AU or Not AU?

[Alelou]

? Bean counters do realize this. Probably sales of the Pocketbooks were down, thus the layoffs. Either that or they were just plain beancounting their way out of full-time staff. Maybe they've hired cheap freelancers to do the work, so they don't have to pay benefits. Bean counters sure love that move in publishing (she said bitterly).

[WarpGirl]

According to their statistics more people liked A/T than TnT for a long time. Twilight was voted the number 1 fan-favorite episode. Now contrary to popular belief numbers and statistics do lie. But it doesn't change the facts that money is still the primary objective. Go Alelou!

[Silverbullet]

Warpgirl, you must be kidding. Liked A/T more than TnT didn't they watch the series? Liked twilight? that was a dream sequence of Archers didn't happen. A/T don't think so not for me at least.

[WarpGirl]

<sigh> Silverbullet whether you like it or not there are A LOT of A/T fans out there, A LOT! Now personally I'm OK with that. Don't see it myself, think that they must be furious that things didn't work out the way they wanted to. But things didn't work out the way we did either, even if Trip had lived they were still broken up. So I say live and let live. Plenty of fanfic for us all.

[honeybee]

Twilight was voted the number one fan favorite episode, but from what I've heard from general fans (non shippers) that had little to do with the A/T romance and everything to do with the plot, pacing, writing and performances. I also think it is clear that the writers of the show were torn as to which pairing they wanted - and in the end the TnT camp won out.

I respect Twilight as an episode - and decided to rewrite the background in my story Dusk to make in a TnT story because I wanted to resolve my love of the episode with my non-love of A/T. My favorite all time episode is Similitude - and that's a TnT episode if there ever was one.

Again, A/T fans are free to ship the way they want. The show (irrespective of *the_abomination*) and the books have all gone pure TnT - and so I especially feel I can be magnanimous to anyone who wants a different pairing than me. That's why we label our fics.

In my fics, I always like to play with Archer's unrequited crush on T'Pol. I think its interesting. I wish there had been more of him getting jealous onscreen - because I'm sure he would have been. Not that I wanted it to be a soap - but I am sure that there would have been more pouting than that one little scene in E2.

[WarpGirl]

I still have to see it myself, I skipped it once too often. But I remember at ST.com Twilight was being touted by the A/Ters as the gold standard of their banner. Again fine by me. And I think the books series should probably be canonized as official AU. Just not sure they'd work as RU. I like Sim too, although I still think T'Pol wasn't so much attached to Sim himself, as she was to Trip, whom she wasn't sure would live. But Sim was very very nearly the same as Trip. I caught myself getting confused.

Either way the books are great for those who like them. And the A/Ters can prefer that ship all they want.

[Alelou]

Oh man, if A/T'ers favorite episode is Twilight for the relationship between A and T, I think the poor things are eating awfully thin gruel.

Does Archer really pout in E2? I guess he was damned curious about who the father was. But I could also see that as him being pissed that TnT are cavorting just as rumored without ever letting him know what was going on. I could even imagine that he might have sent a feeler or two out to Trip and gotten nothing in return, or even a definitive no if Trip was in a bad mood about T'Pol at the time.

[WarpGirl]

OK I thought Archer looked pissed off and furious about finding out Lorien was Trip's son. But I need the screencap to prove it. Anyone have it?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Twilight was voted the number one fan favorite episode, but from what I've heard from general fans (non shippers) that had little to do with the A/T romance and everything to do with the plot, pacing, writing and performances.

Exactly so.

And there has never been many AinTers. The TnTers have always vastly outnumbered them among the fanbase. While not scientific per se, the online polls have had a huge lead of TnTers. There are also more websites (like this one) dedicated to TnT. That's why most AinT stories are at ff.net - they have nowhere else to go. Since fans of today are online I think it "proves" with without doubt the popularity of TnT over AinT. There were a lot of TnTers on TrekBBS but not that many AinTers. They were alas rather vocal, which soured the experience.

I may be biased, but I think it's obvious TPTB set up Trip and T'Pol in s season one. Then they found that Archer wasn't as popular as they'd expected and tried in vain to make him popular by throwing him and T'Pol in s scenes together in season two. Man, that backfired big time. And in season three they again re-tooled Archer into Airlock Archer and went back to TnT and explored that instead.

I think that most (of the few) AinTe poppeded up in season two (especially after ANIS). From season three onwards they just kept deluding themselves, and things like Twilight didn't help for them to come to their senses.

[Asso]

I think you are indeed right, KTR.

[WarpGirl]

Not to be a downer, but in most of those polls people can vote more than once. Also Most sites keep running more on Canon pairs than non. That's common in most fandoms. For example, you used to be able to find tons of Nick/Sara from CSI, until Grissom and Sara became canon. Then the sites dried up. It happens. I'm not saying there are more public A/Ters than TnTers. But privately I bet there are more than some TnTers want to admit.

[Asso]

All can exist under Sun's light.
Or in the dark of the night.

[WarpGirl]

[Silverbullet]

For some reason I don't look at Sim as being a TnT episode. Always considered the Character Sim as a clone a carbon copy but not Trip. For me Sim was a lttle too contrived to make the clone look great. Save the ship and all. But I thought he was not Trip. the real Trip lay in a coma, dying. Sim the clone was doomed and actually was created for one purpose and that ws to save the Real Trips life. Now I am going to be called a few names. Sim was just a lyserian desert Larva who looked like Trip and could provide tissue that would save Trips life.

[honeybee]

I think that most (of the few) AinTe poppeded up in season two (especially after ANIS). From season three onwards they just kept deluding themselves, and things like Twilight didn't help for them to come to their senses.

I think it's hard not see the attempt at A/T in Season 2 - The Seventh, ANIS, First Flight all seem eager to create romantic tension there. Now, I'm biased, too, but I don't think it was there. I also think that JB wasn't playing it, either. She seemed to think T'Pol merely humored Archer because she liked him, silly human that he was. Whereas, I think TnT sparkled from Broken Bow, even though they tested T'Pol with Malcolm in Shuttlepod One and Archer in Shadows of P'Jem. But TnT were the clear winner in all the early scenes, Breaking the Ice and others. Of course, I am biased in this regard.

But Mike Sussman apparently liked A/T - thus Twilight (which was apparently much, much less A/T as shot than as written) and I think his A/T bias shows in how TnT were in the mirror episodes.

I may be biased, but I think it's obvious TPTB set up Trip and T'Pol in s season one. Then they found that Archer wasn't as popular as they'd expected and tried in vain to make him popular by throwing him and T'Pol in s scenes together in season two. Man, that backfired big time. And in season three they again re-tooled Archer into Airlock Archer and went back to TnT and explored that instead.

I actually think if the Archer we see in Twilight had been the Archer we had from Season One, the show would have survived all 7 seasons. But you are right about Archer. I have looked back at the archives in the TWOP forums, and they had a mantra there - "Is Trip Captain, yet?" It's funny, I do love the show, but I think that the secondary characters (aside from Travis) are all more interesting than the captain. No disrespect to SB, who is apparently a doll and a very good actor, it's just that the writers never nailed the character.

But I also think that the Xindi Arc wasn't conducive for Archer/T'Pol romance - so they went with TnT. Not to mention the chemistry. So, TnT made sense on all levels in Season 3.