FYI: Who's who in Lunarites (and who should play them)

[thatcrazycajun]

As many of the Fanfic Samplers I'm going to be posting here will be from my concept for a TV series (or comic book, or novel series, etc.) about the first privately-funded lunar colony, Lunarites, I thought readers might find it helpful to have a guide to the core cast of characters.

For those who've joined us late, here's a set of links to all so-far-posted snippets of this story (all future Samplers from Lunarites will point back to this page):
#1: President Morgan makes Sen. Slaughter an offer she can't refuse
#2: Morgan addresses the nation following the global Lunapolitan broadcast
#3: Later in the series, Dr. Joe's successor faces off against an insane Chinese leader
#4: The globally-aired Declaration of Lunapolitan Independence by Dr. Joe
#5: Michael Bass makes his pitch to the scientific heavyweights he's gathered at his Portland-area home

Lunarites Dramatis Personae

• Michael Bass - Oregon-based software tycoon/adventurer (CEO of BassWare Corp., developer of the first command-line-free graphical user interface for personal computers) whose mind-boggling personal fortune and lifelong passion (some say obsession) drives the Diana Project LLP's creation and its mission: to found the first self-sustaining human lunar colony, Lunapolis. Has pulled all sorts of strings and called in all his chits in the worlds of business and politics to get his pet project going—possibly including having committed (or at least knowingly condoned) a murder...!
  Ideal Casting: Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law's sleazy divorce lawyer Arnie Becker and Q's buddy from ST:TNG episode "Déja Q")
  

• Dr. Joseph P. Aronofsky, Ph.D. - Young Cornell University physicist whose discovery of a workable cold-fusion process for energy generation is the crucial piece of the puzzle that makes the Diana Project's launch feasible. He becomes Lunapolis' founding Mayor-President, and is nicknamed "Dr. Joe" by the colonists. It is he who appears on global TV to announce that Lunapolis will seek UN recognition as an independent city-state.
  Ideal Casting: Nicholas Brendon (yes, Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; in fact, my character has much of the same self-deprecatory charm and pop-culture-savvy wit).
  

• Dr. Natalya Ivanova - Russian-born physician and microbiologist tapped by Bass to be Lunapolis' head of medical services and run its state-of-the-art hospital. In charge of the physical and mental health of everyone in Lunapolis, with a highly trained staff under her. Also the moral conscience of the colony, she is a direct philosophical ancestor of Star Trek's Dr. Leonard McCoy, MD, right down to the same insistence on the primacy of people over politics or technology. Also has a sly sense of humor and writes/sings music as a hobby (it is she who organizes a monthly colony talent show as entertainment and recreation for the colonists).
  Ideal Casting: Mira Furlan. If you saw her as Delenn  in Babylon 5, you don't need to ask why; if not, rent/buy the DVDs and find out. (And this time, she gets to sing on camera!)
  

• Dr. Nigella van Kamp - British-born, Dutch-descended astrophysicist and one of the colony's visionaries. Acerbic and passionate but also good-hearted and fiendishly competent, she is often at loggerheads with Dr. Joe over the colony's scientific research and exploration work, which she heads. This may be due in part to their past as lovers, with its lingering romantic/sexual tension.
  Ideal Casting: Marina Sirtis. Again, anyone who's seen her in Star Trek: TNG or Stargate: SG-1 needs no explanation.
  

• Clayton Allan Morgan - 44th U.S. President (R) and longtime friend of Bass from his days as Oregon's senior Senator. Supportive of the Lunapolitans in every way legally possible, to the point of making the US first to grant them diplomatic recognition. A classic wily old pol who knows where all the bodies are buried in D.C. (he helped bury some of them!), Morgan is sort of a cross between Truman and LBJ.
  Ideal Casting: Richard Dysart (L.A. Law's sage senior partner, Leland McKenzie).
  

• Sen. Louise Slaughter - The new senior Senator from Oregon (D), vocal critic of the Lunapolis project and longtime political foe of Morgan, having defeated him in his last re-election campaign. Suspicious of Bass and thinks that all that cash could be far better used solving problems on Earth. Launches Senate hearings into the business dealings of the Diana Project and even subpoenas Bass himself to testify. Later appointed Ambassador to Lunapolis and is slowly converted, eventually becoming a staunch ally.
  Ideal Casting: Kate Mulgrew. (See Star Trek: Voyager for why.)
  

• Dantwon Arceneaux - Young math/science/engineering prodigy from New Orleans recruited to work on the Lunapolis staff as Chief of Colony Operations. Orphaned at an early age and raised by his maternal grandmother. SPOILER ALERT: He gets killed in the terror-bombing of Lunapolis two years later, trying to disarm Farouk's bomb. No replacement as yet created.
  Ideal Casting: Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko from STAR TREK: DS9).
  

• Mary Margaret "Meg" O'Brien - FBI agent who spearheads the multi-national manhunt for Haddad Farouk, a Bin Laden-like Muslim terrorist leader who masterminds the bombing of Lunapolis. Rewarded by Bass for Farouk's capture with Lunapolitan citizenship, and is elected to succeed Joe Aronofsky as Mayor-President when he elects to return to Earth after his two-year term ends.
  Ideal Casting: Jo Anderson (CBS' Beauty & the Beast). Could also be played by either Janine Turner (Northern Exposure's Maggie O'Connell) or Claudia Christian (Babylon 5's Cmdr. Susan Ivanova, after whom our Dr. Ivanova is named).

Comments and suggestions welcomed. (Frex, I think we need at least one more non-Caucasian and/or non-male core character; I will entertain suggestions for one and an actor/actress to play them.)

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Slaughter: longtime political foe of Morgan, having defeated him in his re-election campaign and now holding his job.

I assume you mean that Slaughter defeated Morgan in a Senate reelection campaign, after which Morgan ran for and became President...? It's a bit unclear as it stands.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that; yes, that pretty much sums it up. Morgan's state party leaders urged him to run for President partly to get him out of his despondent funk after losing to Slaughter.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

They got him to run for President, a campaign he won, because he was depressed? Reminds me of why Jed Bartlet thought Leo was pushing him to run in The West Wing:

BARTLET: Leo! Tell me this isn't one of the twelve steps.

LEO: Yeah, that's what it is. Right after admitting we're powerless over alcohol and that a higher power can restore us to sanity, that's where you come in.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

May I suggest tags for these, so people who are reading can refer back to earlier bits, and to this casting post, as they go along? I like your choices!

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Done; see above. And thank you for both the kind words and the suggestions.

Cast and 'crew'

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

This sounds like an AWESOME thing. I'd love to hear if it comes up. LOVE to. Great ideas for who should play each part. I'd go for Claudia Christian for Meg O'Brien. I've missed her in B-5 and would LOVE to see her working in something sci-fi related again.
Mira Furlan YES! Marina Sirtis Oh yeah! Cirroc Lofton great choice, but does he HAVE to die??

As for Kate Mulgrew... I've been a fan(atic) for many years now and can't agree more!! She's great! (Even in person!)
dsthomas, aka katefan

[filkferengi]

Great casting, tight plotting, good dialog.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you!