Voyagers! The Junior Novel: Ch. 2 (A different kind of omni?)



Jeffrey's first taste of soaring through the cosmos is described very well in chapter 2 and takes up a whole page and a 1/2! It seems like a total psychedelic trip, but without the Hendrix or Cream soundtracks. We're all too familiar with the visuals in the show…floating black stars, and a burst of…something…and then eerily still-footage of the boys flying toward us faster than the speed of light!

It's all topped off with streams of bright color that looks suspiciously like carpet insulation..at least it looked like the insulation in my carpet– It represents the planet earth colors and their imminent landing.

The 1984 Voyager from the Unknown shows a different visual – unused footage from 1982. It must have been cheaper to show the simple white stars, carpet installation…uhh..I mean colors!…and not harness the boys to float around, hehe. In the original voyage, Bogg and Jeff fly through glowing blue wormholes and you can actually see them moving as they are suspended. I think that was the vision Claro used for the book.

"It was more like sailing--or floating. He opened his eyes slowly. He might be spinning as he fell, but he couldn't be sure. There was nothing he could focus his eyes on to see how he was moving."
"It was dark, but he could see flickering lights far away. There was no sound, not even the sound of wind that should have been created by his movement…"

"Now some of the lights seemed bigger, and some weren't flickering. They looked like stars. Could he be floating in space?.... He opened his eyes and saw that it wasn't dark anymore. Now he could see that he was spinning."





Spinning? Makes sense with the wormhole theory. The blue rings may represent a time wormhole and may possibly come up later. That'd make for some not-so-pleasant landings if you happen to be a Voyager with a weak stomach. Maybe the bosses at VHQ gives you a special injection or flight medication before you start field work?

The distance of Bogg and Jeff's falls are revealed, a not-so-life threatening 10 feet until they hit the ground…or quicksand…or canopy-awning…or wherever they happen to land. That's good to know. I'm sure they teach free-falling techniques in Voyager gym class. I somewhat addressed these issues in different Fan-fiction stories. I think it's necessary that we get some background about Voyagers Headquarters and their training facilities and methods…but that can only be found in Fan fiction.

Okay, it's time for the omni surprise!

We're all familiar with the original omni...Some of my favorite screen caps –



However, the original vision was a tad different...can you spot it?

"What's that on your wrist?" Jeff asked.
"That's my Omni. And it has circuits that only go as far as 1970. So don't give me any 1982 nonsense unless..." 

"He was fiddling with the dials on the Omni, and now he started slapping it with his fingertips."

So, which do you prefer? Compass Omni clipped onto Phineas belt? Or cumbersome Omni strapped around his wrist? An Omni watch! How much smaller can those dials get? I can't imagine the Omni being the same size as the hand held version. Bogg's wrist would have muscles! Oh yeah, that'll fix it, fingertip slapping. Bogg's the type to bang that Omni in his palm and whack it around for good measure. No fiddle-dee-deeing while it sits smugly on his wrist!


The tiny omni dials give credence to my idea that Voyagers are medically sound before they are sent out in the field. They have the briliant technology to repair eyesight and possibly enhance senses. That would really help on a Voyage.

The latter Omni is more sensible, and would be harder to lose on a voyage…but..if the omni didn't get lost from time to time, we wouldn't have cool adventures like when Edison totalled it in 'World's Apart. I think we all felt Jeffrey's panic at that moment….and "awwed" at his soot-stained tears. Awww! Didn't you want to cry too?

If the Omni were a watch, Bogg would never take it off and shove it in Jeffrey's face that he controls the power…at least for a little while. Jeffrey would barely have a chance to use it. We'd never have those giggles watching him rip it out of Bogg's hands when it was time to stop kissing and leave the green-light zone.

This line was totally awesome. Joe Claro, Parriott, and I are on the same page!

"It's going beserk again!" He fumed. "I told them to issue me a new one! Bat's breath! Those technicians never listen to anyone but each other!"

In the first of my Voyager's fanfic epics called 'The Voyager's Aide', I 'invented' a position called "Omni Technician." They repair and build the Omnis and specialize in data and imagery recording and retrieval. (Look at me, trying to use 'technical' jargon...I sound like I'm an 'OT' from 1982)


What else can I ramble on about in this chapter? It was rather short, only covering the quick scene with Baby Moses. Claro omits the entire speech about Bogg's fascination with Voyager Susan's legs and her mole…right…here. Had she been a brunette she could have been Cindy Crawford. But then again, we all know where that mole really was! Not her face.


Cindy surely would have knocked Bogg's boots off, probably much more than Susan and her peep-toe pumps and white toga dress ever would. Never mind the nice legs!

"..stop talking nonsense. Moses is an old man with white whiskers. Looks like Santa Clause with a part down the middle."

Last but not least of note, one of the silliest, and totally religiously inept lines I'd ever heard in this series...(Unless you can find another!) Especially when you see Phineas wiggle his fingers over the top of his head like a doofus in the show – the line was left in the book too. They really want us to see this Pirate's ineptitude.

1. Phineas is too much of a knucklehead to realize that all old people were once babies. In fact, the bible talks about Moses' being quite the good-looking baby. Exodus 2:2: And the woman became pregnant and brought a son to birth. When she saw how good-looking he was, she kept him concealed for three lunar months. And then again in Acts 7:20: In that particular time Moses was born, and he was divinely beautiful. And he was nursed three months in [his] father’s home.

2. Did the writers not think that this comment might be considered offensive to Jews, considering the well-revered Moses led the nation of Israel by God's hand out of Egypt? And now he is reduced by Bogg to a largely commercial symbol (Thanks in part to Coca Cola) of a holiday that originates from Roman Saturnalia which was later adopted into Christianity in the early centuries? Ouch!!

But I'm digressing again. The line is said by Hexum with the utmost innocence and ignorance that you can't help chuckling …every time.

Still…Somebody was sleeping soundly in Voyager Ethics class. Aww, look how divinely beautiful he is when he sleeps, (No joke there … really!) let's not wake him so he could PASS!




Up next in Chapter 3:

Mary Murphy…


Is really Mary Pickford! (Good casting!)

(I knew that! Ms. Murphy gave it away when she said Bogg reminded her of Doug.)


Who's Doug? Why Doug Fairbanks of course! Pickford's husband and silent movie star swashbuckler. They were married after WW1 in 1920 and thus not at the time she met Bogg and Jeff...but what a love triangle she would have weaved had Mary 'Murphy' and Phineas continued a relationship! Considering the real Pickford was involved in an affair with Fairbanks. Ouch again!

Phinny and Dougie might have had to swashbuckle it out over Mary.


Comments

  1. The usual omni is so much better. Pocket-watches are cool, and that's more or less what the design is based on. I can see the practicality of a wristwatch version, certainly - and as you say, it would be harder to lose it - but pocket-watch!omni wins.

    Besides, something strapped to the wrist wouldn't pass unnoticed in a lot of timezones. Something hidden away on a belt makes far more sense for a time traveller.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ginger another great post! It keeps getting more intereting,I will have to try and find a copy of this book! I much prefer the Omni in compass form than as a wrist watch . I also wondered why in some shows Jeffrey closes his eyes before they Omni out,now I can see why he would do that , I guess you can get quite dizzy traveling through time! EmilyW

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  3. So far it looks like the pocket-watch Omni wins hands-down, and I'm in that crowd, too. Besides, it sounds like the wristwatch-Omni could do a little too much. Punched in clothes? I think that's stretching suspension of disbelief a bit, not to mention it makes things too easy. I'm glad they ditched that feature.

    I'm with swordznsorcery: The wrist-Omni would have been 'way too noticeable---especially with that red light blinking away for everybody to see. And, yes, we would have missed a treat with all those games of "Omni-tag" Jeff played. (Just ONCE, I would have liked to see the fun that ensued once Bogg caught him!)

    I guess they added the bit about Susan in later editions of the script, to explain *why* Bogg doesn't seem to know much about history. Additionally, the book seems to be written at about a fourth-grade level (or at least what a fourth-grade level was back when I was in school), and a nine-year-old in 1982 wouldn't have had the slightest idea of why Susan's legs were so distracting. Jeff didn't get it either, and he was eleven. My guess is, if he'd had "the Talk" with his parents, at his age he probably dismissed it as "pretty disgusting" and didn't give it any more thought.

    As you can guess, my book came in today, and I read it in about half an hour. Boy, were they ever off the mark about Mary being married to Doug, though, once again, "affairs" would have been meaningless to a kid in the age group of this book. Personally, I rather preferred her "Who's Doug?" reaction at the end of the assignment. ;D

    ---Jake

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  4. Great blog G! I think the second omni was by far the best! I agree with ya...had it been strapped to his wrist he could have never lost and it Jeffrey could have never grabbed it from him! "Smart kids give me a pain!"

    And I can't help but laugh in the baby Moses scene when he said "he is an old man with a part down the middle...!" :P He's just so naive! But that's one of the reasons I love him so much! <3 BTW...I LOVE that picture of him "sleepin' through class!" :P Yur right...divinely beautiful! And nothin' less! Can't wait for yur next chapter! :D

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  5. Hey Jake, you're right of course, totally 4th grade level for 1982...none of that nonsense about legs and distractions, lol. So, now you're ahead of me, I haven't read this book in a few years, so it's like reading it for the first time again. But now that you mention it..the clothes thing..arrh! Can't wait to get to that! lol. Looks like everyone is voting for the Pocket watch omni..I mean really, what would Phineas do if someone asked him the time? LOL.

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  6. Yep Swordz, the pocket omni rules! Still, I wonder what the band looked like for the Omniwatch? LOL..I'm picturing brown leather..but it would have garnered more questions and stares than anything.

    ReplyDelete

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