Undeveloped Star Trek : The Animated Series episodes Numerous undeveloped " Star Trek " episodes were written for . These stories were submitted or developed for production but , for various reasons , never aired . In late , three story outlines were suggested by Don Christensen , while the series was imagined as involving some specifically educational material in each episode and being set aboard the training ship " Excalibur " , where each of the main characters would have a similar - looking child counterpart . An analysis of the outlines was included in a three - page memo that , on , was sent from Philip Mayer ( director of Special programming for Paramount ) to Filmation co - founder Lou Scheimer . One of Mayer ' s comments was : " " I think as long as we ' re only doing three outlines , each one of them should be special . " " ( " Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special " , pp . 55 & 56 ) " The Space Cocoon " . This was the first of the story outlines that Philip Mayer critiqued in his memo to Lou Scheimer . Mayer stated , " " Generally I think the outline is ok . Christensen ' s concern for the small size of the children doesn ' t bother me at all . I ' d be apt , in this story and any other outlines at all , to call the training ship by its name . As we discussed , the whole crab / spider business won ' t be acceptable , so should be changed before submission . I had no sense of real interrelationship what - so - ever between the old and young characters in this episode . The Spock / Steve relationship really didn ' t work at all . Spock gets knocked out and Steve goes off . To heighten the relationship , probably Steve should have stayed with Spock and been instrumental in his recovery . There was [ also ] no indication at all of the educational stuff . " " ( " Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special " , p . 56 ) " The Impossible Rainbow " . Philip Mayer found this plot outline more likable than that of " The Space Cocoon " , commenting , " " It seems to be more relevant as a children ' s show . There ' s a better cross between fantasy and reality with the rainbow and the ' quiet boy ' character . There is some educational material in this show , but it ' s a bit hidden . All that has to be done is to relate it to [ Dr . McCoy ' s ] counterpart Bob . I like the trogs . " " ( " Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special " , p . 55 ) " Klingon Attack " . Philip Mayer thought this story outline was " ok , " essentially . " " As in the other two outlines , the educational material has to be punched out and interrelationships between the characters has to be handled better , " " he remarked . " " Somehow , the whole thing seems ordinary . There ' s no real point of view to this story , or maybe it ' s not really very special . " " Mayer concluded his notes on this Klingon - related outline by stating that he was " sure something is " missing . ( " Star Trek Magazine Souvenir Special " , p . 55 ) Quantum black holes . After Dorothy " D . C . " Fontana – story editor and associate producer for the animated " Star Trek " series – invited science fiction author Larry Niven to write for the series , he made his first attempt at concocting a story treatment , which involved quantum black hole s and a group of highly sophisticated aliens . Niven later recollected , " " I feared ( groundlessly ) that nobody at Filmation would see their chance to use real aliens rather than actors in rubber suits . So I wrote a story treatment using Outsiders ( built like a black cat - o ' - nine - tails , using photoelectric metabolism at near absolute zero ) and quantum black holes . For Saturday morning TV ! " " Fontana advised him that the story treatment wouldn ' t work . He later admitted , " " Dorothy Fontana was right : I was aiming over the audience ' s heads . " " ( " Playgrounds of the Mind " ) This initial plot concept , however , became the basis for Niven ' s story " The Borderland of Sol " , which was first printed in the January 1975 issue of " Analog " magazine and won the Hugo award for best novelette . Larry Niven second attempt . The second story that Larry Niven proposed for the animated " Star Trek " series was considered to be " too blood y . " He thereafter went on to successfully adapt a short story he himself had written ( entitled " The Soft Weapon " ) into the episode . ( " Playgrounds of the Mind " ) " The Patient Parasites " . Temporarily considered for the animated series ' first season , " The Patient Parasites " entered development after D . C . Fontana contacted Russell Bates , in , with news that the series was in the works . ( " The New Voyages 2 " ; ) Fontana made it clear to Bates , a Kiowa Native American , that she wanted him to write a script for the forthcoming animated production . Having submitted an ultimately undeveloped episode for the original series , Bates was eager to accept her invite . ( " The New Voyages 2 " ) He recalled Fontana ' s expectations for the animated episode ; " " She had always wanted to see an Indian " Star Trek " crewman and a story about ' the little men from the stars ' that Native Americans note in their legends . " " Bates worked hard on the script , over a period of two weeks , before sending it to Fontana . ( " The New Voyages 2 " ) The proposed script concerned a volatile machine known as Finder , which had been dispatched with instructions to acquire " knowledge , and the wisdom to use it " for notoriously patient masters that , according to extreme probability , were now extinct . Finder imprisoned several members of a landing party from the " Enterprise " on a planet where the machine was , but when Captain Kirk taught Finder that the selfishness of its masters had led them to ruin , the machine self - destructed while the captives were rescued . The " Enterprise " then safely departed the planet . The script included the character of Native American officer Dawson Walking Bear and the story ' s title was an allusion to Finder ' s masters , which were considered figuratively parasitic , such as Dr . McCoy exclaiming to Kirk , " " Jim , they ' re parasites ! They steal technology and never have to develop it for themselves . " " ( " The New Voyages 2 " ) The script was returned to Russell Bates , D . C . Fontana being critical of the teleplay . ( " The New Voyages 2 " ) The story was found to be lacking in two key areas . Firstly , Bates had not done his job by delivering the kind of story that Fontana had requested , since it was merely a generic " Star Trek " plot he had written rather than an Indian story . ( " Starlog Issue # 159 " , p . 27 ; ) Secondly , the narrative did not take advantage of the extreme possibilities inherent in the animated format , regarding such concerns as actors , costuming , sets and locations . ( " Starlog " Issue # 159 , p . 27 ) Bates remembered of the script , " " It was too close to live film , lacking the scope that animation can bring . " " Fontana told him that , if given greater length , the story very easily could have been done for the original series , a comment that Bates later admitted to having " cherished . " ( " The New Voyages 2 " ) Upon Russell Bates meeting David Wise at the Clarion Science Fiction Writers ' Workshop in 1973 , they realized that Wise , having been an animator in his pre - teen years , could help Bates by adding a useful perspective to his pitches to D . C . Fontana . " " I think , during the course of the Clarion Workshop that summer , " " said Wise , " " he was pitching ideas to her long - distance , and getting turned down [ . . . ] And I saw that he was pitching stories to her that were basic " Star Trek " stories about mind parasites and things like that . " " ( audio commentary ) When they later co - wrote the episode for the second season of the animated series , Bates reused Dawson Walking Bear as a prominent character of that installment . " " But ' The Patient Parasites ' preceded it as the first attempt to do several things , " " noted Bates . " " 1 , write ST in half - hour form and still be faithful to the show ' s original quality ; 2 , introduce an Amerindian character aboard the " Enterprise " [ . . . ] and , 3 , finally write for ST as I set out to do back in the sixties . " " Bates considered " The Patient Parasites " to be " a story without a home , " until he saw the book " The New Voyages " ; he included a modified version of the script in the second volume , " The New Voyages 2 " , for which he substituted Sulu for Dawson Walking Bear . ( " The New Voyages 2 " ) In , Russell Bates gave permission to startrekanimated . com ' s Kail Tescar to adapt his original script into comic book form . Following the script , Ensign Walking Bear was written back into the story , and a newly - promoted Lieutenant Chekov was written in as the " Enterprise " s new security chief . " War Game " . In 1973 , NBC publicist Fred Bronson submitted a story which dealt with World War II and was called " War Game " , which was his first attempt at submitting a " Star Trek " script . His concept for an installment of the animated series had to be written under a pseudonym , because his contract with NBC did not actually permit him to write for the series . Bronson stated , " " The childrens ' programming department at NBC thought that World War II wasn ' t a fitting subject for children , so it was turned down . " " He was concerned people might have discovered that the pen name under which he wrote this story was an alias for him , so Bronson used a different assumed name when submitting , the second story he proposed for the animated " Star Trek " series , which was produced as its series finale . ( " Starburst " Special # 29 , p . 55 )