History FanFic / MarissaPicard

In late 1993, one Stephen Ratliff wrote a ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' FixFic to rescue the alternate-timeline Tasha Yar and redeem her half-Romulan daughter Sela, and posted it to the UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}} group alt.startrek.creative. As a B-plot, Ratliff took several of the [[IncrediblyLamePun minor]] preteen characters who appeared in single episodes of the series--notably including Marissa Flores and Jay Gordon from the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E5Disaster "Disaster"]], Clara Sutter of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E22ImaginaryFriend "Imaginary Friend"]], and Worf's son Alexander--and gave them the keys to the ''Enterprise'''s saucer while the grown-ups were away.

In late 1993, one Stephen Ratliff wrote a ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' FixFic to rescue the alternate-timeline Tasha Yar and redeem her half-Romulan daughter Sela, and posted it to the Website/{{Usenet}} group alt.startrek.creative. As a B-plot, Ratliff took several of the [[IncrediblyLamePun minor]] preteen characters who appeared in single episodes of the series--notably including Marissa Flores and Jay Gordon from the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E5Disaster "Disaster"]], Clara Sutter of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E22ImaginaryFriend "Imaginary Friend"]], and Worf's son Alexander--and gave them the keys to the ''Enterprise'''s saucer while the grown-ups were away.

In late 1993, one Stephen Ratliff wrote a ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' FixFic to rescue the alternate-timeline Tasha Yar and redeem her half-Romulan daughter Sela, and posted it to the Website/{{Usenet}} group alt.startrek.creative. As a B-plot, Ratliff took several of the [[IncrediblyLamePun minor]] preteen characters who appeared in single episodes of the series--notably including Marissa Flores and Jay Gordon from the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E5Disaster "Disaster"]], Clara Sutter of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E22ImaginaryFriend "Imaginary Friend"]], and Worf's son Alexander--and gave them the keys to the saucer while the grown-ups were away.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Throughout the entire series of fanfics, many characters talk about their survival times in the ''Kobayashi Maru'' simulation, with people who have the longest survival times being seen as the top dogs. Anyone who knows anything about Star Trek knows that this is one of the stupidest things ever committed to the page of fanfiction. For those who don’t know, this particular simulation is designed to show how good a starship commander can handle the possibility of a no-win situation. In it, the captain and his bridge crew receive a distress signal from a freighter ship called the ''Kobayashi Maru''. You, as captain, have to decide whether to leave the ship alone, or rescue it. Should you decide to rescue the ship, you and your crew are overrun by an ever-increasing number of enemy ships who attack your ship until it is destroyed and your crew was killed. The idea behind the simulation is not to see how long you can last, but to see your command skills in the face of impending doom. It is not, designed to see who has the longest survival time as if it’s a high score in a video game or how much you can bench at the gym!

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: throughout the entire series of fanfics, many characters talk about their survival times in the Kobayashi Maru simulation, with people who have the longest survival times being seen as the top dogs. Anyone who knows anything about Star Trek knows that this is one of the stupidest things ever committed to the page of fanfiction. For those who don’t know, this particular simulation is designed to show how good a starship commander can handle the possibility of a no-win situation. In it, the captain and his bridge crew receive a distress signal from a freighter ship called the “Kobayashi Maru”. You, as captain, have to decide whether to leave the ship alone, or rescue it. Should you decide to rescue the ship, you and your crew are overrun by an ever-increasing number of enemy ships who attack your ship until it is destroyed and your crew was killed. The idea behind the simulation is not to see how long you can last, but to see your command skills in the face of impending doom. It is not, designed to see who has the longest survival time as if it’s a high score in a video game or how much you can bench at the gym!

[[DescribeTopicHere Describe]] ''[[DescribeTopicHere Marissa Picard]]'' [[DescribeTopicHere here.]]

Oh brother, where do we begin?

Maybe with a disclaimer: it's important to note that [[PoesLaw this character is NOT a parody or satire]] on MarySue characters. If it were, it would be pure and absolute genius... but sadly, the author is actually ''serious.''

With that being said, on to our story...

...No, really. Yes, still serious. It seems that since their canonical appearances these ambitious kiddies have been playing at being Starfleet officers in the holodeck, and it turns out they all had fantastic survival times in the ''Kobayashi Maru'' simulation -- better even than Data's -- so no less than Spock himself gives the plan the A-OK.

The story was published before UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember, a NewbieBoom for the Internet that occurred in 1993. Think of it as being a bit like the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' equivalent of ''Fanfic/MyImmortal''.

* AdultsAreUseless: Although, technically, anybody not named Marissa is useless. People over the age of twenty-one might as well be marooned on ice-floes. Or simply euthanized, [[{{Metaphorgotten}} like in]] the novel version of ''Literature/LogansRun''.
* AttackPatternAlpha: Used frequently, often named for composers.

* ImprobableAge

* KidHero: Boy, is she ever!

* MeaningfulName:
** Guess what happens to Ensign Throwaway?
** Though certainly a coincidence, the name "Marissa" sounds remarkably like "Mary Sue."

* OverrankedSoldier: Guess who?

* TimeTravel: In "Time Speeder".

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans The Naklab system]], with M-class planets Nevolsia, Troac, Sobnia, and Bresa. Troac and Bresa are fighting over Sobnia. Marissa, aged fourteen, negotiates a system-wide 'tready' by locking the ambassadors into the conference room and refusing to let them out until they behave.

In late 1993, one Stephen Ratliff wrote a ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' FixFic to rescue the alternate-timeline Tasha Yar and redeem her half-Romulan daughter Sela, and posted it to the Website/{{Usenet}} group alt.startrek.creative. As a B-plot, Ratliff took several of the [[IncrediblyLamePun minor]] preteen characters who appeared in single episodes of the series--notably including Marissa Flores and Jay Gordon from the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E5Disaster Disaster]]", Clara Sutter of "Imaginary Friend", and Worf's son Alexander--and gave them the keys to the saucer while the grown-ups were away.

''And'' she was placed in charge of Starfleet by the time she was twenty-one. ''And'' won the [[strike:Kentucky Derby]] Triple Crown. ''And'' was instrumental in finally bringing Picard and Doctor Crusher together. ''And''... well, Marissa doesn't like overly long titles.

** Also, the BigLippedAlligatorMoment mentioned on the [[YMMV/MarissaPicard YMMV page]].
* [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Does This Remind You Of Anything]]/[[SignificantAnagram Significant Anagram]]: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans The Naklab system]], with M-class planets Nevolsia, Troac, Sobnia, and Bresa. Troac and Bresa are fighting over Sobnia. Marissa, aged fourteen, negotiates a system-wide 'tready' by locking the ambassadors into the conference room and refusing to let them out until they behave.

* FeudalFuture: In case you missed it the first time, Marissa Amber Flores Picard Gordon is Princess and Heir to the Throne of Planet Essex.
** Takes a massive level in hilarity when you realise (as Ratliff evidently didn't) that the actual county of Essex is otherwise considered basically the UK version of UsefulNotes/NewJersey. Especially [[TheDitz in terms of blonde teen girls]].
*** And from there, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_County,_New_Jersey the joke comes full circle.]]
** Ratliff seems to have a heavy obsession with noble titles, focusing heavily on them in the stories where they come up.

* ForgottenPhlebotinum: In "A Gul's Revenge", and again in "A Battle for Bajor", a Cardassian ship fires torpedoes at Marissa's ship. She grabs the torpedoes with her ship's tractor beams and ''hurls them back at the Cardassian ship'', disabling it. Needless to say, the Cardassians never adapt to this game-changing tactic, and no other Starfleet captains ever use it.
** Probably because torpedoes have such powerful shields that they glow brightly, otherwise it would be simply smarter to blast them with phasers. But Mary Sues make their own laws.. of physics.

* HateFic[=/=]DarkFic: Ratliff's stories have inspired a few full-fledged Hate Fics, including one written by Creator/AdamCadre where Marissa embraces the role of the EldritchAbomination "[[FanNickname Manat]]". (See also: OffingTheOffspring, ImAHumanitarian.)
** A great number of Ratliff parodies, HateFic and otherwise, can be found [[http://home.netcom.com/~mblackwl/trib.html here]]. The Manat hate-fic is "Dark Marissa #1: The Master Builders." An even more disturbing hate-fic titled ''Marissa Pays Off Karma'' used to be linked from that site, too, but has since been removed at the author's request.

* MeaningfulName: Guess what happens to Ensign Throwaway?

* OutOfCharacter: Oh boy howdy yes. Does Picard of the source material look like the kind of fella who would adopt? Also, does Riker strike you as the type who would constantly let himself be pwned by a twelve-year-old? Would Worf really be that concerned about ensuring 'Alex' gets his 'Uncle Kurn' a birthday present?
** Last but not least, did the original shy, timid Marissa Flores ''herself,'' seem ''anything'' like Ratliff's Mary-Sue bastardized homunculus of her? Are we supposed to believe that one incident of coping with a difficult and dangerous situation would turn her into a teenage superhero, rather than simply landing her in trauma-therapy?

* RedShirt: Ensign Throwaway, in both Ratliff's original draft of ''Enterprized!'' and his later rewrite.

* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Abandon hope, all ye grammar nerds who venture in here. Ratliff's defensive disclaimer -- 'All spelling errors are to be ingored' -- has reached near-MemeticMutation status in certain circles.
** His first story, "Enterprized" (yes, he even misspelled the name of the ship), actually declares in the header that "Spell checker is down," as if a spell checker were an independent piece of hardware and Ratliff's was on the fritz.
** Ratliff did eventually get a spelling checker, but there's a big difference between a spelling checker and a grammar checker. More than once, a character answered yes by saying "of coarse."

* ChewbaccaDefense: In "Premier Maquis" (the one with the Ratliff Gas), Marissa gets assigned to defend Ro Laren in her court martial for defecting to the Maquis[[note]]in the TNG episode "Preemptive Strike"[[/note]]; Marissa's main argument is that Ro ''[[InsaneTrollLogic resigned from Starfleet]]'' before defecting[[note]]in the sense of sabotaging the mission she was on and holding Riker at phaser-point before leaving, but nevermind[[/note]], and should therefore be tried as a civilian. She wins the case.

* TheDanza: The character's last name was taken from Erika Flores, the actress who ''played'' the character in the single Episode ''Disaster.''

* MandatoryMotherhood: At least half of the saga is devoted to domestic SoapOpera, in which Ratliff, with all the dedicated enthusiasm of a [[TheFifties 50's]] women's magazine writer, sets about pairing up his characters and starts them popping out kids ''just'' as soon as they finish puberty themselves.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: At the same time it's discovered that Marissa is the Princess and Heir to the Throne of the planet Essex, her best friend Clara is also revealed as a Princess of the same planet. Note that until then, these two have absolutely no connection beyond both their families just happening to serve aboard the same starship.

The story was published before UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember, a NewbieBoom for the Internet that occurred in 1993.