Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of awards from our 2024 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters as well as their out of character contributions and achievements.
This month we’re interviewing the writer behind Lieutenant Doz Finch playing a Human female Engineer assigned to the USS Gorkon. She won the Phoenix Award: “Awarded to Engineering officers who continue this tradition of excellence in the field of engineering. Named for the vessel that legendary engineer Zefram Cochrane piloted during his historic first warp flight. By performing their tasks with enthusiasm, imagination and diligence, by managing to make their equipment perform above and beyond its rated capacities, the officers meriting this award further the mission of their ship by their superior know-how. In short, miracle workers.”
Harford: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from and what are you up to when you’re not simming?
Finch: Hello! I’m from the UK. A rainy place, but ideal if you’re a cave-dwelling, nocturnal creature like myself. When I’m not simming, I’m doing one of three things. I’m either watching films or TV shows, listening to music or working. Utterly thrilling!
You’re pretty well known in the fleet for playing an older character. Can you tell us about that? What was the inspiration for writing Doz as a woman in her sixties? Have you faced any unique circumstances in connection with her age?
I have traditionally always had more fun writing older characters because of the complexities (and the quirks and absurdities) that comes along with it. With an older character you’re faced with a lifetime of habits and rituals, and echoes of their past. It makes you wonder what parts are strengths and weaknesses, and how that impacts the way they interact with the world.
Still there are definitely unique challenges that come with writing a much older character like Doz Finch. Her age has sometimes presented the conundrum of not only figuring out how knowledgeable and experienced she is, and ensuring that I keep that as realistic and as balanced as I can, but of forging and navigating friendships and genuine connections. Most of the ship is made up of much younger officers, and as such I’ve thought about what those sorts of dynamics are, and seen those dynamics evolve over time where she has learned as much from them as they have from her. Ultimately, this is a woman whose energetic persona was born of a need to keep her head above water, and to avoid the perhaps darker and more sadder aspects of her humanity, that I think all people go through. It’s a really gratifying challenge to write.
In a bid to peel back some of the harder layers of the character, I’ve recently started exploring new story possibilities, like late in life love. So she has recently developed a bit of a crush on a lovely trinket-collecting gentleman. But here’s the crux: they’re in a timeline which may eventually cease to exist, and him along with it. Uh oh, cue the sad music.
Do you take inspiration from any characters featured in Star Trek or is there anywhere else you draw inspirations from for your characters?
I’m drawn to fierce and complicated women on screen, yet equally as pulled in by those more airy and frolicsome types. There’s no limitation to the type of character I like to write, or what sort of show or film I take the inspiration from. Whether I’m watching something witchy, dystopian or lighthearted, if a character starts forming in my mind, I’ll ask myself, “how can I capture that personality and make it fit into our Star Trek environment?”. But I also take inspiration from real people. Doz herself emerged out of my love for the face claims buoyant energy.
If asked for advice from a new player, what’s the one thing you would tell them? What’s something that you might have found helpful when you were first starting out?
Something valuable I learned about a year in was that if you aren’t content with a piece you have written in one sim, then you can re-explain or reframe it in your next sim. It’s the beauty of an ongoing story. And remember to always make your character’s train of thought abundantly clear in the narration between dialogue, as not everyone can read between the lines. It helps the other writer to understand the general direction you’re heading in with a scene. Lastly, whenever you write backstory or important character-isms, put it onto your wiki with references as soon as you can! It stops you getting tangled later.
Does Doz have her sights set on command? What are your plans for her as she continues with the fleet?
The only thing this woman ever has her sights set on is a good cup of tea. And that’s the truth! When I think about who she is and what she desires, I think about this canny old Human who has spent most of her life working in engine rooms and on warp drives, and how that life has now become a nonstop series of firsts ever since she made the leap and commissioned. She’s a quintessential traveler at heart, and desires to stay in space working on starships until the very end. I’m figuring out what the possibilities are all the time; if you don’t mind my saying, her situation is rather unique. As she develops as a person, peeling back those layers as I said earlier, she develops as a leader as well, and I’m learning more and more about what she really is capable of.
To wrap this up, tell us a little bit about your experience in the community. What aspect of the fleet do you find most engaging OOC?
There’s so many fantastic OOC aspects to our group, such as the forums and our discord server. But I think that our most engaging is by far the Wiki. It’s such an amazing resource. I’m a very visual person, so nothing delights me more here than seeing everyone’s character pictures, and their families, and all of the fun trivia and other tidbits that make up their stories. In the famous words of Marie Kondo—it sparks joy!
Thanks for your time, Lieutenant Finch!
You can read more about Lt. Doz Finch on the wiki, here.
