Let's play at showrunner

So now can just play with my ideas and yes, still playing around with ideas about entertainment being a safe way to control mood, and thought would go more into what I call mood line with a quick problem solving exercise by making up my own sci-fi show which is loosely inspired by the current television show Dark Matter, of which I've seen only the first season. And just realize I DO definitely work better using search to find my old posts on this blog! So I searched on: beyond mundane mood line

And searched on television show to find its imdb page but of course search is easy enough but talking more as thinking about it more. Web search is remarkable.

For MY random thoughts making up a show which are throw-away so not serious, you have four people who awake on a spacecraft with partial amnesia. Waking up in pods is kind of standard, and on initial waking something dramatic happens where they learn they each have skills, but aware of things like names, and even childhoods but also aware they have weird gaps, like why they are on the ship.

But they also find they have the ability to download special skills like from the movie The Matrix, though also discover that can lead to bodily injury, like if download martial arts skills with an untrained body. But some have bodies that clearly ARE trained in martial arts, while some do not. So picking up skills in that way quickly is not without risk. Where only outlined one. But still yeah, only four people where two are male, one is female and one is in-between. The ship is somewhat sentient, but they don't discover that until halfway through season one.

And they have adventures, where even go on missions, at times somewhat sure, or one may be sure, while others are not, but they bond and learn to trust each other while puzzling over their memory problems, which the show emphasizes are not normal, and cannot be easily explained. In fact, at one space station they talk to a doctor who finds out something unbelievable, and of course dies tragically before he can tell them in a mysterious way.

And season one spoilers follow! Fantasy show folks though. Not a real show so not really spoiling, as ends with a sudden confrontation with another ship similar to their own, which behaves a lot like their own, and attacks! They battle and manage to cripple the other ship without destroying it, and are about to board when everything freezes. Two humanoid figures calmly walk through the ship, one male and one female, standing maybe seven feet tall but proportioned as if smaller.

The male figure seems hostile while the female, his sister seems amused and I had dialogue, but got bored with the idea of giving it here. He looks like he is about to strike one of the frozen crew but his sister stops him, reminds him of their game and its competitive value, and strokes the cheek of one of the figures as they begin to walk away. But one of the frozen crew's eyes track them briefly and widen. They disappear in some dramatic way, the crew moves again with most not noticing while one crew begins shouting about something happening, when klaxons ring as ship goes into crisis.

Yeah, the disabled ship is now gone, and none of the crew seem to realize it. They behave as if no memory of it. Actually forgot about it myself while typing up this post and decided was convenient to the mood line.

Two crew work feverishly to handle the emergency, as only they have the skills, but in solving it, they send the ship off to parts unknown, which is a classic plot device but going with easy. And the final scenes switch to the two humanoids calmly looking on through some device they have for observation, and one stating they know where they're going.

Which is about ten minutes work? Longer to edit though, and getting tired of it so wrapping up quickly here. Not going to work hard at something just tossing up, but the mood line focuses more tightly on the concept of memory, leaving as a recurring theme and imaginary show has only four crew, to allow a tighter bond. So everything related to mood has to do with memory and so the emotions for the complex constellation of the mood are all memory related.

So why the godlike aliens then? There is a parental aspect but a slight malevolence, but in a sense they are creatures of dreams, which is another aspect of memory, and how we sleep and MAY remember dreams, but usually do not, so yup, are still part of the mood line. Making them sister and brother is a simplifying plot device for several reasons.

There is a temptation to critique the mood line of the show I gave as a reference, but as is a current show will not. Though there are hints of what I think on certain subjects related to it. These ideas are just me playing around. There is no such show as described, and I have no interest in there being one. Just looking at what can do with a deliberate mood line to outline the framework for one.

Wow, mood line is a potent way to quickly generate an entire show. Yeah I took some ideas from a real show, but can see how could have done it entirely without just around the mood line. And is fast! But ten minutes of work creative is turning into much longer editing so wrapping up.

So was a fun minor problem solving exercise.

Of course memory loss is no joke, though here is not lost but dramatically suppressed. But just playing with ideas so maybe just a little note here at end should do it. Find myself still pondering things a bit, and if I DID do a show for real, wouldn't be posting that public of course. But nothing is on the horizon. Just thinking out loud. I don't even do fiction writing any more. What I do is play around with ideas.


James Harris