“the Uncanny Valley”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 12 Nov 2025 ]

Where did the idea for the story come from?

At some point, I got the notion of an archway to another area of reality, wherein time moved differently. I had only a general idea of what might be done with this concept, but when summer_of_giles was ready to start up that year, I started working out how Giles might figure into something with that feature. The rest came about gradually.

Is there any particular significance to the title?

I’d heard of the concept, as described within the story, and I’d say it served double duty, as the ‘valley’ would also stand for the different reality in which Imogen spent so much time. Tenuous link, but that’s where it stands.

What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?

The thing that brought me the most pleasure was Imogen’s confident maturity, as contrasted with the breezy, adolescent casualness of the Slayers we’ve customarily seen. This was someone who’d had plenty of time to come to terms with herself, and was satisfied with the self she had come to know.

Liked least? Well, there was a lot of talk, talk, talk, despite my best efforts to use exposition as bookends for some nice, stirring action. And, let’s face it, this was a fairly broad departure from the kind of stuff I usually do, so I might have had some small unease as to how well it would come across.

Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?

Looking back on it from a year’s distance, it seems to me that this Giles, while in character as we know him, could have been more firm-and-in-charge. He wasn’t exactly passive here, but neither was he really exercising any particular control, was he? Of course, the situation didn’t especially call for a firm hand; still, I probably would want to put more stress into the depiction of his innate authority.

Was there a different direction I might have wanted to take the story, and what would have been some of the advantages of the not-taken path?

I can naturally imagine a number of different approaches; the most familiar and most obvious is to change the perspective, while following mainly the same events. I also could have presented the basic situation in a different setting, or even had Imogen dealing with other members of the Scooby Gang. (Given that this would be a summer_of_giles story, though, that last one wasn’t really open to me.) In short, there are different ways I could have gone, but nothing really comes to me as to what else I would have done. This one came out as I intended it, and I see no pressing need for correction.

Any observations to add at the end?

This story had me wondering if I might be in danger of falling into a rut, in that once more I was writing “Giles-paired-with-[this or that]-female”. Reviewing all my summer_of_giles fics, though, I find that only five of the dozen (so far) followed this trend, and one of the five was Giles-with-Jenny at a time when they canonically were together. I can keep watch that I don’t begin to overdo that approach, then, but to date I’m okay on that.

And that’s where we are.