In the unpublished behind-the-scenes book “Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft — The Writing of Star Trek: Insurrection” by the film’s screenwriter, Michael Piller, he explains that originally there was at least a nod to the deceased Trill. On “Deep Space Nine,” Jadzia was murdered by Cardassian leader Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) when Terry Farrell left the show in season 6 due to feeling exhausted by the shooting schedule and allegedly having disagreements with writer and producer Rick Berman.
Piller shared that originally he had planned to include a line in the film where Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) gives his condolences to Worf, who is still in mourning over the loss of his wife, but he was stopped by Berman.All of this is part of the overall “Deep Space Nine” arc surrounding the Dominion War, which was pretty controversial among “Star Trek” writers because Roddenberry never intended for “Star Trek” to deal with the murky ethics of war, another Berman sticking point.
In “Fade In,” Piller reveals that it was Berman who shot down the idea of mentioning the Dominion War or Jadzia at all:
“Rick ultimately decided that it would be confusing to audience members who were not regular viewers of ‘Deep Space Nine’ so we ignored the death of Worfʼs wife.”
While Piller felt that it would have been “nice to be consistent with the TV show,” in the end it just wasn’t meant to be, and fans of “Deep Space Nine” had to just be content to see Worf on the big screen at all. For Jadzia fans, however, the revelation that Berman was the one who nixed any mention of her is infuriating.;
