My writings I'm not doing
Jan. 16th, 2012 07:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI figured out I can do the first story arc with Rhodri, Mary, Sean, Susan, the linguist, the astrophysicist and the injured medic. That's if Rhodri is the kind of guy who will happily push buttons to see what they do, and if he's not then how does he figure out the transport circle in the first place? Sean can be the wary one who spends all his time worrying about his oblivious to danger partners.
Seven is still a lot for TV, and then I want to add two other teams on the other planet. If I cheat it and have them have babelfish then I can leave out the linguist. And they are biotech people. I was going to put languages in a pill anyway. It just seems like more of a cheat than necessary, to leave out all human effort in the process. Of course if the linguist is with the biotechnicians there's still effort, but it's half in knowing how to work the fish... Plus I know it starts with trying to understand the symbols in the lost city, so if their linguist is working to understand Earth English and our guys are wandering around pushing buttons they can't read there's a whole theme going on and it explains why there's no expert on that task.
Also if all the biotechnician humans are 5' 4" or shorter then the heights of the party matter. Mary is 5'4". I was thinking the medic is too, but then I thought of her as Anjli Mohindra and she's kind of staying that way. Also I now have to figure out exactly what I mean by 'medic' other than 'someone who can bandage people up when they're bleeding' and then figure how much training and education and qualifications and all that they've got and precisely what their career has therefore been. I figured from demographics and name popularity by year tables that the younger they are the more likely they are to be Asian, so the hypothetical Aisha Patel could be young. (I still don't know if those names go together, they're just both in the most popular lists... though google for "Aisha Patel" comes up with 42,400 results, so I guess they do. But googling for my name gets about a quarter million hits, so, *shrugs*).
Also by that I have a Welsh man, two English women, two from Northern Ireland, and one astrophysicist of undefined region. If I make him from Scotland then I've got the set. Then I'd need a dwarf who can talk with the right accent. So I just spent time poking Willow Management to find if there is such a person, and I found mostly they don't list accents. Or age they can play. Mostly height. But there were a handful that list accents and between them can cover all the regions, Scotland included. ... yes I still realise I'm not actually going to be able to make TV, but if I was going to, I could find the person specified.
... now I'm having a terrible urge to make Highland / Lowland jokes. Oh dear.
ANYway... if there's only one person from Earth short enough (and tall enough) to pass as a native then she's the only one that can go on undercover missions. I'd rather have her and one other, but not one of the shooting people people. Hence, medic. So, Asian woman 5' 4" or shorter. Character background to be figured backwards from her name.
Astrophysics dude doesn't have a name yet. He can be David something. Hmmm, the trouble with deliberately using common names is someone else has them a lot. Like, David Scott is the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Do I name space explorer after him or avoid copying? I reckon the character is young enough to be named after David Scott on purpose though. That could work. Lunar EVA was July 31 – August 2, 1971. Maybe his birthday's in there somewhere. And he'd have a naming story that leads him into his interests.
The ages on my characters are ending up mostly me or older. There's something to be said for demographic spread. Must ponder.
... of course half of it is me trying to mentally cast characters from the actors I know, from TV that is getting a bit older now.
Okay. This is not a productive use of my day.
I just woke up knowing I don't need the full expedition to start with, they have tense adventures and then discover the city is going to freeze over soon, so they have to recruit a larger party to cover the gaps they've discovered the hard way and they have time pressure. That would explain also some of their less clever choices. But if they have to wait for the next thaw they'd have to leave things half done, contacts talked to but not friends yet, and the biotech people in the city alone. Hence, rush and hurry. But the small party can start things just fine.
Seven is still a lot for TV, and then I want to add two other teams on the other planet. If I cheat it and have them have babelfish then I can leave out the linguist. And they are biotech people. I was going to put languages in a pill anyway. It just seems like more of a cheat than necessary, to leave out all human effort in the process. Of course if the linguist is with the biotechnicians there's still effort, but it's half in knowing how to work the fish... Plus I know it starts with trying to understand the symbols in the lost city, so if their linguist is working to understand Earth English and our guys are wandering around pushing buttons they can't read there's a whole theme going on and it explains why there's no expert on that task.
Also if all the biotechnician humans are 5' 4" or shorter then the heights of the party matter. Mary is 5'4". I was thinking the medic is too, but then I thought of her as Anjli Mohindra and she's kind of staying that way. Also I now have to figure out exactly what I mean by 'medic' other than 'someone who can bandage people up when they're bleeding' and then figure how much training and education and qualifications and all that they've got and precisely what their career has therefore been. I figured from demographics and name popularity by year tables that the younger they are the more likely they are to be Asian, so the hypothetical Aisha Patel could be young. (I still don't know if those names go together, they're just both in the most popular lists... though google for "Aisha Patel" comes up with 42,400 results, so I guess they do. But googling for my name gets about a quarter million hits, so, *shrugs*).
Also by that I have a Welsh man, two English women, two from Northern Ireland, and one astrophysicist of undefined region. If I make him from Scotland then I've got the set. Then I'd need a dwarf who can talk with the right accent. So I just spent time poking Willow Management to find if there is such a person, and I found mostly they don't list accents. Or age they can play. Mostly height. But there were a handful that list accents and between them can cover all the regions, Scotland included. ... yes I still realise I'm not actually going to be able to make TV, but if I was going to, I could find the person specified.
... now I'm having a terrible urge to make Highland / Lowland jokes. Oh dear.
ANYway... if there's only one person from Earth short enough (and tall enough) to pass as a native then she's the only one that can go on undercover missions. I'd rather have her and one other, but not one of the shooting people people. Hence, medic. So, Asian woman 5' 4" or shorter. Character background to be figured backwards from her name.
Astrophysics dude doesn't have a name yet. He can be David something. Hmmm, the trouble with deliberately using common names is someone else has them a lot. Like, David Scott is the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Do I name space explorer after him or avoid copying? I reckon the character is young enough to be named after David Scott on purpose though. That could work. Lunar EVA was July 31 – August 2, 1971. Maybe his birthday's in there somewhere. And he'd have a naming story that leads him into his interests.
The ages on my characters are ending up mostly me or older. There's something to be said for demographic spread. Must ponder.
... of course half of it is me trying to mentally cast characters from the actors I know, from TV that is getting a bit older now.
Okay. This is not a productive use of my day.
I just woke up knowing I don't need the full expedition to start with, they have tense adventures and then discover the city is going to freeze over soon, so they have to recruit a larger party to cover the gaps they've discovered the hard way and they have time pressure. That would explain also some of their less clever choices. But if they have to wait for the next thaw they'd have to leave things half done, contacts talked to but not friends yet, and the biotech people in the city alone. Hence, rush and hurry. But the small party can start things just fine.