@Majere, thanks for your most excellent comments and thoughts.
Everything you said crossed my mind, too, except when Stephen says 'Jesus'. But had I thought of it, I think I would have left it in. It's an expletive with which most of us would be familiar today and yes, it's conceivable that in a realistic vision of Elite beyond the 31st century, some people of that persuasion might use it.
I, too, think of Elite as a wholly British game because it is. And in the '80s, we even more felt the gulf of the Atlantic because Americans didn't really have the Spectrum, or at least it wasn't prevalent there. So my experiences of Elite are that everything about it was British. However, when producing the demo, I decided to go for just six actors who I thought would act their socks off and Susan and Mark came to mind when writing this particular script. But though Elite is a wholly British game, the world it presents is obviously even more broadly multicultural than Earth, so I didn't really mind which accents I used. Also, I plan using some other nationalities as I feel they'll give a better 'sense' of multiculturalism and different races. I like the way Skyrim, for instance, is an alternate universe, but all of the races' accents are identifiable, even if sometimes hybrids.
In one of the next demos, the skipper of a Moray Starboat is very British, as is his co-pilot.
As regards the age, I'm not too hung up on this. The back story to the character of Stephen is that he's had many jobs in his lifetime and none were working out for him or paying the bills, so he buys this cheap-but-dodgy old Cobra Mk III to try and make some money in the same way people might nowadays buy taxi plates or apply for a HGV licence. Also, it's plausible that by the 31st century onwards, we'll be living much longer lives and therefore retire later.
Great comments, though, so please them coming.
Thanks a mill,
Paul
There are ferries to Holyhead though, and then a nice drive across Wales to Cheltenham. Google says it takes 6 hours.
