Over in the (Powys) chat room (which echoes with its vast emptiness), the topic of a new site poll was raised. One suggestion was concerning which episode should have a prequel or sequel for a novel (one can hope) or short story.

Taking a look at what has been written so far, we have “The Touch of Venus” as a prequel to “Dragon’s Domain” and “The Lambda Factor,” and is almost a sequel to “TLF” as we see Koenig will never be fully emotionally recovered, and to “Breakaway,” as Gorski’s character – or lack thereof – is introduced. The short story “Cargo” is a prequel to “Voyager’s Return,” and is neither a sequel nor prequel to “Breakaway,” which makes it a plain-old quel, I suppose. “Falling Star” acts as a sequel to “Alpha Child” as well as a prequel to [u]The Forsaken[/u].

[u]The Forsaken[/u] is essentially a sequel to “Space Brain,” and “Alpha Child,” and a prequel to all of Y2. John Muir’s forth-coming novel, [u]The Whispering Seas[/u] is set as a sequel to “The Metamorph,” and of course [u]Resurrection [/u] is the sequel to “End of Eternity.” Finally, [u]Born for Adversity[/u] ties together “Dorzak” and “The Dorcons” as a sequel to both, and hints that it may act as a prequel to the events between its conclusion and the novels [u]Omega [/u]and [u]Alpha[/u]. [u]Survival[/u], while neither clearly a prequel nor sequel, did explain Bergman’s loss, and spawned its own short-story, “Spider’s Web.”

“Spider’s Web” sets the stage for [u]Omega [/u]and [u]Alpha[/u], which in turn manage to tie together “Breakaway,” “The Black Sun,” “Collision Course,” “Another Time, Another Place,” and “The Testament of Arkadia.” At the same time, these novels give the Y2 characters something substantial to do, and lets them work in Main Mission B)

And, of course, “Message from Moonbase Alpha” has sequel/prequel written all over it.

Which brings us back to the poll. Personally, I think a prequel to “Breakaway” would be brilliant. How many illnesses/deaths does it take before Helena takes notice? Helena and Victor are convinced there is something strange going on, but was he immediately accepting of her theories, or was he patronizing her on September 9th (that doesn’t seem likely, but was it always that way?). Why was Gorski so antagonistic? Concerned for his promotion track? Worried about discontinuation of funding (the track record for deep-space exploration has been less than stellar at this point)? Firmly under Simmonds’ thumb? Determined to destroy Helena because she rebuffed him?

Why was Koenig chosen as 9th and last Commander? Scape goat? Able administrator? Fall guy? Expendable? Reliable? What was he doing when he got the call? Teaching/lecturing? Ground-based mission controller? Paper-pusher? Test pilot?

How about the “mission” episodes – “Matter of Life and Death,” “Death’s Other Dominion,” & “Brian the Brain?” What’s the deal with failed missions? Why – if Moonbase Alpha is such a repository of knowledge – is any information on Lee Russell only in his wife’s files (when, according to a cut scene in Breakaway, Russell was “an important man”)? Even if there are parallel agencies or if the agency is huge, why does the Swift program not ring a bell? (Took me a while to remember that a “swift” is a bird and not just an adjective. Extra points for continuity in Y2 for that.) Were people hiding under rocks as these huge missions were launching? Were there any missions that were successful? Will the Alphans encounter a generational ship launched when/if the Earth of “Journey to Where” got its act back together following “Breakaway?” Or find a colony settled by humans who made it out before the pollution of the 21st Century took its toll? [spoiler]Think about it – the Earth of “Journey to Where” has to be [i]before [/i] the Alphans of “Another Time, Another Place” found themselves there, because t’ain’t any Earth at the end of [u]Alpha[/u]. Did the “ATAP” Alphans find a deserted planet because all that had been left of humanity high-tailed it out of there after the pollution got so bad they couldn’t sustain their systems anymore? Did they use technology acquired from the Kaldorans and send a bunch of lifeships out like the Kaldorians and the Darians? What would a gift of peace be, like the gold-filled Libra bird eggs – an iPhone532?[/spoiler]

Just a couple of thoughts that needed escape before [url=http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php][img]http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-think001.gif[/img][/url]

-Pat.