The Marc Richard FAQ

by Marc Richard (obviously)

Yes.

Q: How boring. Why don't you have a cool screen name like "Zeke"?

Actually, "Marc Richard" started out as my screen name. I liked it so much that I later legally adopted it as my new real name.

Q: Are you serious?

Never outside of business hours.

Q: What line of business are you in, anyway?

I'm an associate librarian at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. More specifically, I'm a cataloguer -- which means that, like the Borg, my mission in life is to impose order on the universe.

Q: And what is your role at 5MV?

I'm one of the staff writers, and I run the site's Next Generation section on behalf of Zeke.

Q: What do you do in your spare time?

In my what?

Q: Sorry -- poor choice of words. What I meant was, do you have any interests outside of Star Trek?

Yes, I'm an amateur naval historian whose research specialty is warship camouflage. I once presented a paper on the subject at a United States Naval Academy symposium.

Q: Is that anything like giving a lecture on starship cloaking devices at Starfleet Academy?

Sort of. Where do you think I got the idea for my paper?

Q: Has anyone ever implied that you've been watching too much Star Trek?

None of the people I hang around with have ever expressed such an opinion.

Q: So how many Star Trek episodes have you watched?

All of them, including the Animated Series. Mostly in their first-run broadcasts. And lots of them several times. Plus all the movies, of course.

Q: "Mostly in first run"? Just how old does that make you?

Slightly older than the original Star Trek series...a show which (to my mild alarm) I once heard the seven-year-old daughter of some friends of mine call "Star Trek: The Old Generation."

Q: Wow! Does this mean you were one of the very first Trekkies?

No, I'm not that old. I've been a fan since the early 1970s -- which, admittedly, is longer than most of this site's denizens have been alive.

Q: "Denizens"?

Look it up. It's an archaic term that was used a lot when I was growing up back in the 19th century.

Q: In your fivers, the characters never say things like "But in last week's episode we..." or talk about keeping their 'shippers happy. Do you avoid this on purpose?

Yes, I do. I enjoy dry humour, so I find it more fun to work with characters who aren't aware that they're fictitious people on a television show.

Q: "Dry humour"?

An understated style of comedy which, like Canada Dry ginger ale, is one of our national institutions.

Q: Does this mean that the Canada Dry brand of ginger ale was named after a distinctive style of Canadian humour?

I have no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Q: And does this explain why three of 5MV's five most prolific writers are from Canada?

Probably, but how do you explain the fact that the other two are from Florida?

Q: I don't have to explain anything because I'm the one conducting this interview.

Not any more. "I'm the one conducting this interview" is a declarative sentence, not a question. So....

(Sound of a trap door opening, followed several seconds later by a distant splashing sound.)

Anyone next?

(Silence)

I thought not.

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