Vulcan's Glory by DC Fontana
I typed up DC Fontana's afterword to the 2005 reprint of Vulcan's Glory for mllesays's DC Fontana Primer, and thought I'd share it with you all because it has some nifty notes on Pike, and Number One's backstory as envisioned by Majel Barrett.
Afterword
In 1986, Dave Stern, then editor for Pocket Books' Star Trek line, approached me about the possibility of writing an original novel for the series. I immediately said, "Yes"--and immediately wondered what story I should pitch. Any number of possibilities existed in the ongoing world of "Classic Trek" novels where Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and company battled the Klingons, the Gorns, and others, and boldly... well, you know.
On the other hand, I did have one distinct advantage going for me. I was there in 1963 when Gene Roddenberry created the whole thing. In 1964, I was the one who typed up the clean copy of Gene's script for "The Cage," the initial pilot for the series. I was there in 1966 when the decision was made to combine that episode with additional material (dubbed "the envelope") to create the two-part story titled "The Menagerie." To avoid just throwing away what had been a very expensive pilot film, it was necessary to incorporate James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and other new characters into the earlier world of Captain Christopher Pike. The two-parter established a close connection, via Mr. Spock, between the voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of different captains. I knew how Gene originally envisioned Pike, how his character might have developed, and his relationship with Spock.
The more I thought about it, the more a story involving young Lieutenant Spock and Chris Pike intrigued me. It also gave me an opportunity to delve into Scotty's initial voyage on the Enterprise--a lieutenant (j.g.) with an untamed sense of mischief and a remarkable skill at making engine-room hooch. Well, after all, not only was he a Scott, he was a Scot.
Then there was Vulcan. Theodore Sturgeon introduced a number of cultural and historical precedents in his script "Amok Time." In terms of production, it was done on one stage with a relatively small cast of actors portraying Vulcans--truly a magnificent feat of costume, makeup, and set design conveying the sense of an entire world and its society.
I keyed on Ted's base in writing "This Side of Paradise" and "Journey to Babel." The characters referenced it, but I didn't have to depict Vulcan itself. Without meaning to, I became the de facto expert on Spock, his family, and his planet. Even after Trek went off the air and the next opportunity came along in animation, the Vulcan thing was in my mind.
Animation offered new vistas for us as storytellers. We didn't have to worry about zippers showing or extraterresterials always being humanoid. Alien environments were a snap--just draw them. As a result, I could call for some of Vulcan's vast arid desert and the capital city of ShiKahr in the script of "Yesteryear," and even show a massive sehlat character, which could only be talked about on the original series.
As for depicting all that in a novel--no problem. The real complication wasn't in the description of the world. Who were the people? What was the history? Could I have some fun and tell a story the fans would enjoy? The more I thought about it, the more Spock's first assignment to the Enterprise intrigued me. The audience had seen Christopher Pike only in a two-part episode. More important, the vigorous man who captained the ship was depicted in only half of the story. The rest of the time, he was a crippled wreck worthy of our admiration, but also drawing forth our pity. What was he like before that story, which was the only one the audience knew? I had to figure it out, because the voyage I had in mind was only in my mind. No one else onscreen or in a novel had taken that journey, and I had to break new ground to do it.
First, I could conjure a Vulcan completely free of anyone else's influences or ideas. I didn't have to worry how it would be seen. Prose allows the creation of its own landscapes. I could delve deep into the complicated Spock-Sarek-Amanda relationships for the depth of feeling that underlay them. Yes--feeling. Everyone knew Vulcans were emotional; they just controlled and hid their emotions better than anyone else in the galaxy. Well, our galaxy anyway. Spock could be shown at this critical moment in his life, caught between the demands and expectations of his father and the needs and ideas he experienced as his own person. He had to deal with an arranged marriage, one about which he had enormous doubts, one that would later lead to the events of "Amok Time."
One of the things I liked about writing "Vulcan's Glory" was the fact that I could explore the character of Number One, the Enterprise's previous, mysterious, executive officer. I sat down for a couple of hours with Majel Barrett to discuss what she thought of the female officer she depicted in "The Cage." She gave me her ideas about what Number One felt and thought, and the fact that on Ilyria, her planet of origin, she would have been the best of her breed for the year she was born, the most genetically perfect being. Majel also thought Number One had an emotional thing for Pike--and he would be inclined to reciprocate, except for the restraining fact that he was her commanding officer.
I also had the opportunity to give the chief engineering position to a woman, something I tried to do a little later on in Star Trek: The Next Generation, only to have the character bumped in favor of a male Irish engineer(1). No disrespect to Colm Meany, an excellent actor, but do engineers have to come only in masculine British models?(2) Just for fun, I gave my chief engineer the name of a friend's young daughter, Caitlin Barry. For years, little Caitlin brought out the book to show her friends and point out that she was an important character. And an engineer.
Most of all, I could create the history of "The Glory," the great jewel prize that was lost centuries ago and found again on this voyager. This artifact harked back to the time when Vulcans were still savage and emotional and fought wars among themselves. I consulted with a gemologist to get the parameters of an unusually large, uncut, and nearly flawless emerald (one of my favorite gemstones) and gave it a back story that I hoped would intrigue the readers.
Oh, yes--one other little detail. Filling out four hundred pages of typed manuscript required a bit more story than just locating and retrieving a highly valuable artifact. There were two love stories and a mystery and an action adventure tale as well.
I hope you've enjoyed them and found the characters of Spock, Scott, Pike, Number One, and Caitlin Barry intriguing and likeable companions on this voyage of the Enterprise.
D.C. Fontana
October 2005
Typists geeky notes:
(1) O'Brien was not chief engineer after the first series of TNG--that was Geordie LaForge
(2) O'Brien is Irish from the Republic of Ireland, not British (Miles claims to be a descendant of Brian Boru, who was born in Co. Clare)
Afterword
In 1986, Dave Stern, then editor for Pocket Books' Star Trek line, approached me about the possibility of writing an original novel for the series. I immediately said, "Yes"--and immediately wondered what story I should pitch. Any number of possibilities existed in the ongoing world of "Classic Trek" novels where Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and company battled the Klingons, the Gorns, and others, and boldly... well, you know.
On the other hand, I did have one distinct advantage going for me. I was there in 1963 when Gene Roddenberry created the whole thing. In 1964, I was the one who typed up the clean copy of Gene's script for "The Cage," the initial pilot for the series. I was there in 1966 when the decision was made to combine that episode with additional material (dubbed "the envelope") to create the two-part story titled "The Menagerie." To avoid just throwing away what had been a very expensive pilot film, it was necessary to incorporate James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and other new characters into the earlier world of Captain Christopher Pike. The two-parter established a close connection, via Mr. Spock, between the voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of different captains. I knew how Gene originally envisioned Pike, how his character might have developed, and his relationship with Spock.
The more I thought about it, the more a story involving young Lieutenant Spock and Chris Pike intrigued me. It also gave me an opportunity to delve into Scotty's initial voyage on the Enterprise--a lieutenant (j.g.) with an untamed sense of mischief and a remarkable skill at making engine-room hooch. Well, after all, not only was he a Scott, he was a Scot.
Then there was Vulcan. Theodore Sturgeon introduced a number of cultural and historical precedents in his script "Amok Time." In terms of production, it was done on one stage with a relatively small cast of actors portraying Vulcans--truly a magnificent feat of costume, makeup, and set design conveying the sense of an entire world and its society.
I keyed on Ted's base in writing "This Side of Paradise" and "Journey to Babel." The characters referenced it, but I didn't have to depict Vulcan itself. Without meaning to, I became the de facto expert on Spock, his family, and his planet. Even after Trek went off the air and the next opportunity came along in animation, the Vulcan thing was in my mind.
Animation offered new vistas for us as storytellers. We didn't have to worry about zippers showing or extraterresterials always being humanoid. Alien environments were a snap--just draw them. As a result, I could call for some of Vulcan's vast arid desert and the capital city of ShiKahr in the script of "Yesteryear," and even show a massive sehlat character, which could only be talked about on the original series.
As for depicting all that in a novel--no problem. The real complication wasn't in the description of the world. Who were the people? What was the history? Could I have some fun and tell a story the fans would enjoy? The more I thought about it, the more Spock's first assignment to the Enterprise intrigued me. The audience had seen Christopher Pike only in a two-part episode. More important, the vigorous man who captained the ship was depicted in only half of the story. The rest of the time, he was a crippled wreck worthy of our admiration, but also drawing forth our pity. What was he like before that story, which was the only one the audience knew? I had to figure it out, because the voyage I had in mind was only in my mind. No one else onscreen or in a novel had taken that journey, and I had to break new ground to do it.
First, I could conjure a Vulcan completely free of anyone else's influences or ideas. I didn't have to worry how it would be seen. Prose allows the creation of its own landscapes. I could delve deep into the complicated Spock-Sarek-Amanda relationships for the depth of feeling that underlay them. Yes--feeling. Everyone knew Vulcans were emotional; they just controlled and hid their emotions better than anyone else in the galaxy. Well, our galaxy anyway. Spock could be shown at this critical moment in his life, caught between the demands and expectations of his father and the needs and ideas he experienced as his own person. He had to deal with an arranged marriage, one about which he had enormous doubts, one that would later lead to the events of "Amok Time."
One of the things I liked about writing "Vulcan's Glory" was the fact that I could explore the character of Number One, the Enterprise's previous, mysterious, executive officer. I sat down for a couple of hours with Majel Barrett to discuss what she thought of the female officer she depicted in "The Cage." She gave me her ideas about what Number One felt and thought, and the fact that on Ilyria, her planet of origin, she would have been the best of her breed for the year she was born, the most genetically perfect being. Majel also thought Number One had an emotional thing for Pike--and he would be inclined to reciprocate, except for the restraining fact that he was her commanding officer.
I also had the opportunity to give the chief engineering position to a woman, something I tried to do a little later on in Star Trek: The Next Generation, only to have the character bumped in favor of a male Irish engineer(1). No disrespect to Colm Meany, an excellent actor, but do engineers have to come only in masculine British models?(2) Just for fun, I gave my chief engineer the name of a friend's young daughter, Caitlin Barry. For years, little Caitlin brought out the book to show her friends and point out that she was an important character. And an engineer.
Most of all, I could create the history of "The Glory," the great jewel prize that was lost centuries ago and found again on this voyager. This artifact harked back to the time when Vulcans were still savage and emotional and fought wars among themselves. I consulted with a gemologist to get the parameters of an unusually large, uncut, and nearly flawless emerald (one of my favorite gemstones) and gave it a back story that I hoped would intrigue the readers.
Oh, yes--one other little detail. Filling out four hundred pages of typed manuscript required a bit more story than just locating and retrieving a highly valuable artifact. There were two love stories and a mystery and an action adventure tale as well.
I hope you've enjoyed them and found the characters of Spock, Scott, Pike, Number One, and Caitlin Barry intriguing and likeable companions on this voyage of the Enterprise.
D.C. Fontana
October 2005
Typists geeky notes:
(1) O'Brien was not chief engineer after the first series of TNG--that was Geordie LaForge
(2) O'Brien is Irish from the Republic of Ireland, not British (Miles claims to be a descendant of Brian Boru, who was born in Co. Clare)