From: Ellynne G. rilliara@juno.com
But why introduce a new character?
Sometimes, they're necessary. They're the character of the week.
I like original characters because they represent the world, or rather worlds, outside the narrow confines of the Liberator (or Scorpio, had I ever written 4th Season). What fascinates me, I think, is how what we saw on screen can be reconciled with a living, breathing galactic community. So most of my stories are going to make some reference to government, industry, trade and commerce, and are going to have at least one foot in a complex socio-economic infrastructure. Original characters are the means by which the regulars interact with that infrastructure.
What I find rather enthralling is that all the time Blake and co are hanging out with decimas and moon disks, escaping from the Altas, falling into black holes etc etc, masses of ordinary people are doing their shopping, cooking dinner, going to work, putting in overtime, getting the kids to bed, wondering if they can face another day at the office and all the mundane boring humdrum routine of everyday life. Do the two really go together? Obviously they must do, but they just don't seem to fit. So I like to stick a little bit of everyday life into all the outer space adventuring nonsense and bring the series down to earth (in a figurative sense, obviously), and to do that I need original characters.
On top of that, I do enjoy creating oc's, and I also enjoy locating them within the socio-economic matrix. They give me opportunity to say things that the regulars never could, and they also offer a chance to go a bit over the top with characterisation if I want to.
I think one of the commoner problems with oc's is that all too often they are not firmly located. The social matrix is too vague and insubstantial to hold them anywhere. With no place to call their own, they don't have much chance to be anyone in particular.
The silly names don't help much either.
Neil