If my Stargate musical was canon...

...what would I change?

For what the Musical is like now, here's the link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLoEKw5zWTk&t=5s

Let's presume that somebody at Amazon or MGM went nuts and decided to make #Stargate: The #Musical cannon-slash official and gave me the keys, what would I change about it? (Of course, this will never happen. #Execs are not that crazy, but its fun to speculate.) Well, here we go...

1) Replace the track called The Rant. The original was a loud, screaming version. But I did an operatic version as a proof-of-concept. Which turned out a lot better then the original. So I'd use the Opera version instead.

2) Replacing The Rant would make some of the lyrics of the first Alan Smithee song wrong, so that would have to be redone as well. If AmazonMGM is paying the bills, I would try to get a flesh and blood person to redo the whole Alan Smithee role.

3) The song Seize Her! has a pronunciation error. The AI pronounces Bra'tac as Brah-tac, instead of Brey'tac as it should be. That would need to be fixed.

4) But the really big change would be replacing all the connecting narration. That would have to be completely redone. In my dream scenario, I'd get Joe Flanigan. It's a nice way to make the whole thing less AI and spice it with the #Atlantis side of the franchise at the same time.

5) Where possible, add sound effects. Footsteps, the gate dialing, etc.

That is what I would do to take the whole thing from a piece of #fanfiction to something serious(ly) meant to part of the franchise tapestry.

6) I don't know where this hypothetical official version would be released. But if there was a #YouTube version, I would get somebody with #Amazon or #MGM to do additional artwork, providing better visuals. (Perhaps even a full-blown anime.)

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka Commander Nash on fanfiction.net )

Between Kevin Kelly and Sly Stallone, What Trek's Writers Missed.

In Season Two of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the writers had things go badly of the rails in the Demilitarized Zone between the #Federation and the #Cardassians. It's good plotline and not the problem. Things in the DMZ basically went wrong because the Federation signed a bad treaty. The #Maquis plotline shows us what happened to the #Colonists who stayed. But that is only half of the equation.

People in 24th century are smart. Are we to believe that nobody sensed that this treaty would be really bad and got out of dodge before the hammer fell? And where did those people end up? In my version of #StarTrek, some of these people founded the lasted version of Nothing, Arizona. Some people might say that doesn't gel with Star Trek as we know it. But I respectfully disagree.

Let's wind things back a bit and asked the question....Why did those colonists move out there in the first place? I would answer with a simple: Earth has become boring. But it's deeper then that. So I'd like to quote Kevin Kelly at this point:

“A world without discomfort is utopia. But it is also stagnant. A world perfectly fair in some dimensions would be horribly unfair in others. A utopia has no problems to solve, but therefore no opportunities either.”

Part of human nature is that to grow, to learn, we have to leave our comfort zone. #Earth (and the other core Federation worlds) have become one giant comfort zone. So to find growth, to find challenges, the colonists left and settled at the border of Federation space. And now those people are forced back into the core of the Federation. Where - having spent years on the borders - they no longer fit in. Or to quote the 1993 movie Demolition Man, starring Sly Stallone (and Wesley Snipes):

See, according to Cocteau's plan, I'm the enemy. Cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech and freedom of choice. I'm the kind if guy who wants to sit in a greasy spoon and think, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecued ribs with the side order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon, butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in a non-smoking section. I wanna run through the streets naked with green Jello all over my body reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to. Okay, pal? I've seen the future, you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sittin' around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake singing "I'm an Oscar-Meyer Wiener". You wanna live on top, you gotta live Cocteau's way. What he wants, when he wants, how he wants. Your other choice: come down here, maybe starve to death.

Now replace Cocteau with the word Federation and you realize the exact pickle that these (former) colonists are in. So what do they do, they find a ghost town that is off the grid. That officially doesn't exist and where they can life as they see fit. Without the Federation breathing down their necks about 'correct' and 'healthy' living.

And thus the town of Nothing, #Arizona was founded once again in 2367. (I can't speak of the actual, real-life founding of 1977. I wasn't there. I wasn't even born.) Of course, this is just my #fanfiction interpretation. #Canon / #Official Star Trek has never addressed this issue. Hopefully it will do so one day.

(Just for the record. Once the town was founded, it attracted others that had fallen through the cracks of Federation society. Including, ironically, Cardassians refugees, deserters and dissidents. Fueled by the Dominion War, Nothing has a population of rough 900 people by the end of 2375.)

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

PS: The Forgotten Frontier website is: https://startrekforgottenfrontier.eu/

The Stargate Hot Potato Everybody Avoids

Prologue

Before I get started, I need to explain something. A while back, I read an excellent article about the cancellation of Martin Gero's #Stargate project and why that was a mistake. I figured that this article would interest Robert Meyer Burnett, so I send it the link to him. 

He read it on his YouTube and provided some excellent insights and commentary. To see his video, click the provided link.

RMB's thoughts on the cancellation of Stargate

This letter is a reply to that video. With that out of the way, here we go.

---- 

Hi Rob,

I hope that this letter finds you well. I'm glad that you liked the Stargate article I send you a while back. Your comments and the insights in the video you made about it were great. However, there is an angle about the cancellation of Stargate that nobody talks about. But to get to this angle, I need to do a bit of preamble. 

One of the strengths of the Stargate franchise is that tries to stay as close to "real world" as it can be. It feels like something that could happen or could BE happening while you are going to work, doing your groceries and just living your everyday life. 

Add to that a bunch of frustration for not getting a proper resolution to Stargate Universe, a show that ended on a cliffhanger. Which resulted in me deciding to write my own (fanfiction) continuation. And that landed me straight at the issue we need to talk about. 

Stargate is supposed to be "Close to real world" Science Fiction. But that leaves you stumbling straight into two landmines: Donald J. Trump and his giant ego. Or to put it another way? You've seen the mess he's made out of international politics. Would you trust him with interstellar politics? Or the Stargate Program?

I didn't. I wasn't happy about having to go more fictional, but I figured Trump would ruin everything. Goodbye, (international effort known as) Atlantis Expedition. Goodbye, mission to rescue Destiny's crew. He'd probably banish Teal'c and Vala as literal illegal aliens. So I created a fictional president to keep things on track. But here's the point...

I got away with that because I am one Dutch guy. I wasn't making money from this passion project, just fun. I don't have a giant studio, I don't have hundreds or thousands people on my payroll. People that depend on ME for their rent, their food and the money they need to send their children to school. I'm not even a blip on the Trump administration radar. And I don't live under it either. I don't have to be afraid of being arrested by ICE, losing my license or being kicked out of the country. 

For AmazonMGM, which has none of these advantages, and any canon Stargate continuation...well, navigating these two landmines is going to be a lot harder. Thoughts? 

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

PS: Quick idea: Max's answer to my Let's Get Physical letter was really insightful as well. I would bet folding money that if there was dedicated e-mail or electronic PO for people to write to, he would get more letters. Just a thought.

Don't Blame The Viewer

In my previous article, I said that writing is a lot like sport. If you want to read that dull piece of text, here's the link:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-i-post-what-ruben-hilbers-ljhwe/?trackingId=QX4Pu6s45jaLkbay%2FibBbA%3D%3D

And I want to keep that analogy going here. Writing stories and novels is individual sport, but making a TV-show is a team sport. Soccer, American football, Curling or Cricket, you pick one you like in your head. The writer's room is the team and the show-runner is the coach.

The reason this article come with a Federation flag as included pic, is because Team #StarTrek hasn't been doing well recently. In fact, their latest bout, #StarfleetAcademy has been getting bad reviews from the average audience. Which has led to fiery responses from actors - especially Robert Picardo - and accusations of review bombing. Especially since critics seem to love the show. However, I feel that somebody needs to come out and say the obvious.

TV critics are essentially sport commentators, whereas the actors are on the team payroll. Both groups are telling the team and more importantly, the team #sponsor - #ParamountSkydance - what they want to hear. It's called #survival. They can't afford to get sacked or locked out of the stadium, they have bills to pay.

A good demonstration of this is John Boyega, who didn't air his true opinion about how #Disney treated his #StarWars character Finn until he was no longer financially depended on them.

So, where does #YouTube and the audience fit into this model? Starting with #YouTube, reviewer there are like people who have a good camera and a friend who lives near the stadium with a balcony. They can see the sport being played, but they are not part of the traditional system. And because they are not dependent on the studios for their survival, they can be honest. Hence the brutal burning of #StarfleetAcademy.

And the audience. The audience just wants to see a good game. Good entertainment. And if your team sucks - which as an audience member I can tell you, #StarTrek has been since 2017 under #AlexKurtzman, #AkivaGoldsman and #SecretHideout - they call you out on it. #StarfleetAcademy is not being review bombed, it's just bad. Stop blaming the viewer, learn how to play the frakking game.

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers

PS....In an ironic twist, the only parts of post-2017 #StarTrek that have been watchable have been the parts that neither Kurtzman or Goldsman have had anything to do with. Meaning Star Trek Prodigy and Picard Season 3. Talk about poisoning your own well.

There is no such thing as the ninth Chevron

Hello fellow Gaters,

To begin with, some technical notes. I know, I know, they are boring, but I need to get them out of the way. So here we go...

As far as I can tell, Destiny has a Mark One Stargate, Earth has a Mark Two and Atlantis comes with a Mark Three. It takes seven Chevrons to dial a destination inside the galaxy and eight for galaxy-to-galaxy dialing. Carter compared it to dialing an area code. With the obvious stated, let's move on...

These days, the Milky Way Galaxy has a network of Mark Two gates. But when Destiny launched, the Mark Two had not been invented yet. Or they would have used it for the Destiny Research Mission. So back then, the Milky Way network was made out of Mark One gates. 

Which is the same model the Seed ships build and plant along Destiny's course. The same model that we've seen Young and company use. Which is strictly short-range. So no galaxy-to-galaxy travel yet. The Ancients had to INVENT it make the Destiny Research Mission work.

My pitch is that Destiny doesn't have an area code. It has the first area code ever. And because it's the prototype, it bigger and cruder. This was the first time they did this, so the Ancients hadn't figured out how to boil it down to one Chevron (yet).

That's why it's two Chevrons and having to properly calibrate the power. If it was a cell phone, the eight chevron is a modern smart phone. The ninth chevron is one of those ancient bricks from eighties that nobody could afford, took forever to charge and only gave you thirty minutes of call time even when fully charged.

But they are still the same thing. 

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302) 

Ruining Victor's Day (Part 2)

 Where were we ?

 Last time, we ended with Coulson about to go Time Lord... (Long story, you might want to read Part 1) ...which is exactly what happens. Coulson regenerates into...a young Martin Freeman ? Yes, that would be my plan. The regeneration saves Coulson's life. But....wouldn't people have noticed Everett Ross being a Time Lord ?

No, because the Humans aren't used to turning into Time Lords. So Coulson is out cold. It is at this point that the Sisterhood of Karn arrives and uses a piece of technology called a Chameleon Arch on him. The Arch turns a Time Lord into a Human and stores the 'extra' bit inside an old-fashioned fob-watch. 

When the Doctor used the Arch, he didn't remember who he used to be and became a Human called John Smith. So Coulson becomes Everett Ross. As for how much of Ross' memories are real...? A lot. 

He became younger because Time Lord cells are much denser then Human ones. And there is only so much mass and energy to go around. So he really did enlist in the Air Force, married his (now ex-)wife and served in the CIA.

Why do it like this ?

There are lots of issues with the MCU. But IMHO one of the biggest problems is that it has lost it's heart. Putting Coulson back into the MCU is a big step towards giving the universe its heart back. And I think Freeman can pull it off. (Besides, he's already in the MCU.) Plus, this gives 'Ross' a whole new arc. It's a way to stir things up, big time. And if they do want to bring Clark Gregg back, he can portray his Life Model Decoy from Agents of Shield. It's a way to have your cake and eat it to. Time to move on to....

Avengers: Doomsday

For most of this movie, Ross is still Ross. He thinks the fob-watch belonged to his grandfather. But something is already brewing....with Yelena Belova. Back in Black Widow, all the ladies of the Red Room were exposed to anti-mind control gas. But the important thing is that Yelena was the FIRST person to be exposed. And the residue of this gas caused the fob-watch to start to whispering to her. 

At the end of the movie, Ross is horribly injured and near-death. Yelena has finally found the fob-watch and is racing to get the watch to Ross. And on this cliffhanger, the movie ends...

Avengers: Secret Wars

Yelena reaches Ross in time and opens the fob-watch. The transformation heals Coulson's wounds. His character development for this movie is dealing with having both Coulson's and Ross' memories. What could possibly make things even worse is the presence of Coulson 1.0 in the form of his LMD. Like a multi-doctor story, except different. 

Coulson 2.0's knowledge of Mephisto then becomes the spark that help the heroes to come up with a plan to defeat Victor von Doom. 

The Future

I don't know how many movies Martin Freeman has left on his contract. But when his contract runs out, Coulson regenerates again. Also, I figure that having a Time Lord added to the mix would get the attention of the Time Variance Authority. Maybe opening the door to a season 3 of Loki ? Other then that, who knows ? *Touches nose* Who knows ? 

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302) 

Mephisto All Along (Part 1)

Or...The Plot that  I think Disney and Bad Wolf should write. But won't have the balls to, because...(copyright) lawyers. 

Okay, the Whoniverse is Earth (Dimension) 5556. Marvel had the Doctor Who comic right from 1979 until 1999. So it is part of the comics that form the basis of the MCU. With that technical detail out of the way, where did I get this idea...

Recently I watched two ScreenCrush videos about IronHeart. The first was about who (else) made a deal with Mephisto, while the second was about possible future plots created by the show. And that was when a possible road map sprang into my head.  

Basically, this is what I would do if Doctor Who went forward. As for what the deal is with the red text...I wrote a version 1.0, but then had some addition ideas. So now you're reading version 1.1. Is it any good ? Well, I hope you will read it and decide for yourself. So enough preamble and on to...

The Plot

Our plot starts in the days of ancient days of Gallifrey. Here, Mephisto make a deal with two of the planet's Founding Fathers...Rassilon and Omega. But he does not succeed making in making a deal with Tecteun, who is too busy with her Timeless Child experiments. 

This deal is why (as stated in the episode The Five Doctors)  the official history say that Rassilon was a great leader, while the myths say he was terrible tyrant. The myths are true, because the Mephisto's influence was corrupting Rassilon (and many of the ancients Gallifreyan/Time Lords, who were a pretty evil bunch).

And then Tecteun succeeds. She adds Regeneration to the mix. Now, when you make a deal with Mephisto, you're stuck with him for life and the afterlife. Humans only have ONE life. So the deal sticks. 

But in the End of Time (Part 1) the Tenth Doctor talks about regeneration to Wilfred Mott. And he says it's like dying. Everything he was dies and some new man saunters away. My take would be that because both the personality and the body that made the deal is lost, the deal doesn't stick. Humans are stuck with the deal forever, Time Lords are stuck for one Incarnation. They regenerate, the deal expires.

Which Omega figures out. More important, he starts broadcasting his theory far and wide. To all his people, who then start using this loophole to get out of their deals. Mephisto's control of Gallifrey is crumbling. 

In revenge, Mephisto makes Omega lose his marbles and manipulates the last few people he still has control over exile Omega into an alternate dimension...which is the place that The Rani was trying to liberate him from in the Reality War.

After the last of Mephisto's influence is gone, Rassilon then white-washes the history book to make it seem like he brought Gallifrey out of it's dark ages. And to score PR-points, he starts a campaign against evil. He destroys Earth 5556's copy of the DarkHold, he wipes out the local version of the Symbiotes, gets rid of the vampires, fights the Racnoss, etc, etc.

All of this turns around Gallifrey's image. And Mephisto sees this happening. Between losing the planet and them suddenly being know as ancient, powerful good guys, he is pissed. But then he finds the perfect person to make a deal with. The person who will let him wipe out the Time Lords. DAVROS. 

He gave Davros the knowledge to create the Daleks. And the downside, the cost for Davros of this deal is pretty obvious. The missing half of his body, the wheelchair, the mutations and the blindness. The whole Last Great Time War was Mephisto trying to get rid of the Time Lords. Except, it didn't work. Yes, they suffered a great deal. Yes, they went through the Hell of war. 

But as we saw in The Day of the Doctor, they survived. Thanks to the Doctor and Clara, with an assist by UNIT and the Zygons, they found hope. So he has to try again. His new plan...placing the Timeless Child files some place where he knew The Master would find them. And this time, it did the trick.

How to weave all of this into new episodes ? 

Originally, my plan was for a single page of the DarkHold to be the McGuffin that starts the plot. But that was slightly off, so....The Doctor is trying to figure out the identity of The Boss. The Boss not only employs Beep the Meep, they also own the Time Hotel. 

My plan is for Mephisto to be The Boss. So, why did M send Anita Benn to help the Doctor in The Reality War ? Well, he wasn't being kind. He didn't want Omega to tell the Doctor the truth about Gallifrey's ancient times. 

Following a trail of clues, the 16th doctor - played by Billie Piper - finds a single page of the DarkHold in the Gallifreyan archives. Which make the Doctor decide that she needs a companion....

Who I think the companion should be....

This whole thing is so unhinged already that I figure it's a case of Go Big or Go Home. So my pitch....Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson.

How would that come about ?:

The Doctor recognizes the page of the DarkHold and realizes that they will need an expert of Earth 616. (We learn that the Doctor has watched all of Agents of Shield and Agent Carter.) But the Doc also realizes they can't just pluck some random person from that universe. Fortunately, there is another option...

In the two parter Dark Water/Death in Heaven, Missy aka The Master tried to turn all of Earth's dead people into Cybermen. As part of that scheme, she used a piece of a supercomputer called the Matrix. A supercomputer designed to store the minds of dead people. 

That Matrix hard-drive was confiscated by UNIT and is still sitting in the Black Archives. So the Doctor snatches Coulson from the end of his life. Events from the Agents of Shield episode The End are not altered, nor are Seasons 6 and 7 of Agents of Shields. 

The only thing that is altered is that it was only Coulson's body that died. Everything else is safely in the Matrix. The Doctor grows Coulson a new body, one that lines up with Clark Gregg's current age - the body being older due to having to work with Earth limited technology - and they are off to the races...

The New Bit

Following more clues, 16 and Coulson eventually find their way to the planet of Karn. Home to the Sisterhood of Karn. The sisters are a religious order who guard an eternal flame and the secrets of Regeneration. The Sisterhood survived the Master actions and we learn that they have another page from the DarkHold.

Back in the days of ancient Gallifrey, the Time Lords removed two pages from the DarkHold as part of the study to figure out how to destroy it. One for themselves and one for the Sisters. The Time Lord page is the one the Doctor found in the archives. The Sisters used their knowledge to create a Mephisto detector with the DarkHold page as its power source.

The Sisters can't kill Mephisto, but they've figured out how to exile him from their universe. This is why he has taken on the alias of the Boss. He needs henchmen to his work. And he uses the Time Hotel to get around. Because if he used magic to move around, the Mephisto detector would go off and the Sisters would exile him.

The Conclusion

The Doctor sacrifies herself to use Regeneration energy to destroy the Time Lord page - exposing it to regeneration energy is how the ancient Time Lords destroyed the book back in the day - and becomes the 17th Doctor. 

This gives Coulson an opening. Using a spell her got from the Sisters, he goes back to Earth 616 and drags Mephisto along. This kills Coulson and leaves Mephisto locked out of Earth 5556 (again). But the Sisters have one last trick up their sleeve.

The Time Lords have a piece of technology called a Chameleon Arch, which can turn a Time Lord into a human. But the Sisters have figured out how to do the reverse. So Coulson regenerates into....and that's all we have time for today. To be continued...   

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302) 

The Darkness in Picard S3...

 ....That Nobody Is Talking About

The Borg have been defeated for once and for all ! Yay ! Long live the Federation. But....at what price did this victory come ? Yes, the Borg Collective is evil. Yes, they were planning to wipe out Earth and needed to be stopped. And the queen was an insane (insert whatever curse you think is best here). Picard and crew did what needed to be done. It's not them I'm doubting, but I think the situation is nowhere as black-and-white as it appears at first glance. 

Let's talk about a man called Fred....Fred is just a random guy living on random planet in the Delta Quadrant. Then one day the Borg roll up to ruin everybody's day by assimilating them. Including Fred. He loses his family, he loses his friends, he his loses his mind. And then the neurolytic pathogen ruins the collective. Let us look at the possibilities for Fred.

1. If he's really unlucky, he dies a horrible death and then gets eaten by Queen. Only to be briefly revived as a mindless cyber zombie when Picard and co visit. He is then put out of his misery when the Borg ship explodes.
2. The Pathogen simply kills him.
   
3. He gets stuck in regeneration mode, like the Cube seen in Let Sleeping Borg Lie. And then...
1. Because of people's fear of the Collective, nobody rescues him...ever.
2. Somebody comes across his Cube and he is given the 'Icheb Treatment / aka dissected alive for his implants".
3. Even if he get rescued by somebody who doesn't Icheb him, where's he going to go ? As I said above...friends, family, gone. And what about his homeworld ? Even if the Collective didn't total it, who knows how long Fred has been in the Hive Mind. Is his world still there ? Has it been taken over by somebody else ?....

Which takes us away from Fred and back to the bigger picture. As established by Voyager, Borg Space is big. And like any other nation, the Borg have neighbors. Neighbors who are going to figure out that the Collective is falling apart. And try to conquer their space, either by colonization or warfare. 

A situation that is going to lead to the death of innocents drones like Fred. Bloody wars between these states. Yes, the Federation has won, but the Delta Quadrant is burning. And let's not forget there is also the fact that everybody who was taken over, now probably has PTSD. Not mention the elephant in the room...

Where did this pathogen come from ? Neurolytic Pathogens don't exactly grow on trees. And even if it could be made in the Sickbay of the USS Voyager, I doubt The Doctor would allow it. Yes, he was part of the developing of the nanite weapon they used against Species 8472. But that was with the galaxy at stake. And Voyager's goal was not genocide. In fact, this was a major source of tension between Janeway and the Borg.

The only other option is that Admiral Janeway brought it with her from 2404 to 2378. But it doesn't answer the question of how she got it. Replicators don't make lifeforms. Somebody had to grow it. Somebody rather ruthless. Somebody know for attempting genocide by virus....

Basically, the whole thing screams Section 31. And where they failed when they tried to wipe out the Founders, this time they succeeded.

That's all I....No wait, it was.   But after sleeping on it for a night, it's not anymore. (Short) RANT ALARM !! 

What about the Borg splinter states ? The Borg Cooperative from the Voyager episode Unity and the Unimatrix Zero, whose former members were liberated. Are they gone as well ? Will Section 31 use the pathogen to wipe the Cooperative out to prevent the rise of new Collective !? Will Starfleet just stand for that ?

Moving on.....I know that some people consider Prodigy and Lower Decks non-canon. But based on the upcoming SNW / Lower Deck crossover, the folks running the show(s) think differently. Which brings us to "Let Sleeping Borg Lie". 

The USS Protostar crew managed to get out. But they had the luck of having a Medusan along for the ride. So how many of these dormant Borg ships are out there, waiting to ruin somebody's day ? These ships are basically landmines, ready to restart the Collective if whoever boards them messes up. 

In short, it's a huge frakking, bloody mess. And it's the Federation's fault. They needed to get back to the Delta Quadrant and get to cleaning it up. Or as Commander Adama would put it...

"You cannot play God, then wash you hands of the things you've created. Sooner or later, you can't hide from the things you've done anymore."

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (Commander Nash)