An Alternate Trek

[Lindseyman]

Quo Vadis Broadcast week beginning October 13th 1969

Mission date 1938.3 the Endeavour arrives at the Stuart Scientific Base on Campbell II because contact had been lost with the base. However when Brynne, Blamire and Holmes beam down there is no sign of the science team assigned there. They and the station's shuttlecraft are missing. Also all communication equipment has been destroyed. While searching the base Holmes finds the dog which belonged to the Base Commander. Holmes also finds a substance on the floor which Brynne determines is a type of cellular residue.

Russell orders a full search of the base and conducts extensive scans of Campbell II. Spock, on examining the bases computer log, discovers that the team had discovered an alien spacecraft of unknown origin within the icecap of Campbell II. The craft had disintegrated on being exposed but they had discovered the corpse of what they assumed was a crewmember nearby. The logs contain their analysis of the alien but soon after the logs become disjointed and then to Spock’s and Brynne’s opinion completely unbelievable.

There are short reports of the crew turning on each other believing that they had been taken over by the alien. The most complete log is that of the Psychologist assigned to the base, Lieutenant Carpenter (guest star Robert Hardy), his log confirms what the other log fragments contained and also that he had shut himself away from the others. After a few days when he no longer could scan anyone else on the planet he had emerged to find the rest of the crew dead. He had burned their remains and then escaped on the bases shuttle. The last log was dated two days before the Endeavour’s unscheduled arrival.

On further exploration Travis and Blamire find the funeral pyre mentioned in Carpenter’s logs, this adds credence to his story. Meanwhile Holmes continues to examine the cellular residue found on the deck plate, to his horror the material moves and touches his hand. It then withdraws and forms a perfect replica of it. On further testing the material will form perfect copies of any living organic material but not inorganic. This discovery lends further credence to the claims made in the Base logs and Russell orders that the material should be contained in a stasis unit.

Suddenly D’Alembert, who has been making sensor sweeps of the system announces that she had discovered the missing shuttle. It is drifting between Campbell II and the system’s asteroid belt. It is completely lacking any power but there are life signs on board but they do not bear any resemblance to the signs that would be given by a human. Russell has the shuttle hailed. The hail is answered by Lieutenant Carpenter. However he is wearing a hooded coat and his face cannot be clearly seen. Carpenter admits that the shuttle has run out of power and that the life support is failing. He asks to be rescued. As the life signs do not seem to be human Russell orders that the shuttle be brought in using a tractor beam.

As the tractor beam takes hold the shuttle is shaken and the hood falls off Carpenter’s head. It is very apparent that Carpenter is not human. Russell orders that the Tractor beam be shut off and destroys the shuttle craft with phasers. Although there is some disquiet at this action (especially from Russell himself!) everybody agrees that the alien life form could not be allowed to reach an inhabited planet.

The Endeavour sets course to return to CSS Gandhi intending to drop the dog off. However, on arrival, the dog seems strangely reluctant to be put on a lead and tries to escape. Driven to distraction Fynely who has been looking after the dog stuns it with a phaser! The dog is amazingly unstunned and keeps running around the Medical Centre. Fynely tries again but has the same result. He immediately instigates a lock down of the Medical Centre and has his and all other phasers increased to a higher setting. The “dog” immediately begins to change shape but is hit by 3 or 4 phasers and is vaporised. Fynely and Brynne carry out a full sensor sweep of the whole ship but there are no indications of the alien life signs.

(Nobody notices the midge like creature that settles on material recovered from Campbell II which is beamed down to CSS Gandhi.)

NOTE:credit is given to John W Campbell for the idea

 

[Lindseyman]

Stephanie Broadcast week beginning October 20th 1969

Mission date 1983.5 the Endeavour intercepts a distress signal when mapping the Viking system. On tracing the signal they find that it comes from a small damaged alien spacecraft which is in an erratic orbit around one of the moons orbiting the gas giant Viking V. There is only one, very faint, life sign so Russell orders that the craft be brought into one of Endeavour’s shuttle bays.

When Scotty and M’Beke board the craft they find that there is only one person on board, the pilot (special guest star James Bolam) who is in a very bad way. M’Beke orders that the pilot be immediately taken to the Medical Centre. However he is very resistant to being taken from the ship and struggles against being removed from the craft even though he is very weak. Finally M’Beke tranquilises him and the pilot is taken on a medical gurney to the Medical Centre.

Scotty is entranced by the craft’s technology. It has far more powerful warp engines than Commonwealth craft and seems to be capable of interstellar travel by just using these warp engines. He starts spending all his spare time investigating the craft’s systems. He becomes even more entranced with the craft when he discovers that the craft is equipped with a neural interface. These had only been recently reinvestigated by the Fleet and the Navy after some disastrous results with similar systems with aircraft during the period around WW V. Unlike those this one seems fully functional and it reads and communicates directly with its pilot's mind, giving it instantaneous manoeuvrability. Against Russell’s direct orders Scotty tries out the interface and the ship makes a record of his brain patterns.

As time goes on Scotty becomes more and more obsessive about restoring and caring for this craft, which he has named Stephanie after an old girlfriend. He can even hear "her" speaking to him in his mind (voice provided by special guest star Diana Dors). His behaviour becomes more and more strange. He wants to spend time with Stephanie and no one else. He begins to neglect his appearance and duties, looking more tired and frantic as time goes on, and he wears a spacesuit designed for use with Stephanie instead of his Fleet uniform. At first O’Gorman and his engineering crew cover for him as they feel a great deal of personal loyalty towards him. However power cells from Endeavour’s back-up systems go missing. O’Gorman finds them in the shuttle bay where Scotty is fixing Stephanie. Intrigued by what is causing Scotty to act so abnormally O’Gorman sneaks aboard Stephanie to see what's drawing him there so strongly, but the ship springs to life, traps him inside, and shuts off life support.

Scotty gets O’Gorman out of the craft before he is seriously injured, but soon after that he loses control of his own behaviour. He boards Stephanie and speeds away from Endeavour with her, after first disabling the Endeavour’s sensors and alarms. O’Gorman manages to bring them back on line after only 30 minutes. This worries everyone nearly as much as Scotty disappearing with the craft, as a Scotty in full control of his faculties would have sabotaged these systems much more effectively so that it would take hours if not days to repair them.

By now the pilot, whom they discover is called Kolya, has recovered and wishes to speak urgently with Russell. He too still struggles with a mental figment of the ship's computer. From him, they find out that the intelligence behind Stephanie was trying to head towards a small spatial rift, which it believed would take it home. Luckily it is in the same system,so the Endeavour arrives before Stephanie can enter the rift. However they find that they cannot stop the ship using weapons without harming Scotty, as his mind is linked to the ship.

They hail Stephanie but Scotty ignores their signals and the craft starts to enter the rift. Russell orders that they try to stop it using tractor beams. However, even at 200% of normal power, these only slow Stephanie down and the power drain required to stop it would drain the engines completely. Just as Stephanie enters the rift a befuddled Scotty appears in the Medical Centre wondering what has happened. There is a last signal from the craft. It says “Thank You” and includes full schematics for Stephanie’s warp systems. With that Stephanie disappears.

Scotty is reprimanded for his behaviour and is confined to quarters for a week. Much to Russell’s surprise Scotty looks almost cheerful at this! When questioned he admits that he can use the time to catch up on recent engineering journals and examine the schematics for the warp engines.

NOTE:This is Milo O'Shea's last but one appearance in Star Trek as O'Gorman. However his character is still mentioned from time to time.

 

[Some Bloke]

So he gets put on the bus then?

 

[Lindseyman]

So he gets put on the bus then?

No he moved to London not to Luxton.

EDIT; no ones bitten at this nor the fact that James Bolam's character is called Kolya?
I'm obviously too old. I'll just get my zimmer frame and mug of warm Ovaltine.

 

[Lindseyman]

Contagion Broadcast week beginning October 27th 1969

Mission date 2001.6 D’Alembert has started to suffer from feeling dizzy and is also seeing hallucinations of her dead father and mother. She shrugs them off but after she reacts to “seeing” them on the bridge, Russell orders her to the Medical Centre and relieves her from duty until the problem is solved. D’Alembert had suffered from Leukaemia in childhood but had been successfully treated (otherwise she would not have been assigned ship duty). Tests confirm that she no longer has Leukaemia, but Fynely and M’Beke cannot find the cause of her hallucinations.

They do discover a benign tumour in her heart, which Fynely surgically removes, but it does not account for the hallucinations. Eventually Fynely deduces that there must be a clot which can sometimes occur as a side effect of her treatment received in childhood. He suggests employing therapeutic hypothermia to discover the clot, which does not show on an angiography: Cooling her body temperature down to 21° Celsius will stop her heart, effectively making her clinically dead. Then the doctors will remove 2-3 litres of blood and discover the clot when the blood is pumped back in. Fynely, with a typical lack of empathy, compares this procedure to "performing an autopsy on a living person."

The blood removal and temperature cannot be held for more than 60 seconds or she will suffer permanent damage. M’beke compares this treatment to being like finding a needle in a haystack without a magnet, but agrees that it might be the only way to find the clot. In a tense moment Fynely finds the clot, which only appeared for a fraction of a second, and with his direction the surgery is successful.

Chapel confronts Fynely about the placement of the blood clot – it was not in her brain, where it might account for the hallucinations. Fynely concedes this, but adds that he is not used to his being challenged by his Chief Nurse even one with her years of experience. D’Alembert is kept in the Medical Centre so that she can be kept under observation whilst the clot is examined and to see if she still suffers from hallucinations.

Whilst this has been going on the general life of the Medical Centre has continued. We see the nurses treating headaches, sprains (usually from one of the Endeavour’s gyms) and cuts and bruises (usually from someone being careless in Engineering). There is a loud shout from the lab in which the clot is being examined. A lab assistant runs out shouting

“It’s alive!”

It turns out that when the clot was put under the microscope it began to move away from the light. D’Alembert is immediately placed in isolation but all her tests show her to be fully human with no trace of the alien found on Campbell II. The only trace seems to be the clot that was removed. Fynely and M’beke wonder who else is contaminated and start to arrange for the whole crew to be scanned. It is Brynne who points out that the only crew member that can be trusted to do the scans is D’Alembert as she is the only one who is known to be fully human!

Russell nods in agreement and orders a complete lockdown of the crew. A message is sent to Fleet Command and to Medical Central. Orders soon come back. They are to remain in their current position until the CSS Aurora reaches them. The command crew look at each other and wonder which of them is still fully "human" if any.

To be continued.

 

[Lindseyman]

Contagion Part II Broadcast week beginning November 3rd 1969

Mission date 2005.6, the Endeavour is holding station awaiting the arrival of the Aurora. They have been ordered to do so because of the discovery of a clot of the Campbell II alien discovered in D’Alembert. Although D’Alembert has been shown to be completely free of the alien, they cannot be sure that there are no other carriers and the Aurora is coming to investigate this.

The situation on board the Endeavour is becoming very tense as everybody wonders who if any is contaminated by the alien. The Aurora arrives and its Captain Katharina Braun (special guest star Sian Phillips), the former first officer of the Endeavour signals Russell.

Russell is incredulous at her demands. All weapons are to be taken off line, all jump and warp engines disabled and they have 30 minutes to comply with the shields being dropped immediately. Brynne announces that the Aurora has locked her phasers on the engines and has targeted torpedoes and her rail guns at other targets on the Endeavour.

Russell signals back

“Are we your enemies?”

“That waits to be seen!” Braun replies “You now have 28 minutes to comply.”

Russell turns to his officers

“Options?”

It is Scotty who replies

“None but compliance. The Aurora has all my modifications built in from the start, has more power and armament and also her chief engineer is very good, so he has probably made improvements much as I or O’Gorman would have done.”

This last statement makes them all pause, if Scotty says an engineer is very good then he or she is exceptional by everyone else’s standards!

So Russell signalled Braun their agreement and the shield were dropped and the engines disabled. Once Braun was satisfied that all was done she signalled that her First Officer Norman Stiles (guest star Edward Woodward) and her Chief Science Officer Robert Steel (guest star David Macallum) would be beamed over and had to have unrestricted access to Endeavour’s computers. Five minutes later both were beamed onto the bridge wearing full environmental suits. They approached Brynne’s station and he moved aside. Steel accessed the computer and began transferring transporter logs to the Aurora. Whilst he was doing this Stiles kept a close eye on everybody else although he did acknowledge his former shipmates (having been previously the Endeavour’s Chief of Security). After 30 minutes Steel had finished and they both beamed off the bridge.

“Why the transporter logs?” asked Mitchell.

Spock replied that he presumed that they were going to compare scans of them with their last transporter logs prior to visiting Campbell II. It should then be apparent who carried any alien material. At this Mitchell begins to squirm as does Brynne. They look at each other and immediately spring into action. Mitchell tries to raise the shields and to target the Aurora whilst Brynne begins to shapeshift. Both are immediately beamed from the bridge.

Russell signals the Aurora

“What have you done to them?”

It is Stiles who replies

“They have been beamed into space and their patterns allowed to disperse.”

What is left unsaid is that will be the fate of any who carry the alien material.

Spock takes over the science station and announces that the ship is being very carefully scanned. After 5 minutes the bridge crew are all beamed into one of Aurora’s shuttle bays. They are met by Stiles who is not wearing any protective suit. He tells them that they are all clear and that any other Endeavour personnel who are also clear will be joining them.

Over the next hour more and more of the Endeavour’s crew join them in the shuttle bay. Amongst the first are D’Alembert, M’Beke and Fynely. D’Alembert says that her hallucinations have stopped. M’Beke wonders if they were her subconscious trying to show that something was wrong. Fynely looks sceptical but keeps his silence. Finally the beaming stops. There is roughly a quarter of the crew missing.

Braun signals for Russell to join her on the bridge.

She looks at him and shakes her head at his unasked question.

“There are too many to do as we did to Mitchell and Brynne. You know what we have to do.”

Sympathetically she adds

“It should be you that gives the order. She’s still your ship.”

Russell straightens his shoulders and gives the order

“Fire”

Immediately the Aurora fires phasers, torpedoes and rail guns at the Endeavour and she is totally destroyed.

A memorial service is held for those of Endeavour’s crew that didn’t survive and the Aurora heads for CSS Archimedes.

 

[Lindseyman]

The Erebus Broadcast week beginning November 10th 1969

Mission date 0134.2. It is several months since the destruction of the Endeavour and the Board of Inquiry into the matter has only just delivered its verdict. Russell and his command crew have been cleared of all charges and Braun’s actions have also been cleared. However the Fleet has a problem. Not one ship is willing to accept an ex Endeavour crewmember. Although all have been subjected to extensive medical tests and examinations the suspicion still lingers that they are contaminated by the Campbell II alien. The crew is far too experienced to ”waste” in backroom careers and the training colleges such as Annapolis and Cranfield so in the end they are assigned enmasse to the CSS Erebus EE008, the newest of the Endurance class. This has design modifications which mean that it does not need as large a crew as did the Endeavour (just as well as the unease about the Endeavour crew isn’t just confined to Fleet Officers and no one is willing to join them!). The Erebus is tasked with exploring star systems beyond the old Rhihannuan border for the next few months until the furore over “the Endeavour Incident” has died down.

Two months have gone by and the crew is settling in, and are getting acquainted with the new ship and its systems. Scotty is in seventh heaven as he has already started to rebuild the ship and has already increased its efficiency by 10% or so and has promised Russell even more improvements as time goes on. The rest of the crew is getting slightly restless as the mission so far has been without undue incident. Russell has spent time trying to locate a squeak in his ready room and has become anxious about the crew’s state of mind.

When they arrive in the Archer system, Spock, who is now Chief Science Officer again as well as being Second in Command (it is just as well than Vulcanians do not require anywhere as much sleep as humans!) picks up a drifting vessel on sensors. The Erebus slows down to investigate. The ship shows evidence of weapons fire and bio-signs but does not respond to hails. Further scans of the vessel discover multiple hull breaches so a boarding party in environmental suits is dispatched. The crew, whom appear human, are soon found dead, suspended upside-down with tubes attached to their chests. The sight is sufficiently unnerving that the boarding party beats a hasty retreat back to the Erebus.

After the party has been debriefed, Russell decides to return to the ship. M’Beke discovers that the bodies are being harvested for a chemical found in the lymphatic fluid, whilst Scotty restores communications and Spock decodes the language used by the crew. Stein who is now at the Science station, warns Russell that a ship is approaching, the crew withdraws to Erebus, but not before shooting the harvest pump. The alien vessel attacks, and the Erebus returns fire damaging the attacking ship.

As it limps away a second vessel, identical to that found drifting, arrives. It is only the fact that they had obviously fired on and damaged the other ship that prevents the new vessel from attacking the Erebus. Communications are established albeit only oral, the new ship will not allow visual communication. The Commander of this vessel states that this system is part of the Carnyate, that they are not welcome and should leave as soon as possible if not sooner!

Pondering this, Russell orders that the Erebus should leave the system.

 

[Lindseyman]

The Bismarck Broadcast week beginning November 17th 1969

Mission date 0165.7 the Erebus is exploring the Promellius system when it receives a Commonwealth Navy distress signal. Intrigued, because the Erebus is officially the first Commonwealth vessel to enter the system, Russell directs the ship to investigate. They find the CSS Bismarck adrift but intact. The Bismarck was one of the Commonwealth ships that was taken when the Rememberer Androids vanished after the resolution of the Probe crisis. They approach the Bismarck very cautiously but scans would seem to indicate that there are no Rememberer Androids on board.

A boarding party led by Spock is transported on board. They find Andoids but they are all non-functional displaying signs of radiation damage. The last log recorded by the android captaining the ship (guest star Gerald Harper) suggests the ship was caught in a trap but there is no indication by whom it was set. With their investigation complete, the boarding party returns to the Erebus. However, when they try to leave the Erebus begins to suffer a series of power losses that prevent the use of the warp engines. The ship is also, bombarded by radiation against which their shields cannot provide protection. Russell orders Scotty to find a way to restore power while a second boarding party searches for more clues on the Bismarck. They discover that the trap had used some type of assimilators to absorb a ship's energy and redirect it back as hazardous radiation, and that the Erebus is stuck in the same trap.

Scotty realizes that the only way to restore power is to reconfigure the warp drive and traces its design back to the Endeavour classes  construction logs and blueprints. Scotty tries to work out a means to reconfigure the warp engines with the help of Holmes. They are unable is unable to find a way to safely manoeuvre the Erebus away, and Russell orders all extraneous power systems shut down to conserve power.

Eventually Holmes discovers a solution which is to allow the computer to take control of the ship, allowing it to make rapid adjustments to compensate for the trap. Scotty then finds an alternate solution to the problem which is to completely reduce the power output from the Erebus and manoeuvre it out of the field by manual control with only two thrusters. At first they are inclined to use the first solution but further examination of the Bismarck’s logs show that this was the solution chosen by the Rememberer Androids.

Russell decides that computers cannot account for human intuition and therefore that they will have to attempt the manual approach. D’Alembert skilfully carries out the operation, successfully moving the Erebus from the trap. Once free and with power restored, the Erebus destroys the Bismarck and the asteroids around it to prevent others from falling into the trap.

They are none the wiser about whom first set the trap. However examination of the logs recovered from the Bismarck would seem to indicate where the Rememberers had gone. Russell orders that the logs should be transmitted to the Commonwealth, whilst they investigate the findings.

 

[Lindseyman]

Rumours from across the pond

NBC were keeping information about their version of Star Trek very much in house. However by October 1969 various rumours were beginning to circulate.

1. It was being produced by Paramount for NBC. This was considered very ironic as it was Paramount’s predecessor company, Desilu that had turned down Star Trek and forced Roddenberry across the Atlantic to ITC.

2. It was not set in the same continuity as the ITC Star Trek, instead it was being set in another timeline which was more US friendly.

3. In this light the Commonwealth was being called the United Systems which would allow the ships to be USS…..

4. William Shatner was to play the Captain who was now called James Raintree

5. Spock would be played by Leonard Nimoy. Paramount had considered “losing” this character but in the end decided to keep him as in many ways his character WAS Star Trek, more than the Captain. However he was to be First Officer from the start, a woman in the post as per the ITC production was one step too far for an American company at this time.

6. Only some of the ITC episodes would be reused, Paramount was looking for more “user friendly” stories and arcs were out so that the episodes could be shown in any order.

7. Gene Roddenberry was only Executive Producer, NBC and Paramount had taken Lew Grade’s advice that he was to be allowed nowhere near the budget in any position of financial responsibility!

8. The producer was to be either Fred Freiburger, Bruce Lansbury or John Meredyth Lucas

9. Script writers were rumoured to include Gene Coon, David Gerrold, John Meredyth Lucas and William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter amongst others.

10. The Tellurians were to be the bad guys from the start opposing the United Systems any way that they could.

 

[CrazyGeorge]

Always a good update

 

[Lindseyman]

The Carnyate Broadcast week beginning November 24th 1969

Mission date 0175.6, Scotty has discovered some worrying flaws in the weapons systems. Typically for Scotty these flaws would not worry anyone else as the combination of conditions to cause the failure is exceedingly unlikely, however Russell trusts Scotty implicitly in engineering matters so if Scotty is worried, so is he! So when the Erebus has jumped to the Weber System he allows Scotty the time to work around these problems especially as they are now heading into territory uncharted by the Commonwealth.

Whilst Scotty is carrying out the necessary changes to the weapons systems the Erebus is approached by an alien vessel. Although they have not seen this design before, it does share some design features with the Carnyate vessels encountered previously. Russel hails them, but the vessel returns to warp. Soon, however, the mysterious ship returns and scans the Erebus, sending a high pitched screech through the com systems, and firing on the Erebus before again jumping to warp.

Russell notes that this Carnyate seems to shoot first and ask questions later, and sets course for the jump point to leave the system. Scotty says that he only needs a couple of hours to finish his modifications so Russell agrees to wait until the modifications are finished. While Scotty is doing so, the alien ship returns and disables Erebus’s main power. Strange alien bipeds then board the ship, and assault two crew-members. They return to their ship, damaging a warp nacelle before departing again.

Scotty repairs the damage as well as finishing his modifications within two hours of the incident, so Russell jumps to the next system. In that system, Erebus locates an uninhabited asteroid for a weapons test, which produces a blast yield 5 times the expected output, due to an unexpected surge. Scotty traces the anomalous reading to one of the hanger bays, to a device tapped into internal sensors and communication channels. Russell then sends the aliens a message: the Erebus is on a peaceful mission of exploration, the Commonwealth prefers diplomacy over aggression but he will protect his ship by any means necessary. With that, he has the device destroyed.

Spock detects the alien vessel again. This time it hails the Erebus but only using verbal communication channels. The Commander of the vessel (Voice provided by Bert Kwouk) informs Russell that the Carnyate does not care what he thinks, his vessel has trespassed on Carnyate territory twice now, and since his ship matches a description of an alien vessel encountered before it is actually his third transgression. The Carnyate does not allow such transgressions of its territory.

Russell asks for a map so that they can avoid Carnyate territory in the future. The reply is a furious volley of torpedoes and, luckily, weakly powered phaser like weapons. The shields deal easily with the phasers however the torpedoes pass through the shields as if they were not there and although they cause little physical damage knock out both the main and auxiliary power systems.

The Erebus would now normally have been defenceless, however this was the unlikely occurrence that Scotty had foreseen and his modifications now came into their own. Drawing on the power left in the jump engine circuits the Erebus was able to fire back and destroy the Carnyate vessel’s weapons systems and its shields. Both ships were now drifting in space. Luckily Scotty was able to get auxiliary power up and running very quickly so the Erebus was able to limp away. This also gave some power so that Spock could tap into the other vessel’s computer systems and download some information. He was not able to download much as the Carnyate ship self-destructed.

Travis who was at the security station comments that that was probably to prevent the Erebus finding their home systems. This Carnyate must be just as paranoid as the Rhihannaun! Spock who has been scanning those records that he was able to get looks up and says

“These records are basically in Terran! There are some variation from standard Terran, usually more anachronistic English and/or South Asian idioms. What they call themselves may sound like Carnyate but it’s spelt Khanate! These people revere Gunwant Khan as their saviour and founder!”

 

[Lindseyman]

UXB Broadcast week beginning December 1st 1969

Mission date 0198.6 the Erebus has entered the Shunkai system. Russell is having his weekly meeting with Travis however ,as usual recently, it is not going well. Travis has never really recovered from his relationship with Ada (Lazarus broadcast week beginning 20th September 1969) and his performance has dipped alarmingly and he has become sullen and prone to issuing erratic orders. Indeed if it hadn’t been the fact that the Erebus was in uncharted space he would have been relieved from duty. Even so, he has been warned that he is in danger of this happening.

Meanwhile, the Erebus nears the uncharted and seemingly uninhabited planet Shunkai II to carry out a survey mission. However, the ship triggers a cloaked mine, damaging the ship and flooding the Medical Centre with injured crew members. Soon, another cloaked mine is detected as it attaches itself to the hull, but it doesn't immediately detonate for some reason. With the power systems already damaged, it is feared that a further detonation will totally disable the vessel. Travis then goes outside in a spacesuit to try to disarm it. As a backup plan, Russell orders Scotty to prepare to detach and jettison the affected section of hull.

Initially Travis’ efforts seem to be working, but an alien vessel suddenly appears, and fires warning shots at the ship. D’Alembert assumes manual control and steers the ship carefully out of the minefield. During the manoeuvres, however, a jolt accidentally activates another magnetic grappling arm that impales Travis’ leg before attaching itself to the spaceship's hull, thus pinning him down. Russell, feeling responsible for Travis’ predicament also dons a spacesuit and attempts to disarm the mine under Travis’ direction.

Suddenly two Carnyate ships appear from behind Shunkai II’s moon. They had been undetected because the mine detonation had rendered Erebus’ sensors temporarily inoperative. As usual there is only verbal communication with the Carnyate ships and they demand that Erebus jettisons the mine even though Travis is still attached. Knowing that any attempt to cut the arm would set off the mine, Travis becomes insistent on sacrificing himself to save Erebus.

Russell returns to the ship and requests two shuttle hatches from a momentarily puzzled Scotty, also ordering him to detach the hull plate as planned. As the section of hull and the attached mine float off, Russell severs the spike holding Travis. This arms the mine, but Russell and Travis are also able to shield themselves from the resulting explosion. The two men are then beamed on board.

When Russell returns to the bridge he is surprised to find that one of the Carnyate ships has established visual as well as verbal communications. The Carnyate Commander who is apparently human (special guest star Roger Moore) congratulates Russell on the rescue of his crewman before demanding that they leave the system immediately as it hold an outpost of the Carnyate. The Erebus is only not being destroyed, although they have transgressed Carnyate territory yet again, because they are obviously human and this is a shock to them as they have not previously encountered other humans and it explains one of their Founder’s instructions.

Russell thanks the Commander and returns to the jump point to leave the system.

 

[viewcode]

No he moved to London not to Luxton.

EDIT; no ones bitten at this nor the fact that James Bolam's character is called Kolya?
I'm obviously too old. I'll just get my zimmer frame and mug of warm Ovaltine.

Horribly, I didn't immediately get it (tho' I assume his first name was Teri..). But that was only 'cos I was recovering from the Thing references in the previous post. Russell? Carpenter? Campbell II?

 

[Lindseyman]

Russell isn't a reference to Kurt Russell (although it does fit quite nicely) but to "Far Beyond the Stars" a DS9 episode.

 

[Lindseyman]

The Gandhi Broadcast week beginning 8th December 1969

Mission date 0203.5 while the Erebus is en route to CSS Archimedes to undergo repairs after the incident in the Shunkai system (they have been recalled to Commonwealth space as the furore over the "Endeavour Incident" has died down and both the Fleet and the Navy wish to discuss the Carnyate and the Rememberer Androids with the Command Crew), Russell receives a highly confidential message from an old friend, Captain Cowley (special guest star Gordon Jackson) of the CSS Humboldt. Cowley refuses to discuss his concerns, even though the frequency he is using is supposed to be a secure channel, and insists on a face-to-face meeting. Once they arrive at the Doyle System, Russell beams alone to the surface of Doyle IV and is met by Captain Cowley. Cowley reports strange orders from Fleet headquarters and what he implies are suspicious deaths of Fleet officers, and expresses concern of a conspiracy (he also implies something similar is happening in the Navy). Russell refuses to accept this without proof, but Cowley warns him to remain wary.

When Russell returns to the Erebus, he is challenged by Spock about keeping his contact with Cowley secret. Russell is sceptical about the conspiracy, but says that he trusts his old friend completely. The Erebus resumes its previous journey. Russell has Spock review all orders issued by the Fleet in the past six months. Spock completes his study and finds several strange orders from the senior levels of the Fleet. The officers concerned had all visited CSS Gandhi just prior to the orders being issued. Russell informs his senior staff of the conspiracy theory, and orders the Erebus to CSS Gandhi.

As it approaches CSS Gandhi, the Erebus receives no response from to its hails. Eventually, a transmission is received from Admiral Beckett (special guest star Maurice Denham) who has recently transferred from CSS Brunel. He is surprised by the Erebus’ presence, but invites Russell and Spock to dinner. Beckett also requests that his aide Commander Sanford (guest star Harry H Corbett) is beamed aboard the Erebus for a tour. When Sanford is beamed on board alarms start sounding. (One of Scotty’s modifications to the Erebus’ transporter system has been to enable it to detect Campbell II alien material.) Sanford and his luggage are beamed directly to a holding facility in the Medical Centre. Fynely and M’Beke carefully scan both Sanford and his luggage. Sanford himself is free of any trace of the alien. However his briefcase is crawling with alien life signs. Sanford is questioned by Russell and Travis. He claims to know nothing about the briefcase except that it was given to him by Beckett who told him that it contained documents that were to be shown to Russell and his senior officers before Russell beamed down.

Russell holds an emergency briefing with his senior officers and Sanford. They agree that it was an attempt to infect them all (and Sanford) with the Campbell II alien. It now becomes obvious what has happened to all the officers who have been giving unusual orders. However they are all worried by the implications. By now the majority of both the Fleet and Navy Commands may well be infected. They have no idea of whom to trust. Towards the end of the meeting Beckett hails the ship wanting to know when Russell and Spock will be arriving. Russell stalls saying that both he and Spock are feeling unwell. Beckett smiles and says that it will soon pass and they will be very welcome when they recover. It is obvious that Beckett is infected with the alien material.

Russell is now in a real quandary, he can’t beam down as it is certain that he will be infected as soon as it is realised that he isn’t already and if he doesn’t then Beckett and the others will realise that their plan has failed and will take other steps. Russell is still trying to decide a safe course of action when matters are taken out of his hands. The Gandhi’s shields go up and about twenty Navy vessels appear at the jump point with their shields raised and weapons armed.
To be continued

 

[Lindseyman]

The Gandhi part 2 Broadcast the week beginning December 15th 1969

Mission date 0210.9 the Erebus is at CSS Gandhi investigating what seems to be an infestation of the Campbell II alien when suddenly the Gandhi’s shields come up and twenty Navy ships appear all fully shielded and with all weapons systems online. Russell who has been in his office trying to find a solution to their predicament (see previous episode) rushes back to the bridge to find out what is happening.

Spock reports that there have been no communications with the navy vessels but they have positioned themselves as if to attack the Gandhi and the vessels around her and also to prevent any vessel leaving the system. Suddenly there is a brief high pitched sound which makes the whole bridge crew wince. Reports come in from all over the ship about the noise but the most interesting is a report by Fynely that the Campbell II alien material that Sanford (Harry H Corbett) brought on board with him has just all died. He assumes that the high pitched sound caused the material to die. Then Spock announces that the Erebus is being scanned by several of the Navy vessels. Russel orders that nothing is to be done to hinder the scans. After several minutes the Erebus is hailed by one of the Navy ships the CSS Indomitable. Admiral Blake (special guest star Trevor Howard) appears on the screen

“Well, Russell, I must admit that we are pleasantly surprised! Everybody on board the Erebus is up and running none of you carried any of the Arness material.”

“Arness material?” queries Russell.

“We couldn’t keep calling it the Campbell II alien!” replies Blake.
“So we named it after the scientist who studied the material that you brought back from Campbell II and found that it was susceptible to that sound. Yours seems to be the only ship that is still fully functional in the area apart from ours.”

Russell looks at Spock who nods and starts to scan the other ships and the Gandhi.

Blake continues

“It was quite a shock to find that a good third of the Navy and a quarter of the Fleet was infected. We only found out that any were when Arness carried out his experiments on board the Constitution and half its crew just died. After that all crew and officers were tested. The only common link was the Gandhi so we came here to root out the problem.”

Spock then reports

“There are only a few life signs anywhere on the Gandhi or its surrounding ships. They must be those few not infected. Also the Gandhi’s shields have just come down”

Blake nods

“We’ll tackle the ships. You investigate the Gandhi. However remember that this is a Navy operation. Report back to me.”

Russell nods and he orders Spock to beam over to the Gandhi, whose shields are no longer up with a full security team. Spock does so and reports back after an hour. He looks ashen which is almost unheard of for a Vulcanian.

“Out of a complement of nearly 1000 only 40 crew are left alive! Most of them are ancillary staff although there were a couple of junior engineering officers who had just transferred. It was they who lowered the shields. Of the rest there is nothing that looks remotely human, the aliens must have tried shapeshifting to find a form that would resist the devastation caused by that sound. It is like a scene by Hieronymous Bosch!”

Russell contacts Blake on the Indomitable and passes on the report.

Blake nods and says that the ships show that the same has happened although there are more survivors. He orders that all survivors be beamed onto one ship the CSS Peary, which has been cleared of all remains, to be debriefed. He also orders that skeleton crews be put on board the other ships to bring them back to Earth. Spock and Scotty are each put in command of a vessel with crew from the Erebus. The rest are manned by navy personnel. Blake then orders that the Gandhi is destroyed. They cannot risk any of the Arness material surviving in some sheltered corner of the Gandhi. They can be sure that the ships are cleared but not the station.

All vessels fire on the Gandhi and it is totally destroyed.

 

[Lindseyman]

Series 6

So ends Series 6 (the first half of Season 4), the episodes were:
1. Lazarus 20th September 1969
2. Without End 27th September
3. Leave 6th October
4. Quo Vadis 13th October
5. Stephanie 20th October
6. Contagion 27th October
7. Contagion Pt 2 3rd November
8. The Erebus 10th November
9. The Bismarck 17th November
10. The Carnyate 24th November
11. UXB 1st December
12. The Gandhi 8th December
13. The Gandhi pt 2 15th December

The viewing figures for this series did seem to show a large slide. However when all the various regional figures were added together the figures still compared favourably with previous series although they were still down. However it was noted that less money seemed to have been spent on this series and that the stories were much more erratic in quality.

Despite what Lew Grade had wanted this series still had an arc (about the Campbell II alien) and the series couldn't really be shown in any order apart from that broadcast because of the change of ships. It was also felt that Spock (Stuart Damon) was given too low key a farewell to Star Trek. However this was rectified with the finale to series 7!

On a personal note this has now taken 2 years and I've still not finished! There is lots still to be told about the American version (Though not in such detail), the return of the Doctor and various attempts to revive Star Trek including a supermarionation version.

 

[Lindseyman]

There were changes to the cast for series 7. Some of the cast wished to move on (for example Stuart Damon) and others had already been written out (for example Ed Bishop and Milo O’Shea).

The new cast members were as follows

First Officer Commander Albert Sanford (Harry H Corbett)
Born in Ramsgate, Kent. Albert Sanford has risen through the ranks of the fleet through administrative roles. He has only ever served the minimum amount of time allowed in space. He has been appointed first officer of the Erebus because there is a shortage of officers after the Arness material incidents. It is felt that a tour of duty on the Erebus should be enough to see if he is command material. He has his doubts (as does Russell), however he does his best at all times.

Chief Science Officer Lieutenant Commander John Smith (Tom Baker)
A slightly eccentric officer born of Liverpudlian parents on the colony world of Arcadia. He is slightly condescending to those who are not as quick as him to work things out. Also his method of explanation tends to be to repeat what he just said but slower and louder!(But not as loud as Stein). Despite this he rapidly becomes popular with the Science Staff as he never asks people to do more than they can deliver efficiently.

Chief Medical Officer Commander S’Tarr (Anthony Nicholls)
(reprising a role he played in the episode “Tomorrow’s Endeavour). A middle aged Vulcanian transferred from Medical Central on the express orders of Admiral Karentov to learn what medicine is really about. More reserved than many Vulcanians but a dedicated doctor.

Helmsman Lieutenant Commander Rafiq (Saeed Jaffrey)
A jovial character born in the Punjab. However behind the joviality lies a quick thinking mind. However he has had problems with authority (especially those whom he considers to be stupid) and has been busted back to Lieutenant Commander or Ensign on several occasions. Despite this he is a superb helmsman.

Lew Grade cut the budget for this last season due to “falling viewing figures” and the producers wanted to use as much of it as possible on the finale to the series which would also be the end of Star Trek and unfortunately it would show!

 

[Lindseyman]

British TV in 1969

To be honest apart from no Dr Who and of course the British Star Trek, ITTL British TV is little different from OTL British TV. However that does mean that there are some important programmes. So here goes:

2 January – The Holiday Programme is first shown on the BBC

4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix causes complaints of arrogance from television producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine of your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.

28 February – On the Buses is shown on ITV

14 March – Q (Spike Milligan does virtually everything!) is first shown on BBC2

19 March – The 385 metre tall Emley Moor transmitting station mast collapses because of icing.

29 March – The UK wins the 14th Eurovision Song Contest. Lulu represents the UK, singing "Boom bang-a-bang

21 June - Showing of the documentary The Royal Family, which attracts more than 30.6 million viewers, an all-time British record for a non-current event programme.
Also The Daleks is shown on BBC1 in the old Dr Who time slot.

3 July – Lulu the elephant runs amok on Blue Peter. The clip is subsequently repeated many times, becoming the archetypal British TV "blooper".

20–21 July – A live transmission from the Moon is viewed by 720 million people around the world, with the landing of Apollo 11: at 10:56 p.m. EDT on 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon, broadcast live.

2 September – Release of The Stones in the Park, footage of a Rolling Stones concert given in London's Hyde Park in July and filmed by Granada Television.

9 September – Nationwide a daily news programme starts on BBC1

17 September – Up Pompeii! starts on BBC

21 September – Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) premieres on ITV.

5 October – Monty Python's Flying Circus airs its first episode on the BBC.

6 October – Chigley becomes the third and final programme of The Trumptonshire Trilogy on BBC1 to be shot in colour before the introduction of regular colour broadcasting on 15 November.

3 November – ITV airs the first edition of Coronation Street to be videotaped in colour, though it includes black-and-white inserts and titles. The 29 October episode – featuring a coach trip to the Lake District – had been scheduled for colour shooting, but suitable colour film stock could not be found so it was filmed in black-and-white.

15 November – Regular colour broadcasting is introduced to BBC1 and ITV.

16 November – The first episode of Clangers (a British stop motion animated television program for children) is broadcast by the BBC.

19 November – The Benny Hill Show premieres on Thames Television.

21 November – The controversial London Weekend Television comedy Curry and Chips begins airing. The programme is the first LWT comedy to have been recorded in colour. It is pulled off air after six episodes following a ruling by the IBA that it is racist.

24 November – Date claimed by official Coronation Street archivist Daran Little as the first on which the soap was transmitted in colour.

Chigley and the Clangers now there is proper programming!

 

[Lindseyman]

More from an interview with Barry Letts in Dr Who Magazine February 2005

We had our new Doctor in David (David McCallum), Pat (Patrick Troughton) had agreed to do the regeneration scene we just had to sort everything else out especially the first story to introduce the Third Doctor.

First there was a long debate about the length of the episodes. Twenty five minutes had worked well for the Doctor but Star Trek had shown that hour long episodes (well 45 to 50 minutes on the Beeb to allow adverts to bring it to an hour on commercial channels) also worked. In the end we decided on 50 minute episodes with each story lasting 2 or 3 episodes.

..it was decided early on to make David’s first season Earthbound to ease audiences back in. The problem was how to make it happen when he obviously had the Tardis. It was Malcolm (Malcolm Hulke) who came up with the answer...

...In the last episode of “The Daleks” the last explosive device to destroy the Dalek’s Command Ship had gone off late. Malcolm’s solution was that indeed it had failed but the Doctor had fixed it but in doing so and trying to escape the Daleks had mistimed and was caught up in the explosion. Thus he was badly wounded and needed to regenerate. The Tardis was also extensively damaged and the only time and place co-ordinates that he could manage to set were Earth in the 1970s. A subplot then in that series would be the Doctor trying to repair the Tardis only using 20th century technology! Terry (Terry Nation) when he found out was incandescent, as in his eyes it destroyed the whole point that the Earth had defeated the Daleks without the Doctor’s help, and it took us a well over a year to calm him down and allow the Daleks to appear in Doctor Who again...

.. Luckily it had been left vague in the episodes of Star Trek what had happened in the 20th and 21st centuries apart from Khan. So at least in the Earthbound series there were no problems as he was stuck in the present day. The discussions and arguments took place as we planned the next series…..

..the companion was relatively straightforward. I had seen her in “Some Girls Do” and in the Nimble adverts. The icing on the cake was her brief appearance in OHMSS. She agreed to do a screen test and although it was a close call between her, Caroline John and Katy Manning, Joanna Lumley was to become the Third Doctor’s first companion…