White Dwarf (film)



White Dwarf is a made-for-television movie that aired in 1995. Set in the future, student doctor Driscoll Rampart expects to become a physician to the rich and powerful; but is required by his school to perform his internship on a distant, rural planet named Rusta, orbiting a white dwarf star. The world has a distinct oddity—it doesn't rotate about its axis, leaving one side perpetually light, the other perpetually dark; with a massive wall separating the two sides. Rusta is only able to support life due to Terraforming, maintained by the Regulators. The light side is a Victorian-style colony which has adapted the tropes of the American Old West; while the dark side a Medieval-style kingdom. The story follows Rampart's character development from vain, arrogant snob to compassionate and caring physician. The movie also includes a side plot involving politician intrigue between the rulers of the light side and dark side; including a Hamlet-style murder, an association deliberately referenced by the assassin.

White Dwarf was written as an allegory of prejudice and ignorance by Wild Palms writer Bruce Wagner. Essentially a Recycled in Space retelling of Akira Kurosawa's film Red Beard; and follows many of the tropes invoked by that film; plus many of its own.

White Dwarf contains examples of

 * Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The ritual at the Sea of Tears when Never's Proteus Syndrome threatens to kill him.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Although Strake makes a valiant attempt to turn it evil.
 * Empathic Shapeshifter: Never is a shapeshifter whose ability is the result of a disease known as Proteus Syndrome.
 * Genius Loci: Rusta is implied to be this, particularly the Sea of Tears, also known as the Blood of Rusta; though alien enough that it's never entirely clear.
 * Great Offscreen War: Some sort of conflict between Humans and the native Rustians roughly a half-century earlier is implied; but not elaborated on.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Dr. Akada definitely fits this role. He's fully aware that Humans Are the Real Monsters, thanks to his past; but is determined to do what good he can, to atone for his past.
 * Light Is Not Good
 * Morality Pet: Never, to Dr. Rampart.
 * Pet the Dog: Driscoll Rampart's relationship with Never.
 * Royal Brat: Rampart is a classic non-blueblooded version.
 * Schizo-Tech: Justified in that it's a terraformed colony in decay, replete with alien refugees, and colonists who adopt cultural tropes as fashion.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Rampart attempts unsuccessfully to invoke this trope upon learning that he'll be serving his internship on a primitive backwater world instead of a prestigious private hospital.
 * Space Western: The Light side has elements of this.
 * Zeerust: Deliberately invoked by the retro-futurist Rustans.