GateWorld Podcast: Over-Use and Under-Use of Characters

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• in response to the podcast. the best use of a cast is bsg. everyone had a chance on screen even if it was only for 1 minute. or just standing in the background.

  pharaoh atem :)

• Teyla and Ronan had about 6 episodes each, which is a bit sad, especially considering that Teyla was on the show for a whole season before Ronon got there. I would have liked to have seen more of Teyla's leadership skills shown or developed, and I would have like to have seen more of Ronon's past on Sateda.

• If you can get past Daniel's absence and look at the series objectively, there's actually quite a few extraordinarily strong scripts in this season, ranging from the thrills involved with "Descent," to the exploration of the Ancients' background in "Frozen," to Chris Judge's excellent script for "Changeling," and of course, the no holds barred "Full Circle." And of course, who can forget the silliness of "The Other Guys," which IMHO, is a far better 'humor' episode than "Wormhole Extreme."

  That said, the strongest story, direction and acting for me came in "Paradise Lost." There was a cinematic style to everything from the character beats between O'Neill and Maybourne, the sweeping camera moves that enhanced emotional POVs, and the desaturation of color when Jack experiences the drugged 'arugula.' And Joel Goldsmith's score was terrific.

• Underused – all the characters on sga could have used more episodes, especially Elizabeth; it would have been nice to see her go off world more and it’s really sad that she and Sheppard never got to act on the feelings they obviously had for each other

  They could have used Lorne a little more, and Kate was on the show for 3 seasons in the background and she didn’t get a major contribution in a single episode

  Overused – Samantha carter, in Atlantis’s season 4 the producers had nothing left to say about her and just left her wondering the halls

  Jennifer Keller, they made half of season 5 about her

• McKay was way overused...SGA became Stargate McKay :rolleyes: Ronon and Teyla were both seriously underused and pretty much ended up wallpaper by season 5 :(

• Overused: Jennifer Keller... the writer's Mary Sue. I wanted to find out more about John Sheppard, not to have to listen to Keller whine.

• Underused: What about Kavanagh? He's in the series for a grand total of six episodes, and judging from the last few scenes of "Midway", it seemed like the writers were trying to make him more like "Redemption (Parts 1 & 2)"-Era Rodney, who was still a bit of a twit but more likeable than his first appearance. This is further reinforced by "Enemy at the Gate" when he barely argues with Rodney. I would've loved to seen more character development beyond "Vague bad guy/annoyance".

• I liked the way that Atlantis and SG-1 used recurring characters a lot. I enjoyed seeing Dr. Beckett and Zalinka re-appear regularly. I feel that they were used well.

  Dr. Grodin was a great example on how to use a recurring character. Here is someone who was in the background, had some great key moments in Season 1 and was killed off in a shocking, heroic way.

  I agree with paulm84 that BSG used recurring characters very well. You never knew when a recurring character would become a regular (Helo) or be killed off (Billy).

  An underused character that I wish they had utilized much more in Season 4 or 5 is Lt. Ford. He became very interesting after being infected by the Wraith Gene. He should've been our Kolya in Season 3, the rogue factor always popping up to help/hinder our team. Like Michael and Todd who would help us when it matched their goals.

  I still hope that maybe Ford will pop up in a movie and have his storyline resolved.

  I think that Rodney was overused a lot, but I can understand why. Sheppard should have been the most used character as he is the military leader of the team, but Rodney became the guy who had to be everywhere and be the expert on everything to explain why such and such can or cannot be done.

  I think they missed an opportunity was when Ronon became fully integrated. He should have remained like Tyr Anasazi in Season 1 of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, a team-mate but separate. He should have gone on missions because he was asked or he had nothing better to do, or it would help him find more clues to Ceteta? survivors like Mark Dascasas' character who was killed off too soon.