Beyond the Roundels

Ah Downton Abbey! Since you've not seen it, I won't comment further!

ETA: Couple of post-beta-ish things:

"I want get them home, and you could do it — and you stand there arguing with me over your precious principles-.”

There should be a "to" between "want" and "get"....

“That had better work,” Janeway told him. “And you need to clear out your pockets first next time you’re going to get tied to some unsuspecting individual.”

"you need to clear out your pockets first next time" is confusingly phrased. I'd suggest "you need to clear out your pockets before you next get tied to some..." Or stick a comma after "first"!

Edited Date: 1 Nov 2010 11:08 am (UTC)

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Thanks! Given that I wrote the first three sections before I went down with something, the next two while I was ill, and couldn't quite work the last out until I was nearly at the end of my deadline last night, I'm amazed it's not nothing but errors. I've fixed those two, anyway. (And I'm rather glad I got the chance to go over it once more this morning before making this post, so you got the slightly less faulty version!!)

I'm now sitting here, thinking she should really have met Ten as well, because he probably would have gone and proposed (by accident), or else been angsty:

"I don't know what's worse," said Janeway, making an swift exit from her cabin, and meeting Commander Chakotay in the corridor, "being romanced by some near-immortal, all-powerful being, or having them treat you like some sort of universal agony aunt."

Chakotay was visibly biting back amusement she felt was inappropriate (but then it had been a very long night, listening to the Doctor talk his way through his issues, and any other subject he felt the need to discuss, which was a lot. She'd resorted to discreetly timing him for words per second by the small hours of the morning.)

"You have to admit, it's something of a compliment, Kathryn."

"Is it? All I know is it's something I could do without!"

Chakotay only smirked again. "I'm afraid I can't say I blame them, not entirely," he informed her, before walking on.

Janeway thumped back against the wall and put her hand to her head. "Any more of this, and I shall scream." Then a truly horrific thought struck her: What if this one started asking her to baby-sit as well?

"As if being a starship captain trapped light years from home isn't enough work for one woman," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head, and departing in search of the only thing that could help: a caffeine fix.

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*is rolling on the floor cackling madly*

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I shouldn't have even thought about this...

"They've all gone. I lost Rose... and then there was Martha. She left me. And Donna... I kind of lost her, too. And then I wound up with Elizabeth I, which was what reminded me of you, Kathy -."

What time is it now? wondered Janeway, and her hand went to her comm badge. "Commander, is there a crisis on the bridge, by any chance?"

"Everything's calm here, Captain."

"Well, I'm not, so invent one. I'll stand you dinner for a month if you do."

The Doctor had become aware he had lost her full attention, and resurfaced from his epic misery. "I'm sorry, what was that? Did you say there was a crisis?"

Janeway swallowed, and considered. It might be worth making a sacrifice to get through this. "Actually... it's my replicator. You wouldn't mind taking a look at it, would you? I've been thinking about switching from coffee to tea - and it doesn't seem to be able to get used to the idea." She glanced at the ceiling, adding in an undertone: "Can't imagine why."

The Doctor brightened instantly, and produced his sonic screwdriver. "Why didn't you say so earlier? I'll just adjust this, and if I take a look in here and twist that a bit..."

What have I done? she wondered, and returned to the comm badge. "Commander, belay my last order. Stand by - I've created a crisis myself. You have my apologies for whatever is about to happen next."

"Captain?"

"I'm feeling sleep-deprived, caffeine-deprived, and reckless," she returned. "Now, I think we're about to be drowned in tea at the very least, so prepare yourself for the worst, Commander. I'm just hoping he'll give me an excuse to throw him off the ship before he starts calling me Aunt Kathy."

"Is he likely to?"

"I don't know, but he's already said I remind him of Elizabeth the First, so I'm not willing to take the chance."

There was a too-obvious silence at the other end.

"Is there something funny about that?"

"Of course not, Captain."

Edited Date: 1 Nov 2010 02:14 pm (UTC)

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Dear gods! I just barely stopped myself from snorting tea!!

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Heh, glad you managed to avert that disaster (which I would accept NO blame whatsoever for, obviously)... ;-)

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Obviously!!

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Then a truly horrific thought struck her: What if this one started asking her to baby-sit as well?

I'm sure Jenny wouldn't be that much of a handful.

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I reviewed on Teaspoon, but I had another thought: In a way, it's a pity those rumours about Nicola Bryant being in the running to play Janeway are (apparently) untrue. Particularly for the bit with Peri.

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pedanther

Love the story!

(There's something wrong with your "October Prompt of the Month" link, though.)

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Thanks! :-) And, you're right - I clicked on it, and it went to the 'edit post' version, which I don't imagine anybody but me could access. It is now all present and correct.

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I don't even know Voyager, but I read it anyway...

...your first section heading made me want One-meets-Q fic.

No, I can't write it. I haven't even seen One yet.

*is not really coherent right now* (A friend just sent me a Youtube link of John de Lancie doing a dramatic reading of "The Raven". Between JdL being a massively OTT if adorable ham and Poe being a complete nutter, my brain is somewhat addled.)

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Heh, if you haven't watched any Voyager or any First Doc, I hope at least some of it made sense! (No Voyager? And I thought you were the ST Trek fan round here - I assumed you'd have seen the eps with Q even if you weren't keen on the rest of it.)

Another idea for

dw_straybunnies? I'm not sure I could write it, either, though it sounds fun - One and Q? Heh. (I'm the opposite to you, you see - I only know Q from Voyager, so I tend to think of him as someone who pops up at awkward moments to propose, although actually that isn't a fair summary of his 3 eps, but I've seen 'The Q and the Grey' more often than the other 2... I'd need a more rounded picture. One of these days, I'm going to have to get my housemate, who is a TNG fan as well as Voyager fan - this is all her fault - to find me Episodes I Will Like from TNG to watch. I do this with DW for her, so it is only fair.)

No worries, I am frequently incoherent for various reasons. That sounds like a nice reason to be incoherent, anyway. :-)

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Yeah, I haven't gotten around to Q's Voyager eps yet. (I'm busy marathoning Stargate SG-1 on Hulu at the moment; their license for it expires in January.) Actually there's oodles of Trek I haven't seen... my family is only into TOS, though we are hugely knowledgeable about that. I'm just starting TNG myself, really.

(I heartily recommend "Q Who", btw. It's beautifully photographed and lit, has some amazingly gorgeous shots, and consists mainly of JdL and Patrick Stewart being massively charismatic actors at each other, with occasional interpolations of "oh we need a plot, let's introduce the Borg!" LOL. Also Q facing off against Whoopi Goldberg is a bit awesome.)

Yeah, Q isn't so much with the proposing pre-Voyager, although he did steal Picard's girlfriend that one time... *g*

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I see! Well, my relationship with Star Trek has mainly been watching odd bits with various people (is it III where they save the whales? - watched that with my Dad and was v disappointed to find the other ST films were not about comedy people from space, saving the whales), & he occasionally watched bits of TOS, my flatmate at uni (we used to rent the video player along with the videos at the shop, and so we had to watch as much DW/Red Dwarf or ST as we could in one night, so I had to watch TNG if I was to be allowed to watch DW...) and my current housemate. I enjoyed them all, but never stopped to really watch until my housemate got a bunch of Voyager eps and I saw Janeway in action. So then I did stop, and liked the rest, too. :-)

Thanks for the rec; it sounds great - I do ask my friend which are good eps, but we're not always in the house at the same time. I shall have to see if she has that one. Q does seem to be entertaining, anyway. I've always suspected I would end up liking ST if I watched it, but the amount of it is daunting - so your TNG and SG will certainly keep you occupied!! And everyone always seemed so awfully serious... unlike DW. *hugs DW* (Q is a bit like the Doctor in being the flippant, disruptive source, I suppose. I'm not sure in other ways!) Which was why I liked Voyager on sight, because Janeway clearly has not only a sense of humour but a sense of the ridiculous, too. And then there's the Doctor, and Tom, and Tuvok, and B'Elanna, and Seven, and next thing I know I'm demanding to know whether my housemate has any more of these... In all the wrong order, but hey... :lol:

Heh - Q proposing is how I always think of him, and Janeway trying to get him to stop (This is completely my housemate's fault because she loves that episode, so it's frequently been on in passing in this house.)
Q: You're just playing hard to get.
Janeway: As far as you're concerned, Q, I'm impossible to get!
Q: Goody! I like a challenge.

:-)

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The one where they save the whales is IV. I have been known to tell people "even if you don't watch anything else with the original crew, you should watch movie four", because truly it is the pinnacle of Original Trek. Leonard Nimoy is a genius. (Of course, I like to get them to watch the whole II-III-IV trilogy if I can, just because it's so incredibly tightly plotted for something that was written as a series of oneshots!)

Q is... a lot like the Doctor in some ways, actually, now you mention it. Kind of if they played up the alien side of the Doctor a lot more - Q is really the completely incomprehensible alien, who usually winds up having done something helpful and important, but (on TNG) you never have any idea why he actually turned up in the first place. That's something that never really works with the Doctor, because at least since Two took over, he's been definitely benevolent; when Rusty tried to play Ten as the unpredictable force of nature last Christmas, we just all went "WTH? The Doctor's gone wacko!"

(I actually have a theory about Q's motivations... naturally, it's just as cracked-out as the ~~man~~ entity himself. It's my opinion that Q is the ultimate fanboy - a fic writer who likes AUs and takes advantage of his omnipotent powers to see the real characters acting out his stories. He can be a bit of a Mary Sue when he's using self-inserts for exposition, but he does allow the cast to keep their own personalities, thus vastly improving the quality of the "fic" beyond what your average Sue would produce.)

TNG does tend to be very srs bsnss, seems as if, from the few eps I've seen yet. They like to Address Issues, and also go quite heavy on the hard science/timey-wimey side of things... but as that's what I like in my skiffy (along with a side order of goofiness which Riker, Data, and Q between them can usually be relied on to provide), I'm loving it.

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I tend to think of him as someone who pops up at awkward moments to propose

I don't think he ever proposes to Picard, but...

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Hmm... So Picard is more of a pushover, Q-wise, than Janeway? Heh.

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Not usually, but there are special circumstances in that particular case. The episode's "Tapestry" if you're curious.

Sisko's even less of a pushover. As Picard says to Q in one of the books: "He says he punched you in the face and you vanished, never to return. Maybe I should have decked you years ago."

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