Game TNG Episode Pitch Game

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

(I previously started a thread like this on the TOS board - let's see what we can do here!)

The premise:

It's the 1980s/90s, and you've been invited to pitch an episode for Star Trek:The Next Generation. (How exciting!)

Rules
1) Your episode must be something that could have appeared on TNG when it originally aired (think late 80s/early 90s TV).
2) After you write your synopsis, you get to choose the title of the next one.
3) Titles must be TNG style - Bible/Shakespeare/literature/poetry quotes/allusions, mysterious science fiction, historical references, phrases etc (if we may not get the reference, please tell us where it comes from)
4) Sequels to real TNG episodes are allowed.
5) Include both A and B stories, where applicable (TNG had both, unlike TOS (usually))

I'll start:

"Cloud of Witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1 KJV) - The Enterprise-D responds to a mysterious signal that matches 24th century Starfleet, only to find a cloud seemingly made up of the particles of individuals who were scattered in transporter accidents. The "individual" who contacts the Enterprise accuses Geordi La Forge of her attempted murder five years ago. Can he clear himself before the Cloud Tribunal finds him guilty?

Next title: "Sober Second Thoughts"

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

SOBER SECOND THOUGHTS

The non-Betazoids on the ship rebel against Troi's incessant mental meddling and demand to Picard that she be forced to take mental-blocking drugs in order for her to mind her own damn business from this stardate on. It almost works until Picard shames the crew with a ''freedom of speech/freedom of thought'' verbal essay.

Since many episodes have a B-plot, Wesley is accidentally laser-shot by a furious Tellarite (Andrew Divoff) who immediately has sober second thoughts of his own, as he was aiming for a ducking Data. Picard assures the alien ''It's not important WHAT you did. It only matters how you feel about it in the final act.'' Just a flesh wound anyhow.

Next installment: ET TU, Q?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

ET TU, Q? - "Our" Q enlists the Enterprise-D's help in stopping a former mentor from causing a devastating attack on a planet that the latter Q believes deserves extermination. The B-story involves Wesley giving a skittish alien a tour of the ship, without letting them know what's going on.

Next episode: "Thunder"

 

[Admiral Archer]

"Thunder"

The Enterprise-D is responding to reports of a mysterious passing energy phenomenon (like the Nexus energy ribbon, only decidedly less effects heavy) resembling a thunderstorm in space, that has been leaving a path of chaos in it's wake, destroying starships, outposts and entire planets. What's worse, the phenomenon appears to be producing insanely high levels of electromagnetic radiation, damaging subspace, and leaving rifts in the fabric of space itself. The crew tries several methods to chase the phenomenon, repair the space rifts and prevent further damage, but all attempts fail. The B-story features Geordi simultaneously having hallucinations of a friend he once knew who had died years ago in a tragic shuttle accident years ago when both were at the academy. Geordi is relieved of duty for the time being and ordered to seek counseling help and rest, but the assistant engineers are having trouble solving the issue with the energy phenomenon, and the two plots unite as Geordi realizes that the visions of his deceased friend turn out to be a sort of avatar created by an intelligent being who exists inside the energy phenomenon, using it as a form of space travel, and is attempting to make contact with an intelligent species, unaware of the destructive effect it is having. Upon convincing the being that the phenomenon is inherently dangerous to everything around it, the being agrees to "fix things". The avatar and Geordi's hallucinations disappear, subspace is repaired and the phenomenon vanishes.

Next episode: "There Will Be An Answer..." (The Beatles song , Let it Be)

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"There Will Be An Answer..." The Enterprise-D is all that stands between a primitive world and the Arm of Kirk, a rogue society that is determined to interfere in primitive cultures, and to heck with the consequences. They are led by a charismatic individual, who has an inaccurate view of Kirk's stance on the Prime Directive. Meanwhile, Deanna attempts to counsel a crew member whose repressed memories of childhood trauma are re-surfacing.

Next episode: "Element of Surprise"

 

[Mojochi]

Next episode: "Element of Surprise"

Though a quantum dimensional experiment aboard the Enterprise, an adult variant of Worf's alternate reality son with Deanna, (Eric Christopher from Parallels) is brought into their dimension, only to find out he himself has been manipulating the space/time continuum in order to deliberately arrive there to kill this particular Worf.

(Well... this is fun!) Next Episode: "A Matter Of Matter"

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"A Matter Of Matter" - An Enterprise-D away team must solve the mystery of an industrial replication factory whose workers are mysteriously going missing. Picard is writing a guest column for a children's magazine and struggles to make himself relatable.

Next episode: "Glass Houses"
(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/di...o-live-in-glass-houses-shouldn-t-throw-stones)

 

[Mojochi]

"Glass Houses" - Will Riker is once again confronted by clone doppelganger Thomas, who has come onto hard times in the aftermath of the Pressman/Pegasus court-martial, that both he & Will were called to testify at. While Will was able to weather the aftermath of its disgrace by having a fair amount of strong support from his crew, and having the moral high ground of being the whistleblower, Thomas contrarily found nothing but shame and ostracization from the crew of the Ghandi, upon the realization of his participation in the coverup of so many deaths, to the point that he can't advance beyond lieutenant & has become completely disillusioned in Starfleet altogether.

Will is forced to grapple with the harm he's done to Thomas by outing him in the conspiracy, realizing that while he'd once thought of Thomas as less upstanding and mature than himself, the reality is that he too would be just like him in the same circumstances. Hearts are saddened when it comes to pass that Thomas resigns his commission, and pleads unsuccessfully one last time for Deanna to come away with him.

Next Episode: "Honor In Defeat"

 

[Admiral Archer]

"Honor In Defeat"
Following a massive defeat against a Romulan warbird (not shown on screen), in which the Enterprise-D was barely able to withdraw and escape, the severely damaged vessel is towed back in disgrace to Earth Station McKinley to receive repairs. When it is revealed that many crewmembers lost their lives in battle, crew morale is low. Worf alone seems to be handling the situation well, knowing his lost shipmates made it safely to Sto-vo-kor, until Starfleet Command summons him for a special mission: escort Captain Picard back to the Neutral Zone in a covert operation to infiltrate a Romulan base where the warbird was last seen. Orders are to retrieve or, if all else fails, destroy a data chip containing weaknesses in the defense systems aboard certain federation starships; this data chip had been the cause of the Romulan's victory against the Enterprise-D. Worf and Picard make their way aboard a cloaked Klingon bird of Prey commanded by Kurn, Worf's brother, and upon reaching the Romulan Base, Kurn's ship manages to beam Picard and Worf down before taking too much damage, and recloaking. Picard and Worf find the data chip, and manage to destroy it before getting captured. They are freed, however, by a young human boy named Seti, who had escaped the prison guards and remained hidden for a few months. Seti manages to help Picard and Worf to the coordinates Kurn provided for pickup in the cloaked Klingon vessel. However, Seti is shot and killed by Romulan guards in the escape attempt. Once back in orbit, Picard expresses grief at Seti's death, but Worf comforts him, by saying, "I have recently learnt that there are times when honor can be found in defeat." Back on the planet, a Romulan admiral and scientist discuss the fact that Seti was a clone of Picard, intended to replace him someday, and that they must be patient and start over again. The final shot of the episode is of a Romulan computer scan of an unborn human baby inside an incubation chamber.

Next Episode: "One Summer Dream" (Electric Light Orchestra Song of the same name)

 

[JesterFace]

One Summer Dream

Riker and Worf are taking some time off and want to visit Tagatanuga IV, a world that has summer all year long 20 hours a day.
For some reason, mainly plot, they take a shuttle to go to that planet.

Whaddya know, there's a spatial anomaly that forces the shuttle to make an emergency landing on a moon that turns out to be pretty much the exact opposite of the place they were going to.
Winter, 4 hours of daylight every day.

Fortunately there's some life on the moon. Worf hunts some local cuisine with his warrior insticts.
After 8 hours on the moon Riker is pretty sure no one is coming to save them, even if they did send a distress call. There are some intelligent inhabitants on the moon and after all that wait Riker is about to make a move on an attractive local but Worf tells him all about cultural contamination, it's a prewarp culture. He also reminds Riker about all the other contamination he might leave behind if he mounted a local lady.

After they eat a local beehive Enterprise arrives and beams them on board.

Back on the Enterprise Riker says to Worf: ”This turned out to be One Summer Dream.”

Picard: OK, back to work guys, hope you had fun.

Next episode: 'All The Worlds In The Sky'

 

[Oddish]

The Enterprise encounters a highly technologically advanced society that has never left its home planet, because every manned space mission it has ever set up has been mysteriously destroyed on the threshold of orbit. As a result, the people dream of "all the worlds in the sky", which they are aware of due to telescopes and unmanned satellites, but can't visit.

It's later revealed that the residents are descendants of a prison planet, where any attempt to escape is destroyed by weapons fire from orbiting stealth satellites. Picard agonizes over destroying the weapons array, but decides it's a Prime Directive violation. However, as the Enterprise is leaving orbit, targeted weapons fire from the surface begins obliterating the satellites. It seems that just by telling the residents of the world of the problem, they have enabled them to implement their own solution.

Picard remarks that "all the worlds in the sky" will soon be at their fingertips after all.

Next: "Sweet Child of Mine"

 

[Mojochi]

(Gah! Oddish beat me to it! I'm posting it anyway cuz I like it lol)

'All The Worlds In The Sky'

When the recently recommissioned Starship Bozeman, captained by Morgan Bateson, is involved in a failing first contact assignment, that's resulted in rampant xenophobia spreading throughout the culture, Jean-Luc Picard has his ship & crew assigned to mitigate the damage. The planet in question is surprisingly on the very distant outskirts of both the UFP & Romulan Empire, out where the bounds of the Neutral Zone are not as clear cut, & the prospects of who would claim this world are much contested.

Picard struggles to right this debacle, when he begins realizing that much of the problem revolves around the different command styles of Bateson, the Bozeman captain, who is forced to grapple with the reality that being a man displaced 70 years in time may have made his ways antiquated and obsolete. Ultimately the diplomacy proves unsalvageable & the inhabitants choose to remain unaffiliated, despite now knowing that there's many worlds beyond theirs that would seek to have them.

(Now to move the thread along)
"Sweet Child of Mine"
New father Miles O'Brien has growing concerns about raising his new child on a starship, that seemingly always has dangerous deep space missions, openly expressing how he can't believe anyone actually keeps their children aboard at all. He has cause to rethink his career decisions, amongst discussions with his friends, while the current mission itself is requiring the ship to enter a destabilized area of space on a large scale global evacuation mission, which puts the ship and crew in danger.

Next Episode: "Tea For Two"

 

[Rmac]

Tea For Two

In the A-plot Data is interviewed by Dr Richards, a psychologist doing research into Ai. Data confides in Troi and Riekr that he may be experiencing romantic feeling towards Richards. Troi cautions data agains pursing these feeling while Riker encourages Data. The B-plot Enterprise is observing a stellar phenomenon, that midway into the episode becomes apparent to be affecting the enterprise’s computer systems. The end of the episode leaves it ambiguous as to weather Data’s feeling we’re natural or the result of the anomaly of the week.

NEXT EPISODE: Forever, Forever, and Forever

Ps. I considered having the romance between Data and Troi but for the purpose of leaving it open ended I went for a guest star.

 

[Tosk]

"Forever, Forever, and Forever"

Picard is visiting an archeological dig when he is accidentally hit by an energy blast from one of the artifacts. Crusher scans him to make sure he was not injured in any way, and all seems fine. The next day Picard seems to have lost a day's worth of short-term memory, so Crusher puts him through a gamut of tests which all come up negative. Nothing else seems amiss, so they reluctantly decide that he is okay despite the glitch. The next day however, Picard has lost a full week of memories. He now realizes that it isn't his memory at all, but every time he sleeps his consciousness jumps forward in time. A day, a week, a month...before long he is skipping decades, and must figure out what's causing it and how to reverse it before his life-span runs out.

Next episode "The Condemned" (TNG loves a "The" title. )

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"The Condemned" - The Enterprise-D travels to an old space station that is about to be decommissioned, to pick up the remaining personnel who had been charged with preparing the charges to implode it, and to oversee the structure's destruction. Worf is placed in charge of an away team overseeing final preparations and securing any sensitive data remaining onboard. However, one of the station crew has plans to make sure their co-workers go down with the station...even if they have to take Enterprise crew members with them!

Next episode: "Baptism By Fire"

 

[Mojochi]

"Baptism By Fire"
During an away mission along the Cardassian Border, Laforge's engineering teams are rigorously engaged in restoring power to various sections of a defensive sensor array camouflaged on a planetary surface. The crew are surprised to find that the saboteurs of the array are still on the surface in hiding, and are intent on seeing it stay disabled.

As the away teams come under fire, Lt. Barclay, who we've recently discovered has never in his service been called upon to use a weapon in live combat, is caught in the crossfire, and because he fails to act, the security officer assigned to his detail is killed. When the rest of the party arrive to rescue them, just in the nick of time, Worf is initially disgusted to find that a cowering, traumatized Barclay had never even unholstered his weapon.

During Barclay's pursuant counseling by Troi, and later in conversations with Geordi, we find out that Barclay has never been put in a position of combat against anyone real, ever since he had to act in his own defense as a child, when both his parents were killed by coincidentally a party of rogue Klingons, that raided the outpost his family was stationed on, where young Reg actually killed a Klingon himself, before others arrived to defend the outpost.

When Worf learns about this, and realizes how much Reg & himself had in common as children, he changes his take, and begins to work with his comrades to help Reg overcome his trauma, by training with him, so he'll be better capable to handle it.

Next Episode: In The Dark of Day

 

[Rmac]

In The Dark of Day

Worf and Riker lead an away team to a m-class planet orbiting a brown dwarf. In the near total darkness an officer is killed by a makeshift spear. Worf believes they are being hunted by whatever indigenous life forms inhabit the darkness. Riker comes to believe that one of the away team may be the true culprit.

Next episode: Ozymandias

 

[Tosk]

"Ozymandias"

When a rupture in space opens up in the Romulan Neutral Zone, the Enterprise is sent to investigate. Old adversary Tomalak also arrives shortly. After the usual arguing, each side sends a shuttle into the zone carrying two officers. Picard and Data, Tomalak and his aide.
When scanning the rupture, both shuttles are sent hurtling into the future. The Romulan shuttle is critically damaged, so Picard beams the occupants over to his.

They all have to work together to get back to their own time before they're discovered, but constantly butt heads regarding future knowledge. Picard is adamant that they should avoid learning anything, but Tomalak cannot resist the power such knowledge could bring him. When he secretly accesses the computer his glee at gaining the upper hand turns to horror. The Romulan Empire is ashes, the people scattered to the winds...

Next episode: "A Cry For Mercy"

 

[Mojochi]

"A Cry For Mercy"
Ensign Ro, Lt. Worf and Dr. Selar are on detached assignment, escorting a Cardassian prisoner to trial via shuttle craft. During his attack, the Cardassian himself was severely injured, as his intention was to martyr himself.

As the trip continues, his intensly burned condition grows worse, despite the doctor's ministrations, and he begins pleading to be executed by them. All three of the present officers have very different opinions on whether to grant his request. Worf is obviously for it, Ro is against it, as she's determined to see him stand trial, and also might feel a bit of satisfaction, knowing that he's suffering. Selar is initially against it as well, being a doctor, until it becomes evident that he will not survive the trip anyhow. Worf ultimately puts the criminal down.

Next Episode: Hollow Sweet Holosuite

 

[Orac]

Hollow Sweet Holosuite

The holodeck malfunctions during a simulation of Sesame Street, Worf and his son must fend off Muppets run amok for 40 minutes until Wesley can fix the problem. Meanwhile Picard struggles with the moral dilemma of whether or not to just turn the holodeck off and back on again, potentially destroying the sentient puppets while simultaneously negotiating peace in the middle eastern part of the galaxy.

Next Episode: To Turn the Other Cheek