Roger Wilco

Overview

Roger Wilco has been the playable character in all the Space Quest adventure games. In the first two games, players could assign any name to the character. The default name was Roger Wilco, but it wasn't until the third game that this would be the only name applied to the character, where it would stay throughout the rest of the series.

Roger starts out as a janitor aboard the Starship Arcadia. He would remain a janitor for almost every game in the series. The Sariens attack the Arcadia and kill the crew while Roger is sleeping in a broom closet. He escapes from the ship and eventually destroys the Sarien ship Deltaur, saving his home planet of Xenon in the process. When he returns home, Roger is hailed as a hero and awarded a golden mop.

In Space Quest II, Roger is soon promoted to Head Janitor (not to mention only janitor) of Xenon Orbital Station 4. During his stint on board, he is captured by the villainous Sludge Vohaul, who would become a nemesis of sorts for Wilco. Vohaul was the mastermind behind the Sarien's attack in the first game, and wants revenge on Roger Wilco for foiling his plans. Roger is sentenced to labor in the mines of Labion. However, his ship crashes in the jungle, where Roger escapes his captors. He manages to make his way to Vohaul's asteroid base and once again saves Xenon from Vohaul's plans. As the base is being destroyed, Roger enters a cryo capsule and drifts into space.

As Space Quest III begins, Wilco awakens in an automated garbage freighter. Within the freighter, he finds himself being hunted by Arnoid the Annihilator. During his adventures in Vohaul's revenge, Roger took a whistle and didn't pay for it. Arnoid arrives to make him pay for this crime with his life. Roger avoids Arnoid and manages to repair a junked starship named the Aluminum Mallard. In the process, he learns of an evil scheme by software developer ScumSoft, which is run by the Pirates of Pestulon. He travels to the planet Pestulon, where he learns that ScumSoft CEO Elmo Pug has kindapped the Two Guys From Andromeda (the designers of the Space Quest games) and is forcing them to design terrible games. Roger ends up battling Pug in a bout with giant robots and comes out the victor. He flees the planet with the Two Guys.

In Space Quest IV, Roger ends up ditching the Two Guys and goes for a drink in a roadhouse style bar. There he is accosted by the Sequel Police. They show Roger a message from Sludge Vohaul, the foe he thought was destroyed back in Space Quest II. This Sludge is from the future, and wants Roger dead before he can ruin his plans again. Before the Sequel Police can finish him off, two fighters from the future grab Roger and rescue him, taking him through the portal. One of these men turn out the be Roger's own son. Roger is is taken aback by this, as he doesn't even have a girlfriend yet. Roger is hurled through time to Space Quest XII, left to survive in a future, war-torn version of Xenon that is ruled by Sludge Vohaul. It seems everything on the planet is out to kill Roger Wilco, and he barely manages to survive long enough to find a time-travelling vessel. With it, Roger travels back and forth through Space Quest games of the future and past in order to gather the necessary items to defeat Vohaul. He has a climactic final battle with Vohaul, who has taken over the body of Roger's son. Roger manages to overcome Vohaul, remove him from his son's body, and restore the body to its rightful owner. His son returns Roger to his time period and reveals the identity of Roger's future wife, Beatrice Wankmeister.

In Space Quest V, Roger goes on to enroll at StarCon Academy, where he attempts to finally fulfill his dream of becoming the captain of his very own ship. And thanks to the timely interference of a rat who chews a cable and messes up the scores on the final exams, he achieves that dream! The vessel he is assigned to is the SCS Eureka, a garbage scow. Even as a starship captain, Roger has to play the act of janitor. Along with his misfit crew, Roger Wilco flies across the galaxy to clean up messes, avoid assassination by a female android, adopt face hugging aliens as pets, and destroy space stations using a bag of Space Monkeys. He also meets the woman he is destined to marry, Beatrice Wankmeister. During all this, a deadly plague is mutating people across the galaxy. One of the victims of this plague is Raemes T. Quirk, captain of the SCS Goliath and Roger's rival for Beatrice's heart. Once again, it is up to Roger to stop the mutants from taking over the galaxy and save life everywhere.

However, StarCon is all the about the rules and regulations. In the process of saving the galaxy, Roger Wilco managed to break several of these. As Space Quest 6 (the only game in the series without a Roman numeral in the title) begins, he is demoted back to Janitor: Second Class and assigned to serve on the SCS DeepShip 86 under the command of Commander Kielbasa. While on shore leave on Polysorbate LX, Roger re-encounters Elmo Pug, the former CEO of ScumSoft. Pug has fallen on hard times and makes a living selling cheat codes for Stooge Fighter 3. After finally securing a room for the night, Roger finds himself abducted by two large aliens for some unknown purpose. They turn out to work for Sharpei, a rich, incredibly elderly woman who wants to live forever. She make multiple attempts to capture Roger Wilco so that she can replace his mind with her own. These attempts fail, but Sharpei does manage to capture Stellar Santiago, a friend of Roger's, whom he also seems to have a romantic interest in, despite being in a relationship with Beatrice, who does not appear in this title. Sharpei fakes Corpsman Santiago's death, but Roger receives a message showing Stellar is still alive. He defies orders and hijacks a ship to find his friend. When he arrives, the procedure has already begun and Sharpei is in the process of taking over Stellar's mind. Roger shrinks down to microscopic size and enters Stellar's body in hopes of stopping Sharpei's plan in time. He makes his way through the body and into the brain, where he confronts Sharpei's brain. He manages to defeat Sharpei with the aid of a rancid fish, and escapes the body to reunite with Stellar on the DeepShip.