Alternate History Idea

[David.Blue]

Just another idea might be fun to toss out there...

A dark matter pulsar (why not?) and a black hole are in mutual orbit around one another. During an ion storm, a shuttlecraft is sent with some Starfleet crewmen to take readings. But the shuttlecraft that comes back has a different name. The uniforms of the crew aren't quite right, and they insist the ship is all wrong. What is this "Federation" anyway? What happened to the Grand Alliance?

We have three people evidently from an alternate history, and nobody can figure out how to send them back. But they tell about a danger the Federation doesn't yet suspect, but which the Grand Alliance only barely defeated recently. Starfleet asks them to accompany a starship to the region where this problem emerged, to see if it even exists here.

Yet the three Strangers have some secrets of their own. Not necessarily even shared with each other. Was this an accident? Or not? What if one of them meets someone who was their spouse in "their" world? Exactly what might this threat be, and did the Grand Alliance maybe cause it accidentally rather than fall victim to it?

Might be a multi-part miniseries in this idea maybe? Or a season-long arc for a new Star Trek series?

 

[BigJake]

Sounds like it would be a pretty great idea for a short arc... I'm not sure about "season long," but across five or six episodes it would be pretty cool. (Actually, *engages wild flight of fancy mode* it wouldn't be a bad idea for a feature film.)

 

[Melakon]

The setup sounds like a pinch of TOS: Mirror, Mirror, a dash of VOY: Time and Again, and a teaspoon of ENT's Xindi Arc. But all that's just to get to your real story.

You'd have to plot out what the eventual discovery of the Grand Alliance is and how they arrive at the answer. And if the GA people are in the regular cast, or guest characters. If they're guests, then the problem is making the solution something your main characters should discover.

 

[Harbinger]

Sounds good. My favorite Star Trek are those revolving around some bizarre mystery and this sounds like a lot of fun.

 

[E-DUB]

Ever read John Brunner's "The Infinitive of Go"?

Idea has some similarity to mo old concept of a series where, after field-testing a new propulsion system, a starship starts jumping around different alternate universes. Sort of "Star Trek" meets "Sliders".

 

[publiusr]

Having travel between the Prime universe and JJs would be nice...

 

[Bagliun Edar]

"Grand Alliance" (Grand Alliance of Planets?) and "Federation" (United Federation of Planets) seems to be alternatives for naming the federation among some others by the time the federation was founded. Maybe one reality took "Grand Alliance" as name while the other one took Federation. Reality split into two (or more).

 

[YellowSubmarine]

There's the chilling feeling when everything is the same, even your memories of yesterday, except for the name and the badge.

 

[Wadjda]

"Grand Alliance" (Grand Alliance of Planets?) and "Federation" (United Federation of Planets) seems to be alternatives for naming the federation among some others by the time the federation was founded. Maybe one reality took "Grand Alliance" as name while the other one took Federation. Reality split into two (or more).

I like Universal Union from Redshirts.

 

[Takeru]

Not a bad idea but I don't think it would work for more than an episode, maybe a two parter. This question:

Exactly what might this threat be, ...

Should be answered by the three alternate universe people 30 seconds after they first mentioned the threat, it can't be a mystery, it would make no sense if they warned the federation of a threat, told them where their alliance discovered it but didn't tell them what it was.

I don't see how this can be turned into an arc unless the threat actually emerges and if that happens the focus would be pulled away from the initial mystery of the three visitors and what happened to the regular universes people.

What would be much more interesting is if you dropped the mysterious threat entirely, the visitors could be alternate versions of regular cast members and would replace them for a few episodes where they are part of the regular mission. Them trying to adapt and trying to return to their own universe could be a subplot but not the focus of most episodes and they would dropping interesting facts about the other universe occasionally, like "Romulawhatnow? ... Oh, emotional vulcans, yeah, we have those too in the Alliance."

 

[David.Blue]

A legitimate point. I should have stated that the origin of the threat remains mysterious. As if (for example) a disease began to spread from a certain unexplored region, into the Grand Alliance/Commonwealth/whatever. It made people aggressive, operating on pack instincts, ultimately requiring a war that killed billions or billions.

Or, alternately, perhaps a series of wars took place, with one invading fleet after another emerging from a particular region. Prisoners claimed some great enemy was forcing them to attack. When they tried to say more, the prisoners died. Or the prisoners knew very little.

Or--more fun--there's some reason these three visitors are reluctant to give too much information. Turns out each one has their own reasons, as well as just a general sense of paranoia.

 

[Takeru]

I see, it makes more sense now that there's a mystery surrounding this threat, but I still think you have to good ideas that work better on their own. The threat doesn't have to be introduced by the alternate universe people and the AUs people's story is a very interesting story in itself.

If you combine them I think you should give the visitors a very good reason why they're withholding information, otherwise the audience could see them as villains if their ections endanger many people.

Would you be interested in writing a fanfic? I really would like to know more about your ideas.