Writing

Podcast Enterprise: S1E15: Shore leave

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

when this episode begins, you find that the Enterprise orbiting an uninhabited planet in the Omicron Delta region. This planet has no animal life, no insects, no birds. There’s only a lot of plant life. In a lot of ways it reminds them of the earth of old, completely pure and green and park like, and the captain decides that they’ll take their shore leave, but the captain won’t go. Everybody else is ordered to go.

When they get down there, things start going awry almost at once because McCoy finds himself thinking and talking about Alice in wonderland. And then he sees a big rabbit, followed by a little blonde girl.

Sulu, who’s very interested in shooting, finds a gun. There are tigers and Samurais, and then Kirk is tricked into going down by Spock, and when he gets down, he sees people from his academy days, a certain bully called Finnegan. He also sees another woman from his past, whom we don’t know if she’s alive, but she’s definitely not supposed to be there. McCoy is involved in a little romance with the yeoman Barrows. She finds a dress that allows her to dress and appear as a princess, and then there’s Don Juan, who attacks her, and then it goes on like this. You find all sorts of strange things happening.

This planet does not have animal or insect life. And then tigers appear. There are no people. You find all these people from the crew members past here like Finnegan, and then there’s a Ruth and all these people are not supposed to be there. And you also find fictitious characters like Alice in Wonderland and Don Juan appearing, and there’s a Black Knight.

Things go out of control. That Black Night with his lance on horseback manages to kill Dr. McCoy or kill is in quotations because nobody really dies as you find out in the ending. That’s when things start going out of control. Everybody’s frightened. And then a certain alien in a long dress appears and says that this is actually an amusement planet that scans your thoughts and recreates stuff according to what you think about.

And if you’re a little careful, things can be very nice here on this planet. The crew comes down for their shore leave and has a nice time.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E14: Balance of terror

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

In this episode, when it opens, you have Captain Kirk, he’s officiating a wedding aboard the Enterprise between Angela Martin and Robert Tomlinson, who are both crew members of the Enterprise.

And while he’s officiating this wedding, there’s a red alert. Earth outpost four is under attack and everyone has to report to battle stations and the Enterprise is on alert. Earth outpost four is actually one of a series of outposts that border something called the Romulan neutral zone. This is an area that separates the earth from alien races, they’re actually called the Romulans. And a long time ago, there was a war between the humans and the Romulans and they device this neutral zone, so that there’s no further fighting.

However, it does seem that some Romulans have crossed the neutral zone into the earth side, and they’re destroying these Earth outposts one by one. Finally, the Enterprise is able to contact one person from Earth outpost four, who tells him that they’re being decimated by this strange ship that has fantastic power, as he says, it attacks them. While he’s talking, the ship makes an appearance, it destroys the earth outpost and it disappears. And so investigations reveal that this actually is a Romulan ship.

They have developed beyond anything that earth has imagined, and they have a practical invisibility shield. Kirk has to take certain decisions regarding this because the Romulans have crossed the neutral zone, which constitutes an act of war.

Kirk must decide whether he actually wants that war or, whether he should keep things peaceful and he decides to trail that ship. He realizes that the commander of that Romulan ship is probably very similar to him. And then there’s a battle of wits things go this way and that they would fly into comets. they try to outwit each other and eventually they get the Romulan ship. And that is the first time that Captain Kirk actually meets the commander of the Romulan ship. And then there’s a very poignant moment there.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E13: The conscience of the king

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Welcome to our discussion of the conscience of the king today.

Oh, I thought it was Shakespeare in love. Okay.

All right, so let’s have it. The summary of conscience of the king.

The plot of this episode is actually pretty straightforward and rather short given the time this episode takes, however, to put it very briefly, the USS Enterprise, when this episode begins, it is diverted off its regular course, and it finds itself on its way to Planet Q. They are lured by word of some synthetic food items. However, when they get. They get in touch with Dr. Thomas Layton and confesses that he brought Kirk there because he has suspicions about a traveling Shakespearean troop. And here the leader of that troop, he believes is a mass murderer by the name of Kodos, the Executioner.

His current name is Anton Karidian, and this is all a very mysterious setup that this episode brings in. And Kirk finds himself drawn to Lenore, who’s the daughter of this Karidian. And there’s a lot of dramatics in this episode. There’s a lot of Shakespeare. And as things go by, you don’t really know whether this Karidian is Kodos, the Executioner who is responsible for executing half the population of earth colony Tarsus four. And that is about 4,000 people out of 8,000 and only a few people survived. And as this episode goes on, you don’t really know, like I said, whether he’s responsible for this or whether he’s putting up a facade, however, Lenore, she’s another thing altogether. She has been covering up her father’s past and Kirk discovers this and eventually Lenore loses her mind. And that’s how the episode ends.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E19 Tomorrow is Yesterday

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Welcome to the podcast and today’s discussion of tomorrow is yesterday.

Wow. Very confusing title. And tomorrow is yesterday. Yesterday is day after . Okay. Alright. So what do we have as a summary?

So here what we have is the Enterprise on the way to Star Base nine, pulled into the gravitational field of a black star, and then something happens.

They somehow use all their engine power to break away from that gravitational pull and they are cast back in time. And because they were going in the general direction of Earth, the Enterprise enters the Earth’s atmosphere. And they find themselves in 1969 and their craft is registered as a U F O on the air base radar.

And a fighter jet is sent up there to investigate what the Enterprise is because it is a U F O technically, and they’re back in time. So in short, what happens is that the Enterprise is forced to take aboard, one character from the past. A certain Captain John Christopher. A lot of things happen this way and that they’re afraid of breaking time because if anything happens to John Christopher and apparently his son is going to be someone of importance.

The future will also be changed, and all of these characters aboard the Enterprise will seize to exist. So there’s a lot of confusion about they’re stuck with the passenger they don’t want, in Kirk’s words. And they have to figure out how to get back to the future while keeping the past intact and the past has already been tampered with because this guy is aboard the Enterprise and with a little bit of help from Spock, they discovered that they can actually keep the past the way it is.

They have to go back to the air base. They have to destroy the records of this U F O that the 1969 airbase has kept, they have to get those records. They have to come back to the Enterprise, and then they have to go to the sun.

They have to make use of the sun’s gravitational pull, initiate a slingshot effect, go back into the future. Teleport Christopher back to a point slightly behind in time. It’s a pretty elaborate plot that way. And what happens is that they come back to their own time and the past and the future is intact.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E11: Corbomite Maneuver

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

We find the Enterprise being stopped by a strange cubical glowing object. It is actually Spock in command because Kirk is in the medical bay, undergoing routine physical test. The cube that is blocking the Enterprise is just not getting out of the way.

It turns dangerous. Kirk has to come back to the bridge. They try the evasive maneuvers don’t work. The deflectors are ineffective and they cannot get rid of the cube. They can’t outrun the cube, even though the Enterprise tries to reverse and get out of the cube’s way, the cube follows them.

And then there’s radiation. And finally Kirk orders the phasors to be fired. Then the cube is destroyed completely. However, brings with it major issue because this huge spherical golden, glowing ship appears on the horizon and it stops the Enterprise again. The inhabitant of that ship, you only hear one voice throughout, so you don’t know how many people are there in that ship in the beginning. This ship is called the Fesarius and the captain of the Fesarius threatens the Enterprise with complete and utter annihilation in 10 minutes for destroying that cube, which is apparently some sort of buoy, a warning which prevents ships from crossing that point.

The Enterprise had no idea about that. However, they have 10 minutes to try and talk themselves out of this one. They cannot fight the Fesarius. It’s too big, advanced for the Enterprise to do anything and Balok the commander of the Fesarius is completely unreasonable. They’re running out of time and Kirk, as there’s only a few minutes remaining decides to try and bluff his way out of this one.

He tells Balok that the Enterprise has a powerful device that will detonate if anybody tries to destroy the Enterprise, it’ll destroy the Enterprise and the attacker. The bluff works. However, Balok then decides to send a pilot ship to ferry The Enterprise to another planet.

And somehow or the other risking complete engine explosion, the Enterprise breaks free causing problems for the pilot ship. And then they finally get to meet Balok and he’s completely, and utterly unpredictable.

It’s totally surprising.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

How to write a novel-Step-3-Support Characters

So, you want to write a novel?

In this series, I’ll detail out my process of writing a novel. This is the story of How I converted a simple idea into 70,000 (Scrabble Queen) and 80,000 (Penniless) word manuscripts.

I will use my latest writing project Bhumiyin Kathai (Bhumi’s story) as an example, so that it can serve as an inspiration for you. (Totally selfish reasons, while trying to explain stuff to you, I am getting the motivation to complete outlining the story 😁)

I am writing this story (eventually as a screenplay) to serve as a backdrop and an interest creator for this course - https://study.iitm.ac.in/ds/course_pages/BSCMS3001.html

Right, back to novel writing.

You’ve written the one line story, then wrote your main story arc. Now what?

Step 3

List down support characters

For Bhumiyin Kathai:

1. Bhumi - main character
2. Okano Nakazo - Main support character (maybe romantic interest)
3. Vaani - Bhumi’s sister
4. Kathir - Bhumi’s brother
5. Kalai - Bhumi’s youngest sister
6. Palanisamy - Bhumi’s dad (antagonist 1)
7. Param - Bhumi’s classmate (antagonist 2)

What do you do with each of these characters?

You will have to make them 3 dimensional. How?

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E10: Dagger in the mind

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When this episode opens you find that the USS Enterprise is doing a cargo drop to the Tantalus - penal colony on the planet, Tantalus - V.

So they beam down certain supplies to them. And while they’re doing so, a certain fugitive comes aboard the Enterprise. And this fugitive, from at first glance you get the impression that he’s a little crazy or a little insane. He’s not quite there. He seems very violent. And he’s also very cunning.

While this fugitive is aboard the Enterprise, you come to know that the Tantalus penal colony is run by this rather legendary doctor Tristan Adams. He takes these inmates in and he manages to reform them with spectacular results. And everybody is in awe of him. Even Captain Kirk is in awe of him. He’s quite legendary. He’s got this huge set of accomplishments.

And while people are talking about him and this colony, however, they capture this fugitive and they find that his name is Simon van Gelder. And apparently he is an assistant to Dr. Tristan Adams. And it appears that something is not quite right because Simon van Gelder wants to say something. He’s not able to say something. Sometimes, he’s coherent. Sometimes, he isn’t and Dr. McCoy feels that there is something to his insanity and he has to be kept sedated.

And as time goes by Captain Kirk and a certain psychiatrist from the Enterprise with whom he has some sort of history, Dr. Helen Noel. They beam down to Tantalus five and there they find that Tristan Adams has developed something called a Neural Neutralizer and the inmates or the inhabitants of this world, they’re strangely lifeless and almost zombie-like.

And eventually it comes to pass that the neural neutralizer is being used to erase their memories, erase their thought processes and then implant new ideas into their head.

And then Kirk discovers this. He becomes a prisoner of the crazed Dr. Tristan Adams, and then he has to fight his way out of there.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E09: Miri

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

In this episode, we find the Enterprise responding to an earth like SOS coming in from deep space. And when they follow that signal, they find the planet that is an exact copy of the earth. At least it looks exactly like the earth. The topography is the same, same mass, same circumference.

Everything is the same. That puzzles them, and so Captain Kirk and a small crew decide to go down onto this planet and they find that it is virtually deserted. The architecture seems archaic. There are no people and they come across this strange tricycle there. And when they try to interact with it, they’re attacked by a peculiar and deformed creature that seems to be off its head. It’s mad. It’s crazy. It’s screaming and it goes into seizures and it dies. So further investigation also reveals a little girl and that girl’s name’s Miri. She leads him to a lab. She tells him about the planet. And apparently what happened here is that a pandemic has run rampant.

It has killed all the adults. And at the same time, it has kept the children alive for more than 300 years. This pandemic, because it affects the adults, it makes its way to Kirk and the crew. All of them find themselves with strange scabs and purple splotches on their skin. They have to develop a vaccine in a hurry.

And while they’re doing this, the rest of the children on this world, in this area at least decide to attack the crew, take away their communicators because these children have the memory of the adults going berserk. After that eventually, it comes down that they must have a confrontation with these children.

They must talk to them, tell them about this disease, how it spreads. They’re allowed to leave this planet with the team, looking after the children who I assume they are vaccinated so that they don’t catch the disease.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E12: Menagerie

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

The menagerie is actually a story split into two parts. So this particular story has two episodes, but the story is quite simple. Basically what you have here is when the episode opens the USS Enterprise arrives at Star Base 11, because they received a message that Kirk says is from Captain Pike.

In charge of the base is commander Commodore Jose Mendez tells Captain Kirk, that it’s not possible for Captain Pike to have sent such a message because Captain Pike, as the crew discovers is in very, very bad shape. He cannot move. He’s basically paralyzed and he’s encased in this strange contraption type wheelchair.

He cannot speak. He can barely see, and he cannot say anything without press his thought ways translate into either yes or no, that shows up as flashlights on the wheelchair type thing. And that’s about all he can do. So there is no way that he could have sent this message.

This is where these two episodes begin, and there’s a mystery here, but as we move along, we find that it was Spock sending this message and it was Spock manipulating the Enterprise’s orders. It is Spock who goes on to reprogram and reconfigure the ship’s computers, so that it goes into autopilot that nobody can come out of.

The reason for this is he served under Captain Pike 13 years ago. He wants something for Captain Pike that he will only get on Talus IV. This is the planet that was featured in the pilot. And he basically, what he does is mutiny.

There’s a court martial. They are given this video, which basically replays all the scenes from the pilot episode of Star Trek, the original series. And as the court martial progresses, you find the Talosians making a reappearance. They’re a bit, more benevolent this time than we saw on the pilot and they agreed to take in Captain Pike and there’s a lot of illusions, there are fake messages coming in and it’s a really long draw out story this way. Eventually everything comes together and Captain Pike is allowed to disembark on Talus IV, in spite of there being a death warrant for anyone who enters that star cluster. That’s what it is. I think because this is a two part episode, we can talk about it in detail and elaborate what the stories about.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E08: What are little girls made of

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

What are little girls made of, when the episode opens, you find that the USS Enterprise is nearing a planet called XO three, and they’re looking for a certain Dr. Roger Korby. He’s a prominent scientist who’s left large legacy of work, and he has been missing for the past five years.

He’s also the fiance of nurse Christine Chapel of the Enterprise. When the Enterprise establishes contact with this planet, they find that Roger Korby is alive and he learns that Nurse Chapel is on board the Enterprise and he wants her to go down to the planet along with Captain Kirk.

This planet is a very strange place because it’s cold, it’s icy, and there are the remnants of this ancient civilization underground. And so when Kirk and Nurse Chapel arrive there, they find themselves underground and very quickly things go wrong. They meet an old acquaintance of Korby, who is acting very strange.

They lose security guards to chasms and a strange Frankensteinian monster type creature. They also find a new character called Andrea, who’s extremely attractive. Nurse Chapel starts feeling a bit of jealousy towards her. Eventually it is revealed that these are the only inhabitants of this planet.

There are only three of them, still alive, apparently. As time goes on you find that Korby is obsessed. He’s maniacal, he’s a little bit crazy. He’s in a search for perfection and there are a lot of Androids involved.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading