ISLAND ONE, a prime time family sitcom set on the High Frontier

--- In spacesettlers, "terrierkeeper" wrote:

> Some of these Big Picture things would be hard to fit into a sit-
> com.
> THough they will be problems for future colonists.

Yes, and yes.

> Certainly Island Two will be the time when these things will
> reallyy start popping up.

Yes. By the time you have, not a few tens of thousands, but millions
of settlers, this stuff will come to a head. When even individual
Islands have populations exceeding that of the old city-states, and
there are dozens to hundreds of such, they become a force (especially
an economic force) to be reckoned with.

> However Beurocrats are a good source of Comedy. There's nothing
> funnier than a buffon in charge, unless it's real life.

You have a point here. And looking over my earlier post, I see that
Episode Five is as follows:

Ep. 5
Ben thinks that a proposed change in priorities (slowing down habitat
construction to speed up powersat construction) might enhance the
promotion he got the last episode. However, he also worries that
this switch, if it happens, will jeopardize the entire space
settlement movement. It would mean that the doubling rate of
habitats would be seven years, instead of three.
FEATURED TECH: Powersats

So there is room for a blustering know-it-all or two. It's obvious
that Ben didn't make the decision himself.

> You might have an episode when some UN delegation coming up and
> telling the colonists how to run their lives with a typical we know
> better than you attitude.

Not sure it would be the UN. It would be whoever is footing the
bill. If the Island is built by Exxon, then Exxon would be in
charge; if the US gubmint built it, then some Congressional
Subcommitee would run the show; and if the UN built it... Really,
when has the UN tried to "rule" anything? Did they ever suggest
running Somalia as a UN colony, or any such? The UN doesn't rule
anything. They are exactly what you called them: bureaucrats. They
would load the place up with treaties and regulations, but probably
couldn't care less if they tried how they picked their leaders.

> These people, as with the left in general, think decisions and
> power are from the top down rather than listening to the people
> from whom their power actually comes.

Which is exactly what liberals say about the right. This isn't
conservative v liberal, it's the nature of power. Anyway, the last
thing I would want to do with this show is a left v right thing. Why
piss off half the audience immediately, no matter which side I choose?

> One need only look to the news to see this in practice.
>
> As for his discouraging colonists, I doubt that thought would even
> enter their petty little minds. Still I suppose they can be played
> out for the clowns they are for great humor.

It doesn't have to enter the bureaucrats minds; it only has to enter
the minds of the prospective colonists.

> Personally, I find I enjoy a good drama. Something intellectually
> challenging to the mind.

Yes, these can be good when _Happy Days_ or _Tarzan and the Golden
Lion_ wear thin. I like comedies for High Frontier stuff because it
introduces the idea in a non-treatening way to those who are not
familiar with it. But there is plenty of room for drama, comedy,
tragedy, politics, cop shows, porn, war, western-type, and more
besides.

> In my novel I have an Israili go back in time to prevent the
> Holocaust. Which hardly provides anyone with any place for humor.

Well, no, that doesn't sound like something that would go well with a
laugh track.

> First he assasinates Hitler, then he starts ripping out the
> machinery from within. While at the same time, there is the war
> going on. Hardly any place for comedy to be played.

Certainly not laugh-a-minute stuff, but it does sound interesting.
The implications are huge (i.e., no Holocaust, no Isreal; no Israel,
no PLO; no PLO, no...?).