"When Worlds Collide"
Based on the characters created by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale
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Synopsis: In the hopes of finding not only rest and relaxation but a chance to mend a variety of personal problems, in June of 1994, Emmett Brown took his family along with Marty and Jennifer McFly on a nice little camping vacation to the beaches of Oregon in August of 1594, far from the noise and distractions of modern life. Instead of sun and surf and peace and quiet, however, they found rain, rain, and more rain, along with boredom, friction, and escalating tempers. Hoping to stick it out for just one more day and see if the weather might turn for the better, plans were suddenly changed when Clara up and fainted, for no apparent reason. Afraid that his wife might be ill, Doc hustled them all home -- but not without incident. After a disturbing temporal transition, they arrived in the future only to be immediately struck by lightning. Soon after, they found themselves with a burned out time machine, stranded in unfamiliar surroundings that would soon become more familiar than they could have ever anticipated...
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| Length: Approximately 187,000 words |
| Written: June 2001 - September 2001 |
| Revised: September 2001 |
Mary Jean's Author's Notes:
"Equal collaboration worked with Bob Z[emeckis] because we had similar backgrounds, similar ambitions, similar taste, total respect for one another, and no ego with each other. So if you can find that in a partner, collaboration isn't so hard!" -- Bob Gale Right, like everything will be fine if Marty only accelerates to precisely 88 mph and hits the cable with the hook exactly at the moment lightning strikes the clocktower. Finding someone with whom you can collaborate (and not wind up going nowhere or at each other's throats) is about as common as lightning striking the same place twice. Writers have very different reasons for telling the tales they do, and fan writers more so than one might think, despite the fact they're writing in a common genre with seemingly common characters. Everyone sees the world from a different perspective, and when a dozen people watch a movie, they'll come away with a dozen different views about which characters they like, and what they think might make them tick. Even when you have two fans with basically similar points of view, there will be variations, sometimes just because they see things through different eyes, and sometimes because they don't want to be accused of deliberately imitating someone else. Kristen's version of the BTTF universe and mine always struck me as being remarkable, both for the ways they are alike and the ways they are not. The astonishing coincidences -- such as Emily -- were offset by the major differences, in particular the ways in which she was influenced by the animated series (hey, she was just a kid at the time she started writing; kids are more easily influenced), while I adamantly resisted incorporating any of its details because I found it to be so poorly written and inane. I didn't even become aware of the existence of Kristen's writing until January of 1999, when a friend who cruises the Net much more than I told me of her site, which mentioned my own BTTF fanfic. At first, I dreaded going there, expecting the worst, because in the years since I'd written and published the first four pieces, nobody had seemed the least bit interested. One day, I finally worked up the nerve to look, was relieved to discover that I wasn't being torn to shreds, and decided to send Kristen an email. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. I'm not sure when Kristen and I first tossed about the idea of writing a crossover between our two versions of the BTTF universe. Sometime during or after the period in which I was writing Running Out of Time, I suspect. We joked about it on and off in the months that followed, but for some reason, this past spring, the joking started to turn more serious -- maybe because we finally came up with a plausible story to go along with the vague idea. About two-thirds of the story came out with amazing speed -- possibly because we were both bored, in need of distractions, or prodded by the Muse, and each other. I must apologize to Kristen for throwing some of the nastier plot twists at her. Several were not things we discussed; they just happened when I was in the course of writing my chapters. She now knows first-hand the ways in which my brain works when I'm writing a story. I start in one direction, my subconscious says no, I've got a better direction for you, off it goes -- and it's usually right. Makes for long and complex stories, but more intriguing ones, I think. Anyway, it was a long and exhausting but delightful experience. Haven't done a good collaboration since... lordy, I think 1988. Been too long. I don't know if we'll ever do it again, but I'm glad we had the chance this once. Thanks for being a wonderful collaborator, Kristen. I hope the readers approve of the results. Oh, by the way: The title has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with a BTTF story on fanfiction.net, "Where Worlds Collide." It's an homage to the old science fiction movie (and the novel on which it was based) When Worlds Collide. Those folks faced a disaster of epic proportions that led to new and exciting possibilities -- and so do the folks in our tale. Enjoy.
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Kristen's Author's Notes:
I've never really liked collaboration. During my entire educational career -- from kindergarten right through senior year of college -- I hated group projects with a fervent passion. It seemed like every time I got paired up or assigned with classmates, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. People slacked off. Schedules and views conflicted. No one could ever meet outside of class. One person (me, for a number of years) got stuck doing all the work. So the idea of actually collaborating with another writer on a story, then, was pretty far out for me. I'd tried it before, of course -- I seem to have some memory of writing a story with my best childhood friend and, later, in high school, my best friend at the time and I tried to write a BTTF story together -- but it never seemed to work out. Which was just as well, 'cause although I'd learned the art of compromising and picking my battles as I aged, I have always had very particular views on my writing and how I told a story. And have not felt so apt to compromise those ideals. I can accept criticism and all that -- I actively recruited about a dozen friends and family to rip my first novel last year to shreds and used many of their suggestions in the second draft -- but I'm a bit of a control freak in general and writing was one place where I could go do things my way and worry not over the consequences or compromising. This project, then, started out as a kind of half-joke. I don't remember when, but during the years of corresponding with fellow writer, Mary Jean, one of us quipped, "I wonder what our characters would make of each other?" Since time travel offers numerous possibilities and storylines, the idea of parallel dimensions was definitely nothing new for either of us. Mary Jean explored it a lot with her Running Out of Time tale; I messed around with it in The Pair O' Docs. Over time, the "joke" got a bit more serious. But it wasn't until I had finished revised The Pair O' Docs last spring and Mary Jean was reading it over that she noticed I had set things up perfectly at the end for something like this to happen -- funny, since I hadn't even thought about that as I'd written the scene. So we decided, what the hell, let's finally do this. Executing the construction of the story was rather challenging at times, since all the brainstorming and plotting, etc., had to be done entirely via e-mail and online chatting. Wisconsin and Oregon ain't exactly close. The entire act of writing a story with someone else, too, was very new for me. I had utterly no idea how that worked at all. Back on previous attempts, my friends and I would alternate writing chapters. We ended up doing just that, more or less, writing chapters alternately (I'm sure you can gather who's who's if you read enough of our work; our writing styles tend to be distinctive, though I found myself definitely influenced in trying to match hers) and then later going back to smooth things out or correct technicalities, details, or any dialogue, etc. It felt like a psychotic tennis match at times; I'd take (typically) a couple days to write one (due to my finishing college, moving back home, and the insane search for a job during the bulk of writing of this story; this was my beacon of sanity) and Mary Jean would return hers within about 24 hours. It was quite fun, however, playing against (or with) a writer who can match or surpass your own skills and speed. The title was kind of a joke almost from the beginning -- "We could call it When Worlds Collide!" -- but it did turn out to be very appropriate. A few notes of in-jokes: - Devil's Lake and Lincoln City really exist on the Oregon Coast. My parents built their future retirement home on the shores of the lake, literally twenty feet from the edge of it, last year. I've been dragged to Lincoln City regularly (usually against my will) for family togetherness since I was twelve. Seemed rather appropriate in that way to use it, here. - The date that Mary Jean and I decided that, yes, let's do this, and began plotting was June 4th, 2001. Beginning it on that day, June 4th, then, seemed appropriate. - The reason the Jennifers are described as looking different? For some reason, I always saw Jennifer as the Elisabeth Shue one, possibly because she was the "last" one used; possibly because she has more lines and more of a character in the sequel. Mary Jean had always seen her as the Claudia Wells one. So therein lies that discrepancy in their appearance, and now I suppose the readers have definitive answers as to who the writers picture as that character. - For anyone new to either of our "universes," there are some stories that might make relevant reading, as they are referred to more than once in the course of the tale. For Mary Jean, these would be: 'Til Death Do Us Part, Past Imperfect, Running Out of Time, and No Time Like the Present. For myself they would be: Summer of '69, The Pair O' Docs, and The Future Ain't What it Used to Be. As for future collaborations with different writers, I'm with Bob Gale on this one. Mary Jean was the first person I knew that I felt I could collaborate on something with and actually have it be completed and a strong piece of work. I've yet to meet anyone else with that odd, elusive mixture that Gale speaks so wisely about. It's quite ironic in many ways, as I was a fan of her work for years before I had the chance to get to know her and she was one writer that I had hoped to write a letter to, complimenting her on her talents and works. (This says a lot; I've never written a fan letter before, not even to Michael J. Fox, my favorite actor of all time.) If you would've told me years ago that I would've someday collaborated with her, I would've laughed my head off at the far-fetched idea. Life is really funny sometimes. But if you put your mind to it.... This was awful fun to do -- there is a reason this thing is as long as it is -- but who knows if it'll happen again? I would certainly love to work with Mary Jean on another project -- the entire act of writing this thing was a real blast! -- but I've never been one for reruns on plots. Should the right circumstances present themselves, this might happen again; maybe not. Time, of course, will tell. In the meantime, enjoy the story!
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