I was curious if anybody knew (for real...no joke plots like Pulaski being brutally murdered by Wesley or anything like that) how the season two finale of Star Trek The Next Generation was originally supposed to end? Because of the writer's strike, I consider Peak Performance the final episode of the season. Clip shows (Shades of Grey) always feel tacked on to me and not part of the true season (and I think modern shows rectify this problem...I don't believe clip episodes of recent shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives count as the episode count in the full season.)

At any rate, did the writers ever reveal their plans on where they were going to go with the series in season two before they went on strike? I have always wondered what might have been. Would Best of Both Worlds just been moved up a season?

I don't know if they had a specific plan or not, but I would have liked to see some sort of mini-cliffhanger reference to the borg that they use to could bridge from "Q Who" to "Best of Both Worlds." Whatever crisis the last episode hand should have led to a discovery that the Borg were either coming or already here.

I've read somewhere that they were originally going to follow up on the 1st season finale and have a whole Romulan sub-plot during S2.

In retrospect, it might have been a bit odd to have a season two cliffhanger due to the cast changes in season three (the doctor.) They may or may not have written a substantial role for Pulaski in a season two cliffhanger, but if they had, it'd be kind of hard to explain her sudden departure in the middle of the storyline, or just awkward at best.

Well, they could've kept Pulaski and had Wesley leave at the end of the first episode to join his mother. But I actually liked that Pulaski was bitchy and closed minded -- it was a nice change from the insipid goody-goodiness of the rest of the cast.

Getting slightly off topic, but I really didn't see Pulaski as close minded. I saw her as a catalyst that challenged the comfort zones of people who didn't seem to question why things were they way the were or why they believed them. A prime example is her challenging Data. Though people saw her as somebody who didn't accept Data as an individual, and maybe she didn't at first, she quickly came around. In Pen Pals she was the first to stand up and argue for Data's case with the little girl on the planet because it involved Data's emotions. That was a pretty dang good scene proving she wasn't close minded...she was willing to change, and I think she became stronger for asking the hard questions and made those around her stronger.

I guess I don't really understand the hate towards her, and I wonder if she was the ships doctor from episode one if she would have been more accepted.

Crusher? All she ever did was sleep with ghosts and turn the entire crew into devolved versions of their own species. A complete waste.

I liked Pulaski too, she brought a little conflict to the cast that was pretty lacking for much of the rest of the series.

I think they were perhaps going to follow up on the "Conspiracy" episode, but by the time the strike ended and they got back to plotting things out, they decided to just take that storyline and turn it into The Borg, since they'd already been introduced and were a much stronger villian (as opposed to the unseen villians of "Conspiracy").

This is from the Wikipedia article for the "Conspiracy" episode:

"According to Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, the parasites were originally intended to be working for the Borg. The destruction of the colonies in the following episode ("The Neutral Zone") would then have led into the Borg's introduction in the second season premiere. However, due to the writers' strike of 1988, the Borg storyline was pushed back several months, and divorced from any relationship to the "Conspiracy" storyline. There was no further on-screen connection or reference to the conspiracy until its mention in passing in The Drumhead in the fourth season."

I also read that budgetary reasons precluded making the parasites = Borg. In other words, they found it cheaper to do cyborgs instead of insectoids.

Ahh... I'd forgotten 'till you mentioned it, that there was the whole conspiracy/bug thing toward the end of S1, which at the time had all the earmarks of recurring villians but we never saw them again.

When I was a kid watching "Evolution" (season three opener with Wesley pretty much playing God to a new advanced species of nanites) I was kind of hoping that they were going to somehow tie the nanites into the Borg. They could have continued to evolve into an advanced species that sought out to take over bodies of other species to inhabit them and thus the Borg would be born. And, of course, they'd discover time travel and go back in time and do all that they did, but it would have all started from Wesley being an irresponsible imp that created the Borg.

Sadly, it seems nobody involved in the show had the same idea.

Man, "Conspiracy" freaked the hell out of me as a kid. The guy's head exploding and the giant parasite in his open chest cavity - Jesus. Not to the mention the whole "there's more coming" ending. Now it looks pretty cheesy, but as an 8 year old that was kinda disturbing.

You forgot her worst crime against humanity. She was Wesley's mother.

[Dr. Cox]Bad uterus! Don't do that anymore![/Dr. Cox]

Dr. Pulaski and Data was mostly a retread of Dr. McCoy and Spock. Still, it was a welcomed conflict.

Too bad she didn't fall down a turbolift shaft.

I agree with a lot of the posts here. It should have included something with the Conspiracy plot line.

I would have been fine with the Romulans too, those were clearly the two strongest storylines (well, I guess the only ones) during the first two seasons.

Ah, poor Rosalind Shays...

And risk ST TNG jumping the shark that early in the series? Because I pretty much consider that the shark jumping moment on LA Law.

She could have fallen down the turbolift but survived when Wesley was at the bottom and cushioned her fall, resulting his his death.