If
you don't know what this is, check here for PART ONE, and here for
PART TWO to catch up. Frankly, I must commend you for lasting this
long, if indeed anyone is still reading this thing at this point. If
you are, I'm closing out this little adventure in nerdity with my
loosely constructed breakdown of how I envision this series would go,
even though as I've already pointed out many times, it will never
exist anywhere outside of my head and this blog. I planned it out for
seven seasons, as that is the typical length for Star Trek spin-offs
when they don't get unceremoniously cancelled.
The
basic twist would be that the unique transitive nature of the planet
was the result of its first inhabitants, The Q. Specifically, this
was the planet where the Q were born, before they ascended to
demi-godlike status. As a result of their transformation, they left
their world in a state of flux, travelling in space and time at
random, collecting souvenirs along the way and integrating them into
its biosphere. Or
at least this was random until the arrival of an alien scientist,
swept up in the planet's wake and stranded in the jungle. He learned
of the planet's nature and attempted to recreate the circumstances of
achieving Q-hood, but failed, and in the process became something of
a disembodied spirit haunting the planet, able to control its
movements and selection from other worlds, but unable to leave or
become physical again. This character, mostly unseen except for his
effects, will be the main antagonist of the series.
His
plan is to use the planet's temporal instability in conjunction with
the actions of sentient lifeforms he abducts and allows to live in
order to create an escalating series of increasingly unmanageable
time paradoxes in order to attract the Q to return and investigate,
at which point he can capture one, figure out where he went wrong,
and escape the planet as an omnipotent being. All the while he is
stymied by the Travelers a species even older than the Q who made
the evolutionary step before them and dedicate themselves to ensuring
others follow their own path at their own pace.
At
some point many years before the start of the series, the Iconians
would find the planet (or rather, be allowed to find it by its
invisible caretaker), reverse engineering the properties of this world
into their famous teleportation technology, and using the moving
planet as a secret base of operations, installing a network of
underground laboratories. One of these is located under the ruins of
an ancient city that was once inhabited by a race of creatures who
went extinct long ago. Once they did what the alien needed them to
do, he arranged for the Iconians left on the planet after they fled
their own to die, trapping them in a transporter gate for eternity.
In
the first episode introducing the ruined city, we would see a mural
depicting the extinct species worshiping the sun. In the last
episode of the first season the lab underneath this city will be
revealed to be connected to the time travelling function of the
planet, and the Octopi alien crewman would be sent far into the
past. As a result, a time wave would extend across the planet as
history is changed, and the mural in the now active city would reveal
the species no longer worshiping the sun, but rather a mass of
tendrils.
Season
two would take place in this alternate reality where the alien's
actions in the past resulted in the species who built the city, a war
like amphibious race, survived to the present day. As a result, the
events of the first season were less forgiving of the main
characters. Most of the background characters are dead, as are
several major characters. The twist is that most of those major
characters who died in this new reality are still alive thanks to
where they were standing during the time wave.
The
Iconian installations were insulated from the effect of the time
wave, and anyone inside of them, something like half the main cast,
would have been inside one of them at the time, walking out into a
brand new and harsher world where the rest of the people they know
have different memories of the events leading up to the present,
still at war with the indigenous aliens that are no longer extinct.
We would learn the differences as the cast does and get a second look
at the events of Season one through a new and darker prism.
 |
| I have no reason for this photo, but why not. |
We
would eventually learn that the Octopi alien, who is still alive
in this alternate reality where he never went back in time,
unintentionally became a God to the amphibious creatures when it
scared away their natural predator. Instead of both of these species
killing each other off long ago in the past, they both survived into
the present, still at war, with the two crews caught in the middle. A
clue to the eventual reveal at the end of the season would find many
in the Starfleet crew uncharacteristically taking sides in the
conflict rather than try to resolve it peacefully, all while the amphibians' enemy is never seen. In
the cliffhanger for this season we would find out that the enemy is
in fact the Blue Gill aliens, creatures from the Delta Quadrant who
were on their way to Earth in response to the beacon sent in the TNG
episode Conspiracy, never making it here because they were scooped up
by the island. Their giant Leviathan-like mother lives in
interconnected lake system and has infiltrated the crews'
settlement, taking over the minds of important characters leading
into season three.
Season
three would deal mostly with the aftermath of this revelation as
members of the crew discover the spies within their ranks and no one
can be trusted. The war would escalate until eventually the mother of
the Blue Gill aliens would be found and destroyed, and a fragile
alliance would be forged between the amphibians and the Federation
crews. We would end on another cliffhanger, when we discover that the
latest planetary shift has placed the planet into Earth's Solar
System, and a Federation rescue party is on their way.
Season
Four would follow the Deep Space Nine and Voyager model of adding a
new character, or in the Deep Space Nine case, an old character
reprising their role. I'm thinking either Chakotay, just to give
Robert Beltran the kick ass redemption story he always wanted, or
maybe Wesley Crusher as a Traveler to introduce that element of larger mythology,
giving him weird powers and esoteric knowledge to supplant Gary Seven
as the Star Trek equivalent of The Doctor from Doctor Who. The rescue
would of course go sour, and the season would mostly be used to
introduce more of the history and reveal the presence of the major
antagonist, though he wouldn't be noted as such at the time.
Season
four would end with the cast split up as an event meant to bridge the
original two time lines (thus saving the crew who died in the war with
the amphibians) and fix the mistakes of the past few months on the
planet only serves to make things worse. One half find themselves in
the other time line, but time is frozen into permanent night, and the
other half is stuck in the second timeline, traversing a planetary
teleportation system built by the Iconians, bouncing from place to
place all over the planet in a world tour trying to get back to the
settlement. This would make up the brunt of season five.
Season
six would find the crew finally fixing the problem created in season
five, at least in terms of being re-united with each other, but they
would find out that this was all a part of the alien's plan, and they
would walk out into yet another timeline merged between the two
previous ones and set in the far future of both of them. Here the
descendants of the two crews from both time lines, one somewhat like a
Federation colony though made fascist by years obsessed with
protection from external threats, the other more tribal and linked
genetically with the amphibians after years of interbreeding, are at
war over territory, with our main crew from the past once again
caught in the middle.
This
season would end with the culmination of the alien's plan, as all of
this is finally enough to attract the Q, who would reveal themselves
in the last episode leading into Season Seven. Season Seven would
wrap up the timeline war as the Q attempt to clean up their mess as
they run afoul of the Travelers who believe the Q to be immature
and undeserving of their power and knowledge, a situation exploited
by our main villain as he attempts to escape his prison and take
control of the Q's godlike technology.
So
that's it. Well technically there are some other small things I
didn't really have a place for, but for the most part, that's it for
the broad strokes. I won't go into the individual character arc
stuff, as the more I've gotten into writing this, the more I think I
might actually do something with it, maybe in a fan fiction series to
be posted here sometime in the future. Well, probably not, as just
writing this mini-show bible thing was an intensive chore. We'll see
how much I can sustain my excitement, and if that gets me into an
actual script. Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, and
I'll see you next time for whatever new stupid unreadable nerdy thing
I come up with after this. Maybe a Farscape sequel, or something
Blake 7-y. Who knows?
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