{original post unavailable}

We'd booked the actor long, long in advance. At the last
minute, he bailed to do a DS9 episode playing, essentially, the same
character, despite our having first dibs.

So I killed off the character. Didn't change the story by the
smallest measure. May actually have helped, since it raised the stakes
in the story right from the start.

Rule #1: Never honk off the writer.

jms

{original post had no questions}

The show comes first, absolutely.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I think Sheridan was kinda up to his ears in matters graver than
the Major's field promotion, though you're right, he had one coming (as
I noted in an earlier message). Given that they'd just broken away
from Earthforce, and walked away from the rank structure to some
extent, it would seem a rather indulgent exercise, since Earth
certainly wouldn't recognize the field promotion of a renegade officer.

jms

Randall A. Schanze <74724.762@compuserve.com> asks:
> Is the show in great danger now, or did the story just happen to
> be written at a time of some chaos, which has now passed?

The article portrayed, and somewhat overstated, the events of
last year. (I take some of the blame for this; I may have spoken
unwisely in a few places.)

The main problem overall right now, for *every* syndicated show,
is that the available time slots are just totally disappearing, thanks
to committments to WBN, UPN and Fox. They just yanked Lonsesome Dove
even though the ratings were good, and the show was a good show, simply
because they couldn't find enough berths on independent stations to
make it worth it for the national advertisers.

It's certainly a dark cloud on the horizon; we'll just have to
see whether it blows past harmlessly or not.

jms

Randall A. Schanze <74724.762@compuserve.com> asks:
> -is there any truth to the rumor that TNT has bought the re-run
> rights for '98?

Yes, TNT has bought reruns starting 1998.

jms