Where Angels
Fear to Tread
Here were are. At last. The final episode of Star Trek: The Final
Frontier. I must admit, this is quite an
accomplishment. Five years, 120
episodes. Nobody else has even come
close… and for time, I was certain that I would never achieve this goal. But I did.
History has been made… and you have been a pivotal part of that
history.
So, where should I begin? There is so much to say about this episode, I
could very easily devote another 93,888 words to my feelings about the
episode. And yes, for those of you who must know, the
entirety of “Where Angels Fear to Tread” clocks in at an amazing 93,888
words. The average episode of TFF
clocked in right around 15,000 words, but I knew going into the episode that it
would be much longer than that. When I started writing the episode, I was
actually shooting to make the episode a good two-parter, and call it a day at
about 30,000 words—maybe 35,000 since it was the final episode… But as you can
see, that didn’t quite pan out, and I actually tripled the episode length over
the course of the year it took me to write this behemoth.
From a technical standpoint, the episode was
surprisingly easy to write. Coming into
the episode, I had a very good idea where all of the plots were going. I knew exactly
how I wanted everything to end, right down to the final moment with Angela on
the beach. From a technical standpoint,
it should have taken me about two
months to write the episode. And had this
been any other episode, that would have happened. But this, as it turns out, is the final
episode of TFF, and that small facet added a big emotional element to the
writing process. After five years, I am really
quite fond of these characters, and as I wrote I found it increasingly
difficult to say good-bye. I wanted to
do these characters justice. As such,
the notion of an exact release date became secondary. As you probably know, this episode had about
15 different release dates, most of which were missed by a wide margin—but I
was not content to release a smoldering pile of dung. Not this time.
My vision for the episode changed with time, as
well. As a whole, it is remarkably
similar to the episode I envisioned back in Season Two. Yes, I knew exactly how this series was going
to end during Season Two. How is that
for advanced plotting? Anyway, the
episode gradually came to encompass a much larger canvas than I had anticipated. The very first draft of the episode started
amidst the battle in the Adin Kel System; you were literally thrust into the
situation aboard the Jevian in
Chapter One. Xi'Yor kidnapped Angela in
Chapter Three; he creamed the Starlight
in Chapter Four. Everything was happily
ever after by Chapter 12. It could have worked. But there has always been more to TFF than
explosions. A big factor in the
continued popularity of the series has been the characters, and exciting as the
original draft of “Angels” was, the characters seemed to get the shaft. I mean, there were still plenty of great
moments, but in the aftermath of the Starlight’s
destruction, there was always a muted, darker tone to the episode. And while I did want that, I didn’t want it for the whole episode. I wanted to see the characters interacting in
a far happier environment—I wanted to see them in their prime, one last
time. Hence the addition of the first
big chunk of the episode—which really, really
enhanced the episode’s inherent theme:
moving on.
Astute readers might have noted that Chapter One of “Where
Angels Fear to Tread” mirrors—almost exactly—the first
chapter of “Beginnings” (the very first episode for you non-astute
readers). I figured there was no better
way to show how much these characters have grown than to draw parallels with
the very first episode. At the same
time, you can see how much better the writing has gotten. In retrospect, I’m not certain WHY I thought
“Beginnings” was so very well written, because today it seems rather sparse,
and somewhat clunky. Anyway, these
additions to the episode really boosted it to another level… in my heavily
biased opinion. I’m not going to sit
here and extol its greatness, but, suffice to say, I was very pleased with the
way things ultimately turned out, and the first part of the episode was released
on November 30, 2005.
Then, in an unprecedented move, I canceled the rest of
the episode a few weeks later.
Now, before I continue, allow me to make one thing
clear: I am extremely appreciative of
every last person that reads TFF. And I
know there are a lot of people out
there reading. I have had the pleasure
of chatting with many of you… and since I closely monitor the Site Statistics,
I know there are many, many more that just like to read through the episodes
without commenting. This, unfortunately,
is where things went bad back in November.
After I posted “Angels” online… well… the response was so utterly
nonexistent that my confidence in the episode started to waver. I think that three… maybe four people took it
upon themselves to share their thoughts with me. Now, I checked the Site Statistics. I knew
that many more people had downloaded/read through the episode online. But their silence was very… frustrating, I
guess. Suffice to say, I took that as a
sign that people were not reacting well to the episode. To this day, I don’t really know if that’s
the case, but, thanks to a number of very devoted fans, I decided to go ahead
and finish the episode anyway.
And here we are. The completed episode.
Admittedly, I did get a little emotional whilst writing the last few
scenes. I mean, this was a very
difficult write. Words cannot adequately
describe how incredibly difficult it is to encapsulate five years of your life…
five years of Alan Christopher’s life… of Erin Keller’s life… and just wrap it up with a neat little bow on
top. Even though I knew exactly where it
was going, I struggled with this ending more than any other facet of ANY other
episode in the history of TFF. It’s not
easy to say good-bye… but in my opinion, I think that this is as good a
conclusion as one could hope to get, and I sincerely hope that all of you feel
the same way. It might not be the
happiest of endings, but as long as it put even a little smile on your face, I
think that my mission will be a success.
And I do hope to hear from you!
Moving along… a lot of you know that it doesn’t take
much for me to provide spoilers. A
little prodding here and there, and I’ll reveal just about anything. Some people knew YEARS in advance that the Starlight would get creamed in this
episode. It was also relatively common
knowledge that Bator would get the ax… but I let slip on more than one occasion
that Alan Christopher would also meet his demise. And that, originally, was the plan. As far back as Season Two, I fully intended
to kill off Alan Christopher. It’s even
alluded to in “The Sands of Time” and “Dimensional Analysis.” But as the course of Season Five progressed,
I started to have second thoughts. I
started to get the feeling from readers that, perhaps, a happy ending would be
a far better route to take, especially given all of the darkness that pervaded
Seasons Four and Five. It turns out that
the readers were right. I actually tried
both endings, and the happier one was, by far, the superior version. As you might have guessed, Alan was supposed
to get killed by Xi'Yor during the fight on Tal Qirat—instead of just getting
his shoulder whacked, poor Alan was impaled.
He still managed to kill Xi'Yor and save the day, but his victory came
with a very high price. But it didn’t
work. So Alan lives to
see another day. Yes. Read on, dear friends…
This episode is also pays homage to MANY of my favorite
things. Now, I’m not going to point out
all of them like I did in “Twilight of the Gods,” but I will say that if it
seems familiar to you… then it probably is.
The “Lost” numbers (4, 8, 15, 16 23, and 42) make numerous appearances,
and the sequence in the Bamboo Forest near the end of the episode is also an
homage to Lost, complete with giant trees vanishing in a puff of smoke. Of course, they’re actually just falling off
the side of the mountain, but… hey… I couldn’t exactly fit the
“security system” into the episode.
There are also plenty of “Final Fantasy VII” references… and if you
notice the word “Oblivion” creeping up, it’s because I’ve wasted 50+ hours of
my life playing “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.” Boy, do I hate minotaurs (though that minotaur that
followed me into the Inn of Ill Omen certainly wishes that he hadn’t).
So… is this really
the end of TFF? Am I really going to call it quits and never
return to the series?
In a word: No.
There will be more TFF in the future. It turns out that my affinity for TFF is so
great that I simply cannot turn my back upon it, even though I have tried. Thus, I am pleased to announce TFF’s next
chapter: “Untitled Story about Alan and
Justin.” I am currently looking to
release the episode in late 2006 or early 2007, so stay tuned for details (and
join the update list if you haven’t already done so!). In the interim, I intend to flesh out the
database a little bit more, and perhaps even go back and proofread some of the
episodes in Season One. Because they need it.
So, this concludes Star Trek: The Final Frontier in its
current form. I hope you’ve enjoyed
reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it—and I hope to hear from you
soon!
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