Here’s another entry in our ongoing Scenes Worth Saving series – following our coverage of Wesley Crusher’s birthday party in “Coming of Age” – where we’re highlighting cut footage from Star Trek: The Next Generation that we’d love to see restored in high-definition.
Season Four’s “Night Terrors“, filmed between January 7 and January 15, 1991, was referred to as dreadfully slow by executive producer Michael Piller (in Larry Nemecek’s Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion), with an initial length nearly nine minutes over the final broadcast running time.
There were a number of cuts throughout the show to reduce the final length of the episode – including an extended introduction to Troi’s first “eyes in the dark” dream sequence – but perhaps the most notable cut centered around on Ensign Peeples, the engineering officer shown assisting Geordi La Forge throughout the story.
Peeples, played by Craig Hurley, makes his only speaking appearance on the derelict USS Brattain, where he hears strange noises leading him to tell La Forge that there are still people on the ship – even though it had been searched from top to bottom when the Enterprise first arrived on the scene.
While he has no other lines in the completed episode, a scene in Main Engineering features Peeples in the background, watching La Forge and Data work to blast a high-intensity beam of energy into the Tyken’s Rift holding the Enterprise captive… but he mysteriously disappears between cuts in the scene.
Read below to find out why the ensign vanished, in this scene filmed on January 8, 1991.
— INT. ENTERPRISE – ENGINEERING (AS AIRED) —
Data ENTERS to find Geordi. Geordi is not in good shape…
shaky and ragged. It’s costing him effort to hang in there.
PEEPLES is working in the background.
GEORDI
Okay… all power has been channelled to the… the…
He looks at Data, losing his thought.
GEORDI
I can’t remember what it’s called.
DATA
The main deflector dish…
GEORDI
Yes… so, now what do we do?
Data gives him a look; he’s gone over and over
this and Geordi isn’t retaining it.
DATA
We must coordinate our effort with the Bridge.
Geordi stares blankly; Data keys his com badge.
DATA
Data to Bridge…
— INT. ENTERPRISE – BRIDGE – INTERCUTTING —
Picard, Riker, Worf, Troi, and Lin.
Again, everyone reflects their diminished circumstances.
PICARD
Yes…
DATA’S COM VOICE
We are ready to discharge the main deflector, Captain.
PICARD
All right…
He looks around the Bridge at his crew — haggard, edgy, desperate. He can barely remember what he has to do.
DATA’S COM VOICE
Mister Worf — activate the deflector.
— EXT. SPACE – THE ENTERPRISE (OPTICAL) —
The main deflector dish begins to glow.
— 83 INT. ENTERPRISE – ENGINEERING (AS SCRIPTED) —
Geordi and Data are intent upon their monitors, and do
not see Peeples approaching Geordi from behind.
GEORDI
Deflector power coils charging…
Suddenly Peeples leaps toward Geordi. Data has seen the movement
and springs quickly to his feet, parrying the blow and seizing
Peeples’ arm. Geordi is nonplussed.
GEORDI
Peeples…
DATA
(touches com)
Security to Engineering.
PEEPLES
You’ve been changing the reactant mix…
that’s why we’re stuck here…
WORF’S COM VOICE
Deflector power banks approaching maximum.
Discharge in fifteen seconds.
Two SECURITY GUARDS ENTER.
DATA
Confine Ensign Peeples to Sickbay.
The guards take Peeples out, still ranting.
PEEPLES
I’ll tell everyone what you’re doing, Commander…
The guards haul him out and Geordi turns to Data, dazed.
GEORDI (AS AIRED)
Data… this detonation better work…
we aren’t gonna last much longer…
— INT. ENTERPRISE – BRIDGE —
WORF
Discharge in three seconds… two… one…
— EXT. SPACE – THE ENTERPRISE (OPTICAL) —
A thin, reedy beam flicks out from the deflector… and then
sputters and snuffs out like a defective firecracker.
— INT. ENTERPRISE – BRIDGE/ENGINEERING —
RIKER
Nothing… it just fizzled out…
DATA
The energy output was absorbed into the Rift.
PICARD
Data… can we try again?
DATA
No, sir. If we draw more power, we risk losing life-support systems.
Picard does not respond. He is unable to think beyond this
point and come up with options for the next step.
There’s the solution to the case of the disappearing engineering officer: he was left on the cutting room floor, along with appearances by regular background actors Joe Bauman and Eben Ham as the two security officers. Interestingly, by looking closely, you can see that the camera begins to rack focus to Peeples in the background in the second before the scene cuts – something only evident in the new HD remaster.
What do you think – is this footage from “Night Terrors” a scene worth saving? What other footage from the first few years of the show do you want to see restored? Let us know in the comments below!