Your TRIZ class was engaging in the way you connected with us. It helped broaden the way we approached problems.
Podcast Enterprise: S2S26 Assignment:Earth
Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before
We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:
- Synopsis or summary of the episode
- Story structure
- Character analysis
- Our likes and dislikes
The synopsis: In today’s episode, we find that the Enterprise has gone back in time to the year 1968.
And They’re apparently on a mission for historical research and 1968 is actually a decade when there’s been a lot of political upheavals and potential for nuclear war. So Kirk and the Enterprise crew, they are orbiting Earth, they have used the deflector shields to prevent themselves from being detected, but they are also shaken by a sort of invisible beam that hits them.
And this is very confusing for them because Earth does not have the technology to attack or disrupt anything in the, on the Enterprise in 1968. But there are something is hitting them anyway, and then they find that this is actually a transporter beam that’s hitting the Enterprise from about 1000 light years away, which is apparently technically impossible, according to Scotty, at least, and also a strange man with a cat in it with a silver collar materializes in the transportation room.
Now this person, he looks human, he talks human, he seems to be too full of himself, he says that he’s He calls himself Seven. He’s an agent of some kind. He says He’s all very vague about his affiliation, but he’s also , very intelligent because he recognizes that the Enterprise is from the future, which technically somebody from 1968 wouldn’t have been able to gauge.
He is not surprised by the technology aboard the Enterprise. He is not surprised that he’s in the Enterprise. He just says that his transporter beam has been disrupted and he’s here now. He talks to his cat, Isis, quite a bit, and also he talks about being about visiting an alien planet and he refuses to elaborate any further.
So finally, there’s a minor skirmish and he is knocked out, taken to the med bay and where Dr. McCoy examines him and finds that he is human, human, but, in perfect health. Now Kirk is in a bit of a quandary here because he doesn’t know if Seven is actually human or an alien appearing as human and he confuses himself and the viewer with this kind of analysis.
But then Seven manages to fight his way out of the Enterprise. He goes back to 1968. He materializes on the planet into a nice on planet Earth in a very fancy office. where he is interacting with some kind of a portal. I think. He interacts with that. And There is also a rocket launch that the United States is undertaking at that time. And This is part of the arms race. They want to show their prowess. There is a lot of undercurrents about sending hydrogen bombs into space and how this should be stopped so that Earth’s people do not fight each other and wipe the planet out.
And Seven is sent by this mysterious alien race to stop that. He interacts with the computer, who gives him timelines, shows him a bit of an attitude. He has to stop this rocket launch so that Earth does not wipe itself out. It gets a little confusing. He also finds himself with a very animated secretary who gets on his nerves most of the time.
And He’s continuing to talk with his cat. But eventually what happens is. Kirk and Spock also teleport down to Earth. They want to stop Seven from disrupting the timeline. Because if, because this event is taking place in the past, If Seven does something to destroy that rocket launch, it would also affect the future. With them in it.
So They have to do something to control whatever Seven is doing, to disrupt Seven’s mission, to find out who the aliens are. None of this happens. Seven finds that he can in fact, use the portal to go right up to the rocket. He opens a panel on the rocket side. He pulls out some wires. He’s disrupting it.
He comes back to his office and then where Kirk and Spock also find him. He uses that fancy computer to derail the rocket, and it’s coming down full speed. This is where Kirk and Spock intercept him, and Kirk, at that point, just as the rocket is coming down to obliterate some countries on Earth and everybody is on high alert, Kirk has another crisis of himself. And he, He is suspecting Seven of destroying worlds, and he doesn’t know who he is, and this is totally the wrong time for all of that.
Finally, he just trusts Seven. I don’t, I, I’m not even sure how to explain it. The rocket does not hit any of these countries. It is detonated in space. There is no harm done. And, The twist at the end is that that rocket, according to the past and future timelines, is supposed to fail.
That launch is supposed to fail. So, eventually, after all that we went through, the past is unaffected and the future is unexpected unaffected and the story ends.
That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!
Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!
