Behind the Scenes of
UFO: A Fairy Tale
by Denise Felt 2011

First of all, this has to be the only UFO story I’ve written that deals with a platonic relationship between Straker and the female lead.  That’s something new for me, and wasn’t my first intention.  That’s not to say that a sequel won’t introduce new factors that take the friendship further, but as it stands it’s unique in my body of work.

I have long wanted to combine my two fantasy loves: sci-fi and fairies.  But somehow that’s not that easy to do, because they tend to be poles apart.  One focuses on science while the other focuses on the supernatural.  But after a few tries at it – A Little Magic and The Bodyguard – a plotline that would work finally came to me.  This is that story.

Chapter 1 – The tale begins with Straker yelling at Ford.  This is such a common occurrence in the series that I felt it would ground the reader firmly in the reality of the UFO universe.  Then I take the commander to the place I created for him way back in the first stories I wrote: the park just past the back lot of the studio.  And of course, he hasn’t told Jackson that the reason why he hasn’t had that breakdown yet is the park.  That’s also quite on par for their relationship in the show and further grounds the reader in the UFO universe. 

The need for all that grounding becomes evident very soon.  Straker meets a fairy.  A real, honest-to-goodness fairy.  And his life quickly becomes very surreal.  He handles it in the calm way he has, although I’m sure inside he was asking himself what had been in his coffee!  And she gives him a dire warning, one that gives him a very real threat to deal with.  There are traitors in their midst.

A note on her name.  I love names, and hers is no exception.  Although longer than a normal human name, Arianythra has a lovely musical sound to it.  When you say it correctly. *grin* But she is quick to let him know that he may call her a diminutive: Nyt.  This shows how well she understands the human need to shorten everything.  Well, after millennia around them, I suppose she would know.

Chapter 2 – This story more than any other I’ve written gives us a glimpse into the lives of the SHADO senior staff outside of HQ.  In its way, providing these vignettes of back story for them once more puts us on a solid footing with their reality, making it easier to accept the supernatural aspects of the story.  I let Alec be as bad as he wanted to be, hanging out with a bunch of ruffians at a seedy tavern.  I’ve always seen him as a bit of a pirate anyway, so this was no stretch for me to write.  Actually, I think he’d have a great time there; drinking, joking, and taking their money.

Then we see where the commander goes when he needs some comfort.  Not to a lover, but to family.  I didn’t have his family housekeeper in the Conover Saga be colored.  Many family retainers in the states weren’t and aren’t, but since the largest homes were usually in the South, that tends to be the common image of them (since the South still has serious issues about blacks as equals.)  The Straker home is in Boston, so I felt entirely free to ignore that stereotype.  In this story, however, Rose wanted very much to be black – and not just black, she wanted to be an enormous black woman with a wide smile and a wicked way with seafood.  So after a short inner debate, I let her have her way, allowing her cousin Adela to be the Straker family retainer.  But I don’t usually give other races a subservient role in my stories.  It’s obnoxious.  By the way, this is probably the only time in my stories that I’ve given a nod to the original casting idea for Freeman as an Aussie.  I had him eating barramundi, which is an Australian fish delicacy.  Straker – of course – has lobster.  Alec’s thoughts on that echo my own.  Ugh!  Nasty creatures!

My beta tester absolutely loved their conversation about Straker’s visitation!  She thinks it’s great that we get the everyman’s view of things through Alec, since the commander tends to take everything in stride (at least superficially.)  My favorite line in this scene?  When Alec quips: “Don’t litter?”

Chapter 3 – We also get to see how the good doctor spends his off-hours. *snicker* In many ways, he’s very similar to the commander, in that he doesn’t know when to stop working.  I thoroughly enjoyed writing this scene, because it was one of those where I simply put the two men in a room and let them tell their own tale.  There’s so much dichotomy between them – in spite of their similarities – that it’s easy to do that with them.  Deb really liked the line where Jackson admits that he had to let Henderson in on the secret of his upgrade when the German ambassador was found to be compromised.  She felt that it was truly a Jackson line.  I agree, because it didn’t come from me.  It was all his! *grin*

Chapter 4 – Poor Ford gets yelled at again.  But even the commander is aware that his men are doing all they can.  Then he gets help from an unexpected source.  Nyt returns and tells him where the aliens are hiding.  And he’s grateful – but also suspicious.  At least until she explains the true nature of the relationship between man and fairy.  I enjoyed making humans the aliens instead of the fairies.  There’s just something about that concept that makes me giggle.  We think we’re so smart, but what if we aren’t the owners of this planet after all?  Maybe we’d rethink a few things.

And we find out that Straker’s been getting some help all along.  It pricks his pride, but he rolls with it, more concerned about saving humanity than salvaging his ego.  Yea for him!

Chapter 5 – There’s a bit of an alarm when the commander is trapped in his office, but later we see that he was behind it all.  His good friend Alec was also part of the plan, although he (as usual) had more reservations than his risk-taking friend.  And Ford gets vindicated here as Straker reminds Alec that he’s the best kind of operative to have around.

I hope the scene with Kelly sounded normal to the reader.  I tried very hard to make it seem innocuous, because I wanted the reader to be just as baffled as Alec when he learns that Straker suspects him.  But then it should become abundantly clear what the commander saw as he explains.  (I hope that scene worked for the reader the way it worked for my beta tester.  She thought it was awesome!  Of course, she is a bit biased.)

About Major Kelly.  It was very hard to use him as the traitor.  I loved him in ‘Close Up’ and thought he was a great character.  I’ve even used him in my own stories before.  But I needed someone in R & D that no one would suspect as the traitor.  In fact, someone who everyone liked and trusted.  That way, Straker’s sense of betrayal becomes your own as it’s revealed.  It means more to you, because you liked him too.  As I said, it was hard to have him be that way.  But for the purposes of this story, I think he was the best choice.

Epilogue – The epilogue is rather sad, because the commander is so discouraged.  But I hope that just as Nyt reminded him that humanity still has possibilities of improving itself, the reader too was encouraged to believe in a better future for the planet.  As for Straker’s question: what can one man do?  Well.  Read your history.  For evil or for good, one man standing for what he believes can make an enormous difference to the world.  Which side will you ultimately choose?

You done good! 

All kidding aside, great story and walk-through of same. I'm amazed that you were able to pull that off. You turned supernatural into science and that made the story fit together so well.

Bravo Zulu, Denise!