So on this last day of talking about techniques and writing moves that are characteristic of the STAR TREK franchise, I want to turn to something that they often do (and that drives me crazy), and that is the GASLIGHTER.
A Gaslighter is an episode in which the protagonist is told by the ensemble that everything he believes is all wrong, or where suddenly everyone believes she is a villain. It's akin to the alternate universe kind of situation in that the normal world is suddenly radically different, with everyone behaving in ways that are so strange as to seem Not Them, but here they're insisting the protagonist is the one with the problem.
They're JJs, really, that is mystery box episodes, where our hero has to figure out what has gone wrong, and we play along at home trying to do the same.
There are plenty of varieties--body snatching, duplicates, mind control, Matrix variations. But there's a lot of consistency in them: the main character is made to think they're crazy; at some point they start to wonder if this might not be true; but of course it's not; and they get pretty tedious to watch, because we know it's all nonsense anyway so there's no real stakes. (Plus, it just gets so old listening to people telling someone they're crazy over and over when we know they're not.)
They present as Spotlight episodes, episodes that can focus on just one character, but everything around the heroine is so false--and soon to be fixed--it's hard to take their journey at all seriously.
They're also just not great to do because gaslighting sucks.
So don't do episodes like this, might be one takeaway. That'd be my recommendation.
Or the other is, since we know STAR TREK likes these stories, find a way to do one that innovates in some way and offers something that is not terrible. For instance, rather than some sort of scenario that involves alternate or drugged or in some other way Not Themselves versions of our cast, have it be the Real Them that is believing these terrible things now of their fellow crew member. Because that has the potential to have real effects on the ongoing story and relationships. If everyone suddenly believed you were a murderer, it would do huge damage to some of those friendships. How do you work together afterward? Are there some people that view you with suspicion going forward even though it was a lie? What underlying prejudices about race, orientation, gender, class could have allowed them to so totally turn on you in the first place? There's definitely stuff there to mine, stuff that has real world relevance.
Another version that I've seen STAR TREK do is to have the twist be that really there is something wrong with the main character and they just don't know it.
Now in general I think there's a lot of problems with this way of going at things. It tends to suggest some gaslighting is okay or justified. No thank you.
But here's a version that did kind of work: in DS9 214, O’Brien comes home from some mission and everyone on board seems strange. So of course he thinks they’ve been taken over by something, while they keep insisting everything’s fine. And then as he gets crazier and crazier in his attempts to figure this out, it turns out he's not who he thinks he is, he's some kind of replicant that believes he's O'Brien. In the end he dies in front of the cast, calling out for Keiko.
And even though the episode has been super annoying, that ending is really affecting. Because suddenly there are real stakes here; this is a lost soul, who no one but us understands. As he's dying the crew is watching and afterwards they're all like Huh, it’s weird, it’s like he had feelings.
YES IT IS, YOU GUYS.
So yeah, if you can find a take which finds a way to approach what seems incapable of real stakes and give it some, you might have yourself a pitch.
A third idea, that is kind of related, is to have the episode focus on someone we don't know. It's a crew member we've never met, or someone on a planet who is meeting our cast for the first time. And let them either be gaslit by the crew or have them see the crew behaving in ways that we know to be not in character. I think in that situation the tropes that seem generally so tired can work, precisely because as it's all happening we're also learning about this new person and going on a journey with them. It's more compelling because the central character really is part of the mystery--who is this person, and what is their deal? And as an outsider they can also become a fresh perspective on the crew, either for fun or seriously.
I feel like some of the Reginald Barclay episodes did something like this, and it was so successful he became a part of the bigger STAR TREK universe.
So, if you're going to pitch a Gaslighter, here are three ideas: Find a Way to Have it Reflect Real Prejudices Among the Characters; Find a Way to Give the Protagonist Stakes; or Use a New Character.
NEXT WEEK: HORROR STORIES!
