Interesting or weird Character Combinations

[marlboro]

Treklit gives us a lot of interesting character combos that we never got to see onscreen. Some are cool, some are lame, and some are just plain weird.

What are some of your favorite pairings? What are some of the weirdest that you've come across?

 

[Kilana2]

Interesting: Quark and Ro Laren. Quark and Treir, but this is more a business relationship. Leffler and Si Cwan.

Weird: Ro Laren and Altek Dans, T'Ryssa Chen and Taurik. Burgoyne 172 and Dr. Selar.

The lame combos we already saw onscreen, like Kira and Bareil.

 

[marlboro]

Bashir and Dax in Time's Enemy.

Strangely enough, Bashir seemed to have better chemistry with the worm than he did with either Jadzia or Ezri.

Geordi and Taurik in A Time to Sow/Harvest

They make a surprisingly entertaining team I wish we had got to see some of this on the show.

Sulu and Chekov in The Sundered

Their relationship is unique in Trek, I think, because we have gotten to see them rise through the ranks and grow old together. I think that makes their Captain/First officer relationship more interesting.

Martok and Pharh in The Left Hand of Destiny

I don't know why it works, but it does.

Nog and Tuvok in The Poisoned Chalice.

Nog is a character that you can pair with almost anyone and have it turn out great. Jake, O'Brien, Tuvok and so on. He pairs well with pretty much anybody except for...

Kai Winn in The Orb of Opportunity. Even Nog has his limits, I guess.

 

[JD]

Ro and Quark has to be one of the weirdest pairings in Trek Lit, and they actually made it work in the DS9 Relaunch.
I thought seeing Geordi and the new Data working together in The Light Fantastic was interesting.
I haven't read it yet, so I don't know how well it works, but the whole idea of Seven of Nine teaming up with Kirk and the TOS crew in No Time Like the Past is completely bonkers.

 

[Kilana2]

Ro and Quark has to be one of the weirdest pairings in Trek Lit, and they actually made it work in the DS9 Relaunch.
I thought seeing Geordi and the new Data working together in The Light Fantastic was interesting.
I haven't read it yet, so I don't know how well it works, but the whole idea of Seven of Nine teaming up with Kirk and the TOS crew in No Time Like the Past is completely bonkers.

Then you should catch up on that. I love No Time Like the Past. Kirk and Seven have great scenes.

Spoiler: But

There is the reset button again.

 

[David Weller]

I’m currently reading Indistinguishable From Magic.

I like the way that the relationship between Geordi and Scotty has been developed in the novels.

 

[KRAD]

I like the way that the relationship between Geordi and Scotty has been developed in the novels.

One of my favorite scenes I've ever written is the conversation between La Forge and Scotty in Chapter 9 of A Time for War, a Time for Peace. Just an absolute blast to write, especially the comparison of two instances where each was in command of the Enterprise, in "A Taste of Armageddon" and "The Arsenal of Freedom," and how each responded to it.

(Actually, that same chapter had the Go/Data conversation, which is also one of my favorites, as it gave me the chance to do the HE DOESN'T FUCKING NEED AN EMOTION CHIP, HE'S ALWAYS FUCKING HAD EMOTIONS, DAMMIT rant I've been wanting to do since the third season of TNG.....)

 

[Greg Cox]

Tease: I'm having fun teaming up Spock and Chekov in the new book.

 

[Kilana2]

Tease: I'm having fun teaming up Spock and Chekov in the new book.

Your next book is already as good as bought. I'm looking forward to the discussions of its thread. And there will definitely be one!

 

[JD]

Tease: I'm having fun teaming up Spock and Chekov in the new book.

I never realized before, but I guess you never really did see much one on one interaction between those two in show or movies.

 

[Kilana2]

Speaking of character combos: I always was fond of Data and Geordi. They had big moments on screen and also in the novels. It was a kind of bromance, even more so than Paris/Kim and Bashir/O'Brien.

 

[marlboro]

I never realized before, but I guess you never really did see much one on one interaction between those two in show or movies.

I can't think of any scenes from the books for that matter. Kind of odd now that I think about it.

Speaking of character combos: I always was fond of Data and Geordi. They had big moments on screen and also in the novels. It was a kind of bromance, even more so than Paris/Kim and Bashir/O'Brien.

The Insolence of Office novella had some very good moments with Geordi and Data.

Why haven't we seen more of Bashir and O'Brien in the novels? There friendship was one of my favorite aspects of the show. I can only think of a couple of short stories where they have appeared together, Broken Oaths and The Best Defense.

 

[Kilana2]

Why haven't we seen more of Bashir and O'Brien in the novels? There friendship was one of my favorite aspects of the show. I can only think of a couple of short stories where they have appeared together, Broken Oaths and The Best Defense.

I guess that's why O'Brien first went to Earth, then to Cardassia. Then O'Brien returned to the new DS9 and Bashir went off, saving the Andorians and then he went on his adventure against Control with Sarina.

 

[Christopher]

I never realized before, but I guess you never really did see much one on one interaction between those two in show or movies.

The main Spock-Chekov moment that comes to mind is the teaser of "The Trouble With Tribbles" (which was actually written by Gene Coon, according to David Gerrold's book about the episode).

 

[marlboro]

Bashir really needs to put this whole "saving the Andorians from extinction/destroying insidious puppet-master artificial intelligence" on the back burner for a while and concentrate on defending the Alamo , imo.

Priorities.

 

[Kilana2]

Bashir really needs to put this whole "saving the Andorians from extinction/destroying insidious puppet-master artificial intelligence" on the back burner for a while and concentrate on defending the Alamo , imo.

Priorities.

We know that Quark was able to save the Vic Program. Was the Alamo program also saved? If not, it has to be reprogrammed.

 

[Greg Cox]

I never realized before, but I guess you never really did see much one on one interaction between those two in show or movies.

There's that bit in "Who Mourns from Adonais?" where McCoy complains that Spock is rubbing off on Chekov. That was pretty much what gave me the idea to pair them up, with Spock acting as a kinda mentor to Chekov, to some degree.

 

[Christopher]

We know that Quark was able to save the Vic Program. Was the Alamo program also saved? If not, it has to be reprogrammed.

Oh, gods, no. The show's use of the Alamo defenders as someone to emulate and admire is deeply problematical. What revisionist history and myth have concealed is that the defenders of the Alamo were slaveowners and slave traders. Texas seceded from Mexico because Mexico outlawed slavery and Texas refused to give it up. So the "heroes" of the Alamo were fighting on behalf of slavery. The Federation's enlightened society should see them as the villains. Heck, if Sisko was troubled by the racism in Vic's 1960s Las Vegas scenario, he should've been outraged by the Alamo simulation.

 

[David cgc]

There's that bit in "Who Mourns from Adonais?" where McCoy complains that Spock is rubbing off on Chekov. That was pretty much what gave me the idea to pair them up, with Spock acting as a kinda mentor to Chekov, to some degree.

Maybe it was just those two episodes, but I do have a memory of a running subplot with Chekov acting as Spock's understudy a bit.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe it was just those two episodes, but I do have a memory of a running subplot with Chekov acting as Spock's understudy a bit.

When Chekov first appeared in "Catspaw" and "Friday's Child," his first two episodes in production order, he was a fill-in science officer when Spock was away. That was his original job on the show. He didn't appear as a navigator until his third episode, "Who Mourns for Adonais?", and that was only in one brief scene before joining the landing party and being back in more of a junior-scientist role; I suspect they only stuck him at navigation so they didn't have to pay another actor to say "Entering standard orbit" (though that should've been Sulu's line, really). Then he was navigator throughout "Amok Time" and it stuck from then on. People are so used to thinking of Chekov as the navigator that they forget he was a science officer first (particularly these days now that the DVD sets are in airdate order instead of production order).

What's interesting is that the makers of ST '09 seemed to remember this, since Kelvin Chekov basically acts as an assistant science officer in the film, despite sitting at the navigator's station.