Dirk - working out the plot

There is a particular story that takes place in the Dirk Halfspeed universe that I've wanted to write for a long time. I originally tinkered around with this story idea, thinking to write it as the next episode in the original serial. I have written several scenes for it but never quite finished it.

The last episode of the original serial had the trio of Dirk, Joe, and Seran deal with their sudden jaunt into Negative Time by deciding to hibernate their way back to their present time. My writing partner wrote this particular episode as a way of returning the characters back to the familiar setting. Although my partner wrote the story well, over time I have found myself disappointed with this ending to the serial. I felt disappointed because we had an opportunity to take the serial into a whole new direction, and instead we undid every possible change of direction; we hit the reset button.

I started to imagine what would have happened if the characters had actually tampered with the past. What if one of the characters somehow remembered an alternate sequence of events - perhaps a sequence of events that never happened, because Time prevents paradox from occurring. Yet one character, Joe, has vivid memories of an alternate existence, one in which he had fathered a child with one of his women. Then he discovers that in the normal universe, this woman has died while giving birth. Now he wants to go back in time again and prevent her and his child from dying. Only he can't, because nature works to prevent paradox. Now, tell me if that doesn't raise the emotional stakes some!

I like this story idea; I like the possibilities of what it allows me to do with the characters. I've abandoned the idea of writing it as a continuation episode for the original serial, but I am still interested in using it for a reimagined series.

At the beginning of the new story, Dirk is floating in space with no knowledge of who he is, no memory of how he got there. Somehow, I have got to get him from here to meeting Joe and Seran. The Beginning is the part of the story that tells of how the trio meet each other, and why they end up going back in time. The Middle is about their experiences while in the past, and about their return to the present. The End is about Joe's frustrated attempts to go back in time again and save his son. The Climax is when Dirk realizes the truth - that time "takes care of itself" and prevents paradox from occurring. Thus Dirk decides to stop supporting Joe's efforts in order to prevent Joe from self-destructing. Dirk may even have to sabotage Joe's final, desperate attempt - and damages his relationship in the process.

Whew - I've got a lot of work ahead of me here.