<chuckle> just because whatever I'm watching at the time has a tendency to show up in what i'm writing .... <laughter>
Actually, most of the Mary stories are not xovers, except for the one ...
However, I will admit, my brain is not exactly normal in the context of leaving characters within their original context comfort zones.
I do remember being outraged at Cleveland Amory's review in TV Guide of UFO. (Hmmm, regards that sentence critically. I think my syntax order is off there.) He spoke of Ed Bishop being surrounded by a "plaster cast" of other characters. I didn't think they were particularly wooden or plaster-y at the time. (OK, Mary had issues with her writing). I did occasionally feel that they were having issues with balancing character development against hardware, but a lot of shows were struggling then. Continuity was only just becoming important to shows. (Oddly enough, the teen oriented Mod Squad was one of the few that did seem interested in continuity, at least where the characters were concerned.)
As with history, people tend to forget what the "reality" was like and judge with more current values. From today's standpoint, the issues of losing actors during the hiatus in shooting is jarring. I haven't actually watched the show for ... a decade? and so there isn't any of the jarring issue in what I remember. In fact, given the somewhat sieve like qualities of my memory, it's a wonder the characters come across well in my writing. Sometimes I'm guilty of building on fanon instead of canon. So with a lot of quality writers in a fandom, I get to do well.
Denise: I agree with Matt, you do exceedingly well, in or out of the box and I think the box is far larger than you are sometimes willing to grant. As to finding my ideas of use to build on, I am flattered. Does this mean that we work in synergy and are each others fans as well as fans of the original work? (Spiral universes ... LOL)
laters
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