Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of Duty Post awards from our recent 2018 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters.
This month we’re interviewing the writer behind Lieutenant Tasha MacFarlane playing a Human female Engineering Officer assigned to the USS Gorkon. She won the Phoenix award: “A duty post award that recognizes engineers. Named for the vessel that legendary engineer Zefram Cochrane piloted during his historic first warp flight, this award goes to those Engineering officers who continue this tradition of excellence in the field of engineering. 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.”
GALVEN: Thank you for agreeing to have an interview with me! Could you tell us a little about yourself for our readers out there?
MACFARLANE: Sure, my name is Theo, and I hail from Middle Earth, more commonly known as New Zealand. I’m currently a student, studying Archaeology, and hoping to pursue a career in the field. I write for Tasha MacFarlane, the cheerful Chief Engineer of the USS Gorkon.
Winning a duty post award that’s based on pure creativity and problem solving must be a great feeling! Do you take any inspiration from films, television, or books when writing your character and her actions?
Every now and again I will remember something I’ve seen in one of the films or an episode, and may draw some inspiration from them, but generally I prefer to go with the flow and allow Tasha to tell me how she plans to solve the problem. If that doesn’t work, Memory Alpha is a good place to go idea hunting, even if it is just to pick the name of the tool that Tasha is going to use.
