Brainstorming help - Terraforming team

[Samantha]

Hi, guys, hopefully this is a good place for this, and people have fun brainstorming. I used to post a lot in the brainstorm forum on Absolute Write, but for reasons I won't get into here, I've stopped going there very much. (Maybe another topic, but I don't want to be bashing AW, since it's a great resource, just not perfect.)

I'm doing brainstorming for a new WIP, a science fiction novel about feuding terraforming teams. I'm going to do some research on what's actually known now about terraforming to try and base it on hard science, but I'm trying to build out my character list first.

In this galaxy, corporations send out a terraforming team to get a start on a planet. Each team has four members, with a lot of AI / mechanical help. If you were to build out a team, what are the types of people you'd want to bring?

Here's what I have so far, and since i'm going for only four, I'll have a lot of overlap. (These guys are the best and brightest overachievers):
- Captain / project manager / leader
- 2nd in command
- Pilot (for getting to the planet via interstellar travel and for scouting out the planet's surface)
- Botanist / biologist
- Chemist?? Required??
- Engineer / instrumentation tech (Who can repair both regular computers and AI)
- Doctor

I'm also looking for one role that is sort of maybe not needed, but that isn't blatently pointless. I was thinking physicist or security officer.

Thoughts?

[Neil]

Someone with knowledge of firearms or a security officer (as mentioned) would be the only other suggestion. Yes it's probably a peaceful trip but it depends on what they'd be encountering!

Oh, and I second the problems with Absolute Write. They were incredibly hostile to me last year, and as a newly published writer I thought that was awful behaviour.

[David]

Hi S., Your quandary caught my eye because I'm starting to plan out a novel with a science team. It would make more sense to have 20 or 30 people on the team but that is way too many characters, so it has been a logistical chore to pare it down to the essentials.

I think that a lot of your team's requirements would be based on the method of terraforming used. For example, In Star Trek Wrath of Khan it was essentially a bomb that they launched and then observed the results. If you were to use a more mechanized means engineers and technicians would be in high demand. Nanobots - I roboticist might be needed.

Whatever the method, I think your team could use an ecologist for oversight although the biologist could do double duty. (Geneticist could also be another role for the botanist.)

I don't know how key either character might be to the story but in terms of plot I would say that the Captain and 2nd in command are redundant and one could be expendable.

[Samantha]

So I'm thinking of a skeleton crew. Definitely in real life, 20-30 would make a lot more sense, but if robots pick up the slack, I figure 4 is believable. Hopefully.

And yep, every member needs to play a double-duty role. So one team's 2nd is also a botanist, and the other is an engineer. The designation is more for plot purposes, so when the 2nd is killed, the captain is more furious. Though it might not matter, cause she should be off getting another botanist ... but instead enacts revenge. :-)

So would physicist be way too extraneous? I'm leaning toward yes now.

[David]

Personally, I'm not sure what role if any a physicist would have. I guess another way of looking at it would be, what support does the team need. You mentioned a doctor - would it make sense for there also to be a nurse. Or someone with the role of maintaining the shelter and preparing/rationing food?

[Kamil]

I would suggest:
- Captain / project manager / leader
- Pilot/ security officer
- a genius scientist-researcher with PhD in biology, chemistry and medicine or a sentient robot
- an engineer to fix their mess

[Samantha]

Oh, forgot to mention, I also have an AI that is considered a member of the crew, who can fill in all the gaps. It regulates life support and computer systems ... Well, everything, really. So in a way, these humans are a bit extraneous. :-) The AI is integral to the plot (but no going crazy or anything like that).

But it seems like we're coming to a consensus. I think it's a good point to have a captain play only the one role, but s/he has a background in something. I will ponder further.

[Kamil]

But since we are discussing terraforming and pilots... pretty please, no flying harpoons on there!

[Samantha]

I wasn't even considering it. :-D

[Ann]

Would a geologist of some sort be needed? Just because it's terraforming, as the pointless crewman number 6.

Not to bash either but I have to really suppress my inner troll on AW xD But its an amazing resource :3 Just not well modded.

[Kamil]

I was thinking about a useless, yet needed team-member and all i could think of is atherapist. Someone has to make sure that the crew won't go nuts.

[Samantha]

Geologist, good point; that would be one of those "nice to have but not necessary." Man, there are a lot of useful people I should be sending on my terraforming team. I almost feel like I'm picking my team for Mass Effect. "She's really funny, but she's not real good at any sort of combat ..." LOL.

Therapist is also a good suggestion, but it doesn't fit the character. This dude is evil. I think I'll make him the security guy. Lots of evil can be done under the guise of keeping people safe. :3

(And yeah, the problem I've had with AW is sometimes the mods let people [whom I assume are their buddies/long-time members] run wild, or the mods themselves have VERY strong opinions about certain subjects and don't like dissenting opinions.)

[[deleted user]]

s: "I'm also looking for one role that is sort of not needed, but that isn't blatently pointless. I was thinking physicist."
as an amateur physicist (1 of 7 on earth), i resent the implication.
but okay.

about 50-60 years ago an audacious evolutionist proclaimed that we modify our genetic material on a daily basis. her idea was, of course, ridiculous. fortunately, every other scientist on earth let her know how ridiculous she was being, but a problem arose.
research and experimentation, over time, proved she was right. (cur!)
so i vote for an evolutionist.

i'm sure this is too impositional, but the plot twists that this could create are immense and, imho, important.
what if your team evolutionist discovered that the terraforming was modifying the planet's aboriginal life? you probably chose a planet w/o life, but i wonder if any planet can be terraformed that hasn't the predispositon toward life. ergo, something wicked this way comes. the prokaryotic critters that swarmed earth so gleefully before their excrement--mostly oxygen--paved the way for we homo saps, might be disappointed to learn that they aren't viable in our pretty eyes, and yet some version of them will certainly populate any planet we choose to befoul.
of course, nobody but a scientist would understand this, so you can build planetary biospheres as you wish; no harm done. but i thought you might like the idea.
btw, i don't recall the daring evolutionist's name, but its in my meager library, so lemme know if you want to read about her.

[[deleted user]]

david: "I'm not sure what role if any a physicist would have."
david, you're killin me! if there's no physicist aboard, who will start all the arguments that nobody understands? who will write the books that nobody reads? who will be a cosmological treasure, but too impractical to wash the dishes?
i think you should rethink your thinking.

[[deleted user]]

equally useless thought:
if you write your story as a script and name it "terrorforming," the sciFi channel will buy it w/o reading it. if you've watched much of their self-generated "sciFi," you'll probably agree that none of them know HOW to read.
thus ending my snarky comments for today, april 1.

[Brian]

You need a medical doctor. Someone needs to be Mccoy! "I'm a Doctor dammit! Not a.. wait I do that too." Unless you expect the AI to go around asking how everyone feels.