Okay here's a combination of what's in my Super Geeky Stargate Guide Book and what I would like to add for the Super Geeky Murdoch Mysteries Guidebook.
1) Initial thoughts
- Visual maps. Both a removable one people can use for tours, and one that's part of the book. These could be numbered like children's language books.
- Map of Toronto and environs: "The World of William Murdoch"
- Map of William's office
- Map of Station House 4
- Map of the Morgue
- Map of Mrs. Kitchen's Boarding House
Lists of fan trivia would be great. Some of the fan trivia I have made on this forum include what makes William ridiculously happy, William's inventions, and (today) the House of Eternal Return and a list of surprisingly edgy stuff MM does. I was told that MM presented a LOT of stats at that Wedding celebration - that would also be a great thing to add.
2) Breakdown of my Stargate book
- It comes with a DVD. I have no idea what's on it. I love this book so much, I've never so much as removed the DVD, lol. But it could have some cool walk-throughts on it.
- This book is very focused on gear, technologies, how things are made, materials used, classes of ships, which alien race it came from, etc. The equivalent in the Murdoch universe might be what William has invented vs. the actual inventions.
- Items: Bicycles, Uniforms, Equipment, what brand of liquor does the Inspector drink?
First page on the "stargate": visual breakdown with the stargate glyphs, definition. Sections on history composition, physics, "beta" version. Story arc. Second page is the "Dial Home Device" - its codes, protocols, and lore.
What's the equivalent of this? The "murder kit" with a history of forensics? The morgue?
- Next page gets on to characters. Start with William Murdoch of course.
A whole page should be dedicated to his suit - especially the Homburg. Alexander Reda should probably get a whole page on period/class dress for every character.
Info includes bio/career (make sure to get this right for nitpickers), personality traits, family. Special talents and Interests. Pictures of visual bling. For William that might include his badge, his birth certificate or any other documentation. Old pictures. Any awards/recognition he's received. Perhaps his write-up for letting Ava Moon escape, lol.
Boxes with info from notable episodes that added history/developed the character.
Rinse and repeat for all main characters.
-Next part of book is Stargate Command (i.e. Station House 4)
Definition, brief history, special procedures/protocols (or special historial things only fans would get, re: "break out the armory", "send it to the Pinkertons")
Next page has what's on each floor of Cheyenne Mt. complex and floor plans. What is on each floor of Station House 4 anyway. Isn't there a mythical "lunch room"?
Next page has "base personal" (i.e. the other constables who aren't main characters). There are probably other parts of the book for great recurring guest stars, too.
The next page has SGC Teams - this would be the equivalent of "other Station Houses".
Next page: Uniforms and insignia. Includes hazmat and some gear (radio).
Next page: Weapons - super detailed!!! Not just model, make, and origin, but breakdown of different parts. Some weapons get history of use on show.
Next page: Earth technology. MM Equivalent = Victorian Technology. Lots of info boxes/circles and pictures of the items. This book is like a big powerpoint presentation.
Next page: The Prometheus. This was their big ass spaceship. You could do big splash pages for the steamship and the airplane and the automobile (the electric car!) here. Again the layout is really cool - large picture in the background, paragraphs of info overlayed about the ship design, and also separate boxes with history and episode information.
Next page: giant map of the Prometheus. Plenty of map options for MM. Could map the engine of an airplane or train! Show transition from steam tech to gas/electric?
Next page: Alien technology. MM can actually go to town on this - the electromagnetic spectrum, the emerging new physics, communicating through the air, the transformation of cities through electric light and public health measures, the telephone, eugenics, confusion over pseudosciences like the mesmerism and the seance: it will be hard to decide what to include here. I suppose it will have to be limited to what's been touched on in the show.
Next page: Government and Military. Meyers - secret program run by Prime Minister.
Next page: NID and the Trust - various organized forces - Anarchists, Black Hand, Dockworkers. These pages are where a lot of the good guest characters are starting to pop up, btw.
Next page: Russians. In the Murdoch universe that would be Meyers vs. Clegg. Relationship with America. Civil War.
Next page: big section on Missions. For Murdoch, this would be "Case Files"?
More opportunities to show locations/guest starts/special objects/forensic techniques/tools, clues
Factions get their own page: The Orangemen, the Irish
-The Ancients/Ancient Technologies. On MM the equivalent would be "The Future". Not sure how that would play out in the book. Maybe this could be a section on Tesla, Edison, Pendrick, and Wells (including Eugenics) - even George! forward-looking thinkers.
George's novel should have a section of its own!
Section on alien languages. hmm. Language of flowers? lol. Guide to Victorian manners?
Victorian wedding planning!
-Goa'uld Pantheon - MM equivalent might be a guide to important historical/political figures of the day and chronological timeline.
Book then goes into more detail of said historical figures and history. Don't forget the history of technology! For instance Inspector Guillaume pointed out France was developing the electric car.
OMG this book gets geeky on the tech/weapons. It's like a gamer item inventory.
- Rebels. Boer War? No wait, that might be the Dock workers. Or is it race relations?
-Very interesting page that tries to organize story arcs over the period of a decade in parallel: I can imagine a writer trying to use this to try to keep all the information concerning multiple characters and multiple worlds/races consistent.
-okay, I have a complaint about this book. It ends with it's final "Mission" (Murdoch "Case File") subdivision without a general concluding section to wrap things up with some "icing on the cake". There should definitely be some sort of bling at the end!
Anyway, I love this book, and I think MM could pump something like this out easily because their Open House was basically the same thing. If anyone there wants to take a look at it, it's called: Stargate SG-1: The Ultimate Visual Guide
www.goodreads.com/book/show/151136.Stargate_SG_1I should note that it did NOT have a lot on actual locations or interviews with the actors and people who create the show. So that would add even more.
I've seen other fan guides for Stargate, as well as tons for Star Trek, X-Files, and other shows that have a fandom and a "universe". So I hope other people will pull out what they've got and flip through it for some examples as well. I wanted to go through this one in detail because I really loved this book when I got it for Christmas. It's really thorough and "did the job" as a reference guide to the Stargate universe.
Ps. Could someone on FB link this to where they were asking for suggestions for the guide book contents?
