Contemplating the contemplation

Mr. Shockah and I have more ideas than time to flesh them out. That's just the nature of writing--the fullest screenplays start with a singular query--something that captures your attention. For me, it's usually a question--in this case, what would a prison planet be like?

Now that we have to answer that question--have to, mind you--I'm trying to think about it from a different angle. Could you tell a love story on a Prison Planet (a: yes). Could you tell a comedy on a Prison Planet (a: yes). Could you make an action-adventure / horror / gory mess on a prison planet (a: yes). Political movie, chick flick--it could be all be done there--the setting suggests a plot, but doesn't have to be the plot. Of course, if it's not important to what happens, then there is no sense but pure whimsy to put the thing on the damn planet to begin with, so the plot will have to revolve somehow with the fact that the setting is a prison planet.

But, that caveat aside, we could really do anything we want. So, where do we start? Maybe we start with a character. Maybe that character is a prisoner just being sent to the planet. So, if that is indeed where we're going to start (I'll wait for Mr. Shockah to opine before I start spinning too far), then a bunch of questions pop up. Why is he there? What did she do? How did he get there? How is she put on the planet's surface? Where on the planet is he put down? Are their guards on the planet surface? Are their guards in space? Do they monitor technology on the surface? What is the weather on the planet?

Suddenly, these questions start getting answered and a hazy picture starts being drawn:

A woman was convicted of murdering her violent husband is sentenced to the Prison Planet. She arrives there after being beamed on a stream of light. There is a heavily guarded landing station that the prisoners are always trying to assault, but as of yet they have not been successful. The skies are continually stormy with orange clouds as she is pushed out into the station by cruel guards into a crowd of very hungry looking men... or

A man convicted of treason--he was the president of his planet--is sent away after a coup. He is put on the ground by a lifter space craft that drops him with supplies in the middle of a desert. There are no guards. there is no one around. He has limited food and water... or

A woman is brought before a court in the largest city of the prison planet. They read the charges from her captors and assign her a task on the planet surface. The ore mines are popular with many people, but she has experience with high culture. She'll be a domestic to one of the highest ranking judges, just doing his time until he can be rotated off the prison planet...

So, none of those kill me, but I could spend all night writing little synopsis. Somewhere in there we'll find the hook that starts getting us more jazzed. What say you Mr. Shockah? Where would you like to start this discussion?