Following seemlessly from yesterday's post about ways of using dialogue in characterisation, this weeks Sci-Fi Song should serve as a warning not to overdo thecatchphrases...
They don't make 'em like that any more (videos or songs)!
Showing posts with label Star Trekkin'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Trekkin'. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, October 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Project Seven musings
So I've been thinking a bit about my current writing project. My protag's life story is starting to come together quite nicely, but I'm still not sure how it will ultimately be presented. Not being a big reader of books without some speculative element, I'm probably not well placed to start writing one. So the question remains: how to include a speculative element so that I can write the story in my preferred genre?
Some vague possibilities have occurred:
The futuristic sci-fi version
In Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard meets a younger, more evil Picard, a clone created some time in the past. Watching this recently made me wonder - what if you found you had been cloned, there was another you wandering around? What if the clone had the same character flaws and weaknesses as you, but instead of choosing to resist whatever temptation this led to, chose the easy route and embraced his dark side? What happens when the two meet?
It doesn't have to be a clone, of course; the evil twin could be from a parallel universe, or the result of a time-travel experiment gone wrong. Or a 'transporter malfunction' as happened to Kirk in Star Trek. Or some mystic force such as might be found in the Buffyverse.
We could also copnsider the possibility that it isn't a physical twin, but some kind of Jekyll & Hyde complex.
The Urban Fantasy version
One potential telling of this tale always had a hint of Angel to it. I may have struck upon an idea that adds a twist to that; although, I suspect it's probably been done before, though possibly less often than the evil twin story.
If you could wish your problems away, would you? Maybe one mistake, one bad decision, that you could have excised from your life, along with all the baggage that followed it. An addiction, or a period of illness, completely removed from your personal timeline. Sounds tempting, on the surface. But in losing the bad stuff, you lose the good that inevitably comes from it: all that you learn, the ways you become a stronger person. The people you could help when they find themselves in the same situation.
That is the central dilemma in this telling of the story. Our protag meets some kind of entity with the ability to remove the darkness of his past. Presumably this entity would, effectively, have lived through the darkest chapters of our hero's life, and be left with the emotional baggage that followed.
In taking on the ills of the world, this entity becomes a sort of Christ-figure, albeit probably a very dark one. I think he has potential for exploration - is he really a Christ-figure, or is he just removing the negative so that the positive results also disappear?
Or have I just stumbled across my next project?
Some vague possibilities have occurred:
The futuristic sci-fi version
In Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard meets a younger, more evil Picard, a clone created some time in the past. Watching this recently made me wonder - what if you found you had been cloned, there was another you wandering around? What if the clone had the same character flaws and weaknesses as you, but instead of choosing to resist whatever temptation this led to, chose the easy route and embraced his dark side? What happens when the two meet?
It doesn't have to be a clone, of course; the evil twin could be from a parallel universe, or the result of a time-travel experiment gone wrong. Or a 'transporter malfunction' as happened to Kirk in Star Trek. Or some mystic force such as might be found in the Buffyverse.
We could also copnsider the possibility that it isn't a physical twin, but some kind of Jekyll & Hyde complex.
The Urban Fantasy version
One potential telling of this tale always had a hint of Angel to it. I may have struck upon an idea that adds a twist to that; although, I suspect it's probably been done before, though possibly less often than the evil twin story.
If you could wish your problems away, would you? Maybe one mistake, one bad decision, that you could have excised from your life, along with all the baggage that followed it. An addiction, or a period of illness, completely removed from your personal timeline. Sounds tempting, on the surface. But in losing the bad stuff, you lose the good that inevitably comes from it: all that you learn, the ways you become a stronger person. The people you could help when they find themselves in the same situation.
That is the central dilemma in this telling of the story. Our protag meets some kind of entity with the ability to remove the darkness of his past. Presumably this entity would, effectively, have lived through the darkest chapters of our hero's life, and be left with the emotional baggage that followed.
In taking on the ills of the world, this entity becomes a sort of Christ-figure, albeit probably a very dark one. I think he has potential for exploration - is he really a Christ-figure, or is he just removing the negative so that the positive results also disappear?
Or have I just stumbled across my next project?
Monday, August 14, 2006
The Wisdom of Star Trek
Thanks to Mir for passing this further round the blogosphere... couldn't resist (since I've started illustrating my blog now!) posting a couple that tickled me...
"Words don't always solve problems. Sometimes you just have to punch an alien in the face."
So true.
"Look, not every episode can be 'City on the Edge of Forever', Okay?"
I love the episode Spock's Brain. The dialogue in the opening scenes between Jim and Bones couldn't have been funnier in the hands of the best Trek spoofers.
Is it any wonder Star Trek is the most influential sf TV series of all time?
"Words don't always solve problems. Sometimes you just have to punch an alien in the face."So true.
"Look, not every episode can be 'City on the Edge of Forever', Okay?"
I love the episode Spock's Brain. The dialogue in the opening scenes between Jim and Bones couldn't have been funnier in the hands of the best Trek spoofers.
Is it any wonder Star Trek is the most influential sf TV series of all time?
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
First Contact... again
A couple of weeks ago I was considering some effects of first contact on the church and the established belief systems of our planet. This was in the context of aliens arriving on Earth, but...
What if it happened the other way around?
What if humanity is not alone in the universe, but is the most advanced civilisation within it?
This kind of premise allows for science fiction tales to comment on the empire building, colonization and slavery that the 'civilised' European nations embarked upon centuries ago, but there is an obvious Christian angle to that - the missionaries who went (and indeed still go) into these far flung outposts of the Empire to spread the Gospel. (I touched on a similar kind of calling in Countless as the Stars, but for a different reason.)
If you assume a galaxy peopled with many diverse sentient species, each with there own deeply held set of religious beliefs, it opens up a huge scope to explore the nature of God, faith and organized religion; in sufficiently skilled hands it also allows for conflict between religions that could almost become topical...
Imagine, for instance, if instead of Starfleet, the Interplanetary Mission Project had gone to Bajor at the end of the Cardassian Occupation. Or for a less confrontational challenge, imagine being called to be a missionary among the logical Vulcans, or the hyper-capitalist Ferengi...
Right, I'm off to re-write Star Trek...
What if it happened the other way around?
What if humanity is not alone in the universe, but is the most advanced civilisation within it?
This kind of premise allows for science fiction tales to comment on the empire building, colonization and slavery that the 'civilised' European nations embarked upon centuries ago, but there is an obvious Christian angle to that - the missionaries who went (and indeed still go) into these far flung outposts of the Empire to spread the Gospel. (I touched on a similar kind of calling in Countless as the Stars, but for a different reason.)
If you assume a galaxy peopled with many diverse sentient species, each with there own deeply held set of religious beliefs, it opens up a huge scope to explore the nature of God, faith and organized religion; in sufficiently skilled hands it also allows for conflict between religions that could almost become topical...
Imagine, for instance, if instead of Starfleet, the Interplanetary Mission Project had gone to Bajor at the end of the Cardassian Occupation. Or for a less confrontational challenge, imagine being called to be a missionary among the logical Vulcans, or the hyper-capitalist Ferengi...
Right, I'm off to re-write Star Trek...
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