Strange New Worlds volume ten

[Linda]

Yes! I forgot that one. I think it was from the late 1930s. Great film.

[Reanok]

Yes Linda that's Admiral Nechayev she doesn't have a commmanding Prescense an Admiral should have or the dignity Picard did. And The day the Earth stood still is a great movie some Hollywood studio wants to remake this movie in the next couple of years.

[Linda]

A remake of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'? Well, I am glad people are still interested in that story, and I would go to see it, but I would not expect it to equal the original, LOL.
An android like Data would definitely an improvement on Gort, but no one could be better as Klaatu than Michael Rennie...sigh.

[evcake]

They'll just ruin it, you know they will.

[CX]

I guess I thought Nechayev made a good Admiral, both on TNG and DS9.

[Reanok]

Cx I know alot of people liked Nechayev as an Admiral I just don't like her character I thought she was arrogant ,and very annoying she gets on my nerves.

[Linda]

She may be a good admiral, but when you have one boss who resembles her...it is not so good. Didn't Picard have issues with her? I don't remember. Will have to watch some TNG episodes.

[CX]

Yeah, she told him to use Hugh to destroy the Borg, and Picard wound up disobeying that order.

[evcake]

She was a pretty solid "company man," as I recall.

[HopefulRomantic]

I had a chance to re-read a couple of the SNW 10 stories and jot down some thoughts...

"Echoes" by Randy Tatano

I was, unfortunately, put on the wrong bus from the get-go, not by the writer, but by the logline on the back cover of the book: "Strands of DNA are woven together from four Starfleet captains..." I was waiting for Archer to make an appearance for the longest time. When Jillian asked Solomon and he wouldn't tell her, and even the project backers wouldn't approve if they knew, I realized there was no Archer in this story. Boo! Turned out it was the obsessed nutball Soren from "Generations." Okay, fine, slap PR department on the nose, reorganize story in head and move on.

So. The story was richly descriptive and had an artful way of ending the Borg threat that had not occurred to me: Borg seek perfection, and the Nexus is perfect joy, so when they come together, voila. Dr. Solomon proved why he was a doctor rather than a commander ("I really thought we had enough time"), and Jillian proved that she had that extra something that commanders need to have in a make-or-break crisis. It was still kind of a shock to read a Borg story with a happy ending, though.

My favorite passage was Randy's description of Farragut: the different little signature bits of Kirk, Picard, and Janeway were spot-on perfect.


"Universal Chord" by Carolyn Winifred

I thought Carolyn did a great job of presenting T'Pol's fish-out-of-water view of these very otherworldly humans, but at the same time expressing her almost poetic reaction to the the concert and how the music transported her. There are moments when I really felt T'Pol's disconnect, a stranger in a strange land moving among the aliens without comprehending any of the idiom or culture, reflexively comparing Vulcans to humans... "wash me" written in the dust on the van, or the band members "defacing" fans' souvenirs. (One of my favorite lines. ) Then there are moments when she spontaneously reaches out, trying to describe her reaction to the music, and somehow being understood, and there is a connection.

Carolyn gave the end of the story a nice resonance for me when T'Pol saw all the disparate elements adding up to IDIC for her, and one of the band members told her that the arrival of the Vulcans gave humanity hope when they needed it. It added an extra sense of history to the tale, especially since we know that T'Pol's future will involve humans in a big way.

[Linda]

Cool! My favorite phrase from Universal Cord also was the description of autographs as 'disfacements'. I am glad we agree quite a bit on this story. It does have poetic elements and although I am not much into the type of music they seemed to be describing, the story did draw me into it and on the first reading. You could truly say, it was a universal cord.

The Echos story I did not grasp entirely on first reading, but I could see my original understanding of it was not that far off after jusTrip'n explained it. So it was kind of reassuring when you too had a 'disoriented moment' with it, HR.

And thanks to you, HR, I am appreciating "The Smell of Dead Roses" better. I missed some of its impact because of my knee jerk tuning out on the Perrin character on the first reading. But some of the best character sketches in literature are of dislikeable people. For some reason, I just got it in my head that most ST characters should be likable, LOL. Where THAT came from, I don't know, as I don't expect that from the rest of the world of literature.

Oh, HR, finally got my copy of SWN10 in the mail to you last Saturday for your 'defacing' of same! It is a bit beat up already, and contains some handwritten notes (just ignore those, I left your story clean of my scribbles). But all the books that are keepers for me are abused (cusomized? personalized?) in this manner. Cause I go back to them to see if I have changed my mind about some things and then add more notes.

[HopefulRomantic]

And thanks to you, HR, I am appreciating "The Smell of Dead Roses" better. I missed some of its impact because of my knee jerk tuning out on the Perrin character on the first reading.

What was it that Mr. Velik told Trip?... "Challenge your preconceptions or they will challenge you."

But some of the best character sketches in literature are of dislikeable people. For some reason, I just got it in my head that most ST characters should be likable, LOL. Where THAT came from, I don't know, as I don't expect that from the rest of the world of literature.

Perhaps that optimistic future that is the hallmark of Trek. Still, conflict is the key to effective drama. If Perrin had had an idyllic childhood, she might not have had the drive that compelled Sarek to take her on. I imagine Amanda was quite strong-willed as well, in her own fashion, to remain so very human even as she adapted to life on Vulcan. She probably rubbed more than a few people the wrong way in her time.

Oh, HR, finally got my copy of SWN10 in the mail to you last Saturday for your 'defacing' of same!

LOL! I never thought of it that way until now. I'll keep an eye out for it.

It is a bit beat up already, and contains some handwritten notes (just ignore those, I left your story clean of my scribbles). But all the books that are keepers for me are abused (cusomized? personalized?) in this manner. Cause I go back to them to see if I have changed my mind about some things and then add more notes.

Sounds to me like your books are well-loved, like the Velveteen Rabbit.

[Linda]

Well, at least I am WORKING on my preconceptions, LOL. I should be working on a lot of other things too, like the boat engine, my daughter's latest problems with the grandkids, cleaning my pet rabbit's cage, repressing the urge not to murder my mate for once again not putting his dirty dishes in the sink, and, of course my writing. Sigh, multi-tasking is getting harder and harder these days!

[Reanok]

Nice to see the discussion about Univerasal chord HR your comments match exactly what i liked about this story about T'Pol being a Stranger in a strange land . her fascination with human music and the concert itself you get sucked into the concert by the music and experience it like that . When I attended the Chieftains concert it was like what happened in the story.Also agree about T'Pol being interested in seeing how different humaity is with the group of musucians and the audience goers.

[Linda]

The Chieftans! Okay! Celtic music is my venue. Irish Fest in Milwaukee (last weekend) is just overkill with that. So many Celtic groups. Unfortunately, for the first time in years it rained both Saturday and Sunday which really cuts the crowds down at Irish Fest because the main stages are outdoors. There are just a couple of tents where you can listen to music sheltered from the rain.