Xenite.Org: You wrote for Earth: Final Conflict, a show which is set in more-or-less contemporary Earth history. EFC is also a young Roddenberry franchise like Andromeda, having no previous shows to follow like Star Trek: Voyager. Was it easier to develop a story for EFC's universe than for the Andromeda universe.
Ethlie Vare: I find it much easier to write for Andromeda, because the universe is bigger and more varied and offers a far wider range of storytelling. In EFC, at the end of every episode, the bad guys are still standing... pretty much in the same place you left them. It's hard to have satisfying dramatic conflict when no one can actually win.
Xenite.Org: In terms of fan recognition and appreciation, do you get much overlap between the people who used to follow your column or watch you on TV (E! Online) and the Andromeda fans? Do you know if any of your fans followed you to Andromeda, the way fans of some of the actors followed them to the show?
Ethlie Vare: NOTE: It was The Gossip Show on E! Entertainment Television, not E! Online.
I don't notice it. Occasionally an Andromeda fan will note that my name's familiar. And there are people who used to read me as a music journalist and now recognize my name on television credits. But mostly I think only a writer's immediate family pays any attention to their by-line).
Xenite.Org: Star Trek is famous for naming ship sections and tools after staff members. Has Andromeda developed any similar traditions, even if they haven't been used in episodes?
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Ethlie Vare: There's lots of inside jokes in the naming of characters. We've named guest roles after people with fan websites (Hohne, in "Banks of the Lethe"; Andulasia, in "Fear and Loathing") or with a high profile on the 'net (Spacer Cronan Thompson, in Under the Night.) I named a bad guy after an ex-husband, Joe Reinkemeyer named one after an ex-girlfriend... it's part of the fun of writing a show.
Xenite.Org: Andromeda has reached out to its fan base in various ways. The writers have visited fan forums. Previews are made available on the Web. Three Web sites have been designed to build up a community and provide background information for the show. Do you feel that helps build up pressure from inquisitive fans, or does it work like a pressure valve? Are you working in a glass office or just visiting the people who watch the show?
Ethlie Vare: I think there were 159 fan websites for Andromeda at last count, which is just terrific. The writers don't get to check in with all of them, of course, but we do try to stay in touch with the loyalists. It's nice to have that kind of feedback. Otherwise, you work in a vacuum except for the ratings, and ratings don't tell you what works and what doesn't in specific, just whether the show works in general.
It's important, though, to realize that this "active audience" is but a small percentage of the 4 or 5 million people who watch Andromeda every week. Most viewers don't see every episode twice; in fact, most viewers don't see every episode, period. Sometimes it's hard to cater to both groups without confusing one or insulting the intelligence of the other.
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