his is a true story, or at least it was in March of 1993.Thru the generosity of grandparents, and Xmas gifts, my five year old son had all the new Star Trek TNG figures save one.
Counselor Troi.
One day, nestled inside a box from Grandma, was a Counselor Troi figure for my little Thomas.
He begged me to open it, and assembled all his "crew" together on the carpet. Then he looked confused.
"Momma, where's her phaser?"
Well, turns out Troi didn't have a phaser. Computer terminal, yes. PADD, yes. Shoulder bag computer, yes. Phaser, no.
"Well, sweetie, just use the one for Geordi, or Worf. OK?"
A minute later he was back with another complaint. "She can't hold a phaser, her hand isn't right."
Sure enough, it was true. Her hand was not only smaller, but the positioning was such that she COULDN'T hold a standard issue phaser. No way.
"Well, Thomas, pretend she's holding a phaser."
He grumped about that, but returned to the living room. As I was loading the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, I realized I could hear Thomas' narration of his "movie" he was making with the figures.
"Boom, blast. Oh, oh, I'm hurt! Someone save me. I'll save you, Deanna. Help me, help me. We have to protect her, she can't protect herself from the Romulans. Can I be a member of your crew? No, you can't fight the aliens, you don't have a weapon."
I couldn't take it anymore. I went in, and searched thru all the tiny PADDs, and weapons, and stands, until I found Data's phaser, the one with the little snap-on hand ring. I showed it to Thomas, and slid the ring up Deanna's arm, so that the phaser handle was now at mid-arm. I handed Deanna to Thomas.
"It's a special arm-phaser, just for Troi and Data."
His face brightened. I went back to the dishwasher, and listened as Deanna joined the crew, saved Geordi AND Worf, and dispatched three bad-guy Romulans.
from And Another Thing... © 1994, 1995 Cathy Faye Rudolph.
Contents © 1994, 1995 Wayward Fluffy Publications.