Oh the hardliners are fucked. Likely Gromyko stands down and his acting replacement could be Defence Minister and Marshal of the Soviet Union; Sergey Sokolov.
But I expect mass rebellions of soldiers and officers soon.
WI: The Enterprise completes its five year mission (Star Trek survives for 5 seasons)
But I expect mass rebellions of soldiers and officers soon.
Patrick Stewart will be fine, though I wonder how his character will play out OTL. He's no Kirk but I'm kinda hoping that he'll become some kind of maverick that plays his own rules and takes risks due to personal experience over the stereotypically serious character (more like him during his service on the Stargazer).
I'm praying Bauchau lasts long as the Romulan character, but I have my doubts.
Denise Crosby is an interesting case as I think she will last longer as Troi if the writers give her material instead of leaving her on the sidelines like her with Yar. Hell, you could keep the Sela arc and it would become even more impactful because Troi will be infinitely more empathetic and motherly towards Sela, thus her desire for a motherly figure is stronger when she grows up.
Seem like the hardliners are collapsing. I expect the Soviet Union to crumble in short notice, though whether it will break apart or reform into the Sovereign Union is anyone's guess...
I mean it is a Ferengi story after all...lol.
The hardliners are definitely going down soon, and Gorby could be back as the only individual who ironically could keep the USSR together at this point.
Picard could be more maverick-like than OTL. I think Picard transformed into a character that took more chances in the later seasons.
Bauchau appearing several times in season 1 as a Romulan means The Neutral Zone plot is butterflied and the Federation knows the Romulan threat well. No 50 years of isolation for the Romulans ITTL.
The hardliners are done pretty soon and Gorbachev is likely returning to the Kremlin because Moscow wants him back. So the USSR itself won’t crumble immediately but the Baltic states might declare independence sooner
I could go along with this, to a point. Given DS9 is treated like a Starbase (& a transit hub in any event), there'd be ships (especially Starfleet ships, but also Bajoran, Cardassian, Andorian, Vulcan, even Klingon, Romulan, & Orion--& anybody else you want
) going thru the wormhole all the time. If you want/need a "ship story", use one of those.Having a Starfleet ship (not Defiant, given the mission before the war starts) permanently attached makes sense; making her a Miranda, say, with her CO a senior Lt, & a regular member of the cast (or regular guest star, as Garak was), works nicely: DS9 is her base of operations, & we get to know her CO (& her crew!) as recurring guest starts--without the stupidity of Sisko & Co abandoning their stations.
I'd also keep the high number of Bajorans, which were around in the first season (or two?), but dispensed with, later: it's still Bajoran property, after all. Indeed, I'd flip the relationship between Sisko & Kira: she is in charge. (Unless there's a dynamic I've forgotten that persuaded Bajor to give over command to Sisko--& it would have to be compelling.)
In that vein, I liked the tension between Kira & Sisko in the beginning, & I'd keep it; there's no reason they have to end up besties. (If Bajor is Israel & UFP is the U.S., tension is sometimes going to happen...
)Finally, I'd keep "nasty Quark", as he was in the pilot (& in the flashback stories). He was much more interesting that way, & a much more credible opponent to Odo (& Sisko/Kira). (He'd also make Ferengi seem actually dangerous, which the writers kept undermining with stories making them out as complete clowns.
)Edit to add...
One other thing. I'd use different Cardassians for some of the stories the writers used Dukat for. He was vain & self-important, but by the time they were done, they'd turned him into an insane clown that was just preposterous from a character standpoint. That doesn't help the character or the show at all.
Edit 2 to add:
He would be. TTL, Gene isn't in (likely to be) in charge, & therefore can't rewrite Dorothy's screenplay for "Farpoint", introducing Q.
I'd far rather she was a kind of Protocol Officer, as implied in the pilot, rather than senior ship's psychiatrist. When introduced, I had the sense she was Hayden to Picard's Michael: consigliere.
Edit to add 3:
I actually found that interesting--in part because we almost never see Klingons who aren't warriors. (You'd have to have a UFP character live among Klingons for that.)
You did that well, IMO. None of them is doing something bad just because the story needs a bad guy.
I suspect it's a budget issue. More aliens means more actors & more appliances, & more unique sets, & (arguably) more ship miniatures. (Recall, "DS9" wasn't using CGI, and miniatures are costly.
)That said, I suspect lack of imagination played a part...
Starfleet not having a JAG was pure stupidity (or writer ignorance). And there were several episodes in the franchise offering opportunities for spinning it off, all the way back to "Court Martial".
Your treatment of the politics in "SI" is the "dirty" side (or the covert); "UFP West Wing" would show the process leading to (& reasons for needing) an "SI" team being sent in.
That was my sense of the situation in-show.
I don't see a doublecross, exactly, but a Cardassian claim would probably provoke a war anyhow--Bajor would certainly object. (Indeed, Bajor, as Egypt in this scenario, has the best claim for ownership.)
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Yes, a Miranda class would be excellent. It's about time a mook ship gets the spotlight.
A Bajoran station commander is interesting, though I think there would at least be a Federation administrator on board. Regardless, the main character would definitely beef with the former a lot more often, especially if Bajor isn't exactly the perfect/peaceful society that it appears to be at first glance.
100% agree.In that vein, I liked the tension between Kira & Sisko in the beginning, & I'd keep it; there's no reason they have to end up besties. (If Bajor is Israel & UFP is the U.S., tension is sometimes going to happen...
I'd honestly keep Dukat as the main Cardassian POV character and leave Damar on the sidelines. Remove the Pah-wraiths story and have him become the resistance leader after a moment of revelation with Cardassia (maybe after arguing with Garak).
The Ferengi are still kind of clownish in Intelligence but having a more serious Quark wouldn't be a problem. Just make him an actual weapons dealer on the underground (during his time on the Bajoran resistance and later on during the Federation's exploration of the Gamma Quadrant). Of course, he would still be somewhat jolly and funny but at least he would show quite a bit of teeth underneath the mask.Finally, I'd keep "nasty Quark", as he was in the pilot (& in the flashback stories). He was much more interesting that way, & a much more credible opponent to Odo (& Sisko/Kira). (He'd also make Ferengi seem actually dangerous, which the writers kept undermining with stories making them out as complete clowns.
Yeah, it is definitely BS given the need for Klingon scientists, laborers, engineers, etc. They might not be the most lauded role but they are necessary.
The problem was that DS9 gave too much of an advantage to whoever controlled the wormhole. If it was in a separate space, then the Dominion or the Federation could easily war against one another inside of the wormhole while establishing a beachhead in the Alpha/Gamma Quadrant.
I am still not convinced the circumstances that led to DS9 otl will still exist ITTL due to TNG being on the network station instead of syndication; very different people in charge from the start meaning none of the instability that allowed Berman in; much more Studio exec interference will be more of a thing; B5 might not get pitched to Paramount at all as they where not first on JMS’ list - with sci-fi doing well he might find success elsewhere First, thus no idea for Trek to riff off; the studio are going to want more of what made TNG/TOS great - ship exploration, allegory stories, good teamwork which a ‘static’ location does not sell; etc.
I can honestly see Star Trek: West Wing being made as TNG’s sequel (or as the ‘summer show’) rather than a DS9 that resembles anything like OTL.
I can honestly see Star Trek: West Wing being made as TNG’s sequel (or as the ‘summer show’) rather than a DS9 that resembles anything like OTL.
i concur, they will only want to repeat success, and JMS very likely be successful in pitching it to another network that wants their own success SciFi series.
i think the hospital idea also has lots of merit, lots of hospital series to poach ideas from (some rather successful) and of course that hospital in space bookseries i mentioned earlier.
edit: the more i think about it, the hospital in space gets more likely now more exec interference will take place - TOS was essentially a western in future/space, and since there were several very successful hospital series - the execs will easily see the attraction of MASH in space or General Hospital in space.
LOL It will probably star George Clooney or Neil Patrick Harris
(although I'd prefer a Married with children inspired scifi series lol, now imagine a shatner type actor as Al getting hounded by his many flings lol)
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Well pop culture no idea
Other events
Japanese telecom company NTT is floated in the Tokyo stock market.
British Airways is privatized and listed on the London Stock Exchange
Unabomber sent another bomb
kirbopher15
Kicked
Breaking from inside scoopers at Columbia pictures a sequel to ghostbusters a high priority
From a quick search -
Fox began broadcasting and The Simpsons debuted on Tracy Ullman.
Moonlighting started it's decline thanks to the "will they won't they" becoming "they did", though TBF Shepard and Willis were already not speaking to each other off-screen so who knows how much longer it'd have lasted anyways.
Ducktales & TMNT debuted.
Watchmen was published.
Final Fantasy was released.
The Max Headroom signal hijacking incidents happened.
Fox began broadcasting and The Simpsons debuted on Tracy Ullman.
Moonlighting started it's decline thanks to the "will they won't they" becoming "they did", though TBF Shepard and Willis were already not speaking to each other off-screen so who knows how much longer it'd have lasted anyways.
Ducktales & TMNT debuted.
Watchmen was published.
Final Fantasy was released.
The Max Headroom signal hijacking incidents happened.
I've seen Max Headroom. But never heard of any Hijacking incidents. What was that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking They never did get to the bottom of the matter.
Chapter 223: February 1987
I thank everyone for the suggestions. I might use them at a later date. Three stories in this update.
GORBACHEV RETURNS TO POWER FUELED BY WAVES OF MOSCOW DEMONSTRATORS
THOUSANDS OF EAST GERMANS DEMONSTRATE AT BERLIN WALL, DEFYING HONECKER
When Mikhail Gorbachev was seen in a Russian cafe with his wife Raisa on the evening of February 10, news quickly spread around Moscow. "Gorbi svoboden" was the message to hundreds of thousands of Muscovites. Word of mouth rapidly spread to Leningrad and other major cities in the USSR, and a national protest began two days later, on February 12. The hardliners in the Kremlin instructed the Red Army to shoot at protesters, but they refused, and many of them joined the protests. The USSR was in revolt, similar to their Warsaw Pact satellites, East Germany and Poland. Gorbachev climbed on a tank and gave an inspiring speech. The most memorable line of the speech, in Russian, read: "У меня незаконно отобрали власть, и я забираю ее обратно" ("Power was illegally taken from me and I am taking it back.") Gorbachev and his army of protesters, including some of the Red Army, marched on the Kremlin. The hardliners in the Politburo surprisingly abdicated peacefully, and Mr. Gorbachev returned to the Kremlin. His first directive once regaining power was to tell the protesters to disperse and return to their homes. They listened and acted accordingly. Gorbachev then sent a message to Erich Honecker in East Germany and the revolutionaries in Poland. He told Honecker not to order DDR troops to shoot at protesters, which Honecker ignored. He then told the Polish people that Lech Walesa would be freed, and the Poles should stop their revolution as a response. The Poles refused. Andrei Gromyko, after hearing the news, succumbed to his illness in his hospital bed, declaring that the Soviet Union was dead.
One week later on February 19, East Berliners overwhelmed the DDR security guards and started to cross der Berliner Mauer. The Wall, a symbol of oppression for 26 years, was falling, and jubilant West Germans were waiting on the other side. The crowd refused to disperse even as many DDR guards shot into the air, and then into the crowd. The protesters dragged the guards through the Brandenburg Gate and disarmed them. Watching the chaos unfold in Berlin, Honecker told his deputy, Egon Krenz, "Die Nation ist verloren" (the nation is lost). Honecker and Krenz secretly fled to Moscow. East Germany was leaderless. Once they were received by Gorbachev, he decided to pull the Red Army out of Germany. Despite the power vacuum in East Berlin, Chancellor Helmut Kohl played his cards cautiously. He chose not to send the Bundeswehr over the Inner German border, instead calling on East Berlin to set up a provisional government. One week later, Communist official Gunter Schabowski agreed to lead East Germany for three months, which was the time required for an election to be set up in East Germany. Kohl knew that the democratic parties in East Germany would win in a landslide, and plans for reunification were laid upon the table.
Despite Gorbachev's pleas for the Polish Revolution to stop, the Poles kept on fighting the Red Army and the half of the Communist Polish army that remained loyal to the old leadership. At least seven thousand Polish soldiers died in the two-month revolution, and up to ten thousand civilians perished. Poland's deaths caused by Communist oppression became a blight on the world, but Gorbachev could not give the country up just yet. He negotiated with Walesa; if you stop the revolution and declare yourself to be non-aligned, the Red Army would leave Poland. Walesa agreed to both parts with a condition; Poland could decide its own foreign policy within five years of throwing off the Communist yoke. Gorbachev, with next to zero leverage after seeing Polish defiance, had no choice to agree. On February 25, a gaunt, battered, but defiant Walesa returned to Warsaw to Polish joy. He called on the Communist army to stand down as the Red Army also retreated from Poland. Three months later, the Red Army was gone and Walesa was elected President. By May 1987, the Warsaw Pact was virtually history.
CAST VIRTUALLY COMPLETE FOR STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
FRAKES, DORN, SIRTIS, SPINER, SCHULTZ ADDED TO CAST
David Gerrold, the Star Trek showrunner, got right down to work and finished casting the new Trek series, The Next Generation, by the end of February. Upon hearing that the A-Team would not be renewed for another year, Dwight Schultz read for the chief engineer part and won out over North and South actor Jonathan Frakes. The handsome Frakes, who also auditioned for the first officer's role but lost out to LeVar Burton, will join the cast as the Enterprise's security chief. Marina Sirtis, an obscure actress from England, signed on for what would be described as Nurse Chapel's role on the original Star Trek; many of her appearances would likely revolve around Diana Muldaur's role as the ship's doctor. Michael Dorn, famous for his role as Jebediah Turner in CHIPS, won out over retired baseball star Reggie Jackson for the Klingon marine role. Dorn will likely play a non-commissioned officer who joins Frakes' Riker on security missions, so expect both of them to fire a lot of phasers and get in on the action scenes. Lastly, Brent Spiner will play the android, on the condition that his good friend John Larroquette receive at least two opportunities to play an evil android that acts as his foil. Rutger Hauer, who lost out on the captaincy to the noticeably bald Patrick Stewart, will appear as a guest star for one episode in the first season.
So the cast for Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One is complete:
Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean Luc Picard
LeVar Burton: Commander Geordi LaForge (first officer)
Brent Spiner: Lieutenant Data (science officer)
Dwight Schultz: Lieutenant Commander Reginald Barclay (chief engineer)
Jonathan Frakes: Lieutenant Will Riker (security chief)
Diana Muldaur: Commander Katherine Pulaski (doctor)
Denise Crosby: Counselor Tasha Yar (ship's counselor)
Marina Sirtis: Nurse Deanna Troi (ship's chief nurse)
Michael Dorn: Sargeant First Class Worf (ship security)
River Phoenix: Benjamin Pulaski (Doctor Pulaski's nephew)
Recurring roles (so far):
John de Lancie: Q
Patrick Bauchau: Commander Severus (Romulan villain)
Rutger Hauer: Captain Edward Steinhauer (a friend of Captain Picard)
John Larroquette: Lore (Data's evil android brother)
BRIAN BLESSED TO BECOME NEXT DOCTOR, REPLACING COLIN BAKER
Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, declared that the 1986 series of Doctor Who would be his last. Showrunner Philip Hinchliffe, who was caught off guard by Baker's announcement, searched for a successor as the Seventh Doctor. He narrowed the choices down to two: Sylvester McCoy, a relatively obscure Scottish actor who was best known for his roles on the Eureka series, and Brian Blessed, who appeared in the last Who series as King Yrcanos. Despite Blessed's guest role as a different character, Hinchcliffe decided to go with Blessed, and fans were pleased with the decision. "He'll play the goofiest, most charming Doctor in the history of the show. He's really big-hearted," read one of the pieces of mail in Hinchcliffe's mailbag. "I want to bring my regular personality to the Doctor, and I am extremely honored to be selected for this role," Blessed said to the press. "The advice I received from Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker was to play yourself. Don't act as the Doctor based on the scripts they give you; play the Doctor as your own personality in real life." Blessed will first appear in the 1987 series when it premieres in September. With the announcement of Blessed as the Seventh Doctor, the BBC finally felt that it could save the flagging show, and moved the series to Thursday nights at 7:30 PM, away from the popular Coronation Street. Baker's Doctor was popular with the hardcore Whovians but not extremely popular with the casual BBC audience, Hinchliffe reasoned, and Blessed figured to revitalize the series...
STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE EPISODES
EPISODE 105: HINTS (Airdate: February 3, 1987). Uhura visits Saavik on Vulcan and meets the newborn baby, T'Lal. Saavik tells Uhura that she overheard a rumor about a potential Romulan contact with Vulcan. She believes that these are Romulans defecting to the Federation and wishing to return to the old ways. Uhura and her team start digging for hints and find that the Romulans were Tal Shiar agents pressed into service by the Romulan government. Battles argues that they should be ferried to safe harbor right away, but Karlax believes that the Romulans are setting a trap in order to capture Saavik and return her to Romulan space. Uhura decides to investigate against Karlax's advice, and they explore the series of signals, in Federation space. They find the escaped spies, who initially fire on them, but they tell Uhura that there is a freedom movement on Romulus that is attempting to overthrow the totalitarian Praetor. Uhura takes them into Federation space where they apply for asylum. However, one of the asylees is a plant and kills the other ex-Tal Shiar agents. The Intelligence team subdues the plant, seeking information, and they find out that the Romulans seek to once again reunify Vulcan by force.
EPISODE 106: STARSHIP TITAN, PART I (Airdate, February 10, 1987). A new Okuda class luxury starliner is commissioned, the Titan. The ship is the largest Federation ship ever built, easily twice the size of a Constitution refit. The Titan is going to be employed on the long-range cruise/spacelanes ferrying people around the UFP. Her captain, Captain Melinda Graves is an old friend of Uhura, an Ex-Starfleet first officer who is very reliable. Disaster strikes on the Titan's maiden voyage and she vanishes from all sensors. Uhura and team smell a rat when it emerges some of the Titan's crew are ex-POWs, plus there are some Federation Klingons in there, and even some ex-Romulan passengers. The Titan encounters an anomaly that threatens to destroy the ship.
EPISODE 107: STARSHIP TITAN, PART II (Airdate, February 17, 1987). SI follows the ship's course; only thanks to their advanced sensors, they are able to detect the Titan through the nebula's interference. Karlax speculates they took a detour to sightsee. SI follows up and avoids getting sucked into the anomaly. They discover a whole solar system with two M class planets, and an apparently 22nd century level civilization in place. From their cloaked position they discover the remains of the Titan in orbit. The people are a mash up of known species, who have bred into something different and new. Their first warp test is going to be in a few local days. Do they make first contact early, or wait? Uhura decides to make first contact, against the Prime Directive, since the species is warp-capable. They unfortunately find that the species is far more advanced than the Federation and killed all the passengers except for Captain Graves. The advanced alien species, the Markonians, will only free Graves if Uhura and team defeat soldiers in gladiatorial combat. Without their phasers, they succeed against doppelgangers of the deceased crew, including Klingons and Romulans, and Graves is freed.
EPISODE 108: VOICES FROM THE DISTANT PAST (Airdate, February 24, 1987). Uhura is taking an advanced Klingon course when she starts suffering seizures. The doctor on duty discovers that her seizures are due to cortical lobe damage suffered when her memory was erased by Nomad. Uhura relives a series of traumas, including the deception from Captain Westcross, the Man Trap salt monsters, and torture at the hands of the Tal Shiar. Marx determines that Nomad released a chemical into Uhura's brain that triggers seizures. The Starfleet Intelligence crew must find an answer before it is too late.
Note: Voices from the Distant Past was regarded as one of the worst episodes in the series; at this point, the fanbase was wondering whether Starfleet Intelligence was running out of ideas and simply going through the motions. They would be mistaken as the next group of episodes in March would be back up to standard.
GORBACHEV RETURNS TO POWER FUELED BY WAVES OF MOSCOW DEMONSTRATORS
THOUSANDS OF EAST GERMANS DEMONSTRATE AT BERLIN WALL, DEFYING HONECKER
When Mikhail Gorbachev was seen in a Russian cafe with his wife Raisa on the evening of February 10, news quickly spread around Moscow. "Gorbi svoboden" was the message to hundreds of thousands of Muscovites. Word of mouth rapidly spread to Leningrad and other major cities in the USSR, and a national protest began two days later, on February 12. The hardliners in the Kremlin instructed the Red Army to shoot at protesters, but they refused, and many of them joined the protests. The USSR was in revolt, similar to their Warsaw Pact satellites, East Germany and Poland. Gorbachev climbed on a tank and gave an inspiring speech. The most memorable line of the speech, in Russian, read: "У меня незаконно отобрали власть, и я забираю ее обратно" ("Power was illegally taken from me and I am taking it back.") Gorbachev and his army of protesters, including some of the Red Army, marched on the Kremlin. The hardliners in the Politburo surprisingly abdicated peacefully, and Mr. Gorbachev returned to the Kremlin. His first directive once regaining power was to tell the protesters to disperse and return to their homes. They listened and acted accordingly. Gorbachev then sent a message to Erich Honecker in East Germany and the revolutionaries in Poland. He told Honecker not to order DDR troops to shoot at protesters, which Honecker ignored. He then told the Polish people that Lech Walesa would be freed, and the Poles should stop their revolution as a response. The Poles refused. Andrei Gromyko, after hearing the news, succumbed to his illness in his hospital bed, declaring that the Soviet Union was dead.
One week later on February 19, East Berliners overwhelmed the DDR security guards and started to cross der Berliner Mauer. The Wall, a symbol of oppression for 26 years, was falling, and jubilant West Germans were waiting on the other side. The crowd refused to disperse even as many DDR guards shot into the air, and then into the crowd. The protesters dragged the guards through the Brandenburg Gate and disarmed them. Watching the chaos unfold in Berlin, Honecker told his deputy, Egon Krenz, "Die Nation ist verloren" (the nation is lost). Honecker and Krenz secretly fled to Moscow. East Germany was leaderless. Once they were received by Gorbachev, he decided to pull the Red Army out of Germany. Despite the power vacuum in East Berlin, Chancellor Helmut Kohl played his cards cautiously. He chose not to send the Bundeswehr over the Inner German border, instead calling on East Berlin to set up a provisional government. One week later, Communist official Gunter Schabowski agreed to lead East Germany for three months, which was the time required for an election to be set up in East Germany. Kohl knew that the democratic parties in East Germany would win in a landslide, and plans for reunification were laid upon the table.
Despite Gorbachev's pleas for the Polish Revolution to stop, the Poles kept on fighting the Red Army and the half of the Communist Polish army that remained loyal to the old leadership. At least seven thousand Polish soldiers died in the two-month revolution, and up to ten thousand civilians perished. Poland's deaths caused by Communist oppression became a blight on the world, but Gorbachev could not give the country up just yet. He negotiated with Walesa; if you stop the revolution and declare yourself to be non-aligned, the Red Army would leave Poland. Walesa agreed to both parts with a condition; Poland could decide its own foreign policy within five years of throwing off the Communist yoke. Gorbachev, with next to zero leverage after seeing Polish defiance, had no choice to agree. On February 25, a gaunt, battered, but defiant Walesa returned to Warsaw to Polish joy. He called on the Communist army to stand down as the Red Army also retreated from Poland. Three months later, the Red Army was gone and Walesa was elected President. By May 1987, the Warsaw Pact was virtually history.
CAST VIRTUALLY COMPLETE FOR STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
FRAKES, DORN, SIRTIS, SPINER, SCHULTZ ADDED TO CAST
David Gerrold, the Star Trek showrunner, got right down to work and finished casting the new Trek series, The Next Generation, by the end of February. Upon hearing that the A-Team would not be renewed for another year, Dwight Schultz read for the chief engineer part and won out over North and South actor Jonathan Frakes. The handsome Frakes, who also auditioned for the first officer's role but lost out to LeVar Burton, will join the cast as the Enterprise's security chief. Marina Sirtis, an obscure actress from England, signed on for what would be described as Nurse Chapel's role on the original Star Trek; many of her appearances would likely revolve around Diana Muldaur's role as the ship's doctor. Michael Dorn, famous for his role as Jebediah Turner in CHIPS, won out over retired baseball star Reggie Jackson for the Klingon marine role. Dorn will likely play a non-commissioned officer who joins Frakes' Riker on security missions, so expect both of them to fire a lot of phasers and get in on the action scenes. Lastly, Brent Spiner will play the android, on the condition that his good friend John Larroquette receive at least two opportunities to play an evil android that acts as his foil. Rutger Hauer, who lost out on the captaincy to the noticeably bald Patrick Stewart, will appear as a guest star for one episode in the first season.
So the cast for Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One is complete:
Patrick Stewart: Captain Jean Luc Picard
LeVar Burton: Commander Geordi LaForge (first officer)
Brent Spiner: Lieutenant Data (science officer)
Dwight Schultz: Lieutenant Commander Reginald Barclay (chief engineer)
Jonathan Frakes: Lieutenant Will Riker (security chief)
Diana Muldaur: Commander Katherine Pulaski (doctor)
Denise Crosby: Counselor Tasha Yar (ship's counselor)
Marina Sirtis: Nurse Deanna Troi (ship's chief nurse)
Michael Dorn: Sargeant First Class Worf (ship security)
River Phoenix: Benjamin Pulaski (Doctor Pulaski's nephew)
Recurring roles (so far):
John de Lancie: Q
Patrick Bauchau: Commander Severus (Romulan villain)
Rutger Hauer: Captain Edward Steinhauer (a friend of Captain Picard)
John Larroquette: Lore (Data's evil android brother)
BRIAN BLESSED TO BECOME NEXT DOCTOR, REPLACING COLIN BAKER
Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor, declared that the 1986 series of Doctor Who would be his last. Showrunner Philip Hinchliffe, who was caught off guard by Baker's announcement, searched for a successor as the Seventh Doctor. He narrowed the choices down to two: Sylvester McCoy, a relatively obscure Scottish actor who was best known for his roles on the Eureka series, and Brian Blessed, who appeared in the last Who series as King Yrcanos. Despite Blessed's guest role as a different character, Hinchcliffe decided to go with Blessed, and fans were pleased with the decision. "He'll play the goofiest, most charming Doctor in the history of the show. He's really big-hearted," read one of the pieces of mail in Hinchcliffe's mailbag. "I want to bring my regular personality to the Doctor, and I am extremely honored to be selected for this role," Blessed said to the press. "The advice I received from Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Colin Baker was to play yourself. Don't act as the Doctor based on the scripts they give you; play the Doctor as your own personality in real life." Blessed will first appear in the 1987 series when it premieres in September. With the announcement of Blessed as the Seventh Doctor, the BBC finally felt that it could save the flagging show, and moved the series to Thursday nights at 7:30 PM, away from the popular Coronation Street. Baker's Doctor was popular with the hardcore Whovians but not extremely popular with the casual BBC audience, Hinchliffe reasoned, and Blessed figured to revitalize the series...
STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE EPISODES
EPISODE 105: HINTS (Airdate: February 3, 1987). Uhura visits Saavik on Vulcan and meets the newborn baby, T'Lal. Saavik tells Uhura that she overheard a rumor about a potential Romulan contact with Vulcan. She believes that these are Romulans defecting to the Federation and wishing to return to the old ways. Uhura and her team start digging for hints and find that the Romulans were Tal Shiar agents pressed into service by the Romulan government. Battles argues that they should be ferried to safe harbor right away, but Karlax believes that the Romulans are setting a trap in order to capture Saavik and return her to Romulan space. Uhura decides to investigate against Karlax's advice, and they explore the series of signals, in Federation space. They find the escaped spies, who initially fire on them, but they tell Uhura that there is a freedom movement on Romulus that is attempting to overthrow the totalitarian Praetor. Uhura takes them into Federation space where they apply for asylum. However, one of the asylees is a plant and kills the other ex-Tal Shiar agents. The Intelligence team subdues the plant, seeking information, and they find out that the Romulans seek to once again reunify Vulcan by force.
EPISODE 106: STARSHIP TITAN, PART I (Airdate, February 10, 1987). A new Okuda class luxury starliner is commissioned, the Titan. The ship is the largest Federation ship ever built, easily twice the size of a Constitution refit. The Titan is going to be employed on the long-range cruise/spacelanes ferrying people around the UFP. Her captain, Captain Melinda Graves is an old friend of Uhura, an Ex-Starfleet first officer who is very reliable. Disaster strikes on the Titan's maiden voyage and she vanishes from all sensors. Uhura and team smell a rat when it emerges some of the Titan's crew are ex-POWs, plus there are some Federation Klingons in there, and even some ex-Romulan passengers. The Titan encounters an anomaly that threatens to destroy the ship.
EPISODE 107: STARSHIP TITAN, PART II (Airdate, February 17, 1987). SI follows the ship's course; only thanks to their advanced sensors, they are able to detect the Titan through the nebula's interference. Karlax speculates they took a detour to sightsee. SI follows up and avoids getting sucked into the anomaly. They discover a whole solar system with two M class planets, and an apparently 22nd century level civilization in place. From their cloaked position they discover the remains of the Titan in orbit. The people are a mash up of known species, who have bred into something different and new. Their first warp test is going to be in a few local days. Do they make first contact early, or wait? Uhura decides to make first contact, against the Prime Directive, since the species is warp-capable. They unfortunately find that the species is far more advanced than the Federation and killed all the passengers except for Captain Graves. The advanced alien species, the Markonians, will only free Graves if Uhura and team defeat soldiers in gladiatorial combat. Without their phasers, they succeed against doppelgangers of the deceased crew, including Klingons and Romulans, and Graves is freed.
EPISODE 108: VOICES FROM THE DISTANT PAST (Airdate, February 24, 1987). Uhura is taking an advanced Klingon course when she starts suffering seizures. The doctor on duty discovers that her seizures are due to cortical lobe damage suffered when her memory was erased by Nomad. Uhura relives a series of traumas, including the deception from Captain Westcross, the Man Trap salt monsters, and torture at the hands of the Tal Shiar. Marx determines that Nomad released a chemical into Uhura's brain that triggers seizures. The Starfleet Intelligence crew must find an answer before it is too late.
Note: Voices from the Distant Past was regarded as one of the worst episodes in the series; at this point, the fanbase was wondering whether Starfleet Intelligence was running out of ideas and simply going through the motions. They would be mistaken as the next group of episodes in March would be back up to standard.
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Everybody has a few duff episodes. I mean even NBSG season one had Colonial day (pity that streak didn't keep going). Also I assume the SU can't last very long as it is? Although he doesn't have Yeltsin problem's this time I imagine extreme reform cannot be avoided, the Baltic's and Ukraine are going to want out and some form of democracy will have to be bought in?
I conceived a less reviled version of Shades of Gray for the series clunker. At some point I have to make IMDB pages for the actors and new series that were created ITTL. Don’t know exactly how to do that but it would be fun to see.
The Baltics are gone in 18 months max. Ukraine is probably leaving too but not before the Baltics. I think the Stans are the only republics that stay with the Soviet Union as a Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics. Now that the hardliners have been discredited Gorbachev can wait about a year and reintroduce glasnost, perestroika and uskoryiene at his own pace. It is possible that Gorbachev without hardliners bothering him can transform the USSR into a social democracy (but that will be difficult)
Ten years to late, the era of Stagnation did to much damage and to many people who were kids during the thaw want at least the freedoms Khrushchev seemingly gave them back. Although Belarus may stay of its own free will as well (depends who runs it this time.
What's left of the WP? I assume just Hungary and Slovakia so it's time to leave them as well and possibly talk to the west about cleaning out the stinking horrors in Romania and Albania (both of which broke from the USSR and are miles worse than even the motherland ).