You make some good points about the number of characters in the
show; it *is* an ensemble in the truest sense. Not every character will
appear in every show, only when they have something to *contribute* will
they be there. Also, it's possible to bring out something interesting
about a character without dedicating an entire episode to that character.

It is, as you say, a very large cast: on the EA side, you've got
Sinclair, Garibaldi, Ivanova and Franklin, with the telepath more or less
on that same side. Then on the alien side, you've got G'Kar and his
attache Ko'Dath, Londo and his attache Vir, Delenn and her attache Lennier,
Kosh and...nobody, really, plus other recurring alien characters such as
n'grath (a *very* non-humanoid and interesting character), and of course
Sinclair's recurring love interest, Catherine Sakai. That's 14 characters
right there. That's a lot of balls to keep up in the air at the same time,
and you have to use them carefully, to advance a given story, but also to
give them moments in which their personalities can really come through.

This is, as stated, a *big* show.

jms

Roseann <103510.1542@compuserve.com> asks:
> When you create a character for a book, is it different when you
> create it for TV? When creating a character in a book, because
> you're not going to see it on the screen, you would tend to be
> more descriptive, yes? Does this make any sense?

No, no difference at all, from my perspective. You find out who
the character is, what they want, how far they'll go to get it, and how
far someone else will go to stop them...and the rest attends to itself.

jms