Star Trek

Jan

2014

Portrait of a Character – Azar Hamidi

Azar Hamidi does more than just make a point.

Origins

Azar was created as a small statement in The Light. That Star Trek fanfiction story is dominated by Jewish characters, so I wanted there to be a Muslim character as well, who would be friends with them. Azar was to be a quick mentioning but it would be obvious that differences would have ended aside long ago, and replaced with understanding.

Portrayal

Azar is portrayed by Arnold Vosloo.

Arnold Vosloo as Azar Hamidi

This Afrikaans actor has played a number of Middle Eastern characters and so I thought of him immediately to play this Iranian crewman.

While writing Reflections Down a Corridor, he came into even sharper focus.

Personality

Smart and pleasant, Azar is respectful and polite with his peers, and is a lot of people like him. As a Security Crewman, he gets a promotion to the rank of Ensign. In the E² timeline, he starts off in Engineering, but is still gets a promotion to Ensign and ends up in Security at some point.

Relationships

Maryam Haroun

Starting in Reflections, he and Ramih Azar compete for Maryam, who is afraid that she’ll choose the wrong man. Since she is expecting an arranged marriage, she works with Phlox to try to determine who will be the one. She chooses Azar not so much for his looks (although Maryam does think he’s better-looking than Ramih), but for his answer to the question of what he would do if she did not choose him to be her husband. Their marriage is a good one, and they have a son, Ali, in both kicks back in time.

In the prime timeline, in A Hazy Shade, it is implied that they may have wed then, too. I haven’t decided yet.

Mirror Universe

Mirror Azar Hamidi (image of Arnold Vosloo is for educational purposes only)

While I have not specifically written a Mirror Universe version of Azar, there are no impediments to his existence.

I can see him as being less disciplined and kind (like most denizens of the Mirror), and probably not as religious. In Bread, I establish that practicing faith in the Mirror is not something you want to do at all openly. Hence, much like Leah Benson, he might be a secretly religious person.

This could make him vulnerable in many ways, possibly to blackmail or the like.

Quote

“‘I would do nothing. At least, not to start, for it would hurt so much. I cannot predict the future. If marriage were to be a possibility at a later date, I feel I would take it, for I do not wish to be alone forever. But I would not seek it, at least not to start. And I would wish Maryam and her new husband well, for marriage is so difficult, and all I want is for her to be happy.’”

Upshot

For a character who I created to make a point, I like how he ended up, particularly with Maryam.

Dec

2013

Portrait of a Character – Otra D’Angelo

Otra goes all the way back to the earlier time travel stories I wrote several years ago.

Origins

Her name goes back even further, to when I was taking Spanish in High School. The word otra means other (female). But the o is long, sounding like oat-truh. I played with the word and liked otra (rhymes with Sinatra) better, although I didn’t vocalize that (correct pronunciation was key to a good grade).

I also liked the idea of someone who could really see the changes in time, and could intelligently comment on them. Canon character Guinan actually can do this, marking her as possibly a four-dimensional being. I didn’t really have anything quite so fancy in mind for Otra. Instead, almost like a fortuneteller or an oracle, she would have visions.

And she wouldn’t have hair. She’d have semi-sentient floral appendages, known as chavecoi (chah-veh-coy). This would mark her as a half-Witannen (wit-ah-nen), a Delta Quadrant species. Except for her mother, Chefra, the only other Witannen shown in my fan fiction is Together‘s Quellata (kell-uh-tuh), although there is a reference to one in the HG Wells series named Paj Terris, and the upcoming Barnstorming series will have a Witannen athlete named Adeel.

Portrayal

Keira Knightley as Otra D’Angelo (image is for educational purposes only)

I like Keira Knightley for Otra.

Beautiful and accomplished, the actress is believably sexy and interesting.

Of course, in Desperation, when Otra is a toddler, Knightley doesn’t play her.

Personality

Smart, funny and patient, Otra is one of the only people Levi Cavendish ever wants to listen to.

Otra

Otra is also shrewd. In You Mixed-Up Siciliano, she is kidnapped. But she makes the most of her time, trying hard to understand where she is, who has her, and whether she can get any help.

In Multiverse II, her chavecoi become possessed by Chilo. This turns her evil for a while. It was great fun to give her awful things to do, including indiscriminate sex, murder and a lot of mayhem. When she meets Colonel Philip Green, she’s just stepped out of a shower. As he stares (for this is the first alien anyone on Earth has ever seen; it’s 2055), she nonchalantly asks him:

“I’m Otra D’Angelo. Would you happen to have a towel, Phil?…A towel. You know, it’s a terrycloth or velvet thing, usually, sometimes linen?”

Bringing her back, eventually, is the realization that, in his own quirky way, Levi loves her.

Relationships

Levi Cavendish

Friends since college, Otra and Levi work together, and he names their temporal alteration theory after her. Hence small changes are known as otric ones. Medium-sized ones are pariotric and large ones are known as megaotric. Otra herself isn’t so sure about how she feels about being an eponym.

Colonel Philip Green

As a part of her possession by evil Chilo, Otra fell in with Green, and they had an affair. When he proposed, she realized that she was not in love with him, and ended up attempting to kill Green, stabbing him repeatedly. This wounded him, and it was significantly enough a wound that he would have died if he had not gotten a bit of her stem cell growth accelerator.

Theme Music

Of course, for someone who has flowers on her head, that would work. And for someone who, briefly, was nonexistent, the idea that there is a light, still, that proved irresistible.

Mirror Universe

Picasso – Hands Holding Flowers

While there isn’t, truly, any reason for Otra to not exist in the Mirror universe, it’s still a highly unlikely proposition.

After all, a combination such as hers is highly unlikely even in the prime universe.

Quote

“Our theor was quite simple. We decided that there are three types of temporal alterations. These are all – it’s a little embarrassing – but they are named after me. I suppose I am an eponym now. The smallest of changes is called otric. Consider if you will, what happens when you wear a yellow shirt, on a Friday, while strolling along a street in the city of Ironville, on Mars. Now consider what’s different – other than color, mind you – when your shirt is, instead, green in color.”

Upshot

At some point, I will undoubtedly get those two crazy kids together. Until then, Otra is a fun addition to my stable of characters and she’ll be seen again.

Dec

2013

Recurrent Themes – Animal Lovers

Background

Animal lovers exist in my fanfiction. I am a big-time animal lover and so that of course creeps into my writing.

What may also be of interest is the fact that my first fiction writing, when I was a young girl, was animal adventure stories. I didn’t write much. Instead, I would draw crude pictures and then in my head I could add the details of a particular scene. Furthermore, I was probably about four or five or so when I started writing these. I recall my grandmother giving me old appointment books for bygone years, as that was scrap paper that nobody cared about. So I would draw floppy-eared dogs or whatever and the occasional tree or happy shining sun and from those little things and such humble beginnings, I would generate stories. I have forgotten them all and the old drawings are long gone.

But animal lovers are in my fiction all the same.

Animal Lovers Appearances

Jonathan Archer

While everybody seems to love Porthos, it’s only canon character Jonathan Archer who is really responsible for feeding or walking the little guy.

The Adventures of Porthos

Even Porthos himself acknowledges that most people like him, but it’s Alpha (Archer) who’s really in charge of his well-being.

Any time Archer needs to be away from the ship for a significant period of time, he makes sure to entrust the dog to someone. Usually this is Hoshi or Phlox. And while they care about Porthos, this seems to be simply more work for them. At least that’s how I’ve often seen it.

Joss Beckett

Probably my biggest animal lover character is Doug and Lili‘s eldest. As a child, in Fortune, Joss pays more attention to Cindy Morgan‘s Boston Terrier puppy, Fenway, than he does to Jia Sulu. Joss eventually follows his bliss and becomes a veterinarian.

Karin Bernstein

In Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, once the crew get dogs from the Phnom Penh live market, Karin (along with Captain Archer) is one of the people responsible for training the dogs. This includes following simple commands, herding and some protection for the ship’s herd of procul.

Brian (no last name)

During You Mixed-Up Siciliano, while Sheilagh is trying to figure out whether she wants to continue working for the Temporal Integrity Commission, she ends up jogging to a local park. She comes across a guy who’s taken his elderly poodle, Beau, out for some exercise. They exchange first names and talk a little, and he gives her some advice about whether to stay at her job. He further reveals that Beau is a retired show dog, although not a terribly successful one.

Charlotte Hayes

Concord‘s mistress of the Hayes Farm is not squeamish when it comes to slaughtering animals, including a veal calf. But when Malcolm drives the horse, Phoebe, Charlotte urges him to be gentle while slapping the reins. The hens are also permitted to retain two eggs in each clutch, although that is partly for the purpose of having more chickens to eat or sell.

Jay Hayes

Even overly driven Jay has the time to scratch Porthos behind the ears.

However, in The Further Adventures of Porthos – The Stilton Fulfillment, Porthos points out that Jay would refer to him as Spike, an inside joke referring to Tripp Tucker‘s original nickname (never used on screen). Porthos believes that the reference is to another dog, from Jay’s past.

The Sparrow and the Blue Jay

In The Three of Us, Jay sends Lili an image of a sparrow and a blue jay together, but the meaning is that the two of them should be together romantically.

Bruce Ishikawa

Deirdre Katzman‘s boyfriend is a dog trainer.

Lili O’Day

Porthos loves Lili, as she always smells like food and often has it and will share. During The Stilton Fulfillment, when she attempts to lure him into a Sick Bay crate for his own safety, she refers to steak. Porthos wisely knows she doesn’t have any, but goes in all the same, as he realizes things are dicey.

Joshua Rosen

Porthos briefly refers to Josh throwing a ball for him to fetch. With a broken left arm, in The Stilton Fulfillment, it’s likely that ball-throwing will have to happen for later.

Gregory Shaw

When I was originally writing time travel stories, this role was considerably larger. I meant this character to be a kind of animals whisperer, able to calm and communicate with all manner of less-sentient beasts. Shaw would have the ability to ride, tame and lead most critters.

The way the stories worked out, I never got a chance to use this character, except for a brief reference when a time change gave Shaw a very different role. In The Point is Probably Moot, with the Federation turned into a theocracy, Shaw becomes Pope Gregory XXXII.

Shaw is also intended to be a descendant to Eriecho series characters Juliet Parker and Jack Shaw.

Crystal Sherwood

Crystal is a dog owner, with a Jack Russell Terrier named Petey.

Jim Warren

Charlotte Hayes’s employees are all kind to animals, but Jim is probably the kindest, even kinder than his father, Benjamin. This does not prevent Jim from joking to Malcolm about the proper way to milk a cow.

Upshot

Not every characteristic is Starfleet-oriented, not every preference is written in the stars. Some characters have rather down to earth interests in common, and being an animal lover is certainly one of those. Animal lovers matter.

Dec

2013

Review – There’s Something Else About Hoshi

Background

For a Star Trek fanfiction Weekly Free Write about setting a scene, I decided to revisit Aris and an older story, There’s Something About Hoshi.

In Between Days

In the earlier tale, Hoshi becomes irresistible when aliens inject her with a certain substance after removing some of her female hormones.

Frank Todd and T’Pol help to prevent a riot from starting on the NX-01, as all of the straight men (and, presumably, Diana Jones, who is a lesbian), are affected.

The sequel brings the story line over eighteen years into the future.

Plot

As Hoshi and her husband, Takashi, and their children, Toru and Yoshiko arrive on Aris for a visit, the head of the government, Milit, greets them.

And so, apparently, do all 5,999 other Arisian men on the planet.

Hailed as Andaara Trea Hoshi, they explain they are thanking her. They call her the initiator of the 6,000 brand-new ‘mothers of the world’. Every Arisian man is bearing some sort of a gift. Travis, who is with them, jokes that they’ll need a bigger shuttle in order to get all of the gifts back to the ship.

Politely, Hoshi declines their many offerings. These vary in size, scope and expense, but are all offered with grace. The family meets some of the newly-cloned Arisian women, including the first one, Trea Hoshi. The girls are all more or less made in Hoshi’s image. This is except for a detailed forehead pattern that marks them as Arisians.

Matchmaking on a Planetary Scale

Alpine ibex Correction: Nubian Ibex Deutsch: A…

The men explain they want to marry all of the newly-cloned girls. Hence they are ready to match them up. It seems the matches will happen through political expedience, rather than any sort of attraction. Travis and Hoshi convince the Arisians to give the gifts to the girls, and to see what happens next. The story ends with Milit announcing his engagement to one of the girls and then Hoshi telling Captain Malcolm Reed that he’d better warn Lili that she’ll need to cater a few thousand Arisian weddings.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I was so happy to go back to this story line. Because I had originally left it with hope but also dangling a bit. I can see that my storytelling abilities have improved since the original tale, too. It’s a study in contrasts for me.

You can find me on Google+.

Dec

2013

Portrait of a Character – Daniel Beauchaine

Daniel Beauchaine has a history.

Origins

At first, in the older time travel series I had created on my own, Dan was a survivalist and had something of a romance with Alice Trent. As I moved that series to Star Trek fanfiction, and it became Times of the HG Wells, I decided that Alice would only be brought on during an alternate timeline.

Portrayal

Dan is portrayed by Jason Alexander.

Jason Alexander as Daniel Beauchaine (image is for educational purposes only)

I like this actor’s fussiness and nervousness in portrayals. I feel this works well with Dan, who is a mass of inconsistencies and tics, as would befit someone living more than one life. He’s an employee of the Temporal Integrity Commission. He’s an operative for Section 31.

And he’s a member of the rogue group altering time for its own purposes, the Perfectionists.

Personality

Twitchy, nervous and jumpy, Dan has ample reason to feel like everyone’s out to get him.

That’s because they are.

He is not just double crossing; he’s triple crossing.

Hence it cannot be easy, living a life like Dan’s. He is constantly on the lookout, and he can trust no one. So in Shake Your Body, it all points to one end, and one alone.

Mirror Universe

Jason Alexander as MU Daniel Beauchaine (image is for educational purposes only)

In the Mirror universe, I can see Dan as being much more of a survivalist, without the corruption and double dealings he has resorted to in the prime universe.

However, he is not necessarily more moral; I think it’s more that he would be separate from society. Perhaps he’s even a hermit of some sort.

Quote

“Get a hold of yourself, Beauchaine. No one’s going to fault you for any grammatical errors in your damned suicide note.”

Upshot

I don’t know how well I showed Dan’s motivations; this feels like a character I did not serve well. Plus I kind of fell out of love with him, and that seems to show in the writing of him. So I should rectify that at some point in the future.

Dec

2013

Portrait of a Character – Deirdre Katzman

Deirdre Katzman comes from older wholly original fiction.

Origins

While writing the HG Wells Star Trek fanfiction stories, I decided I wanted someone who was more or less together, but would be rather young. Furthermore, this person would be a protegé to Kevin O’Connor and would have a mischievous sense of humor. Hence they’d be responsible for naming the time ships. I also loved the idea of a Jewish-Japanese character, and so Deirdre was born.

Portrayal

Deirdre is played by actress Noriko Nakagoshi.

Deirdre Katzman

I like this lovely, petite woman. The actress has actually been in horror pictures. I don’t know too much about her.

Personality

Friendly, albeit a little quirky, Deirdre is probably the most well-adjusted of the engineers at the Temporal Integrity Commission. Kevin is in mourning when the series starts. As for Levi, well, he’s just plain weird.

Because she’s pleasant, Kevin leans on her more than he leans on Levi, but Levi is too oblivious to notice most of the time.

Relationships

Bruce Ishikawa

During A Long, Long Time Ago, Deirdre is set up by family members and goes out on a more or less blind date with a fellow Jewish-Japanese person, Bruce, who is a dog trainer. They hit it off and begin dating in earnest immediately, and by Ohio, he is referred to as her boyfriend.

It is the epitome of a sweet, youthful romance. They talk baby talk to each other on their communicators, often saying things like, “No, you hang up first.” She cooks for him. They are inseparable. Their parents push for a wedding.

When, in The Point is Probably Moot, the time change ensures that she’s forgotten him, he sticks it out, and attempts to woo and win her again.

Mirror Universe

Portrait of a Character – Deirdre Katzman

Mirror Deirdre (Noriko Nakagoshi)

I haven’t written a mirror Deirdre, but there’s no reason why she wouldn’t exist.

In the Mirror, most of the women are poorly treated, and trade their bodies for favors and privileges. Deirdre would not be any different.

Yet I can see her as being tougher and harder, and possibly using her smarts to further her own agenda. Maybe she’s a revolutionary.

Quote

“You don’t need to protect her. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have an ungrateful child. That’s from King Lear if you’re unsure. She doesn’t deserve you taking the fall for her.”

Upshot

Dee is a character who doesn’t really get her due. I really should find a way for her to shine.

Nov

2013

Starts

So starts matter as much as endings.

Boldly Reading asks us, now, about Beginnings.

First sentences, first kisses, first missions, etc. – what are some of your favorite ‘firsts’ on Ad Astra? What sorts of openings and firsts and premieres get you to keep reading?

I enjoy a good beginning as much as anyone else does, I suppose. Crafting the perfect opening line is a challenge, and some writers do a better job of it than others, just like anything else. Here’s a great one.

“I was sure I was going to die, but was so afraid I wouldn’t in time.”

Little Black Dog’s Aftermath cuts right in, immediately, and you realize that something awful has happened, and is being (maybe) recovered from.

Here’s another.

He spoke flawless Federation Standard, possessed perfect visual acuity and hearing abilities unmatched by human ears.

kes7’s Year One opens not necessarily with a bang, but it’s obvious that whoever this is, he’s physically superior to humans. Is he an Augment, perhaps?

DHA Molecule (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And here’s one more, if you’ll indulge me.

“I … I think …(that) I need to see a doctor.”

trekfan’s While You Were Unconscious pulls two people together, although the details are a little … tricky. Yeah, there’s a good word for it.

Bonus questions!

How do you convert blank pages and blank computer documents into works of art? How do you get first ideas? What gets you started, or re-started?

I find that, for me, getting a story started is difficult but of course it’s necessary. Otherwise, nothing is ever produced! But sometimes the ideal opening is elusive. When that happens, I try to write the middle, or even the end. And I will go over and over again, in my mind, when it comes to the opening line of a story. I want the reader to continue, of course, but what I also want is to set the tone.

Reversal

Reversal‘s opening line was written on the fly (as was nearly all of that story). It is, simply, this –

It didn’t hurt.

I really, really hope the reader’s question is – what didn’t hurt?

It is, possibly, the best opening I have ever written, and it colored the remainder of the story. Other stories have had good openings. I particularly like the ones for Paving Stones (“He’s too young.”) and for Brown (They were both pregnant at the same time.). Both of these opening lines defined the stories that followed, and shaped them.

The Week Never Starts Round Here (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Often a good opening line can get me going, and can really sustain me. However, sometimes I need to get a restart. This is especially after I’ve had to leave a story for a while, for some reason or another.

One thing I try to do is to keep writing (this includes blogging). More or less continually getting ideas onto paper or pixels means that it takes a while for all ideas to dry up. But sometimes that’s not feasible. When it isn’t, I also like to just reread my work, and not necessarily the work I’m trying to finish. I just need to, I feel, review past successes, at times, to remind myself that I can still do it.

Here’s to new beginnings for us all.

Nov

2013

Portrait of a Character – Thomas Grant

Thomas Grant comes from a very long time ago in my writing history.

Origins

When I was first writing a series of original murder mysteries back in the 1980s, I wanted a character who would essentially be the perfect guy. Now, of course, I know that better characters have flaws. But no matter; that’s how Tom was born, and ended up in my Star Trek fanfiction.

Portrayal

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Thomas Grant | Tom

Josh Duhamel as Thomas Grant (Tom) – image is for educational purposes

Tom is played by actor Josh Duhamel.

I like his look although I confess I was thinking of Tom as being darker when I first pictured him. But I like this clearly very good-looking man who is also extremely intense.

Personality

Straight-laced and methodical, Tom is ex-military, and it shows in almost everything he does and says. He does not pursue any of the women at work, as he feels it would be improper. He is there to do a job, and nothing more.

But he still wants someone so, when he is introduced to, he feels, the perfect woman, he hems and haws and frets but eventually they are able to get together.

Tom is another distant descendant of Doug and Melissa, and is a very distant cousin of Kevin O’Connor and Rick Daniels.

Relationships

Eleanor Daniels

That perfect woman is Rick’s sister, Eleanor. They meet at the end of Ohio, when the department goes out together. But he hesitates, and she wants him to make the first move. It takes him a few books to get his act in gear enough. He also tells her he loves her under what, to him, are the least favorable circumstances, but it’s even more endearing. When he proposes, she gives him the Cuff of Lo, meaning that their love will endure.

Mirror Universe

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | MU Thomas Grant | Tom

Josh Duhamel as MU Thomas Grant (Tom) – image is for educational purposes

With little discipline, but a lot of intelligence and will, I can see Tom in the Mirror Universe as being, potentially, an emotionless psychopath. He would almost be the reverse of Marisol.

He would certainly be a far cry from the moral, upstanding hero he is in the prime universe.

Quote

“You were; it was supposed to be, we would go out for a nice dinner. And you’d look beau – uh, more beautiful than you usually do. I would be, uh, wearing a, a suit. And we’d go walking some, some place pretty. And I, I would tell you. But it, it’s not like that. The conditions are, they’re all wrong.”

Upshot

Stories need heroes, and Tom is definitely one. He will return.

Nov

2013

Portrait of a Character – Marisol Castillo

Marisol Castillo comes from an older character of mine, Marisol of Castile.

Origins

I wanted a Star Trek fanfiction character who would be a femme fatale. From the very beginning, Marisol was meant to be a villain.

Portrayal

Marisol is played by actress Vanessa Marcil. I like the actress’s air of practicality, or at least that how I see her. Maybe I’m wrong.

Vanessa Marcil as Marisol Castillo (image is for educational purposes)

Marisol is ruthlessly efficient and has few feelings. Why not?

‘Cause she’s a psychopath.

With no qualms against taking what she needs, the actress’s air of practicality works for the character.

Personality

Brilliant and beautiful, Marisol should have it all. But there’s something a little bit off about her, and Carmen does not initially want to hire her. Instead, Carmen looks to hire Helen Walker to be the time traveling doctor on the team. When Walker is apparently killed, Carmen turns to her second choice, Marisol, particularly because Boris Yarin is pushing for her to be hired.

Efficient, but with little bedside manner, Marisol even jokes about disabling Polly Porter while Porter is undergoing surgery. Of course this horrifies Boris, and so she does nothing. But he begins to have some doubts.

When the Perfectionists need for her to be an assassin, she eagerly does her job, or tries to, consequences be damned. A major timeline change even occurs, during You Mixed-Up Siciliano, because she is too busy wreaking havoc that she does not bother to protect the timeline. For Marisol, that’s a job for someone other than her.

Relationships

Boris Yarin

Boris is less of a relationship than he is a job for her to do. Marisol already works for the Perfectionists, and so her task is to seduce Boris. This she does at a medical conference. Soon enough, he’s wrapped around her little finger. All she has to do is allude to the idea of sleeping with him and he’ll come running. Despite his marriage, he does not care about anyone else.

As for Marisol, she behaves a lot more like a hooker and does not care for Boris one whit. Her mistake, as she blackmails him, is telling him so. And he makes sure that that’s the last mistake she ever makes.

Theme Music

Marisol’s theme is Venus. There is every reason why, one of the first times she shows up, you hear Shocking Blue‘s version. And one of the last times she shows up, you hear Bananarama’s version.

Mirror Universe

Portrait of a Character – Marisol Castillo

Mirror Marisol (Vanessa Marcil)

There are no impediments to Marisol’s existence on the other side of a proverbial pond.

I like to think that she could find a way to be and do good. She would be smart enough to have a life and a career beyond pleasing men, and would be independent enough to maybe even make it.

Marisol in the mirror, I feel, could be like Doug – one of the few people to really have a conscience and a soul.

Quote

“That timeline is tyrannical, all we ever do is follow it. What if it isn’t the correct one, after all?”

Upshot

Stories need bad guys, and Marisol can provide quite a wallop in that area. She’s even restored to life in He Stays a Stranger, although she ends up in custody. Will she be back? Not unless it’s in something earlier than that story.

Nov

2013

What’s Star Trek?

What is Star Trek?

Star Trek is what, exactly?
Boldly Reading‘s got another interesting set of questions for me!

Lucky prompt #13 asks –

To go along with this month’s AOS selection, here are some questions to chew on, since so many people feel that the JJ Abrams universe somehow is not Star Trek.

What does it mean to you when a story is described as being Star Trek? What are the characteristics? Is there a bright line between Trek and not-Trek?

What Does it Mean When We Call It Star Trek?

I think it’s mainly about Roddenberry’s general values. It isn’t ships, because people get off the ships (and who’s the say that they won’t stay off the ships for a while longer than just a quickie mission?). It isn’t just phasers and Vulcans and shuttles, because the time of Colonel Green could easily fit into Trek (hell, it’s canon!) and none of those things exist yet.

But maybe not … too much. After all, Roddenberry also, at times, had some ridiculous notions, such as that humanity would somehow be ‘advanced’ enough that mourning the dead wouldn’t happen, or at least not for long, and that trauma would be minimized.

WTF???!!?!?!?

So I think there are some limits there. I think repairing older and antiquated ideas, too – I have no problem with doing that and still calling it Trek. For example, our current smartphones and tablets are far more sophisticated than they ever dreamed of in the 1960s. Why not have the technology reflect that? I have characters sending and receiving email, and performing what are essentially Google-style searches. I do not imagine those behaviors ending any time soon, and I do not believe that Star Trek loses anything by slipping those bits of reality into the mix. Hell, I think it makes the stories stronger.

Bonus questions!

What are some of your favorite explorations of AOS on Ad Astra? How do you think these stories would change if they took place in TOS or one of the other series?

I like Niobium‘s take on the AOS, and I also enjoyed ErinJean‘s take. I’d love for her to continue in her explorations.

I believe many of us also grab bits and pieces of AOS and dovetail them into ENT or TOS

Original Captain Pike (Photo credit: Dallas1200am)

writings. Captain Pike, certainly, got considerably more depth in the new films. Personally, I now see and hear Bruce Greenwood far more than Jeffrey Hunter in that role. I’ve tried to reconcile the two timelines, at least in part. Melissa and Doug‘s middle son, Tommy, dies in the service of his captain, George Kirk, on the Kelvin, a direct nod to Star Trek 2009.

Upshot

I find questions of what is and isn’t Star Trek to sometimes be a bit disingenuous. People said that ENT wasn’t Trek. They said that DS9 wasn’t. I think a lot of them will come around to AOS being Trek. As for me, the distinction is fairly clear albeit not perfectly. I know, for a fact, that Jane Eyre is not Star Trek.

After that, though, sometimes, I’m not so sure.

Portrait of a Character – Azar Hamidi

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Maryam Haroun

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Otra D’Angelo

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Levi Cavendish

Colonel Philip Green

Theme Music

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Background

Animal Lovers Appearances

Joss Beckett

Karin Bernstein

Brian (no last name)

Charlotte Hayes

Jay Hayes

Bruce Ishikawa

Lili O’Day

Joshua Rosen

Gregory Shaw

Crystal Sherwood

Jim Warren

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Review – There’s Something Else About Hoshi

Background

Plot

Matchmaking on a Planetary Scale

Story Postings

Rating

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Portrait of a Character – Daniel Beauchaine

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Mirror Universe

Quote

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Portrait of a Character – Deirdre Katzman

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Bruce Ishikawa

Mirror Universe

Quote

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Starts

Bonus questions!

Reversal

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Portrait of a Character – Thomas Grant

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Eleanor Daniels