A Formal Dinner: Science Fiction Heroes

Questions are great fun for my friends; A chill night, a comfortable couch, a stomach satisfied with its contents, and lips savoring a cold brew. Then the questions begin to circle the group:

"Where is the Nyan Cat going?"

With the follow up:

"What flavor filling does it have?"

Or

"If your girlfriend puts a phallic object into your rectum, is it homosexual?"

With the follow up:

"What if the object is a mold of your own penis?"

But our favorites are the choices of dinner guests, party guests, or people to hang with. Generally, these people are not real. For example, the following is four people with whom I'd like to have a formal dinner, you know, a classy beer or wine, five courses, suit and tie, music and high society surround.

 1.  Jean-Luc Picard

Resume: Captain of the United Federation of Planets
Strengths: Command, Diplomacy, Valor, Virtue, Curiosity, Tolerance
Interests: Cultural Anthropology, History, Literature, Sailing

Picard was born to a well-to-do family in France, enjoying a childhood of strenuous private schools and near aristocracy. Despite a privileged upbringing, Captain Picard became a man of intellect and culture, dedicated to positive ideals: a man most are proud simply to have met.

He enjoys command, but lacks the ambition to advance further than he has, fearing the loss of the freedom the Enterprise gives him. This speaks to his romantic nature, and his desire for adventure. At the table, he would be affable, inquisitive, but perhaps a bit formal until the ice is broken. Finally, he is a walking library of near-death experiences and meetings with important personages.


2. William Adama 

Resume: Admiral  of the Colonial Fleet
Strengths: Command, Military Strategy, Valor, Determination, Willpower
Interests: Flying, Model Building, Boxing, Literature, Public Speaking

While similar to Captain Picard in professional occupation, Adama of a different, though equally admirable, breed. He is the son of a civil rights lawyer, and enjoyed a relatively mundane middle-class childhood. As a young man, he was commissioned as a bottom ranking pilot, and Adama bathed in the fires of the First Cylon War.  Immediately following, he left the service to begin a life as a common deck hand on commercial freighters. Only upon rejoining the military as a calmer, more experienced man, did Adama begin rising in the ranks. A down-to-earth titan who worked for everything he ever received.

Perhaps gruff and carrying a disdain more most false niceties, Admiral Adama carries the aura of a good man striving to do the best he can. Neither gregarious nor frivolous, Adama is serious and often taciturn.  He is knowledgeable in what he knows, and willing to learn what he does not. Like Picard, he holds a mountain of potential stories, but they, and Adama himself, would need to be drawn into the conversation.

3. V

Resume: Revolutionary, Renaissance Man
Strengths: Empathy, Valor, Devotion, Intellect
Interests: Literature, History, Classic Movies, Philosophy, Martial Arts

Though most of his background is a mystery, we know that V is likely a man arrested for homosexuality by the Norsefire administration and then medically experimented upon. Upon his escape, V engaged in what can only be described as a vigorous self-reconstruction and/or transformation. Self-educated in world literature; revolutionary rhetoric, history, and philosophy; and perhaps even greco-roman speech-craft; V is a brilliant mind commanded by an obsession for revenge, kept in tight reign against hypocrisy by a rigid, if alternative, sense of right and wrong.

He is also charming and fantastically witty, quite capable of tossing back small-talk, engaging others at the table, and then delving into topics of more intellectual sustenance.

4. Professor Charles Xavier

Resume: Headmaster of Xavier's School for the Gifted, Professor of Physics, Founder of a Pro-Peace Vigilante Group
Strengths: Intellect, Empathy, Nurturing Nature, Merciful
Hobbies: Teaching, Helping People, Theoretical Science and Invention

Possibly some distant ancestor of Jean-Luc Picard, Charles Xavier is a kind-hearted man of action. He is an iconic defender, of peace, of the powerless, of the emotionally distraught. But he is not afraid to fight to do so, in fact, he favors a pro-active approach, often seeking out conflict with those who would do harm.

A benevolently polite personality, Xavier would happily venture down any path a wandering conversation may follow. His insights into the human psyche would add powerful observations to most any serious discussion.