wherein Liz puts perhaps a little too much store in the virtues of accuracy

[edenfalling]

The problem with writing Star Trek fic is that I keep wanting to make at least glancing nods towards science, which results in me spending way too much time wiki-walking. I started by looking up planetary rings and ended by reading about Lagrange point science missions, Lissajous orbits, and colonization pros and cons, by which point I realized I had skipped right out of Star Trek and landed in Gundam Wing instead.

Oops.

Anyway, space battles are still a pain and a half to write, but I am slowly working out some strategies and Hegev and Jayavanti are arguing over the merits of mutiny -- though they have not yet realized (Jayavanti) or admitted (Hegev) that this is what they're talking about.

Speaking of Hegev, can somebody recommend me an episode or two of Enterprise where we get a good look at Tellarites? I am having trouble working out how to describe Hegev's appearance and body language, especially since half the pictures of Tellarites on Memory Alpha are from TOS, and TOS alien makeup is... well, they tried hard, let's just put it that way. But this leaves me a bit uncertain of such basic things as how many fingers Tellarites are meant to have, so. Help?

Comments

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Do you have to follow Enterprise? I mean, if you can find a picture from TOS, I don't see why it would be noncanon...

[edenfalling]

It's mostly that Enterprise had better makeup effects, so their Tellarites (judging by the screencaps on Memory Alpha) look a lot more realistic than TOS Tellarites.

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Hm. There was one species where once they had better makeup, they changed the species' looks slightly, IIRC? And then there was a convoluted explanation for why.

Um, but my point was that maybe the TOS and Enterprise Tellarites would actually have different features? So if you can find better TOS photos, you might just want to stick to TOS, even if it's less realistic?

Actually, I think I confused myself ._.

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

Star Trek's an interestingly variable show when it comes to accuracy-Alien races without FTL sensors are horribly vulnerable to attacks from ships dropping in and out of warp quickly, but they use engines for sublight that are both fast enough for plot and relatively harmless. Apparently, despite the species existing in Star Trek, nobody there's ever learned the Kzinti Lesson. Probably because a setting where everyone with a starship has trivial access to city-killing engine output isn't really in tune with Star Trek's ethos.

As for hands, there's an image (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/File:Gral_archer.jpg) I found on Memory Alpha from an Enterprise episode. One of the Tellarites in the back has his hands in front, fingers interlaced. It looks as though there are five on each hand. Hope that helps.

[edenfalling]

Ah, thank you! I had only found images of Enterprise Tellarites from profile, three-quarters back view, or back view, which are not useful for hands. *makes note about the exaggerated swoopy eyebrows as well*