Season 1: Discovery

Dr. Richard “Dirk” Dirksen is the Chief Scientist at the Smithsonian’s Astrophysics Organization in Cambridge.  A confessed workaholic, he spends countless hours performing his Chief Scientist duties and countless other hours on his pet project, hunting for planets in distant star systems. Dirk hits the astronomical jackpot when he receives what he is convinced is a signal from another planet. Dirk discovers that the signal is a distress signal from a planet in a star system within our own galaxy; the end of their civilization is nearing as their sun-like star dies out. The signal is weak and contains little information. Dirk discovers that their language is simple and their technology less advanced than our own.  They call their planet Pontare, one of five planets orbiting the star, Barnard’s star, 6 light years from Earth. It has taken the signal 6 years to reach Earth and it will take another 6 years for Earth’s reply to reach them.  What will be our response?

Controversy ensues scientifically, politically and religiously after the President announces the discovery. Dirk risks his profession and family as he leads a group of concerned scientists and philanthropists that insists a rescue mission must be launched as soon as possible to the dying planet and bring survivors back to Earth – a mission that will use unproven technology and take 80 years and play out over 4 generations of family.

This discovery has unintended consequences on his relationships with his attractive colleague Dr. Colleen Perkins, his wife, Dr. Sabina Hunter and their pre-teen children, Kristen and Coffey.

His attempts to get the government to commit leads to an intriguing series of harrowing and deadly events that culminate in the uncovering of the most closely held secret in the government. The United States has been secretly building a technologically advanced spaceship designed to launch an Earth escape mission in the event of a catastrophic impact from an asteroid. The world is shocked to find that the escape plan involved only the survival of key United States leadership and their families. Planet Earth’s governments struggle to find harmony after this startling revelation as they come to a decision on a commitment to launch the greatest “humanitarian” journey of all time. Conflicts arise as the decisions are made for which country leads the mission and who makes up the crew.

Tough personal and family choices and a controversial selection process results in a crew of 8 families – led by the commander, John “Jack” Riley – a Navy commander from a long line of military ancestors; the scientists, Dr. Dirk Dirksen and Dr. Sabina Hunter; the doctors, the Gupta’s – husband and wife team known for their humanitarian contributions; the historian/philosopher, Katib Tufail, descendant of the 12th Century Arabian philosopher Ibn Tufail; the artisan, Pierre Lescot, descendant of the French Renaissance sculptor and architect of the same name; the farmer, Gebiza Ejeta, prize winning African agriculturist; the engineer, Shin Kubo, Nobel Prize winning physicist and co-inventor of the spaceship’s exotic propulsion technology; and the technician, Kevin O’Brien, lead spaceship designer and builder.

The original crew will never return to Earth; nor will their children, nor their children’s children, who will never experience or know Earth. The first generation embarks on a mission into the vast unknown on the first Earth Space Ship, the E.S.S. Intrepid.

Season 2: Severance

The first generation begins the journey to planet Pontare but technical problems, stowaways and family conflicts put the entire mission at risk. Incredible new discoveries are made and dangerous encounters occur with never imagined new worlds and interstellar environments as humans leave our solar system into the expanses of interstellar space for the first time. The stowaways have negative consequences on the mission but unexpected bonuses for the crew and families.

Commander Riley is in firm control of the mission; too firm for scientist Dirksen’s tastes. Riley, a former aircraft carrier commander in the U.S. Navy meets all of the requirements for such an arduous mission. A mission that is driven by an overriding Prime Directive – “To perform the immediate rescue of the Pontarians and return safely to Earth”. The commander and scientist are in constant conflict on the interpretation of the mission goals – one focused on performing the rescue at all costs and the other gleaning as much science from the incredible discoveries to be found along the way. Kubo and O’Brien are not always in agreement and constantly bicker at one another as they struggle to keep the ship in working order under the harsh environmental challenges of interstellar space. The Gupta’s are perplexed by the unusual effects this environment has on the human body as well as the effects of isolation from Earth has on the mind. Ejeta is challenged to keep the crew nourished under these harsh conditions, not unlike the challenges he had in his home land in Africa.

As the crew’s children grow older, new relationships and bonds are formed but not necessarily as planned or in concert with the mission plan. Tufail and Lescot work hard to educate the children and prepare them for their future responsibilities as leaders and crew members despite the children’s own ideas for the future. News from Earth is discouraging as political conflict and war continue. They question the viability of Earth’s control over the mission.

Season 3: Discord

The children of the first generation are now in command – a new commander, a new vision. Dr. Dirksen’s daughter, Kristen, is now in charge of the mission. Kristen did not choose to be the commander but was enlisted into the role as dictated by the mission’s long range plan. Kristen struggles with this new responsibility and with trying to convince the rest of the crew she has what it takes to safely lead the way to Pontare. Any doubts are quickly extinguished when Kristen’s quick decision making during a chance encounter with a mysterious alien environment saves the ship and crew from certain doom. Personal relationships become ever more strained as the second generation copes with the loss of their parents and diminishing Earthly bonds. As their children grow older and form relationships of their own, they struggle with the reality of their predestined and confined existence.

The crew learns more about the Pontarians as they get closer and contact improves. The Pontarians are surprisingly human-like and are led by a group of authoritarian families reminiscent of Middle Eastern clans. Their likeness to humans is not a surprise to lead scientist Richard “Dick” Dirksen, who has been studying their planet under the tutorship of his father, Dirk, for the duration of his time on the ship. The crew’s lead historian, Abul Tufail, son of Katib, is intrigued by the structure and peacefulness of their society and ponders the possibilities for the Intrepidor mission and for Earth. The Pontarian’s leader is Volare, strong willed and determined who shares power with his mate, Sopko.  News from Pontare is unsettling as their civilization’s impending doom puts stress on their society and jeopardizes Volare’s control of the planet.

Commander Riley has to make a final life or death decision for the entire crew when they realize that there may not be enough time to complete the mission at Pontare before the effects of the dying sun destroy the solar system. After intense arguments among the crew, the decision is made to go forward with the Prime Directive but time is short and everything must go according to plan if they are to survive. The Pontarians also begin to question the legitimacy of the rescue mission as they learn more about the fragile and worn rescuers. Humans and aliens meet for the first time with the arrival at planet Pontare.

Season 4: Choices

As the second generation crew hands over control of the mission to their children, the evacuation of the Pontarians from their planet is imminent. The new commander, Jack Riley Jr., struggles to hold the mission together. Conflict and mistrust develops amongst the Pontarian’s as they struggle to decide who will be chosen to escape the end of their planet. Mistrust between the crew and Pontarians also grows as negotiations take place to decide how the return mission will be carried out – how much control, if any, should be given to the assertive Pontarians.

Tough choices face the new third generation crew as the time comes for the second generation crew to stay behind to make room for the Pontarians. Abul Tufail struggles in his last official duty to convince the new crew to accept his suggestions of how the remaining mission should be carried out in a unified new order. There is a near disastrous departure when there is a battle to board and take control of the ship by a rebellious group of Pontarian dissenters aided by Earth crew sympathizers. The rebellious group turns out to be the true and rightful leaders of Pontare. They were taken over and imprisoned by a hostile minority led by Volare who had planned on taking over the ship for his own purposes. Who are the survivors? Who will make up the final crew? This delay puts the entire mission at jeopardy as the effects of the dying sun begin to affect the ships ability to leave the star system.

Season 5: Isolation

The journey back begins; the third generation crew led by Commander Jack Riley, Jr. heads back to an Earth they do not know and will never get to experience. The surviving Pontarians are now orphans to a world they watch slowly die as the ship barely escapes the effects of their dying sun. Questions arise of politics, relationships and religion as the rescuers and survivors learn face to face about one another. The relationships and bonds formed between the crew and Pontarians are unusual and challenging as they discover that the Pontarians age at half the rate of the humans.

Dr. Gupta-Riley and the Pontarian healer, Borealis, struggle to contain an outbreak of deadly reactions to the comingling of alien viruses. The sickness affects all of the crew and nearly ends the mission. Bwonda Ejeta barely stops the destruction of all the Earth and Pontarian plant life as he discovers a unique method of grafting the basic strains of plants together into new hybrid and more fruitful plants. Commander Riley struggles to maintain harmony and trust while battling his own illness and near disastrous interstellar space challenges brought on by an aging spaceship.

News from Earth puts the return in question. The Pontarians question the viability of living on a planet beset with wars and strife and its own aging and fragile environment. A battle ensues between the crew and Pontarians for control of the ship; the children of both the crew and Pontarians intervene.

Season 6: Verdict

The fourth generation rescuers and second generation Pontarians continue the journey. Who is leading the mission now? The crew and Pontarians have peacefully coalesced and have had children together – the beginnings of interstellar evolution. This new hybrid generation is extremely intelligent and makes incredible improvements to the ship’s technology. They struggle to adhere to the Prime Directive and begin to wonder if they should return to an unfamiliar Earth or start a new life on another planet. Is it even viable? Are they destined to wander the galaxy, never to feel the bonds of any world?

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