New Life and New Civilizations

All the messing with canon in this series gives me a headache. End of the world? No. It's a TV show, right?

But...what if the last couple of episodes had this happen...

FADE IN:

INT. CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM - USS ENTERPRISE

Soft starlight flickers against Pike's face as he stands before the viewport. He's alone. Thoughtful. The quiet hum of the ship fills the space. He looks down at a shelf holding photos, one of the full bridge crew. Briefly touching that photo, a sad smile flits over his face.

COMPUTER (V. O.) Captain Christopher Pike. Reminder: scheduled training exercise with Starfleet cadets, two weeks hence.

Pike's reflection hardens. He exhales slowly, gripping the edge of his desk.

PIKE (quietly) So it begins.

The door chimes. He doesn't move.

PIKE Come.

The doors hiss open. Una Chin-Riley steps in - poised, steady, but easily reading his silence.

UNA You heard.

PIKE (beat) Hard to ignore a date with destiny.

He manages a wry half-smile. She doesn't return it.

UNA You've been carrying that future on your shoulders since Boreth. You don't have to face it alone.

PIKE I do, actually. That's the point.

(beat; softer) I won't run from it.

UNA Then what's the plan?

PIKE The same as always. Save who I can.

(pause) And when the time comes...embrace all of it.

Una's eyes glisten - just slightly.

UNA You'll do what you always do. Lead. With heart.

(beat) I'll make sure they're ready.

He nods, turning back toward the stars.

PIKE That's why you're my Number One.

FADE OUT.

FADE IN:

EXT. SPACE - THE ENTERPRISE

The ship sails through nebular clouds - a ghostly aurora of blues and greens.

SPOCK (V. O.) Science Officer's log, stardate 2394.2. While en route to Vega Colony for a cadet training exercise, the Enterprise has received a distress signal from a civilian research vessel orbiting an uncharted M-class planet. Scans indicate extreme temporal wave interference.

INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE

Spock at Science. Una in command chair. Uhura at Communications. Ortegas and Mitchell at Helm.

UHURA Distress call is breaking up, Commander. Audio only.

STATIC, THEN-

VOICE (DISTORTED, OVER COMMS) -crew destabilized-ship damaged-

UHURA That's all I have. It repeats. A recorded call. Just...an echo.

SPOCK The ship's life support is still operational. Thirty life signs. The temporal harmonics are fluctuating beyond tolerance for a civilian class vessel. The planet below is emitting chronometric energy consistent with- (beat) -an artificial source.

UNA Someone built it?

SPOCK Affirmative. Vast scale.

The turbolift doors open. Pike enters, buttoning his tunic, composed but purposeful.

PIKE Status?

UNA Distressed vessel is failing orbit. Temporal interference makes transport risky. We've stabilized the ship with a tractor beam, but if we can't stop the temporal waves at the source it won't hold together.

PIKE Understood.

Assemble an away team. Spock, Scotty, Chapel, La'an, Uhura. I'll lead.

Have M'Benga prepare sick bay for possible casualties. If we can't transport that ship's crew we may have to set up a bridge.

UNA Captain-

PIKE (soft smile) You have the conn. I have my...away mission.

He strides for the lift. Una watches him go - worried, wordless.

CUT TO:

INT. TRANSPORTER ROOM - ENTERPRISE

A jittery young officer, ENSIGN MARCUS APRIL, paces the platform, clutching a tricorder. His uniform is out of alignment; his ambition, palpable.

TRANSPORTER TECH Ensign, Captain Pike hasn't authorized-

APRIL "Dad always said the galaxy remembers the brave, not the careful. I need to leave...now."

TECH Your dad? Admiral April? That's a high bar Ensign, and this isn't your call- (he presses a button to hail the bridge...)

APRIL (to himself) I can make a difference. Prove myself.

Computer-engage pattern buffer override, code Delta-Three-Seven!

Before the TECH can react, the transporter activates, engulfing Alden in shimmering light.

TECH Ensign! No-!

APRIL Legacy...

He vanishes.

SMASH CUT TO:

EXT. PLANET SURFACE - DAY April materializes amid the ruins - massive, age-worn, energy pulses reaching over them. His tricorder chirps wildly.

APRIL (to himself, awed) Gods... what is this place?

He looks up. The sky pulses with auroral ripples - time itself distorting.

INT. ENTERPRISE - BRIDGE Red alert light flashes at Communications.

UHURA Transporter Room reports unauthorized transport. Ensign April's on the planet!

UNA (eyes flashing) That young man is the pebble in my boot! Lieutenant, Mr. Spock, La'an, get to the transporter room. Grab Mr. Scott and Nurse Chapel. Prepare for immediate transport to the planet's surface.

(She turns to helm) Mitchell, track that civilian ship, feed me status; Erica, get us a window for optimal transport to the source of the interference.

Pressing a button, Una connects with Pike.

UNA Captain, we've got a problem. Ensign April has beamed down to the surface.

PIKE (V. O.) Robert's son. I should have clipped his wings a year ago. Last mission before Vega. One more rodeo.

EXT. PLANET SURFACE - CONTINUOUS

A barren plain under a churning sky.

Energy arcs in the distance - lightning that bends sideways, echoing through time itself.

The away team materializes

SFX: TRANSPORTER HUM - INTERRUPTED BY TEMPORAL STATIC

CHAPEL (medical tricorder) Everyone intact? No molecular disarray?

SCOTTY Intact? The air's shimmerin' like bad whiskey.

UHURA I'm picking up residual harmonics - like something's humming...below the surface.

LA'AN Weapons ready. Just in case "something" does more than hum.

SPOCK (science tricorder) Chronometric variance point-zero-three. Manageable... for now.

LA'AN (looks at scanner, glances at Spock) Human reading. One problem child, 200 meters ahead. (nods at ruins) In there.

PIKE (shakes his head with a grim smile) Let's go round him up. And figure out how to shut down the temporal disturbance.

CUT TO:

April standing before a massive device within the ruins, transfixed, staring across a circular moat-like chasm that separates him from the machine. He steps closer to the edge.

It pulses, spinning - portals flicker across its rotating bands. A giant spectral form appears. Elongated features, bipedal, skeletal hands, thick long robes.

APRIL (taken aback by the large apparition, but mesmerized by what he's witnessing) Incredible... a time nexus. A gateway!

A deep, resonant VOICE echoes through the chamber:

VOICE Who enters Time's Witness?

A scanning beam passes over him. He flinches but straightens, emboldened.

APRIL Ensign Marcus April. Starfleet. Explorer... not a thief. Not anymore.

VOICE Ambition... reaching, unmaking. Will you walk the corridors of time?

The portals shift - now showing Earth's history: revolutions, wars, first flight, space exploration. Several bridges of light materialize like spokes of a wheel, creating a walkway to each portal across the chasm.

VOICE Behold, the echoes of time.

Travel... and witness history's turning.

APRIL (whispering) This'll make me.

VOICE Take heed: the paths and all who walk it are fluid. The wrong step-

But April's already striding forward - across a bridge toward a portal of light.

APRIL Remember my name... Just once, doing something that matters...

FLASH - HE VANISHES.

INT. RUINS - CONTINUOUS

The team steps inside - torch beams cutting through a vast, circular chamber.

At the center stands the cylindrical monolith, etched with shifting glyphs of light, separated from the away team by the bottomless chasm that ensign April walked over moments before.

SPOCK Readings suggest quantum lattice architecture. The structure is ancient... it predates all historical reference points.

PIKE Were we led here, or is it something no one was meant to find?

Suddenly, a holographic shimmer fills the air - the faint silhouette of the incredibly tall figure of Time's Witness coalesces in front of them.

The voice, calm and ageless, reverberates from everywhere.

VOICE You see where memory is born.

You are seen... and remembered.

CHAPEL (whispers) What is that?

SPOCK Unknown. Possibly an AI construct - or something... more.

The voice grows clearer - gathering strength and coherence.

VOICE Even I cannot remember the beginning. Each of you reflects a shard in time.

The source for healing calls.

PIKE We're not here to change history - we're here to rescue a crew member. And investigate a disturbance.

VOICE The disruption is the river. Travelers change the flow. Rescue and memory are one. Come, and time will answer.

The monolith splits, revealing multiple light portals, each shimmering with a different hue.

The hum deepens. The light pulses in sync with their heartbeats.

VOICE Approach, and explore the threads of time.

A heavy thrum reverberates from the towering cylinder - light swirling through its open portals like ripples across water.

FADE OUT.

END OF ACT ONE

ACT TWO (INT. ANCIENT RUINS - GRAND CHAMBER

CUT TO

The portals whirl and shift in front of the away team. The hum grows louder. The image of The Witness stands over them, arms folded, observing.

UHURA Captain... you hear that, the change?

A low-frequency tone - like a heartbeat - vibrates through the stone.

SPOCK Resonant energy signature ahead. Ensign April?

PIKE Is that him? There on the far side, across the chasm.

LA'AN That's him. How did he get over there?

PIKE Marcus! Stand down! We'll come to you!

A sparkling temporal haze surrounds April as he steps to a portal's threshold.

APRIL (voice distorted) Just once...(static)... something that matters...

LA'AN (looking at her scanner) He's gone...

CHAPEL Where?

The Witness gazes at the portals. The cylinder pulses, projecting rapidly changing holographic images within the portals.

VOICE The traveler has altered your past. Your history, your worlds are all cast in a different light.

PIKE (flipping open his communicator) Number One, status report.

VOICE Your ship, your people, are gone.

Rest of teleplay?

Under SNW series' review.

Felt more like an origin story of a mutant from the X-Men or any other Marvel universe than a Star Trek episode.

Well executed, but boring and predictable, and didn't Jean Luc Picard in a TNG finale and some other Star Trek characters have a whole lifetime episode or story, now it's Pike.

Best subplot here is the Kirk-Spock-bromance.

A finale with some pathos, some sad song in the background and some melancholy, but the whole story feels too over-constructed and forced.

It's a tough thing wanting and expecting to have something be really good then it doesn't show up with batteries, and the stores are all closed. This episode was a decent 7 maybe, and I'm probably being generous. It clearly cost a f-ton of money. And the actors did their very best with just gawdawful writing, and horrible storylines. ...and gimmics. Should I go on? If this is the quality of how it's going to go on it should not be renewed. Stop embarrasing the franchise. M83's, "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming", at the end was the best part of it. It sounded like a proper farewell song to the series.

This episode was a great reminder of what makes us feel alive: "how much we feel".

Although it had a certain twist in the writing, i liked how events turned out to be in the episode.

I'm looking forward to next episodes, next missions and ever more strange new worlds.

Thank you all for making such series possible.

This season has been a little bit uneven for me and this episode was no different, It was as beautiful and captivating as ever but the writing fell a little short.

I really enjoyed the away mission near the start of the episode and it actually gave us a strange new world! Just the vibe and the banter between the characters felt very much like Star Trek and I wish we had a lot more of that kind of thing on the show. Visit some worlds! The end of the episode hints at that going forward but they're probably just leading me on, the title of the show does too and they don't let that get in the way.

I liked the resolution to... you know what, but I don't feel it had the emotional impact they were hoping for. I thought it was going to be a much simpler wrap up and I love that they managed to suprise me, but it felt hugely rushed and out of the blue. At last Pike is free to meet his unfortunate destiny.

I'm glad we saw the recurring characters back for the finale, I hope we get a lot more of Pelia next season and some bigger moments from Scotty. I genuinely thought we'd get another TOS character before the end of the season but I enjoyed the Kirk-Spock character development we got instead and it added a lot to their relationship.

I'm sad the season is over. Even though it wasn't the best one so far but it's still a high production value sci-fi show and we don't have nearly enough of those. I'm looking forward to next season 🖖