An Alternate Trek

Braun has been offered the command of CSS Aurora EE006 and accepted it. The new series handbook has her taking Stiles as her First Officer. Sian Phillips has left the show as she rightly foresaw that Glenn Corbett's original character would be used on the landing parties rather than hers as he was much better known in the States. She will appear in one or two of the subsequent episodes. Edward Woodward wanted to concentrate (quite rightly in my(and more importantly my father's!)view) on Callan.
 
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Maybe have these two crop up occasionally as guest stars.

On a totally unrelated note, maybe someone good with art and/or photoshop
could whip up some pics etc.
 
That would be my intention although remember past cast members do not regularly turn up on shows that they have left even if the parting was amicable.

Pics etc completely out of my ability range. I'm a bit of a luddite with modern technology (for instance I still treat my mobile as a phone for emergencies (although texts are quite useful))
Anyway your own imagination produces far better pictures than any photoshop.(I am showing my age!)
 
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Cast Changes
Rest of Cast

Assistant Medical Officer:Dr M'Beke (Johnny Sekka)
Relief Helm: Ensign Danny Dare(Martin Shaw)
Relief Navigator:Various actors as necessary for plot
Relief Communications:Lieutenant Linda Colt(Caroline John) note promotion
Yeoman:Amy Johnson(Gabrielle Drake)
CPO Engineering: Aedh O'Gorman(Milo O'Shea) very infrequent but a popular character none the less
Chief Nurse:Christine Chapel(Majel Barrett) plus various British female actors as required.
Security:CPO Charles Blamire (Michael Bates) a new character
 
Cast Changes
The new first officer

Commander Zephram Reynolds is in his mid to late 30s. In normal circumstances considering the fact that he is an efficient, well liked and respected officer he should have his own ship. He did, in the Navy, and there is history to be explained here and it will come out over the series.
 
More about Reynolds and Blamire

Zephram Renolds was born in New Sacramento on the Human colony world of Cascadia. He came from a family who had served with one branch or other of the US and then Commonwealth Navies since the 19th century.
He follows the rules although not as pedantically as Braun and is respected rather than liked by the crew. He is obviously very experienced and is a talented officer but he has a past which is not open to discussion although Decker and Spock both know some of it. Decker because he was told when Reynolds became his First Officer and Spock because of a family connection.

Charles Blamire is a stereotypical British Sergeant Major (think Colour Sergeant Bourne from Zulu). He is repected, admired, loved, and hated in equal amounts by his subordinates. He demands and gets the best out of each of his men and of himself. He has the DCM for rescuing a member of the British Royal Family (yes they still exist in this time and still have a tradition of serving in the armed forces) from a hostage situation. He is very proud of this medal, more so than of his numerous commendations from the Fleet. He comes from Aldershot and like many in the Fleet and Navy his family has a history of service with the appropriate armed forces.

(PS I know that the DCM no longer exists in OTL but remember this is written in the 60s)
 
"Real" World
Series 2 of Star Trek would start on Saturday September 2nd 1967 and run for 13 weeks finishing on Saturday November 25th 1967. Series 3 of Star Trek would start on Saturday 6th January 1968, also run for 13 weeks and finish on Saturday 30th March 1968.(They together would form season 2 in the States(eventually!!)).

Again TV Times started having articles on the new series as soon as the school holidays started and 3 Decker episodes were repeated on Sunday teatimes during the summer holidays on the last 3 Sundays of August.
 
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Cast Changes
Stein (Brian Blessed) and Holmes (Ian Richardson) will keep appearing in Star Trek, just not quite so often as the two actors are beginning to get more job offers.

Lieutenant Virgil Summers (Gary Clarke) is from Beverly Hills in California. He is a happy go lucky character and unfortunately like a lot of people has been promoted above his level of competence. The security men keep comparing him to Stiles and Lynch and he comes out lacking. His one saving grace (apart from his individual bravery) is that he knows he is lacking as a leader of security and uses CPO Blamire to suggest the best way forward.
 
"Real" World
The TV Times for Saturday 2nd September to Friday 8th September had Star Trek on the front cover, a big pull out poster of the cast at the centre and interviews and biographies of and with the new cast members. Interestingly Gary Clarke was better recognised in the UK than Glenn Corbett because of the Virginian.
(oh for the days when the High Chapparal was on a Monday Evening on BBC2 and the Virginian on a Friday Evening on BBC1- life was MUCH simpler then!(I may well be misremembering by the way))
 
Last of the Summer Star Trek

Charles Blamire is a stereotypical British Sergeant Major (think Colour Sergeant Bourne from Zulu). He is repected, admired, loved, and hated in equal amounts by his subordinates. He demands and gets the best out of each of his men and of himself. He has the DCM for rescuing a member of the British Royal Family (yes they still exist in this time and still have a tradition of serving in the armed forces) from a hostage situation. He is very proud of this medal, more so than of his numerous commendations from the Fleet. He comes from Aldershot and like many in the Fleet and Navy his family has a history of service with the appropriate armed forces.

(PS I know that the DCM no longer exists in OTL but remember this is written in the 60s)

Blamire (Michael Bates)? Are we also to expect Security Officers Clegg, Compo and Foggy?...:):)
 
Series 2
The Return of the Forgotten Broadcast September 2nd 1967

Mission date 1541.2 the Endeavour is surveying the Dyson system when it discovers an artificial satellite of the largest gas giant of the system. Closer investigation actually shows that it is a huge space ship. Spock at the science station speculates that it is a generational spaceship as there is no evidence of a jump drive. Then McKenzie picks up a weak signal emanating from the ship. “Emergency...emergency...this is the commander of the spaceship Deecha . A major catastrophe has occurred...’”Having detected an alien distress signal, the bridge crew listen to the sombre appeal. The voice of the alien commander tells how large areas of his ship are devastated, with thousands dead and hundreds sick and dying. The signal ends with a plea for immediate aid—then is revealed to be an automated transmission when it loops back to the beginning. While Scotty marvels that each deck measures one hundred square miles, and at the engineering skills required, the instruments register life signs.

Decker opts to mount a humanitarian mission, selecting personnel to assess the medical, scientific and material needs of the aliens. A team comprising of Reynolds, Summers, Spock,M’Beke, Stein and Blamire is beamed on board. Communications are inhibited by weak levels of atomic radiation saturating the ship's structure. The life signs are confirmed however, no one is there to greet them. They enter a dilapidated reception area accessed by two opposing corridors. Hoping to encounter the ship's inhabitants, Reynolds sets off with Stein down one corridor, sending Spock and Blamire into the other.

M’Beke and Summers remain behind. An examination of the area reveals a hatch blocked by rubble; when opened, it reveals a another corridor. Their investigation is interrupted when two tattered people emerge from the hidden passage. Male and female, they panicked. The man hides behind the rubble while the female attempts to communicate using frantic gestures. The nature of their fear becomes apparent when a brutish man springs from around the corner and viciously clubs Summers unconscious.

Reynolds and Stein have hiked miles down their corridor without seeing a soul. They are suddenly blinded by lights, held by two people fully encased in silver radiation suits. As they lower their weapons, the others raise their own and stun them. During this, Spock and Blamire encounter increasing damage as they proceed. Eventually, the corridor is completely obstructed, forcing them to turn back. Returning to the airlock, they find the area deserted...until discovering the terrified man hiding behind the rubble.

Finding the open hatch of the third corridor, Spock convinces the man to show them where the others went. Up ahead, a tribe of savages drag M’Beke, Summers and the woman to their camp, a settlement on the edge of a vast, overgrown arboretum. These inhabitants resemble futuristic cave-people—filthy, with unkempt hair and rotten teeth, wearing garments of homespun mixed with synthetic fabrics and adorned with accessories fashioned from technological items. There are no elderly or infirm members in the group.

In another area of the ship, Reynolds awakens in a tastefully appointed rest chamber to find himself under the scrutiny of a woman ( guest star Kate O’Mara). She apologises for the assault, but they were intruding. Introducing herself as Kharrean, the vessel's Director of Reconstruction, she tells him the plight of her people. The distress signal was triggered 1000 years ago, when all but one of their nuclear reactors exploded. Most of the vessel was heavily damaged. Thousands survived the explosions, but fell victim to the radiation. Out of 50,000 crew, only the fourteen in the command area were shielded from the catastrophe. As Reynolds boggles over the magnitude of the disaster, Kharrean states this chance encounter could be vital to their survival.

In the settlement, the prisoners are brought before a shrine, dominated by a wall-painting of a male god. The tribe, who call themselves ‘The Survivors’, gathers in a circle and the woman is pushed into the centre. There, the high priest benevolently examines her—then proclaims, “stranger” The pitiful wretch is dragged to a cubicle recessed in the wall and sealed in by a transparent door. A switch is ritualistically thrown and the chamber floods with blinding light; to M’Beke’s horror, the woman's body evaporates. Summers is selected next and, during the examination, is declared “stranger”. He, too, is sent towards his death. Guided to the Survivors' settlement by the man, Spock and Blamire arrive in time to witness this . They attack the settlement stunning the tribesmen and drag M’Beke and Summers back down the corridor.


In the command area, Kharrean presents Reynolds and Stein to Theaput (special guest star Patrick Wymark), the ship's AI. (Unknown to them, the image is the spitting image of the painting depicting the Survivors' god.). On seeing this image Stein looks very thoughtful. Reynolds notices this and asks why. Stein replies that he is not sure and would need to confirm something with the Endeavour. Stein soon makes an unsettling discovery. The crew are human but a study of their food production system shows no inventory of raw materials on the ship—yet the recycling plants are stocked with a steady supply of all the essential elements. Stein concludes the only possible source of these elements could be living human bodies. Appalled, Reynolds confronts Kharrean with these findings.

Indignant, Kharrean justifies their actions in the name of survival. When their own resources were exhausted, they discovered that descendants of the original survivors existed in the radioactive 'wilderness'—savage, degenerate creatures wiped clean of all civilised behaviour. They managed to teach them the basics of survival, giving them a god who taught them to preserve only the fit. The weak and the sick were to be sacrificed—as fodder for the food recycling system. Kharrean informs him their motivation was not self-preservation, but a greater survival...Kharrean reveals her sacred cause: a gene bank containing genetic material preserved and protected before radiation damaged their people. When they reach a new world, it will be used to produce colonists. They confess the survivor tribes are dying out and, without them, all life on the ship will perish .

Then Spock and the others arrive and Kharrean and the rest of her command crew are swiftly overwhelmed. Spock takes one look at the image of Theaput and exclaims “The Abbott”. Stein then exclaims “Of course!” Reynolds looks bemused until Spock tells him of the adventure on Adams III. This ship must have been launched just before “The Abbott” had taken over Adams III, the Theaput was the same software system.
Reynolds manages to contact the Endeavour and Decker contacts the fleet to send rescue vessels to ferry the survivors to their intended destination the third planet of this system which is stil luninhabited.
 
Series 2
The Ultimate Weapon Broadcast September 9th 1967

On mission date 1612.6 4202.9, the CSS Endeavour responds to a distress call, finding a navy ship, the CSS Iowa(DI006), adrift and heavily damaged in the Laxodont system. Captain Decker beams over to the Iowa with Spock, Dr.M’Beke, Chief Engineer Scott and a damage control team to investigate. Mr. Scott reports that the ship's warp engines are damaged beyond repair and the weapons exhausted. There they find the ship's commanding officer, Commodore Robert April ( special guest star Patrick McGoohan) – the sole survivor, half-conscious in the auxiliary control room. Meanwhile, an incoherent April can only mutter about something attacking his ship as M’Beke treats him.

The logs reveal that the ship investigated the breakup of a planet and was soon attacked by an enormous machine with a conical shell miles in length and a giant opening at one end filled with sparkling energy. After the attack, April ordered his surviving crew to the surface of a nearby planet, but to his horror, the machine destroyed that world next. Spock theorizes the machine destroys life as it ignored the nearer planets and destroyed the planet onto which April had beamed his crew, and adds that given its past trajectory, it is likely to have come from outside the galaxy and will continue towards the "most densely populated region of our galaxy."

Scott theorizes that they have encountered a doomsday machine, "like a berserker". He then has to explain what he means. That they were devices built to destroy opponents in a war in a set of 20th century Science Fiction stories . They had carried out their original programming and had then continued to destroy their creators as well.
Decker has April beamed back to the Endeavour, with M’Beke, for medical treatment while he and Scott remain on the derelict Iowa.

On the Endeavour bridge, Reynolds, having been left in command, is alerted to the approach of the alien machine which generates interference that makes communication with Fleet impossible. As the machine attacks, April comes to the bridge, and quoting Commonwealth regulations he pulls rank on Reynolds and assumes command. He then orders a full-on attack against the machine ignoring Holmes' warning that the ship's weaponry is ineffective against the doomsday machine's hull. As a result, the engines are disabled and the Endeavour becomes drawn by a tractor beam towards the machine's glowing maw.

Aboard the Iowa, Scott has managed to restore partial phaser and thrust control. At the same time, Spock has reactivated the viewing screen, and manages to create a diversion to distract the planet-killer away from the Endeavour . As the machine veers off, Decker orders Reynolds to relieve Decker of command, based on Decker's personal authority as officially designated Captain of the Fleet vessel Endeavour. Eventually, April, recognizing that the Endeavour crew would support Reynolds, yields and is escorted off the bridge by Summers. En route to the medical centre, however, he knocks out Summers and quickly heads to the hangar bay and steals a shuttlecraft. He then pilots it on a kamikaze course into the planet killer's maw despite the pleas of Decker and Reynolds to turn back.

Lt. Mitchell reports that the shuttlecraft's subsequent explosion appears to have slightly decreased the planet killer's output power. Decker realizes April may have had the right idea but not enough energy to succeed. Decker has Spock determine if the detonation of the Iowa’s jump engines inside the planet-killer would destroy it. Spock is unsure, and he and Scott both object to Decker's intention to remain on the Iowa to carry out the plan. Decker has Scott rig a manual 30-second detonation timer, planning to start it and beam back to the Endeavour before detonation. Scott explains that once the timer is started, it cannot be stopped.

With everything prepared, Decker orders the others back to the Endeavour and steers the Iowa toward the planet killer's maw. At the right moment he starts the 30-second timer and asks to be beamed out. Decker is beamed off the Iowa at the very last second. The Iowa enters the maw of the planet killer and explodes, destroying the planet killer's mechanism and leaving its indestructible shell adrift, dead in space.
Decker signals the Fleet and Navy where to find the machine and the crew has a minute’s silence to remember the Commodore and his crew.

(Fred Saberhagen is credited with the original idea of berserkers in this episode)
 
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Some Explanations

For once I feel the need to explain myself as I have literally shifted the OTL Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" across the timeline with just cast changes as appropriate.
OTL Stuff
Basically this is MY second favourite episode of Star Trek ,"The Trouble with Tribbles" is my favourite. However I can't see a way of getting tribbles into this timeline but I could the doomsday machine.
Norman Spinrad wrote a fantastic episode independently of Fred Saberhagen's Berserker stories. So I see no reason why a British writer wouldn't come up with a similar story especially since this Star Trek is running later than the OTL one so Saberhagen's Berserkers would be better known to those interested in SF. Hence the acknowledgement to Saberhagen in the credits.
ITL Stuff
Those who have followed this thread from the beginning will know that Patrick McGoohan was the original choice to play the captain of the Ark Royal/Endeavour however he was dissatisfied with the power distribution (basically how little he had!)so left to do "The Prisoner" as per OTL. However he has now finished the last episode and a pay cheque is a pay cheque!
Star Trek Timeline
In the novelisation of this episode (I haven't decided who will take the place of James Blish but Edmund Cooper springs to mind as a possible choice( I would love it to be Michael Moorcock but I can't persuade myself that even his need for a paycheque to keep New Worlds running would be enough to get him do this)) it would be made clear that April knows why Reynolds left the Navy to join the Fleet and it would add to the tension in the standoff when April seizes control of the Endeavour and Reynolds opposes him. It would also be made clear why a Navy officer could take control of a Fleet ship. In a battle situation the senior Navy officer takes command. It was part of the original deal that enabled the Fleet not to be a branch of the Navy. However no Navy Officer would use it if they were of a lower rank than the Fleet Officer.
 
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In the novelisation of this episode (I haven't decided who will take the place of James Blish but Edmund Cooper springs to mind as a possible choice( I would love it to be Michael Moorcock but I can't persuade myself that even his need for a paycheque to keep New Worlds running would be enough to get him do this))

I don't know if it helps or hinders, but the logical replacement ITTL for IOTL James Blish is...James Blish.

IOTL Blish emigrated to the UK in 1969 (apparently he was a fan of CS Lewis and wanted to live near Oxford). His first Star Trek novelization was published in 1968. So oddly, it isn't less likely Blish would do the novelizations ITTL: it's more likely...:)



FURTHER READING
 
There they find the ship's commanding officer, Commodore Robert April ( special guest star Patrick McGoohan) – the sole survivor

Genius casting! I think McGoohan can be there, tho' it's tight: he'd have to film it either before principal photography on Ice Station Zebra starts, or during the overlap between The Prisoner and Ice Station Zebra when they had to film "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" as a Number Six-lite episode. However, given that Lew Grade is involved in Star Trek ITTL, this probably isn't a problem
 
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