Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Star Trek Episode Almost Got A Sequel

In 2017, the internet erupted with news that Quentin Tarantino might direct a "Star Trek" film, and it emerged later that his idea was to remake the classic 1968 episode "A Piece of the Action." In it, the Enterprise visits Sigma Iotia II, where the USS Horizon went missing. The planet's entire civilization was now patterned after 1930s gangland Chicago, thanks to a book left behind by the Horizon's crew.

While Tarantino dreamed of remaking "A Piece of the Action," it's not the first time that the franchise considered revisiting the episode. Veteran "Trek" producer Ronald D. Moore once planned a sequel to the classic installment after joining the writing staff of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "In one of my first pitch sessions for 'TNG,' I tried to sell the story of the Enterprise crew returning to Iotia, the planet of gangsters from 'Piece of the Action,'" said Moore in a 1997 AOL chat. "The gag would've been that by now the Iotians were all Kirk and Spock imitators that wore the TOS uniforms, had somehow managed to get logs and other info about the original Enterprise crew, and had modeled their entire society around ["Star Trek"] — in essence a planet of Trekkers." 

Moore pitched it again while working on "Deep Space Nine," to celebrate the franchise's 30th Anniversary. Instead, they followed up one of the best "Deep Space Nine" episodes, "A Trouble with Tribbles." 

"A Piece of the Action" has remained in the hearts of countless "Trek" fans including Quentin Tarantino. And while follow-up episodes were rejected, a sequel finally found life in comics, in the "Star Trek: Unlimited" story, "A Piece of Reaction." In it, the Enterprise-D return to Sigma Iotia II where the gangster way of life is alive and well. But it would be the kids-centric series "Star Trek: Prodigy" that finally took Ronald D. Moore's concept of a planet playing Starfleet dress-up and turned it into the episode "All the World's a Stage."

While not a sequel to "A Piece of the Action," "All the World's a Stage" is sparked by the actions of Ensign Garrovick, a character from the 1967 episode "Obsession." Following those events, Garrovick crash-landed a shuttlecraft on an uncharted planet populated by a primitive civilization. When the Protostar crew arrives more than a century later, they find the colony of people calling themselves Enterpizians, and wearing clothes mimicking Starfleet uniforms. Like Moore's original follow-up concept, this society has been influenced by Garrovick and his tall tales about the Enterprise.

Though we may never get Tarantino's film, one of many canceled Star Trek projects – nor Moore's original planned sequel — at least "All the World's a Stage" gave fans a satisfying spiritual successor.