First off, I received a question from Rob Morris that I'm afraid I simply am not able to answer, but I didn't want Rob to think I was ignoring him.
Was there ever a point at which Kai Winn's character was possibly going to turn around, and become a 'good guy', so to speak? I ask, because I was fooled by her acceptance of Sisko as the Emissary, after he found the Lost City. Looking back, even this was grudging and bitter. But was there ever a point at which she--or Dukat--were destined for a better final fate?
I'm afraid I'm not the person that can give you an answer to this question, Rob. This is one that's far better suited for someone that was in creative control over the show, like Ira Behr or Ronald D. Moore. The best I could give you would be my take on it, and I suspect that's not any more of an answer for you than your own opinion.
On to questions I can answer.
Allyn Gibson asks:
The BBC announced last week that a new series of Doctor Who will go into production, to be broadcast sometime in 2005. What do you think of Rik Mayall as a possible Doctor? Or, if not Mayall, who do you think should be among the leading candidates for the role?
I've been a fan of Mayall's work since I first saw The Young Ones when MTV first aired it in the States back in the very early '80s. I think he can manage a mixture of that manic, unpredictable glee and resolute calm that Tom Baker managed during his tenure. Him in the role would be a nice throwback to some of the earlier Doctors.
My own list of candidates would be: Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Jason Carter, Eddie Izzard.
Allyn Gibson asks:
I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago for a business convention, and as I was riding a charter bus from the hotel to the Las Vegas airport I looked out at the Strip as it receded in the distance and voiced this thought to my travel compatriots: "Damn, but Las Vegas has really rebuilt well since Mars attacked." (Then there was the time when I was really miffed because the Arch of Heaven up and disappeared on me, but I'll say no more about that.) Might you have moments like these, where fiction impinges upon reality? Or, is it just me?
Believe it or not, yes. The first time I ever visited New York was on a business trip, and we flew into LaGuardia Airport from Boston. As we were leaving the airport, the car passed the World's Fair Grounds. My first thought was that the MIB cleanup crews should get raises.
(For those that don't know or don't remember, the Queens World's Fair site was the location for the climactic scene of the first Men In Black movie.)
Jacqueline Bundy asks:
When submitting a story idea for an anthology what type of guidelines does the editor provide?
In my experience, that varies from anthology to anthology.
I probably had more leeway with the New Frontier anthology than with the DS9 anthology, but I think that has more to do with the basic structure of both series in book form. Doing something that has to not only take into account the events of the television series, but also not contradict the ongoing relaunch novels puts more of a guideline in place than a prequel story around a character we never really knew that much about before the New Frontier series, anyway.
Honestly, the only real guideline Marco Palmieri gave me when I started on "Three Sides to Every Story" beyond the obvious missive to not contradict episodes was a specific request not to contradict This Gray Spirit. The proposal stage was a very collaborative experience, with a lot of back-and-forthing until we finally hit upon the proposal that was approved by Paramount. After that, I was on my own for the manuscript. We also had some back-and-forthing on the manuscript after I'd finished it before it was sent to Paramount for approval.
About the only guideline I received before starting on "'Q'uandary" was "you know what she becomes in New Frontier, ramp it up and have fun". The manuscript I turned in to Associate Editor Keith R.A. DeCandido was only revised slightly before it was sent to Peter David and then to Paramount for final approval, where--to all of our abject surprise--it came through with no changes requested whatsoever. I guess I got something right.
Jacqueline Bundy asks:
Were you asked to submit a pitch for a specific character or is that left up to the author?
Both, actually. With the DS9 anthology, Marco asked me to submit ideas for stories that took place during the run of the series. I sent him about six pitches, involving everyone from Kira and Bashir to Dukat. As we were discussing my original pitches, Marco also threw out the idea of odd character pairings that we hadn't seen onscreen. It came down to two concepts, one involving Dukat that may actually still see the light someday, and the other being a tentative notion of the pairing of Jake and Ziyal (more on this later). I admit that I wasn't so sure about the pairing when Marco suggested it, but I was wrong.
With the New Frontier anthology, I don't think there was ever any doubt that if I was going to have any part in it, it would be a Selar story. I've been a big fan of Suzie Plakson's since "Schizoid Man," which was well-known to Associate Editor Keith R.A. DeCandido. The "Wouldn't it be cool if...?" story Peter mentions in his introduction is mine. He shot down my initial Selar proposal, but when he and Keith were talking about what they wanted from a Selar story in the book, Peter came up with a "Wouldn't it be cool if we had a story that used Selar, the Female Q and K'Ehleyr?" Coming up with a story to wrap around that basic idea was assigned to me that day.
Picard Maneuver comments:
First of all, I loved your two stories. In No Limts, you took a story that PAD would've turned into an all-night jokefest and instead wrote a really nice poignant piece that explained why Selar is such a bitch on ice. In Prophecy and Change, you paired two characters who should've been paired on the show. That was a misstep that I didn't even realize the show made!
Thank you, Picard Maneuver. Not pairing Jake and Ziyal onscreen wasn't necessarily a mistake, per se, because there really was only so much they could do during that Occupation arc. That was part of the purpose of Prophecy and Change, to fill in those few blanks that the show just didn't have time to cover.
Don't take this badly, but you write smarmy characters really well. You got Weyoun, Dukat and Damar and especially all the Q's really down.
Thank you again. While Weyoun, Dukat and Damar provided a fascinating, almost Shakespearean challenge to write, I admit that the character I found the most fun to write was the Female Q. She's just so wonderfully snide that when she was not in the story, I wanted to get to the point where she returned as quickly as possible.
Picard Maneuver asks:
My questions are about 'Three Sides to Every Story.'
The first is, where does the title come from? Did you just use the phrase, or is it referring to something in particular? It feels like some kind of saying.
I'm not sure exactly when the saying originated, but there's an old adage about how there always are three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth. If you've ever been on jury duty or had any experience with the American legal system, you know that it even takes this idea into account. It's a title I've wanted to use for a very long time. (Before anyone shoots me a question asking, no, my using that as a title is not related to Babylon 5 at all, even though I'm also a fan of that show. There's more of a nod to the fact that I'm a longtime fan of the band Extreme in that title.)
The second is, what prompted you to pair Jake and Ziyal? I mean, it's obvious why you paired Selar and the female Q - I'm surprised you didn't give Tarah and K'eyler more than their quick mentions - but why the DS9 pair in parituclar?
Full credit for that should go to Marco Palmieri. The initial list of pitches I sent him had one or more of the major DS9 characters in each story, and one of those pitches was the barebones idea for a story of Jake doing a biography on another major character. Marco is a very collaborative editor, and during our discussions over the pitches he suggested some more odd pairings that my brain just wouldn't wrap itself around, but there at the end of his list was Jake/Ziyal. I took that pairing and applied it to the Jake/biography concept, and "Three Sides..." was born.
And, believe it or not, the originally-submitted proposal for "'Q'uandary" had K'Ehleyr involved in helping solve the Q civil war. Try as I might, Tarah just didn't work in that scenario for me. Paula Block at Paramount suggested cutting K'Ehleyr out of the story, and (as I've discovered happens quite often with her comments) it improved the story tremendously. There are times when I'm not sure that we as readers realize how valuable an asset she is to the writers and editors.
I still want to write K'Ehleyr one of these days, though.
I hope you do some longer work soon.
More on this later, but I do have a novel proposal awaiting review as well as the project I'll be talking about at the end of these answers.
Page One Page Two Page Three
