Lost Years 01 - The Joy Machine - secondary index page
Title: Lost Years 01 - The Joy Machine
Author: Soledad
Disclaimer: The context and the characters of the original Star Trek series belong to Gene Roddenberry and whoever keeps the rights right now. The original Battlestar Galactica belongs to Glen A. Larsen and Universal Studios, as do all the characters that appear in the show. None of these stories are wholly original, and I’m not making any money off of them.
Rating: 14+, just to be on the safe side.
Genre: Action-adventure, bit just a touch of romance.
Archiving: My website and Otherworlds.
Summary:
The first assignment of the refitted Enterprise's second five-year-mission. Kirk & Co. must find out why all contact with the planet Thimsel, housing a colony of humans, Centaurians, Denebians and Tellarites, has been broken years earlier.
An appeal to the reader:
I know that introductions are boring. Nobody likes to read them. Not even me. But I ask you to do it nevertheless. This is the second installment of a very long series, and in order to understand it, you need some background facts. Some of us might only be familiar with one of the fandoms in question, and they might want to see the bigger picture. Besides, this Introduction is considerably shorter than the one I wrote for the pilot episode.
WARNING:
These stories had originally been written bilinguically: narrative in Hungarian, dialogues in German. I’m trying to translate them into acceptable English, but there might be misspellings and some grammatical weirdness. If they really bother you that much, I gladly accept offers for beta-reading.*g*
INTRODUCTION
This is a crossover series between the original Star Trek and the original Battlestar Galactica. It contains 30+ multichapter stories, a few of them are already written, many of them in various states of completition.
Now, let’s come to the question: why writing this extremely long series?
An increasing number of people know by now that - some 10 years after the original series had been cancelled -, the creator of that series, Gene Roddenberry (and his co-workers) developed the so-called bible for a second series. This would have been called Star Trek II. and was to happen during the second five-year-mission of the Enterprise, the time frame of which was planned between 2271 and 2276. The first movie, known as TMP, would have closed this second series.
Unfortunately, this second series was never made, though certain elements can be discovered in Star Trek - The Next Generation. However, some of the screenplays were already written, and these - just like some of the unfilmed episodes of the first series - are simply too interesting to let them get lost.
When I started writing The Lost Years (and it was a very long time ago), I wanted to save the good ideas of these scripts. I read different sources, compared them to each other and shaped them to new and different stories. My main goal was to give the shamefully under-used recurring characters a chance to shine. In case you wouldn’t realize from the story itself, I’m a devoted Uhura-fan.
The main difference is the crossover that I have made between the original series and my first love in the realm of science fiction, Battlestar Galactica. Though the latter had not the chance to prove itself, it had wonderful stage arrangements, nice costumes and superior special effects - and some other, shamefully neglected supporting characters I’m very fond of: Athena, Colonel Tigh, Rigel, Cassiopeia and Boomer.
“The Joy Machine” is based on a never realized first season story idea by Theodore Surgeon. There is also an official Trek novel based on that script - trust me, mine is very different. Especially since I’ve written it before even reading that novel.
I tried to use all sources I could get my hand on, considering the second series. But I also tried not to contradict “canon” Star Trek facts. Consequently, all these stories happen after the last episode, Turnabout Intruder but before Star Trek - The Motion Picture. The series is so constructed, that TMP (i.e. its predecessor, the planned episode In Thy Image) would be the closing act of this series, since I had to let Decker and Ilia perish before the second Star Trek movie.
In one thing only did I contradict the official Star Trek canon: I consider the episodes of the cartoon series as part of the tradition, too. I could never understand why official sources keep ignoring this series, which was created by Roddenberry himself and gives us useful information for example about Spock’s childhood, the replicators and the first glimpse of the holodecs as well as the very first Native American officer in the Trek tradition: Ensign Dawson Walking Bear came 20 years earlier to the Enterprise than Commander Chakotay to the Voyager. Not to mention that the animated series gave us the most charming aliens in the Trek-universe, thank the opportunities of that technique.
I also used some of the Star Trek-novels from Simon & Schuster as a source of information. When something is borrowed from a book, I’ll always give the due credit in the Author’s notes.
Prologue
Chapter 1 - New Beginnings
Chapter 02 - A Little Quarrel About Responsibilities
Chapter 03 - The First Mission
Chapter 04 - The Ambassador
Chapter 05 - Shadows and Memories
Chapter 06 - Disturbing News
Chapter 07 - Aeropolis - One
Chapter 08 - First Contact
Chapter 09 - K'rta 2
Chapter 10 - Gartov
Chapter 11 - Polite Conversations
Chapter 12 - Debriefing and Tactics
Chapter 13 - Aeropolis - Two
Chapter 14 - Prodigal Daughters
Chapter 15 - The Trap
Chapter 16 - Escape Tactics
Chapter 17 - The Silence of the Sirens
Chapter 18 - Aftermath
Epilogue
Story complete.
Back to the main Lost Years index page.
Author: Soledad
Disclaimer: The context and the characters of the original Star Trek series belong to Gene Roddenberry and whoever keeps the rights right now. The original Battlestar Galactica belongs to Glen A. Larsen and Universal Studios, as do all the characters that appear in the show. None of these stories are wholly original, and I’m not making any money off of them.
Rating: 14+, just to be on the safe side.
Genre: Action-adventure, bit just a touch of romance.
Archiving: My website and Otherworlds.
Summary:
The first assignment of the refitted Enterprise's second five-year-mission. Kirk & Co. must find out why all contact with the planet Thimsel, housing a colony of humans, Centaurians, Denebians and Tellarites, has been broken years earlier.
An appeal to the reader:
I know that introductions are boring. Nobody likes to read them. Not even me. But I ask you to do it nevertheless. This is the second installment of a very long series, and in order to understand it, you need some background facts. Some of us might only be familiar with one of the fandoms in question, and they might want to see the bigger picture. Besides, this Introduction is considerably shorter than the one I wrote for the pilot episode.
WARNING:
These stories had originally been written bilinguically: narrative in Hungarian, dialogues in German. I’m trying to translate them into acceptable English, but there might be misspellings and some grammatical weirdness. If they really bother you that much, I gladly accept offers for beta-reading.*g*
INTRODUCTION
This is a crossover series between the original Star Trek and the original Battlestar Galactica. It contains 30+ multichapter stories, a few of them are already written, many of them in various states of completition.
Now, let’s come to the question: why writing this extremely long series?
An increasing number of people know by now that - some 10 years after the original series had been cancelled -, the creator of that series, Gene Roddenberry (and his co-workers) developed the so-called bible for a second series. This would have been called Star Trek II. and was to happen during the second five-year-mission of the Enterprise, the time frame of which was planned between 2271 and 2276. The first movie, known as TMP, would have closed this second series.
Unfortunately, this second series was never made, though certain elements can be discovered in Star Trek - The Next Generation. However, some of the screenplays were already written, and these - just like some of the unfilmed episodes of the first series - are simply too interesting to let them get lost.
When I started writing The Lost Years (and it was a very long time ago), I wanted to save the good ideas of these scripts. I read different sources, compared them to each other and shaped them to new and different stories. My main goal was to give the shamefully under-used recurring characters a chance to shine. In case you wouldn’t realize from the story itself, I’m a devoted Uhura-fan.
The main difference is the crossover that I have made between the original series and my first love in the realm of science fiction, Battlestar Galactica. Though the latter had not the chance to prove itself, it had wonderful stage arrangements, nice costumes and superior special effects - and some other, shamefully neglected supporting characters I’m very fond of: Athena, Colonel Tigh, Rigel, Cassiopeia and Boomer.
“The Joy Machine” is based on a never realized first season story idea by Theodore Surgeon. There is also an official Trek novel based on that script - trust me, mine is very different. Especially since I’ve written it before even reading that novel.
I tried to use all sources I could get my hand on, considering the second series. But I also tried not to contradict “canon” Star Trek facts. Consequently, all these stories happen after the last episode, Turnabout Intruder but before Star Trek - The Motion Picture. The series is so constructed, that TMP (i.e. its predecessor, the planned episode In Thy Image) would be the closing act of this series, since I had to let Decker and Ilia perish before the second Star Trek movie.
In one thing only did I contradict the official Star Trek canon: I consider the episodes of the cartoon series as part of the tradition, too. I could never understand why official sources keep ignoring this series, which was created by Roddenberry himself and gives us useful information for example about Spock’s childhood, the replicators and the first glimpse of the holodecs as well as the very first Native American officer in the Trek tradition: Ensign Dawson Walking Bear came 20 years earlier to the Enterprise than Commander Chakotay to the Voyager. Not to mention that the animated series gave us the most charming aliens in the Trek-universe, thank the opportunities of that technique.
I also used some of the Star Trek-novels from Simon & Schuster as a source of information. When something is borrowed from a book, I’ll always give the due credit in the Author’s notes.
Prologue
Chapter 1 - New Beginnings
Chapter 02 - A Little Quarrel About Responsibilities
Chapter 03 - The First Mission
Chapter 04 - The Ambassador
Chapter 05 - Shadows and Memories
Chapter 06 - Disturbing News
Chapter 07 - Aeropolis - One
Chapter 08 - First Contact
Chapter 09 - K'rta 2
Chapter 10 - Gartov
Chapter 11 - Polite Conversations
Chapter 12 - Debriefing and Tactics
Chapter 13 - Aeropolis - Two
Chapter 14 - Prodigal Daughters
Chapter 15 - The Trap
Chapter 16 - Escape Tactics
Chapter 17 - The Silence of the Sirens
Chapter 18 - Aftermath
Epilogue
Story complete.
Back to the main Lost Years index page.