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 Josh Herrick playing a Human Male Engineering Officer assigned to the USS Octavia E. Butler.
DeVeau: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from? Anything you’d like to share!
Herrick: For sure! I live in the Great White North (Canada) and go by Mark. I work from home as a consultant, accompanied by my long-time partner and two miniature schnauzers. When I’m not writing, I’m usually watching some sci-fi or spending time with my family.
I love the urban city life and hope to permanently relocate to the Philippines; fun fact Metro Manila has 15 million folks in it and I feel that’s just the right size for me; the culture, the food, and amazing hospitality, it feels like home. We already built a house there and try to visit at least once a year.
What was your introduction to Science Fiction in general and Star Trek specifically?
::closing his eyes, reminiscing:: I think my earliest memory might have to be when I was 5 or 6, and my dad had The Original Series (TOS) on the television, and I distinctly remember telling him that it was boring and to change the channel. ::laughing:: Thankfully, my tastes have refined over the years.
When I was around 10, I started to get fascinated by the sci-fi genre, this was around when Enterprise had premiered and while I personally may never forgive the ending, it kickstarted me into this world. Often when I came home from school, I’d be watching syndicated episodes of The Next Generation or Voyager. As I grew older, I appreciated Deep Space 9 and Enterprise.
During middle school lunches, when it was -40C (-40F) outside and it was too cold to go out, I would make my classmates flip the channel and watch re-runs of TNG, and then in high school, I branched out to roleplaying.
What is your experience with roleplaying?
I started roleplaying 18 years ago oO Has it really been that long?! Oo. I had been dabbling in internet-relay chats (IRC) and stumbled across an organization called UCIP. They offered two simming formats, IRC and email. I chose the former, and every week on Saturday night 10-15 of us would show up for an hour and post our dialogue, actions, and development, in a single channel. While it was chaotic, it was great fun. I was also an engineer over there, playing a no-nonsense Vulcan.
Like Starbase 118, it was a large organization with great governance and an academy, and as my tenure progressed there, I became one of the lead instructors for newbies and aspiring engineers. After several years, work took over and I had to depart from the organization, and unfortunately the organization didn’t survive as the world changed as, after several attempted reboots, it appears to be defunct.
What brought you to SB118?
After COVID, I realized that my work was dominating every aspect of my life. Literally wake up, eat, work, sleep, repeat. I’d lost the spark of fun and joy in my life and was just ‘punching the clock’ of life. It can be a struggle to meet like-minded individuals out in the real world, particularly when you don’t have a workplace and the evaporation of ‘hang out’ places. So, I started searching for different roleplaying organizations.
Google was kind enough to highlight Starbase 118, and after spending several hours on the wiki, looking at the depth and breadth of this community, I was sold and put in my application. I’d not done a play-by-email (PBEM) simulation before, and it was safe to say my (and Josh’s) initial run was rocky, but we eventually made it through and I’ve been with the current crew for over a year now. Both the structure of the academy, and the really great people I sim alongside me, have made me a better writer that now has some real fun in his life!
Why did you choose this specific character and duty post?
While I don’t have any real engineering background, that’s the most attractive duty post for me — and thankfully, because most of it is fictional, I can scrape by with my limited working knowledge. And, when I’m stuck, I grab this guy ::dusting the cover and showing the TNG Technical Manual:: which is a good source of inspiration. Even though we’ve entered the 24th century, I find most concepts still resonate.
As for my character, I was pretty nervous moving into PBEM. I knew there would be a large learning curve for me and I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t biting off more than I could choose. So Josh is mostly a futuristic reflection of myself ::beat, smiling:: Though, he does get injured a fair bit more. I may rotate to another character in the future, but I find that as I write, I learn more about myself.
Where do you see your character five years from now?
Ahhh this good ol’ question, which I struggle to answer in career interviews. ::laughing:: I’ve found writing here that I like to keep things loose and roll with the latest development in each sim. I wasn’t sure where that would take me, but now I’m the Chief Engineer on the Octavia E Butler and want to settle in and own that position for a while. Not unlike my character, I do have aspirations to be a first officer and eventually captain. Putting on 2 more pips, and switching from gold to red, will feel less daunting with more experience under my belt.
Thanks for your time, Lieutenant Herrick!
You can read more about Lieutenant Josh Herrick on the wiki.
