Well, obviously that's your privelege, but I hope you'll change your mind. Anyway, time for episode two! Please enjoy 10x02 "Brave New World." I'd love to hear more opinions on what you've read so far, guys. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance. .
A nice, quick read. The screenplay format seems an appropriate format as a twenty-six episode per season continuation of the series. Interesting cliffhanger ending leaves me wondering how and when someone will set the record straight on Taran'atar believing he killed Kira.
Well, strictly speaking, he already knows he didn't, because they had a conversation at the end of The Soul Key before he left. So he doesn't really think he killed her. His announcement here that he killed her was partly to truly confess the depth of his sin and express his guilt by casting it in the worst possible light (after all, she was technically dead on the slab for a brief period in Warpath, or rather in episode 9x18 "Renegade"), and partly so that I could leave that storyline on a bit of a cliffhanger with the question of whether Odo would be so enraged as to actually kill him. And the season's actually only going to be 22 episodes. That's more the standard season length for most American network dramas, Trek was unusual in going for 26. And in fact Enterprise was cutting its seasons down to 22 by the end too, so there is precedent. But thanks for still reading! Lots more to come.
So... I guess that one didn't generate much discussion. Boo. What I enjoyed about writing this one was the thematic similarities between the various storylines. In all three of the Vaughn-Sisko, kai-election, and Dominion-in-chaos storylines, the issue was the difficulty in choosing between two different belief systems. With Vaughn and Sisko, they were arguing between trust in a religious higher power and trust in a humanistic higher power. I think the irony there is that those beliefs are so similar as to be nearly indistinguishable. What's really pissing Vaughn off is what he sees as Sisko's betrayal, but it brings up those bigger issues for him. With the Dominion, again, how different can the interpretations of two Vortas be if they're based on the wishes of the same Founder? Obviously different enough. And the battle for kai is between two almost identical versions of Bajoran religion. So I guess the similarity is in how these tiny distinctions can grow out of all proportion and take on a life of their own. The Ro story, while contuinung her recovery, was more to establish that, while some people were arguing and punching each other and going to war, there's one person out there who genuinely doesn't give a toss one way or the other.
Well, he is kind of old. But there's a few years left to get to that point, and don't forget, Winn only lasted five years as Kai. Anything can happen. .
Ok, I finally sat with this episode and read it today. I found the Dominion plot more interesting...The birthday party somehow dragged. There were some important things said and showed during it, but the whole setting somehow didn't work for me. And for some reason I had Jadzia in my head, completely forgetting that it should be Ezri; and I realised that I should envision Ezri in the middle of the episode I really hope Odo is not going to do anything stupid. Not only it would be wrong, not only he would regret it tremendously later--especially after learning that the news of Kira's death is not the truth--but also because it would be out of character for him. He's not exactly emotion-driven type.
Reading back over it now, I guess I can see why you'd feel that way. The Bajor-bound story does incorporate Vaughn-Sisko, the election, Kira chatting with Kasidy, catching up with all the rest... What I was going for there was trying to create an extended family feel - a normal thing to do, as Vaughn describes it, all centred around the literal Sisko family. That lent itself to ordinary domestic stuff - cooking, washing up, changing nappies, watching telly. And then I compared that to the messed up Dominion "family" - parents Odo and Laas arguing while children Weyoun and Taran'atar are caught between them. But I am aware that I have a tendency to waffle. I'm working on my brevity and getting to the point. The amount of stuff I've written and had to cut out because it wasn't relevant or just went on too long is quite scary.
In any event, it's nice to see a few relatively light-hearted stories with everything that taken place up to The Soul Key. A lot of it is building towards something big in terms the future of the Dominion and how things play out with the Ascendants.
^^^ Exactly. This is only episode 2 out of 22 - gotta have room for things to build up. Which they will. For those who didn't notice, which it probably most of you, the bit where Sisko talks about explaining alternate realities to the Prophets was my little reference to the Millenium trilogy, which was framed as Sisko doing exactly that for all three books.
Okay then - time for episode 3. 10x03 - Steppin' Out And here are some extra links to help you visualise... http://youtu.be/G-hzVnqYA3U http://youtu.be/jqa5kNNaMlc http://youtu.be/wVWJashcBKg Enjoy! .
Oh, that was one of those unrelated-to-the-current-plots episode. I like it. At first I was "ah?" when reading about Vic leaving the holosuite, but then I thought that he had some kind of portable emitter, not unlike the Doctors. I was put off by Matthias's behaviour, though. She did understand her error in the end, but she treated Vic as a tool, a replicator, completely refusing to accept that he might possess independent thinking. What would she say about Data?
Mostly unrelated, yes, but it forwards the Dax-transferring plot, and some bits and pieces from this will show up later in the season. I wanted the Vic thing to throw people off at first, to just wonder, "what the hell?" He fake walked off the holosuite at the beginning, and then he real walked off the holosuite at the end. Writing it, I thought to myself, "Hmm, we haven't seen Vic in a while. What should it be about?" Well, make a virtue of it, as they say. The episode is about the fact that we haven't seen Vic in a while. As for Matthias, I could see it being a controversial point of view. But I think she makes some valid points. She doesn't have the familiarity with the Vic program the rest of the crew do (and the audience), so it took her some time to get there. We have an affection for the character, so we automatically accept him as "real." She doesn't know him. It's like Sisko in "Badda-Bing," where he says, "I see. When were you planning on going back to work?" Even at the end, her apology was more in terms of the good it did for the station's community rather than Vic himself. But I don't think it makes her a bad person per se - she probably just doesn't think of it as much of an issue. BTW, thanks for still reading and responding. I do appreciate it. I'm planning on speeding up the upload schedule a bit, so you don't have to wait so long between installments, and hopefully things will get a bit more interesting for you. .
Loved that bit asking "Have we been in Nog's quarters since he made chief engineer?" I would imagine they are his own, but probably smaller than the duplex he shared with Jake.
Now having read episode 10x03 in its entirety, I have ask now when 10x01 takes place in relation to The Soul Key? The Memory Beta chronology places that novel in early 2377 / early Season 7 of Voyager (not that such a placement is carved in stone). Interesting that the story ends with Ezri still not having broken the news to Julian. I guess she has till the Destiny trilogy circa 2381.
Yeah, that's what I figured too. When Jake left the station to go work at B'Hala, and Nog got promoted to Chief Engineer, that's when he would have moved quarters. Well, see, this is where I decided to complicate matters. As described in the novels themselves, the stories so far have taken place in little more than a year of "real" time. But when I was adapting the novels into screenplays for seasons 8 and 9, it clearly made up at least 2 seasons worth of television (and that's with cutting stuff out). Since the general rule of thumb on TV was always that 1 season approximately equals 1 year, I decided to go with the idea that the time from Avatar to Soul Key had been two years, not one. 2 seasons equals two years. I never really saw why the stories needed to be crammed in so tight to begin with. So I'm going by the rule that DS9 season 10 runs parallel with VOY season 8 - that is, after it comes home, with Homecoming and The Farther Shore. Hence the references to Voyager's return, to it being Rebecca's first birthday already (even though she was only born in Unity), to it being two years since Winn went missing, and so on. So, "Emancipation" picks up immediately after "Ha'mara" (aka, The Soul Key, part 2). But because The Soul Key takes place a year later in my own personal chronology than it does according to Memory Beta, that still makes it level with the post-series VOY-R. If it helps, I can tell you that this season will also take up one year, and that by the end of it, TNG's A Time to... series will be about to start. .
Well done. My favorite episode so far. Really feels like a well-done 'bottle show' from the series. Appreciate the occasional stand-alone story. I really love how this series is shaping up and will be following. That gap between 'Soul Key' and 'Rough Beasts of Empire' leaves so much opportunity for story telling.
^^^ Thanks! I agree, so much room to tell stories - part of why I'm doing this. Nobody's mentioned my "outing" of two established recurring characters. Not that I'm saying it should be controversial in any way, but still, I expected some comment.... <pouts> .