Fantasy TV Programming game: Time travel series DIVERGENT POINT

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Over at Programming Insider DAY 3 of voting in the TV Programming fantasy game is up.

Tonight is the Thursday Schedule. You do not need to be registered to vote for which series you would watch if the three fantasy networks were real. Each vote =3 million viewers.

One of the anticipated series is time travel drama DIVERGENT POINT

DIVERGENT POINT

GENRE: SCI-FI/DRAMA

TAGLINE: Think you know history? Think again.

PREMISE: In 2039 the scientific/military team at PROJECT KEYHOLE awake from an act of sabotage by a rogue team member who has corrupted history and left the world around them an atomic wasteland. Only the shielding around KEYHOLE has protected the complex from the change in the timeline. Using the project's Supercomputer the team is stunned by the sheer amount of changes the rogue member has caused any one of them could ultimatly have led to the holocaust.

In the "twist" of the series and the hook for the viewers we learn that the changed history of the characters world is the history that WE have always known. In other words the characters are shocked to discover their history has been changed so much that now:

In 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese drawing the USA into the war instead of entering voluntarily in 1943 after the fall of Great Britain.

John F. Kennedy was assinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963-without his second term there is no great push in space exploration and the moon colony doesn't exist.

Alaska is now one of the United States and not a Russian territory.

With the time barrier impenatrable either 25 years in the past or the future the team cannot use the technology to go back several hours and stop the sabatoge from happening. They have no choice but to us the supercomputer to pinpoint each Divergent Point caused by the sabateur and go back and attempt to undo what ever damage to the time line has occured and prevent the divergent point.

Adding to the pressure the temporal shielding around Keyhole will fail after 30 days and the project and everyone in it will be absorbed into the altered time line meaning certain death.

Note: When the team members are in the past they may be there for minutes, days, weeks or even months but when they return to Keyhole only a half hour has passed at the complex thus there is no danger in using up the "five days" left for several seasons.

CHARACTERS:

MAJOR JON SAXON-USAF-With his specialized black ops training Saxon leads the forays into the past to each divergent point and is assisted by

ZOEY ROSS-A member of the science team and historical expert who helped develop the technology that allows they "keyhole" to be opened into the past.

Saxon and Ross usually are the only ones to travel to the DP but occasionally some of the other characters come as well.

DR. MARCUS BANNISTER-The african american lead scientist of Project Keyhole.

LT. JULAY "JAX" JACKSON-African american military aid to Major Saxon.

SENATOR REGAN BLANCHARD-Was at Keyhole threatening to shut it down with budget cuts at the time of the sabatoge. The Senator is often in conflict with the team believing some Divergent Points should be left alone such as leaving oil rich Alaska as a US state instead of in the hands of the Russians. Also is in a constant power struggle with Bannister as to who is in charge.

SPECIALIST J.R. Freemont. A member of the janitorial staff who skills learned from his childhood on the streets Saxon often finds come in handy. Freemont who is terrified of the trips through the "Keyhole" is not above looking for a way to profit during his trips into the past. Freemont is the comic relief character.

CASTING.
MAJOR SAXON played by BILLY CAMPBELL (ex 4400)

ZOE ROSS played by CHRISTINA APPLEGATE

BANNISTER played by BILL DUKE

JAX played by NIA LONG (ex-THIRD WATCH)

SENATOR BLANCHARD played by DEBBIE MAZAR

FREEMONT played by SEAN FERRIS (ex-REUNION)

COMPUTER VOICE-GATES MCFADDEN (ex-ST-TNG)

The first Divergent Point visited in the Pilot episode find Saxon and Ross journey to 1941 to prevent the Peark Harbor attack. Saxon manages to convince the military in time to scramble their fighter craft and alert the battleships of the immenent attack. The US force meets the Japanese attack force head on and with the element of surprise lost the Americans prevail and Pearl Harbor is saved. Ross and Saxon return to Keyhole to find that part of history has been set right but was not the Divergent Point that led to the holocaust. The episode ends with them journeying to the next Divergent Point.

The fun part of the series is its the reverse of the TIME TUNNEL where the heroes never suceed in changing history. Here the characters MUST change history to try and save history as they know it.

If you have a moment please follow the link below and vote:

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/93910104/m/378107242?r=193108242#193108242

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

SAMPLES OF SOME EPISODES


PILOT PART 1

Original History: In 2039 the US military in a top secret partnership with the Advanced Technologies Corporation has been conducting tests with the world’s first time machine dubbed PROJECT KEYHOLE after the “keyhole” it opens into the past.,

Divergent Point: A renegade former team member returns to the project with a US Senator. The reengage scientist in an act of revenge sabotages project Keyhole and escapes into the past and manages to corrupt history turning the world into an apocalyptic wasteland. Only Temporal Shielding is protecting the project from being absorbed into the altered time line and that will only hold for 30 days before it fails meaning a likely death sentence for everyone in the project.

Mission: The Keyhole team realize they have no choice but to journey to each Divergent Point and correct history under the belief that eventually they will fix the Divergent Point that leads to the nuclear armageddon. Needing more detailed information for Maxine the Supercomputer running the Keyhole Project to determine key Divergent Points and what led them to occur the team must journey through the apocalyptic landscape to an underground bunker where computer records will provide them with complete records Maxine can use to compare the altered history with the original history. The journey is filled with peril as the team must fight survivors of the holocaust and starving feral animals that roam the desolate world in search of food.


PILOT PART 2

Original History: American does not enter the World War II until 1943 after the fall of Great Britain the war ends in 1947 when American drops two Atomic bombs on Germany.

Divergent Point: Imperial Japan launches a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor drawing the US into the war on December 7. 1941.

Team: Saxon and Ross

Mission: Having successfully downloaded the computer data the team recovered on their perilous trip to the underground bunker Maxine pinpoints approximately 200 major Divergent Points. Selecting the Pearl Harbor attack as their first Divergent Point to tackle they ask Maxine to determine why things unfolded differently. Max relays to them that in the original history a pilot flying solo out over the Atlantic spotted the approaching Japanese fleet and was able to radio Pearl Harbor which scrambled ships and planes to intercept. With the element of surprise lost the Japanese turn back rather than carryout the attack.

Max says that pilot never existed in the new time line…All Douglas had to do was kill random people at some point in the distant past, removing their existence would start a chain reaction. Blanchard asks how and Bannister explains by saying “Say you kill your great grandfather before he has children-that eliminates the children he would have had, the children they would have had , and then the children they would have had and finally you yourself cease to exist.” Ross agrees this is most likely what happened.

Saxon says it is now up to them to go back and warn Pearl Harbor. Bannister cautions that it will have to be done without revealing the existence of time travel or displaying any advanced technology. The team agrees and Saxon and Ross open a Keyhole back to 1941 to make their first attempt to setting history back on track.


MT. ST. HELENS (Episode 4)

Original History: Mt. St. Helen erupts in Washington State in May 1980 burying Spirit Lake under an avalanche of volcanic ash and mud including an elderly resident who refused to leave.

Divergent Point: The Keyhole team are initially stumped at what the change in history is since St. Helens always erupted in their time line. Maxine discovers that a free sprit hippie moved by TV reports of the old man’s reluctance to leave journeyed to St. Helens to try and talk him out of it and was killed in the eruption. Further research reveals that had she lived she would have given birth to the man who would become Secretary of Defense during the time of the nuclear Armageddon. The team goes on high alert at the possibility that his absence may have been a contributing factor in yet unexplained nuclear war.


Team: Saxon, Freemont and Ross.

Mission: The trio Keyhole back to two days before the eruption with a three prong attack. Saxon will go to the elderly man’s lodge to try and talk him out staying. Freemont meets up with the Tricia Shelby, the hippie, in Seattle and tries to talk her out of going to Mt. St. Helens and Ross tangles with the Scout Leader leading a hike on the mountain.

Note: There is a powerful scene were Ross must accept the fact the scout leader and his troops deaths were part of the orginal history and despite every instinct and her conscience she must give up on her quest to talk them out of the hike.

DONNER PARTY (Episode 5)

Original History: Persuaded by a mountain man that meets up with the wagon train The Donner Party wisely stopped for the winter rather than attempting to cross the Sierra Mountains...and waited until spring to attempt the difficult crossing. .

Divergent Point: Maxine discovers that due to the tampering in the time line the mountain man never existed and the Donner Party attempts the crossing and meet with disaster when they are snowed in resulting in the deaths of dozens of members or the wagon train and the survivors are forced to resort to cannibalism. Further complicating matters on top of the wagon train deaths they find out one of the descendants of a couple who died would have been the father of the woman who developed the AIDS vaccine in 2019.

Team: Saxon, Bannister, Jax and Ross.

Mission: Using Keyhole the group journeys to 1846 Saxon and Ross pose as a man and wife who join the wagon train at its inception and at every turn try and get the group to make the right decisions that prevent the doom of the expedition. Meanwhile Bannister & Freemont posing as mountain men/trappers and await the wagon at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas rallying the local native Americans to mount a non lethal attack to prevent the wagon train from entering the pass. As a last resort Jax is positioned at the pass and had rigged it with explosives to seal the pass from the wagon train.



KATRINA’S WRATH (Episode 7)

Original History: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina the New Orleans levee system fails causing multiple deaths in New Orleans, LA.

Divergent Point: Everything is identical in the Divergent History until Maxine determines that one person who was originally saved because a Coast Guard Helicopter pilot bucked the system and returned against orders to make a final rescue now dies because the pilot doesn’t exist in the timeline thanks to Douglas corrupting the time line. The woman who now dies was the wife of the Chicago cop who apprehended the terrorist responsible for the Chicago Anthrax attack of 2013. As the cop had originally transferred to Chicago to follow his wife whose job reassigned her to Chicago…now the grieving widower does not go and is not there to stop the terrorist and save 1000 Americans from dying in the Anthrax attack.
.

Team: Saxon and Jax

Mission: The team must return to flooded New Orleans and commandeer a helicopter and perform their own rescue. Unfortunately for them the overworked from all the rescue mission helicopter develops mechanical failure. Jax manages to
Crash land the helicopter so that they survive but now Saxon, Jax and the woman must fight to stay alive amid the floods, fire and chaos of devastated New Orleans.

Note: This is the Jax-centric episode and has a very high budget.



TITANIC (Episode 8)

Original History: Millionaire John Jacob Astor funds explorer Milton Wilford Grove’s 1922 expedition to the Amazon where Grove’s discovers the Mana Plant in a remote jungle valley. Five decades later scientist discover the unique medicinal properties in the plant hold the cure for cancer.
.
Divergent Point: Maxine discovers the cure for cancer is never found because Grove never discovered the hidden valley because Grove himself died in the Amazon before finding the valley. The sole survivor of the expedition blamed the poor equipping of the expedition that led to the tragedy. The expedition was NOT funded by the wealthy Astor because Astor died ten years earlier when the ocean liner he was traveling on never reached port having struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage. Maxine identified the ship as the RMS Titanic but none on the Keyhole team had ever heard of it as in the original reality it was just another ocean liner that served for years until going to the scrap yard.

Team: Saxon, Ross, Blanchard and Freemont.

Mission: Two Divergent Points can now be erased if the team can succefully Keyhole back to 1912 to prevent the sinking.
Saxon, Ross and Blanchard arrive on the Titanic with a three pronged plan. Blanchard posing as a high society type will try and convince J. Bruce Ismay the chairman of the White Star Line to abandon his quest to set a speed record in reaching New York putting the ship at risk. If she is unsuccessful Saxon and Ross plan to sabotage the engines to force the liner to stop. Freemont is sent to the nearby Californian which could have saved scores of lives but it had shut off its radio for the night and did not hear the distress calls. The mission goes awry when Blanchard cannot convince Ismay and Saxon and Ross become trapped in a cargo bay that is rapidly filling with water after the ship hits the iceberg. Now it’s all up to Freemont to get the Californian to race to the rescue and save Astor and the passengers and crew of Titanic.

Note: This is the Freemont-Centric episode and there is a great scene where Freemont surrenders himself as a stowaway on the Californian. He is being held in the radio room and keeps the radio man awake to hear the Titanic distress call, by inventing Texas Hold Em. Freemont soundly beats the radio operator but gives him 99% of his money back if the radioman will open a bank account with the 1% in Freemont’s name when the Californian dock as Freemont hopes over a 100 years on interest will net him a nice profit.

Note 2: This will be the big “November Sweeps” episode and the obligatory Titanic episode that every time travel show is practically required to do.

J

CUSTER’S LAST STAND (Episode 10)

Original History: General George Armstrong Custer leads his 7th Calvary Troops to victory of the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne on June 25, 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana.
.
Divergent Point: Custer not waiting for reinforcements launches his attack against the Indian forces early and as a result dies along with over 200 of his own soldiers.

Team: Saxon and Freemont

Mission: Maxine determines in the altered history an officer was not present the originally was able to convince Custer to abandon his plan for the early attack. Saxon and Freemont pose as cavalry members and try and prevent Custer from launching his attack on the superior forces.

Note: This episode is used to illustrate that it is possible to fail at preventing a Divergent Point. In the climax of the episode Freemont has to knock Saxon unconscious and drag Saxon through the open Keyhole as they are fighting with Custer at his last stand as Saxon being a military man would not abandon men he is fighting with even though he knows it’s a lost cause. Saxon forgives Freemont and the episode end somberly as the group hopes that failure to prevent this Divergent Point isn’t the one that somehow leads to the nuclear holocaust

Note 2: This episode has a reduced budget as it consists mostly of scenes between Saxon and Custer as Saxon tries to prevent the tragedy. Production needed to save up the SFX budget for the season finale that involved recreating a prehistoric world.




KAL 007 (Episode 11)

Original History: .An underwater earthquake sets of a massive Tsunami on Christmas Day 2004. Thanks to an array of Tsunami Buoys that ring all the major coastlines of the world…word quickly spreads of the impending disaster and the majority of threatened coastal areas in the Indian Ocean are evacuated saving countless lives.

Divergent Point: Project Keyhole discovers that J. Carrington Bellmore the scientist and founder of the company that manufactured the affordable technology of the Early Warning Buoy system whose low cost made them financially feasible to install around the world’s coast lines now is among the 269 victims aboard a Korean airlines 747 that the group are shocked to learn was shot down by the Soviet Union instead of landing safely like any other jet. Maxine theorizes that due to the time line corruption a key person in the Russian military who might have prevented the tragedy now does not exist.

Team: Saxon and Blanchard.

Mission: The stakes are extremely high for the Keyhole team as they must save all 269 people aboard the jetliner and over 230,000 people in eleven countries that will die without the Early Warning Buoy system. Saxon and Ross are originally going to Keyhole back to 1983 but a shaken Blanchard steps forward and volunteers to take Ross place because she is fluent in over 17 languages including Korean and she believes it will be helpful in convincing the pilots their course deviation could doom the airliner. Keyholing back to the jetliner they are unfortunately seen by an American law enforcement officer exiting from a secure area of the airplane. The flight attendants & the officer put the pair under “arrest” and confine them to the galley.

As they are led away Saxon sees Blanchard surveying the cabin and locking her gaze on a man. As their confinement continues and certain death approaching Blanchard becomes even more agitated. Saxon confronts her and she reveals that
her father is one of two US Congressmen on the plane and she knows that were it not for the temporal shielding that protected Keyhole she would have ceased to have existed because she never would have been born. Suddenly the pair have a desperate idea, with their pleas to see the flight crew ignored they ask to see Blanchard’s father. Blanchard’s father meets with her and swears him to secrecy to never reveal what she is about to tell him. Blanchard thinks she’s crazy until she reveals things only a family member could ever know. At the request of a US Congressman, he and the pair are allowed into the cockpit to plead their case to turn the plane or all will die.

Note: There is a great scene at the end of the episode back at Keyhole where the team asks if Blanchard Sr. can be trusted to keep his word and Blanchard admits he was the most honest man that ever lived and goes off by herself to cry at how good it was to see him one more time. This is the Blanchard -centric episode of the season & Mazar acts the hell out of it.

Note 2: This is another budget saving episode and the closest to the infamous “bottle shows” that all series have as the only additional set outside of the Keyhole sets are the interior areas of the jetliner.



65 MILLION YEAR EXPRESS (Episode 12)

Original History: A community activist manages to defuse a brewing riot in 1965 Los Angeles following the arrest of a black resident.

Divergent Point: The community activist is not present in the alternate time line and six days of chaos ensue in the Watts Riots.

Team: Saxon, Bannister and Jax

Mission: Studying the text of the impassioned speech by the activist Bannister hopes by traveling to 1965 he, an unknown man, can calm the crowds with the same words of wisdom as in the original history and stop the riots. At the exact moment as Bannister, Saxon and Jax are entering the keyhole the first percentage degradation in the temporal shielding occurs and a power surge scrambles the time circuits and cripples Maxine. Instead of being sent to 1965 the Keyhole team is thrust back 65 million years into the past. Unable to re-open the Keyhole the team fights for survival amidst ferocious dinosaurs and lethal plants in the prehistoric world, Ross, Freemont and Blanchard desperately search for a way rescue their friends before its too late.

Note: This Bannister-centric episode ends with a cliffhanger. An alternate ending tying up the episodes storyline was shot and will be included on the DVD release if PIF does not pick up the back nine episode.

With the CGI dinosaurs this is the highest budgeted episode
since the pilot.

Cad Max territory.

 

[Mistral]

And this is a made-up TV series? Get an agent and go make a pitch-I'll watch!

 

[Vendikarr]

I like this. It has elements of Quantum Leap mixed with the Time Tunnel remake pilot from a few years back.

I would definitely watch this, but I think your descriptions could use a little more attention to what is happening back at KEYHOLE. I know time barely passes there, but if feels like we don't know any of the people who normally stay behind.

Putting bandages on history is a good concept, but would there be a second plotline where someone goes after the saboteur? I am curious about his/her motives. Also with so many people missing from time, could the saboteur have killed may people, or just gone back far enough and killed one person. The butterfly effect takes care of the rest.

I'm intrigued, and honestly, if this were on the air, it would already be added to my TiVo. I did go over and vote for it to show my support.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

And this is a made-up TV series? Get an agent and go make a pitch-I'll watch!

Thank you...it was a labor of love to create.

Here are "CLIPS" from the pilot used to pitch to the PIFN Fantasy network

In 2039 the US military in a top secret partnership with the Advanced Technologies Corporation has been conducting tests with the world’s first time machine dubbed PROJECT KEYHOLE after the “keyhole” it opens through time. In the opening episode Bannister, Ross and Saxon are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Senator Blanchard at Keyhole who is bringing with her Reginald Douglas-the disgraced co-founder of ATG. Lt. Jackson who is newly assigned to Major Saxon as his aide asks who Douglas is and why everyone is on edge about his arrival.

Saxon explains that a year ago Douglas had been expelled from the project when due to his impatience he had prematurely tested the time travel technology unable to wait for Bannister who was convalescing in a hospital from a serious car accident. As the result of Douglas’s rush to test the unperfected equipment the unexpected consequences result in the formation of two brain aneurysms within Reginald’s brain that could burst at any time. If Douglas had waited just two more months they would have figured out the safeguards that prevented those aneurysms or any other physical side effects of time travel.

Jackson then asks what Douglas is doing returning to the project. Bannister explains that his former friend’s bitterness at being forced out of the project has apparently led to a vendetta against the project that has left him with a death sentence. Douglas has been claiming to congress that the budget over runs on the project were due to some unethical actions undertaken by Bannister.

Douglas’s trumped up claims had caught the ear of the Senator from Arizona whose committee oversees Project Keyhole. Claiming he has proof of Bannister’s misappropriation of funds that can only be found at the project Senator Blanchard is bringing Douglas back to the project on a fact finding mission. Making matters worse Blanchard has always been an opponent of the billions spent on Keyhole from the atomic reactor that powers the project right down to the extensive wardrobe & costuming used to conduct surveillance in the past incognito and would readily like to shut it down.

Bannister is wistful as he explains this and excuses himself. Ross explains that Bannister and Douglas had been friends since college where Bannister had first formulated the theory that made time travel possible and Douglas had been the computer genius that. was able to formulate the software and machinery to make it all possible.

Blanchard and Douglas arrive by helicopter. .

The confrontation between Blanchard and Douglas and the Keyhole team is a tense affair that ends with Douglas snarling at how it is all Bannister’s fault that he’s living under a death sentence, if Bannister had never expressed his theories time travel to him he never would have become intrigued by the challenge of making the technology work leading to his impending death. In a rant he declares time travel far more dangerous than the splitting of the atom and vows to show them just how dangerous it can be. During his rant Douglas maneuvers himself towards a certain control panel.

Before anyone can act he pulls out a small scale gas mask and puts it over his nose and mouth while instantly hitting a sequence of buttons on a control panel. Saxon shouts “NO!” but before he can reach Douglas jets of gas emerge from the ceiling and begin filling the complex as everyone collapses to the floor and the camera fades to black.

We hear the sound of coughing and the camera slowly turns from black to white and we see it’s from Senator Blanchard’s point of view from the floor. Standing over her are Bannister and Saxon who help her to her feet. She demands to know what happened.

Saxon explains that Douglas activated one of Keyhole’s security devices…a quick acting gas that would knock everyone out if there was ever a major security breach in the facility. Blanchard sarcastically remarks it works just as well on the good guys as on the bad guys and Ross rebukes her by saying Blanchard was the one who brought Douglas back to Keyhole.

Saxon orders his security details to begin searching for Douglas but a stunned Ross says not to bother. He’s not at Keyhole any longer. Bannister gasps as they see that the computer displays showing the Keyhole apparatus has been activated. Ross hits a control and two large metal doors retract into the wall revealing the Keyhole Portal pulsating with energy and in active mode. Technicians quickly act on Bannister’s orders to close the Keyhole and call out to Bannister must have introduced some sort of virus into the Keyhole that has permanently erased the date/destination coordinates Douglas has used. He’s now untraceable.

Blanchard demands to know what l is going on but no neanswers her. Saxon makes for a special red phone on the wall saying he has to report the unauthorized use to his superiors at the Pentagon. A breathless Ross shouts to Bannister that the Omega Failsafe protocols have been activated. A terrified look come over Blanchard’s face and she grabs Bannister’s arms and says she’s read about the Omega Failsafe and that they would only be initiated to protect Keyhole.

“Yes, Yes.’ Bannister says. The Omega Failsafe is special shielding that protects Keyhole from any drastic changes in the timeline in a worst case scenario. He orders Ross to access the supercomputer to find out what triggered the Failsafe into action.

Saxon ominously advises the group that he is unable to raise the Pentagon or any other military headquarters. Blanchard takes out her cell phone and attempts to call her congressional office with the same result. Nothing. She tries several other numbers but the result is still the same. Bannister orders the communications department to attempt to make contact. All attempts to reach the outside world have failed.

CLIP 1 from PILOT EPISODE

COM OFFICER: It’s …it’s like it’s not even there anymore….

CAMERA: BANNISTER and ROSS EXCHANGE WORRIED GLANCES and ROSS CROSSES OVER TO SAXON.

ROSS: Major I think we had better get “Alan” to look into this. As in now.
SAXON: I couldn’t’ agree more. Doctor. (HE TAKES HIS PLACE BEHIND A COMPUTER CONSOLE) Initiating Protocols 7-29-94.

JACKSON: (DRAWS UP NEXT TO THE CONSOLE) Sir. Who is Alan?

SAXON: It’s not a who but a what Lt. It’s Project Keyhole’s very own spy satellite. Bannister nicknamed it after the Alan Parson’s Project and their song eye in the Sky.

BANNISTER: (OBSERVRING HER PUZZLED EXPRESSION) I know….you’ve never heard of them. The last time they were on the charts your parents were probably kids like I was.

BLANCHARD: (STERNLY WITH HER ARMS STILL CROSSED) Is this ‘Alan’ of your even going to work with whatever the hell is going on beyond this installation?

ROSS: It should. The same temporal energy generating equipment that protects Keyhole was also installed in the satellite. The minute Omega was initiated the system would have come on line in the satellite.

BLANCHARD: How long before it’s on line.

SAXON: Imminently Madam Senator. I’m just programming the multi lens on Alan for three different views. We will see the on those monitors up there. (AS HE SAYS THIS HE POINTS TO THE THREE HUGE MONITORS ON A NEARBY WALL).

BLANCHARD: Professor Bannister…when we are able to make contact I can assure you that you and this project are in for a not so gentle future. Given what has happened here today.

BANNISTER: Understood Senator and let the record show that it was you that brought Douglas here by buying into his false claims. You believed him because you wanted to believe him and he used you. And used you good.

CAMERA: SHOWS BLANCHARD BRISTLE BUT DOLLIES OVER TO SAXON AT A COMPUTER PANEL

SAXON: Monitors coming on line. Number one will be New York, two is Boston and three will be Washington D… (SAXON’S VOICE TRAILES OFF AND THERE ARE GASPS AND EVEN A FEW MUTED SCREAMS FROM THE EXTRAS)

MUSIC: DRAMATIC CUES.

CAMERA: SHOWS THE THREE CITIES ON THE MONITORS IN RUINS….CHARRED CITIES AND TRUNCATED SKYSCRAPERS

BANNISTER: My god.

BLANCHARD: (CHOKES) Gone…all gone… WASHINGTON IS GONE!

JACKSON: (STUNNED) Major…it’s…it looks like….

SAXON: Nuclear devastation…no question about it. The blast damage has all the hallmarks of atomic explosions….a holocaust. Somehow Douglas has managed the unthinkable…he triggered the apocalypse.

MUSIC: DRAMATIC MUSIC CRESENDOES

CAMERA: FADE TO BLACK FOR THE COMMERCIAL BREAK.

The next scene is in a conference room with a large video screen. Seated around the table are Blanchard, Bannister, Jackson and Blanchard’s aid. Ross stands next to the video screen. Ross says she will recap what they know.
According to further satellite intel the devastation appears world wide. Alan has observed there are survivors who are living in a ramshackle world of shelters and limited resources. Basically she says the world now resembles every post apocalyptic movie that was ever made.

Blanchard shrieks that she is not going to spend the rest of her life cooped up in Project Keyhole and demands to know
what Bannister intends to do about it. Ominously Bannister assures her she won’t have to worry about being stuck in Keyhole forever. Blanchard’s aid questions as to whether they can’t simply use Keyhole to go back a few hours and stop Douglas. Ross explains that for reasons they haven’t figured out the time barrier is impenetrable until they go further back than 25 years. It’s an obstacle they have never been able to overcome. Blanchard then asks if they can’t go back
to stop the apocalypse. Saxon says it’s the same problem...from what intel they have gathered through Alan the nuclear war occurred within the last fifteen years. They can’t simply journey back to the day of the war and warn the powers that be.

Ross clears her throat and explains the situation is far worse than that. Realizing they might be able to glean information on what may have happened they programmed Alan’s communications dish to scan for radio transmission from Challenger base.

Clip 2.
BLANCHARD: Challenger Base…the lunar colony?

ROSS: Yes, as you may know the base has been constantly manned since the first components were assembled In Tycho crater in 2020. Over the years its has expanded to a staff of twenty five men and women. Alan Failed to detect any radio signals. Not even the permanent radio beacon used for telemetry when Soyuz Supply ships are sent up there. We turned one of Alan’s cameras towards the moon and…

SAXON: There’s nothing in Tycho Crater. Challenger Base and the smaller outpost McAuliffe station are not there.

BLANCHARD: Major you don’t expect me to believe that whatever Nuclear War occurred expanded into space.

SAXON: No, ma'am. I’m not. The disappearance of Challenger and McAuliffe is more frightening in a different way. Our analysis of the photos show there is no evidence they were ever there.

ROSS: They’ve been erased from existence.

BLANCHARD: (RISES TO HER FEET) How?!

BANNISTER: You better have a seat for what comes next Senator. (BLANCHARD GLARES AT HIM BUT SITS DOWN).

ROSS: Though we received no signals from the lunar base…the European satellite Gateway is still broadcasting And what we learned from its transmission…well, Senator you need to prepare yourself for the unimaginable.

AIDE: Time out...what is this Gateway satellite.

JACKSON: A European corporation launched it almost thirty years ago…it was basically a big Publicity stunt tied into a decade long marketing campaign…their slogan was “We are the Earth”. They specialized in Green technologies. Anyway this satellite they put into orbit broadcasts Radio signals into space welcoming any space faring cultures that might show up some day. One of the signals it broadcasts is the history of earth so any visitors approaching earth will be well versed in what we are all about…and the message ends with all the wonderful innovations that have
benefitted the planet through the inventions of Applied Green Technologies corp.

BLANCHARD: Sounds like a waste of money thirty years ago.

ROSS: Well, it proved invaluable to us today. We’re lucky its still there. ALAN has been scanning the skies and dozens of satellites that should still be in orbit have vanished like the lunar colony. Anyway we’ve been downloading the data into Maxine, that’s what we call the Supercomputer that runs Keyhole and…and we’ve found that history has been vastly corrupted from what we knew…some things…some things are still the same but others...others have diverged completely from what we knew.

BLANCHARD: (LOSES HER STERN EXPRESSION AND LOOKS FEARFUL) Examples Dr. Ross.

Camera; SHOWS BANNISTER NODD TO ROSS AND HE HITS SOME KEYS ON A LAPTOP IN FRONT OF HIM.

ROSS: The first image you will see from the Gateway broadcast is a headline from the New York Daily Clarion Dated December 8, 1941

Camera: SHOWS AN IMAGE OF THE HEADLINE: JAPS BOMB PEARL HARBOR! 2000+DEAD!

BLANCHARD: (LOOKS PERPLEX and THEN ANGRY) Is this some kind of joke! That’s ridiculous! (SHE JUMPS TO HER FEET AGAIN) Every school kid knows that attempted sneak attack was never carried out! That civilian aircraft from the Big Island stumbled across the Japanese fleet when it was still approaching and managed to radio back a warning. Ships and planes began deploying from Pearl Harbor and the Japanese abandoned the planned attack and recalled their fleet!

ROSS: That is history as we know it! But now….now the sneak attack was successful! The records show that numerous ships were damaged and destroyed including the Battleship Arizona and America declared war on Japan and the rest of the Axis.

AIDE: The Arizona? If I remember my history that was the ship Japan signed the treaty to end the war in 1947…scared out of their minds after we dropped the first Atomic bombs on Berlin and Dresden…they didn’t want to suffer the same fate.

BANNISTER: Again, that is the way we remember it…but now. America enters the war in 1941. Instead of 1943 after the fall of Great Britain forced our hand. And it was two cities in Japan that were nuked in 1945…what were their name again Zoe?

ROSS: I believe they were called Hiro…Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two cities I’d never heard of before now.

BLANCHARD: What are some other things that have changed? (BANNISTER HITS THE KEYS AGAIN)

Camera: SHOWS A SILENT FILM OF A BLACK LIMOSENE SPEEDING DOWN A STREET WITH A WOMAN CLIMBING OUT ONTO THE TRUNK OF THE CAR.

BLANCHARD: What was that?
Camera: BEFORE SHE CAN FINISH ON THE SCREEN IS THE VINTAGE CLIP OF WALTER CRONKITE.

CRONKITE; A flash…from Dallas, Texas apparently official…President Kennedy died at 1 pm Central standard time… 2 pm Eastern standard time…some thirty eight minutes ago.

BLANCHARD: (COLLAPSES BACK INTO HER CHAIR) No….no…this can’t be happening!

ROSS: God help us it is….instead of serving his two terms Kennedy died Nov 22, 1963. Maxine is postulating that the loss of Kennedy is likely the leading cause of the disappearance of Challenger Base…we still made it to the moon…but after that…without Kennedy driving them on…the data shows NASA basically screwed around for years keeping in low earth orbit missions with the space shuttles &
turned their attention away from the moon & other more ambitious projects like the Mars landing that occurred last year.

.

BLANCHARD: (RISES AGAIN AND HOLDS OUT HER HAND) Stop! Stop, I don’t want to hear anymore. Bannister I just want to know what you are going to do to fix this!

BANNISTER: We are exploring options on what can be done to restore history to the way we remember it.

BLANCHARD: Well, you better because like I said I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life in this complex.

BANNISTER: And like I said that is something that you will not need to worry about. Senator there is something else that you need to know. Zoe.


ROSS: As you know the Keyhole Project complex is being protected from the temporal changes just .So we would have a chance to correct things in a worst case scenario such as we are now ex-periencing. We have discovered during the time we were all unconscious Douglas attempted to alter the protocols controlling the shielding.

He failed because we had installed new programming into Maxine during his time in exile. However his hacking attempts seriously corrupted the programming. The long and short of it he was unable to completely disable the shielding in hopes of preventing us from being able to repair the time line but unless we can come up with a solution the shielding around Keyhole will fail in one month.

AIDE: Then what happens?

ROSS: Keyhole and everyone in it is absorbed into this new time line….meaning we will be living in the time line we see out there…most likely everyone here probably died in the Nuclear War and the aftermath. In essence we are all living on borrowed time…this entire project is on a virtual death row.

Music: DRAMATIC SCORE AS BLANCHARD FIGHTS TO ABSORB THE NEWS.

The next scene is in Bannister’s living quarters. There is a knock on the door and Saxon enters. Bannister and Ross inform him they believe they have a solution.

Bannister tells Saxon that a virus Douglas unleashed into the mainframe is preventing them from tracing the initial Divergent Point Douglas journey to where he altered history. Ross says it could be as simple as Douglas killing one man whose death could have triggered a cascade effect throughout history. Bannister gives the example of how killing
Hitler as a child would have lead to a possibly vastly different world…there likely never would have been a second World War, a child that never survived the death camps might have grown up to invent a new energy source to supply the world…the possibilities are endless.

Ross cautions Saxon that even the death of an ordinary man could have great repercussions. If the man’s descendants were never born then they might have not been around at a critical point in history. There is just no way for them to know what Douglas did. They have learned only that the new history and the old history
were identical up until the 13th century when Divergent Points begin to appear.

Bannister and Ross tell Saxon that there only really appears to be one option. They have to go back and visit each Divergent Point and attempt to get history back on track as best as possible. In theory eliminating one Divergent Point may erase other Divergent Points.

Before they can begin however they need more detailed computer records than the Gateway satellite provides. Saxon suggests they attempt a journey to Dover Station. He returns their puzzled looks by admitting classified information may not matter now and reveals Dover Station is an underground bunker 50 miles to the northwest that was one of the myriad of secret locations government leaders would be spirited to in case of Nuclear Attack. If Dover was not erased due to any Divergent Points it will contain hardened computer records that they should be able to retrieve including all the historical data on the new timeline they need.

Saxon says since Keyhole is powered by a small nuclear reactor they can use the radiation suits from the complex and they will have to wear special backpacks that will generate the same temporal shielding that is protecting the complex in order for them to be able to leave it…but there is one other problem. He can only get them so far into the bunker. For complete access they are going to have to take Blanchard with them. In theory since Blanchard has been in congress since before the approximate date of the attack-her retina scan should get them access to the bunker. Bannister and Ross groan at the idea of having to tell Blanchard she has to go out into Mad Max territory.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

I like this. It has elements of Quantum Leap mixed with the Time Tunnel remake pilot from a few years back.

I would definitely watch this, but I think your descriptions could use a little more attention to what is happening back at KEYHOLE. I know time barely passes there, but if feels like we don't know any of the people who normally stay behind.

Putting bandages on history is a good concept, but would there be a second plotline where someone goes after the saboteur? I am curious about his/her motives. Also with so many people missing from time, could the saboteur have killed may people, or just gone back far enough and killed one person. The butterfly effect takes care of the rest.

I'm intrigued, and honestly, if this were on the air, it would already be added to my TiVo. I did go over and vote for it to show my support.

Thanks for the kind words and the vote

and yes it is the Butterfly Effect-killing one man and eliminating their descendants could reult in scores of people being eliminated from a time line.
A "clip" form the pilot addresses this.

Bannister tells Saxon that a virus Douglas unleashed into the mainframe is preventing them from tracing the initial Divergent Point Douglas journey to where he altered history. Ross says it could be as simple as Douglas killing one man whose death could have triggered a cascade effect throughout history. Bannister gives the example of how killing
Hitler as a child would have lead to a possibly vastly different world…there likely never would have been a second World War, a child that never survived the death camps might have grown up to invent a new energy source to supply the world…the possibilities are endless.

Ross cautions Saxon that even the death of an ordinary man could have great repercussions. If the man’s descendants were never born then they might have not been around at a critical point in history. There is just no way for them to know what Douglas did. They have learned only that the new history and the old history
were identical up until the 13th century when Divergent Points begin to appear.

Thanks for the suggestion on showing more of what goes on back at Keyhole...and as for the sabateur...he could either be dead in the past or return in the future to make trouible for the team.

 

[Mistral]

This is really good-equal to or better than anything Hollywood has kicked out.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Thank you to anyone who voted.
When the results came in the series won its time slot an top place in all serie for the night.

These were the results posted at pifnetworks.com

Thursday 24th September 2009
1 vote = 2 million viewers

Thursday's Winners
---------------------
Divergent Point (PIFN), Dr. Heart (PIFN), You Got The Wrong Man (PIFN)

Thursday's Losers
---------------------
Janit O'Day (UPN), Generations Apart (MBN), Slamball X (UPN)

PIFN led the night all night (No surprises there) with it's combination of Divergent Point at 30.6 Million, Dr. Heart with 24.48 Million and surprise hit You got The Wrong Man owning the 10PM hour with 26.52 million.

At 8 UPN nudged MBN out of the way with Showtime bringing in 12.24 million and at 8:30 a half hour version of Slamball X fell to 8.24 million. MBN aired filler gameshow Generations Apart at a last place 6.12 Million (It did however do better than some of their other filler efforts).

At 9 MBN took second (surprisingly) with movie filler Marriage on the Rocks at 10.20 Million, this grew to 12.24 million at 10pm. UPN aired flop Janit O'Day only manging to scrape 8.16 million at 9pm and then at 10PM Janit fell to 6.12 million (The same number MBN pulled for a filler gameshow earlier in the night, ouch!)

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Oh Drat, this is fake? Id totally watch this! You should Write this... even in book form this would be fantastic.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Oh Drat, this is fake? Id totally watch this! You should Write this... even in book form this would be fantastic.

Thanks Positronic Yeah, a book is always an option for this concept...I just need to stop polishing an adventure novel I've been tinkering with since 1996 and do something with that first!

Thanks again.

 

[watermelony2k]

Good concept with a unique twist, I like it! will return to continue to read through those episode synopses when i can!

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Good concept with a unique twist, I like it! will return to continue to read through those episode synopses when i can!

Thank you. I happy it did well in the fantasy tv game we were playing over at pifeedback.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Thursday at 8PM is the timeslot for the show at the Fantasy Game.
It received enough votes last week to win the time slot and be the most
“watched show” of the night.

If you have a moment to cast a vote please visit:

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/93910104/m/369105442

DIVERGENT POINT EPISODE 2 –Airdate 10/1/09

PILOT (Part 2)
DIVERGENT POINT (Episode 1, Part 2)
Previously on Divergent Point . . . In 2039 the US military in a top secret partnership with the Advanced Technologies Corporation has been conducting tests with the world’s first time machine dubbed PROJECT KEYHOLE after the “keyhole” it opens through time. In the opening episode Bannister, Ross and Saxon are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Senator Blanchard at Keyhole who is bringing with her Reginald Douglas-the disgraced co-founder of ATG. Lt. Jackson who is newly assigned to Major Saxon as his aide asks who Douglas is and why everyone is on edge about his arrival.

In 2039 the US military in a top secret partnership with the Advanced Technologies Corporation has been conducting tests with the world’s first time machine dubbed PROJECT KEYHOLE after the “keyhole” it opens into the past. The Keyhole team realize they have no choice but to journey to each Divergent Point and correct history under the belief that eventually they will fix the Divergent Point that leads to the nuclear armageddon. Needing more detailed information for Maxine the Supercomputer running the Keyhole Project to determine key Divergent Points and what led them to occur the team must journey through the apocalyptic landscape to an underground bunker where computer records will provide them with complete records Maxine can use to compare the altered history with the original history. The journey is filled with peril as the team must fight survivors of the holocaust and starving feral animals that roam the desolate world in search of food.

On this episode . . .
Original History: American does not enter the World War II until 1943 after the fall of Great Britain the war ends in 1947 when American drops two Atomic bombs on Germany.

Divergent Point: Imperial Japan launches a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor drawing the US into the war on December 7. 1941.

Team: Saxon and Ross

Mission: Having successfully downloaded the computer data the team recovered on their perilous trip to the underground bunker Maxine pinpoints approximately 200 major Divergent Points. Selecting the Pearl Harbor attack as their first Divergent Point to tackle they ask Maxine to determine why things unfolded differently. Max relays to them that in the original history a pilot flying solo out over the Pacific spotted the approaching Japanese fleet and was able to radio Pearl Harbor which scrambled ships and planes to intercept. With the element of surprise lost the Japanese turn back rather than carryout the attack.

Max says that pilot never existed in the new time line…All Douglas had to do was kill random people at some point in the distant past, removing their existence would start a chain reaction. Blanchard asks how and Bannister explains by saying “Say you kill your great grandfather before he has children-that eliminates the children he would have had, the children they would have had , and then the children they would have had and finally you yourself cease to exist.” Ross agrees this is most likely what happened.

Saxon says it is now up to them to go back and warn Pearl Harbor. Bannister cautions that it will have to be done without revealing the existence of time travel or displaying any advanced technology. The team agrees and Saxon and Ross open a Keyhole back to 1941 to make their first attempt to setting history back on track.

 

[Mistral]

I think you shouls stay with this too. Fascinating.

 

[Vendikarr]

Max relays to them that in the original history a pilot flying solo out over the Atlantic spotted the approaching Japanese fleet and was able to radio Pearl Harbor which scrambled ships and planes to intercept. With the element of surprise lost the Japanese turn back rather than carryout the attack.

Pacific.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Max relays to them that in the original history a pilot flying solo out over the Atlantic spotted the approaching Japanese fleet and was able to radio Pearl Harbor which scrambled ships and planes to intercept. With the element of surprise lost the Japanese turn back rather than carryout the attack.

Pacific.

Thanks I meant to fix that a while ago but get forgetting!

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

I think you shouls stay with this too. Fascinating.

Thank you. It's leading in the polls again today...so I'm happy about that. And I have been considering possible options of what to do with it.

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Hi.
It’s week three in the fantasy tv programming game at Pifeedback. DP has been “winning” it time slot each week.

If you have a moment please visit the link below to vote. Thank you.


PIFN:
DIVERGENT POINT (Guyanna) -Airdate 10/8/09 (Episode 3)


Last time on Divegent Point . . . the PROJECT KEYHOLE team, led by Major Jon Saxon, Bannister, Lt. Jax Jackson, and Freemont, begins their initial missions back in time. Their first mission sends them to the bunker where they successfully downloaded the necessary information needed to continue with the project. They are then sent to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. They make it their mission to go back in time and stop the unevitable from occurring, being their first attempt to set history back on track.

On this episode . . .
Original History: Rep Leo Ryan was sent to Guyana to investigate the activities of cult leader Jim Jones at Jonestown. As Ryan attempts to leave his delegation is ambushed at an airstrip by armed members of the People Temple-the assault fails when a husband and wife defector warn the delegation moments before the impending ambush. The defector’s wife is killed in the shootout but the Congressman and his delegation survive. Jones fearing that his compound will be invaded orders a mass suicide. Before that can be carried out the defector husband returns and shoots Jones dead. Without Jones…the People’s Temple crumbles and the majority of cult members return to normal life.

Divergent Point: Jones succeeds in not only murdering Ryan but carrying out his mass suicide leaving over 900 cult member dead after drinking cyanide laced grape Flavor Aide.

Maxine determines that the divergent points stems from the fact that husband and wife defectors were killed in a traffic accident on their way to the airfield and were not able to warn Ryan’s party and history is further corrupted when Maxine discovers one of the children who perished in the mass suicide would have grown up to be the UN Ambassador who brokers a historic peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians in the year 2015.

Team: Saxon and Jackson.

Mission: Saxon and Jackson Keyhole back to Jonestown on November 18, 1978. Saxon must try and prevent the automobile accident that claims the defector couple while Jackson infiltrates the People’s Temple keep tabs on Jones. When Saxon is unable to prevent the accident it now falls on his shoulders to prevent the murder of the congressman and his delegation while Jax must use whatever means necessary to stop Jones from ordering the mass suicide of nearly a thousand of his followers.

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/93910104/m/770103642

 

[Mistral]

And how does it play out-does "our" history play out and if so, what factors stop them from changing things?

 

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

And how does it play out-does "our" history play out and if so, what factors stop them from changing things?

Saxon has to enlist the aid of some local "banditos" to stop the carnage at the airstrip and Jax has no choice but to put a bullet through Jim Jone's forehead...so "our" history is averted and the Divergent Point is eliminated in the Keyhole universe.

An episode later in the season will show its not always possible to stop a Divergent Point and "our" history will come to pass.

Thank you for the inquiry.