The Star Trek Episode Directly Inspired By Pulp Fiction

For this Star Trek/Pulp Fiction connection to make sense, you need to understand more about the episode in question. In “The Cloud,” the main plot involves Janeway investigating a strange nebula that could help power the replicators, which would help with crew morale and provide Janeway with her morning coffee fix. However, the crew ends up damaging the nebula before realizing it is a living being and committing themselves to healing the damage.

As far as Star Trek episodes go, this weird space plot doesn’t exactly scream “Quentin Tarantino,” so where does the Pulp Fiction connection come in? Showrunner Michael Piller had a reputation for taking unworkable scripts and producing great episodes. “The Cloud” was one of the scripts that needed his magic touch, but he quickly realized this script had a problem the size of the nebula.

Specifically, the veteran Trek guru realized that the big sci-fi story at the center of the plot was only going to take about 20 pages of script. That meant he would need to create another 35-40 pages to fill the episode out. Wisely, Piller leaned away from the space mystery of the week and created extra content focused on character-building conversations. 

While Piller himself never mentioned the Tarantino connection, his fellow Star Trek writer Brannon Braga revealed the connection to Pulp Fiction. After mentioning how much Piller liked the film, Braga said of the script, “I think there’s a little bit of that in the way the characters talk to each other, going off in tangents.”

Fortunately, these Star Trek conversational tangents are almost (if not quite) as captivating as those in Pulp Fiction. We watch Neelix dubiously take up the mantle of morale officer and Janeway go on a vision quest in order to find coffee. Most of all, though, we are introduced to Chez Sandrine, the French Bistro that makes Ten Forward look downright déclassé.

As fans, it’s fun to know that the best Star Trek writer in franchise history was inspired by a film as cool as Pulp Fiction.

This trivia, however,  can only scratch so much of our itch to see Quentin Tarantino himself get behind the director’s chair for Star Trek 4, and we’re still hoping that Paramount can make it happen. For a franchise hoping to make another big screen splash, he is probably the best director to make Trek mainstream once again.

In some ways, it’s fair to say Quentin Tarantino should be the ultimate inspiration for Star Trek: films ranging from Pulp Fiction to Once Upon a Time In Hollywood are successful studies in different genres revolving around very intimate themes. If Trek wants to thrive again, it won’t happen until they can follow in the director’s footsteps by telling stories as ambitious as they are personal.