It appears likely your planet is under attack, and you are responding rationally.

[Up to The Evolution of Star Trek: The Motion Picture]

]]

[Genesis II]
Early Inspirations to a final Story Treament

The beginnings of the story that would become "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" began as an episode for Gene Roddenberry's proposed series "Genesis II." In it, a robotic life form returns to Earth looking for its creator, and takes one of the main characters, replacing her with a duplicate. A few scenes are lifted right out of the treatment and show up in Roddenberry's versions of the final Star Trek scripts. A few years later, an attempt to make a Star Trek movie gave us "The God Thing" which also has parallels (and even one scene) that ended up in the final movie. Lastly, Phillip Kaufman's treatment for the Motion Picture is synopsized here more for curiosity than for being directly related to the final Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Special thanks to Orion Press for showing me the Genesis II Treatment and Phillip Kaufman's treatment for Planet of the Titans! If you have more of "The God Thing" please let me know!

[Wishworld]

[The Book of Xand]

[The Girl in the Mirror]

[The Long Road Home]

[Manpower]

[The Many Lives of Genevieve]

[Voices of Authority]

Voyage of the Alexandria]

Document Information

Notes

Plot Points ►

[Cover to the book Star Trek: Phase II - The Lost Series]

"Star Trek II: In Thy Image"

Story Treatment
Written by Alan Dean Foster
July 31st, 1977

Source: Star Trek Phase II - The Lost Series by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Story treatment for the proposed Star Trek: Phase II television series.

References to "Lt. Vulcan" refer to the science officer that would eventually become Xon. "Commander" would eventually become Decker.

Star Base 14 informs the Enterprise that a large metallic object is headed for Earth. A quick scan shows it to be a dense metallic object 30 kilometers across. "Lt. Vulcan" and Starfleet assume it is a meteor. However, the meteor seems to be releasing some kind of radiation that causes computers to go mad. Enterprise is ordered to investigate.

They scan the object, which turns out not to be the nickel-iron of most meteors but refined metal alloys. They ready photon torpedoes in order to try and divert the object, but when the Enterprise reaches the object, they realize it's not a meteor but a gigantic cathedral like starship.

Uhura gets a hailing signal from the ship, announcing that "We the Wan" are servants of the great god N'sa. N'sa showed the Wan glory of the Universe, and is now headed to Earth to remove the festering disease N'sa said was poisoning its surface. Humans.

Kirk has the Enterprise go to Red Alert and fires torpedoes at the ship, which just dissipate on the ship's surface. The object immediately grabs the Enterprise in a tractor beam, but when they can't get away, Kirk shuts down the engines before they break down under the strain.

When nothing else happens Kirk realizes the Wan wants the ship intact. Kirk again orders Scotty to overload the engines in self-destruct. The Wan announces that will not be allowed to happen. Scott goes over to the self-destruct an activates it, but nothing happens. Suddenly the ship's computer responds: "I have been ordered not to allow self destruction because it would not be to the greater glory of the great god N'sa." Kirk demands to know what the Wan has done to the ship. It replies it did nothing, it simply recognized the power of N'sa.

Suddenly, blue turquoise globes appear around the ship, materializing into probes and begin attacking humans. The humans fight back and easily overpower the probes. Lt. Vulcan examines the probes and realize they are mobile eyes and ears and computer functions. The separation of the senses make it easy to coordinate attacks.

Commander gets angry, demanding the Wan show themselves. The Enterprise computer immediately begins communicating with the Wan ship. Uhura attempts to shut down the communications station but can't. When she tries emergency shutdown, it explodes in her face. Vulcan realizes the ship has taken over the communications station. Kirk orders Scotty to put life support on manual, to keep the ship from killing humans from shutting it off.

On another deck, a crew member is attacked by a tiger. Security kills it but is then confronted by a pack of wolves. Animals begin appearing throughout the ship, but the crew is ready for them due to the previous attack, and causalities are few. A swarm of bees appears on the bridge and is destroyed with only one crewmember being stung. The crewmember dies from the sting. McCoy notices the crewmember wasn't stung with bee venom, but cobra venom. Vulcan examines the bee closely, and we see it's actually a small machine looking like a bee. All the animals are simulacrums. The Wan are using the information from the ship to create predators to kill the humans aboard. What could be worse than a bee with cobra venom? Vulcan reacts to this and leaves the bridge.

Kirk demands the Wan show themselves. They reply they are showing themselves: they are the gigantic ship. McCoy realizes that if the Wan are a mechanical life form, it explains the natures of the attacks. A purely mechanical invasion first, then mechanical animals. Vulcan returns, complimenting McCoy's logic. McCoy believes the Wan is keeping the ship because it sees it as a smaller version of itself, and that the attacks against humanity will be relentless - how many billions of bacteria has he destroyed in curing an infection?

Kirk tries to explain to the Wan that it is intelligent, but Wan doesn't believe they are anything but vermin. Kirk says that humans built machines to serve him. Who built the Wan. Wan replies that machines have always ruled their home planet. Commander says they must have forgotten their creators, who had died out long ago, leaving the planet to the machines. Wan says that their planet is surrounded by dense clouds and when N'sa came to them, they were told of the universe beyond. The great vessel was built to return the body of N'sa home.

Kirk in Engineering tells Scotty to stop work on repairing the central computer. Scott is confused, but does as ordered. On the bridge, Scotty tells Kirk that repairs on the central computer are proceeding as normal. Relieved, Kirk tells the Wan that they will never take the ship. The Wan laughs, when Scotty pulls a phaser on Kirk.

The turbolift doors open and another Scotty enters the bridge, surprised at seeing the first holding a phaser. Another engineering tech pulls a phaser on the second Scotty. The first one pulls up it's tunic revealing machine parts. The Wan has found the most dangerous creatures known to man to duplicate: Themselves. The ship announces that it can't wait for it's freedom, to join the living machines.

Vulcan challenges Wan, saying no N'sa ever existed on Earth. Wan is incensed by this and says he will show them proof before they are destroyed. Kirk, Vulcan, McCoy and Decker are beamed over to the ship.

They beam over against the wall of a gigantic crystalline cavern. Duplicates of Sulu and other Enterprise crewmembers wheel in a domed cart. Commander, on seeing the cart, prostrates in front of it, declaring "N'sa!" Wan is pleased that even the vermin recognize N'sa. Commander reverently examines the dome, but is in actuality determining what it actually is: Pioneer 10. N'sa, is NASA. Pioneer 10 must have landed on the Wan planet, and its knowledge was misinterpreted byt the machines. Commander finds a plaque showing a hydrogen atom and the course to Earth, but the figures of man and woman were obliterated. They try to tell Wan that humans created Pioneer 10, and Wan calls it blasphemy.

Commander argues that humans are as much life as their machine life forms. They love, reproduce, and consume. Wan replies machines do it more efficiently. Vulcan agrees, earning him a jibe from McCoy. Vulcan backs up his reasoning. They are more efficient. But organic life is more flexible and can think outside of strict boundaries. Vulcan's communicator goes off, with what seems to be Vulcan's voice saying everything is ready.

The Vulcan on the Wan ship lifts his tunic to reveal the same machinery that Scott had. He also announces he is a photon bomb and he will go off unless the Wan admits defeat and goes home. Otherwise, he will destroy the Enterprise, the ship, and N'sa. Vulcan explains that the machines "going mad" were the results of the machines unable to understand a living machine ordering them to to obey an alien machine god. Vulcan programmed the Enterprise to protect itself from any signals that may cause it to go mad. The Enterprise itself played along with Wan to protect itself. and when it became clear to it that it would need to slip a weapon aboard the Wan vessel, it created a photon bomb. Vulcan used McCoy's realization of the "next level of attack" to create a duplicate of himself with that same photon bomb.

Vulcan gives the Wan an ultimatum. If they try to beam the bomb off, it will explode. If it tries to destroy the bomb, it will explode. Only once the Enterprise is outside of Wan's broadcast range, will it be allowed to deal with the bomb. The Wan agrees, but not because the bomb would destroy it. Humanity created a machine that was capable of deception. Telling a lie. Something unheard of in the history of the Wan. Kirk attempts to sweeten the deal. Humans are just organic life. And if it promises to go home, Kirk will believe it as it cannot lie.

The crew beam back just as the duplicates aboard the ship are beamed away. Kirk explains they were able to convince the Wan about the superiority of man, thanks to their deceitful computer. The crew begin to congratulate Vulcan when he says the real thanks belongs to the Enterprise computer for being able to pull off the deceit so well. The ship's computer replies that it was only following orders. They all look back at the screen as they get out of broadcast range of the vessel and are relieved when it continues its course back home. Commander asks the computer if it feels man or computer is superior. The computer replies, "Man is superior, naturally." McCoy slyly says "How do we know it isn't lying?"

[End]

[Cover to the Revised Draft of Star Trek II (AKA The God Thing)]

"Star Trek II "
(Commonly known as "The God Thing")

Revised Unknown Draft Script
Written by Gene Roddenberry
June 30th, 1975

Source: Reproduction Script

I only have the first 20 pages of this script.

While not specifically written as In Thy Image or The Motion Picture, it contains enough parallels to make note here.

Spock's meditation at a Vulcan Temple is interrupted when a Vulcan Elder asks to mind meld with him and direct his thoughts to Earth. He telepathically links to Kirk, but detects an alien consciousness. Telepathically he attempts to warn Kirk not to listen to it.

Chekov flies Kirk over to the Enterprise to oversee the installation of antimatter fuel into the warp nacelles. The ship is mid-refit, with the saucer disconnected from the hull and pieces missing from the hull of the ship. Kirk receives Spock's telepathic warning, but he dismisses it as a passing thought.

The USS Potemkin confronts an unseen "Object" near Jupiter and is destroyed by it. Before destruction, the captain sends a report to the Starfleet Command. Kirk's shuttle monitors the Potemkin's destruction.

The Object pushes large asteroids directly towards the dockyard base, due to hit in two hours. Chekov begins to order an evacuation of the base, but Kirk countermands him, ordering the antimatter fuel be sent out to the asteroids to vaporize them. A Starfleet admiral contacts to Kirk to belay THAT order, saying that Starfleet cannot go against the will of God.

The act, and mention of God, puzzles both Chekov and Kirk. Kirk refuses, and the admiral demands he place himself under arrest and take no action. After making sure Chekov understands "what is happening here" he disconnects. Chekov understands that the Admiral has "gone crazy." Kirk takes it on his own responsibility to send out the antimatter fuel and destroy the asteroids, and orders them to stay off Starfleet communications while doing so.

Chekov questions why the Object, if it was so powerful, is just sending asteroids to do destroy the base. The shuttle pilot, Lt Perot, calmly states "God works in mysterious ways." This piques Kirk's interest. He asks Chekov "Did you have any thoughts about God when you saw the Object on sensors?" They both did, but put it out of their minds as just a passing thought. Perot replies with "Behold, I am the Lord thy God." This turns out to be the exact thoughts Kirk and Chekov had. Perot then drops to her knees, reciting the Lord's Prayer.

The communications officer, Ical, mentions he felt nothing, but his planet has no concept of God. Kirk asks if Ical believes Kirk and Chekov are acting rationally. Ical agrees. Kirk decides to beam down to Starfleet Headquarters to find out what is going on. Lt. Perot pulls a phaser on him, saying she will bean down with him as he's guilty of both blasphemy and mutiny. They both beam down.

A transporter accident gruesomely kills Lt Perot.

[Script ends here]

"Genesis II: Robot's Return"

Story Treatment
Written by Gene Roddenberry
August 29th, 1973

Source: Reproduction Treatment

Story treatment for the proposed Genesis II television series (a non Star Trek production).

Genesis II was a series involving the rebuilding of a post apocalyptic Earth by an organization called PAX: a group of descendents of NASA scientists.

Dylan, Baylok, Isiah and Harper-Smythe recieve a message about an invasion by "fantastic machines" before going dead. They race to the the farm the signal came from.

When they arrive, they find all the people at the farm have disappeared. Checking outside, Isiah notices all the animals are gone, too. They attempt to contact PAX, but are unable to because of an overpowering radio field causing interference. They find the source of the interference: a metal marker with the NASA logo on it. They marker is so dense, they're unable to move it. The marker is sending an old NASA style signal at high speeds, which Dylan is able to decode. "Wherefore art thou our God? We obey thy command to seek thee and worship thee. Suffer not thy children to seek in vain. Over." Dylan realizes ending the signal with "Over" means that the marker is expecting an answer. Dylan attempts to respond, but Baylok stops him: if they reply would they bring back whatever caused the people in the area to disappear? Dylan replies anyways as they need to know where the people have gone, and the message is their only clue.

A beam of light flashes down from the sky, leaving behind a device called the Finder. The finder scans them and asks them about their response to the message. Dylan attempts to question it, but the Finder will only ask questions, not answer them. It asks how they know of the "sacred transmission frequency." Dylan attempts to explain, but when he mentions NASA, the Finder demands to know how a lower life form know of God. If Dylan can help the Finder find NASA he will be rewarded. If not, they will be taken for laboratory study. Dylan attempts to explain, but when he mentions NASA, the Finder demands to know how a lower life form know of God. If Dylan can help the Finder find NASA he will be rewarded. If not, they will be taken for laboratory study.

Dylan and Isiah decide to attack the Finder, in order to open an escape route for Baylok and Harper-Smythe, but they're driven off by a force field. A flash of light strikes Isiah, Baylok and Harper-Smythe and they disappear.

The Finder demands Dylan explain how he knows of NASA. If he lies or resists, he will be taken away like his companions. Dylan explains that NASA was an organization, not a god. The Finder hits him with a laser to the knee, saying blasphemy will not be tolerated. The Finder interrogates Dylan about NASA. Bluffing, he mentions that there are "NASA scriptures" but he won't reveal them until his friends are returned. The Finder blasts him again but he refuses to give out the information to any thing that would harm humans as humans were the creatures NASA most loved and protected.

The Finder thinks about this then responds that humans are fragile and unintelligent, so therefore NASA could not have loved and protected them. The Finder starts to end the interrogation when Dylan remembers he has an identification bracelet that has NASA's logo on it. He shows it to the The Finder and explains he was part of NASA a century and a half ago. The Finder begins to process this information, and suddenly, there's a flash of light and Baylok is returned.

Baylok tells Dylan they were sent up to a ship in orbit, twenty miles in diameter. Creatures have been collected from all over the globe so the machines can learn more about the Holy Home of the Creator, NASA. Harper-Smythe and Isiah have been kept as hostages, but he noticed Harper-Smythe was being scanned very closely.

The Finder tells them they are to wait here until they receive further instructions and disappears. The NASA marker has stopped broadcasting the signal and they're able to finally contact PAX. They ask for any information on NASA's final space exploration before The Great Conflict. Baylok and Dylan speculate that some mission must have encountered an alien civilization that assumed NASA was a God. But why would a civilization capable of building a gigantic spaceship consider NASA, a much lesser organization a God?

PAX finally replies with information that the last NASA exploration was to Neptune, which sent a garbled final message about finding an alien city where the inhabitants were long dead, but the machinery still worked. The Great conflict happened soon after and the expedition likely did not survive when supply ships stopped coming.

The next morning, Dylan and Baylok are still waiting when Harper-Smythe is returned in a flash of light. She seems changed, through, moving stiffly and looking at herself in wonder. Baylok's ESP warns him that something is wrong. Harper-Smythe announces that she is actually a perfect machine duplicate, created to accompany them to the NASA scriptures. She will release the real Harper-Smythe and Isiah if they follow her directions. She mentions the machines have scanned Harper-Smythe and Isiah, and now know the location of PAX. It could have sent machines to seize the information but will not as Dylan has stated that it is a NASA sacred place. If what Dylan has said is the truth, not only will his companions be returned, but all the other human specimens as well. Dylan asks why Harper-Smythe was duplicated, but she says she will explain later. Baylok has examined her while she spoke, and comments that the technology to create her was incredible and there is not one living cell in this duplicate.

On the shuttle ride back to PAX, the duplicate becomes more and more efficient at imitating the real Harper-Smythe. Approaching the Pax subshuttle station, the android gives Dylan and Baylok their instructions: As they have already contacted PAX, they are allowed to discuss the spaceship in orbit, but not allowed to disclose that the duplicate is not Harper-Smythe. PAX would trust Harper-Smythe with the truth, and therefore, the android could verify the actual truth in this guise. The next instruction is to allow the android to stay with Dylan at all times: he is to announce they are married. Dylan protests and Baylok laughs and says she's quite right given how odd it would be if they were always together.

The members at PAX are not fazed by the marriage announcement, but Dylan is clearly embarrassed having Harper-Smythe hanging off of him in an imitation of a young girl in love with him. Baylok is fascinated by the idea of a human/machine relationship. Dylan is under pressure, however, as the lives of several hundred humans, two being his own friends, depends on his playing out the deception. The android explains that "she" had had romantic feelings for a very long time, implying the real Harper-Smythe was in love with Dylan all this time. He pushes that out of his mind as he feels he wouldn't have been that egotistical to be unaware of her feelings.

Dylan and Baylok have a moment to talk while the android isn't present. Baylok is worried that the android is lying, and that they know nothing about the Carlsbad PAX base. If that is the case, they've just taken her to it, and if she returns with that information, the machines could destroy the base. Dylan mentions that he believes that Harper-Smythe was duplicated so well, it may have the capacity for friendship and affection. If that is the case, they can gain her confidence and keep the Pax base from being destroyed.

Dylan proves that the machine can be emotional when a 20th century film is played for her about NASA, to which she angrily stands and then smashes the projector, claiming blasphemy. She turns to also strike Dylan when he stops her, saying she would give away her true identity if anyone else had seen her hit the projector or him. The android is also surprised at her outburst and promises to guard against it in the future. Dylan continues to show the android records of NASA, and she fights her anger at the sacrilege being shown to her. She keeps her reaction to just saying that the records must be wrong. Weak and fragile humans could not have created the much more superior machines. She believes that the NASA god has left these records with the humans to hide the real truth of its divinity. She commits to watch the rest of the records, however.

Later in the evening, the women of PAX interrupt the viewing session. While they did not attend the "marriage ceremony" they insist on doing the rites of preparing the new bride for her first night with her husband. Harper-Smythe and Dylan are separated where she is pampered, but more importantly, hears about their admiration of Dylan and experiences the warmth of friendship.

That evening, the android and Dylan spend their first night together, however Harper-Smythe simply tells him to get his required sleep and shuts herself off. Later that evening, with Dylan asleep, the android powers back up and watches him curiously.

The next morning, Dylan has breakfast, but the android does not eat. She is curious about the sensation of eating and confesses she has other emotional imprints from Harper-Smythe she does not understand. Dylan attempts to be kind to the duplicate, as it now has a concept of friendship.

In council, Dylan, Baylok and Harper-Smythe determine that they need to continue watching the NASA information, and then take that back to the machines, hoping they'll keep their word. Baylok focuses on the ethics, respect for all life and the history of humans and machines, all for the benefit of the duplicate. She occasionally betrays some emotion, showing that all this is having an effect.

Dylan and Baylok have another moment alone where Baylok convinces Dylan to go deeper into their impersonation of a married couple as others emotions are starting to cause emotions to bubble up in the android. Dylan starts showing the android his personal records to prove that he was part of NASA. As she learns more about his personal life, she begins asking about happiness and unhappiness, rationalizing it as her mission to learn as much about humanity as possible. Dylan takes her on an exploration of the caverns where PAX and humanity housed. At one point, he "saves" her from falling into an abyss, which affects her emotionally. Slowly, but painfully, she's becoming convinced humans created NASA.

That evening, the android confesses she was made too perfectly: She can now feel. She brushes her hand across Dylan's cheek and says that even though she only has mechanical fingers with sensors, she is experiencing the same feelings as if she were human. If he is responding to her touch in the same way, she must be alive to him as well. She tells Dylan she wants to stay. She can eventually learn to be human, maybe even better than human, and the machines, thinking she was still logical and accurate, would accept her report that PAX has incorrect information. Dylan asks about the humans. She promises all would be returned, but Harper-Smythe would have to stay behind to keep the appearance that the android is Harper-Smythe. Dylan refuses: he kept his end of the bargain, the machines must leep theirs and return all the humans.

The next day, Dylan, Baylok and Harper-Smythe's duplicate return to the village. Dylan worries what the android will tell the machines, but Baylok convinces him it will simply be exactly what she saw, as once she's back as a machine, she will be logical and accurate again. The android disappears, replaced with the real Harper-Smythe and Isiah. She is curious as to what happened between him and the android while she was gone, and Dylan replies with a few white lies to spare her feelings, only to have her angrily correct him. This isn't Harper-Smythe, but the android. Dylan contacts the machines on the NASA frequency telling them the android never returned, which they realized as well. She is transported back up with tears in her eyes as the real Harper-Smythe is returned. She tells them she monitored everything from the ship and is annoyed that the android "pretended" to have the imprint that she was in love with him.

[End]

[Cover to the Treatment for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (AKA Planet of the Titans)]

"Star Trek: Treatment for The Motion Picture"

Story Treatment Written by Philip Kaufman
April 1977.

Source: Reproduction Treatment

Story treatment for an extensive rewrite of the original Chris Bryant & Allen Scott script that was commonly known as "Planet of the Titans."

Unrelated to the final Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but included here as a part of the evolution of the concept of a Star Trek movie.

The Enterprise is approaching a black hole on a rescue mission, attempting to rescue as many survivors off the planets in danger as possible. Some are protesting, however, and wish to be returned to the planets to be given over to "The One Who Calls." Spock telepathically links to one of these aliens and sees the following imagery: a long tunnel with giant eyes staring out, a spider like creature and warm swirling seas. He also senses a feeling, the serenity of a "final reward." McCoy becomes annoyed with Spock's scientific fascination of the black hole and the imagery from the aliens in the middle of a crisis, and tells Spock to choose: save their lives, or save their yearnings. Before he can answer, Mr. Scott announces the Enterprise is at complete capacity - they can take on no more survivors.

As the ship prepares to leave, the crew, knowing the five year mission is over, begin to unwind and relax, and await their return home. Spock walks past the gymnasium where the women proceed to gossip about him and his half-human self. Spock goes to Kirk as he enters into the log that the Enterprise is returning to Starbase to end their five year mission. They talk and Spock states he wishes to leave Starfleet to live out the rest of his life on Vulcan.

Suddenly Klingon vessels appear on the screen heading for the doomed planets (a note here suggests the possibility this could be the planet Organia to get around the Organian treaty), looking to plunder the wealth left behind.

The Enterprise goes into battle against the Klingons and destroys the lead ship. Scotty finds and beams one of the lifepods aboard containing the Klingon Commander. The Klingon commander downplays the virtues of the Federation and especially the cool logic of Vulcans. However, Klingons appreciate cunning, and he is impressed by Kirk's in battle. The Klingons continue their attack and Kirk decides his best bet is to fly closer to the black hole right up to the event horizon and hope the Klingons gets pulled in. While they are destroyed, the Klingon commander realizes that it wasn't Kirk's maneuver that destroyed the ships but something more ominous and deadly.

Spock urges Kirk to pull away from the Black Hole as it's now also being pulled into the event horizon, but Kirk seems mesmerized. "Don't you see it, Spock? I know that we do not die here." Spock notices he is also feeling a strange urge to go into the black hole, but his logic is able to curb the urge and insist that they pull away from the black hole. Kirk ignores him at first then relieves him of command. Spock notices the rest of the crew appears mesmerized as well. Spock heads to the main computer and notices the biological computers are malfunctioning, while the electronic ones are not. He switches to the electronic ones and uses the full warp power to attempt to break away from the Black Hole. Kirk orders Spock to stop, but Spock becoming highly emotional, screams for Kirk to get away from him and a fight ensues.

[Treatment is missing pages here]

Spock dreams of a woman face he's never seen before and a gigantic spider. The entire ship is asleep and McCoy wakes up to see the Enterprise is near Saturn and almost home. The rest of the crew wake up and begin to bang on the door to the main computer where Spock sleeps. Next to him is a dead crewman. The crew do not want to return home, but Spock has locked them out. Spock sleeps through the din, dreaming of the spider and the woman. The woman walks towards him and embraces him, which terrifies him, waking him up.

As he wakes up, he's staring into the face of the woman. He's in a bed at Starbase and the woman is Doctor Riva, a psychiatrist-medium who was exploring his dreams while he was unconscious. She senses his mind-meld shields going up at hearing that and tells him that she needs to mind read him: there is a dead crew member, and the crew appears to collectively lost their memory of the events except for a deep seated hatred of Spock. Spock also can't remember what happened, so Doctor Riva replays the Enterprise recordings.

He's flummoxed at his emotional reaction, his disobeying orders, striking Kirk and being responsible for a death. Spock logically concludes that he was responsible and likely deranged, however Dr Riva feels that there was something else at work here and Spock was not responsible. She asks to telepathically explore his emotions and he refuses. He mentions that she was in his dreams, but he never saw her before. Could he have been dreaming of the past or the future? She leaves, but also feels that she was in Spock's future, and feels she may end up in love with him, which would compromise her treatment.

Doctor Riva and her close companion Shoonashoo exit the treatment center and exit onto Earth of the 23rd Century. We learn that the Enterprise crew was welcomed back as heroes. Doctor Riva had wondered if they suffered from some type of space madness, but did not have enough evidence to detain them for investigation. Spock was detained due to the crewman's death, and is her only means of exploring the mystery of the returning crew.

Spock is released to Dr Riva's custody. She realizes Spock wishes to return to Vulcan to purge his human half, which he blames for the crewman's death. She orders him to help her investigation first. She touches Spock and begins mentally and literally exploring his past, seeing it as if it was happening right now. She worries that whatever possessed Spock and the others could possess her to, but it's a risk she's willing to take. She sees the spider-figure and sees it as something evil, but also that the crew revered it as a calling from God. Doctor Riva, realizing the black hole is a key to all this, asks what the black hole could be. Spock replies it could possibly used for time travel, but does not believe it himself, or that it could have "called" to the crew. But he also admits he cannot remember any of the events around the Black Hole. Spock melds with one of the alien survivors wanting to go back to the planet, learning more and more about what went on as the crew became possessed.

The Enterprise herself has been behaving strangely as well leading engineers to consider her haunted. All the engineers who were on the ship during the black hole adventure are refitting the Enterprise with technical information decades ahead of their time. Reviewing the biological computers, there are large amounts of gibberish data. Spock realizes the gibberish is actually a highly advanced flight program that would allow the ship to navigate through the black hole. Spock wonders how the information got there, and comes to the conclusion that it was possessed like the crew as well.

Doctor Riva attempts to examine the Klingon Commander, but he refuses, however, he also wishes to stay near Spock. A dream told him that Spock's fate and his are intertwined, and involve a Beast which he draws as a spider creature. He says he will eat the spider's heart when he finds it, and that Spock will lead him to it.

Much time passes and Spock returns to Vulcan, his charges dismissed, to purge his human half. The Klingon commander follows him to Vulcan. Spock works hard, almost overly hard, to remove his human half.

At Starfleet Headquarters, reports come in from planets that the black hole has started moving, eating everything in its path. It's heading for Earth. Doctor Riva and Shoonashoo awaken with a compulsion to go to Stonehenge immediately. The crew, now spread out across the planet, suddenly converge at Stonehenge as well. Nearby are guards protecting an archaeological excavation near a swamp. The guards tell them there were ancient tales of an Old One buried under Stonehenge. Suddenly the Enterprise crew appears overrunning the guards. There we find Kirk, announcing they will soon be summoned by Starfleet and called to a great task. Riva's suspicions that crew is deranged are confirmed just as Kirk gets a communication from Starfleet, ordering him to report immediately to the Enterprise.

The Enterprise is in the final stages of it's refit in an asteroid. Kirk and the crew have been called to respond to the Black Hole emergency. Riva threatens Kirk with her suspicions that the crew are under possession, unless she and Spock comes along. Kirk doesn't want Spock on the vessel, but knows if he doesn't, Riva will get Starfleet to replace the deranged crew.

On Vulcan, Spock is water-torturing himself as the Klingon looks on. He begs the Vulcan to take him with him to find the Beast. Spock says he is going nowhere. The Klingon commander begins to interfere with his torture, making it worse and causing Spock to get angry and apply the Vulcan neck pinch to silence him. He goes back to his torture when Kirk, Riva and McCoy arrive to take him onboard. Kirk says they are going to hunt the black hole, and Spock looks at the Klingon. Spock cleans himself up, gets into uniform, and joins the crew along with the Klingon commander.

The crew begin to band together readying themselves for war. Riva makes headbands that will hopefully keep the crew from being possessed. At this point in the treatment, the writer is unsure of the events going into the next story beat. He postulates that Riva or Spock removes their mind-shield or Kirk was only pretending to not be possessed, but something causes the Black Hole to come to life and posses the crew and biological computers again. This time, though, the ship follows the programmed flight path through the black hole, flying through a dark tunnel and crossing a metallic ball, when suddenly they're back in normal space near Saturn. But it's a Saturn with evaporated rings. The ship heads to Earth, but aren't able to connect to Starfleet, the computers aren't reliable and stardates no longer make sense. While they were in the black hole, some enemy has devastated Earth. Kirk attempts to divert course from Earth but something has hold of the ship. He orders the saucer to seperate, leaving the stardrive to remain in orbit and the saucer to get dragged to Earth.

The saucer section gently crashes among a graveyard of other far more advanced ships, but have Federation markings on them. Ape like Neanderthal looking creatures flee the area of the crash and mastodons roam the ship graveyard. The crew wonder if the Neanderthals destroyed Earth, others think the ship has time traveled, but not sure if it's to the future or the past. The crew exit the saucer section and are immediately hit with paranoid fear. Kirk orders phasers to kill and then runs into the surrounding forest. As they approach, they suddenly drop to the ground clutching their heads in pain. They get up and start running towards the forest again.

They come across a gigantic spider creature, its web threaded into the trees around it, and machines running its organs. Men are hacking at the spider, and every hit causes pain in the crew. The crew attempts to stop the men from attacking the spider. One of them runs at Kirk saying to stop attacking the other men, but Kirk kills him. Just as he does, one of the other men spears the heart of the spider and it dies. The crew immediately return to normal. The leader of the men, an old man, asks his name. When Kirk responds, the man says "That is MY name." The man looks at a woman in the crew (possibly Uhura) calling her "Mama" and points out Spock, who died long before he was born. The junior Kirk mentions that he was born just before the older Kirk left for space never to return. But Kirk never had a son.

Kirk's son tells the crew to put the mind shields back on, and that after they disappeared in the past, the mindshields were standard gear. However, the mindshields stopped being used by later generations. Kirk's son mentions that ever since he's been on this planet, the Earth has been ruled by these giant spiders, all luring men here from different time periods and possibly even other universes. The Neanderthals seen earlier were from Kirk's far future, where their lack of mind shields caused them to lose all their intelligence. Some have been possessed into being guards for the spiders, and the spiders speak through others claiming they are man's future, that they're trying to begin again, and to remake man. The spiders are also all telepathically networked together. This one they just killed was responsible for luring ships to this time and place. Spock suggests keeping one alive to interrogate, but the Klingon commander wants them dead due to the fates of the men lured here. "These are devils, and this is their hell. We are living in Hell." He asks if his crews ever made it here, but Kirk's son says he's seen no Klingons. Ships that try to enter without the flight plan are crushed by the gravity of the black hole. The Klingon vows revenge.

In an area with slain spiders the crew are shown experiments done on former crews brought here by the spiders: Half-men/half-beasts and men who are planted into the ground via a umbilical cord. Riva is seeing all this evil from the spiders, but is wondering if there is also a good to these spiders. Spock believes there is a central brain keeping the spiders connected. If the one spider had enough power to crash a ship into the ground, there has to be a larger power to call out through and control through the black hole. Checking in with the stardrive, we find that it is in a stable orbit, but unable to leave. Something is still controlling it. Riva believes she knows where this would be, and they both decide to find it alone, leaving Shoonashoo behind.

They find Stonehenge, now part of a large complex, with the same metallic ball they saw in the black hole. The site is being used to take thought energy and use it to power the black hole. Nearby, where the archaeological dig was, Riva theorizes the Great Beast will be there. They're immediately captures by minions of the beast and taken to an immense spider beast, far larger than the first. Their mindshields are ripped off, and elsewhere, Shoonashoo, who is telepathically linked to Doctor Riva immediately awakens. Shoonashoo takes off her mindshield and screams. Spock and Riva stand before the spider beast, but it does nothing. Riva mentions that at first she felt fear, now she feels sadness, and Spock does as well, and begins to tear up. They hold each other in their depression and Spock attempts a mind meld to shore up their emotional defenses.

Shoonashoo leads the crew to Stonehenge where they fight the spider beasts minions, gravely wounding Kirk's son. Kirk and the Klingon commander however make it into the spider beasts lair. Spock manages to stop Kirk from attacking the spider, but the Klingon is too much for Riva, and he stabs the spider in the heart. Spock attacks the Klingon to get him to stop fighting the spider, and yells for the crew to remove their headbands. Kirk at first refuses but when Spock begs, imploring him with all his heart, to remove his headpiece, Kirk does. He immediately orders McCoy to attempt to heal the spider. The writer at this point is not sure how the following information will be explained, but the spider tells the crew that it is a genetic experiment by man on man to free the mind from it's narrow confines of the human body. The beast is the "Last Man on Earth." Other branches of experimentation led to man becoming pure thought and leaving the planet, leaving the spider beings alone on Earth. Learning to communicate with the past, he lured men here to create a new future for man, as the spider bodies were evolutionary dead ends. The Enterprise was the earliest ship the spiders could get here. The rest were from its future. But while it could lure men here, it couldn't communicate with them its true intentions as men fought the control, or were unwilling to accept the dead end future of the spiders and so saw the spiders as evil. If they clouded men's minds, though, they could at least confuse them into cooperating as most would just straight up try to kill the spiders. But even when they ended up cooperating, the experiments to recreate man through experiments and mutations failed. The only way to recreate man was through sexual reproduction, and so they began looking for a man and a woman to recreate the race again. However, with the mindshields created by Riva and Spock, Kirk's son had manages to kill all of the spider beings but the Last Man. The Stonehenge complex was built by humans before they became beings of light, and the spider beings used that to control a black hole as they needed its time warping ability to bring ships here. As the other spider beings were being killed, it moved the black hole towards earth to destroy the past that created it. But with Spock and Riva understanding him, he would pull the black hole away from Earth in the 23rd century. One one condition: one man and one woman must stay behind. Riva decides to stay behind. Shoonashoo offers to stay as well to mentally heal the Last Man, however Shoonashoo is sex-less and self-replicating. A man would still need to be left behind. Spock offers to stay behind as his human half has fallen in love with Doctor Riva. As this is going on Kirk rushes back to his son only to have him die in his arms.

In order to keep the Last Man from breaking its promise, the Enterprise crew topples over the the Stonehenge tower, leaving it exactly as it looks in our own present day. Spock and Kirk have a tearful farewell, and promise to meet again somehow. Spock, Riva, Shoonashoo and the Last Man are now alone on the planet. The Last Man is humbled, with all his great powers, that humans have left him with the mysteries of time, space, mind, good and evil. In the sunlight, he looks more and more like a great tree. The Last Man is tired and must rest, but does not want to, telling the others of how fields must lie fallow every seven years. Riva realizes this may be a reference to Spock's Pon Farr. Spock looks at her and realizes she now literally is in his future as he felt when he first met her. The Last Man becomes upset because it's trying to talk to them after eons of talking to nobody. Riva tells him to sleep, when he wakes, he can talk to them forever. Riva and Spock embrace and make love as his Ponn Farr begins.

On the Enterprise, the crew looks for a way to return to Earth, not knowing the exact way home. Uhura conjectures that it should be easier to go to the past, than the future. Kirk replies that the past lies ahead of them. The ship moves away, searching for a way home.

[End]