Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

This is the place to discuss the various Star Traks series and stories.
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by borgcrazy »

Donald wrote:Always trust a Scot to roll their rrrrrrrrrrr's! :)
Oh wow, that just put a whole new spin on that entire post! Dammit, now when I read it, I can only hear Scotty's broque in my head! Thanks... :?
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Fools Rush In

Post by Captain B »

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd here we go with the second to last story...

What does Captain Ficker have in store for Harlan Baxter, and will the Explorer be able to intervene in time? Find out in the next-to-last Star Traks: The Vexed Generation story, "Fools Rush In!"

Find it at www.star-traks.com/vexed.

Enjoy...comments to come!

Anthony
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by Donald »

Ok Captain B, you've got me on tenterhooks .

How are the Explorer crew going to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory now? Accidently wipe out 90% of the Admirality, drop 400 tonnes of beef Stroganoff onto Paris, or accidently erase the entire back story of "Days of Honor"

Oh no, that was that last week. And exactly what is a tenterhook?


Seriously, really enjoyed that episode. Kudos!
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by b-guy »

Hmmm, these two have been fun! New stories, leading up to what has to be a blockbluster finish.

Been enjoying all the standard trademarks of TVG. The complex character interactions, the humour, and those crazy kooks we've come to love over the past 8 seasons. I've also loved all the little references to earlier stories and quirks. It seems like forever since Peterman's pets have come up!

I'm sorry this is ending, but still looking forward to what you've got in store for us next!
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by Captain B »

Hey Donald, welcome aboard! I am glad you have enjoyed the stories...and that they have hopefully hung together with some sort of coherence when read straight through over a couple of months. :)
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by Star Traks »

Captain B:

Very good application of the script in closing up the Vexed Story - great cliff hanger ending and multiple threads exist for new story lines.

Your comment on Baxter/Explorer being treated as the 'fall' employtee/starship in Starfleet jogged some thoughts.

Organizations tend to have a 'fall' employee/department to keep the masses in line. The oragnization tolerate the 'fall' employee/department since the 'fall' employee/department does not stick out significantly worse than 'superior' members/departments. Upper Starfleet politics is '...since we [superior Starfleet employee/departments] are unable to prevent both the theft of and locate an advanced ship - we''ll just blame Baxter/Explorer...'.

Prolonged exposure of upper level politics ocassionally distorts one's common senses. Take an encounter from a recent snow in the DC area http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcSLlzxc72o, let the reasonable person decide.
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Commentary on "Fools Rush In"

Post by Captain B »

A little late with this, but I just realized that I saved this as a draft and never actually submitted it...

Fools Rush In

This story was probably the most responsible for delaying posting of these stories several months longer than I had anticipated. It's definitely the "Empire Strikes Back" of this three-story run. A lot of middle action, and clobbering down all the dominoes I had been setting up all year (and in some cases for some time longer than that).

I've had an idea of what the finale would look like for a while now, but figuring out how to get there was another story. Literally. I really thought I could fit all of the action in this story, and then have a nice, quiet, thoughtful finale. At about page 37 I realized that wasn't going to happen.

Once I realized this would be a two-parter of sorts, I realized I'd have to figure out where to cut. That wasn't obvious at first. I had to shift some scenes around to give things a cliffhanger feel. The last several pages were moved around quite a bit to make that work.

I also tried to walk that fine line between drama and comedy. There are a lot of emotions going on among the crew but this wouldn't be a Traks story if there weren't laughs here and there, and hopefully the balance works.

Oddly enough, the Mirk scenes were the last ones I wrote. I got toward the end, and again, realizing that the action would spill over into the finale, I also realized that Mirk hadn't shown up at all and that he needed to play a role that was somewhat important to the wrap-up of everything. That's when I got the idea to frame the story around Mirk's realization that something was about to happen - and in fact he was going to have to play a role whether he wanted to or not.

The fun thing about ending a series is you get to do things with characters that you might not do if you had a chance to come back to them again. For example, I wanted to show a little bit more of Hartley's tender side--not with MIrk, but with the Explorer. You never quite saw this in earlier stories but you get the idea that she loves the ship nearly as much as she does Mirk.

So one more story to go. Strap in...there's a bumpy ride yet to come :)

Anthony
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by Captain B »

How Far We've Come

Ficker. Baxter. Explorer. Idlewild. And a massive watermelon...all in the very last Star Traks: The Vexed Generation story: "How Far We've Come!"

Find it at http://www.star-traks.com/vexed

Commentary...

The temptation was to use this commentary to comment on the entire series, or at least the last four years of it. I decided I would save that for the "Parting Shots" thread and just keep this commentary to this particular story.

Finales are a hard thing to write, and particularly so considering that this is the third thing I've written for this series that could conceivably be considered a "finale." Not to mention the fact that this "finale" is supposed to come before "All's Well That Ends," the concluding book, which was written (astonishingly to me) ten years ago.

So I had to find a way to write a satisfying conclusion to the series that is also a bridge to "All's Well That Ends." The glutton for punishment in me actually enjoyed that idea, and I knew this was coming the moment I set about writing the second four-year stint of this series. Eventually I would brush up against "Ends."

I've been re-reading that book to see how things...er, track, and I think it works, essentially. The writing style is a bit different and the characters voices have changed somewhat, but you could go into reading "Ends" right after this story and not be too disoriented...I hope.

There was a lot of choreography here. I had folks in a lot of different places involved in action scenes, having to bemindful of the resolutions I wanted for each of their characters, and somehow this needed to eventually be wrapped up.

There's something about a finale. They are one of my favorite parts of any TV series. I will even watch a finale for a series I've never followed (such as the very good "Six Feet Under" finale). There are classics...MASH and Cheers come to mind...as well as some questionable ones such as the Seinfeld finale. And of course the Trek finales (What We Leave Behind, the DS9 finale, still being my favorite...and the Enterprise finale the odds-on least favorite). So I wanted to do something that worked as an end to the four year run of years 5-8 as well as the series entire 8 year run, and yet not get bogged down in too many sappy character exchanges. It was a delicate balance.

Ultimately, I hope this story gets to the fact that this is an unlikely bunch who needs each other. They started out as weaklings and rejects, and ended up as something else. Brave, competent, heroic...rejects. They demonstrate that they are able to do the things the Picards of the world do while not losing what they are, what makes them special.

There's another layer to this, of course. Many of these characters represent friends I've grown up with, many of whom I still see from time to time (and just as many who I don't). The Explorer was a way to keep this group together. And I thank her for that. But more on that in my concluding comments over on the parting shots thread.

If you're like me and enjoy a good "end credits" song, for this story that would be "Futures" by Jimmy Eat World.

For now, I hope this series finale is for you what it is for me. A satisfying conclusion that was a long time in coming. And a hint that the Explorer's voyages, like our own, aren't quite finished yet.

Anthony
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by borgcrazy »

Fools Rush In, How Far We've Come

Yep, there were tears. I almost openly wept, especially at The End and it hit me, "This is it. No more new Vexed Gen after this."
I actually raised my drink at the toast scene, and Harlan's speech at the debriefing got me all misty eyed.
Great job, Anthony, great job. I'm not the only one who can say that I truly love these characters and am sad that this is the end. But, unlike real life friendships, we can always go back and relive the good times anytime.
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Re: Vexed Generation Posting and Comments

Post by borgcrazy »

Captain B wrote: I've been re-reading that book to see how things...er, track, and I think it works, essentially. The writing style is a bit different and the characters voices have changed somewhat, but you could go into reading "Ends" right after this story and not be too disoriented...I hope.
Just for S&G I did just that, jumped right into "Ends" after finishing "How Far We've Come" (I'm well into Part 3 already, btw) and if anything, a lot of the references in Ends make a lot more sense now that we have the context of the last four seasons to draw on. As far as the writing style differences, while Ends definitely has a slightly different "flavor" compared to the last few newer stories, it wasn't really jarring or disorienting to me. If anything, it kinda feels like you intentionally reverted to the older style as a nod to wrapping up the Ardek storyline. Or, at the very least, you used the Ficker story to experiment with your narrative voice and went back to the more comfortable style for Ends. Either way, it feels natural to me, though whether that's as comforting as I want it to be or not is a matter of your personal perspective.
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