Absence:
My thoughts:
This story has been almost nine months in the making, and it’s finally made it to paper. When I wrote Soul Mates, over a year ago, I had laid out a fairly complex back story for both Ed and Virginia. That shared history became Mission of Mercy, Best Friends, Silver Star, and finally, Absence.
When I set out to write this saga, I had two specific goals in mind, stay true to the events in the series, and share my own vision of Virginia and Ed as a couple. After seeing the episode Timelash, for the first time, I realized that there was chemistry between Straker and Lake. According to Sylvia Anderson in her commentary with Wanda Ventham on Timelash, many of the fans felt this way, which means, I wasn’t alone.
By the end of Silver Star both Virginia and Ed are dancing around their feelings, although Ginny had inadvertently told him how she felt. True to form, Ed keeps his feelings to himself. Absence tells us what brings him to admit his feelings for her.
My original plan for this tale did not include the drama of the IAC scrutiny or the interviews with Dr. Jackson. That aspect was added to the story as the result of a marriage/canon discussion on the writer’s guild. While I don’t agree with some of the opinions that were put forward, the one thing I did agree with was that could cause problems in the command structure. It’s plausible that the IAC would examine this pairing in much greater detail than a simple computer relationship study. By addressing this issue, I think I added much more credibility to the story than it would have had otherwise. Ironically, the pairing of Straker and Lake would have no effect on their studio cover, as this would be considered the norm.
I left a couple of things open ended in this story as they come into play later in the saga. The UFO that landed in Loch Ness and the research that Lieutenant Colonel Kelly has started on Argon. I chose this particular element for two reasons. Earth’s atmosphere is comprised of slightly less than one percent of this element so there is more than just a trace of this gas. The second reason is Argon is what is called a Noble Gas it does not normally react with, or form compounds with other elements. But, in the story, the alien element does react to it, causing the disintegration of the spacecraft. Finding a way to counteract that effect is important, as SHADO is able to capture an alien spacecraft at the end of Soul Mates.
Ed’s family history is mostly conjecture as there isn’t much onscreen information to go on. I decided to give Ed a younger sister instead of a brother. It’s a different dynamic than having a brother would have been and I think it worked better for the story. I never intended her to get mixed up with Alec, but it was just too much fun to resist.
One of my favorite parts is when Virginia is standing at the window thinking about the burden and loneliness of command while wondering how Ed can stand it. The other part I really thought worked well was the conversation in the car. I wanted to shed some new light on the lines from the episode as one of them, the one about moon speeds would have been an insult to Virginia’s intelligence. She is a scientist after all.
Of course some of the things I did with this story mean that Soul Mates will need a rewrite. Since I planned on it anyway that’s not an issue. I think I can make it a better story and it’s going to become a trilogy within the saga.
I do want to mention two stories that have given me inspiration in my writing. The first is Wounded Dreams, written by Deborah Rorabaugh, a story that tells the beginnings of the friendship that formed between Ed and Alec. The second is By Invitation Only, written by Catherine Stewart, a story that tells how Virginia went from the chief designer on the Utronic Project to a Colonel in SHADO. Both of these stories are so well choreographed into my vision of the UFO universe that I consider the events, portrayed in the stories, to be as valid as the events in the episodes and I have referred to them in my stories. I would consider both these stories highly recommended reading.
This story was almost as challenging as Silver Star and I hope everyone enjoyed it.
Matt
My thoughts:
This story has been almost nine months in the making, and it’s finally made it to paper. When I wrote Soul Mates, over a year ago, I had laid out a fairly complex back story for both Ed and Virginia. That shared history became Mission of Mercy, Best Friends, Silver Star, and finally, Absence.
When I set out to write this saga, I had two specific goals in mind, stay true to the events in the series, and share my own vision of Virginia and Ed as a couple. After seeing the episode Timelash, for the first time, I realized that there was chemistry between Straker and Lake. According to Sylvia Anderson in her commentary with Wanda Ventham on Timelash, many of the fans felt this way, which means, I wasn’t alone.
By the end of Silver Star both Virginia and Ed are dancing around their feelings, although Ginny had inadvertently told him how she felt. True to form, Ed keeps his feelings to himself. Absence tells us what brings him to admit his feelings for her.
My original plan for this tale did not include the drama of the IAC scrutiny or the interviews with Dr. Jackson. That aspect was added to the story as the result of a marriage/canon discussion on the writer’s guild. While I don’t agree with some of the opinions that were put forward, the one thing I did agree with was that could cause problems in the command structure. It’s plausible that the IAC would examine this pairing in much greater detail than a simple computer relationship study. By addressing this issue, I think I added much more credibility to the story than it would have had otherwise. Ironically, the pairing of Straker and Lake would have no effect on their studio cover, as this would be considered the norm.
I left a couple of things open ended in this story as they come into play later in the saga. The UFO that landed in Loch Ness and the research that Lieutenant Colonel Kelly has started on Argon. I chose this particular element for two reasons. Earth’s atmosphere is comprised of slightly less than one percent of this element so there is more than just a trace of this gas. The second reason is Argon is what is called a Noble Gas it does not normally react with, or form compounds with other elements. But, in the story, the alien element does react to it, causing the disintegration of the spacecraft. Finding a way to counteract that effect is important, as SHADO is able to capture an alien spacecraft at the end of Soul Mates.
Ed’s family history is mostly conjecture as there isn’t much onscreen information to go on. I decided to give Ed a younger sister instead of a brother. It’s a different dynamic than having a brother would have been and I think it worked better for the story. I never intended her to get mixed up with Alec, but it was just too much fun to resist.
One of my favorite parts is when Virginia is standing at the window thinking about the burden and loneliness of command while wondering how Ed can stand it. The other part I really thought worked well was the conversation in the car. I wanted to shed some new light on the lines from the episode as one of them, the one about moon speeds would have been an insult to Virginia’s intelligence. She is a scientist after all.
Of course some of the things I did with this story mean that Soul Mates will need a rewrite. Since I planned on it anyway that’s not an issue. I think I can make it a better story and it’s going to become a trilogy within the saga.
I do want to mention two stories that have given me inspiration in my writing. The first is Wounded Dreams, written by Deborah Rorabaugh, a story that tells the beginnings of the friendship that formed between Ed and Alec. The second is By Invitation Only, written by Catherine Stewart, a story that tells how Virginia went from the chief designer on the Utronic Project to a Colonel in SHADO. Both of these stories are so well choreographed into my vision of the UFO universe that I consider the events, portrayed in the stories, to be as valid as the events in the episodes and I have referred to them in my stories. I would consider both these stories highly recommended reading.
This story was almost as challenging as Silver Star and I hope everyone enjoyed it.
Matt
