January Meme: Star Trek/Voltaire
felis wanted to know: Which three Star Trek characters should Voltaire meet? And which one would totally ignore him and go talk to Emilie instead?
The last one is the easiest: any of the Star Trek characters who started out as scientists - Janeway, Seven of Nine, Michael Burnham, Tilly, and yes, Spock - would poune on the chance to talk to the fabulous Émilie du Chatelet before they'd talk to Voltaire. Especially if the meeting happens via actual time trip as opposed to everyone visiting a holographic recreation of Cirey complete wtith Holo!Voltaire and Holo!Émilie. Because then they'd need to enlist a great pyhsicist to fix whatever the MacGuffin is that has the ST characters stranded in the past. If I had to choose just one of them, I'd go with Tilly. Depending on which biographer you believe, she and Émilie could even bond over mother issues, and at any rate Tilly's fannish enthusiasm would be great for Émilie to hear.
As to which three other ST characters should meet and primarily engage with Voltaire:
1.) Garak from ST: DS9 for the quality dialogue and barrage of one liners from both parties which would inevitably ensue. Garak would be amused by Voltaire's occasional failed and rebuffed spying efforts; Voltaire would be appalled by the Cardassian justice system (even worse than the French 18th century one) and start a campaign immediately; Garak would be intrigued by someone who isn't naive at all yet relentless in his zeal once he picked up a cause. And they'd agree on Shakespeare. (See here. ) Then, however, Garak would score a point by mentioning the Federation laws re: genetically modified folk, proving that even in a supposedly free society there's some major discrimination going on. At which point Voltaire decides to use the case of the remaining Jack Pack as precedence and campaign against these laws as well.
2.) Mirrorverse Philippa Georgiou from ST: Discovery. She's a witty dictator both cruel and able to build on that tiny glimmer of humanity within and become more, and therefore absolutely his type. Again, there would be high quality dialogue. Presumably Voltaire in the Mirrorverse either was his worst self or didn't exist, so she wouldn't be that interested to start with and/or assume he had court fool qualifications at best, they'd go from amusing verbal sparring to downright vicious arguments, but then he'd surprise her by talking her out of a suicidal mindframe (perhaps this is Georgiou right after mid s4?) with his patented "reasons why you shouldn't kill yourself: your enemies would rejoice, you suck, and also, I'd miss you" pep up speech.
3.) The Doctor (the one from Voyager, not a guest starring DW). This is for a scenario where it's Holo!Voltaire, because you just know Holo!Voltaire would develop conciousness, creating yet another ethical headache for Janeway. Holo!Voltaire and the Doctor would start an opera production together, starring the Doctor, of course (presumably he'd requested the holodeck to provide him with such a scenario), but then there would be mighty arguments once Voltaire finds out no one watches the operas based on his plays anymore, or, for that matter, his plays, and that his fame mainly rests on his prose. The Doctor would not hold back on his musical and theatrical opinions and insist on producing Verdi or Puccini instead. In this mighty clash of egos, he'd still verbally lose because Voltaire (even a Holo version of same) just has more practice and vocabulary at verbal sparring. Then, however, Voltaire (by now exceeding his original program, because of course he does, and achieving consciousness) finds out about the Doctor's iffy status on Voyager (depending on which season we're in, and how much autonomy Janeway grants him) and the whole problem of if some holoprograms can achieve consciousness, isn't the entire holotechnology providing future slaves, and suggests teaming up for a Freedom For Holobeings campaign. I'm not sure how this episode would end for the holo cause, but I think the Doctor in the spirit of reconciliation would aquaint Voltaire with Leonard Bernstein's version of Candide, and pick that as the to be staged production, thus providing us with a finale where he sings Pangloss and the entire Voyager crew joins in with The Best of All Possible Worlds. (Voltaire sighs that they're missing out on the satire but takes the tribute as given.)
The other days
The last one is the easiest: any of the Star Trek characters who started out as scientists - Janeway, Seven of Nine, Michael Burnham, Tilly, and yes, Spock - would poune on the chance to talk to the fabulous Émilie du Chatelet before they'd talk to Voltaire. Especially if the meeting happens via actual time trip as opposed to everyone visiting a holographic recreation of Cirey complete wtith Holo!Voltaire and Holo!Émilie. Because then they'd need to enlist a great pyhsicist to fix whatever the MacGuffin is that has the ST characters stranded in the past. If I had to choose just one of them, I'd go with Tilly. Depending on which biographer you believe, she and Émilie could even bond over mother issues, and at any rate Tilly's fannish enthusiasm would be great for Émilie to hear.
As to which three other ST characters should meet and primarily engage with Voltaire:
1.) Garak from ST: DS9 for the quality dialogue and barrage of one liners from both parties which would inevitably ensue. Garak would be amused by Voltaire's occasional failed and rebuffed spying efforts; Voltaire would be appalled by the Cardassian justice system (even worse than the French 18th century one) and start a campaign immediately; Garak would be intrigued by someone who isn't naive at all yet relentless in his zeal once he picked up a cause. And they'd agree on Shakespeare. (See here. ) Then, however, Garak would score a point by mentioning the Federation laws re: genetically modified folk, proving that even in a supposedly free society there's some major discrimination going on. At which point Voltaire decides to use the case of the remaining Jack Pack as precedence and campaign against these laws as well.
2.) Mirrorverse Philippa Georgiou from ST: Discovery. She's a witty dictator both cruel and able to build on that tiny glimmer of humanity within and become more, and therefore absolutely his type. Again, there would be high quality dialogue. Presumably Voltaire in the Mirrorverse either was his worst self or didn't exist, so she wouldn't be that interested to start with and/or assume he had court fool qualifications at best, they'd go from amusing verbal sparring to downright vicious arguments, but then he'd surprise her by talking her out of a suicidal mindframe (perhaps this is Georgiou right after mid s4?) with his patented "reasons why you shouldn't kill yourself: your enemies would rejoice, you suck, and also, I'd miss you" pep up speech.
3.) The Doctor (the one from Voyager, not a guest starring DW). This is for a scenario where it's Holo!Voltaire, because you just know Holo!Voltaire would develop conciousness, creating yet another ethical headache for Janeway. Holo!Voltaire and the Doctor would start an opera production together, starring the Doctor, of course (presumably he'd requested the holodeck to provide him with such a scenario), but then there would be mighty arguments once Voltaire finds out no one watches the operas based on his plays anymore, or, for that matter, his plays, and that his fame mainly rests on his prose. The Doctor would not hold back on his musical and theatrical opinions and insist on producing Verdi or Puccini instead. In this mighty clash of egos, he'd still verbally lose because Voltaire (even a Holo version of same) just has more practice and vocabulary at verbal sparring. Then, however, Voltaire (by now exceeding his original program, because of course he does, and achieving consciousness) finds out about the Doctor's iffy status on Voyager (depending on which season we're in, and how much autonomy Janeway grants him) and the whole problem of if some holoprograms can achieve consciousness, isn't the entire holotechnology providing future slaves, and suggests teaming up for a Freedom For Holobeings campaign. I'm not sure how this episode would end for the holo cause, but I think the Doctor in the spirit of reconciliation would aquaint Voltaire with Leonard Bernstein's version of Candide, and pick that as the to be staged production, thus providing us with a finale where he sings Pangloss and the entire Voyager crew joins in with The Best of All Possible Worlds. (Voltaire sighs that they're missing out on the satire but takes the tribute as given.)
The other days