Ron Moore's Lost in Space
Premise
In the not-too-distant future, Earth is divided between two antagonistic superpowers. Dr. John Robinson is a top scientist for one of the factions, and had been working with the government to build an experimental spacecraft whose faster-than-light engine is hoped will give their side the edge should the cold war go hot. However, the physician onbase, Dr. Smith, is deeply in debt to criminal elements due to his perceived vs. actual skills at gambling. He sells information about the projection to the enemy, exagerating the danger to up the cost of the information.
When news comes that the city had been targetted for attack by enemy nuclear missiles, Dr. Robinson abandons his post, collects his panicked and confused family, and takes them to the Jupiter 2. He forces their way onto the ship at gunpoint, then makes the prospective pilot for the craft, Major West, launch the vessel. Unbeknowst to all, Dr. Smith, working at the facility when news of the prospective attack came, witnesses this and managles to smuggle himself onboard before the ship takes off. As the Jupiter 2 is rising in the atmosphere, the ship detects the oncoming missile and Dr. Robinson, realizing they have no other choice, blindly fires the vessel away from Earth usign the experimental FTL. The effects on the human body are such that all lose consciousness.
When the unwilling crew reawakens, they find that the drive went into overdrive and died, taking all but the most primitive of engines with it. Worst, they are somewhere in deep space, light-years away from Earth or any hope of help... that is, assuming there's anybody left after the cold war on Earth turned into a shooting one. With no other choice, Robinson and West set a course for a nearby world, where they hope to at least find matter that can be converted into food and other essential supplies.
Setting
The Jupiter 2 is dark and claustrophobic, having never been designed for extended missions, let alone a family living onboard. The family attempts to create makeshift living conditions for themselves where it was never intended to (for instance, Penny had claimed an empty missle tube as 'her' bed; Judy sleeps on an operation table in medbay; Dr. Smith is eventually imprisoned in the airlock, as the only room on the ship that can be secured from the outside), but privacy is hard to come by. To make matters worse, the experimental nature of the Jupiter 2 makes the ship tempramental, and the crew worry that--not designed for sustained deployment--the ship may eventually fall apart.
Characters
Dr. John Robinson - The domineering patriarch of the family, Robinson is a demanding, unsympathetic workaholic, who behaves in a very possessive manner towards his family. Though he tells himself that his actions were justified--they all saw the bomb coming--he worries that he might simply have condemned his family to a slower death out in the emptiness of space. He also harbours guilt over a secret desire that they never be rescued, given the charges he would have to face if they returned, and may be the reason why the ship's communication systems don't seem to be working.
Dr. Maureen Robinson - For years, Maureen has contemplated leaving the cold and distant man she no longer loves. Now she's trapped on a ship with him, not sure whether to take his actions as a token of love, or blame him for stranding them out in space. As Maureen struggles to play peacekeeper and keep the family from killing itself in the cramped quarters of the Jupiter 2, she is also struggling with ovarian cancer. She has only told Judy, in order to get treatment--although, with the pressure mounting, she's been secretly taking a lot more of the painkillers than she ought to be, self-medicating against the loneliness and depression. [R.M.: What do we think about an eventual affair with West? Too cliché?]
Major West - West is a man of action... on a ship with little to do. Restless if not stir-crazy, West is constantly acting as the agent provocateur, throwing Robinson's criminal actions back in his face. Secretly, he seethes that Robinson got the drop on him, and hates the fact that Robinson continues to be the nominal 'head' of the ship. This, combined with the fact that he is practically the only one onboard who isn't brilliant, makes him feel small and useless, like a lot is passing over his head. He has fallen--hard--for Judy, and her refusal to reciprocate only increases his frustration. All that pent up aggression is going to have to go somewhere...
Judy Robinson - The eldest child, Judy was studying medicine, and it was just bad luck (according to her) that she happened to be visiting her estranged family when her father forced them to come with him to the Jupiter 2. A lesbian who is still closeted, fearing the reaction of her conservative father, Judy often feels as though it would have been better to have died back on Earth with her lover and entertains suicidal thoughts. She resents the pressure of being 'the doctor' on board, particularly of having the conceal her mother's secret while she cannot unburden herself in turn, even as she worries that her incomplete education will result in a fatal error one of these days. With Major West's constant and unwanted attention to deal with as well, the mass of secrets has led her to cut herself with some medical instruments--something else she feels compelled to keep hidden.
Penny Robinson -- Penny is, in many ways, the typical teenage girl: moody, angry, and contemptible of everyone around her (except Major West). She doesn't concern herself with whether her father made the right choice, she just knows that life aboard ship sucks and she'll gladly blame anybody that falls into her crosshairs. Penny has found the small cruelties of pressing at her family's psychological flaws the only way to pass the time and bury her despair that she'll never know a normal life and likely die in the company of people she resents. She has taken an interest in West, as much to piss off her father as to to fulfill her own hormonal drive, and is jealous of Judy because West is more interested in her. She hopes to be able to seduce him--and then use that over him to gain an ally against her father.
Will Robinson - The youngest child of the family doesn't much understand the larger issues or the human frailties; he sees the journey as one big adventure. However, he is not unaffected by the mood aboard the Jupiter 2, nor the fact that the family's getting wrapped up in their own problems is making him feel even more alone and unloved then he did before. His father only seems interested in his prodigy-like electronics skills, his mother's sadness leaves him disconnected, and Penny is always cruel. He has started to spend ever more time talking to Dr. Smith via the airlock intercom, or 'playing' the robot's strange games.
Dr. Zachary Smith - Venal, self-interested and probably borderline sociopathic, Dr. Smith cares only about himself and his own pleasure. He hates the rest of the crew simply for being there, and was actively plotting their death even before he was imprisoned (although he wouldn't mind finding a way to keep Judy and Penny alive... and docile). Knowing his betrayal would eventually be discovered, or else that the crew would simply tired of his villainy, he early own implants a heart monitor tied to the ship's engines--assuring that the crew cannot kill him without also destroying their only means of transportation. From his airlock cell, he manipulates the crew, playing on their fears and neuroses. He is particularly interested in Will, as the most malleable, and since he suspects only Will could design a device that could bypass his heart-monitor bomb.
Robot - The shipboard computer, simply called 'robot', is, like the rest of the ship, pioneering and experimental, which showed a remarkable ability to learn thanks to an intricate AI program. Ever since the catastrophic jump into deep space, however, the robot has begun to manifest strange, almost human, quirks. Dr. Robinson secretly worries whether the robot may not have gotten too intillegent for their good, even though there's no way to manage the ship's systems without it. Secretly, the robot has been feeding Will Robinson 'games' that are actually algorythms and programs that further expand its own capabilities. The robot's motives and intentions are entirely opaque to the audience.
Debbie - A genetically enhanced chimp who was sometimes used as test subject for spaceflights, Debbie was still aboard the Jupiter 2 when it took off. Debbie is just smart enough to perform basic tasks and realize how unwanted she is by the rest of the crew. Recently, Penny has been making affectionate overtures to the chimp, and Debbie, not realizing that she's being used to further the teen's agenda, had in exchange been 'borrowing' items from other crew. [R.M.: The studio made me add this. If it were up to me, the chimp would have been fried by the nuke in the pilot. Frakking monkey.]
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Premise
In the not-too-distant future, Earth is divided between two antagonistic superpowers. Dr. John Robinson is a top scientist for one of the factions, and had been working with the government to build an experimental spacecraft whose faster-than-light engine is hoped will give their side the edge should the cold war go hot. However, the physician onbase, Dr. Smith, is deeply in debt to criminal elements due to his perceived vs. actual skills at gambling. He sells information about the projection to the enemy, exagerating the danger to up the cost of the information.
When news comes that the city had been targetted for attack by enemy nuclear missiles, Dr. Robinson abandons his post, collects his panicked and confused family, and takes them to the Jupiter 2. He forces their way onto the ship at gunpoint, then makes the prospective pilot for the craft, Major West, launch the vessel. Unbeknowst to all, Dr. Smith, working at the facility when news of the prospective attack came, witnesses this and managles to smuggle himself onboard before the ship takes off. As the Jupiter 2 is rising in the atmosphere, the ship detects the oncoming missile and Dr. Robinson, realizing they have no other choice, blindly fires the vessel away from Earth usign the experimental FTL. The effects on the human body are such that all lose consciousness.
When the unwilling crew reawakens, they find that the drive went into overdrive and died, taking all but the most primitive of engines with it. Worst, they are somewhere in deep space, light-years away from Earth or any hope of help... that is, assuming there's anybody left after the cold war on Earth turned into a shooting one. With no other choice, Robinson and West set a course for a nearby world, where they hope to at least find matter that can be converted into food and other essential supplies.
Setting
The Jupiter 2 is dark and claustrophobic, having never been designed for extended missions, let alone a family living onboard. The family attempts to create makeshift living conditions for themselves where it was never intended to (for instance, Penny had claimed an empty missle tube as 'her' bed; Judy sleeps on an operation table in medbay; Dr. Smith is eventually imprisoned in the airlock, as the only room on the ship that can be secured from the outside), but privacy is hard to come by. To make matters worse, the experimental nature of the Jupiter 2 makes the ship tempramental, and the crew worry that--not designed for sustained deployment--the ship may eventually fall apart.
Characters
Dr. John Robinson - The domineering patriarch of the family, Robinson is a demanding, unsympathetic workaholic, who behaves in a very possessive manner towards his family. Though he tells himself that his actions were justified--they all saw the bomb coming--he worries that he might simply have condemned his family to a slower death out in the emptiness of space. He also harbours guilt over a secret desire that they never be rescued, given the charges he would have to face if they returned, and may be the reason why the ship's communication systems don't seem to be working.
Dr. Maureen Robinson - For years, Maureen has contemplated leaving the cold and distant man she no longer loves. Now she's trapped on a ship with him, not sure whether to take his actions as a token of love, or blame him for stranding them out in space. As Maureen struggles to play peacekeeper and keep the family from killing itself in the cramped quarters of the Jupiter 2, she is also struggling with ovarian cancer. She has only told Judy, in order to get treatment--although, with the pressure mounting, she's been secretly taking a lot more of the painkillers than she ought to be, self-medicating against the loneliness and depression. [R.M.: What do we think about an eventual affair with West? Too cliché?]
Major West - West is a man of action... on a ship with little to do. Restless if not stir-crazy, West is constantly acting as the agent provocateur, throwing Robinson's criminal actions back in his face. Secretly, he seethes that Robinson got the drop on him, and hates the fact that Robinson continues to be the nominal 'head' of the ship. This, combined with the fact that he is practically the only one onboard who isn't brilliant, makes him feel small and useless, like a lot is passing over his head. He has fallen--hard--for Judy, and her refusal to reciprocate only increases his frustration. All that pent up aggression is going to have to go somewhere...
Judy Robinson - The eldest child, Judy was studying medicine, and it was just bad luck (according to her) that she happened to be visiting her estranged family when her father forced them to come with him to the Jupiter 2. A lesbian who is still closeted, fearing the reaction of her conservative father, Judy often feels as though it would have been better to have died back on Earth with her lover and entertains suicidal thoughts. She resents the pressure of being 'the doctor' on board, particularly of having the conceal her mother's secret while she cannot unburden herself in turn, even as she worries that her incomplete education will result in a fatal error one of these days. With Major West's constant and unwanted attention to deal with as well, the mass of secrets has led her to cut herself with some medical instruments--something else she feels compelled to keep hidden.
Penny Robinson -- Penny is, in many ways, the typical teenage girl: moody, angry, and contemptible of everyone around her (except Major West). She doesn't concern herself with whether her father made the right choice, she just knows that life aboard ship sucks and she'll gladly blame anybody that falls into her crosshairs. Penny has found the small cruelties of pressing at her family's psychological flaws the only way to pass the time and bury her despair that she'll never know a normal life and likely die in the company of people she resents. She has taken an interest in West, as much to piss off her father as to to fulfill her own hormonal drive, and is jealous of Judy because West is more interested in her. She hopes to be able to seduce him--and then use that over him to gain an ally against her father.
Will Robinson - The youngest child of the family doesn't much understand the larger issues or the human frailties; he sees the journey as one big adventure. However, he is not unaffected by the mood aboard the Jupiter 2, nor the fact that the family's getting wrapped up in their own problems is making him feel even more alone and unloved then he did before. His father only seems interested in his prodigy-like electronics skills, his mother's sadness leaves him disconnected, and Penny is always cruel. He has started to spend ever more time talking to Dr. Smith via the airlock intercom, or 'playing' the robot's strange games.
Dr. Zachary Smith - Venal, self-interested and probably borderline sociopathic, Dr. Smith cares only about himself and his own pleasure. He hates the rest of the crew simply for being there, and was actively plotting their death even before he was imprisoned (although he wouldn't mind finding a way to keep Judy and Penny alive... and docile). Knowing his betrayal would eventually be discovered, or else that the crew would simply tired of his villainy, he early own implants a heart monitor tied to the ship's engines--assuring that the crew cannot kill him without also destroying their only means of transportation. From his airlock cell, he manipulates the crew, playing on their fears and neuroses. He is particularly interested in Will, as the most malleable, and since he suspects only Will could design a device that could bypass his heart-monitor bomb.
Robot - The shipboard computer, simply called 'robot', is, like the rest of the ship, pioneering and experimental, which showed a remarkable ability to learn thanks to an intricate AI program. Ever since the catastrophic jump into deep space, however, the robot has begun to manifest strange, almost human, quirks. Dr. Robinson secretly worries whether the robot may not have gotten too intillegent for their good, even though there's no way to manage the ship's systems without it. Secretly, the robot has been feeding Will Robinson 'games' that are actually algorythms and programs that further expand its own capabilities. The robot's motives and intentions are entirely opaque to the audience.
Debbie - A genetically enhanced chimp who was sometimes used as test subject for spaceflights, Debbie was still aboard the Jupiter 2 when it took off. Debbie is just smart enough to perform basic tasks and realize how unwanted she is by the rest of the crew. Recently, Penny has been making affectionate overtures to the chimp, and Debbie, not realizing that she's being used to further the teen's agenda, had in exchange been 'borrowing' items from other crew. [R.M.: The studio made me add this. If it were up to me, the chimp would have been fried by the nuke in the pilot. Frakking monkey.]
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
