Sally Manton wrote:
Yes, I know this is no answer at all. Perhaps if anyone else wants to throw some ideas in ... not so much why this character or that (especially Snarly), but why characters at all?
Well, not to open up another M****-B***** discussion or anything, but my suspicion is that it does have a great deal to do with the personality of the viewer. In my case, I know I tend to be a character junkie, and I tend to be especially fascinated by the most complex characters, and by characters who are slightly damaged in some way (which explains "why _Blake's 7_?"). In my case, I think it's that I'm very interested in *people*: how their minds work, what makes them tick, how predictable or unpredictable they are, how they interact with each other and their environment, etc. I am, however, *also* an extreme introvert who does not get close to real people easily (and, in most cases, doesn't necessarily *want* to do so, because it requires a huge emotional investment), and who has a very, very strong sense of other people's privacy. All of which adds up to not feeling free to poke around in the psyches of real people. Fictional characters, on the other hand, are fair game. You can stare at them, dissect them, poke and prod them, gossip about them... All utterly guilt-free! I, personally, find that completely impossible to resist, and, for *me*, that's the answer to "why characters?" I have absolutely no idea how common or unusual I am in that respect.
It was *meant*, after all, just to be action-adventure ...
Yes, but fortunately it transcended that, or I don't think most of us would still be watching it twenty years later...