One thing about scriptwriting -- you go at a frenzied pace for a while, then you get a chance to sit back, inhale, and wonder what the hell just happened. Right not, I'm ramping up to the frenzied, I think.

Tonight I got a call from the director who's directing the excerpt of my pilot TV show. He invited me to the rehearsal tomorrow night. Cool! A bit scary, but cool! For the first time, I'll get to see what the words look like in the hands of professionals. I only hope that I don't make the actors nervous, and that it doesn't come out sounding like the worst dren that ever hit the fan...

Then, I discover that this very same excerpt is going to be the first bit shown on the production night. There are seven script excerpts: three romantic comedies; noir thriller; noir mystery; dark comedy and my fantasy adventure. First of the night. Hmm. Well, it'll be done and over with quickly. Then again, by the time we get to the end of the evening the audience will have forgotten it. Then again, everyone will be alert and paying attention, not tired by the end of the evening. Then again... (Ok, stop it, stop it!)

Faith. That ever-elusive thread that I try to grasp, which will lead me through the maze of insecurities to wherever my final destination lies.

On another note, on Friday I pitch to the new Star Trek series Enterprise. I was told by friends that they were looking for stories, any stories, and I should have my agent call to make a pitch appointment. I did, my agent did, and now I'm working on trying to dream up ideas that fit in with the new series, but don't appear in any of the old series. No problem, right? It's Trek. How hard could that be?

For perspective, it breaks down to:

Trek (old series): 79 episodes
Next Gen: 178 episodes
DS9: 176 eps
Voyager: 172 eps
And 9 movies. There's an animated series, too, which I haven't figured in to this equation.

That's 605 TV episodes and 9 movies. 623 hours of Trek entertainment. Nearly 26 solid DAYS of Trek, if you put them back-to-back without commercials.

And they want something new.

The Trek stars have been possessed, de-evolved, started wars, ended wars, prevented wars, created worlds by accidentally leaving behind dime-store novels, gone through time over and over, been stuck in the magical holodeck, had their ships taken over by a "better" computer, loved, died, dreamed, defeated God, become God (or at least an Ancient), brought the dead to life, brought life to the dead (Data, anyone?), met (and defeated) the invincible, and generally discovered all of the mysteries of the universe.

Pitch new ideas. No problem.

Riiiiight.

Nothing to do but roll up my sleeves, scour the pilot for hints and suggestions, and pester my spouse and another TV writer with ideas. Axe a few that turn out to be old Trek stories in disguise, punch up the ones that work, and now I have seven that might turn out to be interesting. At least they're interesting to me. I'll let you know what the Enterprise thinks.