Episode 2: Diplomacy Class
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SYNOPSIS
Dicker is tasked by H.Q. to deliver a peace treaty to the Clobbernauts at the planet Alsoran. The problem is, he's about as diplomatic as a turd in a punch bowl. Not to mention the Clobbernauts had killed his wife several years earlier. Can he pull it off?
COMMENTARY
After just one episode I began tweaking things. For one, the communications officer, Ufa, started out as a joke: he spoke really slowly. Hilarious. He was also a bit dim-witted. That changed quickly; he began speaking less slowly, and he's acquired something of a back story, establishing him as a 350-year-old alien with a rich past. Pitting him against the captain allowed me to poke holes in Dicker's inflated ego, and to bring him down a notch or two. I also made it clear that the show would become more of a dramedy by giving Ufa a serious soliloquy, which has a nice payoff at the end.
In this episode I introduce the bad guys: the Clobbernauts (the Klingons in the early days of Trek). They too will go on to experience changes over the course of the show.
One tiny last-minute script change was to add the point of Dicker's wife having been murdered by the Clobbernauts. At the time, I had no idea how I'd utilize this factoid, but it would eventually lead to some major plot points toward the end of the series.