(by Collin R. Skocik) The Enterprise travels backward in time to the year 1968 to do historical research, to find out how the planet survived the year 1968. (1968 was a bad year, for sure, but I’d be more interested in how we survived 2017!) Upon arrival, the transporter intercepts a powerful beam that’s transporting … Continue reading Assignment: Earth
Season Two
Bread and Circuses
(by Collin R. Skocik) Following a trail of space debris, the Enterprise chases down the lost survey vessel Beagle to a planet with a civilization remarkably like Earth’s twentieth century...except that Rome never fell. At this point, I’m really sick of all the parallel-Earth stories. Are we going to explore the galaxy or are we … Continue reading Bread and Circuses
The Ultimate Computer
(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) Dr. Richard Daystrom, a legend in his own time, the genius who designed the Enterprise’s duotronic computer system, has now designed the ultimate computer—the M5 Multitronic Unit. Now the M5 is installed aboard the Enterprise for a series of tests and wargames. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, … Continue reading The Ultimate Computer
The Omega Glory
(by Collin R. Skocik) The Enterprise happens upon the starship Exeter, abandoned and orbiting the planet Omega IV. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Lt. Galloway beam aboard and find the ship strewn with uniforms lying about, filled with little white crystals. McCoy discovers that the white crystals are what’s left of the crew; the entire crew … Continue reading The Omega Glory
By Any Other Name
(by Collin R. Skocik) Responding to a distress signal from an apparently uninhabited planet, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Yeoman Thompson, and Lieutenant Shea are captured by beings called the Kelvans. Having come all the way from the Andromeda Galaxy, their ship was destroyed in the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy, and they came … Continue reading By Any Other Name
Patterns of Force
(bu Collin R. Skocik) While investigating the disappearance of cultural observer John Gill on the planet Ekos, Kirk and Spock discover that Gill has transformed the planet into a new Nazi Germany, with himself as fuhrer, and the people of the neighboring planet, Zeon, as the scapegoats. This is not the episode I needed to … Continue reading Patterns of Force
Return to Tomorrow
(by Collin R. Skocik) Deep under the surface of a dead planet is a vault filled with receptacles containing the consciousness of the last handful of survivors of a powerful race of humanoids that wiped themselves out five hundred thousand years ago. Most of the receptacles have lost their energy, but three remain—Sargon, the leader … Continue reading Return to Tomorrow
A Private Little War
(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article) Long ago, on his very first planet survey, young Lieutenant James T. Kirk visited the planet Neural and stayed with a hunter named Tyree. He was impressed with the peaceful planet and felt that its primitive civilization was in many respects superior to humans. Now, many years … Continue reading A Private Little War
The Immunity Syndrome
(by Collin R. Skocik) While investigating the disappearance of the starship Intrepid and loss of contact with the entire Gamma 7A solar system, the Enterprise plunges into a mysterious zone of darkness and encounters a gigantic, spacegoing single-cell organism that feeds on energy. It’s a race against time to find a way to destroy the … Continue reading The Immunity Syndrome
A Piece of the Action
(by Collin R. Skocik) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to Sigma Iotia II to study, and hopefully correct, the contamination caused by a visit by the spaceship Horizon a century ago, before the Prime Directive went into effect. What they find is a civilization of machine gun-toting gangsters. It seems the Horizon left behind … Continue reading A Piece of the Action
Principled Thoughts 