The movement to being back the greatest show that never was is picking up speed. Let's whomp it up with a contest!
Details are at SaveHiatus.com. Win prizes! Break our hearts! Excite our souls! Win stuff, man!
And always, keep racing the stars. They haven't won yet.
Edited to add: the official site is up!
[ September 01, 2006, 12:36 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
You've just had a psychotic break, haven't you? Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
"Just"?
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
You're right, rivka. Let me reword it.
You've just had another psychotic break, haven't you? Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
If someone tells me that this has gone beyond Hatrack (And of course Florida), I'm going to laugh loudly the rest of the day.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
It has, actually.
There is at least one contributor on the blog who followed a link I posted on another forum. Look closely at names, and you should even be able to figure out which forum. Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
Hmm. I'm tempted to send in a question to Ask Ausiello asking if there's any chance for Hiatus to come back.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I'd advise waiting till tomorrow to start sending out links anywhere.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
Why?
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I'll tell you tomorrow. Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by blacwolve: Hmm. I'm tempted to send in a question to Ask Ausiello asking if there's any chance for Hiatus to come back.
Oh, my. Please do. And send him the link to the blog. I'm going to send it to Kristen Veitch.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I'll do it tomorrow, I guess.
The only issue is that Ask Ausiello comes out on Wednesdays, so if I don't email him until tomorrow, it probably won't be published (if it gets published at all) until next Wednesday. Of course, I have no idea how far in advance to have to email the questions to him in order to get a response.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: I'll tell you tomorrow.
Tomorrow. As in the publication day for your weekly column? Hmmm...*wonders what Chris has up his sleeve*
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
This is totally the only kind of fanfiction I could be conned into writing.
EDIT: Hmmm................
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
*plans a Hiatus-SG1-Star Wars-Lois and Clark crossover*
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Tomorrow. As in the publication day for your weekly column? Hmmm...*wonders what Chris has up his sleeve*
I'm sure I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Have you ever wondered about that faraway look in the eyes of Calmar, the mercenary soldier? Ever wondered what in his past could have caused this battle-hardened, highly skilled warrior to have such depths of compassion and caring in his soul?
When you read my fanfic, you'll know.
*plans to win the sappy love story category*
Edit: Just remembered that I had the names mixed up, I mean jeesh, there's no way the author of a show like Hiatus would make the mistake of having all the main characters names start with the same letter.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Um, are you serious about fanfiction? Because I have a pretty idea about what this show that never was was about. And... I'm pretty much going to write a story whether you like it or not.
The show would even be called Hiatus, too. Heheheheheh.
*bounce bounce*
Can I?Can I?
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
The only constant required, in any thing you write, is that the show was called "Hiatus." Anything and everything else is entirely up to you. All I ask is that if your fanfic contains anything beyond PG-13 you host it elsewhere and I'll link to it, or I'll host it if you don't have a place.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Vompy!
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Oh, and don't be peeved if someone else's fanfic flatly contradicts yours. In fact, expect it to. Demand it!
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
Hmm, I've got a few ideas. Is there a deadline?
--Mel
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Do we have to stick with the character names or ship name you put out there in one of your utterances on the website?
I had a kind of funny idea that I'd like to try, and I don't really care if I use the same names...just wondering.
quote:The only constant required, in any thing you write, is that the show was called "Hiatus." Anything and everything else is entirely up to you.
Oh, and is it okay if we ask questions you've already answered?
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Bob, clearly that question was answered in a different universe by one of my maxiclones.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Hehehe, I've nearly finished a story. It's not really a fic, because I found it very hard not to basically write the entire idea I had, so it's essentially a section of the plot.
It's bad, because the whole idea is literally no more than six or seven hours old, which I think must be a story record for me. But I think it has a certain merit. I used some of the ideas people gave on the blog and added some of my own.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
And you have your first fanfic. I love the 100 word drabble format.
As you can tell, I'm practicing for a lucrative career in the field of trashy romance novels.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Yay!
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Oh blacwolve,that's exactly how I always pictured that scene!
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I like how it explains the mysteriously flattened ketchup pack on her back in the next scene, which we had always assumed was a costuming error.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Nice 100 word one!
I gave you 500 words. Hope that's okay. It looks rather large in the space provided. Sorry -- delete if necessary.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Er, I think I may have taken things a leetle too seriously...
Anyway, I posted a link to my Hiatus "fic" below the two that already were posted. It's, er, 1900 words long. Sorry. Enjoy!
Thanks, Chris, that was a very fun eight hours of my life!
*gets totally carried away*
Save Hiatus!
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
Teshi, that's awesome. Great world-building and character development.
--Mel
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
My goodness Teshi, that's awesome! You absolutely have to write more. Also, have you ever considered submitting your writing to a sci fi magazine? Because that's about ten times better than most of the stuff I've read in Analog.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
I banged this out over the last hour or so. I've no idea if it's worth continuing though.
quote:Sitting at dinner across from his wife, Roylan Malthus steeled himself for what he knew was going to be the most difficult part. As she spooned some pale green concoction onto their plates, Shelia started up the same boring conversation.
"How was work today? Anything exciting happen?"
"What? Oh, yeah...nothing much."
"The weather was pretty nice today. I took a hour off to just walk around."
"um hmm..."
"I ran into my friend Janice outside the third tesser. You remember Janice right? She was at that party a month of two ago. Anyway, she was..."
Roylan knew he'd need to cut in before she started in on one of her interminible stories about people he couldn't remember telling her what scandalous things people he wished he couldn't remember had done recently. He reached across and grabbed her arm. The uncharacteristic action brought her babble up short.
"Honey," he said, looking directly into her eyes, "I'm going on Hiatus."
---
By the time he made the decision, it already seemed a foregone conclusion; an unstopppable event. Looking back on it, he could see the thousands of little steps that made up his real journey to the Venture. He could even recognize the pattern he'd seen in many of the biogs of past Venture members that he'd started sneaking at work six months previous.
It started out as a semi-humorous fantasy. When their holo-projector burnt out while his work-mai was frantically preparing a presentation for the following morning, he made a comment about going to look up the Venture's flight plan. It was a common joke, but for some reason, it stuck in his mind. Within weeks, he was actually looking up the schedule, but it was a long time before he stopped pretending not to take it seriously. "If I were really going to do this," he thought, "I'd have to be ready to go in about a year."
When his application for a berth on Venture was rejected, he put the thought aside. One of the things everyone knew about the Hiatus is that it was a one-to-one exhange. For each person admitted to Venture, a current passenger would have to have elected to get off on Tau Prime. From his reading, Roylan knew that a planet of TP's population would likely have at least a dozen applicants waiting, many of whom had had their reqs in much longer than he. But knowing it was a long shot and holding the archaic denial card in his hand were two very different things. One made him feel both sort of safe and excited; the other felt like the death of hope. He resolved to withdraw his req and never mention this episode to anyone.
The pain and feelings of rejection faded quickly and he was down to a sense of vague embarrassment when, months later, he was delivered another paper card with the purple logo of the Venture in the corner but this time with 'ACCEPTED' emblazoned in red across it. It was a bare 3 days before the Venture was due to hit the Tau system.
---
Shelia insisted on coming with him to the port. She spent the trip explaining how this must have been a mistake and how she would get them to cancel it. Roylan didn't bother to argue. Ever since he had confirmed receipt and acceptance of that second card, his legal status was switched to 'HIATUS', a classification that indicated that he was no longer a citizen of any planetary or system goverment and overrode all others. Technically, he was no longer even considered human. He could be a System Senator or sentenced to death and it wouldn't matter. There was nothing that could keep him from his spot on Venture. The Directors had seen to that.
So, he let Shelia talk. If she had the spirit for something more than talk, he probably wouldn't have been leaving. Soon enough, two polite young men in beaurocratic grey ushered her back into the auto-transport as he wlked into the separate Venture facility. A quick DNA confirmation and sentience count scan (he scored a 1) later and he was standing ready on the teleporter platform. When you aren't allowed luggage and use a matter transference beam instead of a jump ship to reach the ship in orbit, travel prep takes very little time.
A countdown panel ticked off the numbers and the overweight man behind the instrument desk said "Good luck, sir." as the device engaged.
---
As with all Director tech, no one seemed to know how the teleporter worked, but Roylan had read enough biogs of ex-Ventures to know the basics. There needed to be a sentient being at both pads who basically exchanged positions in a process took about ten seconds. It was strange though. Most accounts he'd seen made a big deal about how odd it felt to have a sizable chunk of your 'port partner's recent memories bleed into your mind, but all he got was a couple of images: a flower encased in some sort of red glassine container and a smooth deep blue sphere.
---
As he expected, Roylan regained his senses in a room very much like he one he had just left. What he didn't expect was that the man waiting to greet him was either captain of the Venture or very soon going to be in a world of trouble. Roylan quickly tried to imitate the salutes he'd seen on holo war vids and snapped out a "Sir!" The captain waved him off.
"Stow that nonesense, Malthus. Venture doesn't really go in for that sort of thing." "Besides", he continued, "you're not part of the ship's complement for a full 24 standard."
"Yes, uhh...sir."
"Captain."
"Yes, captain. So, why do I rate you?"
"We'll talk about that tomorrow when you report for placing. For now, I'm here to welcome you aboard and get you oriented. You're berthing in Gold 4, room 135. To get there just..."
"Yeah, find a lift car and tell it or push Gold 4."
"Oh you're one of those. Good. So what's your status for the next 24?"
"Well, I get settled and then go get a feel of the ship. All public areas are open to me and I don't pay for anything. Tomorrow I head to Brown 1 where a member of command staff, I guessing you, will tell me what my job is."
"Got it in one. Let's see, around this time, near Gold 4, I'd recommend trying out 'Quatre Bras'. Your PET will have the directions. Have fun. You're going to be very popular tonight."
---
After seeing to his room and washing up, Roylan took the captain's advice and got his Personal Electronic Thing direct him to 'Quatre Bras'.
The basis for the story is that Roy is being brought aboard as a higher level security person. His first assignment is to solve the murder of the guy who preceded him in the position, who was mostly killed 3 days before Roy got on (which cleared up the spot for him). They put him on ice and thawed him out to swap with Roy, which is why he got very little from the mental transfer.
Also, the last guy was the third to be killed in that position. Since they've got two weeks till they hit the next system, Roy's got about that long to figure out what's going on or else he'll likely be killed too.
edit: And, yes, the bartender at Quatre Bras has four arms.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
And it confused me a bit, while it entertained.
Too much insider information. This is what I get for not watching the show. Humph!
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I'm halfway through a story. Will link to it when I'm done.
It's VERY fanfic-y. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Okay, The Last Kiss is up. That was so much fun. I drew on some of the worst fanfics I've ever read. Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
I totally had a Hiatus-related dream that might turn into a fanfic. It was strange. But cool.
-pH
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
Wow, Chris. First let me say that 500 words is really hard. I had to edit everything three times, but I managed to get it in at 498.
Second, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one obsessing over this. kara, yours makes me a little nervous, but in a good way. Bob, hilarious as always. Teshi, you put enough work in I feel embarressed. kq, that's what I'm talking bout.
I was telling a friend my idea for a film noir/action flick hybrid story. Now he's working on a film noir Hiatus fic that will look down on mine, kick sand in its face, and stomp on it. At least he's promised to link it when he's done.
And so Hiatus spreads...
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I'm working on bringing the comments over now. Short fanfic can still go in the fanfic comments, longer pieces can be sent to me at chris.bridges (at) news-jrnl.com to be posted. Please include a title and a likely rating (G, PG, PG-13, R, etc).
Still plenty to fill in on the site, but it's a start...
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
I submitted a little notion, about 500 wds., in the fanfic comments. I hope you enjoy.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I love intuitive computer systems. I hope MIT gets rid of the manual readers and gets back to work on this. I may not have been the biggest Hiatus fan (ok, maybe a little more than I admit) but I do appreciate the advancements in so many fields we enjoy as a result.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Oh, that takes me back. Way back. Not too far. Right about... up a little... there. Right there.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Although, I'm pretty sure you are just showing Vol. 1 of the addendum/corrections.
I love the human factors on the bridge computer system too.
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
I dressed as the hot dude with the fez from Hiatus for DragonCon (huge Atlanta nerd convention) last weekend and passed out Save Hiatus flyers. I feel accomplished.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
We need desktop backgrounds!
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
I'm good with playing with images, but I don't know how to make sure they're the right size for a desktop. How do you do it?
-pH
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
1024 x 768 pixels, minimum, at 72 dpi.
Photoshop and other image programs should allow you to resize to those specs.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:Originally posted by Joldo: I dressed as the hot dude with the fez from Hiatus for DragonCon (huge Atlanta nerd convention) last weekend and passed out Save Hiatus flyers. I feel accomplished.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by Joldo: I dressed as the hot dude with the fez from Hiatus for DragonCon (huge Atlanta nerd convention) last weekend and passed out Save Hiatus flyers. I feel accomplished.
How cool is that! Did you make the ornate (and enormous) bronze codpiece yourself, or did you buy it somewhere?
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
I have posted a Hiatus desktop wallpaper theme I found on my old Mac hard drive:
I'll let you know if I find any more.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
John, may I grab these wonderful bits of history for the SaveHiatus site? Crediting (or blaming) you, of course...
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
Sure, Chris.
Anything for you.
I mean... you started this. You're a GOD!
No, wait. That's too much. I can't think!
Okay... okay. Breathe.
Chris Bridges addressed me by name! OMG. And he wants to grab my bits.
Okay.
But really! We thought we were all ALONE! And now there's this awesome THING, this FAN site and EVERYTHING, that you brought into existance!
Thank you.
HIATIANS UNITE!!
Thank you.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Posted!
And please. I'm just a fan. An obsessive, obsessive fan. I put my Hiatus Underoos on one extremity at a time, just like you (presumably) do.
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
Oh sure. Just a fan. That's like calling a Rllrian 'just a scimitar-wielding phoraletic chapropod.'
And... Underoos! Okay, another foray into the archive is called for...
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
I found a slightly older wallpaper relic from the Hiatus wonderparsecs:
I was highly amused to be reminded of some of the marketing they used! I don't think some of that would "fly" today.
Come to think of it....
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
Ooh! Buried in with tax receipts from 1990-1999 (the IRS did not allow 'professional HiatusCon attendee' -- don't ask) I found a lovely newspaper clipping, now posted:
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
That was so much fun. I drew on some of the worst fanfics I've ever read. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)