Leia wrote: <It is a pity the potential of the female characters in B7 was never fully realised. They were all set up with an interesting background and should have been strong, independant, interesting characters.>
(I take it you're *not* including Her Supremeness in this - even if I find her only adequate, the general consensus seems to disagree with me)
All four of them had a lot of promise built in at the start ...
Jenna was *never* IMO as good again as she was in those first scenes in The Way Back, but she was at her uneven best in S1 (I'd like to credit Terry Nation for this, since he wrote it all, but then he wrote Redemption, where she trails around playing Doctor's assistant to *both* Blake and Avon :-)). What I'd've liked to see was more of the light barbs she throws around in Cygnus Alpha, more of the skepticism, and way more of the underlying dislike between her and Avon (actually, given the way he tempted her in CA, 'twould have been fun to see her, disillusioned in trial, trying to tempt *him* away when it's too late). I have to say, though, much as I like Jenna, part of it is the acting, she just *clunks* sometimes.
Cally - don't care for the character, but think Jan Chappell is the best actress on it (better even than Jacqueline Pearce - in their respective moments of 'psychic' pain in Children of Auron, Cally's is by far the subtler and better done). Given what she could do with just one simple line (in Hostage - "anything that moves") they should have kept Cally's fanatic, overwrought edges and push her further along the road to obsession than Blake, almost having her leading him in, but instead went for alien high-mindedness.
In S3, it probably *should* have been Cally going planetside rather than Vila, in Pressure Point, Killer, Hostage, Countdown ... (of course, the problem there was that by then, Vila was writer and audience favourite, and always was much more fun to watch :-) Few people would have liked to see his or Avon's part cut for the women. That's show biz ...)
(OTOH, I'm working on this theory that part of the reason Cally lost her way was that - like the rest - she'd been leaning on Blake's strength, almost 'feeding' off his drive and commitment and warmth. But after Voice - certainly as they headed towards the end at Star One - Blake is becoming drained and exhausted, nearing complete collapse from the accumulating stress and trauma, and doesn't have it to give anymore.)
Dayna had the most detailed background of them all, but in a way, from the very start, the least room to develop, being given one point of reference - her vendetta against Servalan. I think it's relevant, in a way, that Dayna's *second* episode has her already playing Doctor's assistant.
Soolin - it goes the other way. Soolin wasn't wimped out, but started as a blank page and gradually got better, but not better enough when compared with the older, richer characters, Avon and Vila. It was a fair way into the last series before she was more than a shadow. She's good with flip lines, but there's very little substance until half-way through. As I said in my Warlord post a little while ago, the colder, calculating aspects of her character were showing a lot of promise at the end, but that shooting party got in the way before she could really get going ...
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