We’re here with another interview with a newer member of our community. The title of this column is “Lower Decks,” hearkening back to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled “Lower Decks,” in which junior officers aboard the Enterprise-D speculate on the reasons for recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border.
This month’s interview is with the writer behind Lieutenant JG Freck playing a Ferengi male science officer assigned to Denali Station.
Fairhug: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from? Anything you’d like to share!
Freck: Currently, I live in Ohio in the United States with my husband and our many, many pets (a dog, multiple cats, rats, and a wild mouse we caught a few winters ago). I was born in Texas and spent about a third of my childhood there, then moved to Washington state for the next third, then back to Texas for the last. Went to college in Colorado, moved here to Ohio for a job, and I’ve been here for the past…wow, has it been a decade already? Time sure flies, doesn’t it?
What was your introduction to Science Fiction in general and Star Trek specifically?
Freck: I honestly can’t remember the first sci-fi property I became interested in. It’s been an interest of mine for as long as I can remember. Star Trek itself, however, took me a bit longer to get to. I first started watching Voyager reruns with my mom when I was a teen, and it instantly gripped me. With other properties like Mass Effect also coming out at the same time, it was all too easy for me to fall in love with the idea of exploring the galaxy with a bunch of like-minded alien friends. I’ve since seen the rest of the shows and most of the movies, and am currently very eagerly looking forward to future episodes of SNW and LD.
What is your experience with roleplaying?
Freck: Not as much as I feel most terminally online folk my age seem to have. I’ve dabbled with personal roleplay with friends, but I think the most fun I’ve had is with games like D&D or LARPs, which I’ve had the ability to indulge in here and there, but it’s really difficult to get those sorts of games going, I’ve found. Thank goodness for groups like this one, honestly.
What brought you to SB118?
Freck: I’ve tried a couple of Star Trek themed roleplay groups in the past, but they never seemed to fit my style or schedule. The last time I tried to play, the lead of the group scheduled times for us to play on a client together, but then got impatient and carried the plot forward myself or others present. I felt a group that didn’t respect my schedule and availability wasn’t the right one for me. Eventually, the desire to do some sort of roleplay in the world of Star Trek gripped me again, and bearing in mind my last experience, I searched explicitly for “Play-By-Email” on Google. I’m grateful that SB118 is the group that popped up, because I’m having a wonderful time with everyone here, and it’s much easier writing when I can throughout the week as opposed to having to drop everything in real life for an hour or two on a chat client.
Why did you choose this specific character and duty post?
Freck: I work in IT in real life, so I deal a lot with computers. That, plus the fact that my favorite sci-fi technology is the holodeck and holograms, you’d expect me to gravitate towards Engineering, but I mean, it’s space. It’s space, as Star Trek especially depicts it, with weird space-time anomalies that can be simultaneously beautiful and mysterious and dangerously deadly all at the same time. I wish I could see nebulas and quasars and wormholes up close for real, but unless we figure out FTL and a whole slew of other technological advancements to enable deep space travel really quick, the Science department is probably the closest I can get.
As for Freck being a Ferengi, well, I can’t really explain it, I just can’t get enough of those scheming little gremlins. I love species with established lore, and thanks to DS9, they’re one of the ones that we know the most about. Freck’s a bit more mild-mannered in the business department than others of his people. You almost have to be to fit in with Starfleet, but I also just find the clash of cultures between how you were raised and how you want to be as an individual to be the source of some of the more interesting kinds of stories out there, so I think it’s a good fit.
Where do you see your character five years from now?
Freck: That’s a tough one to answer. I’ve noticed that time moves by quickly in SB118, so in five years, Freck could be department head, or neck-deep in fleet-wide plot shenanigans, or maybe even Captaining his own ship! But, honestly, I’m looking forward to taking it slow and enjoying the journey. Five years from now, wherever he’s ended up, I hope Freck has had lots of opportunities to deepen relationships, solve fascinating mysteries, and, of course, see beautiful sights. After all, home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum.
Thanks for your time, Lieutenant JG Freck!
You can read more about Lieutenant JG Freck on the wiki.
