By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek conventions have been an essential part of the fandom for over half a century. Fans love these events because they get to mingle with other like-minded nerds and meet their favorite stars. The stars love these events because they get plenty of under-the-table autograph money from people who basically worship them. Finally, Paramount loves Star Trek conventions because these events help advertise the franchise, keeping fans watching their favorite shows and (what else?) buying a starship load of merchandise.
On one occasion, however, a Star Trek convention backfired for Paramount. Months before the Voyager episode “Twisted” aired, Robert Duncan McNeill and Robert Picardo dunked on it at a fan convention. This led to months of speculation about just how bad the episode really was, and more than a few fans made wagers as to whether “Twisted” would see the light of day. While their employers would likely have wanted the actors to keep their mouths shut, McNeill and Picardo were effectively vindicated: when “Twisted” aired, it quickly proved itself as one of the worst episodes of Season 2.
TFW You Get The Script
“Twisted” is a bizarre episode in which Voyager gets stuck in a weird energy field that somehow changes the layout of the ship. This leaves our heroes wandering around, trying to return to important areas like engineering or the bridge. Everyone keeps ending up back at the holodeck and can’t figure out what they should do. Eventually, Tuvok decides they should do nothing, since all of their attempts to solve the problem have made things worse. Janeway and her crew hang back and do nothing, safely passing through an energy field that they speculate was an alien lifeform trying to communicate with them.
Like many of Star Trek’s worst stories, “Twisted” was a bottle episode that was made to save money. It was also originally filmed for Season 1 but wasn’t shown until Season 2. That led to an interesting situation where Voyager actors Robert Duncan McNeill and Robert Picardo discussed the making of this episode at a Star Trek convention several months before it aired. While their exact comments are sadly lost to history, Picardo would later claim that “Twisted” is the worst episode of the entire series. Eventually, the fandom learned about them badmouthing the episode, and this led to even more rumors and speculation.
This Episode Was Hated Months Before It Aired
Based on their comments, some fans thought the episode was so bad that Paramount would scrap it rather than air it. The fandom spent months morbidly wondering if the entirety of this hated episode would end up on the cutting room floor. There were other rumors that the episode had to be entirely rewritten by showrunner Michael Piller and that director Kim Friedman couldn’t understand the wonky story, requiring both rewrites and reshoots. Because of all of this, “Twisted” had a bad reputation long before it was ever broadcast.
Arguably, that reputation was well-earned. “Twisted” has a 6.9 rating on IMDB. That’s not the worst (it has a higher rating than the episodes before and after it), but it’s far from the best the show had to offer. Plus, there were some kernels of truth among all the myths and speculation. While Piller didn’t rewrite the script, he did hate a storyline involving Neelix being a jealous boyfriend, and he tried to fix that with the subsequent episode “Parturition.” Also, while there is no evidence that director Kim Friedman didn’t understand the story, she did have to shoot five entirely new scenes because of the very short script.
Is “Twisted” as bad as Robert Duncan McNeill and Robert Picardo made it out to be? Not really. But it’s a cheap, slow-paced, and extremely underwhelming episode where the solution to the dilemma of the week is to literally do nothing. The result is a boring and ultimately forgettable sci-fi adventure. We may not agree with Picardo that it’s the worst episode of Voyager ever made, but this subspace stinker is easily in the Top 10 of terrible Star Trek stories.
