Character Names in CRUSADE (possible spoilers)

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: Warren Hsu <wvh at TSO.Cin.IX.Net>
Date: 1 Jul 1998 18:14:18 -0600
Lines: 34

With the recent announcement of some of the character
bios for CRUSADE, it seems kind of odd to me that,
of the three humans included, they all seem to be of
European decent (Gideon, Hoffman, Eilerson).

Of course I could be wrong, and an African-American
might be included in the cast, and of course this is 
being picky, but I just find it interesting that Asians,
Hispanics, Middle-Easterners, and other cultures never
seem to be "featured" in B5.  While I do not like Star
Trek (and especially hate Voyager), I do appreciate 
their attempts to diversify their casts.  If CRUSADE 
purports to be about a crusade to save Earth, why not 
at least try to have a cast more representative of 
Earth's cultures?  

Now I understand that the "availability" of "foreign"
actors and actresses in Hollywood limits the choices
of casting directors, but sometimes I think the world
of sci-fi tv is populated exclusively by caucasians.
I'm not proposing an overly-PC scenario, but just 
something which is closer to reality.

To JMS's credit, I think he tried to accomodate these
questions with Tamilyn Tomita in the pilot (who, I'm
happy to admit, was thankfully replaced by Claudia)
and others in minor roles.  Hopefully, the situation
will improve someday.  

I don't mean to be inflammatory with these comments,
but would invite honest and thoughtful responses.
Thanks very much.

wvh at tso.cin.ix.net

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 1 Jul 1998 20:51:40 -0600
Lines: 13

To a certain extent, those are place-holder names; if we were to cast an asian,
we might adjust the name, or even leave it alone...to show that so much
intermingling has gone on that you could have an asian named O'Reilly.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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