"To Infinity and Beyond!" For the "What-if?' Writing Challenge

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

The prompt:

What If...

UNCLE is a space age (as in Science Fiction), law enforcement entity that protects EARTH from invading aliens? What if Solo and Kuryakin are all geeked up SciFi heroes and THRUSH isn't earthbound?

Click on the pic to take you to AO3:




A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this story and I kept envisioning Illya reading the bedtime story from a space aged comic book to the little boy in "The When in Roma Affair." Not the scenario from the comic, but think 'geeked up' sci-fi heroes for sure in this story. I was trying to go for a bit of a comic book feel...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The only thing/s missing in your space fic is/are mecha and/or powered armor imho gotta geek out on mecha!.

Otherwise it's rather enjoyable.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

That is a fun adventure. Oddly enough, it reminded me of my own 'sf' when I was a kid. (Did you ever read Look&Learn's Jason January? He was more for the British, though.)

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! It didn't take me long to write it considering it's over 4000 words. I just had to think like a SF writer and not completely MFU. Luckily I'm a fan of space sagas, that's why there were many elements from so many science fiction series. I left out a few of the influences as I couldn't remember al their names, and just bits and bobs from them.

Never heard of Jason January. Will see if I can find.

I hope this came across with a sort of 'comic book' feeling to it?

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Definitely the space opera feel, in a good way. (The Jason January is pretty unobtainable nowadays.)

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reaffirmation. Will at least look up about Jason January.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I found a nice little article on line about Jason January: Space Cadet. The writer compared elements of it to "Star Ship Troopers" with which I was familiar. Reading snippets of JJ, it made me smile as it showed me my story had the same sort of feel to it.

https://walterhiggins.net/blog/Jason-January-Space-Cadet

Glenna suggested Solo and Kuryakin be all geeked up SciFi heroes and I ran with it. Glad it had that comic book space saga feeling as that's what I was shooting for.

[duckys-lady.livejournal.com]

Great story and well done! You captured the science fiction feel and still stayed true to UNCLE.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you thank you! I'm so glad you liked it. Getting the mix of Sci-Fi elements along with MFU canon/fanon was a bit tricky at first until I settled in to writing a semi-serious story but with a comic book feel to it. "D

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

I've left a comment on AO3, but I will repeat the first word here - Awesome!!!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you thank you cuz!

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

UNCLE is a space age (as in Science Fiction), law enforcement entity that protects EARTH from invading aliens?

Just FYI: That's Men in Black.

Seriously, the author based his idea on UNCLE. That's why they wore suits and carried those pens.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is MIB is based on MFU. Interesting tidbit. I never made the connection and just accepted MIB at face value.

My UNCLE in this fic is headquartered on a space station. Illya's half human, Waverly is a Wookie- like alien and Napoleon is an inter-species horn dog. Plenty of references to MFU canon and fanon and it still came across like a space saga comic...which was my intention.

So did you like my story?

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Yes. MIB is based on MUNCLE. It was in an author interview. I have the cite somewhere.

I didn't get to read it yet. Butt deep in exams and grading and then I'm off to LA on Wednesday. I'm going to try to download it and read it on the plane.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Wow, never picked up on the MIB-MFU thing. Duh!

When you do get to read the story I hope you enjoy it. I tried not to make it too campy.

Have a great trip!

[sidhe-uaine42.livejournal.com]

The only thing/s missing in your space fic is/are mecha and/or powered armor imho gotta geek out on mecha!.

Otherwise it's rather enjoyable.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it. Sadly I have no idea what 'mecha and/or powered armor imho' is, Clue me in?

[sidhe-uaine42.livejournal.com]

Powered armor: example, "Ironman's suit"

Mecha is mostly seen in anime like Linebarrel, Voltron or in the Front Mission series of video games (perhaps in the Final Fantasy games. I don't have any examples from Western sources, sorry. *blush*

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Ahhh that explains it. I don't watch anime (as I detest the typical type of animation used as it seems so unsuphistcated to me) and I don't play video games. So that explains why none of that is in my story.

To Infinity and Beyond is actually written more the the classic comic book style from when I was a kid. (Well that and maybe a little of the original 'Flash Gordon' serial from way back as well.. Still the more contemporary Sci-Fi references made their way into my story.

Thanks for the explanation.

[sidhe-uaine42.livejournal.com]

You're not familiar with Tony Stark? You're not familiar with Ironman? The Ironman "suit" is the most famous example of powered armor that I can think of without research!

I apologize for this, but Ironman is a rather famous comic book character in the Marvel Comics "universe": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man)

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Oh I know who Tony Stark is thanks to the movies. As to when he came into the Marvel Universe. i.e. in comic book form I have no idea. I stopped reading comics well over 50 years ago,

I know some of ,the newer characters, through the movies only. Like X-Men, Spiderman, Captain America, the Flash as well as the many Marvel characters,, I've only recently become more familiar with them.

Superman, to me goes back to the 1950's. Wonder woman had her own TV show etc. So it's through the telly and film that I'm familiar with them. As I said, I remember growing up seeing the original Flash Gordon serials with Buster Crabbe.

When I was a kid I recall that it was DC comics that was the more familiar name to me. Heck it was a long time ago, so I can't remember if I read Mavel Comics or not. I wasn't really heavily into them.

When I answered you previously I was only referring to the terms you used...as I had no clue what they meant. They're more modern day terms at least to me and as I said I'm not into anime or video games.