Hi, Danny! Thank you for your kind words regarding my essay!
I do understand the AtS writers being worried that such a charismatic character as Spike might overshadow the other characters, and their being concerned that they might be tempted to use him too much because...well, because he's just so fascinating to write. But it's always seemed to me that instead of back-burnering him while letting him keep his mature, heroic, romantic BtVS S5-7 persona, they allowed him in the foreground but made him the shallow, annoying comic relief -- that that was their way to prevent him from overshadowing Angel, Wes, etc.
There were some Mutant Enemy writers -- Stephen DeKnight, for one -- that I think always wrote Spike with depth and respect and intelligence, and I wish that only those writers had been assigned to develop his AtS story. Craft and Fain admitted that they got his character all wrong, and at two different fan events David Fury told us that he'd advised Joss Whedon, who'd written the "Destiny" scene in which Spike callously treats Harmony like a blow-up doll, not to put that scene in, because it would hurt and anger a lot of fans and because he (Fury) didn't believe that Spike would do such a thing at that point in his evolution. (He said that Joss made him insert the scene in the script anyway, because Joss said he thought it was cute and funny.)
So it never felt to me like a slow and steady progression, but rather like a series of confused, erratic lurches and jerks, and inconsistent characterization that went all over the map.
Oh my goodness, did Voyager end up being The Seven of Nine Show? I've never seen any episodes beyond the first few that she was in. I thought her character was interesting, but I had no idea that she became so popular!
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Date: 2009-08-05 07:14 pm (UTC)I do understand the AtS writers being worried that such a charismatic character as Spike might overshadow the other characters, and their being concerned that they might be tempted to use him too much because...well, because he's just so fascinating to write. But it's always seemed to me that instead of back-burnering him while letting him keep his mature, heroic, romantic BtVS S5-7 persona, they allowed him in the foreground but made him the shallow, annoying comic relief -- that that was their way to prevent him from overshadowing Angel, Wes, etc.
There were some Mutant Enemy writers -- Stephen DeKnight, for one -- that I think always wrote Spike with depth and respect and intelligence, and I wish that only those writers had been assigned to develop his AtS story. Craft and Fain admitted that they got his character all wrong, and at two different fan events David Fury told us that he'd advised Joss Whedon, who'd written the "Destiny" scene in which Spike callously treats Harmony like a blow-up doll, not to put that scene in, because it would hurt and anger a lot of fans and because he (Fury) didn't believe that Spike would do such a thing at that point in his evolution. (He said that Joss made him insert the scene in the script anyway, because Joss said he thought it was cute and funny.)
So it never felt to me like a slow and steady progression, but rather like a series of confused, erratic lurches and jerks, and inconsistent characterization that went all over the map.
Oh my goodness, did Voyager end up being The Seven of Nine Show? I've never seen any episodes beyond the first few that she was in. I thought her character was interesting, but I had no idea that she became so popular!