LAST EDITED ON Mar-25-07 AT 02:11 PM (EDT)
 
Being a Partial Record of Personages Involved with the Glorious Launching and Maiden Voyage of Her Majesty's Sky-Fortress Macross, July 10, 1890.

Members of the Macross Crew

Captain Genrikh (Henry) J. Gloval, IRN - Russian naval officer, chosen to command HMS Macross on her maiden voyage to the Moon. Gloval is a political appointee, having served as the Tsar's representative on the Grand Alliance Council from the start, and many RN officers resent the fact that a foreigner has been given the high-profile command of the vessel as a political sop to the Russian court (relations of the Queen and all that, you know). Many British officials refer to him only as "that damned Russian" - a title in which Gloval seems to take some perverse pride. By turns strict and fatherly, he is beloved by his crew. Gloval is wary of the Grand Alliance, suspecting that nations with conflicting - or worse, parallel - long-term goals cannot agree to share a power like the Macross indefinitely.

Lieutenant Commander the Honourable Lisa Hayes, RN - Executive officer of HMS Macross. The first woman to achieve so high a rank in the Royal Navy. Lisa is the daughter of Admiral Donald "Dreadnought" Hayes, Baron Barrow, GCB, RN, but she achieved her position more in spite of her father's prominence than because of it. Inspired as a child by the arrival of the Macross, she set out to become, and now is, a respected naval officer, though she still battles the chauvinism of her peers on a daily basis. Cool and poised, she deflects criticism with competence and withering personal disinterest, but at times the loneliness of her position weighs on her. Captain Gloval is one of the few male officers to show her the respect she deserves.

Major Sir Roy Fokker, RAFC - A Batavia-born Dutchman who served as a soldier of fortune before going to work for the British as a test pilot - a term newly coined - in the Armoured Aero-Soldier program. No slouch as an engineer himself, Fokker has developed improvements to the machines. His contributions to the development efforts have been recognized with a knighthood, a commission as major in the newly created Royal Armoured Flying Corps, and appointment as the commander of all the Macross's AAS forces. Fokker and his half-Javanese wife Claudia, who works as a communications engineer on the Macross bridge, welcomed their first child, Anton, not long before the story begins.

Ens. Hikaru Ichijo, IJN - A young Japanese naval officer assigned to the Macross as part of Imperial Japan's small but vocal contribution to the Grand Alliance. In training to be an AAS pilot. Ichijo is a devotee of flight and a great admirer of Fokker and Lilienthal, who he sees as the foremost pioneers of the most significant new frontier in human history - the air. Serious-minded and steeped in the Japanese mode of military thought, with its roots in that country's not-so-distant samurai past, he rarely smiles and never makes a joke, except for his curious habit of sparring verbally with Lisa Hayes on the tele-communicator. He seems to find the idea of a female command officer oddly compelling, rather than laughable as many of his peers do, and has been known to get into fistfights with other pilots and crewmen who make jokes about Hayes behind her back.

2nd Lt. Dennis J. MacCrofton - A young Scottish officer serving in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), the Royal Army cavalry regiment assigned to operate the non-flying Armoured Soldiers aboard the Macross. MacCrofton commands a troop (1st Troop, B Sqdn.) of five Mark IV Armoured Soldiers, or "tanks" as they are affectionately known by the British troops. Cheerful and confident (and perhaps a bit cocky), he likes to dispute the notion that the Armoured Aero-Soldier units are the top dogs of the Macross's internal military hierarchy, often challenging AAS pilots to various feats of daring or, failing that, just a good fight. Hikaru Ichijo considers him a disruptive flake; he considers Ichijo a dull stick-in-the-mud.

Sgt. Victoria Marks, USA - An American cavalry soldier who commands one of the U.S. Army's non-transforming Model 1888 Knox-class Armored Levi-Craft. The United States has contributed more technically than militarily to the Macross project, and there are few American soldiers aboard the fortress, but Sgt. Marks and the unit she belongs to (the 2nd Maine Volunteer Cavalry Regiment) are proud to be serving in the most advanced and powerful force the United States can field. Marks has a friendly rivalry with Lt. MacCrofton of the Royal Scots Greys. She and her crew will put their "slab" up against one of the British "tin men" any day of the week.

The bridge crew - All young women following in the path broken by pioneers like Lisa Hayes and Claudia Fokker. Another sign, if his critics needed one, of the essential wrong-headedness of "that damned Russian". Sublt. Vanessa Laird, RN is a young Scotswoman who conceals fierce determination and an viper's tongue behind a quiet, bespectacled demeanor; Ens. Samantha Porter, USN is an American who has managed to retain her bubbly zest for life despite the hardships of being, in effect, her country's Lisa Hayes; and Podporuchik (effectively, Sublieutenant/Lt. jg.) Kim Kavirova, IRN is the most outwardly confident of the three, having grown accustomed to functioning in Russian society, where the men talk a good game but know, in their hearts, that women are the natural leaders.

The Technologists

Nikola Tesla - Though he has no official title, everyone knows Tesla is the reason anybody ever got anywhere with the alien technologies embodied by the Macross. The brilliant Serbo-American technologist-savant was called into the project in 1880 after the great British scientist William Thomson and the famed American inventor Thomas Edison both declared that no one would ever get any part of the alien ship to work. Tesla had the lights on within a day, then busied himself figuring out how the rest of it worked, in the process earning the lifelong enmity of both Thomson and Edison. The many innovations he has teased from the mysteries of the Macross include beam weapons, television, subspace radio, anti-gravity, inertia cancelling, advanced metallurgy, and huge advances in servomechanics. His discoveries made possible not only the rebuilding and eventual operation of the Macross, but also the development of the many accompanying technologies, such as the Armoured Soldiers. As launch day approaches, he is still aboard, working as a sort of unofficial chief engineer. His detractors - and some of his admirers - say that Tesla all but views the Macross as his own creation.

Fritz Krupp - Son of the late German arms magnate Alfred Krupp, the "Cannon King", who was involved in the Macross project from 1880, when Germany joined the Grand Alliance, until his death in 1887. It was the elder Krupp who dubbed the stream of incredible advances flowing from the Macross via Tesla's brain Übertechnologie (the name by which it is still known in Germany), and he who first saw the potential for many of them to be used as weapons. Tesla intensely disliked the elder Krupp for his overbearing persona, his right-wing war-hawk tendencies, and his ruthlessness. However, he and the younger Krupp, a much more approachable sort of man who prefers to be known as "Fritz" by all, are fast friends.

John Trussell - Another of the American technologists brought in to look over the Macross. Specifically, he's the ship's Engineer (with a capital E): the person responsible for looking after the Engine, the colossal mechanical computer at the heart of the ship, which controls all of its functions in one way or another. A student of the late Charles Babbage, he understands analytical and difference engines better than any other living academic, which is why his refusals to accept a military commission or carry a weapon have not stood in the way of his becoming a key member of the Macross crew. Has a good working relationship with Tesla, but does not claim to understand him.

Otto Lilienthal - A German inventor and researcher into heavier-than-air flight, hired by Krupp Sr. in 1882 to help with early development on armament applications for Übertechnologie. Lilienthal created the prototype Fliegenpanzersoldat in 1884, but a personality clash with Krupp led him to leave his countryman's employ and go to work for the British instead. Krupp never forgave Lilienthal, but died before he could make much of an issue of it. The Fliegenpanzersoldat went on to become known by the public as the Armoured Aero-Soldier after development was completed by the British.

Members of the Public

Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross - Daughter and only child of the late John Wallingford Mayminster, 4th Earl of Macross, a famous explorer who was the first man to set foot inside the crashed alien starship in 1873. Macross was an active member of the Grand Alliance Council until his tragic death in a construction accident aboard the Macross in 1885. Orphaned by the tragedy, his daughter - only ten years old at the time - spent the next few years in boarding schools before returning to the island for the launch ceremony, at which she will be the guest of honor. Cheerful and industrious, Lady Macross admires Lisa Hayes and hopes to meet her during the ceremony. She has inherited much of her father's adventurous streak and secretly wants to be an Armoured Soldier pilot.

Samuel Clemens - American author and humorist, well-known by the pen name "Mark Twain". He has nothing to do with the Macross project (in fact, he thinks the Grand Alliance was a damn-fool idea and the United States ought to have stayed out of it), but was invited to Macross Island and the ship's launching ceremony by his good friend Tesla.

First, hurrah for Roy and Claudia together!

Rick--er, I mean Hikaru being actual military certainly makes a lot more sense for this era than the canon "civvie hotshot" origin. Nobody outside the military's likely to have airplanes (except maybe the cast of "Secret of Blue Water" :) ), and they recruited 'em much younger back then.

I don't recognize Victoria Marks. Should I?

When I read the initial mini-story, Tesla immediately came to mind for the role of Mad Scientist. I'm glad to see he was available. :)

I look forward to meeting the young Lady Macross. She sounds like a much more charming and interesting character than a certain late-20th-century idol singer with a vaguely similar name...

And Mark Twain for color commentary.

This, sir, is almost certainly going to rock.

>Ens. Hikaru Ichijo, IJN - A young Japanese naval officer
>assigned to the Macross as part of Imperial Japan's small but
>vocal contribution to the Grand Alliance. In training to be an AAS
>pilot. Ichijo is a devotee of flight and a great admirer of Fokker
>and Lilienthal, who he sees as the foremost pioneers of the most
>significant new frontier in human history - the air. Serious-minded
>and steeped in the Japanese mode of military thought, with its roots
>in that country's not-so-distant samurai past,

A little surprised by this one - As you say, Japan's samurai past was very recently in the past, and Japan was still recovering from the Restoration and the realization of just how big the world had become. Would they have been ready for something like this, and, more importantly, would the paranoid political climate of the times allowed a relative unknown like Japan, which was still very misunderstood, to participate in the project when it would have been easy to reject them on technical merits?

>2nd Lt. Dennis J. MacCrofton - A young Scottish officer serving
>in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), the Royal Army cavalry
>regiment assigned to operate the non-flying Armoured Soldiers aboard
>the Macross.

DJ wants big boom. Glad to see him around.

>Sgt. Victoria Marks, USA

Does she have a source material? Or am I just airheaded today?

>The bridge crew - All young women following in the path broken
>by pioneers like Lisa Hayes and Claudia Fokker.

Wouldn't Claudia have been forced to 'retire' when she got married, given the period? I realize that Gloval wouldn't have liked to lose her, but if he fought to keep her, that certainly would have increased the dislike of the "damned russian" among his conservative political masters.

>Nikola Tesla - Though he has no official title, everyone knows
>Tesla is the reason anybody ever got anywhere with the alien
>technologies embodied by the Macross. The brilliant
>Serbo-American technologist-savant was called into the project in 1880
>after the great British scientist William Thomson and the famed
>American inventor Thomas Edison both declared that no one would ever
>get any part of the alien ship to work.

Well, that certainly explains it right there, if Edison said it, Tesla HAD to prove him wrong.

>His detractors - and
>some of his admirers - say that Tesla all but views the Macross
>as his own creation.

That certainly fits too, Tesla was a mite eccentric, wasn't he?

>John Trussell - ...A student
>of the late Charles Babbage,

Of course.

>Otto Lilienthal - A German inventor and researcher into
>heavier-than-air flight, hired by Krupp Sr. in 1882 to help with early
>development on armament applications for Übertechnologie.
>Lilienthal created the prototype Fliegenpanzersoldat in 1884,
>but a personality clash with Krupp led him to leave his countryman's
>employ and go to work for the British instead. Krupp never forgave
>Lilienthal, but died before he could make much of an issue of it. The
>Fliegenpanzersoldat went on to become known by the public as
>the Armoured Aero-Soldier after development was completed by the
>British.

He was brilliant, wasn't he?

>Members of the Public
>
>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross -

OWIE. BRAIN HURTS.

>Samuel Clemens - American author and humorist, well-known by
>the pen name "Mark Twain". He has nothing to do with the
>Macross project (in fact, he thinks the Grand Alliance was a
>damn-fool idea and the United States ought to have stayed out of it),
>but was invited to Macross Island and the ship's launching ceremony by
>his good friend Tesla.

You know, that may be the single most brilliant piece of casting ever done in and UF piece. Would have liked to see his contemporary, Jules Verne, there too - some of the concepts in his books would have been proven a mere ten to twenty years after he wrote about them, and one would think he wouldn't have missed this launch for the world.

>>Samuel Clemens - American author and humorist, well-known by
>>the pen name "Mark Twain". He has nothing to do with the
>>Macross project (in fact, he thinks the Grand Alliance was a
>>damn-fool idea and the United States ought to have stayed out of it),
>>but was invited to Macross Island and the ship's launching ceremony by
>>his good friend Tesla.
>
>You know, that may be the single most brilliant piece of casting ever
>done in and UF piece. Would have liked to see his
>contemporary, Jules Verne, there too - some of the concepts in his
>books would have been proven a mere ten to twenty years after he wrote
>about them, and one would think he wouldn't have missed this launch
>for the world.

I would point you at Five Fists of Science for more inspirational reference to this matter. :)

	Chad Collier Smirking Kilrathi The Captain of the Gravy Train

>>Ens. Hikaru Ichijo, IJN - A young Japanese naval officer
>>assigned to the Macross as part of Imperial Japan's small but
>>vocal contribution to the Grand Alliance. In training to be an AAS
>>pilot. Ichijo is a devotee of flight and a great admirer of Fokker
>>and Lilienthal, who he sees as the foremost pioneers of the most
>>significant new frontier in human history - the air. Serious-minded
>>and steeped in the Japanese mode of military thought, with its roots
>>in that country's not-so-distant samurai past,
>
>A little surprised by this one - As you say, Japan's samurai past was
>very recently in the past, and Japan was still recovering from
>the Restoration and the realization of just how big the world had
>become. Would they have been ready for something like this, and, more
>importantly, would the paranoid political climate of the times allowed
>a relative unknown like Japan, which was still very misunderstood, to
>participate in the project when it would have been easy to reject them
>on technical merits?

First, I'll apologise for any details of timing I get wrong - I don't have the energy to research this properly right now and am working from memory.

At this point in history (c. 187X-8X), the biggest concern of the leadership of Japan is not ending up like the Congo. They know that it's the European countries who have the power, and that, in the eyes of same, they themselves are just another flavor of gooks.

Thus, their number-one priority is obtaining enough power - military power, because it's the most final sort - to say 'no' and make it stick.

So, when the Macross comes down, they're in the process of importing military technology of all sorts - up to and including commissioning entire battleships from French and English shipyards. They have a small but capable and entirely modern navy, by the standards of the time, and more importantly, the South Pacific is much closer to Japan, and the centers of Japanese power, than it is to Britain or even the US.

So when they go to ask to be let in to the Grand Alliance, whatever polite words get used, in the background is the awareness that the Japanese fleet is sailing on a 'Goodwill Mission' in easy shelling range of the Macross herself, or could be, anyway.

No, that would not go down easily, but it's not like they're in a position to try to take sole control, is it. So it would be tense, but livable...

The other factor I see is that weapons technology hasn't neccessarily caught up to materials tech. That is, the guns you can fit on an Armored Aero-Soldier are a lot less lethal against their armor than a ordinary gun is against an ordinary solider. Which means that, in at least some circumstances, melee combat is still practical.

Japan's samurai heritage isn't exactly the last living tradition of melee combat, but its European counterparts are pale, thin things by this point, starved by decades, even centuries of neglect in favor of firearm tactics.

Because those work better. For ordinary soldiers.

>>Nikola Tesla - Though he has no official title, everyone knows
>>Tesla is the reason anybody ever got anywhere with the alien
>>technologies embodied by the Macross. The brilliant
>>Serbo-American technologist-savant was called into the project in 1880
>>after the great British scientist William Thomson and the famed
>>American inventor Thomas Edison both declared that no one would ever
>>get any part of the alien ship to work.
>
>Well, that certainly explains it right there, if Edison said it, Tesla
>HAD to prove him wrong.

I'm too boggled at the idea of Edison giving up to really comment.

>>His detractors - and
>>some of his admirers - say that Tesla all but views the Macross
>>as his own creation.
>
>That certainly fits too, Tesla was a mite eccentric, wasn't he?

...yeah. If one is given to extreme understatement.

>>Members of the Public
>>
>>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross -

...

*eyes Geoff* ...no, I won't ask.

Either way, though, I approve wholeheartedly!

Ja, -n

LAST EDITED ON Mar-24-07 AT 06:20 PM (EDT)
 
>I'm too boggled at the idea of Edison giving up to really comment.

The terms of his contract with the Grand Alliance weren't favorable enough to persuade him that his army of uncredited assistants was best employed in continuing work on Project Macross. Undercutting George Westinghouse and making snide remarks to the press as to the unsuitability of the Macross technologies emerging under Tesla (while those assistants worked on motion picture technology) looked like a much more lucrative use of his time.

Benefitting all mankind is all well and good, but daddy has to get paid, you know what I'm sayin'?

--G.
why no, not a big Edison fan
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>The terms of his contract with the Grand Alliance weren't favorable
>enough to persuade him that his army of uncredited assistants was best
>employed in continuing work on Project Macross. Undercutting George
>Westinghouse and making snide remarks to the press as to the
>unsuitability of the Macross technologies emerging under Tesla (while
>those assistants worked on motion picture technology) looked like a
>much more lucrative use of his time.

Not to mention the Macross probably runs on AC, and Edison kept insisting on trying to understand it in terms of DC...

-- Bob
-------------------
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

Technically, it runs on PC. :D

LAST EDITED ON Dec-21-11 AT 03:39 PM (EST)
 
I do believe: *shatter*

LAST EDITED ON Mar-24-07 AT 07:34 PM (EDT)
 
Adding my two cents - the Meiji Ishin, was in fact, a bit of a revolt of modernists against the traditionalists. Japan had co-opted firearms and cannonery against the wishes of the Shogun as early as 1820 - in fact the last revolts against the Meiji Ishin were a swords vs. fire arms battle. Guess who won.

Also in about 1872 or so, a great diplomatic mission from Japan sent the smartest and best educated Japanese <read: connected and literate> to Europe and Americas to learn the secrets of modernity. I believe it include both samurai and merchant classes. This is what allows Japan in 1880 to begin the world's fastest modernization develop and to produce technical minds capable of innovating. That's a feat, I believe, unparalleled by any other culture/national in human history.

So, assuming that the political parallels stay the same in this AU, a 1890 launching would be just right for some smart kid who spent all his youth traveling about Europe, learning lingua franca, and studying the art and science of mechanics to turn into the first, great Japanese pilot of his generation.

cheers,
t.

who, as always, is glad to see an AU that women are emancipated (somehow?) about 50 years early in both the US and UK. I admit, being about 70 years early in Russia is a bit of a surprise. Hell, we still have problems in the US with women in combat. Sheesh.

edit: finger slippage - never type with your off pinky while eating cookies, drinking tea, and chatting in foreign languages

Trigger Argee
trigger_argee@hotmail.com
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST

>who, as always, is glad to see an AU that women are emancipated
>(somehow?) about 50 years early in both the US and UK.

I suspect it's a side effect of the worldwide cultural shock that followed absolute confirmation of extraterrestrial life.

That, and I'm not so committed to period authenticity as to leave out, what, half of the original show's freaking cast. :)

>I admit, being
>about 70 years early in Russia is a bit of a surprise.

? The Russians have always been ahead of us in this regard. They had female fighter pilots as far back as the Second World War, and women fought very successfully as partisans in German-occupied Soviet territories. The Soviet Union sent a woman into space decades before we got around to it.

> Hell, we still have problems in the US with women in combat.

I have to admit I believe there are some pretty good arguments against sending women into combat on the modern battlefield. They have nothing to do with whether women are or aren't capable in combat itself, though, and are somewhat beyond the scope of this document.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>? The Russians have always been ahead of us in this regard. They had
>female fighter pilots as far back as the Second World War, and women
>fought very successfully as partisans in German-occupied Soviet
>territories. The Soviet Union sent a woman into space decades
>before we got around to it.

Yeah, but that's the Soviet Union, a country ideologically committed to total equality in all things, never mind how it really was. The Tsar's Russia was a very different animal, much more chauvinistic. Though I suppose with the Macross falling many things are possible, so it's a minor point.

--
Mr. Fnord

>Also in about 1872 or so, a great diplomatic mission from Japan sent
>the smartest and best educated Japanese <read: connected and literate>
>to Europe and Americas to learn the secrets of modernity.

Yes it did. The mission, if I recall my history classes correctly, lasted a ten year period. (sorry, my history books are in a storage unit right now, or I'd get the exact dates).

>I believe
>it include both samurai and merchant classes. This is what allows
>Japan in 1880 to begin the world's fastest modernization develop and
>to produce technical minds capable of innovating. That's a feat, I
>believe, unparalleled by any other culture/national in human history.

Yeah, China tried it and crashed and burned. Very Ugly.

>So, assuming that the political parallels stay the same in this AU, a
>1890 launching would be just right for some smart kid who spent all
>his youth traveling about Europe, learning lingua franca, and studying
>the art and science of mechanics to turn into the first, great
>Japanese pilot of his generation.

Oh, I don't dispute the facts that it's possible for the individuals, but try to remember that this was a period of wanton western imerialism, which was then followed by a period of beating the re-emerging eastern powers down, basically stating "We've declared the imperialism game closed."

>>So, assuming that the political parallels stay the same in this AU, a
>>1890 launching would be just right for some smart kid who spent all
>>his youth traveling about Europe, learning lingua franca, and studying
>>the art and science of mechanics to turn into the first, great
>>Japanese pilot of his generation.
>
>Oh, I don't dispute the facts that it's possible for the individuals,
>but try to remember that this was a period of wanton western
>imerialism, which was then followed by a period of beating the
>re-emerging eastern powers down, basically stating "We've declared the
>imperialism game closed."

Beyond the standard "Don't investigate this too closely," there is a logical conclusion to consider. To wit, that for a Marvellous Sky-Fortress to have dropped from the sky, either God has created this as a rather strange gift to his creation, or there are other intelligent beings out there with technological superiority. And since all the signage inside the Macross is in some language which does not match any on Earth, the latter conclusion seems more probable.

At that point, mere global imperialism could be considered to have been kicked in an indelicate location, and it probably stopped gasping and whining five years prior to the launch of HMSF Macross.

Peter Eng
--
I'm only a Charter Member because of the DCForum upgrade, and because there's no rank below "Clueless F!wit."

>>>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross -
>
>...
>
>*eyes Geoff* ...no, I won't ask.
>
>Either way, though, I approve wholeheartedly!
>
>Ja, -n

....what did I do?
--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

>>>>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross -
>>
>>...
>>
>>*eyes Geoff* ...no, I won't ask.
>>
>>Either way, though, I approve wholeheartedly!
>>
>>Ja, -n
>
>....what did I do?

Er? Did I get the wrong Suspect? I had a Macross bunny of my own on Bob Schroek's boards a while back... the bit of which that made me blink is about three fifths of the way down the seventh page of the thread, for those disinclined to wade through the whole thing... and I was wondering if it was a case of accidental cross-pollination or just convergent evolution.

I don't really care which, mind, since my day is already made. ^_^

Ja, -n

LAST EDITED ON Mar-27-07 AT 10:46 AM (EDT)
 
>I
>had a Macross bunny of my own] on Bob Schroek's boards a while back...
>the bit of which that made me blink is about three fifths of the way
>down the seventh page of the thread, for those disinclined to wade
>through the whole thing... and I was wondering if it was a case of
>accidental cross-pollination or just convergent evolution.
>
>I don't really care which, mind, since my day is already made. ^_^

Convergent Evolution.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

>>>Ens. Hikaru Ichijo, IJN - A young Japanese naval officer
>>>assigned to the Macross as part of Imperial Japan's small but
>>>vocal contribution to the Grand Alliance. In training to be an AAS
>>>pilot. Ichijo is a devotee of flight and a great admirer of Fokker
>>>and Lilienthal, who he sees as the foremost pioneers of the most
>>>significant new frontier in human history - the air. Serious-minded
>>>and steeped in the Japanese mode of military thought, with its roots
>>>in that country's not-so-distant samurai past,
>First, I'll apologise for any details of timing I get wrong - I don't
>have the energy to research this properly right now and am working
>from memory.
>
>At this point in history (c. 187X-8X), the biggest concern of the
>leadership of Japan is not ending up like the Congo.

Actually, more like, ending up like China and Vietnam, who were much more visible reminders than anything in Africa.

>They know
>that it's the European countries who have the power, and that, in the
>eyes of same, they themselves are just another flavor of gooks.
>
>Thus, their number-one priority is obtaining enough power -
>military power, because it's the most final sort - to say 'no'
>and make it stick.

>So, when the Macross comes down, they're in the process of importing
>military technology of all sorts

Yes, that's all true. The Japanese side of things is not where I think things would get snarled, but rather on the European/American side of things.

>So when they go to ask to be let in to the Grand Alliance, whatever
>polite words get used, in the background is the awareness that the
>Japanese fleet is sailing on a 'Goodwill Mission' in easy shelling
>range of the Macross herself, or could be, anyway.
>
>No, that would not go down easily, but it's not like they're in
>a position to try to take sole control, is it. So it would be tense,
>but livable...

That's assuming when the Macross came down that the technology transfers would continue - with all the Machiavellian politicking at the time, I could easily see those transfers getting held up to keep the Japanese under control.

Obviously, it didn't happen in the story, but I've just studied this period enough (exact dates elude me right now, but that was a VERY busy time in Japanese history, starting with the Black Ships in 1856) that I know it would have been incredibly nasty behind closed doors.

>That's assuming when the Macross came down that the technology
>transfers would continue - with all the Machiavellian politicking at
>the time, I could easily see those transfers getting held up to keep
>the Japanese under control.
>
>Obviously, it didn't happen in the story, but I've just studied this
>period enough (exact dates elude me right now, but that was a VERY
>busy time in Japanese history, starting with the Black Ships in 1856)
>that I know it would have been incredibly nasty behind closed doors.

You may wish to consider the possibility that a story subtitled "A Romance of the Age of Wonders" might not concern itself with these matters in such detail.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>You may wish to consider the possibility that a story subtitled "A
>Romance of the Age of Wonders" might not concern itself with
>these matters in such detail.

This would not be the EPU Forums if we did not examine things Way Too Closely.

Before I forget and never post my own reply to the original message, let me just add that this is an amazing set of characters, and I can't wait to see them in action. It's good to see that Dennis is getting work; I was afraid for a while that he'd been typecast in the wake of NXE and wasn't getting any good offers any more. <grin> I do have one suggestion: might not "Evelyn Mayminster" have a more proper period feel to it than "Lynn Mayminster"?

-- Bob
-------------------
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

>>Sgt. Victoria Marks, USA
>
>Does she have a source material? Or am I just airheaded today?

Nope, Vic is original; I wanted an American tank crew (sort of a backhanded reference to the old G.I. Combat war comics) and ended up deciding to use one of my old Battletech characters.

>Wouldn't Claudia have been forced to 'retire' when she got married,
>given the period?

Well, she's not on active duty when the story opens, given that she just had a child, but she's hoping to get back to work one day. Given that she's had to overcome being a woman, being culturally Dutch, and not being white, a little thing like being married and having children shouldn't stand in her way for too long. :)

>>Samuel Clemens - American author and humorist, well-known by
>>the pen name "Mark Twain".
>
>You know, that may be the single most brilliant piece of casting ever
>done in and UF piece. Would have liked to see his
>contemporary, Jules Verne, there too - some of the concepts in his
>books would have been proven a mere ten to twenty years after he wrote
>about them, and one would think he wouldn't have missed this launch
>for the world.

I'm sure he would very much like to, and this is only a partial list of characters, but bear in mind - not only is Verne a foreigner, he's a damned Frenchman. He's hardly likely to be invited to the party. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross - Daughter and only
>child of the late John Wallingford Mayminster, 4th Earl of Macross

You said Viscount last time. Did he get promoted for something?

Anyway, nitpicking time: this styling isn't correct. I'm going to assume that the Earldom Macross was created to devolve upon the heirs general (so it's probably Scottish) - rare but not unheard of - so she can inherit despite being a girl. Regardless, she's not a "Miss" if she's a Countess. The proper styling in speech would be "Lynn, Lady Macross", or in writing, "The Right Honourable The Countess of Macross". As a peeress, she would never be referenced using her family name of "Mayminster"; the family name is used only for children of peers who are not heirs, or children of low-ranking peers. She would sign her name as "Lynn Macross".

Before her father died, she was "Lady Lynn Macross", as the eldest daughter of an Earl. She would have been "(The Honourable) Miss Lynn Mayminster" while he was a Viscount, if she was born back then.

>Lieutenant Commander the Honourable Lisa Hayes, RN

Where did she get an Honourable from?

>>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross - Daughter and only
>>child of the late John Wallingford Mayminster, 4th Earl of Macross
>
>You said Viscount last time. Did he get promoted for something?

... discovering the Macross, perhaps?

>As a peeress, she would never be referenced using her family
>name of "Mayminster"

... and bang would go the "Lynn Minmay" joke.

Anyway, this is good to know (though it does not agree in all particulars with my primary reference; then again, my primary reference is a web page about Jane Austen novels :) - in this context it's not necessarily telling. The point of this list was to show people who's in the thing, and in that context, the "Mayminster" thing was kind of important.

>>Lieutenant Commander the Honourable Lisa Hayes, RN
>
>Where did she get an Honourable from?

This is my mistake, not in Lisa's listing itself, but in the mention of her father the grumpy admiral. He's supposed to be a baron. (What was in the file when it was posted was an artifact of an earlier version that I forgot to fix.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>>>Miss Lynn Mayminster, Countess Macross - Daughter and only
>>>child of the late John Wallingford Mayminster, 4th Earl of Macross
>>
>>You said Viscount last time. Did he get promoted for something?
>
>... discovering the Macross, perhaps?

I was wondering about that. Thing is, that makes him the 1st Earl of Macross.

>Anyway, this is good to know (though it does not agree in all particulars with
>my primary reference; then again, my primary reference is a web page about
>Jane Austen novels :)

Fictional references tend to have somewhat dubious accuracy here, and it's complicated by the fact that the rules of British aristocratic styling are insanely intricate (especially when dealing with girls who inherit). "The" reference on the subject is Black's "Titles and forms of address: a guide to correct use" - available from amazon, although modern editions may not be entirely correct for the historical usage, things changed around a lot in the 1960s when the upper house was redesigned for political reasons.

For an online source, I believe this page is an accurate reproduction of the basic forms: http://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles12.html

Unless I misunderstood the mini-story, he was *already* Viscount MacRoss when he found the crashed fortress. The press subsequently got mixed up and re-christened South Ataria Island "Macross Island", so he changed his title to suit. Evidently the numbering didn't change, though.

LAST EDITED ON Mar-27-07 AT 11:08 AM (EDT)
 
That's what it looked like to me--as he was listed in the story as "John Mayminster, fourth Viscomte MacRoss", though the 'subsequently dropped the capital "R"' bit puzzles me slightly--can you do that with a title?

But a little stretch in the rather Byzantine system of English (and, by extension, all European) titlature can be accepted without too much nitpicking--I mean, how many people these days even know what a Viscount *is*, much less how it compares to the other various ranks?

Heraldry's fun, but I'm glad that we don't have to worry about it too much these days.

Though I rather miss the Latin mottos....