Back in my day we had to walk 15 miles, in the snow, both ways… We’ve all heard stories like this at some point in our lives, and the Fleet at Starbase 118 is no exception. Spend a little time reading your Ship Chat, the Officer’s Club, or chatting in the Brew Continuum and you’re bound to hear tales from some of the veteran writers about the way back times of their Lower Deck Days.
Some of these stories sparked the idea of interviewing members who have been writing with the Fleet for long enough to see trends come and go and share with us their perspective on how the times have changed. Maybe we will even get some juicy stories along the way.
To kick off the new series lovingly called Back In My Day, we’ve tracked down Doctor Jansen Orrey who writes for the Chief Medical Officer on the Amity Outpost.
S. Richards: Looking back at the archives, I realized it’s been a while since you’ve been interviewed. For all our new writers, do you mind telling us a little about yourself? Where are you from and what have you been up to since the last time we heard from you?
Orrey: Well, I am from the state of Tennessee in the United States. Since I was last interviewed Jansen has stepped away from the XO post, and moved to Amity Outpost as a civilian to be the Deputy Chief of Mission, after some time away he returned as the Chief of Medicine for the station. He enjoyed his civilian status until his dear friend Wil Ukinix reactivated his commission during Frontier Day.
How long have you been a member of Starbase 118 and during those years, what has been the biggest change you’ve seen? How has that change impacted the community?
I first joined up back in the halcyon days of 2008, and I think the biggest change was, oh this is a good one..I guess the switch from Yahoo to Google Groups would take the lead over the others. It changed how people worked on Joint Posts, made it a lot easier for people to create email addresses and link everything together.
Now Jansen hasn’t been your only character in the decade plus that you’ve been writing with the Fleet. How many different main characters have you had? Out of all of your previous characters, who would want to bring back, even if just for a day? What made you pick them?
Four or so main characters, but I always keep coming back to Jansen. Seemingly no matter how hard I try to get away from the old man XD. Out of the others..Henning Hext was a character I really enjoyed playing while on the Veritas in the Shoals. He wasn’t a member of Starfleet but given the setting of the Shoals it was a role that still had a lot of range.
Writing as long as you have, and for such a diverse cast of characters, you’ve got plenty of experience. How has your writing style changed through the years and what do you know now that you wish you had known back at the very beginning?
Sometimes the best reactions and interactions are just that. You know these characters inside and out. So how would a real person react to this moment or that event? It can get strained and strange. (Big ups to all our counselors after Frontier Day.) Everyone is different and handles things differently, but that difference is one of the major strengths of our group
Alright, now to get down to the reason we are all here. Tell us your favorite story from back in the day.
I have a few of these from everywhere, even some that extend to plotting OOC for things in the future (How Natalia became Jansen’s daughter for instance). But considering the subject of the interview going back to the very beginning makes the most sense.
First post out of the academy had Jansen, a newly minted Science officer catching up to the USS Aegis in a shuttle on its way back from SQ313 (and the disastrous mission it was). Doing his Starfleet duty, young Jansen reported directly to the chaotic bridge reporting to Lt. Cmdr. Zubowskivich with a line that quickly became a resonance call for Jansen “Where can I help?” Completely unimpressed with the ensign Tash beamed him directly, and without further comment, into the chaotic and overcrowded sickbay to triage where his first patient was the spouse of Fleet Captain Rocar!
It isn’t the most in-depth, or plot-driven moment I have had, but it immediately cemented to me how much fun writing with the people here in the Fleet could be, the excitement possible even when you were outside of your duty post, and exactly who Jansen would be as an officer
Thank you so much for your time!
You can read more about Lt Commander Jansen Orrey on the wiki.
