From: ikonoqlast@gmail.com   
      
   On Saturday, July 26, 2014 2:03:49 PM UTC-7, Jacey Bedford wrote:   
      
      
   > > Science fiction story (of course).  Wooden starships and iron men sort of   
   thing.  No aliens, no 'magic', no AI.  Dramedy format.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > What's the ethnic mix of your crew. In view of the fact you don't    
   >    
   > mention it I default to white but I think it worth considering ethnicity    
   >    
   > and gender balance.   
      
      
   Race and ethnicity actually is something I intend to address.  Functionally   
   the members of 'Civilization' (ie the quasi-European powers) consider   
   themselves superior to 'wogs' (everyone else) with some exceptions for the   
   ones they like.  Within    
   Civilization 'we' are superior to 'them' for everyone, even if it isn't by a   
   lot.  Within the nations of civilization the same things holds at smaller   
   scales.  Individuals may, of course, vary.     
      
   Racial identity (via skin color) as we would understand it isn't a thing.  Too   
   many different planets orbiting different stars, and that's before the widely   
   available cosmetic drugs that can give you literally ANY color, or combination   
   of colors, in any    
   pattern you like, including changing over time.  Among spacers it is nigh   
   universal to take drugs that make your skin respond like and as fast as color   
   changing sunglasses rather than taking more drugs every time you land on a new   
   planet.  And if for    
   whatever reason you don't want to change your skin color they have drugs that   
   will leave it perfectly intact (spf 1,000,000) and only change its UV   
   opacity.  Navy regulation limits this to solid and naturally occurring (in   
   humans) colors only, but doesn'   
   t require it to be the one you were born with, or had yesterday.   
      
      
      
      
   > > Captain.  Jean Luc Picard clone.  Jewish, occasionally observant.  Very   
   smart.  Deliberately avoiding promotion to Commodore because he loves ship   
   command.  Was hero's and love interest's instructor at the academy.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > If he was an academy instructor how has he made the transition to    
   >    
   > Captain on active service?   
      
      
      
   Other way around- captain pegged for a term as academy instructor.  Who else   
   would a sensible navy have teaching future officers but existing skilled   
   officers with real world experience?  The academy course is only the basics,   
   officers actually pegged    
   for ship command are required to take an additional, and more intensive,   
   course.     
      
      
      
      
   > > Female doctor.  Ship's physician.  Burned out, very disappointed in her   
   life and her choices.  Not a great healer but still generally competent.    
   Occasional recreational drug user.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > Make sure at least some of the nurses are male.   
      
      
   Not called nurses in a sickbay, corpsmen I think.  They will be.  There will   
   also be actual female hospital nurses, for several reasons (one is I *need* at   
   least one) one being I want to explain a little that nursing is in fact a   
   skilled profession and    
   that nurses and not the lite versions of physicians.     
      
      
      
   > > Hero's friend.  Kim Kinnison clone- smart, strong, handsome, charismatic,   
   nice, whole package.  Naval intelligence officer of the adventurous type, NOT   
   of the George Smiley persuasion.  Very good at undercover work.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > A bit too good to be true. So perfect I want to smack him.   
      
      
   Nah, he's too nice.  He is perfect.     
      
      
      
      
   > Can you make    
   >    
   > this character female?   
      
      
      
   Nope, hero's roommate from the academy, and rival for the heroines   
   affections.     
      
      
      
      
   > Or give him/her a physical disability (say from    
   >    
   > an injury while on active service. Lose an eye, a hand or a foot? Make    
   >    
   > him work harder to appear 'normal' and still pass all the physical tests    
   >    
   > to stay in his job.   
      
      
   No.  Advanced civilization with advanced medicine, I can't give ANYONE a   
   physical disability.  Best I can do is give the hero an allergy to the most   
   common regenerative drugs, but even then there are other, less effective,   
   treatments for him.  (cf    
   penicillin allergy and sulfa drugs)  And it isn't his role to have to struggle   
   to overcome things.  He's a *Kim Kinnison* clone.     
      
      
      
      
      
   > > Ensign (no one cares what his name is, nor mentions it, ever), freshly out   
   of the academy on his very first assignment.  Naive, inexperienced and   
   unlucky, but actually neither stupid nor unskilled.  Iron butt-monkey.  Has a   
   'lucky' red shirt.  Sure    
   enough, the *shirt* comes through everything he undergoes unscathed...   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > Give the poor bugger a name.   
      
      
   Nah.  He's the designated butt-monkey.  All the crap hits him, and good things   
   miss him.  After all, he's the guy in the red shirt...   
      
      
      
      
   > > Bosun.  Been there, done that, multiple times.  Old salt.  As junior NCO   
   served under the hero's grandfather, and takes a paternal interest in his   
   welfare and treats him (in private) with all the respect he thinks the young   
   shit deserves, but is    
   actually fond of him.  Enjoys embarrassing him with stories of his notorious   
   grandfather's adventures.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > This character could be female. Actually she should be female.   
      
      
   Not in my head, and it would raise the question 'why didn't grandpa fuck   
   her'?  Grandpa is deliberately modelled in James T. Kirk, with an emphasis on   
   the not wearing pants parts.  If granddad did it would set up a different   
   dynamic than I want.     
      
      
      
      
   > > Ship's clerk.  Marine.  Babyfaced (cf Audie Murphy), extremely shy, eager   
   to please, sincere and apparently utterly harmless, with an uncanny ability to   
   slip into the background and not be noticed.  Has been awarded the empire's   
   highest award for    
   valor in the face of the enemy TWICE.  The first was heroism 101 in a   
   situation modelled on 55 days at Peking.  The second was for a different   
   situation based on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in WWII, only   
   uglier.   The citation was for    
   carrying on a campaign of fear and intimidation to impair the enemy's morale.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > > People who have read his actual file are scared shitless of him.  His   
   counselor at Imperial Medical committed suicide because he 'couldn't get the   
   pictures out of his head'.  His specialty was post traumatic stress disorders,   
   ie getting the pictures    
   out of people's heads...  He could give Dexter lessons in knife tricks vis a   
   vis human anatomy in consequence of his 'campaign of fear and intimidation   
   against the enemy'.  The love interest considers him to be the boogeyman man   
   and is utterly terrified    
   of him.   
   >    
   > >   
   >    
   > Ooh, or if this character was female that would certainly subvert    
   >    
   > expectations.   
      
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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