Rusted Sky

In the last portion of this series, we defined the 4 items that made up a sucessful SF series.

1. Characters you cared about.
2. At least one hot babe
3. A story arc (and as Tim reminds me, subplots that advance the main plot)
4. A sense of humor. (Don't forget to hover over the links for a bit'o'snark'.)

Let's look at #1 - what makes a sympathetic character? I think that varies from person to person, but for me the following characteristics apply. The character has to have flaws, and be at least nominally aware of them. The character has to have virtues, yet not be overtly aware of them. The character has to do what they consider 'the right thing' in difficult situations - and if the right thing isn't the easiest thing, they go ahead and do it anyway. When the right thing is going to cost them a hell of a lot, they end up doing it anyway and accepting the consequences. That increases their stature in our eyes - usually.

Okay, what about #2?

I think it's pretty self-evident that there's going to be eye candy in SF. Even as far back as "Lost In Space", you had the studly hero and the sexy heroine. As time went on, you had Star Trek and Kirk's Babe of the Week.

Fast forward to "Battlestar Galactica". Of course, the current series has its share of eye candy, but the 1978 series had some tasty bits also. And let's not forget Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering and Princess Ardala, who changed a bit.

Of course, the later Star Trek series had some eye candy too.

Of course, things changed. There was Lexx, and Stargate SG-1 which has been around for 8 or so years (an incredibly long time in the broadcast SF universe...) which also has some eye candy, though a bit covered up.

Babylon 5 had some eye candy, along with sympathetic characters. And some rather exotic women.

Then there's Farscape. (I'll include more links and finish later.)

J.