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james_davis_nicollThe Starsmith Project pt1
The Starsmith Project pt2
Suddenly aliens attack, stealing vital parts for a new FTL amplifier intended to secure Earth's supremacy over lesser races! And apparently the ISA doesn't really have a lot of people to call on because once again the SET crew who gets tapped is SET Captain Jon Graydon and his buddy SET Captain Buddy Griff. One thing we learn early on is that Buddy really needs to get laid, because he's hitting on everyone he meets and speculating on people who he could hit on if it turns out they exist.
Buddy almost gets wish for a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter except what he actually gets is a Mad Emperor's Beautiful Daughter, not human (or especially human looking) and not interested in the little horndog. He doesn't seem much interested in her.
In any case, it turns out the aliens are not stealing the device because they have imperial designs but because their sun is going out and their atmosphere is losing its precious the writer made some crap up. Attempts at diplomacy fail but happily a solution falls into the characters' laps and all is well.
I got a rather Edmond Hamilton vibe off this two-parter. In particular I was reminded of his Interstellar Patrol, which also involved a general lack of any grasp of scale or basic science and which also feature alien societies faced by entropic doom. The Legion always took care to exterminate any endangered species, though, whereas the ISA cheerfully hands over the technology on which the security of Earth, attacked by rampaging aliens one episode ago, depends once they decide the new aliens are worthy of it.
I couldn't help but notice some stuff seemed to happen purely to push the plot in certain directions, like how it turns out alien shape-shifters are peculiarly vulnerable to the effects of hyperdrive but only when wearing someone else's shape.
The Starsmith Project pt2
Suddenly aliens attack, stealing vital parts for a new FTL amplifier intended to secure Earth's supremacy over lesser races! And apparently the ISA doesn't really have a lot of people to call on because once again the SET crew who gets tapped is SET Captain Jon Graydon and his buddy SET Captain Buddy Griff. One thing we learn early on is that Buddy really needs to get laid, because he's hitting on everyone he meets and speculating on people who he could hit on if it turns out they exist.
Buddy almost gets wish for a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter except what he actually gets is a Mad Emperor's Beautiful Daughter, not human (or especially human looking) and not interested in the little horndog. He doesn't seem much interested in her.
In any case, it turns out the aliens are not stealing the device because they have imperial designs but because their sun is going out and their atmosphere is losing its precious the writer made some crap up. Attempts at diplomacy fail but happily a solution falls into the characters' laps and all is well.
I got a rather Edmond Hamilton vibe off this two-parter. In particular I was reminded of his Interstellar Patrol, which also involved a general lack of any grasp of scale or basic science and which also feature alien societies faced by entropic doom. The Legion always took care to exterminate any endangered species, though, whereas the ISA cheerfully hands over the technology on which the security of Earth, attacked by rampaging aliens one episode ago, depends once they decide the new aliens are worthy of it.
I couldn't help but notice some stuff seemed to happen purely to push the plot in certain directions, like how it turns out alien shape-shifters are peculiarly vulnerable to the effects of hyperdrive but only when wearing someone else's shape.
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Date: 2012-11-25 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-25 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-25 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-26 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-03 03:29 am (UTC)--Dave, don't forget the VAT
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Date: 2012-12-03 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-03 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-27 01:42 am (UTC)TSM_in_Toronto
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Date: 2012-11-25 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-03 03:30 am (UTC)And yet, I bet, he NEVER thinks of asking his buddy Captain Jon for a hand. Or a reacharound.
Dave, they're flying in the face, so to speak, of all the traditions of the Space Navy!