Walking the actual decks of Voyager has surpassed Reg’s wildest dreams.
(from the untagged Reg Barclay & Kathryn Janeway fic Dedication)
Fifteen officers and governmental officials shift in their seats around the circular table, likely wondering what the Federation President’s pronouncement will be on the plan they’ve just presented.
The doctors at Starfleet Medical say you don’t need to regenerate anymore, don’t need a biosuit anymore, don’t need maintenance exams anymore, don’t need… anything. You’re as human as you’ll ever be, and you’re not sure if their pronouncement is a blessing or a curse.
The xB was hurt and damaged beyond repair, Emil said. Hugh was a lost cause.
(from the Elnor/Hugh | Third of Five fic Choose to Love — and let’s all remember what “lost cause” would mean to Elnor)
At first, he thought something was wrong, the way her eyelashes would flutter like starlings surprised someone found their nest, the way the long muscles of her neck would shift and settle, the way she would say, “I’m sorry, would you mind repeating that?” no matter what they had been talking about.
Whispers flow through the closed kitchen door into the dining room where Kathryn’s Starfleet computer sits on the same mahogany table that’s been there ever since she can remember.
(from the untagged Kathryn Janeway & Phoebe Janeway & Gretchen Janeway fic The Marvelous Lightening)
The Mediterranean Sea smacks Marbella sand, a residue of foam and darkened grains until the next wave smacks the sand again.
Tom doesn’t remember how he managed to sweet-talk his way in. What matters is the walls of the off-campus apartment seem to thrum with the beat of pulsing rock music, couples and groups are definitely enjoying themselves in the semi-darkness, and classes don’t start for two days so he’s not yet a cadet. He’ll get his hair cut to regulation tomorrow. Or maybe early the next day.
(from the untagged Tom Paris & Kirsten Clancy fic The Point)
Note: I’m very grateful for the @voyagerwritinggame prompts, which are the reason for four of these fics.
Any questions about these first lines (or anything else)? Please send me an ask.
Also, if you’re reading this and would like to share you own last ten first lines, I hereby tag you!
First of all, how have the ST sub-fandoms fared over the last two years of RL pain and confusion compared with 2019?
Except for Disco, Picard and in a lesser way, the AOS Movies, all the ST sub-fandoms are on a roll, with both DS9 and Voyager going past the 2,000 fics in a year in 2021.
Among the TV shows, DS9 and Voyager are doing very well, with DS9 passing Voyager in 2020, and TOS now relegated to third place. Despite a dip in 2020, Disco comes up 4th, beating TNG.
In terms of their share of the ST fandom, the AOS movies have been in free fall since 2016, and TOS has been slowing losing market share in recent years.
That has enabled Voyager and DS9 to fill in the gaps and those 4 sub-fandoms had each a stake between 15 and 18%, and together made up for 70% of all ST fics posted in 2021 on AO3. The newcomers: Lower Decks, Picard and of course Prodigy with only 15 fics in 2021 are still small in comparison, while Disco has already passed by Next Gen and Enterprise.
Because the AOS Movies were such a huge sub-fandom until very recently, they still dominate AO3 in terms of total number of fics over the years. You can see this postby@70thousandlightyearsfromhome for the proportion of each sub-fandom posted on AO3 since the start.
Note: The graphs above exclude crossovers with non-ST fandoms, but include crossovers within the ST universe. The following sub-fandoms were not included: ST- various authors; Comics; RPF; Videogames and Uncategorized, unless those fics were crossovers with other ST sub-fandoms.
As a last thing to ponder, this is where to find the various ST sub-fandoms on AO3. One surprise: the TV shows include the AOS movies, but not the TOS or the TNG Movies.
