By Chris Snellgrove | Published
As big fans of Star Trek: Voyagerwe always like to dig into the production details of different episodes to learn how each of Captain Janeway's adventures came together. Most of the time, these are love stories about how a cool idea came to life and became another memorable episode of Gene Roddenberry's growing sci-fi franchise. But “The Face” is the rare case of a Star Trek episode where even the producers thought it was a bad idea from the start.
“The Face,” like most Star Trek episodes, started out very different from what we ended up seeing on screen. This split half-Klingon engineer B'Elanna Torres into two parts (one fully human, one fully Klingon), and as executive producer Michael Piller said, the original story idea was that this “could be the result of a horrible concentration camp. kind of experiment.” This didn't exactly please the production staff: managing editor Kenneth Biller declared that “the first idea was too sweet and too sweet,” and executive producer Jeri Taylor said “I didn't even want to buy the idea at first” and that “it was a tired idea” that “was on B's nose.” Elanna.”
“Faces” also didn't impress legendary Star Trek producer Brannon Braga, who admitted that “Usually, when a show does evil twins, it's on its last legs and they're desperate.” At first, he didn't have the intention of removing this familiar television icon from season 1, later saying, “I always felt that his separation was a mistake, like making Data human.” He questioned why the show felt the need to “resolve any of his feelings,” which is a fair question considering the tension between the two sides of his personality will continue throughout the series.
Regarding “Face,” Michael Piller said, “This was a story that a lot of people had a problem with, and it was almost abandoned at once.” However, the writers and producers kept the trend because they thought it was a new take on the classic Trek trope of splitting the character in two (a la Kirk in The Original Series) had a delightful creative energy. The finished piece ended up being a success, and the credit for this seems to go entirely to Kenneth Biller.
As for the final script “Faces”, it features the Vidians, a sadistic race of aliens who are always looking for a new way to cure the Phage that is constantly torturing their bodies. A Vidiian scientist ends up splitting B'elanna Torres in two as a crazy way to try to find a cure. The alien egghead ends up falling in love with his captor, Good and bad style, and the two versions of Torres merge and escape capture to be reincorporated into one body on Voyager.
Biller is the sole writer of the “Faces” teleplay, and he had the unenviable task of taking a Star Trek script that no one liked and turning it into something compelling. He assembled the alien Vidians as a way to make the dissection work work, and Piller later asserted that “It wasn't until Ken Biller got the rewrite that he solved all the problems overnight.”
Meanwhile, executive producer and news skeptic Jeri Taylor admitted that “It ended up being a lot better than we had any right to expect.” Continuing, he said, “Ken Biller came up with that idea [of splitting B’Elanna] and the Phage aliens, and that's what I think ultimately made it work and believable.
As you can tell, “The Face” is one of those Star Trek episodes that had a very troubled production, and it's little wonder that this story turned out. It's a good thing it did, though, as this episode's themes of horror and self-awareness make it one of the most memorable episodes. Voyagerearly days. The fact that it centers on Torres (arguably the show's most interesting character) serves as the cherry on top of the double chocolate cake (we can only assume Deanna Troi would approve).
Source link
