Star Trek’s Greatest Hero Saved The Day With Abstinence, In A Scene They Wouldn’t Let You See

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 22 seconds ago

Star Trek is a relatively cerebral franchise, but its characters have always embraced sex, often using it to save the day: for example, Spock once seduced a Romulan commander to help complete his mission, and Sisko slept with Mirror Universe Dax to avoid blowing his cover. Even Data was willing (a little too willing) to get freaky with the Borg Queen so that he could eventually save the Enterprise-E. But in a deleted scene from one memorable Next Generation episode, the android did the reverse, saving the day by not having sex with an alien woman who wanted to see just how “fully functional” he really was.

The scene in question was written for “The Most Toys,” an episode where Data is kidnapped by a collector (Kivas Fajo) who wants this android as part of his collection. He treats Data like an exotic doll, dressing him in special clothing and forcing him to sit in a particular position. Eventually, Data makes a successful escape with the help of the collector’s assistant, an alien woman who feels betrayed after her boss threatens to kill her despite her 14 years of loyal service.

TFW You’ve Found The Galaxy’s Most Advanced Toy

In the broadcast episode of “The Most Toys,” this is the only reason given for her willingness to help Data out, but it’s a pretty good one; after all, who would want to stick by a boss who is threatening to kill them? However, in the original script, she is given another motivation in a scene that never made it into the final episode. It all starts when Kivas Fajo gives her a very unusual command: to go have sex with their captive android.

Why the heck would a collector of the galaxy’s rarest items send his assistant to go have sex with an android? Simple: as Data discussed in the Season 1 episode “The Naked Now” (and as he discusses with the assistant, Varria, in this episode), he is “programmed in multiple techniques” so that he can offer “a broad variety of pleasuring” to his companions. Kivas Fajo apparently wanted to verify the existence of those techniques, the same way that somebody who buys used electronics wants to make sure the items he purchased are still (ahem) fully functional.

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Ironically, Data is initially down, which would have brought his body count to two after Tasha Yar. But once he learns that this is all a weird test on Fajo’s part, he refuses Varria, leaving her completely humiliated. Not only did her boss try to use her, but the person she was meant to seduce ended up rejecting her. This (along with the aforementioned threat on her life) ends up providing the motivation she needs to help Data escape from the clutches of Kivas Fajo.

In the original script, it seems like Varria wouldn’t have been willing to help if Data had slept with her, but the humiliation of his refusal spurred her into action against her abusive employer. In this way, everyone’s favorite android did something that perhaps nobody else in Star Trek has done before or since. Namely, he saved the day by staying abstinent (something Riker clearly never learned about in Starfleet Academy).

Given how weird the fandom gets about these sorts of things (don’t get Next Gen fans started about Beverly’s ghost obsession!), it’s probably for the best that this plot point from “The Most Toys” script was never actually filmed. It’s even better that such a scene never made it to a NuTrek show like Discovery. After all, the only thing more awkward than watching a Starfleet officer turn down beautiful women would be watching Tilly try to turn this into a moral lesson: “That’s the power of abstinence, people!”