History FanFic / MarissaPicard

Except that Ratliff took a shine to his "Kid's Crew", and brought them back to headline his other fanfic. His favorite was the captain of the crew, Marissa Flores. He renamed her (probably not intentionally) 'Marrissa Floras', cured her canonical timid diffidence ''really'' quick, had Captain Picard adopt her after her real parents met the fate of all redshirts, and sent her rising swiftly through the ranks until she became a fully commissioned starship captain while still a preteen. Shortly before which she had been discovered to be the long-lost princess and heir of a small planet (itself apparently a colony of the United Kingdom).

''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, Marrissa doesn't like overly long titles.

* AdultsAreUseless: Although, technically, anybody not named Marrissa is useless. People over the age of twenty-one might as well be marooned on ice-floes. Or simply euthanized, like in the novel version of ''Literature/LogansRun''.

* CaptainObvious: In chapter four of "Enterprized", it's stated repeatedly that two members of the landing party with the same last name as Marrissa (spelled wrong, but hey) have been killed and Picard even tells Riker he'll be the one to tell Marrissa the news. Apparently, Ratliff thought the subtext wasn't obvious enough, so he ends the chapter with an author's note helpfully explaining that "Lt. and Ensign Floras" were Marrissa's parents. And no, it's not explained which was her father and which was her mother.[[note]]Though, given the number of babies women seem to crank out in the Ratliffverse, and the greater downtime that maternity leave normally engenders when compared to paternity leave, we can probably guess.[[/note]]

* ChewbaccaDefense: In "Premier Maquis" (the one with the Ratliff Gas), Marrissa gets assigned to defend Ro Laren in her court martial for defecting to the Maquis[[note]]in the TNG episode "Preemptive Strike"[[/note]]; Marrissa'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.
* CrossOver: One short involves Marrissa and friends playing [[Manga/SailorMoon Sailor Scouts]] in a Holodeck simulation. Wesley is Tuxedo Mask. [[{{Squick}} Remember, in these stories he's her stepbrother.]]

* [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Does This Remind You Of Anything]]/[[SignificantAnagram Significant Anagram]]: The Naklab system, with M-class planets Nevolsia, Troac, Sobnia, and Bresa. Troac and Bresa are fighting over Sobnia. Marrissa, aged fourteen, negotiates a system-wide 'tready' by locking the ambassadors into the conference room and refusing to let them out until they behave.

* FixFic: The fanfic that started it all, "Enterprized", mainly revolved around rescuing the alternate-universe Tasha Yar who was Sela's mother; Marrissa and the Kids' Crew were the B plot.
* ForgottenPhlebotinum: In "A Gul's Revenge", and again in "A Battle for Bajor", a Cardassian ship fires torpedoes at Marrissa'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.

* HateFic[=/=]DarkFic: Ratliff's stories have inspired a few full-fledged Hate Fics, including one written by Creator/AdamCadre where Marrissa 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 Marrissa #1: The Master Builders." An even more disturbing hate-fic titled ''Marrissa Pays Off Karma'' used to be linked from that site, too, but has since been removed at the author's request.

* IdiotBall: The very first instance was a Cardiassian attacking Earth (as in, declaring war on the entire Federation) in a single ship with a single phaser bank. If we went on, we'd be here all month.

* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous: Yes, Marrissa gets to meet BillClinton and Prince William...

Absolutely no relation to [[FanFic/{{ITSMYLIFE}} Marrissa Roberts.]] [[note]]Actually, WordOfGod is that there ''is'' a relation.[[/note]]

Absolutely no relation to [[FanFic/{{ITSMYLIFE}} Marrissa Roberts.]] [[hottip:*:Actually, WordOfGod is that there ''is'' a relation.]]

* CaptainObvious: In chapter four of "Enterprized", it's stated repeatedly that two members of the landing party with the same last name as Marrissa (spelled wrong, but hey) have been killed and Picard even tells Riker he'll be the one to tell Marrissa the news. Apparently, Ratliff thought the subtext wasn't obvious enough, so he ends the chapter with an author's note helpfully explaining that "Lt. and Ensign Floras" were Marrissa's parents. And no, it's not explained which was her father and which was her mother.[[hottip:*:Though, given the number of babies women seem to crank out in the Ratliffverse, and the greater downtime that maternity leave normally engenders when compared to paternity leave, we can probably guess.]]

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

* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: She is Mar[r]issa Amber Flores Picard Gordon, Princess and Heir to the Throne of Essex, Captain of the U.S.S. Essex/Nova/Whatever ship she's gotten her grubby mitts on this time around, Lord High Commander of All Kids' Crews, Supreme commander of all Star Fleet, winner of the Triple Crown, and holder of the highest Kobayashi Maru time ''evar''. Look upon her works, ye mighty, and despair.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: AsYouKnow, [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation the Kobayashi Maru]] exam was a SecretTestOfCharacter to force cadets to learn how to deal with failure. How long they survive is thus completely, utterly meaningless. In ''these'' stories, Marrissa and other Kids' Crew members trade their [[EndlessGame survival times]] in the exam with each other like it's their PowerLevel.

* HateFic[=/=]DarkFic: Ratliff's stories have inspired a few full-fledged Hate Fics, including one written by AdamCadre where Marrissa embraces the role of the EldritchAbomination "[[FanNickname Manat]]". (See also: OffingTheOffspring, ImAHumanitarian.)

* AdultsAreUseless: Although, technically, anybody not named Marrissa is useless. People over the age of twenty-one might as well be marooned on ice-floes. Or simply euthanized, like in the novel version of ''LogansRun''.

In late 1993, one Stephen Ratliff wrote a ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' FixFic to rescue the alternate-timeline Tasha Yar and redeem her half-Romulan daughter Sela, and posted it to the {{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 (including Worf's son Alexander) and gave them the keys to the saucer while the grown-ups were away. See, they've 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.

They managed to singlehandedly defeat Cardassian Gul Dukat trying to invade Earth (with exactly one ship), humiliating him by [[ZorroMark burning "I was beaten by a bunch of kids" on the hull of his disabled invasion fleet]]. Picard & company bring Tasha and Sela back after swinging by [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]], and that's the end.

* CelebrityParadox: Averted. In "Time Speeder", we find out that all records of the ''StarTrek'' franchise were classified as Top Secret once "reality" started following "fiction".

* TheDanza: the name "Flores" was simply the last name of the actress originally portraying the character in the ''StarTrek:TheNextGeneration'' episode "Disaster," presumably since it was a one-time appearance and so there was no need to invent a fully-fictitious name. (Little did they know....)

** There's also a rather pathetic enemy race called the Trakce, who seem to exist solely so that Ratliff can take thinly-veiled potshots at somebody named Eckart.

* HateFic[=/=]DarkFic: Ratliff's stories have inspired a few full-fledged Hate Fics, including one written by AdamCadre where Marrissa embraces the role of the EldritchAbomination "[[FanNickname Manat]]". (See also: OffingTheOffspring, [=~I'm A Humanitarian~=].)

* CaptainObvious: In chapter four of "Enterprized", it's stated repeatedly that two members of the landing party with the same last name as Marrissa (spelled wrong, but hey) have been killed and Picard even tells Riker he'll be the one to tell Marrissa the news. Apparently, Ratliff thought the subtext wasn't obvious enough, so he ends the chapter with an author's note helpfully explaining that "Lt. and Ensign Floras" were Marrissa's parents. And no, it's not explained which was her father and which was her mother.[[hottip:*:Though, given the number of babies women seem to crank out in the Ratliffverse, and the greater downtime that Maternity Leave normally engenders when compared to Paternity Leave, we can probably guess.]]

Absolutely no relation to [[FanFic/{{ITSMYLIFE}} Marrissa Roberts.]]

Just read the stories. Most of them can be found {{MST}}ed [[http://home.netcom.com/%7Emblackwl/mst.html here]] and [[http://www.svamcentral.org/ewic/ms-mar.html here]].

* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous: Yes, Marrissa gets to meet Bill Clinton and Prince William...

** The actress, [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282810/ Erika Flores]], later played Colleen Cooper for the first two-and-a-half seasons of ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'', and appeared in an episode of ''{{House}}'' and of ''[[TheLoveBoat Love Boat: The Next Wave]]''. Coincidentally, her sister is named ''Melissa'' Flores.

** Also, the BigLippedAlligatorMoment mentioned on the [[YMMV/MarissaPicaard YMMV page]].

* CrossOver: One short involves Marrissa and friends playing [[SailorMoon Sailor Scouts]] in a Holodeck simulation. Wesley is Tuxedo Mask. [[{{Squick}} Remember, in these stories he's her stepbrother.]]

** Also, the BigLippedAlligatorMoment mentioned above.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Marissa_Picard_3713.jpg
[[caption-width:256:Art by Tim [=McLees=], text by Alex Fauth.]]

* ForgottenPhebotinum: In "A Gul's Revenge", and again in "A Battle for Bajor", a Cardassian ship fires torpedoes at Marrissa'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.

* ForgottenPhebotinum: In one story, an enemy fires photon torpedoes at Marrissa's ship. She grabs the torpedoes with her ship's tractor beams, ''hurls them back at the ship that fired them'', and destroys her attacker. Needless to say, this game-changing tactic is never used again by anyone.