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Gryphonadmin
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"(S13) Fanfare for an Exiled Prince"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Apr-02-10 AT 01:31 PM (EDT)
 
9 When a Symphony piece has a classical-music-style title like this one, it usually has a key attached. The key can help indicate the overall tone of the story - those that are mostly upbeat and cheerful are in major keys, while those that are darker and contain more angst are in minor keys.

35 Here we see that, just to stir the uniform reference pot a little more, the IPSF duty uniform's undershirts, despite being taken from Star Trek II, follow the color conventions of the original Star Trek TV series - yellow for command officers, red for engineering and security, blue for science and medical. (And yes, I know it's only a flaw in the color process that made the command shirts on the old Star Trek yellow, and they're supposed to be green.)

49 And we're not going to have that hoary old "dude, West End Games got the sizes of the Star Destroyers wrong, maaaan" fandom slapfight either.

70 Gryphon is simplifying the design team somewhat for the sake of brevity; Challenger is really the product of an intensive effort by a team of designers that also included ReRob Mandeville, Zed Cochrane, and Montgomery Scott.

132 There isn't much for the bridge crew of a starship to do when the ship's in a controlled parking orbit over a well-charted planet.

154 Klaang takes his name from the first Klingon to meet Earthmen, as seen in the Enterprise pilot "Broken Bow".

161 tlhIngan Hol: the Klingonese name for, well, Klingonese (that is, the Klingon language invented for the Star Trek films and TV shows by linguist Marc Okrand - more on this later).

176 Qapla': a popular Klingon valediction. The word itself literally means "success".

195 We would eventually see the rest of this scene in Twilight VII, but at the time Fanfare came out, this was the first glimpse readers had into the immediate aftermath of the Ragnarok.

215 Bifrost (the Rainbow Bridge) is the Asgardian name for what the people of Midgard know as Black Hole Enigma X-21, one of the mortal world's main portals to the celestial realms. Metaphorically, "the other side of Bifrost" means Midgard itself.

223 There is a disagreement in modern celestial society as to whether the events of Twilight constituted the true Ragnarok (and thus invalidated the prophecy) or not. Skuld is among those who believe it was not.

238 Not until the release of Transformers: Flesh and Steel would we discover when and how Prime acquired his miniature core form.

270 By the time of the First Symphony, the Klingon Empire and Klingon Republic had reconciled. The Empire absorbed the Republic (relatively) peacefully and instituted certain democratic reforms that satisfied most of those who had fought for the Republican cause, largely through the efforts of Zetan and Salusian mediators - setting the stage for the alliance Klayvor vestai-Klavaar and his renegades would later seek to destroy.

276 The Corporate Wars would continue spasmodically until 2399, when R-Type and the White Legions would finally crush the last of the old-line Largo loyalists and consolidate a fully reorganized GENOM under his control. That put an end to the fighting everywhere but the Corporate Sector. The following year, the Corporate Sector Authority quashed most of the remaining brushfire conflicts between remnant Old GENOM subsidiaries and upstarts, establishing an uneasy peace in that sector as well.

281 Largely because of their flamboyant style and the apparent motivelessness of some of their early criminal acts, Big Fire was not initially taken very seriously as a galactic threat.

304 Interestingly, we haven't seen this system in action yet, despite the fact that, at least at this meeting, it was considered the cornerstone of the entire Babylon Foundation/International Police effort.

310 I had wanted to use the "insurance adjusters in hot pants" line for years by this point.

327 Like all the Autobots who were present on Cybertron when the Wedge Defense Force helped turn back the Decepticon invasion of 2026, Prime wears the combined arms of both outfits as a gesture of respect.

347 It is a measure of how early and well R-Type fit into the scene in New Avalon that he's able to jump in with a seamless cooperative Ghostbusters reference as early as the fall of 2390.

383 Here's another instance of the old "IPO equals Experts of Justice" terminology problem cropping up. Gryphon is not asking Utena to become an Expert of Justice, Special Assignment 1 (yet); he's asking her to join the Space Force.

407 At this point, prior to the creation of Special Assignment 11 (Special Assistant to the Chief), Kate is technically a reserve member of Special Assignment 1.

436 The Rome Utena picks out from orbit is not the same as the one we know today; present-day Rome was more or less wiped off the map in the late 21st century (after the pope imprudently took sides in the Fourth World War), and a new city was built more or less on the site in the 22nd. In the meantime, the Holy See was reconstituted in Ireland, which was a relatively safe area. It is for this reason that the 25th-century Catholic Church is commonly referred to as the Irish Catholic Church or the Church of Dublin.

472 The International Police Oath's reference to "the innocent", "the helpless", and "the powerless" in that order hearkens back to the opening titles narration of Knight Rider: "Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law." "Protect the innocent" is also Directive No. 2 in Robocop (the first being "Serve the public trust" and the third "Uphold the law").

552 The Beagle of the Lens is the fictional counterpart to my own real-life dog - as well as a bit of a good-natured poke at E.E. "Doc" Smith, author of the Lensmen books, who had a tendency toward pompous and bombastic phrasings.

557 This device is not, as some have assumed, a Star Trek: The Next Generation-style energy-to-matter replicator. That technology doesn't exist in the UF universe. The wall panel itself is, in fact, merely a fancy dumbwaiter connected to Challenger's extensive array of automatic... uh... stuff-providing machines - in this case, the autotailor.

569 An IPSF undershirt that is bright red (as opposed to security/engineering blood red) denotes a command-grade member of the Irregular Projects Division.

617 The first edition of Your Phaser and You was another of the many documents developed by Derek Bacon back in the WDF's salad days.

648 When I wrote this, I had no intention of activating Utena's IPSF commission for years, if ever.

659 T'Vek will later crop her hair and bleach it, the better to stand out from the Surakite Vulcans. Or perhaps her hair is actually blonde; she is from the Vulcan equivalent of Norway, after all.

680 She also sheds her precise-and-hesitant-about-slang Vulcan diction in later appearances.

705 T'Vek's name comes from Tyvek, the tough synthetic fabric used as a vapor barrier in modern home construction (and in those waxy-feeling Priority Mail envelopes). I was mulling her over one day while driving out to Anne Cross's place, and as I was parking I noticed that Anne's neighbors were re-siding their house. Years later I was amused to discover that one of the stock Vulcan science officers you can get for your crew in the Starfleet Command computer game is named T'Vek as well.

713 T'Vek's home city of Palon'shar, the snowy city in the Vulcan Arctic where the teachings of Surak never caught on, is a UF invention. I figured it stands to reason that the entire planet hasn't got a single homogeneous culture any more than a real planet would have only one climate. UF-Vulcan's polar ice regions are small, but in their way even more rugged and inhospitable than the rest of the planet. People from the polar regions - which in practical terms means Palon'shartha, since there are no other major population centers in the icy areas - tend to be individualistic in style but cooperative and neighborly, cheerfully accepting adversity as a challenge to be overcome by the community. They were much less warlike in the pre-Surak days; they had to cooperate to survive. As such, they had little need for Surak's doctrine of the suppression of animal passions.

790 I mentioned on the Forum that there was more to the "Utena goes up to Challenger" scene than I felt really fit the narrative of Roses in Springtime, and immediately had the rather obvious fact that I could always make a short aside out of it pointed out. Feeling a little silly for not having thought of it, I proceeded to do just that, et voilą, this piece.


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O_M
Member since Jun-19-05
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Dec-17-06, 05:02 PM (EDT)
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1. "RE: Annotations: Fanfare for an Exiled Prince"
In response to message #0
 
   >49 And we're not going to have that hoary old "dude, West End
>Games got the sizes of the Star Destroyers wrong,
>maaaan" fandom slapfight either.

Just for reference, what ARE the sizes for the various Star Destroyers in UF? I mean, your universe, your rules, after all.

>281 Largely because of their flamboyant style and the apparent
>motivelessness of some of their early criminal acts, Big Fire was not
>initially taken very seriously as a galactic threat.

Been planning to ask this for a while...Big Fire's an adopted organization from an outside source, correct?

>552 The Beagle of the Lens is the fictional counterpart to my
>own real-life dog - as well as a bit of a good-natured poke at E.E.
>"Doc" Smith, author of the Lensmen books, who had a tendency toward
>pompous and bombastic phrasings.

I thought it was a reference to the captain's beagle in Enterprise myself.

>648 When I wrote this, I had no intention of activating Utena's
>IPSF commission for years, if ever.

So is Utena in whatever passes for UF Guinnes Book of World Records as youngest active ship captain or such?


-OM

"Crypto-lesbians? Sounds like someone threw a zombie movie into a blender with a porno."


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jadmire
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Dec-17-06, 05:55 PM (EDT)
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2. "RE: Annotations: Fanfare for an Exiled Prince"
In response to message #1
 
   While waiting for the official word from Gryphon...

>>49 And we're not going to have that hoary old "dude, West End
>>Games got the sizes of the Star Destroyers wrong,
>>maaaan" fandom slapfight either.
>
>Just for reference, what ARE the sizes for the various Star Destroyers
>in UF? I mean, your universe, your rules, after all.
>

There's a BPGD entry somewhere (do a search of the forum archives) where Gryphon answered that question, though I don't think he compared each class of Star Destroyers side-by-side. It was more of a general comparison of the sizes of various well-known ships as they appear in the UFverse, and he borrowed imagery from a website (I have it bookmarked somewhere but can't locate it at the moment...) which has extensive side-by-side comparisons of famous starships and other spatial objects from just about every SF TV show, movie and novel you can imagine.

>>281 Largely because of their flamboyant style and the apparent
>>motivelessness of some of their early criminal acts, Big Fire was not
>>initially taken very seriously as a galactic threat.
>
>Been planning to ask this for a while...Big Fire's an adopted
>organization from an outside source, correct?

Giant Robo. The IPO comes from the same source. (BTW, Ultraman also has the International Police involved, as the parent organization of the Science Patrol, whose dress uniform always makes me think of IPO's Blue Blazers.)

>
>>648 When I wrote this, I had no intention of activating Utena's
>>IPSF commission for years, if ever.
>
>So is Utena in whatever passes for UF Guinnes Book of World Records as
>youngest active ship captain or such?

I have to read the story again, but I think that Utena, as young as she is, is, by the "present" (early 2410, as Gryphon defines it) actually one of the most senior IPSF captains after Gryphon himself. I don't know how many IPSF ships were in commission as of May 2406 but I'm pretty sure Valiant was one of the first after Challenger herself.

-Joe-

Lover of fiddly and only faintly relevant background detail


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Gryphonadmin
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Dec-17-06, 07:04 PM (EDT)
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3. "RE: Annotations: Fanfare for an Exiled Prince"
In response to message #2
 
   LAST EDITED ON Dec-17-06 AT 07:05 PM (EST)
 
>>Been planning to ask this for a while...Big Fire's an adopted
>>organization from an outside source, correct?
>
>Giant Robo. The IPO comes from the same source. (BTW,
>Ultraman also has the International Police involved, as the
>parent organization of the Science Patrol, whose dress uniform always
>makes me think of IPO's Blue Blazers.)

In both cases, the outfit in question is derived from the real International Criminal Police Organization, INTERPOL.

>>>648 When I wrote this, I had no intention of activating Utena's
>>>IPSF commission for years, if ever.
>>
>>So is Utena in whatever passes for UF Guinnes Book of World Records as
>>youngest active ship captain or such?
>
>I have to read the story again, but I think that Utena, as young as
>she is, is, by the "present" (early 2410, as Gryphon defines it)
>actually one of the most senior IPSF captains after Gryphon himself.
>I don't know how many IPSF ships were in commission as of May 2406 but
>I'm pretty sure Valiant was one of the first after
>Challenger herself.

In IPSF terms, yes, she has command captain rank seniority number 2, after the Chief. She received her captain's commission (albeit an inactive reserve one) before anyone else in the fleet. Krontep, who preceded her into the service, is captain of the HoSghaj, but his rank grade is actually commander and he's really an officer of the KDF anyway. ("Command captain" differentiates her from IPSF officers who hold the rank of captain but are not in the command branch of the service, like Nadia Davion, who is an engineer.)

However, galactically speaking, she is believe to be among the youngest humans ever to command an officially sanctioned warship (as opposed to an armed privateer or what have you). She is definitely the youngest captain ever to defeat a Klingon battle cruiser.

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


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