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The USS Intrepid
Main Characters
Ensign Andy Dahl
The protagonist of the novel. He is an expert in alien religions and xenobiology.
- A Degree in Useless: His degree in alien religions never comes up.
- Hero of Another Story: Subverted - while the novel initially presents as one to the bridge crew. He later realizes he is the main character of another story. Of the book you're reading right now.
- Only Sane Man: Andy reacts to all the weirdness around him with confusion and irritation before it becomes dawning horror.
- Surrounded by Idiots: His reaction at the start to all the weirdness on the Intrepid is to constantly question everyone's competence.
Ensign Maia Duvall
The only female member of the Ensigns.
- The Heart: The most feminine member of the crew who also is the only one to get involved in a romance.
- Love Interest: Has positioned herself as this to Kerensky, which may be very smart or very stupid.
- The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female member of the main cast.
Ensign Jimmy Hanson
The son of an incredibly rich man and Andy's best friend.
- Fiction 500: The son of one of the richest men in the galaxy.
Ensign Jasper Hester
A man without much in the way of a backstory.
- Flat Character: In-universe he discovers he doesn't have a life because he was created to give the producer's son something to do on the show.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Trades places with the man who plays his character to give him a chance at a better life.
Ensign Finn
A reformed criminal turned Intrepid criminal.
- The Atoner: Wanting to make up for his criminal past.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Dies defending Abernathy from an assassination attempt.
- Killed Off for Real: The only one of the main characters to succumb to the Narrative.
Bridge crew
General
The main characters of the show Chronicles of the Intrepid. Very little is known about their actual personalities when not under control of the Narrative.
- Doom Magnet: When under control of the Narrative.
- Expy: They are all stand-ins for the characters of Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Nice Guy: They are all this when not under the Narrative's control. When they are, they can seem remarkably callous and insensitive.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When not under the grip of the Narrative, they're perfectly nice, approachable people - with the (possible) exception of Kerensky, though some of this probably comes from stress.
Captain Lucius Abernathy
The stand-in for Captain Kirk.
- Expy: For James Tiberius Kirk. He is a hot blooded rule-breaking captain that is, nevertheless, The Hero.
- Insane Admiral: What he acts like, ironically, when controlled by the Narrative.
- The Kirk: Due to being a stand-in for him.
- Skewed Priorities: Is more interested in saving Kerensky than an entire species infected by The Plague.
Science Officer Q'eeng
The stand-in for Spock.
Anatoly Kerensky
The Anton Chekov expy. He is the subject of constant bad luck that he always manages to survive. Barely.
- The Casanova: In-universe, whenever there's a beautiful woman who needs to be fallen in love with then it's either him or the captain. He also ends up dating Maia.
- Iron Butt Monkey: He will reliably survive anything. Outside of the narrative, he's at least partially aware of this and hates it.
- Love Interest: He starts a casual relationship with Maia that surprises the other Ensigns.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can absolutely be an asshole, but it's heavily suggested some of this comes down to stress. It's shown that he does have good qualities - loyalty to those he loves, willingness to save Hester/Paulson...
- Made of Iron: The amount of horrible things that have happened to him is ridiculous.
- Only Sane Man: By bridge crew standards, anyway. He's one of the extremely few "main cast" members that's well aware of the surreal nature of the Narrative.
- Rage Against the Heavens: He's aware that whenever something goes wrong, he's always going to be the one that it happens to. Despite being a main character, his life sucks.
Other Crew Members
General
The veterans of the Intrepid that have discovered the Narrative.
- Cargo Cult: In a way. The veterans know from experience that the Narrative is real and that something will override logic, their free will, sanity, and science... but with the exception of Jenkins, refuse to believe they're fictional.
- Too Dumb to Live: What happens to them when under control of the Narrative.
- Virgin Sacrifice: What they engage in effectively. They throw younger and less experienced members at the Narrative to die horribly in their place.
Lieutenant Collins
Dahl's direct superior at the exo-biology lab.
- Dirty Coward: She will comfortably throw any other crew members she can into the meatgrinder of the Narrative just so she survives.
- Implausible Deniability:
According to Jenkins, anyway. If you asked Collins herself, she'd say Jenkins is insane and there is no Narrative. However, Jenkins is of the opinion she does believe in the Narrative and refuses to admit it. - Moral Myopia: Saving herself means that she's willing to kill other crew members, even her (relative) inner circle.
Officer Jenkins
An insane officer of the Intrepid who tries to help as many crew survive as possible.
- Author Avatar: A weird In-Universe example - he's played by the head writer of the show, and thus a lot of his commentary on how the Narrative and how poorly-written takes on an interesting edge.
- Crusading Widower: What triggered his breakdown and slow loss of sanity was the death of his wife to create cheap drama.
- Genre Savvy: Displays almost encyclopedic knowledge of how an episode has to go, in addition to various tv tropes.
- Properly Paranoid: Is the first person to figure out what the Narrative is and what it does to them.
Real World
Nick Weinstein
The head writer of the show.
- Butt-Monkey: Considering that a lot of the novel centers around his characters (and others) telling him that he's a bad writer, he probably qualifies.
- Unfortunate Name: A Harsher in Hindsight example due to the fact the Weinstein name is now associated with sexual assault.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He ends up killing dozens, if not hundreds, of real people because of his hack writing.
Charles Paulson
Creator and executive producer of Chronicles of the Intrepid.
Matthew Paulson
The son of Charles Paulson. Also plays Hester as an extra.
- The Slacker: Hester, his character, calls him out for this.
- Unexplained Recovery: an In-Universe example - the x-ray technician he asks for help can't make heads or tails of how he's somehow alive, let alone recovered from his injuries.
