Trek It!
Page 68
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Bonus Treks
Exclusive to this collected edition
Enterprise Year 3: A Season of Struggle
By Robert T. Jeschonek
As Enterprise roared through Season 3 under its new name, Star Trek: Enterprise, producers followed a bold new battle plan: a season-long action-driven storyline in which battered heroes defy the odds and cross the line to save the world.
The attack on Earth at the end of Season 2 sets the stage for an epic arc that echoes another great TV scifi adventure, the Japanese anime classic Space Battleship Yamato (which aired stateside as Star Blazers). Like the Battleship Yamato, the Starship Enterprise embarks on a solitary mission through hostile territory to save the world from destruction.
Archer and his crew must traverse the vast Delphic Expanse, find the Xindi aliens, and stop them from striking again. The stakes are as high as they come: the first attack killed seven million people, and the follow-up will wipe out the billions who remain.
A mission like that can't help but change even the most stalwart adventurers, and the crew of Enterprise is no exception. Throughout 24 episodes, the ensemble remains intact, but the characters undergo radical metamorphoses.
Archer and company trade in their wide-eyed wanderlust and high ideals for grim determination and moral ambiguity. Do the ends justify the means when it comes to the survival of the human species? They do in tales like "Damage," in which Archer steals a warp coil from an Ilyrian ship to repair Enterprise and reach a critical rendezvous.
Darkness and suffering suffuse the brutal landscape of Season 3. Trip agonizes over losing his sister in the first Xindi attack on Earth. T'Pol becomes addicted to Trellium-D, a substance that shatters her emotional control. Other Vulcans, a whole shipload, are driven violently insane by exposure to the same substance. Eighteen Enterprise crew members die in a single Xindi assault, and more perish in other engagements along the way.
Thankfully, enough bright spots crop up to enable the crew to keep that "faith of the heart" referred to in the show's opening theme. Trip finds solace in "Vulcan neuropressure" treatments that lead to a budding romance with T'Pol. The crew find surprising allies: their own descendants from an alternate timeline ("E²
"); the Andorians; and even certain factions among the Xindi. And near the end of the epic quest, rationality and diplomacy point the way to a peaceful resolution to the conflict between humanity and the Xindi, who've been deceived by the transdimensional Sphere Builders.
That peaceful resolution, unfortunately, falls through, plunging Archer and Enterprise into a final violent struggle in which humanity's survival comes down to the wire. Bakula's Archer races against time to overload the Xindi's ultimate weapon before it can blow up the Earth. He succeeds, charging through a cascade of explosions erupting around him...
...and ends up transported, in the ultimate "What the bleep?" cliffhanger, to an alternate timeline in which the Nazis won World War II.
Talk about a game-changing season! In the space of 24 episodes, Enterprise goes from Star Trek Begins, a Trek origins-focused show about the adventures of idealistic explorers in the early days of deep space travel, to 24/Die Hard in Space. Captain Archer becomes a grim and driven avenger. Space itself becomes a grueling obstacle course of disruptive anomalies. The bright, shiny starship Enterprise becomes a makeshift warship hammered by relentless conflict.
Did the season-long experiment succeed? The change in focus and tone gave the show a needed shot of adrenaline, certainly. Additions to the mythology, like the multi-species Xindi and the Military Assault Command Operations (MACO) commandos, continued the mission of fleshing out the early Trek universe. Production milestones like the first Trek episode broadcast in high definition ("Exile") showed progress was being made behind the camera as well as in front of it.
Mid-season drift set in as producers sought to control costs by adding more "bottle shows" with limited sets and effects. But the pace picked up and held through the final eight ("Hatchery" through "Zero Hour"), which stuck to the core thread of the Xindi conflict.
The all-important measure of success, the ratings, stayed low, but a fan letter-writing campaign bought Star Trek: Enterprise one more season. And the stage was set for Season 4 when 24-veteran Manny Coto, co-executive producer and writer during Season 3, earned a promotion to executive producer and showrunner.
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Bonus Treks
Exclusive to this collected edition
Interview with Robert T. Jeschonek
For Star Trek: Voyages of Imagination
Q: How did you become a TREK fan?
A: I would say that my introduction to the world of STAR TREK was the reverse of the usual route. My love of TREK started with the printed page instead of the T.V. screen. As a child, I was hooked on the adaptations of the original series episodes by James Blish and the animated episodes by Alan Dean Foster. After getting into the books, I watched syndicated episodes of the original series, which truly blew my mind and hooked me for good.
Q: What prompted you to try a story in SNW?
A: Having become addicted to TREK through the print novelizations, I flipped when Bantam began issuing orignal novels and anthologies based on the series. Though these novels and anthologies were few and far between, I eagerly snatched up and devoured every one of them. Because of those books, starting with SPOCK MUST DIE and STAR TREK: THE NEW VOYAGES, I first got the idea that I might someday be able to write my own original stories about TREK. I remember fantasizing often about walking into Waldenbooks and seeing my name on the spine of a STAR TREK book on the shelf.
From a very young age, I had a great interest in writing fiction. This, combined with my dream of becoming a published TREK writer, led me to generate TREK fan fiction. When I found out about SNW, I realized that I finally had an opportunity to make my dream come true beyond the fan fiction realm.
After reading about the first volume of SNW in an issue of STAR TREK COMMUNICATOR, I cranked out a Harry Mudd/Nagus Zek piece titled “When Harry Met Zekky” and submitted it to the editors. This submission did not make the cut, and neither did my Ilia piece for SNW II...but editor Dean Wesley Smith’s encouraging note on my SNW II rejection pushed me to reach higher for my next try.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for “Whatever You Do, Don’t Read This Story”?
A: I was wracking my brain, striving to come up with a truly innovative idea for an SNW III entry, when the idea for “Whatever You Do, Don’t Read This Story” came to me. It literally burst out of my subconscious fully formed, and I could not wait to get it down on paper. Though I was not sure if it was something that had not been done before, I knew that it was something that I personally had never seen.
In “Whatever You Do, Don’t Read This Story,” I decided to make the story itself a character, interacting directly with the reader. I also decided to give it multiple levels, both by layering a story within a story within a story and by making it a metaphor for the way that all stories have power and a life of their own. Real-world stories might not possess malevolent sentience, but they certainly have the potential to inspire us to take action for good or ill.
The story’s snarky self-narrative was a blast to write. Appropriately enough, the text rushed out of me as if indeed it possessed a mind of its own.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for “The Shoulders of Giants”?
A: “Shoulders” evolved from my impulse to see how much I could pack into one story falling within SNW’s 7500-word limit. My original idea was to show the varying effects made on a single civilization by every known ENTERPRISE captain. I revised this plan, limiting the captains to four: Archer (largely unknown then, as the ENTERPRISE series had yet to premiere), Kirk, Garrett, and Picard.
Once I’d made up my mind to follow this framework, I decided to vary the kinds of stories told within the overall story as much as possible, including variations on a religious text, a quest fantasy, a war story, and a
murder mystery. I also decided to tell each story from an alien point of view using a wide range of narrators, including the alien equivalents of an adult male, a 12-year-old boy, and an old woman. I then added plenty of references to TREK lore, from “Vegan choriomeningitis” to Narendra III to Armus.
In the end, I was pleased that I managed to fit so much pertinent content into “The Shoulders of Giants,” including personal stakes and character arcs for each narrator and captain. My favorite part of this story, however, might just be the story of the old woman, Nyda, who had the chutzpah to refer to Picard, Riker, and La Forge as Snooty, the Bearded Weirdo, and the Wallflower, respectively.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for “Our Million-Year Mission”?
A: I wanted to shake things up by stretching the characters, technology, and concepts of STAR TREK as far as I could. By setting the story a million years after the original series, I was able to let my imagination run wild. Even as I ventured into new territory, I tried to make the story a tribute to the spirit of STAR TREK, with its sense of infinite wonder and possibilities.
From the start, I had a good feeling about “Our Million-Year Mission”...but completing the story had its rocky moments. When my wife/first reader, Wendy, finished reading the first draft, she said that half of the story was strong, and half was in need of drastic revision. According to Wendy, the lacking half was the original sequence featuring Data and Geordi. In the first draft, Data was deactivated from the start, and Geordi and Reg Barclay spent half the story working to return him to consciousness. Wendy, whose editorial instincts are excellent, said that she felt strongly that the deactivated Data sequence dragged. With just a few days until deadline, I decided to take my wife’s advice and rewrite half of the story.
Wendy was right. In the rewrite, I kept Data conscious -- and seemingly insane -- from the start. Making Data a more active participant from the start injected needed energy into the story. As the deadline raced closer, I wrapped the rewrite, handed off the new draft to Wendy, and held my breath.
She loved the new draft. I made a final pass through the manuscript, giving it a quick polish, and mailed it. As “Our Million-Year Mission” headed for Pocket Books, I felt tremendous relief and optimism.
At least until I saw the film STAR TREK NEMESIS.
In my story, set one million years after the original series, Data was a featured character. In NEMESIS, however, Data was destroyed. I had not foreseen this possibility while writing the story; I now thought for sure that my story’s chances of making it into SNW VI were nonexistent. I completely gave up hope that “Our Million-Year Mission” would see print.
As dismal as things seemed, the story not only made the cut but won the grand prize. The editors used it as the basis of a new category, “Speculations,” which would feature stories that bend or break continuity to expand TREK in new directions.
ANECDOTE: “Our Million-Year Mission”
After I had submitted “Our Million-Year Mission” but before the SNW VI winners were announced, my wife, Wendy, and I visited SNW editor John Ordover at the Pocket Books offices in New York City. On a bulletin board in John’s office, I glimpsed a list of winners for SNW VI, but I could not bear to read it and immediately looked away after spotting the title. If I had kept reading, I no doubt would have seen my own name. Later, after Wendy and I returned home, John Ordover and Dean Smith called and told me that I had won the grand prize.
Q: How did you land the assignment for “Oil and Water”?
A: After making the cut for SNW V, I got in touch with other writers whose stories had been accepted for that volume. Through these writers, I learned that SNW editor Dean Smith and his wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, held workshops at their home in Lincoln City, Oregon. These workshops, aimed at helping writers develop their professional careers, seemed to be getting good results. Hoping to build on my SNW successes, I contacted Dean, applied for the two-week master’s class workshop, and was accepted for the March 2003 session.
Just before setting out for Oregon, I got word that Pocket was looking for pitches for a first-ever STAR TREK: NEW FRONTIER anthology. This would truly be a historic effort, as never before had other writers been invited to play with Peter David’s beloved creation. I knew that I could never forgive myself if I did not pursue this opportunity.
The problem was, the anthology was being produced on an extremely tight schedule. If I wanted to submit any pitches, I would have to do it right before or during Dean’s two-week workshop. This proved to be challenging, to say the least.
The workshop was an intense, exhausting experience with an enormous workload. It took all I could do to keep caught up on my daily assignments. I was determined, however, to pitch for NEW FRONTIER: NO LIMITS. In spite of the heavy workload, long hours, and high stress of the workshop, I managed to produce and submit four pitches, one each focusing on Janos, M’Ress, Xyon, and Burgoyne. I was asked to revise the Burgoyne pitch, originally titled “The Gender Bomb.” After I revised the pitch and retitled it “Oil and Water,” I got the go-ahead to write my Burgoyne story.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for “Oil and Water”?
A: I thought it would be fun and interesting to team dual-gendered Burgoyne with an androgynous J’Naii, a member of the species explored in the TNG episode “The Outcast.”
In my first draft of the pitch, Burgoyne and the J’Naii worked to reverse the effects of a device that altered a planet’s population, creating thousands of incompatible genders. At the editor’s suggestion, I narrowed the gender conflict to that between Burgoyne and the J’Naii...then changed the root of the conflict to focus not on gender, but on the friction between Burgoyne’s violent nature and the J’Naii’s pacifism.
Instead of the “gender bomb” menace from the original pitch, I introduced the STARFLY probe, which I envisioned as sort of a sentient, scaled-down starship. I wanted to answer the question, “What if an artificial lifeform possessed all the capabilities of a starship...and went on a rampage?” I thought it was logical that Starfleet might use highly intelligent and fully enabled probes like STARFLY for ultra-deep space exploration.
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About the Author
Robert T. Jeschonek is an award-winning writer whose fiction, comics, essays, articles, and podcasts have been published around the world. His young adult urban fantasy novel, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, won the Forward National Literature Award and was named one of Booklist’s Top Ten First Novels for Youth. Simon & Schuster, DAW/Penguin Books, and DC Comics have published his work. He won the grand prize in Pocket Books' nationwide Strange New Worlds contest and was nominated for the British Fantasy Award. Visit him online at www.thefictioneer.com. You can also find him on Facebook and follow him as @TheFictioneer on Twitter.
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E-books by Robert T. Jeschonek
Fantasy
6 Fantasy Stories
6 More Fantasy Stories
Blazing Bodices
Earthshaker – an urban fantasy novel
Girl Meets Mind Reader
Groupie Everlasting
Heaven Bent – a novel
Rose Head
Snowman's Chance in Hell
The Bear in the Cable-Knit Sweater
The Genie's Secret
The Return of Alice
The Sword That Spoke
Erotica
Kiss of the Acolyte
Horror
Bloodliner – a novel
Diary of a Maggot
Dionysus Dying
Fear of Rain
Road Rage
Humor (Adults Only)
Dick by Law – a novel
Literary
6 Short Stories
Getting Higher – a novel
Mystery and Crime
6 Crime Stories
Crimes in the Key of Murder
Dancing With Murder (a cozy mystery novel)
The First Detect-Eve
The Foolproof Cure
for Cancer
The Other Waiter
Who Unkilled Johnny Murder?
Poetry
Flight of Ideas
Science Fiction
6 Scifi Stories
6 More Scifi Stories
6 Scifi Stories Book 3
Beware the Black Battlenaut
Give The Hippo What He Wants
Lenin of the Stars
Messiah 2.0
My Cannibal Lover
Off The Face Of The Earth
One Awake In All The World
Playing Doctor
Resist the Red Battlenaut
Scifi Motherlode
Serial Killer vs. E-Merica
Something Borrowed, Something Doomed
Star Sex
Teacher of the Century
The Greatest Serial Killer in the Universe
The Love Quest of Smidgen the Snack Cake
The Shrooms of Benares