'Parallel Earth' Sought For 'North Star'

See Also: 'North Star' Episode Guide

Writer David Goodman told fans that "North Star", the ninth Enterprise episode of the third season, was inspired when executive producer Brannon Braga challenged him to create a "parallel Earth" story.

Commenting on the TrekBBS, Goodman noted that Braga had asked for a story where the crew comes upon an Earth-type locale similar to the ones depicted on the original series.

"My favorites of those TOS ones were 'A Piece of the Action' and 'Patterns of Force', since they didn't rely on [the] impossible to explain things like 'Hodgkins Law of Parallel Planet Development'", wrote Goodman.

So Goodman wrote the script for "North Star", in which the crew discovers a Delphic Expanse town that looks like it came directly from the American midwest in the late 1800s. As previously reported, the scenario comes complete with such Western tropes as a sheriff and a saloon.

"It was really inspired by those episodes, and since it's a Western setting, I paid homage to 'Spectre of the Gun' by naming one of the aliens Cronin," he added. The character Kit, he continued, is not named for Gunsmoke's Miss Kitty but for Olivia DeHavilland's character "in one of my favorite guilty pleasure westerns, Santa Fe Trail."

For those who wondered why Trek would revisit the "parallel Earth" concept, Goodman said, "I tried to use an old concept to say something new, or at least relevant."

The bulletin board thread containing Goodman's comments, in which he disavows any similarity to the cancelled series Firefly, may be found here. "North Star" is likely to air in November 2003.

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