Former Next Generation co-producer Ronald D. Moore recently explained a problem he had getting a script approved by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

"He didn't like the original project I came up with for Picard to work on [in 'Family']," Moore told Star Trek the Magazine (via TrekWeb) of the second TNG fourth season episode.

"Eventually we settled on the Atlantis Project, which was raising the continents; the previous idea was that Picard was going to be involved with these massive projects to revitalize areas like the Amazon rain forest that had been damaged by industrialization years before," the writer continued. "[Gene] had problems with that because he felt Earth should be this perfect place."

Moore also revisited the season's 15th episode - 'First Contact.' "There was something very odd about a society that turns its back on knowledge," he explained. "I remember Mike Okuda writing and impassioned memo saying that turning away from space and concentrating on problems here on Earth is exactly what people who want to cut NASA's budget say.

"And STAR TREK stands for the positive aspects of space exploration. That bothered me, and I felt it was kind of a mistake for STAR TREK to take that line."

For more from Ron Moore, see the October issue of Star Trek the Magazine. Alternatively, extracts are available online here at TrekWeb.

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