Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/greatexpectations.p1-5

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I am posting this for a friend. Please send all responses to

    [e-mail]

Dear Star Trek afficionado:
 What follows here is a 12-page script treatment for a ST: TNG episode.  I
woke one morning with these strange ideas in my head and managed to get them
into my computer before they disappeared.

 At first I wanted to sell the script treatment to Paramount and revel in t
he glory of having participated, however briefly, in the show we all think so
highly of.


 Then reality set in.

 3,000  unsolicited scripts arrive every year at the Star Trek studios, and
four poor assistant assistant editors have to read them all.  Fewer than .01
percent of these submissions are ever acted upon.  Not only that, but my
script involves two recurring characters, and Lolita
Fatjo's script submission guidelines suggest that scripts involving recurring
characters are
 developed in-house.

 Naren Shankar, one of the real TNG writers, and a fellow AOL member, was
nice enough to respond to my e-mail queries, but Paramount forbids him from
reading anything but complete scripts, and those only with the appropriate
release form.  He did inform me however, that he and his buddies have plans
for one of the recurring characters in question that would be incompatible
with my episode
's events in any case.

 What follows, therefore, will not be turned into a broadcast episode anytime
soon, but all of you electronically connected types can enjoy it anyway,
because here it i
s, on  your monitor rather than your TV.

 I used to be an English teacher before entering graduate school in
Philosophy, and the peculiar circumstances surrounding these twelve pages
lead me to propos
e the following country-wide collaborative writing project:

 What I am giving you is the scene by scene depiction of what happens.  The
episode is a complete story.  It is, however, only 12 pages.  What is missing
is all of the dialogue it would take to flesh this script treatment out to
the size of a shooting script (55-60 pages).  One reason for this is that I
seem to be better at plot than at dialogue, and the other reason is that I
want to share with you (anyone who reads this) the opportunity to do a bit of
Trek writing (I was amazed at how much more carefully I started to watch the
shows once I was trying t
o write one).

 Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to take whichever scene (or
two) interests you the most, and write it out, full dialogue and camera
information, in the format in which I have written the teaser.  Then send the
file (in a format I can open in Word on my Macintosh, plea
se) to me (SPEEDRAYCR) here on AOL.  My address on the Internet is
[e-mail]

Subject: THIS IS PART TWO

Great Expectations

a script treatment for Star Trek, The Next Generation
by Robert Kent
Stardate 5/2/93, all rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------
Teaser (i.e. the events that precede "Space, the final frontier. . ." and the
first commercial)

NOTE: formatting a script in ASCII text without tabs is a pain in the Romulan
behind, so the format will work as follows: the name of the character will be
in regular text, followed by the camera info in parentheses, followed by the
actual line in capitals on the next line.
thus:
Character   (Camera Info)
 LINE

Picard
(Command chair, looking up @45o, extreme closeup)
SHIELDS UP!

Picard   (panning back to show entire bridge)
StATUS REPORT!

Worf   (frontal, from below, moderate close-up)
HULL BREACH ON DECK 19, CARGO
 HOLD, NO CASUALTIES

Geordi    (spinning round to face Picard from engineering console)
WE'
VE LOST POWER ON DECKS 12 THROUGH 27, REESTABLISHING HULL INTEGRITY WITH
SHIELDS. SHIP'S ATMOSPHERE IS NOW CONTAINED.

Data    (seen from  over his right shoulder, with  camera looking down at
active console)
THE SHIP DID NOT APPEAR ON OUR SENSORS BEFORE IT FIRED ON US.  WE WERE HIT BY
A PARTICLE BEAM OF SOME KIND FROM THE WEAPONS CLUSTER BENEATH  THE SHIP
(pause)  SENSORS READ ANOTHER ENERGY BUILD-UP, SH
E'S FIRING!

the ship rocks to the impact, crew surprised at the force of the blow.

Worf
(seen from behind as we see the enemy ship, for the  first time, on the
viewscreen (graphic appears
here in Mac Word version))

WE'RE HIT, STARBOARD SIDE, DECKS 5 AND 6, PROBABLE CASUALTIES

Riker
    (seen twirling round, in same shot, to face Worf.)
WHERE ARE OUR SHIELDS!?

Picard
  (frontal shot, looking up slightly at him)
FIRE PHASERS, FULL SPREAD !

Geordi     (in same shot as Picard, but answering Riker)
SHIELDS ARE AT FULL STRENGTH, BUT THEY ARE HAVING NO EFFECT

 Worf     (still same shot, at his console.)
FIRING (phaser sounds), NO DAMAGE, THEIR SHIELDS ARE HOLDING

Picard
    (in chair, resolute, moderate close-up)
ARM PHOTON TORPEDOES

Data   (seen from Picard'
s chair, enemy ship huge in the viewscreen behind, the leading edge sparkling
where it encounters th
e shield's surface.)
CAPTAIN, THE ENEMY SHIP IS JUST OUTSIDE OF OUR SHIELDS, AT THIS RANGE A PHOT
ON DETONATION COULD CRIPPLE THE ENTERPRISE.

 Worf    (seen over  Riker's shoulder)
THEY'RE FIRING AGAIN  (ship shakes) SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO ENGINEERING,
(pause) 12 CASUALTIES

Geordi   (coming into view next to Worf, then returning to his console)
CAPTAIN, THAT LAST ATTACK DESTABILIZED THE ANTIMATTER
CONTAINMENT FIELD, WARP DRIVE IS OFF LINE UNTIL I CAN FIX IT.

Picard (looking at ship on screen thoughtfully, in same shot, as camera backs
off Riker.)
LIEUTENANT, CAN YOU PROGRAM FIVE TORPEDOES TO IMPACT ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE
ENEMY SHIP, SO THAT THEY WILL BE TRAPPED BETWEEN THE DETONATION AND OUR
SHIELDS, AND WE WILL BE PROTECTED FROM THE BLAST BY THEIR SHIP?
 (ship shakes, some sparks fly out of the conn)

Worf   (at console, seen from top of conference room door  to his rear,
looking down on Picard, who has stood and faced him. The ship on the screen
is glittering and the weapons cluster is visibly powering up for  another
assault.)
IT WILL TAKE A FEW MOMENTS CAPTAIN

Picard   (close up from the viewscreen, as he turns from Worf to face the
camera)
MAKE IT SO, YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS.

Geordi   (s
een small behind Picard, as captain's face tightens.)
CAPTAIN!  CONTAINMENT IS DOWN TO 20%.
I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO HOLD HER TOGETHER.
 (ship shakes, sparks fly out of the conn and into the ches
t and  face of the ensign stationed there.  She crumples to the deck )

The weapons cluster, slung below the rippled belly of the enemy ship,
throbbing with power, reflects the starlight dully as an iridescent glow
spills out of the open end that pushes up against the scintillating green
curtain of the Enterprise shields.  Moments before that glow becomes the next
and probably final burst of this battle, we cut back to the Enterprise
Bridge.  Sparks and smoke sputter out of the conn station, the red alert horn

is blaring, Troi's face reflects the fear and anxiety she is picking up from
the ship'
s crew as she clutches the arms of her chair, the ensign at the conn is
sprawled on the floor, moving slightly, as Dr. Crusher rushes to her aid. . .

Worf   (close up from the perspective  of the console.  His powerful hand
hovers above the firing button, close to the camera. . .)
TORPEDOES ARMED AND PROGRAMMED CAPTAIN.

Just as Picard is about to give the order to fire, a commlink voice
interrupts the scene:


CADET CRUSHER, PLEASE REPORT TO PROFESSOR SPINOZA'S OFFICE RIGHT AWAY.

Wesley (unseen)
COMPUTER, FREEZE PROGRAM.

Wesley, computer clipboard in hand (dinner tray and sweater at his feet),
appears in the middle of the suspended-action bridge, looks around with some
(tired) satisfaction at his c
reation, nods to the frozen crew members (Worf's hand still hovers over the
firing button),
particularly the Captain, and saves program "Crusher Procedures".  He exists
the now-gridlined holodeck (which, unlike the ones we have seen on the
Enterprise, has a viewing gallery with seating for 100 or so, (but no longer
has the sweater or tray)) into a distinctly not - starship corridor the
window of which looks out onto San Francisco bay during sunrise. . .

Cut to the Enterprise bridge, right where we left off, crew members braced
for the final blow, except now the lighting is normal, the alert is qui
et, and the consoles aren't smoking.  Data, the fastest to recover, checks
instruments and announces that the mystery ship has disappeared. Shots of
Picard, Riker, Troi, Worf, Geordi, etc. picking themselves up, straightening
their uniforms, regaining their composure and smiling at each other, happy to
be alive, but curious as to the reason for their reprieve.  Data spins from
his console and announces a correction: the instruments show that there never
was a mystery ship, nor an attack, nor any damage or casualties.  What there
is, however, is a used cafeteria tray and a sweater on the floor (where
Wesley had appeared when he interrupted the simulation).  Dr. Crusher picks
up the sweater quizzically, turns
to Troi, and says it belongs to her son. . .

 Cut to commercial one.

Background- The episode begins in what seems to be the middle of a crisis.  A
ship of unknown design and weaponry has uncloaked and fired.  Captain and
crew respond per expectations, a battle ensues, and the Enterprise is badly
damaged.  Just as the sinister mystery ship is about to blast the Federation
ship NCC 1701-D into oblivi
on, a commlink summoning Cadet Crusher to Professor Spinoza's office stops
the action, for this crisis is a simulation Wesley had been working on at
Star Fleet Academy. Wesley has pulled an all-nighter programming the Academy
holodeck for a presentation on officer teamwork in the required, and
rigorous, Star Fleet Official Procedures course.
Unbeknownst to Wesley, his intense, late-night singlemindedness has
unintentionally linked (via his emerging talents in created reality that the
Traveler has commented on in previous seasons) his simulation to the real
Enterprise, which we only realize as we head into the commercial.
Wes has, for the past several days, been running a simulated Enterprise
through its paces.  His experience should let him program these simulations
more accurately than his classmates, but so far all of his mock battles have
ended in defeat.  He has been unable to figure out why his simulated
 starship performs so poorly compared to his memories of the actual
Enterprise. While he isn'
t programming the simulated Enterprise to lose these battles,  part of the
problem is that he has programmed each character to act according to official
procedures, and official procedures do not capture the complexity of a real
situation.  The simulations end in disaster for the Enterprise  because the
simutlated crew does not have the magical integrity of the real crew, and Wes
hasn't figured how to program personalities and the subtleties of
interaction.  In other words, the real Enterprise does well in a crisis
BECAUSE it is the real Enterprise, with a real crew, who share a real mutual
trust and an expectation that things will work out.  It is this expectation
that provides the boost that lets the rea
l ship survive situations that Wesley's programmed ship does not.
Wes is starting to figure this out, and will test the hypothesis using a
crisis or two from previous seasons that the real Enterprise did survive.
When, later in the episode, the best simulation he can program crashes and
burns, however, he will have proven that the simulations are missing
something, but he cannot figure out what it m
ight be.  Since you can't program the unprogrammable, and you can't analyze
what you cannot program, the Starfleet Academy computational resources won't
help Wesley get any closer to the truth (though they have helped expose the
discrepancy).
As a final note, the simulation that began the episode was interrupted by the
commlink summons because Wes was 15 minutes late to an appointment he had
made with the Professor late the previous evening.


Subject: THIS IS PART THREE

Act One

- The Time Painter's ship :
We return from commercial to see a small but ominous ship enter an unknown
three planet system and stop.  A gloved hand roams over some kind of
chair-arm command c
onsole, the colorful buttons marked in an unknown runic script. The ship's
exterior is sleek and sculpted along the aggressive lines of a speedboat. A
curious probe emerges from the hull, which fades shortly after launch.  After
a brief pause, the planet below the ship explodes in a dazzling display
 of color: aurora's, ionic flares, and meteorite showers. One of the other
planets has disappeared, and the third now has enormous rings glittering in
the starlight, and an asteroid belt between the two planets provides an
almost impressionistic background in pastel hues. The pilot leans back in his
black jello-sling chair, smiling.  A group of similar beings, arranged in a
semicircle of similar chairs (without all the control buttons on the arms) in
front of a viewscreen - his audience -  ooh and ahh and wriggl
e their face-tentacles in appreciation of the pilot's artistic talents. (the
probe faded back into time, programmed to cause the necessary atmospheric,
geologic, and tectonic changes to produce the desired visuals - the pilot is
a painter, and his species use star systems for canvas. The problem, and
 the threat, is that this particular rogue artist and his audience don't
concern themselves with checking to see that the original canvas is
unpopulated before launching the climate-, and geology-
 altering probes. . .)

- Wes at Prof.'s office :
getting told that when he calls a Professor at 22:00 hours and asks for an
appointment for 07:00 the next morning, it is usually a good idea to be on
time.  Wesley apologizes, embarrassed by having gotten so caught up in his
course simulations and explains the difficulty he has had determining which
variable he has not accounted for in his programming: such th
at his simulations end in tragedy but the real world Enterprise doesn't  (in
fact, his programming is partly at fault because his lowered expectations are
embodied in his recent programming, and h
is confidence is still shaken by his friend's death the previous year).  The
scene ends with the
Professor asking Wes to run a simulation of a known Enterprise incident
(perhaps Riker's mixed strategy against the Borg and Locutus/Picard) so that
the simulation can be compared against a more known quantity.

- Dr. Crusher and Troi in Sick Bay :
getting Data to figure out how the sweater could appear on the bridge (the
same sweater that the dead cadet had borrowed, the cadet whose death has
inspired Wes to investigate the inaccuracies of simulations with such zeal -
(because the simulation of the fatal maneu
ver had worked, and the real thing had gone wrong (the dead cadet's fearful
expectation had provided the crucial divergence from the predicted outcome,
whereas the positive expectation of the Enterprise crew (largely creditable
to the unprogrammable, but real, inspirational influence of Picard) provides
them with unpredictable escapes))
Dr. Crusher has examined the sweater and found fresh traces of Wes (skin
cells, genetically traceable pheromones, hair) that prove that Wes was
wearing it within the last 6 hours (i.e. during the middle of his
all-nighter).  She has also discovered several long blond hairs
that prove that he has had company recently (Senior Cadet Veronica "Nikki"
Everest, who led a recent research trip to Cambridge for a number of
promising cadet physicists to the planet'
s best (and oldest) theoretical laboratories.  Before returning to SF
Academy, Nikki and Wes junketed off to Paris for the weekend, and somehow her
hair got all over his sweater. . .); hairs which do not match the DNA of
anyone ever aboard the Enterprise, but do match Starfleet records of a Cadet
Everest. . .

- Geordi, Riker, and Worf in engineering :
trying to reconstruct the characteristics of the weapons-fire they all think
they witnessed (as Data has told us, the Enterprise computer has no record of
the attack). They are investigating because the weapons had worked in a way
that seemed to be impossible.  What seemed to be impossible was that they
continued to pummel the Enterprise despite the fact that the shi
elds were at full strength. The weapons are, of course, of Wesley's design,
and are particularly good at phasing along their beam so that the shield
cannot recognize them, but still damage their target because 400 meters later
the beam is back in phase with the matter of the ship (and it is this 400
meter period of the particle beam's phasing effect that requires that the
enemy ship be so close to the shields).  Geordi, with his experience of the
Romulan phase converter/ cloaking device, gets the idea and explains it to
Riker and Worf . They discuss the implications of a shield penetrating
weapon, and Riker tells Geordi to come up with some way to multi-phase the
shields so as to defend against it
 in case the mystery ship reappears and decides to be real.

- The Time-Painter's ship :
in a new solar system, this time with a triple sun and one planet with
multiple moons.  Briefer visions of programming the desired effects, and
launching the probe. The beginning of the colorful changes are seen from on
the planet this time, sweeping across the horizon and phasing into place in
the foreground simultaneously.  There is primitive vegetation and insect life
on the original planet, nothing particularly fancy, nothing we will feel
particularly sorry for, but life just the same; life that disappears as the
colorful sand storms sweep across the remodeled terrain.  The camera lifts
off the surface, viewing ever wider expanses of violent, but colorful, storms
and volcanic upheaval on the now clearly lifeless planet.

Commercial two.


Act Two

- Enterprise vs. Borg replay on Star Fleet Academy Holodeck :
using old episode footage, interspersed with new tidbits showing the Borg
assault on the Enterprise having more effect than Wes remembers.  After it
seems clear that the simulation is turning out differently, Wesley
's voice calls out for a pause, and he appears standing in the middle of
space, about half as tall as the Borg ship.  He appears confused by how the
simulated battle is turning out, inspects the cratered surface of the
Enterprise Saucer section which is floating in space just next to him,
dictates into a memopad to check Star Fleet records of the battle, because he
is sure that the saucer had not been so badly hit during the real encounter.
Nor, for that matter, had the battle bridge, and the shuttle carrying Data
and Worf had only been destroyed after they had rescued Picard/Locutus.  He
disappears again
 as the simulation is continued. The Enterprise is crippled, and Worf is seen
picking up Riker'
s bloodied corpse in the semi-darkness as soon as he beams back from the
too-soon destroyed shuttle.

- Wes at Professor's office :
late afternoon sun (same day).  Wes relates the discrepancy between the
simulation and the actual events, and postulates, expecting to be told that
he is suggesting the impossible, that perhaps it is the expectations of the
real people on board that shaped the outcome.  The
 Professor starts to dismiss Wesley's suggestion as well-intended but naive
considering the
most recent physics experiments at Cambridge and the Dystrom Institute, as
well as the Federation's centuries-long inability to quantify any kind of
telekinetic effects in humans, when a disembodied voice
states "Nevertheless, Wesley is correct.  Just because you can't measure the
effect does not
 imply that it is not there."  The body that the voice belongs to, the
Traveler, phases into sight between Wes and the rather surprised-looking
Professor.  Wes introduces the two, and it turns out that the Traveler is
familiar with Spinoza, for he is going to publish the most lucid and correct
work on the creation of space time perspectives (though, like his philosopher
namesake, few people will ever realize t
his).
 The Traveler has come to find Wesley because his people, and their special
abilities, are in jeopardy.  The renegade Time Painter  (who is, we discover,
a Rowsha so unconcerned with how his artistic expression impacts on other
life forms that his own notoriously arrogant and unethical people have placed
a death sentence, in absentia, on him and his supporters) is about to
rearrange the planet o
n which the first of the Traveler's species, then traveling more
conventionally, learned how to create and manipulate space-time.  If the
circumstances of that particular historical incident are altered, then the
entire species, if it is still alive, might be without the capacity to heal
the small di
screpancies that endanger the fabric of space-time.  The cosmic repercussions
of the Universe'
s never having had access to those abilities would be incalculable.   He is
unable to stop the Time
Painter independently, because the Time Painter's history-altering technology
nullifies the Traveler
's influence on events.  The only hope, therefore, is a federation ship, none
of which are near t
he scene.  Only by combining Wesley's budding powers (evidenced in part by
his simulation's effe
ct on the real Enterprise) with the Traveler's own, in conjunction with
having access to a cooper
ative ship with the potential to neutralize the Time painter's technology
(cooperation that only his friend Wesley can secure on short notice), will he
have a chance.  Wesley, in addition to doing a favor for a friend, will
preserve the beneficial effects that the Traveler and his people have been
responsiblge for over the millennia.
 At this point, the Professor's office begins to fade to a vision of the same
geography ripped violently by some other-historical cataclysmic event.  The
Traveler closes his eyes in concentration and the familiar office walls
reassert themselves.  Time is clearly running out.

Commercial three

Act Three

-Star Fleet Academy Campus / SFA Holodeck / Enterprise :
return from commercial with SFA fading in and out on them as they hurry to
the holodeck. Only within the simulati
on Enterprise, and with the Traveller's help, can Wesley focus his untrained
talents enough to think himself to the real Enterprise, where he and the
Traveler appear on the Bridge, right where the sweater had been.  They
explain the need to borrow the Enterprise, and Picard calls a briefing.

- Time
Painter's ship :
is seen cruising the system it just transformed while the audience members
gaze admiringly at various details.  The Time Painter is seen reviewing a
display of nearby systems, d
oing quick holographic "sketches" to explore what artistic effects he might
employ for each, and finally deciding on one and laying in a course.  The
system he has chosen is, of course, the one that so concerns the Traveler.
We will recognize the system when we see it during a briefing onboard the
Enterprise.

- Enterprise briefing room :
appropriate personnel. The Traveler gives a brief exposition of th
e Time Painter's techniques, motivations, and why he is such a threat (it is
revealed in this exposition that Jupiter and Saturn were a Time Painter
project only shortly before Galileo trained a telescope in their direction).
Wes explains (in response to a question about how the Enterprise is going to
be able to travel to a system 300 million light years away in just a few
hours) that he and the Traveler do not need to provide the power for the next
jump, as Geordi can reconfigure the warp coils to do th
is, but only the Traveler and Wes combined can be a sufficiently coherent
"lens" to focus that power and carry the ship halfway across the universe (as
they did to return the Enterprise to kno
wn space in the first Traveler episode).  Data explains that as the moment of
the Time Painter's rewriting of history approaches, the Traveler will be
progressively less able to assist the Enterprise and its crew  because he
will be spending more and more of his energy to maintain the reality in which
he has any power at all with which to do anything.  Thus Wesley will have to
do progressively more of the work, as well as do the explaining to Picard,
his mom, and Geordi, etc. of what it is that he thinks is going on.  All
staff leave except Wesley and Traveler, who brief Picard on the power of
expectation to effec
t the outcome of a battle.  He had always suspected something of the sort,
but wonders if it wouldn
't be better policy not to publicize this power; for if a crew believed that
defeat was only a few pessimistic thoughts away from victory, they would find
it much harder to concentrate on the task at hand.  Picard concludes by
saying that some things are better left to the subconscious, and it can be
dangerous for a warrior to think too much, and thereby interfere with his or
her own well-honed instincts.

Commercial four


Subject: THIS IS PART FOUR

Act Three

-Star Fleet Academy Campus / SFA Holodeck / Enterprise :
return from commercial with SFA fading in and out on them as they hurry to
the holodeck. Only within the simulation Enterprise, and with the Traveller's
help, can Wesley focus his untrained talents enough to think himself to the
real Enterprise, where he and the Traveler appear on the Bridge, right where
the sweater had been.  They explai
n the need to borrow the Enterprise, and Picard calls a briefing.

- Time Painter's ship :
is seen cruising the system it just transformed while the audience members
gaze admiringly at various d
etails.  The Time Painter is seen reviewing a display of nearby systems,
doing quick holographic "sk
etches" to explore what artistic effects he might employ for each, and
finally deciding on one and laying in a course.  The system he has chosen is,
of course, the one that so concerns the Traveler.  We will recognize the
system when we see it during a briefing onboard the Enterprise.

- Enterprise briefing
room :
appropriate personnel. The Traveler gives a brief exposition of the Time
Painter's techniques, motivations, and why he is such a threat (it is
revealed in this exposition that Jupiter and Saturn were a Time Painter
project only shortly before Galileo trained a telescope in their direction).
Wes explains (in response to a question about how the Enterprise is going to
be able to travel to a system 300 million light years away in just a few
hours) that he and the Traveler do not need to provide the power for the next
jump, as Geordi can reconfigure the warp coils to do this, but only the
Traveler and
Wes combined can be a sufficiently coherent "lens" to focus that power and
carry the ship halfway across the universe (as they did to return the
Enterprise to known space in the first Traveler
 episode).  Data explains that as the moment of the Time Painter's rewriting
of history approaches, the Traveler will be progressively less able to assist
the Enterprise and its crew  because he will be spending more and more of his
energy to maintain the reality in which he has any power at all with which to
do anything.  Thus Wesley will have to do progressively more of the work, as
well as do the explaining to Picard, his mom, and Geordi, etc. of what it is
that he thinks is going on.  All staff leave except Wesley and Traveler, who
brief Picard on the power of expectation to effect the outcome of a battle.
Hel had always suspected something of the sort, but wonders if it wouldn't be
better policy not to publicize this power; for if a crew believed that defeat
was only a few pessimistic thoughts away from victory, they would find it
much harder to concentrate on the task at hand.  Picard concludes by saying
that some things are better left to the subconscious, and it can be dangerous
for a warrior to think too much, and thereby interfere with his or her own
well-honed instincts.

Commercial four

Act Four

- Engineering :
Wesley, Geordi, and Riker - Geordi congratulates Wesley for thinking of the
phased particle beam, and Riker complements him on programming such a worthy
opponent.  They discuss briefly what alternative strategies the Enterprise
might use if they ever encounter the weapon for real. Wesley is sobered by
the thought that he might bear some responsibility if his radical new weapon
design ever gets built and kills anybody. Riker returns to the bridge as the
Traveler arrives (who, having rested briefly, is as ready as he will get to
attempt with Wesley to recreate the conditions necessary for the hyper-warp
journey to meet the Time Painter).  The process exhausts the Traveler, and
the last part of the journey i
s a little rough, as Wesley had to do most of the "lensing" himself. In order
that the Enterprise not be torn to shreds by the stress of slowing down, the
Traveler expends his last reserves to
 guarantee a safe arrival.  The effort costs him, however, because he phases
out and doesn't phase back.  Wesley is frantic, but Geordi surmises,
correctly, that for a being whose consciousness is so integrally tied to the
foundations, whatever they are, of space and time, the fact that he
disappeared may just mean that he lost consciousness.  This is confirmed when
they look closely and see a faint glimmer of the Traveler slumped in the
chair where he had been operating the console.

- Bridge:
Data confirms that the Enterprise has arrived at the correct system.  It is
far from any sector known to the Federation,
 but it matches the Traveler's description.  It is not particularly
impressive to look at, which is a good sign, for it means that the Time
Painter has not been here yet.  Long range scanners, however, indicate a
craft approaching at warp 9.8, which for  their level of technological may be
a fairly leisurely pace. Data estimates that they have fifteen point two six
minutes before the Time Painter arriv
es.  Picard, turns to Riker and says, "Well number one, I seem to have made
the mistake of assuming that the Traveler would tell us, once we arrived, how
we were expected to deal with this Time Painter character. Now we are here,
but the Traveler is, for all practical purposes, not with us; so what d
o we do next?" Riker answers that he'd rather not fight a conventional battle
with a species that rearranges star systems for entertainment.  Picard calls
for a strategy session in the ready r
oom five minutes hence.

- Doctor's Quarters :
Wesley is anxious about the Traveler, and his mother is trying to console
him, but reminding him that there is nothing she can do for someone who
doesnt even register on her instruments.  He laments that the only person with the
answers he seeks is
 the one person he can't seem to ask.  Suddenly excited, he asks his mother
where she put the clothe
s and things he didn't take to Star Fleet Academy with him.  She points him
to a drawer in the closet, unable to see the connection.  He rummages around
in the drawer and pulls out an amulet, explaining that the Traveler had given
it to him after their first meeting years before, with only the cryptic
instru ctions that with it he might find what he was looking for.  Riker's voice
over the comm link asks them both to report to the ready room for the
strategy session, and they exit, with Wesley clutching the crystal amulet
hopefully. . .

Commercial five


Subject: THIS IS PART FIVE-you should be able to paste is all together

Act Five

- Briefing Room :
we return from commercial as Wesley and the Doctor join the strategy session,
which had started without them.  Data summarizes the groups conclusions,
which are that the Time  Painter is probably so far ahead of them
technologically that phasers and photon torpedoes might only serve to get him
angry.  They would love to have a more hopeful prognosis, but without the
Traveler to advise them, the odds look pretty slim. . . Wesley suggests that
he may have something that can help, and a
sks Geordi to look at the crystal amulet.  To Geordi's visor, the crystal is
a thing of wonder, with all sorts of seemingly holographic projections
emerging from every facet. Troi, who has seen something like it on Betazed,
suggests that Wesley could probably use the crystal to track down the Travel
er's consciousness and get the crucial strategic hint they need so
desperately.  It is decided that Picard will try to communicate and possibly
parley with the Time Painter (who has just emerged from warp), if only to
stall for time.  Troi remains in the ready room with Wesley, to provide what
guidance she can with her more extensive experience with telepathic
communication and projection.

- Bridge :
Picard attempts, unsuccessfully, to get the Time Painter to care about the
repercussions of his work.  When Pic
ard fires across the other ship's bow to demonstrate his seriousness, the
Time Painter activates a repulsion beam that swats the Enterprise across the
system.  Picard, when Troi reports that Wesle
y has not yet made contact with the Traveler, comes storming back to the Time
Painter's ship read
y to do battle.

- Traveler's consciousness :
 Wesley is seen floating amid his own memories (various brief flashbacks from
earlier seasons). Eventually one of these flashbacks is of the Traveler,
except he is unconscious.  Waking up his memory of the Traveler is what it
will take to wake up the Traveler hi
mself (that's how intertwined things get when you're meditating with this
crystal).  When Wesley shakes his memory-Traveler, he awakes groggily and
asks if the Time Painter has arrived yet.  He tells Wesley that it would be
futile to fight conventionally, and instructs him not to try to stop the Time
Painter directly, but to spoil the artistic experience so that he will lose
interest in using this particular system for his next masterpiece.  The
Traveler is not yet strong enough to get up, or to foll
ow Wesley "back" to consciousness, but he assures Wes that he will recover if
the Enterp
rise can successfully discourage the Time Painter. Wesley, hearing Troi's
voice calling him to return, is about to go, when the Traveler recommends
dilithium slag (the ore-residue that remains after dilithium mining
operations, a material that the Enterprise could replicate in limited
quantities).  Coming back to consciousness in the Briefing room, Wesley
relates this curious suggestion to Troi, who also can
't figure out how a limited supply of dilithium slag could ruin the artistic
potential of an
 entire star system.

- Engineering :
Geordi can't figure out what the Traveler had in mind either, at least not at
first. After a brief discussion of how much dilithium slag would be necessary
to muck up all eight planets and the thirty-five moons, they realize that it
was not the system that the Traveler
intends them to disrupt, but the Time Painter's ship.  A small amount of
dilithium slag, pro
jected along a magnetic particle beam towards the Time Painter's ship, could
be made to settle like a cloud over all of his electromagnetic-spectrum
sensitive instruments, rendering his ship unable to "
see" the spectacle wrought by the time probe, and thus robbing his audience
of their show. Th
e slag cloud would bond to the Time Painter's sensors, and only someone with
a deuterium plasma generator could get it off (and since deuterium plasma
generators are still only theoretical, the Time Painter might be flying blind
for awhile).  Excited, they call the Bridge to tell Picard to stall for three
mo re minutes, because they've got a plan.  Wes and Geordi concoct some sort of
ugly cloud muck just as the Time Painter is seen preparing to launch the
fateful probe.  The dilithium slag surrounds t
he Time Painter's ship and his probe, and renders all of their
electromagnetic spectrum sensors useless.  The probe is seen drifting
aimlessly, and the Enterprise destroys it with a torpedo.  The Time
Painter's ship hobbles out of the system, navigating on sonar, and the
downfall of civilization is averted.

Conclusion - Act Six

 The denouement, (which takes place after Wes and the Traveler have brought
the Enterprise back to where they had been, is a scene where Mom is pestering
him to fill in the details on this mysterious Cadet of the long blond hair,
nudge nudge.  After delicately satisfying her curiosity, Wes, wearing the
sweater, along with, and with the help of, the restored Traveler, think their
way back to the holodeck at Star Fleet Academy, where Professor Spinoza has
kept the Enterprise simulation f
rozen in order that Wesley can navigate his return.  At the words, "Computer,
End Program"  we see that the Professor, and Cadet Everest, await them on the
now solid ground.

The End

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