Star Trek: 10 bits of Trivia

For all my fellow Trekkies out there I thought I would compile a few facts from the Star Trek universe to either enlighten others and waste a bit of our time. I have been a fan since watching Star Trek the next generation when I was a teenager. I am not a big fan of the original series but I can watch it without to much trouble.

I think that Deep Space 9 has to be my favourite out of all the incarnations. Purely as it showed that the Federation was not this all conquering force that the other series had previously indicated. There was something more human about this series and showed another side to the Federation. Anyway, as promised, here are a few pieces of trivia for you.

• Lt-Commander Worf's prosthetic forehead changed in season 2 because the original had been stolen in between seasons.
• DS9 Stars Alexander Siddig (Dr Bashir) and Nana Visitor (Major Kira) were married in real life in 1997.
• The guy who is often in Quark's bar is named "Morn", which is an anagram for "Norm" from Cheers, who was often in the bar. Like Norm, Morn always sat in the same seat at the bar
• Counsellor Deanna Troi was nearly written out of the show after the first season and, in fact, is absent from many of those episodes. But, after both Tasha Yar and Dr. Crusher were written out, Counselor Troi was kept in the series.
• Jonathan Frakes returned to rehearsals at the start of the second season sporting a beard with the intention of shaving it off before the shooting began. The producers liked it and asked him to keep it. It remained for the rest of the series run. (Although he did shave it off during the movie Star Trek: Insurrection (1998).

• Martin Sheen was considered for the role of Sloan. Sloan was the Section 31 operative in Deep Space 9.
• Jeffrey Combs auditioned and failed to get the role of William T. Riker, but later went on to play other prominent roles in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993), "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995) and "Star Trek: Enterprise" (2001).
• The Ferengi were originally introduced with the intention of making them the main villains in Star Trek :TNG. But audiences did not see their longer term appeal!
• Patrick Stewart was so convinced that the show would fail that for the first six weeks of shooting he refused to unpack any of his suitcases.
• Ro Laren was meant to reprise her role in DS9 but the actress Michelle Forbes did not wish to do the series. Major Kira was created to fill the role and shares many of the original character's traits.