Interview with Commodore (Capt) Thrawn Stardate 20202.01
This month's subject is Capt Matthew Thrawn, Commanding Officer, USS Dauntless.
(Note: This interview was conducted before Capt Thrawn became a CO, by Major Ecap)
How did you first get involved with the site?
Actually you have to thank the late James Terra to task for that – he was in one of his recruitment drives and we knew each other from a star trek chat room, so he suggested I take a look. I liked what I saw and joined up at the end of October 2000. Overall I haven’t really regretted it, though there have been a few times I reached for the phaser.
Could you sum Thrawn up in a few words?
Dependable, loyal, practical, focused, fairly easygoing but if need be utterly ruthless. And he and I have an evil sense of humor as some of you already know.
How did you come up with your character?
Any one who knows me will remember that I am a manic star wars fan, and my favorite character is Grand Admiral Thrawn. When I analyzed the character I could see a lot of me in him, and that’s one of the things we're delving into a bit further in some of the later questions. However that merely resulted in the choice of name, simply because once I got that name into my head I was stumped at the time of filling in the bio for any alternatives.
What is assured though is that my Thrawn character is not a Star Wars character simply transported into the Star Trek Universe. All my characters are essentially different parts of my real personality - the fact that I think they match quite well is merely coincidence and to any rebels amongst the site, should be definitely a bit worrying - LOL
Who, other than yourself, would you say had the biggest influence on your character?
That is very difficult to answer, as I think someone’s game character is influenced by the writer and those around him/her and the opportunities given to someone to show what they are made of. Obviously top of the list includes Dax and Longbow, as some of our joint ventures and some of the mission plots have enabled me to write posts that I wouldn’t have dreamt of writing when I first joined, and have enabled me to explore some extremes of my characters.
Has your character developed in a different way to the one that you imagined?
Not really simply because at the start I didn't really know how it would develop. The other point to consider is that as I said before, my characters are essentially me in reality. What you see is what you get - which hopefully all those I chat to on Messenger can recognize and attest to.
I guess the one surprise has been the number of high level characters I have been allowed to play - a Federation Minister, an Admiral, plus the latitude that the FAdm and some of the other GMs have allowed me to have in developing plot lines, which is appreciated especially as it has allowed the more power hungry side of my characters to evolve (LOL) not for the sake of accruing power but simply to be able to get the correct job done in the correct way, as Thrawn et al see it.
How much do you have in common with your character?
For this one I think you need to say Characters – there is a strong element of me in all of them. I hope that comes out in the writing, because I believe that to write a good post you really have to believe that you the writer are that person in that situation. I get accused sometimes of taking things too seriously – i.e. with Thrawn's mental battles on the Yoritomo’s last mission which I really enjoyed writing – even more so when I discovered that I had apparently wrong footed the GM in the way I took that storyline (revenge at last). For 4 days I was (in reality) at times fairly "down" due to the story line I was running. Likewise when things are challenging or working out well, I get a "buzz" from it. But then, that is why I (and I assume others) are on the site in the first place - to get enjoyment from it.
My personal real life career helps tremendously as well. After studying at University, I started my career in civil nuclear power engineering, so a lot of the engineering posts and difficulties I throw in from time to time are actually similar in some way to those I have seen in reality. My main personal challenge here is to not over complicate some of the posts, which I freely admit I fail to achieve on occasions based on the subsequent pleas for explanations. I also on the “odd” occasion tend to burn a hole in the bandwidth simply because I get a bit carried away with the story.
Of all my characters I think Thrawn and Nerada accurately reflect my character. I am fairly easy-going, find it hard to dislike people, bottle things up until things explode or go away, and always give people a second chance.
Do you have a favourite moment or scenario your character has been involved in?
This took a long time to think about as there are so many. On reflection I think my most favorite moments are:-
(1) As CEO on the Enterprise, transforming her from a museum ship into a warship in less than 2 hours (game time). As the sole engineer at that time, it allowed me to involve myself in so many different tasks and different departments (particularly the marines) and for almost 2 weeks I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Of course this is also the moment when the Thrawn NPC army was created, the major elements of which still survive.
(2) A close second was the Minister Tomardi/Shayla plotline. Tomardi was running an investigation and the plan was to actually put Admiral Jon Beckett/Strombringer on trial. Unfortunately due to everything that was happening in real life at the time we had to content with getting Admiral Charleston sacked and of course putting Capt Longbow under the spot light.
(3) The friendship of Adm Nekitaroma (me) and General Berkwitz (Avon) always makes me laugh, showing some of the wheeling-dealing that goes on behind the scenes (as in real life) to the betterment of the UFOP. The Admirals replacement of SF security by marines was a good point and this is a theme I keep coming back to. It led to a lot of humor both on and off the site, and allowed the engineering and marine corps to enter into a close alliance – numerous subplots have developed from this and there are more to come.
(4) Last but by no means least, the attraction of Thrawn and Dax to each other. Great fun and slightly unnerving whilst Captain Longbow keeps a close eye on the relationship (heheheh)
Looking into your crystal ball, what's in store for Thrawn's future?
Well I hope eventually a CO position for Thrawn.
My other main characters, Nekitaroma and Tomardi will of course still be around to plot and plan and keep the federation going...
I freely admit that it was a wrench giving up the CEO position after the Enterprise because from that position (provided it doesn’t impact on the main mission plot unless authorized), you can inject so many different stories into the engineering and other departments sphere of influence, that the players around you are hopefully never bored.
As FO you have to be very much more careful in what you inject due to the potential impact on the mission and though enjoyable, it is somewhat constraining at times having to wait on others to do something – this is where having several NPCs elsewhere helps.
As CO of course its your ship and you can do what you like - the onus is on the GM for the mission to put you back on track. Ha Ha Ha - Gawd help the people GMing my ship in the future.
Which NPC's do you particularly enjoy using \ interacting with?
Well let me take the main ones:
Adm Nekitaroma/Minister Tomardi/Cdr Thrawn
Fairly powerful characters who can set their own agenda and carry out things in their own way (within broad limits) - That is me in reality and exactly how I do things. I am fortunate in that in my career I set a lot of the standards and write or co-write many of the operational procedures for how I want things to work. If there is an easier, less bureaucratic way of doing something and it still meets the legal and company criteria, then that’s what I'll do. I hate bureaucracy and dogma, and will fight it if it gets in my way.
Lt Grynstal/ POs Kryteski & O'Connor plus others
Lower level officers whose main pre occupation is to get the job done first time and to do it efficiently, but in a friendly manner. Allows me to really get my hands dirty
Cdr Nerada(Instructor)
I like this one because when I am training others, this is how I operate. I prefer discussion and participation rather than a formal school class setting because that way at the end of the day I know whether the student has really understood something rather than just memorizing what we covered.
What do you think makes a good post?
This one is easy - if I (the reader) can visualize exactly what someone is feeling, doing and thinking of during a post - i.e. really living the part - and injecting some humor into the situation where appropriate, then that for me is a good post. It doesn’t have to include technical jargon but it does need to be consistent with the story line. We have a lot of very good players on the site and a lot of potential as well.
Which of the televised Trek shows is your favorite?
Star Trek New Generation.
I like most sci-fi anyway but as you may have guessed, I like to associate with a main character and analyze them – what would I have done in their situation was a common question. In this series there were so many excellent characters but my favorite was Jean-Luc, especially his interactions with Q. I think I only really disagreed with JLP's approach in one or two episodes, which out of 173-ish episodes isn't too bad.
What hooked you on Star Trek, and how long ago was it?
I think that this stemmed from my very young days. I was a science minded kid from an early age - very inquisitive about how things worked, and would not take things for granted unless I saw proof or the rationale of it. My parents encouraged me with encyclopedia's etc (hardcopy in those days) and the area of physics (especially nuclear power and the cosmos) attracted me. During my teenage years Europe was (to me as a kid) a dangerous place with two empires head to head and the threat of a NATO-Soviet conflict appeared to be never far away, plus of course the regular terrorist attacks in UK cities. I guess the idealist nature of ST and SW and the multitude of sci-fi programmers, coupled with my scientific background, struck the right note about what humanity could achieve in the future if only everyone would tolerate each other. That still holds true to me now, though obviously the idealism has in part given way to practicalities.
Who are your favorite characters from each series and why?
There were never really any characters that I disliked, though I did prefer Tasha Yar as the Romulan compared to the federation version, which did sort of grate on me..
TOS
Montgomery Scott followed by the rest - my impression of what a CEO should be like. Can react to most challenges and through his ingenuity save the day. No job was never too much and carried out with enough enthusiasm for the whole crew.
STNG
Picard. I also really liked the Q and Gynan characters for the depth that they brought to the series. As I said before I especially enjoy programs where I can sit back, analyze the character and wonder what I would have done based on the info at my fingertips. JLP was a fascinating character and I can see why Q and Gynan stuck with him.
DS9
Sisko, Quark and Odo, followed closely by the rest. Again because I like to analyze and ask myself "would I do what he did?" I usually study the CO more so than the others. The Quark/Odo/Kiera interaction was also very good to watch
Voyager
Tom Paris for his humor and the doctor for his attitude. I felt Janeway was a good CO but not as good as the others.
What other characters do you regularly post for? (NPCs, etc.)
Cripes – main ones are currently
Admiral Nekitaroma, Minister Tomardi, Capt Delfen, Lt’s Grynstal, Hampson & Ashcroft, Petty Officers Kryteski and O’Connor.
At one stage I was posting for 13 NPCs which was interesting for me, but was only really practical because at that time we didn’t have many people on board and a lot to do. If there are a few real players around, I deliberately try not to use too many NPCs. Apart from anything else – it is not fair on real players and takes too much time.
Do you use any reference books, CD-ROMs or other information sources to help you post?
Yes – hardcopy of 1701D technical specs, plus various good websites
http://www.angelfire.com/ak/StarTrekVoyagerLcars/tech.html
to name but a few.
What advice would you give to our newer players who might be hoping for a Command within the site someday?
I think the underlying rules that worked for me are:
(1) Be yourself or if you are pretending to have certain qualities that you don’t have in reality then stick with them – don’t chop and change. That only confuses the other readers.
(2) Keep abreast of the various story lines and react accordingly. Try to ensure that your posts are relevant, timely and consistent. Include your thoughts and feelings so that others can understand what is driving you, and what you are aiming towards.
(3) Don’t be afraid to strike up conversations with other players from other departments, but always do it in an appropriate manner.
I also speak with a lot of players via MSN-messenger for a couple of hours in the evenings where we discus our views on the way various story lines are going, help each other along with ideas and techno-speak. We also chat about the real world and I think that’s important – I am a firm believer in the community side of the site – helping each other out. I have made a lot of friends that way. That is what sets this site above the others in my view.
And lastly, if Captain Dax was about to jump off a cliff, and ordered her whole crew to follow, what would you do?
Not necessarily. Though I am a loyal FO I would need to understand that the Captains approach was the correct one for the Federation and the crew.
Saying that, I am a believer that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one, and if after exploring all avenues I had to put myself at serious risk to save others then I believe I would take that path. Whether I would ever order someone else to sacrifice themselves is less certain – I believe everyone has a responsibility in this real world and in the star trek world to make that choice for themselves after full analysis of the facts.
