| “ | Kinetic energy generates the velocity with which the bullet exits the barrel, while the ballistic coefficient and sectional density determines the damage to its targets. Guns don't kill people, physics kills people! | ” |
–Dick Solomon | ||
Dr. Dick Solomon is the High commander and Head of the mission. Although his earthly body is the oldest, and the "father figure", he is actually the youngest, and not like a father figure at all. He’s obnoxious, discourteous, ungenerous, unwise, impatient and narcissistic, often looking in the mirror screaming "Oh, my god. I'm gorgeous." After a while, the other members of the mission lose respect for him, disobeying orders, but they never direct orders, though they may rebel and shout at him.
His job is a Physics professor at Pentleton University, where he met his girlfriend, Mary Albright for whom he has "undying love." He is madly in love with Mary, and does care for her, even though he is sort of perplexed about common courtesy and will sometimes by mistake offend or aggravate her.
On earth, Dick is considered industrious, but in actuality his "son", Tommy the Information Officer, knows much more. On Earth, he is considered brainy, because Dick knowing so much about earth is sort of like an earthling knowing about a city or town. They have come 3 million galaxies from their home planet, so earth is very small to them. He demonstrates his knowledge of many languages, and he has laughed at Stephen Hawkings' description of virtual particles. He has called himself smarter than Einstein.
Dick poses as the brother of Harry Solomon and Sally Solomon, and the father of Tommy. Though it has earlier been said that Sally was Dick's daughter they remain brother and sister. Which, since Dick was 45 and Sally was in her 30's, would make sense.
It’s revealed that Dick is the son of the Big Giant Head, who is the crew's boss later on. Sally implies that it’s the reason he became High Commander and not her, although she is older and has more credentials.
Personality[]
Whilst flamboyant and cheerful, Dick is thoughtless, gullible, ungenerous, boastful and grotesquely inconsiderate but not actively malicious, just oblivious. Dick seems to have little trouble with communicating with humans but he has no idea to behave like one and he has driven people away due to his accidental uncivil nature. Similar to the rest of the team, he is amateurish towards rhetoric, metaphors or figure of speech. An irony is that, despite being High Commander he has broken the High Commander's Oath multiple times, by obliviously revealing himself to be an alien but most people believe it to be a part of his quirkiness and don't take him seriously and during the first year on Earth, obsessed over building a relationship with his colleague, Mary Albright rather than uncovering what it means to be a human. After obtaining a relationship with Mary, however he did learn more on human customs.
Being a superior being from 3 million galaxies away, Dick is considered exceptionally industrious and brilliant. He is apparently fluent in all Earth languages, although this is a trait the whole team shares. His understanding of physics is more advanced than can be found on Earth. His superior knowledge makes him extremely haughty, as he has openly laughed at Stephen Hawkings' description of vertical particles and has called himself smarter than Einstein. Although because of his lack of tact on Earth customs, he has no clue when he has offended others.
Also Dick is uncaring which often manifests in offensive ways. His unawareness of racism and racial history often results in his appearing grossly insensitive. His innocence in these matters is so complete that others are more likely to perceive his actions as intentionally dismissive, despite being merely naive. Dick reveals that he’s mindful of his inconsiderate and hurtful nature but he happens to be also very proud of this and even proclaims "why can't we all just not get along?!"
As pointed out by himself, Dick is very much like a kid. Due to having never felt emotions such as anger or infatuation, he has different and often inappropriate responses while processing them such as punching his neighbour, Frank in a fit of anger or repeatedly breaking Mary Albright's boundaries (which he considers "charming") because he was in love with her. Like a kid, Dick generally says what is on his mind, unmindful if it is hurtful or not and up until being introduced to fibbing, believed everyone else was as blunt as he was.
Despite his pompous, discourteous nature, he does care about his team which shows by their development during their time on Earth from a unit to a family. Though he has little concern with what Tommy, Sally and Harry do in their personal lives, even if it is self-destructive and pompously demanding their complete respect and admiration he does have genuine love for them. However, he was also not above controlling their lives or narcissistically flouting his High Commander status to boast his unfounded superiority over his team. Such as forbidding Harry to continue to impregnate his girlfriend, Vicki, attempting to manipulate Sally into not moving out and tricking Tommy so he could be expelled from college. The last two demonstrate Dick as being somewhat of a father figure, not wanting them to leave the nest, something which he hides with a selfish attitude.
Early Life[]
Not much is known about the early life of Dick Solomon. He is the son of the Big Giant Head and an alien from the Cepheus-Draco border. While Mary was growing up, Dick worked as a color spectrum particle separator at the Assemblage Dome on the Home World ("Youth is Wasted on the Dick"). He is also the High Commander of a military unit consisting of a security officer, Sally Solomon, an information officer, Tommy Solomon, and a transmitter, Harry Solomon. Sally is also his second in command.
Coming To Earth[]
Dick came to Earth and got a job as a physics professor at Pendleton State University, a 3rd rate university. He rented a 3rd rate apartment, and bought a Rambler American, which he quickly developed an emotional connection with. He also fell madly in love with his coworker Mary Albright, professor of anthropology, who in time fell in love with him as well.
Studying Humans[]
After a while, Dick slowly became more familiar with humans, and was able to blend in a little better. His assistant Nina Campbell, for instance, believed he was human, albeit a very immature one, but it was not just Nina, everyone else believed it as well. He learned many things in his time on earth, he learned about love and sensitivity, and even anger and happiness. Dick even had a near death experience which opened his eyes to the world for a short time.
The Big Giant Head Visits[]
In 1999 the Big Giant Head came to Earth to see how the mission was faring. He went with the alias of Stone Philips, and succeeded in making everyone he met despise him. The exception was Vicki Dubcek, daughter of Mrs. Mamie Dubcek, with whom he conceived a child. This caused Dick to worry about being exposed as an alien. The Big Giant Head also reassigned Sally to be the High Commander and Dick to be Harry's assistant. Dick, however, soon changed this by tricking Sally into saying she would rather be the security officer.
Relationships[]
Dick had relationships with several people. His chief relationship was with Mary Albright. He also posed as the husband of Janet Solomon, the niece of the Big Giant Head (and therefore his cousin.) Another short relationship was with Jennifer Ravelli, another professor at the university.
Alternate Universe[]
In the two-part episode Dick'll Take Manhattan Dick was a big shot criminal lawyer with a huge Manhattan studio apartment overlooking the city. In his only court case shown he was arrogant as usual and sucked up to the judge who was Nina his assistant in the other universe. In this alternate universe Dick who after searched for her in many universities met the alternate Marry who was a singer for a downtown bar. After a difficult attempt he swooned the alternate Mary and almost dragged her over to the other universe but for some reason forgot about it and left without her.
Trivia[]
- Dick Solomon was portrayed by actor John Lithgow.