Script Issues...

[Johnny]

We're writing this script and we've got two different points about how the audience is going to react when we drop it on them.

Connell, is over 400years old. He was around, 200 years previously, when the UFP did something 'unconstitutional' to an entire planet. He was an Ensign at the time. It was all covered up, people involved were split up and reassigned, and the uncooperative went missing. Some involvement with Section 31 etc. So there's a race of people that no one has ever seen. Upper collumns of SF keep it under wraps.

(some of the details above, the audience knows by the time the below bit happens.)

200 years later one of this race boards (now Capt.) Connell's ship with ill-intent. He doesn't expect them and is shocked and scared because he knows the history of SF's involvement with them. Non of his crew know what race it is, and he never expected to see them again.

Do you think that the audience will lose trust in him as he has been keeping information from them? How do you think it will be perceived? Neg or Pos?

 

[Gibraltar]

This is somewhat like what Riker went through in the TNG episode Pegasus, where the audience discovered that Will had been party to illegal experiments and protecting his captain from a righteous muntiny against those illegal actions. Riker came out of it okay, because the audience understood that what was important was the man that Riker was now, as opposed to twelve years earlier.

And, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Connell isn't human, owing to his longevity?

 

[hellsgate]

I agree. Plus, it also depends on whether or not the damage done is partially/completely reversible, if the personnel involved are willing to serve any kind of penance for their crime(s). The fact that no-one else in Starfleet or The U.F.P. knows about them, haven't opennly done anything in the meantime to try to offer this "invisible species" some kind of closure and/or compensation should weigh heavily on the outcome. Section 31 involvement or not.

Would there be one person willing to publicly stand-up, apologize profusely to those they've wronged? Then make the "hero" resign from Starfleet in proper disgrace by throwing him/herself on their sword in a warrior's honor-code style attempt at some kind of diplomatic restitution. A sign of a properly-bothered conscience & genuine remorse.

 

[Johnny]

Connell's a bit wierd in his way, slightly disconnected from society and firmly rooted in strange-ville, mainly due to the pregedice he took from so many due to him being not-human. And even after proving himself and being investigated over the centuries, some people still don't trust him, hense that S31 keep an eye on him. And also thats why its taken him so long to get to Captain, and even then...a science vessel.

He tends to keep his head down about the situation he witnessed because there have been threats to him and towards others around him if he didnt keep quiet. People he's talked to about it tend to 'forget', after a quick checkup at Starfleet Medical, whereas Connell's memory can't be wiped.

Aswell as the situation on the 'hidden' planet is never going to change from generation to generation, they're not dangerous, agressive or an angry species. It's something that can't be changed....

 

[hellsgate]

He's El-Aurian? What species is your character? You've left A LOT open. Was someone important murdered? Was the hidden planet's technology suppressed / tampered-with? You're not giving any specifics about the unconstitutional act that's supposed to cause friction between your hero & the rest of his past crew. I need to know more before I can help you out.

 

[Johnny]

Connell's history, his race, where he's from, is going to be addressed in the script, but not directly, always subliminal, hints, correllations with the bad guy. He's meant to be very mysterious.

As with the hidden species, I didn't want to give much away, but what the hell...

First contact was made with them back in 2200's. It's a solar system with just one stella body in a very wide orbit, and nothing much else except asteroid belts, commits, etc.
The aliens are hospitable, considerate, kind, generous, but also very deadly to humanoid tissue.
The first contact team, the doctors who treated them, and most of the crew on the ship died within 48 hours. A few crew got out on escape pods, and on one of these was Ensign Connell.
The Fed saw this whole planet as a threat to any humanoid life, it's genetic make-up resulting in the genetic breakdown of others.
With a poke in the 'right' direction from S31 and the Fed's fear of losing it's infastructure, the planet was quarantined 'until further notice'. The area was deamed a high radiation area, false sensor nets, and a planetary size defense networks stops ships from leaving the planet. One single S31 ship patrols the area, 24/7.
With the added problem that the aliens don't communicate in a 'normal' fashion to the rest of the galaxy, it takes some 70-80 years to decipher their language. With continual S31 whispers, the fear of it turning into a biological weapon stays ringing in their ears for years to come.

^^^That's the bit that Connell knows, minus the S31 bits.

By the time 200 years has passed, they're all a bit pissed at the Fed and it's unsuccessful attempts to find a solution, so they attempt to release it as a bio agent on a quadrant sized level, leaving thousands of pre-collonised worlds for the picking.

^^^This is where the story starts.

 

[hellsgate]

Ah, I see. *nods* NOW I get where you're going with this. He's conflicted. A bit of an outsider. He should've realized by now that he'd have to accept this sort of thing as part of Starfleet & as a Federation citizen.

He should've realized at his age of 400 years old, that there are going to be SOME situations that aren't going to be as open to debate as others, for reasons he may or may not like.

If he doesn't like it, he can resign Starfleet & immigrate someplace that isn't specifically threatened by the contaminants of the hidden world.

If he ever talks about the containment / internment of this race/culture, it could & would set-off a quadrant-wide difficult-to-impossible-to-control panic. Like the one felt by the Sikh & other non-Christian cultures that owned/ran businesses & families in North America & abroad, immediately following 9-11.