This article is about the fanfic series. For the series of published science fiction novels called The Grand Tour, see Ben Bova. For the car show by Clarkson, Hammond, and May after they left the BBC, see The Grand Tour.
The Grand Tour series is a collection of fanfics written by Drunken Grognard. It is a Mega Crossover featuring appearance of numerous series, but mostly focuses on the casts of Star Trek, Lyrical Nanoha, Ranma ½, and Sailor Moon, with semi-major appearances of Black Lagoon and Slayers characters.
The first entry of the series, aptly titled Grand Tour
, began life a Crack Fic that did its take on the common fanfic gag of Ryoga's ability to get lost being equated to being able to end up anywhere in the multiverse without trying. This time however, this ability is considered quite a danger that the TSAB ends up tracking him down, but not before the USS Voyager tries to exploit Ryoga's 'gift' in an attempt to return home. This leads to a chain of events that has the USS Voyager stranded in the Mirror Universe, Ranma testing his luck against Gohan and Zuko, the TSAB investigating the future rise of Crystal Tokyo, and Lina Inverse and company ending up in the world of Berserk.
The second entry of the series, Journey, shifts away from the multiversal romp of the first to focus on the growth of several characters. Ranma Saotome, having gained a couple skills during the events of the first fic, finds himself taking up a role of martial arts sensei to Nabiki Tendo. Not only that, he's charged by the TSAB with supporting the Outer Senshi in Tokyo's defense while the Inner Senshi go to Mid Childa for training under Nanoha Takamachi. Things get tense however, when Youma attacks keep increasing with no end in sight.
The third entry, Odyssey, returns to the multiversal nature of the first. In a galaxy far far away, Admiral Thrawn orders the creation of an engine that allows travel between dimensions, the technology gleamed from a Borg Ship that chased Voyager into the GFFA during the beginnings of Grand Tour. With this engine, Thrawn hopes to gain an insurmountable advantage against the New Republic with the ability to appear anywhere instantly without warning. Elsewhere, the Federation, using the data from the Voyager's travels through dimensions, decides to launch a new exploratory mission to explore alteranate realities, with Captain Jean-Luc Picard striking out where no one in the Federation has gone before. And in the aftermath of the events of Journey, the TSAB finds themselves at war with another multidimensional power, a war that neither side wanted. Little did anyone suspect the events to come would lead to a multiversal threat forming. Events that would draw Lina Inverse and her home dimension right in the middle of the chaos...
A fourth story, Walkabout is done as well. Here, Ranma tries to hash out some stability in his life, complicated by the fact that several Earth governments, along with the TSAB, are sending agents to his Dojo for training. Meanwhile, Fate and Nanoha are in Tokyo for maternity leave, having conceived with the help of Mejere's technology, and Genma got Ranma engaged to a denzien of the Magic World, one who really doesn't take no for an answer. And the Japanese government really doesn't want to let anyone else know about the Magic World...
It has also acquired a side story, fleshing out the Top Gear Mid-Childa special mentioned below, apparently in an attempt by the author to 'get the ideas out of my head so I can work on the stuff I want to work on.' Link here.
This fanfiction series contains examples of the following:
- Aliens Steal Cable: After the Masquerade gets smashed to bits in Journey, the TSAB enters into more open contact with Earth and develops a liking for Terran culture and entertainment. There is a passing mention of a Top Gear (UK) special on Mid-Childa. Complete with the Stig's Magical Girl cousin.
- Audience Surrogate: The characters from Stargate in Odyssey fill this role because as in canon they are from our 21st century Earth and all of the other franchises exist as fiction in the Stargate 'verse.
- Big Damn Heroes: Naga attempts one. It doesn't work out near so well as she'd hoped.
- Boring, but Practical/This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The Galactica, being low-tech compared to the other spacefleets, is the only one that can brave the rift and destroy the structure that is causing the rift to expand and allow Voidspawn to invade the multiverse.
- Earth's space defense network in Odyssey, is noted as being thus in comparison to the magitech of the TSAB and the Bradesons. It has no magitech, but is noted for still being effective... though it's also noted that a determined foe probably wouldn't be stopped by said defenses.
- Breather Episode: Walkabout. A lot of the interdimensional cold war story is relegated to the background, and is mostly about Ranma attempting to get his own life in order as well as get a dojo organized... as well as giving lessons to various secret agents.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In Juuban, a youma showing up will be met with screams of panic and fleeing, followed by the Senshi showing up to defeat it. In Nerima, things are slightly different- namely, so much weird martial arts stuff happens that not only is a giant monster attacking considered normal, but it isn't even newsworthy- the Senshi are honestly surprised when they learn that Youma have been attacking Nerima. Turns out that the district is so infested with martial artists of all sorts of crazy types (Ranma, the Tendos, and Ryoga only being the most prominent examples), that any monster that does attack tends not to last long.
- Calling the Old Man Out: In Journey, Ranma does this with Genma in a form of a martial arts battle that was a one-sided affair on Ranma's side.
- Their rematch in Walkabout is even more of a curbstomp.
- Captured Super-Entity: The Lord Of Nightmares, of all beings, was trapped in a giant ring that dwarfed the Galactica. Who or what created the ring is still a mystery.
- Chekhov's Skill: Ryoga puzzles out the Soul of Ice halfway through Grand Tour. At first, he uses it to not get lost - which works until he runs into the Dirty Pair and gets distracted. Later, he uses it to crib Ranma's signature finisher.
- Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: In Journey, the Black Lagoon group chase Happosai into Tokyo (It Makes Sense in Context), when they get caught in the invasion of Tokyo.
- Conflict Killer: The Let's You and Him Fight incident below? Interrupted by Griffith, four of his fellow God Hand, and a horde of demons. They get a Giga Slave and a Starlight Breaker for their trouble, followed by Guts and Gourry taking down Griffith.
- Death by Adaptation: Two Type IIs.
- Thrawn and Pellaeon are both killed earlier than in the Star Wars: Legends timeline.
- Ralgha nar Hhallas dies in the final battle against the Voidspawn when he should have lived into Wing Commander III.
- Death from Above: The spirit of Queen Beryl hijacks the Bradeson flagship she's trapped in order to control the ship's blasters and blow Tokyo, and within it the Sailor Senshi, into pieces. She resorts to this when the commander of the Bradeson fleet explains to her his people don't do orbital bombardments.
- Demoted to Extra: Ryoga in later parts.
- The cast of Red Dwarf in Odyssey.
- Doppelgänger Crossover: Luke Skywalker and Christopher Blair become each other's wingman during the battle against the Voidspawn.
- Dynamic Entry: This is how Suburu and Teana get the drop on a Bradeson enforcer who was giving Sailor Neptune trouble.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Voidspawn. Picard even comments that they're like something out of Lovecraft.
- Enemy Mine:
- Ranma's fiancees put aside their rivalry in order to help defend Tokyo from the Bradeson invasion.
- The Bradesons agree to a temporary alliance with the TSAB to fight the Voidspawn, and they manage to establish a truce in the aftermath, although there are still tensions.
- Even Evil Has Standards: According to the
Word of God, while the Bradesons do shock and awe attacks to make weaker civilizations submit faster, they will not engage in orbital bombardments due to a nasty civil war where that tactic was employed to a deadly degree. They will also give humanitarian aid, and later, full citizenship to the conquered population. Their M.O. is basically Might Makes Right. - Exact Words: Once The Masquerade is destroyed by the Bradeson invasion, the JSDF uses this to begin arms buildup. The treaty limits them to defensive weapons, and they still have no conventional weaponry buildup or WMD construction. Mages and highly advanced martial arts are another matter entirely.
- Expy/Distaff Counterpart: Some of the Bradeson "Enforcers" from Journey seem remarkably similar to some Nanoha characters. Indeed, Word of God says that they could be viewed as such, if the reader wants to.
- Flock of Wolves: Ranma's class of martial arts students consists almost entirely of spies from various nations there to get basic info about the TSAB. Everybody is aware of this, of course.
- Funetik Aksent: Ranma and Lister, as well as a few of the OC's in Walkabout. After getting some complaints, the author agreed to try to tone it down.
- Gambit Pileup: The author's description of the events in Odyssey.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Chrono calls out for anyone in the multiverse to help fight off the Voidspawn when the seal on the rift breaks, and later, for personnel to aid Seyruun against the Mazoku.
- Graceful Loser: Sailor Pluto, unlike other fanfiction depictions of her as a Knight Templar Time Police officer, allows the TSAB to destroy the asteroid that caused the Great Freeze and made Crystal Tokyo necessary.
- I Have Many Names: The Lord of Nightmares has apparently been also called Azathoth, Rythar and Mythar, and Suzumiya.
- Interrupted Suicide: William Adama attempts to join those on the Galactica who sacrificed themselves in saving the multiverse, especially after the Heroic Sacrifice of Kara Trace. He is stopped by the Lord of Nightmares of all beings, who insists that William lives for the sake of the remaining colonists.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- In Journey:Ranma Saotome: Alien invaders from another dimension? When did my life turn into bad fanfiction?
- In Odyssey, this is the Stargate characters raison d'être. They recognize most of the ships from the various other series out of having watched those series, and spend a fair bit of time geeking out over it all.
- In Journey:
- Let's You and Him Fight: What happens when Ranma, Nanoha, Fate, and Guts meet up with Ryoga, Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia. Lina and Amelia both provoke the fight for their own reasons.
- Mega Manning: Ranma tries to duplicate Gohan's flight and Zuko's firebending. Later, he finds a way to use magic, despite (or perhaps because) being explicitly told he was unable to use it, by creative abuse of his translation trinket.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Magic users and psychics of all sorts can feel disturbance of a massive rift into the Sea of Chaos opening. Lina, of course, gets the worst of it since she uses spells that invoke the Lord of Nightmares, and that the rift is located in the same solar system as Lina's world.
- Never My Fault: This author's fanon origin of Ryoga's curse of getting lost. His ancestor was a shogun who would not admit fault, so he was cursed to be unable to reach his destinations until he would admit fault. The curse was then passed down the bloodline.
- Akane falls into this after injuring Nabiki in a training session. It takes Kasumi make her see otherwise.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A TSAB captain tries to stop Thrawn escaping with the 'Engine' causing the dimensional rifts, by firing an Arc-En-Ciel blast at the ship containing said engine. The resulting explosion creates the largest rift ever; to make it worse, it doesn't want to close.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Dutch decides to Pet the Dog by rescuing a poor old man out of the sea. The old man triggers one of the most violent manhunts throughout Roanapur by violating Revy and crossing Balalaika.
- Off the Rails: In terms of canon plotlines, Voyager making it home early, Thrawn being dead, Crystal Tokyo not forming, Xellos not Zelas' subordinate, and according to the Word of God, Mejele and Tarak not at peace, but jockeying in position in the TSAB/Bradeson cold war. Also, due to Voyager's crew coming home early and playing a bit with the timeline, Jadzia Dax survives.
- Oh, Crap!: In the very first chapter, Worf, two security officers, and Garak attempt to escort Ryoga to the brig. On Deep Space Nine. Within ten seconds, they find themselves on the USS Voyager. Seventy Thousand Light Years Away. And in the future. They don't take it well, for obvious reasons.
- Original Generation: The Dimensional Republic of Bradeson.
- Paranoia Gambit: The assorted defenders of Seyruun think the Mazoku may be pulling this on them by putting Xellos in charge of the Mazoku invasion, as Xellos is known for having secret goals.
- Possession Implies Mastery: Averted with Ranma's understanding of Firebending. He is extremely careful about training with it until he figures out how to use it to put fires out, knowing how dangerous that could be both to property (like his Dojo) or to humans.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The TSAB chose to question the Sailor Senshi directly instead of relying on second hand accounts of the Silver Millennium, accounts that put it in a bad light.
- Though they do say that if they were sure that the Senshi were going to do that, they would have gone in swinging. They also mention that there were elements of the TSAB Admiralty that did rely on the aforementioned accounts and wished direct, immediate action.
- Ultimately, the series shows that both the TSAB and the Bradesons have reasonable people and not-so-reasonable people.
- Remembered I Could Fly: Ranma forgets that one of his new co-workers (Sailor Saturn) is capable of healing, which Nabiki (who was in the hospital for a broken rib) was not happy about. Ranma responds that he isn't used to working with people with healing powers, and he forgot that she could do that.
- Required Secondary Powers: Things Ranma can do: Fly. Things he doesn't have: the stamina needed to do so for long periods of time.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Averted, Chibi-Usa's memories after the TSAB begin investigating the Senshi. Her memories settle into a new history not after the asteroid is destroyed, but when Usagi accepts an offer to be trained by the TSAB.
- Rock Beats Laser: Out of all the ships, the only ones that still work inside the rifts are the Galactica and its fighters.
- Rule 63: The first universe that the Federation visits when testing the interdimensional drive is like this. Lister even lampshades this when greeting his counterpart, noting that this is the second time that they've met.
- Screw Destiny: The Sailor Senshi choosing to let the TSAB destroy the asteroid.
- The crew of Voyager decide, due to their timeline (near the end of Star Trek: Voyager) being slightly ahead of the Federation's timeline (near the end of Season Six of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), to save Jadzia Dax, despite the possibility of them getting in trouble due to altering the past with knowledge of future events.
- Ship Sinking: Ranma breaks off with Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo. Even if he lost honor in the eyes of some.
- Space Cold War: Word of God state this is the situation between the TSAB and the Bradesons post-Odyssey. Several of the other space groups that came to help with the Voidspawn have taken sides, including the Colonials, The Federation, and Mejele and Tarok.
- Spin-Off: The Top Gear Mid-Childa Special, which went from offhand mention to full 'episode.'
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Ryoga's special attack, Shi Shi Hokodan, is powered by depression- the more depressed you feel, the more powerful the attack is. This is great when he has a curse that makes it so he can never find his way, he hasn't seen his parents in years, he has no significant others, and it looks like he'll die cold and alone. However, once he gets his life in order (the curse that made him lost all the time cured, him getting a girlfriend, able to keep a stable job), his first attempt at this attack... falls very much into this. "You're attacking people! That makes me sad!" The attack is still powerful enough to stumble the monster he's attacking... but before, it would have vaporized the monster in question.
- Theme Naming: With a few exceptions, most of the newly created TSAB characters have car names. Likewise, their counterparts, the Bradesons, are named after motorcycles.
- Unexplained Recovery: Xellos, after being blasted with a Giga Slave. Since the Giga Slave is the Lord of Nightmares incarnate, it's no surprise that she could decide to restore him. However, he's now not in the service of Beastmaster.
- The Unmasqued World: Due to the invasion in Journey, there's now a more open relationship between the TSAB and Earth. The existence of the Magic World however, is still under wraps so Japan can hold a trump card.
- What the Hell, Hero?: While not a direct example, Evangeline McDowell predicts that the "Normal" world will give the "Magical" world a massive one when they learn of the magical world's existence, mostly about "Why the hell did you sit out the Bradeson invasion when the TSAB, Senshi, Nerima Wrecking Crew, and other magical/supernatural forces fought and died to save us?"
- Worthy Opponent: The Bradeson invasion force that attacks Tokyo considers the JSDF who opposed them this.
- Yandere: Kendra Zendor does not take rejection well.
