[Report This]Date: 03 May 2011 02:48 Title: The Necklace
Incredible story Sam. I wish I could give a detailed review needless to say it was powerful as well as striking. Exemplary writing to boot.
Author's Response: Thank you, Mackenzie, for the kind words. Much appreciated! ~ Sam.
Date: 28 Apr 2011 18:51 Title: The Necklace
Sam:
For an a Trek fan whose focus is primarily TNG you have an uncanny grasp of what I consider the best elements of TOS - as well as a mastery of descriptive narrative.
The countdown of Spock's 'errors' is quintessential McCoy, the "So let's summarize..." so Kirk.
My favorite line: "But where a hot red planet burned now ran fields of cotton, magnolias, and yellow jasmine. Provenance, his provenance."
As with all your work, I liked this story upon reading it under it's original title, before the new ending. The new ending is especially appealing because it offers a more respective treatment of my favorite character but gives more depth to Spock's character and reaffirms his dedication to his friends.
Great story!
KayCee
Author's Response: You have read this story of mine in at least three different points in its evolution and provided me a fresh set of insightful observations and suggestions each time, and over I don’t know how many emails. You not only created an entirely original perspective on Chapel’s relationship with Spock, but generously arranged to loan your Christine to me for a guest appearance in my story. ‘Thank you’ hardly seems like enough, but it seems that is what we writers live on nowadays, that and heartwarming reviews. ~ Sam.
Author's Response: You have read this story of mine in at least three different points in its evolution and provided me a fresh set of insightful observations and suggestions each time, and over I don’t know how many emails. You not only created an entirely original perspective on Chapel’s relationship with Spock, but generously arranged to loan your Christine to me for a guest appearance in my story. ‘Thank you’ hardly seems like enough, but it seems that is what we writers live on nowadays, that and heartwarming reviews. ~ Sam.
[Report This]Date: 23 Apr 2011 21:55 Title: The Necklace
Well, Sam, it just is a great story, all in all. (Never mind the 'surgical gowns' ;-))))
And I have to agree...the line "How can I be responsible for returning all of him when he was never all there to begin with?” must count as favourite.
You've got a canon-knowledge and depth to your story that is remarkable....it lifts your story above little enjoyable prompt pieces here and there to something one will actually remember -I can picture the scenes beautifully in my mind. Pretty sure I'll read this story again in the future!
Author's Response: Thank you, T’Paya, for having the courage to take the gloves off, so to speak, and drive your points home (and occasionally right between my Bussard Collectors!) I am grateful to you for all your remarks, and perhaps in your case especially so because – as of yet – you have not written any of your own stories. Your reviews may be the most altruistic of all.
… BTW, I’ve banned all surgical gowns from my stories from now on :)
Date: 22 Apr 2011 23:37 Title: The Necklace
Wow Sam! A truly brilliant piece. You know that, since the first time I read the very first draft of this story I told you it had such wonderful potential. And you have certainly achieved that - in spades!
This represented a wonderful balance between emotional introspection and nail-biting Trek action/angst at its very best. Reading very much like a missing TOS episode (and certainly worthy of a fifth season episode, had the show lasted that long), all the characters' voices, idiosyncrasies and mannerisms were spot on. Closing my eyes, I could so easily and believably hear any of those lines being delivered by their respective personality.
And I'm with Rob - you already know that was my favorite line, too. ;-)
A wonderful fit for the challenge, it offers the idea of 'role reversal' on many levels: Spock overloaded with emotions he can't understand and can barely control; Spock as the carrier of McCoy's katra, and Spock (in McCoy's voice no less) delivering sound, practical medical advice during a moment of crisis.
The ending was a unique, new twist on what has almost become established canon, but works well alongside what Roddenberry told us in his novelization of TMP. Although he indicated that Spock 'heard' Kirk, it was never really said what the impetus was to compel him to return to the Enterprise and help his friends in their time of need. This is a fresh, new look at this and your take makes as much sense as any other. It *fits* with that, without superseding it.
Bravo, and thank you for this truly exceptional piece. :D
Author's Response: Thank *you* LBD, for your exceptionally kind comments and your extraordinary beta readings. I think I have a quite a few stories to beta-read before I’ve paid that particular debt sufficiently forward! I’m very glad to hear that you think my story compatibly meshes with Roddenberry’s TMP novelization as I was concerned the spin I put on some of those events might have engendered some less than positive reactions. But, with a little help from my friends, it all came out happy endings in more ways that one. :)
Date: 21 Apr 2011 21:02 Title: The Necklace
Damn. That was awesome. A TMP prequel that was ten times better than TMP at least-great stuff. You got the voices of Spock, McCoy, and Kirk down perfectly, and it just played out like an old TOS episode in my head.
Loved every minute of it.
Author's Response: Thank you trekfan, you could not have given me finer praise. Writing episode-like stories was part of what I wanted to accomplish when I started writing a little over two years ago. I discovered that it’s very hard. An episode-like story will generally have a more complicated plot than a typical short story, usually with some kind of twist, and has more dramatic scene changes. Popping back and forth between the bridge, sickbay and then down to a planet or shuttlecraft – accomplished so easily on the screen – is much harder to do smoothly in story form, especially when each setting is handling a different story thread and is populated by different characters. It’s very nice, every now and then, when one of these stories works.
[Report This]Date: 21 Apr 2011 19:27 Title: The Necklace
Great story Sam. This era of Trek, between the first series and TMP, has always fascinated me. What I liked most about the story was the three-dimensional charcters you depicted. For me, at least, TOS (TV SHOW) had some, at times, sophmoric writing when it came to character moments. But here, in this story, you fleshed them out, and i loved the fact it was Christine who got Spock to come back in the first day.
I loved Spock's quote; “How can I be responsible for returning all of him when he was never all there to begin with?”
Great line!!!
Rob
Author's Response: Thanks Rob, you don’t know how pleased I am to hear that. I was very concerned (still am) that the story would not be well received because it provides a very different series of events, an entirely different explanation really, than what Roddenberry provided in his TMP novelization. Maybe I’m deluding myself, but I believe that GR would have appreciated a different type of ‘invention’, and maybe a slightly different spin on Spock. I have to give total credit to KayCee for, as far as I know, being the first to suggest that there may have been the beginnings of a romantic relationship between Chapel and Spock, perhaps unrequited, perhaps not.