Trivia and In-Jokes
About the Story:
This story involves more of the things I’ve thought up with AL and Data as I
remade my website. I actually wrote the end first in my Story Scenes document
(from where AL goes to Data’s quarters). The rest of the story was written using
the scripts from Star Trek Minutiae and the episodes themselves on Netflix and
yes I did give AL some of the existing dialogue from the episode to help with
the flow of the story. I still feel that I’m not too good at setting a story
within a story but I tried my best. That’s another thing I envy Flaming Trails
for. Is it any wonder she’s my Inspiration Fairy? Kinsellan flits are the
property of Jessica Dragontamer. The end of Chapter Three coincides with the end
of “Time’s Arrow, Part I”.
Title:
I Try to Picture Me Without You but I Can’t:
For some reason (could have been my kid watching Big Hero 6 at least two
or three times a week), “Immortals” by Fall Out Boy came to mind while thinking
of this story.
Chapter One:
Alnilam program on the holodeck:
When I was a kid I always figured that if AL wasn’t hanging out with Data she’d
be on the holodeck and that’s why the crew never used Holodeck One (because she
was in it all the time).
Jamie: Rising Fog’s nickname comes from Jamie McCrimmon, companion of the Second Doctor in Doctor Who and the first pure human AL had ever fallen in love with.
Chapter Two:
I thought Starfleet was all about truth and stuff like that:
A reference to Picard’s speech in “The First Duty” that “The first duty of every
Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it’s scientific truth or historical
truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is
based!” and so on. If this story wasn’t rated the same as an episode of TNG,
AL probably would’ve used a different word that starts with “s” instead of
“stuff” there.
your immortality was caused by an outside source: AL is immortal because her blood mixed with an immortal unicorn early in her life. This is also why she heals faster than a human.
there has been no predetermined limit placed on my existence: This line was lifted directly from the TNG episode “Silicon Avatar”.
Chapter Three:
supernumeraries:
This term is used on the scripts at Star Trek Minutiae for the extras that make
up the rest of the population of a scene.
every half hour: The same instructions the Fourth Doctor gave to Prof. Rumford in “The Stones of Blood”.
bowl of fruit: This is a reference to the bowls of fruit that seem to pepper the quarters of the people on the Enterprise (and probably get tossed around when the ship has turbulence).
Perception filter.: I figure the Doctor made a perception filter for AL’s glasses sometime after she met Erik for the first time (in my story Beyond the Stars).
Chapter
Four:
The horses
reminded her a little of Alnilam.:
Alnilam is populated by unicorns.
She remembered, once upon a time, commenting to herself on how boring the thoughts of the nineteenth century were: This happened in the aforementioned Beyond the Stars. The “jobs and housework and children” is from there, too.
wasn’t he touring Europe during this time period?: TV Tropes states under In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous that Samuel Clemens was actually touring Europe in 1893.
Judging by Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi’s expressions when we were back in the nineteenth century, those things aren’t comfortable.: During the first scene in Mrs. Carmichael’s Boarding House.
Chapter Five:
after your hearing:
The hearing conducted in “The Measure of a Man” after which AL tells Data she’s
in love with him and he tells her he already knew. Story in progress.
“I began to shut down…”: This originally foreshadowed what happens when Data really does die as written in my story Goodnight, Dear Heart. AL’s timeline has since changed so that Data no longer has to die at all.
And I don’t need you to make any extra programs like you did for Jenna: Jenna D’Sora, whom Data “dated” in the TNG episode “In Theory”. AL’s take on that relationship will eventually be its own story.
“I love you.” / “I know.”: Besides the obvious Star Wars reference, this will be a callback to when AL first told Guinan she was in love with Data (story in progress). Guinan will ask, if they were to enter into a relationship, how Data should respond if AL told him she loved him. As Data overheard this conversation, he overheard this part as well.
dream sweet dreams: Semi-foreshadowing her nightmare of Nemesis (which only exists as such in AL’s timeline), which was written in my story Alien Lisa’s Nightmare (aka the Copout).
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