Busted

Star Traks: TOSsed
Episode name	Busted
Season	1
Episode number	3
Writer(s)	Alan Decker
Year	2268
Stardate	Unknown
Chronology
Previous in series	Antares or Bust [TOS]
Next in series	Looking Out for the Little Guy [TOS]
Previous in timeline	Antares or Bust [TOS]
Next in timeline	Looking Out for the Little Guy [TOS]

Sending out an entire starship to deal with an overloaded freighter seems like overkill, but maybe there’s a bit more going on than the Starfleet equivalent of a traffic stop.

Featuring

• Mike Harper
• Ronnie Harper
• Dr. Janet Corbair
• Bork
• Smash

Also Featuring

• Wodak
• Pafal-Sris
• Duv

Author's Comments

While also following up on the various plot threads set up in Antares or Bust, this story was really about showing how the Clydesdale crew would handle a classic TOS problem, in this case an energy being that's taking people over, differently than a Starfleet crew.

Mike doesn't care why this is happening beyond what he needs to know to get the hell away from it. And his solutions tend to be less technobabble and more brute force or cobble something together. The mini-series doesn't end up getting into it, but Mike and Ronnie grew up on Earth, which is where Mike learned to fish. I had thought about doing a story about the Clydesdale going to Earth, which would have introduced their parents, but I never got past the basic concept. I did have a title, though: "Home Run."

As a side note, there's a big difference between a concept and a story. And sometimes I have a great title and can't come up with a story to go with it. Years and years ago, I had the idea of doing a Boldly Gone story called "Planet of the Crepes." I didn't get much past that and the idea that the planet was founded by French colonists from Earth. Bain is annoyed because they're French? Sure. Let's go with the British and French people don't like each other stereotype (Side note: on a trip to England, I did see a store in Stratford-Upon-Avon that had a sign in the window that read "No Unaccompanied French Girls Allowed." I still don't know what that was about.). But what was the story? What happens? And what happens next? And then? And then? I didn't have that. Admittedly, it was a concept that would have worked better if Boldly Gone was a TV show, so you could hear the people speaking in very thick French accents rather than me trying to write them.

Back to Busted, Dr. Corbair is the story's other lead, and she is able to help with the escape and dealing with Light while also working to achieve her own ends. When I was first developing TOSsed, Corbair and Ronnie were the first two characters I came up with, back when I thought it was going to be set on a Starfleet ship. One of the first bits of dialogue between the two of them that popped into my head (the exchange about Ronnie sleeping with Jim Kirk again and him not remembering her name again) survived into the current version. At that point, Corbair was running closer to the character Christa Miller plays on Cougar Town, which I had not seen at the time (Great show, by the way. Once they figure out what the show is a couple of episodes in, it's really a fun series about people in their 40s.). One of the reasons to switch to a freighter was the freedom is gave me with Corbair. She is not Starfleet and certainly doesn't have that moral code. She's just out of a rehabilitation colony, so she did something to get herself locked up. And she's willing to barter the life of an intelligent being to get what she needs to achieve her own ends.

I had a lot of fun picturing these characters running around a TOS Starfleet ship. Admittedly, it helps that I've done it myself a few times (not the running part) at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY. If you have any love for the original series, you absolutely have to go visit. It's fantastic. And they're working on building the TNG sets. I have no idea when that part will be open, but I'll be planning a trip to see them as soon as they are.

Links

Busted