The Last Outpost

I have always feared the third and fourth episodes of a new season. Generally speaking, the first two have often been well received - then something seems to go sideways when number three rolls around. Last season, this seemed to turn around with 'Kingdom of the Heavens' - an episode which greatly advanced the Halkonian storyline and was nothing short of extremely ambitious.

For 'Aletheia' - I wanted to scale it back. But by doing so, I inadvertently miscalculated a number of things. Firstly, the map. I wanted a closed in feel so chose the Daedalus due to it's tight corridors and small rooms. As it turns out, you may not be surprised to hear, it got rather cramped in places. I made the call to switch to local chat within five minutes of beaming over - to ensure that the different teams could get on with their own assignments in 'peace.' This didn't entirely hold up as I had hoped - hence the reminder at the break.

I left you all to decide how your character's disposition changed throughout the episode, so obviously I can only be to blame for your personal calamities.  :P I even went so far as to lock myself in a shuttle and leave you all to it (except Jemma, of course) - so when I returned to the group, I was getting a fresh look at what had transpired, as Mason herself did. Whether this element of the roleplay even worked in the slightest - I leave to the rest of you to decide.

On the plus side, we heard some very inspirational stuff from Archibald, Barnes punctured his back, Kimble has a deep desire to harm, Fox spent plenty of time on the floor, Jemma is very grim when she's delusional, Mason flirted with Jemma's ears while planning to meet her parents, Rogan has a new nickname, McClintock has a new nickname, Paris was the MVP, nobody cared about Costello's incapacitation, Conrey learned something about a gorn warrior and Jennifer Scott failed to materialise again. Oh, and Mason clearly isn't any form of Telosian royalty. Somebody would know about that kind of thing.

We also saw that Mason located and recovered Peirce's case of many secrets - with what was seemingly a message from Red Dawn. Does that confirm their involvement? Did Mason know where to look? Will Starfleet learn what happened to the crew? Who sabotaged the life support system and to what end? Where were those Klingon ships heading? What has happened with Hobus while the Hera has been out in unfamiliar waters?

Well... we might find out all of those things eventually. But rest assured, we're back on Pioneer full-time next week for a rather less... chaotic affair.

Nevertheless, thank you all for attending. Rate and butcher discuss, above and below!

Fun. Lotsa lotsa fun - and that's rare in a SRP episode. Be proud Grizz/Clara.

The map sounds and music were annoying, but you chose it for a reason. You just didn't expect a dozen people to be milling around it. :P  Look forward to Tabula!

Other than the rather irritating map sounds, I thought this episode was brilliant. I spent a significant amount of time (while I was dead) trying to figure out which NCIS episode it reminded me of. If my memory serves, it was Chimera.

I found this episode to be great, quite a lot of fun. I found myself "enlightened" by my character's change in a personality (Those metaphors took more time than they should have to think of)
Of course there was the problem of noise but that's the maps fault (in all it's magnificence)

Good episode. It started out a bit mucky because of the small-ness of the map, but we did manage to get a better experience int eh 2nd half of the RP.  It was fun to see everyone's character show a different side of themselves, although i think some people where a bit too trigger happy. It turned out to be verry good episode the second half though, and the solution to the problem was relatively simple, thank god we had baldy to figure it out for us, Geronimo!

Aletheia. The Greek word for truth. And if there is one thing that was in abundance in this episode, it was truth. The episode, which presented itself as a prime opportunity to develop  each character to the player's choosing, ended up doing just that. I think I'll start by writing a bit about the character development in the episode...

Character development is tricky business. You always have two base options. The first is to write an episode where the character is forced into an outcome which affects how they will play out in the future of the series. The second option is to let the player decide which direction they are going to take their character. The latter is always preferred, but in some cases not practical. Character development also often leaves little room for a plot, since time and energy is not being devoted to the advancement of a story. Aletheia demonstrated what happens when you have both elements implemented and running simultaneously. The result depends partially on the skill level of the players, but also partially on the director of the episode.

In the case of Aletheia, the result was an absolutely fantastic middle ground that ended up using both elements to add substantially to the episode rather than the elements detracting from each other. The episode put us in the middle of an epidemic where the social dynamics of the episode were dictated entirely by the crew, with pushes from the director for the storyline but not at all for the crew and their characters. I think the beautiful thing about this system is that the director doesn't need to worry about the characters. Barring someone going around and shooting up the place (which would result in an instant server ban) there is really very little any character change could do to affect the outcome of the directed element: the plot.

Overall, Aletheia's character development may be treated as an experiment, in my opinion. With the pathogen gone and the crew back to their normal states, it will likely be a long time before anyone brings up 'that ship' again. With the slate cleared, the experiment is over and while it may have resonating effects in the future, it is currently concluded (successfully, I might add).

Aletheia, while getting us all to use our imaginations for the different character personas that we would be using, also presented us with a storyline. Trying to get off of the ship. This meant curing the microbial pathogen that was floating around. This turned out to work hand-in-hand with the character development simply due to the nature of the medical emergency (I never thought I would say that). While we were floating about getting more and more unlike ourselves, the pathogen was still filling the air. This turned out to be a great test of the medical staff and their ability to handle a stressful situation whilst also keeping up with the rapid developments. There's not much I can say here from a plot standpoint since it would only tie back into the character development facet of the episode. I will, however, say that it was very fun for me and I'm pretty sure my ACMO will never leave the station voluntarily again.

The main thing that needs to be addressed is the little bit that happened in the end. It's already been mentioned above in the summary post but as we were leaving the ship, Sophia Mason picked up some incredible cargo: the personal briefcase of one Walter Pierce. This raises some interesting and unique questions about certain circumstances. Firstly, Sophia seemed to know where to go for that case and yet she had no prior knowledge of Pierce being on the station. She went so far as to confront two senior officers up-front about it when she discovered that the man had been under her nose the entire time but then released. Perhaps more importantly, we have to question what this briefcase means for the rest of us. Every time Pierce is brought into our lives, so many suffer and command staff is ALWAYS placed in a position to make a difficult decision. So what decision does this briefcase bring? Is this for Mason only or are we all going to feel it burn as it throws us once more into the fray? Questions questions questions.

The important thing to remember is that every question answered brings forth new questions. That, I find, is just Accobar's way of keeping us in line. Aletheia was fantastically put together and I have nothing but good things to say about it. It was intriguing in ways that we cannot fully realize yet and it definitely displayed the director's talent in episode creation. Thanks to Grizz for the continuing epic and wonderful experience that Asteroid Field provides week after week!

NOTE: I have now sat down to write this review four times this week and each time I have found myself distracted by outside forces each time. I am terribly sorry Grizz and next time I PROMISE to get the review up in a timely manner. Apparently all it takes is me laying in bed ignoring the rest of the world as I type.