In my WIP post from12 February, I spoke a little on the subject of this project that keeps kind of creeping up on me. I had some time to take a look at some of the logistics of doing a story where the central plot takes place on a planet-based colony rather than on a starship, and I decided to begin plotting some of the particulars out on a white piece of paper.
What I came up with was something called “Star Trek: Linear,” and it has to do with a non-linear based story that shifts between various points in the main character’s life. Again, as mentioned earlier, I’ve written about three thousand words of the first story so far, which begins near the end of her life, well after most of the events that we’ve seen taken place within the Trek universe.
I don’t have a proper summary just yet, but the first story is about how our main character, about fifty years beyond the events of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It’s her birthday and her daughter’s family has arrived at her home on Kessik IV to celebrate with a family gathering. During their time together, she notices her grandson in the midst of a falling out with his father. His father is adamant about enrollment in a Starfleet Academy prep school off-world, but the grandson is very reluctant to commit to any path that leads to Starfleet. There’s an exchange of words, and her grandson leaves the dinner table to get away from his father.
Shortly after dinner, the grandson goes down to her study and she finds him wandering around within. He sees her holographs and the case of various accolades she’s earned within Starfleet, but also a glove, a ball, and a bat. And so, to help him feel better, she decides to tell him stories of her time in Starfleet, and as a baseball player in a fledgling professional league on Kessik. A time when her parents nearly forced her to go to Starfleet Academy and she rebelled in her own way by running away and joining her friend, Irene, instead of going to school.
And so, the rest of the plot goes from there, told in retrospect.
I don’t know, yet, if United Trek will let me bring this into the universe or not. But I’m having a lot of fun putting together a baseball league with the help of some software I’ve used in some of my other stories for fictional leagues.
I’m curious to hear if anyone has any thoughts on the premise.
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I like the idea, as canon Trek never explored a planet-based serialized set of stories. Though may I add that this idea is a difficult one to implement, because the ability to explore things outside of the planet is rather constricted. DS9 got away with this due to the Defiant and multiple complicated story arcs. Whereas with your series you would have to make it more soap than sci-fi (even more so than DS9). It’ll be hard to introduce outside threats or not overuse a particular few. Of course if you had plots that happened outside of the planet (diverging away from the main plot) you may have more creative freedom.
DS9 actually got away with it because of the wormhole; Defiant was just icing on the cake because TNG ended and Paramount TV didn’t want two Trek shows with starships (and then Voyager came along).
I will make it more character-based, as I tend to try for in most of my stories.
Well I am intrigued. Firstly, I have my own colony based projects on the simmer as I think the setting could actually provide a terrifically new slant to proceedings in the Trekverse. There are a lot of untapped story potentials in such a setting. However, even more so than that is the fact that you are going the flashback, non-linear style of story telling. Those kinds of stories I always tend to love. Of course, it is always a challenge to tell them in a good way but I have no doubt as to your ability to do just that.
The covering such a range of time means you’ll get lots of rich pickings of major events as well as the smaller personal ones of the main protagonist in the story. It should prove to be quite a character study as well as a discovery of the events that shape her life it will be a discovery of the wider galaxy too. Very interesting.
Being on this side of the pond does mean that the baseball angle probably doesn’t interest me as much, but DS9 made it work in the occasions they used it as part of their story and as part of Sisko’s personality. So should prove interesting in your hands too.
Baseball has its roots in the games of Cricket and Rounders. And it’s unfortunate that the United Kingdom never embraced what is clearly a superior game. 😉
My intention with Linear is simply to tell the story of the main character, through the eyes of a narrative. I’m drawing part of my inspiration from the situation comedy, How I Met Your Mother, which kind of follows a more linear method. Star Trek: Linear should attempt to tell stories when it suits the narrator. 🙂
I love baseball so I’m all in already.
I’ve actually thought of leagues/game playing squads, kind of interstellar barnstormers, but less in the context of baseball and more in the context of all sports. After all, if Klingons wrestle, the chances are good that they’re win every single time (unless the matches are fixed, of course), so how can athletic competition get and remain interesting?
I also like the idea of being on a planet and I use that a lot, too. People land. Sometimes they stay for a while. I think it can still be very Trek-y even without flying around too much. Soldiers could come in. People could take little trips. Ships could be in the area, etc.
If you’ve ever read Full Speed Ahead, in the latest story, I’ve introduced an intraship softball league. The point of the use of softball is to promote shipboard team-building and healthy interdepartmental competition. And as for Vulcan/Klingon ballplayers, sure they may have the raw strength, but not every single one is going to be a Ted Williams or a Barry Bonds (natural hitters). Muscles are but a percentage of hitting, right? 🙂
Exactly, although for them, what might be a loud single or a pop up is more likely to just go out of the park. They may also end up being worse at defense, unable to hit the cut-off man without mowing him down, or throwing pitching heat but having very little guile and only one tool – the fastball.
I could probably see a Vulcan clean-up hitter, but then you’d have to explain to a Vulcan what the logic is in playing baseball in the first place. In “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” I was kind of astonished to find that a Vulcan team had formed, but when you have the not-so-subtle underlining of the Vulcan captain looking to one-up Sisko, there was a slightly sinister motive in trying to beat Sisko at his favorite game.
But sure. If you’ve ever seen Major League, Worf did a fair imitation of Pedro Cerrano in that episode. Showing that while Klingon strength could probably muscle a ball into the deep outfield, it might only happen one out of one hundred at-bats. I do have a half-Klingon character who either hits it out of the park or whiffs horribly. He has to really hit the sweet spot in order to get it to leave the park.
I’m working on a (hopefully) interesting set of 24th century ballplayers. The premise is that after the Cestus League does a three-game series to start their season on Kessik IV, it sparks interest in the game and they decide to form their own league (in the same manner that MLB does by sending two of our teams overseas).
I love the idea of a non-linear exploration of a character’s life, and I love the idea of a deeper exploration of everyday, non-Starfleet life in the 24th century. The baseball, thing, though, is a tough sell for me. I’m just not a fan at all. That said, if the focus is more on relationships off the field and less on the sports angle, I could get into it. Take this ball and run with it, Mike. 🙂 (Wait, that was totally the wrong sports analogy. See? I fail as a sports fan.)
Well, Linear is going to be about sports in the same way that Charlie’s Angels was about law enforcement. Baseball is a setting for the story, but not the focus.