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By Chris Snellgrove
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As massive followers of Star Trek: Voyager, we at all times love scoping out the manufacturing particulars of various episodes to find out how every of Captain Janeway’s adventures got here collectively. More often than not, these are loving tales about how a cool concept originated and have become one other memorable episode of Gene Roddenberry’s sprawling sci-fi franchise. However “Faces” is the uncommon case of a Star Trek episode the place even the producers thought it was a horrible concept from the beginning.
“Faces,” like most Star Trek episodes, began out very otherwise than what we ultimately noticed onscreen. This memorably cut up the half-Klingon engineer B’Elanna Torres into two halves (one totally human, one totally Klingon), and as govt producer Michael Piller mentioned, the earliest story concept posited that this “may very well be the results of a hideous focus camp sort of experiment.” This didn’t precisely thrill the manufacturing workers: govt story editor Kenneth Biller declared that “the unique concept was very melodramatic and hokey,” and govt producer Jeri Taylor mentioned “I used to be not even in favor of shopping for this concept initially” and that “it was a drained concept” which “was too on the nostril for B’Elanna.”
“Faces” additionally didn’t impress well-known Star Trek producer Brannon Braga, who admitted that “Normally, when a present does the evil twin, it’s on its final legs and so they’re determined.” Initially, he was down with the concept of getting this acquainted tv trope out of the way in which in season 1, later saying, “I at all times felt that splitting her was a mistake, like making Information human.” He questioned why the present felt the necessity to “resolve any of her emotions,” which is a good query when you think about that the stress between these dueling halves of her character would run all through the course of the complete collection.
Relating to “Faces,” Michael Piller mentioned, “This was a narrative that lots of people had bother with, and it was nearly deserted at one cut-off date.” Nevertheless, the writers and producers stayed the course as a result of they thought {that a} new tackle the basic Trek trope of splitting a personality in two (a la Kirk in The Authentic Collection) had some enjoyable artistic potential. The completed episode ended up being a hit, and the credit score for this appears to go solely to Kenneth Biller.
As for the ultimate “Faces” script, it incorporates the Vidiians, a tragic alien race that’s at all times on the lookout for a brand new method to remedy the Phage that’s continually ravaging their our bodies. A Vidiian scientist finally ends up splitting B’elanna Torres into two components as a loopy methodology of making an attempt to find the remedy. The alien egghead finally ends up falling in love along with his captive, Magnificence and the Beast model, and the 2 variations of Torres crew up and escape captivity solely to be reincorporated into one physique on Voyager.
Biller is the one writer of the “Faces” teleplay, and he had the unenviable activity of taking the Star Trek script that no one appreciated and turning it into one thing partaking. He integrated the alien Vidiians as a method to make the body-splitting work, and Piller later gushed that “It wasn’t till Ken Biller obtained the rewrite that he solved each drawback in a single day.”
In the meantime, fellow exec producer and story skeptic Jeri Taylor admitted that “Finally it turned out much better than we had any proper to anticipate.” Persevering with, she mentioned, “Ken Biller got here up with marrying that concept [of splitting B’Elanna] with the Phage aliens, and that’s what I believe finally made it work and made it credible.
As you possibly can inform, “Faces” is a type of Star Trek episodes that had a really troubled manufacturing, and it’s a small miracle that this story made it to air. It’s an excellent factor it did, although, as this episode’s themes of each horror and identification make it one of the vital memorable episodes of Voyager’s early days. The truth that it focuses on Torres (arguably the present’s most fascinating character) serves because the cherry on prime of a replicated chocolate cake (we will solely assume Deanna Troi would approve).
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