"YET another Asian woman whose only purpose in a TV show is to be
the love interest of the leading non-Asian man, really bites."

Tell me, how do you come to the conclusion that this is Catherine
Sakai's ONLY purpose? Have you read the scripts? She has a relationship
with the commander, yes. If you choose to define a woman only in terms of
her relationship with a man, that's your choice, but certainly not what I
have in mind.

Catherine Sakai is a surveyer. She has her own business. She has her
own ship. In some episode, she has nothing whatsoever to do with the
commander, she's off doing her own business. In "Mind War," as one
example, we see her for 30 seconds with the commander in the morning, with
both going off to their respective jobs, and that's it...the rest of the
story she's in is exclusively hers, concerning something she runs into
while on a survey run.

Moreover, she has a role in the overall arc of the story that is
considerably outside being somebody's main squeeze. Perhaps you might
consider actually *seeing* the show, and her character, before judging
it. If you're going to speak out against prejudice, as your message
seems to imply, perhaps you should start with your own prejudices against
something you haven't even seen yet, and stop judging women characters
solely in terms of who they're involved with. One of the areas I'm most
proud of in my writing is the development of *very* strong female
characters...and Catherine Sakai is one of the strongest, and most
independent I've come up with yet. So how about you hold off judgment
until you've actually *seen* who she is, and what she does...?

jms