Ideal TV Show Characters

[kimq]

I say go one further, go all out Quadraplegic, he could use a kickin' chair to do everything

Is the focus then futuristic technology, the chair, or the character?

I have to agree with Joe Dizzy, male/male is more disturbing to average viewers and therefore more risque. But either way, I would avoid two homosexual relationships, it cheapens the value of each by taking away what makes them unique.

I think I haven't made myself clear enough. I moved the relationship from the women to the men. It is written the last skeleton descriptions of the characters.

Same can be said for overloading the crew with Aliens. Aliens are used to show the extremes, if humans are the minority, then aliens just become color.

I have to agree on this one. However, everyone seems to want aliens so aliens it is.

I agree with most of Dan G's points BTW, instead fo being defensive you may want to consider what he said. Just my opinion there.

I don't think I was being defensive. It's an easy enough thing to point out the negative things, but it's hard to offer positive alternatives. I'm always willing to listen to postive alternatives. It's too bad none have come as of yet. Maybe down the line? Do you have anything to offer for alternatives other than just cutting things down?

Suzie would never revisit Selar, as she hates working on Star Trek. It's true, it's true.

This is a non-issue. Everyone will discover what I mean in the future when this is all said and done. Besides, I believe there has been an established history of other actresses picking up character roles left behind by previous actresses in Star Trek, anyway.

[AslanC]

Originally posted by kimq
Is the focus then futuristic technology, the chair, or the character?

I would think it would be about the merger of the two, working together to move beyond the physical limitations.

Originally posted by kimq
I think I haven't made myself clear enough. I moved the relationship from the women to the men. It is written the last skeleton descriptions of the characters.

I'll take your word on that one

Originally posted by kimq
I have to agree on this one. However, everyone seems to want aliens so aliens it is.

I understand, but if everyone understood good writing and character interplay, well let's just say TV and film would be much better

Originally posted by kimq
I don't think I was being defensive. It's an easy enough thing to point out the negative things, but it's hard to offer positive alternatives. I'm always willing to listen to postive alternatives. It's too bad none have come as of yet. Maybe down the line? Do you have anything to offer for alternatives other than just cutting things down?

A] I am not cutting hings down, I am pointing things out. 2] It may be easy to criticize, but it is hard to accept it. DanG's points were well made and of value... IMHO.

Originally posted by kimq
This is a non-issue. Everyone will discover what I mean in the future when this is all said and done. Besides, I believe there has been an established history of other actresses picking up character roles left behind by previous actresses in Star Trek, anyway.

Especialiay the pointy eared ones Now what's with the cryptic statement at the begining of that paragraph?

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by AslanC
Suzie would never revisit Selar, as she hates working on Star Trek. It's true, it's true.

NOOOOOOOOOO! Say it ain't so, AslanC!

I liked her

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by AslanC
I say go one further, go all out Quadraplegic, he could use a kickin' chair to do everything

Check out the links 2 posts up from yours re: wheelchairs/scooters.

[kimq]

Originally posted by AslanC
Now what's with the cryptic statement at the begining of that paragraph?

I didn't answer those who asked before and I will not answer now. Those positively involved will reap the fruits of their labors. Those who do not, will not.

That's all I'm saying.

[kimq]

I am signing off until Tuesday morning. It's a long weekend for us Canadians.

The sooner the basics of each character can be hammered out, the sooner we can move on to other stuff. Where are we going? HIGHER!

Cheers mates.

[AslanC]

Actually it is a long weekend for all of us North Americans

Labor Day! Woo hooo!

Oh wiat, I work all weekend and Monday...

[Michael Barratt]

AslanC/Joe Dizzy said: "I have to agree with Joe Dizzy, male/male is more disturbing to average viewers and therefore more risque. But either way, I would avoid two homosexual relationships, it cheapens the value of each by taking away what makes them unique."

I agree that the male/male relationship would be more disturbing to average viewers and therefore more risque. Sort of like having a suggested interracial kiss... oh, wait. Or a black captain... oh, wait.

Trek has a history of pushing the risque envelope. Let's keep pushing.

And, lets be totally honest, in most cases, homosexual women characters in a relationship on television are not exactly written into the plot for the enjoyment and support of other lesbians...

Besides. I wanna see two men in those nifty uniforms snogging.

Huzzah for homosexual snogging!

Michael Barratt (just a tad off his nut)

[Ineti]

Thinking about our female Andorian XO...this is all just ideas and noodling..feel free to comment and offer alterations.

If Andorians have double marriages or whatever, I'd imagine family values are fairly important to her.

Was thinking that maybe one of her wedding mates was killed during the War, reducing the quartet a trio or something. Reason being perhaps we could explore the idea of having a family, but one that's incomplete due to the loss of one of the members. Just an idea. The "broken whole" concept might have a good episode or two in it.

Was thinking that she was heavily decorated during the War, served as XO quite effectively, but wasn't given a command of her own. Maybe she's more focused on the militant angle for Starfleet's comfort. Perhaps the captain is a TNG sorta captain, a feel-good diplomatic type, and our XO is of the "new breed", an XO whose career didn't really take off until the war. Not so much a "war is all I know" idea, but more of a "war is what I'm good at, and what do I do now that there's no more war to fight?"

I can see plot ideas with her releasing her pent-up aggressive tendencies on the holodeck or on training folks in various martial arts.

At the same time, though, I don't want her to come across as a macho man with breasts and a nice smile. She's gotta have that femininity too, and I think part of that might be from the family values and such. Perhaps she takes her Andorian heritage very seriously, and perhaps at some point in the series, now that the Federation is at relative peace, she and her extended family might try for a child. Just to keep things interesting.

I don't know of any Andorian naming conventions, so how about "Orlan."

Either Lt. Cmdr or maybe just promoted to full commander being as this is a Sovereign-class ship. Or, maybe she was already a commander, and looking for that fourth pip, but denied it.

[First of Two]

Since every ship needs a "Guinan":


"Bob."
Human, Male, Lt. jg.
Ship's Librarian / Information Retreival/Analysis Specialist.

"Bob" spends all his time in the ship's library, sort of an adjunct to the main computer core, where crewpeople can come during their off hours to do research work in a quiet and controlled envirinment.

The ship does not officially HAVE such a posting as "Librarian." "Bob" was an ensign in a redundant job who wandered into the Infolab one day and began to muss around in it. Eventually, he was spending all his off-shift here, leaving only to go to his job or sleep. Eventually, he became even better at pulling up and cross-referencing useemingly unconnected data than he was at his original job, and the Captain, recognizing his redundancy in his former job and his skills at this "hobby," arranged for an "unnoficial" transfer and title.

"Bob" is quiet, unassuming, and eagerly helpful. What most consider tedious, time-consuming research, Bob finds "fun." He is extremely adept at "lateral thinking" and finding patterns in data where others might just se randomness.

He's a very good listener and problem-solver, and half the crew assumes he's El-Aurian.

"Bob" is one of a tiny minority of humans who are allergic to Retinax, and as one of the side-effects of days of research can be nearsightedness, he wears glasses. "My eyes are too sensitive for contact lenses," he says.

He's also one of the best shots on board and absolutely stone cold under fire... but the crew doesn't know that yet.

[tmutant]

I like the idea of a Senior Enlisted Advisor to the CO/XO. Not a regular, but as background color, a recurring character. Represents the enlisted crew, gives their concerns a voice. Possibly a Tellerite not having seen them explored as characters since TOS.

[kimq]

tmutant,
I agree that a veteran SEA would be cool. Traditionally in ST, however, it would seem that the XO fulfills this role.

First of Two,
I like the concept though have problems with the phaser part. This would make for an excellent tertiary character.

Ineti,
I like the idea of the XO having family problems. I also like the idea that she has been looked over too often for the rank of captain. Perhaps she's too militant even in a post Dominion War Starfleet? Perhaps she has become too bitter.

I see her as the XO for the Sovereign since her maiden voyage. In the pilot episodes the original captain dies in an accident, she is looked over AGAIN by Starfleet, and the new CO is placed in command. This would make for some interesting character interaction.

Michael Barratt,
Snogging?

Everyone else,
So how are those characters coming? I'm dying to move on with threads on theme, plot, and so on. Once the characters are hammered out we can move on.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by kimq
I like the idea of the XO having family problems. I also like the idea that she has been looked over too often for the rank of captain. Perhaps she's too militant even in a post Dominion War Starfleet? Perhaps she has become too bitter.

I see her as the XO for the Sovereign since her maiden voyage. In the pilot episodes the original captain dies in an accident, she is looked over AGAIN by Starfleet, and the new CO is placed in command. This would make for some interesting character interaction.

Sounds good. I'll write up the XO sometime today.

Incidentally, the second paragraph made me think - do we need two captain characters, or is the one we're working on in this thread going to be the one that replaces the old one? Just a little confused there.

[kimq]

Originally posted by Ineti
Incidentally, the second paragraph made me think - do we need two captain characters, or is the one we're working on in this thread going to be the one that replaces the old one? Just a little confused there.

The one we are working on will replace the old one.

[Imagus]

Originally posted by kimq
Michael Barratt,
Snogging?

Sometimes you can tell he's a Brit at heart, can't you?

Snogging = kissing - generally the full contact tonsil hockey variety

I missed this earlier, but it does look interesting...

Speaking as an outsider, I think you do have a problem in that a lot of the ideas are very similar to earlier regulars. Having said that, there are some nice twists.

Contrary to Perrry's worries, a paraplegic character has not really been done before. Melora was a one-off, and was based on the original concept for Bashir!

Personally, I'd have gone for the militant captain-peaceful XO combo myself.

I love the Andorian XO with the family issues though. This would be the race you'd explore in detail through the subplots - nice!

Now, my negative comment - the basic setting really isn't that original! It's a shame but coming up with viewable series concepts is actually quite difficult. We've had two so far: Big Ship Explorer (TOS, TNG, Voyager) and Station (DS9). This really fits in the first slot.

What would I opt for? Either a civilian-based show using a variety of characters operating out of a planet or station (like DS9 but less Starfleet) or something revolving around a small ship - perhaps a freighter or small survey vessel. In the latter case, limiting the crew and technology would pose some interesting limits on the stories.