'God Only Knows' Discussion Thread

[Grizz]

Timothy Rogan finally got his death scene... but probably not the one you were expecting.

"Can a Captain not cook for her crew without an ulterior motive?"

This week's episode opened on a jovial note as Mason had both prepared lunch for her staff and had laid out champagne for them in Operations - as a small 'thank you' for all the work that they had undertaken throughout the year and since her arrival. Pioneer was once again open for business, but amid a toast to their success, Doctor Rogan dropped to the floor and was all but dead by the time he hit the ground. Most of the staff waited in shock for news as Mason headed alone to Sickbay. But minutes later, she returned to reveal that they had lost him... and that was only the beginning.

"But that's not possible..."

As Mason tried to pull Jemma Etis out of Sickbay, who was distraught over Rogan's loss, the Doctor himself awoke in the surgical bay.  He was on his feet, walking and talking in an instant - and seemingly had no recollection of his apparent death. But all was not sitting well with the Captain. All medical tests performed on Rogan revealed no lifesigns and Sickbay's biometric scanner was malfunctioning for inexplicable reasons. Menden, Etis, McClintock & Costello all set about finding out what was occurring aboard the station, while back in Ops, Sullivan was failing to contact Starbase 215. Once again, for inexplicable reasons, the communications array was not responding.

As the investigation continued, Mason visited Engineering for an update before retreating to McClintock's office. There, while alone, she too dropped to the floor and remained unresponsive for several minutes. Then, just like Rogan, she awoke - disorientated and confused, claiming to have seen unusual patterns all around her in the seconds after she woke. As she tried to explain this in Sickbay, she suddenly became increasingly aware of her surroundings... and something was wrong. Gathering the staff in Operations, she pointed out a worrying fact to them all. None of them had yet noticed that they were alone on Pioneer. Sure enough, they were able to confirm that only nine of them were aboard.

Theories flew, with two rising to the surface. Were they dreaming? Were they in a simulation? McClintock's earlier remark about not being in a Holodeck was about to bite them all on their collective asses.

Recalling their time trapped on Pioneer's Holodeck ('I, Rogan'), the remaining crew members set about searching for a holodeck access terminal to confirm their fears. It wasn't long before Mason, starting where they had all begun in the Crew Lounge, located the terminal. With Riker being the third officer to drop, the staff slowly filtered in to the lounge as Mason stumbled upon a disturbing discovery.

"We're not just in a simulation... we're part of it."

All nine members of the crew present were not who they appeared to be. They were all holograms within the simulation of Pioneer Station. Three of the programmed characters had malfunctioned due to a glitch in the program. Mason worryingly chose to put some confirmation to this by shooting the "already dead" Rogan with a high powered phaser - to no effect. The crew processed this information in their seperate ways, with the Captain appealing for answers from whoever was running the simulation. But no response came. Eventually, a conversation with Jemma led her to believe that whoever was responsible shouldn't be given the satisfaction of continuing - electing to end the simulation.

Bringing this to the staff, they discussed whether it was what each of them wanted to happen - and how they could go about it. The option was made clear, to overload the fusion core and destroy Pioneer. Ultimately, each of them decided to bring their relatively short, lie-ridden lives to an explosive end. This proved excuse enough for Jemma to suddenly steal a kiss from Mason in full view of the remainder of the staff.

"Geronimo"

All nine members of staff, one by one, were given the option of authorizing the station's self destruct sequence - allowing them to opt-out if they had changed their minds. But each of them agreed and allowed the computer to proceed. As Mason enabled the 10-second sequence, some stood, some sat, some held hands, some closed their eyes and others completed the toast which Mason had started back in Operations before Rogan's unexpected demise. Then just like that... they were gone. Pioneer's simulated destruction wiped out the holographic crew - though the station itself remained.. silent and alone. But not for long.

The empty crew lounge was pierced by the appearance of a Holodeck's arch - and from within, emerged the puppet master. The woman known only as 'The Director.'

"Well that's disappointing"

Expressing her disappointment at the abrupt conclusion of the simulation, she ordered an unknown presence to reset it and keep a closer eye on the characters - noting that this was "Simulation Eight." They may not have been real, but it's fair to say that Episode Five still opened a window on a number of Pioneer's crew and how they view their own lives and eachother. But how is The Director able to run such complex simulations? How is she able to replicate their lives and their backgrounds so efficiently? What is the purpose for monitoring holographic representations of Pioneer's staff? You'll just have to stay tuned until this season's end.

For now, as usual, thank you all for attending - please rate and discuss, above and below. I do believe this was the first episode of the Accobar saga not to feature any of the main cast. A thing like that, eh.

[Martin Thompson]

Great episode, i voted exellent, but if i could go higher i would. I think this is, plot wise, the best RP I've done in a long time. A very good twist at the end there (although we all felt that something was wrong from the beginning). I thought i knew which episode of star trek you referred to when Rogan woke up (as you might have seen from the MSG, whoops!), but i was wrong in that one. At first, I thought it was based on the Voyager episode "Course: Oblivion" but it became more and more obvious it wasn't that. Then I though it could be somthing as VOY "Bliss" or the one (cant find the title) where they discover the aliens in a dreaming machine. However it was none of those. Now i might be a bit rusty on this, so remind me which episode had Holograms coming to life and realizing they where Holograms? I'm guessing it was VOY "Spirit Folk" then, since its the only one i can remember, although it wasnt the ships main crew who where simulated. At one point I even thought the episode was loosely based on SGA "This Mortal Coil". Whatever it was based on, it fitted nicely within the AF story and made one hell of an RP. (And also hinted towards the fact that the crew is actually just a bunch of people playing on their computer, haha).

So yes, great episode, also to the rest of you, we really had some nice character development going. Too bad the "real" crew won't remember any of it, unless, of course, some ideas or plans had already sprouted in their minds before they where programmed into the holographic versions of them...

Can't wait to see what you have in store for the -injected- 6th episode of the season. and as always I'm also eager to read the Anddzy super review

[Grizz]

Thanks for the comments, MT. Though you were right in the first instance about Course: Oblivion being the original influence - with a suitably Asteroid Fieldian twist.

So yes, great episode, also to the rest of you, we really had some nice character development going. Too bad the "real" crew won't remember any of it, unless, of course, some ideas or plans had already sprouted in their minds before they where programmed into the holographic versions of them.

There must be someone collecting these insights.

[Mutatio Nomen]

Another fantastic episode. Never can do better myself.

The final scene was awesome, really sombre which each going out in their own small way.

[Wesley Meacham]

I don't rp very much and when i do i love the episode. With every twist and turn it keeps me wanting more. Every episode i rp in feels exactly like the reason i became a huge fan of startrek.

[Grizz]

Thanks guys.

(Incidentally, one more vote could make this the highest rated episode of Star Trek: Asteroid Field - it's all in your hands, member #9)

[Grizz]

We'll never know!