Neil again:
Neglect of original characters is something I've moaned about more than once in the past, since in many (though not all) cases they are severely underwritten, underdescribed, badly named, and little more than one-dimensional cyphers to give 'our heroes' something to play off
against. ...
Likewise settings,which can be nothing more than an abstract locale in which the action takes place, and consequently left all but
undescribed.
I agree, poor settings and the seeming antipathy to original characters (aka Mary-Sues) are two of my pet peeves of fanfic. The whole anti-Mary-Sue feeling has (IMO) done more to stultify B7 fanfic than anything else. I'd rather put up with a whole host of blatant Mary-Sues in the hope that people felt freer to invent new characters and new situations.
After all, very few (if any?) episodes stuck rigidly to the cast members only, nearly all acquired some new (and often interesting) characters for Our Heroes to play off/with. Moreover I assume the predilection for quarry-of-the-weekism stemmed from budget constraints and they would cheerfully have gone somewhere with interesting scenery had costs allowed.
Tavia