If your work of fiction does not include at least one character with an awesome beard, it is doomed to failure.
Just look at Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Continuing the trend of older guys being the key players, we have the imposing Dr. Philip Hornell here as the brains behind many of the futuristic technologies that NAFO revolves around. He's a Scarlet as well, or rather a Waveform Industries bigwig, though he takes no part in the Syndicate's clandestine strong-arming. Hornell is actually one of the founding members of the Scarlet Society, and holds true to its original vision. He managed one of Waveform's primary R&D divisions, dealing in prosthetics and implants for an aging population, and when Niklas Hallgren approached him with a proposal for his Scarlet Society, the doctor was all too happy to pledge the support of himself and his crew. When Elias Hallgren claimed his father's throne, however, and the Scarlets introduced more questionable methods into their reportoire, Dr. Hornell began to object, but threats of violence against his family kept his lips sealed and he was forced to continue his work. Effectively trapped as his developments took a warlike turn, he began to bond with some of the folks he was routinely patching up. When it was time for Friska's newest upgrades, she would often bring her buddy Nineball along, and after many waiting-room conversations with Nine he began to see the spark beneath the Syndicate's conditioning and found himself acting as a surrogate grandfather for the boy. They came to trust one another, and following a major accident Nine understood that he needed to accomplish what Hornell could not: the Scarlets must fall. In secret, Hornell imparted everything he could to Nine to give him a fighting chance, placed his understudy Orion Alexander in charge of Friska's development, and disappeared to protect those around him - the truth is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.
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