STXI: On the topic of Gaila

[eliyes]

I kinda love her, sure. There's a lot of great fic out there, either featuring her or with her as a fabulous supporting character. I read it. I bookmark it. I love it.

However, there's just one thing that confuses me about all this Gaila love; I didn't say anything before because I thought maybe I was mistaken, so I waited until I saw the movie again and now I'm sure:

Gaila's dead.

No, really. She wasn't on the Enterprise. The last time we see her, she gives Uhura an excited grin and goes off to her assigned shuttle, and Uhura heads in a different direction to go to the Enterprise shuttles and confront Spock. Therefore, Gaila was on one of the ships that the Narada destroyed.

Now, I have seen one fic -- and only one -- where the author has this be the case. They have Gaila survive in a piece of debris, needing massive reconstructive surgery and winding up as Pike's assistant, which I found kinda cute. And that's a clever way to go, given as there were some pretty hefty chunks o' ship that the Enterprise had to navigate past when they arrived at Vulcan... But there's a problem with that, too.

Even if Gaila survived in a piece of debris, that debris was floating around Vulcan which was turned into a black hole. It, and she, would have been sucked in.

So Gaila is gone.

Although I would happily read her adventures in a reboot!TNG 'verse where somehow she got spat back out again.

Meanwhile, I'll just consider all the fic where she survived and/or was on the Enterprise as minor AUs in that respect. Because I love reading about her -- but I just had to confront the fandom's case of denial.

Comments

[author376.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, totally ignore me if it's annoying for someone to randomly comment just because they saw this comment on a mutual friend's page! (and I apologize in advance if it is!)

That said, how many people did each shuttle carry, and how many cadets ended up as part of the Enterprise's crew?

If more than one shuttle was needed to transport said crewmembers she still could have ended up on the ship.

Once again, ignore me if I'm being annoying or unaware of other pertinent facts. (slinks off, ashamed of butting in)

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

*poke* You've commented here before, calm down. ;3

how many people did each shuttle carry, and how many cadets ended up as part of the Enterprise's crew?

We are not given either of these pieces of information, alas. We do see two shuttles enter the Enterprise's hanger bay, but in the Academy hanger bay those two shuttles seem to have been parked side-by-side so that the personnel managing the cadets' dispersal could keep track of who all they had on board, and my observation that Gaila headed in a different direction stands, I feel.

There's a deleted scene where Jim sees a green-skinned curly-red-haired alien girl aboard the Enterprise and apologises -- but it turns out not to be Gaila.

[author376.livejournal.com]

*pokes back* Just trying to be polite *guilty grin*. Yesterday I made a comment like this and was told it was rude. :P ;D

Ah, thank you for refreshing my memory. If Gaila ran off in a completely different direction than the two shuttles grouped together for Enterprise transport she probably did end up in bits and pieces in canon, sadly.

That's an interesting bit, the deleted scene where Jim sees another similarly colored sapient aboard the Enterprise and apologises only to be surprised by who it is. A lot could be done with that.

So Gaila fic definitely fits into the minor AU realm or the weight of explaining why she ran off in another direction is on the author.

Thank you. ^_^

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Eh, maybe your wording was off. To this day I get tripped up by the lack of tone in comment text; sarcasm or tongue-in-cheekness especially pretty much need to be marked, unlike in books where that kind of thing has time to be established. :/

I'm glad they cut the it's-not-Gaila scene, really. I mean, they had to because they cut the subplot where you see what he's apologising for, but also because as much as Jim manning up and apologising is good, I find it hard to believe he would have mistaken her from that close when he first went over to talk to her. Her facial structure was totally different, she was the wrong height, etc. That error they did for the funny -- and if Gaila is dead, that's just in poor taste.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, wel, I'm very sorry if I offended. Communication isn't my greatest skill. I could have worded it better, in retrospect.

Ah, if it was tongue in cheek it's probably better, you're right. If Gaila is dead it is in poor taste.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

I think it's BECAUSE she's gone that people have become so attached.

Lookit her! She's adorable! So happy and bouncy and made of d'aww! But she's gone. This cannot be! We must have this level of cuteness, now! *fixes canon* :3

Though, really, if you think about it... wouldn't more than half of the 3rd year (4th year?) Starfleet class have bitten it? So how is there ever that many people in the audience at Kirk's medal-pinning ceremony?

Science.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

She is adorable! I love her bouncy curls! I love her terrible shoes with the huge cluster of black pearls on them! I love her lacy bra! And in the deleted scenes, I love the adorable way she checks her message from Jim exactly on time... even though that turned out kinda badly for her.

So yes, I am okay with fixing canon -- but I feel it needs to be acknowledged that it is a fix. That's all. *hugs Gaila*

It was the senior year of cadets; Jim and Bones had been advanced to 4th year in three years, probably with Jim testing out of a lot of the preliminary classes due to his geeeeenius and Bones having already earned his medical degree so getting to skip all that basic stuff.

Therefore, I think it was every cadet that survived aboard the Enterprise, and also a shittonne of the 3rd years. Who wouldn't want to be there for that?

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Also lurking in from the Piper/Trickster comm friendlsist....now you've got me curious about Gaila *TOS* fic.

But yes, it's a fandom fix that people aren't bothering to label because they think the character is too awesome to die/going with a schrodinger's canon type thing...if we don't see her death on screen she could possibly have somehow survived, lord knows they've brought back characters with more concrete deaths.

cough, of course, I still haven't seen the movie, so I may be talking through my hat.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Gaila *TOS* fic.

>_> I haven't seen any (except the unfinished bits in my notebook).

if we don't see her death on screen she could possibly have somehow survived, lord knows they've brought back characters with more concrete deaths.

Well, that's true. The "if we didn't see the body" rule -- hell, there've been times when we did and people got brought back. *stares pointedly at Mwu* But I'm trying to apply logic here.

Granted how useful that'll be when watching the deleted scenes with commentary on makes it clear that Abrams somehow has no frickin' clue what actually made it onto the screen...

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, there's the problem. You're trying to apply logic to fandom.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Damn it, in a fandom with this many people obsessed with Vulcans, I expect logic to work! B|

[jo-the-phoenix.livejournal.com]

Logic never works in fandom... even if the fandom is obsessed with hot!Zachary Quinto. :) lol

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

The people I talk to about Star Trek are far more likely to be obsessed with hot!Leonard Nimoy.

As in right this minute, find him sexy and post picspam of him from current appearances and write RPF/RPS about him. He's 78 and they would totally hit that.

...On the other hand, I suppose that's another triumph of illogic. XD

[jo-the-phoenix.livejournal.com]

o_O I don't even know what to say about that.
In order to soothe my sobbing brain, I'll just sit back and ogle my Quinto wallpaper.

(PS: I dreamt last night that you and I were chatting on facebook. I can't remember what about, though.)
(PSS: did I tell you I went to see Star Trek on the IMAX screen? But they didn't have all of the speakers on, and so my eardrums, disappointingly, did not bleed.)

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Well, they also like his early work (http://community.livejournal.com/shatnoy_rpf/104673.html). If Quinto is lucky, his fan following with be as loyal.

(Maybe we were talking about facebook itself (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10612312) and the supposed crime wave coming up.)
(AAAAAAAAAAGH I am so jalouse, I never got to see it in IMAX.)

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Well, that's true. The "if we didn't see the body" rule -- hell, there've been times when we did and people got brought back. *stares pointedly at Mwu Chekov*

Fixed that for you. :3

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Do you mean at the OK Corral, or has Chekov died more than once?

Mwu was disintegrated by an anti-fortress beam -- all that was left was his helmet floating in space -- and yet he somehow came away from this with just a scar and amnesia.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

No, that's all I was referring to. I was just helping, you see. :3

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

You helper, you! *nudges*