Okay, I'll bite...What DID Admiral Toolman mean?

[Akril]

One of the crimes Roger is convicted of by the enigmatic Admiral Toolman in the SQ6 intro is "Perpetrating a sequel without authorization".

 

Maybe I'm just a little slow, but I never really "got" that line. I'm pretty certain the sequel in question is SQ5, but that line still doesn't make sense to me. It sort of has a "Hey, we haven't blatantly broken the fourth wall in this series for a while -- why don't we do it right here, in the intro?" kind of vibe to it.

 

On the overanalytical side, I feel like I might be overlooking some sort of deeper context the game's writers were hinting at (i.e., the way SQ5 is more or less swept under the rug in SQ6: barely any mention of SQ5's characters [save Beatrice], the absence of any souvenirs from SQ5 in Roger's quarters, and especially the outrageously inaccurate retelling of the SQ5 finale).

 

However, if I were to look at this line as well as Admiral Toolman's later actions from an "in-game" perspective,it makes me wonder if he was one of Vohaul's Sequel Policemen that became stranded in the past but still attempted to carry out his master's orders while masquerading as a StarCon official -- why else would he level such an accusation at Roger, strip him of both his rank and credibility, then turn out to have a connection with a woman that attempted to have Roger (well, his brain, anyway) eliminated?

 

So...those are my thoughts. Yours?

[Troels Pleimert]

I think it's a stab at SQ5, and how Scott and Josh didn't know Dynamix was doing SQ5 until well into its development.

[Dat Engineer]

As far as actual storytelling goes, my guess is that the death of Captain Quirk (and Beatrice's apparent affair with Roger) was such a huge scandal for StarCon that Admiral Toolman was called in to do damage control - and part of that involved decommissioning Roger and stationing him on some backwater vessel to make sure he wouldn't get in the way any further. There's some hint that Toolman's a bit corrupt, considering the trouble he puts the Deepship's crew through to get Roger Wilco to Delta Burksilon, with the intent of finding Sharpei a host body for Project Immortality.

 

As for the line, I think it's as Troels said; that at the time it was more of an attack against Mark Crowe than Roger Wilco.

[Spikey]

I think a lot of SQ6's intro is Josh's work, nothing to do with Scott.

 

If I recall correctly (which I'm sure I'm not *exactly*, but still), Josh felt SQ5 had painted the series into a corner with Roger being a Captain and having his own ship, that his first objective when handed the reins of SQ6 was to put Roger back as a janitor, and this was the way to do it.

I think it makes sense, and was a necessary evil to get Rog back into "comfy, reassuring janitorial duds". I just feel like the execution of the "tribunal" part of the SQ6 intro was pretty medicore and too negative

 

One other thing- after the Tribunal, isn't Sharpei in the intro talking to Admiral Toolman?

 

I never got exactly that Toolman was a bad guy (although his name does kind of point to that) but rather a military sort of guy who was a bit of a pawn in Sharpei's plot.

 

As for the perpetrating a sequel line, that's just a standard Josh Mandel Sierra-style joke, I doubt it's a stab at anyone. Josh was never really about that sort of thing. Parody yes, personal attacks, veiled or otherwise, doubtful.

[mjomble]

As far as actual storytelling goes, my guess is that the death of Captain Quirk (and Beatrice's apparent affair with Roger) was such a huge scandal for StarCon that Admiral Toolman was called in to do damage control - and part of that involved decommissioning Roger and stationing him on some backwater vessel to make sure he wouldn't get in the way any further.

 

I think that's also pretty much how Incinerations summed it up. Sounds good to me :y:

[MusicallyInspired]

Actually, Toolman sounds more like the ironic name of a pawn in a grand scheme (as in, he's a tool) than it does a bad guy.

[Spikey]

"I never got exactly that Toolman was a bad guy (although his name does kind of point to that) but rather a military sort of guy who was a bit of a pawn in Sharpei's plot."

 

;)

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah. You said his name kind of points to him being a bad guy. I think it actually strengthens your next point that he was a pawn. If that's what you actually meant, your sentence confused me lol. I was commenting on the name itself.

[Spikey]

Well, it's hard to say now, you confused me BB ;)

 

I don't think he is a bad guy, more of a pawn, but I think his name was to in at least part construe (from Josh) that he was a bad guy, versus Admiral Smith or some other name. Similar to Captain Quirk, aside from the ST reference.

 

I wonder if there was to be more about him that was excised from the final game.

[Dat Engineer]

Admiral Toolman plays a larger role in the text adventure game that I've been working on.

[Akril]

As far as actual storytelling goes, my guess is that the death of Captain Quirk (and Beatrice's apparent affair with Roger) was such a huge scandal for StarCon that Admiral Toolman was called in to do damage control - and part of that involved decommissioning Roger and stationing him on some backwater vessel to make sure he wouldn't get in the way any further. There's some hint that Toolman's a bit corrupt, considering the trouble he puts the Deepship's crew through to get Roger Wilco to Delta Burksilon, with the intent of finding Sharpei a host body for Project Immortality.

Yeah, that's sort of the impression that I got as well.

 

One other thing- after the Tribunal, isn't Sharpei in the intro talking to Admiral Toolman?

No, she's definitely talking to Nigel and Singent (this scene does beg the question as to how she knew he was going to be on Polysorbate, though).

 

I don't think he is a bad guy, more of a pawn, but I think his name was to in at least part construe (from Josh) that he was a bad guy, versus Admiral Smith or some other name. Similar to Captain Quirk, aside from the ST reference.

 

I wonder if there was to be more about him that was excised from the final game.

Good point -- there's so little revealed about him that he really is a quandary. Whether he really is a bad guy or just some unwitting pawn is a also little difficult to judge when he not only has a cold, menacing voice, but looks like one of the Borg.