B4FV
Season Three
Episode
Trivia
The Rhythm
Title Meaning: It's named after the first song in the episode, which was the spell casting on Voyager, but the main reasoning for the title was pretty obvious.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The Buffy musical episode, as well as me making up stupid lyrics that I couldn't use.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) As said in the inspiration, a long time ago I wasted a lot of time making up my own lyrics to songs that already existed. I used them for the early band stuff in the main seasons. I was strangely obsessed with violent and insulting ones towards Seven, it's quite disturbing really. I was an angry 16/17 year old then with a lot of issues, but hey. The ones that weren't were about those issues, so that's obvious. Anyway while writing the prequels, probably around B4FV2, I was starting to calm down a little. Some parodies were about other stuff. There was one song which I titled Coffee Delicious which I had already made Janeway sing in the previous season. I wanted to do more, have a little fun with it. I liked coming up with stupid lyrics for the characters to sing, the Buffy musical episode gave me the reason. Rest is history.
2) The first song to be written was The Riddles. I remember just jotting it down on a trip down to either Manchester or Wales, wherever my sister was living at the time. It probably doesn't make a bit of sense, the song was just created to be an outlet for the characters to rant/ramble in. The Riddles felt at the time like a clever title for something like that, now I'm not so sure.
3) The Rhythm song itself is a tiny bit interesting. It was one of the first ones to be done. Back in 2003 there were two singers each from two different recently split up pop groups. Both of them were releasing a single and album around the same month. In those days it must have been common for album samples looped to appear like full 3-4 minute tracks to leak on torrents. Both albums did. One of the albums was released but not in the UK, apparently the single leaking in full was an issue. The second was scrapped because apparently a single getting to number 11 is a flop (one of my favourite songs of all time "flopped" to 11 six years later, hmm). Years later some songs were released on a new album, but most of them still haven't been heard in full to this day. One of them was The Rhythm.
I thought it would be fun to imagine what the rest of it sounded like. I haven't a hope in hell in ever writing the tune itself that I cooked up, but the lyrics could be. Obviously the lyrics that were already known to be in the song were changed to suit the episode.
4) The intro to the episode probably deserves an explanation too. I had read some funny stories online where Star Trek characters took part in the Weakest Link, I wanted to have a go as well. Though the reason it was at the beginning was that I wanted to start the season with something random. The Rhythm wasn't always the first episode of the third season so it would have been in another episode then.
5) Neelix's song is probably up there as one of my favourites. I imagine if it was on TV it would be god awful, that's funny to me ^_^ By the way, the song used the tune It's Your Duty, so youtube it or whatever and you'll see why. Not that the idea of Neelix singing is bad on its own. Ahem.
6) The episode originally had two songs performed by me and a friend or two. The reboot is getting rid of that stuff and this season was one of the rare few that isn't going to be involved. Unfortunately that meant that I had to remove these two scenes, it's only unfortunate as one had a few Sid jokes I didn't want to remove. To avoid removing the scenes completely I decided to parody two new songs. The first one there's not much to say there, I think I listened to stuff at random to see if there was anything I could work with.
The second was easy, it was a song that I used during my video making days (basically I wanted to do something creative during the writer's block), and I just used the same joke I used in that.
7) My favourite of the episode is Can't Fight The Nightlife. Not because the song or rather the parody is any good (it isn't, it's obvious as a song parody), but because of what happens during the song. I just imagine James with this terrified/freaked out stare while vampires dance around or with him, as he tries to kill them all. I also like the Frenit finishes the song to find he's alone. Simple but fun enough.
Season Five, episode 20+ (Within Reach) slightly vague spoilers:
"There's no escaping us. Once a gentle fool, then thieves take away your heart."
"No matter what you feel, it won't be too long. Till you figure it out."
These lines definitely had some extra meaning to them. Yeah the song was a parody, basically foreshadowing James' character arc in the season; his downfall due to his recent discovery about what he is. The spoiler I guess is that Frenit knows it'll happen to him, experience and all, but The Rhythm hinted that secrets tend to spill during the songs. The first line was the closest I could do this for him.
8) I also am very fond of Thirteen. I didnt just write some crappy lyrics (and boy they were crappy), I had an entire choreography planned. It was the song I dreaded writing cos I kept thinking "jesus, I'm never going to be able to do this" or "I'm just going to simplify this, I know it". Thankfully I was stubborn. I do remember that most of the song was Zare originally, most of the versus and bridge, while James was stuck with one half of a verse. She has two things to sing about in the song, that's why that happened. To make it a bit more even a few of the weaker lines were removed/edited to suit him. I did that mainly cos James' musical parts of the episode were cameos and one liners, he didn't have his own song. I think the rest of the main cast have one, so that was a bit odd. I still never fixed it, Tom totally hijacked his haha. The Bad Romance coffee song could have easily been one of his instead, but I guess I just wanted a "funny" song.
9) Bad Girl Days was supposed to be tongue in cheek but I don't think I did enough to really give that away. Meh, the chorus lyrics alone should be a clue that it's not entirely serious. The theme of the song is the boys have problems with the girls but they don't think it's them that's at fault.
It was just Tom's song at first to be honest, but again I was looking for stuff for James to sing and I noticed Craig didn't have much either. And yeah the tongue in cheek part is the "bad girl day" line. I would think the meaning of that part is obvious. I don't think even my FV Tom is that sexist, let alone Craig and James, as usual it's just a stupid joke for the song.
10) The Justin song at the end wasn't planned, it was just something I decided to have while writing the last scene.
11) There were a few more songs planned for the episode. Unfortunately The Rhythm had a few issues which caused me to lose a lot of the later half of the episode, taking some of the songs with it. A few only had a few lines or just the idea of them written down, leaving them open to writing them into the episode itself. When the episode broke I had to redo those (Riddles, Nightlife, and various others were already written in full so they were fine). In the end I just deleted the less important/interesting ones when I rewrote the missing scenes.
The ones removed were:
Two Months On - Jessie having a bit of a rant about Zare. There's a remark later in the episode about it.
Arachnid-Phobic - Faye's song about being afraid of spiders. I had nothing for her, even though she is "me". When I wrote this I actually seemed to summon a couple of giant spiders into my room, I never finished the damn thing. I just ran out of the room haha. Once they were removed I decided not to tempt fate again.
End Of Term - The kids decide to sing this when they're told they've got to pick somewhere to work soon, as their studies are almost over. Nothing too thrilling.
Not Gone Long - I think this was removed. This was Harry's song about Libby. I already had Programme It which was mostly about the same thing, it seemed a bit OTT.
Who Are You - Again I think this was deleted. Lisa and Kes complain about Neelix and one of Lisa's many ex's (I don't think it was Ian, the lyrics don't fit).
More Coming Soon
It's Your Duty
Title Meaning: Nothing too complicated here, the episode was about Slayers and their job/duty clashing with their "Humanity" (that's in "" marks cos Zare isn't Human). A lot of the older FV episodes were named after lyrics in songs, this is one of them.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Pass
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)My memory of this may be a little out of it, but Duty originally was placed in B4FV Season Two as the end of season episode after Basics. It didn't last long there and was moved to Three's premiere. When I came up with the musical episode, it ended up getting moved once more to where it is now. Again, don't quote me on it, my memory is fuzzy here on the details. All I remember for certain was Basics and Instinct were all one episode (Basics, naturally), a B4FV2 episode was cancelled (which later became Mind Games in B4FV Three) and a 22nd episode was needed to fill the void. Instinct eventually did just that instead of this. I'm glad it worked out this way to be honest.
Spoilers (basically for the entire series storyline): As mentioned in a few episodes of B4FV2's trivia section, this episode was one of the episodes picked to be an important part of the Lena paradox. If you haven't looked at B4FV2's trivia or Season Five's then I'll explain as quickly as I can (haha, this'll be good). There needed to be a prequel episode, an incident before Aggression(s), that triggered the differences between Fifth Voyager and original Voyager. The incident would have to be big enough to cover an episode, but still hide its much greater importance. Each one would have introduced and/or featured a villain, a one that seemed minor enough that focused on the same one character, again to hide their importance to the plot. Hmm that explanation wasn't as long winded as I feared, heh.
Since I'm finally on the last episode that was picked, sort of*, I'll go through them. Each one have one thing in common and this is important. James had to die, or come close to it. That was always the same, I just wasn't sure on the how.
Outside of Time: Technically this episode would have introduced the villain and her reasons for focusing on the one character. If she was picked a later episode would appear to re-introduce her. The details of this one wasn't planned too deeply, as she was one of the weakest out of the bunch even before the episode was written.
Death Wish: This is the one that was picked. Unlike the others, this episode was actually the one where the villain was introduced and did the damage he needed to do. The others had two separate episodes. Frenit had to be decided on his opening episode alone, not later after the other two had been written. I'll get back to this one.
Mind Games*: The main reason for this one being dismissed would be that I couldn't write the episode, and it ended up in this season, long after all of the others. I had already picked Frenit at this point anyway, yet I wanted to keep this episode as it was. Mind Games changed the reason for it being an unknown person influencing James' dream world and forcing him to stay there to die, to James himself essentially hiding in his head after the trauma of the Facing Fears saga. I didn't really do this to erase the villain or anything from this episode's original (possible) role in the Lena paradox, I just felt that after End of the Day, it seemed far more fitting to do this. I know that the episode doesn't flat out tell you this intentionally, at least I'm sure the only line hinting to that was a one worded sentence from the Doctor. Anyway, the villain here would have tried again in a later episode. Unlike Frenit and the next one, this villain was more of a psychological threat than a physical one and would have caused issues if I ever considered them further.
Up In Smoke & It's Your Duty: If Frenit had failed, he would have had his/the masters arrive to try out for this role. The two episodes and their impact on the series were planned thoroughly (as Five would prove much later). The masters would be introduced as a greater villain than Frenit, who would then go on to kill James, almost dooming a planet in the process. If you remember here there's a lot about Chosen and Naturals in this episode, they talk about the confusion between Zare and James. Who is Chosen? The episode would have been a better choice if I wasn't so fond of Frenit. Basically the death happens because they don't know which of the pair are Chosen, and the reason for this confusion would have started right there. In the end I felt that It's Your Duty still was a big thread in the paradox/dimension plot, so nothing about the episode itself was changed, just the behind the scenes stuff. The reason I decided against it was solely because I enjoyed Frenit as a villain and hated the masters.
More Coming Soon
Bring It On
Title Meaning: Do I need to explain it? I know it's not how I react whenever someone mentions me taking part in sports, but hey ^_^
Alternate Titles - The title for this episode was the subject of a readers poll. The other two choices were Sport's Day and Play To Win. I guess the winner was always obvious.
Inspiration - I think I remember watching an episode of Friends where they play "football"/rugby and I thought it was hilarious. Yeah.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Cherry Coke
Title Meaning: Really? You'll read anything ^_^
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - This was one of the first episodes planned for the prequels, and that was way WAY back in 2001 so... your guess is as good as mine. I guess I always used to joke about Cherry Coke or Coca Cola Cherry as it's called now (which nobody calls it) secretly having alcohol it, due to how hyper it used to make me. Adult me knows that it has more sugar than regular Coke, that doesn't help.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Too Far Gone
Title Meaning: Yet another song title/lyric. Here's a little trivia trick for you, if it's a song title or lyric, it's an episode that was created long before it was written, and I mean years before. Though I think It's Your Duty and The Rhythm is an exception to that rule, shame.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - No idea
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Again N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Silent Scream *updated*
Title Meaning: Hmm, various characters have issues in this episode, ones they badly need help with. However despite her best intentions Janeway either misses them entirely or brings up new ones. They want help but no one's really listening.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - N/A
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A... this is becoming a theme. That'll change soon enough.
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) This episode was originally the episode Sirens. The James plot probably would have still happened in it, but would have been a side story. It was deleted as it was just a rip off of something else.
2) I feel that this may be a lengthly entry, just in case, TL:DR warning.
If you've accidentally or otherwise wandered onto Season Three's version of this page, you'll know about the issues I had while writing it and the mess it was as a result. What you may not have read or missed is that during S3 I went through the "omg, this isn't dark and edgy enough, I'm gonna add some dark stuff into this for no reason, I'm a genius" phase there. Now if you're on the accidentally wandered side and you don't know anything about the main Season Three, avoid the next two paragraphs and continue on after it. You've been warned.
The storyline for Jessie was already pretty nasty as it was. She would be engaged, with child and then be abruptly killed instantly. The killer quite literally steals her life away, leaving her looking like she'd been dead for years, making it impossible for a normal resurrection. A few episodes later it would be discovered that she'd be needed for the ship(s) survival, and is supernaturally resurrected. Doing so, gives her a huge power boost that can easily tip a witch like her over the edge. As she had recently found out what she was, she already had no control or knowledge of her power, so you can imagine how much more difficult it would be. It doesn't go all that well, she wakes up in her own grave and the first "people" she sees are monsters. Long story short, she'd have issues re-adjusting to being revived and to controlling her power. Things keep happening that trigger the "loss of control" too.
The original idea was already a way to ramp up the drama in a storyline, darken it up in a way. I had the idea that by Season Four she'd have used the events to strengthen her character, allowing her to face the events of late S4 and all of S5 with a new strength of will and perspective. Then came the "it's not edgy enough" phase I mentioned. The storyline was edited to include an attack by a mysterious someone that would leave her feeling powerless. Her memory erased temporarily to build up the plot for an explosive finale in Moving Shadow. It would leave her questioning whether or not she really was as strong as she made out, and if her tough girl persona was an act. If you know the later seasons, that story didn't end in late S3 and leave her a stronger person in 4 and 5. No, S4 continued the plot, only resolving itself in S5.
Luckily the heavier stuff from that change was edited out a few years ago, as I deemed it "going way too far". However one element of that part of the plot, other than it going on until the final season, was left behind. By the time I had gone to change things, other episodes mentioned it and this one in particular had long since been written. It's unfortunately canon, and no matter how many times I try to explain it and edit in these explanations, I can't wipe the bad taste this particular plot development leaves behind. What am I talking about? If you remember the episode, I imagine it wouldn't be that hard for you to guess it.
We're talking about James and Jessie's side of the story aren't we? Of course. In my "omg this is soooooo dark" writings during I think Moving Shadow (or at the very earliest The Deception), I had Jessie blurt out that James had attacked her before. His only defence "I was drunk". It's glossed over as if it was nothing and blah blah, I hate myself. Instead of ignoring it and uncanonising it, no I kept it and tried my best once I got to Silent Scream to not make it as awful as it sounded. The problem is, you just can't. I wish I could delete it completely, I really do.
Its original intent was completely lost on me. (S3 spoilers) It was in two episodes where Jessie was recovering from being horribly abused by some horrible man, using her as revenge against another man. (end spoilers) She'd be so distrusting of men in both episodes to the point where she's even doubting James. He'd do his best to help her, she remembers that it's not all men, especially him, he's the exception in her eyes. So the line was completely out of the blue and ruined the entire point. As I've stated, if I can think of a way to completely erase this development, I bloody would in a heartbeat. Not because I think that James is completely innocent and nice, etc. In my mind and with his backstory (seriously, I thought of this after a re-read of S5's Dark Clouds and it kills me), he's not an entitled and sexist piece of s*** who'd do something like this, even when drunk. The revelation in Moving Shadow is so out of character it puts Season One James to shame. I can't erase this.
As I said, I did my best with the storyline so it wouldn't be that bad. I can't do anymore. James' arc in B4FV3 was developed with this horrible little bit in the back of my mind, I was dreading trying to fit it in. Now everytime I think about it, I feel I didn't do enough to explain it. That's what this trivia point is for. Like S5 does, B4FV3 tries to show things rather than explain everything. If it was written earlier, I'd be having more characters shouting "hey, he's being all shifty because of..." and James' secret about his trauma in Fantastical and Phase In Time later would be out in the open, with people saying "oh that explains it". Nobody openly says Silent Scream happened because of... At least I don't remember it doing so. People, including me for god's sake, will think the idiot drank far too much and demanded his girlfriend should sleep with him to make him feel better.
Yes you read that right. Even I remember it like this. I forget the facts as well, which leads me to write huge entries like this in the trivia. I'll explain it in the next trivia entry, but for this one I will not make any excuses. Yes I did what I could with a bad plot development and fixed it ok enough, but it doesn't change the fact that I had the stupid "but James attacked me so and so years ago" line in the first place. It added nothing, except the feeling of nausea I get when I realise I've sabatoged a character I love for no god damn reason other than I was depressed at the time. Irritating.
3) Wait, didn't James only do this because he was drunk, and he was only that drunk because of his fears of being his own dad, blah blah, right? The only excuses you ever wrote was "it wasn't attempted rape, because James is far too strong to be fought off". That was painful to write, very.
Yeah, the "excuses" part was something I edited in much later, years later in fact, the last time I thought about James' character "assasination" here. Like today I forgot that I went into Silent Scream with a plan to make the stupid plot twist/reveal in Moving Shadow not seem as OOC to the point of ridiculousness. I had enough time to do it, I had plans for the rest of the season for him, so why would I ruin all that by making him not redeemable in the slightest?
So what's going on then?
A few episodes later we have the episode Deck Thirteen. The episode reveals that during his and Chakotay's capture by Seska, that she implanted a behavioural modifying chip in his brain to feed him images and memories (I had to look this up, but it was James that realised that it was her, the Doc found the chip in The Rhythm. I couldn't remember how they found out for the life of me!). The intent was to turn him against the crew, and hopefully get Voyager to turn around to lead them into the ambush in Basics. There's hints I keep forgetting about all through B4FV2 and 3 that something's wrong with him, and it's only in Deck Thirteen that an explanation comes along. An explanation that doesn't hit you in the face with them all, just some.
In Do's and Don'ts for example, James randomly collaspes for no reason other than "he's tired from his coma lol". It took me a while to remember what that was about, then it hit me. It was the episode right after the chip was implanted so that was meant to be the first clue, and look random doing it. The episode's erased from their memories, so it's never mentioned again.
Deck Thirteen mentions the attack on Tom in No Matter What and his evil turn, the hallucinations and attacks in the episode itself, but nothing else. It didn't tell you, it left you to assume it on your own, that the chip might have had a hand in Silent Scream's events. If anyone thought this, have a cookie or three. It certainly did. My mistake is leaving it up to that interpretation. SS's events are huge and can permanently make people hate the character in question. It should have been directly stated, that was why the plot was written that way. Huge mistake IMO. Especially as I myself, the bloody writer, forgets this as well. Every now and then I think of the scene and cringe, forgetting that he had no control whatsoever over what happened.
The first hint that this is the case is the "dream" with his father. Sure on its own, especially without Deck Thirteen in mind, it won't seem like a hint. It'll look like a bad dream. Remember how No Matter What went down? James saw something that wasn't real and it started to turn the paranoia cogs. Deck Thirteen makes the fatal mistake of ONLY using memories to trigger these flip outs. Yeh it's the chip's main function, but with the first episode bothering to show it using a hallucination/trick, it's obvious my intention was for it to do more than that. The other clue is Jessie mentioning somewhere that he's not that kind of drunk. We see this in every episode he is drunk in. He's jokey, mild mannered and even when flirting, he's harmless with it.
I've probably since gone back to Deck Thirteen to make some tiny edit to give this away, but I won't forget the fact that I had a character commit one of the last crimes he would ever be suspected of, regardless of his drunkness, and I left it to interpretation why, leaving only the drunk reason being mentioned. James can blame himself for it all he likes, that's his character, but no one should go on from Deck Thirteen thinking one of the MC's of the series tried to force himself on the love of his life. No f-ing way.
Told you it would be TL:DR. Stay tuned for Deck Thirteen edits, ha.
More Coming Soon
Blood Oath
Title Meaning: Gah my trivia title trick I mentioned has already failed. Blood Oath is an oldie but it's no song title. It's so old in fact it was a main season episode, with Kiara as main focus, but moved into the prequels once they were created. Anyway, it kept its original title but it still applies. Vampires needed blood, they can't get it without drawing attention, so they get help from a possessing alien. See Misc for more. What's the Oath part for, you ask? It sounded better than Blood Bath, heh, joke. The title is probably another version of Blood Promise.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - I might be wrong here, but who else would know that but me? Hmm. The inspiration was a not as bloody dream. A few times I'd dream about watching new Voyager episodes (ah Resistance, you are much better than spider nightmares), the basic premise of this episode was one. And I mean basic.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Nope
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)As I mentioned above, this episode was originally in the main season line up. Don't ask me where, I'd have to go home and rummage through paper notes (I probably will someday). The original was also far more bloody, reset button abuse-y, and made less sense than what it turned into in the end. Actually now that I think about it, there's parts of Disconnected in the original. I remember Kiara always finding these bodies, since she was in full Q mode (well sort of) and acting out, people started thinking she was behind it. It's probably where I got the Disconnected murder suspect stuff from, for the most part. The people getting killed off weren't limited to guest stars, main characters were dying too. When I said it didn't make sense, I don't believe the reason for it was possession. I think it was the vampires themselves...
Hang on, I'm having a freak out moment here after typing that sentence. I just remembered how I was going to handle vampires in FV originally and since I am at work writing this, I had to stop myself from laughing. I mean seriously, there are seven people (nope now eight) in my line of sight. They'd see me laughing my ass off, that's not good. I dunno if I want to share it but since it was a part of the original Blood Oath, I think anyway, I'll have to. Vampires were always a "manmade" creation, they weren't real ones, and I believe they would spread via an infection instead of the normal means.
I know that doesn't sound hilarious, well not LOL funny anyway, but remembering that reminded me of an episode called Vampiric Trouble. I know I said Timeline and World Domination were my first episodes written and finished, but I did start some others from much later seasons, and that was one of them. Oh god, it was so bad it was funny. I guess you'd have to see it to know why it nearly made me freak out, but never mind. It was bad, trust me. I got to Season Two and I believed it was too stupid to use then, think about it. This is the season that brought you Return of Third Voyager.
Soo back to Blood Oath, the episode pre-dated the prequels and was moved accordingly. There are a few others in this season that were planned for the prequels, or more accurately the prequels were planned around them. I'll get to them soon enough. This was moved but I have no idea why at the time. The third season then didn't have much of a plot besides Jessie's pregnancy, Kiara and Q stuff, oh H'Taria ritual and an excuse to parody Coda (aw, where did that go? ^_^). Thrilling stuff.
More Coming Soon
Deck Thirteen
Title Meaning: Naturally the problem here started on Deck Thirteen.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - I originally typed "dunno" here and now I remember why. I did get inspiration from two Voyager episodes but once the plot was developed and written it didn't seem as obvious. To me anyway. See Misc for more.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)As stated above Deck Thirteen was inspired by two Voyager episodes. One of them I remember and should be obvious enough to anyone who's a Voyager fan, the other I still cannot remember. For some reason I have Vis a Vis in my head *shrug*. The plot in No Matter What seemed to have hit a dead end, not intentionally, it got a mention in either episode 1 or 2 but that was it. I needed an episode to properly explore or develop it. I also felt that after Silent Scream I needed an episode like this, something that would continue James' quite horrible story arc in this season. I'm a cruel bitch, haha.
The first inspiration was Retrospect from Season Four. I think that's what it was called anyway. I remember enjoying it and hating it at the same time. Even though I hated Seven, I absolutely hated the resolution and its "lesson" more. I still think something shady happened despite what the episode tried to tell me. The wiped memories and experiments were an interesting idea so I had a think about it. The plot slowly developed, and was inspired by something from another episode (note if anyone sees another Voyager episode in this, please tell me, it might be that haha). It's probably something little like Tom's sketchy behaviour when he's possessed (Vis a Vis). I'm gonna place my bet on that. Anyway after a lot of work I ended up with Deck Thirteen.
It all went together quite well. I had the chip designed to cause hallucinations, the tense and awkward events of Silent Scream and Blood Oath to work with, and I also had some quite strange behaviour from James himself to exploit. I even had a hallucination/dream scene in Silent Scream, so that left the chip story open for abuse... er plot developments. It needed some closure........ pun intended.
Despite that the episode got off to a slow start. The episode had a serious tone and was quite difficult in places as I was still shaky with first person perspectives. I had to write James' memories as vivid, as well as in his point of view. I cheated in the end, I think (it's been a while since I read it), but yeah, the episode was tough to write. I had Yesteryear following it and that kept tempting me instead. It was a bit of fun and an original episode to parody. In the end both episodes had issues, very similar issues. Deck Thirteen's first part proves it really, it stopped round about where I got stuck, and I didn't fix it when the episode was finished. Part 2 is probably double its size.
Just checked, it is more than that actually and had a writing time gap of four months 0_0 I obviously didn't have a clue what dates I actually wrote it, cos I do remember that once I finally got into it, it didn't take long.
Moving on...
I mention later in this trivia page, or at least in a later one (S5 I definitely mentioned this) that I was concerned that James' character arc in this season would be seen as Gary Stu-ish. He does a lot of stupid stuff in this season and characters who call him out on it tend to get shot down, like they're wrong to do so. Meanwhile the character is written sympathetic sometimes, especially here, which really doesn't help.
I need to explain that wasn't really my intention. I didn't want people to read it and think that I'm making excuses for the character, and that people should just stop picking on him, meanies! No, I wanted a very flawed character who does actually have reasons for being well... crappy sometimes, but still does get called up on it. However he has two people in the series, both of which are very vocal and you don't want to piss them off, who are on his side regardless. It wouldn't be realistic if they turned on him, especially Jessie. I'm not explaining this well, but never mind.
I knew what I was doing a lot of the time. James finds out that he's different for a reason, that reason gives him the excuse to be all hero wannabe (not that he'd want to admit that lol), which causes him endless stress and he tends to become more and more withdrawn or isolated from the others. The Silent Scream incident is another matter. Because of his behaviour they do this right back to him.
In the end he's even alienated Jessie for god's sake. Nobody wants anything to do with him. They're not bad people for doing it, sure I probably wrote it badly enough to make it seem like I thought this, but it was never my intention. Look at this season, they've got a pretty good point. By the time End of the Day happens they've had enough. To be fair for once, the only crap thing James did between Facing Fears and that was pick Jessie in the Mess Hall scene. You'd have a good argument for the possessed gunman's death. Yep no one had recovered from being taken over yet, they usually ended up killing themselves anyway, but there was a cure for it they didn't know about, and obviously didn't have time to find. By that point you can't blame everyone for turning on him.
I dunno, I wanted to write a character that's been given huge responsibilities that he doesn't want, a character that already has so many issues, and have him handle it badly. It seemed more Human and realistic to me. When I wrote the other characters lashing out at him, I was doing it to remind the reader of the mess he's gotten himself into, and to show them that the cast won't stand for it. I worry that it looks like I'm siding with "super perfect awesome" James.... oh that was hard to type.
Don't get me wrong, I do love the character but I love all of my main cast members. Note I said my, I'll never love Seven haha. Anyway, the reason I love the character is because he isn't perfect, and I'm very fond of the arc I developed for him. Anything's better than the idiot in original Season One. That's a character I couldn't get behind.
I guess the far more pressing problem is how much he's featured in the season because of all this.
Coming Soon
Yesteryear
Title Meaning: I wanted to change the Future's End title, and Yesteryear sounded better than Yestercentury. Heh.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Future's End
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Future's End
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)It wasn't long after writing this episode that the Metro Centre (the shopping centre Tom and co were transported to) started to change. Gone was the indoor theme park and arcade/gambling machines, now stands an overpriced cinema, overpriced restaurants and an... um arcade/gambling machines in a different place. It's okay for Yesteryear itself but James mentions going to that specific place before (Season Four has a reference or two), so that can't be possible, I didn't know then. Of course the escape to the second floor via the ticket booth was wrong regardless. I tell you, my memory is terrible! It's a stupid mistake anyway, would the centre still be there in four hundred years? Probably not. Though knowing that place, they'd probably just keep upgrading it every few years. It'll look a lot different in the 2300's ^_^
This episode reeks of me trying to be clever. Have Voyager appear in a later time period, as well as the time ship, but still have a similar villain with a different company. Not to mention, oh hey Microsoft references. Thankfully the episode pre-dates my hatred for Apple or I'd have made them the main villains (tragic really). Back then it was just "um seriously, the computer is inside the monitor? That's ridiculous" and probably "hey my iRiver mp3 player is miles better than that Ipod crap", which even though it is now broken, still remains true.
More Coming Soon
Q and the Grey
Title Meaning: An original title and I'm not sure, other than the Q bit. I'm not sure whether it was spelt Gray or not, I always lean more towards the English spelling so I'm not sure.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The original episode
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Q and the Grey
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) The scene where Jessie and Janeway talk about the Q's stalking them, after James has hit one, originally came from Season Two episode True Q. That episode featured a few flashbacks, one of them always intended to be used in this episode. Only it was shorter in True Q, trimmed down. The point of that was simply to make the scene in Q and the Grey new and not a simple copy of True Q's.
I'll admit, it didn't work that well. Not because of the scene itself. An earlier scene tread on its toes a little, and it makes Janeway sound as if she's got amnesia. Jessie already reported the Q, which is fine, but Janeway mentioned a Q pursuing her in that scene so she repeated herself. I think the reason this happened was I didn't have the scene ready to copy and paste from True Q until I got to it. If I had it on hand the earlier scene wouldn't have made that mistake. I've edited it to try and fix it, but it still doesn't look right to me.
More Coming Soon
The Grove of H'Taria
Title Meaning: The episode is named after the place the ritual takes place in.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Now that's a long boring story. The episode changed constantly during development and even random thoughts about it over the years, that the inspiration's all but gone. In a nutshell there was an old fanfic, Janeway & Chakotay are trapped on a strange planet or in the malfunctioning Holodeck (not sure actually), and during one night they have to put a rock in a water, similar to the water rite in the finished episode, and something strange happens. It was ages ago when I read this and unfortunately I never had the means to save it, I read it on a school computer I think. Either that or a library one, so I couldn't. That's all I remember and even that's hazy. I do think it had a similar word to H'Taria in it at least, hence the title. I wonder if it's still online somewhere.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Yet another episode that was planned many years before it was written, I developed it around the time Interactions was properly developed as well. I know it was the first episode of the prequels. Not literally, it was the first episode planned for it. I was working on Season Two when Season One was still going, as I was stuck on a number of them, so yeah this was a long time ago. The episode (which would have been a flashback if I couldn't make the prequels work - the prequels exist because of this episode) was created to explain Interactions, as well as the Duncan plot as a whole. It also was there so I could come up with reasonable lies for Jessie to use, it's harder to do that when the true events are not worked out.
The episode was going to be based a little sooner AND was going to be where the um, pregnancy took place. I hadn't planned stuff like Sin Deep at the time, but the aliens mythology and whatnot were. So the former may have turned out differently if I kept that. I didn't like it, it just seemed forced. I figured that James/Jessie's relationship deserved better than that... until I ruined it in Loved Up, heh. More on that later.
The episode was originally supposed to be released much sooner, but Deck Thirteen was developed to be in that particular slot instead. Yesteryear was also brought forward so it was before Q and the Grey like it originally was.
More Coming Soon
The Coming of Time
Title Meaning: I think this title predates the episode itself, by quite a bit. I was coming up with a few titles for the prequels while in English (which probably explains why my grammar and spelling sucks, I was too busy doing stuff like this). I had a book in front of me and was inspired by something in it. I've researched the title to see what it was that inspired me, and since this episode is the sixth result, I'm going to say that it was very loosely inspired by what I was reading. I really doubt I was inspired by a Youtube video in 2001 or two people's short fanfics while I was in class. I don't even know what UEDF is. I was probably wrong. Coming of Time was picked for the episode as to me at the time, it meant a deadline was approaching/running out of time. It seemed to fit.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - I think I always had the idea for the timeloop in my head, but the "help me" request sparking each loop off was inspired/ripped off from a show called Tru Calling. As for everything else, I'm not sure. Oh the Tom kiss and run jokes with B'Elanna and insulting Janeway were "inspired" by the Stargate timeloop episode. I wish I could take full credit for those, but I can't.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Not really interesting I know, but this episode was fully plotted out in detail and I didn't have any issues. I didn't have to go backwards to amend something so it wouldn't fit with another loop. There were no issues with future loops and whatnot. The episode flowed into place, with no hassle at all. Naturally I assumed writing it would be another story, but the episode was a joy to write and it remains one of my favourites of this season. If I were to change one thing, I'd only change the ultrasound scenes. They felt out of place. However they do highlight what some may consider a common/re-occurring issue in this season, James and Jessie's relationship is mostly all sap/sickly sweet and their characters do suffer from it (well IMO, I dunno if it's shared). As promised in the previous episode entry, I will get to that. It's about time I talk about it, it's been eating away at me for years.
No, come back! It's not that bad, I swear. Cough. You're okay until Loved Up anyway.
In The Eye
Title Meaning: There's a bit of focus on the eyes of the girl, it's also a shorter version of In The Eye of the Beholder. We know what that means.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - The Ring films and books, obviously
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Coming Soon
Bad Coffee Week
Title Meaning
Oh look a title based on a song lyric, but cheats by changing a word in it. Tut tut. It's not even that old either, so I really should remove that "song title=old title" thing from an earlier entry.I suppose that doesn't explain why the title was used at all. My interpretation of the song Bad Coffee Day was that it was about depression, where even your morning coffee didn't taste right due to the singer's state of mind. Basically everything is awful. Apparently I wasn't that far off the mark, the coffee analogy was right but it was about eating disorders. I bet you're wondering what's this got to do with the episode, neither do. At the time the episode was a mixture of The Chute and Latent Image (or rather the events the episode revolved around). I'll explain why that didn't pan out in Misc, but basically both episodes deal with regret, difficult decisions and trauma. It's not that clever I know, but bad coffee "week" basically meant that it would be a traumatising and difficult time for the people involved, a one that would play on everyone's minds for probably longer than that.
Alternate Titles
The ChuteInspiration
The Chute and Latent ImageOriginal Voyager Episodes Used
Same again^^Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)
This was supposed to be The Chute and Latent Image prequel combined, but I decided during writing that the Chute/prisoner scenes worked much better on their own. I also didn't have much of my own to bring to the Latent Image side of the story. All of the new material made it into the episode itself. It is a shame cos we miss possible Janeway freaking out scenes, more of the Doctor's camera antics, and Neelix's epic flying I guess. So yeah, it worked better... cough.
The Chute episode was originally supposed to be between Cherry Coke and Too Far Gone, so it would be based at the same time as the original, and it definitely was at the time just The Chute. When it was moved I wanted to have stuff from Latent Image. Interestingly enough the title Bad Coffee Week was for something else entirely, and I haven't a clue what. I only got this from a very old release schedule when B4FV3 was still in pre-planning (my posh term for not written yet haha). I wouldn't be surprised if it was for what ended up being Deck Thirteen or Silent Scream.
More Coming Soon
Facing Fears
Title Meaning: Well I'd say people facing inevitable death would be afraid, right? There's the meaning right there.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - N/A
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) Due to the episodes being a saga, I wanted to write everything from Facing Fears to Mind Games and only release them in a space of a week. Since I can't plan it didn't go well. A few episodes did go online in a short space of time, but this wasn't one of them. I believe this was online on its "own" for a while, with a nice cliffhanger to go with it. Ah.
2) Spoilers for the main series/Season One onwards. This is one of the few episodes, or group of episodes, that actually works better being read before the main series. At the same time it references the old version of Aggressions, which is no longer canon, and fortunately just looks like random conversation you're only "hearing" the end of. Anyway why does it work better? That death scene. If you're one of the people who are reading the prequels first and are not in main series territory, skip to the next episode. You probably know what I'm going to say anyway.
Anyone who had read almost any episode of the main series (the first three of Season One would have been fine, not now though) would know that unless I was going to retcon the next four seasons (and the fifth that hadn't started yet), a certain character couldn't really be dead. Yet I wrote the death so it would seem impossible to recover from it. Anyone reading the prequels first may think that this is the first main character death of the series, be happy/sad about it depending on if they liked him (indifferent?), while people who are reading it after the main seasons wonder how he's still alive later if he was vaporised. So yeah until the cliffhanger, it works for prequel first readers.
I think when I was writing B4FV3, I have vague memories of this anyway, that I was trying to make the prequels a possible starting point. I hated my Season One, though at this point B4FV1 wasn't much better in my eyes. I wanted to appeal to more readers by giving them somewhere else to start. It's probably why B4FV3 has so many scenes/storylines in it like this saga that contradicts the early Season One stuff. You know, the usual crime that prequels commit. But anyway I'm blabbing as usual. The cliffhanger I toyed about putting there at all. I figured that I'm more likely to have readers who knew about the main series, than ones who didn't, so I put it there. Yeah it ruined the shock character death element for prequel only readers, but I was going to be releasing the saga over the course of a week so...
That didn't pan out typically. FF's cliffhanger lasted four months. Oh well.
More Coming Soon
Phase In Time
Title Meaning: There's a phase in time, I'm not sure. All I can say is that there's an explanation in Inspiration.
Alternate Titles - Time Phase
Inspiration - Only a few chapters of Kidz Trek were written, Timephase was one of them. This is where the episode comes from. However that was inspired by the TNG episode with the dimension crossing/multiple Enterprise's. There's nothing original about this.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) I originally tried to do a plot like this in B4FV1, you may know it as Tomorrow's Voyager. Phase In Time appeared in B4FV3's listing due to mucking that up spectaculary.
2) Contrary to what I said in FF, Phase In Time does feature a few things from the main seasons which may be spoilery. If you don't know Season Five, skip ahead to 3, if there isn't a 3 yet, skip to the next episode.
Lena appears in the prequels again, which was pretty bittersweet at the time of writing as she had been dead quite a while. Ylara was around but I don't think it really explained the deal there. James and Chakotay's attitude toward each other, and obviously James being back on Voyager at all. Though to be fair, the episode explained the other Voyager's were AU's as well as future versions. I did write it so main season first readers would enjoy the references, but at the same time I tried not to give too much away for readers who hadn't gotten there yet. That's not always possible.
I think the Ylara/Lena thing was done well, as they don't say what's happening. She could be a copy, temporary one episode possession, heck even an "evil twin", which would go with the Seventh Voyager stuff in Season One. It doesn't take up much of the story. Any prequel reader would have quite a few season to go through and likely will forget about Ylara when they get to her. Maybe. Hopefully.
Tom being in charge of Voyager's probably the biggest spoiler. However all it may do is make people think that when the Enterprise joins up in Season Three, that Janeway and Chakotay take control of that eventually. I don't think anything in the episode tells you what really happens. It's interpretation. I hope. It has been a while since I've read it. I really should.
3) The idea of having Phase In Time here in the middle of the saga was to lighten the mood after FF, only for Fantastical and End of the Day to darken it once more.
Coming Soon
Fantastical
Title Meaning: Well a lot of the stuff that happens here can be labelled as supernatural or fantastical. I'm sure that's what the word means anyway.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - *shrug*
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) There's something I think should be mentioned, which I was reminded of while reading through this saga again. In Phase In Time the demon leader mentions that the competitors are not supposed to use weapons or any tricks, just their own strength to beat their prisoner. Yet by the next episode, this one, the description goes out of its way to show that the rule has been ignored regardless. Or that it was a plot hole haha. They complain that they had to cheat to get a winner, the injuries mentioned are a way of hinting that they got rid of the rule earlier so they could get one. Also the good demon comes in with hidden gadgets, which is meant to suggest that they probably don't care enough to search everyone for weapons.
I imagine a few people would have similar issues with this particular storyline, mainly that some things aren't shown/explained; how did he survive that long, did they give him food or water of any kind, how come they couldn't knock him out... at some point he must have passed out from lack of sleep. It could be explained that the episode's age was a factor, but really even if I wrote it now I'd keep it the same.
The whole point of James' part of the storyline is that his actions afterwards are strange, a little out of character and it leads to everyone's distrust of him (and then Reboot One's story but that's still untold at the moment). The torture he suffers here is the root cause of it all. And like the crew, you don't know what exactly happened to make him act this way. So when he shoots the possessed alien, screws up in the Mess Hall incident, his reaction to the twins death etc... you're meant to think what the crew does in the end*. Even then you know more than they do, but still. Is his torture for two weeks an excuse for what happens? Are the crew right to mistrust him? That's all a matter of opinion.
True, some characters would re-think their opinion of him if he bothered to tell them what happened instead of lying. But at the same time some would either think the same or judge him more harshly for it. You only have to read message board's responses to horrific news to see varying different opinions. For me, it differs as well. I like all of my main characters, including James, but his actions in these episodes add to his big list of crimes throughout the series and even I re-think some of them (that's why I'm writing this piece tbh). His past and the incident here are perfectly good reasons for them, but shouldn't explain it away either. Not every kid that's abused has anger problems and succumbs to violence easily, it's understandable though if they do. It's another reason why when he shoots the possessed alien I don't go into a tangent and explain why he did it, it's up for interpretation. Yours.
* This goes with the later trivia point where I wasn't trying to Gary Stu James' character; that he was perfectly innocent and the crew who turn on him are awful. I'm still not saying that either. A lot of what I do with him is an attempt to do the opposite. I prefer writing flawed characters who get into trouble. With him and (spoilers for Season 2+) Lena I have to be very careful not to make them Sue/Stu's, as one of the definitions is being "super special" compared to others of their race. So I'm already there, and them being major characters in the series also adds to the Sue column. Their personality and actions have to be what separates them. Luckily I developed their characters before really revealing it. Although my worry is that I was unaware of this awful cliche/trope during Season One and early Two, so I have often worried that Lena falls into it there. Hurray for reboots.
To end this all, there's the other issue. Like Season Four's True Memories, the truth never comes out, at least for a long, long time. At least this time you know it, or at least the basics of it. I imagine a few writers will tell me that's a mistake (and I'd definitely agree with True Memories. It was a good idea at the time but since it's never referenced again or written with enough hints that it had a hidden agenda, then it just forever seems like James did knock out his awayteam and manipulate their memories, something he falsely believes as well). I just hope that the character's actions alone makes it work, as that was the intended point. The other characters at the very least get hints that he's lied about what happened in the finale of End of the Day and Mind Games, but yeah James never tells a soul.
I suppose there's the other so called flaw. Why doesn't he? Once again, by this time in my series I liked to leave things up for interpretation. B4FV3, Season Four, Five... they're all guilty of not explaining everything. In fact the current WIP episode has suffered from numerous rewrites due to me falling into the old trap of explaining. That's what these pages are for, ahem.
2) I've mentioned it somewhere I'm sure, but it fits better here. I was very proud to have done the ending like this, I was still at the chickening out period of my writing "career". I thought it was a perfect way to show James' state of mind after everything, to prepare for the next two episodes. That it was probably the most personal scene I'd ever done, before I started "narrating" through the characters in Season Five.
That was ruined when I watched an episode of a series called Angel and saw a character do the exact same thing.
I was a little gutted after the initial laughing reaction I usually do. I had stolen from the series' sister Buffy in my much older days, which I regret very much. This time though I didn't. I hadn't seen this episode before and I certainly would have watched it sooner if I knew about it, as the character involved was my second favourite from Buffy. As I'd done it before I was worried that it would look like I was just copying again, and this was the last scene in the season I wanted someone accusing me of stealing.
I don't know when this particular episode of Angel aired, but I doubt it was after Fantastical. I'd probably be better off never addressing it or I do risk people not believing me. These pages are all about me trying to be honest with the series' history and if I neglected to mention this, it would be a slippery slope of me not mentioning other things. No way.
I guess you only have my word that it wasn't an intentional copy. The similarities are too often to ignore. A damaged character who's killed before, tries to help but gets beaten horribly in the process. I can only speak for James and not the Buffy/Angel character, but this is the first time for him he's been in a safe environment to reflect on what he went through, and the hot water makes the physical part of his pain so much worse. He feels helpless, that he's screwed up. How many of us have reflected on something when they're alone, and lashed out on an object. Like the character, James' lashing out can badly damage a wall. Yep. I swear this scene looks like a direct copy; walk in shower, scream and punch cracks/holes in the wall. Sigh. The only differences I can recall is the different gender and the amount of damage he did. It annoys me.
Coming Soon
End of the Day
Title Meaning: Janeway quite literally gets a message that says they have twenty four hours to live.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Most of it was my own idea, however the demons using explosives was unfortunately inspired by (at the time) the new series I'd gotten into, Bones. I think it was like the second episode. It's still quite a loose inspiration. I basically thought the demons need to get into this reality someway and it'll have to be brutal, that fit the bill.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I was worried about releasing this episode, despite knowing full damn well FV was/is unknown. I had people being shot at, suicide bombers, one character cracking and shooting an innocent guy who's just possessed to death multiple times (definitely ranks there as one of James' most d**kish moves... but like most, I have reasons for it. I usually do), baby murders, suicide etc... Forget Parental Advisory, this episode was dark and the fact that I pulled it off back then, I don't know if it's a good thing or not. So yeah, I expected someone to complain somehow.
It was a horrible episode if you think about it. Still as I joke in Reboot Season One, I imagine most Voyager fans would still pick this over what it replaced; ie Favourite Son *shudder*, the dinosaur episode *snore*, the highest ever Launched Freefall ride episode (meh I thought it was ok), Unity *gag/snore*, Before And After (people hated this! I loved it), the two Doctor episodes (hey judge me, I liked both of them)... well you get the idea. Nobody tell me otherwise, my fragile ego couldn't take it ^_^ No seriously, the episode was dark and I'd expect people to hate it. Ignorance is bliss I guess.
More Coming Soon
Mind Games
Title Meaning: Simple, James gets trapped inside his own head, it plays tricks on him. There's a hint to an outside reference too... see Misc for more there.
Alternate Titles - Images In The Mind
Inspiration - N/A
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)Ah boy, here we go. Images In The Mind was a B4FV Season Two episode, possibly a special, based somewhere after the Resolutions episodes. I had so many damn ideas about how this episode was going to go, I got myself stuck very easily. The episode was delayed, then eventually cancelled completely. It didn't take long for it to appear in this season. I don't know if that was when it became Mind Games, I have a feeling that name was picked while it was still in Two as the banner for it screams "B4FV2" style.
I'll have to go through what the plans were for this episode eventually, there were a few. Right now on that I'm going to say "Coming Soon".
Some scenes from the original made it into the Three version, one of those in particular I remember was Janeway's coffee chat before the Doctor calls her with the news. That explains why it's such a shock to her, as the original scene where James collapses wouldn't have been there as that happened in End of the Day.
Speaking of which, the original had to make James collapse for other reasons. I have no clue what it was. I assume it had something to do with the outside influence causing it.
And speaking of that!... the episode doesn't get explained in this version, at least it's not thrown in your face anyway. The Doctor does leave a hint that it's self inflicted. I decided during the saga that it was a much better idea, brought on by the stress of everything that had happened to him, not only across the saga but the season (and maybe before) itself.
Finally (for now), the episode always had Janeway as his mother and a cameo from Lena. The former can be explained as when James finds out the truth, he gradually starts to remember her, or at leasts puts her face to his childhood memories. The latter however he shouldn't be aware of whatsoever, unless you remember a certain B4FV2 episode was apparently erased from the crew's memories. Wink wink, nudge. Of course a later episode named Five puts a spanner in the works.
Alter Ego
Title Meaning: Simply the girl in the episode has two personalities, her alter ego is the one that snaps and kills people.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - Ringu Zero if I'm honest, I think that's what it's called. Girl split into two, one is gentle and shy, the other... holy crap.
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) Whatever the story was going to be, this particular slot had to deal with the aftermath to the Facing Fears saga. Alter Ego helped do a lot more than that really. The girl's story was designed as a more extreme parallel, or worst case scenario if you like, to James' after the demon/portal events. Sada had supernatural/special abilities, so does he. The logs said that strange things started to happen when she joined the crew, James is being blamed for "luring" the demons back to Voyager. The alien crew feared her for her abilities and impact on the ship, the Voyager crew won't admit it but a lot of them fear him for the same reasons.
The alien crew eventually turn against her. Voyager has had enough and have turned against James too.
The differences though are what make the story a little interesting for me. I kinda wish I did more with it. Sada had no control of her power. She was afraid of it. Since she was afraid of it, it would be unleashed everytime her emotions flared up. Her crew were rightly frightened of this power and avoided her, treated her with contempt, which sowed further anxiety within her, and of course lead to further incidents. Their last resort to stop this power killed them and pushed her further down the path of destruction. Nobody, including her, got any answers to why this happened. Not everything gets solved. All it does is give the Voyager crew an extreme example of what they're doing themselves.
None of what I've said really points fingers at the Voyager crew, or James for that matter. That's the point. I know I've said before that he's not supposed to be completely innocent in this storyline, but he's not 100% culpable either. Some stuff the crew have a right to be mad at, while some they're wrong to blame him for. Even so they've been through some strange things lately, stuff that won't make sense to them and they haven't been trained for. It's only natural for them to look for a reason, someone/thing to blame. People are angry and scared, so this kinda stuff is bound of happen. Meanwhile James has thrown himself into the thick of it, and a lot of the time he's failed. He at the moment doesn't really see himself as human, but merely a weapon that has to be thrown at every problem. But he is a human, he's not perfect and makes mistakes. Or there are times when he's overwhelmed by it all. Not to mention the two weeks of torture at the hands of the demons, something that would traumatise anyone.
IMO there's no bad guys in this. The crew are right to be freaked out by recent events, while James is deeply affected by his own personal ones. Yes both of their behaviour is wrong, but like most things in this world, there's damn good reasons for them. Examples, James shooting the possessed alien to death is so, so wrong but it's done in the heat of the moment to stop a mass shooting, days after the same demons have made a sport of beating him to death for two weeks. The woman who stops James in the corridor just to taunt him over his decision to save Jessie, serves no purpose and is only done to be cruel, but in her point of view from what she's heard, he probably would sacrifice the crew for Jessie without a care. Only people who were there would know what really happened, and even them didn't really get the big picture.
I suppose it's still subjective in a way. You might have different opinions. In my eyes James does a few questionable things, but doesn't really deserve the entire wrath he gets. He does deserve to get a few skunk eyes and some truth thrown his way for some of the things he did. Yeah he's a huge mess from his death in Death Wish to Worse Case, but that doesn't absolve him of absolutely everything. Most of the stuff I think he deserves a little scorn for was before the FF saga. The saga itself, he could've handled Jessie's hostage situation better, and I go both ways with the alien shooting. As for the crew, Chakotay's a little overboard but that's probably more a mistake than a judgement on the story because I was writing Season Five alongside this, and only a few of the worst comments/actions from some crewmembers (Harry's irritable bitch comment for example, since it was more offensive to Jessie than James, who'd done nothing to deserve it other than stick up for him) should be judged. Otherwise everyone's been through hell and back, and so shouldn't be.
2) I go back and forth about James' culpability in this guide. Some stuff I've written down because I'd forgotten how much behind the scenes work I did. I cried and ranted over James' awful scene with Jessie in Silent Scream, forgetting the hints I put into other episodes as far back as Do's and Don'ts to show that the chip was messing with his behaviour from the start. I complained at length about the crew's turning on James being written like "meanie characters picking on the perfect Gary Stu" in a bad fanfic *cough*, because I was so sure I didn't write it with that intent, without really thinking it through. Don't get me wrong, I didn't write it with that intent but I sure as hell didn't write it because James deserved a kick in the ass for everything he did in this season. The storyline isn't black and white, good versus bad. It's not meant to be seen as either Bad James gets the grilling he deserves from the crew, or James isn't responsible for anything he does because trauma, weight of the "world" and chip, and is being picked on by the mean crew who don't know this. It's a combination of both simply.
Coming Soon
Loved Up
Title Meaning: The title was created mainly for the girls falling for the alien plot, but is an "ironic" hint to the James and Jessie fall out.
Alternate Titles - N/A
Inspiration - None
Original Voyager Episodes Used - N/A
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)I wasn't sure whether it should come up here or in the following episode, but the James and Jessie romances needs to be talked about. I thought it should be here as out of the two, the developments are mostly here. Of course it took me about ten minutes to think of where to start... Naturally there are spoilers for the main seasons incoming. Don't read if you're reading the series in chronological order. Warning this is long (and I've recently edited it down), so again if this will spoil you just skip to the next episode.
Basically I like shipping, it tuned me into fanfiction writing, and I'm definitely no prude, despite what I've said. However even now when I write romance or attempt to, I get oddly paranoid. There's no voice in my head saying yuck, what are you doing or even that's terrible. It's just simply does this really need to be here. I can't explain it. The old days a couple kissing, usually James and Jessie, had to have a ! reaction to it. It was sudden and over with in a flash, and badly tried to be explained away. Resistance took advantage of that by writing the awkward pre-action done on purpose. Nowadays it's not portrayed as a shock, but I still feel out of my comfort zone when I write it.
I wanted to fight this problem, it was a challenge. I couldn't write seriously either, that was why FV started out as a parody. Season Five was the style I wanted for it all along, but couldn't pull it off at the time. I'm hoping that despite still being paranoid about it, I've conquered this issue as well. I hope what I'm about to explain here makes some sense or even better, readers actually saw this for themselves before I explain it here. So without further blabbing... about that^, here it is...
The first relationship was riddled with problems, and basically it all comes down to one simple thing. Neither of them were ready. I wanted to show this a lot, but in a way that kept them together. It was destructive. The Silent Scream episode took it too far, but it's one of the better examples. They depend on each other way too much. Yeah it wasn't as bad as characters like Danny made out, but it was a really crappy thing for James to do, drunk or not. Jessie however, despite what she says, can't live without him so that thought brings her to forgive him so quickly. How many times was Jessie jealous of Zare? Too many to count. The ending to Broken Wreck was so awkward, I'm surprised I didn't have an aneurysm from all the cringing and twitching I was probably doing while writing it.
James' fake death is another. Jessie completely shuts down, even considering suicide. The last example I have is the pair is too sickly sweet when this crap isn't happening. They're really, really soppy and gushy. Some scenes were like the one I mentioned in Broken Wreck, cringeworthy for me to re-read; the quit being pretend couple scene in Up In Smoke comes to mind. Before I go on, I'll compare with the main seasons, baring in mind that the earlier days I was still competing with my paranoia, whereas B4FV2+ I mostly ignored it.
One of my favourites in Season Two, is mostly a blink and miss it moment as you'd have to know what to look for. Unless you're a diehard shipper that analyses anything, you may not notice the significance. It's in Resistance. Yeah James is jealous in it, but mainly due to not seeing her as much as well as having a bad feeling about Simon. That's not the point though. When the fake-Simon attacks Jessie, James only gets him away from her. His main priority was to comfort her. I know someone may think this is because Resistance was so soon after Season One (which was before I changed his character), but it was after Interactions and Disconnected. His Season Two+/prequel persona was always lash out/impulsive first, deal with the consequences later. Instead of chasing Simon and likely beating the stuffing out of him, he stayed behind as Jessie needed him.
The main season relationship feels more natural and is easier to write. They tease each other, have a laugh, they can be sappy but still remain true to their characters. Any jealousy shown was dealt with usually with a snarky comment or joke, the only exception was James' in Season Four with Daniel, but that was fleeting (and tbh was only needed for the Lena/Daniel, it could have been done differently). True James goes completely mad when Jessie dies, but compared to Jessie's earlier breakdown he's still mostly himself and can function a lot of the time. To be honest, that's what I tried to do but those episodes were badly rushed and they're definitely getting rebooted to death when I get there. Yeah there's the later suicide attempt, which was a moment of madness, at least should have been portrayed as such.
I'm not saying that James is better at dealing than her (haha), or even that they care less about each other during the second relationship. I'm (badly) trying to portray a couple who've had this disastrous, destructive relationship in the past, but thanks to a long break they've grown up enough to have a healthier one.
So that brings us right back to Loved Up. James is ready to give up fighting/getting involved in the slightest thing, as he believes that it's what Jessie wants. Right now it is what pregnant Jessie wants, as the last few months/years he's thrown himself into the deep end with the sharks many times; Up In Smoke, It's Your Duty, Blood Oath, Facing Fears, End of the Day... well you get the idea. However both of them don't remember a simple, and one of my favourite things about the pair, thing; Jessie will scold him for putting himself in danger, but deep down she is proud that he does these things. She labelled him as selfless in one episode. I don't believe anyone truly is and he has his moments that say otherwise, but hey... that's what she thinks. She's also mentioned being very grateful to him for looking out for her, as she believes thanks to abandonment that no one cared for her before. However Jessie cares about him too, so she naturally would get upset with him if his attempts to help get him hurt, almost hurt, killed etc... Heh, I told you I sucked at explaining things.
Anyway James has forgotten that it's in his nature to do things like this, it's who he is, or he hasn't but is willing to change cos he loves her. Jessie's forgotten that it's one of his traits that she admires and loves about him, but that's easily explained away by the recent trauma and the fact that she's about to have their first baby. Can anyone see the problem here? This was always going to end in tears. If I'm wrong, sue me.
James' reason for breaking up with her is due to really mucking up, again. I had planned that last muck up so many years ago, and it hurt to write it. I tried to keep in my head that both of these people have lost a baby and the scene itself highlighted how traumatising it was for both. I hate that fight scene with a passion, but it had to be there like everything else. Jessie had a feeling the baby would die, but is so broken by it she can't cry yet. James just breaks down completely and can't understand why she doesn't react the same way.
I know Timeline Four keeps them together, but it doesn't mean that was my preferred choice for the storyline. James was still struggling to figure out who and what he was, he had to grow up a lot. If I kept them together Jessie would have regretted telling him that his idea to give up a part of his personality, that she adored, was such a good idea. Later seasons I've shown she was also embarrassed with her lovey dovey behaviour, at least subtly. James would likely have tried to keep up the no-fighting/no-trying to help all the time, but would have failed, as evident in Alternate Scorpion and Aggression. He also would have kept messing up as well as a result.
So yeah the relationship break up was hard, it was brutal in a way but it had to be done. It may have looked like I had rose tinted glasses on for B4FV3, but I knew exactly what I was doing. I wasn't trying to make James a misunderstood Gary Stu, I wasn't trying to make Danny and Ian the bad guys, I wasn't finally out of my "I can't write romance" shell and writing J/J mushy cos I could. I like James but I know he's incredibly flawed, it's why I like him (now), and he has done some bad things. Danny and Ian were mostly correct about James changing after the Slayer revelation, and Jessie fighting back against them was proving their point all along. I hated writing that mushy crap in B4FV3, I can't stand watching it either. Yeah I like pairings that have meaningful stuff going on, not just smooch all the time.
Don't get me wrong, not every scene between James and Jessie in the prequels had an ulterior motive. I've quite simply mentioned everything that (kinda) was. There's still some nice scenes between the two. For examples Jessie's reaction to the vampires threatening to kill James "all I know is my best friend is in danger and I'm going to do something about it" type line, was probably one of my favourite Jessie scenes and that was B4FV2. Her saving him in It's Your Duty. Deck Thirteen is a favourite of mine, as it also paints Jessie accurately, she's just as overprotective of James as he is of her.
So there it is. Not all of it is there as I have an opportunity to write better in the reboots, but it's more than enough trivia for the entire page, ha.
Worse Case Scenario 1
Title Meaning: Like the original episode, the title is referring to the Holodeck program originally being a Security training program just in case the Marquis try to rebel. Oh and I was too stupid to call its Season One "sequel" Worst.
Alternate Titles - Worse Case Scenario 1: Bewitched and Bothered. Bewitched refers to what Jessie accidentally does, and Bothered just refers to the bother the Holodeck program causes
Inspiration - The original episode, naturally
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Worst Case Scenario
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)When this episode was written there was never going to be a reboot. Because of that, I had the problem of mainly James and Jessie returning to their Season One alter ego's. As mentioned in various places, both characters were introduced as parodies of other characters. Even when they weren't anymore only Jessie had any kind of development. Season One also overexaggerated every character's traits, as well as had them act like a bunch of loons. As James/Jessie were the biggest problem, I had to think of a reason for their change as I wanted them as they are now. Jessie being broken hearted enough to have her will done, by accident, was all I could come up with. James reverts to a younger self, but a little more carefree (in other words, not impulsive enough to attack every incident) and calmer. Jessie was only to be like her younger self as well, her violent anger was something else. Now that there is a reboot, some (un)creative tweaks have to be made still to the pair in Season One, but not to the extremes of the originals. I had to keep the spell as well, as it is referenced in S3 or 4, or both?
More Coming Soon
Alternate Scorpion
Title Meaning: It's Scorpion in yet another alternate universe
Alternate Titles - Alternate Aggressions
Inspiration - Scorpion naturally
Original Voyager Episodes Used - Scorpion
Miscellaneous (Other Trivia)1) As I've mentioned in the Cancelled Episodes section, the B4FV series wasn't originally supposed to end with this episode. It was supposed to end with a "movie" that followed directly after it. At the time of writing I used to create polls to get readers involved in the series, and I think this episode had the final one. AS had three endings. These were the choices given, the scenes themselves weren't posted (or written for that matter); Cliffhanger, Resolved Ending, Resolved Ending with a Hmm?
The last one was explained better at the time. It had Inside of Two Evils, Season Four's finale, as an example. Everything was resolved but a scene appeared at the end to spark questions. Yeah it's probably still a cliffhanger, but it's not as big as crewmembers being trapped on a dangerous ship. Resolved Ending is as it says, Instinct is probably the only example.
Each ending scene was to be written anyway, in this order:
Resolved Ending > Hmm Ending > (lots more scenes) > CliffhangerIf Resolved Ending was picked, the other scenes would appear in the movie. Both Resolved and Hmm are next to each other, so the Hmm ending would have started the movie. If Hmm, the cliffhanger would end up in the movie with the scenes opening it being a little flexible. Cliffhanger obviously would have followed straight after it. You get the idea, I hope.
The Hmm ending was picked. This left the poor cliffhanger to never see the light of day (until episode 17 of Season Five, seven and a half years later). Dimension Rewritten did eventually turn into the Season One Reboot, but that didn't mean that the mystery cliffhanger was ever going to make it - It wasn't More or Less to Year of Hell's cliffhanger or anything to do with them, it was based before these two. All I can say is it revolved around Janeway's assimilation.
So to sum up; the cliffhanger was not written before the results of the poll, Season Five got 100% priority after AS was finished, the movie was cancelled, the scene would never fit in with the reboot as it was linked to something that happened only in the alternate universe.
2) It never occurred to me until I got to that point, but the cliffhanger could still be used after all. It's a good thing I didn't spoil it here before, as it is now canonised (if that isn't a word, it should be) in a fairly recent episode *cough*toavoidspoilersIwon'tnameit*cough*. A thought occurs to me that Phase In Time gave a little blink and you miss it hint before AS was even released, so it never really was completely hidden.
Warning, spoilers for Season Five follow. Skip to point 3 if you're not there yet.
During S5's few year hiatus I decided to finally explain the paradox the series was based around in depth, and the official reason for its title. To do this I thought the best way was to show it. This meant that eventually Alternate Scorpion's events would/could be shown. I had the opportunity to not only show off the cancelled cliffhanger, but use it as a tie in with the reboot of Season One. I'll get into that later.
I did have the trouble of using actual Alternate Scorpion scenes in this episode, as I didn't want to copy them in without adding anything. Broken Wreck for example could be changed as it was a different version of it from previous timelines/dimensions. Alternate Scorpion had to be the same. I thought, do I really need to show it at all? The cliffhanger was at risk of being cancelled again. What allowed it to stay wasn't that I badly wanted to write it, I did, but the previous chapter of "Five" covered Scorpion. The episode's point was to show the differences. Since Fifth Voyager's version wasn't planned to make it in, Fourth's had to, so Alternate Scorpion made it in after all. The original idea was to write new scenes but it made little sense. So, scenes from this made it in as direct copies after all, formatted like recaps.
Once I got to the cliffhanger I did think that it would look like filler. What did it have to do with the episode's point, other than showing different versions of events? At the time I was also writing the reboot of a certain episode called Collective Instinct, related to this cliffhanger or more accurately the inspiration for it in the first place. I thought at the very least it would tie in with that when it was released a few months later. Then it hit me. Why did I have this assimilation twist in Collective Instinct in the first place? That's right, to foreshadow Morgan/Lena's storyline, and explain a small part of it behind the scenes. That was Five's point as well, so the cliffhanger made sense to me again. It had to be there.
If you haven't read Five yet and you have no idea what I'm talking about cos of it, I did warn you ^_^
3) Also there's another scene I regretted having to cut "permanently" thanks to Dimension Rewritten's cancellation. I forgot to mention it at the time it well... happened, the entry above only just reminded me. And no, it didn't make it into that Season Five episode. I couldn't explain that one into the story like the cliffhanger.
Since the episode's been out a few years now (wow time flies), it's okay for me to go into more detail. Alternate Scorpion left a few things hanging, one of which was the threat of Frenit still being onboard. I'm not sure if anyone even remembers but he swore to get revenge on James for what he did to him. An eye for an eye really, which he took too literally in AS. The end of the episode his son was born, which gives Frenit a chance to get his revenge. The scene would have been him taking advantage of the madness from the cliffhanger, and kidnap the boy. James has the showdown versus Frenit a few seasons too early, and as he's not as strong in this alternate timeline has a lot trouble doing so. In the end he pays him back for the almost killing him and slashing his eye, in a... familiar way.
To get to the point, Season Five's Death of the Soul always had the big fight scene between the two. I figured that since it wasn't being used anymore, James would cripple Frenit in the exact same way in Death. Basically instead of an eye for an eye, James decided an arm for an eye was more appropriate. Only if I remember right it was two arms. The way Death-S5 James does it is easier, one slash does the trick. My memory of the details is hazy, but I do remember it was basically showing that he didn't need Chosen strength to defeat Frenit, he just needed to outsmart him. Frenit got tricked and more or less de-armed himself. Strangely enough I don't remember if Frenit ever died in that timeline, I'm sure Phase In Time (yes again) has a hint at one point to confirm this.