Originally, Snodgrass had Riker and Wesley teaching Data how to swim in the show’s teaser. ‘I would like to do the swimming pool scene,’ she admits. ‘I think it could have been very funny. But Brent Spiner and I have never agreed on that. Brent is much more in love with the poker scene.
‘In retrospect, what has come out of it is exciting. The poker game has become an ongoing thing that people are using. Richard [Manning] and Hans [Beimler] came to me and asked whether I would mind if they used the poker game in one of their scripts. I want to create a sense of community - that this is a weekly card game. So, they wrote a wonderful scene with Worf in the game just kicking butt and taking everyone for everything they’ve got in The Emissary. I’m glad because it makes me feel like I’ve done something that has expanded the mythos in a little sort of humanizing way.’
In the October 1989 issue of Starlog, Star Trek writer and story editor Melinda Snodgrass talks about the first TNG poker game, in her script “A Measure of a Man.” I had no idea we were this close to crew swim meets. Glad it turned out the way it did. (via trekkiefeminist)
