Star Traks 5
| Star Traks: The Original Series | |
| Episode name | Star Traks 5: In-The-Way-Station |
|---|---|
| Season | |
| Episode number | |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker |
| Year | 2373 |
| Stardate | 50216 |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Reason to Panic [TRK] |
| Next in series | Commanding Presence [TRK] |
| Previous in timeline | Sensitivity 101 [TRK] |
| Next in timeline | House Arrest [WAY] |
A run-in with a not-so-friendly alien race (They never are) leads to big changes for the USS Secondprize crew. Determined to protect Federation space from this new enemy, Starfleet hastily constructs a new outpost to watch over things and transfers members of the Secondprize crew to man it.
Summary
"Star Traks 5" was divided into three acts with an intermission between each act:
ACT ONE: THE DISCOVERY Dr. Rebecca Singer has been removed from duty and shipped off to Tantalus V, leaving the USS Secondprize without a Chief Medical Officer as they travel into unexplored regions of the Beta Quadrant. The ship detects a signal that the universal translator is unable to understand. Lieutenant Lisa Beck, who has been feeling unfulfilled in her position as Communications Officer, sets to work trying to determine if the signal carries a message. Jaorch locates the source of the signal, and the Secondprize goes to investigate, arriving at a deserted Class M world just as Beck completes her translation. It's a welcome message providing landing coordinates.
Commander Travis Dillon, Jaroch, Beck, and Lieutenant Sean Russell beam down to investigate and find what appears to be a hotel. Beck translates a sign indicating that this place is the edge of Multek space, and apparantly the Mutleks don't believe their is anything beyond this point but an empty void. In short, they've discovered a tourist attraction.
ACT TWO: THE DIVISION
ACT THREE: THE DEFENSE
Featuring
- Captain Alexander Rydell
- Commander Travis Dillon
- Lieutenant Commander Jaroch
- Commander Scott Baird
- Lieutenant Patricia Hawkins
- Lieutenant Emily Sullivan
- Ensign Andrea Carr
- Lieutenant Lisa Beck
- Ensign Kristen Larkin
- Counselor Claire Webber
- Lieutenant Monica Vaughn
- Trinian
Also Featuring
- Commander Walter Morales
- Yeoman Tina Jones
- Lieutenant Craig Porter
- Lieutenant Sean Russell
- Dr. Amedon Nelson
- Colonel Martin Lazlo
- Bradley Dillon
- Leximas
Author's Comments
During the writing of Star Traks 4, I started thinking about the idea of a spin-off. I had so many characters running around the Secondprize that it was becoming hard to develop stories that used all of them in a satisfactory way. Lisa Beck was one of the obvious choices for the spin-off, since she had already taken command a couple of times, yet with Rydell, Dillon, and Jaroch around and Sullivan advancing, those opportunities would be harder to come by.
I didn't specifically set out to parody Deep Space Nine, but a space station series did seem like it would be a good change of pace. It would give me the opportunity to use civilian characters, such as Bradley Dillon, whom I had had fun writing in "Star Traks 4."
Originally "Star Traks 5" had a prologue on it involving the TV network that made the "Star Traks" television series. There's another story I never posted called "Contract Negotiations" that I wrote in college that involves this same reality. In it the actress who played Beck was trying to get meatier things for her character to do. And all of this came from the idea that the characters would occasionally stop to do the opening credits monologue in the early stories. It was all just overly complicated and not very funny. Both the story and the prologue can be found hiding at the very bottom of the Alternate Traks page.