August Writing Challenge: TNG - Darkness Visible

[Goliath]

A few small questions that had me curious. Why WAS Ro selected to be a member of the tribunal? I had thought she was considered to be a discipline problem, so I would be curious if perhaps you felt Picard was trying to accomplish something by bringing her in on this.

Well, see, it's like this.

I could bullshit you, and come up with a detailed rationalization... but I really didn't give it much thought. I used her because she was onboard during the fifth season, and because she was a recognizable junior officer.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

I am the great and powerful Camelopard!

One other small question...I was a little surprised that Crewman Karras only took 10 minutes before involving security. I would've thought there would be someone in charge of the holodeck administration (like the recreation department or engineering) that she would've called first--but maybe I'm wrong about how things are organized.

I don't think the organization has ever been spelled out.

This was a choice I made purely for storytelling reasons. I only had 3000 words to work with, and I wanted to get Mr. Worf involved in 'Step 2.'

I think it's a defensible choice, though. The most important job of any military policeman is traffic control--making sure people are where they're supposed to be at any given time. So I've always assumed that it was Security's job to handle this sort of thing. Someone doesn't show up for work? Call them. If they don't answer, call Security to check up on them.

Same here. Someone won't open the holodeck door? Call Security--especially since Karras probably assumed that Corso was in the middle of a program like Vulcan Love Slave. I think you'd want Security to handle a delicate situation like that.

Final thing...was the reference to the Delomelanicon meant to remind one of the Necronomicon?

Not exactly. The Delomelanicon is mentioned in The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. It's a book supposedly written by Satan himself, and was the source material for another book, The Book of the Nine Doors by Aristide Torchia.

The main plot of the Club Dumas revolves around an attempt to track down the three remaining copies of Torchia's book, and determine which of them is genuine, i.e. which of them includes the Delomelanicon's authentic formula for raising the Devil.

If you're interested, Perez-Reverte's novel was adapted as The Ninth Gate, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

A few small questions that had me curious. Why WAS Ro selected to be a member of the tribunal? I had thought she was considered to be a discipline problem, so I would be curious if perhaps you felt Picard was trying to accomplish something by bringing her in on this.

Well, see, it's like this.

I could bullshit you, and come up with a detailed rationalization... but I really didn't give it much thought. I used her because she was onboard during the fifth season, and because she was a recognizable junior officer.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

I am the great and powerful Camelopard!

LOL!

Well, it's not like I thought it was an indefensible choice...I was just curious about the reasoning.

One other small question...I was a little surprised that Crewman Karras only took 10 minutes before involving security. I would've thought there would be someone in charge of the holodeck administration (like the recreation department or engineering) that she would've called first--but maybe I'm wrong about how things are organized.

I don't think the organization has ever been spelled out.

This was a choice I made purely for storytelling reasons. I only had 3000 words to work with, and I wanted to get Mr. Worf involved in 'Step 2.'

I think it's a defensible choice, though. The most important job of any military policeman is traffic control--making sure people are where they're supposed to be at any given time. So I've always assumed that it was Security's job to handle this sort of thing. Someone doesn't show up for work? Call them. If they don't answer, call Security to check up on them.

Same here. Someone won't open the holodeck door? Call Security--especially since Karras probably assumed that Corso was in the middle of a program like Vulcan Love Slave. I think you'd want Security to handle a delicate situation like that.

LOL, wow...that was a heck of an image!!

And the rationale does make sense, now that you explain it.

Now I wonder, would Vulcan Love Slave even be allowed to run on a Starfleet holosuite? I mean, Quarks, yeah, considering that Quark probably has some sort of leasing arrangement that makes the place "his" enough to do what he wants...

 

[trampledamage]

Now I wonder, would Vulcan Love Slave even be allowed to run on a Starfleet holosuite? I mean, Quarks, yeah, considering that Quark probably has some sort of leasing arrangement that makes the place "his" enough to do what he wants...

For the deep space exploration ships, I'd say Starfleet has negotiated an on-going licence.

 

[Goliath]

Now I wonder, would Vulcan Love Slave even be allowed to run on a Starfleet holosuite? I mean, Quarks, yeah, considering that Quark probably has some sort of leasing arrangement that makes the place "his" enough to do what he wants...

For the deep space exploration ships, I'd say Starfleet has negotiated an on-going licence.

And don't forget the holo-fanfic.

But I think Nerys Ghemor's question was more along the lines of, "would Starfleet allow personnel to run holo-porn on a starship's holodecks." And that's an interesting question.

From what I've seen, crewmembers are allowed to run pretty much whatever they want. And while what's shown on TV is constrained by the fact that it's on TV, boys will be boys, and girls will be girls, and I think we all know what a lot of people would want to use the holodeck for. Especially the healthy young people who make up the majority of any starship's crew. I once read a fan script in which a Voyager crewman had created a holographic version of Seven of Nine as a whip-wielding dominatrix, without her knowledge.

A starship commander might even consider this a necessary safety valve on long voyages--and not just for randy youngsters, either. Older married people would miss their spouses, and might derive solace from holographic versions thereof. Nor would this solace necessarily be physical, as it was when Voyager's Vulcan males went through pon farr. In the same fan script, there was a scene in which Tuvok reads from the Odyssey to holographic versions of his children at bedtime. And I once wrote a short Supermax story in which a prisoner receives a 'Christmas card' from his family, consisting of a holographic reproduction of his family home, and his family, at Christmastime.

So my sense would be that, when it comes to sex on the holodeck, Starfleet's policy would at the very least be 'don't ask, don't tell,' or, 'what happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck.' So long as crewmembers are behaving decently in public, they'd be allowed to do whatever they wanted in private.

 

[trampledamage]

So my sense would be that, when it comes to sex on the holodeck, Starfleet's policy would at the very least be 'don't ask, don't tell,' or, 'what happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck.' So long as crewmembers are behaving decently in public, they'd be allowed to do whatever they wanted in private.

I think even the Vulcans would see that as logical.

 

[Timewalker]

I agree that it's an interesting commentary on 24th century society that nobody suspected that it would've been a real demon. Even Ensign Ro at least was familiar with lore about borhyas in her culture (though I do think there's a case to be made she's an atheist based on her lack of earring).

Ensign Ro does have an earring. She wasn't allowed to wear it at first, though.

I was honestly expecting Gil Grissom to show up at some point!

 

[Goliath]

I agree that it's an interesting commentary on 24th century society that nobody suspected that it would've been a real demon. Even Ensign Ro at least was familiar with lore about borhyas in her culture (though I do think there's a case to be made she's an atheist based on her lack of earring).

Ensign Ro does have an earring. She wasn't allowed to wear it at first, though.

You know--that's true, now that I think about it. Didn't she make a point of clipping it on at the end of "Ensign Ro"?

I was honestly expecting Gil Grissom to show up at some point!

Heh. You know--I have never actually seen an episode of any CSI program? I had to go to Wikipedia to find out who that character was.

But I will admit--Beverly Crusher wasn't the only red-headed doctor I had in mind when I was writing her section.

 

[Goliath]

And since I seem to have stumped everybody with my diabolically difficult challenge, here are the remaining answers.

Spoiler: secrets man was apparently not meant to know

1. Rosemary Woodhouse gives birth to the son of Satan in Rosemary's Baby.

2. Father Damien Karras is the young priest who investigates the possession of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist.

3. Ambassador Robert Thorn's secretly-adopted son Damien is the antichrist in The Omen.

4. Gregory Corso spends The Ninth Gate searching for the authentic version of the book that will summon the Devil.

I thought for sure people would guess more than one.

 

[trampledamage]

Okay, I admit - I should have recognised Karras!

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I agree that it's an interesting commentary on 24th century society that nobody suspected that it would've been a real demon. Even Ensign Ro at least was familiar with lore about borhyas in her culture (though I do think there's a case to be made she's an atheist based on her lack of earring).

Ensign Ro does have an earring. She wasn't allowed to wear it at first, though.

You know--that's true, now that I think about it. Didn't she make a point of clipping it on at the end of "Ensign Ro"?

Ohh...my bad. It's probably been 10 years since I've seen a single TNG episode.

Man, if there were some way I could buy episodes individually, that would be great...

 

[Mistral]

And since I seem to have stumped everybody with my diabolically difficult challenge, here are the remaining answers.

Spoiler: secrets man was apparently not meant to know

1. Rosemary Woodhouse gives birth to the son of Satan in Rosemary's Baby.

2. Father Damien Karras is the young priest who investigates the possession of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist.

3. Ambassador Robert Thorn's secretly-adopted son Damien is the antichrist in The Omen.

4. Gregory Corso spends The Ninth Gate searching for the authentic version of the book that will summon the Devil.

I thought for sure people would guess more than one.

Sadly, that's not a genre I get into so none of the names meant anything to me-although I suspected Rosemary's Baby played into it somewhere....