caffienekitty (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
caffienekitty) wrote2010-05-27 10:05 pm
caffienekitty) wrote2010-05-27 10:05 pm
MEME: Create Your Own TV Show Meme
Okay. This meme is evil. Because first it's all "*brain goes totally blank*" and then it's all "Well, I'll pick some actors and a concept and just do it" and all of a sudden it's twelve fifteen pages of political background, culture design, character backstory, mini-scenes and notes on location scouting and budget concerns, and, and gaaaaaah!! No one is ever going to read all of this! It's eating my brain, and it's just a freaking MEME! See? Evilness.
Man alive, it's been a while since I did some world-building. :-)
(DISCLAIMER: A couple cultural concepts are cribbed from sci-fi sources, but I'll be damned if I can remember the titles of the original stuff. So if you recognize it, I don't own it. All pics from Google Images, no ownership claimed.)
MEME Rules:
1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" "please, may I have one?" or something like that that VERY SPECIFICALLY means you want to do this crazy thing and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea (genre or quote or random other starting point, etc).
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios, and show synopsis that you want to.
4. Post to your own journal.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gigglingkat gave me a quote (at the end of January O.o (Go read hers too! It's awesome and has fandom notes and is a hell of a lot more organized!)):
(It's about coffee...)
Series Title: Coffee Run (Working Title of 'Factfinders' was rejected due to sounding too much like a 'Mythbusters' spin-off.)
Series Synopsis:
It's 2278, or more correctly, year 161 After the Purge.
Humanity has spread to the stars and colonized planets, but is still controlled by a Central Earth Authority. Everyone loves the Central Earth Authority; if they didn't, why would they keep voting them back into power with a majority every five Earth years, for twenty consecutive Elections?
Throughout Humanspace, all chemical stimulants/depressants/hallucinogens have been declared illegal. It's still possible for people to make most chemical substances, but the penalty for making or using any chemical, synthetic or natural substance recreationally is death. The government has approved limited medically licensed use of electricity as a stimulant. Caffeine in all forms has been fully illegal since 2181, towards the end of the Purge that began in 2117.
All information from all of history is free to any citizen. Anyone can request any current or historical information and receive it. For the good of humankind, all information is edited by the Central Earth Authority to correct mistakes and dangerous propagandist falsehoods. Among many other things, all positive mentions of all things banned in the Purge (which wasn't limited to substance use) are redacted. To this end, Historians are employed by the government to ensure that the citizens get the highest quality information possible.
The Central Earth Authority's Historians are kept from contact with the general population and live in walled University-cities on selected planets with populations considered politically stable.
Background: THE PURGE. The Purge began because the government did not trust humanity, individually or as a whole, to make safe choices. People engaged in risky behaviours, consumed unsafe chemicals, poisons. With humans spreading across the skies and leaving Earth, the population was spread thinner. Dangerous behaviours were detrimental to humanity, physically harming citizens, or ethically harming cultures. In 2117, the Purge began to eliminate unproductive dangers from society. At first by eliminating the danger itself (base-jumping, bungee-jumping and bull-running were three of the first things outlawed) but as time progressed and the rioting began to calm down, the powers that be realized that many people would find ways to make themselves unsafe regardless.
Thrill-seekers early in the purge were given the opportunity to get on the Generation Ships leaving Earth and Mars to colonize far away planets. The theory being it would sate the current generation's need for danger, and future generations born in space would self-eliminate risky behaviour as the dangers of space killed them off, making ship populations either completely dead or completely safe by landfall. Many caught by the Purge took this option.
Of course that was stupid. The thrill-seekers pushed out to the frontiers, taking banned substances and knowledge with them along with the means of reproducing it, leaving Earth and the core CEA systems full of staid, unadventurous, stagnant drones, and the frontier full of sedition and growth.
That's when the only penalty for any breakage of Purge laws became death, to cull the need for purposeless danger and self-harm from humanity by eliminating those that had it. The CEA's military and investigative branches, the only approved outlet for thrill-seekers, began tracking down the outgoing Generation Ships to raid them and remove purged items, possible due to advances in ship engineering which allowed newer Earth ships to outpace the old slow Generation Ships.
The series would have an underlying sense of whacky, since the central plot-line is a quest to find coffee, but have integral elements of dark humor as relates to authoritarianism, free speech and the suppression and revision of knowledge to suit the people in power, without being too soapboxy about it.
Characters:
Kai doesn't set out to be a hero or overthrow anything. He just wants to know if this one thing is as much of a danger as it's being made out to be. He wants the facts. As things go along, he'll find more and more things he's always believed being called into question, and his foundation of CEA-installed belief that the Purge was in Humanity's best interest being shaken. As things go along, he will also find his sense of adventure waking up, and be alarmed.
Other Crewfolk - Mostly in the background at the start, but they each have more development as the series goes on.
Recurring Adversary/Ally Characters:
EPISODES:
One Season, 12 or 13 episodes. No titles because it took me way too long to title the whole show, never mind 12 separate episode titles.
Episode 1 - Historian is seen evading authorities (who don't seem to be too alert) outside the Great University of Mars, carrying a bundle wrapped up in a coat. A few minutes of world-setting then flashback.
Life of Historian, thumbnail view of culture and Redacting (alice in Wonderland, etc Covers "Revised For Your Safety") Things for the world-setting scenes: the absolute nature of child safety. Scenes in streets to demonstrate enforced safety and social aspects of culture, signs on the University re: Redacting for the common good, kids on leashes and in padded safety-suits, etc. Location: UBC through a red filter. Kai's much older friend and mentor falls suddenly ill (or is attacked). Kai takes on his projects, is exposed to unexpurgated paeans about coffee, far too at odds with the official story. Finds unPurged historical accounts of the 18th through 22nd centuries which include many references to 'Coffee', which in the official archives is highly demonized, (linked to executions and riots, assassination plots, smuggling, religious interference, etc). Is conflicted. Goes to Mentor in hospital, who is all "Of course coffee is bad or it wouldn't be Purged." *eyes flicking around for observers because his protege is compromising himself* Doesn't sit well with Kai, he aims to find out about coffee. Mentor hand on arm, "Kai..." "What?" "... be safe." Worried look out the door.
Kai decides to find coffee and find out empirically if it's harmful or not to validate its Purged status. Gathers 'safe' unexpurgated materials, to trade (fiction, comic books, music,) and everything he can find on coffee, packs it into a document bag and leaves the university.
Back to where the episode started. Very nervous, knows he's doing something not approved of, but figures it's something he can get retroactive permission for later. (He's a latent thrill-seeker) He trades something very rare and unpurged (unrelated to coffee hunt, maybe digital copies of music deemed purge-worthy?) on the info black market for untraceable cash and info on ships.
Is unobserved, makes it out, finds ship and books passage toward the Fringe on Historian business, since the Fringe is the likeliest place to find Purged stuff as far as he knows. Calls mentor just before boarding and leaves message. "Can't talk long, just wanted to say not to worry. Going to go find coffee, find out whether it's really so dangerous. It's research, for the Historians. I'll be back when I find it. Be safe." Mentor angsts over message, then contacts CEA Mars Office. "Hello. I have something to report. I have a friend who is about to do something very unsafe." / Voice of CEA: "You're doing the right thing, Historian Darby. Tell me."
Episode 2 - Meet-weird with crew and Kiki. Minor complications.
After a dodgy departure introductions are made. Engineer is dead set against helping a Historian do anything. Captain follows the money. Moment of meet-weird for Kai and Kiki. Agent Stanhope shows up towards the end of the ep.
After take-off, Kai notices one of the crew is a child an goes all 'Child engaged in dangerous activity! ZOMG!!!' at them. Something like:
"You- She- there is a child in danger on your ship!"
Captain and Kiki: *look at Kai like he's got a fish on his head*
"She was climbing! In the engine spaces! That's not safe!"
Captain and Kiki look at each other, roll eyes. "This is Ship's Mate Sandhurst. She's a member of my crew."
"She's a child! You can't allow a child to be endangered, that's a Purging offense! Where's her safe-suit and tether? Why isn't she secured?"
Kiki snorts and goes something like, "Sorry, I'm too busy to argue with cargo," and walks away to do ship things. No defenses, just no point in discussing things with a crazy person.
"Ship's Mate Sandhurst is one of my crew and as capable of working as any other. If you have issues with any of my crew working aboard my ship, I suggest you get off. Vacuum is that way." *points at an airlock and turns away and leaves Kai boggled*
Basic intro to crew and ship, dangers of space vs Core culture of enforced safety. Comptroller is the most sympathetic to Kai at first, but then sudden Mars authority appears to chase them. Freaks everyone out. Ship evades and Captain wants answers, authority from Mars is on her ass all of a sudden, but something happens, blah blah, all you need to know is there will be money etc Historian is defensive. Crew is suspicious. Kai keeps his cover story of this being some Historian/University business, backed by government money, "Mission of Historians for the good of humankind, but it's top secret from everyone so we have to evade capture. Reward, blah blah etc." but is quietly freaking, because he knows what he's doing is unsanctioned, and he's bending the truth, even though he sort of believes it. "We don't destroy knowledge, we make it safe for the public." Engineer simmers.
Episode 3 - Wacky adventure episode. They slip away from Agent Stanhope. Hints and clues and a direction in which to look for more. Notes of generation-ship colonies which left with full biomass stores before the Purge began. Crew consider Kai, Kai has a facade the audience has been glimpsing behind, really he's scared out of his mind. Captain and Kiki's cultural backstory comes out.
Captain and Kiki - Culture: They're both from the same cultural sub-set. They are the descendants of a life-ship that never made it. Survival pods with minimal supplies and equipment landed on a few large asteroids. The survivors scavenged the ship and built a series of asteroid habitats, spinning for normal gravity. There is an oral history from the time of the incident that implies a space-monster attacked the ship. Culture has maintained an oral history of tales from the early days, but has a taboo about recording any of it. In this culture due to lack of resources, there is an enforced zero population growth birthrate, which in turn limits the labour pool. Kids are raised by the community as a whole and accrue debt for basic living expenses from birth, giving them a debt they have to work to pay off. Children are expected to be useful in an adult work capacity by the age of 12 in order to contribute to the society and to begin paying down their accrued debt. Kiki's been working aboard ship two years. The Captain and Kiki aren't living in the asteroid system anymore, but they are outside it to bring in new resources, and still consider all the colony rules to apply to them, despite what's going on in the rest of human space.
When the info about life-ships carrying unedited biomass comes out, their cultural backstory is mentioned and delved into on a casual level. Historian wants to record the oral history and document the culture, Captain refuses, and deletes any recordings he makes on the subject. Additional source of tension between Kai and the Captain. According to records, few if any Life-ships made it to their destinations.
Episode 4 - Historian is revealed to the crew to not be a big shot in the history world. He's actually a grad student transcriptionist, (flashback scenes with Mentor) one who copies and redacts found hard copy. shaky trust is shaken as fund source is revealed to be very limited, and mission is confirmed to be ridiculously illegal by core systems rules, but only to the captain and possibly the engineer. Captain doesn't care, just needs to know when to dodge and when she's getting paid. Engineer is somewhat more positive towards Kai after this revelation, but won't say why. Historian is only more resolved, he's not fighting the system, he's looking for the truth, finding empirical evidence of coffee. Historian and Engineer have a closer social bond after this ep, kind of tilting towards mentor/headstrong student. Captain seems colder, but as long as the money keeps coming all is well.
Episode 5 - Total filler that seems like it's not. And really it's not because crewfolk character behaviors in this episode provide foundation for suspicions for the stage one reveal in the following episode. Wreck taps some old allies for intel for Kai, reluctantly because she's in hiding from authorities, but she wants to give Kai some support to do what he's doing. Since he's coming from a position inside the government, and has more intel on revisionism, she thinks either he'll have a better chance at making a real difference, or he'll fail and there'll be one less government revisionist. Or at least that's what she's telling herself. She was just an engineering student, her activism got her taken out of school, among other things and she's learned engineering by trial and error since. This episode meet Gunny (who's actually a contact Garret has used before, which sends him and Kai off-ship together to meet her, much to Garret's dismay) at a satellite-world called The Market (Location for shooting. Granville Island or Lonsdale quay. Hee.) Gunny passes intel and sets up meeting with Keats in another system or something.
Episode 6 - Kai takes an action which benefits the crew and cements him as not being a Core drone, no matter what he says. Wreck provisionally adopts him. At the end of this episode, one of the Crewfolk is revealed to the audience to be a plant for the Thought Police, when they receive important information from an unsavory source (Gunny) which was intended for the historian and someone shoots the messenger literally. Shown to contact Agent Stanhope without speaking, who says keep up the good work, keep me updated.
Gunny contacts someone aboard ship and asks to be met somewhere, she's got some new intel and it's huge. It's not shown who aboard ship she talked to. At the end of the episode, Gunny is meeting someone at a random unpopulated location, says a few things, then it's revealed the person who showed up to the meeting is Agent Stanhope. Dun! And she's all: "You are a danger to yourself and others. You are to be Purged." Zot.
Stanhope then contacts the ship on a private comm, leaves a message: "Thank you for your continuing service to Central Earth Authority. Please expand your observations to include the rogue Historian Kai Mathias. Your hazard pay will be increased accordingly." Message stops, in one of the anonymous ship rooms, flicks off and deletes itself. A shadow moves away from the console, this being the plant on the ship. Their identity is not specified in any way and watchers are left to theorize which of the crewfolk the plant might be all winter hiatus, if they are so inclined.
Episode 7 - Post-winter hiatus. Trail warms up with further rumours of a far-flung generation-ship colony. The crew gets conformation that the ship left from the Sovereignty of Scotland in 2100, Pre-Purge. The plant revealed in Episode 6 is featured more prominently in this episode as all his/her interactions with the crew take on a more sinister double meaning. The plant is shown to be gathering information on the crew and their mission and dropping clue pods with delayed transponders out an aft airlock. Still no identity confirmation, but more behaviour cues that cast suspicion everywhere, mainly because after Kai's actions in the pre-hiatus episode, alllll the crewfolk suddenly want to buddy up to or find out more about Kai, and many of them are twitchier than usual. Captain and Engineer included. And Kai has no idea any of this went down, or even that there was a message, or that Gunny is dead. And the audience will be twitching with 'who the hell is the mole?' Or bored out of their minds at 'OMG yet another mole plot-line, yawn'. But whatever.
Historian is having more and more of a struggle justifying his actions to himself as still being an independent mission undertaken for the Historians. He's finding his conviction that the Historians would not in any way want anyone undertaking this search disconcerting, and the remnants of his belief that he really is helping society by redacting history are fading. He's more convinced than ever that he's doing the right thing and becoming more convinced that the government could be wrong.
Episode 8 - Filler, Lightly cracky. Mild to moderate peril for the Captain and Engineer, which serves to demonstrate and polarize the crewfolk attitudes towards them, showing who's got misgivings about their backgrounds and who'll back them to the end. The plant nearly finds the unredacted items the historian is carrying when historian has to sell some on the black market. Engineer is unexpectedly motherly towards Historian, something thawing. Plant's identity revealed as the male engineer's assistant, Chester Harlowe. Historian picks a side/goes fully anti-revision.
Contact with Keats made. Includes, along with useful intel on where the coffee quest is heading next, a loopy half-meaningful, half-crazier-than-a-soup-sandwich conversation about the nature of facts. Leaves everyone mildly boggled.
Episode 9 - Suspicions (finally!) arise that there may be a plant on board. Rumours are passed as to where a data chip with the encrypted co-ordinates of the destination of the New Glasgow colony-ship is being stored, and the crewfolk-person who comes to the location (Chester) is given a convincing speech by the historian, or the captain that they're searching for the lost colony only to be sure that the illegal substances the ship was carrying have been destroyed and appropriately purged. Suspicion that whoever talked to the crewfolk is actually planning this and has been all along. Captain staunchly defends Kiki as not a possible suspect, but applies the test to her as well, so as to be fair. The Captain doesn't lie to her herself though.
Episode 10 - Starting run-up to finale. Confirmation of location, keeping it from the plant. Plant regains suspicion that he's been fed a line of bull regarding the intent of the mission, finds out, plant is left behind on an unfriendly planet, no communications. But is revealed to have emergency transponder, which triggers. Is picked up by Agent Stanhope who has been joined by the Fixer as they move in on the ship.
Meanwhile on board ship, Engineer Wreck reveals the rest of her personal history to the Historian. Ostracized, on the run, family left behind, persecuted, etc. She discourages this quest going any further than it has, because she now sees her younger self in the Historian and dreads the day the world will break him too, Thinks that no one can fight the system and win. Or something like that. Smooshy big sister-little brother "I give a crap, dammit!" type scene. Kai understands her point but is obstinate about finding the truth.
Episode 11 - New unified bonds and goals (Captain and Kiki want to know what really happened to their colony ship now, Engineer is slowly losing her bitter and regaining her zeal thanks to Kai's determination) Kai and Kiki moment? Kind of a breather episode. Minor progress-related adventure.
Kai asks Kiki about playing, she gets confused by the concept of unproductive effort, doesn't understand the concept of want as applied to work ("Everyone works as they are able. Or they train. You can't want or not want to work, everyone works, or everyone dies." *dismissive shrug*) *insert adventure here* Post-mayhem some small gift of a storybook. Not a purge relevant one or valuable one, just a story. Kiki calls it a pointless waste of mass, interacts with it in a confused manner, and stops, but doesn't dump it down the chute for reactor mass (though she debates it) and instead, tucks it into a nook in her sleep cubicle.)
Episode 12/13 (series only lasts half a season)
Find and go to the legendary lost colony of New Glasgow. There they discover a small rudimentary civilization, the remains of the generation ship colonists. Also remains of old tech domes, barely visible, apparently melted to slag. The society has reverted to about bronze age tech, the population is far too small to self-sustain for more than another generation. They all show fear at the word 'coffee' and eventually it comes out that a ship (with a distinctive CEA logo) came and ravaged the colony, taking all items and substances deemed contraband since the ship had left Earth centuries ago, and destroying most of the colony when they resisted in confusion. Early colony ships carried a seedstock of nearly every usable plant on earth, and coffee was one of them.
The Hermit is the last of a line of oral historians, keeping hidden knowledge alive (simultaneous kinship and juxtaposition with Kai's government historian/revisionist background), anything the destroyers were purging, including not only coffee, but tea, sugar and chocolate. Has a basic coffee recipe in which there is a shout-out to Monty Python for no good reason.
"Harvest, roast and grind... the beans."
"Beans."
"Beans?"
*nodding* "Beans."
"Beans???"
"Oh! Not any sort of beans. Of course not! Special beans!"
"Special beans."
"Yup. 'Count thou one rounded measure per measure of pure water. Count thou not two, neither count thou three. Four is right out.' In ancient times they had machines dedicated to it preparation. Every morning, across the whole of old earth, part of a ritual. This is of course only the first and most basic recipe, the rest are in the grimoire of coffee."
"Where's that?"
"It is a tale, told, passed down to me through generations of Keepers. It may be lost forever. First, though, first, you must find the beans."
Then the plant shows up with a fully armed government ship set on obliterating what remains of the colony. The ship escapes with the Hermit and a couple acolytes. Unless we got renewed, in which case the Hermit would have a tragic and/or nebulous write-off in Episode 14 because there's no way in hell we could afford David Tennant as a regular cast member.
Future over-arcing developments may have included the finding of coffee and the beginning of a revolution with the out-system thrill-seekers re-integrating into Core society and tempering the CEA safety obsession with adventure, or something. Also, Wreck builds an espresso machine.
-----
Yeah. That's about as insane as I'm going on that. I have to get this to a finishing point and stop. I'm starting to write scenes and pick shooting locations and costume designs and that way lies true madness. Casting was way harder than I thought. Not even going to get into speculating on what kind of fandom, if any, such a series might net.
And if you actually read all that crap, you get a cookie. *hands over cookie*
Man alive, it's been a while since I did some world-building. :-)
(DISCLAIMER: A couple cultural concepts are cribbed from sci-fi sources, but I'll be damned if I can remember the titles of the original stuff. So if you recognize it, I don't own it. All pics from Google Images, no ownership claimed.)
MEME Rules:
1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" "please, may I have one?" or something like that that VERY SPECIFICALLY means you want to do this crazy thing and I'll assign you the basis of some TV show idea (genre or quote or random other starting point, etc).
2. Create a cast of characters, including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios, and show synopsis that you want to.
4. Post to your own journal.
gigglingkat gave me a quote (at the end of January O.o (Go read hers too! It's awesome and has fandom notes and is a hell of a lot more organized!)):"Black as the devil, Hot as hell, Pure as an angel, Sweet as love.
~Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord"
(It's about coffee...)
Series Title: Coffee Run (Working Title of 'Factfinders' was rejected due to sounding too much like a 'Mythbusters' spin-off.)
Series Synopsis:
In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than the
soap, and much more difficult to find...
-"Sourcery", Terry Pratchett
You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to
fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be
one of the facts that needs altering.
-The Doctor, in "The Face of Evil"
It's 2278, or more correctly, year 161 After the Purge.
Humanity has spread to the stars and colonized planets, but is still controlled by a Central Earth Authority. Everyone loves the Central Earth Authority; if they didn't, why would they keep voting them back into power with a majority every five Earth years, for twenty consecutive Elections?
Throughout Humanspace, all chemical stimulants/depressants/hallucinogens have been declared illegal. It's still possible for people to make most chemical substances, but the penalty for making or using any chemical, synthetic or natural substance recreationally is death. The government has approved limited medically licensed use of electricity as a stimulant. Caffeine in all forms has been fully illegal since 2181, towards the end of the Purge that began in 2117.
All information from all of history is free to any citizen. Anyone can request any current or historical information and receive it. For the good of humankind, all information is edited by the Central Earth Authority to correct mistakes and dangerous propagandist falsehoods. Among many other things, all positive mentions of all things banned in the Purge (which wasn't limited to substance use) are redacted. To this end, Historians are employed by the government to ensure that the citizens get the highest quality information possible.
The Central Earth Authority's Historians are kept from contact with the general population and live in walled University-cities on selected planets with populations considered politically stable.
Background: THE PURGE. The Purge began because the government did not trust humanity, individually or as a whole, to make safe choices. People engaged in risky behaviours, consumed unsafe chemicals, poisons. With humans spreading across the skies and leaving Earth, the population was spread thinner. Dangerous behaviours were detrimental to humanity, physically harming citizens, or ethically harming cultures. In 2117, the Purge began to eliminate unproductive dangers from society. At first by eliminating the danger itself (base-jumping, bungee-jumping and bull-running were three of the first things outlawed) but as time progressed and the rioting began to calm down, the powers that be realized that many people would find ways to make themselves unsafe regardless.
Thrill-seekers early in the purge were given the opportunity to get on the Generation Ships leaving Earth and Mars to colonize far away planets. The theory being it would sate the current generation's need for danger, and future generations born in space would self-eliminate risky behaviour as the dangers of space killed them off, making ship populations either completely dead or completely safe by landfall. Many caught by the Purge took this option.
Of course that was stupid. The thrill-seekers pushed out to the frontiers, taking banned substances and knowledge with them along with the means of reproducing it, leaving Earth and the core CEA systems full of staid, unadventurous, stagnant drones, and the frontier full of sedition and growth.
That's when the only penalty for any breakage of Purge laws became death, to cull the need for purposeless danger and self-harm from humanity by eliminating those that had it. The CEA's military and investigative branches, the only approved outlet for thrill-seekers, began tracking down the outgoing Generation Ships to raid them and remove purged items, possible due to advances in ship engineering which allowed newer Earth ships to outpace the old slow Generation Ships.
The series would have an underlying sense of whacky, since the central plot-line is a quest to find coffee, but have integral elements of dark humor as relates to authoritarianism, free speech and the suppression and revision of knowledge to suit the people in power, without being too soapboxy about it.
Characters:
 | Junior Historian Kai Mathias - Historian (Jensen Ackles (anyone surprised by that casting? Didn't think so.)) Kai is more attached to facts and truth than the standard government Historian, often comparing information being removed to the expurgated versions to see what the differences are and why the information might have been deemed false or hazardous to the Peace of Humanspace. Despite this curiosity he is still considered not to be a political risk; most of his Government influenced conclusions are that the pre-Purge info should be suppressed. The CEA has been sure to limit his redacting duties to things which are very clear-cut; hard drugs, etc. Valued by the CEA Historical branch for his thoroughness and attention to detail. He has been placed at the most politically stable University-city in Humanspace, at Mars. In episode one, everything changes. |
Kai doesn't set out to be a hero or overthrow anything. He just wants to know if this one thing is as much of a danger as it's being made out to be. He wants the facts. As things go along, he'll find more and more things he's always believed being called into question, and his foundation of CEA-installed belief that the Purge was in Humanity's best interest being shaken. As things go along, he will also find his sense of adventure waking up, and be alarmed.
 | Captain Mika Roku "Captain" - (Julia Ling ("Anna" from Chuck)) Neutral, doesn't want to know, doesn't care, as long as she knows whether she has to avoid getting searched, and how to peg the rate she's charging. Not one of those "Tough exterior covering a soft marshmallowy interior types" either. No tragic tales of love and loss, just a hard life of hard work where tears get you nothing but wet. Not bitter, has a wry sense of humour that can seem cruel. Not asexual but not notably sexual either. Different priorities. |
 | Engineer Sophia Reckert ("Wreck") - (Claudia Christian ("Commander Ivanova" from Babylon 5)) Grumpy. Cranky. Seen it all, found it all wanting. Jaded. A disillusioned idealist and Anti-Revisionist who sees Historians as the lowest form of life in existence. Initially despises Kai, but as the series goes on, their relationship will evolve. |
Other Crewfolk - Mostly in the background at the start, but they each have more development as the series goes on.
 | Ship's Mate Kiki Sandhurst (Adair Tishler ("Caroline Farrell" Dollhouse/"Julia" Ten-Inch Hero)) Although extremely young, she is also very mentally and emotionally mature. Not a super-genius, not emotionless, but very stable and grounded. Doesn't consider herself any different from any other crew. She does a variety of general shipboard tasks, and navigates when necessary. The Captain doesn't treat her any differently than any adult on board and never questions that she can or can't do anything, or that she shouldn't be doing anything other than working shipboard in a full crew capacity. The rest of the crew follow the Captain's lead, with occasional slips and misgivings because despite Kiki's actions and capabilities, she's still a child. Very competent, responsible and doesn't shirk or complain. While she does get treated as a child sometimes by outsiders, she finds this a sign of a weak culture rather than taking it as a personal slight. Avoids leaving the ship while in Core systems, because it's more hassle than it's worth. She and the Captain share the same culture, about which more will be revealed as the series goes on. |
 | Comptroller Garrett Andwarr (Noel Clarke ("Mickey" Doctor Who)) Quiet, seems anxious and/or socially awkward and/or evasive. In charge of acquiring ship supplies and cargo, and keeping the ship's accounts. Painstakingly precise. Garrett is a bit of a fish out of water outside of the core systems. He's staid, safe, and non-thrillseeking. His entire livelihood gives him fits of anxiety and ulcers. He was born on the frontier, though. He hides in his numbers and records. He hates having to deal with fringe markets and grey markets and while he knows of the black market and has contacts within it, he hates having anything to do with it. He yearns to be safe. |
 | Engineer's Mate Chester Harlowe (Burn Gorman ("Owen Harper" Torchwood)) An engineer-tech, helps maintain the aging engines and other ship's systems, life support, etc. Nervous and twitchy, but quite brilliant. Oddly nervous to be in space, he's never spent an extended period of time not on a planet. Hides in engines and technical aspects of the ship, doesn't socialize much, stays close to the Engineer. |
Recurring Adversary/Ally Characters:
 | Voice of the CEA - Carey Mulligan. (Doctor Who - Sally Sparrow, oh and some kind of Oscar-nominated thing *handwaves*) Never seen, but heard delivering commands and information to agents, also the voice on the Purge violation reporting comm-line. Seems to be amused by everything, but never laughs. No one knows if she's a computer or a person. |
 | Contact: Gunny (Elisabeth Harnois ("Piper" Ten-Inch Hero)) Offensively cheerful and cheerfully offensive black market dealer. Weapons, illegal substances, unpurged data. Anti-revisionist, but keeps her leanings out of her business to protect herself from Government purging. Unsavory, lewd and crude; uses social aggression as a preemptive defense mechanism. |
 | Contact: Keats. (Misha Collins) Contact for sales and acquisitions of unexpurgated documents and files. Absolutely apolitical. Could not care less about historical records being altered, and quite jovial about the idea that history revision is supposedly something that's never been done before. Gives the impression he knows much more than he will ever say, also gives the impression he may be completely full of crap or insane and hiding it well. Effervescent streak of pitch black humour, like carbonated tar. |
 | CEA Agent: Oria Stanhope (Paget Brewster ("Emily Prentiss" Criminal Minds) Head Agent from Mars. Quick-tempered, takes lack of progress as failure, and takes failure as a personal insult. Driven. Manipulative. Not hesitant to use anyone and anything as bait. Appears in a few episodes before they 'lose' her but returns later. |
EPISODES:
One Season, 12 or 13 episodes. No titles because it took me way too long to title the whole show, never mind 12 separate episode titles.
Episode 1 - Historian is seen evading authorities (who don't seem to be too alert) outside the Great University of Mars, carrying a bundle wrapped up in a coat. A few minutes of world-setting then flashback.
Life of Historian, thumbnail view of culture and Redacting (alice in Wonderland, etc Covers "Revised For Your Safety") Things for the world-setting scenes: the absolute nature of child safety. Scenes in streets to demonstrate enforced safety and social aspects of culture, signs on the University re: Redacting for the common good, kids on leashes and in padded safety-suits, etc. Location: UBC through a red filter. Kai's much older friend and mentor falls suddenly ill (or is attacked). Kai takes on his projects, is exposed to unexpurgated paeans about coffee, far too at odds with the official story. Finds unPurged historical accounts of the 18th through 22nd centuries which include many references to 'Coffee', which in the official archives is highly demonized, (linked to executions and riots, assassination plots, smuggling, religious interference, etc). Is conflicted. Goes to Mentor in hospital, who is all "Of course coffee is bad or it wouldn't be Purged." *eyes flicking around for observers because his protege is compromising himself* Doesn't sit well with Kai, he aims to find out about coffee. Mentor hand on arm, "Kai..." "What?" "... be safe." Worried look out the door.
Kai decides to find coffee and find out empirically if it's harmful or not to validate its Purged status. Gathers 'safe' unexpurgated materials, to trade (fiction, comic books, music,) and everything he can find on coffee, packs it into a document bag and leaves the university.
Back to where the episode started. Very nervous, knows he's doing something not approved of, but figures it's something he can get retroactive permission for later. (He's a latent thrill-seeker) He trades something very rare and unpurged (unrelated to coffee hunt, maybe digital copies of music deemed purge-worthy?) on the info black market for untraceable cash and info on ships.
Is unobserved, makes it out, finds ship and books passage toward the Fringe on Historian business, since the Fringe is the likeliest place to find Purged stuff as far as he knows. Calls mentor just before boarding and leaves message. "Can't talk long, just wanted to say not to worry. Going to go find coffee, find out whether it's really so dangerous. It's research, for the Historians. I'll be back when I find it. Be safe." Mentor angsts over message, then contacts CEA Mars Office. "Hello. I have something to report. I have a friend who is about to do something very unsafe." / Voice of CEA: "You're doing the right thing, Historian Darby. Tell me."
 | Guest Star: Mentor "Historian Darby"- (Jay Brazeau) Tool of the CEA, does genuinely care about his protege. |
Episode 2 - Meet-weird with crew and Kiki. Minor complications.
After a dodgy departure introductions are made. Engineer is dead set against helping a Historian do anything. Captain follows the money. Moment of meet-weird for Kai and Kiki. Agent Stanhope shows up towards the end of the ep.
After take-off, Kai notices one of the crew is a child an goes all 'Child engaged in dangerous activity! ZOMG!!!' at them. Something like:
"You- She- there is a child in danger on your ship!"
Captain and Kiki: *look at Kai like he's got a fish on his head*
"She was climbing! In the engine spaces! That's not safe!"
Captain and Kiki look at each other, roll eyes. "This is Ship's Mate Sandhurst. She's a member of my crew."
"She's a child! You can't allow a child to be endangered, that's a Purging offense! Where's her safe-suit and tether? Why isn't she secured?"
Kiki snorts and goes something like, "Sorry, I'm too busy to argue with cargo," and walks away to do ship things. No defenses, just no point in discussing things with a crazy person.
"Ship's Mate Sandhurst is one of my crew and as capable of working as any other. If you have issues with any of my crew working aboard my ship, I suggest you get off. Vacuum is that way." *points at an airlock and turns away and leaves Kai boggled*
Basic intro to crew and ship, dangers of space vs Core culture of enforced safety. Comptroller is the most sympathetic to Kai at first, but then sudden Mars authority appears to chase them. Freaks everyone out. Ship evades and Captain wants answers, authority from Mars is on her ass all of a sudden, but something happens, blah blah, all you need to know is there will be money etc Historian is defensive. Crew is suspicious. Kai keeps his cover story of this being some Historian/University business, backed by government money, "Mission of Historians for the good of humankind, but it's top secret from everyone so we have to evade capture. Reward, blah blah etc." but is quietly freaking, because he knows what he's doing is unsanctioned, and he's bending the truth, even though he sort of believes it. "We don't destroy knowledge, we make it safe for the public." Engineer simmers.
Episode 3 - Wacky adventure episode. They slip away from Agent Stanhope. Hints and clues and a direction in which to look for more. Notes of generation-ship colonies which left with full biomass stores before the Purge began. Crew consider Kai, Kai has a facade the audience has been glimpsing behind, really he's scared out of his mind. Captain and Kiki's cultural backstory comes out.
Captain and Kiki - Culture: They're both from the same cultural sub-set. They are the descendants of a life-ship that never made it. Survival pods with minimal supplies and equipment landed on a few large asteroids. The survivors scavenged the ship and built a series of asteroid habitats, spinning for normal gravity. There is an oral history from the time of the incident that implies a space-monster attacked the ship. Culture has maintained an oral history of tales from the early days, but has a taboo about recording any of it. In this culture due to lack of resources, there is an enforced zero population growth birthrate, which in turn limits the labour pool. Kids are raised by the community as a whole and accrue debt for basic living expenses from birth, giving them a debt they have to work to pay off. Children are expected to be useful in an adult work capacity by the age of 12 in order to contribute to the society and to begin paying down their accrued debt. Kiki's been working aboard ship two years. The Captain and Kiki aren't living in the asteroid system anymore, but they are outside it to bring in new resources, and still consider all the colony rules to apply to them, despite what's going on in the rest of human space.
When the info about life-ships carrying unedited biomass comes out, their cultural backstory is mentioned and delved into on a casual level. Historian wants to record the oral history and document the culture, Captain refuses, and deletes any recordings he makes on the subject. Additional source of tension between Kai and the Captain. According to records, few if any Life-ships made it to their destinations.
Episode 4 - Historian is revealed to the crew to not be a big shot in the history world. He's actually a grad student transcriptionist, (flashback scenes with Mentor) one who copies and redacts found hard copy. shaky trust is shaken as fund source is revealed to be very limited, and mission is confirmed to be ridiculously illegal by core systems rules, but only to the captain and possibly the engineer. Captain doesn't care, just needs to know when to dodge and when she's getting paid. Engineer is somewhat more positive towards Kai after this revelation, but won't say why. Historian is only more resolved, he's not fighting the system, he's looking for the truth, finding empirical evidence of coffee. Historian and Engineer have a closer social bond after this ep, kind of tilting towards mentor/headstrong student. Captain seems colder, but as long as the money keeps coming all is well.
Episode 5 - Total filler that seems like it's not. And really it's not because crewfolk character behaviors in this episode provide foundation for suspicions for the stage one reveal in the following episode. Wreck taps some old allies for intel for Kai, reluctantly because she's in hiding from authorities, but she wants to give Kai some support to do what he's doing. Since he's coming from a position inside the government, and has more intel on revisionism, she thinks either he'll have a better chance at making a real difference, or he'll fail and there'll be one less government revisionist. Or at least that's what she's telling herself. She was just an engineering student, her activism got her taken out of school, among other things and she's learned engineering by trial and error since. This episode meet Gunny (who's actually a contact Garret has used before, which sends him and Kai off-ship together to meet her, much to Garret's dismay) at a satellite-world called The Market (Location for shooting. Granville Island or Lonsdale quay. Hee.) Gunny passes intel and sets up meeting with Keats in another system or something.
Episode 6 - Kai takes an action which benefits the crew and cements him as not being a Core drone, no matter what he says. Wreck provisionally adopts him. At the end of this episode, one of the Crewfolk is revealed to the audience to be a plant for the Thought Police, when they receive important information from an unsavory source (Gunny) which was intended for the historian and someone shoots the messenger literally. Shown to contact Agent Stanhope without speaking, who says keep up the good work, keep me updated.
Gunny contacts someone aboard ship and asks to be met somewhere, she's got some new intel and it's huge. It's not shown who aboard ship she talked to. At the end of the episode, Gunny is meeting someone at a random unpopulated location, says a few things, then it's revealed the person who showed up to the meeting is Agent Stanhope. Dun! And she's all: "You are a danger to yourself and others. You are to be Purged." Zot.
Stanhope then contacts the ship on a private comm, leaves a message: "Thank you for your continuing service to Central Earth Authority. Please expand your observations to include the rogue Historian Kai Mathias. Your hazard pay will be increased accordingly." Message stops, in one of the anonymous ship rooms, flicks off and deletes itself. A shadow moves away from the console, this being the plant on the ship. Their identity is not specified in any way and watchers are left to theorize which of the crewfolk the plant might be all winter hiatus, if they are so inclined.
Episode 7 - Post-winter hiatus. Trail warms up with further rumours of a far-flung generation-ship colony. The crew gets conformation that the ship left from the Sovereignty of Scotland in 2100, Pre-Purge. The plant revealed in Episode 6 is featured more prominently in this episode as all his/her interactions with the crew take on a more sinister double meaning. The plant is shown to be gathering information on the crew and their mission and dropping clue pods with delayed transponders out an aft airlock. Still no identity confirmation, but more behaviour cues that cast suspicion everywhere, mainly because after Kai's actions in the pre-hiatus episode, alllll the crewfolk suddenly want to buddy up to or find out more about Kai, and many of them are twitchier than usual. Captain and Engineer included. And Kai has no idea any of this went down, or even that there was a message, or that Gunny is dead. And the audience will be twitching with 'who the hell is the mole?' Or bored out of their minds at 'OMG yet another mole plot-line, yawn'. But whatever.
Historian is having more and more of a struggle justifying his actions to himself as still being an independent mission undertaken for the Historians. He's finding his conviction that the Historians would not in any way want anyone undertaking this search disconcerting, and the remnants of his belief that he really is helping society by redacting history are fading. He's more convinced than ever that he's doing the right thing and becoming more convinced that the government could be wrong.
Episode 8 - Filler, Lightly cracky. Mild to moderate peril for the Captain and Engineer, which serves to demonstrate and polarize the crewfolk attitudes towards them, showing who's got misgivings about their backgrounds and who'll back them to the end. The plant nearly finds the unredacted items the historian is carrying when historian has to sell some on the black market. Engineer is unexpectedly motherly towards Historian, something thawing. Plant's identity revealed as the male engineer's assistant, Chester Harlowe. Historian picks a side/goes fully anti-revision.
Contact with Keats made. Includes, along with useful intel on where the coffee quest is heading next, a loopy half-meaningful, half-crazier-than-a-soup-sandwich conversation about the nature of facts. Leaves everyone mildly boggled.
Episode 9 - Suspicions (finally!) arise that there may be a plant on board. Rumours are passed as to where a data chip with the encrypted co-ordinates of the destination of the New Glasgow colony-ship is being stored, and the crewfolk-person who comes to the location (Chester) is given a convincing speech by the historian, or the captain that they're searching for the lost colony only to be sure that the illegal substances the ship was carrying have been destroyed and appropriately purged. Suspicion that whoever talked to the crewfolk is actually planning this and has been all along. Captain staunchly defends Kiki as not a possible suspect, but applies the test to her as well, so as to be fair. The Captain doesn't lie to her herself though.
Episode 10 - Starting run-up to finale. Confirmation of location, keeping it from the plant. Plant regains suspicion that he's been fed a line of bull regarding the intent of the mission, finds out, plant is left behind on an unfriendly planet, no communications. But is revealed to have emergency transponder, which triggers. Is picked up by Agent Stanhope who has been joined by the Fixer as they move in on the ship.
  | CEA Fixer: Jiri Krassik (Originally tried to get Cillian Murphy (on the right) but settled for Garrett Dillahunt (lots of things, Deadwood) on the left who turned out to be better suited |
Meanwhile on board ship, Engineer Wreck reveals the rest of her personal history to the Historian. Ostracized, on the run, family left behind, persecuted, etc. She discourages this quest going any further than it has, because she now sees her younger self in the Historian and dreads the day the world will break him too, Thinks that no one can fight the system and win. Or something like that. Smooshy big sister-little brother "I give a crap, dammit!" type scene. Kai understands her point but is obstinate about finding the truth.
Episode 11 - New unified bonds and goals (Captain and Kiki want to know what really happened to their colony ship now, Engineer is slowly losing her bitter and regaining her zeal thanks to Kai's determination) Kai and Kiki moment? Kind of a breather episode. Minor progress-related adventure.
Kai asks Kiki about playing, she gets confused by the concept of unproductive effort, doesn't understand the concept of want as applied to work ("Everyone works as they are able. Or they train. You can't want or not want to work, everyone works, or everyone dies." *dismissive shrug*) *insert adventure here* Post-mayhem some small gift of a storybook. Not a purge relevant one or valuable one, just a story. Kiki calls it a pointless waste of mass, interacts with it in a confused manner, and stops, but doesn't dump it down the chute for reactor mass (though she debates it) and instead, tucks it into a nook in her sleep cubicle.)
Episode 12/13 (series only lasts half a season)
Find and go to the legendary lost colony of New Glasgow. There they discover a small rudimentary civilization, the remains of the generation ship colonists. Also remains of old tech domes, barely visible, apparently melted to slag. The society has reverted to about bronze age tech, the population is far too small to self-sustain for more than another generation. They all show fear at the word 'coffee' and eventually it comes out that a ship (with a distinctive CEA logo) came and ravaged the colony, taking all items and substances deemed contraband since the ship had left Earth centuries ago, and destroying most of the colony when they resisted in confusion. Early colony ships carried a seedstock of nearly every usable plant on earth, and coffee was one of them.
 | Character; The Hermit. (Played by David Tennant, because why the hell not?) Rumoured to be the only living person on the planet to have experienced coffee and indeed, the only one they've met that might have. |
The Hermit is the last of a line of oral historians, keeping hidden knowledge alive (simultaneous kinship and juxtaposition with Kai's government historian/revisionist background), anything the destroyers were purging, including not only coffee, but tea, sugar and chocolate. Has a basic coffee recipe in which there is a shout-out to Monty Python for no good reason.
"Harvest, roast and grind... the beans."
"Beans."
"Beans?"
*nodding* "Beans."
"Beans???"
"Oh! Not any sort of beans. Of course not! Special beans!"
"Special beans."
"Yup. 'Count thou one rounded measure per measure of pure water. Count thou not two, neither count thou three. Four is right out.' In ancient times they had machines dedicated to it preparation. Every morning, across the whole of old earth, part of a ritual. This is of course only the first and most basic recipe, the rest are in the grimoire of coffee."
"Where's that?"
"It is a tale, told, passed down to me through generations of Keepers. It may be lost forever. First, though, first, you must find the beans."
Then the plant shows up with a fully armed government ship set on obliterating what remains of the colony. The ship escapes with the Hermit and a couple acolytes. Unless we got renewed, in which case the Hermit would have a tragic and/or nebulous write-off in Episode 14 because there's no way in hell we could afford David Tennant as a regular cast member.
Future over-arcing developments may have included the finding of coffee and the beginning of a revolution with the out-system thrill-seekers re-integrating into Core society and tempering the CEA safety obsession with adventure, or something. Also, Wreck builds an espresso machine.
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Yeah. That's about as insane as I'm going on that. I have to get this to a finishing point and stop. I'm starting to write scenes and pick shooting locations and costume designs and that way lies true madness. Casting was way harder than I thought. Not even going to get into speculating on what kind of fandom, if any, such a series might net.
And if you actually read all that crap, you get a cookie. *hands over cookie*
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I can has?!?
It'll take awhile, probably a long while, but I'm on summer Vacai (FINALLY!), and dammit now I actually want to do it and yeah...
I'll trade you virtual cookies
*crazy/evil plotting smile*
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"Any sufficiently reliable magic is indistinguishable from technology."
(reversing a quote by Arthur C. Clarke.)
And there's obviously no deadline, and no need to go quite so far with it, the meme rules are at the top. Have fun!
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...I can hear them...the muses are stirring, for the first time in ages...they're awakening >:)
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And I approve of your casting :)
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How hard could it be?
*evol laugh*
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Hit me up baby!
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"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake."
-Wallace Stevens
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Considering the fact that I already have running ideas for a manga, two American comics, an anime and a sci mini series/ tv show/movie
what the hell. I surrender. Hit me.
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"If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me, I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature."
-The Evil Overlord's Handbook
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(P.S. What you wrote has some interesting elements to it. I like the commentary on the trend in our current society to protect ourselves from EVERYTHING, even though over-shielding our systems is dangerous in its own right.)
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“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
-Neil Gaiman
Hope it inspires something!
Thanks for your comments too. I don't do societal commentary really, but this just developed that way... maybe my subconscious is telling me to take more risks. Or drink more coffee. :-)
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As for the series, it has intrigued me and made me full of questions (my normal response to most things). Are you going to take relativity into account with the Gen ships? What is the difference between Generation ships and Life ships? Would you try (with colors, shapes, textures, etc.) to make their clothing, architecture, and technology very different to reflect the futuristic nature or keep it relatively normal for the audience? Do we get more information about the political system then the fact they have elections and the CEA is either a party or a system kept in power by said elections? How big is the ship and crew? What other jobs do they do? Are historians protected from the moment they decide to become historians, and how does that happen? What does "oddly nervous to be in space, he's never spent an extended period of time not on a planet" mean - is he just nervous everywhere? Ooookay, stopping myself there.
And...oh, I guess I'm not busy enough right now. *coughcoughsuchaliecough* Hit me.
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Kai+Kiki= ♥ and ARE THERE PIRATES? Are they crack!fic pirates like Cpt Jack Sparrow? When the pirates finally are gone does Kai look at the rest of them and say "Ok, the CEA might have a point about Rum."
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Hee! I know. They're too damn adorable not to have scenes together. Future seasons they'd get to be closer friends and some kind of big brother-baby sister relationship, except it'd be weird because of the differences in their cultures. I might have Kiki start to relax on the asteroid culture and just be a kid once in a while, but that would be weird and a source of strife between Kai and the Captain... hmmm.... Also if there wasn't crack-fic about Kiki getting imperiled, Kai freaking out and racing off to rescue her only to find she'd rescued herself, Kai getting caught in the process and subsequently she has to rescue him, I'd write it.
ARE THERE PIRATES?
Hell yeah there's pirates! Half the outer-world economy started out as piracy of one kind or another.
Are they crack!fic pirates like Cpt Jack Sparrow? When the pirates finally are gone does Kai look at the rest of them and say "Ok, the CEA might have a point about Rum."
Those are the ones who kidnapped Kiki. *nods*
Panel Questions
I had never heard the term "redact" before.
It's one of those nifty words that shows up every so often in life and isn't used as frequently as it should be.
As for the series, it has intrigued me and made me full of questions (my normal response to most things).
Hee! Cool! This is like a convention panel! XD
(Hehe. Part ONE...)
Are you going to take relativity into account with the Gen ships?
The Gen ships would be slow-boats; probably no faster than .25 c and designed more for endurance over a long life than speed in reaching a destination. There may have been some fudging around with nigh-relativistic speeds as the tech developed, but I figure they found short-hop jump drives more practical and an easier tech to develop when breaching light-speed turned out to be more dangerous than anticipated. No saying it's not being worked on in the Outer worlds though.
What is the difference between Generation ships and Life ships?
Lazy proofreading.Uhhhh... I mean, Generation ships were the earliest ones, and everyone and everything remained active during the entire voyage. Life-ships came after cryogenics development and kept the ships crew awake on a rotational basis while most of the biomass and colonists were kept in cryogenic suspension. Sure. Let's go with that. *looks shifty*Would you try (with colors, shapes, textures, etc.) to make their clothing, architecture, and technology very different to reflect the futuristic nature or keep it relatively normal for the audience?
Well, each planet would have a bit of a distinct look. Core systems would tend toward muted colours and plain styles, except for the kids who are basically in bright coloured padded safety suits and on tethers so they can't endanger themselves and can't be accidentally endangered. No ties, other constricting neckware, shoelaces, piercings... etc. Aboard ship there's a bit of a blend, tending towards the practical jumpsuit in most cases, but not a uniform. The Captain and Kiki's would be similar in design and colour and make the most efficient use of fabric. In the outer-systems, things would tend toward more individuality with some trends in style in evidence, but not really any "whacky futuristic styles" overall. Piercings, dangly things, bright distracting colours, maybe a couple things that flash or display advertising, maybe antigrav hovering jewelry, but only here and there.
Do we get more information about the political system then the fact they have elections and the CEA is either a party or a system kept in power by said elections?
Ah, but the CEA is a party, and it is elected to power. It's just been elected to power every single election for the past 20 go rounds. The thing is, by getting rid of the thrill-seekers, they've also gotten rid of a lot of risk-taking tendencies. No one wants to risk having to change the government, no one wants to be so bold as to try and run against them and if they did, the general population would distrust them for being bold and wanting change. So, no real opposition, and no desire for change equals a century-long incumbency. The first few elections were rocky as the Purge was still underway and people who wanted change were still willing to fight wor it, but oddly a lot of those political leaders were discovered to have committed Purge-able offenses, or demonstrated self-endangerment tendencies. And so it goes. No one offers an opposition, and everyone's either to staid or scared to want change. The elections are still run, but it's basically like a pop-up window with an opt-out box, and no one wants to risk opting-out anymore. :-)
(continued in Part TWO o.O)
Panel Questions Part TWO
How big is the ship and crew? What other jobs do they do?
Not terribly big. It's a small light cargo-carrier, so a small livable area and a larger storage area which can contain an atmosphere or not depending on the cargo being carried. It also has a couple additional rooms for supercargo (travelers like Kai). The crew is just the 5 people listed and some automated systems. Everyone kind of fills in as needed here and there but they all have their areas of expertise. The ship primarily either hauls small cargo, smuggles items, or spec-trades, buying stuff on one world low and going to a world that wants it and will pay more. Every person serving aboard ship has a share after expenses, and the Captain and Kiki use their shares mostly to put towards cargo to take back to their asteroid home, stuff that can't be made easily there. This is also why Kai is annoying everyone initially because he's biting into their profits by raising the expenses and not immediately contributing income. Towards the end he'd have started being more like crew, although not to the point of getting a share.
Are historians protected from the moment they decide to become historians, and how does that happen?
Decisions aren't really involved much. All children are tested for mental and physical aptitudes all through their childhoods and steered towards a career that best suits what they offer. Historians have excellent memories, an eye for detail and a drive for accuracy, among other attributes. Kai's career path would have been finalized in his early teens and slow, careful training (so as not to cause any undue stress) begun. He would have been moved into a University for training once he had progressed (at his own pace, which was faster than average for him due to his excessive curiosity) through the necessary studies and background courses (provided it was deemed safe for him to be removed from his caretakers), and not seen much of the world outside since. Not that he'd seen much of it before. Some kids with aptitudes that suggest more than one career-path are tested further, and if no clear better option is able to be determined, a tribunal of people currently working in the fields suggested is convened. These are extremely rare (one in a quarter-million) as the testing narrows almost always narrows things down to one option. If someone doesn't want to be what their aptitudes say they should be, they are either sent to counseling, or that resistance is flagged as latent thrill-seeking, and in some cases they are steered towards law enforcement-related fields, but in others they get Purged. It really is a nasty society.
As for the protection granted Historians, most children grow up with the same level of protection, the Historians just never leave it, and are moved from strictly-regulated home or creche life to University life.
What does "oddly nervous to be in space, he's never spent an extended period of time not on a planet" mean - is he just nervous everywhere?
He's okay on a planet, with ground and natural gravity under his feet, but is paranoid of all the things that can and do go wrong aboard a ship in space. He's nervous on planets too, depending on the social situation. Until he started working as comptroller aboard the ship, he'd avoided space-flight as much as possible. Now, he's on-board and nervous as hell, but still staying aboard as crewfolk. He's probably got a story behind that that might come up in an extended season or in season 2.
...Now of course like any show creator who does a panel I've probably contradicted myself six ways running and crushed a fan theory or two. XD
Your prompt will be in the next comment. ;-)
Re: Panel Questions Part TWO
There is little I love more than world-building, or, more truthfully, world-exploring. And this, this is WONDERFUL. The idea of a entire community obsessed with making risk non-existent was still kinda escaping me, then there was this awesome shift somewhere in your explanation of the school system where I got it, and its implications on a humanity-wide scale. And then it grabbed me, and now I need more. I need it, I need it. And I want to ponder it, and write fic for it, and squee. I want to find out more, but I want to find out more through your story; I want to see it unfold, not just hear the facts. This is really cool. *jumps up and down with excitement*
Re: Panel Questions Part TWO
And the sad thing is, this is probably as far as this will go. Even though the whole damn world is living in my head now. *facepalm*
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"Archaeology is the peeping Tom of the sciences. It is the sandbox of men who care not where they are going; they merely want to know where everyone else has been."
-Jim Bishop
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- Anth major w/focus on archaeology
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You have way too much time. Or brain.
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The madness spreads!!!!
Dude. You made an ENTIRE TV SEASON out of people jonesing for COFFEE. YOU ARE A GOD.
There was more but LJ ate my first comment apparently. *sadface*
But I will tell you from experience. Posting this? Won't stop you from writing scenes or scouting locations or envisioning sets. Nope.
Also, we totally steal David Tennant's passport and he has to stay. It's an imaginary TV Show! THERE IS NO BUDGET!
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God, that prompt I was all "Coffee. How the hell do I do a show about coffee??" And there was research, and some interesting things about coffee and politics, caffeine as a banned substance, and then idea of coffee needing rediscovered in the far future, then the Purge and then the political stuff, and... yeah. *headshake*
There was more but LJ ate my first comment apparently. *sadface*
Naughty LJ. *smacks*
But I will tell you from experience. Posting this? Won't stop you from writing scenes or scouting locations or envisioning sets. Nope.
Yeah, geez. I just posted another couple thousand words in answer to
Also, we totally steal David Tennant's passport and he has to stay. It's an imaginary TV Show! THERE IS NO BUDGET!
I know. Due to an overabundance of bookkeeping in my life, even my imagination has a budget. So sad. *pouts*
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I do already have plans for a book once I leave my current job though. :p
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If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf.
-Nikita Khrushchev
Good luck with the book!
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mmmmm....cookie :)
(k, this is probably a very bad idea....but hit me :) )
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He knows when you're happy
He knows when you're comfortable
He knows when you're confident
And he always knows when you have carrots.
~Author Unknown
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hmmmmm....
huh.
I'll be back.... :D
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I'd watch this show. Just saying...
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Also- hit me with a prompt, this seems fun. (And will probably take over my brain for ages, really...)
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Hee! Thanks. :-)
And Kai seems like he would edge out Dean for my favorite Jensen Ackles character ever.
I think Jensen would really rock the whole conflicted-everything-you've-always-known-is-a-lie-truthfinding-changing-the-world character arc, and I would also do many inconcievable things to see him in scenes with David Tennant.
Also- hit me with a prompt, this seems fun. (And will probably take over my brain for ages, really...)
Well, it's a bit off the wall, but here:
"What's the good of having mastery over cosmic balance and knowing the secrets of fate if you can't blow something up?"
~"Reaper Man", Terry Pratchett
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*wanders off to make something interesting out of this*