Part II, Chapter XI: "Finding Your Feet"
“The third season is often hailed as one of the best that we did. Fans give all sorts of reasons, but I think that one of the big ones is that we, as a cast, finally found our footing. We’d had two years to figure out all of our characters, and that experience really shows in the third season.”
- Patrick Stewart, taken from
Where None Had Gone Before.
As had happened with the second season, production of Season 3 began while the previous one was still airing. The success of the second season would give the writers a better idea of what worked in the new show and what did not. The third season would see many new writers join the crew, and some veterans leave.
Roddenberry would continue to have less influence on the show, the third season marking the end of his rewrites to certain scripts. Two notable writers who joined the show in its third season were Ronald D. Moore and Michael Piller, who would go on to write many stories for the Star Trek franchise. [1]
In addition, the departure of Diana Muldaur as Dr Katherine Pulaski left a vacany in the Chief Medical Officer position for the second time in as many years. There was a large letter writing campaign to bring back Gates McFadden, helped by the fact that her character had been written out, rather than killed off, at Roddenberry’s request. Though Maurice Hurley, the man behind McFadden’s firing, was no longer working on the show, there was some resistance among the writing staff to bringing her character back. [2]
As a result, the new character of Dr Amelia Henderson was introduced. To be played by English actress Stephanie Beacham, this new Chief Medical Offier hailed from the British Isles, and was appointed to the position following the retirement of Dr Pulaski. [3]
A second new character would also be introduced to the show, Ensign Andrew Kelly, a permanent tactical officer, to allow the character of Worf to be focussed on his job as Chief of Security. Long time fan and moderately successful film actor Christian Slater would land the role. Only 19 when cast, and just two years older than Carla Gugino, who played Leslie Crusher, Kelly would be written as a recent Starfleet Academy graduate. [4]
The third season would see the return of many enemies of the Federation, most notably the Borg in the finale episode, “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”. The story would leave the season ending on a cliffhanger, with Picard assimilated by the Borg, and Riker in command of the Enterprise.
This would be done partially to cover for the fact that the contracts between the cast who had stayed since the first season only covered for three seasons. While most would sign new contracts that kept them on the show until an eighth season, Stewart would take longer to come to an agreement. As there was a real possibility of him leaving after the third season, the story was made to allow for his character to be written off, should the need arise. [5]
The season would also mark the start of actors from one of the “Big Two” of television science fiction guest starring on the other show. Denise Crosby, who had played Lt. Tasha Yar in the first season but was now known better as the Doctor’s companion Ace, would return to play Lt. Yar once more for the story “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. Her two co-stars, Hugh Laurie and Tom Hanks would also appear in episodes of the season, a favour that would be repaid by many cast members of
The Next Generation in
Doctor Who’s Season 24. [6]
At the request of Whoopi Goldberg, the character of Guinan and the rest of her El-Aurian species were given some more mystery. In addition to her being much older than she looked, and having prior knowledge of the being known as Q, she would be revealed to have a slightly different perception of time. Notably, this would come into play during “Yesterday’s Enterprise” where she would know intrinsically that the timeline she now existed in was ‘wrong’.
While some of the writers planned on explaining this in the show, they were stopped, so as to allow the fans to come up with their own theories. [7]
As the latter half of 1989 came,
Star Trek: The Next Generation returned to television.
[1] Relatively little change from OTL as far as writing staff go. TNG operated an open spec script policy, meaning that anybody who had a script could send it, and they might be hired. This is how Moore joined. I've not said this explicitly, but Doctor Who doesn't operate in the same way, meaning that you get a lot more younger writers on Trek than Who (with one or two big exceptions that will be seen soon-ish).
[2] I nearly brought McFadden back, but decided that I would rather see somebody else take on the role. I personally never warmed to Pulaski, so Dr Henderson will be a little more like Crusher, but by no means a carbon copy.
[3] Her role in seaQuest is butterflied, as is that show (even though it's a bit down the line) as NBC already has a science fiction drama show in Doctor Who.
[4] His role in Heathers goes to Brad Pitt, who auditioned for it but was not cast in OTL due to the producers seeing him as "too nice". That doesn't happen here, so while Slater has some box office success, he never gets that breakout big screen role. When Paramount looks for a young actor to be in Star Trek, Slater steps up and gets the part. Slater is a Trekkie in OTL, appearing briefly in The Undiscovered Country.
[5] This is almost certainly an apocryphal tale, but I like it as a reason. Stewart will stick around for the rest of TNG, but we'll see more original characters in it from here on out.
[6] A little teaser for 5 updates in the future, which will cover the production of S24 of Who. As the relationship between the two shows is now much more amicable, it won't be uncommon to see people star in one show and guest in the other. Down the line, we may even see a few people have major roles in both franchises...
[7] I've got a plan for the El-Aurians in this timeline, but I'm not sure that I'll ever spell it out, rather just leaving enough for you all to piece it together. I'd describe it as a headcanon, but it only really works in this ATL.