Steele Dying To Get It Right

by RSteele82

(Canon)An experimental revamping of 'The Steele That Wouldn't Die.' The relationship of Steele and Laura faces its biggest challenge to date: a hasty marriage to keep Steele from being deported; Laura's flirtations with another man; an archaeologist with an agenda of his own; and Steele framed for the murder of Keyes. How does our intrepid duo make it through, to fight another day?

1. Chapter 1

A thought recently occurred to me.

Generally, the fans of Remington Steele can agree passionately on one matter: That Season 5 was a disaster that never should have been. Our two favorite characters not portrayed true to their history in order to accommodate a whirlwind of on location filming; episodes virtually devoid of Laura/Remington interaction/romance; the introduction of a schmarmy new character on NBC's insistence; and, of course, two writers with little knowledge of the characters attempting to throw together scripts for the recently un-cancelled show. The end result is what we all know it to be: a disappointing and lackluster final farewell for 'Remington Steele', inane plots, and serious character assassination

While I have read only a couple of pieces of fan fiction to date - not wishing to color my own writings by the thoughts of another - just skimming boards such as these show that most authors who weave post-series tales opt to toss out Season 5 as though it never existed. Other summaries I've seen mention of an "alternate universe" and I imagine there are others that have done as I have: picked up after the conclusion of Season 5 and have tried to rectify the past by creating a present in which the travesties of the past were surmounted.

Then I began thinking...what if...

What if...

What if...

What if instead of ignoring Season 5, one instead embraced what good could be found in it, and understood there was much that went on behind the scenes which we never were given the opportunity to see? What if, suddenly, Laura's alternating between flirting with Remington and with the creepy-stalker Roselli, made sense? What if her vexing, priggish - let's face it, very un-Laura bitchy - attitude could be understood by those things that happened that we did not see or were not placed in their proper perspective? What if Remington stopped blithely ignoring Laura's flirtations with Roselli and addressed them, both to himself and her? What if we understood why he was so often buddy-buddy with the sleezy, stalking, wanna-be wife stealer Roselli? What if, at long last, Remington and Laura interacted regularly, trying to work through the problems that their hasty marriage created.

Would we, then, hate Season 5 as much as we did/do?

I don't think we would.

I think we might actually love it.

Thus, this experiment was born.

Drop me a line, let me know what you think. I will only continue to write it, so long as it provides to others, like me, what I hope it will.

RSteele82