1. rktho

    rktho Contributor Contributor

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    Traveling the galaxy to prove your innocence

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by rktho, Dec 4, 2020.

    I had the brilliant idea to create a fiction podcast to make a name for myself, so that when I publish my first novel, people will already know me from the podcast. Now I think I finally have an idea for said podcast. It's like a cross between Doctor Who and the Fugitive, and I think tonally it's going to be something like a cross between The Mandalorian and Gravity Falls.

    Anyway, it's about these two characters— I think a brother and sister duo— who stow away on a starship, and discover its sole crewmember, an alien who introduces himself by a name I have yet to determine. He travels the galaxy collecting things, but he doesn't show his collection to anyone, keeping it locked in a secret room on the ship. He grudgingly allows the stowaways to stay with him as long as they make themselves useful. And they do, because it turns out he doesn't actually know a whole lot about the starship he captains, only the basic functions found on every other kind of ship. Eventually he reveals shapeshifting abilities and changes into a different species of alien, now insisting on going by another name. He does this periodically and seemingly on a whim.

    Over the course of the series it's revealed, not necessarily in this order, that the ship is stolen, which is why he is unfamiliar with its operation; that he is running from the authorities, which is why he keeps changing his name and species (the characters have no idea what his real name is or what he really looks like,) and that he was falsely convicted of a crime and his collection contains evidence that can clear his name and point to the true culprit. I had an idea about his family being killed in relation to the crime— maybe their murder is one of the crimes he's accused of, or they were collateral damage in an act of destruction, I'm not sure, but eventually he would discover that his daughter is still alive, out there somewhere in the galaxy. Over the course of the podcast, more members would join the group until the starship has a proper crew, like a ragtag Star Trek type of group.

    So my question is, what could his crime be, and what kind of things would he collect as evidence, and why would he need to go planet hopping to search for the items he's collecting?
     
  2. montecarlo

    montecarlo Contributor Contributor

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    Sounds like a mcguffin that got out of control to me. Maybe instead of him hoping to clear his name, he's turned to space piracy instead, and these two siblings are now shanghaied and part of his crew.

    I think that simplifies things a little and provides the chance for conflict while waiting for the backstory to trickle in.

    - MC
     
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  3. rktho

    rktho Contributor Contributor

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    Hm... [scribbles notes]
    I was definitely intending for him to come off as shady, so piracy works. As for the macguffin, do you think I should still have one? I want this character to be working towards something secret, having a longterm goal in mind. Maybe he's trying to gather information on the people who framed him so he can seek revenge?
     
  4. montecarlo

    montecarlo Contributor Contributor

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    Macguffins are fine for me, no need to get rid of it. I just think don’t over complicate it. The story is mostly about the siblings, right?
     
  5. rktho

    rktho Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah. I should probably develop them. They don't even have names right now.
     
  6. psychotick

    psychotick Contributor Contributor

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    Hi,

    I think you've got a bit of a conflict going there. Your character is traveling the galaxy hunting for clues / evidence to prove his innocence - but he's shady? Think The Fugutive - the story works because the MC isn't shady. So why would a shady person so desperately want to prove his innocence so badly? On top of that he's on this quest but has a daughter out there he wants to find? Shouldn't he put family above his quest? And why doesn't he know where she is - unless she's somehow wrapped up in the crime? On top of that he stole a space ship? If he did that - then surely he's already a criminal whether or not he's guilty of the other crime - so it becomes a question of what;s the point of trying to defend himself?

    As to the crime - if the evidence is all over the galaxy - then the crime must be something that involves some sort of galaxy wide criminality.

    Hope that helps.

    Cheers, Greg.
     
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  7. rktho

    rktho Contributor Contributor

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    Oh, I've got something. Instead of trying to clear his name, what if he's a defector from a secret society? This society infiltrated his planet's government until they became the government, and he worked with them. Then he found out they were developing shapeshifter tech to allow them to infiltrate other planets' governments and take them over, spreading throughout the galaxy undercover until they controlled the universe. He knows he can't blow the whistle on any of this (because the entire government is involved) so he destroys their research except for the prototype tech, which he takes for himself so he can hide from them. THEN his planetary government frames him of a crime— something big enough to attract the attention of other planetary governments. The macguffin would be some way of stopping them. So now it's not so much about clearing his name as it is bringing down this secret society.
     
  8. Kalisto

    Kalisto Senior Member

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    In the United States, you don't actually have to prove you're innocent of anything to get off. You just have to have reasonable doubt. So, if you have a justice system like that, what he's collecting is enough reasonable doubt to get his case thrown out.

    What if you used an idea similar to the Count of Monte Crisco where he was framed for a crime by a group of conspirators? And what he is collecting isn't necessarily direct evidence to prove his innocence, but evidence of their crime which he can use to either discredit their testimony or complete blackmail them to recant. For example, let's say the conspirators paid off the doctor who did the autopsy and determined the time and cause of death. A time of death is very mission critical during an investigation as it can make or break a suspect's alibi. So they pay off this doctor to lie about the time of death, which that pay off. So what he will collect is the evidence of the pay off.

    Let's say the prosecutor went along with this because he was young and he wanted a big case under his belt. It looks good. Well, what the guy could be collecting is something within the prosecutor's past that he doesn't want the public to know. And it's so bad, that the prosecutor is willing to withdraw from the case to keep it from getting out.

    He could be searching the lead investigator's place for evidence that was stolen and hidden and later claimed to be "lost" or never catalogued to begin with.
     
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  9. The Multiverse

    The Multiverse Member

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    This is an easy one. First thing to understand is that stowaways are life threatening. In space travel, food, water, oxygen, power, fuel, and more are taken into consideration. Trippling resource consumption is extremely life threatening (stolen ship or otherwise). Besides standardized tech in ships, each ship's on-board computer should be equiped with a complete schematic and diagram of every ship structure and function. This scematic can be tied into the internal sensors monitoring the ship itself.
    The theif could simply be illiterate and was tricked by the true villians of the story and as a act of desperation, he stole their ship. Most criminal ships have what's called a smuggler's hold (a hidden area within the ship where illegal goods can be stored where no inspection can find them. These holds could be equiped with some tech that masks the presence of whatever is there.
    As for the clues, it doesn't matter. You can literally have the evidence he's looking for be in the smuggler's hold the entire time. After a desperate attempt to flee a very well organized trap, the shapeshifter's stolen ship is damaged and disabled. The ship is boarded and everyone is arrested. The battle cracked open the smuggler's hold allowing the authorities to find the evidence that exonerates the shapeshifter and the stowaways.

    This is just food for thought. Don't feel like this is meant to be THE solution you are looking for. Just trying to grease the gears a bit, you know?
     

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