If there had been a Season 4 of TOS ...

Can you explain what this is? I have a general idea, but I'd like it clarified.

 

"That Wacky Redhead", meaning Lucy, chooses not to give up Desilu, continues to back Star Trek (as she was very supportive of under dogs), and things go all around better for the show. Meaning TOS continues for 5 seasons. And there's the knock-on effects in other areas which are covered throughout the alternate history story therein. Anymore I say would be spoilers.

It's alternate history; pick a point-of-departure from actual history, change that event, and let changes flow. It could be the Confederates winning Antietam, or a few hundred more men dying in the Battle of the Bulge (with gradually increasing changes resulting from that seemingly minor difference from actual history), or Hitler winning World War 2. Here, it's Star Trek.

 

La-La Land's set would have had 5 more CDs.

Neil

 

Totally.

 

This.

 

I scanned this and it's not even logical. Okay, Lucy doesn't sell the studio, but somehow Star Trek gets put into Laugh-In's slot (sorry, Lucy had pull with CBS, not NBC), and then this prolonged run manages to produce episodes written for Phase II (as if writers would have come up with those exact same stories 6 years earlier). Then it goes from fannish to masturbatory, with Dr. Who crossovers and other wish fulfillment. I think alternate histories can be fun if they are logical, but this one jumps the rails.

 

This man has brought joy to the masses, and you can't let him have it. *Downward head shake*

 

Ah. This must be some strange use of the word "masses" I wasn't previously aware of.

 

Oh, Winston. You're just ants at a picnic.

EDIT:
The masses would be the close to a million views it has, which I would declare a sizable amount of people. Seriously, be respectful. You can critique, but don't be curt.

 

You're saying that close to a million different people have read that alternate timeline? And not only that, it brought them joy?

 

So far it has brought ME joy (and I'm close to a million people by myself, on a scale from 0 to infinity ) - I'd take my family and friends and move there if I could.

Maurice: Don't be a stick in the mud. OF COURSE just about any alternate history story is going to be mixed parts of actual history, pet theories, and wish fulfillment. Or are you aware of some alt history account that accurately describes a REAL parallel universe? If so, you'd better share - both the story and the tech used to observe said parallel universe!

 

My point is that, as alternate histories go, this one's one picking, as an Ellison Guardian of Forever would say, "a focal point", changing it, and seeing what happens (in the Turtledove example, machine guns for the Confederacy) and exploring how that ripples outwards. Here Lucy is the focal point in a "what if she zigged instead of zagged" way, which is a plausible starting point, and even comes up with a cool idea of who appears on Laugh-In influencing the election (in a Kennedy/Nixon sort of way). All fine, but then runs it off the rails by illogically grabbing story ideas from 1977 (Phase II) and plunking them 6-7 years back in time, which is utterly implausible, etc. It goes from interesting extrapolation to connect-the-dots fanwankery.

And yes, by "millions" I was assumed the reference was to the Wacky Redhead posts, not the audience size in this proposed timeline.

 

I don't get it. I must be missing something.

 

I'd have to go back and look, but I believe the Phase II story ideas you're referring to were ideas that were originally come up with for TOS, never used for TOS, and then refined as Phase II concepts. I know that's the case with the TAS episodes like "The Lorelei Signal" that Brainbin borrowed back to TOS seasons 4 & 5 ITTL.

And the "million" WAS referring to the number of readers for "That Wacky Redhead". I'm not sure what was said that confused that matter.

 

Where is this number coming from? I looked up and down on the page even with scripting turned on, I couldn't see a number of page hits indicated, or anything even remotely like that.

 

I don't know - maybe Emperor Norton can answer that specifically. But given the quality, plus the fact that it won a Turtledove Award and is listed at tvtropes.com, too, I won't doubt it until proven otherwise.

 

If there'd been a 4th season of TOS, the bad episodes would probably start outnumbering the good. So I'm glad it never happened.

 

I agree, assuming the pattern of trying to run the show on less money and resources that we already saw with the 3rd season held true. Totally different story, though, if the 3rd and 4th seasons came with more of both - and without a cancellation between the 2nd and 3rd - because the show had been very commercially successful.

 

It's possible I could be incorrect re the Phase II stories. I could look through the TOS Writers Reports and see which, if any, of the Phase II stories got their start in TOS. As to TAS, I didn't single it out, as I know "BEM" and "More Tribbles" started as TOS pitches.

Also, as to readership, one has to distinguish between page views and unique readers. Millions of hits doesn't necessarily equal millions of readers.

 

Still, a million page views is impressive. I haven't reached an audience close to that size on my blog!