As big fans Star Trek: VoyagerWe always love to look up the production details of the various episodes to find out how each of Captain Janeway's adventures are connected. Often, these are passionate stories about how a great idea came about and became another memorable installment in Gene Roddenberry's sprawling science franchise. But "Faces" is a rare case of a Star Trek episode where even the producers thought it was a terrible idea from the start.
"Faces," like most Star Trek episodes, began differently than what we eventually saw on screen. It memorably split half-Klingon engineer Bellana Torres in half (one full human, one full Klingo) and, according to executive producer Michael Peeler, the original story idea was that this "could be the result of a horrific concentration camp, some kind of experiment." "The original idea was very melodic and hokey," says executive producer Kenneth Biller, and the main Producer Jerry Taylor said, "I wasn't even in favor of buying the idea in the first place" and "it was a tired idea" which was "too on the nose for Elana."
"Faces" did not surprise them with popularity. Star Trek Producer Brannon Braga admits, "A lot of times when a show does an evil twin, it's on its last legs and they give up." Initially, the idea of getting this common television trope out of the way in Season 1 was dropped, later saying, "I always felt like it was a mistake to break her up like Data Man." He asked why the show felt the need to resolve her feelings, which is a fair question when you consider that the tension between these halves of her personality runs through the entire series.
Speaking about "Faces," Michael Peeler said, "It was a story that a lot of people struggled with, and at one point it almost gave up." However, the writers and producers stayed the course because they thought it was a fresh take on splitting a character in two (a la Kirk in Original series) had some interesting creative potential. The final episode was a successful one, and the credit seems to go entirely to Kenneth Biller.
As for the final "Faces" script, it includes Vidyayan, sad Alien A race to find a new way to cure the phage that is constantly infecting their bodies. A Vidian scientist splits Bielana Torres in half as a crazy trick to find the cure. An alien egghead ends up falling in love with his captive. beauty and the beast Style, and the two versions of Taurus escaped captivity only to merge 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 appealing. He involved the outsider Vidya to make the body parts work, and Peeler later said, "It wasn't until Ken Beeler started rewriting that he solved the problem overnight."
Meanwhile, co-producer and story skeptic Jerry Taylor admits, "It ended up being a lot better than we had any right to expect." He continued, “Ken Biller brought up that idea (of splitting Biller's) with Fage. Foreign citizensand I think that's what ultimately made it work and believable.
As you say, "Faces" is one of those Star Trek episodes that has a very troubled production, and it's a small miracle that this story made it to the air. It's a good thing he did, as both the terror and identity themes of this episode make it one of the most memorable episodes. VoyagerFirst days. The fact that it's focused on Torres (who might be the show's most interesting character) serves as the cherry on top of a repetitive chocolate cake (we can only assume Deanna Troi would approve).
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