Star Trek Tried To Put Jennifer Hetrick In A Love Triangle With Q And Picard
In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Captain's Holiday" (April 2, 1990), Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) was forced to take a vacation on the sexed-up beach resort planet of Risa where his impishly playful crew hoped he would have a drink, get laid, and return to the job less stern and more relaxed. Picard, a studious and intellectual fellow, would have been more content drinking tea and reading James Joyce's "Ulysses" in a dark room.
Luckily, Risa proves to be more exciting than Picard realized. He had no interest in beach shenanigans, but he did fall into the company of the utterly dazzling Indiana-Jone-type adventurer Vash (Jennifer Hetrick), a roguish tomb raider. Picard and Vash end up having to protect a rare, powerful artifact from time-traveling Vorgons, and fall in lust as a result. Picard returns to the Enterprise more relaxed and with a new romantic interest in the back of his mind.
Vash would return in "Qpid" (April 27, 1991), an episode wherein the trickster god Q (John de Lancie) magically transports Picard and Vash, along with the rest of the Enterprise Q, into Sherwood Forest, dressing them as "Robin Hood" characters. Picard is Robin Hood, Vash is Maid Marian, and Q is the Sheriff of Nottingham. At the end of "Qpid," Q becomes enamored of Vash, and he offers to take her on unlimited cosmic adventures. She couldn't possibly say no.
In the oral history book "Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages" edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, executive producer Michael Piller said that he wanted a love triangle between Picard, Vash, and Q before he and his staff ever conceived of the Robin Hood angle. The Robin Hood story was based only on rising trends.
Show of the week
Piller recalls a time when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" reruns were common and TV Guide was still widely read by millions, used for handy TV listings. TV Guide would often look over the week in television and write highlights of new and old shows that might be worth watching. They called their highlights Close-Ups. It seems that every time "Qpid" was rerun, TV Guide would point to it. Michael Piller liked that the episode was often singled out, but admitted that the whole Robin Hood thing was an afterthought. Piller said:
"Every time it's in TV Guide this episode gets a Close-Up. [...] I'm not sure why. I just think we came up with the idea of a love triangle between Q, Picard, and Vash, and to bring her and Q together, which I thought was a great premise. But we couldn't lick it. It came together in a meeting with Ira Behr, who had created Vash [...]"
Ira Stephen Behr was a producer and writer on "Next Generation," having written "Captain's Holiday," the notable episode "Yesterday's Enterprise." Behr left "Next Generation" after a year because he felt there were too many guardrails in place that prevented him from being as creative as he wanted. There clearly was no bad blood, however, as Behr would go on to be the head showrunner of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," for which he wrote 53 episodes. He may have butted heads with Piller and Trek's other head honcho Rick Berman, but they worked well together regardless.
Behr was one of two credited writers on "Qpid," although a lot of the concepts came from throughout the "Star Trek" offices. Piller recalls that it was longtime staff writer Brannon Braga who came up with the Sherwood angle.
Everyone was doing Robin Hood
Piller said:
"While we were trying to break it, someone said if we want to do a love triangle, let's throw these characters into one of the classic love stories. King Arthur was discussed with Guenivere, and then Robin Hood. Brannon said something about wanting to do Robin Hood, and 'Robin Hood' was about to be released by about 15 motion picture companies. We said why don't we steal all their thunder? It just seemed to be that Robin Hood and his band of merry men was a very nice group to put 'our guys' into, and then we just played it for fun."
Piller's comment about "15 motion picture companies" is referring to the two Robin Hood feature films that were slated for release in 1991, the same year as "Qpid." There was John Irvin's "Robin Hood," starring Partick Bergin and Robin and Uma Thurman as Marian, and there was Kevin Reynolds' amazingly popular "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," starring Kevin Costner as Robin and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Marian.
"Qpid" aired on April 22, 1991, "Robin Hood" was released on May 13, and "Prince of Thieves" came out on June 14. It seems that there was just something in the air in regards to Robin Hood, and "Star Trek" wasn't above chasing the trend. Because of a swift production schedule, though, Trek beat the two big feature films to the screen.
To briefly editorialize, "Qpid" is a supremely silly episode. "Star Trek" has never been above dabbling with fantasy, of course — recall the White Rabbit — but "Qpid" was clearly a mere "let your hair down" episode wherein the cast got to dress up and engage in stage combat with rapiers. But we did get Vash back, and that was great.