Space Rover

Premise

The year is 2143 CE, over thirty years since the Great Unification of humankind. After being kicked out of the Space Commonwealth transport fleet on disputed charges of gross incompetence, one Captain James seeks out a new life by purchasing a cheap refurbished spacecraft on Pluto, the titular Rover. He is soon also lumbered with a free android "inducement" - the peculiarly named Peter Gans Lee - and by the arrival of a rogue hologram worker, little do any of them realize what their new life is going to bring them in a hostile, and deeply absurd, universe...

MWM seeks to pave new ground for free culture by creating a full series of low-budget productions within a consistent and expansive fictional universe; all released under free licenses and primarily inspired by classic science fiction franchises The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf, as well as Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Farscape. To that end, we began work on the series in August 2008, developing the ideas before production finally began in the summer of 2012, carrying into audio creation at the start of 2013.

Cast and Crew

• Captain James - Hamish Paul Wilson
• Peter Gans Lee - Malcolm Rex Peter Wilson
• Hologram - Graham Lawrence Wilson
• Other parts played by members of the cast.
• Director: Malcolm Rex Peter Wilson

• Head Writer: Graham Lawrence Wilson
• Head Editor: Hamish Paul Wilson
• Written using LibreOffice Writer

• Audio Editing: Malcolm Wilson with Audacity
• Musical Composition: Malcolm Wilson
• Sound Effects: Various sources

Logos and Graphics

The following are various graphics and logos visualizing organizations and concepts within the series' universe. Released on December 24, 2015 and made in Inkscape 0.91.

Drawn by Malcolm Wilson.

Concept Art

The first conceptual pieces describe the external appearance of the Rover.

Drawn by Laura Warman. Finalizing details by Malcolm Wilson. Released on December 1, 2016. Scanned on an HP Officejet 4630 series using XSane version 0.999 with HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) version 3.16.11 [device manager version 15.0(Qt4)]. Editing and export done in GNU Image Manipulation Program version 2.8.18. Vector editing and colourization done in Inkscape version 0.91. All running on Fedora 23 Linux kernel version 4.8.10-100.fc23.x86_64.

The accessories conceptual piece explores possible additions to the Rover, such as continuous tracks.

Released on December 27, 2019 made in Inkscape 0.92.4 on Fedora 30 Linux kernel version 5.3.11-200.fc30.x86_64.

The emitter conceptual piece describes the visual appearance of Hologram's Portable Holographic Emitter Unit.

Released on December 21, 2022 made in Inkscape 1.2.2 (b0a8486541, 2022-12-01) on Arch Linux, kernel version 6.0.12-arch1-1.

The 40 Arms conceptual piece describes Hologram with forty arms in episode III.

Released on December 24, 2023 made in Inkscape 1.3.2 (091e20ef0f, 2023-11-25, custom) on Arch Linux, kernel version 6.6.8-arch1-1.

The Captain James and Peter Gans Lee conceptual piece describes the appearance of those characters.

Released on December 15, 2024 made in Inkscape 1.4 (e7c3feb100, 2024-10-09) on Fedora 41 Linux kernel version 6.11.11-300.fc41.x86_64.

Pilot Episode: Undocumented Features

Our first full release for the project, presenting our pilot script as an audio production, initially recorded on the evening of February 16, 2013 based on a final February 1 audio script draft, with pick-ups on May 11, 2013. Production work ensued following both the original and pick-up recordings, finally exhibiting a completed version on May 26, 2013. Recorded with a Sennheiser e 825-S Dynamic microphone, on a Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop running Fedora 18 using Audacity. Released under the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 and/or the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, with the following usage attributions.

Premise: Discharged from his cushy job as an official transport captain, James heads to Pluto to buy a cheap refurbished spaceship, plus android assistant, ignorant as to what is lurking within the Rover's computer system...

Download:

First released on May 31, 2013

Outtakes first released on December 25, 2018

Source first released on March 30, 2021

Series I: A Man And His Machines

In addition to the completed pilot script, drafts for episodes 2-6 are already extant, comprising a full series in proper Britcom tradition. Both audio and video incarnations are planned. A complete novelization of the first series is also concieved, adding in more backstory. Audio, video and novel incarnations are said to exist in closely joined but separate dimensions, allowing for a general amount of continuity between them. The series also already begins a plotted overarchng story thread to be played out as the series progresses. The download links will be filled in as episodes are produced.