What would Star Trek: Voyager be without Kate Mulgrew playing the indomitable Captain Kathryn Janeway? As the lead actress on the show (which aired from 1995 to 2001), Mulgrew portrayed Janeway as a tough-as-nails officer who wasn't there to joke around or make friends. But this iconic role almost went to someone else!
Originally, producers for Star Trek: Voyager had another actress in mind to play Captain Janeway. They wanted Canadian-born Genevieve Bujold to portray the famous captain, and, in fact, Bujold held the role all the way to taping. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to meet the demands of taping a TV show and Mulgrew was quickly brought in to replace her.
Grace Lee Whitney portrayed Janice Rand in Star Trek: The Original Series. Despite the fact that she didn't have a major role to play in the show, she quickly became a fan favorite. So, audiences were shocked when Whitney made a quick exit from the show without as much as an explanation.
It was only years later in her memoir that Whitney explained what caused her to leave so suddenly. In addition to struggling with addiction problems at the time, Whitney was also assaulted by a studio executive, although she did not name who it was specifically. Since that time, Whitney's character has made a few appearances in Star Trek films.
Spock has been a fan-favorite character since his introduction in Star Trek: The Original Series, where he was portrayed by Leonard Nimoy. Despite being half-alien, Spock's appearance is relatively human--minus the giant pointy ears. However, the show originally had much more colorful plans for this famous Vulcan.
As crazy as it sounds now, Spock was originally intended to have red skin in an attempt to really play up his alien origins. However, this idea was nixed since the show was originally filmed in black and white--producers worried that the red skin would look too much like blackface. That issue aside, it still seems absolutely nuts that Spock was almost bright red!
These days, production companies aren't afraid to shell out the big bucks for a Star Trek project. With a built-in fan base of thousands, if not millions, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll get a good return on your investment. But that wasn't the case when the original show was just starting out. They were so hard-up for cash, they had to resort to illegal means.
It turns out that the original batch of Star Trek's now-iconic uniforms were made illegally. The show was struggling with its budget and couldn't afford to go to a unionized costume maker. So, subverting union rules, they had the costumes quickly made by a non-union sweatshop. Good or bad, where would the show be without these highly recognizable uniforms?
In the 1990s, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was airing, and it featured actors Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig portraying unlikely friends aboard the space station. Audiences loved their on-screen chemistry and praised the writing surrounding their complicated friendship. However, that friendship was all for the camera and nothing else.
In real life, the working relationship between Meaney and Siddig was anything but friendly. They had frequent blow-ups on set and were known to argue about everything from show issues to politics and philosophy. The two just straight-up couldn't stand each other. At least they were talented enough to fake it for the cameras!
When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was created, producers strayed from the classic formula for creating a Star Trek TV series. Instead of a crew on a spaceship traveling the universe, the series (which ran from 1993 to 1999) focused on the crew of the space station Deep Space Nine.
However, it was almost much more different than it ultimately ended up being! Originally, creators wanted to make Deep Space Nine a space western. Unfortunately, they decided this approach would be too cost-prohibitive, so our dreams of seeing Worf in a cowboy hat remain just that...for now.
William Shatner is Star Trek royalty, there's no denying it. With 70+ episodes and seven movies as Captain James T. Kirk, you would think that Shatner would be one of Star Trek's biggest fans, but that's not the case at all! Instead, Shatner has done everything in his power to avoid his time on camera.
You heard us right--William Shatner has never seen an episode of Star Trek that he's starred in! Shatner is famously self-conscious about his on-camera performances, so he does his best to avoid seeing himself on screen. Despite this being one of the biggest roles of his life, Shatner has no idea if he's actually any good as Kirk!
Not everyone that has appeared on Star Trek has enjoyed their time on camera. Plenty of actors have felt like things could have been better with their particular series, but none have been quite as vocal about it as Star Trek: Enterprise actress Jolene Blalock. She never shied away from letting people know just how bad she thought it was.
Chronologically, Star Trek: Enterprise was meant to set the stage for the events of The Original Series. Unfortunately, Blalock didn't think that the writers were taking this important time period as seriously as it needed to be. She's probably most notorious for describing the finale of Enterprise as "appalling."
Actress Gates McFadden portrayed Beverly Crusher in season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, without any explanation, she was replaced by someone else for season two. Then, just as unexpectedly as the first time, she reappeared for season three as if she had never left. What was with the disappearing act?
It turns out that, behind the scenes, McFadden was being harassed by an executive producer on the show. When the cast found out that she had left for this reason, they banded together to have the producer removed from the series. It was a good thing she was able to return because audiences did not care for her interim replacement.
There has been no shortage of personality clashes on Star Trek through the years. But some of the biggest drama happened between co-stars on Star Trek: Voyager. It was during this series that actress Kate Mulgrew gave a major cold shoulder to fellow actress Jeri Ryan, to the point where Ryan said she felt "sick" when she had to shoot with Mulgrew.
The really crazy thing is that Mulgrew was cold to Ryan for things completely outside her control. Mulgrew insisted on playing her character Captain Janeway as tough and competent so she would be taken seriously as a woman. However, Ryan's character, Seven of Nine, was feminine and alluring and brought in specifically as a contrast to Janeway, which Mulgrew resented.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the show's first attempt at a movie, and it didn't perform very well. Because of this, series creator Gene Roddenberry was demoted from his position as executive producer for the sequel, The Wrath of Khan. Although it has never been proven, it's believed that Roddenberry tried to sabotage the whole operation.
At this point in time, actor Leonard Nimoy was tired of playing his iconic character, Spock, so it was decided that he would be killed off in The Wrath of Khan. Roddenberry was opposed to this, and many believed he leaked this spoiler to the public, who were also very opposed to Spock being killed off. Ultimately though, Nimoy got his wish, and Spock was killed at the end of the film.
There have been several controversies surrounding storylines in Star Trek's history, but none have been taken as far as Great Britain's response to The Next Generation episode "The High Ground." The story takes a complex look at the horrors of terrorism, but it's not violent content that got it banned. Instead, it was a stray line from Data.
During one conversation in the episode, Data mentions that some terrorist acts can lead to good outcomes, and he mentions that Ireland was unified in 2024 because of a terrorist attack. Considering the real-life tensions surrounding terrorist attacks and Ireland, the UK prohibited the episode from being aired there.
The writers of Star Trek: Voyager wanted to introduce a Borg character, Seven of Nine (portrayed by Jeri Ryan), but there simply wasn't money in the budget for another person. So, they decided to someone needed to be fired to free up the funds. Ultimately, the character Kes got the axe, but originally, they were going to cut Harry Kim.
However, actor Garrett Wang's job was saved thanks to a little surprise publicity he had gotten from People magazine. Just as the show was about to fire him, Wang was named one of the magazine's 50 most beautiful people in the world. This was enough to make producers want to keep him around.
Over the years, it's become pretty common for Star Trek actors to get tired of the gig and start to consider quitting. That's exactly what happened for actress Nichelle Nichols who portrayed Uhura in The Original Series. Nichols wanted more substantial roles that the show just wasn't providing for her.
However, she completely changed her tune after an unexpected meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife at a party. Dr. King told her that he was a big fan of the show and encouraged his children to watch it because Nichols herself was portraying African Americans in such a good light. That one compliment was all it took for Nichols to stick with the show.
William Shatner was not an easy person to work with on Star Trek: The Original Series. He was so badly behaved that even he has admitted he was a total monster. Series regular George Takei has never shied away about his hatred for Shatner, but he's far from the only one who butted heads with Captain Kirk on set.
Even Shatner's friends couldn't always stand him during his Star Trek days. Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were famously long-time friends, but they didn't start out that way. During the first season of the show, Nimoy was apparently put off by Shatner's childish behavior on set, but the two eventually came to admire one another very much.
