Date: 06 Dec 2013 00:24 Title: Mitch
Good choice of character to reflect on. Piper gentling questioning of Kirk and the react that is drawn out of Kirk, is well handled.
Interesting choice of reading matter for Kirk bookshelf, it was a nice touch to confirmed the blonde mention in the episode is Carol Marcus. ;-)
Was a nice fine paragraph with Mr Spock, and can clearly set the scene for the Kirk/Spock future friendship.
Date: 29 Nov 2013 03:31 Title: Mitch
Heh, another Kirk/Doctor piece! You're just as bad as LBD, get out of my head!
That was pretty well done, and definitely a nice little look into this younger Kirk who had lost a dear friend. I liked how you showed how this affected him so much more than, say, a young yeoman or another security officer. This was more than another "redshirt," and certainly more than just a friend - Gary was his brother, and you show that emotional trauma and scarring well as he struggles to remember the old Gary and bury the memory of this "god" Gary he was forced to kill. It would be traumatic enough to have to bury your close friend, but to know you were responsible for that death as well...and then on top of that to know that he had become some dark version of the man you loved before to even further taint that memory just...uggh. You showed that very well, and I loved seeing Piper being there for him to turn to, maybe not as a close friend but definitely as that trusted confidant. Well done!
Author's Response: thanks muchly Temp. It was a bit tricky at first to get going with the idea but I think even Kirk had his emotional problems and maybe even with Mitchell.
Date: 29 Nov 2013 02:52 Title: Mitch
I've got to hand it to you, Mac - once again you've taken a one-off character and made him larger than life; given him a backstory and made us care about him.
I think Mitch is your new Crusher, and I know that I for one would like to see more of his canon adventures (or misadventures as the case may be) with one James T. Kirk before the man became Starfleet's youngest captain. Within TOS, this is certainly an untapped and rich vein to be mined.
I like, too that it was Piper who approached Kirk. At this point, Kirk hadn't had the time to establish trusted relationships among the senior officers of his crew, and it would have fallen to the ship's doctor to make sure the young captain was still operating on all thrusters.
And the final scene with Spock was spot-on - here we saw the tentative beginnings of the legendary friendship. I wonder, though - would that friendship have still developed had Gary survived? Something to ponder...
Author's Response: As always I am humbled. Don't know, guess growing up with I always liked the minor characters (in Quincy I tended to like Sam and the background crew) and whatnot, to see more. I think with Piper it's the job of the CMO to be there and make housecalls, but then Piper sort of was McCoy's prototype. I tried to capture Paul Fix from what I've seen of him in things like BSG78 and the John Wayne movies he did. Piper I imagine has seen it all, precedes April I bet. As for Spock, I like to think Piper might've said "trust him" and "that's your guy" because Spock's been on the Enterprise for a few years. I think with Mitchell surviving there's two options, one is that Spock sort of remains peripheral at least in the social setting or two, Kirk is sort of in the middle -between Spock's logical side and Mitchell's emotional, compassionate side. It's intriguing
Date: 28 Nov 2013 02:57 Title: Mitch
I was kind of wondering why Piper is here, and not McCoy. Why is that? I don't honestly recall a different doctor on board during that episode, but admittedly it's been quite a while since I've seen it.
I like the dovetail with your own fanon, that Gary was the one to introduce Jim to Carol. The description of the simplicity of the headstones is also good, that they just give surnames and nothing more. And there are graves. No one's shot into space in a repurposed torpedo tube.
Well done, a missing scene. I'm glad Gary got his due.
Author's Response: My thanks. In the second pilot, the CMO is Dr Piper. McCoy's first appearance is Corbomite Manuever (though production wise it was Man Trap). Piper is barely in the pilot. The theory is that he was on his way to retirement and filling in as CMO whilst McCoy got ready. Similarly there's a line in the pilot about a "Blond lab assistant" and a few accept it's Carol :) One could hope.