Canon vs. Fanon, part 10: Pre-series Daniel

[sg_fignewton]

Finally, the post so many of you have been nagging me about asking for: Pre-series Daniel!

Backstory is a crucial part of understanding and writing a character. When you consider some of the more iconic fictional characters, nearly all of them reference pivotal moments in the hero's childhood or past to help us understand the driving force behind

Comments

[6beforelunch]

His status as an orphan is already confirmed in the movie:

Tiny nitpick. Foster care doesn't necessarily mean orphan. Kids with living but really crappy parents end up in foster care all the time. It's not until the series that we know Daniel is an orphan for sure.

I know, I know. I'm reaching...

I'll take movie canon over Nick canon any day.

Well, Nick is in a mental institution. I think we can take anything he says with a grain of salt. ;)

[sg_fignewton]

I'll take your nitpick. Although a general rule of Stargate in regards to Daniel is that if there are two possible interpretations of a statement, the most angsty one will be true.

Well, Nick is in a mental institution. I think we can take anything he says with a grain of salt. ;)

Well, yeah. That was more or less my point. :)

And hey, thanks for the rec on your LJ!

[6beforelunch]

And hey, thanks for the rec on your LJ!

You're welcome. I figure the more people that read these posts, the less people who will mindlessly follow fandom. And that's just good for everyone. :)

Claire and Melburn Found!!!

[aurora_novarum]

Daniel's parents names are fully listed in the ending credits of Gamekeeper, so then you get into the question of "onscreen" canon. ;-)

I can't "create" screencaps, but after the exec producer credits, it lists:

Col. John Michaels Michael Rogers
Technician Laara Sadiq
Claire Jackson Lisa Bunting
Melburn Jackson Robert Duncan

Re: Claire and Melburn Found!!!

[sg_fignewton]

Y'know, I always shorten Dad's name to "Mel" because there are so many variants on the spelling of his full name. "Melburn" was my least favorite. Ugh.

So, whew! Technically canon!

The names were so bizarre they had to come from somewhere... :)

Re: Claire and Melburn Found!!!

[aurora_novarum]

never_at_home told me that Melburn's name may have come from a character in an "Outer Limits" episode called "Mary25". I'm not sure if this has been confirmed in some behind the scenes tale or it's only an apocryphal story.

However, there was a character named Melburn in that OL episode which was written by Jonathan Glassner, and I think directed by Brad Wright...(or maybe it's the other way around. Both are in the production credits though)

Oh yeah, and the character was played by Michael Shanks.

Re: Claire and Melburn Found!!!

[sg_fignewton]

::snickers uncontrollably::

Okay, I confess. I dl'd that ep to see MS in another role and whew! If niamaea ever wants to do another pictorial essay, this time on whether or not Daniel was ever "slim" or "slight" as so many Danny-whumpers try to claim, hoo boy do I have a shirtless screencap for her. :)

Yes, he played a guy named Melburn there. No, I have no idea if the name of one inspired the name of the other. But the mere mention of it... yeah. Snickering. :)

Logically speaking

[randomfreshink]

If you put some logic against a few clues, you can tease out some bits of Daniel's history as they make sense. Now, the cavate here is that folks aren't always logical, but

Re: Logically speaking

[sg_fignewton]

I'm not sure I buy that mum was nine months preggers and going on digs to Egypt--that sounds more than foolish.

You'd assume so, wouldn't you? And yet someone clearly did that on the dig in the Yucatan, or Daniel wouldn't have ended up having to deliver her baby. :)

I like your suggestion re Nick. And heh, that turns all the usual Nick fanon on its head - Nick was the responsible one who understood the need for a child to have stability!

I also agree with much of what you say re Daniel's personality, and how it suggets a solid, stable childhood with a responsible upbringing. It's true that someone could endure difficulties and transient situations and even abuse and still come out whole and solid and self-confident, but the logical Occam's Razor thing, as you say, is that it makes a lot more sense to assume he had a decent, if very bookish, foster home.

we're all using the same clues (and, yes, there's got to be a fair amount of using fan stories for background, instead of going back to the series or movie)But it's that

Re: Logically speaking

[randomfreshink]

On the Yucatan dig, I'd always assumed it was a similar situation--a local who was having the baby (not so much someone on the dig). Partly just for that making sense, partly for context--i.e., the same situation brings the other one to mind

Re: Logically speaking

[sg_fignewton]

That to me, too, is another indication that the whole foster thing wasn't that traumatic--it seems like Daniel might have a lot more resentment for not being adopted if any Foster parents had been a nightmare enough to make crazy Nick look a good option.

Oh, excellent point! Daniel would have been ever so much more bitter towards Nick if his experience in foster homes had been even a fraction as horrific as many fanfics would suggest.

You have to go to source for the best stuff.

Yes, well, luckily we have ten years plus a movie to choose from, so we can ignore the lousier bits if we want. :)

[pulsar4529]

I've been waiting for this ever since I made a rant about his background and moonshayde mentioned that you were putting it together. Besides pointing to everyone above and going, "What they said", there's not a whole lot I can really comment on

[sg_fignewton]

Regarding the brown/blond thing: I think it goes back to those fans who came from the movie to the series, instead of the other way round. One of my absolute favorite fics is written by an author who still insists on describing Daniel in terms of James Spader, even if it's set after the Hathor-haircut. I put up with it because the rest of the story is worth it. :)

Your thoughts on the foster care system are reasonable and practical, which is why it would never satisfy most fanfic writers! :)

Like you, I never interpreted the self-hug as a sign of abuse. I merely suggested that it might be a sign for other authors. It's certainly true that the self-hug seems prompted by a need for emotional self-support - the two most vivid instances that leap into my mind are in COTG, when Jack brushes past him, and Shades of Grey, when he watches Jack "retire" to Edora. But a physical manifestation of emotional discomfort does not, in my book, automatically translate into a history of abuse.

for me upstate NY (or somewhere close to border) would

[pulsar4529]

It's certainly true that the self-hug seems prompted by a need for emotional self-support

Sorry, I just have skipped that part. I totally agree with that. (Prime example of why staying up late is a bad thing)

Hee! Then you should wander over to [info]6beforelunch and check out this, which was apparently inspired by this canon vs. fanon post. :)
Thanks!

[green_grrl]

Yay! So nice to see this collected and posted! Makes me want to play with Daniel backstory. *g* Just a couple of notes.

The child pictured in it is much younger than show canon's Daniel was when he was eligible for foster parents, so either movie canon suggests his parents' deaths at an earlier age, or the child in the picture isn't actually Daniel, but a foster brother.

Or his foster parents were family friends who knew him as a toddler.

The book has him accepted at UCLA.

The flip through his file in the movie also shows a flash of a diploma from UCLA, but I've never been able to make out any more than that from it. Would love date/degree. *sigh*

(One more thing, IMDB and Stargate Wiki both list Catherine Langford as a "C" Catherine.)

[sg_fignewton]

Or his foster parents were family friends who knew him as a toddler.

Oooh, nice suggestion! I'll add that one to my mental list, because the commentees here have come up with quite an interesting variety.

The flip through his file in the movie also shows a flash of a diploma from UCLA, but I've never been able to make out any more than that from it.

Where? In the limo? I'll have to go back and re-watch (oh, the humanity!).

(One more thing, IMDB and Stargate Wiki both list Catherine Langford as a "C" Catherine.)

Hm. I know I'm just about the only person out there who insists on spelling her name with a K, and that I probably shouldn't do so. It just makes sense to me that a woman named Catherine, with a German background, would use the Germanic K instead of the hard C. Put it down to my personal peculiarities; I'm one of only a handful of fans who has absolutely no trouble calling Daniel's wife Sha'uri when it's movie-era and switching seamlessly to Sha're when it's series-era, because I rather like the idea of "Sha'uri" being

[green_grrl]

Yes, in the limo! It takes a lot of rewind and freeze frame to catch it, because it's fast

[sg_fignewton]

Hurray, I caught it! And I've edited the post to reflect that extra little tidbit. You can see that he graduated in June, but the year is sadly not visible. Mean of them, isn't it?

Your very reasonable suggestion that she Americanized her name makes lots of sense, but... ::shrugs:: I still mentally spell it Katherine. I don't think too many people will mind. :)

As to why they changed the names...? I really, really have no idea. The show at least had the humor to reference it in Secrets when Jack mentions the other O'Neil, "with two Ls," who has no sense of humor. But the spelling of "Sha're" is canonical because it's actually written down in the Daniel's journal that Sam reads aloud in F&W. I've seen the rather snippy suggestion that they changed her name because it was too hard to pronounce, but honestly? If they were making up "Goa'uld" and "Teal'c," then why in the world would "Sha'uri" be more complicated? It even fits the mode of spelling more than Sha're does! And while you're right about the way spelling warps and changes