star Trek: Insurrection co-writer Rick Berman revealed that even the producers of the franchise were not on board with this idea. As per his statements in the book, here’s what Berman had to say about people’s reaction to Piller’s script.
They thought a ‘Star Trek’ movie should be uplifting and fun and exciting. And those were not words that really fit into Mike Piller’s vocabulary. Exciting maybe, but not fun. But that was like the biggest note that we really ever got.
In the end, the narrative was changed a little and the story featured Captain Picard on a quest for the fountain of Youth. When Picard realizes that the lives of his people are at stake, he decides to commit treason.
The 1998 film received a rating of 6.4/10 on IMDB and an average of 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film wasn’t considered much of a success or maybe who knows? Michael Piller’s idea could have landed the film with more success.
Star Trek: Insurrection is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
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