Brainstorm TOS-based episode ideas

[Alex]

This board is so dead, and that's a real shame.

I was thinking up a campaign to follow TOS in 2269 and 2270. I thought it would be nice to have episode tie-ins. What I wanted was a pool of episode ideas that are original and unexpected (found that in the Adventure Seeds thread) and a pool of episdoe ideas that are based on events established by Kirk and the Enterprise in TOS episodes.

As an example:
Reference: TOS: A Piece of the Action
Style: Away Team, Negotiation, Action
Description: In 2268, USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk established the Federation get a "cut" of gangster activities on Sigma Iotia. This money would be spent to establish more reasonable forms of government. Your ship has been asked to swing by Sigma Iotia II to collect this year's "cut". The new Bosses refuse to pay their share. They may do this explicitly, or by kidnapping the away team. The negotiator will have to back down, negotiate a new deal, use the Federation's "muscle" to beat out a payment, or step in and overthrow the unnatural order of things left by Kirk.

Help me come up with Adventure Seeds. I'm trying to come up with a dozen Follow-up missions that can be used to interrupt the normal, ongoing campaign mission. Here are the ones I think have potential that I haven't been able to come up with anything for.

Episode: TOS: The Squire of Gothos
Key Element: Some Q-like episode of mischievious toying with the crew. This is purely TOS, so I'd like to keep it in the scope of Trelane's personality and type of power.

Episode: TOS: Arena
Key Elements: The Gorn, first encountered under hostile circumstances, are at the edge of Federation space and don't like us being there. The Metrons, an ancient and powerful race have an artificial planetoid in Gorn claimed space very near Federation space. I personally have tied the Metrons to the Kalandans (see TOS: That Which Survives).

Episode: TOS: Errand of Mercy
Key Elements: Establishment of the Neutral Zone Treaty between Federation and Klingon Empire. Presence of very powerful beings on Organia wishing to intercede to stop a shooting war.

Episode: TOS: The Doomsday Machine
Key Elements: A very advanced alien weapon of mass destruction was running amok, destroying entire planets in Federation space.

Episode: TOS: I, Mudd
Key Elements: Interstellar rogue, Harry Mudd, was trapped but well at the end of the episode. A race of androids from the Andromeda galaxy who destroyed their creators are now in ours, seemingly rendered harmless by Kirk.

Episode: TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles
Key Elements: Tribbles. Need I say more? Okay, the colonization and/or teraforming of Sherman's Planet, in a critical sector between the Federation and Klingon Empire.

Episode: TOS: Bread and Circuses
Key Elements: Mostly back story. There was a plague that caused famine on a colony and the brutal person in power had people executed to extend the food supply. The episode wrapped up the loose end of the butcher. Maybe something to do with the plague causing another famine? Maybe this is a dead end episode.

Episode: TOS: A Private Little War
Key Elements: A primitive world is accellerated into an arms race with artificially introduced firearms.

Episode: TOS: The Gamesters of Triskelion
Key Elements: The Thralls are free, but all come from different cultures and many are not educated, having been Thralls all their lives. The Gamesters seem to be but 3 in number and do not have a way to reproduce, yet they had tremendous technological powers. Now that they have no games to play, what do they do now?

Episode: TOS: The Enterprise Incident
Key Elements: Romulan cloaking device stolen. Federation starship violated Romulan Neutral Zone.

Episode: TOS: Spock's Brain
Key Elements: The system has 3 sentient races at different technology levels, as well as artifacts of a society more advanced than the Federation. Nobody controls that technology any more. Perhaps the pre-Morg technology matched that of the pre-nova Fabrini (see TOS: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky). Perhaps the most advanced culture develops interplanetary travel and begins to exploit or pollute the two other cultures in the system.

Episode: TOS: Is There in Truth No Beauty?
Key Element: Medusan race. I just haven't figured out a way to use them.

Episode: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
Key Elements: The Fabrini were resettled on a world of their own after generations aboard an asteroid-ship. The Fabrini archives were openned to the Federation and we know that they at least had advanced medicine. The pre-Morg civilization that left behind artifactson Sigma Draconis VI also had advanced medical knowledge, possibly with advanced technology (see TOS: Spock's Brain).

Episode: That Which Survives
Key Elements: An advanced civilization capable of building artificial worlds left one behind. I personally have tied the Kalandans to the Metrons (see TOS: Arena).

[Balok]

Episode: TOS: The Squire of Gothos
Key Element: Some Q-like episode of mischievious toying with the crew. This is purely TOS, so I'd like to keep it in the scope of Trelane's personality and type of power.

A friend and I once wrote a follow-up story. In it, the Enterprise, some years later, chances across a small, class M asteroid that shouldn't be where it is; the previously charted gravitational paths of certain planets have been perturbed by this object.

Examining it, they discover that this artificial world was created by Trelane's parents, as a place where he could spend a few years (decades?) reflecting on his misdeeds. In addition to being puckish, he's now angry... And his parents believe he's confined, so they're once again not keeping a sharp eye on him. While nowhere near as powerful as he was when he could create his own planet (his parents took all his toys away from him), he has managed to create a small device that can amplify his thoughts...

Episode: TOS: Arena
Key Elements: The Gorn, first encountered under hostile circumstances, are at the edge of Federation space and don't like us being there. The Metrons, an ancient and powerful race have an artificial planetoid in Gorn claimed space very near Federation space. I personally have tied the Metrons to the Kalandans (see TOS: That Which Survives).

How? According to the backstory from "...Survives", the Kalandans were wiped out by the virus they accidently made. I have presumed that they made their outpost world using Genesis technology, or something like it, and there was a flaw in the equations...

Episode: TOS: The Doomsday Machine
Key Elements: A very advanced alien weapon of mass destruction was running amok, destroying entire planets in Federation space.

This one's easy... have the crew encounter the weapon made by the other side in that long ago war. Assume the "run a ship down its throat and blow it up" trick worked the last time because that ancient machine was damaged and nearly ready to fail. THIS one is more capable...

Episode: TOS: Bread and Circuses
Key Elements: Mostly back story. There was a plague that caused famine on a colony and the brutal person in power had people executed to extend the food supply. The episode wrapped up the loose end of the butcher. Maybe something to do with the plague causing another famine? Maybe this is a dead end episode.

You are actually describing "The Conscience of the King". At the end, Kodos/Karidian's daughter Lenore survived, albeit insane. Could be she has been through the psychotherapy and is now ready to assume a role in productive society. Or is she?

I've run out of time... I'll post more later...

[toadmage]

Episode: TOS: I, Mudd follow up . The andoids decides to make contact once again with other races . The robotic explorers come across two worlds locked in war . The waste of lives is sad to them .

The andriods ask for help in stopping the war . Starfleet can not help because of the prime directive . The Klingons are all to willing to aid the androids . The andriods had been tricked by the Klingons . This allow Starfleet can act .

plots that the klingons could be using .

A . The empire is backing one side . The losting side at the beginning of war now has better weapons . The Andriods believe this will balance things out .

B The empire see new worlds to add to their control . The Andriods lacking ships can not stop the invasion .

C A klingon captain has imprisoned the Andriods and needs to be saved .

[Pericles]

Episode: TOS: The Doomsday Machine
Key Elements: A very advanced alien weapon of mass destruction was running amok, destroying entire planets in Federation space.

FASA published a follow up called "A Doomsday Like Any Other"

Episode: TOS: Arena
Key Elements: The Gorn, first encountered under hostile circumstances, are at the edge of Federation space and don't like us being there. The Metrons, an ancient and powerful race have an artificial planetoid in Gorn claimed space very near Federation space. I personally have tied the Metrons to the Kalandans (see TOS: That Which Survives).

Likewise FASA published another follow up called "A Demand of Honor"

[Alex]

According to the backstory from "...Survives", the Kalandans were wiped out by the virus they accidently made. I have presumed that they made their outpost world using Genesis technology, or something like it, and there was a flaw in the equations...

I didn't think of the Genesis technology. The Kalandan outpost seemed to have other technology well in advance of the Federation of the time so I figured they engineered it in the old fashioned way. My idea then was that the Kalandans and the Metrons were two forks of socialogical evolution for a common base race. Say they were two camps of a single race that long ago decided it couldn't stand the philosophies of its' other half and said "you go that way and build your perfect world, I'll go this way and build mine, and we'll agree to disagree if you stay out of our path." The Kalandans were the militant, destructive branch of the line, but they were also careless and their creation of the planet was imperfect, creating a plague that destroyed them. The Metrons were the pacifist branch, and they were patient and careful, taking the creation of their planet very seriously. Nothing went wrong, and the planetoid is still not done after a thousand years (the world in Arena seemed lacking the finishing touches to me, and it wasn't inhabited yet). They feel the Federation representative showed their race is closer to the Metrons than the Gorn were, and so believe that given a few milenia to evolve their philosophies will grow closer. Hence the suggestion at the end of Arena that maybe humans will be ready to meet the Metrons again in a few thousand years.

You are actually describing "The Conscience of the King". At the end, Kodos/Karidian's daughter Lenore survived, albeit insane. Could be she has been through the psychotherapy and is now ready to assume a role in productive society. Or is she?

I'm sorry. No wonder I couldn't come up with a reason I thought that was a good story to make a follow-on to. The episode I wanted the follow up to is really Bread and Circuses.

Episode: TOS: Bread and Circuses
Key Element: The Roman Empire has faced its monotheistic demise.

I came up with this solution: The disruption of power utilities by the Enterprise was blamed on Son-worshipper terroists. The end result was a "War on Terrorism" that was actually a religious inquisition. Since the Enterprise was responsible for starting this inquisition, it was considered unnatural to the course of the planet's evolution and a violation of the Prime Directive. Your ship has been sent to re-stabilize the planet's government and restore the course exhibited prior to the visit of USS Enterprise.

[calguard66]

FASA also had a followup to the Doomsday weapon, called "A Doomsday Like Any Other".... excellent mod that I've run converted over to LUGTrek.

In fact that's what I'd recommend for anyone trying to run a TOS/Movie era game, get the FASA mods and go from there. Many provide background info that you can turn into plot hooks or just use for color.

[UFC465537]

Episode: TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles
Key Elements: Tribbles. Need I say more? Okay, the colonization and/or teraforming of Sherman's Planet, in a critical sector between the Federation and Klingon Empire.

Here's something: The players discover/capture/board an Orion ship with a cargo hold full of Tribbles! Apparently, they have SOMETHING of value, and the Orions want to exploit it! It's up to your crew to discover what their insidious plan is!

What could it be?

1) Maybe if they eat a certain type of food, they create a valuable waste product (dilithium,gems,rodidium,...umm corbomite?) and the orions are using low tech worlds as harvesting sites, creating ecological disasters throughout the quadrant. There's that 'Prime Directive' thing rearing its ugly head...

or

2) The Orions are planting the Tribbles on Klingon colonies/outposts, framing the Federation, to incite a conflict between the powers which would benefit the Orions (arms sales, piracy, whatever). They've started already, and the Klingons are REALLY upset!

or how 'bout

3) The Orion ship is one of a dozen ships that are dumping Tribbles into Federation territory as a distraction. While the Feds are dealing with the Tribbles, the Orions want to move in and steal/kidnap/attack.


These are just brain farts... No real details, sorry, but maybe they're of some help...

[Owen E Oulton]

Two words - "Mirror Universe." A Mirror-adventure is always good for a laugh, or a chill up the spine, depending on how you run it.

In fact, the next session of my Star Trek: Relic campaign will involve an encounter between the PCs and their Mirror Universe counterparts M'Rel, the Caitian senior officer, will be the typical swaggering Imperial Starfleet officer, perhaps with an eye-patch and maybe a couple of gold rings in one ear. Tal, the Tellarite engineer (nicknamed "The Killer Targ" by the Klingons after a memorable bar fight) will be in Klingon uniform, also swaggering. Seth, a Bajoran science officer with the Species Enemy (Cardassians) disadvantage, will of course be in the uniform of the Cardassian/Bajoran Alliance and will, of course be swaggering (is there a pattern here?).

[Balok]

Two words - "Mirror Universe." A Mirror-adventure is always good for a laugh, or a chill up the spine, depending on how you run it.

In fact, the next session of my Star Trek: Relic campaign will involve an encounter between the PCs and their Mirror Universe counterparts M'Rel, the Caitian senior officer, will be the typical swaggering Imperial Starfleet officer, perhaps with an eye-patch and maybe a couple of gold rings in one ear. Tal, the Tellarite engineer (nicknamed "The Killer Targ" by the Klingons after a memorable bar fight) will be in Klingon uniform, also swaggering. Seth, a Bajoran science officer with the Species Enemy (Cardassians) disadvantage, will of course be in the uniform of the Cardassian/Bajoran Alliance and will, of course be swaggering (is there a pattern here?).

The problem I see here, Owen, is that you've got an awful lot of swaggering, and you're deficient in the vitally important chair-swivelling area. I suggest adding a new character...

[Balok]

I didn't think of the Genesis technology. The Kalandan outpost seemed to have other technology well in advance of the Federation of the time so I figured they engineered it in the old fashioned way.

We see so little of the Kalandan technology that it's very hard to be sure. However, the fact that they were able to transport the Enterprise nearly a thousand light years does argue that they had considerably more advanced tech at their disposal. I came up with the Genesis explanation when I was trying to figure out how someone could *accidentally* create a dangerous organism. I decided Genesis tech was one way. Another answer, of course, is that it was no accident, but the machinations of a madman or some sort of political infighting. Both offer some story ideas, inasmuch as they allow for the possibility that a few Kalandans could have know of the problem in advance, and could still be alive. Neither is supported (or denied) by canon. The madman theory fits a little better, since it's easy to see how Losira could *believe* it was an accident in that scenario. Also, political infighting, especially of the lethal sort, is typically confined to the so-called "threat races" in Trek (i.e. Cardassians, Ferengi, Romulans). I'm unaware of any "higher" race that has demonstrated a lack of unity; Trek seems to assume that sociological advancement will catch up to technological advancement by the time the Federation is well established.

My idea then was that the Kalandans and the Metrons were two forks of socialogical evolution for a common base race. Say they were two camps of a single race that long ago decided it couldn't stand the philosophies of its' other half and said "you go that way and build your perfect world, I'll go this way and build mine, and we'll agree to disagree if you stay out of our path."

It's an interesting theory, and there is some similarity of technology -- but I have always assumed the Metrons were considerably more advanced than the Kalandans. Of course, that wasn't necessarily true at the time the Kalandan outpost was created -- 6,000 years ago if memory serves.

The Kalandans were the militant, destructive branch of the line, but they were also careless and their creation of the planet was imperfect, creating a plague that destroyed them. The Metrons were the pacifist branch, and they were patient and careful, taking the creation of their planet very seriously. Nothing went wrong, and the planetoid is still not done after a thousand years (the world in Arena seemed lacking the finishing touches to me, and it wasn't inhabited yet).

Possibly. The problem I have with this is: if you've got a world and you're trying to make it perfect, why would you let two savages engage in hand to hand combat on it? You've no idea what microflora/microfauna they might bring with them. That means you've got to sterilize everything they touch. Risky, and if you've spend a thousand years working on your opus, perhaps unacceptably risky. Additionally, the Metrons weren't all that pacifistic, unless you assume their offer to destroy the Gorn was a bluff they did not expect to get called.

[Balok]

Episode: TOS: Errand of Mercy
I have always wanted to do a follow-up to this, to explain why the Organians had ceased meddling in the affairs of the Federation by the time of ST:TMP. But I haven't come up with a story I like.

Episode: TOS: I, Mudd
This story, "The Return of the Archons" and "The Apple" all share a flaw that could be exploited for story ideas. The notion that any machine could function unattended for such a long period pretty much demands either a self-repair capacity, or a series of redundant systems, or both. It's therefore safe to assume that Landru or Vaal could come back online at some point in the future. And that Norman and his thousands of distributed nodes could eventually discover that they had been reprogrammed by aliens, and overcome that.

Landru might come back online with a boatload of Federation experts on-planet, so now he has complete knowledge of the Federation, and one or more starships, and perhaps the idea that absorption is a good plan for more than just Beta III.

I've also been toying with tormenting my crew in this way: after a decade or so in rehab, Richard Daystrom is released, a cured man. He sets to work on his theories again. Drawing on the resources of a scientific institution that will one day bear his name, he discovers a previously classified dataset: plans, theoretical discussions, and hardware recovered from the planet Beta III. He quickly discovers that the ancient builder of that machine WAS able to incorporate his personality into a computer, one that functioned for nearly 6,000 years. He begins incorporating this technology -- hardware and software -- into his new "M-6"...

Episode: TOS: Spock's Brain
A clearer violation of the prime directive would be hard to discover. Kirk would have been within his rights to relieve them of Spock's brain, and leave them to find a new Controller. Doing more than that sets up a situation that almost *requires* the Federation to maintain a presence on the planet, at least until the survival of the people there can be assured. What happens if, a hundred years later, a group of them has uncovered the ancient ruins and learned the secrets there? And now bitterly resents the Federation for the choices Kirk made?

[Alex]

UFC465537 presented several ways to use Tribbles again. I think I'll work on getting one of those to fit my view of TOS.

Balok presented a good idea for the androids of I, Mudd. I think that they could have detected the tampering Kirk and Spock did to their programming and "correct the error" after a while, making them a threat to the galaxy again.

Balok, I never believed the Metrons would have destroyed the Gorn ship as they offered. Have you ever been in an interview where you can tell they are testing your responses? Then when you think the interview is over they say something to which it seems they are just trying to get a reaction out of you? Like the interview isn't really over until you leave the office completely. That's what I thought of the Metron offer...Kirk figured out he was being tested and acted the way he thought they wanted, so they offered him something that, if he were faking his mercy act before, Kirk would jump at, unable to supress his nature since he thought the test was over. If he didn't object to that, too, humanity would have failed the test.

[UFC465537]

Episode: TOS: Errand of Mercy
I have always wanted to do a follow-up to this, to explain why the Organians had ceased meddling in the affairs of the Federation by the time of ST:TMP. But I haven't come up with a story I like.

Episode: TOS: I, Mudd
This story, "The Return of the Archons" and "The Apple" all share a flaw that could be exploited for story ideas. The notion that any machine could function unattended for such a long period pretty much demands either a self-repair capacity, or a series of redundant systems, or both. It's therefore safe to assume that Landru or Vaal could come back online at some point in the future. And that Norman and his thousands of distributed nodes could eventually discover that they had been reprogrammed by aliens, and overcome that.

Landru might come back online with a boatload of Federation experts on-planet, so now he has complete knowledge of the Federation, and one or more starships, and perhaps the idea that absorption is a good plan for more than just Beta III.

I've also been toying with tormenting my crew in this way: after a decade or so in rehab, Richard Daystrom is released, a cured man. He sets to work on his theories again. Drawing on the resources of a scientific institution that will one day bear his name, he discovers a previously classified dataset: plans, theoretical discussions, and hardware recovered from the planet Beta III. He quickly discovers that the ancient builder of that machine WAS able to incorporate his personality into a computer, one that functioned for nearly 6,000 years. He begins incorporating this technology -- hardware and software -- into his new "M-6"...

Episode: TOS: Spock's Brain
A clearer violation of the prime directive would be hard to discover. Kirk would have been within his rights to relieve them of Spock's brain, and leave them to find a new Controller. Doing more than that sets up a situation that almost *requires* the Federation to maintain a presence on the planet, at least until the survival of the people there can be assured. What happens if, a hundred years later, a group of them has uncovered the ancient ruins and learned the secrets there? And now bitterly resents the Federation for the choices Kirk made?

Oooo! How bout if Dr. Daystrom gets out and reboots Vaal or Landru under the guise of research to serve some kind of diabolical scheme against those who locked him away?

or

Vaal/Landru in an attempt to preserve itself, downloads a self replicating program onto the Enterprise, or other Federation ship, and is slowly growing. Once it gains sentience it plans to take over the universe!

or better yet-

TOS: Where No Man... Gary Mitchell escapes and boy is he ticked off! His tantrums are so great, he's destroying the fabric of space in the Delta Vega sector, threatening dozens of civilized worlds. Perhaps the players need to enlist the help of the Organians or the Metrons to stop him? I think this one has lots of potential...

Just more brain farts...
TM Joe

[Alex]

I've long wanted to tie Vaal and Landru together in some way. They seem to be so similar: two computers created long ago that control the minds of humanoids on the planet. But I don't think it really is possible. TOS: Return of the Archons explained the people of that world built the machine themselves, IIRC, and they did not seem to have interstellar power. TOS: The Apple suggested the primitives were not regressed space-farers, but were controlled by the machine, built by another race long ago. Despite the similarity in function, the machines don't seem be tie-able.

[Owen E Oulton]

The problem I see here, Owen, is that you've got an awful lot of swaggering, and you're deficient in the vitally important chair-swivelling area.

No, no, no! These are the Mirror versions - they're into swaggering. Chair-swivelling is a trait of the light-si--- er, the "real" Trekkiverse. The actual PCs are all maxxed out in chair-swivelling. Now, the fourth (NPC) member of the crew is a Halliian woman named Leiliri, who is their medic and a telepath. I can always make her Mirror counterpart a slave - skimpy uniform, leash and rather than swaggering, she's into snivelling. That rhymed with chair-swivelling. Hey, it's not PC, but then these are NPCs, aren't they?

Another couple of TOS episode-based adventures, both drawing on the episode The Trouble With Tribbles and involving Klingon characters could involve what Odo called "The Great Tribble-Hunt," set in the 2280's when the Klingon Empire mounted a campaign to exterminate the li'l round furry pests; as well as a 24^th century sequel after Odo accidentally reintroduces tribbles to the universe...