Trivia and In-Jokes
About the Story:
The Voyager-induced inspiration continues with this, the next
installment of AL’s Victory chronology.
The first chapter (now the Prologue) went through so many writes and
rewrites it isn’t even funny. I was having problems writing out exactly how I
wanted the story to start. I knew I wanted a meeting between Data, the EMH and
JB (Jedi Ben, but you knew that, already, didn’t you? ^^) while AL sleeps a few
rooms away, but whenever I tried to write said meeting, it’d end up telling of
how Data was going to die soon and they needed to finish the Victory, and
sooner than soon. So, I just wrote the exposition as the Prologue.
I actually almost started to cry while writing Data’s death scene.
:(
Kinsellan flits are the property of
Jessica Dragontamer, and you may
still be able to contact her for one of your own.
Title:
Goodnight, Dear Heart: This is the name of an episode of Quantum
Leap. It’s also a piece from a Mark Twain book Sam read at the end of said
episode.
Prologue:
2460: This was a combination of Ben and I establishing the Victory
being launched in the 25th century and the fact that I didn’t want
Data to die too soon. He was first activated in 2338 (as stated in the TNG
episode “Conundrum”) and, as such, his 100th birthday would be,
naturally, 100 years later in 2438. I had originally wanted him to have lived at
least as long as Admiral McCoy (137 years, as stated in “Encounter at
Farpoint”), but that would have pushed the calendar to almost the 26th
century, and that was too late. So, I compromised and set the deterioration of
his power cells to start when he turned 120 (2458), and that’s when he’d start
the construction of the Victory. As two years seemed to be the magic
number for construction of starships (both the Enterprise-A and the
Enterprise-E were constructed two years after their predecessors’ respective
destructions), the Victory, and thus, Data’s death, would occur two years
later. Hence 2460. And was that a long-winded response, or what. :)
Benjamin Del Ponte: If you’re familiar with me and my stories, you’ll know that this is the character of my ex. He’s affectionately referred to as “Jedi Ben” or “JB” (like AL is “Alien Lisa”).
Eighty-nine years of activation: Voyager’s EMH was activated in 2371. Simple math.
A valued member of Starfleet Medical: This was taken from the alternate future timeline from the Voyager episode “Endgame”. Hell, why not?
Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge: This was taken from the alternate future timeline from the TNG episode “All Good Things…”. Again, why not?
Lisa’s nightmare eighty-one years ago: *cough*Star Trek: Nemesis*cough* All right, I hated the end of the movie with a passion. In an effort to, somehow, create a loophole that would allow Data to survive, I came up with the cop-out idea: Make it AL’s nightmare. My short story, Nightmare, is the written version of it.
Chapters Two and Four:
How long have you got?: Rose’s line from the Doctor Who
episode, “Doomsday”.
Chapter Four:
Two minutes: The Doctor’s response to the aforementioned line.
“Goodbye…”: Data’s last words from Star Trek: Nemesis. One thing that lasted from the movie.