Star Trek: Elite Force 2 Creators Rewrote Game After 9/11 Attacks

Developers said they rewrote the game's plot after the 9/11 attacks - originally, terrorists were supposed to crash a shuttle into the Starfleet Academy building.

Star Trek: Elite Force 2 was released on PC in 2003. As level designer and lead writer Benson Russell explained, the game's original plot was completely different.

In one of the early missions, terrorists were supposed to attack Starfleet Academy by crashing a space shuttle into the building. After the events of September 11, 2001, the developers decided that such a plot was unacceptable. The script was rewritten, and all elements that could resemble the real tragedy were removed from the game.

Russell also explained why there are almost no characters from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in the game. The actors' contracts stipulated equal pay: if the studio hired one of the main performers, the entire cast would have to be paid at a comparable level. The budget did not allow for this, so the developers used less well-known characters, leaving only Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard.

Despite good reviews, the game was not a commercial success.