Date: 25 Aug 2009 04:36 Title: Skinned Knees and Second Chances
Gosh, I am hooked on these Pike/Number One stories now! The way you write them, the chemistry is amazing. I love how you give just enough detail -- not too much.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I'm loving writing them.
Date: 01 Jul 2009 03:48 Title: Skinned Knees and Second Chances
A different take on Pike and Number One, and I like it a lot. She doesn't seem so computerized and he doesn't seem so rough. I'm glad he was able to find her and him worked out.
Good stuff.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! it's hard, just going off "The Cage". But I never saw her as "computerised" so much as crisp and efficient. And Chris in "The Cage" is just burnt out from Rigel VII, but I love seeing a different side of him in the film--yet still the same man, and extraordinary captain. I'm having a lot of fun with these two in the new universe, without Talos IV and J-Class cruisers hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles. It's been so much joy, sorting out what remains the same, and what diverges and how in the way they relate to one another. I've got more of them coming, and working on Pike Prime/Number One Prime based on the events of _Vulcan's Glory_ for the Trek Novel Fest later this summer.
Date: 16 Jun 2009 20:42 Title: Skinned Knees and Second Chances
Very well done. I like the fact that Pike is in recovery-makes it more believable. What is he going to call her? 32 syllables is a mouthful...
Author's Response: I'm already toying with ideas. But it's not really 32 syllables--I think there's some hyperbole going on there.
I'll tell you, tho, it's difficult to write without a name! And as much as I love _Vulcan's Glory_ I'm not all that fond of "Number One" as her given name, rather than keeping it Navy slang for "Executive Officer". So I'm cherry picking bits of backstory, for the fanon Number One I'm building inside my head.
[Report This]Date: 16 Jun 2009 20:34 Title: Skinned Knees and Second Chances
Lovely. Lovely, endearing, touching -- you name it. Fabulous work. I'm not a fan of Abrams-verse, but what does it matter when the story's so great? :D Thank you for sharing. ;-)
Author's Response: I've really enjoyed playing with the AOS 'verse, as aside from some VOY about a decade ago, I've never written Trek fan fiction (tho I was a huge TOS fan, and adore many of the tie-in novels). But I just love Greenwood's Pike, and wanted to write this story ever since I saw the film, and I love the idea that I can take Pike and Number One in new directions, free from the fate he suffers in "The Menagerie". Plus I'm really enjoying the idea of Number One getting her own command 8 years ahead of schedule, compared with the TOS universe.
Date: 16 Jun 2009 18:37 Title: Skinned Knees and Second Chances
An excellent window into a brief moment of happiness both for Pike as well as 'Number One.' Lord knows he's had precious little to celebrate lately.
I liked that you examined how Pike's loss of the Enterprise affected him, most especially because he'd been so integral in the ship's development.
Great stuff!
Author's Response: I think that at heart, I am always going to be an optimist. And while in the film I think they thought they were 'rewarding" him with the Admiralty, in reality, taking a vital man in his prime and putting him behind a desk is just so wrong. So I'm loving the chance to tell a story that gets him back out among the stars (eventually). And I am an unashamed Pike/Number One 'shipper, and love that it has comfortable intimacy of people who've known each other for a long time, while still keeping that period of discovery and exploration where they might end up making out in a parked car like teenagers. It makes me giddy.
Date: 16 Jun 2009 18:13 Title: Skinned Knees and Second Chances
I don't desperately like the AOS side of things (mostly because I just don't think they even came close to doing okay with Scotty, and that's a dealbreaker for me), but this story is absolutely wonderful. I have a massive soft-spot for Pike, and for Number One, and for them as a pairing. I adored Vulcan's Glory. And I love this -- it's professionally executed, sweet, funny, introspective and very real-feeling. The history you manage to weave in from TOS, and build into AOS make it one of the best offerings I've seen yet of the new fandom-branch.
Plus, well. Pike. Number One. I mean, how much cooler does it get than that?
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I love that AOS gives us the opportunity to tell new Pike stories without the spectre of DRD Pike (one light for yes) hanging over us. I never really bought that Chris would ever have been able to accept a life of illusion with Vina, and now with the changes to the timeline, I can explore what that really means for Chris and Number One (for whom I will probably have to come up with a suitably unpronounceable name eventually...).