Star Trek: mirror universe

07
Jun
2013

Review – First Born

Background

First Born has an irresistible background, I feel.

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | First Born

First Born (Jun Daniels Sato)

In response to prompts about disciplining and decisions, I wrote First Born, a story about Richard Daniels, the Empress Hoshi Sato and their son, Jun Daniels Sato.

The story works as a bridge between In Between Days and Times of the HG Wells. Other such bridges include November 13th and More, More, More!

First Born Plot

In Reversal, I established that the Empress had given birth to Daniels’s child, but she thought him (the elder Daniels) to be dead. But Daniels isn’t dead.

Therefore, there had to be another side to the story.

This story explores the fallout at the Temporal Integrity Commission, and in time itself. Eleanor Daniels, Rick’s sister, is a docent at the Temporal Museum on Lafa II. She begins by lecturing about Empress Hoshi’s five children, but suddenly she shakes very, very slightly and ends her sentence talking about Hoshi’s six children.

Uh, oh.

Fallout

Variant logo based on the Terran Empire symbol...

Rick is hauled into his boss, Carmen Calavicci‘s, office. She is, understandably, livid. Carmen has been looking the other way for a while as he’s been bedding women in time. She has been figuring that it’s a way for him to cope with the fact that there are often deaths, or he has to restore deaths. So she has been kind or, at least, indifferent. But this is something else entirely, as the Mirror government is breathing down her neck. They demand that Jun Sato‘s existence be wiped out, thereby restoring Aidan MacKenzie‘s son, Kira, to his rightful position as first born heir.

Rick and Carmen meet with a Mirror government representative and begin to sort everything out. Rick wants Jun to live, but how much of a pound of flesh with the other side of the pond extract in order to make that happen?

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K+.

Upshot

I like the interplay among Carmen, Rick, and the Mirror representative (Ray Jiminez), as they essentially wheel and deal the past. It makes you wonder if that might eventually really happen.

Posted by jespah in Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Review, Times of the HG Wells series, 16 comments
04
Jun
2013

Portrait of a Character – Josh Rosen

Portrait of a Character – Josh Rosen

Josh Rosen was originally an afterthought – sorry!

Origins

First seen in The Light, Josh starts off as something of a background character in my Star Trek fanfiction. Friends with Ethan Shapiro, Karin Bernstein, and Andrew Miller, Josh was originally just meant to be more expositive filler material and not much more than that. Along the way, I found other ways to make him shine.

Portrayal

Josh is played by Seth Green.

Portrait of a Character – Josh Rosen

Seth Green as Josh Rosen

I like how this actor can be rather affable in some portrayals whereas, in others, he can be utterly menacing and evil.

I also like that he plays nerdy rather well. Josh in the prime universe is an engineer, and that is often my experience of engineers. Since he is a security guy in the Mirror Universe, that also works with the actor.

Personality

Dutiful and loyal to a fault, Josh is almost like Malcolm in that he will do nearly anything for the people he works for.

In the prime universe and prime timeline, he is pleasant and funny. In the E2 stories, he is a romantic guy but also is truly perplexed as to how to fix the problems that his marriage has created, and the wedge it has forced between him and his friend, Ethan. And in the Mirror Universe, in both the Temper first alternate timeline and in the prime timeline, he shows a loyalty and devotion to his mother that no other Mirror Universe denizen shows except, perhaps, for Doug Beckett.

Relationships

Karin Bernstein

Josh’s relationship with Karin only happens in the E2 stories, although they marry in both iterations. He is playful with her, calling her angel and generally surprised that she would go out with him, let alone marry him. In the second kick back in time, Karin herself wonders a bit about why she didn’t pursue Andrew herself. But the answer is the same for both iterations – Josh gets there first.

Yimar

In the Mirror Universe, the start of this relationship shows up in He Stays a Stranger. Josh has fairly recently struck out with Leah Benson (although he did help her to escape the Empress), and he is alone. When Daniels and Tom Grant  get the Flux Capacitor back, Josh ends up on Lafa II. Telling her that he doesn’t know anyone, she tells him, “You know me.” When Branch Borodin, a millennium later, explains that time period’s events to a tour group at the Temporal Museum on Lafa II, he mentions that Josh became High Priestess Yimar’s consort.

Mirror Universe

In the mirror, Josh Rosen is a security crewman, and often guards the Agony Booth.

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Seth Green as MU Josh Rosen (image is for educational purposes only)

Seth Green as MU Josh Rosen (image is for educational purposes only)

But he wants to get out. He also well aware – more than most Mirror Universe denizens – that he needs to help others so that they will help him.

Hence in Temper and The Conspiracy, he is a part of the plot to get Chip, Lucy, and Chip’s two children off the Defiant.

Once they are gone, he still wants to get away, but he’s realistic about his chances. In Bread, he helps Leah Benson leave, as a fulfillment of his mother’s dying wish.

His continued caring for what his mother would have thought of him marks him as one of the few righteous persons in the Mirror Universe. This puts him on a par with Doug Beckett.

Quote

“We’re members of the same tribe. There aren’t a lot of us left. My, heh, my mother sent me a last message last week, before she died. She said I should look out for anybody in the tribe.”

Upshot

This below decks character shows up a lot. And he has been a bit of a utility infielder character, ending up in nearly every series but Hold Your Dominion and Mixing it Up. Not bad for the guy who, at the end of The Light, is neither the star (Ethan) nor the romantic lead (Andrew).

Posted by jespah in Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Portrait, Times of the HG Wells series, 18 comments
21
May
2013

Focus – Xindi in Star Trek Fan Fiction

Focus – Xindi

Xindi fascinate me.
Barking up the Muse Tree | Janet Gershen-Siegel | jespah | Focus Magnifying Glass | Xindi

A focus (unlike a spotlight) is an in-depth look at a Star Trek fanfiction canon item and my twist(s) on it.

In this post, the focus will be on the canon species (or, rather, set of species) from the Enterprise series, called the Xindi.

This species was introduced during the third season of ENT as being the villain species. There were brief sightings in the fourth season, but that’s it. They were new for ENT so of course they weren’t in the earlier series and films, but they didn’t make it into the 2009 film, either.

Canon

In canon, there are five separate species, with a sixth that had gone extinct. The humanoid and sloth (also known as arboreals) were generally the easiest to relate to. The aquatics were interesting and ultimately they were sympathetic. The insectoids were scary but did have some redeeming qualities. The reptilians were nasty but it was eventually just on one person. As a set of species, they were eventually had a rather neat redemption.

Aquatics

I mention this species very briefly, during the course of Concord.

Focus – Xindi

Xindi Aquatic

There is a Xindi Aquatic, working with Section 31, who tells Makan Sinthasomphone and Monisha Padir that there is a corpse on the Genesis planet. But that person only shows up briefly and I didn’t give them a name.

Avians

This species is extinct in canon

Focus – Xindi

Skull of a Xindi Avian

and I don’t mess with that. However, it’s entirely possible that I will eventually write a time travel story where  they are extant.

Humanoids/Primates

Probably the most fully-realized Xindi Humanoids I write are Dayah,

Focus – Xindi

Xindi Primate (Degra)

from Together, and Rellie, from Temper. Perhaps just as oddly is the fact that I have written more fully realized female characters for this species, whereas the best-known canon characters are male.

Dayah is an older woman, who steps up during the confinement in Together. Rellie is a Mirror Universe native and works, in the first alternate timeline, as the manager of the Empress‘s mess.

Insectoids

The most fully-realized characters I have written so far are

Focus – Xindi

Xindi Insectoid

She Who Almost Didn’t Breed In Time, The One Who Fires A Weapon Very Fast and She Who Listens Well.

She Who Almost Didn’t Breed In Time (a wry observation about Lili) is killed by Lili when the NX-01 is boarded. The One Who Fires a Weapon Very Fast is stuck in a lift with Keith Paris in Alien Encounter. She Who Listens Well is a bartender in the nascent Barnstorming series.

Reptilians

My most fully-realized Reptilian

Focus – Xindi

Xindi Reptilian (Dolim)

characters are the chatty teenaged girl Tr’Dorna and the hybrid troubled teenaged boy (he’s also part-human), D’Storlin. Plus there is an unnamed younger male in Achieving Peace, who works in Communications.

I suppose I like my Reptilians as adolescents.

Sloth/Arboreals

I get my best inspiration from this subspecies.

Focus – Xindi

Xindi Arboreal (Jannar)

My first sloth character was Aranda Chara, in The Puzzle, A Tale Told in Pieces. She is a very young child, but the reader still learns that her name contains a matronymic. Furthermore, she has an ill brother and her parents aren’t getting along well. Her mother, the diplomat, Chara Sika, shows up in Achieving Peace.

But the most detailed character is the hybrid (he’s also part-Klingon and part-human), Dr. Boris Yarin. His Russian background also dovetails with the previously mentioned traditional matronymic.

Mirror Universe

As Doug explains in Reversal, the Empress committed genocide on the Xindi, so there are few left of any species. Therefore, the abovementioned Rellie is fortunate indeed to have the position that she does. In Temper, Lili witnesses the death of a Xindi sloth when that woman is examined with a radiation band tester and the examiners find she is from our universe, a condition punishable by instant execution.

Upshot

It went beyond the novelty value of several different kinds of sentient and civilized species from one planet. Hence the idea of bringing these species into time periods they were never originally in, well, that idea proved irresistible. I do hope they are in the next film, as I would hate for this concept to cease. I hope to do a little justice, and continue to keep it alive.

Posted by jespah in Focus, 9 comments
17
May
2013

Review – Temper

Review – Temper

Background

I originally wrote Temper for two reasons.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Temper

Temper

One, I wanted to introduce a way into a vague idea I had for a Star Trek fan fiction time travel series. And two, I wanted to not only continue the story of Doug, Lili, Malcolm, Melissa and Leonora, but I wanted the kids to be older without aging Lili and Doug quite so much. After all, Doug is fifty-five when he meets Lili. Therefore, he would be in his sixties for any stories where the children could really interact and be an integral part of the plot. But a time travel story could rather neatly fix all of that.

Beyond that, I also wanted a way to continue the saga of the Empress Hoshi Sato and her son, Jun, the son of time traveler Richard Daniels. Furthermore, I wanted more kids in the royal family. For the Empress, it would be a Machiavellian move – she would have several children of different fathers, thereby diversifying genetically and, perhaps, given the tenderhearted paternal feelings that go along with the Y Chromosome Skew, she would get the male members of her senior staff to keep her alive, at least until her children reached the age of majority. And in Temper, they are just about all there.

Plot

The story begins with a snapshot into how the arrangement among Malcolm, Lili, Doug, Melissa and Leonora really works. Doug and Melissa are out hunting linfep, and then perrazin, with phase bows. Malcolm and Lili are going on vacation to Fep City. And the children are either with Leonora or are being cared for by Yimar. The occasion is that Melissa wants to have another baby.

But then Malcolm must return to the Enterprise, and Lili comes home early. Time Traveler Richard Daniels arrives and tells her that he needs Doug for something. She’s not so sure she believes him, and is a bit peeved that he’s landed his ship, the brand-new HG Wells, right on top of her day lilies. In order to fix this, he adds a drop of his blood to the soil but does not tell her that it’s spiked with stem cell growth accelerator.

Rick Steps In

When Doug and Melissa get in, and Malcolm is reached via communicator and Leonora arrives separately, Rick tells them why he needs Doug – the Empress is experimenting with what’s called a pulse shot. She’s looking to get over to our side of the pond, because she thinks that she can get more ships like the ISS Defiant.

But her few attempts are clumsy, and they wreak havoc with time itself, causing breaks in 2166 and 2161, including people from our universe crossing over to the Mirror and being trapped there (this includes the three eldest children, Joss, Marie Patrice and Tommy). Rick’s best information is on 2166, so he needs that part repaired first. Doug is the logical choice because, being from the Mirror originally, he sports a radiation band that matches that universe. Lili is chosen to accompany him because she’s considered non-threatening and, with false calloo tattoos on her arms and legs, she can pass for a Calafan. Rick explains that he cannot go as the Mirror government of his time period forbids it. This is due to the debacle about the siring of his son, Jun, which is explained in First Born.

Once Doug and Lili cross over, they find a totalitarian regime and just what’s going on with their children.

Music

Temper is less musically-driven than Together, but that makes sense as it is more of an adventure tale than a love story. However, there are still individual themes.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated M.

Upshot

I like, for the most part, how the story turned out, but it is deeper into my universe. Therefore, it can be a confusing read for someone who is not fully familiar with works that cover the earlier time periods. I do make an effort to create stand-alone stories, but I believe that the effect was somewhat mixed here. Temper is usually on the lower end of read counts for the first five big books (Reversal, Intolerance, Together, and Fortune are the other four), along with Intolerance, but in the case of Intolerance, it’s because it’s a shorter book. I suspect that Temper is a bit harder to get into. A pity, as it’s the lead-in for the HG Wells stories.

Posted by jespah in Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Review, Times of the HG Wells series, 100 comments
14
May
2013

Portrait of a Character – Izo Sato

Portrait of a Character – Izo Sato

Izo Sato brings up the rear of the Empress’s family.

Origins

In canon, at the end of the second Mirror Universe episode in Star Trek: Enterprise, the newly-proclaimed Empress Hoshi Sato has taken a new lover, Travis Mayweather. However, I realized that, in a Machiavellian sense, this would not necessarily be the best move for her, to only be with him, and stay with him. After all, people would be constantly gunning for her – and that’s canon, anyway. Superior officers are always in danger of being knifed or phasered by ambitious underlings.

Hence I decided that a hot, young and round-heeled Empress (also canon) would likely cement her partnerships with her senior staff via the bedroom. If most/all of them are male, all she’s got to do is sleep with them. And with the Y Chromosome Skew, if she gets pregnant by them, they will keep her alive, at least for a while. This is in order to ensure the continuing survival of their children. Therefore, she’d plan to have several children by the various male members of her senior staff. She selects Travis as a sire last, because she is most confident in his compliance and loyalty. Their son together is Izo Sato.

Izo’s very existence almost does not happen. This is because, during pregnancy, it’s discovered that there is a hole in his heart. The choice is given to Travis – fix the hole and the Empress goes on, or let the Empress die on the table and, presumably, become the next Emperor. Travis doesn’t want to rule and be constantly watching his back and so, in Coveted Commodity, he decides to allow Izo to live, even as Hoshi names the child and Travis has no say in the matter whatsoever.

Portrayal

It’s incredibly difficult to find a part-Asian, part-African actor.

Matsu as Izo Sato

Matsu as Izo Sato

I selected Matsu from the Japanese singing group, Exile. His real, full name is Toshio Matsumoto.

Matsu is an actor, too, and reportedly has a starring role in a futuristic drama (it’s difficult to get information as a lot of it’s in Japanese, and I have to rely on Google translations). In this video, he’s the guy with the multicolored headband and the dreadlocks: Carry On by Exile.

Personality

Portrait of a Character – Izo Sato

Matsu as Izo Sato

Nasty and bratty, like all six of the Empress’s children, Izo is also dangerous, and grows up to run the Empress’s secret police. In Temper, in the first alternate timeline, he stays out of the fight for Marie Patrice Beckett but he does tangle with someone else.

The name Izo means “iron“, but Izo is far from being honorable or morally strong.

Relationships

According to Richard Daniels, Izo eventually marries in the correct timeline, but he dies childless. I don’t have a name for his wife yet.

Leah Benson

In Bread, it’s 2192, and she’s in her mid-seventies and is a lesbian, but it doesn’t matter, as Izo is interested anyway. Given the lack of women aboard, it would appear that this is either before Izo’s marriage or he is cheating. He’s thirty – she is over twice his age – but he still, at the very least, wants her to service him. Furthermore, he has had several failures and so is looking for what he believes will be a compliant, easy score.

Pamela Hudson

In the first alternate timeline in Temper, once José Torres is killed, Pamela, Blair and Karin are freed and take up with other partners.

Portrait of a Character – Izo Sato

Matsumoto Toshio as Izo Sato

Karin goes with Josh, Blair goes with Dr. Morgan, and Pamela ends up with Izo. Again, she is a lot older than he is – she is over fifty, whereas he is still a teenager. But it does not matter to him. During this alternate, during a Calafan-style dream, Pamela gets a chance to do to Izo what, presumably, most people, both male and female, would want to do.

Prime Universe

Izo does not have a prime universe counterpart although, like the other Sato offspring, he does have an analogue in the Beckett–O’Day–Madden–Digiorno–Reed family. That person is Tommy Digiorno-Madden, as they are both impulsive warrior types.

Quote

“Am I gonna feel good?”

Upshot

I write the Mirror Mayweather as being mainly a loose cannon. Although when he learns that Izo has issues in utero, he does go to bat for the child. Izo carries that to the next generation and continues as a difficult thorn in many people’s sides. While Kira and Jun are almost heroes (at least, for people in the Mirror Universe), and Takara and Takeo have a chance to become almost moral, it’s Arashi and Izo who remain villains no matter what.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Portrait, Times of the HG Wells series, 10 comments
10
May
2013

Recurrent Themes – Scientists

Recurrent Themes – Scientists

Scientists are canon and they are important.

Background

Barking up the Muse Tree | Janet Gershen-Siegel | jespah | DNA | Scientists

Star Trek does not exist without science, and it is of course canon and is terribly important. In addition to canon scientists such as T’Pol, Keiko Ishikawa O’Brien and Spock, my fanfiction also celebrates scientists.

Note – this post will not cover physicians or engineers.

Appearances

In Between Days

Pamela Hudson

During the first temporal dislocation in Temper, she works as the night shift Science Officer on the ISS Defiant, but Pamela‘s main function is to be one of the three playthings for José Torres.

Diana Jones

Diana doesn’t really have much of a defined role in science until the E2 kickbacks. She seems to have a bit of a geology background, as she is the one to comment that, at Amity’s North Pole, there are iron pyrite deposits.

Lemnestra

She is the Ikaaran Science Officer on Verinold and Esilia‘s ship.

Andrew Miller

Andy begins the journey running the Biology Lab, and is responsible, mainly, for alien animal experimentation. When the malostrea are captured, he is one of the people who studies them.

Michelle (Shelby) Pike

Shelby runs the Botany Lab. During  the E2 kickbacks, her work becomes extremely important as she is needed for helping to grow fruits, vegetables and grains.

Preece Ti

This Ikaaran woman is the Science Officer on Ebrona’s ship.

Francisco (Frank) Ramirez

Frank isn’t seen working, but Jenny Crossman notes that he is a planetary geologist studying Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.

Hamilton Roget

He is the Science Officer on the Columbia.

T’Mir Ryan

During the first kickback, she eventually becomes the Science Officer on the Enterprise.

Kira MacKenzie Sato

He’s really the only denizen of the Mirror Universe whose primary function is science (Andy Miller’s counterpart is eventually promoted to the rank of Science Officer, but the reality is that his function is mainly as the Empress‘s bedroom playmate). Kira, who is the second-born son of Empress Hoshi, and the only child of Aidan MacKenzie, is not exactly gifted, and he’s slated for rule anyway, but he does at least perform this underserved function on the other side of the pond.

Lucy Stone

When T’Pol leaves Starfleet (after These Are the Voyages, my assumption is that T’Pol is leaving as it’s too painful for her to stay), Lucy steps in although, according to Day of the Dead, she is already aboard. During the events of Take Back the Night, Lucy studies the Daranaeans.

Nyota Warren

This Science crewman is not as high-ranking as Diana and, as a result, is not placed on the Bridge as often as Diana is.

Times of the HG Wells

Elston McCoy

Never seen, he is a job candidate with a specialty in ancient sciences.

Mixing it Up

Fetlaff

Never seen, he is Rayna Montgomery’s Science teacher.

Upshot

Necessary for any successful mission, scientists are one of the cornerstones of my fan fiction. There will always be more.

Posted by jespah in Emergence series, Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Mixing It Up Collection, Themes, Times of the HG Wells series, 0 comments
03
May
2013

Portrait of a Character – Diana Jones

Portrait of a Character – Diana Jones

Diana Jones works for a lot of purposes.

Origins

This original Star Trek fan fiction character fulfills a few purposes rather neatly. First off, in Reflections Down a Corridor, Entanglements, The Three of Us and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, there need to be additional people who assist Doctor Phlox with medical matters. Andrew Miller becomes a medic and, eventually, can be called “doctor”. Diana, who also comes from the Science Department, essentially becomes a nurse.

Additionally, I wanted the skewed gender ratio to have even more of a radical skew. So there needed to be at least one lesbian. And because life isn’t necessarily fair, Diana would be the only gay woman aboard.

In Bread, I wanted someone for whom Leah Benson – on either side of the pond – might be doing everything for. Furthermore, it would work better for that story if that person was declining. The contrast proved irresistible.

Portrayal

Diana is played by Mira Sorvino.

Portrait of a Character – Diana Jones

Mira Sorvino as Diana Jones

I wanted an older actress who is still very lovely. And I feel that this Oscar-winning actress can get across Diana’s shyness about coming out, her desire for a mate and her eventual sad decline.

I also wanted Diana to be someone who the men might take an interest in. But they would be a bit disappointed when they learn that she is not reciprocating the attraction. She would also be someone who gay crew member Preston Jennings would select as a friend and confidante and, truly, as a convincing beard at times.

Personality

Warm and friendly, Diana is a natural for helping out in Sick Bay. In a way, she’s a gay version of Crewman Liz Cutler. The actress who played Cutler (Kellie Waymire) is deceased. So it’s a bit unclear whether Cutler made it to the kick back in time in E2. I prefer to think that, in the Azati Prime episode, that Cutler was one of the crewmen who perished, as this ties in with reality and brings the loss home even more. Hence there is room for Diana.

The other side of Diana is that she just plain doesn’t want to make a big deal out of her sexuality. To my mind, that works, as this would likely be a society where being gay is far less of a news story than it is now. However, that’s a double-edged sword. Without the drama of coming out, a person with non-majority preferences is apt to have to deal with some confusion unless they’re very demonstrative about what they’re like. Diana isn’t – and she and Malcolm find they have that in common – so she ends up sometimes having to fend off unwelcome male advances.

Relationships

Preece Ti

In The Three of Us, after the rescue of the first batch of Ikaaran women, this Science Officer approaches Diana when she realizes that there are two women aboard who do not live with men. The other is Lili, but by that time she’s committed to both Malcolm and Jay. Preece Ti thereby deduces that Diana is a lesbian. They take up together and have a loving, committed relationship until Preece Ti’s eventual death from the decline, This somewhat neatly parallels Diana’s own later years in the prime timeline.

Leah Benson

In both universes, Diana and Leah are, at some point or another, a couple. And in our universe, they stay together, even as Diana begins to exhibit symptoms of some form of senility. In the Mirror Universe, Diana leaves when she learns that Leah killed her previous lover, Leonora Digiorno. Moreover, Diana performs a major service for the Mirror Leah. She helps her to stop drinking.

Mirror Universe

Mirror Diana Jones

Mirror Diana Jones

Diana exists in the mirror universe, but is in a far more limited Science capacity. This is not due to a lack of talent; rather, it’s due to the Empress not wanting or needing detailed scientific work.

After Diana breaks up with Leah, she is unceremoniously dumped on Andoria. This happens when the Empress becomes displeased with her job performance. She lives there with the same caregiver, the Andorian Tallinaria, who also cares for her in the prime universe.

Quote

“Sorry, Thing Two. I bet you’re still really peeved. We just want to get to know ya.”

Upshot

I liked putting together this friendly if a bit misunderstood character.

Portrait of a Character – Diana Jones

And it was genuinely upsetting to turn Diana Jones, eventually, into a person who suffers tremendously toward the end of her life. But this is what happens to some people. It would take the punch out of the decline if she didn’t start out so sympathetically. I do like Diana Jones. I suppose I’d like her to have a happy ending, but not everyone does, unfortunately.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Portrait, 11 comments
23
Apr
2013

Portrait of a Character – Frank Todd

Portrait of a Character – Frank Todd

Frank Todd makes a point.

Origins

I had been reading more than enough homophobic rants about how gay characters would be too effeminate for Starfleet. It annoyed me enough that I wanted to create a pair of gay characters, and one of them would be a MACO. And so, for There’s Something About Hoshi, I created Franklin Thomas Todd.

Portrayal

Frank Todd is played by Luke MacFarlane.

Portrait of a Character – Frank Todd

Luke MacFarlane as Frank Todd

I wanted an impressively physically imposing actor. This guy would be no one’s idea of effeminate.

I also wanted a gay actor. I hope that this would be the kind of role that this actor could be proud of. Frank is no pushover and he is no stereotype.

Personality

Loyal, friendly and passionate, but also fiercely dedicated to his job, Frank is just the kind of guy you want defending the Enterprise and her crew. Jay and Julie trust him, and he has more than earned their trust. Eventually, he rises to the rank of Corporal although I can see him with a lot more responsibility.

Relationships

David Constantine

Dave and Frank have began dating by the time of There’s Something About Hoshi. In Entanglements, they get together after Frank rather loudly comes out. However, by the time of Shell Shock, Frank is picked up at a gay bar in Provincetown. Hence maybe things did not work out as well as the men would have preferred.

Mirror Universe

Portrait of a Character – Frank Todd

Mirror Universe Frank (Luke MacFarlane)

I do not yet have a Mirror Universe version of Frank, but there’s no reason why there can’t be one.

I like the idea of him, perhaps, being less rough around the edges on the other side of the pond. Maybe I’ll write him some time.

Quote

“My name is Franklin Thomas Todd.

Portrait of a Character – Frank Todd

And while it is nobody’s goddamned business, except for the people I care about, and who care about me, I want you all to know that I am a gay man. I don’t hide. I am not ashamed. (and) I am who I am, and being gay is as much a part of me as having a tattoo on my bicep, or brown eyes or being from Europa originally.”

Upshot

I want more occasions to showcase this character who is far more than his sexuality. I’ll be looking for places for Frank. You haven’t seen the last of him.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Portrait, 12 comments
12
Apr
2013

Portrait of a Character – Patti Socorro

Patti Socorro Origins

Patti Socorro is a useful character.

This character is technically Star Trek: Enterprise canon but you never see her on screen. She does not have a first name, or a first initial. Instead, the sole reference to an Ensign Socorro refers to her smell after exercising.

Some introduction, eh?

Portrayal

I wanted an actress who would be decent-looking. But she couldn’t be a breathless knockout.

Patti Socorro

Carey Mulligan as Patti Socorro (image is for educational purposes only)

Therefore, I chose British actress Carey Mulligan. Mulligan has some sci-fi cred. She was in an episode of Doctor Who. Truth is, she is a lovely woman. But just like with Aidan, notions of attractions are different from now.

Personality

Brittle and withdrawn, Patti is as luckless as Lili O’Day when the Enterprise is thrown back in time the first time, during the E2 stories (Reflections Down a Corridor). I write her as a Crewman. In canon, she’s an Ensign. And so, when Lili and Patti are the only two unclaimed women left, Chang and the others refer to them as the Ensign and the Crewman. No one has to be told who the Ensign and the Crewman are.

Because she is more vulnerable than Lili, Patti is the subject of targeting. So Chang, Hodgkins, Brown, Curtis and Kemper attack. This is with Haynem helping but not taking part in the actual attack. This incident colors life on the NX-01. And Sandra Sloane is also implicated as a helper.

In the second kick back in time, Patti stays safe as the situation does not get anywhere near as out of control. For a while, she and Lili room together.

Relationships

William Slocum

Because the herd has thinned quite a bit, Will feels that he can approach her. He makes his move before the attack. But he is there afterwards to try to help her heal a bit. He’s somewhat inept, however. So eventually they divorce during the first kick back in time.

Derek Kelby

In the second kick back in time, Derek (a canon character who does not have a canon first name) and Patti wed. This time, she is not the penultimate woman the men choose.

Mirror Universe

Patti Socorro doesn’t have a Mirror Universe counterpart yet.

Carey Mulligan

I think a Mirror Patti would have to be considerably more assertive. She’d probably also have to be competent – but not necessarily overly so. This would be in order to be on the Defiant. After all, Empress Hoshi doesn’t like a lot of female competition.

Quote

“I don’t, well, no one, has the time for me to hang around and recover from this. Those guys have to be caught.”

Upshot

I have really put this Navigational Crewman through the ringer. Maybe a Mirror version will fare better.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Portrait, 5 comments
02
Apr
2013

Portrait of a Character – Boris Yarin

Portrait of a Character – Boris Yarin

Boris Yarin was fun to create.

Origins

I wanted a character who would be paranoid, itchy and dangerous. And I wanted him to be a healer, too, a paradox. I further decided that he would be a combination of human, Klingon and Xindi sloth. The sloth part would make him paranoid. The Klingon part would make him physically powerful. And the human part would make him all-too emotionally vulnerable.

I stumbled across his surname quite by accident (and nearly literally), as I used to walk in an area where a Toyota Yaris always seemed to be parked.

Portrait of a Character – Boris Yarin

Toyota Yaris

It was not due to any great affection I had for this vehicle.  Rather, I just liked the combination of letters. As I sometimes do for foreign or alien names, I did a bit of brainstorming/free associating with sounds. Yarin, apparently, is Turkish for tomorrow, a fitting surname for a character who lives and dies in the thirty-first and thirty-second centuries.

And so Boris Fyodorovich Yarin was born.

Portrayal

For a man who was almost constantly jumping out of his skin, who would be better than Henry Rollins?

Portrait of a Character – Boris Yarin

Henry Rollins as Boris Yarin

I had initially seen Boris as being somewhat slight, like a Klingon with menace but no muscle behind it. But the more I thought about Rollins, the more I liked the idea. Rollins always seems to be on fire just underneath his skin. Boris, too, is often barely this side of exploding.

In addition, Boris’s intelligence is masked by a severe lack of confidence. He doesn’t think he can do the work, so he gets his job through his wife’s connections. And then he decides he wants to retain his post, so it’s even more imperative that he tread a fine line with his wife. If he’s out of the marriage, he reasons, he’ll also be out of a job.

Personality

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Henry Rollins as Boris Yarin, MD (image is for educational purposes only)

Henry Rollins as Boris Yarin, MD (image is for educational purposes only)

Paranoid and angry, yet wildly intelligent, Boris is problematic from the start. He marries for prestige and position, and not for love. As a result, he’s vulnerable when Marisol Castillo seduces him. And then he’s considerably more vulnerable when she begins blackmailing him. For him, what started as hanky-panky has turned into something more, and he is not only desperate to keep his marriage together and retain his job, he’s also genuinely hurt because he actually loves Marisol.

Relationships

Darragh Stratton

Boris’s wife is mentioned in passing but she is not seen until Ohio when, in an alternate timeline, she isn’t his wife at all. They have a marriage of convenience for the most part. Whether Darragh loves Boris is debatable. Whether Boris loves Darragh is obvious – he doesn’t.

Marisol Castillo

For this femme fatale, Boris is an easy conquest. At first, it’s sexual (and in A Long, Long Time Ago, that’s one of the first times they’re seen together – in flagrante delicto). After a while, though, Boris realizes he has feelings for her, calling her his “angel” (which he also calls Darragh). By the time he figures out that he’s been betrayed, in Shake Your Body, there is but one endgame for him and Marisol.

Mirror Universe

Boris does not yet have a Mirror Universe counterpart.

Portrait of a Character – Boris Yarin

Mirror Universe Boris Yarin

But that would be pretty scary, eh?

I have always wanted Henry Rollins to portray a Klingon, and I wonder why he never has.

Quote

“My name is Boris Fyodorovich Yarin. I am forty-six years of age, and of sound mind. This letter will be farewell, confession, warning and will all in one.

First, to my wife, Darragh Stratton Yarin, I leave everything I own, with no exceptions, to do with as she wishes. It is all I can offer, for apologies are worthless. I have acted completely without honor. I owe you many things, and cannot repay that debt. All I can hope is for you to live your life without any thought of me – no sorrow, no mourning, no regret, no compassion and not even memory. If I could erase our time together, and spare you, I would.”

Upshot

I hope Boris conveys as much menace as I’ve envisioned. I think more of his backstory could be explored, and a Mirror Boris would be, perhaps, even a revolutionary.

May thanks again to FltCpt. Bossco of the STPMA site. The photomanipulation is truly stunning and is exactly what I wanted.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Portrait, Times of the HG Wells series, 12 comments