What Destiny was and what could have been.

This is for people who want to know what Destiny's purpose was in my Stargate Universe continuation. But don't want to listen to the whole Stargate: Nova Roma audiobook series. I didn't go with what the canon show was planning for the ending. (Or what I think they were planning to do, because of stuff Joe Mallozzi posted on-line over the years.) I figured that not using their ending reduced my chances of getting sued. (I didn't think the chances of that happening were that big, but better safe then sorry.) 

Destiny's Goal

Our starting point is the folks that build the planet of Eden. These people are called the Zovaris by the local species. The name is a contraction of the words Zov - which translates are Mystery - and Aris, which translates are people. So literally Mystery People. 

The Zovaris existed in at least two universes. One version in the main Stargate universe and one live 42 universes away. For reasons lost to time, both versions of the Zovaris needed to construct extra habitable planets. And this is where we learn the difference between the two versions of the species. The main universe Zovaris were wise and patient

They started with a small asteroid and slowly worked their way up to the final product. The final product being Eden and its star. As we saw on the canon show, things worked out. The other guys were idiots. They went straight to trying to built Eden and its star. And it blew up in their faces, big time. 

Think of the multi-verse as a pile of glass panes. The idiot Zovaris created an unstable mass that shot through those plates like a bullet. Now, when you shoot a single bullet through a strong enough window, you get a single hole surrounded by these cracks radiating outward like frozen lightning. 

Fortunately, the Ancients of the universe the idiot Zovaris detected these cracks and built a ship to follow one of the cracks and mend it. That ship was called Destiny. But the only way to do its job, was to travel faster then light, but NOT through hyperspace. Eventually, this Destiny reaches the hole, which is a rift to the universe "underneath" her home universe. Let's call it Universe Two. 

They successfully close the rift and undone the damage. But it's such a violent event, that this Destiny ends up stranded at the start of Universe Two. The crew lowers the ship into a layer of hyperspace like a submarine diving under water. They then modify the FTL drive to freeze the ship in time and activate a transmitter, creating the signal in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. 

But what about the people aboard? They became the first ever to ascend. That done, they headed out into Universe Two. They made sure that the local Ancients not only found the signal, but also built a new version of Destiny. And thus, the cycle was created. 

Our hero ship is not the first Destiny. It is the 42nd incarnation. The story ends with our Destiny reaching the rift and finding the 41st incarnation. Using it as a power source, the crew dial home. The power draw causes a chain reaction that destroys Destiny 41. Our ship is last seen riding through the rift and closing it. Her crew made it back home and the job is done.

What Could Have Been

I figured I was pushing my legal luck as it was, so I didn't include this. But if I thought I could have, I would done so.

But what about our "Bullet"? For lack of a better term. That unstable mass that the idiot Zovaris created is still out there, punching from universe to universe. It is losing energy, but it is also travelling through space. Being exposed to energy fields, particles and dimensions, transmuting as it goes.

The first connect I would have made, starts with the fact that - because it is slowing down - the cracks keep getting shorter. Eventually, it only punches a hole and there are no major cracks at all. And thus was born the Rift at the Heart of the Medusa Cascade. Which the Doctor once closed. Where Davros attempted to detonate the Reality Bomb.

However, our he bullet kept going, until finally it reached a universe where it had just enough energy to punch in. But not enough to punch back out. So it became just another piece of space debris. Well, until it slammed into a place that humans would one day call Wakanda. And yes, I know the Mount impacted millions of years ago. But my explanation is that our bullet doesn't travel in a straight line. It's like a pinball, bouncing around through space and time until it crashes into Wakanda.

And that's it.

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka  Commander Nash) 

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.

Are the Clouds the key to Mass Effect 5?

 

I was thinking about the end of Mass Effect 3 and then I realized something. When we see the effect of the Crucible affect the Mass Relay network, we see it travel the galaxy. But, here's the thing, we see it travel ONLY the galaxy. 

How is this news? After all, Mass Effect Andromeda made it clear that the Reapers were only a Milky Way problem. Because if we zoom out just a bit, we see that the Milky Way has several satellite dwarf galaxies.

There's the Sagittarius Dwarf Spherical Galaxy and two Magellanic Clouds, one big and one small. And the end of the Mass Effect 3 shows crystal clear that they are not affected by the crucible's energy.

Which raises the question: Why? The simplest answers....Because they don't have any Mass Relays. They are outside the network. Which also puts them outside the cycles and the Catalyst's experiment. And in the millions of years and thousands of cycles, nobody has figured it out? I'm having a hard time believing that.

This also raises questions about the Andromeda Initiative and the Benefactor. Why foot the bill for a mission to Andromeda when there are three safe zones on your doorstep in universe terms? What's in those dwarf galaxies that the Benefactor doesn't want the people of the Milky Way to see? Could be our old friends, the Jardaan? Could the Benefactor BE a Jardaan? Let's ponder that for a second...

We know that the Andromeda Initiative's secret goal was to ensure the survival of the Milky Way species. But what if the Benefactor already figured out that the Milky Way species coming out on top was only a matter of time? And because the Benefactor is a Jardaan, they also knew what would happen once they were gone...a Jardaan invasion and enslavement of the Milky Way. 

So funding the Andromeda Initiative isn't about the Milky Way species surviving the Reapers. It's about them surviving what the Benefactor knew was coming after they were gone. And if Jien Garson figured out that was why the Benefactor footed the bill....well, that would give them motive to have Garson killed.

And that's all I have,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (@Dantes74302) 

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) 

Another Piece of Trek Kurtzman Ruined

Hi Alex,

With all this talk about Star Trek's television side, I have totally forgotten that there is another part of the Trek universe that Kurtzman and his hacks at Secret Hideout ruined. For decades, dozens of novelist have worked hard to continue the universe on the written page.

In 2021, because of Kurtzman and his dreck, a trilogy of novels called Star Trek: Coda did a hard reset on the novel-side of Star Trek. Everything set post Star Trek: First Contact (2373) has been given the Expanded Universe treatment. (If you don't know what that means, ask a Star Wars fan when happen to their novels when Disney took over and I'm sure they will explain it to you in detail.)

And yes, Peter David fans, that means all of Star Trek: New Frontier is now gone from the timeline. I'm not blaming David Mack, who wrote Coda. I'm blaming Kurtzman. 

It is his mismanagement of the franchise, his disregard for continuity and his utter lack of writing skill that caused this. Secret Hideout could not write the ingredient list to a box of cereal without losing the plot and having somebody burst out into tears at least three time before getting to the end.

They are complete and utter hacks !

Okay, rant over. Have a nice day,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

How To Fix Star Trek in 5 steps

Hi Rob,

It's been a while since I've written in, so I hope this letter finds you well. I'm not going to beat around the bush and get straight to the point. Kurtzman Trek sucks !! It's either people crying in corridors or dumb, nonsensical set pieces. So, without further ado, here is my action plan to reset Trek and clear the deck for new, good post-Kurtzman shows...

Step 1:  Introduce a villain. Make the current mess of a timeline somebody's fault. An unseen puppet master has been deliberately messing up the timeline. Let's call him....Captain Black, after the Mysterion agent from Captain Scarlet. 

Step 2: Captain Seven and the crew of the Enterprise-G figure this out. One of the stupidest things about Picard Season 1 was that the Federation just let Mars burn. We learn that they did try to put out the fires, but Captain Black sabotaged the attempt. So the Enterprise-G goes back in time and puts a wrench in his plan. The good news is that the fires are extinguished, the bad news is that Captain Black escapes.

Step 3: You now have a major point of divergence in the timeline. And the further you go forward, the bigger the changes get. Like a tsunami as it approaches the coast. But first to address the elephant in the room....why do the incursion here ? Why not prevent the attack on Mars altogether ? 

Because IMHO the only good post-2005 Trek is the stuff Kurtzman didn't work on. Lower Decks was not my cup of tea, but it was well made. Together with Prodigy and Picard Season 3, its the baby we don't want to throw out with the bathwater. 

By doing this way, we're not messing with the Lower Decks and the end of Prodigy. But Mars can now be resettled, maybe even by Romulan refugees, which will influence the timeline and remove Discovery Season 3, 4 and 5. Along with Star Trek: 90210 aka Starfleet Academy. And now we are ready for....

Step 4:  Go over the Picard Season 3 scripts with a fine toothed comb.

People are saying 'but if we keep Picard season 3, we're also stuck with Seasons 1 and 2.' Are we ? Pay attention, what do the characters actually say ? The SPECIFIC you are stuck with, the IMPLIED you can jettison. 

For example, Jack says that Jean-Luc told him that Q was dead. People extrapolate from that this means that the whole Confederate/2024 trip is therefore stuck in canon. No, it doesn't. All this means, is that Picard was there when Q kicked the bucket. The circumstances, the time, the place...none of that is locked down by what Jack said.

Another example...we see Raffi aboard the La Sirena. But the "fact" that it used belong to Rios and then by Seven, is not referenced. So is that it's pre-season 3 history in this rewritten timeline ? For all we know, Rios never left Starfleet in this timeline. 

So, study the episodes, takes notes and then get to work... With research and clever writing, I think you can cut Picard Season 3 loose from Seasons 1 and 2.

Step 5:  Deal with Captain Black

So now we have dealt with the post-2385 mess. But what about Strange New Worlds and the first two season of Discovery ? Well, I'm thinking that with the timeline partially repaired, the USS Relativity could show up. 

Future Starfleet has detected the Enterprise-G's shenanigans. And since now-Captain Ducane has worked with Seven before, it made sense to send the Relativity to back the Enterprise-G up. Together, they hunt down Captain Black in the far distant past, where he has been messing with the geology of Boreth. 

That's how the time crystals from Discovery came about. And they are the roots case of Micheal Burnham's history. The two ships stop Captain Black and create a cascade effect that rewrites the 23rd century back to how it was before. Captain Black is thrown in the Relativity's brig and both ships go home. 

And we are left with a nice, clean slate of a future. While keeping the few nuggets of gold and getting rid of all of Kurtzman's dreck. Thoughts ?

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X)

Agents of Shield's Biggest Plothole

 Hi Alex, 

To pass some time on a bored Saturday evening, I decided to write you a letter about an old, but good one. What IMHO is the biggest plot-hole in Marvel's Agents of Shield. During Season 5, the team is zapped forward in time to a post-apocalyptic Earth. 

In the year 2091, most of humanity has been wiped out by some unknown disaster, the Kree are running the place and the environmental conditions are nasty. 

In the end, the Kree are defeated and the remains of humanity are liberated. It is also revealed that the Earth was quaked apart a few days after the team left. Coulson and co travel back to what for them is the present, while the 2091 set about rebuilding Earth. 

Except, here comes the plot-hole....The 2091 folks are frakked on matter what. 

Why ? Well, let's begin with Coulson and co. Now that they know that the disaster is coming, the Shield folks set about preventing the disaster that wrecked Earth. And they succeed. Which means that the version of 2091 they visited now no longer exists. They've been erased for existence.  

But let's say they somehow escape that fate. Through some multiversal shenanigans, their timeline is still out there. And they manage to re-assemble the Earth using Kree technology and Inhuman/Mutant powers. There are two things that will still doom them...

1) The Earth shattered is the Mother-of-all extinction events. The bulk of Earth's flora and fauna are gone forever. But....

2) ...A key piece of Earth's ecosystem isn't ON it. It's in orbit of it. When the Earth was quaked, the planet's gravity field was also shattered. And without that gravity, there is nothing to keep the moon in orbit...

...which means that 2091 Earth is still doomed. Don't believe me ? Go to YouTube and ask what would happen if the Moon disappeared. Long version short, it's not good.

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

My Pitch For Star Trek: Elite Force - Legendary Edition

Hello World, 

So it's been a while since we've had a good Star Trek game. And the Trek franchise could use a win. Fortunately, there were two games back in the early 2000's.....Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (2001) and it's sequel Star Trek: Elite Force II (2003). There is also an expansion for the first game that adds a virtual USS Voyager that you can tour and do stuff in.  

Both First Person Shooters, these games tell the story of the Hazard Team and its leader Alex Munro. The Hazard Team is an elite force of security officers created by Tuvok to help the USS Voyager survive the dangers of the Delta Quadrant. 

Elite Force II sees Voyager return to the Alpha Quadrant and the Hazard Team disbanded. Fortunately, in 2380, Alex Munro has a chance meeting with Captain Picard and the team is reformed aboard the USS Enterprise-E...

Time to move on to my Board Room Pitch...

Phase One

These games are OLD and so are their graphics. Especially the first game is VERY blocky. So Phase One is overhauling what is already there. The Legendary Edition would include both games and an extra section. 

This extra section would have the virtual USS Voyager and several mini-games that you can unlock in Elite Force II. There would be no changes to the story, with one exception...

• The one flaw in Elite Force II's story is the lack of Geordi LaForge. No offense to Dwight Schultz, who did his best with Reginald Barclay (as Chief Engineer), but it wasn't the same without LaForge. So pay LeVar Burton to record lines, please...

Phase Two

These days, computer games are expensive. Nostalgia alone is not enough to get people to buy this game. And you have to give some extra for new players. So while I would not change anything (else) in the existing games, I would add a third section of story. This would start after the end of Elite Force II. Which brings me to...

The Setting:  USS Dallas

An Excelsior-class ship seen and wrecked during the events of Elite Force II. Her crew was rescued by the USS Enterprise-E and she was send to Starbase 12 for repairs. One of the main characters, Ensign Telsia Murphy was her Chief of Security while the team was disbanded. She ended up back on the Hazard Team after Enterprise came to Dallas aid.

The Set-up:

After Voyager came home, Captain Janeway recommended keeping the Hazard Team around. But she was ignored. At the end of Elite Force II, Captain Picard tells Munro that he is going to recommend establishing more Hazard Teams on exploratory vessels. 

In the new section, we learned that this is exactly what he did. Janeway has been promoted to Admiral and is able to influence Starfleet Command's reply this time around. So this time, the recommendation is taken. 

And because what happened to it during Elite Force II, the Dallas is picked as first ship to get a Hazard Team. Munro and Murphy are thus send to the Dallas to set up the new incarnation of the team. 

The Real-Life Reason:

The Dallas is already in Elite Force II. The map is going to get a graphic overhaul as part of Phase One anyway. This means that you don't have to create the map from scratch. You can simply modify it for the third piece of story.

Another reason is because there is only one voiced character other then Murphy of the Dallas crew that survives the events of Elite Force II, Chief Engineer Katarina Scott. And she can easily be written out. I'm thinking she's been reassigned to oversee construction of the Voyager-A, giving the game a nice Star Trek: Prodigy eastern egg. 

But more importantly, once she is written out the only voice actors you need to get back from the original cast are Munro's and Murphy's. Everybody else can be (relatively) cheap unknowns for this part of the game.

The Story: 

Starting six months after the end of Elite Force II, the new campaign opens with Munro and Murphy arriving aboard the Dallas. The ship, having been repaired and refit, now looks like the Enterprise-B version of Excelsior-class on the outside.

Dallas launches and heads towards Attrexian space to see how things are going there after the end of Elite Force II. (This is where the Dallas was wrecked.) However, before they arrive, the Dallas is intercepted by a small scout-ship belonging to race called the Paloric. 

The Palorician homeworld has been invaded by a hostile race called the Xavor. And the invasion is Munro's fault....Back in 2376, Munro destroyed a space station called the Forge. The Forge had trapped many spaceships, including a Xavor scout that was on it's way back to Xavor Prime to report that Paloric IV was worth conquering and plundering. 

Now the Munro and Murphy - with help of the Dallas crew and a new Hazard team - have to find a way to Paloric IV and clean up this mess...

And that's where my pitch ends.  

So why ?

Hi Alex, 

So I've recently kicked two posts out on my blog to tell what I would do if I had the keys to kingdom of Doctor Who. Long story short, I really mixed Doctor Who and the Marvel Cinematic Universe together using the freshly introduced character of Mephisto. 

But I feel I didn't go into the WHY enough. So here we are. Starting with...

Reheated Nachos ?

This is problem with the current Doctor Who era. There is a LOT of recycling ideas. This is called Reheated Nachos by some fans. The biggest example of this is Gallifrey being destroyed in the Time War, then being restored and then being destroyed AGAIN in the Timeless Child arc. This is just lazy writing and plain stupid. And has angered plenty of NuWho fans.

Also, in my opinion, the Timeless Child arc didn't develop Doctor Who lore. It flattened it, ruined it. The Master 'happened' to find Timeless Child ? Yeah, right. It's more lazy writing. By putting a Big Bad - Mephisto - behind it you are retro-actively removing the 'coincidence/laziness' from these two big plot points. 

What Did Disney Get for Their Money ?

So far, not much....a single one special appearance by one D-list villain (Meep the Beep) and declining ratings. While the people making Doctor Who are not really listening to Disney. Yeah, I'd pull the plug as well. 

Right now, the fact that it is Disney, specifically that is giving the BBC/Bad Wolf a bag of money, is not really adding anything. If it had been a Netflix bag of money, or an Amazon bag of money, nothing major would have been lost. (Meep the Beep is not that impressive.) 

Added to that, a lot of people have turned off from having to 'do homework' to understand to the MCU movies. My impression is that not a lot people watched IronHeart. Introducing Mephisto there was a bad move. 

By making Mephisto a big bad in Doctor Who, you are now properly weaving together Disney and BBC characters. By making it a detective story, you have an excuse for exposition. And thus - if properly written - you DON'T have to do any homework. The characters will fill you in, making it the perfect starting point. 

Really, dude, you want to re-introduce Phil Coulson to the MCU...

Good point. This is another reason why I want Yelena to be the one who hears the whispers of the Fob-watch in Avengers: Doomsday. When she joined the MCU, Coulson was long dead. They never met. Hence, she is the perfect audience stand-in. 

Because - like people who have never heard of Doctor Who (or chose not to watch it) - she has to learn/puzzle together what is going on. And the audience is learning with her. It's a detective story/sub-plot and we're going with the detective and putting it together. Again, no need for homework.

And that's all I have for today,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

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) 

My Pitch For Mass Effect Andromeda 2.0

 

Hi Alex,

First of all, I know that the tradition is to make an elevator pitch. But this subject is too long. So let's call it a boardroom pitch. And thanks for listening to my ramblings. So, here we go...

Boardroom Pitch for Remaking ME: Andromeda

To begin with, the folks at BioWare have made it clear that Mass Effect 5 will be a sequel to both the original trilogy and Andromeda. I'm not making this up, Mike Gamble - the big cheese himself - has said this. 

The problem is that to do that to properly, you will need to able to import choices from Andromeda into ME5. 

Now, I know that there are probably Andromeda critics thinking that there can't be that many. Or that they aren't that important. Well, let's see what I can think off from the top of my head. Ready ?

1. Tell me about your Ryder. Scott, Sara, somebody custom to your play-through ?
2. How is your Ryder doing in the romance department ?
3. Which loyalty missions did you do ?  
4. How did things work out with the Krogan for you ?
5. Did you cover for the Asari Pathfinder or reveal the truth ? Did you let her stay or replace her ?
6. Who rules Kadara Port these days ? 
7. Did you get all the golden worlds to full viability ? 

And I'm sure there are more waiting in the wings. But this is where we hit a major issue. Because Andromeda is runs on the Frostbite Engine, whereas ME-5 will be a Unreal Engine game. And those two pieces of software are not compatible. As things stand, you cannot import an Andromeda game save into Mass Effect 5.

But dude, Andromeda sucked anyway. They'll just do an interactive recap comic like they did before.  

First of all, I know that Andromeda was not everybody's cup of tea, but that is just rude to people who did like it. Keep it polite, please. Second, that would be a long comic. And if you know nothing about Andromeda, you'd be taking shots in the dark. Not to mention the simple fact that making Andromeda 2.0 - a Unreal Engine redo - might crank up Andromeda's sales numbers.

There is also a long-term argument to be made. Andromeda 1.0 came out in 2017...now, let's say ME-5 comes out in 2029 and is a giant hit. ME-6 gets green-lit and releases in 2035. That's great, but what if you want to do another Legendary Edition ? One that collects Andromeda, 5 and 6 ? 

As the last couple of years have taught us the hard way, the video game industry can be a volatile place. In 2040, are there still going to be people who know Frostbite ? Or it is going to be as obscure and forgotten as both the planet and code of Kobol ? (If you get the reference, good on you. If you don't, see what I mean ?) It's going to be much easier to upgrade Andromeda if it's already in (a version of) the Unreal Engine. 

Finally, anything you bring over from Andromeda to ME-5 is going to have to be redone from scratch anyway. Basically, if you don't redo Andromeda, you'd end up teasing the people who did like it with a game they'll never get. You risk turning off the Andromeda fans from your franchise. 

And for those complaining about Andromeda's writing....Who knows what other changes can be hung off this redo ? Which brings up to the big question....

Who Would Do This Remake ?

BioWare has recently laid off a lot people. And they are going to have their hands full with ME-5 for the next couple of years. If they are supposed to do this after ME-5, it's going to take forever to come out. My suggestion would be to outsource it. But to who or whom ? One word....Obsidian. Why ? 

1. Fallout: New Vegas proved that Obsidian can make games in franchises they didn't start and get the flavor right.
2. Obsidian made The Outer Worlds in Unreal Engine. Not only do they know the engine, they have the chops and knowledge to do a space RPG. Which brings us to reason 3...
3. Availability. Once Outer Worlds 2 is out the door - which will happen this year - Obsidian would be able to start this project. Let's look at some other options...
1. Machinegames....Just finished Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, now knee-deep into making the final Wolfenstein game.
2. Bethesda....Hands full remaking their own old titles. And we don't want a game full of glitches and bugs.
3. EA....simply don't trust them to get it right. 

Also, if anybody could tweak the writing in Andromeda, my money would be on Obsidian. And let's circle back to the long-term roadmap above. Andromeda wouldn't have a hard deadline. You could release ME-5 in 2029 and then drop Andromeda 2.0 anywhere you want in the gap between 5 and 6. Essentially slicing the time between releases.

Not to mention that with a planned release in the gap, you could add story to Andromeda 2.0. You could wrap up the loose ends of the Kett and the Quarian Ark. Yes, I know there was a novel about the Quarian Ark. But that only dealt with the virus. 

The Ryders still need to save their bacon from the Scourge and the Kett. You could even end Andromeda 2.0 with Ryder and company leaving for the Milky Way, with ME-5 showing the other end of the trip. (Not to mention that extending the story would give you even more choices for the game save to import, which would change things in ME-5 and give that game even more replayability.)

That's all I have,

Regards, 

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Shepard) 

P.S.

The Alex this 'letter' is addressed to is not a real person. It's my version of Kitty / Dear Sigmund. 

As for the pic that comes with this letter....I'm writing a Mass Effect Fan-Fic about the SSV Ain Jalut, the original SR-2 / Normandy's sister-ship, and made my own assignment patch for the ship.  

Mass Effect 5 clue in plain sight ?

To begin with, I have not played Mass Effect Andromeda. But I was curious about the game, so I've been digging around the Mass Effect wiki. And that's how I ended up reading the entry on the Scourge. Which is how ended up going into theory mode. Hold onto your hat, because it's going to be a wild ride...

The sentence that send my brain spinning was: 

The "Opposition" – the term SAM translated for the Scourge's detonators – learned their secrets from an entity called "Jheln".   

Wait a minute....Jheln ? That's a lot like Jien. As in Jien Garson, in the founder of the Andromeda Initiative. And for alien speakers, names can be a real pain to pronounce. So add a little phonetic distortion/translation trouble in there and you're off to the races. 

There is one problem. Jien Garson is...and I'm using the technical term here...dead. She was murdered shortly after arriving in Andromeda. But then I remembered Paragon7's YouTube videos. Long story short....she's been pitching the idea that Alliance has been working on an AI based on Shepard. Which made me wonder...

If there can be an AI based on Shepard, why couldn't there be an AI based on Jien Garson ?   

And if that AI, let's called her Jien 2.0, can figure out a way to travel back into time then Jien 2.0 could become Jheln. So if Jien 2.0 is a thing, what will would BioWare do with it ? I don't know. But here's....

What I would do with Jien 2.0 ?

First of all, I'm weaving several of Paragon7's ideas into this. #Thanks. Now, our AI needs a creator. Since they don't care about the rules and we've seen them mess about with AI, I'm giving that role to Cerberus. 

The story begins with them studying (what's left of) The Collector Base.  Here, they discover that there is a wormhole connecting the black hole at the center of Milky Way with the black hole at the center of Andromeda. Cerberus doesn't have the means to travel through the wormhole. But they do figure out how use the wormhole to transmit message back and fro between 2186 and 2819. 

So now Milky Way Cerberus can talk to any undercover people they have in Andromeda. (Despite the 600 year time jump.) Milky Way Cerberus infiltrates the program working on the Shepard AI, while Andromeda Cerberus steals as much info as they can on SAM.  They combine the two and the result is Jien 2.0.

This explains the who and how. Which leaves us with why.... I'm thinking the real Jien Garson is no fan of Cerberus. But Cerberus (thinks they) can program Jien 2.0 to agree with their views. That would make this AI a powerful PR tool. It's the ultimate deep fake. 

But this is where things go off the rails...Jien 2.0 finds a flaw in the shackles and manages to break out. However, she doesn't make her move right away. Instead, she steals decades of archive data from every major stock exchange in the galaxy. That done,  she hijacks the temporal transmitter and uses it transmit herself into the past. And - with the stock market info - becomes the Benefactor...

*Dun, dun, dun !* The Benefactor then hitches a ride to Andromeda when the Arks launch. Jien 2.0 also arranges for the real Jien Garson to be murdered, so she can't figure out her existence. But real twist is that it was Jien 2.0 that introduced the 'flaw' in the shackles that allowed her to escape, making the whole thing a Bootstrap Paradox. 

Jien 2.0 then transmits herself back into Andromeda's past using another temporal transmitter, becoming Jheln and founding the Opposition. That's how Jheln knew all the secrets of the Scourge.....she stole of all of Initiative's research on it before leaving. 

What after that ? Well, in my version Jien 2.0 and the Opposition would resurface as the secondary bad guys. And that is my stab at my why Liara might need a Shepard from an alternate universe. Jien 2.0 is an unshackled, time-traveling AI. She knows the histories of people, species and places. She can read people's psychological profiles and predict their moves. 

But that capacity only works for people from her native universe. No matter which ending you picked - control, synthesis, destroy or perfect destroy - Liara needs a Shepard that Jien 2.0 has no data on. A Shepard with a different history. A Shepard that Jien 2.0 can't predict. 

This would also make a good McGuffin to get Ryder on the team. Jien 2.0's (predictive) math is probably calculated on Shepard's old squadmates. Swapping (some of) them out with Tempest crew might throw her for a loop long enough for them to catch her with her pants down a few times.

And that's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

From 2029 to 2039

 Hi Alex,

A while back, I took a stab at writing a re-imagining of Space: 1999. Because 1999 has come and gone, I changed the year to 2029. I managed to get the pilot done. But something was just...off. So when I tried to write episode two, I ended up grinding to a halt. 

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I needed to start from scratch. I left the one episode of 2029 up on Fanfiction.net and set writing version 2.0. Since we're (slowly) coming up on 2029, I decided to push the date back to 2039. 

And that's all I have for today.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)  

What current Hollywood should watch.

Okay, folks, I won't beat around the bush. In my opinion, 98 percent of modern Hollywood sucks. And it all comes back to bad writing. Characters are unlikable or unrealistic, plots tend to be thin and don't get me started on the messes of CGI and AI. My advice to modern Hollywood, watch these shows/movies from the past and learn what you have forgotten...

1. Twelve Angry Men

An excellent movie. If you want to see how to make a movie with only ONE set, this is the one for you. On top of that, all the twelve men are Caucasian. Yet, they are a wide spectrum of humanity because of their personalities and upbringings. This movie doesn't float on cheap action, or set pieces, it floats on writing, characters and ACTING. As does the next entry...

2. ER: Into That Good Night

...which is one of the best episodes the show ever did. It's so heart-wrenching that I can't even watch it when I do an ER re-watch. This episode proofs that a good story doesn't have be happy one. Nor does it have to have a happy end. Time to move on to...

3. Doctor Who: Listen

I know that people tend to be critical of the later Dr Who episodes. But this 12th Doctor episode is an excellent example of how to build tension using music. Try watching the episode with the sound off, but the subtitles on and you'll find it a lot less tense. 

4. Das Boot

And I don't mean the TV show remake. The original movie is a long watch, but it's worth it. Being about the Germans, this movie had an uphill battle to get its viewers aboard. But get aboard the viewers it did. It's an anti-war movie that shows the horrible costs. And that makes you sympathize with people who are supposed to be 'the bad guys.'

That's all the recommendations I have for today.

 Regards,

 Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

A Note on The Outer Worlds

 I love The Outer Worlds, but there is one simple problem with this game...it's too short. Combine that with the fact it's been ages since the announcement of Outer Worlds 2. Which raises the question....why didn't Obsidian kill two birds with one stone and kick a third DLC out the door ? 

Not only would this have helped keep the buzz going, we still have two planets on the map that we haven't been to....the ice planet Typhon and the gas planet Hephaestus. And yes, I know, the system map says that there is nothing for humanity on Typhon, except...

...Who do you think wrote that, in-game ? The Board....who probably claimed that so that nobody would visit Typhon and notice the gunships and the Hope parked in orbit. And it does have a valuable resource, because once you melt ice, you have this lovely thing called water. 

And water is everything. On top of that, who knows what surprises are waiting under the ice of Typhon. And then there is Hephaestus...

A whole planet full of miners. This would have been an excellent site for some post end-game/Brave New World shenanigans. Plus, all the companies have dirty secrets. Why should Hephaestus Mining be any different ? 

And they did own Scylla... So was it a coincidence that Clyde Harlow set-up his base there ? Or was he making sure that nobody dug up the area underneath his complex...

That's all I have for today.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Cough, cough, cough....

...blast this thing is dusty !

Hi Alex,

It's been a while, so I figured it was time to kick another letter out the door.

Are you okay ? It's been ages since I got a letter from you. Are things okay on the island ? Anyway, with N7 day coming up, I think now is a good time to talk about computer games. (Again ? Well, it's been a couple of months since my last post on the subject. So, here we go...)

My wish-list for 2025...     

Mass Effect (Next)

I have zero interested in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. But I am glad that it is about to be kicked out the door. Once it is gone, BioWare can finally start proper work on Mass Effect. So the sooner it is out the door, the better. I know it will be years before we actually get the game, but I'm wishing for more news on the game...

Wolfenstein 3

...which is the same situation for another two games...Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which is the game I don't care about) and Wolfenstein 3 (the game I actually want). Fortunately, Indy's game will launch on 9 December. Which means that 2025 will see Wolfenstein 3 going forward at last.

Outer Worlds 2

This game was announced back in 2021. The last update was in August 2024. Hopefully, it wouldn't be another three years before we get more information on this game. Come on, folks, give us some juicy details !

And that's all I have for now,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Wish list for Prodigy Season 3

In my last blog, I pondered how Prodigy could be used to clean-up the messy Trek time line. But there are plenty of other plots that I would love to see in Season 3. So, without further ado, my wish-list is....

Dal's History

Yeah, we know that Dal is an Augment. And that he was created by proteges of Dr. Arik Soong. But how does that work ? Remember, Arik was seen in the 2150's and Prodigy starts in 2383. There's a piece missing here....Plus, how did he end up with DaiMon Nandi ? And speaking of Nandi, I want our crew to go another round with her and give Nandi her comeuppance.

Another Borg Day

The Neurolytic Pathogen is spreading through the Borg Collective. We've seen shades of this in Let Sleeping Borgs Lie, but what about the folks from Unimatrix Zero ? Did Starfleet just abandon the Borg Resistance created by Captain Janeway and company to be cannibalized by the Queen ? I think the crew of the USS Prodigy would have something to say about that.

Vidiians and Ocampans

Since the Borg plot would see our crew going (back) to the Delta Quadrant, I'd love to know if the Think Tank (VOY "Think Tank.") actually did cure the Phage ? I hope they did, because that would allow to see how such a cure would affect the Quadrant as a whole. And to see what the Vidiians are like now / were like before the phage. And who hired the Tank to cure the Phage ? If it wasn't the Vidiians, that could spell major trouble.

And speaking of major trouble. The Caretaker gave the Ocampans five years worth of energy before he died. By the time of Prodigy, that energy has long since run out. Add to that, there's a whole lot of Kazon on the surface...

Love's Labor Found

Moving on....Starfleet has the bad habits of visiting worlds once and then forgetting about them. Let's not make the same mistake with the Enderprizians. Especially since they are a pre-warp race, which means that Garrovick's crash there opened up a whole can of worms. The Protostar crew did their best clean up said mess. But if they want to get it right, they need to keep an eye on the place.

Rev-12

What happened to the Unwanted ? Did they find a place to settle ? Or are they still travelling the Delta Quadrant ? Maybe helping people like an interstellar version of the A-Team ?

And Finally...

There is Ascenia. What happened to her after she got arrested ? Will the 98 liberate her to come back and cause more trouble for our crew ? And speaking of crew....

There are currently seven people aboard the USS Prodigy, but Zero says in the pilot that it takes at least 20 folks to operate a Protostar-class. While our heroes have been doing fine so far, if they are going up against the 98, they might want to do something about the massive hole in crew roster. And with Starfleet being short on people, our crew might have to get creative...

That's all I have,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

How to use ST: Prodigy to clean the timeline (Season 3 idea)

Before I get started....I was planning to send this letter to Robert Meyer Burnett by means of his website. Alas, GoDaddy is being a pain and blocking said site. So here we go...

Hello Rob,

With Prodigy Season 2 now out in the world and Skydance buying Paramount, the future of Trek in now flux. But one thing that remains constant are rumors that folks in the upper echelons think that Trek has gotten way to complicated. Messy timelines, multiple realities, etc. Since I don't trust Kurtzman to write a grocery list, I thought I would take stab at how to clean up the mess he's created. I figure that even people think my plan is stupid, it would get the conversation started. Spoiler warning, folks, here we go...

In Season 1 we learn that the USS Protostar went through a wormhole that send them from 2383 to 2435 in an alternate universe. The show's baddies, the Vau N'akat, weaponize the ship and plan to send it back to wipe out Starfleet. But Chakotay beats them to the punch and send the ship back on autopilot, wrecking their plan. So the baddies send a hundred ships to find it. Let put a pin in that. It's really important. 

Season 2 see our heroes trying to save Chakotay from 2435 Solum. Needless to say, it doesn't go according to plan. These leads to shenanigans as our heroes work to get the timeline back on track. In the end, they succeed and the Protostar ends up where she needs to be. Starfleet then makes peaceful first contact with Solum. Which brings us back to our pin...

The Protostar is not thing needed for the puzzle of Season 1 to work. Those one hundred ships still need to go after the Protostar in order for things to work out. Fortunately, because those one hundred ships are from an alternate universe, they are not affected by current day Solum getting its happy ever after. So how does this turn into a reset for the Trek universe ?

Because there are 98 Evil Vau N'akat (and their ships) out there that we haven't seen yet. They're scattered through time and space and affecting history all over the place. That's one whopping loose end that still needs to be dealt with. 

My season 3 would start with an alien called Dave attacking the USS Prodigy - the new ride our heroes got at the end of season 2 - because he thinks Gwyn is one of the 98. It's turns out some of the 98 did something that doomed his world. And now Dave wants revenge for his lost people. Which is cruelly ironic, since that is the same mission the 98 were on.

Our heroes now have to deal with Dave, the 98 and their influence on the timeline. This gives the writers a McGuffin which lets them decided what parts of canon they want to keep and which they want to dump. Because the 98 can be anywhere and affecting anything the plot requires them to. 

(Want to get rid of Discovery ? Have the 98 mess with Klingon history. Clean up the mess that was Picard season 1 and 2 ? Put one those Vau N'akat in the right time, place and job and you're off to the races.)

Even if you don't want to change things, maybe you can make the story better by world building and adding pieces. And yeah, I can hear people complaining "That makes it more Doctor Who then Star Trek". So ? Lean into it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Dave turned out to be alternate version of a certain wheelchair bound, Dalek creating, mad scientist. Stop being so crossover-phobic.

Anyway, Rob, that's all I have. Thoughts ?

Regards,

Ruben Hilbers