True, but we don't know if Timbal hasn't done that yet or if he has but wasn't satisfied with the results. If he wasn't satisfied, he's well within his rights to seek other sources of material, including this forum where we all claim to be writers and creative and junk. So create a throwaway character. Go look at the survey. It's not like you have to write a ten volume character bible. Make up a name, pick a bumpy fore-head alien, coin flip for a rank and answer a couple of geek questions. As far as I can tell the survey itself is anonymous, so if you do make somthing up and you find out the guy's actually drawing kiddie porn, the character itself can't be traced back directly to you. Just don't invest your entire store of emotional karma in the character. And anyway, am I the only one who finds it just a bit dense for us to be so worked up about protecting characters set in a universe NONE OF US LEGALLY OWNS? Seriously, suppose CBS Paramount issued a press release stating to the effect: "All you fanfic authors are now required to pay the piper. Either you pony up the standard literary licensing fees or all your Star Trek OC's are now belong to us!" Are you all seriously going to try to tell them "Well you have no right to take my original characters because I poured my heart and soul into them!" How long do you think Paramount would laugh their asses off before a judge told you to start writing checks? Timbal is not asking for your life savings. All he asked was that you fill out a survey. We don't have the full story on why he's asking, but let's not immediately jump to the conclusion that helping him out will lead to hard time in OZ or cement shoes.
Oh, I'm not sensitive about it at all... I'm just saying that if the OP were serious about not only writing a story, but wanting to write a GOOD story, that he/she would want to take the time to create their own characters, and get to know and feel them, as well as the plot. Otherwise, you are basically pasting what other people write for you, which IS lazy. Originality and creativity make for good writing, and that takes effort and work.
Inspiration--to then do something different--is one thing. Ripping other people off is what's unrefined.
So the next time I encounter a "Pro" writer, one who has written a story involving Kirk, Spock, Picard, Kira or The Doctor it would be okay for myself (and others too) to refer to these writers as lazy? I sorry BolianAuthor but that's insane, anyone who write within the Star Trek universe is by definition playing in someone else's sandbox. How is it a ripoff, Timbal has told you ahead of time his honest intent. What's happening is you're being given an oportunity, an opportunity to contribute to his novel. This is not much different than a group of friends sitting in a circle and taking turns crating a story, each person making up a paragraph, then the next person makes up a paragraph. The kind of thing you do at parties and Star Trek conventions. .
No, that circumstance would not be lazy, because at least the writer is still writing an original story with those characters. Unless, of course, they choose to use original characters, as in this case... and since such IS the case here, the writer should be willing to invest time in the creation of those new characters.
Lol - cerain nationalities seem to be overly sensitive to this sort of thing. There are a number of random name generators out there. My advice is to pick a few, some Star Trek ones and a mix of others, and just take the names generated and swap around a few letters until you get names you are happy with. Start with a basic plot and your central characters that allow you to tell that story and then either randomly generate a supporting cast or look for inspiration elsewere. I'm doing a post TMP photostory up on Youtube using the cameos from the Rec Deck scene in TMP to populate my supporting characters. I'm picking based on the needs of the plot then picking out actors to fill those roles from the photos. Try and equalise the sexes though - Trek is notoriously bad at having a significant male/female imbalance. Part of your character personalities and traits will depend on their species. There are also a number of role-playing random generators that can assign personality traits. My advice here is to pick maybe 3 defining traits for any character after choosing or randomly generating species, age, and sex (e.g. brilliant physicist, 'when I was at band camp', 'sorry, what were your saying?'), then pick two personality traits (e.g. self-absorbed, sarcastic) then pick two relationships - either to on camera or off camera characters (e.g. Admiral Morrow's favourite student, oblivious to Ensign Warwick's crush) and then with the bare bones you can weave them into the plot and build on that. Whenever that character has to interact with any others just try to frame their actions and dialogue within the rough framework and hopefully the character will quickly take on a life of their own. Good luck!
he wants to illustrate someone else's ideas for a university course. so why is everyone like 'How dare he come in here with a simple request i must belittle as a writer of mediocre fan fiction?'
Well he can use Petty Officer Berruzha, my TMP era zaranite, a mathematically bright geology specialist who is happy wandering around in a sandstorm (it reminds him of home) and using a type 1 phaser as a rock-cutting tool. Or Ensign Thel'dara - tall, abrupt, slightly imperious, cooly efficient andorian security officer, essentially a tall woman in TMP security armour (without helmet or possibly modify a helmet); a woman of few words who will deck you first and ask questions later. Stereotypical AND mediocre! Fan fiction doesn't get much better.