Help with an idea

[Noddy]

Got a new idea here, and was wondering if anyone can give me their opinion on it. For a while now I've wanted to write a fic featuring Colonel Green and the post-atomic horror, but I've also been interested in exploring the character of Admiral Marcus from STID, and how he became involved in Section 31, and this is what I've come up with: Some time before STID (Not sure how long yet), Marcus falls asleep on his ship and wakes up having somehow traveled back in time to Earth after WW3, in an America in the midst of inter-state war launched by Green. Marcus is captured by Green's soldiers, imprisoned and tortured, experiencing the horrors of Green's regime firsthand. He's then thrown through time again, further back in the past to around our present, where he encounters Green's parents, when Green himself is just a baby. Knowing full well what will happen if Green reaches adulthood, and having buried his feelings of compassion toward those who are as yet innocent, he kills them. And that's when it's revealed that Marcus hasn't traveled in time at all; it's an elaborate trick by Section 31, designed to find out if he's capable of eliminating potential threats before they have an opportunity to cause trouble. He accepts their offer to join them. Please, please let me know if this could work at all. Thank you.

 

[Melakon]

Perhaps something happens in the "past", that makes Marcus aware that he's somehow being deceived, and he doesn't wind up killing anybody.

Part of the problem I have with the alternate universe was the seemingly arbitrary decision that the split occurs at Kirk's birth in 2233, instead of much earlier. Marcus was alive before then, so what was he like in the "prime" universe? What happened after Nero's incursion that caused Marcus to become what he was?

I've not seen Into Darkness so can't comment specifically on Marcus' personality.

 

[Noddy]

I want to show how Marcus puts aside his feelings of compassion and sentimentality in order to do something which, on the surface, appears cruel and nasty, but which he believes is ultimately justified as it may well make the world a safer place, as it's essentially why he's willing to declare war on the Klingons and the Federation's other enemies before they have a chance to attack them, in STID.

 

[Melakon]

Again, I don't know the relationship between Carol and her father, but if they're estranged, that could have caused him to curb those kinds of feelings.

 

[Enow]

Noddy,

Just write for fun at the first. Entertain yourself as you emerse yourself in the Star Trek Universe. As you go along in "fleshing out" your idea in the story, editting will occur and revamping what you had written to make the story go smoother and more realistic as well as more entertaining to you, will be the motivation for you in writing the story.

That is what I am doing in the story I am writing.

Getting approval from the fans that has a variety of tastes is an exercise in futility, because realism is what you make of it.

Frakes & Sirtis wanted to do a series where they don't have any children but a pet dog, if I heard them right on that youtube shot of them, but I bet alot of fans would rather they have children to take care of, and not just a dog. Well, I do anyway. It would be the first series where they would show a Captain's family on the Starship and how life would be like onboard. As performers in the acting business, they are being like any other couple. They think they can put off children at a later time where they just wanted to travel the world on their yearly vacations for awhile before having children, but "accidents" can happen. A touch of realism in Star Trek can go a long way in how married couple fans can relate to that.

In any event, nobody will know if they will like the idea of the story or not until they have emersed themselves into it by reading it. So have fun in writing that story. You can make it more realistic as you flesh out the story which is what I have done with mine as I have re-editted the chapters of my story before continuing on to the next chapter and with God's help too. So have fun.

 

[jespah]

Noddy,

Just write for fun at the first. ....

Getting approval from the fans that has a variety of tastes is an exercise in futility, because realism is what you make of it..... So have fun.

This.

Seriously, you will not please everyone, and writing for others' ideas and tastes and preferences is going to result in a story by committee.

Consider stories that don't seem to make any sense, but work.

• A mysterious entity can make people travel in time; oops, a compromised character erases another one
• An enemy that can change your mind and body without your consent begins to wreak havoc
• Everyone on board starts disappearing; only one person is aware of this

Those stories are City on the Edge of Forever, pretty much any Borg story and Remember Me.

They don't sound like so much on paper, eh?

Write for yourself, for your own interests, your own pleasure and your own education. Work to improve your craft as you go. People will love your work, or not. You may need to find an audience (and they may not be here, BTW).

But don't wait, and don't seek out confirmation of whether your idea is a good one. Assume it is; it is going to be the execution of that idea that decides whether the story is decent.

Read, to find out how others are doing this.

And write, to get better.

Write.

 

[Noddy]

Thanks.

 

[Noddy]

Does it make sense though for S31 to determine Marcus' suitability by placing him in the scenario I describe?

 

[Jono]

If by "determine Marcus suitability" you mean break him, yes the scenario is suitable enough.

 

[Noddy]

If by "determine Marcus suitability" you mean break him, yes the scenario is suitable enough.

The object of the test is to see if you have the guts to do something which a lot of people would find morally questionable, i.e. killing someone before they've actually committed a crime you know they will commit in the future.

 

[Jono]

The idea can work like that. There is only so much others can offer you from an outline. The real test would be when you start writing it. You should get a feel as you go along whether it is working along the lines you want. If you're not sure you can try getting a beta reader to take a lot at it or publicly posting it (here or somewhere else) and canvassing opinions.

In the opening post you say this is something you want to do and I don't want to discourage that. So I think you so go ahead and see what happens.

 

[Noddy]

The thing is, I really want to write something involving Colonel Green, World War III, and the Post-Atomic Horror. Maybe it's linked with living in such a turmoil and strife-filled world now, and I'd like to show how Star Trek, despite promoting the notion that things will ultimately get better, also acknowledged how dirty and nasty things would be before we get to that more enlightened stage. If you ask me, I see things getting a hell of a lot worse before they even start to improve.

The thing is though, I don't feel that I can just write a biography of Green in those dark years; I suppose I feel it doesn't connect with the greater mythical canvas of the interstellar adventuring enough, so I want to try and involve characters from the more familiar era of Trek, that most people are familiar with.