STAR TREK: GATEWAY

SYNOPSIS: On planet Gateway, mysterious coded transmissions have been emanating from the large gateway (G2) for weeks now, and two technicians are busy installing a powerful state-of-the-art communications receiver aimed at the gigantic portal when suddenly a dual-winged spacecraft comes screaming through the gateway, out of control, crashing into the far wall of the gorge! The two technicians rush over to see if there are any survivors and discover inside the pod of the spacecraft a being in some sort of strange black environmental support spacesuit and gloss black helmet. The being is alive and is BREATHING via some sort of mechanical apparatus! It is unquestionably Darth Vader.

Meanwhile, a few lightyears away, Enterprise has been ordered back to deep space station K-7 to escot the grain shipments to the Sherman's Planet project when Kirk's old nemesis Klingon Captain Koloth drops out of warp in his warship and blocks his path. Before anything can happen, Starfleet calls to order Kirk to cooperate with the Klingons as they are exercising their oversight rights under the treaty.

Back at Gateway Station complex, the mysterious arriver has been taken to the medical center where he still lies in his strange environmental support suit which the MD feels should not be removed since it seems to be keeping the being alive. Doctor Carol Marcus, the interim director of Gateway Project comes in to see the being. The MD shows her one of two flashlight-like objects that were on it when they brought it in. Carol decides to take one of the devices, along with pieces of the wreckage, with her to K-7, where she will attend a meeting with top Federation and Starfleet scientists who are looking at Gateway planet as a possible phase-two location for the Sherman's Planet Project.

As Doctor Marcus' long-range shuttle takes off for K-7, Vader rises from his stasis and wants to know where he is and where the nearest Imperial military installation is. He grabs the frightened and confused MD by the throat, who tells him that K-7 is the only quasi-military installation for lightyears. Someone comes into the infirmary, sees this, hits the alert button to call security! Vader levitates the arriver off the floor! Just then, two security guards rush in -- see this happening, draw and fire their phasers -- but Vader grabs his flashlight-like device -- the lightsaber -- deflects the phaser beams and disposes of the two security guards. As he stands over the several bodies, he hears the sound of a spacecraft flying by the infirmary window. He strides out...

Somewhere outside the Gateway Station complex on the landing strip, a flamboyantly moustached man approaches and says, "Harry Mudd. You're the one looking for a ship to K-7?"

Meanwhile, arriving at K-7, Kirk barges into K-7 station manager Lurry's office to find not only Koloth, but Klingon Fleet Commander Kor, Kirk's old adversary from their conflict on Organia is there as well. Kirk's last visit to K-7 was a disaster and he is in no mood to deal with Klingons again -- especially these two, so he tells Koloth that he may indeed exercise his oversight but as soon as the grain is delivered, Kirk plans ot kick them right back across the Neutral Zone.

The Klingons and Nilz Baris have given Kirk one of his well known epic headaches, and Kirk, unable to find a bottle of Aspirin at the K-7 store, wanders into the bar to see if perhaps the bartender has any when he meets an attractive woman scientist named Carol Marcus. It turns out that Carol and Kirk know someone in common -- Spock, who Carol met while attending the Vulcan Science Academy years back. There is chemistry between Carol and Kirk and there are plans to meet up again, but for now there's work.

Down on the spacedock, Spock has been tasked with dealing with Nilz Baris, the self-centered and annoying Federation undersecretary in charge of the entire Sherman's Planet project, who is upset that the loading operations are taking too long. Spock assures him that by his calculations, the project is efficiently on schedule. Carol Marcus comes down to find him and the two old colleagues reunite. Carol leaves Spock with the second of the lightsabers to study.

Suddenly Harry Mudd approaches. "Why Spock, so help me I'm actually happy to see you." If Spock were emotional, he would be annoyed, but he simply regards Mudd with disinterest and calls security to remove him from the off-limits zone. Spock notes the mysterious tall, dark robed and helmeted Vader accompanying Mudd with casual dismissal, and is back to his work. Mudd is off and the dark robed being has walked off as well.

The dark robed figure looks out at Enterprise through the large spacedock access. Using the Force, Vader summons Ensign Riley to beam him aboard...

Kirk is back on the bridge in his normal routine when Spock calls with an update and to inform him that for some strange reason, Ensign Riley has left his post in the transporter room. Suddenly the instrumentation at all the stations on the bridge flickers and all communication is lost with Spock. Kirk is unable to contact Scotty in Engineering and as he tries to leave the bridge, the turbo doors won't open.

Suddenly Vader's voice comes over the intercom. He has taken control of Engineering and has trapped over four-hundred of the crew below the upper decks. Vader tells Kirk that he controls the ship and it is going to Gateway. Kirk's typical bravado prevents him from just surrendering the bridge, so Vader uses the Force to subdue them...

Back on the K-7 spacedock, Spock is alerted that Enterprise is leaving. When Spock attempts to call, nobody answers. Spock realizes there is something wrong and decides to quickly go after the ship. Mister Lurry tells Spock that K-7 maintains no long-range shuttles or transports, so Spock presses the most unlikely of people into service. He commandeers Harry Mudd's ship, the Calypso, and he and an upset Mudd set off after Enterprise...

Meanwhile, on Enterprise, Kirk awakens to find he and the rest of the bridge crew locked in the ship's brig. They quickly try to plan an escape but it won't be easy. Spock personally re-designed the brig after the incident with Gary Mitchell.

Elsewhere, Koloth's Klingon warship, along with Kor, have set out after Enterprise. Kor is suspicious that the Sherman's Planet project is actually a ploy for some sinister Starfleet weapons program.

Onboard Mudd's ship, Calypso, noting the Klingons, Mudd activates an illegal cloaking device. Spock has been studying the mysterious lightsaber, and finally gets it to activate. Fascinating. Meanwhile, he and Mudd, trapped together for the duration, trade jabs and philosophies.

On the bridge of Enterprise, Sulu and Checkov are being mind-controlled by Vader. Vader studies a visual account of Enterprise being flown through the large gateway (as seen on STNV's "In Harm's Way"). This is his plan to return to his "universe."

Invisible via cloaking device, Calypso maneuvers behind the closed hanger doors on Enterprise's hanger deck. Spock accesses the command code and opens the doors long enough for Mudd to swoop Calypso in for a rough landing. Vader is so preoccupied with his plans, he is convinced by Checkov that the hanger doors opened by accident.

Spock and Mudd approach the brig, and Spock, using the lightsaber, cuts a hole in the bulkhead armor to free Kirk and the rest of the bridge crew. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, McCoy and Uhura begin to plot their re-taking of the ship from the nefarious Vader. They know they are up against a real telekinetic power, so Kirk recalls their visit to the planet Platonius, where McCoy whipped up a serum called Kironide that allowed Kirk to magnify his telekinetic powers long enough to thwart the bad guys there. Kirk tells McCoy to go to Sickbay and quickly whip up another batch and meet them a deck below the bridge. McCoy reluctantly takes Mudd along to help him.

Meanwhile, Kirk tells Scotty to prepare to flood the bridge with stun gas. Scotty tells him that they will have to run a bypass in Engineering to unlock the system, which Vader apparently locked. Uhura and Spock head to Engineering to take care of this.

Enterprise sweeps into orbit above Gateway. A deck below the bridge, Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, Spock and McCoy, along with Mudd, prepare for the bridge assault. Kirk takes a double dose of the Kironide injections over McCoy's objections. Then Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Mudd board the turbo and prepare to re-take the bridge.

Scotty, having crawled up into the Jeffries Tube, waits for the order to manually flood the bridge with stun gas.

The bridge turbo doors swish open! Kirk, Spock and McCoy rush the bridge, but Vader is too quick! Vader's powers of the Force immediately levitate all of them off the floor choking -- clutched by the throats by Vader's telekinetic powers! They have failed...

Suddenly the ship shakes and shudders from a weapons salvo! Koloth's ship has attacked and is pummeling Enterprise!

Vader releases the bridge crew, strides off the bridge! The Klingon problem is immediate and must be dealt with before they are destroyed! Kirk orders Spock and Uhura to reason with Koloth and Kor while he goes after Vader! Spock tosses the other lightsaber to Kirk saying, "you may need this." As Kirk runs out, McCoy tends to Checkov and Sulu, bringing them back from their mind control!

Kirk runs down the decks and corridors of the ship as they shake and quake from the Klingon attack. He hits a wall intercom, finds out from the computer that Vader is in Engineering.

Back on the bridge, Spock tries to reason with the suspicious and angry Kor, when Sulu tells him with dread, that the matter-antimatter containment field has been completely compromised somehow. The ship is going to blow up in less than five minutes unless it is re-established!

Spock passes the bad news onto Kirk, who has arrived to find Scotty barely conscious outside Engineering. Kirk cuts through the engineering access door with the lightsaber and cautiously enters to find Vader standing by the dilithium chamber. Vader tells him that he is the one who controls the matter-antimatter field, and that if he doesn't return control of the ship to him, he will blow it up. Kirk takes on Vader's brinksmanship by quickly ordering Spock and Uhura to begin the self-destruct sequence. The entire process is on the P.A.system, so Vader hears the entire thing and is helpless to stop it. Kirk tells Vader that if he doesn't release the field, he will blow the ship up himself. Frustrated, Vader decides to resolve the issue with lightsabers, and suddenly two icons of science fiction battle it out with lightsabers as the ship's reactor goes critical, the self-destruct sequence counts down and the Klingons pound them from outside!

Back up on the bridge, Spock convinces Kor to break off the attack and to flee the area to avoid being blown up with Enterprise.

Vader uses his powers of the Force to hurl large pieces of machinery and other things at Kirk, who instinctively throws up his hand to protect himself and discovers that the Kironide has taken full effect! Kirk now has his own telekinetic powers with which to battle Vader!

Suddenly a large portion of the upper gantryway shake loose and collapse! Kirk barely manages to escape, but in the smoke and debris, Vader has again disappeared! With seconds to spare, Kirk yells to the computer to abort the destruct sequence -- which it does with a second to spare! Spock rushes in, Scotty on his arm. Immediate concerns again: They must re-deploy the matter-antimatter containment field in less than a minute! With epic dread, Scotty's face goes white as he tells them that the field has completely collapsed and will take thirty minutes to re-deploy! Spock backs this up by saying that there is no known scientific way to re-establish a field any faster. Just when things look the bleakest, Kirk has an idea. He uses his telekinetic powers much the same way Vader used the Force -- and with sheer mind control, manages to re-establish the containment field in the nick of time.

Suddenly all is well again, but Vader is nowhere to be found. Kirk somehow "knows" that Vader is not on the ship. He has escaped...

Kirk orders Enterprise back to K-7 where they will finish the job they set out to do, and then he has a standing dinner invitation from Carol Marcus...

But where is Vader...?

EPILOGUE:

The same two technicians are back out in front of the G2 again when the mammoth portal goes wild again. This time it isn't a ship that comes through -- it's "someone." The hooded and cloaked figure seems small in comparison to the gigantic gateway as it approaches the dumfounded fearful technicians, who don't wait around this time -- they run for it. Suddenly there is a rumbling of the Force. The two technicians stop, turn, with blank expressions on their faces as the hooded and cloaked figure walks up to them and says in a very familar voice,

"I'm looking for someone."

BACKGROUND:

Just over eleven years ago I attended the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. One of the writing samples I submitted with my application was a "faux" original series episode then titled "Tides" based on the "original series" (TOS).

Since pulling it out of "mothballs" recently, I revised, updated and retitled it "Contact" as a pilot episode to kick off a new fan-based series STAR TREK: GATEWAY (STG) which I have also "conformed" to fit into the STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES framework.

When I originally wrote the script, it was a fun science fiction "romp" that found an avid "fan club" of readers among my friends and their friends as well as fellow screenwriters at AFI.

I went to great lengths to make the characters "speak" with their original voices based on the characters in STTOS as well as the actors' choices as they portrayed these science fiction icons.

I also knew when I wrote the script, it would never see the "light of day" or much less be produced -- so I "went for it" with a great story that spans both the Star Wars and Star Trek universes that sets up a new storyline. It also bridges some backstory that links STTOS to the original cast movies.

As a writing sample, the script got me pitches at Next Generation, Deep Space Nine which ultimately led to pitching the final season at Enterprise.

OTHER PROJECTS:

STAR TREK "Soldiers of Pawns" is my feature length version of the screenplay I believe should be made for the next and eleventh in the Star Trek motion picture franchise.