Forgotten great Sci Fi tv characters.

[auntiehill]

Arturo from Sliders. He was one of my all-time favorite characters, even if the show was not that great.

Ham Tyler from V. He was an incredible character but in a pretty crappy show.

 

[Jayson1]

I liked Tara. I don't think she was a great character but I felt like she was utilized perfectly. I know lots of people didn't like when she was killed but to me that was the perfect use and closure of the character in that it helped Willow go down her dark path which was more interesting than just some more lovey dovey stuff they already had explored. People like to talk about characters having agency but I never bought into that to much because some characters truly do only exist to support another more important character and that is fine. Each character serves a role and sometimes supplementary characters are just their to be the love interest or the tech guy or bad guy lackey etc.


Jason

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

People like to talk about characters having agency but I never bought into that to much because some characters truly do only exist to support another more important character and that is fine. Each character serves a role and sometimes supplementary characters are just their to be the love interest or the tech guy or bad guy lackey etc.

Yes! OMG, I get so tired of people complaining about "lack of agency." All fictional characters serve at the pleasure of the story. Even if someone gets killed off in a crappy way that displeases the audience, it is, at worst, an artistic error, not a moral one. You can't violate the rights of someone that doesn't exist.

 

[fireproof78]

Yes! OMG, I get so tired of people complaining about "lack of agency." All fictional characters serve at the pleasure of the story. Even if someone gets killed off in a crappy way that displeases the audience, it is, at worst, an artistic error, not a moral one. You can't violate the rights of someone that doesn't exist.

That is why I struggle when people say a character "deserves" a particular treatment. I get that people have a preference for characters treatment but characters deserve nothing.

 

[JD]

I liked Tara. I don't think she was a great character but I felt like she was utilized perfectly. I know lots of people didn't like when she was killed but to me that was the perfect use and closure of the character in that it helped Willow go down her dark path which was more interesting than just some more lovey dovey stuff they already had explored. People like to talk about characters having agency but I never bought into that to much because some characters truly do only exist to support another more important character and that is fine. Each character serves a role and sometimes supplementary characters are just their to be the love interest or the tech guy or bad guy lackey etc.


Jason

I thought most of the anger over Tara's death was because it was a Bury Your Gays situation, rather than it being because they loved the character that much.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I thought most of the anger over Tara's death was because it was a Bury Your Gays situation, rather than it being because they loved the character that much.

I thought that it was because it was telegraphed way too heavily to the fans beforehand. IIRC, from fairly early on that season, there were rumors, perhaps even confirmed in some official interviews, that a member of the Scooby Gang was going to be killed by the end of the season. They didn't say who it was but everyone pretty much immediately assumed it was going to be Tara; partly because she was the only regular member of the gang that wasn't in the opening title sequence but mostly because the entire season was clearly structured around Willow going dark and killing off Tara would be the obvious thing to push her over the edge.

That is why I struggle when people say a character "deserves" a particular treatment. I get that people have a preference for characters treatment but characters deserve nothing.

Within their fictional universe, a fictional person may deserve a better or worse fate than what they get. But, just as life isn't fair, fiction isn't fair either. Sometimes, a character's unfair treatment will feel earned within the story. Sometimes it won't. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Jayson1]

I don't really remember any rumors so when she died it wasn't really a shock because it seemed like something Whedon would do for the drama of it but kind of surprised by how it happened. I kind of even wish it happened earlier and we could have gotten Evil Willow for a little longer.


Jason

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Huh. I remember hearing the rumors at the time and I was really only a Buffy-adjacent fan back then. I was really only watching Angel at the time. I didn't properly start watching Buffy until after it ended.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I should watch Buffy some day.

 

[tomalak301]

Arturo from Sliders. He was one of my all-time favorite characters, even if the show was not that great.

Ham Tyler from V. He was an incredible character but in a pretty crappy show.

I loved the original cast from Sliders, and Arturo was great. It's a shame he was (If I recall) the first to leave the show.

 

[theenglish]

Ralph Hinkley.
Oscar Goldman.

 

[auntiehill]

I loved the original cast from Sliders, and Arturo was great. It's a shame he was (If I recall) the first to leave the show.

Yes, he was fired and replaced with T&A. The other main cast quit until only Cleavant Derricks was left.

I loved Arturo. He was smart, funny, and looked like a *real* person, not a Hollywood model. He was deeply flawed but also willing to risk his life to help others.

 

[EmoBorg]

Ka d'argo from Farscape

Thirty-Thirty from Bravestar

Marsala from Exo-Squad

 

[Guy Gardener]

Augur from Earth Final Conflict.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I'll throw my hat in the ring with Edison Carter from the Max Headroom series, the true lead of the series also played by Matt Frewer. He had an urban cool vibe and saw a lot of action but without a focus on dealing out a lot of violence.

To me a great all-time Devil is the Devil played by Jon Glover on the show "Brimstone." A very solid show from the 90's forgotten. I guess you could say he reprised the character many years later on Smallville.

You could probably also throw Lionel Luthor on a list of great but forgotten (maybe neglected is a better word) characters.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Augur from Earth Final Conflict.

I liked Augur. He was a fun character as their resident tech guy. But my favorite character on that show was Sandoval. That weird mixture of ruthless ambition combined with obsequiousness towards Zo'or. Few sci-fi characters have that much depth, particularly when we're talking about Asians on American TV in the 1990s.

 

[flandry84]

Special agent Bill Maxwell.
Hard to outshine a guy in a super-suit but Culp did it.

 

[auntiehill]

Special agent Bill Maxwell.
Hard to outshine a guy in a super-suit but Culp did it.

To this day, I can't hear the word "scenario" without thinking of him.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Watching that show as an adult, Bill Maxwell is a parody of badness constructed by liberal persuasion.

Was he that different on I Spy?

 

[auntiehill]

Watching that show as an adult, Bill Maxwell is a parody of badness constructed by liberal persuasion.

Was he that different on I Spy?

Oh, yes. They were a pair of young, handsome, fun, wise-cracking, "we'll do it our way" good guys--the kind of guys that Bill on "Greatest American Hero" would really dislike. Bill was a good person but very old-fashioned and unyielding.