Orion Slavegirls

[attackfish]

Making fun of my dad’s Star Trek addiction is a weekend morning family tradition in my house, and it’s one of the reasons I don’t mind staying at home while I attend university as much as I might otherwise.  The food’s the other reason.  Anyway, Dad alternates between firing back that I’m one of those scary fanfiction writers, I’m just as obsessed with fantasy as he is with scifi, and then simply saying the words “Star Wars”, thus pointing out I don’t have a leg to stand on, or infuriatingly, agreeing with me.  The first tactic usually just ends up with dad and me reciting scenes verbatim from the original Star Wars trilogy until Mom kicks us both out.  This week, though, dad tried the latter, and he did it with coquettish hand gestures.

Dad: I am normally the planetary viceroy’s slave, but tonight, Captin Kirk, I’m told I’m to be your slave.”
Fish: Um.  Dad, are you… should I call…

When I managed to get over the extremely disconcerting sight of my father posing and preening like an unpracticed adolescent girl, I managed to fire off a comeback, and terrify my father.  That isn’t that hard; I’m a daughter after all.

Fish: I’m just amazed that with all these slave girls throwing themselves at him, he never did anything kinky.
Dad: maybe he didn't like kink. Didn't, doesn't, won't... what is the tense for scifi set in the future?
Fish: And getting it on with blue and green alien ladies isn't kinky?
Dad: Tell me when he ever had sex with a blue girl
Fish: I notice you didn't argue about the green ones.

From now on I can win any argument with my father about the relative merits of fantasy and scifi with two words, Orion slavegirls.  Funnily enough, he can win the same argument with the same words.

Comments

Hey

[(Anonymous)]

Hey,

My wife is one of your friends on Live Journal "Ivanoma" and she asked me to drop you a couple links. I'm a trek nut myself. So much so I've taken to watching "Fan Films" To satisfy my addiction in the absence of a weekly show.

I guess the old trek actors need their fix to. They all keep guest staring in these same series. I'd be interested in hearing your and your fathers thoughts on these series. (TO make it more on topic one of the main characters of "Of God's and Men" is an Orion Slave Girl played by Chase Materson, you might remember her as "Leeta" from DS9.

These guys though while being amateurs take this seriously. So seriously that when Paramount needed an original series bridge Set for the Enterprise episode "In a mirror darkly" they simply borrowed it from these guys.

Links are

http://www.newvoyages.com/
http://www.startrekofgodsandmen.net/

They're actually pretty good, almost TV Broadcastable in a lot of places.

Who's the bigger geeks, folks like me and your father who know the Trek Universe like it's our bible, or these guys who write new chapters simply for the love of it?

~Vince

Re: Hey

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm not a Trekkie myself (the chauvinism of the original series kept me from enjoying it, and I tended to dislike the conclusions of the morality plays, but I am a fan of TNG) and I horrify Dad by preferring Boston Legal (Denny Crane FTW). As far as who's the bigger geek... I'd say these guys take the cake, and speaking as a fanfiction writer, it really is about as geeky as you can get.

Tell your wife I said hi

Re: Hey

[ivanoma.livejournal.com]

He made me watch them and I was amazed at how many actors from the actual shows showed up to be in a fan-flick Including the actors who played Sulu, Checkov, Uhura Tuvok, Harry kim, The guy whose character Worf made emperor plays another klingon in this the blond yeoman from kirk's time in in one too....several actors who played minor parts in the series participated...let us know how many your father recognized. It does not surprise me that those holding the licenses are CONSIDERING making these creations CANON.....A high honor for any fan of anything

Re: Hey

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

oh sweet god, it moves from fannon to Canon.... there goes the neighborhood! And the wikis will all need to update quickly, no more "the canonical status of this work is unclear".

Dad will probably enjoy them immensely, if he hasn't already run across them.

Re: Hey

[(Anonymous)]

Its not that they're considering making the fan works themselves cannon directly, BUT some of the folks who write for the various Trek series have stated that if another series or movie set in the "modern" trek universe was developed they might start making references to events in certain Fan Fiction series. Thus making them sort of a "back door" cannon.

Re: Hey

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

So they'd be awkwardly in between cannon and fannon... Okay, there's Star Wars stuff like that... It's really fun to listen to the really passionate fans get going about what's cannon and what isn't. The debates sometimes end in shouting matches. Not with my dad of course, he doesn't shout.

For instance, with Star wars, I consider something cannon if it made money/is official and was well written, with an exception for the new movies, because I can't ignore them, though God i try. This makes me fairly exacting, apparently, but I'm not deep into SW fandom, so I don't fight much.

Re: Hey

[(Anonymous)]

Star Wars is something of a unique case in that certain aspects of the Expanded Universe Books are considered cannon by LucasFilm and other aspects aren't. It's safe to say that any official work is cannon (movies, TV Series, Etc) but when you get into any of the EU works it gets a little thorny because there really is no way to tell one way or the other.

Star Trek is a little more firm. Only official works released by Paramount are cannon unless specifically stated otherwise. None of the books are unless they are an adapted screenplay of a released work. (novels based on movies for instance) The Animated Series for example is considered non cannon and Star Trek V though it hasn't had it's cannon status revoked is largely ignored. Now parts of the Animated Series have been made canon by being referenced in a different official series but only the parts being specifically referenced are then considered Cannon.

In the end I feel the debate over Cannon vs Non Cannon is pointless. The fact is it's a fictional universe and we each take away what we will while discarding the rest. Some of us consider certain exceptional fan works as our own cannon, or fannon if you will. Until something comes along that specifically contradicts it or confirms it I'm content to have it my own little universe.

Re: Hey

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

This is why I never got deep into Star Wars fandom. It's a tangled mess, and there are a lot of not very good stuff that is as cannon as the brilliant original movies, and I just didn't want to deal with it. Harry Potter is nice and simple. If it came from JKR and she hasn't stated otherwise, it's cannon. Lit fandoms tend to be nice and compact that way.

Sam Storyeller (Copperbadge) is my fannon cannon for HP, and I'm considering including Drop Dead Gorgeous by Mistful in that category, because while I'm not a fan of H/D, it's just that hilarious.

I don't like engaging in Cannon vs. Non Cannon debates, I just like to watch from a safe distance and laugh.