Damn you characters! Can't you be funny!?

So, my plot rambles on. none of it is any good yet.

For a satire, it's remarkably not remotely funny. The only scene that I'm at all pleased with is one where a crazed Captain Bligh punishes a crewman for an imagined theft of a bottle of champagne, Good drama, but not exactly the side splitting hilarity I want. There's no reason not to have humour free dramatic scenes. It provides a good contrast to the comedy moments. I just need some comedy moments to provide a contrast to.

I think this boils down to me not having good characterisation. Normally my characters are based on amalgamations of people I know, or a mix up of common tropes. I just can't see the people I know serving on a starship. I can throw together a crew based of the sort of person who'd do the job I'm after but they're just too competent to be interesting. But I can't work out how to make them less competent without making them distinctly unlikeable. This is great for Bligh, but not for my crew.

There's something about Dad's Army and Terry Pratchett's Night Watch that makes you want to root for them, and makes it still seem believable when they succeed. My characters aren't doing that.

I've already killed off one ships crew. I think I might have to kill off a few of the next batch as well.