IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE (yes, another one, go ahead and hate me):

This probably isn't all that necessary, but I just wanted to give yinz a quick update on my story progress. Unfortunately I'm still not done with Chapter 4 and will probably not be posting it until maybe another 2 weeks (there was a typo at the end of the last post that said "I won't post anything new until at least March" but I really meant May; it didn't make sense anyway since it was already March at the time, lol), but I can assure you that after that I WILL uphold by promise to update much more frequently, at least once every two weeks if I can (although I'd like to shoot for once a week, but I have other stories I'm working on, two, plus a summer job). However, I have just posted today the revised version of Chapter Two which I HIGHLY suggest you go read, since I added/changed some information that will be relevant to the future continuity of the story. There are some spelling/grammatical errors in Chapter 3 that I really want to fix, but I may or may not get to fixing that soon. So basically the only real reason for posting this new "chapter" was to shamelessly plug my new version of Chapter 2, and of course to reassure all of you that I WILL be back soon with new material.

Oh, and one more important thing. Since I don't plan on diving right into chapters based on episodes (the mission started in 2265 and by the time the show aired I think it was already supposed to be 2266, since it began airing in 1966, so obviously probably about half a year had already passed during the mission by this time, then), I have come up with a few original storylines for chapters that play out kind of like TOS episodes would. However, a lot of these ideas aren't fully fleshed out yet and I also don't feel that I have a substantial amount of these "filler" chapters yet. Also, a lot of these focus more on stuff happening on board the ship, with only one idea I have so far dealing with some kind of away mission on a planet.

So basically, I'm announcing a CHOOSE THE ADVENTURE-OF-THE-WEEK CONTEST. Anyone who has some kind of wacky prompt or plot idea, please tell me all about it in a review (or a PM, if you like being secretive)! It can be a prompt based on a single word, character, meme, cliche, plot device, movie quote, etc., or you can even send me a rough outline of a whole plot you'd like to see. To get your creative juices flowing, here's some possible story prompts/concepts I'm already considering, just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

-Kirk n' crew becoming oddly obsessed with grapefruit/grapefruit-like alien fruit (for those unfamiliar with Star Trek fanfic outside of this site, Kirk/Grapefruit has become a kind of memetic mutation popular in crackfics elsewhere, started by Shatner himself (don't ask))

-Yeoman Mary Sue comes aboard the Enterprise, but isn't exactly what she seems...

-holiday-themed murder mystery

-something involving one-eyed, one-horned, (not flying) purple people-eaters

I will, of course announce this contest again at the end of Chapter Four (once it's posted). The winner will have their prompt featured in probably either chapter 7 or 8, but possibly as early as chapter 5 (the details about what happens soon after chapter 4 are still a bit foggy), and will receive special recognition, of course. Although the term "winner" is highly subjective, as it's possible that depending on how much feedback I receive I'll probably use other prompts submitted somewhere down the line, and each time I use someone's prompt I will obviously recognize you for it. Also, if I use your prompt for a chapter, as a prize I will read and review any story of your choosing (or, if you want, beta-read it for you, since I am technically a beta, just not active at the moment). This contest will technically be ongoing for the entire duration of the fic (since I'll have plenty other original story arcs interspersed with episode-based chapters), but I will announce it again (and maybe a few more specific contests) periodically. So once again, thank you all for being patient with me, and please send me any ideas you want to see me include in The Good Doctors!

~Leanne the Rocket Dog