Characters

Next Space has few characters, but almost every one of them has a line that sticks in the memory. Here is a guide to who’s who, what each does in the story and what the game reveals about them. There are 34 of them in all: humans and androids, robots, creatures and plants. The main characters have a section of their own; the minor ones are in the grid below them.

A note on names. The game names very few of its characters. In the voice acting and the on-screen text you will meet Frank, G-HERN (sometimes spelled G-HORN), the barman and Viktor. The Boss has no name: the game calls him only “the boss” and “sir”. The name Astrud deBurgh belongs to a rich passenger who calls in from a screen in the Boss’s office. The androids are named Maco and Káča in the game data, but nobody calls them by name in the video.

A note on the actors. The characters the game shows in motion were played by real people, filmed on camera and digitised (details are on the Actors on Betacam page). Where we can identify them, we say who played them. The voices in the Slovak version belong to other people, whom the credits list separately (the list is at the end of this page).

Frank

Role: the hero. A pilot and courier for a small freight company. In a review in Riki magazine he is called Frank Zitto. Character: lazy, ironic and curious. He drinks, flirts, dodges work and does not pretend to be a hero. What defines him: he comments on everything he clicks on. When he can’t be bothered, he says “I’m not a vandal” or “I’m no gunslinger”. When he is in danger, he cracks a joke. Signature line: “But I’ll fly wherever I like.” Played by: Roman Macko. Where he appears: in every room the game lets you visit, except for one scene in which you play the barman instead. In the cobweb tunnel (Room 21) it is Frank himself who hangs in the cocoon: the spider catches him by the green pond, and Frank has to burn his way to freedom. Nature and manner of speech: Frank speaks in short, offhand sentences. He comments on every object in a single sentence (on average six words in the Slovak version) and saves the punchline for the end: “A beer dispenser. At least I hope it’s beer.” He likes vague words such as “some” and “kind of”, as if he knew nothing about anything. When he doesn’t want to do something, he doesn’t say “it won’t work” but “I’m not a vandal”. With the Boss he is polite and cheeky at the same time, and praise offends him: “I hate talk like that.”

The game never says who Frank is outside work. We learn that he comes from Earth, that the Boss knows his parents and that he does not get on well with authority.

The Boss

Role: Frank’s superior on Earth. By his own account, a family friend. The game never names him; he is just “the boss” and “sir”. Character: hot-tempered, sarcastic and convinced that Frank sets his own jobs. He threatens him with the uranium mines, yet still keeps him on. Signature line: “No stops, no delays.” Played by: Peter Hegyi (the same actor as the barman and Astrud deBurgh). Where he appears: in the prologue (voice and office), and again at the end. His office is a round room with a window onto space. Nature and manner of speech: The Boss (who is never given a name in the game) shouts in long sentences, repeats the same thing in other words and ends with an order: “Get out!” He is sarcastic (“Abducted by aliens? Or what?”) and threatens Frank with the uranium mines, but never fires him. To the rich customer Frank is meant to ferry, on the other hand, he bows and scrapes.

Both of his big scenes, the opening and the closing one, are long conversations in which the Boss does almost all the talking and Frank can only defend himself.

Astrud deBurgh

Role: the rich, spoilt passenger Frank was supposed to transport. He is stuck on Penclen, waiting. Character: impatient, conceited and threatening. He promises to tear everyone apart with his teeth, and when that does not help, he threatens to tell his dad. Signature line: “I’ll tell my dad!!” Played by: Peter Hegyi (the same actor as the Boss and the barman). Where he appears: on a screen in the Boss’s office (Room 47). His name is spoken only there.

A brown-haired man in a red cloak with a green sash cuts into the Boss’s lecture: ”…Astrud deBurgh speaking. What’s going on? I’ve been stuck on Penclen for ages!” The Boss apologises and promises to supervise everything personally. Only at the end of the game does the Boss tell Frank what it was all about: a ride for “one fat rich windbag”. That very one.

In the Czech version of the game Astrud is addressed as “sire” (“Ano sire, jistě jistě”; in Slovak, “Áno pane”). “Sire” is therefore not a separate character, just a form of address for Astrud.

The Barman

Role: the owner of Little Estóz’s Bar. Frank’s friend, and an enemy of G-HERN. Character: wise, relaxed and funny. He likes a drink, knows the old legends about the gates and knows very well who G-HERN’s people are. Signature line: “Everybody here calls me Barman, no idea why.” Played by: Peter Hegyi. Where he appears: in the bar (Rooms 39 and 40), then at G-HERN’s base (Rooms 26, 37, 38, 50, 53). In one part of the game he is a playable character. Nature and manner of speech: The barman speaks more calmly and fluently than Frank and likes to soften his sentences with “actually” and “or what”. He knows more than he says: when he is questioned, he answers “I don’t know.” three times in a row. He never speaks of himself as a hero: “I’m a barman. What do I know about saving worlds?”

In one of the best scenes in the game he wears a guard’s uniform several sizes too big. “It’s a few sizes too big for me.” An inflating machine comes to the rescue.

Viktor

Role: a bar patron. The owner of a pet that has turned into a monster. Character: sad and tender. He cannot let go of his beloved pet, even though it has hurt him. Signature line: “If this keeps up, we’ll suck the life out of each other until one of us takes the last little bit from the other.” Played by: Viktor Buzinkay. Where he appears: in the bar, then wounded in the sewer beneath the factory (Room 6). Nature and manner of speech: Viktor speaks in long, refined sentences even when he is bleeding. He hides his sadness and tenderness behind black humour and polite understatement (“We’re not exactly in the guest room, that’s true.”). He never quite writes off his pet: even when he calls it a beast, he speaks of it as if it were a child.

Viktor was not just a sad patron of the bar: according to the barman, he gathered information on G-HERN for him (“Viktor gathered all the information and then we analyzed it.”, Room 26).

You can recognise him by his glittering silver jacket: the drunk man at the left-hand table in the bar is him. The man in the hidden Room 52 wears the same jacket.

Viktor is one of the few characters who die in the story. Frank brings him a medkit, but too late. “You left early. Most of my friends do.”

The Androids: Maco and Káča

Role: two ladies who try to lure Frank in right at the start. Later they lock him up in their flat as a pet. Character: self-confident, cheeky and convinced that everything belongs to them. They are strong, fast and claim to be androids. Signature line: “Well, look at that. Our little pet is up.” Played by: Katarína Horňáčková (red dress) and Zuzana Horňáčková (blue dress). Where they appear: in the bar’s entrance hall, in the flat (Rooms 43, 49, 42, 41) and in the hotel corridor. Nature and manner of speech: The androids speak sweetly and firmly at once. They alternate forms of address like “boy” and “little pet” with threats, and toss sentences back and forth like a ball. They like to remind everyone that they are androids, and make both an advantage and a joke of it: “That stuff doesn’t catch on me. Literally.”

There are two androids in the game: one has red hair and a red dress, the other dark hair, a blue dress and a patterned jacket. The red one is played by Katarína Horňáčková, the blue one by Zuzana Horňáčková. The names Maco and Káča appear in the game only in its data (the hotspots “reclining Maco” and “seated Káča”). Nobody uses them in the video.

The Cleaning Robot

Role: the androids’ household robot. Its sole aim is cleanliness. Character: fanatical, offended and convinced that it alone in the flat understands what order means. Signature line: “I’m a machine, a lifeless mechanism. Didn’t you notice?” Where it appears: in the closet behind the kitchenette (Room 44) and in the corridor (Room 42). Nature and manner of speech: The little robot speaks solemnly and treats dirt like an enemy of the state: “the king of order and cleanliness”, “royal highnesses of muck”. Its sentences are literal and terse; it never says “please”, and to a complicated question it replies that it has not been programmed for that.

The Guard Robot on the Roof

Role: the main obstacle between Frank and his ship. Character: proud of his incorruptibility, fond of talking about rules and fond of talking in general. Signature line: “I’m incorruptible, uncompromising and totally unpredictable. Two plus two is four.” Where he appears: on the hotel roof (Room 23). Nature and manner of speech: The Guard Robot speaks like a clerk who refuses to be outwitted. He likes to quote the rules (“everything that isn’t forbidden is allowed”) and follows a big word with a banal punchline (“Two plus two is four.”). He is morally outraged and at the same time easily confused by his own logic.

The hotel roof has 223 text messages and 67 dialogue entries. Only the bar, the game’s biggest venue for conversation, has more.

The Hanging Robot

Role: a tied-up robot in the laundry who asks for help and promises revenge on the androids. Character: embittered and funny, but with cold logic: “They wanted to kill me, but not take my life, because I don’t have one. That’s logical.” Where it appears: in the laundry (Room 24). Nature and manner of speech: The Hanging Robot speaks with bitter logic: it describes its misery precisely, coldly and with a punchline that sounds like a legal remark (“They wanted to kill me, but not take my life, because I don’t have one.”). It asks for help impatiently and makes no secret of wanting revenge.

The Nypr (water creatures)

Role: little critters from the pool on the Teleport Planet. They call themselves the Nypr (“We’re the Nypr. Nothing special.”, Room 21; Nyprovia in the Slovak original). Frank repairs their pump and they give him a teleport card. Character: polite, a little shy and very grateful. Signature line: “We’ve been here a few years and we kind of like it.” Where they appear: in the pool (Room 34) and in the cobweb tunnel (Room 21), where Frank frees one of them from a cocoon. Nature and manner of speech: The Nypr (as the water creatures call themselves) speak politely and gratefully, and often end a sentence with thanks. They are shy, yet use big words like “existential problem” without hesitation. They never claim anything too loudly.

The Spider

Role: the cause of all the trouble in the pool. It makes a sticky slime that runs down into the water. Character: in the dialogue only other characters talk about it. Frank mostly sees its nest and cocoons. Signature line: the Nypr call it “that six-legged beast”. Where it appears: in Rooms 21 and 22. Nature and manner of speech: The spider neither speaks nor shows itself. Everything we know about it comes from what others say: from Frank’s remarks and from the way the Nypr describe it.

The Little Creature

Role: Frank’s small companion from the greenhouse. It travels in his pocket and opens a door in G-HERN’s corridor. Character: shy and hungry. A biscuit is the only argument that convinces it. Signature line: Frank calls to it, “Come to mommy”. Where it appears: in the greenhouse (Rooms 14, 13), in the cockpit of the alien ship (29) and in the green corridor (37). Nature and manner of speech: The Little Creature does not speak. We know its nature only from the way Frank talks about it: he calls it “sweetie”, “animal” and “the poor thing”, and speaks of himself as “Mommy”. Only food convinces it.

The Helper Robot

Role: a small, flattened robot that Frank finds in the anthills. With a magnet, it fetches a weapon from outside the station. Signature line: Frank says of it: “The eager robot is waiting for further instructions.” Where it appears: in the anthills (Room 2) and in the bar’s entrance hall (Room 39). Nature and manner of speech: The Helper Robot does not speak and never decides anything. Everything we know about it comes from Frank: “The eager robot is waiting for further instructions.”

G-HERN

Role: the main villain. He is gathering an army, has friends in the corporations and wants to take over the station. Character: he asks, negotiates and threatens. He wants Frank and the barman to tell him how they found the wormhole, and at first tries to settle things the nice way. Signature line: “I’ll get what I want even if I have to use every means available. And believe me, I have plenty to use.” Played by: Michal Hegyi. Looks: a man with glasses in a white coat with black stripes and red sleeves. Where he appears: in person on the command bridge (Room 50); in the bar people talk about him long before he appears. The suspicious guest in Room 39 wears the same costume; according to Peter he was most likely played by Michal Hegyi as well, but the game does not say whether he is the same character in the story. Nature and manner of speech: G-HERN speaks in a refined and polite way, even when threatening: a question, a threat, an offer. His tics are “Don’t play games with me”, “I don’t like this” and “Period.” Only when his patience runs out does he move on to coarser words.

The barman says of him: “True, he’s wrecked quite a bit here, but I like seeing him. At least I’m never bored.” In the text his name is also spelled G-HORN.

The game does not say where G-HERN comes from. In the conversation in the cell someone says “G-HERN came from your world, so it’s on you”, and the answer is: “Besides, it’s not my world.” The narrator at the end only remarks that Earthlings don’t know where G-HERN came from. That is why we claim neither that he is from Earth nor that he is from the barman’s world.

G-HERN’s Guards

Role: the soldiers of G-HERN’s base. According to the barman they look “alike as two peas in a pod”, and they are clones. Character: obedient and not very bright. The guard at the cell is convinced he is doing his job, and in the end Frank persuades him that he needs to pop out for a moment. Signature line: “I’m not here for fun, I’m here to guard, so leave me alone.” Played by: the guard in the grey coat with a rifle was played by Pavel Ondrejka. Where they appear: in the cell and corridors of the base (Rooms 26, 28, 25, 38). Nature and manner of speech: The guards speak in short, hard sentences and stick to orders: “I have my orders.” They cannot improvise: when their routine falls apart, they start asking questions (“What am I supposed to do now?”), and one of them even repeats the lines of the guard who relieved him.

In the dock (Room 38) an older man in a long dark-grey coat, without a rifle, also stands guard. His actor has not yet been identified.

The Intruders and the Suspicious Guest

Role: G-HERN’s people, who take charge in the bar. They are the guards in grey coats with rifles, the same cloned soldiers as at the base. The man who later interrogates the barman wears the same coat and glasses as G-HERN; he was most likely played by Michal Hegyi as well, but the game does not say whether he is the same character in the story. Signature line: “The only answer you have a right to is Yes, sir.” Where they appear: outside the bar (Room 35) and in the entrance hall (Room 39). Nature and manner of speech: The intruders speak like servants of a great boss: briefly, loudly and without discussion (“The only answer you have a right to is Yes, sir.”). The suspicious guest interrogates in a series of short questions and likes to say “Don’t play games with me”.

Bar Patrons

At the right-hand round table sit three men in black hoods who only mumble (according to the barman, they are miners from a nearby asteroid). A man in a black coat lies on the floor of the bar, and there are others whom the game does not name. All the hooded guests and the man in black on the floor were played by Ján Valent, who also stood behind the camera. Frank gets no more than a few sounds out of them. The drunk man at the left-hand table is Viktor (see above).

Who played them

The human characters in the game are digitised real actors. According to Peter Hegyi, Frank was played by Roman Macko, the barman, the Boss and Astrud deBurgh by Peter Hegyi, G-HERN by Michal Hegyi, the red android by Katarína Horňáčková and the blue one by Zuzana Horňáčková (in the team, Zuzka and Katka), the guard in the grey coat with a rifle by Pavel Ondrejka, Viktor (the drunk man in the bar) by Viktor Buzinkay, and all the hooded guests and the man in black lying on the floor by Ján Valent, who also operated the camera. The suspicious guest in the bar’s entrance hall, who wears the same costume as G-HERN, was most likely played by Michal Hegyi as well. The other characters have not been identified yet.

The game’s credits (DATA/2.FLC) list these people on screen:

Starring: Roman Macko, Peter Hegyi, Michal Hegyi, Pavel Ondrejka, Katarína Horňáčková, Zuzana Horňáčková, Viktor Buzinkay, Ján Valent “and other creatures…”.

Voices (in the Slovak version): Vlado Zetek, Ivan Gontko, Agáta Solčianská, Jaro Strunga, Rado Skaličan, Juraj Hegyi.

The Slovak voices were recorded in Bratislava. Neither the credits nor the authors tell us who voices which character, so we do not assign the voice actors to roles.