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hummingbird-of-light · 8 months

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In Our Favor

Part 43

McCoy

Morning classes passed quickly. McCoy had kept a smile to himself during class when he had pushed his knee against Scotty’s. He had seen his husband look over at him from the corner of his eye, but kept on looking at the instructor.

McCoy watched Scotty walk away for a long moment before he made his way to his own next class. A pang of worry settled into his chest. What would happen the next time Scotty had a self defense class? Would he be alright? Had it just happened because of Francis and the nerves of being chosen first? McCoy set his jaw firmly and headed for class. He would see Scotty again soon enough at lunch.

Everyone had been glad at breakfast to see Spock and Jim again. Jim had beamed at all of them, while Spock had done his best to act like his normal self. But McCoy had seen something in the Vulcan’s face. Something no one who didn’t know him well would see. A conflict still happening deep within the Vulcan. McCoy hoped Spock would settle his feelings on what had passed and that everything would remain alright between him and Jim.

Lunch was lively with a loud argument between Chekov and Jaylah. Neither was mad at the other, only trying to convince the other how they were wrong.

“Ye’ve been having this battle for years,” Scotty laughed at them. “Can’t ye find an end yet?”

“No!” both turned to Scotty and cried. Scotty looked at Keenser for help, the small alien shook his head. “Jim?” Scotty appealed.

“No way!” Jim laughed. “It gets more entertaining every time.”

Scotty let out a huff. “Oh fine!” he muttered.

“Don’t worry darlin’,” McCoy grinned. “Someday they’ll be married and having the same argument.”

“What!?” “No!” Chekov and Jaylah looked over at McCoy in surprise. The others laughed.

“I wouldn’t marry Pavel,” Jaylah protested.

“What’s wrong with me?” Chekov demanded, staring at Jaylah.

“Ha!” Jaylah said.

“Hey!” Chekov began to turn red. “Well I wouldn’t marry you!”

“Because I am out of your league!” Jaylah stuck her tongue out at Chekov.

“There ya go leannan,” McCoy whispered to Scotty. “Now they have a new argument.”

“Mad man,” Scotty murmured back at him with a smile.

“Leonard,” Cora called behind McCoy as he walked to his afternoon classes. He stopped and turned.

“Hey,” he greeted her.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to you,” she said as she caught up. “I spent some time with Declan over the weekend.”

“Oh?” McCoy asked as they began to walk together.

Cora nodded. “I asked him about the admiral for you. Of course I didn’t say it was for you,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mention you except to say we had become friends.”

McCoy nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“Anyway,” she said, leaning closer and lowering her voice, “Declan said the admiral doesn’t have as much pull or say as he thinks he does. However, Declan did say to still be wary. You never know what secret or favor someone may have up their sleeve.”

“Or what pain in the ass nephew,” McCoy sighed.

“Yes,” Cora agreed. “Francis might not be able to get you in trouble with his uncle, but he could cause problems for you with other officers.”

“Which could be just as bad or worse,” McCoy said through gritted teeth.

“When I said we were friends, Declan said he didn’t know if he had been jealous of you for what you said to the admiral or scared for you for saying it. I think I’m jealous I didn’t get to see it,” Cora grinned.

“Our old headmaster felt the same,” McCoy laughed. “He was more glad it was me and not Jim.”

“Well maybe I’ll get to see the next time you take some self important person down a peg.”

“I don’t think there’ll be a next time,” McCoy replied. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He knew how upset it would make Scotty and how much he would worry if McCoy ran his mouth off at another officer. And he had promised Pike he would be more careful.

“Hopefully,” Cora agreed. “Anyway, I should get to class. I just wanted to let you know.”

“Thanks Cora, I appreciate it. See ya later.” He waved as she walked off.

Part 44

Scotty

After lunch, Scotty had classes with Keenser, Jaylah and Chekov. The curly haired boy and the alien girl just couldn't stop arguing, but Scotty really hoped that at least in class they would behave themselves.

When the instructor asked the cadets to form teams of two, Scotty looked across the room at Aporal. The Andorian boy once again sat all by himself in a corner.

Scotty was just about to stand up and walk over to him, but he was stopped by Jaylah who grabbed his arm and pulled him close.

"Well, I'll take Montgomery Scotty as my partner," she claimed, grimacing at Chekov who had apparently wanted to ask the Scotsman first. However, he didn't let it on. Instead he quickly wrapped his arm around Keenser's shoulder.

"Ha! Keens and I will be way better and faster than the two of you! In fact, we'll be the fastest of all!"

Keenser only grunted, obviously not too happy about being pulled into this whole thing and Scotty shrugged helplessly. They didn't stand a chance against their impulsive friends.

So eventually, they just gave up and started to work on the project assigned to them. Maybe that would settle the argument once and for all.

Neither of the teams managed to finish the task first and when they left the classroom, Jaylah and Chekov were still lost in their wee disagreement.

Scotty ignored them and instead searched the leaving crowd for a familar pair of blue feelers. He found them quite quickly and hurried to follow the Andorian they belonged to.

"Aporal, hey, wait up, laddie!"

The called out student turned around at hearing the familar brogue and a smile crossed his face as he saw Scotty.

"Hey there, Scottish boy, feeling better today?"

Scotty returned the smile with a nod.

"Aye, I am. Uhm, so... I don't think I thanked ye properly for what ye did yesterday. It meant a lot to me, ye know? So... thank ye very much."

Aporal only shrugged his shoulders.

"No big deal. I only did the right thing."

He went to go again, but Scotty held him back by grabbing his wrist.

"Wait, I... there's something else I wanted to ask ye."

Aporal raised a questioning eyebrow at that.

"Uhm... would ye maybe like to join me and my friends during meals?"

Scotty didn't know what to feel when he saw a frown cross his counterpart's face. Was it a good or a bad thing? He couldn't really tell.

"That's... a nice offer, Scottish boy. But I honestly doubt that the rest of your friends would want me around."

"Nae, nae. That's not true. I'm sure they'd enjoy yer company," Scotty protested, but Aporal just chuckled.

"Well, I'm quite certain that everyone enjoys my brilliant company sooner or later, but I think I'll pass. Thanks though, Scottish boy."

With a wink and one last wave of his hand, Aporal walked off, leaving behind a very frustrated Scotty.

What was it with that lad? One moment he was the friendliest guy ever and the next, he was the same stuck-up bastard as always!

With a shake of his head, Scotty headed off to his next class. One day he'd find out what was wrong with Aporal. The reason why he was such an outsider. The reason why he didn't want to befriend anyone.

#star trek #montgomery scott #leonard mccoy #scones #au #in our favor

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whovianwatchingstartrek · 1 year

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A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 034 - Epidemic on Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 2 Episode 9 - Singularity

The episode starts with the Enterprise in a rather grim way. Once again, everyone is unconscious bar one member of the crew. This time, T'Pol, who's giving a rather foreboding monologue about how it's unlikely anyone will survive. The episode then uses this as a framing device while the rest of the story is told in Flashback. Which is nice, I love when stories have framing stories around them.

In the flashback, everything seems business as usual, except shock and horror: Chef is sick! And it seems to be spreading quickly, Mayweather and Archer are already reporting symptoms.

I like seeing everyone just going about their normal work. Malcolm doing security planning, Trip designing a new Chair for the Captain was great. But then everyone start turning into irritable hyperfocussing perfectionists.

A disease that makes people become obsessive perfectionists with their work is an interesting concept. It gives you a subtle way of telling who's infected by the radiation once you've figured out that's what's happening, but it isn't so obvious as something like a cough, and just as you figure out what's going on everything starts to break down.

Phlox is once again the highlight of the episode. The disease turning him from our normal happy doctor into this near psychopathic dissection happy mad scientist was amazing.

As someone who has a tendency to become a bit hyperfocussy, this episode was definitely relatable. If I had one complaint, I guess it would be that the crew going from agitated to going unconscious happens too suddenly, but I understand the episode has a time limit. Also it does feel like Mayweather is being shafted again. The solution to the episode is skilled piloting, which would have been great to finally give Travis a stand out scene, but he gets written out of the episode very early on.

Those two issues aside, loved this episode. A lot of care was put into showing the different ways the different characters get irritable, and I just had a lot of fun watching it.

It's also kinda strange that Starfleet chair aren't height adjustable by default, and the chief engineer was needed to do that, but that's neither here not there.

Comparing my Enjoyment of this Episode with a Doctor Who Universe Story of the Same Title

Doctor Who - Big Finish Monthly Range #76 - Singularity

Right, another Doctor Who audio drama. This time, one actually featuring the Doctor. Specifically the Fifth Doctor and Vislor Turlough, which is one of the more interesting Doctor Companion dynamics, especially in the audio stuff. This duos more tense relationship is always great. Turlough has always been an underrated companion in my opinion, I love how throughout his run he grows from the self-serving bastard he starts out as into a more well-rounded person. Not a lot 80's Who companions got solid character growth like that.

But, onto singularity itself: The TARDIS lands in "a zone of space time with inerrant causal discontinuities", that is to say someone has been messing time. Specifically, Moscow in an undefined year in the near-future. To keep the plot summary short and spoilers to a minimum: a group called the Somnus Foundation from the far future are working on a top secret project which is accidentally shattering time.

There's a lot of good stuff in Doctor Who's singularity, the Doctor and Turlough slowly unravelling the conspiracy around the Somnus Institute over the runtime of the story is great, and the incidental characters in this one are definitely Highlights, especially Lena and Pavell. The Somnus Foundation are also really good villains.

The story is a bit darker than I typically like the Fifth Doctor to be, his personality is more suited to more light hearted scripts, but in this one it definitely doesn't detract from this particular Story. This story also does a bit of dissection of that 5 and Turlough dynamic that I mentioned earlier, and it is really well done. I would recommend this one, even if you're not familiar with 5 or Turlough. Audio drama can be a difficult media to get into, but the story is top quality and like most early Big Finish content, it is very standalone.

Choosing which Singularity I enjoyed more is a difficult choice. They were both incredibly good this time and scratch very different itches. Doctor Who Singularity was a really nice piece of Character drama, and I would say it's the better written piece. That said I think I would be more likely to revisit Enterprise's Singularity. The Star Trek episode was a fun, lower stakes adventure that had fun with it's pre-established characters.

#whovian watching star trek #star trek #star trek enterprise #star trek ent #star trek: enterprise #enterprise #ent

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natromanxoff · 3 years

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Mercury Roadrunner's Interview about Freddie Mercury with Peter Freestone – Part II

Thanks very much to Mercury Roadrunner (Pavel Strashnyy) for letting me share his amazing interviews! Originally shared here.

Check the tag "MR interview with Phoebe" to see the other parts. Here are the 3 main topics of this interview, beginning of each topic is written in bold:

1. Language skills

2. Music videos, Garden Lodge

3. Celebrity friends, leg damage story, Joe Fanelli, relationship between band members, Freddie's last days

PS: So here is our second part and the first topic is about Freddie’s language skills:

Did he actually know only the English language or did he also know the Gujarati language or any other languages?

PF: When his parents were in Garden Lodge or if he called his mother on the telephone, he only spoke English. I suppose, he must have understood Gujarati, because, okay, in the school he was taught English, but before the school, when he was in Zanzibar and he would have been with is parents, so I would have thought they would have been speaking in Gujarati.

He had about twenty words of German after living in Munich for so many years. He couldn’t speak German, but I think he understood the language, if he was paying attention, because most of the people around him were talking English, so he never really had the need to learn German. Although, saying that, one of his partners, Winnie, was German and did not speak a lot of English, but then he had Barbara to do the translating.

PS: The second topic is about a very special song “Mad The Swine”, which was recorded in 1972, but was released only in 1991 as a B side of “Headlong” single. Why, after so many years, Freddie decided to come back to it and release it?

PF: Freddie knew that “Innuendo” was going to be his last complete album and I think that this song had a special place in his heart, there were something about it, and as far as he was concerned, it never got an airing he felt it deserved and the rest of the band was happy to put it on.

PS: I mentioned the “Headlong” song and you can be seen in some archival footage of making of the “Headlong” video, you help to lay the Queen members on the shelves. What are your memories about that day?

PF: I was just there to help them. When they are making a video, they don’t need someone to take care of costumes, because there is a costume person, there is a makeup person, everybody is there to do something. And so I was there for Freddie, looking after him, and it just seemed natural to help out. And the band would feel more comfortable if that was someone that they know who would help to put them on the shelves rather than some technician turning up and trying to do it. And this moment with selves wasn’t’ planned. That wasn’t in the storyboard, it’s just that they saw it, there were four shelves so they just thought “Well, why not? Let’s do something crazy”. And the idea must have come from the band member, because Rudi would have seen all the possibilities when he was checking out where they were going to be doing the filming, and if he had thought of using the shelves, that would be one of the ideas put in the beginning.

PS: There are also some parts where we can see you in “The Great Pretender Extended Version” video - can you remember anything about it?

PF: It was just a big long laugh. There is not one part of the making of the actual scenes that they are not laughing and smiling. Roger, Peter and Freddie – they just clicked, it all worked. Nobody had to be bigger than the next one, nobody had to take the spotlight, and they just were there, having a good time.

PS: What is your personal favourite memory from that day?

PF: Personally, for me it is watching the recording of the six girls –you know, both of the backing group were girls, they were wearing two different outfits – and watching the recordings, when they were recording the one group of three and then the other group of three, the costumes they got in to and what they did – you couldn’t help but feel really-really happy. They were actually standing on the same platform when they were recorded. And then, of course, they used computer graphics to put two different groups on the screen at the same time. Just watching three of them there on the platform, waving their hands goodbye, it brings back the memories of those groups of backing singers in the sixties.

PS: What are your memories of making of the “Breakthru” video?

PF: I remember that it was probably the hottest night of the year, no sleep, because it was just so hot and humid. They had a huge problem with the opening scene, and they shot that last in fact. But they had a huge problem because when the engine went into the tunnel it caused air pressure so that that polystyrene wall burst out a long time before the engine arrived. So they tried it earlier on and that’s when they found that that’s what happened, and then they had to do playing around with it during the day, there was people doing that while the rest of the filming was going on, and then they had to sort of re-do it and it was the last shot. And the engine was actually already in the tunnel before it started getting up a bit of speed. And it wasn’t going as fast as people think it does, so that it looked right. It was a fun day. Only the band and the actual film crew were allowed on the flatbed, where the band were performing, because of the way it was being filmed, you could easily be in shot, so the less people that were there – the better. John was having a ball, I remember him laughing a lot, he was enjoying himself. And there was a normal carriage, like a dining car, but old, 1930-1940s, and that was where we would have food and drink. And it was wonderful. It’s a working old train line, it’s a tourist thing, but it’s great, it’s really-really nice and it’s not that far away from London. And Freddie was enjoying the shooting. I was surprised when I saw what he was doing on that flatbed, he was leaning over the edge as the train was going along, but again, it looks faster than it was. It really was only going at about 25-30 kilometers an hour. But it’s made to look as though they are speeding along.

PS: And what was the very first Queen video you were presented on?

PF: The very first video that I was involved with was “Save Me”, because it was shot during two shows of the “Crazy Tour”, I think it was at “The Rainbow” and it was shot at “Alexandra Palace”. Because it was the mix of the live action, the cartoon girl, the bird – and that was the hardest thing – to get Freddie to almost catch the bird, the pigeon. They had to re-film it for about 15 times. And it was where David Mallet, the director, fell of the stage into the orchestra pit. Everybody panicked for a few minutes, but then he stuck his head up “Oh, I’m alright”. It was about 2-3 meters he felled. And then followed all the post-production with the girl, with the cartoon, and how they blended the live pigeon to become the cartoon one and all that sort of work – all of it was done afterwards and it was done before Christmas 1979.

PS: And what was the very last Queen video you were presented on?

PF: “I’m Going Slightly Mad” video. I remember the penguin on the couch moment. Actually most of all I remember the way Diana was with Freddie, because she just took such a good care of him, she had special thermal underwear made for Freddie, because right from my meeting with Freddie in 1979 I remember the easiest thing for Freddie was to feel cold. And it only got worse the more sick he got. And she had special thermal underwear made for him that went underneath the shirt and the suit. She just was there for him all the time and it was just wonderful to see.

PS: And did Freddie usually have cold hands or he had normal temperature of hands?

PF: He could have normal warm hands, but often they would be cold. So maybe he could have a blood circulation problem.

PS: Can you remember something about the shooting of “I Want It All” video?

PF: I don’t think I was at that one, because that would have been Joe, Joe Fanelli would have been there, because we sort of took in turns – he would go to one, I would not, I’ll do all the stuff at home, then I would go to one and he would stay at home.

PS: And it was also the same for you take the turns in concerts?

PF: No, I was on tours with Freddie from 1979 till 1985 and then Joe took over from the last part of 1985 and 1986.

PS: And why you stopped going on tours and Joe took that part?

PF: Because Garden Lodge had been completed and to keep the insurance cover someone had to be living there, so I got to live there. I moved in six months before Freddie did. And Freddie moved in in the middle-end 1985. Because what we did was – Freddie was at Mary’s home and Terry and I took Oscar and Tiffany away from Stafford Terrace. Because Freddie was supposed to move in and he kept putting it off again and again, he said “I’ll do it tomorrow”, “I’ll do it at the weekend”, there was always a reason, an excuse, so what Terry and I did – we went and kidnapped Oscar and Tiffany and took them to Garden Lodge. And then, when Freddie went home and he was looking for the cats, Terry said: “No, they are not here, they are at your other home” – and Freddie moved within two days.

PS: And what was it like living with Freddie in Garden Lodge? What are your first memories of start of living there?

PF: At that point I was living above the kitchen. Joe and I had rooms that were above the kitchen, just up those stairs. And it just felt strange just to be living in that house. The thing is, I’ve been living with Freddie for years, because whenever we were in hotels it was always a two bedroom suit, so I knew how he was, what he would do, what he needed in the morning, how the moods could change, that was all standard, that was all normal. The difference was being in the luxury of Garden Lodge, knowing that it was a house, not the hotel, and the fact that he had made us promise, both Joe and myself, that we would treat this place as our home. It wasn’t just work and somewhere to stay because of work – it was our home.

Some houses have energy, they have a feeling, and while Freddie was in Garden Lodge it was a really warm, friendly house.

PS: And the atmosphere in the house changed almost at the moment Freddie passed away, right?

PF: Literally. For me, while he was still alive, even in those last minutes, it was still the same house, but literally within minutes, while we were waiting for the doctor, it just became bricks and mortar, it just became somewhere to sleep, somewhere to live.

PS: You mentioned living together with Freddie in hotels, but do you remember living with Freddie in some flats or houses before Garden Lodge?

PF: We were living in his apartment in New York. The way it was set up there were two bedrooms, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, a maid’s room and a sort of TV room.

And later we lived together for six months in Los Angeles. Recording “The Works”. They rented the big house for Freddie. A nice house, big-big house. It belonged to a doctor, who just constantly rented it out to stars, who needed somewhere to stay while they were filming. Elizabeth Taylor apparently stayed there, George Hamilton was there, lots of different film stars used it. It was a big house in nice big gardens, it had a swimming pool, had a tennis court, you know, it all the things you need.

PS: And it was actually two of you living there together?

PF: Yeah, Freddie and me. And Terry was there too, to drive.

PS: And speaking of Freddie’s New York Times, can you actually remember what was his the most favourite part of the city?

PF: Most evenings he would end up down on Christopher street, which is down near Greenwich Village. Because there were bars around there, clubs around there, restaurants around there, everything was there in that area, in the West Village.

PS: Our next topic is about Freddie Mercury and George Michael; we can see them together at “Barcelona” album launch party and Queen 20th anniversary party – do you remember the interaction between them?

PF: They actually met up at Live Aid, after it finished. We had to stay in the bar, because there were absolutely no way any cars were going to get out of the stadium area, because of the traffic and everything. And that was the very first time that they actually met. Freddie admired him, he thought George had a great talent both in writing and in singing, but there was no special friendship, because Freddie didn’t create big friendships with other musicians. He preferred, so to say, normal people. And also he enjoyed actors and actresses, their company, more than other musicians, because the way he felt, most musicians just wanted to talk about music and he had many more interests. So, yes, if Freddie and George were in the same place, then yes, they would meet up and they would chat about what was going on in their lives, but most of it was always about work. Their conversations would always be like “what was the tour like” and they would laugh, because they would make jokes about what they had been doing. Freddie could make a joke out of any situation. He didn’t tell anecdotes as such, but he could see something and he could make a joke out of it.

PS: As you mentioned Freddie having friends among actors and actresses, could you remember some of them?

PF: Anita Dobson, Debby Bishop, Carol Wood, Pam Ferris, Susannah York. One he would like to have met and she lived literally just across the road, but it never came, was Diana Rigg. And he was incredibly happy when I gave him an autograph from Honor Blackman. I met her and I said “Could I have an autograph, please”, she says “yes, of course, who’s it for?” and I said “it’s just for my friend, Freddie”. And he was overjoyed with it and he kept it in his bedside drawer.

PS: And who was his favourite actors?

PF: Franco Nero, James Mason, Laurence Olivier. And he got to meet him, so that was another of Freddie’s absolute joys. Dave Clark took Freddie to dinner at Laurence Olivier’s house. It was when they were working on “The Time” musical.

PS: And it was actually very last Freddie’s live performance, can you remember something special about it?

PF: Yes, April 1988. I just thought how amazing it sounded. We all heard “In my defence” before, but when he did “it’s in every one of us” as a duet with Cliff that was absolutely amazing. We had goose bumps. And then after the performance we went to Cliff Richard’s dressing room, sitting and talking there.

PS: And you said that Freddie didn’t have many friends amongst musicians, but could you remember something special about Freddie and Elton John’s friendship?

PF: They first met back in 74/75, when Queen were managed by John Reid and in those days both of them were constantly touring so they could rarely meet up. But every now and then Queen would have just done the show and Elton would be performing the next day, so he was already in the hotel and we would meet up and go round, sitting in Elton’s room talking. And then for about a couple of years after Freddie’s diagnosis they didn’t see each other, but then Freddie told Elton about his status and for the last year and a half Elton would regularly come to Garden Lodge. And in Freddie’s last two weeks Elton would ring us, say what time he would arrive, so that he wouldn’t be seen arriving, he wouldn’t come through the front door, and we would let him in through the Mews in his mini, so nobody knew he was there. He had to go to Paris to record, so he gave me all of the numbers: hotel number, the studio number, his mobile number, his assistance’s mobile number, all the numbers, just to let him know when it happen, because he knew it was going to happen. And at the very last time he came to Garden Lodge, he drove in one of his Bentleys and parked it right outside the front door and the press were running over to him asking “why are you here?” and Elton just turned around and said “I’ve come to see my friend”. And that was it, he just came in and they sat and talked. And when Elton came, it was really just Freddie and him in the room, just talking.

PS: And what was the story about Freddie getting his leg damaged in Munich?

PF: Freddie, when he had a few drinks, he would pick people up, just lift them off the floor, to show how strong he was. So Freddie had picked someone up and then someone next to him bumped into his knee and the ligaments tore, because instead of the way it was supposed to bend the knee bend the other way. Freddie then dropped the person he was carrying, he was screaming in pain and we had to go and get it set. When Queen filmed “It’s A Hard Life” in the end of the video, you can see him favouring the leg.

PS: And as you mention “It’s A Hard Life” video, Freddie’s friend Barbara Valentin stars in this video and she was a star in films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder – did Freddie ever discuss his films with her?

PF: Yeah, because she had videos of them. Freddie did meet Fassbinder once. They were in the “Deutsche Eiche”, which was Fassbinder’s favourite restaurant, he was always in it in Munich. And Barbara would take Freddie there every now and then. So Barbara introduced them to each other, they talked a bit, but they were there for lunch, it wasn’t a planned meeting or anything like this.

PS: And what film directors Freddie admired?

PF: Vincente Minnelli, George Cukor, the directors of the 40’s-50’s.

PS: What are your memories of Joe Fanelli?

PF: He was American. The first time I met him his relationship with Freddie was just finishing, this was in 1979. But he stayed in London and worked a lot in London. He was working in different restaurants. He was an amazing chef. And they kept in touch over the years and that’s why when Garden Lodge was finished and someone had to be there, that’s when Freddie thought to bring Joe back. And it worked, because Joe used to go to the gym all the time and he was taking care of himself, which he didn’t do so much when he was with Freddie. He was great. He was amazing on the computer. Computers were just starting, but Joe could write programs and things. Freddie’s favourite programme on television was “Countdown”, which is where they pick out seven letters and you have to make the longest word you possibly can out of those seven letters and then there’s also the numbers thing as well – and Joe created that on the computer for Freddie so that he didn’t wait for it just on the TV. He was fun, and he was good; it was good working with him and most of the time we just got on so well. Garden Lodge would not have been the same without him.

PS: And you mentioned Joe programming “Countdown” for Freddie so Freddie could actually play this game on computer?

PF: Well, no, he couldn’t, but he could sit there and Joe would do the computer. The computer was bought by Freddie for Garden Lodge and it was set upstairs on the musician’s gallery in the big sitting room.

PS: How would you describe the relationship between Freddie and other Queen members?

PF: They were all close to each other, but in a different ways.

Freddie was close with John. John was the new boy, he was the last one to join, he was the youngest, and Freddie just felt protective. He wanted to protect him a little bit for the dangers of rock’n’roll. But then John got married, had Veronica, so he had the security of home, and John was not around Freddie as much, but it didn’t stop the friendship because of what happened at the end. John just decided to finish because Freddie wasn’t there anymore.

With Roger it was a different friendship. And a very good friendship, because both of them had similar personality trait, they both enjoyed a good drink; they both enjoyed a good party.

And with Brian, of course, they were friends, but Brian was much more serious and Freddie was much more of a laughing person than Brian. Brian thought about things so much. But Freddie knew that he would never find anyone better than Brian to help him with the music.

PS: We know that Brian and Roger visited Freddie in his last days, but we never heard of John visiting Freddie.

PF: I don’t think John was prepared to see Freddie looking like he did in the last days, but John came and visited Freddie before those last two weeks. I know that he did come to the house, but I don’t think he could accept seeing Freddie the way he was in those last weeks.

PS: Freddie started to get a lot worse in those last two weeks?

PF: For the last two weeks Freddie hardly ate, he hardly drank. He was taking no drugs that were keeping him alive anymore, he was taking painkillers, and that was it.

PS: What was the reason of Freddie’s last visit to Montreux?

PF: He just wanted to get away from London. He wanted to have a little bit of peace and quiet away from all the press. He had that apartment in Montreux, so he went there.

For the last two-three years of his life he would be there every other month for a couple of weeks. There was no feeling of “this is the last time I’m going to Montreux”, that wasn’t part of his mentality, he only decided that this was the last visit when I called him, because I wasn’t with him, Jim, Joe and Terry were with him at that time, I was in Garden Lodge and I rang him and I said: “Look, just so that you are aware when you come home, that there are press outside the house 24 hours a day. In the nighttime it’s down to about four or five and in the daytime it’s up to about twenty”.

And that’s when he decided that when he went into Garden Lodge, coming back from Switzerland, it would be the last time, because he knew that he would never be able to get out again.

PS: And how long was he there for the last time?

PF: For about two weeks.

PS: And how do you remember him when he came back?

PF: He was sort of happy, but he was a bit withdrawn, because he had made the decision that when he came into Garden Lodge, it would be the last time, that he would never leave it again. He already had decided that, so, of course, he was a little bit more thoughtful, more inward thinking rather than being laughing and all that. But still, even in those two last two weeks there were still times when he would laugh, because he never wanted sad people around him.

PS: What are your last memories of Freddie?

PF: Since he got back from Switzerland on the 10th, he basically stopped eating and drinking. He would have a little bit, but that’s it. So, of course, he was tired, he had no energy. Most of the time he had short sleeps, short sleep –wake up, short sleep – wake up.

In those last two weeks, except for his needs, the only other time Freddie left his room, was when Terry carried him downstairs, on the Wednesday, 20th of November, because he just wanted to look around the main room, he just wanted to have a last look at paintings, at the crystal. He just wanted to spend some more time in that huge room where he felt most comfortable.

The last week of Freddie’s life he was actually never alone, because between Joe, Jim and myself, we would spend twelve hours with him and there was always one of us with him. We did the shifts from eight in the evening till eight in the morning. The last time that I was with him was on the Friday night. And on that Friday night I got there just before eight o’clock. And, you have to remember, that at eight o’clock the statement was released to the world that Freddie had AIDS. The thing is, those hours I was with him, he was the most relaxed I had seen him in years, because there was no secret anymore, the whole world knew. And he would just talk about anything, he would be in bed, I would be sitting on the bed next to him and I would be just holding his hand. The television was on, just for some noise, he would talk and he would go to sleep and talk and go to sleep. And we talked about silly little things, nothing really serious, and nothing like “we knew everything was coming to an end”, there was none of that. He could still talk fine, his mind was together, he just was very-very tired.

But, I think, because the statement had been done, I think Freddie felt that it was time for him to go. Because it was coming up for eight o’clock and I think it was Joe coming in at that point, Joe was coming at eight, and I said to Freddie something like “Look, okay, I’m going now, Joe is going to be here, but, of course, I’ll see you, I’ll see you soon”, he said something like “uhum, yeah, yeah”.

And then he just took my hand, looked me straight in the eye and just said “Thank you”.

And I will never know, whether he already decided that we would never meet again and was thanking me for the last twelve years, or if he was just thanking me for the last twelve hours.

But I have a feeling that he already knew that we would not see each other again.

PS: Do you remember when you for the very first time understood that you are not just working with Freddie, but you are becoming friends?

PF: That really started from the very-very beginning, because we didn’t have to always talk to each other to know what he wanted. I understood him. Because of our similar upbringing in boarding school in India I knew why he reacted in some ways, why he did things, I knew it, it was just instinctive and it made everything very-very easy for him and for me. Maybe it became more intense when Freddie started the time out of Britain, because we were going to be together 24 hours a day, so you have to be friends. And for me, it was the easiest thing on earth to be friends with Freddie. I never thought about Freddie, The Superstar. I was thinking about Freddie, my friend.

SPECIAL THANKS TO VALUREX FOR CONTRIBUTION AND ASSISTENCE

#MR interview with Phoebe #queen #queen band #freddie mercury #roger taylor #brian may #john deacon #peter freestone #joe fanelli

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mybullshitsensesaretingling · 3 years

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Two Words

Request: I was wondering if you could do a story/imagine type thing about a chekov x reader where the reader gets unexpectedly pregnant and chekov's (and maybe a few of the crew's) reaction to it? - @that-one-annoyance

The gray door before you seemed imposing and intimidating in a way it never had before. You knew you should ring the bell. You had done it at least a hundred times before today. It was an easy task you rarely thought much about before, but now it was daunting. You couldn’t seem to get your hand to reach out. You knew once you did the door would slide open to reveal the grinning face of the boy you loved, and then you would have to figure out what to say to him. No, you should figure out what to say first.

You’d figure out what to say and then you’d ring the bell and then you’d say it. That made sense. But what would you say? It was all too much and too little to put into the words. The central message of it was a simple sentence. Three words. Two, if you wanted to be casual about it. I’m pregnant. It wasn’t complicated. You couldn’t open with that. That isn’t how conversations normally started.

You tipped your head back and sighed, staring at the ceiling and starting down the corridor.

You were making this harder than it needed to be. You knew that. You could absolutely ring the bell and say “I’m pregnant” and deal with whatever came next. It didn’t need to be this hard. Who were you kidding? The words were hard just to think. How were you supposed to say them outloud where someone could hear you?

“Do you need to talk?” a voice interrupted your spiraling thoughts.

Your feet came to a stop and you turned to see Uhuru standing in her doorway. It took you a second to respond. “No. What makes you think I need to talk?”

“You’ve walked the length of this floor three times.”

“Five times,” you corrected under your breath.

Slowly she looked you up and down, looked down the hallway, and looked back at your face. Something seemed to click in her head and she stepped aside. “Why don't you come in?”

Wordlessly, you took her up on her invitation. She followed you in, closing the door behind her.

“Take a seat.”

Again you followed her instruction, sitting down at her small table.

Uhura sat down across from you and smiled, “How are you doing?”

“I’m,” you paused. You didn’t know how to answer. You tapped a finger on the tabletop, searching your brain for some indication of how you were before trying again, “I’m, um, I’m okay.”

“And how are you really?”

A sigh left you and your shoulders started slumping forward, your body deflating like a balloon. Your forehead landed on the table and your eyes squeezed shut. You shouldn’t have come in here.

“It’s okay,” she reassured you in a patient tone.

“Is it?” your words were muffled slightly by the table.

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” You moved your head so your chin was resting on the table and you were looking up at her. “Yes.”

“Why don’t you start by telling me what’s going on?”

You flopped your face back onto the table. After a moment of silence, you started to pull your shoulders up until eventually you were sitting up normally. She was watching you, hands folded in front of her and a comforting smile on her face.

“What if I can’t say it yet?”

“Start at the beginning and maybe you’ll be ready to say it when you get to that part of the story,” she suggested.

“I went down to sickbay today. The doctor needed my antibodies for that virus I got from the away mission last month. A colleague on another ship needed them for her research. Something else showed up in the sample.” You swallowed thickly. Uhura smiled at you encouragingly. She already knew what you were going to say. You could see it in her eyes. You might as well just say it. Just those two words. “I’m pregnant.”

“How do you feel about that?”

Her question caught you off guard. You weren’t sure why. It was a normal question to ask. But you hadn’t gotten the chance to ask it yourself. You were so caught up in what Pavel would think that you hadn’t gotten to what you thought yet.

“I’m,” you tapped the table again, mulling it over, “happy about it.” You felt yourself begin to start smiling. “It’s a boy. I’m sure Pavel will have many opinions about what we should name him and I guess we’ll have to move into shared quarters. My whole life is about to change.”

“Are you ready for that?”

“Is anyone?”

“No,” she laughed.

“I should tell him.”

She nodded.

“Now. I should tell him now.”

She nodded again.

“Okay. I can do this,” you told yourself before getting to your feet and smiling at Uhura. “Thank you.”

“Tell me how it goes.”

You took a breath and walked back out into the corridor. This time you didn’t hesitate and rang the bell before you were even fully in front of his door. You didn’t want to give your thoughts the opportunity to begin to spiral again.

The door opened within seconds and Pavel beamed down at you. You smiled back at him. You didn’t have a choice. When he looked at you like that all you ever wanted to do was grin.

“I have something to tell you.”

He grabbed your hand and pulled you inside. “Then tell me.”

Just two words. You can say just two words.

He looked you in the eye and you bit the inside of your lip, all your anxieties coming back to you.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You should maybe,” your words were getting jumbled up in your head and you were struggling to pull enough together to make a sentence. “I think you should sit down.”

He sat on the edge of his bed obediently and looked up at you expectantly.

You let out a breath. Two words. The only way to say them was to say them.

“I’m pregnant.”

One of the things you had always loved about Pavel was his complete and utter lack of a poker face. The way he felt was always clearly displayed through his expression. You never had to guess at how he was feeling and as you had gotten closer to him you had developed a skill for being able to read what he was thinking through those expressions. He often had a lot of thoughts, but never the amount he seemed to be having at that moment.

Pavel’s expression shifted rapidly as he tried to digest what you had just told him. The first was shock. Whatever he had been expecting you to say it wasn’t that. The shock quickly melted into excitement, but before he could act on that excitement he was bombarded by the full implications of your words. And then the panic set it.

“I don’t know how to care for an infant!” he finally spoke.

“You think I do?”

“No! That’s why I’m worried!”

“Pavel, calm down. We have time.” You sat down next to him and held up your forefinger and thumb. “The baby is like this big. We can figure out how to care for an infant before he’s born.”

“He?” his voice softened as the panic started to leave him.

You nodded.

“Little Mikhailovich,” he smiled, moving his hand to rest gently on your stomach.

Your eyebrows furrowed and you pushed his hand away. “No.”

“When will we be able to see him?”

“Uh,” you thought back to your appointment. “Honestly, I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything after ‘Congratulations’.”

“Can I come with you to your next one?”

“I’d love you to,” you smiled but it faltered when your mind wandered to your to-do list. You dropped back on the bed. “We need to tell the captain.”

Pavel laid back onto the bed next to you. “We’ll have to be reassigned.”

You looked over at him. “Are you okay with that?” He raised his eyebrows in question and you went on, “This was your dream assignment. You have friends here. You’d have to leave it all behind. You don’t have to.”

He grabbed your hand. “You’re my family.

#pavel chekov imagine #Pavel Chekov #pavel chekov x reader #star trek #star trek imagines #star trek fan fiction #star trek imagine

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ichayalovesyou · 4 years

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TOS Crew-Phobias

Been thinking about And The Children Shall Lead and how the kids play on everyone’s inner Beast, and trying to decipher what fears each crew member may have based on what the children made them do and see.

The asterisk means it’s either an approximation because their fear is too specific, or if they had this fear they’ve since developed means of coping

James Kirk: Autophobia

Autophobia: Fear of being alone

I feel like this one’s pretty obvious. People tend to make the argument that the Enterprise (the ship itself) is Kirk’s overpowering true love, but I don’t think that’s it. It’s more the friends and the life that he’s made within The Enterprise that he’s terrified of losing. Some of the places we see Jim at his most upset and afraid in the series are when he feels he’s been abandoned or is forcibly (and seemingly permanently) separated from the crew. How visibly upset he is on the empty Enterprise in This Side of Paradise and The Mark of Gideon, lashing out at Spock when the crew reluctantly relieves him of duty in The Deadly Years, and his deep resentment toward Deela when she kidnaps him in Wink of An Eye. This is also further reinforced by his actions in Star Trek: The Motion Picture & The Search for Spock. He’s also one of the two characters (the other being Sulu) where his fear counts as an actual phobia and not a hypothetical phobia, ingrained personality trait, or symptom of Neurodivergence.

S’chn T’gai Spock: *OCD (fear of losing control)

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Obsessive thoughts that lead to repetitive actions.

If anything what we might perceive as OCD-like (or at least Neurodivergent) behavior may be typical of the Vulcan condition. I don’t think Spock has OCD, or at least I don’t know enough about it to say for sure, but what came up whenever I looked up “fear of hurting others/losing control” it came up without fail. While we don’t actually get to see whatever is making Spock’s hand tremble, momentarily defy orders and act as though everything is fine. I think we can surmise that his Beast convinced him that following the order would somehow hurt Jim or that he would be possessed/controlled to do so. Operation: Annihilate, Amok Time, Plato’s Stepchildren and essentially Spock’s whole character arc prove this to be true.

Bones: *Hyper-Empathy/Thanatophobia

Thanatophobia: Fear of death, dying, watching others die and/or others watching you die

There is a headcanon that Dr. McCoy is autistic with the hyper-empathy symptom, meaning he has a really hard time watching others suffer. This may have been the reason he became a doctor in the first place, or became worse/was triggered by his father’s death. While not technically a phobia and we don’t see Bones face his Beast in ATCSL. Evidence from other episodes supports this, Miri, Metamorphosis, Plato’s Stepchildren, The Empath, and For The World is Hollow & I Have Touched The Sky all heavily support this.

Scotty-Astrophobia

Astrophobia: Fear of getting lost or dying in space

Seems like kind of a ridiculous fear for someone who builds, maintains, and lives starships to have right? Maybe, but if that is something he’s deeply afraid of, it would make his surpassing ability to make certain the ship doesn’t explode despite impossible odds make plenty of sense. I don’t think it’s space itself that freaks Scotty out, it’s the idea of being stuck out there and/or suffering the cold and grizzly death that is getting sucked out into space does. So he does everything in his power to ensure that never happens. Out of all the supporting characters, the events of the episode that sparked this post aside, Scotty seems to have the best handle on his fear, the most condemning evidence that he’s got Astrophobia occurs later in season 3. He freezes up in the Jeffrey’s Tube during delicate work in That Which Survives. As well as telling his love interest that being bone deep afraid that you’re going to die in the cold vacuum of space is a perfectly normal thing to constantly think about in Lights of Zetar. Still, he is uncommonly steely-eyed and level headed whenever he has the con, even in the face of his fear. I used to theorize that maybe he was afraid of failure/imperfection, but Scotty’s Jerry-Rigs and Duct-tape way of doing things doesn’t lend itself to that idea. What stuck out to me was his comment “we’ll all be lost, forever lost!” in And The Children Shall Lead that made me think Astrophobia would be a good fit.

Nyota Uhura-Nosophobia

Nosophobia: Fear of contracting deadly disease

Uhura’s fear seems to be dying a slow and painful death by disease, one where she is irrevocably physically/mentally altered by her suffering. There’s evidence for this when she sees the appeal of immortality in I, Mudd, and that she’s scared she’ll end up like Chekov in The Tholian Web. Nosophobia is not hypochondria (convincing yourself that you have a disease/compulsively self-diagnosing) or germaphobia (extreme fear of germs and sickness). Nosophobia is more long term, an irrational fear of things like cancer and Alzheimer’s and other such conditions as well as potentially deadly viruses. It seems to me that if Uhura were to die she’d rather it be quick and painless rather than endure that sort of battle.

Hikaru Sulu-Cleithrophobia

Cleithrophobia: Fear of being trapped

Again, someone I thought maybe was afraid of failure (afraid of failing by destroying the ship with the swords in ATCSL) before I picked up on a very interesting pattern I noticed from The Corbomite Maneuver. Sulu gets really fatalistic and/or agitated when it seems like he’s trapped with no way out. He hyper fixates on the countdown when their trapped and condemned to destruction by Balok in The Corbomite Maneuver, he makes dark jokes while trapped and freezing to death on the planet from The Enemy Within. He seizes up instead of fleeing or fighting the Law Givers in Return if The Archons, and even panics a little when they’re trapped by the giant hand in Who Mourns For Adonais (and usually Sulu is insanely chill under pressure). Cleithrophobia gets confused with Claustrophobia often, but Celthrophobia has much more emphasis on the trapped and no way out elements than just enclosed spaces. So him being terrified by being unable to move because it’s surrounded by swords actually makes a lot of sense! Honestly, I find it uniquely fitting that a flyboy with an enthusiasm for growing things would be agitated by places that do not allow growth or flight.

Pavel Chekov-Proditophobia (in reverse)

Proditophobia: Fear of betrayal

Proditophobia is the fear of being betrayed, but there is more evidence to suggest that Pavel is waaaaay more terrified of betraying or being disloyal rather than being the victim of that action. There’s certainly evidence for it in both The Trouble with Tribbles and Day of The Dove, where he is driven to act out violently on the behalf of those he feels deep loyalty towards, in his head, allowing someone else’s reputation to be trashed counts as disloyalty. And The Children Shall Lead also shows us, at least at this point in Chekov’s character development, he feels more loyalty to Starfleet than the Enterprise crew (something that certainly changes/evolves by the time the movies roll around). The case might even have been that he was all bark and no bite and really wasn’t actually going to kill his Captain or mentor, he was just hoping they’d believe him so that they’d go peacefully and he wouldn’t have to worry about betraying Starfleet at all. I used to think maybe he feared punishment or retribution, but he’d never break any rules if that were the case, and if I know anything about this feral gremlin of an Ensign, he’ll do that in a split second if someone questions his loyalty.

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bruisedfuse · 3 years

Note

( @the-bomb-house hiiii :> )

You don't normally intend to get lost while going on a walk... nor do you intend to nearly get caught by TGG once again. Bitty takes a shaky sigh, rushing into an alleyway and simply pressing their body against a dumpster. Great... great... and he couldn't call Pavel.. or Adam... heck Monika would be great right now too.

"Mmmm...." The tiny bomb simply just sinks to the ground. Blinking and looking around a bit.

"Anyone?....please?"

now whitmore on the other hand, they, who were just going on about their day with no intentions of being productive- only happened, to be taking a breather, on opposite end of the same dumpster. it sat on an old rug someone threw out, taking in the ease of not so polluted air.

and, so much for one afternoon of chill.

ashy eyelids mechanically clicked open as soon as bomb's peace was disturbed.

"mmph.. ay, what...? is someone there?"

#HII HELLOOO HIII #ic.#so nice to meet another rp blog!#the bomb house

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asteristories · 4 years

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Demo Link + About the potential ROs of ‘Nevermoore’ (With Art!)

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Game Demo | Forum

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I decided to put all semi-relevant info + commissioned artwork in one post so it’s easy to find for any newcomers. I’ll be pining this too. (Though some info might change slightly over time bc I am guilty of being inconsistent with my characters whoops)

For RO info, I had also included their music themes. It was based on an ask I gotten a long time ago, but instead on separating them from ‘character songs’ and ‘romance path ballads’, they’re just in general now (But you can still interpret them however you want) Also there’s now an extra song for each because I can’t help myself haha. (And one more thing...a lot of songs are english covers of anime music because I am a weeb. Just...putting it out there)

Also, the some of songs themselves could reveal a bit of the ROs backstory/motivations/etc, if you know where to look 👀.

Disclaimer: All art is done (commissioned) by the incredible @apexred! Please check them out when you can! And even though the ROs have their ‘official art’, please don’t be discouraged if you had wanted to imagine them looking a little different when their descriptions eventually show up in the demo! These designs are more for myself than anything 😅 .

Under the cut-

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Micah/Miriam Sterling

They come from the back alleys of early 1900s New York with a soft-spoken and patient personality. Generally civil and polite to most people they meet, and tries to avoid conflict as much as possible. They also have a habit of being constantly alert of their surroundings, picking up sounds and sensations that would normally be missed by others. Nobody considers it unusual, however, because it becomes understandable once you meet them. If the pair of shades and solid wood walking cane doesn’t give it away, then their clouded blue eyes definitely will.

However, it’s best to remain wary of them. Because there is just something...off, in the way they carry themselves. Like a predator, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike their prey.

Age: 26

Birthday: February 25, 1896 (Pisces)

Height: 5′9″. Becomes 5′10″ in the heels.

Background: They actually don’t know the specific date they were born, but had went with February 25 because that was the day they were found left on the doorstep of a church orphanage. Because of this, they also don’t know where they are from. But they do know how to speak other languages like French, German, Italian, Russian, and many more.

Recorded Date of Disappearance: 1922

Songs: Unravel English Cover Acoustic, Last StarDust English Cover, Towards the Sun

Related Art: 1,

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Elias/Eloise Lain Romero

They grew up in Cuba before moving to Canada to study journalism. They are often sarcastic and have a bit of a sharp tongue, directing it towards anyone that’s within their vicinity for longer than a minute. However, it’s known that they do genuinely care for the other residents, even though they’d probably rather die again than admit it out loud. Oddly enough, they can also come off as rather nosy, always asking others (including you) rather personal questions. They insist that it’s important, but don't specify what they need the information for.

Also, they are always seen carrying a leather-bound notebook with them at all times. With everything they seem to know about the people and the town, who knows what's written in it...

Age: 21

Birthday: May 11, 1969 (Taurus)

Height: 5′7″

Background: Was born and lived in Cuba until they were about age 7. Knows how to speak Spanish.

Recorded Date of Disappearance: 1989

Songs: Hello World English Cover, Shikisai English Cover, Reason Living English Cover

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Pavel/Pris(Priscilla) Falken

The brightly coloured, mismatched clothes they wear match their upbeat, free-spirited personality. An aspiring cook, specifically a baker, who was looking to open their own cafe before they arrived to the town. But even so, they won’t let the curse stop them from doing what they love, despite the potential risks (In fact, they’ve lost count on how many times their oven blew up on them). They also love to chat with people, especially with the newcomers. Expect to see them show up at your doorstep with a fresh batch of freshly baked goods as a way to make you feel welcome.

Their family actually shares their love for cooking, having once owned a small, local restaurant. Once is the keyword here. And it’s their fault.

Age: 23

Birthday: August 7, 1981 (Leo)

Height: 5′4″-5′5″

Background: Mixed Scandinavian ancestry and probably had distant viking blood. Knows mostly English, but may or may not know some curse words in Swedish and Norwegian.

Recorded Date of Disappearance: 2004

Songs: Best Day of My Life, When Can I see You Again, Glad You Came

Related Art: 1,

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Simon/Sarai Zhang

They are a person of science, following the footsteps of their father. Can be mostly be found in the town library, preferring the company of books rather than people. Their stoicism and aloofness makes it hard to get a read on what they are really thinking, and their bluntness sometimes turns others away. But they are hardworking, and take their situation more seriously than others. Which is why they are the only one who is actively trying to find a way out of the town, as well as understand how it works. They’ve tried everything, and are still coming up with new ways and theories (and experiments, sometimes even on themselves) all the time. They are determined to escape.

They have to. For their father.

Age: 25

Birthday: November 12, 1945

Height: Simon is 6′2″, while Sarai is 6′0″

Background: Has a Chinese father and an Israeli mother. So because of this they know how to speak Mandarin and little bit of Hebrew.

Recorded Date of Disappearance: 1970

Songs: C’mon, Tell Me Now English Cover, [To be added]

#astericae speaks #Nevermoore cog #ROs #Nevermoore Sterling #Nevermoore Romero #Nevermoore Falken #Nevermoore Zhang

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timeagainreviews · 3 years

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My Series 10 Rewatch: Knock Knock

Hello, my fantastic friends! I am sorry I have been so quiet. I got coronavirus in February and it really wiped out my energy. I am finally starting to bounce back and feel like leaving the house once more. This beautiful Scottish spring we’re having has definitely helped. I also lost my grandpa this week, so I've been all over the place, emotionally. Obviously, such a big pause in the middle of a series 10 rewatch is disruptive, so I would rather just dive back in if it's all the same. When last we were gathered, I was talking about "Thin Ice." Since then, the ice has thawed and I am now up to series 10 episode four- "Knock Knock," by one-time Doctor Who writer Mike Bartlett.

An aspect of Doctor Who which I love about Steven Moffat’s era is that the Doctor and his companions didn’t spend every waking moment of their lives together. Unlike companions of the past, who basically left behind their family lives to galavant across time and space, the companions of the Moffat era had home lives. Not only did this make for some humorous moments, such as the Doctor landing his TARDIS in Clara’s bedroom on date night, it also set up the characters for something of an actual life. "Knock Knock," uses this separation of worlds to establish one of its central themes- can you have a normal life with the Doctor?

Being a poor student in London, Bill is forced to look for a flat with a group of people she only sort of knows. This is your typical group of students, eclectic and young. The biggest commonality they have is they can’t afford a place on their own. One of the ways in which this makes the episode suffer is that none of them has much chemistry together. However, it does enable Bartlett to explore deeper concepts, such as the fear of meeting new people. Our characters are forced to deal with a deadly situation with people who are basically strangers.

The other commonality they have is Bill’s mate, Shireen. I got momentarily excited the first time I heard her name, but only because I thought it was going to be Rose’s best mate Shareen. Also, it would mean that Rose and Shareen had like a 10 year age difference, which would be weird. Shireen is a bubbly sort that seems gung-ho about everyone getting on. This doesn’t stop 90% of their interactions from being a total cringefest. Not one of these characters is particularly likeable. Pavel, the musician of the group, and the one character with maybe a bit of culture becomes a wall pretty early on, so it’s a bland time from there on out. But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

After a montage of disappointing flats ("Oh my god, the toilet is is what room?") the gang stands defeated. But like a beacon of light, comes a glimmer of hope in the form of John, a man who clearly prowls the streets for groups of youths. The gang is willing to overlook the obvious stranger danger about John because he has something they need- a giant house at a reasonable price. It’s another one of those deeper concepts being explored here that I think Doctor Who does so well. The show operates well when it preys upon basic fears. In this case, it’s the fear of the creepy landlord. The fear that your home life may be dictated by a creepy man who carries a tuning fork and forbids you to enter certain parts of the house like it’s Beauty and the Beast.

Arriving as if to say "No, Bill, you can’t have a normal life," is the Doctor. After using his TARDIS to move her belongings, Bill is quick to send him off. She even foregoes the traditional six-pack of beer and pizza, the universal payment for friends helping one move house. Of course, the moment the Doctor enters the derelict abode, his Time Lord senses are pinging. The Doctor isn't just an embarrassing "grandfather," type, but also a threat to any semblance of a normal life Bill can hope to have. As I said, this is familiar territory in the Moffat era. A funny side effect of the Doctor's attempts at allowing his companions to live normal lives is it only adds to the sharp contrast between both existences. Perhaps this is immersion therapy on the Doctor's behalf. Letting his friend remember what the world is actually like so as to not disassociate her from her own time and place. Or perhaps it is the Doctor softening the blow of eventually losing his friend.

The Doctor leaves long enough for two things to happen. Firstly, Pavel is listening to some music and suddenly is eaten by the house. Nobody seems to notice. Secondly, the new housemates have a bit of a games night for their first night at 11 Cardinal Road. There's no cellphone reception and the house is nowhere near up to code. I applaud them for trying to build up these characters, but it never really gels. Their merriment is cut short after hearing a noise in the kitchen. Scooby-Doo style, Bill leads them to the pantry where she finds the Doctor never actually left. They decide to head to bed, but the Doctor decides he's going to stay up with Felicity and Harry and listen to music. He also reminds Bill to maybe check on Pavel who has not been seen all day.

Now back in the sitting room, the gang is surprised to find John present. He addresses their problems with the amenities and waxes strange about having a daughter to look after. The Doctor asks John who the Prime Minister is, but he is unable to answer. Before they can ask more questions, John disappears down the hallway, but not before sounding his tuning fork against the wood. On her way to bed, Bill has the most cringe conversation with her new housemate, Paul. Paul fancies Bill. Bill fancies girls. I get that they may have wanted a scene where Bill flat out says to the audience that she's gay, but Paul comes off as super creepy. I wouldn't have an issue with this, but I feel like we're meant to find Paul endearing. It's hard for me to place what exactly they were going for in this scene. Paul, mate, you just met her. You just moved in together. Maybe let the paint dry first.

Luckily, like a shot from the dark, the plot saves us from having to stand in the hallway of awkwardness. Paul, having gone to his room, screams. Thinking he's having a laugh, Bill and Shireen go knocking on his door, only to find the return knock sounding across the hallway wall. The house begins to creak and shudder while doors slam shut. It's like something from a haunted house movie. In many ways, it follows a familiar trope from Doctor Who. The house haunted by aliens. We've seen it in "Ghost Light," "Hide," or even Edward Grove from "The Chimes of Midnight." Though I would argue that here, there is less grist for the mill. "Knock Knock," is a more stripped back, simple story. And in that way, I find it begins to lose me as the mystery unravels.

As the housemates run through the house, trying to escape whatever is happening, they find Pavel in a state of flux. Something about the music on his record player skipping has kept him from being completely absorbed by the house. I will say, this is a great bit of body horror on the makeup department's behalf. Everything about Pavel looks like a guy getting eaten by a wall. As it turns out, the tuning fork and the music have more to do with what's going on as the Doctor discovers the house infested with alien lice known as "Dryads." Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor is momentarily able to draw the bugs out from the grain of the wood. The Dryad is not your common woodlouse, as it appears to move through wood like water. Even in my second viewing, I found myself wondering if this is kind of cool or kind of dumb. I vacillate between the two.

In many ways, this is both Doctor Who's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The surreal nature of a time-travelling police box affords us things like sentient planets, talking chair frogs, and killer mannequins. On the other hand, it gives us farting aliens, gamma radiation in the form of lightning, and the Doctor screaming until a window smashes. I remember reading an Eighth Doctor book where horse people read books on their planet by licking them and tasting the story. Sometimes, Doctor Who is bloody brilliant, and other times, it's bloody embarrassing. But that's partly why I love it. This kind of freedom gives it freshness. One week we get a priest buzzing like a wasp as he talks, the next we get River Song and the Vashta Nerada.

Now, I'm not saying "Knock Knock," is bad, but it is a little dumb. I've already complained about the dopey kids nobody cares about, and the silly aliens that aren't that scary, but the end of this episode is where it really kind of evens itself out. As I said, I vacillate between this being a good and a bad story. We learn that the reason John doesn't want anyone up inside the tower of the house has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with a dark secret. After discovering the unclaimed belongings of previous occupants over the span of decades, the housemates learn that they are just the latest in a long line of people being fed to the house.

I found the motivation of the Dryads a little hard to understand. It seems weird to me that a woodlouse would want to eat people, but here we are. As it turns out, John has found a way to keep his "daughter," Eliza, alive using the Dryads. After noticing they respond to sonic vibrations, John has been using the tuning fork the make them do his bidding. It's a simple arrangement- he feeds students to the Dryads, the Dryads keep Eliza alive as a wooden woman, hidden away in the tower like some forgotten ghost. Once again, the makeup department has done its job. You genuinely believe Eliza is a woman made from wood. I especially like how they used papery twine for her hair.

They do a good job giving reasons why the housemates can't call for help. No wifi, no reception. But it is hard to imagine that over the course of decades, nobody came looking at this giant house for clues of their missing loved ones. Maybe they did and the house ate them as well. All I know is that it's mighty convenient that not one prospective tenant said to their mum or dad "Hey, I'm moving into a giant house at 11 Cardinal Road." Hell, even the Doctor helped move Bill in. What was John's big plan for when the Doctor came around looking for his "granddaughter?"

By this point, several of the housemates have been eaten by the house. Honestly, I could care less about which ones. I think Paul got his, and of course poor wooden Pavel. Or would that be wooden panel? I can't stress how little I care about these characters. Am I cold? I don't think so. We never see them on the show again. They don't matter in the slightest. With the Dryads closing in, the Doctor and Bill have to think quick. Which is when they realise that the timelines don't match up. If John were Eliza's actual father, he would be long dead. Seeing as he is not also made of wood, they deduce that he is in fact not Eliza's father, but her son. Unable to say goodbye to his ailing mother, John has been preserving her. Eliza has been through so much trauma that she has completely forgotten this fact. It's all rather depressing if I'm honest.

Depressing is okay though. What's Doctor Who without the occasion trudge through misery? Of course, it's not all doom and gloom, as Eliza restores all of the young people, once again leaving me to question why they were eaten in the first place. Were they transmuted into energy and simply recombined? It's the best explanation we're going to get, which is fine. David Suchet gives a powerful performance as he begs his mother not to end their lives. His performance is, by far, one of the strongest elements of this episode. Eliza and John are both overtaken by the Dryads, who are off presumably forever. I suppose the threat of Dryads is no longer looming now that their puppet master is no longer pulling their strings.

All in all, I find myself without much to say about this episode. It's not bad, but it's not a banger either. Even writing this review has been a bit of a slog. I find myself hard-pressed to really have any strong feelings one way or the other, and sometimes, that's just how it is. I will say it is the brownest episode of Doctor Who I’ve seen since the ‘70s. The BBC really knew how to dull down colour back then. Sigh... The best I can say about "Knock Knock," is that it's fine, really. There's nothing really wrong with it other than being kind of dull. I think if they'd have tried harder to make the characters more relatable it could have helped. Not every villain needs to be the new Daleks or Weeping Angels. Unlike some of the other episodes in my series ten rewatch, my opinion on this episode has changed very little. I would be as equally surprised to hear someone say this episode was terrible as I would be to hear it's their favourite. This is the kind of Doctor Who you can have on in the background.

Much like we followed the lacklustre "The Unicorn and the Wasp," with the transcendent "Silence in the Library," I am very excited for the next episode in my rewatch- "Oxygen." Another anti-capitalist romp in the vein of "Smile," is just what I need right now. Now that I am back and feeling up to writing again, you should expect to see a bit more output. I wanted to cover the BBC's Youtube Dalek series, of which I have not watched a single frame. I've been putting it off because I wanted to talk about it on here. I have a few non-review articles in mind, but I don't like to promise too much. What I am saying is that you can expect more, soon! Take care!

#doctor who #series 10 #knock knock #David Suchet #bill potts #Pearl Mackie #Twelfth Doctor #Peter Capaldi #dryads #wood #bbc #tardis #rewatch #Time and Time Again

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hummingbird-of-light · 1 year

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Against All Odds

Part 749

McCoy

McCoy stretched as he woke up and was surprised to find he didn’t bump into another body. That sped his eyes open and he looked around hurriedly until he saw the note Scotty had left him. He settled back and stretched again.

As he dressed he wondered where Scotty had gone. Probably something to do with Robbie for his birthday. He’d see him in a bit at breakfast.

In class, when they were given time to work together, McCoy wasn’t surprised when Keenser and Aaron joined him. They had worked as a trio a few times since the two had told McCoy about the start of Jocelyn’s rumors.

“I’m glad you guys were able to work it out with switching rooms,” McCoy said quietly.

“Me too,” Aaron said, looking at Keenser gratefully. “I know Robbie wouldn’t have liked having me.” A chagrined expression crossed his face. “But I’m glad to be out. I- I just don’t want to be around Pete anymore. He’s really shown his true colors and who he is.” Aaron lowered his eyes to his PADD.

“I’m happy for you for recognizing that,” McCoy said gently.

“Same,” Keenser said.

“I wish I had known sooner,” Aaron mumbled.

“Better now than never.”

McCoy nodded his agreement. His PADD blinked and he looked down to see a new message from Leah. Something inside him tightened and worried what new things had been written about him. There was relief as he opened the message and saw it was just asking if Robbie’s gift had arrived. Leah had sent it to McCoy.

He quickly typed back that it had the day before and he had just forgotten to let her know. By the time he finished Keenser and Aaron had gotten started on their work and he hurried to catch up.

“Who’s getting everything set up later?” McCoy asked as he and Scotty walked to their room after lunch.

“Christine and Pavel,” Scotty replied.

“Are they going to need help?”

“I think they have it in hand,” Scotty said, opening their door. “We’re supposed to keep him distracted until everything is ready.” Scotty couldn’t help a grin as they got settled to wait for Dr. Hudson to arrive.

“How are you boys doing?” Dr. Hudson asked after she greeted them and sat in her normal spot in McCoy’s desk chair. “Your interview was lovely, but I see you still have some detractors.”

McCoy shook his head. “I haven’t read any of it. Good or bad.”

“I have,” Scotty admitted. “It’s hard not to when headlines pop up about you love,” he explained with only a hint of embarrassment.

“Remember to not take those negative articles to heart,” Dr. Hudson said. “I heard there was some bother when the fight happened earlier this week. Anything you’d like to talk about?”

McCoy’s face heated. Jim had told them about Pike and Hudson being close. She must know McCoy had stormed into the headmaster’s office with demands. He let out a sigh.

“That was me,” he admitted. “I tried to demand things when I shouldn’t.”

“But you had concerns?”

“It was unintentionally because of the interview,” McCoy said slowly. “I felt it was my fault again.” He hung his head. “It always feels like my fault. I know it isn’t, but it’s hard to remember that when a friend is injured because of it.”

“That’s good to recognize and work on Leonard,” Dr. Hudson told him. “And wanting to defend your friends is never wrong. But there are better ways to go about these things.”

“I know,” he agreed quietly. “I’ve been trying to work on it since I got sent here. It’s why I got sent here.”

Scotty put an arm around his shoulders and McCoy leaned into him.

“And you are doing better Leonard, you’ll keep improving. Scotty, how are you feeling? Last week you were nervous about giving the interview. How are you feeling now that it is over?”

Part 750

Scotty

Scotty hesitated for a moment when he heard Dr. Hudson’s question. He had to think about it. How was he feeling about everything?

“I’m… glad that it went so well. Amy - the reporter - was really nice and… I felt more or less comfortable giving the interviews with Leonard and my mum at my side.”

He paused and their psychologist could obviously see that Scotty wasn’t completely satisfied with that answer.

“But?”

Scotty sighed quietly.

“But… it’s still hard. I know that truth is out now, yet still there are people who will nae believe what we say. I just hate it when people call Leonard a liar and other horrible stuff.”

It wasn’t fair. What did they have to do to prove that they were telling the truth? Was a polygraph needed or what?

“Does it help you in any way to think about these people? Do you feel better when you constantly lose yourself in a spiral of thoughts about why these people won’t believe you?”

Scotty let out a humorless chuckle as he shook his head.

“Nae, of course not.”

A soft smile formed on Hudson’s lips.

“Then maybe it’s better if you don’t focus on that topic. Do everything in your power to make people see that the two of you are happy together. Show them how much you love each other. And, what’s most important, focus on yourselves and not on other people’s opinions.”

Scotty nodded slowly. Deep inside he knew that Dr. Hudson was right. But still, he also knew that it would be hard to follow her advice.

“I’ll try, doc. Thanks.”

After their session it was time for dinner and after that the friends all made their way to the greenhouse.

Scotty smiled at his brother who was walking beside him. He really hoped that they’d manage to make him feel better, even though Leah couldn’t be with them. He knew that an ominous package had arrived for Leonard the day before, but his fiancé hadn’t told him what was inside. He suspected that it was Leah’s birthday present for Robbie.

When they entered the greenhouse, Scotty was amazed by everything their friends had set up. There were balloons and pretty fairy lights. There was a table with lots of decorations and a huge cake.

“Happy birthday, Robbie!” everyone cheerfully exclaimed and Scotty could see that his brother was quite touched by everything the others had organized.

“Thank ye so much. It’s really bonnie.”

Robbie looked around in amazement as Scotty slowly guided him over to his chair.

“Well then, let’s have some cake. Jaylah baked it,” Christine explained and Scotty saw the faint blush on Jaylah’s face.

“I tried my best.”

“I’m sure it tastes great,” Robbie assured her with a smile and when everyone got eating, he was proven right. It was a lovely cake.

“Are ye ready for yer presents, lad?” Scotty eventually asked once they were done and Robbie nodded.

“Of course. Show me what ye got!”

Lots of presents followed. Books, the model of the spaceship, tools. Robbie was happy about everything, but when Christine revealed her big surprise, he couldn’t believe it.

Christine grinned happily.

“I may have used a few contacts, so that you can have a job shadowing day at Starfleet’s top shipyard. I really hope that you’ll enjoy it.”

“I… I don’t know what to say, Chris. I… thank ye so much.”

There were small tears in Robbie’s eyes as he hugged Christine tightly and Scotty knew that only one present would be able to top hers.

That present being Leah’s.

#star trek #montgomery scott #leonard mccoy #scones #au #against all odds

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moderndaybard · 4 years

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2020 Weekly Ficlet 51/52(? We’ll see?)

Ever At Your Side, Part 7/7 (Chekov) [New Trek/Pokemon Crossover. Because Why not.]

(Part 1-Kirk; Part 2-Spock; Part 3-Bones; Part 4-Uhura; Part 5-Scotty; Part 6-Sulu)

Beginnings:

Starfleet Academy may have been filled with future officers—the best and the brightest in their chosen fields, young men and women who would make the fleet’s tomorrow even more impressive than its today—but they were still young men and women, filled with the hopes, dreams, ambitions, confidence, and energy that comes with that phase of life.

And some were even younger than that…

Pavel Andreievich Chekov had only been at the Academy for a few months, but already the young teen was growing used to the variety of reactions his presence seemed to prompt (the price he paid for starting so young that he’d be graduating at the same age that most people entered the Academy): some seemed impressed, some mystified, some even jealous, and few, if any, seemed capable of carrying on a normal conversation with him (the closest most came was slipping into an ‘older sibling’ sort of dynamic, which he didn’t mind, per se, but it wasn’t the same things a friend). Frankly, he was just grateful that they’d managed to find a cadet’s uniform that actually fit him, otherwise he knew that he’d be constantly mistaken for someone’s visiting younger brother.

But today was not a day for any of those thoughts: the good or the bad. Today was a day of good weather and no classes or looming projects, so the thirteen-year-old knew exactly how he was going to spend it: with his partner, Kostya.

…

The little Yamper was an absolute ball of energy—as were most young Electric-Types—and raced around his feet, yapping and jumping, as soon as he was released. Pavel grinned at his partner before pulling out Kostya’s favorite toy: a red-and-gold ball already showing tooth marks and electric burns a few weeks after first seeing use. The little Electric-Type dog went nuts, standing on his hind legs, front paws beating at the air before he overbalanced and tumbled onto his back. Kostya scrambled upright, who body trembling and little sparks running through his fur already.

Pavel tossed the toy and Kostya was after it in an instant—fast for his squat, short-limbed build, if slow and clumsy for The Electric-Type, then came racing back, prize clamped proudly in his jaws. But rather than drop it for another throw (or make Pavel wrestle it from him, as he sometimes did), Kostya didn’t stop running, instead launching himself up at his trained while still holding the ball.

Pavel wasn’t quite expecting a full-speed Yamper to the chest, and it caught him off-guard, knocking him to the ground as Kostya barked happily (dropping the ball), then began licking the boy’s face. (There were little static shocks, yes, as the young pokemon was not yet in full control of its abilities, but nothing dangerous: his hair would likely be on end for the rest of the day, little else.)

Laughing, he managed to grab a hold of Kostya and sit up, but he couldn’t help flushing in embarrassment when he saw a group of second- and third-year female cadets walk by, giggling and murmuring ‘aw’ to each other.

(He loved his partner, and loved to play, but he’d also like to be taken seriously…someday…)

------

Meetings:

Pavel’s family was large, loving, and loud—and they weren’t about to let their little prodigy go off to Starfleet Academy (four years early!) without a proper celebratory send-off.

The party was colorful, chaotic, and so quintessentially them, but that almost made it harder on the young teen, with his nerves mounting every moment and no clear words for the storm of emotions he was feeling. This was his home but the Academy—Starfleet—was his dream and was he really ready to trade one for the other so soon? Or what if he failed out and had to come back after everyone was so excited for him, had invested so much in him going?

Before he could really begin spiraling, however, his parents and younger sisters pulled him aside, away from the storm of aunts, uncles, cousins, and individuals who were considered family but may or may not be actual blood relatives. Then, in a quiet corner at last, they handed him a small package.

“From all of us,” his father said with a smile as Pavel unwrapped the small box.

“Yeah!” chirped his youngest sister as he pulled out the red-and-white ball. “We didn’t want you to be lonely without us!”

“Lonely? I was looking forward to the peace and quiet!” he teased, ruffling her hair before releasing his new partner—

“Yamp!” Yamp!”

“I know he’s small now,” his mother hastily broke in, “but that way he won’t be as much trouble in the dorms. And when he’s all grown—”

She didn’t even have to finish, as he was familiar with the line: he could picture the Boltund this Yamper would someday be, mature and impressive and dignified as it paced alongside its trainer (it was a little tricky to picture his adult self—hadn’t even yet settled on whether he would go science or command track—but surely he’d be confident and capable and not at all homesick).

“I love him; he’s perfect,” Pavel declared, and as one the family cluster moved in for a group hug—which Kostya quickly wriggled his way into the middle of, already knowing that this was his family, too.

------

(2009)

Things had been happening quickly since the moment they’d received Vulcan’s first distress call and had been dispatched in the fledgling fleet—hardly the first day that they’d expected, but exactly the sort of situation that they’d been trained for.

But then—

Then the Enterprise, delayed in her launch by a (miraculous) beginner error, arrived not on a battlefield, but a graveyard. Pavel could feel the realization ripple across the bridge that the only surviving members of that year’s graduating class were the ones aboard this single vessel—the flagship, yes, but now it seemed too small, it’s crew far too few to be the only ones alive…

But there was no time to mourn the dead with the fate of a planet—a people—hanging on their next acts, and captain Pike wasted no time in dispatching a crew to the drill while going himself to negotiate (or try to) with the strange Romulans, leaving Lt. Commander Spock in charge.

As he sat in the Navigator’s seat, Chekov did everything in his power not to squirm or fidget as adrenaline and tension mounted without release. He focused on the feed they were getting from Kirk and Sulu, wondering if this vibrating energy begging for an outlet was how Kostya felt all the time. (It certainly would explain the Yamper’s constant running, jumping, and otherwise frantic movements.) Still, there was nothing to do but put all his focus on not seeming like an antsy child.

Then, then—there was something he could do! “I can do that!” The cry tore from him without thought; without waiting for permission, he sprang from the navigator’s seat and launched himself full-speed from the bridge, entirely focused on being helpful, on being useful, on contributing (on saving two of his classmates—two of the few that’d learned to treat him the same as the rest of their peers, and not simply as ‘the gifted kid’.)

Kostya had been dashing after him from the moment he’d gone into motion, but as fast as the Electric-Type was for his size and build, his legs were too short and his paws didn’t have the best traction on the ship’s slick flooring. He tried to keep pace with his racing trainer, but ultimately fell further and further behind. Still, he kept trying, even as he skittered around corners and slammed into walls, a surprisingly determined expression on the normally-silly face, as if the Pokemon knew the intensity and stakes of the moment.

Chekov felt bad for running ahead of his loyal partner, but lives were on the line and he could help and he did help! Only…Only, moments later, when he tried to help again, he—

Failed.

Suddenly, the word was so much worse than a flunked test (that could probably be retaken or else made up for) or even the idea of not being enough, of having to go back home—he’d failed, and now someone was dead because of him.

(Spock’s mother was dead and Chekov was terrified to even imagine what that loss felt like, and it was his fault, he was to blame: he’d caught Sulu and Kirk, mid free-fall, so why couldn’t he have caught her and saved her, too? Had—had he killed her? Of course he had: her blood was on his hands, why had he thought he belonged in Starfleet…)

In the ensuing chaos, no one looked for him for a while; no one noticed him ducking into an alcove just around the corner from the transporter room, shaky legs unable to carry him much further.

No one saw the exhausted, stumbling Yamper, ears drooping, worm his way into his trainer’s arms and gently lick at the silent tears, offering what comfort he could—they both had tried so hard, only to fail today.

Could they do better tomorrow?

(Continued on AO3 )

#Star Trek 2009 #nost #Pavel Chekov #ensign chekov #pokemon #pokemon crossover #hypothetical pokemon team #well really just one partner #because its fun #my post #writing challenge

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natromanxoff · 3 years

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Mercury Roadrunner's Interview about Freddie Mercury with Peter Freestone – Part I

Thanks very much to Mercury Roadrunner (Pavel Strashnyy) for letting me share his amazing interviews! Originally shared here. Check the tag "MR interview with Phoebe" to see the other parts.

Here are the 5 topics of this interview, beginning of each topic is written in bold:

1. Live Aid

2. The Works tour

3. "Mr. Bad Guy" album and recording period

4. "Heaven For Everyone", Freddie's habits about listening to music, opinions on Madonna, Montserrat

5. Swimming and memories about Los Angeles, Ibiza, Japan

Mercury Roadrunner: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome you to the unofficial Russian Queen fan club special program. You can find our website at www.vk.com/queenrocks. I am knownn as Mercury Roadrunner. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Queen. And I’m very happy to say that this evening we have a very, very special guest here with us, and it is an opera critic, a book lover, biographer and writer, and close friend, confident and personal assistant of Freddie Mercury, Mr Peter Freestone. Hello, Peter. How are you? Peter Freestone: Hi. I am… okay. I’m good, I’m good. What can I say? I’m good. PS: You are good and you are very happy to join the other Queen fans who would be very happy to hear you finally talking. And the first topic is about your personal memories. It’s a historic date but what are your own personal memories of 13th of July, the Live Aid day, what were your feelings in general on that day? PF: For me, I suppose, it was just another show… [laughs] PS: Really? PF: Because I worked for Freddie and he was going to do a show. I didn’t separate that from all the other performers that were going to be there, that made it such an incredible day. And not only in London, when they were also performing in America as well at the same time. When the satellite was showing something from London, then it showed something from Philadelphia, then back to London again. So to say, for me it was… another day. It wasn’t even as though there were such a big show because we’d played stadiums in South America. So, it wasn’t the size of the audience. I suppose, when it really struck me what was happening was when the band went onto stage. And the roar from the crowd was absolutely amazing. Again, it wasn’t so different from normal shows because they’d actually rehearsed for their twenty minutes. You know, there was four days’ rehearsal. So to say, it was normal, it was normal work, it was a short show. But then, thing is, it was in daylight and Freddie could actually see the audience. And from the back of the stage, we could look through holes in the back, you know, the screen in the back. And we could see what the band could see. And… then it sort of struck me that, actually, this is something very special. And then I was really so very, very proud of them. At the end of their set, when, again, the audience reaction was indescribable. What they had done in those twenty minutes, they had picked up the whole audience, shook it around and put them back down again. PS: Indeed. PF: So, yeah, that was what I felt. PS: And do you remember some of Freddie’s jokes, maybe, during the day, the way he interacted with other superstars, like David Bowie or others? PF: The thing is, he [Freddie] was just one person amongst his peers, you know. All of the bands were names, they were bands. And the thing I have found, and this goes all the way – the real professionals are the most normal, approachable people on earth. It’s the wannabes who have the attitude of “Don’t you know who I am?” and who behave like stars, because stars behave like human beings. Real stars, they can be just like the rest of us. There was a time when Freddie just wanted to be on his own, you know, with just his friends, with his group of people. But I mean, there’s a few photographs of him chatting with various people, like Elton John and David Bowie. I remember seeing them with him, and Adam Ant. And, of course, he had friends along; I think Wayne Sleep was there as well. In his life, he [Freddie] needed people around him that made him laugh. And so, he still had that. David Bowie and he had been friends for so long. Elton [and he] had been friends for even longer. So, it was actually a chance for them to sit and catch up rather than, you know, being in front of the world press. They liked to spend time on their own, you know, talking to each other, really talking, not putting on a show. PS: So, I imagine that backstage on that day Freddie felt pretty much joyful and relaxed, right? PF: Yeah, on the day of the show, I never really saw Freddie nervous…

because, the thing is, it was too late by then [to be nervous]. You know, there was no point in being nervous anymore because the show was going to go on whether you were nervous or not. So, why be nervous? Just, you know, get on and do the show, enjoy yourself. PS: And do you remember, where did the idea of Freddie and Roger joining the Band Aid on stage in the final song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, came from? Or was it totally a spontaneous idea for them to join the others? PF: I think the idea at that point was that anybody who was around, who would stay on to the end – because don’t forget the show had started in the afternoon, so not everybody was going to be waiting – but then anybody who was left, who wanted to join, could go and join. There was no strict “You must do this, you have to do this, you have to be there”. It’s “If you want to, by all means come and do it.” PS: And we even have a picture of both of you, Freddie and you, on that day when Freddie wears a white shirt for “Is This The World That We Created”, and you stand right next to him and it’s a beautiful picture. PF: And Queen were the only band that actually kept their dressing room. Because all the other bands had to vacate their dressing room half an hour after they’d performed, so that the next band could come and use it. But because Brian and Freddie were performing “Is This The World That We Created” at the end, they got to keep their dressing room from the time they arrived. [laughs] PS: So they spent the rest of the day after the show in their dressing room? PF: Well, in or around their dressing room, yes. PS: They, like, had their Royal Queen place there. PF: That’s it. Anybody else had to go into the Hard Rock Café. There had to be a tent, you know, hospitality tent there. And most people ended up in there because they were not allowed into their dressing rooms, they didn’t have dressing rooms after that. So… that also helped Freddie relax. [laughs] PS: Like, his little bit of his own, right? PF: Yes. PS: All right. So, the second topic is about you, Peter. And you are credited as a “band party” member on The Works tour. Can you please clarify what a band party meaning is? Because I am assuming it’s like an entourage but it will be nice to hear the expanded definition from you. PF: Yeah, the band party, I think, was about ten or twelve people. It was the band members, their assistants – me, Chris Taylor was there, and Paul Prenter was there. If Jim Beach was on the tour at the time, he would have been part of the band party too. And some of the time Gerry Stickells was there. But often he would be ahead, making sure that everything was ready for when the band arrived. But that was it. There was about ten people. And there were baggage tags for each member of the band party. That’s why I know because I had Number 9, I think. And there were about twelve, I think, altogether, because at one point at the beginning I used to have to collect the band party baggage, so that’s why I always knew which were, even though I wouldn’t know whose bag was what. It would have one of these crew tags on it, so I just picked up and I knew that there were going to be twenty bags, so I just picked the twenty bags. But they were easy to identify because of these tags. PS: I see. And what is your own favourite memory about The Works tour and about this time, like, 1984, 1985? Maybe the Rio shows? PF: Yeah, I mean Rio was… amazing. The feeling from that crowd… you know, something like 350,000 people. Oh, you can’t beat that. And when you’re flying in a helicopter over that crowd, it was stunning. But the thing is, I know this sounds really, really stupid but [laughs]… one thing I will always, always remember from that tour was, remember, in the back of the stage you had these wheels that turned every now and then, not constantly but just every now and then. That was because there was… the guy looking after Roger’s drums and me who actually turned those wheels. And there was no set cue or anything that, “Oh, it has to start on this bar, on this song.” No, it

was when he wasn’t doing anything and I wasn’t doing anything, we’d say “Ok, let’s go and do it.” And we turned the wheels for a couple of minutes and then left them alone. He had then to do something for Roger and I would just sit there like I always did. And then you’d go back and you’d turn the wheels, like a hamster. We were like hamsters… So, that’s my memory of The Works tour. PS: And how technically did you operate those wheels? How was it possible? PF: With your hands. You just grabbed hold, you know, because it was like cogs on a wheel, and you just grabbed hold of them. Because we would be behind, I mean, I was always on John Deacon’s side, so I was hidden behind his bass setup. And you just pulled on the cogs because the whole wheel was on a metal axle and you just held there and you just pulled it down. PS: And the wheels actually were the real wheels, the big ones, right? PF: The very big ones in the back that moved, yeah. And they were made of, I think, polystyrene and plywood. So they weren’t very heavy. PS: So it was, like, actually you taking a part in the show, like, directing this? PF: Yes, I mean, you know, this is how things used to work in the old days before half of you were born. [laughs] You had to use your hands. I don’t think that a Queen tour as it is now is manual anymore. Everything is “push buttons” in it. PS: Yes, so it was indeed like the works, you had to work to make it work, right? PF: Yes, but nobody knew that’s how it works. They just saw these wheels turning every now and then. PS: It’s like a kind of magic indeed… PF: Yes, this was the whole thing with the Queen show – that people saw things happening but didn’t try and think “Oh, how do they do that?” If I see a big show now, I just think “How do they do that?” You’re not listening to the music anymore, you’re thinking “How do they get this to move? How do they get that?” But in the old days, you never did that, you just saw it move and it was part of the show. PS: You were just enjoying it, you didn’t have the time to analyse it. PF: Yeah. PS: I see. That’s a great memory, Peter. So, the third topic is about Freddie’s solo album, “Mr. Bad Guy” Freddie firstly wanted to name his solo album Made In Heaven and he even mentions that title in an interview with David Wigg. Why did he later decide to call it Mr Bad Guy? PF: I think he felt that Mr Bad Guy represented him more than Made In Heaven. And the lyrics to that song, everything. It sort of was very much about him. I think that’s why it changed. I actually love that song because it is real orchestra on it. And I was in the studio. I mean, it’s not a massive studio, so what they had to do, they had to record each section, so the strings section was there and recorded all their parts. And they went out. And woodwind recorded all their parts. Then brass recorded their parts. Then timpani came in and recorded. You know, they could not do everything together, so it was actually really quite complicated. But the end result, I think, is great. It reminds me very, very much of “The Carnival of the Animals”, the old classical piece. That was written by Camille Saint-Saëns. But that is what I’m immediately reminded of when I listen to “Mr Bad Guy”, you know. [starts to hum the song] You know, all the different pieces of the orchestra doing it, repeating it. Now, that for me is my favourite part. PS: I also enjoy it, I adore it. It’s truly a work of art from Freddie. PF: Yes, definitely, definitely. And I agree with him because it does represent him, multifaceted. You know, you never expect… He never gives you something that you expect. He always gives you something that will surprise you. PS: Yes. And why bad guy, why do you think Mr Bad Guy? Why bad? PF: Because… anytime in the press, there was never anything saying what a lovely man he is. So why not live up to his reputation? PS: Yes, it’s like “Yes, I’m everybody’s Mr Bad Guy,” yes. PF: Yes, this is it. This is what people want to believe, so this is what I will be. PS: Yes. And why do you think his first title was exactly not some

other track title but exactly “Made In Heaven”? Why was his first idea about exactly this song, to call the album this way? PF: I don’t know, I really cannot answer that one for you. I don’t know why he thought of that. Maybe he thought that would be the most popular track. A very popular track. PS: Yeah, it’s a hit song, totally remindful, yeah. And what was Freddie mostly like during the recording? What’s your favourite memory of him in this period? PF: That’s a lot more difficult because it was a difficult time. Munich. It took him far too long to create it. In the end, he was more interested in going out and spending time with Barbara Valentin than he was in creating work. I mean, the amount of time… he would turn up in the studio at two o’clock. Because he always turned up at two o’clock. It was pointless staying or coming at ten because he wouldn’t. And the thing is, it’s a singer’s voice, he’s not really ready to use [it] until later on in the afternoon. Once he’s warmed up properly and everything else. But the thing is, by four o’clock the phone would be ringing and Barbara was bored, so Freddie would run over and go out with her. So it was hard. And sometimes it felt like he was forcing himself to enjoy himself. Because he also felt bad, because he knew he should have been working, but he was letting his arm be twisted very, very, very easily. Yeah, I mean, okay, yes, he did enjoy himself when he was with Barbara, but he also had in the back of his mind that he was supposed to be working. PS: But the final result, I think, is totally great, he’s so much presented there. PF: It wasn’t the commercial success that people were expecting, but I think Freddie was happy with it in the end. PS: Yeah, it’s, like, his self-portrait songs. PF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It got that music out of his system so that when he was back with Queen he was thinking more of the band stuff than, you know, things that the band would be happy with and just him happy with. Also, the thing is, Freddie did miss the rest of the band. He would never admit it but if you listen to some of the instrumentals on some of his solo tracks you could imagine Brian playing the guitar, you could imagine John playing the bass. You know, he missed having the band around him. PS: I see, I see. Even though it was his only first experience as his solo work, he already missed the other boys. PF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the thing is, all his recording before Mr. Bad Guy had always been with other people around. You know, even when he was producing the Peter Straker album, he had friends around him doing things. This was him on his own and it was all on his shoulders. PS: Yeah, and he worked on this album perfectly, it’s absolutely a masterpiece, yeah. So, the fourth topic is about Freddie’s and Roger’s connection. There is a story that Freddie heard Roger’s song “Heaven For Everyone” and he liked it so much that he wanted to sing it, and in the end The Cross, Roger Taylor’s band, released a version with Freddie’s vocals on it. And do you remember, had Freddie ever listened to Roger’s solo albums at home? PF: Freddie didn’t really listen to very much of anybody’s music at home. The only thing I remember... well, okay, yes, I remember putting on videos of Prince. But, musically, we would put on, we would buy every one that came out. It was a series of CD’s and albums, of course, before the CD’s, Now That’s What I Call Music. And what it would be, would be the sort of top hits of two months or something. And they would all be on Now That’s What I Call Music 1, then Now That’s What I Call Music 2. I think it’s on to Now That’s What I Call Music 373 at the moment. I don’t know. That was the music that he would put on, it was the music of the time. Because, you know, for his own music, for Queen music, that was work for him. And what concerns Freddie listening to Roger’s albums - probably what it would’ve been he would’ve listened to it when he and Roger met up. But it wouldn’t necessarily be at home they would put on the album. They would meet up and Roger would say,

“Oh, you must hear, listen to this, you have to hear this. This is something I’ve been working on,” you know, that sort of thing. PS: I see. And, you mentioned Freddie enjoying Prince, and it connects me with the fifth topic and it’s about the musician of the same age as Prince and it’s, like, a connection of Freddie Mercury from Queen and the Queen of Pop who is known as Madonna. What was Freddie’s attitude to Madonna? Because it’s almost impossible to imagine that he never ever mentioned her or never talked about her. PF: He admired her as… a woman surviving and winning in basically a man’s world. Yeah, because she was a power. And for that he admired her. Some of the music he quite liked. But there’s also the other side of the coin. Freddie, for all he was, had one security with him whenever he went out or everything. And Freddie felt that Madonna was actually attracting attention to herself rather than protecting herself. When she would go running in Hyde Park with ten security, you know, he said, “If she went with one person, people wouldn’t even notice her, but because she’s got ten people around her, then the whole world is going to notice. And you are best safe not like that but if you have just one person.” So, I mean, for that side he didn’t understand her thinking, but for her musical acumen and for her performance he thought she was fine, she was good. PS: And what is your personal attitude to Madonna? Do you like her? PF: Again, some of the things she’s done I think are very, very good. I don’t know, the more recent stuff I’m not so keen on. But all the first ten years or whatever of her stuff, I loved it. Yeah. Because, again, she never copied, she always did her own thing, and she never repeated herself. And I love originality. PS: And what is your own favourite memory about Freddie and Montserrat, Barcelona story in general? PF: I suppose it would have to be the actual recording of “Barcelona” because that was the first track that was completed. Freddie had sent Montserrat a tape giving her a guide vocal. Mike Moran had written out the music for her and sent it. So when she came in, when she arrived, she was fully, fully prepared for what was going to happen. But I remember being with Freddie after she’d done the first tape of her vocals for Barcelona, and… there were almost, almost, I mean, there were tears down his face. He was saying, “I now have the greatest voice in the world singing my music.” And that will always stay with me, always. PS: I see, so it was, like, very deep for him. And what is your favourite memory of Montserrat as a person? PF: Ah, a lot of memories. I went to pick her up at the airport, took her to the hotel, I would go and meet her at the hotel, go with her to the studio, all of that sort of things. And I was only in the studio when Montserrat was there. And when she was actually putting her vocal tracks down, the track was basically finished. I saw her so many times after the recording as well. You know, I went to see different performances of her. And it was because of her that I was actually at the Palais Garnier in Paris. You know, the opera house in Paris. Because she actually did an AIDS Gala there. And she invited me to go. I think… her laughter. It’s just like Freddie’s. Because whenever people ask me what’s my first memory, what is the memory that first comes to my mind of Freddie, and it’s always him laughing. And it’s the same with her. Whether she’s just finished a performance or actually when she’s doing a recital or a concert. And during her encores, she is always giggling and laughing. Amazing giggle. Because she likes to bring the audience in during the encores. And she’s got this infectious giggle. She invited me to the first night ever of her performing Isolde in “Tristan and Isolde” in Barcelona. And talking with her afterwards, I said, “You must know how wonderful it is for me to be coming here, to be seeing it, to be listening to you.” And she says, “Of course, you’re part of the family.” So, that really has always stuck with me. PS: So, the next topic for

today is Freddie spending time just making any kind of normal activities. And the question is firstly about his swimming skills – could Freddie actually swim, and if yes, did he enjoy it? PF: I never saw him swim. Never. I don’t know if he could swim. I’ve often thought about that and I never saw it. He didn’t… thinking about it, we went on a motor boat when we were at Pike’s hotel in Ibiza one time. And he didn’t look the most comfortable. So, I really don’t know if he could actually swim. I never saw him in a swimming pool or anything like that. Even when there was a swimming pool around, I never saw him in it. PS: But speaking of other activities, for example, you mentioned your staying at Pike’s hotel, he liked to play tennis there, right? PF: Yes. And, of course, when he was younger he was very good at table tennis. So, yeah, he enjoyed tennis. When we were living together with Freddie in Los Angeles, in that house, there was a tennis court as well and he played there a few times. PS: I see. And what are your other memories of Los Angeles? PF: Los Angeles. Also I remember in Los Angeles it was in L’Ermitage hotel when Queen were designing the Hot Space album cover there. They were there, maybe, even rehearsing for a tour or something. That’s the hotel I was staying in at that time. It was just this concrete glass and… stainless steel… and chrome. It was a very, very modern hotel. I remember, there were all band members, I was there, Chris Taylor was there, Paul Prenter was there. And they were throwing ideas around. And that’s where Freddie came up with the colours. “That’s the hot space, the space is the colours, hot colours.” PS: Ah, so it has something to do with image, with colour as you see it… PF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. PS: The hot like the bright one, right? A definitive one. PF: Yeah, yeah. PS: And he drew, like, a draught of the cover, right? Because he is credited as designer. PF: They were talking about which colours and then who would be which colour and then what they would put on each colour. You know, when they started talking about, not necessarily a profile but just picking out the aspects that people recognize from each artist, like Brian and his hair, Freddie and his moustache, you know, that sort of thing. PS: And so, each member chose the colour for himself by his own, right? PF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. PS: And how do you think, why Freddie chose the red colour? PF: Because it’s the colour that sticks out the most, although red was not his favourite colour, his favourite colour was yellow. But red is the one that you first look at. If you look at every sale, you know, big sale signs and everything, it’s always red on white. Because red is the colour you notice more. Apparently, whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, but in the old days police stopped more red cars than any other car. PS: Oh, really? PF: Yeah. Just psychologically red is the colour that stands out. PS: And Freddie being so outstanding wanted to strike everybody. PF: Yeah. PS: I see. And you mentioned Freddie and you spending time at Pike’s hotel. And what is also your personal favourite memory of this time. PF: I suppose the swimming pool was actually something nice. To actually think that we were in the swimming pool where Wham had recorded “Club Tropicana”. I mean, yeah, Pike’s. It was a nice hotel. They treated you well. They treated you personally, you know, they took care of you. And so it was a nice place. You really felt well-treated. PS: And what was, like, the top of the top on Freddie’s 41st birthday? What are your memories? PF: The most ridiculous thing is when guests went off into a corner and started smoking, so they weren’t smoking at the table and set light to the decorations. There were all these paper decorations hanging down the walls and everything. And people were there smoking and not looking at what they were doing, and they set light to them with their cigarettes. And then they started throwing alcohol to try and, you know, because it was wet they thought they would put the flames out. I mean, some people are not

very, very bright. [laughs] PS: I see. And what was your favourite memory of his previous one birthday, in 1986, the hat party? PF: Now, the hat party was a one-off, there was no other party quite like that, in Garden Lodge. Not with two hundred and something guests. Because the thing is, the thing that I loved about the fact was that nothing was put away. None of his vases or, you know, anything was put on tables. All the antiques and everything. Everything was left there. Because, okay, there were two hundred people but he actually knew them. He knew he could trust them. PS: And what was it like for him when he arrived back from his magnificent journey to Japan? PF: The thing is, it extended because he was then back home opening up all the packages that had arrived and the crates that had arrived. Because everything was sent over as soon as he bought it. So, the big room, the small room. Everything, all the rooms were full. And these, he had twelve of them. So, it was like Christmas. You know, a six-week Christmas. Because he was away enjoying himself and then opening up and putting it all around the house. PS: So, he was actually in Japan for six weeks, right? PF: No, no, he was in Japan, I think, for about three weeks. But then when he came back, he had three weeks of opening up and putting them all out. PS: So, he had a chance to enjoy his presents one more time, like, actually having them all. PF: Precisely, precisely. PS: So, it was, like, double joy – first to buy it and then to enjoy it at home. PF: Yes, yeah, yeah. PS: And mostly he bought antiques, right? PF: Yeah, I mean, he did actually buy some modern porcelain and things, but almost everything was antique. Almost everything. PS: I see. It was indeed a magic year for him. The Magic tour and the magic holiday… PF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. PS: I see, I see. So, as we are ending our first part by now, I’m saying to you a very, very big thank you, Peter. It’s amazing to hear all these stories about Freddie. PF: It’s been a pleasure, it’s a pleasure. SPECIAL THANKS TO VALUREX FOR CONTRIBUTION AND ASSISTENCE TO BE CONTINUED

#MR interview with Phoebe #queen #queen band #freddie mercury

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