Sensitivity 101
| Star Traks: The Original Series | |
| Episode name | Sensitivity 101 |
|---|---|
| Season | |
| Episode number | |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker, Tasha Campagnola |
| Year | 2372 |
| Stardate | 49862 |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Star Traks 4 [TRK] |
| Next in series | Star Traks 5 [TRK] |
| Previous in timeline | Star Traks 4 [TRK] |
| Next in timeline | Star Traks 5 [TRK] |
A freak accident causes Captain Alexander Rydell to swap minds with one of his 20th Century ancestors. Now, Rydell must contend with dating, college classes, and the possible destruction of the Federation unless he can find some way to undo the damage he's done and get back to his own time.
Summary
While returning to the USS Secondprize from a sensitivity training via runabout, Captain Alexander Rydell is blasted by an energy phenomenon. He awakens to find himself in the 20th Century in the body of one of his own ancestors, who, oddly enough, is also named Alex Rydell, a college student at Old Dominion University. He also manages to screw up this Alex Rydell's relationship with Trina, a woman who looks an awful lot like Trinian. Rydell soon finds that there are versions of pretty much everyone he knows from the Secondprize in this time period, and that his roommate is the 20th Century's Travis Dillon.
Back in the 24th Century (or forward in the 24th Century, really), the other runabout passengers, Commander Scott Baird, Dr. Rebecca Singer, and Ensign Andrea Carr, are able to piece together what happened to Rydell. They also discover that the universe has changed around them. Rydell has been erased from history, which allowed the Joegonots to sweep through the cosmos with the Transference Ray, turning everyone in their path into Joegonots. Baird builds a holographic projection unit, and, after locking onto Rydell's brainwaves through the temporal anomaly that blasted Rydell in the first place, he is able to project an image of himself to Rydell that only Rydell can see. They deduce that Rydell has to repair Alex's relationship with Trina to save the future, and they get a bit of unwanted help when the 20th Century Travis overhears too much and figures out that something has happened to his roommate.
Forced to take Travis into his confidence, Rydell sets about winning Trina back. He is able to convince her to go on a date with him, which goes very well and sets the universe right again. Now Rydell just has to find a way home. Carr and Baird are able to track the source of the temporal anomaly, and it's coming from somewhere on the Old Dominion campus. Rydell, Travis, and Baird's hologram follow the signal to a physics lab, where they find Carl Jaroch tinkering with what is supposed to be an electromagnetic telescope. Instead he's accidentally created an neutrino emission chamber with sufficient power to rip a hole in the space-time continuum. Whoops.
Rydell leaps in front of the emission chamber, and instantly his mind is back where it belongs. He and the others return to the Secondprize, glad to have this ordeal behind him. Relaxing in Seven Backward, Rydell suddenly has his head smashed repeatedly into a table by Trinian, who informs him that she's been waiting 400 years to do that.
Featuring
- Captain Alexander Rydell
- Commander Scott Baird
- Ensign Andrea Carr
- Dr. Rebecca Singer
- Trinian
Also Featuring
Author's Comments
Despite being set after Star Traks 4, this story was actually written before that story.
The real world version of Alexander Rydell was a big fan of "Quantum Leap," which inspired a lot of this story.
In the Fall of 1994, a movie adapted from this story was filmed. No, you will never see it. Sorry. But you can read a little about it in the entry for Star Traks: Refresher Course.