#Taika may not research but the crew sure does | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

theadrogna · 5 years ago

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@singledarkshade came up with the Dream Show challenge, where we had to give her a list of 7 TV shows or films and we were given a cast of 7 actors in return. Then I got carried away and this is the result: Diaspora

Synopsis:

Earth seeded the galaxy with colonies, sending out ships full of colonists in suspended animation with everything they needed for a life elsewhere. That was a generation ago and now a new ship, the Linnaeus, has been sent to check on the colonies that Earth founded. Have they prospered and conquered new worlds or are they failing and in need of help to survive? The Linnaeus with its team of scientists and problem solvers is Earth’s mission to re-establish contact. The colonies are a long way from Earth and the rules are different when you’re so far from home.

Cast:

Dr Aneurin “Nye” Castell (Arthur Darvill): Nye is the team’s xeno-ecologist and scientific lead. He’s something of an idealist, and a brilliant academic, but never saw himself going into space again. Parsa is an old friend and talked him into joining the crew as an opportunity for furthering his research. He specialises in finding out what makes an Earth-like world inhabitable for humans, and looking at alien ecosystems to investigate how they function. He usually ends up doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to sorting out what’s going wrong with a colony. He is able to make intuitive leaps that can be hard for others to follow, but is accepting that not everyone can always keep up. He doesn’t particularly enjoy walking into the unknown, but his scientific curiosity is why he’s here.

Dr Parsa Nazari (Cas Anvar): Leader of the expedition. Originally a scientist himself, he left academia and moved into the role of mission specialist. He’s the one to make the tough decisions, even if sometimes that doesn’t make him popular, especially with his friend, Nye. He’s been working towards leading the Linnaeus mission his whole life, and recruited only the best for the expedition. He has to juggle the scientific side of the mission with the political, and that isn’t always easy, but he’s good at finding acceptable compromises. He leaves behind a divorced husband and two kids to head up the Linnaeus mission.

Rosalind Fitzroy (Torri Higginson): A politician. She’s not well liked amongst the crew, and Parsa fought to exclude her but failed. She is ambitious, but so far her career hasn’t gone as planned. She is able to read people and manipulate them, although often less effectively than she thinks. She’s on the team to remind the colonies that they’re still subject to Earth law and that they’re expected to help their home world, but her role is also smoothing the way for the team with the local authorities. If the colony need advice on how to set up new systems of government or on their economy then Rosalind can help with that too. This could be the most important job of her life, but it’s one that most politicians wouldn’t want, but she sees it as a stepping stone to something better.

Dr Carrie Joshua (Hannah John-Kamen): Carrie is a medical doctor. Her job is to assess the physical health of the colonists and help them with medicines, nutrition and fitness. One of her biggest concerns is how human biology interacts with the new worlds. She enjoys trekking and climbing, and can be found on the ship’s meagre fitness equipment most days before she begins work. On planet, she’s enthusiastic to explore, even in areas which appear dangerous. She is also fearless when it comes to putting her patients first, something that has been known to get her into trouble. She’s one of six siblings, and misses her big family more than anything else while she’s in space.

Kira Sokolov - (Jodhi May): As both the ship’s engineer and technical problem solver, she thinks fast on her feet to fix broken technology with limited resources. Her motto is that “perfect is the enemy of good”. Ed likes to tease her by calling her MacGyver, but it isn’t that far from the truth. She is tenacious and loyal to the team, but has little time for Rosalind because she used to be the representative for the province where Kira grew up. Her family still live there and have to deal with food shortages and rationed water. She’s bilingual and enjoys learning new swear words in every language she meets, but her most annoyed exclamations are in her mother’s native language, Ukrainian.

Ed Avalino (Taika Waititi): The pilot. He drives the bus, but has to double as the lab technician and general assistant to whoever needs him most when they’re on planet. He is the closest thing that the team have to a security person, and does his best to protect them when on planet and assess threats. He is relatively easy going by nature, but can quickly shift gears to deal with a crisis. He gets on with all of the crew, even Rosalind, but shares a love of danger with Carrie. Parsa apparently met him in a Martian jail, but neither of them will talk about that incident, despite Nye desperately wanting the details. Rumours about his past missions as part of the Earth military are probably untrue, but he doesn’t dissuade anyone from exaggerating them further.

Dr Grace Blackwell (Nafessa Williams): Grace is the xeno-psychology expert on the team. The humans in the colonies are not alone and someone is needed to work out what the aliens want. She also often applies her psychology skills to the humans as well. She’s the youngest and most inexperienced member of the team, and was something of a prodigy. She looks up to Nye as a mentor, but occasionally finds his pure pursuit of the academic to be too much and prefers to listen to her gut. No one ever questions her knowledge of her subject, but she sometimes lacks confidence in herself. She knows that this is a once in a lifetime chance to make a difference and she’s grabbing it with both hands. She is a natural ray of sunshine, but finds the long journeys between planets are the hardest part of the job.

Episodes:

1: The Flight of the Linnaeus (Pilot) – Nye Castell is researching far away planets but hasn’t left the safety of his university in years, when Parsa Nazari invites him to join the Earth’s first trouble shooting mission to the Colonies. Nye is unwilling at first, but Parsa plays upon his need to investigate and learn, and eventually he accepts. Flashbacks give a taste of exactly why he is so unwilling to leave the planet. He puts his Earth-bound affairs in order and reports to the Linneaus facility to begin work. Parsa and Nye build the team, but are blindsided by their superiors’ need to include Rosalind Fitzroy, and an attempt to destroy the entire project by an anarchist spy who claims to know something they don’t.

2: Planetfall – The Linneaus arrives at its first destination, the colony of Gessner. This has been chosen as an easy first test of their readiness and skill, since Gessner has been in regular contact and appears to be doing well. Appearances can be deceiving though. The colonists thrive when they’re young but rapidly die when they reach 60, with one notable exception, the governor of the colony who was elected partly due to his magical longevity. It’s up to the Linnaeus crew to find out what’s going wrong.

3: Downfall - Having discovered that the elderly are being deliberate poisoned when they become older and less useful, Rosalind tells the crew that Gessner is no longer their problem as the solution is beyond their ability to fix. Nye, Carrie and Grace disagree strongly, but Ed points out that they have no resources to forcibly change the leadership of the colony, whilst Parsa sides with Rosalind much to everyone’s surprise. Grace outlines a system of psychological pressure points that could be used to change the governmental structure, but is this really the job of the Linnaeus crew?

4: Homesick - After leaving Gessner, the Linnaeus crew have a long journey to the next planet. Nye sleeps badly and sees his long dead mother in the corridors of the ship. It seems like Nye might be suffering from “orbital fever”, a psychological condition that affects astronauts on long voyages and he reluctantly goes to see Carrie. She agrees with his self-diagnosis and tells Parsa that Nye will need to be taken back to Gessner, as the condition typically worsens rapidly to become psychosis if not treated. As the crew readies to turn back, Grace reveals that she’s being visited by the ghosts of her childhood pets. Other members of the crew also start seeing things, leaving the team in no doubt that something else is going on here. Nye works out some of his childhood issues with his hallucinations.

5: All at Sea - Everyone is pleased to reach their next destination, Aelian. Here the colonists share their world with a primitive, but sentient, species of sea dwellers, which hadn’t shown up in the original survey of the world. This has produced a dangerous tension, and one which Grace is ill-equipped to handle despite this being her area of expertise. The entire crew find themselves drawn into what could be the build up to war between the two species who regard Aelian as home.

6: Adapt and Survive - The Linnaeus lands at the colony site of Ellis to find that the landing site is deserted. All that greets them is the remains of buildings and abandoned vehicles. Nye, Ed and Carrie trek into the jungle to see if they can find any trace of the humans who are supposed to live here, while Parsa, Grace, Kira and Rosalind investigate the ruins of the colony for clues. Nye and his group find the colonists, but they’re changed beyond recognition. Parsa discovers the reason and it becomes clear that the Linnaeus needs to leave rapidly.

7: Lost in Space – The rapid departure of the Linnaeus from Ellis leaves the crew with repairs to make to their broken ship as the Linnaeus drifts further from its course. Kira and Ed lead the effort, putting the scientists to work. Nye reveals a little more about his reluctance to come on the mission. Carrie is sure that Rosalind is hiding something, but he has no idea what. Soon the crew are fighting for their lives, racing to make planetfall before the ship breaks down completely.

8: Borderline – The Linnaeus’ crew are faced with a failing colony, known as Genera, where the colonists never seem to manage to make much progress, but are kind and welcoming. Despite the apparent fertility of the world and its ecosystem, the crew of the Linnaeus realised that the colony could only have a single generation before if it dies out completely. Nye refuses to give up in finding a way for the colony to become viable, but Parsa thinks they should cut their losses. Kira takes a young engineer from the colony under her wing. Rosalind attempts to get a message back to Earth.

9: Hooked on a Feeling - Genera still remains something of a mystery to Nye, until Carrie informs him that Kira’s apprentice is suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Nye and Parsa investigate, coming to the conclusion that the entire colony are hooked on the same addictive substance, apparently unwittingly. Nye uses all of his skills to find the culprit.

10: Letters from Home – While the ship continues to deal with the ongoing issues of Genera, Ed receives a message packet from home for the crew. Now in addition to the problems of the colony, the crew find that their life on Earth has caught up to them. Rosalind accidentally ends up revealing just how important their mission is, angering the crew who were not kept informed. The Earth is desperate for resources and dying. Perhaps all they can do is to make their mission a success.

11: Mushroom Stew - The Linnaeus has left Genera behind and is on its way to Dorrien, a planet that seems to favour fungi over almost every other form of life. The colonists have faced difficult growing conditions for their crops, which must be kept in vast greenhouses to protect them from contamination with fungal spores. But as rapidly as the colonists clear land, the mushrooms seem to be doing their best to retake their planet.

12: The Great Chain of Being - The colony of Jekyll was a paradise when the colonists landed, but now the local wildlife is dying out, with great tracts of land becoming barren. Nye and Parsa desperately search for the reason behind the devastation, while the rest of the team try to help the colony deal with the effects of the dying ecosystem. It’s up to the crew of the Linnaeus to find a way that the ecosystem and colony can be saved.

13: Paradise Lost - The colony of Masamune is bland and calm. Even the animals don’t eat each other, but something is killing the colonists. Rosalind is under pressure to report positive findings back to Earth, and asks the team to falsify their reports since every colony they have visited is struggling in some way. She drops the bombshell that if the Linnaeus doesn’t do as it is told then it will be recalled to Earth, having failed to fulfil its purpose.

#RBACL QCC #Dream Show

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