OOC - New Crewmember - "Mark Bowden"

OOC - Hello everyone, we've had quite a few more visitors coming to the
BlueDwarf.co.uk website than ususal, I've no idea why. has something new
happened that has brought Red Dwarf back to the attention of the public? :-P
This is new member Kial Jackson, he plays Mark Bowden an eccentric Botanist.
Welcome Kial! Make sure you read the latest posts before posting, you'll notice
that the crew have just found themselves in the 12th Century. There's probably
plenty of interesting (and possibly extinct) plants for your character to
discover there!
Bowden's bio is as follows:
Character Name Mark Bowden
Gender Male
Age 26
Species Human
Nationality British
Department Science
Desired Rank Botanist
Character's Physical Appearance
---------------------------------
5"8. Medium build with short brown hair and glasses.
Character's Personality and Interests
---------------------------------------
His main interests include: plants closely follewed by fungi.
Although young very eccentric and is clearly focused on his chosen subject.
Due to his travelling lifestyle back on earth he has missed out on general
sociable activities which he is still coming to grasps with aboard the Blue
Dwarf.
Character's history/background story
----------------------------------
Mark hadn't had much luck in life. His father was a miner to one of JMC's rival
mining companies UMC (Urizon Mining Corp.) and had been contracted to the ice
mines of Keojo for 2 years. 1 year into his contract his father was involved in
an "industrial accident" which was revealed several days later to have been
fatal.
Having never met his father Mark lacked a father figure which led to him
developing into a shy young boy. He kept himself to himself at school and
managed to avoid attention from bullies but also from most of his other
classmates too.
At home Mark was very close to his mother and helped her in the garden which was
her pride and joy. Over the years she taught him a great deal about plants and
the care they required and he enjoyed learning and his fascination for the
incredible organisms continued to grow.
Throughout school life he excelled at his studies but he was sociably reclusive.
He decided against university as he did not feel able to live alone so stayed at
home to continue his personal botany studies at home.
At the age of 24 his mother died and he developed clinical depression. For a
year he locked himself in the family home only to venture out late at night to
shop for food. Eventually he took hold of his life and using his love of plants
to get him out he decided to explore the worlds varying ecosystems and posted
many of his findings to the Royal Botanical Society where he eventually received
an honourary doctorate in botany for his services to botanical studies after
discovering that the extract of the indigo tropica plant from africa could be
used as a healthy and effective aid for those quitting smoking due to its
ability to mimic nicotine.
Along his travels he developed a new sense of individuality and confidence he
had never felt.
Using his new research grant from the RBS he decided to fight his deamons and
embrace the open world bought passage to Epago 6 to study the rare Untwido plant
which according to folklore had amazing life lengthening properties.
However, along his journey the ship was attacked by rogue pirates who ransacked
the ship and left the crew for dead.
Managing to escape in an escape pod he was left very much shaken, scared and
alone floating in space. Eventually after floating for a day or two he was found
by Blue Dwarf and although realised by joining the crew he could travel
throughout space and study more plantlife than he could imagine.
Character's favourite phrases/sayings
--------------------------------------
"drat"
"top notch"