The Arbiters become military governors of a conquered planet.

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Listen to the free podcast: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

As mentioned in the White Lady writeup, I wrote two episodes together for Farpoint 2002. This one was specifically written to be a showpiece for our first ever celebrity guests, George Takei and Robin Curtis. I wanted to give George a meaty villain role, and I wanted to give Robin something that showed off what a funny lady she really is. One of the limitations, for me, of classic space opera is that the officers generally just do a couple of jobs over and over: Go to planet, find people in trouble, help them, get shirt ripped, get, um, affection and physical gratification, go home. Lather, rinse, repeat. Or they fight space battles, which I generally find boring. But military officers often find themselves taking on all sorts of challenges, and that includes, occasionally, governing a population in a state that’s been ravaged by war. My protagonist, Metcalfe, is so anti-government that I wanted to put him way outside his comfort zone and have him be forced to be the government for a while. I also wanted to get Captain Atal off the ship for a change, and let him interact a bit with his old friend Mors. Sadly, that original live performance could not be recorded under the terms of George’s contract. The studio version you can hear today does not feature George or Robin, but our usual wonderful cast.

CAST:

Announcer – Paul Balze
Metcalfe – Steven H. Wilson
Carson – Scott Farquhar
Cernaq – Renfield
Kaya – Beatrice Kondo
Aer’La – June Swords
Faulkner – Cindy Shockey
Pallas – Renee Wilson
Mors – John Weber
Thalia Kinson – Cindy Woods
Vireq – Paul Balze
Sponaugle – Marty Gear
Aide – Ian Bonds

Directed by Steven H. Wilson
Editing: Steven H. Wilson
Music: Scott D. Farquhar