Undeveloped Star Trek : Deep Space Nine episodes Numerous undeveloped " Star Trek " episodes were written for . These stories were submitted or developed for production , but for various reasons never aired . Reflected Robert Hewitt Wolfe , " " DS9 got dozens of pitches a week and we turned down 99 % of them , but it was rare that something went to story then died . " " Many never - produced DS9 story ideas involved large - scale conflict . During the making of the series , René Echevarria stated , " " People often come in and pitch Klingon and Cardassian wars – something big that we probably are working on ourselves . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 116 ) Many writers unsuccessfully tried to write and pitch a story about Morn ; virtually everyone who attempted to write about him was stymied by the fact that he never spoke on - screen . ( " " , p . 523 ) Other undeveloped stories involved the character of Iliana Ghemor , from . " " I ' ve heard several pitches where people want to find [ her ] [ . . . ] so obviously quite a number of people were struck by [ the episode ] , " " commented René Echevarria . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 85 ) Writing duo and sisters Barbara J . Lee and Jenifer A . Lee pitched , to René Echevarria , approximately seventeen unused stories in an hour - long pitch session . Echevarria listened to them all , though initially " there was nothing interesting , " he remarked . During the course of the session , the narratives suggested by the Lee sisters varied from the relatively elaborate to one - liners , in that order . Echevarria decided not to pick any of the ideas until the very last one , which later became . ( " " , p . 315 ) One DS9 speculative script and multiple unused stories were devised by Christopher L . Bennett . He recollected , " " My DS9 spec script actually got me a pitch invitation . I went out to L . A . and pitched to Robert Hewitt Wolfe ; he didn ' t take any of my pitches , but his comments about them drove home the importance of focusing on character , a lesson that ' s been very helpful to me . " " ( " Voyages of Imagination " , p . 146 ) Three DS9 story ideas were conceived by Armin Shimerman , Eric A . Stillwell and David R . George III . Recalled Shimerman , " " David George , partnered with Eric Stilwell , asked if I would join them to pitch episode ideas for " Deep Space Nine " . We worked for several months honing our plot points and eventually had our shot with writer / producer René Echevarria . Unfortunately , No sale . " " ( " Voyages of Imagination " , p . 245 ) Similarly , three story pitches were suggested by Gary Holland at a pitch session with Ira Steven Behr , Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Peter Allan Fields , toward the end of DS9 Season 2 . Although one of these ended up as the genesis of , the other two ideas were quickly dismissed by Behr , Fields and Wolfe . ( " " , p . 147 ) In an initial pitch session for writing partners Bradley Thompson and David Weddle , they too proposed ideas to Ira Steven Behr . They specifically went " through this incredible list , " said Thompson , " pitching one - liners and stories and stuff that just didn ' t fit the show ' s needs . " ( " " , p . 437 ) Multiple story pitches were likewise unsuccessfully submitted by Lisa Klink , who the producers called in to pitch . " " I came back a second time , " " she stated , " " and they basically realized I had ideas that were somewhere in the ballpark . They kept calling me back . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 101 ) Klink found it particularly easy to suggest story ideas during a subsequent six - week internship at " Star Trek : Deep Space Nine " , while it was in its third season . " " I think , because I already knew them and had dealt with them in the pitches , " " she reckoned , " " I could throw out ideas more easily in the story meetings and break sessions than some other interns might have . " " ( ) One undeveloped character concept was that , in the third season episode , Robert Hewitt Wolfe – who wrote the installment – wanted to establish that Kira Nerys basically wasn ' t , in fact , Bajoran . " " Originally , " " reported René Echevarria , " " Robert wanted to say that Kira was Cardassian , that the arc of the show was that the real [ Bajoran ] Kira died , but she < nowiki > [ < / nowiki > Kira ' s Cardassian counterpart < nowiki > ] < / nowiki > is essentially Kira now and it doesn ' t really matter . " " Rick Berman and Michael Piller objected to this proposal . " " I think Rick and Mike [ . . . ] thought that it was too weird , too alien a notion for the audience to really hold on to a character they had invested themselves in [ . . . ] They were probably right in that decision . " " Echevarria also observed that the abandoned concept was " very similar to when we wanted to kill Will Riker and keep " his transporter duplicate , Thomas Riker , in . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 85 ) Another scrapped character concept was that the DS9 writing staff initially planned for Odo , in the sixth season of the show , to intentionally become increasingly withdrawn from his crewmates , locking himself away and refusing to socialize with anyone else on the Deep Space 9 space station . This would have been motivated by feelings of guilt over the fact that he had assisted the Dominion in a six - episode story arc which begins that season . For the rest of the season , the character would have been written differently from ever before . Ronald D . Moore was starting to plan this story arc when Odo actor Rene Auberjonois alerted the writing staff that he had misgivings about it . Changing the character so drastically lacked a clear motive ; the writers hadn ' t considered precisely what to do with Odo thereafter , and alienating him from the rest of the main characters without any reason even seemed wrong . That realization led the creative staff to agree with Auberjonois and ultimately abandon the notion . ( " " , p . 507 ) Yet another discarded character concept was fallout of Dukat threatening Sisko , at the end of sixth season installment , that he would " learn what it ' s like to lose a child . " Sisko would then have had to become determined to protect his son , Jake , which Ron Moore expected would be " an awkward thing to have to work into every episode " and even " a pain . " As a result , Dukat ' s threat to Sisko instead became declaring that he wouldn ' t be able to save Bajor ' s populace . ( " " , p . 522 ) Cardassian O ' Brien story . A plot idea Robert Hewitt Wolfe thought up for DS9 focused on Miles O ' Brien and stemmed from . " " I kept thinking about a way to do that as a DS9 episode , " " he remembered , " " and for a long time thought it would be cool if O ' Brien was a Cardassian who had been replaced when serving on the " Rutledge . " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 95 ) In fact , Wolfe imagined O ' Brien having been replaced during the Setlik III massacre . ( " " , p . 177 ) This would have made O ' Brien conceptually very similar to , from . Wolfe explained , " " The replacement [ in O ' Brien ' s case ] was a deep - cover agent who ' d been given O ' Brien ' s memories [ and didn ' t know he was Cardassian ] . " " ( " " , p . 177 ) A problem of logic faced Wolfe , though , as he couldn ' t understand why , if O ' Brien was actually a Cardassian , his daughter , Molly O ' Brien , looked Human . Wolfe rewrote the episode as , replacing Miles O ' Brien with Kira Nerys . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 95 ) Circus story . A story inspired by magician Jeff McBride was devised for the series by Christopher Teague , with the intention of enabling McBride to appear in the episode . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 84 ) The plot concept was pitched to DS9 by Teague and bought from him . Ronald D . Moore later recalled that the story regarded a " circus coming to Deep Space 9 , and this magician was in it . " René Echevarria added , " " It was an Odo show , about Odo ' s dreams , or a figure that he was chasing . " " ( " " , pp . 174 - 175 ) This figure was a mysterious , masked man , inspired by masks used by McBride during his show . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 84 ) The idea of bringing a visiting circus onto DS9 didn ' t appeal to the writers . " " We thought , ' Well , we ' re not gonna to do " that " , " " related Moore . ( " " , p . 175 ) Nonetheless , the DS9 writing staff struggled with the story concept , eventually rewriting it as the episode . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 95 ) " Cold and Distant Stars " . A story imagined by Robert Hewitt Wolfe involved Benjamin Sisko waking up on a beach in 1995 Santa Monica , disheveled and disoriented . He was aware he was a Starfleet commander , though everyone around him believed he was mad . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 89 ) Related Wolfe , " " I wanted Sisko to be saying , ' I ' m the captain of a starbase in the year twenty - three - whatever , and I don ' t belong here . ' And everybody ' s telling him , ' You ' re a homeless schizophrenic , take your Thorazine . " " Wolfe wrote the concept into a script called " Cold and Distant Stars " . The title related to Sisko , as a homeless man , looking up at the sky in the knowledge that was where he belonged . There were problems with the story . " " That never quite worked , " " Robert Wolfe admitted . ( " " , p . 196 ) He further critiqued , " " The problem with my concept is that Brannon [ Braga ] went and did it with Riker in an insane asylum [ in " TNG " s ] . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 89 ) Ira Steven Behr agreed , " " It just didn ' t work for me . " " ( " " , p . 196 ) However , Wolfe managed to sell Behr the idea – which Wolfe later referred to as " snake oil " – in DS9 Season 2 . Reflected Wolfe , " " I sold him the idea that Sisko would wake up on Santa Monica beach . He would say , ' I am a starship captain , ' and the locals would say , ' Yeah , right . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 92 ) The story was rewritten as third season two - parter and . ( " " , p . 196 ; " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 89 ; " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 92 ) Another unused idea which also served as the basis for that two - parter was crafted by the writers because they wanted to avoid using time travel . " " I had an idea where Sisko ' s consciousness gets disconnected from his body , " " stated Robert Wolfe , " " and hooked into the mind of an ancestor with a similar genetic makeup , like two radios tuned to the same frequency . The idea came from the fact that my wife has been a counselor for the mentally ill homeless for a long time , and I ' ve learned that just because they say they are something they couldn ' t be , doesn ' t mean it ' s not true for them . " " René Echevarria added , " " Part of Robert ' s idea was that Sisko would see a cop and it would be Rene Auberjonois without his makeup . The homeless counselor would be Dax without the spots . Sisko would be seeing these blurry things and realize he was seeing through some weird filter . Robert wrote different drafts of the story with different tech . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 92 ) Crossover . A crossover between " Deep Space Nine " and was originally considered as one way to conclude DS9 ' s first season . In the story , the two crews would have opposed an intergalactic invasion force . The plot was vetoed by Rick Berman . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 24 , Nos . 3 / 4 , p . 108 ) Day at Quark ' s . Ronald D . Moore pitched an episode that would have revolved around an entire day at Quark ' s . Dominion artificial wormhole . According to " Star Trek " author John Vornholt , a storyline was in development " " about the Dominion building an artificial wormhole , which had to be destroyed by a dangerous commando raid " " . However , this story was dropped after Vornholt had his " " duology , " Behind Enemy Lines " and " Tunnel Through the Stars " , approved by Paramount , something which Vornholt regretted , considering there was room for both stories . ( ) " Dysfunctional " . " Dysfunctional " was an episode which was planned for DS9 Season 7 . In that story , Ezri Dax secretly arranged to have the removed by an alien doctor , because she felt she could no longer cope with her new lifestyle . ( " SFX : The Essential Guide to Deep Space Nine " , p . 98 ) Eddington ' s escape . Since the end of Season 4 until the beginning of development on fifth season two - parter and , the DS9 writing staff discussed doing a version of , a film favorite of theirs , on the space station . For a long while , they had considered portraying the episode from Michael Eddington ' s perspective , " " with him in the brig and showing how he breaks out , forcing the audience to kind of root for the guy , " " explained Ira Steven Behr . " " It never worked out , because we weren ' t confident that the fans were really behind the character . " " Although this story concept was abandoned , the idea of a prison break , inspired by " The Great Escape " , influenced the development of the aforementioned two - parter . ( " " , p . 422 ) Ferengi prejudice story . One of the three story ideas submitted by Armin Shimerman , Eric A . Stillwell and David R . George III dealt with prejudice and Ferengi . Referring to this plot concept , Shimerman noted , " " Of the three pitch ideas , I gravitated to the one that was most interesting and upsetting . " " ( " Voyages of Imagination " , p . 245 ) He elaborated , " " The episode would have focused around inherent racial prejudice , not just for Ferengis but for other entities [ and / or species ] as well [ . . . ] I just wanted to explore that theme . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 32 , Nos . 4 / 5 , p . 35 ) At Shimerman ' s suggestion , he and George turned the pitched story into the novel " The 34th Rule " . ( " Voyages of Imagination " , p . 245 ) Garak and Tain story . A story involving the characters of Elim Garak and Enabran Tain was conceived and pitched by a freelance writer , from whom the DS9 writing staffers bought the premise . The story established Garak as the son of Enabran Tain . " " We were never able to do the full - blown show about that , " " recalled Robert Hewitt Wolfe . Despite the story ' s omission , the detail of Garak being Tain ' s son was worked into the series . ( " Cinefantastique " ( Vol . 29 , No . 6 / 7 , p . 38 ) Giant . " The Guns of Navarone " story . An episode inspired by the film " The Guns of Navarone " was temporarily to have been written by Michael Taylor . " " The producers brought me out to California to write a military adventure that was sort of based on " The Guns of Navarone " , " " he laughed . " " But after I got here , that concept didn ' t seem to be interesting to anyone . " " Taylor went on to write the sixth season episode . ( " " , p . 509 ) Iotian episode . Before Ronald D . Moore joined the writing staff of , he devised and pitched a story featuring Iotian s and their homeworld of Sigma Iotia II , that planet and its people having been introduced in . In Moore ' s story , the Iotians had essentially become impersonators of James T . Kirk and Spock , whom they meet in that earlier installment . ( " " , p . 510 ) When DS9 was scheduled to mark " Star Trek " s thirtieth anniversary with a special commemorative episode , Moore got an opportunity to again pitch this idea . It was the first concept which the writing staff considered for the thirtieth - anniversary milestone show . Moore imagined Captain Sisko and his DS9 crew returning to Sigma Iotia II after approximately a hundred years since the time of " A Piece of the Action " . The newcomers would find that the fanatical Iotians had based a whole religion on the Federation . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , No . 6 / 7 , p . 64 ) Moore noted , " " They have conventions , they know all the adventures . " " ( " " , p . 510 ) The concept would have allowed for commentary on " Star Trek " in general , with the Iotians representing the franchise ' s fans . ( " " , p . 510 ) " " To me , it was to send the [ DS9 ] characters to a " Star Trek " convention , which I thought would be fun , and a kind of comment on fandom , and people ' s involvement with the show from afar , " " Moore remarked . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , No . 6 / 7 , p . 64 ) He thought the notion was " kind of a cool idea " and would make for an " interesting " episode . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , No . 6 / 7 , p . 64 ; " " , pp . 510 - 511 ) However , there were some problems with the story . Co - Supervising Producer Hans Beimler remembered , " " We really weren ' t comfortable with it , although we were having a lot of fun . There was something that was bothering all of us , but especially Ira [ Steven Behr ] , which was that in a way we were making fun of the people who watch and are our fans . That didn ' t feel right to Ira , to sort of poke too much fun at them . After all , they are the fans , they are what makes the show work . We owe our livelihood to them . So it wasn ' t quite sitting well . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , No . 6 / 7 , pp . 64 - 65 ) Ron Moore added , " " René Echevarria thought it was a dangerous show to do ; that we would be talking down to the fans on some level and perhaps it wasn ' t the best way to go . " " ( " " , p . 511 ) " Star Trek " s thirtieth anniversary was ultimately celebrated with the episode . Ron Moore ' s original idea for the episode was later picked up by , in the episode . However , since that entry was set in the Delta Quadrant , contact with the Iotians was a physical impossibility . Instead , the crew of the stumble upon a technologically advanced culture which lacks the concept of music ; fascinated by The Doctor ' s singing , the aliens begin to idolize him . Klingon Hell . Ronald D . Moore ' s original concept for was for Worf and the crew of the " Rotarran " to enter " Gre ' thor " . ( " " ) While ultimately unused in DS9 , this concept was later developed into . Lisa Klink ' s Dax script . Shortly after Lisa Klink mistakenly submitted a mere weeks before TNG was cancelled , she wrote a spec script for " Star Trek : Deep Space Nine " . Its premise was about the theft of the Dax symbiont . However , disappointment ensued when Klink discovered that this idea had already been thought up and that the resultant episode , , was to air on the exact same day as she mailed her DS9 spec script . " " I just tore my hair out , " " she laughed . " " I couldn ' t believe it , because you can " only " submit two spec scripts without an agent , and those were my two ! I figured I had just used up all my chances . " " ( ) Lisa Klink ' s imprisonment story . Originally , Lisa Klink thought up a story that dealt with imprisonment . " " The original idea was initially Bashir getting thrown into an alien prison , " " Klink noted . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 30 ) Explained René Echevarria , " " It was a planet where we end up in this camp ; we think these are the people who live here , but it turns out that they are not native to this planet and that they are fighting the natives off . We realize we are on the wrong side and that we have been helping fight off some kind of aliens living in the forest , when in fact they are the natives who are fighting a war of rebellion . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 106 ) At the behest of the DS9 writing staff , the rest of this plot was abandoned , retaining only the idea of Bashir being imprisoned by aliens . Merged with a story by Nicholas Corea , the narrative ended up becoming a precursor of the fourth season episode , with the aliens changed to be Jem ' Hadar . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 30 ; " " , p . 266 ) Musical episode . Ronald D . Moore advocated doing a musical episode . " " Oh , and I was agitating for a musical , man , " " he stated . " " On record , I wanted to do a musical version of " Trek " well before or . I wanted to do a musical episode , and nobody would f * * * in ' do it . " " When the interview spoke of how this was accomplished on " Buffy the Vampire Slayer " , Moore responded , " " Yeah , that ' s all we needed to do . There ' s just some tech virus that infects the crew and they can only communicate in song , you know ? And just do it ! And have a ball . " " Moore had encountered similar opposition to doing . ( " All Good Things " ( Blu - ray ) audio commentary ) Nausicaan episode . In , Ira Steven Behr commented to " Star Trek Monthly " , " " You know the Nausicaan s ? They ' ll be back , and we ' ll do a show about them being an enemy for an episode . " " ( " On Things Past , Present and Future " , ) Nicholas Corea ' s starting point . The story which Nicholas Corea devised and which was later combined with a story from Lisa Klink , to become , was based around a group of Jem ' Hadar who were trying to free themselves from their addiction to ketracel - white . ( " " , p . 266 ) This was the first time the name was used , as it had previously been described as a " missing enzyme " in and simply as a drug to which the Jem ' Hadar were addicted in . " Persistence of Vision " . A story written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe for DS9 Season 2 was inspired by he and Ira Steven Behr having a discussion about virtual reality , Behr asking , " " How scary is it going to be in the future when you won ' t be able to tell what ' s real and what isn ' t ? " " Wolfe ' s subsequent story had Miles O ' Brien and Jadzia Dax entering a virtual reality prison . The pair seemed to escape but then realized they were still in the prison . " " Then they escape again , " " Wolfe related , " " and I wanted the tag to be where Keiko was telling O ' Brien how good it was for him to be back , and O ' Brien saying , ' I don ' t know whether I ' m back or not . I ' m never gonna know . ' Fade out . " " Michael Piller forced Robert Hewitt Wolfe into discarding the story , instead writing the similar Season 2 episode . Although both stories featured the character of Rurigan , " Persistence of Vision " focused more on him and was considerably more downbeat . Some of the plot was reused in third season opening two - parter and . ( " " , pp . 122 - 123 ) Additionally , the title " Persistence of Vision " was reused for of . Rapture genesis . A story pitch by L . J . Strom provided the basis for the script of . However , Hans Beimler once remarked that the original story was completely different to how it turned out . ( " " , p . 405 ) Ro Laren return . The writing staff of briefly considered and discussed creating an episode which would have featured Ro Laren , who had defected to the Maquis in . This undeveloped DS9 plot would have featured her in the Maquis . " " The story never worked out , " " noted Ira Steven Behr . As a result , the group of writers instead wrote about Thomas Riker , newly defected to the Maquis , in the third season episode . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 98 ) " Quorum " . Jack Treviño and Toni Marberry sold three stories to " Deep Space Nine " , but only two were filmed . The third story , sold about a year after the team sold and , was called " Quorum " . However , it went unproduced . Sito Jaxa return . One story considered by the writing staff concerned the return of Sito Jaxa from . The pitch had Sito being imprisoned under inhumane conditions and suffering from post - traumatic stress disorder . Robert Hewitt Wolfe developed the story for some time . Feeling that there was insufficient explanation of Sito ' s condition , he had Sito killing her cellmate , whom she ' d become close to . ( " " , p . 326 ) According to Ronald D . Moore , " " We talked about this for quite awhile , but then decided that bringing Sito back would rob ' Lower Decks ' of a great ending . " " While unused , Wolfe later incorporated elements of the story into . He commented , " " I took the end of the Sito story and threw away the rest . " " ( " " , p . 326 ) Space locusts . A story that never made it in the script stage would have a swarm of space locusts heading for Bajor , the Bajorans unwilling to defend themselves because prophecy foretold the event . The staff never found a way to make the locust angle non - goofy , but locust s were eventually included in as a sort of in - joke . ( " " , p . 406 ) Submarine episode . Originally , the fourth season episode was conceived with the " Defiant " sinking in an alien sea . However , the episode ' s setting was thereafter changed to the atmosphere of a gas giant . In hindsight , Ira Steven Behr remarked , " " We were trying to do a submarine movie and if we want to , we can try again sometime . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 109 ) Although the writing staff tried to make some scenes in the Season 5 episode as if they were from a submarine movie , Behr noted that , for the rest of the series since " Starship Down " , doing an entire installment based on that genre of film was an ongoing joke . " " We ' d say , ' You know , we could still do that submarine movie , and we could do it right this time ! " " he recalled . ( " " , pp . 284 & 420 ) Thomas Riker return . After , Jonathan Frakes lobbied the producers to bring back Thomas Riker for a sequel episode . Frakes noted , " " I keep thinking Tom is coming back [ . . . ] Don ' t you think it makes sense for them to send Kira over there to free Thomas ? It ' s a no - brainer . " " Frakes , however , received no definite indication from the producers . ( " " , p . 191 ) The " " ( pp . 191 - 192 ) states that , in the fourth season pitch letter sent to freelance writers , Thomas Riker was listed as a subject that the producers were not interested in hearing about . However , the authors note that this could have meant that the producers were already working on such a story . Several comments from Ronald D . Moore indicate that the writers indeed seriously considered the possibility . In a edition of " Cinefantastique " magazine ( Vol . 27 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 98 ) , Moore remarked , " " We might see him again . We haven ' t really discussed the story , but we have talked about rescuing him someday . " " Similarly , in the 1996 book " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " ( p . 87 ) , Moore commented , " " We ' ll probably see a return - of - Tom Riker episode . What ' s nice is he ' s not really a part of " Next Generation " , so he ' s ours , and we can do what we want with him and not worry about what the movies do with Will Riker . " " Likewise , in an online chat with fans , Moore noted , " " Tom Riker may or may not get rescued at some point . " " In an interview with Jonathan Frakes provided in the TNG Season 6 DVD box set , he stated that he had approached Moore regarding a Thomas Riker episode involving Damar ' s rebellion . However , the character never appeared again . A trio of love stories . During early development of the fourth season episode , a never - developed series of romantic subplots was thought up , which would have been somewhat similar to the third season installment . The multitude of B - stories was conceived after Majel Barrett - Roddenberry suggested an A - story , with her character of Lwaxana Troi returning to the space station , pregnant , and claiming that the father of her unborn baby was Odo . " " That started us thinking about a set of stories about love on the station , and about different aspects of desire , " " remembered Ira Steven Behr . René Echevarria added , " " We decided to do a very soft show about different romances : Rom and Leeta , Sisko and Kasidy , O ' Brien and Keiko . And the fourth romance would be Odo and Mrs . Troi . " " ( " " , pp . 335 & 336 ) In another interview , Echevarria conversely stated that one of the romantic plot threads was to have been " " Bashir and O ' Brien and Keiko and Leeta , some kind of weird double date , Bashir having an infatuation with Leeta . . . or something like that . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 118 ) In yet another interview , he recalled that the trio of subplots had been " " all small , keeping the different romantic things we had going . We had something with O ' Brien and Keiko , with Shakarr " [ sic ] " and Kira , with Odo and Lwaxana , and with Bashir and Lita " [ sic ] . " Regardless of which four romances would have been focused on , Echevarria continued , " " I wrote a couple drafts of the story [ about those romances ] and we decided it was too flimsy and too soapy . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 28 , No . 4 / 5 , p . 60 ) He elaborated , " " It just didn ' t gel . Nobody was very excited . We decided that the plan was a little " too " soft . " " ( " " , p . 336 ) Eventually , the A - story became the B - story of the episode " The Muse " , which scrapped the three additional romances , instead focusing on not only the connection between Odo and Lwaxana Troi but also on Jake Sisko ' s relationship with an alien muse named Onaya . ( " " , p . 336 )