I have no idea why this number became my go-to number. I just like it. It’s easy to type on a keypad, as the 4 and the 2 are typed diagonally from left to right. And then the 7, 5, and 3 are typed diagonally in the same way, but from one row higher.
So it’s a zip code in central Kentucky and really has no significance in my life whatsoever.
Yet it creeps into my Star Trek fan fiction all the same.
When Travis is kidnapped for an alien experiment, he meets several people, including a ‘defective’ (not overwhelmingly alluring) Orion slave girl who has no name. But they only know her as a number. So that number is 42753.
So this storyincludes a scene of reading Porthos’s microchip. The number is 2149-42753.
The Tribe
In The Tribe, when Mary Reed is trapped in a transport that isn’t working, the number of the car she’s in is 42753.
Multiverse II
So in Multiverse II, 42753 is the panel number for where Branch Borodin has to place the pulse shot collector.
Level 2 multiverse
Later, the number also refers to the last message Levi sends to Maren O’Connor before his PADD dies.
Untrustworthy (Original Fiction)
So one rather long designation includes this particular string of numbers.
Things to come
Play contains 42753 in two places. First, it’s the number of a secure channel Admiral Alynna Nechayev uses. The second time, it’s at the end of a string of numbers denoting Dana MacKenzie’s radiation band. So this proves that she has some Mirror Universe ancestry.
Upshot
This quirky number will be back. I guarantee it. Like this post? Tweet it!
Branch Borodin is such a wacky character, he’s also in some wholly original writing.
Origins
Coral Reef at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife …
I conducted a thought experiment, thinking about what it would be like if someone’s cells were sentient. Hence they would almost be a pocket-size version of the Borg, but without the cybernetics and without the nasty assimilation issues.
Instead, they would be more of a colony of like-minded microscopic individuals. Unlike canon shape shifters, they would have no real central consciousness, and would have to find some way to agree on whatever it was that they wanted to do. Hence they would also be overly committed to democracy.
The character is quite a bit like a walking, talking coral reef, except the individuals in the colony are a lot smarter. Polls and straw votes are common, and the individuals sometimes hold caucuses. Furthermore, just like in real-life voting, there is no guarantee of 100% participation. In fact, it’s rare. After all, the cells have other jobs to do. Much like in you or me, the cells are also conducting respiration, etc. They don’t always have the time to just drop everything and vote.
Colony Alien Branch Borodin in Human Form – Keanu Reeves as Branch Borodin (manip is by STPMA’s An-Gel Sakura) Image is for educational purposes
I love how this actor can seem at sea at sometimes, and thoughtful at others.
Yes, there is a bit of a stoner look and feel, and a wooden air. But that’s the idea; Branch isn’t exactly Mr. Personality. I mean for him to be very, very alien. Excuse me, they.
Found by the Temporal Integrity Commission during a meeting, the entity touches Deirdre Katzman, and picks up her memory of her first boyfriend, Anatoly Borodin. Since the entity needs a name, and it had just been a branched tree, Deirdre dubs the colony Branch Borodin. The name sticks, and it also evokes Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances (“A Stranger in Paradise”). A fitting reference for someone who is more of a stranger than other aliens.
Personality
Confused Keanu Reeves (Photo credits: Giphy)
Hence Branch’s personality is whatever is convenient and reasonable at the time, more or less. For an entity that has been a tree, a coat of paint, and a chair, that would more or less tend to follow.
Branch just is. Er, are.
Relationships
The colony is not exactly capable of a relationship like you or I would have. Because every decision, every argument, every expression of affection – these would all require a vote. But Branch might relate to the Var-gi-yeh, who I envision to be more or less a female version of the same species.
Theme Music
Branch reminds me of jazzy, funky, weird rhythms and things that sound off and strange.
Mirror Universe
In a way, the Var-gi-yeh are the mirror version of Branch. They’ll get their own blog post, some time in the future.
Quote
“The cuff of Lo passed to the descendants of Thomas Grant and Eleanor Daniels Grant. The family eventually donated it here. The key charm and Xindi initiation medal passed to the children of Richard Daniels and Milena Chelenska Daniels.The museum has facsimiles as that family is retaining those pieces. This sword is Ironblaze, once owned by the Empress Hoshi Sato. It passed to her descendants, and the descendants of Charles Tucker VI, and was kept in trust by the adopted descendants of mirror High Priestess Yimar and her consort, Joshua Rosen. The original is in the mirror’s version of this museum – what is being shown to you is a facsimile.
The wedding rings worn by Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett and his wife, Lili, passed to, eventually, the descendants of Henry Desmond Avery IV and Sheilagh Bernstein, who retain them. The wedding rings worn by Lili O’Day Reed and Malcolm Reed passed to their descendants, who are with us today – the Ishikawa family of Dawitan. That family also retains the rings although we do have facsimiles. As Deirdre Katzman Ishikawa had said, ‘Wedding rings are to be worn.’”
Upshot
Branch is my oddest character creation. I really like them.
At the end of Star Trek: First Contact, Lily Sloane and Zefram Cochrane are shown holding hands. I ran with that as a relationship, and decided that they had eventually wed.
This smart and interesting actress always seems to be working on fascinating projects.
Personality
Wise and feisty, Lily has lived through the worst of the Third World War and come out of it alive. She remains optimistic enough to feel that the Earth has a future, but realistic enough to know that building a Warp One rocket is the best way to fully realize that future.
Relationships
Zefram Cochrane
Semi-canon, semi-non, Lily and Zef marry. It’s later in life for them.
They don’t (I think) have children. Theirs is an affection born of a mature understanding.
In A Single Step, it’s the end of Lily’s life, and Zef is there, calling her Princess and begging her not to die. But lung cancer is going to get her, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. On her deathbed, she tells him to see the stars, and she’ll be hiding out in some nebula.
Mirror Universe
Mirror Lily
There’s no reason why Lily can’t exist in the mirror.
She’s smart, and might be able to get through life without using her body to snag a man and, presumably, some protection. Maybe she’d live a quiet life, away from the action.
Quote
“Listen, Old Man, neither of us can move that fast anymore. So don’t give me anything about how you’re gonna be my white knight or anything.”
Upshot
I like this character although I’m unsure as to where she’ll show up next. I had thought we would get to her in Multiverse II, but we never made it that far.
In addition, I continued posting Reflections Down a Corridor on Fanfiction.net. I added to the Before Days collection of prequel stories on Wattpad. More specifically, I added The High Cost of Dissidence, Gossip Gossip and The Mess. On Ad Astra, I added The Decision to a Weekly Free Write about Aging. The Twelve Trials of Triskelion started, and I posted Seven Women for the Ficlet Flashdance challenge.
Also, I added A Perfect Note; Dear Naurr, Dear Lili; Gilded Cage; and Gossip Gossip to In Between Days context.
I was equally thrilled to see combined reads for Take Back the Night top 10,000!
See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.
WIP Corner
I worked a bit on The Obolonk Murders but my final project plus all of the other work I wanted to do often made that wholly original story take a back seat.
Prep Work
I spent more time optimizing the blog and the jespah website. The website is now considerably cleaner and more streamlined, although it could use some design work and I really should better optimize it for mobile usage. I added several pages to the Star Trek Expanded Universes wiki as I have gotten some traffic from there and hope to get more.
My final project for Quinnipiac class ICM522 was due the first week of this time period, so I was busy getting that together and handing it in. I got a 96 on it!!
Then I had about two weeks and change before the next semester started, but I was also visiting my parents and so was offline more than usual.
ICM524 started on May the 19th and I got into the thick of writing essays and creating videos almost immediately.
This Star Trek: Enterprise canon character is one of two alien members of the NX-01‘s crew (the other is the Vulcan, T’Pol). The Denobulan species is a creation specifically for ENT.
The actor is well-cast and it’s hard to think of anyone else in the role. Much like Leonard Nimoy and Vulcans, Billingsley essential defines what it means to be a Denobulan.
Personality
Personable, cheerful, and kind, Phlox is also, at times, a bit baffled by humans. For starters, at the beginning of the series, he can’t quite figure out the idea behind pets.
Relationships
Feezal
Feezal
This canon relationship is with his second wife, of three. There are no canon names for other two. I’ve never written her except in the context of Phlox missing her after the Enterprise goes back in time, during E2.
At the end of the pair of canon ENT Mirror Universe episodes, his fate is unknown. But I figure his days are numbered. Hence, in Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses, I have Empress Hoshi order his death. When Beth Cutler is given two syringes, one with the proven fast nerve toxin, tricoulamine, and the other with replicated orange juice, the Science technician knows that both shots will kill whoever receives them. But she hesitates until Hoshi tells her that she’ll be next if she takes any longer. The choice is to inject either Phlox, or Ian Reed, Malcolm‘s counterpart. With a small sympathy to her fellow Terran, Beth gives Ian the proven fast killing agent. Therefore Phlox, unfortunately, suffers at the end.
Quote
“Your mating rituals do fascinate me. Always a complicated minuet of sorts. Mind if I observe?”
Upshot
I don’t write Phlox that much, except in the context of E2 stories and Intolerance. Part of that is to pave the way for other physician characters, such as Blair Claymore, Pamela Hudson, and Cyril Morgan. It’s also because, until Reflections Down a Corridor, I wasn’t really all that comfortable writing him. He’s absent from a lot of my main timeline, and nearly all of my Mirror Universe timeline. Will he return? Yes, although many storylines shut him out completely.
Yipran I now has a fate which differs from my original idea.
Origins
As I wrote Reversal, I needed a character who would, in our universe, be someone who the natives would mimic with Lili. In the Mirror Universe, she would be mimicked by Jennifer. She would be mother to Treve, Yimar, and Chelben. Enter Yipran.
Susan Sarandon as Yipran I (image is for educational purposes only)
The actress is tough and smart, and is an Oscar winner.
She can play all manner of characters. Hence I feel she would easily be able to show a Yipran who is not yet healed. Yet she would also be one who is, in dreams, the spiritual leader of her people.
Personality
Susan Sarandon as Yipran I (image is for educational purposes only)
Intelligent but damaged, High Priestess Yipran never fully recovers from what Chawev, Baden, and Polloria do to her. Essentially, by poisoning her with an excessive amount of potassium, they have cut off her dreams and eventually she becomes comatose.
In Bribery, Yimar and Treve express the desire to visit her in the main hospital, but are thwarted, as Chawev wants to bring in Polloria as their new stepmother – despite the fact that Yipran is far from dead.
By the time of Friday Visit, Yipran is slowly recovering, but her damage remains. In Fortune, she can speak clearly in dreams, but not during waking life.
Relationships
Chawev
In both universes, Yipran is the victim of her husband. He attempts to do her in, in order to pave the way for the ambitious vixen, Polloria. Treve, their eldest son, reveals in Together that Chawev and Yipran really can’t divorce, as no one wants to believe that the First Minister and the High Priestess would ever not have a perfect marriage.
Mirror Universe
Susan Sarandon as MU Yipran I (image is for educational purposes)
Just as in the prime universe, Yipran is the High Priestess of the Calafan people. As such, she is their spiritual leader, although her husband is their political leader.
In the mirror, Yipran’s life ends near the end of Reversal, as Polloria and Polloria’s cronies kill her. Hence her daughter, Yimar, succeeds her.
Quote
“Yes, and my time will be up soon anyway. But you will continue on, as planets form and die and break apart and become new things, you will watch. And as lives begin and end, you will bear witness. {And} when the last atom has been blown apart in the remnants of the Big Bang, as the last of the energy converts to dark matter, and the universe hits absolute zero, you will be there. And you will watch it, and go with it, as it turns onto itself, and again renews, in an endless cycle. For when it is all dark matter, and it has all recompressed, as it passes through another septum, one that does not yet exist, and it goes to another place, crossing another pond, there will be another Big Bang. As there have been countless ones before, there will be countless ones after.”
Upshot
Yipran spends a lot of time as a victim. However, that’s one of the main drivers of the plot in Reversal. At some point, I might write more of an origin story for her. Yet right now that is very much on the back burner.
Interview? Totally relatable, or at least it should be.
It’s time to blog as a character again, to write about what happens after an interview.
Deutsch: Logo der Science-Fiction Serie Star Trek: Enterprise (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
To me, this meant it had to be a character from the Times of the HG Wells Star Trek: Enterprise fan fiction series. I hadn’t written too much about HD Avery so here’s a chance to get to know him a little better.
This is Who I Am and Why I’m Here
Today is, uh, August 25th, 3109. My name is HD Avery. Well, uh, my full name is Henry Desmond Avery IV. So you know I call myself HD ‘cause the rest of it is completely lame-o.
Yeah, like, so this is me, HD Avery.
So, anyway, I was contacted through these weird channels, and they brought me in, by shuttle, and we went through a bunch of way stations and I dunno what they all were but I’m thinking that was the idea. And we got to what was the headquarters of – get this – the Temporal Integrity Commission.
Now, I am used to playing it cool, of course, but it is apparently this is a group job interview. And there are, like, twenty or so people. We’re all human or mostly, ’cause otherwise you can’t travel to Earth’s past ’cause that’s the kind of help they’re looking for.
So I meet this hot honey and she turns out to be the boss, get this, Admiral Carmen Calavicci. And she’s, you know, she’s telling me about the job and all that interview stuff, and all I can think of is that she is just this total MILF. Know what I mean? Are you hip to the 21st century lingo? ‘Cause not everyone is, yanno.
Total hot tamale. Er, pasta, or something. Ethic honeys of any sort are just, you know, they are nuclear.
Then she passes me off to this guy who’s, like, the size of a shuttle and he’s part-Gorn, I think. And he’s okay, but we don’t have much to talk about as he’s the Chief Engineer. Name’s O’Connor. Then they bring in some of the other candidates, and I don’t think any of them are in direct competition with me, but you never know, know what I’m sayin’?
We Had This Project to Do
And for this part of the interview, we’re made to pair off and try to work out a problem. We are given this holographic scene, everybody’s got their own suite, and it’s me and this totally prim and proper honey, she’s like Miss Priss and she’s named Alice Trent and she knows all about – can you believe this? – manners and protocols.
So anyway we have to figure out where we are, and what year it is.
And we are not allowed to just come out and ask. We have to blend in, as if it was real, okay? It’s all bright lights and big city and it is beyond glitzy.
But it’s older, yanno? So Alice, she says 21st century, and I am thinking maybe, maybe not ’cause it’s in real good shape and the people look healthy and there’s all these fancy cars and I think they’ve even got those old internal combustion engines.
And then, we’re walking along, see? And we gotta figure out the year and the place and there is this holographic honey wearing these – man oh man I know it ain’t real but the effect’s the same, okay? – these hot pants. So I ask her if she’s a pro and she says yes and Miss Priss is just about ready to have a cow or something. Then I ask the holo-honey if it’s legal there and she says yes again and wham! I know it’s old Nevada.
Viva Las Vegas
There’s slot machines and wheels of fortune, if you go into even just the foyers of buildings, so it’s either Reno or Las Vegas. So I start singing the only song I know about Nevada, and that’s Viva Las Vegas.
Viva Las Vegas (song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well, the holo-honey, she looks all sad and I ask her why the long face and she says it’s a pity that he died so young. And then the holo-honey tells me she won’t talk to me no more unless I pay her. But we ain’t got no money, so she, like, disappears back into the program.
By now, Miss Priss is totally mortified but I tell her to get Arctic ’cause I know we’re in either Vegas or Reno and it’s after, I think, about 1979 or so ’cause Elvis is dead. Then Miss Priss finally starts to look around and she’s picking up clues, too, and she says it’s before The Third World War ’cause the air is clean and all the holo-people don’t look sick. I’m all polite and stuff and I don’t tell her I already figured that part out. I mean, honestly. Duh.
Karaoke
Then we walked some more, and there was this place with karaoke and so we went in there, and I can tell Miss Priss hates it in there, so I am, you know, totally stoked. And I start asking what’s the really new, cutting edge stuff they’ve got, and there’s a DJ there, and he punches up, it looks like it’s maybe one of those monster kinda rap-R & B-type hits that were really popular during those decades.
It takes me a little while to figure out the beat and by then Alice is asking one of the holo-people some stuff about the President of the United States, and somebody says – stupid holo-people – says that the President is not a citizen, so we know it’s truther nonsense about Obama and that is, I think, somewhere between 2000 and 2020 and that works with the music.
Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now we’re cookin’ but we still aren’t at a year yet. I mean, a two-decade range, it’s just not good enough, am I right? So Alice and me, we set about trying to figure more of it out. And nobody’s reading a newspaper, so that’s no good, and they’ve all got little PADD-like phones but that doesn’t narrow it down much although I’m thinking it’s later in our two-decade window.
Then I Sang
So I go to sing the song and there are, I dunno, maybe sixteen or so holo-people in the room. I am used to performing in front of tons more, but that’s okay. And I said, “This is for Elvis, Viva Las Vegas!” And they all cheered so I think that kinda helps to confirm that it’s Vegas and not Reno.
I sing the song, and Alice is looking everybody over, and somebody mentions that they think Miami won’t repeat as NBA Champions. And we look at each other and we both get it, ’cause Miami wasn’t champs after 2014.
And she said out loud that it was 2014 Las Vegas and the program stopped and they said we were right. Then we had to go home.
The Flight Home
This was tricky and bad as I went back with these honeys named Helen Walker and Marisol Castillo. There were other people, but that’s who I was noticing, okay? But the shuttle crashed on Berren One. And we had a casualty – Walker didn’t make it. I know I should talk more about it, but I didn’t know her and it all feels just kinda weird. I dunno. You know?
So it’s been a really full day with the interview and I am beat and maybe I should be sadder because of Walker’s death but I just feel tired and strange. I guess they’ll contact me and tell me if I got the job. I dunno.
Thanks for listening, and here’s the song I sang in case you’re interested, okay?
The most recent Boldly Reading prompt was about pocket conflicts. And that can only mean one person.
This is the Total Jerkface Conflict Number I Dunno Whatever!
My name is Marie Patrice Beckett, but just about everybody calls me Empy. The date is, um, January 12, 2173 and I just turned thirteen yesterday. This is my most secretest of diaries so I gotta say something right now, and that is – NO BOYS ALLOWED!!!
Honestly! They are such a pain in my keister. See, our family lives on Lafa II, and it’s kinda complex so I have a full-blooded brother and I have three half-brothers, okay? But other than us, there aren’t a lot of human kids, so we’re mainly all thrown together all the time. It totally does not help that the school is like this one-room schoolhouse. I swear, it’s more like 1873 than 2173! Yeah, I know!
But yeah – BOYS – Gawd, they make me crazy. There are Calafan guys, too, but they’re, I dunno, they’re mostly better, I guess. Mostly – it’s not like it’s a miracle or anything.
So, like, first off, for my birthday, I did my hair all nice and I was wearing red and I looked really good, like this, see?
Me (as portrayed by Cameron Diaz)
Am I not totally adorable here?
Huh?
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, my brothers, the bane of my existence. So first there’s my full brother, Joss, who is like the biggest jerk, ever. I don’t know what my friend Jia sees in him. He is such a pain! See, he’s already almost fourteen and a half and the Calafans let you learn how to drive.
I know, girlfriend diary.
Anyway, so he’s learning to drive, so our Mom, Lili, she takes him out all the time, and half the time I’m in the back, and I’m bored outta my skull. But I can’t just look at my PADD ’cause he kinda starts and stops and our Mom, she keeps stamping on the floor on her side, like she’s got a brake there, or something. Confidentially, I think she thinks he’s too young to be driving but our Dad, Doug, he seems to be okay with it but he goes off with his military unit and he doesn’t have to deal with it. So, it’s like really distracting, all of that starting and stopping and stamping, and the movement all just makes me nauseous. So, you know, a PADD is like out of the question.
Tommy and Neil
Then there’s Tommy, who is one of our three half-brothers. And he and I get along okay, but you should see him at the Calafan festivals! There are maybe a ton of them and I swear he’s got a dream girl who he contacts and that gets our friend Cindy all angry ’cause I think they’re supposed to be going out even though Tommy is like a few months younger than I am.
And his little brother, Neil, well, Neil is totally studious and his nose is always in his PADD. I swear that he’s working all the time and you know what they say about all work and no play. He can be so boring sometimes.
Declan
Declan is, like, the easiest one to get along with but he’s another one with a nose in his PADD all the time. He is always drawing! He barely pays attention to what you say, but he does seem to pay attention to a person’s looks. His Dad doesn’t come around as much as he should, I gotta say, but it’s ’cause he’s teaching combat training on Earth and sometimes he’s an acting captain. I swear, they’d better make Mackum – uh, Malcolm Reed – a for-real captain before we all get any older!
So, like, there are also human boys who are not related who live on this planet, but not too many of them. Dave Ryan is just too dopey and puppy-like for words. But Ken Masterson might be okay. When he and his folks visited my folks from the Cochrane, he was, you know, he was hanging around while his Mom, Deb Haddon Masterson, was doing something with my Mom in our kitchen, and his Dad, Chip Masterson, was out back playing horseshoes and drinking beers with my Dad. And, like, Ken was asking if a boy had ever kissed me before. And I was gonna answer him but my stupid brothers were around and it was just not a good time. That was last year.
Yesterday
But let me tell you about yesterday. So, like I was all dolled up, all nice, but I spilled a little grape juice on my red dress so I changed into a red tee shirt and shorts and we were gonna go to my Mom’s restaurant, Reversal, and stuff. And it was gonna be nice and kinda classy and stuff.
And then my stupid brothers – it was Joss who was the ringleader, did I tell you he’s the biggest jerk? Well, if I didn’t, he is a total jerkface. Anyway, so my stupid brothers, they pelted me with water balloons and we were already running really late and my Dad was, like, “You don’t have the time to change.” And I was, like, “But Dad, I look like a total loser!” And he was, like, “Your Mom is gonna be sooooo pissed if we’re late.” ‘Cause Mackum had come over, and it was, you know, they hadn’t seen each other in a while and it was a surprise and all that even though it was MY birthday!
I swear, sometimes, girlfriend diary.
Me, like, totally dorky (as portrayed by Cameron Diaz)
So, like, we had to go and I didn’t have the time to fix my hair so I ended up looking totally dorky, just like this.
I swear to God, Jeremiah Logan Beckett, you can run, but you can’t hide.
And I will get my revenge in September, when you turn fifteen. I swear to God, or my name isn’t Empy.
For Frank Todd to have a boyfriend in Star Trek fanfiction, there had to be someone. I liked the idea of some contrast between the tough MACO and the object of his affections. While Dave was originally also a MACO, I later made him a stellar cartographer.
Portrayal
I see Jason Patric in this role. I like the actor’s look but he’s also had a rough life (this is of course an image of him when he was rather young).
Jason Patrick as Dave Constantine (image is for educational purposes only)
But, in real life, Patric has had a hard time of it, having to sue for parental rights to his own child. I see him as melancholy and, for real, I gotta figure he must be.
Personality
Dave is one of the gay crew members on the NX-01. A bit bookish and sensitive, he’s a foil for Frank Todd, his great love. Frank reports that Dave can be rather lovesick at times.
Relationships
Frank Todd
In the prime timeline, Frank and Dave get together in Detached Curiosity and Idle Speculation, where they talk about the E2 timeline and the fact that they had ended up together. In The Way to a Man’s Heart, Frank asks Lili to make a special dessert for Dave. Lili bakes a blueberry pie, recalling that Dave enjoys blueberries. By the time of There’s Something About Hoshi, their relationship is in full swing. However, by the time of Shell Shock, Frank’s alibi is that he’s at a gay bar during the time the crime occurs. Is he with Dave? It’s not specific, but he probably isn’t. Does that mean their relationship came to an end? I’m not really sure, myself.
In the E2 timeline, they get together after Frank rather loudly and angrily comes out, during the events outlined in Entanglements. During the second kick back in time, in Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, they again take up with each other.
Jason Patrick as Dave Constantine (image is for educational purposes only)
As a mirror baseball player, much like Joss Beckett during the alternate timeline events of Temper, being a professional ball player means he can usually get out of killing people in order to get ahead in life.
Quote
“I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate what you said.”
Upshot
Gentle and caring, yet fiercely proud, I want to explore Dave as a character as much as Frank has been explored. He’ll be back, by himself and with his great love.
The character is, of course, Star Trek: Enterprise canon. Her role on the Enterprise was as a Science crewman, often assisting Doctor Phlox. The actress, unfortunately, died during the first run of the series.
Portrayal
As in canon, the character is portrayed by the late Kellie Waymire.
Cutler and Phlox
With Waymire deceased, I’m not so sure who I would get to replace her. I imagine the same was true for the writers of the show. They ended up indicating that people had died in some of the Xindi attacks and some bodies were never found.
While that’s a horrifying thought, perhaps Cutler is one of those persons. All too sadly, that will happen when we finally, truly, venture into space.
Personality
Pleasant and intelligent, Liz Cutler is alien-curious about Phlox. Even learning that he has three Denobulan women does not faze her. But nothing happens; the actress died before the writers could really do anything with her character. She also never makes it to the Mirror Universe episodes. A pity, as I think she would have made a dandy Mirror Universe character.
Relationships
Charles Tucker III
As I write Cutler, in the Mirror, she and Tucker have a history. During Reversal, when the opportunity presents itself, they get together. By the time that story is finished, they have left together, for a new life on Lafa II. In marked contrast to the canon end of Tucker, they end up founding a dynasty, with two children, Betsy and Charlie (Charles Tucker IV). Their great-grandson, Charles Tucker VI, is a success to Empress Hoshi, and becomes the Emperor Charles I, as is noted in Temper and Who Shall Wear the Robe and Crown?
Mirror Universe
Kellie Waymire as MU Cutler (image is for educational purposes)
Known as Beth, the Mirror Universe version of Crewman Cutler leads a hard life. Much like I write other female denizens of the other side of the pond, she lives her life at the whims of men. This becomes an existence lived at the whims of the Empress, and Jun.
In Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses, Beth is given a syringe full of tricoulamine and is told to fatally inject either Phlox or Malcolm‘s counterpart, Ian. She chooses Ian, knowing full well that Phlox will also get a lethal injection. However, the Denobulan’s injection will be far more painful. It’s a final act of mercy for her fellow human. I’ve even been asked if she and Ian had a history, and it’s an intriguing idea that I have not yet explored.
After the events of First Born, Empress Hoshi selects Beth to be the babysitter for her first born child, Jun. The horribly bratty Jun even gives her a black eye during Reversal. When it becomes possible to leave the ISS Defiant, Beth jumps at the chance, and leaves with Charles. They meet Jennifer and Treve on the surface of Lafa II, and blend into the forest. She even stands by him as he recovers from delta radiation poisoning, although his facial scarring never goes away.
Quote
“Charles! I get the feeling we won’t always be able to do it in the captain’s chair! Think of all the people who are on the Bridge.”
Upshot
This actress’s life was cut short, which of course is tragic. And it’s unfortunate, too, that the character had so little screen time. I hope this alternate life story has done her some justice.
It’s easy to type on a keypad, as the 4 and the 2 are typed diagonally from left to right. And then the 7, 5, and 3 are typed diagonally in the same way, but from one row higher.
The actor is well-cast and it’s hard to think of anyone else in the role. Much like Leonard Nimoy and Vulcans, Billingsley essential defines what it means to be a Denobulan.
