S47 Express February 2012 Edition
Feb 13, 2012 17:21:51 GMT
Post by Jamey Gaz on Feb 13, 2012 17:21:51 GMT
Greetings fellow members and welcome to the latest installment of Section 47 Express publication. This is the publication that gleans a closer look at what is going on in the fleet. We also aim to bring you interviews that allow you a chance to get to know some of your fellow members better. So, sit back and grab a raktajino, quarktajino, bloodwine, kali-fal, or even a glass of Talaxian champagne and enjoy!
Interview with a member:
Our interview for this issue is non other than our fearless leader, Section Admiral Stacey Jackson. Who, as you all know, has recently stepped into the big office and occupies the highest chair in the Fleet. I recently made my way from the tucked away offices of CCS to her's to ask a few questions and get to know our SA.
Stacey, who’s personnel record reads as being a Human/Betazoid, was in reality born on Vulcan as an only child of loving parents who made a choice to raise her Betazoid with the Betazoid culture and traditions. However, she attended school with Vulcan children that, she says, “Shaped her outlook on life and was influenced greatly”. At the age of ten, her parents requested transfer to Betazed and she spent the next years living there when at the age of twenty, enrolled in Starfleet Academy.
Prior to the Dominion war, Stacey’s career had her on Earth where she and her fiancé, James, met. During the war her skill in Counseling was called upon heavily in many areas helping people to deal with the tragedies of war. Stacey briefly returned to Earth while she was expecting her first child; sadly, her fiance James was killed during the Breen attack on Starfleet Command. After the war and only days after the signing of the Treaty of Bajor, Stacey had her first child - medical records show she gave birth in the Academy Commandants office after refusing to be transported while in labour. She soon resigned her commission and spent time focusing on her newborn son in Brazil, Earth.
It wasn’t long until Starfleet called upon Stacey again and offered her an instructor's position at Starfleet Academy where she was voted ‘most popular instructor’ three years in a row. She feels that this was mainly due to the fact that she accidentally took one of her classes to a strip bar, "It took me at least thirty minutes to get the male cadets out of the bar." After a number of years she was offered Deputy Commandant but she turned down the role. When her son, Dean Jackson, enrolled at Starfleet Academy, Stacey wanted him to have the joy of attending the Academy without his mother being a looming ‘issue’ as she recalls Dean saying. Agreeing, she then transferred to Section 47 and to the Starbase Conqueror. She has since served aboard the USS El Salvador as Counsellor and then Executive Officer, aboard the USS Rainier as Captain and now as Section Admiral.
The following are [out-of-character] questions she so graciously answered during the interview:
How long have you been simming?
About six years or so I think, I am not quite sure of the exact year to be honest.
What do you enjoy most about simming?
Well I enjoy writing in general so simming is an extension of that, but the chance to evolve a character over years is great; no character I have created for simming has ever stayed the same as when I created them. For example, when I first made Stacey she was 45 and rather abrupt, sure of herself and fully Human. She only grew up on Betazed. I never intended for her to be half Betazoid, actually that was a mistake on Commodore Savot’s part where in a post he called her ‘Betazoid’ and I thought, ‘hey yeah’ that fits! So she became half Betazoid. *She still resents her age suddenly being bumped up twenty years!*
What positions/characters have you played and which is your favourite?
Well, I have played a Counsellor, Chief Medical Officer, First Officer, and Commanding Officer. If you had asked me three or so years ago I would have said Counsellor hands down. I find emotions to be a really great source of writing material and I felt privileged to help others find an outlet for that.
But these days, Chief Medical Officer interests me more, the crew avoid you marginally less than they do Counsellors (he he).That isn't to say I didn't enjoy my time in the big chair!
As for characters I have had a few over the years, Jack Crane, Stacey Jackson, Hannah Jackson, Krieala Vyaln and Janet Reilly, Jack I killed off despite the fact he wasn’t around long I just reached a point where I felt his character had grown all it could and Stacey was fast becoming my favourite.
What is your first Star Trek memory?
I can’t remember a moment specifically, to be honest when I first watched Star Trek I was bored out of my skull. I think, I was seven years old and I was much more interested in watching Power Rangers at that age a bald old English dude making long speeches - doesn’t get the heart pumping like brightly coloured heroes in a giant robot!
However! My father used to watch it and he was a big meanie and wouldn’t let me put in my videos! So I would just have to sit there and suffer (reading a book never crossed my mind at this point). Eventually, Voyager came out and I started to understand what a warp core was and I found I really enjoyed it.
If / when you create another character, what type of character that will be?
I don’t actually intend to create another character in any foreseeable future, Stacey keeps me on my toes enough as it is. I guess if I did ever decide to I would try to create something very different to the characters I have already created. I have my wise older character, my free spirit character, my all work no play character and I had my sarcastic pain in the backside character. I suppose I would go for a darker character someone who is doing the right things for the wrong reasons.
On a scale of 1-10, how weird is a character you play? Why did you choose that number about him/her/it?
I would say 3, Stacey is pretty mainstream, She hasn’t got any personality quirks I would label as odd but I am little bias!
What Star Trek episode (or movie/book) do you recall, like, love, hate? Tell us why?
Well there are a couple of course, My favourite Star Trek episode would probably be Death Wish from Voyagers season 2. I just really liked the storyline, it showed immortality to not be all it is cracked up to be; plus any episode with Q in it is worth watching. Another would be Measure of a man from the Next Generation.
As for movie, well First Contact would be my personal favourite. Closely followed by Wrath of Khan.
As for hate, well I really didn't like Threshold (the breaking the warp ten barrier) less said about that one the better, on the movie side, Star Trek the Motion Picture bores me to utter tears - it is the only Star Trek production that makes cutting my own leg off for the amusement feel like a good idea.
Do you read Star Trek books? Tell us something about the last one you read or your favourite. (If no Trek books, then any style of book, TV, movie, etc.)
I do occasionally, to be honest I don’t like how some authors portray canon characters - something just feels wrong about them. My favourite would probably be Mosaic by Jeri Taylor. For those of you who don't know, it is a biography of Captain Janeway spanning her life before USS Voyager, it was written by one of the creators of Voyager so it is as close to a 'canon' book as you will find.
But thinking about it I haven't read a Star Trek book in ages, the closest I have gotten is reading an autobiography by Shatner or Nimoy, right this moment I am reading a series of books by Matthew Reilly (An Australian author not sure if he is widely published overseas or not)
Where do you see your character in ten years’ time?
Probably still thinking of retiring but never actually getting around to it, I would say she has resigned her Starfleet Commission and taken up a job as Ambassador for Betazed or something of the like. She will probably still be behind a desk somewhere dreaming of sitting on a remote beach with an endless supply of tropical drinks with little umbrellas in them.
If you could have your character, Stacey Jackson, do anything without having to take into account logic or time lines.. what would it be?
I have wanted to explore Stacey’s darker side. I have come close on a few occasions but always backed out at the last minute, I couldn’t manage to find a way to do it after she became Executive Officer of El Salvador and now she is Section Admiral - it is even harder to find a way to work in.
Stacey is caring and nice but I feel she has the ability to be ruthless and manipulative if the situation called for it. Oh, and having Stacey meet her personal hero Admiral Janeway, but I can never work up the courage to try my hand at writing a canon character so, I from time to time mention that Jackson has yet again missed a chance to meet her.
Do you have a particularly favourite mission you have been in?
Not a single mission that I can name no, I have had the chance to write some interesting things but they are spanned over several missions. I killed my old primary character, Jack Crane which was fun for me (Not so much for him!)
The arguments Krieala Vyaln and Govan Echal had were always terribly fun to write, those two would just tear into each other. (Nothing is as relaxing as pouring your own anger into a character and having them say and do things you would never do yourself!)
I was also really enjoying the growing tension Stacey and Kaylana Cornette had going on Rainier, both officers were too bound by duty and honour to let it become a full blown fight but it was always there bubbling under the surface. The writers for Echal and Cornette were both incredibly nice enough to plan these things with me, most of the 'fun' came from simply sharing ideas about we could continue the fight or the tension and make it believable.
Having Commodore Savot arrested for assassination and taking command of his ship on my first mission as XO was fun, OOC this was the first mission I had ever come up with and ‘directed’ so the feeling of relief and joy when it all started to really kick off is something I still remember fondly. Although, still a little upset Savot didn't let me run with my Super Secret Black Ops Ninja Klingons idea though!
In your own words, describe the dream of Star Trek.
For me it has always been about what our future could be if we tried, ignoring the aliens and the technology you find a human race that is tolerant and accepting. Where poverty and war on Earth have ended and greed is a trait that has long since been abandoned.
I thought about this in detail a year or more ago, Australia for the first time had a Female Prime Minister and the media ran around making a big deal about it some questioned if a woman could do the job properly. Star Trek shows a future where that wouldn't have even come up. No one blinks an eye when they see their Captain is a woman, African American or Asian, it is a very attractive future to think about for anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of intolerance or had their capacity to do something put in question because of their gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.
The Admiral was so gracious during my time with her and upon thanking her for that time, she so politely mentioned that if this interview revealed her age that my personnel record would strangely be stamped, missing in action; but before that she just simply said, "My pleasure." Needless to say, that topic was avoided like a cosmic string.
UPDATE: Section 47's very own SMS (Nova) Ship!
After completing the shakedown cruise, which was marred by a murder of a diplomat and the wrongful accusation of the first officer, the USS Grayson is now embarking on her second mission. A distress signal will be received soon (in story) coming from a small group of Kzinti refugees. But all, of course, is not as it seems and the crew will face the challenge of uncovering the feline illusion that's been set before them.
All in all, the Grayson has averaged between 12 and 20 posts per month with a crew of 8. The ease of doing joint posts as well as just saving a post and returning back to it later is what we see as the greatest advantage to using Nova (or it's predecessor SMS). Grayson has just been updated to the latest Nova version, Nova 2.0.
Find the ship here!: USS Grayson.
Projects in the works!
As is so often the case when something is announced it is often swallowed up quickly by another post.. As such, we would like to take a moment to shine a much-deserved light on the Section 47 Wiki. Since the old wiki crashed people have been hard at work trying to make a new and better one.
Soon we hope it will be as extensive as the old one replete with Ship histories, Species created specifically for Section 47 and past missions. So follow the link and check it out here! :Section 47 Wiki
A Message from the Recruitment Department.
As you, all know this site would be nothing without the fantastic and talented members who make it a great place to Simm, and new members only add to enjoyment as such the recruitment officer has been hard at work creating sites on social networks to help spread news of our great site.
The Facebook can be found here :Section 47 Facebook
And Twitter here :Section 47 Twitter
Commendations:
Did a post make you smile or laugh? Is there someone on your crew who always puts in that extra effort?
While we all know the awards aren’t real (Shame I know! We all like Gold) they are nice to receive none the less. It is more than a picture on a profile it is a sentiment that says.. I enjoy your writing or I appreciate the effort you put in.
So next time a post makes you smile despite the terrible day you are having, or someone helps you out nominate them for a Commendation!
In closing,
We hope you have enjoyed this edition of Section 47 Express!
Do you have something you want to appear in the next edition? if so please contact me and we can make it happen, feedback and comments are also welcomed!
Respectfully Submitted - Captain Jamey Gaz - Chief of Section 47 Communications.
February 2012
February 2012