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Post by myrthman on Mar 13, 2008 11:09:22 GMT -5
Saw a license plate recently (inspiration has to come somehow to a bus driver!): something something something XLF. For some reason my brain thought "Extreme Elf" or something along those lines. Then I got to thinking about all our favorite fantasy races and "classes" being on a galaxy-exploring spaceship maybe like or maybe unlike Star Trek.
They have all the same racial traits and skills we're familiar with...just on a spaceship: the grumpy dwarf engineer, the elven captain (Captain Archer? arrgghh!), the halfling doctor, and the orcish prisoner locked up in the brig. Maybe there's also a cyborg-troll or something.
My initial reaction was "Cool!" But now I'm thinking it might be too weird for even me to digest. Any other thoughts?
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 13, 2008 23:02:50 GMT -5
It could be good for a tongue-in-cheek story. I like the blending of genres.
I'd always thought the porcine Gamorrean guards in Jabba's palace were somewhat Orc-ish.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 14, 2008 7:30:39 GMT -5
It's a great idea, myrthman. "Dwarves in Space."
There's a sense, of course, that Star Trek has already done this. The Klingons are dwarves and the Romulans are elves.
But I think it would be to do as divides says and go for the extreme laughs. Sounds very fun.
Jeff
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Post by myrthman on Mar 14, 2008 17:11:07 GMT -5
Had another thought: that the ship is propelled by the fire-breath of a captured dragon who is harnessed just right down in engineering.
I guess it could be a bit comic. I was rather leaning toward serious but I don't know how that would be pulled off without seeming like a total rip off of Roddenberry's genius. But then with hyperspeed coming from an imprisoned dragon named Warp, perhaps comedy is a better approach!
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 15, 2008 7:32:57 GMT -5
You're going to love Hero, Second Class, one of the novels I'm launching Marcher Lord Press with.
It's comic fantasy.
Jeff
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 15, 2008 10:56:05 GMT -5
You know, Myrthman, it might behoove you to try it both ways. I do think I would go more "Tolkien" and less "Roddenberry" if I were to attempt the serious route. Definitely drawing more from folklore and less from sci-fi conventions, as it were.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 15, 2008 20:23:51 GMT -5
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Post by myrthman on Mar 16, 2008 0:31:19 GMT -5
Orcs in space. Scary thought. I may have to check that out. I'll definitely get my hands on Hero, Second Class when it comes out.
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Post by Christian Soldier on Mar 16, 2008 9:23:05 GMT -5
Written by John Ringo? Oooh. He writes some interesting stuff!
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Post by rwley on Mar 17, 2008 12:33:47 GMT -5
My husband reads John Ringo. I haven't gone there yet, but he's been just fascinated by his books.
Robi
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Post by strangewind on Mar 18, 2008 8:46:48 GMT -5
I love the "Xlves and Dwar4s" tag, by the way. Another take on this could be a play off of how all the "non-man" races in Middle Earth began to fade away as the modern age progressed. Where did they really disappear? Into menial tech-jobs and call centers, of course!
Next time you get a poor, bored tech support specialist on the phone who is kind of hard to understand, just think, you might have a real live xlf on the other end.
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Post by rwley on Mar 18, 2008 9:00:36 GMT -5
Just as all the aliens work at the post office, huh?
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 18, 2008 22:12:43 GMT -5
Whoa....
Now there may actually be a note of interest here. The Grey Havens were the "undying lands." They were the home away from home, almost off the edge of the earth, so to speak. Tolkien has more than suggested that his story was meant to be a fictional history of the pre-history (as a creationist, I don't believe in this term, but I'll give it to him for the sake of the story) of this world. Lewis made reference to it in his Space Trilogy, implying that it was all part of the same fictional universe. Therefore, one has to surmise that the elves, etc. went somewhere else in the interim, since we have (more or less) covered the face of the globe, and not discovered their like. Perhaps some dwarves stayed, creating legends of tommyknockers and the like. Perhaps some hobbits stayed and diminished (as implied by Tolkien), creating legends of leprechauns, etc. But most of the Grey Haven elves would have left. Where would an unfallen race with quasi-magical "art" go if humankind encroached on the Grey Havens?
Why, to space, of course!
After all, The Silent Planet is cursed; why would the elves stay if they didn't have to?
(Ironically, this reminds me of an old Leonard Nimoy song, sung as an unnamed-yet-obvious-Spock. It ends, speaking of humans, saying that "Now is the time to journey home to tell of what I've learned. My people I believe have every right to be concerned. For in spite of computers and advanced psychology, behavior patterns are still a mystery. I predict the future of this earthly human race is that having made a mess of Earth they'll move to outer space! ... Well, there goes the neighborhood.")
Perhaps there could be an effort to stop human encroachment on unsullied worlds, since "through man death came to the cosmos."
Hmmmm..... You may be onto something here.
OHH!!!! Holy cow, I think that just gave me an idea for my own story...!
Editorial insertion:
I was informed by a friend who knows Tolkien better than I that I had made an error in this post. He said:
Actually, the Grey Havens were the remaints of the elven kingdoms of Beleriand in the northwest of Middle Earth west of the Blue Mountains. The Undying Lands were known as Valinor.
Oops.
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 24, 2008 23:52:10 GMT -5
Have you read the Robert Asprin "Myth-Adventure" series? If you went for a tongue-in-cheek approach, I could see something along those lines.
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Post by scintor on Mar 25, 2008 10:00:15 GMT -5
OHHHH! One of my favorite series! Good storytelling and silliness rolled into one. also from the last post, I'll admit it. I was the one who corrected Rob about Valinor, which is what brought me to this forum.  Scincerely, Scintor@aol.com |
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