Star Trek: The Quarterdeck Breed

[cochrane]

I started writing this series back in 2002, when I had loads more free time on my hands and this urge to keep writing Trek fanfic.

What's always fascinated me about the Star Trek universe is the ships we never see, but we hear about. In the season six to seven cliffhanger, Descent, I was intrigued by the ship called "Agamemnon," and I wondered if the writers had thrown it in there as sort of a nod to Babylon 5 (or maybe I was reading too much into it). I sat down and I started looking for more information on this ship and found out that it was an Apollo-class light cruiser.

After Deep Space Nine ended, I felt like there was a whole post-Dominion War era to futz with. So, I outlined some characters, and came up with a story about a small ship sent to patrol the borders of the Federation. I borrowed a lot from Diane Carey's "Ship of the Line" by referencing the Revenue Cutter Service of the old old old Revolutionary War days, before there was even a US Navy.

I found I really enjoyed this concept, and so I set about outlining shorts involving other ships, as well. Each of the stories are named for the ship that it is about, but none of them are intended to be anything more than one-shot stories. Every one of them tries to cross-section the philosophy of command, and the stories are spaced out to try and cover both TOS-era and TNG-era.

I think I put one in there that's pre-TOS, even... though I do not formally acknowledge "Star Trek: Enterprise" and I tend to ignore that part of the universe simply because I felt it had a lot of flaws.

I have, so far, finished five of my eight planned outlines (though, a few readers are asking for ten) and I invite you to take a peek.

Star Trek: The Quarterdeck Breed, hosted at the HopeStation.net Repository.

Why 'Quarterdeck Breed'? It comes from a line in J. M. Dillard's Star Trek: The Lost Years, when Doctor McCoy is arguing with Fleet Admiral Nogura regarding Kirk's recent promotion to rear admiral. He tells Nogura that Kirk is a 'quarterdeck breed.' And that line has always kind of stuck with me.

Thanks,

-- ZC

[Tallguy]

Originally Posted by cochrane

Why 'Quarterdeck Breed'? It comes from a line in J. M. Dillard's Star Trek: The Lost Years, when Doctor McCoy is arguing with Fleet Admiral Nogura regarding Kirk's recent promotion to rear admiral. He tells Nogura that Kirk is a 'quarterdeck breed.' And that line has always kind of stuck with me.

I'm going from memory, but I believe that Dillard was quoting The Great Bird himself from his novel of The Motion Picture. A great title. And you can do far worse than going after that Carey nautical vibe.

[cochrane]

Originally Posted by Tallguy

I'm going from memory, but I believe that Dillard was quoting The Great Bird himself from his novel of The Motion Picture. A great title. And you can do far worse than going after that Carey nautical vibe.

I always felt that Roddenberry's intent was "Horatio Hornblower in Space." And I happen to be a devoted fan of C. S. Forester because of Star Trek. So, I figured that I Would do my best to reintroduce the concept of spinning nautical yarns with Trek as the backdrop. I think that's why I really enjoyed The Captain's Table series so much... it felt like all the captains were basically spinning tales of woe and fancy at the bar with the others, y'know?

-- ZC

[cochrane]

I wanted to announce that Part Six: "Farragut" has been completed and put up on the site.

-- ZC

[cochrane]

I have decided, that with the completion of Farragut, I'm ending TQB to focus on Full Speed Ahead.

-- ZC