Somewhat belatedly, but all the better as this means it didn't collide with Yuletide, Star Trek Holidays has gone live. It's a lively and lovely small scale ficathon featuring (obviously) Star Trek shows and movies and novels fanfiction, and this is the gift I received:

Decisions Never Regretted (1012 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elim Garak & Natima Lang
Characters: Elim Garak, Natima Lang
Summary:

Garak and Lang, through the years.

For All Mankind: Following the reccommendations, I marathoned the first two seasons of For All Mankind, aka what Ron Moore (and friends) did next (after BSG), which is an AU starting from the premise that the Soviets get to the moon first, therefore the Space Race doesn't end, and history starts to alter in small and big ways from therel. (One of the big ways being that as part of catching up with Soviet progressiveness in that regard, women enter the US space programm far earlier.) naraht has said this is also a soap opera, which is true, in a good way; the relationships drama certainly forms a solid part of the narrative, but it's expertly done. (So far.) Non-romantic relationships are treated as important both on a Doylist and Watsonian level, and while space exploration continuing in this AU is clearly a good thing overall, the show doesn't use the premise to solve all the rl problems; as of the second season, which is set in 1983, acceptance of same sex relationships hasn't moved faster than it did in rl, for example.

You can tell that Moore and several of the other scriptwriters cut their teeth in Star Trek long before Danielle quotes the TOS episode A Taste of Armageddon in the s2 finale by despite things getting pretty dark at times, humanity's better instincts prevail. Also by Starfleet NASA, by and large, being an organisation where most people, be they astronauts or engineers, are brave, loyal, and devoted to each other, so you get why people would want to join even beyond the romance of visiting the moon. (Though I have to say, congrats to the GCI department, all those space shots are gorgeous.) When they do fail each other (think Margo re: Aleida in s1), there's usually a good explanation, and also fate gives them another chance. (They get called out on it, though.) And you get all the space tropes - difficult landings, losing contact, being thrown of course, having to do repairs on a moving vehicle, etc. - even the spoilery thing I last saw on The Expanse and before that read in Arthur C. Clarke. One sign of how well the show worked for me: I was never tempted to fast forward through the Earthbound centric episodes but found them just as gripping.

Another thing which impressed me: several examples of the "both sides have a point" trope, viscerally so when Danielle visited her sister-in-law in s2.

Sometimes I wasn't sure whether I read the episode right, but then subsequent events proved the creative time knew what it was doing. For example: ( Now it gets too spoilery to talk about without a cut. )

Lastly: talking about a non space related change to rl events in this AU: John Lennon survives. This isn't a plot point but something of a recurring gag since he keeps popping up on tv briefly when people switch channels. Apparantly in this AU, John in response to the escalating Cold War gets back into peace activisim and organizes a big concert as part of this. Here my suspension of disbelief broke down, not re: the surival or the return to peace activism but the concert organizing. Look, he'd be terrific at promoting something like that, if properly motivated. But organizational skills and the patience and discipline it takes to get a mega event like that together... nah. Of course, Yoko did and does have organizational skills, but a mega concert in 1983 would have required diplomacy and talking various other superstars with big egos into it and hm, I just don't see her as Bob Geldof, either, is what I'm saying.


I also read Fortune's Favor, the third volume of Jo Graham's ongoing space saga The Calpurnian Wars. Like the previous books, this one introduces us to another of those planets in uncomfortable coexistence with the expansion-hungry Calpurnia (aka, ever more apparant, Space Rome). Speaking of AUs, it strikes me that one way to describe this saga is "the story of the late Roman Republic, but a) from everyone else's pov, and b) everyone else wins". In the last volume, we basically got space!Gaul winning against Caesar, and now it's Space!Egypt's turn, confronted with two of the conspirators (space!Caesar still got assasinated in between books), Cassian and Junia. Cassian is this volume's main antagonist, but as ever in this series, the attraction and narrative interest lies in our heroes and the setting and not in the imperialist menace du jour. In this case, our main character is Caralys, a courtesan, allied to one of the main influential families on Menaechmi. This book is also where characters from the previous volumes start to interact, so Caralys teams up with Bister from Sounding Dark and Boral from War Lady in order to a) rescue her lover's kidnapped son, and b) ensure her world's freedom from blackmail by warlord. It's a very satisfying adventure, and I had a particular soft spot for the subplot involving Caralys' lover and Boral. As for Caralys, impressive as her weaving threads together to get the rescue going is, my favourite scene of hers involves something that I think is incredibly difficult to pull off both on a Doylist and Watsonian level: confront a character who has given our pov every reason to despise them so far when they are down on their luck and react with kindness and insight instead of crushing them. In a way that doesn't come across as naive or doormat-like but as going to the core of the problem in a way that can make an actual change for the better instead of continuing a vicious cycle. Perhaps because of all the rl viciousness right now, I treasure such scenes and characters all the more.

Like the previous books, the novel does tell its own adventure, and you get the necessary information about Bister and Boral in it if you haven't read the two previous ones, but the narrative texture is much richer if you have. I really enjoyed it reading it, and am looking forward to the next story of the saga!

Lastly, a DS9 vid rec: The Wrong Side, a delightful and charming Garak/Bashir vid.

lightofdaye wanted a compare and contrast of Ezri Dax (DS9) and Elizabeth Lochley (B5).

Let's start with the obvious: what Ezri Dax and Elizabeth Lochley primarily share is that both characters were last minute replacements for show regulars in their respective show's final season, who came into existence because things with an actress playing a series regular did not work out for various reasons. As both characters had been very popular - Ivanova even more so than Jadzia Dax (which reminds me, I do wonder what would have happened if Nana Visitor had been the one to leave! Because DS9 without Kira is unthinkable...). This alone ensured a considerable part of fandom would resent the new characters, irrespectively from how well or badly they were written and acted.

Now, it's interesting that both shows used almost diametrically opposite narrative techniques to deal with this inheret drawback. DS9 went out of its way to establish Ezri as not simply being a Jadzia clone and devoted considerable screen time to her. She was given a different job (counselor to Jadzia's science officer, which reminds me, I don't think we ever found out who replaced Jadzia as science officer?). We got to know her pre-Symbiont family, the Tigans, and their background in an episode that was all about them. Where the last episode that had been Jadzia-centric without also being Worf-centric had been several seasons ago, Ezri in addition to the episode exploring her birth family got another Whodunit episode focused on her as the detective, this one co-starring former host Joran as Hannibal Lecter (it was very much the age of Silence of the Lambs) and an episode in which she had to counsel and prove herself to the show's most popular recurring guest star, Garak. There was a continous, unchanging relationship - the friendship with Sisko - and one relationship that turned out to be quite different from the one Jadzia had, with Worf, but had its commonalities and differences explored in great screen time detail. (And then there was the last minute romance with Bashir, which got so little screen time to develop that it never felt like the writers were either interested in it or believed in it.)

Meanwhile, JMS went almost the opposite way with Elizabeth Lochley. Technically, she got Sheridan's old job, not Ivanova's, but it was evidently the job Ivanova would have had if Claudia Christian had not left the show. There was no Lochley-centric episode to introduce or explore her the way there had been when Sheridan had taken over as station commander in s2; instead, she got introduced through the telepath story arc on a professional basis and through the confrontations with Garibaldi on the subject of her loyalties on a personal one, until the one episode not written by JMS but Neil Gaiman, Day of the Dead, which did more to flesh out Lochley's character and background than anything that had come before (as JMS himself freely admitted in the preface to the published script). The one relationship with a regular she was established to have had before her introduction to the show, with Sheridan, got as little screen time as possible; it's almost till thet last but one episode that the two of them share a scene and conversation which isn't about the plot of the week and feels a bit personal. Where Ivanova had been given key parts in the show's political arcs (both in the Shadow War and the Earth Civil War) as well as two popular romantic relationships (with Talia and then with Marcus, Lochley during season 5 had no screen time devoted to her personal life (this changes in Crusade, but we're talkingn about B5 here), and while she had a role to play in the telepath mini arc that dominated the first half of the season, she had no part in the Drakh/Fall of Centauri Prime arc dominating the second half. Her main scenes in the second half of the season involve Garibaldi's storyline and are a great pay-off to the hostility between them established early in the season, but they're still mainly about Garibaldi, not Lochley. In short, I'd say s5 goes out of its way to signal to the audience that Lochley isn't taking anything away from beloved regulars; she's the unexpected houseguest who keeps to herself most of the time, not the one insisting on sharing every conversation and choosing what's on the menu for dinner.

There are pros and cons to either approach. For example, my guess as to why JMS went out of his way not to give Lochley and Sheridan any one on one scenes together that aren't about station business is that he wanted to avoid even the whiff of a suspicion he was setting up a love triangle here between Sheridan, Lochley and Delenn, which in a season where there's already an emotional triangle between Sheridan, Delenn and Lennier, fair enough. (Not to mention that Sheridan/Delenn was the most popular relationship on the show, and Lochley really didn't need any shippery resentment directed her way.) Still, that meant, and my most recent B5 rewatch underlined this for me, that the Sheridan & Ivanova friendship, which had been one of the most endearing platonic m & f relationships on the show and brought out the best in either party, had not only disappeared along with Ivanova, but that Sheridan now shared personal screentime only with Delenn, what with Garibaldi having his Bester-caused off the wagon arc and Franklin also not given to hanging out with Sheridan, while Londo and G'Kar were busy with the unfolding tragedy on Centauri Prime, so the effort to not let Lochley intrude might have actually backfired and robbed Sheridan of something of his human warmth. Equally: given that one of the key ways in which DS9 made Ezri different form Jadzia was that Ezri had ended up with the Dax symbiont accidentally, had not been prepared for it and had not originally wanted the symbiont life, it made narrative sense to let the audience see Ezri Tigan's family and have her interact with them to explore whether and how Ezri Dax was different from Ezri Tigan. I have my problems with that episode, but not with the basic premise. Just as, to look at another Ezri episode, the idea of Ezri facing the challenge of playing Counselor to Garak, of all the people, is a good one - can't ask for a bigger challenge - but the execution...

All of this, btw, still didn't stop me from liking both characters. I thought making Lochley someone who'd been on the other side of the war was an interesting premise, as was her different relationship with Bester. She had great chemistry with Garibaldi, and both their initial hostility and the way she ended up helping him really worked for me. Day of the Dead, and the reveal of Zoe, the story of Lochley's youth and how it still haunted her was great. And I took the additional tidbits we were given about Lochley - for example, that she speeks a little Centauri - and used them in fanfic. And I loved all three of her Crusade episodes. Meanwhile, Ezri's scenes in the opening s7 three parter are just what the doctor had ordered to get me and Sisko out of post-Jadzia gloom, Nicole de Boer had a knack for projecting likeability, and the story with Worf worked on a "exes who don't get together again because they realize they're (literally) different people now, but people who know each other still really well and thus can be each other's confidants" for me. If there's ever a Star Trek: Sisko show the way there was Star Trek: Picard, I do want to meet Ezri again and find out who she has become in the intervening decades. Especially without the writerly pressure of having to present her in a last season situation.

In conclusion: not having written a multi season tv show set on a space station with a big ensemble and multiple storylines, I'm not sure what I'd have done when faced with the need to replace a popular character with only one more season to go, whether I'd taken the Ezri Dax or the Elizabeth Lochley solution, and whether all those things I as a watcher concluded should have been done differently would have occured to me as a stressed out writer. But these are my thoughts on a character comparison.

The other days

lightofdaye wanted to know: Did DS9 really need to replace Jadzia in S7? (By which I mean not 'should they have given Terry Farrell what she want to stay' but 'Having killed off Jadzia did they need a replacement in s7 or could/should they have just used the rest of the cast more and saved some money?'

Not an easy question to answer, because of the wild mixture of Watsonian and Doylist aspects to consider here.

( Decades old spoilers galore and thoughts ensue )

The other days

Star Trek: DS9/TNG crossover:

On our hands: in which Sisko and Picard have another conversation, this one mid-Dominion War. I understood why DS9 didn't bring Picard back after the pilot, but in terms of fanfic, I always hope more people will write a later season Sisko and Jean-Luc encounter, and here it happens in a great ic for both of them way.

On a lighter note:

Male civilian fashion in the 24th century: let's just say TNG made a definite statement here, as evidenced by this pic spam

Babylon 5:

The other day I reread one of my all time favourite stories in the fandom, as well as one of my favourite Yuletide tales, from back when B5 was still eligible for Yuletide, to wit:

The Subtle Arrangement of Stones

If you know it already, you need no argument as to why it's great. If, however, you haven't read it upon original publication and have only since discovered B5: this gem has a season 1 setting in which Londo, G'Kar and Delenn are kidnapped by the Homeguard, and it's Vir, Na'Toth and Lennier to the rescue, because they are the best aides ever, and prove it once again. Everyone else from the s1 ensemble has cameos (the most hilarious being Garibaldi trying to get a statement out of Kosh), and it's just a rollicking grand tale as well as a love declaration to its central characters.

Check out some stories other than my gift from the startrekholidays ficathon that have caught my eye:


Star Trek: Discovery:

Within the lines of distant suns

In which Michael early in s2 makes another trip to the Mirrorverse and runs into Mirror Spock.


Things to hold onto

Lovely take on Saru and Tilly, bookending the development of their relationship by two conversations they have in s1 and after the end of s3 respectively.


All too aware

This one offers a great glimpse at Saru and (Enperor) Georgiou.


Star Trek: DS9:

We borrow our light (like the moon)

Which fleshes out and provides depth to Kira's saving Keiko via emergency surrogate pregnancy, aka the writer's way to deal with Nana Visitor's rl pregnancy. I really like this story's take on both Kira and Bashir.

Vocational Studies

Whereas this is a take on early s1 Kira and Sisko, still in the process of getting used to each other and to the entire "Emissary" situation.

Dear Star Trek Holidays Writer,


thank you for enriching my year with a ST story. We evidently like some of the same corners in the Trekverse, and your time and trouble to write for me is much appreciated.

DNWs I have only a few. I don't like character bashing, by which I don't mean characters can't denigrate each other when it's ic and demanded by the plot that they do, I mean the type of narrative where every one and their tribble gangs up to tell the character the author dislikes the most how worthless they are.

This year, I've asked for ampersand rather than for romantic or sexual relationships. If you do want to turn one of the relationships romantic or sexual because they work better for that way, be my guest (unless it's family relationships on DS9 - there, please don't). But no PWPs, please.

Book canon: there are some novels I like, some I don't, and a lot more I haven't read. So I would prefer it if you used tv canon only as the basis for your story. Personal headcanon is of course welcome as long as the story itself explains it.

All the listed characters are on an "or" basis. You don't have to use them all at the same time, except in the Star Trek: Picard request.

On to my requested fandoms and characters.

( ST: Discovery - Spoilers for season 3 )

( Star Trek: Picard )


( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine )

bimo pointed me towards this: When a Cardassian, a Vorta and two Ferengi do karaoke:

Firstly, for lovers of classical music: after having done pop playlist for good old Frederick the Ambiguously Great, friends and foes, we now present the operatic and symphonic version. It's basically "Fritz: The Opera" with stolen tunes in best operatic tradition. We tried to find (English) subtitled versions, which wasn't always possible, but hopefully the music itself will explain why it fits that particular moment/character/relationship in history so well. And if you have no interest in the history, enjoy the concert starring some of the best singers and orchestras for its own sake.

Incidentally, during the weekend when I idly checked out fail_fandomanon, I saw the question "how would character x respond when confronted with their younger self (and vice versa?" applied to various fandoms. As I said to cahn and mildred_of_midgard, our historical fandom as actual, definite, canon on that question re: the main character, without needing time travel for it. How many other fandoms can say that? (If you're wondering, the canonical answer to that question is the infinitely screwed up relationship Friedrich II had with his younger brother Heinrich (aka 'l'autre moi-meme, so dubbed by the man himself).


Secondly, fanfiction that comes up with character combinations that canon didn't in an utterly real feeling way is the best. Have one from Star Trek: DS9:

Where Everybody Knows Your Name is set post-show and has Jake Sisko dealing (or not) with Ben's spoilery status quo post finale. Somehow, the dealing (or not) takes the form of hanging out wit Quark more and more. Both the Quark and the Jake voices are pitch perfect, and this is so my head canon now.

This is a really bad week for anyone connected to Star Trek. First D.C. Fontana, this morning I learn Martina Sirtis (aka Deanna Troi from TNG) lost her husband last night, and René Auberjonois (Odo in DS9) has died.

He was 79 - which btw I had not been aware of - so he did have a life, but still. Look, I may have complained a lot about how Odo/Kira happened in s6 of DS9 (and how Odo/Dealing with his collaboriation never really happened), but that doesn't change the fact Odo was a quintessential really important part of what made the show, and a great example of an actor inspiring the writers through his performance to evolve the concept of the character. The original description for Odo as of the DS9 pilot had just been "Clint Eastwood" - that was, Eastwood's "Stranger with no name" persona from the Sergio Leone movies. And of course Auberjonois could do "gruff enigma", but he did so much more, and the vulnerability shown in such early episodes as the one with Lwaxana Troi's first visit to the station in s2, when a standard "woman chases after unwilling man" plot from TNG is turned into something else in the elevator where they both show each other their true selves, that in turn meant later episodes would provide Odo with a backstory including being experimented on by Mora, not knowing his own identity, and a present day story that made the longed for finding of his biological origins into a shattering revelation, with the Odo/Founders relationship key to the remaining show.

Despite being stuck with a facial mask that was pretty immobile, Auberjonois did such a lot with his eyes. (And body language, of course.) The first time we get Terok Nor flashbacks, you can immediately tell this is a far younger Odo despite the lack of physical difference by demeanour alone. His reaction in the final scene with Kira - which carries the reveal to the episode's "whodunit" mystery - in that same episode is non verbal and yet says it all. And of course the scenes with Armin Shimmerman as Quark, which aren't as many as you'd think given the prominence of Odo and Quark as best enemies in one's memory of the show, live from intonation and chemistry conveying such a lot during their sparring.

The end of the year sadly always brings more than its shares of deaths, but seflishly, I really hope no more creative people who have given me so much will die in 2019. It's a sadder world without them.