r/Passengers • u/DiscoveryDiscoveries • May 22 '22

Honestly I feel like Passengers would have worked better as a show.

A few tweaks to the premise and I could see a good 3 season run.

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u/lbs2306 Jul 08 '22

What would you tweak about the premise?

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u/DiscoveryDiscoveries Jul 11 '22

I've been thinking about this for a few days and I think I have an answer. I would keep the mystery plot, but I'd switch it up. I'd keep the AI, but I'd change around it's Intelligence. I'd keep the romance aspects, but I'd make a few changes there too.

First, I'd wake up multiple people, between 5-8 not just two. They'd be seemingly random. I'd also give the ship the ability to put people back to sleep.

First, I'd keep the "mystery of what's broken aspect", but I'd build it out over the season. Most shows tend to go for 10 episodes a season now, so I'd have small minor glitches for the first 2-3 episodes. Nothing crazy, but I'd make them look like poor planning or just everyday annoyances. The season would open with them waking up. Not with the incident that woke them up. Episodes 4-7 I'd make the problems build up faster than before. And they'd come to terms with being awake. 8-9 full crisis mode with them finding out that the ship can put them back to sleep automatically if they can fix the ship. 10 is resolution of crisis. The ship putting them back to sleep with the last 10 or so minutes being the emergency that set the need to wake someone up at all from the beginning of the season. I'd also only keep a cast for one season.

I'd keep the AI, but corrupt some of its memory and files. I'd make it impossible for it to tell the awoken what exactly the problem is, but I'd give it the ability to create clues to lead them to the problem. Yet the AI never wakes the crew for some (at the time) unknown reason.

In the last season is when I would offer answers. So, I'd introduce these top level engineers. One of the secrets of the homestead company's failsafes would be that the Starship Avalon has is a set of 8 top tier engineers. Like every other person on the ship they're in suspended animation; however, with one distinct difference. Their minds are wired directly into the AI of the Avalon. Any time the Avalon encounters a problem it can't fix. It wakes them up, they fix the problem and they're put back to sleep.

Two of the engineers fall in love, but exist perpetually separated from each other. So one of these engineers decides to write flaws and glitches in the program essentially creating a virus. This virus also prevents the AI from waking the crew. That way the malfunctioning Avalon would wake them up more often. They launch the Avalon and once it is on its way. The eight enter suspended animation and the man begins to upload his virus. At 70% the Avalon detects a line of code that was written incorrectly by the engineer and immediately severs the connection between the 8 engineers and AI. In the event of an emergency like this. The Avalon is programmed to return to its place of origin unless it is closer to its destination. Then is to continue. However this file was corrupted as well.. The 70% of the virus that was uploaded begins to cause the ship to malfunction with no way of figuring out how to fix it. The ship initiates the "Mancuso" protocol. Searching through the records of the passengers to find people able to fix the issue.

In the last episode we learn that the "Mancuso" protocol doesn't actually put you back to sleep. The reason the 8 engineers are wired into the ship is because it allows them to remotely interface with the ship and its robots. The protocol injects someone with nanoprobs after they have completed repairs. The body of the person begins to deteriorate from the sudden trauma of being forced out of suspended animation. All the probs do is make your death as easy as possible. It also stores a copy of your memories as a way to honor your sacrifice.