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when-worlds-end-archive · 3 years ago

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I Almost Lost You

A/N : The first thing I saw when I opened Tumblr was a Star Trek meme sooooo... Star Trek story! It’s been a really long time since I’ve watched it so this is based of the script of Stark Trek 2009 and movie clips. Might do a Sulu one later, same part of the movie but slightly different plot, we’ll see.

Day 2 of Writer’s Block Challenge

Pairing(s) : Leonard McCoy (Bones) 2009 x Reader

Summary : You, Bones’s girlfriend and James’s best friend, sustain a near-fatal injury during the rescue mission to Vulcan resulting in a lecture from him about how he almost lost you.

Warning(s) : Injury(not graphic), says “thank fucking god” once, swearing (it’s Bones and Kirk).

Word Count : 2,897

“I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat.” Captain Pike states, two hands going up, yours and Sulu’s. Sulu was the pilot and you were another ensign working with Chekov, you were an unlikely pair. While you hadn’t fought in a few weeks, your training was muscle memory, you could repeat the movements in your sleep if asked to.

“I have training, Sir.” You both state in unison.

“Then come with me. Kirk, you too, you’re not supposed to be here anyway.” He then turned to Chekov.

“Radio the engine room, have Chief Engineer Olsen meet us at Shuttle Bay Five.” He directs.

“Aye, Captain.” Chekov responds back, turning to his computer after received a peace sign from you.

“Let’s go.” With the orders given, you four, plus Officer Spock, hurry through the Enterprise to the shuttle bay. It’s chaos all around you, officers running back and forth along the corridors trying to get to where they needed to be, trying to transport what they needed to transport, and the likes.

“Without transporters, we can’t beam off the ship, can’t assist Vulcan, can’t do our job. I’m creating an opportunity. Mr. Kirk, Mr. Sulu, Mx. L/N, and Mr. Olson will space-jump from the shuttle. You’ll have chutes, you’ll land on that machine they’ve lowered into the atmosphere that’s scrambling our gear, you’ll get inside, disable that thing, then beam back to the ship.” As he says that, you, Kirk, and Sulu share a look, one saying “oh shit.”

Neither of you three had expected what you were about to do when you stepped onto the ship, not even under the circumstances that it was in response to a distress signal. But you hardened your resolve and nodded, accepting your given orders.

“Mr. Spock, I’m leaving you in command of the ship. Once we have transport capability and communications back up, you’ll contact Starfleet and report what the hell’s happened here. Something you’ve got only precious few minutes to figure out. If all else fails, fall back and rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian System.” He commands, Officer Spock for once not looking so compiled together for a split second before it’s once again masked by the emotionless Vulcan exterior.

“Kirk, I’m promoting you to First Officer.” You quickly grab his hand, giving it a squeeze when he reacts with shock. This was what he’d been waiting for, longing for since he stepped onto that shuttle those years ago where you’d both first met bones. He’d strutted past Commander Pike telling him that the four year plan he’d put forth, he’d do in three.

Spock tries to argue with the Captain but he puts it to a stop with a quick rebuttal.

“While I’m gone, we need to keep the chain of command. And you two make a swell team.” You couldn’t tell if he was joking, but you really didn’t think he was. Maybe a part of you even understood what he meant. The two men were polar opposites but everyone always said “opposites attract” and how they “cover each other’s weaknesses” for a reason.

You’re interrupted from your train of thought by a shoulder nudge from James, helping you tune back in to what people were saying.

“Once we knock out that machine, Sir, what happens to you?” James asked, the billion dollar question everyone was dying to ask.

“I guess you’ll have to come get me,” he responded, then to Spock, “Careful with the ship. She’s brand new.”

With the plan formulated, you have nothing else to do but what Captain Pike said, “Suit up.”

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You stand on the loading dock, zipping up your suit when James speaks up.

“Have you told Bones you’re dropping with us?” To which you shake your head, gaining a dirty look from him that’s cut off as you put on your com set, followed by your helmet.

“No,” you responded, “I didn’t. I don’t need him worrying about me right now, he’ll be busy enough with everything else going on.”

“He’s your boyfriend,” James fired back, “he deserves to know.” “And I deserve to not have my love life discussed over comms where other people can listen in. No offense, Mr. Sulu, Mr. Olson.” You finalizes, pulling the parachute pack over your shoulders, tightening the straps, and focusing on the thin lines along the wall between you and the shuttle you’d would be taking.

When the doors finally open, you step inside, Mr. Olson grinning like he’s about to go on a rollercoaster. You however, don’t share his enthusiasm. Actually, you were dreading it. When Pike asked who had hand-to-hand combat training, you assumed you’d be stepping onto the Romulans ship with him, not free falling onto their drill. You were dreading it because you have a fear of falling.

You knew James wanted to comfort you, knowing your fear of falling quite well due to some childhood accidents, but he was still too disappointed in you for not telling bones to actually do anything comforting.

“I am pumped to kick some Romulan ass. No joke. Bring it on.” Olson exclaimed, Kirk, Sulu, and you once again sharing a look, one that said “this guy’s a fucking idiot.”

“So, what kind of combat training do you have?” James asked, turning to Sulu, choosing to ignore the Engineer who obviously had an incorrect impression of what this mission required you to do.

“Fencing.” Sulu stated proudly.

“You do remember that he said ‘hand-to-hand’ combat, right?” You chimed in, giving Sulu a grin to say that you fully supported his complete disregard for that part of Pike’s statement.

“Didn’t pay much attention,” Sulu grinned back.

With that, the shuttle shoots out of the ship with a lurch, sending you towards the drill’s cord. Despite your disagreement, you and Kirk do the handshake you’d started when you were seven, neither of you being petty enough to not do it considering the circumstances.

“You ready?” He asks you as you take a deep breath in, the point of no return long since over if you had wanted to chicken out.

“No,” you respond softly, quietly, “but it’s now or never.”

Pike’s voice pipes up over your headset, cutting off your conversation, “You have one shot to land on that platform.”

“They have defenses so pull your chute as late as possible.” He tells you, furthering your terror as it means you’ll be breaking your fall much later than you would like.

“Pre-jump on one : Three, two, one.” The second he said one, the four of you slammed into the ceiling of the shuttle, the gravity in the shuttle dying instantly.

“Remember, the Enterprise won’t be able to beam you back up until you disable that drill,” he states.

“Good luck.”

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A few seconds later, the bay doors open and the free fall begins. You feel panic rising in your chest but you shove it down deer, choosing to instead position your body so that you have the least amount of drag.

You spend a few seconds, the only seconds you have to spare, closing your eyes and taking a deep breath to pull yourself together. You’re okay, you’re going to be okay, Len is okay, James’s going to be okay. Pull it together. Your team needs you.

“Away team’s entering the atmosphere.” You hear Chekov’s voice as you reopen your eyes, staring at the drill hurtling towards you at a velocity you never wanted to experience again. You could make out the general shape of the drill, from this distance, a circle with lots of cutouts and outcroppings. As you were coming in from one side, you could see the blinding plasma beam peeking over the other edge.

You angle your hands and feet for control, guiding yourself towards the drill, following the cord connecting it to the Romulan’s ship. You were waiting for the moment to pull your chute. In the background you can hear Kirk and Sulu telling the Enterprise the distance between you and the platform. At 3000 meters, Sulu pulls his parachute first, followed by you and then Kirk. You jerked upwards hard, something that would definitely leave bruising under your arms.

You shake off the thought as Mr. Olson shoots past you, still not deploying his parachute. You wondered if it was a malfunction but you knew it wasn’t when you heard the sound of his excitement through the coms.

“Pull your shoot Olson.” You yell into the headset, hoping, praying that he does what you say. Something in you however knew that he wouldn’t, he was enjoying himself too much.

50 feet, 40 feet, 30 feet, finally his chute billows out behind him but even you, someone who’s never used a parachute before, knew it was too late. The result was you watching in horror as he slammed harshly into the drill, his body being dragged by his parachute over the edge and into the plasma beam, his scream ending suddenly as he was instantly incinerated.

“Olson is gone sir.” You hear Chekov say over the intercom, panic once again rising in your chest as you continue falling towards the platform, your fear of falling worsening as you neared impact.

Kirk makes contact first, slamming into the platform before being pulled out of view by his parachute. In your panic, worried for your best friend, you turn your head to try and find him, ignoring the obstacles hurtling towards you. A bad choice. A very bad choice.

You slam into one of the many outcroppings, a sharp piece of metal piercing your side and keeping you connected to the drill. You gasp out in pain, vision going black as you hit the button on your chest that slits your parachute and pulls it back into your suit. You don’t waste a second more as you notice Kirk fighting with three Romulans.

Pulling yourself off the piece of metal that impaled you and yanking off your helmet, you lunged for the closest Romulan, wrapping your arms around their neck and dragging them backwards, away from Kirk.

Your adrenaline kicked in as they unsheathed a knife, widely stabbing around them, trying to hit you. You twist their other arm behind their back with one hand while blocking the swiping arm with the other. You twist their arm painfully before using one of your legs to kick the back of their legs, making them buckle at the knee. They fall to the ground and you manage to pry the knife from their hands, stabbing it into their neck and letting them fall to the ground.

You turn around to see James dangling over the edge of the drill with a Romulan overlooking him, the strong feeling of fear causing you to falter as you run towards him. Luckily for you, and James, Sulu makes it in time, running his sword clean through the Romulan, killing him before he can kill James.

As the Romulan tumbles over the side, you and Sulu reach down, pulling James back up onto the drill. You’re all gasping for breath when Sulu manages to point out that Olson had the charger.

“What do we do?” You yell over the wind, watching as James dives for one of the 3 blasters still on the drill. Catching on to his plan, you and Sulu follow suit, the three of you shooting at the drill, destroying it enough to disable it.

A few seconds later, as your still catching your breath, a device hurtles past you. It’s heading straight for the hole the beam had drilled.

“Kirk to Enterprise. They just launched something toward the planet.” James spoke into his communicator, alerting the crew on the Enterprise about what had just happened as you all look over the edge, waiting to be beamed up.

Right as they’re beginning the process, the drill lurches sending James to the ground and you and Sulu tipping over the edge. You let out a scream as James yells your name and then nothing.

You can see Sulu falling just below you as you begin to get an idea, the adrenaline from before paying off. You bring in your arms to reduce drag as you maneuver your body towards him, slamming into him in mid-air.

“I’ve got you, Sulu. Pull my chute.” You yell, to which Sulu does. You feel it open behind you but before the feeling of relief can sink in for either of you, the chord snaps due to the velocity at which you’re falling.

“Enterprise, we’re without a chute. Beam us up. Beam us up now.” You yell into your communicator, closing your eyes as you hurtle towards the surface of the planet, doing your best to come to terms if this is where you die.

“You’re moving to fast-,” the Transporter Chief starts before she’s cut off by the most beautiful voice you’d ever heard, besides Len’s of course.

“No, I can do that. I can do that.” He shouts before you begin to hear movement.

“I can lock on. Give me manual control. Quick.” Chekov commands, and if you made it out of this alive, you’d hug the boy the second you saw him regardless of the time and consequences.

“Enterprise, where are you?” You ask into you comm, your franticness building inside you as you continue to fall towards the planet, getting closer and closer. To the side of you, a large wall of lava shoots up from the planet’s core, so close you can feel the heart.

“If you’re going to do it, do it now.” You scream.

“Compensating gravitational pull and, gotcha,” Chekov stated, and right before you slam into the ground, you slam onto the transported pads with a laughing Chekov in front of you and a worried Jim standing beside him.

“Chekov,” you breathe out, “thank fucking god for you.” Without a second thought, you drag him, James, and Sulu in a bone-crushing hug, happy to be alive. As you hug them, you begin to feel your side aching, giving way to the most agonizing feeling you’ve ever felt.

“I’ve got to find Len,” you mutter, weaker than you thought as you begin to collapse.

“Y/N,” is the last thing you hear out of their mouths before your vision goes black.

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You finally regain consciousness with the fluorescent lights of the Enterprise’s Med Bay glowing above you, a blanket pulled over you, and a pillow underneath your head. To your left was your boyfriend sitting hunched over in a chair, his hand gripping yours, to your right was your best friend.

“What happened?” You ask the two men, watching them frantically stand up when they realize you’re awake.

“Easy now,” Kirk told you, Len and him both helping you to sit up, passing you a glass of water to sooth your parched throat.

“You, missy, passed out from the wounds you received during the rescue mission,” Len told you, his voice turning harsh, “a rescue missing you didn’t tell me about.”

“Len, you were busy,” you begin to explain yourself.

“Fuck being busy.” He cut you off.

“I’m your boyfriend. You’re my girlfriend. We’re partners. It’s not a thing where one person rushes off to do something dangerous while the other person stays in the dark. We do things together.” He continued, emphasizing the word “together.”

“I told you,” James said smugly. But you knew that underneath his smug exterior, he was hiding the fact that he was extremely worried about you.

“James, shut the fuck up.” Len states, not playing any games.

“Next time, tell me. I don’t care if I’m busy, I don’t care if you’re busy. You fucking tell me.” He states.

“But,” you tried to argue.

“But nothing. You almost died, Y/N, you almost fucking died.” He exclaimed.

“We all did.” You fired back, defending yourself, your confrontational side showing.

“I’m not talking about fighting Romulans, I’m not talking about the freefall, I’m not talking about any of the shit I can’t control. I’m talking about the fact that you got impaled and could have fucking died on this table.” He yells and you finally realize what this is all about. It wasn't about risking your life for the team, he knew you’d do it again without hesitation, this was about what happened when you slammed into the drill.

“I almost couldn’t save you,” he whispered, so lowly that only you and James would ever hear him.

“Your wound was infected and you didn't even realize it, James and Sulu didn’t even know you were injured,” he continued, his anger fizzling out.

“I almost lost you.” With those last words, you moved forward, getting up off the table and wrapping your arms around him.

“I’m sorry, Len,” you mumble into his chest as his arms wrap around you, letting him hold you for a few minutes, just so he could feel you breathing, to solidify that you were there, alive and well.

“Really, I am,” you say as you pull away just barely, giving him a loving smile.

“You know who else you should say sorry too?” James said, finally speaking up when he knew it was acceptable to crack jokes. He may be terrible with reading the room most of the time, but with his two best friends, he always knew.

“James,” you start.

“Yes?” He responded.

“Fuck off.”

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sourirenoire · 3 years ago

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Live Long And Prosper, Bitches:An Analysis of the Assertion of Ambassador Spock’s Superiority in The Next Generation

First a bit of context: I have been re-watching The Next Generation and my friend asked who the best character in TNG is. As a joke I said “Ambassador Spock, obviously”. They told me to prove it. So I did - or at least I tried! Enjoy the essay and try to not take it too seriously ;)

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Live Long And Prosper, Bitches: An Analysis of the Assertion of Ambassador Spock’s Superiority in The Next Generation

Few fictional characters have ingrained themselves as deeply into the American psyche as the logical Mr. Spock. One does not need to be a so-called “Trekkie” to instantly recognize the cool countenance and pointed ears of the world’s most famous Vulcan. However, it would be too facile a task to write about the impact the character of Mr. Spock has had on modern science fiction using his roles in Star Trek: The Original Series and the first six Star Trek movies; instead, I will demonstrate in this paper how despite a severely limited role in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ambassador Spock is still the best character of that entire series.

Over the course of its seven seasons, there were 178 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) that aired between 1987 to 1994 (IMDb, TNG). Of those 178 episodes, 4 of them mentioned the character of Ambassador Spock. The character himself was only present in 2 of them, with a total air time of only 46 minutes (Memory Alpha Wiki, Spock). And yet, with even such a limited amount of time in the series, Ambassador Spock provided one of the most compelling, long-standing story arcs of the series and beyond. If you include the character’s appearances in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery (DIS), you have a character that has had an in-universe presence spanning from the 23rd to the 32nd century - an impressive 934 year timeline of impact (Memory Alpha Wiki, Spock). The ramifications of Ambassador Spock’s TNG episodes are still affecting the franchise today, with an episode called Unification III airing in Season 4 of DIS in 2020 (IMDb, Discovery) and the entirety of the events in the 2009 movie Star Trek (Abrams) directly resulting from the episodes Unification I and Unification II that were aired in Season Five of TNG (IMDb, TNG). In these episodes, Ambassador Spock is suspected of defection to the Romulan Empire and Captain Picard must find him before he can betray the Federation. However, the plot runs much deeper than that and in fact Ambassador Spock has far grander plans: the reunification of Vulcan and Romulus. Through a tangled web of intrigue, espionage, and good old fashioned neck pinching, Ambassador Spock brings forth an exciting, interesting, and highly entertaining set of episodes to the forefront of TNG. In a series rife with boring milquetoast characters and decidedly middling writing, the episodes featuring Ambassador Spock bring an action packed storyline with universe-altering ramifications, dialing up the stakes to the level of an intergalactic struggle for war and peace. One cannot help but be drawn into the complicated machinations of the Ambassador’s plans. From a writing standpoint the unexpected plot twists and dramatic tension are among the best in the series. We also see a character that has undergone significant personal development compared to the last time the audience had encountered him. Prior to his physical appearance in Unification I, the last time Mr. Spock had been on screen was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. In this movie, Captain Spock was integral to the peace treaty signed between the Federation and the Klingon Empire - though he put his closest friends in peril in the process. He had the mindset of “peace at all costs” at that point in time. In Unification II, Ambassador Spock explains to Captain Picard why he ventured to Romulus alone - “It was I who committed Captain Kirk to that peace mission [ref. ST VI], and I who had to bear the responsibility for the consequences to him and to his crew.” (Nimoy, Unification II). With this sentence the audience has an insight into how the character has changed since we last saw him - he learned from his previous experiences in The Undiscovered Country and did not want to make the same mistakes twice. This degree of character development is uncommon in TNG, even for major characters such as Dr. Beverly Crusher or Counselor Deanna Troi (two characters notably lacking character development despite copious amounts of screen time). To be able to demonstrate such personal growth in the time frame of a single episode is impressive. I posit that it is a significant feat to provide entertaining stories, fast paced action, political intrigue, as well as noteworthy character development in a fraction of the screen time allotted to other characters; as such, this elevates Ambassador Spock to the upper echelons of compelling characters in TNG.

By the time the TNG series is released, the character of Ambassador Spock can stand on his own merit and does not require additional support from the cast around him - despite the severely limited screen time. In fact, he goes above and beyond his already notable role in the Star Trek franchise and supports another prevalent character in the series - Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Through the two character’s interactions we can see a dynamic play out that builds up and improves the character of Picard, by having Ambassador Spock act as a foil to the captain of the Enterprise-D. This effect of a foil is well used with the character of Mr. Spock - in Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) the contrast between the effervescent and emotive Captain Kirk and the cooly logical Mr. Spock was a core feature of the characters that cemented their likenesses into the collective pop culture consciousness of America. The actor Leonard Nimoy, who arguably knew the character of Mr. Spock the best of any person involved with Star Trek, explains this effect in his autobiography: “Bill’s Captain Kirk was a swashbuckling Errol Flynn type of hero; he played the role with a great deal of energy and élan, and wasn’t afraid to take chances [...] that energy was vital for the show, and made it possible for me to find a niche for my role. I don’t think the Spock character would have worked as well with Jeff Hunter, because Jeff’s Captain Pike was introverted and soft-spoken, so that there was no contrast between the two.” (Nimoy 34, 35). This problem plagues the bridge crew of the Enterprise-D for at least the first two seasons of TNG, with the characters trying to find their respective niches but each a bit too bland to distinguish them from each other readily. Picard by this point had been called a diplomat in various situations yet it wasn’t very clear what sort of diplomat he was - indeed we had stronger characterizations of other minor character’s diplomatic abilities long before we had a handle on Picard’s (Horvat)(Zambrano). He was also purported to be level headed and driven by a strong moral code; while that characterization plays out later in the series (such as in episodes like I, Borg (Echevarria) and The Perfect Mate (Echevarria and Perconte) it is not as apparent prior to the airing of Ambassador Spock’s episodes. With the interactions between Picard and Spock the audience gets to see these supposed character traits in a stronger light, thanks to the contrast provided by Ambassador Spock. It is a type of satisfactory turnabout that Spock plays the role of character foil to not just one captain of the Enterprise, but two. Through Ambassador Spock’s bold actions in Unification I & II and Face of the Enemy we can appreciate Picard’s more measured, moderate approach to diplomacy. This temperate style was difficult to perceive when compared to other people taking similarly reserved actions (Willis and Thorne) (Lewin), but when brought up against the “cowboy diplomacy” (Stewart, Unification II) of Ambassador Spock we can now clearly see how Picard is a more cautious type of diplomat. Picard admonishes Ambassador Spock for his decisions to relocate to Romulus and pursue peace with a stubbornly warlike race on his own, stating that Spock should have consulted with the Federation (Stewart, Unification II). This gives a sense of individuality to Picard, showing how he values the Federation and demurs to its authority in comparison to Ambassador Spock with his track record of contempt of authority (Roddenberry)(Star Trek: The Motion Picture). We also see the characters brought into direct comparison when we consider their relationships to the character Ambassador Sarek - Spock’s father. Picard first interacts with Ambassador Sarek in the episode Sarek (Cushman and Jacobs) where it begins with a distant respect of a notable Federation figure and evolves into a deeply intimate bonding between Picard and Sarek. This is in contrast to the relationship between Spock and Sarek, which was always fraught with conflict and estrangement (Fontana,

Journey to Babel) (Fontana, Yesteryear). Through this comparison the audience can draw some conclusions about Picard; namely that he is more in tune with Ambassador Sarek than Ambassador Spock. Since Ambassador Sarek is a well established, clearly defined character in the franchise, this makes it easy to ascribe defined traits to Picard - level headedness, fairness, a strict adherence to justice. It could also hint at both character’s difficulty to connect with those closest to them (Tormé)(Sagan)(Cushman and Jacobs). This compares to Ambassador Spock, who is arguably more strong willed once he sets his mind to something, and follows his own personal morality rather than seeking it externally or relying on established authoritative structures to dictate his actions (Roddenberry)(Peeples) (Burns and Richards). The actions of Ambassador Spock in the episode Face of the Enemy (Echevarria) demonstrate these characteristics the best, as he orchestrates the abduction of a Starfleet officer, has her surgically altered to appear Romulan without her consent, then sacrifices the lives of 18 people to save 3 and open the way for an underground Romulan railroad (Echevarria). This is a clear demonstration of his belief that the ends justify the means, something that Picard directly opposes in his own diplomatic dealings (Echevarria). By providing a contrasting personality Ambassador Spock strengthens the characterization of Jean-Luc Picard, which is a boon to the series - as Captain Picard is a central character in TNG, this comparison built up the character and certainly improved the quality of the series as a whole. This is an impressive feat for a character with such a limited time in the series.

A well-known trait of Trekkies is favoritism - a favorite character, a favorite series, a favorite class of star ship, etc. While this at-times fanatical devotion to the Star Trek universe is beneficial, it also has the unfortunate side effect of creating rifts between different segments of the fan base. A divided fan base is detrimental to a series, as it is difficult to prove the popularity of a series if half the fans won’t even watch it (because it’s not their favorite, don’t you know!). The writers and producers of the various Star Trek franchises over time have realized this and have needed to address it head on numerous times. One such instance of this is the inclusion of Ambassador Spock in TNG - a beloved character with the fortitude to unite a divided fan base. At the time (in the late 80’s and early 90’s), there was animosity and division between fans of TOS and the fans of TNG - while to an outside observer the two shows appear similar, to Star Trek fans they are completely different. The characters, the ship, the settings, and the stories were all different enough to set up two camps of fans. As such, the fan base was divided, which caused problems when it came to promoting the different films and series. The writing and production team of TNG was well aware of this division, as described by Ira Steven Behr in reference to the episode Sarek (the first TNG episode that mentions Spock): “No way could you mention the original Star Trek characters. It took days and days of arguing to slip in a single reference to Spock. So I like to think in my own sort of incoherent way I helped start to push open the door to what was a very, very closed and narrow franchise" (Erano 16-21).Tension was noted at conventions, as described by Nimoy in his autobiography: “Apparently there were two camps in Star Trek fandom: the die-hard loyalists, and those who embraced the new show, and who may or may not have felt a bit of unease about their “defection””. (Nimoy 328). It was in 1991, which was the 25th anniversary of the airing of TOS, that the plan was to release a movie (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) as well as continue with TNG as part of the celebration. The rift between the fanbases set the creative minds behind Star Trek into motion - why not use this opportunity to try and bring the two groups of fans together? Nimoy commented, "I thought that if we could do a TNG episode in which we hinted at the beginnings of a crossover between The Original Series and The Next Generation through the Spock character and through the backstory of Spock's character, it would be helpful to both. I thought it would be interesting to the fans to see the connection between the two stories. It just seemed that it made sense for me to make an appearance at that point."(Block and Erdmann 230). Leonard Nimoy wasn’t the only one who was of the opinion that there was a division that needed mending; Mark Piller,the writer of the episode Unification I, made comments to similar effect. He felt that there was a gap between the fans of TOS and TNG, and with a pair of episodes literally named “Unification” he hoped to resolve that divide: "We're really telling the story of the unification of The Original Series and Next Generation, symbolically closing the gap that had always been in the fans' minds, if no one else's, between the two shows."(Altman and Gross, 233). TNG’s executive producer Rick Berman voiced similar sentiments on the topic: "It's a validation of our series from The Original Series. There has been so much talk about the two series, in a competitive way. This is a union, a joining of the two. And that's very positive for the fans."(Block and Erdmann, 230). It speaks to the importance of this character, the sheer magnitude of his presence in the series, that with only a short time on screen Ambassador Spock was able to effectively bring together a fragmented fan base and unite all Trekkies to support the new direction the franchise was heading. This isn’t the author’s own favoritism making an assertion at this point -

Unification I and II were the highest rated TNG episodes since Encounter at Farpoint (Altman and Gross 231)(Nimoy 328). The reception at conventions was also overwhelmingly positive, as described by Nimoy when he announced his upcoming appearance in TNG: “I’ve gotten quite a bit of applause at these conventions - but I had never before heard anything so explosive from an audience. They cheered, they stomped, they whistled…and they kept on cheering, stomping and whistling until I was emotionally overwhelmed.”(Nimoy 328). To think that a single character with greatly limited screen time had the power to inspire so many people! This is how important the character of Ambassador Spock is, and the context of his appearance within TNG is crucial. “There were no longer two Star Treks, or two groups of fans - only one. The episode had accomplished what its title proclaimed; Spock had bridged the gap.” (Nimoy 328). For his importance to the fans of Star Trek, Ambassador Spock is surely the character who had the most profound impact from The Next Generation.

Throughout the seven seasons of TNG, we are introduced to a plethora of different characters. While some of the characters are obviously integral to the series, such as Captain Picard and Data, there are other characters that contributed far more than their fair share to the success of the series. Ambassador Spock, despite receiving a minor role in TNG, nevertheless manages to have a profound impact on the franchise. His contributions overshadow the roles played by much more prevalent characters. This is accomplished through the quality of the episodes he is part of with regard to the interesting plots and overarching continuity with the Star Trek universe as a whole; with his capacity as a character foil to Captain Picard; and finally with his irreplaceable and integral role with uniting a fragmented fan base. No other character could have accomplished what Ambassador Spock did - and he managed it with a mere 46 minutes of screen time. A character of his calibre is encountered so infrequently in popular culture, and he will surely be remembered for decades to come. Dif-tor heh smusma, Spock.

Works Cited

Altman, Mark A., and Edward A. Gross. Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages. Little, Brown, 1995.

Block, Paula M., and Terry J. Erdmann. Star Trek: The Next Generation 365. Abrams, 2012.

Burns, Judy, and Chet Richards, writers. “The Tholian Web.” Star Trek: The Original Series, season 3, episode 9, Paramount Pictures, 15 November 1968.

Cushman, Marc, and Jake Jacobs, writers. “Sarek.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 3, episode 23, Paramount Pictures, 14 May 1990.

Echevarria, René, writer. “Face of the Enemy.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6, episode 14, Paramount Pictures, 8 February 1993.

Echevarria, René, director. “I, Borg.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5, episode 23, Paramount Pictures, 11 May 1992.

Echevarria, René, and Gary Perconte, writers. “The Perfect Mate.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5, episode 21, Paramount Pictures, 27 April 1992.

Erano, Steven. Behr Necessities. TV Zone Special #34. no. 34, Visual Imagination, 1999, pp. 16-21.

Fontana, D. C., writer. “Journey to Babel.” Star Trek: The Original Series, season 2, episode 10, Paramount Pictures, 17 November 1967.

Fontana, D.C., writer. “Yesteryear.” Star Trek: The Animated Series, season 1, episode 2, Paramount Pictures, 15 September 1973.

Horvat, Michel, writer. “The Host.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 4, episode 23, Paramount Pictures, 13 May 1991.

IMDb. “Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series 2017– ) - Episodes.” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5171438/episodes. Accessed 2 February 2022.

IMDb. “Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series 1987–1994).” Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series 1987–1994) - Episodes - IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092455/episodes?season=5. Accessed 2 February 2022.

Lewin, Robert, writer. “Symbiosis.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1, episode 22, Paramount Pictures, 18 April 1988.

Memory Alpha Wiki. “Spock | Memory Alpha | Fandom.” Memory Alpha, https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Spock. Accessed 2 February 2022.

Nimoy, Leonard. I am Spock. Hyperion, 1995.

Nimoy, Leonard, performer. “The Menagerie Part 1 & 2.” Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 11 & 12, Paramount Pictures, 17 November 1966.

Nimoy, Leonard, performer. “Unification II.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5, episode 8, Paramount Pictures, 11 November 1991.

Peeples, Samuel A., writer. “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 1, Paramount Pictures, 22 September 1966.

Roddenberry, Gene, writer. “The Menagerie Part I.” Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 15, Paramount Pictures, 17 November 1966.

Sagan, Nicholas, writer. “Attached.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episode 8, Paramount Pictures, 8 November 1993.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Performance by Leonard Nimoy, Paramount Pictures, 1979.

Stewart, Patrick, performer. “Unification II.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5, episode 8, Paramount Pictures, 11 November 1991.

Tormé, Tracy, writer. “The Big Goodbye.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1, episode 12, Paramount Pictures, 11 January 1988.

Willis, Ralph, and Worley Thorne, writers. “Justice.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1, episode 8, Paramount Pictures, 9 November 1987.

Zambrano, Jacqueline, writer. “Loud As A Whisper.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 2, episode 5, Paramount Pictures, 9 January 1989.

#star trek #the original series #the next generation #star trek movies #spock #tos #tng #mr. spock #ambassador spock #essay #technical writing #shitposting #i am actually going to send a physical copy of this to my friend #i'm actually going to mail my friend a copy of this double spaced and MLA formatted

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ellie-andthemachine · 3 years ago

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Atlas

ATLAS

Summary: After Nero's attacks in Space, the Enterprise returns home until her next mission. Upon arriving back to Earth, Kirk finds that he has a long-lost relative, who he's never met. Will finding out that he has a Sister he's never known, impact his future as Captain of the U.S.S Enterprise?

Parings: Bones/OC, Spock/Uhura

Rating: T - For now. (See Warnings.) Warnings: If you have not watched the 2009 Reboot of Star Trek, you won't really be spoiled. HOWEVER, there are some themes here. It's major Angst, and there's a bit of Self-Harm in this story. I have rated the story as T, but that will change eventually.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Jim's sister (of whom is to be announced next chapter). The new & revised title of this fic is ‘Atlas’, named after The Score’s first album. (Psst, go peep The Score on Spotify, Pandora or YouTube…)

I apologize in advance, if some things may not make sense. What a way to start writing fan fiction again, huh? Yes, I haven't written any new material since maybe 2017? Please be patient with me. I’m rusty.

Going Home

The Enterprise was docked for repairs as well as other important things - Graduation, Promotion of many Starfleet officers, a memorial for all of whom had perished in Nero's attack - and countless other non-important things.

"This is your Captain. We will be arriving at Earth in approximately five minutes. As you are all aware of your orders from the Admirals at Starfleet, there will be a memorial for all of those we have lost in the attacks, tomorrow at 0900. Many of you will be back aboard the Enterprise, and many will not. Whatever the outcome, I wish you all luck in your future endeavors and God speed. Kirk out."

Captain James T. Kirk, sat in his chair, observing his officers around him. Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Spock, Bones. He knew they would be back aboard the Enterprise when they left Earth after the much needed repairs. That made him happy, as he felt they were his family. The family he never had before. The family in which he would do anything for.

"Approaching Earth Space Dock in three minutes, Sir."

"Aye, Sulu. Uhura, have you checked us in?"

"Yes, Captain. Ten minutes ago."

"Good."

"Keptain, iz et twue dat ve are getting a new tactical offecer?" Chekov asked, curious.

"Yes it is, Mister Chekov. In fact, the bridge crew will be meeting with a few Admirals and our new officer. Word has it, she's been trained in just about everything - engineering, tactical, science, you name it."

"Fascinating."

Kirk turned to Spock and smirked. "Sure is, Spock. Can you imagine a female tactical officer?" He grinned.

"Down boy." Uhura said, rolling her eyes.

In return, Kirk stuck his tongue out at her in response.

"Sir, if I may remind you, as Captain of this vessel, it is illogical to behave as such."

"As such, what?"

"Juvenile? Hell, an infant?" Bones emphasized Spock's point sarcastically, adding in an eye-roll for good measure.

"Precisely."

Jim shook his head. "Oh come on, gotta have some fun, lighten up. We've been through hell and back."

"You can say that again." Bones said, crossing his arms.

"Captain, we are now docking."

"Aye, Sulu. Uhura, please report to Starfleet that we're home."

Uhura nodded.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Enterprise. Welcome home." Kirk reported over the ship-wide comm.

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After all the lower crew (cadets, etc) departed the Enterprise, the senior crew (mainly the bridge, whatever tactical officers still onboard, doctors and nurses) followed in suit.

"Spock, can I see you for a moment?" Jim asked Spock, just outside the docking station back at Starfleet.

"Yes you may, Captain."

"Jim. I'm not the Captain now. In fact, I'm sure that the Admirals and Captain Pike will want to hand her back off to you, or maybe someone more capable than me."

"I decline Captaincy. I feel better suited for other things."

"Regardless. I… uh… I need to apologize."

"For what, may I ask?"

"While I can't exactly tell you why I did what I did, I apologize for my actions on the bridge the other day. I also am really sorry for the loss of your mother, and Vulcan. I know you feel a great deal of loss." Jim paused and raised his hand, realizing how he was coming off as, "I'm not pitying you, Mister Spock. I just want to offer my apologies and sincere condolences."

Spock tilted his head in understanding. "While such actions are not needed, they are appreciated. I may never understand why you did what you did. However, I accept your apology and condolences, on behalf of myself and what is left of my race."

"Thank you. I hope one day, we can serve together again." Kirk said, pausing. "On better conditions."

"I regret to say that I may be leaving Starfleet. My people will need to rebuild and being one of the last remaining of my kind, I have a duty to them."

"I understand. Whatever happens in the future for you and your people, Spock, I wish you luck."

"I wish to pass on the same to you, Captain."

"Jim."

Spock nodded. "Jim. Live Long and Prosper." He said, giving Jim the custom Vulcan salute.

"Live Long and Prosper."

With that, both Captain and First Officer went their separate ways, unknowing of their futures.

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Aye, lemme know how this first chapter was. Please?

#star trek #star trek aos #james t kirk #Leonard McCoy #the score #kirk!sister #Dr. McCoy #mccoy/oc #Angst #Atlas

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popwasabi · 5 years ago

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“Picard” S1 Review: Doesn’t boldly go but is nonetheless engaging

Produced by CBS All Access

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones, Allison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Evan Evagora, Harry Treadaway

Many fans had high hopes for “Picard” going into CBS All Access’s continuing voyage into the Star Trek franchise.

Fans wanted to see the lore finally expanded into the future after its previous three ventures (Enterprise, Abrams Trek, and Discovery) took place in the past, bring modern themes and ideas to Star Trek’s futurist’s world view in a way that felt fresh and relevant, but most importantly continue the story of the franchise’s greatest captain; Jean-Luc Picard, of course.

(He’s the best captain. This is not up for debate. Don’t @ me!)

In some ways the new series succeeds at this. We get glimpses of the previously untouched world of Star Trek post “Nemesis,” new themes that are resonant with real world events and exploratory, even critical, of the Federation’s worldview, and of course plenty of Picard himself as he navigates the strange new galaxy he inhabits.

But Picard ultimately misses the mark due to rushed storytelling, half-baked side plots, and just plain poor execution overall. It’s sad because “Picard” and this very talented cast and production team have their moments throughout this first season’s ten episode run but somehow even with 10 episodes of content to work with fans still end up with a somewhat jumbled mess.

(Me by like the eighth episode.)

This isn’t to say “Picard” isn’t worth your time if you’re an avid Star Trek fan or just someone who likes Patrick Stewart in this role in general but the first season will leave you still hungry for more and not in a good way.

“Picard” continues the story of the titular captain, now retired admiral, many years after the events of “Nemesis” as a retired Jean Luc reflects on his life in Starfleet and of his late friend Data who gave his life for his. A synth ban has been enacted in Starfleet after a major riot on Mars some years prior and Picard is understandably sour on the idea, given his relationship with Data, while also fighting Starfleet on not helping the exodus of the Romulans after the supernova that wiped out their homeworld in “Star Trek (2009).” When a young woman comes seeking Picard’s aid after an attack by mysterious assailants, revealing that she is an android and the possible daughter of Data, and gets killed, it is up to the retired Admiral to find her twin sister before she suffers the same fate.

Before we get started let’s throw out some of the bad faith arguments on why this series wasn’t all that good.

“Picard” doesn’t suck because it has “politics” in it. At this point, if you are complaining about the existence of social viewpoints and political/philosophical discussions in your Star Trek, or let alone any series for that matter, I don’t know what the hell you’ve been watching the past few decades. Star Trek has always been more than just a show about cool-looking spaceships and laser beams, you neckbeards.

(Hell, even the other “Star” got more going on in it than that.)

It’s also not bad because of female representation or “girl power.” Again, Star Trek has always had this and frankly having a few more instances of the women of Trek taking center stage doesn’t even come close to rebalancing the scales on the overall massive representation of cis white men across the genre and even the series anyways.

Also get the fuck over the use of curse words in this series. While certainly some instances in this show felt awkward, the use of the word “fuck” does not dilute Star Trek’s overall story.

(It would have made earlier season’s funnier for sure.)

Now that that’s out of way let’s get into the real reasons that, for me at least, the series fell short of an otherwise promising goal of delivering great new Star Trek.

The main problem stems from the series overall jumping off point in its first episode. Picard is understandably still upset about the death of Data and having him deal with survivor’s guilt is a great way to bring this character into the future and reexplore the humanist viewpoints Data touched on in the older series. But also having Picard deal with his fallout from Starfleet, both from the synth ban AND the Romulan exodus, creates chasmic diverging plotlines that never quite come together. The story really needed it to be one or the other. Either Picard wanting to advocate for the continued existence of synthetic life or the rescue of the Romulans post super nova. The latter is touched on a bit through the addition of the character Elnor but doesn’t quite work given that majority of the Romulans in this series are portrayed as villains.

There is definitely a post Brexit, anti-immigrant hysteria message being told there but not enough depth and nuance is given to make it look like Starfleet was particularly wrong here to abandon them given that they do end up being spies committing espionage in the Federation and the clear villains of the first season. The showrunners could have brought these two stories together by perhaps making Soji a Romulan bent on bringing down synthetic life because maybe her twin sister died in the riots on Mars, making Picard have to choose between his commitment to both minority groups abandoned by the Federation but of course, that’s not what the series goes with.

Also suddenly shoehorning in a convoluted anti-synth worldview into the already ultra-secretive Romulan empire was muddled to say the least.

(A decent summation of the Romulans, pretty much ever. Also why is the only Asian actress in this scene in Osaka depicted as an alien, Mr Kurtzman?...)

Some of these ideas could’ve been saved through better editing and pacing though but not enough is done in this first season to mitigate these issues. Too much of plot is told through plain exposition; people sitting down and talking for five-ten minutes about prophecies and backstory instead of having the story simply show us instead. It makes the pacing often slow even by Trek standards and grinds the action to a halt even when there are lasers being shot at one another in the next scene.

Many of these plots get barely any attention too. The Borg cube, why it’s abandoned, and why Hugh is working for the Romulans through the Federation is given surface level development at best. Seven of Nine returns and at one point is momentarily hooked up to the Collective and she doesn’t really say much about it after it happens. The new character’s Rios and Raffi both have side stories given to their development that get touched on once and never brought up again. Dr. Jurati straight up murders her lover and is set to turn herself into the Federation and it’s just kind of forgotten about in the finale. And Elnor, well, he gets to do his best Legolas impression slicing and dicing fellow Romulans with his sword I guess.

(He is still best boi though :3...)

The main co-star however, Soji the perfect android, has a particularly rushed development going from a scientist unknowing of her nature, to supposed prophet of doom, to predictably the savior all in one season. Her arc needed more time to develop with perhaps her Romulan love affair with Narek being the first season’s main driving force and her realization as an android being the climax.

Instead we get basically four seasons of Battlestar Galactica’s Sharon arc crammed into one season and it unfortunately makes the story feel half-baked.

(Ok, Boomer.)

Don’t get the wrong idea, all these new characters have great individual moments as well throughout the season but sooooo much side plot is shoved in already into a muddled overarching narrative that it feels like several seasons worth of storytelling stuffed and edited down into a ten episode arc. Why the series felt it needed to conclude this robust story about synth hating Romulans in “Picard’s” first season feels like an unforced error in this reviewer’s opinion even if Sir P Stew only has maybe a couple seasons of extensive acting left in him anyways.

But the season isn’t completely worthless, as much as this review has been spent dunking on its less than stellar parts. The cast is exceptional, even working with the spare parts they’ve been given. Episode 5’s “Stardust City Rag,” in particular, stands out as a good mix of old and new Trek, with a decent dosage of cheese featuring Patrick Stewart trying on a French accent in a space bar. Santiago Cabrera is delightful as the ship captain Rios while also playing various forms of himself in AI form in equally enjoyable roles. Evan Evagora is fun as the deadly yet somewhat aloof Elnor, even if his character doesn’t do all that much except cut up a few Romulans. Seeing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis reprise their roles as Riker and Troi respectively in episode 6 was heartwarming and felt the most like TNG out of all the episodes. And Jeri Ryan seems liberated in this series in this version of Seven of Nine, no doubt glad to be rid of that restrictive corset and Rick Berman’s meddling hands.

(Big “Fuck you, Rick Berman” energy going on in this scene.)

The production value is obviously high level as Trek has rarely looked this good on the small screen. There’s some great cinematography throughout the season whether it’s Picard’s chateau winery, the haunting nature of the Borg cube, or the synth homeworld in the season’s final beats. The spaceships look cool as always and the world of the future feels well futuristic.

The musical score is also top notch, with a great opening theme that feels very much in line with Trek at its futurist glimpse into a hopeful cosmos.

youtube

The season’s best moments though are between Picard and Data and will remind you why they were more than likely your favorite characters on TNG. Generally speaking, exploring the humanist themes of artificial intelligence in new Trek was a good choice and having Picard deal with survivor’s guilt kept the pulse of the muddled story still beating. Brent Spiner is still great as Data and will remind you all again how talented he has always been as an actor and though his age seeps through the makeup a bit he is nonetheless still a perfect android.

Though the finale as a whole is underwhelming, the characters do share a nice final moment that is both touching and reminiscent of everything a fan loves about Star Trek. It’s a great cap to an otherwise ok return to Star Trek for TNG’s top characters and its truly touching in the best way that this franchise has always been known to be.

(Deactivating my emotions chip because I just..can’t! I just can’t, ok! *Sobs*)

But great acting and high production value can only mask so many flaws with a convoluted plot and “Picard” unfortunately suffers from the bloated and uncooked nature of its many ideas. What the story really needed was three season arc not just ten episodes and it shows. I guess the plus side is with this particular plot wrapped up it leaves the door open for new ideas and a fresh start in the second season but it does feel like an overall miss for Picard’s homecoming back into the universe of Star Trek.

Overall, though there are worse ways a Star Trek fan can spend their quarantine than watching “Picard” and there’s certainly enough here for fans to latch onto and have hope for better things in the next season.

Hopefully things are less rushed or at least more focused in the second season and we can see a more proper return to form for both Picard and future Star Trek.

Here’s hoping the producers and writers make it so…

VERDICT:

3 out of 5

Let’s hope we get a return of Q in the next season.

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daleisgreat · 6 years ago

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Fast & Furious

I did not mean for nearly a year and a half to pass since my last entry covering the Fast and Furious franchise. I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for today’s much anticipated blog covering the fourth film in the franchise, 2009’s Fast & Furious (trailer). I recalled seeing the initial previews for this and remembered being excited about Universal reuniting the four core original cast members, but also thought that it might have been too late because it seemed like at this point both Paul Walker and Vin Diesel’s careers were well into their decline and this was their last gasp for success. As we all know by now, F&F revitalized the franchise and transitioned the films from the underground street racing/car culture series into the blockbuster action/heist movies we embrace them as today. As I alluded to in my Tokyo Drift review, F&F is where the timeline for the series goes sideways. Director Justin Lin stated in the commentary that even though Han was killed off in Tokyo Drift, he wanted to bring him back since he was a fun character so Lin has F&F take place before Tokyo Drift. Sure enough, Han is here, but only in the opening scene riding with Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew on their latest rig heist which involves a semi with five(!) gas tanker attachments on a stretch of highway that is well over the one kilometer they proclaim (though later films will greatly outdo this exaggeration). The tanker heist goes sideways and leads to Dom abandoning Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and retreating to Panama. After some time passes Dom finds out Letty was murdered, and he comes back to Cali and reunites with his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) to track down the Braga gang responsible for Letty’s murder.

I remember the scene introducing O’Conner chasing down a thug for information on his latest target in a high adrenaline foot chase that seemed ripped right out of a Bourne film. Apparently O’Conner has lethal Parkour abilities now that would multiply exponentially in his 2014 film, Brick Mansions. After eight years it was fun seeing O’Conner, Dom and Mia all reunite and within no time their chemistry was clicking with a plethora of callbacks to the first film. Yes, Dom still loves ‘family’ and crosses and O’Conner still loves NOS. I mentioned in the intro F&F transitions the series from its underground street racing roots into the action/heist genre because the film is about half and half of each. There is a big street race in the middle of the film Dom & O’Conner participate in order to win an open slot in Braga. Lin stated in the commentary GPS tech was a couple years into ubiquity and wanted to different this race by implementing plenty of snazzy GPS CG effects throughout the race. Lin unapologetically went all in with the GPS effects here and while over-the-top, they enhance this race and make it stand out as one of the marquee races in the whole Fast and Furious franchise.

I recall Gal Gadot’s character, Gisele being more prominent in the later films, and completely forgot about her being a support character in F&F. She is working for the head of Braga, Campos (John Ortiz) and the film teases a relationship between Dom and her that I also completely neglected from my initial viewing. I could not help but chuckle at Lin’s comments in the commentary predicting big things coming for the future Wonder Woman. Two big things I took away from my first viewing of this film nine years ago was that it made GPS seem like the coolest tech out there, and the intense tunnel chase scenes. There are two tunnel chase scenes in F&F, and they both paid off with memorable thrills. If you have the time make sure to check out the extra features that break down how the crew constructed their own makeshift tunnel which enabled them to pull off the insane stunts entirely with practical effects. F&F closes with O’Conner trying to get Dom’s name cleared for helping takedown Braga, only to see Dom still get carted into a bus for lockup…that is until O’Conner goes rogue and pulls up with his own crew to bust Dom off the prison transport bus in one of the best endings of the entire series. I was in disbelief on Lin’s commentary track thoughts on the ending: ‘Yeah, we left it open-ended, we’ll see what happens if folks want to revisit this.’ As box office records and many sequels would later indicate, people went on to revisit the films with aplomb.

I referenced Lin’s commentary track a few times already, and even though it is a solo commentary I highly recommend giving it a listen since it is full on nonstop factoids and anecdotes from the filming. Aside from the commentary there is another hour and a half of extra features. There is a 20-minute short film, Los Bandolerors, that sets the stage for the beginning of F&F, and while it features most of the cast and has a couple little moments referenced in the film, I would not say it is requisite viewing. There are eight extra features with most of them showcasing the cars and stunt work. The two extras I would recommend the most are Getting the Gang Back Together and Races & Chases. The former has the cast reflecting on the past films and how it felt to reunite for this film and the latter is the aforementioned extra that breaks down how the crew made the awesome GPS race and tunnel chases possible. The Pitbull music video for ‘Blanco’ is skip-worthy, but do not skip through the gag reel because it has a killer spoof at the end that left me rolling! I should mention like the prior films, on this F&F re-watch, I experienced it with the Giant Bomb commentary track where their staff does another commendable job highlighted with Alex’s vast knowledge of the series shepherding Dan’s earnest negligence of it. I enjoyed Fast & Furious much more than I remembered. The latter films upped the ante so much more with their casting and stunts that it made me forget how this film got the movies going in that direction. If you have somehow not seen this installment in the films yet, go out of your way now to correct that wrong! Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Man of Steel Man on the Moon Marine 3-5 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #Fast and Furious #vin diesel #Paul Walker #jordana brewster #michelle rodriguez #john ortiz #Gal Gadot #Justin Lin #nos

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tkmedia · 3 years ago

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Ray Flores paid his dues to become boxing’s new voice

18 Aug by Joseph Santoliquito As he walked out still damp from swim practice, the brush of a chilly breeze forced Ray Flores Jr. to clench his shoulders and yank his jacket tight to his neck. Little did he know he was stepping into a seminal life-changing moment. His father, Ray Flores Sr., was waiting for him in the warm, humming car out front of East Chicago Central High School one winter day in 2002. Ray Sr. was a Spanish teacher who wanted more for his three sons. He had a deep, baritone voice that could punch through walls. It commanded respect every time he spoke, especially to his boys. Ray Sr. had a way of being direct without being confrontational. So, when Ray Jr. tucked himself into the car for the 10-minute ride home that afternoon, he caught the brunt of it. Ray Sr. was transparent with his boys. Raising them, whatever was on his mind he said. As they drove home, Ray Sr. darted a look at his oldest son over a brewing concern and asked, “Listen Ray, are you going to become an Olympic swimmer? I hear you talking about swim practice and stuff, but what about your education? What about your future? You really need to apply yourself to something you can hang on to move forward.” A few months later, Ray Flores Jr. walked into ECTV, a local public access cable station in East Chicago, Indiana, looking for a summer jab. Ray Jr. can look back at that epiphany as to why he’ll play a central role in the broadcast of the Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas fight for the WBA welterweight title on the FOX Sports PBC Pay-Per-View this Saturday (9PM ET/6PM PT) from the T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada. “My father saw a critical moment where the swimming and my social life was becoming more important than my education and he wanted to shake me up a little bit, and I’m glad he did,” admitted Ray Jr., who will be calling the media press conferences for PBC this weekend, as well as the FOX international broadcast of the fight. “If it wasn’t for that particular conversation, I would have swum all four years in high school. I don’t think I would be where I am now if that talk never took place.” Ray Jr., who will turn 35 on August 30, would watch Julio Cesar Chavez fights with his father when he was a child, feet dangling from the edge of the living room sofa, mimicking what the fighters were doing on the screen. Ray Sr. would playfully chide him that he would only sit still for fights and Chicago Bears’ games. That was it. Otherwise, Ray Jr. was constantly moving. He still is. He easily travels 40 of the 52 weeks a year. Though he’s in his mid-30s, Ray still looks like he’s 16. He was actually that age when he walked into ECTV. Ray got an internship and worked an hour a week doing local community news and started a teen talk show. When the internship was over, he was impressive enough to be among a handful of students that the local station asked to stay on and work after school. He would do an hour-and-a-half a day during the week when school got out at 2:30. Soon after, the city of East Chicago, a hamlet in Northwest Indiana about a 31-minute drive from Chicago, bought ECTV, which allowed Ray to suggest broadcasting local high school basketball and football games. From there, Ray had a chance meeting with Miguel Torres, East Chicago’s only semblance of a sports star at the time. Torres was a World Extreme Cagefighting champion, who eventually graduated on to the UFC, before MMA was nationally regulated. Ray started following Torres and asked if ECTV could start covering his fights. Ray Sr. would make the short trek to the Ramada Inn in Hammond, Indiana, where Ray Jr., then 17, would conduct fighter meetings and then call Torres’ fights from the Hammond Civic Center, a quaint 4,000-seat arena. “I did so many events there that I grew up in that building as a commentator, and as a ring announcer,” recalled Ray. Jr. “Fight fans growing up in Philly had a legendary place like the Blue Horizon. I had the Hammond Civic Center. We were so low budget that I had to literally sit next to the camera, plug in my microphone in the upper deck of this 4,000-seat arena and called the fights next to the camera with my notes in my lap. “I think that’s where things started for me. In 2005, I began a new boxing and MMA radio show, but I wondered how I would do it, considered boxing is such a visual sport. I got a lot of help from old Chicago Tribune boxing writer Michael Hirsley would come on. But there were some obstacles. “From an MMA standpoint, I got a great start quickly from guys like Joe Goytia and Mike Davis gave me the chance when I was a sophomore at Columbia College Chicago (where he graduated with a BA in radio and television). Joe called me up to be the ring announcer for his fights that paid $200 a night. You’re a college kid, so $200 is a lot of money. “In boxing, Bobby Hitz, the Chicago promoter, gave me my opportunity a year later, in 2008, 2009. But the real breakthrough in boxing came in December 2011. Joe Martinez, who works for Golden Boy, did a local MMA fight that I was working, and I did the first half of the night and Joe did the second half of the fight. “I met Joe in the summer of 2011 and he took a liking to me. He called me out of the blue in November of 2011 and asked me if I could fill in for him in Indio, California, and I sent them a tape. I’m so blessed, because so many people are so great to me. From there, I started doing one show a month for Golden Boy since Joe was so busy.”

Ray was once a five-year-old kid watching the legendary Joe Goossen corner Gabriel Ruelas. Ray began announcing one card a month for Golden Boy and doing Floyd Mayweather undercards on large shows, like Mayweather’s fight against Canelo Alvarez in September 2013. During the Mayweather-Marcos Maidana undercard in September 2014, Sandy Goossen-Brown, Joe’s sister and Tom Brown’s wife, heard Ray and told Tom about him. In December 2014, Ray announced ESPN’s “Night of Champions” when he ran into Brown, who runs TGB Promotions. Brown asked Ray to do a Showtime ShoBox show the following week. In June 2015, Brown began bringing in Ray to host press conferences. Banner Promotions’ Artie Pelullo, Marc Abrams and Matt Rowland helped him take another step in April 2015 in getting the Lucas Matthysse-Ruslan Provodnikov announcing assignment on the HBO card. Ray received some pushback from some major network people, but he had strong allies in PBC, Brown, Kelly Swanson and Sam Watson pushing his cause. Eventually, when given the chance, he proved himself to the doubters. His talent spoke loudly. “I grew up when legends honed their craft, with Marv Albert and Bob Costas with the NBA doing Chicago Bulls games; John Madden and Pat Summerall doing NFL games; and Steve Albert, Ferdie Pacheco, Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward calling fights,” Ray said. “I remember watching the Julio Cesar Chavez beat Greg Haugen in 1993. I was watching the countdown show three hours before the pay-per-view and I wouldn’t move. “Watching the prelim fights, there was Azumah Nelson fighting Gabriel Ruelas, and the trainer for the Ruelas brothers happened to be the legendary Joe Goossen, who I work with now on FS1. I was watching Joe corner Gabe Ruelas 30 years ago, when I was five. Talk about life coming full circle.”

Ray made sure to create a good path for younger brother Miguel to follow. Ray Jr. could be the most viewed boxing announcer in the world today. He’s also the only ring announcer who then broadcasts the same fights as the blow-by-blow man. He handles PBC events as the media host, handling press conferences and grand arrivals, is the Triller blow-by-blow announcer and is the international broadcaster for the PBC fights on Showtime and FOX. Miguel Flores, 27, sounds just like his brother. And if not for Ray Jr., Miguel wouldn’t be where he is on the boxing broadcasting tree. Their goal is to be like the Buffer brothers, Michael and Bruce, one day. Miguel is heading in the same direction as Ray. “I’m very proud of Ray and I wouldn’t be where I am without him,” Miguel says. “He has a great, distinctive voice, he’s passionate about sports and anything to do with sports and boxing. He was there with Miguel Torres, and Ray would even use his own dime to cover some of his events. “Ray wasn’t handed anything. He started honing his skills at a young age. He did everything and loved it. A crucial part of his development and what you see now is the polished experience he got with ECTV and all of the things he did there. My dad really pushed that, and the voice definitely comes from our father.

Miguel (standing left) and Ray have a special surprise for their parents, Ray Sr. and Sandra, seated with younger brother Alejandro, this weekend in Las Vegas for the Pacquiao-Ugas fight. “If me, Ray and my dad were to all talk together, it would be tough to distinguish us. But if you were around us a lot, you could tell the difference. I remember Ray calling Bulls’ games standing in the living room watching games. I don’t remember my parents thinking Ray was nuts (laughs). They encouraged it. Teachers would tell my parents all of the time how special Ray was.” This weekend is a big deal for Ray Jr. personally. It’s not big because it’s a Pacquiao fight or for the attention the fight brings. It’s big because for the first time, Ray Jr. and Miguel get to treat their parents, Ray Sr. and Sandra, to a big fight in Las Vegas. “It’s something very special,” Miguel said. “Being in this industry, there’s a lot of running around and a lot of the work that goes into what we do. We’re on the road three and four weeks at a time, and it’s not a normal life, but sharing this with Ray and my parents will make this weekend special. “Ray is the one that started it. He set the path. It’s one of those weekends that we’ll never forget—and I get to share it with my parents and my brothers. It’s what makes what I do so much better. I have a brother like Ray.” Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on twitter @JSantoliquito. GET THE LATEST ISSUE AT THE RING SHOP (CLICK HERE) or Subscribe

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esonetwork · 4 years ago

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Timestamp #208: Dreamland

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/timestamp-208-dreamland/

Timestamp #208: Dreamland

Doctor Who: Dreamland (Animated Special, 2009)

“Always count your steps, Seruba Velak. You never know when you might need to escape in a box.”

One ship is pursued across the sky by two others. In a hail of laser fire, it crashes into the New Mexico desert, outside Roswell, on June 13, 1947.

Eleven years later, the Doctor arrives at a diner in Dry Springs, Nevada. He meets Cassie Rice, a customer named Jimmy, and a mysterious artifact that lights up under sonic screwdriver. While Cassie and Jimmy marvel over the technology, a man in a black suit arrives and demands it. He assaults them for it, and they make haste for the ranch where Jimmy works.

When they arrive, they find a large Viperox battle drone which has been eating the cattle. A helicopter arrives with soldiers on board, and after they blow up the Viperox, they tell the Doctor that he’s wanted at Area 51.

Also known as Dreamland.

Accompanied by Jimmy and Cassie, the Doctor is taken below ground to meet Colonel Stark. He tells them that he plans to wipe their minds, straps them to some operating tables, taunts them for a few minutes, and turns on the amnesia gas. The Doctor wriggles free, turns off the gas, and helps his companions escape through the ventilation shafts.

As alarms echo through the facility, the trio takes flight, ending up in Lab 51. Inside the lab, they discover an alien behind a glass partition. Force to run again, the team takes a lift to a hangar where they are immediately captured.

The Doctor’s entourage are shepherded toward the alien craft that crashed in Roswell. Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor hijacks the ship and takes it for a spin. Pursued by Air Force fighters, he crashes the ship in the desert. They take refuge in a ghost town called Solitude.

Meanwhile, Colonel Stark is confronted by a Viperox named Lord Azlok, demanding that he not disappoint the Viperox forces. Azlok is also very interested in the Doctor and his skills.

The Doctor and his companions find a Viperox that pulls Jimmy underground. Lord Azlok interrogates Jimmy and meets the Doctor, whom he pegs as an alien because of his two heartbeats. Cassie frees Jimmy and stages a diversion, and although the Doctor is upset that he didn’t figure out the master plan, they discover it soon enough. Lord Azlok brought the Viperox Queen to Earth, and she’s laying eggs Aliens-style to hatch an invasion force.

The trio runs again, this time taking an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mining cart ride into the blinding desert. There, they meet four men in black suits. The head Man in Black, Mr. Dread, demands the the ionic fusion bar from the diner. When the Doctor stalls, the MiBs reveal themselves as robots. They are saved by Jimmy’s grandfather, Night Eagle, and a hail of arrows.

Night Eagle reveals that he found another of the gray aliens from the crashed ship and kept him safe. Rivesh Mantilax wants to go home, but first he needs to find Seruba Velak, his wife and the alien in the base. His wife was an ambassador who was trying to build an alliance against the Viperox, but was attacked by hired mercenaries.

Colonel Stark arrives and takes everyone into custody. Back at Area 51, the Doctor discovers that Stark has allied with Azlok. They watch as the gray aliens are reunited, then discuss how Rivesh was developing a genetic weapon to destroy the Viperox. Joined by Mr. Dread, Stark reveals his plan to use the ionic fusion bar as a weapon to destroy the Soviet Union.

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to disable Mr. Dread, then runs to the roof with the alien weapon. On the edge of the roof, held at gunpoint by Stark, the Doctor pleads for the colonel’s help. Stark listens to reason, but his plan to arrest Azlok is interrupted by the Viperox leader himself and the promise to tear Earth to shreds.

Down below, Cassie finds Rivesh has been critically injured by Azlok. Once freed, Seruba says that she can save her husband, but only with her ship. Stark takes the group to the Area 51 Vault where all of the ship’s contents were stored in the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. While the Doctor and Seruba start searching, he sends Cassie and Jimmy to retrieve the TARDIS.

As the sun sets, the Viperox emerge from the desert and start their rampage while Seruba finds the component and the Doctor finds a swarm of hungry Skorpius Flies.

Stark deploys his army against the Viperox while Seruba and the Doctor play hide-and-go-seek with the flies. The army is no match for the invasion, and as Stark’s operations center is overrun by Azlok, the Doctor is reunited with the TARDIS. Jimmy, Cassie, and Seruba step aboard and they travel to Rivesh’s side. Once Rivesh is revived, the Doctor asks him to activate the device but to stop before destroying the Viperox. The Doctor connects the device into the TARDIS console and it broadcasts a signal that drives the Viperox off the planet entirely.

The Doctor let them live because, one day, they are destined to evolve into something better.

The Doctor entrusts the device to Colonel Stark for the protection of Earth. They bid farewell to Seruba and Rivesh, and the Doctor takes off as Cassie and Jimmy hold hands.

Admittedly, it is a function of its form, but this story moved like a squirrel binging energy drinks. This piece was originally planned as seven six-minute episodes for the BBC’s Red Button service. As a result, we got a story that has a plot climax every five or six minutes.

It was kind of tiring.

I could point out the technical inaccuracies, but the fact that this was a cartoon developed for a charity event gives the writers a considerable amount of grace in my eyes. Some of the errors are animation shortcuts, others concern United States history, but overall they are inconsequential to the plot on the whole.

So, I’ll revel in the character and cast lists.

Like, the return of Georgia Moffett – daughter of Peter Davison and wife of David Tennant – who we last heard (and saw) in The Doctor’s Daughter and who I really enjoy seeing/hearing on the show.

Or Lisa Bowerman as Seruba Velak. Big Finish fans know Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield, and classic era fans might remember her as Karra from Survival.

Or the first Native American companion (however briefly) in Doctor Who, Jimmy Stalkingwolf, portrayed by Canadian born English actor and singer Tim Howar. It would have been nice to a Native American actor in either this role or Night Eagle’s role, but I’ll take this advancement as progress. I mean, we’ve come quite the distance from An Unearthly Child when the First Doctor referred to “Red Indians” as having “savage minds”.

Or… How about Doctor Who getting David Warner as Lord Azlok. Emmy-award winning film, television, and theatre actor David Warner from The Omen, Time After Time, Time Bandits, Tron, Titanic, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and so much more.

I mean… wow. Just, wow.

Of course, we first heard of Dreamland from Prisoner of the Judoon, which is where we first saw the ship designs seen in this tale. We get plenty of continuity from the Doctor abhorring salutes (previously The Sontaran Stratagem and Planet of the Dead) and outright despising the nickname “Doc” (referencing The Time Meddler, The Five Doctors, The Twin Dilemma, The Ultimate Foe, and more I’m sure).

I also enjoyed seeing Doctor Who outright embrace the Roswell mythos, from the “grays” of typical close encounter accounts to the legendary Men in Black.

Production-wise, this marked the first six-part story on television since The Armageddon Factor and the first six-part story produced since Shada, which was finally completed in 2017 (but not yet reviewed in that form by this humble Whovian… although there’s always hope).

But, all of that awesomeness considered, I keep coming back to that over-caffeinated squirrel of story pacing. Like I said, it was tiring, and it really pulled me away from the adventure because I was trying to keep up with what was going on with otherwise thinly developed characters.

And that is truly a shame for a tale with so many other groundbreaking elements.

Rating: 3/5 – “Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.

UP NEXT – Doctor Who: The End of Time

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

#Doctor Who #Tenth Doctor #Timestamps Project

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rangergirl3 · 7 years ago

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crystal clear memories, 2 and 8? I love your fics!!

You got it, Anon! :-) And I love your asks!! It's a lovely cycle. :-)

Link to the story here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8793121/chapters/20158543

Title: Crystal Clear Memories

Synopsis: It's about damn time we learned how the Paladins first met each other.

Question #2: What scene did you first put down?

The first scene that came to me for the story proper was the fight between Shiro and the 'stand-in' bots. However, the first scene I actually wrote out (ages and ages before this story came together) was Pidge remembering where she'd seen Keith before. That whole chair-shattering-the-window-event at Garrison was definitely the first thing I put on paper. :-)

Question #8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of this fic?

Haha, yes, actually - more than one. :D I could tell you all sorts of different stories, but I'll stick to three.

Okay, so the scene where Aurelis is flying with Green and Pidge is loosely based off of a time when my twin sister and I were on a flight that hit massive turbulance about twenty minutes into the flight and the entire plane went silent because everyone was trying not to freak out (it stayed that way for the rest of the flight). Anyway after about another ten minutes my sister finally manages to look over at me, because we were sitting together, and sees that I've gone green, and I'm sweating, and I'm clearly not feeling well, and I've got my eyes squeezed tight shut. So she decides to quote 'Star Trek 2009' because we both love that movie, and she taps my shoulder and says, "I may throw up on you." I remember laughing weakly and then doing my best not to hurl on the row in front of us. (The stupid little baggy in the seat back in front of me wouldn't have been nearly enough). Thankfully when the plane landed we were able to bolt off the plane and I dry-heaved into a water fountain while she checked the upcoming weather, and we sped home, racing the storm, and we beat the mother of all hailstorms by about two minutes. It was wild. Also I felt like I was piloting a space ship because it was so dark and windy and we were literally racing the weather.

The second story is when Keith remembers Shiro looking everywhere for him and freaking out because he thought Keith was in the car along with his parents. I similarly freaked out one time when my three or four-year-old sister was sitting by me as we watched a school play, but when I looked at her chair during intermission she was gone. I went to every single person I saw and asked if they'd seen her, and soon everyone was looking for her. I was maybe eight, so I was trying to hold it together, and I was right up until someone said 'Oh, maybe she went out to the parking lot and someone drove off with her.' People say I screamed 'NO!' at the top of my voice and was out the door in less than five seconds, but all I remember is sprinting up the stairs to the front door of the building so I could see the parking lot. Where, lo and behold, was my three-year-old sister. She'd gone with my mom out to our car to get something, and she couldn't understand why I pulled her into a hug and didn't let go. Not the same sister I saved from drowning. She is a different sister. Now she's taller than me. Which is weird. Very weird.

The third (and final) thing that was inspired by a real event was...honestly, Hunk meeting Lance. I went to a lot of different schools, and at best, I was ignored by my classmates. But there were a few schools where people went out of their way to be cruel, and I really wanted to give Lance a chance to shine in a situation like that. But other than my sister, who was with me through it all...yeah. I really wish I'd known a Lance while I was going to school. But then, that's part of the power of writing. I can set up and describe scenarios I wish had happened. :-)

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pendragonfics · 8 years ago

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Come And Get Your Love

Paring: Mark Watney/Reader

Tags: female reader, fluff, angst, canon compliant

Summary: Mark Watney has more than one reason to make it back to Earth. One of these reasons, is you.

Word Count: 1,551

Posting Date: 2016-05-27

Current Date: 2017-05-13

It's a quiet morning. It's always a quiet morning, mainly because you had insisted on getting an apartment high up and away from the noise of the traffic and the general hubbub of the city noise. If you knew this would be your last morning waking up beside your boyfriend, you would have looked to him longer, to memorise his face, to watch him sleep. How he had a small smile in his dreams, hand clutching yours as if death would occur if he let go.

Mark Watney was the sort of man who many people wondered openly why you had made the commitment to be with. Your mother had been offended when you were sleeping with "a botanist? This isn't a game, _______, that isn't even real science!" and brother, a high school sport coach, had laughed. Many friends had set you on blind dates to "open your eyes" from this "hippy" who dreamed to be an astronaut.

The thing was, though, that's why you loved him. You loved his lopsided smile and funny jokes and the fact he spliced seeds in the kitchen and showed you how to irrigate a biome in an old coffee jar kept on the top of the TV. You loved his mop of blonde mess, and his silly jokes and how he managed to get along with almost everyone.

You wish you could have frozen time right there, just before he opened his eyes. Maybe then it wouldn't have been so bad to hear the news from his superiors.

"Babe, it's morning?" he whined. "No...it can't be."

You nod. "Yeah, it's the big day."

Mark scrunched his nose. "But I don't wanna."

You laughed, and kissed his brow. "I'll quote you on that, Mark. Mark Watney, the day of the big launch, refused to get out of bed because he didn't "wanna"." You smirk, and toss the covers off his body. "Come on. You're an astronaut. Time to make a move."

He snuffled. "Fine. But because I love you."

Stretching, you made your way upright along with Mark. "How much do you love me? It's a simple question...I'm just wondering."

"To Mars and back, _______."

With a start, he is awake. A voice tells him he is dead, and he left his _______ alone back on Earth and he'll never see her again. Another voice tells him he has a leak in his helmet, but that is not in his head. He's alive. He's hearing that voice. No. Not dead. Dying, maybe, with a fate worse than dead.

He is abandoned on Mars.

You wake in an empty bed yet again. It's been almost two years without Mark; all of this time, he's been in transit in the Hermes with his crew. It was almost straight out of Star Trek, that's what it was; a five year mission; two years there, a week to study, two years returning. Your friends had taken the opportunity of Mark being off planet to persist their ways for you to keep dating; every week you'd go to breakfast with one of them, and their old friend's cousin's nextdoor neighbor from 2009.

But today, when you wake in your empty bed, it feels even more so. There's a knock at the door, and too quickly, you sprint to it. Could it be a mailman? Your parents, another uninvited guest?

You open the door to a man in an all-black suit and paisley tie. He adjusts his glasses up his nose, and for a moment, you can see a bead of sweat drip from his dark hairline.

"Miss ______?" he smiles, and it's kind. "I'm Vincent Kapoor, I'm with NASA. We - is now a good time? I think you'll take this better if you're sitting."

Your face blanches. You've heard this speech so many times on TV, and never had you considered you being the receiver of such bad news.

"Oh no," you breathe.

Vincent licks his lips. "There will be a memorial, and you're invited to attend..."

Mark lies awake in the bunks. It's not a particular night or an anniversary or anything; it isn't Thanksgiving or Valentine's Day. It's just a night, and he's alone. Alone on Mars, alone without his ______ warming the other side of the bed, dreaming of him, reaching for him in the night to hold hands with. The Hab sways around him in the dull breeze of the Martian landscape, reminding him exactly how alone he is.

Slowly, in his sleeping bag, Mark puts his hands together, and interlocks his fingers.

There. It feels like you're there.

It's okay.

It needs to be okay, he reminds himself. I'm going to make it back to Earth. I'm going to survive Mars.

You're sitting in black when you get a phone call from the number from Mark's work, the one where Vincent had told you to call if you needed anything. You've just come back from a brunch where all of your friends had retracted their rude statements, praising your passed on boyfriend for traits they had demonised for all those years. Before thinking twice, though, you answer the call.

"This is _______," you say weakly.

"_______! This is Annie Montrose, head of PR for NASA. Vincent isn't here at the moment, he's at JPL - that's why I'm calling to give you the news." she chirps. Her voice is chipper, and you feel hollow. How can she feel so happy when you're all alone and left without a goodbye to your botanist-love?

"News?" you echo.

"Yes, news. Unfortunately, NASA has spoken too soon about Mark Watney, as he has survived the breach of his suit, and has proceeded to make move to make contact with us back on Earth." Her voice in your ear almost doesn't seem real. "I'm formally asking you to give your notice to your job for a undetermined amount of family emergency leave, care of NASA, and have you nearer to our headquarters for later contact with Mark."

You're breathless.

"He's - he's alive?" you whisper. "And I'm going to Washington?"

"Uh-huh, Mark's alive. I'm sorry, but I have a meeting I need to attend in five minutes, I'll e-mail everything to your account so you have details for travel and such. All on NASA's budget."

As soon as Pathfinder lights up, Mark's mind is avid, he finally feels something deep in his chest. Hope. He answers all of the scientists' questions; slowly, until he realises he can use a hexadecimal decryption with them, and then he asks.

Have you told ______?

Their response is as fast as it can go, Y-E-S.

Mark goes to ask about the Hermes crew, but they start speaking about how to hook the rover up, and how much satellite time is left before tomorrow.

Days pass. Your job was more than happy - it was almost like they thought you were taking maternity leave or something. Not waiting for your off-planet boyfriend to be rescued and returned to you before he did something even more outlandish. They had made contact with the rover, and now Mark was travelling a long journey to the Ares 5 MAV for the next trip there. Every day you were down in the human resources lounge, trying your best not to be too frantic, being attended or dropped in on by the big names - Teddy Sanders, Vincent Kapoor, Mindy Park - like you were the second person they needed to monitor.

"Captain Blonde-beard," you muttered, shaking your head. That was your Mark alright.

Mindy Park laughed. "Yeah, he comes up with the weirdest things. The other day he was asking really philosophical questions at 3AM." she smiled into her latte, and modulated her voice to sound different, "How come Aquaman can control whales? Whales are mammals!"

He had promised to himself that he would get very scared when he started the ascent up to the Hermes crew. After all, he was going to be the fastest man travelling in space, in the history of space travel.

"Watney, here's the count-down..." Martinez began, and closing his eyes, Mark thought of something over than potatoes and the fact he could very well die in the process of this.

He thought of the one person who kept him going this whole time, the one who he dreamed of and wished he'd proposed before he went off. ______. You.

"And we have lift-off."

Two years later

You wait anxiously in line with the others. You met Mrs Vogel and her children, and Rick Martinez' wife and son, and Commander Lewis' husband who wore an ABBA shirt, and along with them, wait behind the quarantine line the astronauts have to pass through.

"Thank goodness for Rich Purnell," Mrs Vogel hummed to you in her German-lilted English. "He managed to make it all work."

You nod. "I still - I still can't believe he's alive."

A light flashes above, and the sound of Teddy Sander's voice over a PA booms, "Welcome home, Ares IV."

Out file the crew; first, Commander Lewis breaks a sprint to her husband, wrapping her arms around his neck. Then Vogel, who gathers all his children in his arms, then his wife. Little Beth Johansson makes her way to her parents, tugging Dr Beck along - and coming out before Martinez, your eyes widen.

"Mark!"

#mark watney #mark watney the martian #the martian #the martian movie #mark watney x reader #the martian x reader #matt damon #matt damon x reader #chaotic--lovely #pendragonfics #Female reader

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omanu · 8 years ago

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i have a few tags to do, so im gonna do them all in one post so i dont keep tagging the same ppl in multiple things idk. dont worry, you dont need to do them if u dont want to ♥

i was tagged by @nashira , the angel ♥

¤ nickname: well, irl is manu, but tbh my name is manu. i have another nickname my family uses, that is budi lol

¤ zodiac sign: sagittarius

¤ height: the best scenario here is 167cm, idk how much that is in ft or whatever lmao

¤ orientation: ….. like everyone

¤ favourite fruit: cantaloupe

¤ favourite season: winter and fall

¤ favourite book: i dont think i have one, but like, the last book i read was fucking amazing everyone should read, it’s gay, it’s a series of three books, and it’s called when women were warriors.

¤ favourite flower: all of them? i love flowers in general

¤ favourite scent: RAIN, and ngl the scent of matches

¤ favourite animal: dogs and cats

¤ favourite colour: light colors and also black and blue

¤ coffee, tea or hot cocoa: hot cocoa

¤ average sleep hours: well now i sleep a lot i would say 8-12

¤ cat or dogs: BOTH

¤ n° of blankets: just one

¤ dream trip: ANY GOOD BEACH

¤ blog created: idr well, but 2015? or maybe late 2014. but ive been on tumblr since 2009/2010 lol

¤ favourite song: ……..dude idk rn is any song of bts, but on my last fm it’s probably a song by adam, the love of my life. and i love too many songs so i cant just write them all

Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each question. Real answers only. If the person who tagged you has the same initial, you must give different answers. You cannot use the same word twice. Once you enter your answers, tag 10 other people! i was tagged by @superunknwn , another angel ♥

Your name: Manu

A four letter word: mole *looks at nashira and sara* A boy’s name: … Manu An occupation: Musician Something you can wear: mittens A place: McDonald's A reason for being late: … idk … Moving? Medical matter? idk i used two words but they both begin with the letter m lol Something you shout: mYLES A movie title: Moana Something you drink: Martini An animal: Monkey A type of car: Mercedes Song title: Ma City by bts lol i was just singing this

i was tagged by @bensun a looooong time ago sorry, but i too love doing these so why not. this one is similar to the first tag game, but im doing it anyway

Answer the questions and tag 20 followers you would like to get to know better! —————– Name: Manu

Nicknames: budi. i want new nicknames tbh, cute ones.

Zodiac Sign: sagittarius

Height: 167cm

Orientation: same, i like all genders but the s*x part is……. uh, idrl

Ethnicity: native brazilian (indigenous) (wow i just saw this on the internet and im using it), mixed with whi*te some time in the past. i would know better if whi*es hadnt done that

Favorite Fruit: Probably blueberries or just berries in general and I loooove smoothies …. with any fruit to be honest

Favorite Season: Fall and winter

Favorite Book: to mention another one im reading the third book of the vampire chronicles, i love the second one, i love lestat

Favorite Flowers: yeah i like flowers, but idrn their names, i just love it

Favorite Color: light colors, but also black and blue again

Favorite Animal: dogs and cats

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: hot chocolate

Average Sleep Hours: 8-12 ay

Cat or Dog Person: BOTh

Favorite Fictional Character: MIDNIGHTER

Number of Blankets I sleep with: just one

Ideal trip: beach!!

Blog Created: 2015 ig

dear @superunknwn tagged me on this a looooooooooooooong ass time ago, sorry ily (actually she didnt tagged me but i wanted to do this so i just saved on my drafts)  Rules:  1. go to this site: https://www.random.org/lists/ 2. Pick 15 of your favorite characters or favorite people from your fandoms and list them 3. Tag at least 5 people 4. Have fun with it!  —  1. Mom/dad: Apollo!!!!!!!!!! yes!!!!! 2. Your sibling: jim halpert lmaoo thats fine 3. Your grandma/grandpa: michael jackson 4. Haunts you: park seo joon 5. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: adam lambert (ok…. i would prefer jhope but ok) 6. Your ex: taystee hdsfkhfdksjh 7. Your best friend: MIDNIGHTER 8. Proposed to you: MYLES KENNEDY DHJKSHFDF 9. Your boss: slash….. thats not ideal but glad that i know him 10. The random person you met at the bar: lestat fdkslsd friend 11. Your rival: seo in guk NOOOOO he is my bf wtf 12. Gave you your first kiss: rothen skljkld 13. Drunk and singing karaoke with: lzzy hale my love 14. Played 7 minutes in heaven with: JHOPE DFHKFSDJKSFHKJSD 15. Gave you your favorite dessert: chris traeger, my favorite dessert is not raisins

tbh im not gonna tag ppl anymore, ive already tagged everybody, yall just can do it

@lionesslindsey tagged me on this a looong time ago too, no surprise

RULES: answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions. (but that’s so many D: I’m too awkward for so many) (relatable lmao) Tagging: everyone i tagged on this long ass post Whoever wants to do this though, go ahead!

1. coke or pepsi: i dont drink soda heh 2. disney or dreamworks: I love them both, but my absolute fav movie is The Lion King. lindsey i just copied ur answer bc BITCH ME TOO, just addin Mulan here 3. coffee or tea: i dont like coffee and i never really wanted to try tea lmao 4. books or movies: Both!!!!! 5. windows or mac: only tried windows 6. dc or marvel: DC pls 7. xbox or playstation: even though i dont have and console, i like ps better 8. dragon age or mass effect: never played. dont have a console lmao 9. night owl or early riser: if those are video games…. never played i dont have a console 10. cards or chess: cards! 11. chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate 12. vans or converse: converse, never owned vans bc im poor af, so i would probably like both 13. lavellan, trevelyan, cadash, or adaar: have no idea what those are 14. fluff or angst: fluff pls 15. beach or forest: beach!!!!!!! 16. dogs or cats: BOTH 17. clear skies or rain: BOTH 18. cooking or eating out: it depends on my mood tbh 19. Spicy food or mild food: both 20. halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas: what 21. would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: a little too cold 22. if you could have a superpower, what would it be: stop time 23. animation or live action: animations 24. paragon or renegade: what 25. baths or showers: baths, even though i dont own a bathtub 26. team cap or team ironman: Iron Man 27. fantasy or sci-fi: Fantasy 28. do you have three or four favourite quotes? not really 29. youtube or netflix: youtube 30. harry potter or percy jackson: hp, but pj was pretty awesome and diverse than hp.... actually I think I only like hp more bc of the movies, but pj... is very awesome too idk 31. when you feel accomplished: 6. dc or marvel: when i finish a drawing 32. star wars or star trek: star wars 33. paperback books or hardback books: as long as i have books 34. horror or rom-com: yikes rom-com 35. to live in a world without literature or music: death 36. pastel colours or dark colours: i love both!!!!!! 37. tv shows or movies: bitch everything is both here 38. city or countryside: city, but i too love contryside 39. if any other zodiac sign could describe you, what would it be: i have no idea 40. if you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be: dont ask me that omg 41. cinema or theatre: cinema 42. if you could be any fictional character’s best friend, who’d you be: midnigher’s 43. smiling or smirking: slut for both 44. are you an ‘all or nothing’ type or are you more consistent: i dont do anything so idk dude 45. playlists or your whole library on shuffle: shuffle 46. travelling or staying at home: traveling, but i would love staying at my own home 47. books or fanfiction: Both 48. If you could live in a fantasy world, what world would it be: huh, i had never thought about this, i cant answer now. but probably i would choose to live in one of my daydreaming shit 49. your favorite cartoon: idk i live irmão do jorel, a brazilian cartoon 50. name the weirdest five songs on your itunes, current or past: bruh im dont know 51. mountains or plains: both! 52. favorite anime (or tv show if you don’t watch anime): YURI ON ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 53. which social media platform are you most like yourself on: Tumblr AND youtube 54. What are some of your passions: music 56. If you have a pet, do they do anything interesting/weird (like a cat that plays fetch, a bird that can say funny things, etc)? : not really. my cat sleeps funny sometimes hsajkdhas

#honestly #i have so many tag games to do........ i forget about them.#pls dont get mad when u tag me on something and i end up not doing it #i just forget and i probably love you #also #if we are mutuals. you can tag me anytime

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reomanet · 6 years ago

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Harlan Ellison (1932-2018)

Click on the above pic to visit our sister site Bear Alley Books Sunday, July 01, 2018 Harlan Ellison (1932-2018) (* This is a longer version of the obituary written for The Guardian which can be found on their website .) To some, Harlan Ellison was the finest short story writer to have emerged from America’s science fiction ghetto in generations. The Los Angeles Times called him “the 20th century Lewis Carroll”. To others he was a self-aggrandising monster. Short (he stood 5’ 5”), abrasive and strongly opinionated, Ellison was intolerant of everyone and everything he saw as stupid and obstinate, often to the point of fanaticism. Letting go was not in his nature. Psycho author Robert Bloch called him “the only living organism I know whose natural habitat is hot water”; to J G Ballard he was “an aggressive and restless extrovert who conducts life at a shout and his fiction at a scream.” Somehow, in between provoking people in their thousands and being pissed off by thousands of others, he managed to author 70 books and some 400 short stories, pen dozens of TV screenplays, edit books and write over 1,000 pieces on movies, television, books and jazz records. In 1967 he wrote “I am desperately afraid I will die before I’ve written all the stories I have in me.” His stories could be whimsical or cruel, playful or painful, sentimental or shocking. He loathed being branded as a “science fiction” author, although a tally of 45 genre awards prove that SF fans held him in high regard. It was a tough love and Ellison refused to have the term anywhere near his books. At a push he called himself a fantasist, working in the field of speculative fiction. In a 1996 interview he said, “I reject all genre labels because if you try to identify things, you begin to exclude a lot … what I write is Hyperactive Magic Realism. I take the received world and I reflect it back through the lens of fantasy, turned slightly so you get a different portrait.” Many stories about his dealings with fans, publishers and fellow writers swirled around Ellison, including but far from limited to: he was supposed to have tossed a fan down a lift shaft at a convention (no); he asked a statuesque blonde “What would you say to a little fuck?”, to which she replied, “Hello, little fuck” (again no, it’s an old joke); that he lasted four hours working for Walt Disney (that one’s true, says Ellison); that, following a telephone argument, he flew from his home in California to the East Coast, went to his tormentors office and punched him (no); or that he mailed, fourth class to make sure it was exceptionally foetid by the time it arrived, a dead gopher to a publisher for refusing his request to revert the rights to one of his books (true, again, says Ellison). Stories about Ellison are countless and fall, roughly equally, into the simplistic categories “What Ellison did for me” or “What Ellison did to me”. In 1993, a long-running dispute between former friends Ellison and Charles Platt allied with animosity between Ellison and publisher Gary Groth resulted in the formation of Enemies of Ellison (later Victims of Ellison), an anonymous group who issued their own newsletter. The Friends of Ellison group was founded soon after. Ellison did not limit his battles to personal feuds. In 1965, he marched in Alabama, to protest Arizona’s failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, an episode written up as ‘March to Montgomery’; he was vocally anti-Vietnam and dedicated his collection Alone Against Tomorrow to the four students shot dead at Kent State University. He was an advocate of gun control and a supporter of human rights organisations. This concern with the social problems and the depth of injustice in the world around him, was reflected in his stories and his short fiction reached a new maturity. “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ said the Ticktockman”, about civil disobedience in a world of rigid conformity, won the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1965, followed by Hugos in 1967 for “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” and 1968 for “The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World”; further Nebulas were awarded for “The Deathbird” (which also won the Jupiter Award) in 1973 and “Adrift, Just Off The Islets Of Langerhans” in 1974. In 1977, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published a special Harlan Ellison issue featuring three new stories and essays by and on Ellison; the lead story, “Jefty Is Five”, won both Hugo and Nebula awards plus the Locus Award (one of 18 Locus wins for Ellison), the British Fantasy Award and his second Jupiter Award. “Paladin Of The Lost Hour” won a Hugo in 1986 and “How Interesting: A Tiny Man” a Nebula in 2011. The Mystery Writers of America have rewarded him twice (“The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”, 1974; “Soft Monkey”, 1988), the Horror Writers of America four times (The Essential Ellison, 1988; Harlan Ellison’s Watching, 1990; “Mefisto in Onyx”, 1994; “Chatting with Anubis”, 1996), and the World Fantasy Award twice, for Angry Candy (1989) and with a lifetime achievement award (1993). Ellison has also received the lifetime achievement award from Horror Writers Association (1996), the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the SFWA (2006) and the J. Lloyd Eaton Award (2011). He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2011. He received the Silver Pen Award for Journalism from PEN International in 1988 for his column “An Edge In My Voice”, and was honoured by PEN for his continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship in 1990. Ellison’s maturing as a writer coincided with the growth of SF’s ‘New Wave’, championed by Michael Moorcock, J G Ballard and Brian W Aldiss in the British magazine New Worlds . Ellison invited dozens of authors to contribute to an anthology of stories on the cutting edge of the New Wave, resulting in Dangerous Visions (1968), which won a Special Hugo Award, as did the follow-up Again, Dangerous Vision (1972). A third volume, to be called The Last Dangerous Visions , was announced in the introduction of the latter, but never appeared. As late as 2007, Ellison, still sitting on over 80 unpublished contributions, described it as “this giant Sisyphean rock that I have to keep rolling up a hill.” Ellison received the Writers Guild of America Award a record-breaking four times (in 1965, 1967, 1973 and 1987). His awards in other media include awards from the Writers Guild of Canada, the Bradbury Award, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and the Audio Publishers Association. Ellison’s screenwriting credits included an episode of Star Trek , ‘The City On The Edge Of Forever’, for which he received the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Writers Guild’s Best Original Teleplay award. The episode is generally considered the high water mark of the original Trek series and a memorable landmark of TV in general. The episode has been a cause of contention on numerous occasions—from spats between Ellison and the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry to a 2009 lawsuit, Ellison suing Paramount for unpaid royalties from spin-offs of the episode. Ellison had, in 1980, sued ABC, claiming their TV series Future Cop was based on a 1970 story he had written in collaboration with Ben Bova. ABC settled. In 1984, Ellison threatened to sue Hemdale, the producers of The Terminator , and distributors Orion saying that director James Cameron had taken ideas from two 1964 episodes of Outer Limits written by Ellison, chiefly ‘Soldier’, an anti-war story about a soldier from the future who knows nothing but war and who is accidentally sent back in time; expanding on his original short story, Ellison added a second enemy soldier who also arrives back in the present. The terms of the settlement meant all future prints included an “acknowledgment to the works of Harlan Ellison” as the film fades into the end credits. Although for many years Ellison was dismissive of computers and the internet, he was not a Luddite. He simply remained faithful to the level of technology that worked for him and continued to use a manual Olympia typewriter, tapping away at 120 words a minute with two fingers. His very first typewriter, a Remington Rand, was sold in 2010 to author Jamie Ford. The website Ellison Webderland was set up in 1995 by Rick Wyatt with Ellison’s blessing, but a lawsuit filed against AOL in April 2000 was widely condemned online. The cause was Ellison discovering that some of his stories were available on Usenet. A 2002 decision in AOL’s favour was partly overturned on appeal in 2004 and AOL subsequently settled. Ellison later embraced the power of the internet, publishing books and e-books through his own harlanellison.com and, in August 2013, starting his own YouTube channel. Never shy of publicity, Ellison performed a number of writing stunts over the years, including writing a story a day whilst sitting in the window of bookstores in Los Angeles, Boston and London’s Charing Cross Road (Words and Music, July 1976) or a hotel lobby during a convention or live on radio. The outspoken writer was the subject of a 2008 documentary, Dreams With Sharp Teeth and played himself in episodes of Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated in 2010 and The Simpsons in 2013. Harlan Jay Ellison was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 27 May 1934, the son of Louis Laverne Ellison and his wife Serita ( née Rosenthal). Louis, a former singer (My Yiddishe Momma was written for him but made famous by Al Jolson), worked as a dentist, then at his brother-in-law’s jewellery store in Painesville, where his son attended Lathrop Grade School and East High School. Ellison later said that his only achievement at school was a National Scholastic Writing Award for a story he “shamelessly pilfered” from Karel Capek’s “R.U.R.” Being a short, arrogant Jewish kid meant regular beatings – bullying and anti-Semitism being a feature in a number of his autobiographical tales. Ellison was well-read, claiming Joseph Conrad and Immanuel Kant were amongst his boyhood favourites. James Otis Kaler’s 19th Century Tom Tyler; or, Ten Weeks With A Circus inspired him to run away, aged thirteen, to join a carnival. After three months the entire operation was closed down by the police and Ellison spent three days in a cell in Kansas City refusing to give his name. Radio adventurer Captain Midnight , comic books and pulp magazines were the more discernible influence on his early stories, written and illustrated by Ellison aged 15 and published in the children’s column of the Cleveland News in 1949. In May 1949, Ellison’s father died and he moved with his mother to a residential hotel in Cleveland. Ellison’s interest in science fiction pulps led to his co-founding the Cleveland Science Fiction Society; he was the editor and principal writer for the Bulletin of the Cleveland Science Fiction Society which later morphed into Ellison’s own fanzine, Science Fantasy Bulletins (later Dimensions ). In 1953 he attended the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia where he became infamous for describing Isaac Asimov as “a nothing”– an accusation repeated by Asimov but denied by Ellison, who insisted that his expectations of Asimov based on his work led him to blurt out “You aren’t so much.” In September 1953 Ellison entered Ohio State University but was thrown out following an incident with a professor of creative writing who reacted to Ellison’s science fiction stories by angrily dismissing his talents. Ellison’s “Why don’t you go fuck yourself!” response was the final straw in a troubled sixteen months. Ellison had sold a script to EC Comics’ Weird Science and was now determined to write full time. Travelling to New York, he lived at the homes of Lester del Rey and Algis Budrys, writers he had met through his fan activities, before arriving at West 114 Street, an apartment building where Robert Silverberg also lived. Here he collected rejection slips and earned a living working in the Broadway Book Shop in Time Square selling dirty books to tourists. Hal Ellson’s novels of gang life were popular sellers and Ellison decided to go undercover as Phil ‘Cheech’ Beldone and ran with the Barons, a Red Hook district gang, in Brooklyn for ten weeks. The resulting article was sold to Lowdown magazine but while Ellison’s photograph appeared by the article (with the addition of a drawn-in scar on his left cheek), “not one word of what I had written was in the piece.” His first published story, ‘Glowworm’, appeared in Infinity and over the next few months Ellison began selling with increasing regularity. Crestwood were one of his main outlets, Ellison contributing to their crime magazines ( Guilty , Trapped ), science fiction ( Super-Science Fiction ) and men’s magazines ( Mr. , Dude , Gent ). This surge in sales coincided with Ellison’s first marriage, to Charlotte Stein, in early 1956, although Ellison described their relationship as “four years of hell as sustained as the whine of a generator” before they divorced. Ellison wrote a novel, Web of the City , which he sold to Lion Books and completed shortly after being drafted into the Army in March 1957. After training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was posted to the Public Information Office at Fort Knox, Kentucky, where, as Troop Information NCO, he filled the pages of the weekly post newspaper with articles and reviews. Meanwhile, Web of the City had appeared – as Rumble – from Pyramid (Lion having collapsed) and Ellison sold a collection of short stories, The Deadly Streets , to Ace Books. Ellison’s huge output of up to ten published stories a month shrank dramatically. Ellison would later admit: “[U]p till 1957, I was strictly a money writer who had not yet reached the pinnacle of egomania your humble author now dwells upon . . . But I was drafted into the Army in 1957, and time for writing was at a premium. So I wrote only stories that I wanted to write, not ones I had to write to support myself or a wife or a home.” Released from the Army in April 1959, Ellison took up the invitation of publisher William Hamling to become editor of Rogue. Moving to Evanston, Illinois, Ellison entered a new phase of writing, many of his best stories from this period (“Final Shtick”, “No Game for Children”, “Lady Bug, Lady Bug”) appearing in Rogue. Ellison hired Lenny Bruce and Alfred Bester to write regular columns and give the paper an identity that could have rivaled Playboy . Following his divorce, Ellison entered a self-destructive cycle of partying and short-term relationships while working for a publisher he grew to despise. When one of his parties resulted in Ellison hurling abuse at a stranger who had just smashed a $500 sculpture, Frank M. Robinson, who also worked on Rogue , took him aside and persuaded him to take up writing full time again. Ellison threw everyone out and, taking an idea from an earlier story (“Rock and Roll – and Murder”) began writing Spider Kiss that night. The story of a monstrous rock ‘n’ roll singer, it is often thought to be based on Elvis; rather, Ellison said, it was based on Jerry Lee Lewis. It immediately sold to Knox Burger of Fawcett Gold Medal, the movie rights were picked up by Col. Tom Parker (whether to make or suppress a possible movie is unclear) and Ellison moved back to New York. There he met and married Billie Joyce Sanders, who had a child from a previous marriage. Ellison accepted an editorial job from his former employee and returned to Evanston to edit the Nightstand range of “stiffeners” on the agreement that Hamling also publish a line of mainstream books chosen by Ellison. The latter, Regency Books, published Ellison’s Gentleman Junkie and Memos From Purgatory . The latter told of Ellison’s days as ‘Cheech’ Beldone and, in its second half, how he was falsely denounced as possessing drugs and illegal weapons, arrested and spent a night in New York’s infamous jail, The Tombs. Regency Books also published Robert Bloch, B. Traven, Clarence L. Cooper, Thomas N. Scortia, Algis Budrys, Hal Ellson and Lester del Rey before Ellison decided he had made a terrible mistake returning to work for Hamling. Ellison’s soon-to-be-second-ex-wife wanted to move to the West Coast, The Ellisons returned to New York, where Harlan was able to sell another short story collection, Ellison Wonderland , financed the journey west. Whilst in New York, Dorothy Parker published a review of Gentleman Junkie in Esquire which turned Ellison’s career around, describing Ellison as “a good, clean, honest writer, putting down what he has seen and known, and no sensationalism about it” and his story “Daniel White For The Greater Good” as “without exception the best presentation I have ever seen of present racial conditions in the South and of those who try to alleviate them. I cannot recommend it too vehemently.” TV director James Goldstone took out an option on the story, which helped establish Ellison in Hollywood. Arriving in Los Angeles in January 1962, Ellison found work as a scriptwriter on Ripcord , Burke’s Law , Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea , Outer Limits and Alfred Hitchcock Presents , adapting his own Memos From Purgatory for the latter. His 1964 Outer Limits script “Demon With A Glass Hand” won him his first Writers Guild Award. Although Ellison described himself as “a common day labourer” in Hollywood, he was a man about town, written about by Gay Talese in Esquire and named one of the “most eligible swinging bachelors in Hollywood” by Cosmopolitan Magazine . His movie career, on the other hand, was less successful. The co-written The Oscar (1966) was mauled by critics and whilst some later scripts ( Harlan Ellison’s Movie , I, Robot) have seen book publication, none of Ellison’s screenplays – which include adaptations of Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron, and many of his own stories, including “Rumble” and “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” — have made it into production. A Boy And His Dog , based on Ellison’s 1969 Nebula Award-winning novella, has become something of a cult hit. Filmed by L.Q. Jones in 1974, it starred Don Johnson in a post-apocalyptic world where Vic seeks out food and sex with the aid of his telepathic dog, Blood. The film was not welcomed by everyone: Joanna Russ, in Frontier: A Journal of Women’s Studies , said, bluntly, “sending a woman to see A Boy And His Dog is like sending a Jew to a movie that glorifies Dachau”. Ellison subsequently distanced himself from the film’s misogyny and its famous last line – a blackly comical reference to the woman’s poor taste – claiming he had fought to have it removed. Ellison incorporated two additional published stories into a 1989 graphic novel version drawn by Richard Corben: a prequel, ‘Eggsucker’, and sequel ‘Run, Spot, Run’; all three tales are part of a lengthy, unpublished novel. The stories and the unfilmed movie sequel scripted by Ellison were published in 2018 as Blood’s A Rover . Ellison’s fiction output fell in the 1960s but its quality soared. He made no effort at further novels following an attempt to co-write (with Avram Davidson) a mystery novel, Don’t Speak of Rope , which was sold to Gold Medal but abandoned. Ellison’s scriptwriting for television—which included episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , Star Trek , Cimarron Strip , The Flying Nun and The Young Lawyers —tailed off in the late 1960s as his fiction gained more widespread approval. Ellison worked as a script editor on a series about an occult investigator, The Sixth Sense , and was the creator of The Starlost , a science fiction series produced in Canada. Ellison’s original pilot script, “Phoenix Without Ashes”, won him his third Most Outstanding Teleplay award from the Writers Guild of America; the version filmed, revised by other hands, was a travesty which Ellison had his name removed from and, not for the first time, insisted that ‘Cordwainer Bird’ be substituted. The story was lampooned in The Starcrossed by Ben Bova, a roman á clef wherein Ellison becomes Ron Gabriel and Bill Oxnard is Bova, who was the science advisor on the show. Ellison maintained his contact with film and television through criticism, collected in the books Harlan Ellison’s Watching , The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat . He also became a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Free Press (1972-73), Saint Louis Literary Supplement (1976), Future Life (1980-81) and LA Weekly (1982-83), his columns collected in The Harlan Ellison Hornbook and An Edge In My Voice . Ellison also became involved in the revival of The Twilight Zone , receiving his fourth Writers Guild Award for “Paladin Of The Lost Hour” but quitting when CBS censored his adaptation of Donald Westlake’s “Nackles”, a dark Christmas Special about a malevolent Santa that Ellison himself was to direct. Ellison walked. Ellison was also involved in Roger Corman’s unproduced Cutter’s World TV series and was, far more successfully, creative consultant for J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 , as well as co-writing two episodes and appearing as a Psi Cop. Ellison continued to publish collections of stories but his output over the years has been littered with projects that have fallen by the wayside. Dial 9 to Get Out (a contemporary, partly autobiographical novel first mentioned in 1967), Demon with a Glass Hand (expanding his 1964 Outer Limits story), The Prince of Sleep (a novel expanding his 1970 novella ‘The Region Between’, announced as forthcoming in 1972), The Dark Forces #1: The Salamander Enchantment (due 1975), Rif (due 1976), Shrikes (first announced in 1980) and Nights in the Garden of Trepidation are just a few of the numerous ghost titles announced but never published. An ambitious 20-volume library of Ellison’s work was begun by White Wolf in 1996 but collapsed after only four volumes a year later. Ellison created The Kilimanjaro Corporation in March 1979 to handle all his works and copyrights and he became Harlan Ellison® when Kilimanjaro trademarked his name in 2002. Since 2011, he has self-published a number of titles via harlanellison.com ( Harlan Ellison’s Brain Movies , Harlan 101 , Rough Beasts , Honorable Whoredom at a Penny a Word , 8 in 80 , Again Honorable Whoredom at a Penny a Word and The Last Person to Marry a Duck Lived 300 Years Ago ). His work continues to see publication in a wide number of media. Ellison has produced audio recordings of many of his favourite stories and six volumes of On The Road With Ellison series gathers together some of Ellison’s convention speeches, talks and lectures. Comic strip adaptations of his works include Demon with a Glass Hand by Marshall Rogers (1986), Night and the Enemy by Ken Steacy (1987), Vic and Blood by Richard Corben (1989), Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor (1995, 2007) and 7 Against Chaos , a graphic novel based on a 20-year-old film script with art by Paul Chadwick and Ken Steacy, made the New York Times bestseller list (for hardcover graphic novel) in 2013. In 2000, he began producing a weekly series of commentaries for Galaxy Online under the title “Working Without A Net,” also the title for his proposed memoirs, which were sold to a “major publisher” in 2008 and which he described as “three-quarters finished” in 2013. Of all his books, he claimed that he was most proud of Mind Fields , a collection of 33 stories each based on a painting by Polish surrealist Jacek Yerka. He lectured widely at over 300 colleges and universities and was the guest of honour of dozens of conventions. His appearances were, as one would expect, occasionally controversial. In 1969 at the Texas A&M University he referred to the university’s Corps of Cadets as “America’s next generation of Nazis.” In 2006, at the 64th World SF Convention at Anaheim, during the Hugo Awards ceremony, Ellison groped Connie Willis’s breast, an act he described as “unconscionable.” In 1985, Ellison revealed to People Weekly’ s Kristin McMurran that during the period 1978-82 he had suffered from dysphoria, a mood disorder that causes anxiety and depression. In 2011 he was diagnosed with clinical depression and put on a spectrum of medicines. In 2010, Ellison, believing he was suffering from failing health, announced that his Guest of Honor stint at MadCon in Madison, Wisconsin, would be his final convention appearance. Interviewed by Josh Wimmer at that time, he claimed “An old dog senses when it’s his time … I’m not afraid of death … All I want to make sure is that when the paper comes out, it says, ‘Harlan Ellison died in his sleep’… “I have led exactly the life I would wish to lead. I have led the life I guess that everybody in their heart of hearts wants to lead.” For five years, beginning in 2011, Ellison began conducting a series of exhaustive interviews with documentarian Nat Segaloff which formed the basis for A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison . Ellison died on Thursday, 28 June 2018, aged 84. His death was announced by family friend Christine Valada (widow of Len Wein) who said that he died in his sleep. Following his second divorce, Ellison was married to Lory Patrick in 1966 (divorced within a few months), to Lori Horwitz in 1976 (divorced 1977) and finally to Susan Toth in 1986, who survives him. He is survived by his niece, Lisa Rubin (daughter of his estranged sister, Beverly, whom he saw only once after 1962) and nephew Loren Rabnick. Ellison has said that “immediately on the striking of my passing—or as soon thereafter as conveniently possible—[Susan] is to destroy all of my unfinished stories, burn and stir the ashes of any manuscripts in progress, do the same to any novels-in-progress, flense all notes and snippets, tear out all the pages of my working notebooks and in-progress files and, in short, make it impossible for anyone to ghost-write, collaborate-to-completion, or ‘finish’ anything incomplete at the moment of my death.” Posted by