Subject: Captain Warsie's Special Fanfic Review - "Pilot" Fanfics Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 17:43:45 -0400 From: "Ken Stone" To: "Rob Dalton" Captain Warsie's Special Fanfic Review - "Pilot" Fanfics The purpose of this review is to determine if any of the fanfics in the "pilot" section are worth continuing. The reviews will be very short as are the fics themselves. -- Fics that should be continued In the Company of Strangers by Nathan Yates This is a great fanfic. It takes an alternate reality, changing events from Shadows of the Empire so that they turn out deliciously different. Suffice to say Solo's solid carbonite box gets flung into the ST galaxy. An original idea executed appropriately. I look forwards to reading more of it as it should be continued immediately. Space combat, even at this point, is excellent, with Yates making use of what he learned from playing Chuck Yeager's Air Combat or Redbaron ;). His descriptive prose is also excellent, and makes the story an enjoyable read. Yates should concentrate all his efforts on continuing this fanfic. The Emperor's New Clothes by Kynes An unprecedented crossover fanfic from Kynes, TENC is the spy's-point- of-view I always wanted to write. It seems however that he is doing a better job. Malik is a professional spy equipped with standard Imperial spy equipment as he goes about foiling the Feds. Great story. It should be continued. Heir to the Federation by Jake Kreutzer A hilarious twist on the standard, worn-out Trek plot of "Oh, no! The holodeck's come alive!", Kreutzer combines elements from Trek, Wars and ... The Matrix(!) in this silly story. It has potential to compete with Domination or even FOTBW as a humour fic, or any number of crossover fics as a serious fic. Rebirth by Johnothan Boyd A very short prologue, but it looks as if the fanfic could be interesting. The Vulcans and the Romulans are trying to start reunification but it looks as if an unlikely terrorist is going to crash the party. -- Fics where the author made the right decision. FANFIC: Imperial Exodus by Ben Robbins Robbins warns that he had never previously written anything except for business forms and the like. This is evident as like we see in too many fanfics, entire paragraphs read as business inventory or as shopping lists. E.g. "I want 160 of the remaining Katana Fleet dreadnaughts, 5 squadrons of ISD IIs and their accompanying task forces, 10 additional squadrons of VSD IIs, 5 squadrons of Modular Taskforce Cruisers, and 15 squadrons of Loronar-class strike frigates in standard configuration. We will initially need several prefabricated deep-space factory installations, space platforms, and 18 Golan-III defense platforms." I'm seeing too much of this is almost all fanfics. I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if people would at least tell us how the ships would be used or what their exact purpose is. On the other hand, some ideas are interesting, such as twin Death Stars and a giant habitation platform. But this fic doesn't have that exodus "feel", the one of combined desperation and opportunity that signifies fanfics like IP, Expansion, and Osiris. Robbins probably made the right decision in not continuing this fanfic. The main problem with this fic is that there is little we haven't seen before. Across Two Galaxies by Pablo Sanchez Pablo stopped writing this fic and it was probably a good decision. While written in an interesting fashion, ATG is just another "Imperials pillage the Federation" fic. Et in Arcadia Ego by Ryan Spickard This fanfic is stange and confusing. I'm glad it wasn't very long. The Great War by Jeff Yuen The prologue details a struggle between an insurrectionist faction in the Republic devoted to restoring the Empire, though not in any detail whatsoever. Seemingly, this fic would detail a massive conflict between these two elements. It is probably not very necessary in ASVS, and Yuen should probably turn his attention to another fanfic. Prophecy by Robin Adkins This fic details the discovery of a large alien construction station that the Federation (although this is not explained how) is able to convert for Starfleet ship production. Adkins, in a brilliant casting move, casts himself as the captain of the most kickass ship in the Federation fleet. Regrettably, the fic reads like a TGOD or an RPG with lots of bandying about of figures and ship numbers. Then a wormhole is discovered and the Empire meets the Borg. Pretty standard fare at this point. Nothing really caught my interest, and I was not absorbed into the story. If Adkins is to continue the fic, he should concentrate more on that ship building facility and its history as they are the only unique elements of the story. Star Trek: Borg Wars by Xtreme Psycho Not much to work with here as the prologue is <2 kb. Seems like yet another Federation vs. Borg fanfic. It begins with a ship fighting the Borg and its gets pummelled badly with a warp core problem. Nothing unique here, no hook for the readers. Suggest termination. Star Trek: Fallen Angels by Xtreme Psycho This fic seems to take place in the future of the Federation, with descendants of crews long past. A new threat has arisen, "The Fallen". Not much suspense. Frankly, I'd have to know at least what the Fallen are to want to see more of this fanfic. -- Well, what have we learned? By looking at these cancelled fanfics, we see that some of them share certain qualities. One is using a setting in the future of what we know from canon and official literature, but not fleshing it out. Only Wong can get away with that. Another is people's tendency to list amounts of ships, their sizes, exact number of weaponry, etc... as if they were critical plot elements while ignoring characters. If you want to do that, go design ships or play in TGODs. Kynes and Yates did not have to resort to that, but on the other hand, their fics were of smaller scale. Do not attempt a large scale if you can't handle it. Perhaps these people bit off more than they could chew.