Friday, September 3, 2010 Analysis: AVL: Decade- Part I
It’s been a long time coming and they’ve had quite a history together, but at long last it’s official! Our favourite Human and Vulcan couple are getting married! Yay!
In my early planning for Virtue, I knew that if I was going to base the story ten years into the future then I’d have to have some way to cover events in between, otherwise it would’ve been a real mess. Decade was born from this idea. The wedding was due to take place in the first two parts, while the third part would explain events that took place in the latest Star Trek movie and how they affected Kai, T’Luk & the rest of the team.
Moving onto Part I: This part I had to do two things. One, I wanted to get all the main characters to make an appearance to get us used to them all again, and two, I wanted to have the proposal on the beach. To make this happen, there are a few scenes in my mind that stick out as being quite special.
The first was the opening scene with H’Jan and Laia in the corridor. H’Jan was one of the few main characters who didn’t see any romance in AVL, so it was only fair that we got a small look into his love life. Laia seems like an interesting person (a talented engineer and a Bajoran too) so all the best to H’Jan there. :)
I just loved the scene with Alex. While he and Kai had been close in AVL, I really wanted to explain things further, and also give some insight into how much their relationship progressed over the time before Decade. The two men have a purely platonic relationship and is a really beautiful thing. They are lucky to have each other.
The following scene at Kai’s parent’s home was quite brief. We’d already met them in greater detail in AVL, so I didn’t want to repeat much there. Similarly, I wanted to focus more on T’Luk’s little getaway and the evening he had planned, rather than life at home.
I love things that make sense, and having T’Luk propose to Kai on the same spot where they shared their first kiss was just magical. The nice warm rays of the sun beating down on a beautiful beach in the late afternoon is a romantic bliss. It was a perfect place for such a special event to happen and I think it really made the scene.
I had decided early on that T’Luk would be the one to propose. Kai always gave people the impression that he was somewhat leading the relationship, but upon further inspection, it seems that T’Luk is the one behind the wheel. Whichever the case, I think it just worked out nicer on multiple levels to have T’Luk be the one who proposed.
After they spent the night together in their lovely little Caribbean getaway, T’Luk surprised Kai once more with a secret get-together he’d organised with the other guys. Again, this gave us another moment to meet everyone again and remind ourselves of the dynamics between all of them. We’ll be seeing more of these little moments in the next two parts of Decade.
Casey and Laura’s relationship was also something I’d thought about for quite some time however, I had decided the outcome many months ago while AVL was still being written. What went wrong? Nothing adverse. Some relationships work out and some don’t. On the flip side, they did remain together as friends, and that was something I didn’t want to mess up.
So, what’s coming up next? The weddings! Yep, plural. One on Earth and one on Vulcan. But don’t worry, you’re invited to both. :P
Emulated
Reader Comments (2)
That was definitely fun :-) I like what you added to Alex's and Kai's relationship. Relationships development chapters like this are necessary, but my personal favorites contain some space/ship/plot, but I know it will be coming ;-) Good work!
Thanks for the kind words, Gabriel!
Yeah, the first two parts of Decade really focus on the relationships between the characters. I really like the nature of Kai & Alex's relationship, and I think it was necessary that we got to see how it had grown.
:P There'll be lots of space/ship/plot coming soon in Virtue. Decade will help lay the foundation and set the stage, but then things will definitely start to fly! :P
Thanks!