Vengance of the Kilrathi
Wing Commander II was my introduction to the space flight simulator genre. I'd tried the Microsoft flight simulator and other real-world style games like it, and never cared for them. Later there would come others, the X-Wing and Tie-Fighter franchises, but Wing Commander, with it's grumpy Admiral, and the giant cat people, were where it started for me. After Wing Commander II, I actually went back in time to play Wing Commander before Heart of the Tiger came out, with Mark Hamill in it.
Wing Commander gave me an interesting perspective on the mystery in space, what happens between the missions is almost as important as what happens during the missions. I've always thought it would be an interesting story to tell where the lead characters were all space pilots of some kind, and actually give them something, a war or some set of mysteries to get through on their way through a book series. You see that kind of thing in the confines of a game like this, or a book series like Rogue Squadron, but even stories like Battlestar Galactica seem to lose this element after a while. I thought that when Wing Commander became a movie that they'd make sure this wasn't lost, but I think they totally lost their minds on that one. There wasn't nearly enough space-style dog-fighting in there for me.
It's worth it sometimes, to take it easy and keep it in mind, the original draws of action in a series.
I've always liked the idea of a series that followed the exploits of a company of star fighters around, one mission at a time, with all of the drama that happens between missions, maybe occasionally having an episode from the point of view of the villains, or maybe taking a two-parter or something here and there and have the hero go off on a secret mission or something similar. Maybe I'll write one of those one day. Maybe it's a series of short stories. Time will tell
Titles that contain the words “And The”
Does it seem odd to you that so many of the movie and book titles we cling to involve the term "and the" to connect a person with the action going on in it? Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, all of the Harry Potters really, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are the ones that I can first think of off hand.
These words are so innocuous, that they are totally ignored by search engines. Looking up the term "and the" on Amazon, even restricting it to the Books section in the drop down returned to me a bunch of Samsung phones. Yahoo returned Beauty and the Beast, but not much more than that. It's such an integral part of so many titles that are important to us, but it's almost impossible to find a reference to the numbers and kinds of books and stories that employ the usage. Alvin and the Chipmunks?
I think that "and the" is the glue that holds stories to the characters that inhabit them. I think that every story title, even the clever ones, can be boiled down to one of these. Luke Skywalker and the Empire Strikes Back? Maybe Buttercup and the Dread Pirate Roberts? What about Arthur Dent and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? I know, way too long, even for a title that though I love it, is already way too long. The thing I'm getting at is that since every story is really about a person in a place with a problem, can't all stories be boiled down this way?
I'm not even sure that's my point.
What I am sure about is that it's an interesting way to stitch stories together.
Ever frozen on the job and lived to tell the tale?
There are times in life that are just plain frightening, times of shock, and of surprise when despite our best efforts, all we can do is stand there, frozen, while our minds get around whatever is happening to them. Maybe your heart beats a little louder, maybe you break out in a sweat or begin so shiver. Sometimes it’s when a car pulls out in front of you too quickly, or when your pet has gotten away from you near a busy street, but sometimes it happens in the office. A big presentation that you fell apart on, or the time the server wouldn’t connect at just the right time, or when there’s a 404 error on the homepage. Many times in that moment we feel that our lives are passing before our eyes. Did you ever freeze on the job, and as a result have it change something fundamental in your personality or reveal a trait to you that you had not considered before?
One time, several years ago, I was working for CNN.com’s Community team. This was well before the AOL Merger, and we were starting to get noticed for our chat rooms and message boards. One of the executives had decided to do an internal internet chat with the employees in the building, and my friend Kristen and I had been sent over to the other tower to run it. I don’t know what I was expecting to find up there. It was a much more formal part of the building, and the elevators were old, and deadly slow. We were already nervous about going up there, then there was the quiet ding, the doors slid open and there he was. It was the first of just a couple of times that I ever saw him. Ted Turner was waiting to get on the elevator.
In a heartbeat, everyone in the elevator gasped and held their breath, our mouths hung open, and we just stood there in this kind of surreal paralyzed horror. There were employees in the company in the elevator from every level of employment, from the bottom to the top. It was only an instant, but it seemed like half an hour.
The next thing I know, my mind cleared and Ted was waving his arms and yelling at us all to “Get off the Elevator! Get off the elevator!” In my mind I imagined him as Charlton Heston’s Moses, parting the red sea. We scrambled out in a pack, and scurried off to do whatever it was we were there to do, but the moment has stuck with me.
From that moment on, for whatever reason, I have lost all fear of interaction with celebrities. When I’m faced with one, I no longer feel nervous, upset, or self-conscious. Figure that one out.
When has something like this happened to you?
Titles that start with the word “The”
'In the world of science fiction there lives a huge number of titles that start with the word "The." I'm considering starting a story or series with The as the title, and nothing else. That way, I figure it'll be on the beginning of all of those lists of books that come out every year with the in the title.
The Illustrated Man, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Princess Bride, as examples, all too often the "The" is moved to the end of the title and appended with a comma, which never made much sense to me except that it would make the T section in the book store much too far out of proportion with the rest of the world of literature. I suppose there's also cause to think about the use of the phrase "and the" to attach a title to a character's name, but that's another thought for another day.
Something that I've often wondered when naming my own works, was should I leave "The" out of the picture? Should I avoid all the confusion that arises from where to place the word in question, to ignore it and categorize it with everything else, to include it only to see it dropped off at some point and attached with a comma to the end?
Is it worth even worrying about as an author?
It's a conundrum.
I still like the idea of titling something with just the word "The" at some point. What would that story be like?
Don’t worry, everybody lost the instructions
Yep. I admit it. I had the 45. I downloaded it on iTunes. I had the song. I followed The Greatest American hero, one of the best mid-season replacements of all time (followed by Buffy maybe?) from time slot to time slot as it made it's reckless flight week to week. The adventures of a super hero with a super suit, given to him by aliens, and partnered with an FBI agent, a great method I think, of giving Ralph's crime fighting a sense of credibility and purpose, this lone teacher is suddenly thrust into a world of unique powers and adventures each week. Despite the lead character's never mentioned name change from one season to the next since he shared the name of the man who shot Ronald Regan, the Greatest American Hero gives us something that we all need very much, and it does it in a way that's entertaining week to week.
Entrusted with the suit, which gives him miraculous powers, Ralph is able to fly, turn invisible, run really fast, magnetize himself, pretty much anything that the story calls for. He does it all, just not very well. He's learning, and sometimes when he's flying he lands in a heap, like a great albatross, or sometimes like a sack of potatos. He does get better, and eventually he learns that he has much more to offer. He finds out that there's a lot more inside him, that he's capable of, he just doesn't know it. He's capable of so much, yet his inexperience and unfamiliarity with the suit makes him clumsy, and we can see him stumble, recover, and eventually they catch the bad guy. How is this possible? Simple, he's lost the manual.
The aliens who dropped off the suit, ostensibly for someone else in the first place, left a manual that would teach the user how to do everything the suit was capable of. On his way from the site of the alien ship, Ralph loses the manual, and is forced to learn on his own how to progress and win through life. He has been imbued, as we all have with great power, creativity, and gifts, he just doesn't know what they all are or how to use them.
We've all lost that manual that came with being born. The Greatest American Hero is about how we all go through life unsure of ourselves, and without the full knowledge of what we can become. If we could just tap that gap in our cosmic consciousness and come up with the answers to why we are here, and what is our purpose in life, and what will we be good at and enjoy, life wouldn't be the real mystery that it is. We are all living without that knowledge, learning about what it means to us day by day, and how that interpretation changes.
Ralph is eventually offered a second manual, as I remember it, but this one is quickly lost as well. All this cut and dried stuff is for the birds anyway. Part of life is learning these things for yourself, stumbling, and learning how to fall on your face and come back to nail a problem the second time around.
Be happy we lost the instructions. Believe it or not, I am.
Have you seen this Writer?
John Saye, writer of science fiction, and fantasy lives in Atlanta, and makes small time-traveling experiments as time permits.
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- How TRON Makes me Feel (or… That’s a really big door!)
- In the world of science fiction, science fiction does not exist?
- What’s the Strangest place you’ve ever visited for the holidays?
- Every week, we’ll build a tank out of something…
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure
- Vengance of the Kilrathi
- Titles that contain the words “And The”
- Ever frozen on the job and lived to tell the tale?
- Titles that start with the word “The”
- Don’t worry, everybody lost the instructions
- Eighty-Eight Miles an Hour!
- Who ya gonna call?
- When is the first time you really knew you could make it on your own?
- Owning your Name (Saye Saye Saye)
- Dreamscapes of my Mind
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