Update: I spent some time with Timberline, and we uninstalled the application and reinstalled it. I had Crystal 9 loaded as well (the report works fine in there) and we uninstalled that and then reinstalled 10. The tech then messed with regedit and we reinstalled again, and the report worked, for a little while, then caput again.
So now I have reinstalled 9 to work on this report (and others with crs extension). Am posting this for posterity's sake in case someone else has a similar problem.
Thanks. Now to go post another question