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What We Leave Behind
Comments by Jon Wasik
Note:
if you have not read the STDragon episode entitled "What
We Leave Behind," then do not read this, for it gives
away the entire story.
"What We
Leave Behind" was definitely one of the more emotional
stories I've written...well, at least, the end of it was.
Never before in STDragon had I written an event as dramatic as
this one was, and though I personally believe that I didn't do
that great of a job on it, many hail it as "great!"
The most common
question I keep getting is: "Why?!" Well, every time
a major character in Star Trek left the show, it usually was
because that actor or actress wanted to leave the show. Never
before did any episode, with maybe the exception of Kes
leaving Voyager, has a character left the show simply because
it was part of the story. As a result, the main characters of
each series seemed pretty much invincible, almost super hero
like.
From the start
of STDragon, I had been sick of that, and decided Sarah was
going to die. Yes, from the start, Sarah was going to die. Not
Ada, not Chris, not Terry, but Sarah. Why?
That question
brings up yet another topic. As all of you have no doubt
noticed, I have primarily developed Chris and Sarah, and kind
of left the rest of the officers in the dark. This was
partially intentional, but I had never intended to leave the
characters as flast as I have. But because of my development
of the two, it has allowed me to create this episode, and to
create it with the kind of emotion that I wanted. Chris would
definitely have been the one who would be effected the most,
there is no doubt of that, and there never was. So, I set out
to develop him, that way everyone could understand why he
reacted the way he did.
Another thing
you won't see here. With the exception of Jadzia's death on
DS9, Sarah won't have just died in this episode, then be
forgotten like characters seemed to be in cannon Trek. There
are going to be very direct, obvious results of her death on
all of the crew...but more the point, on Chris. The next
episode will have two conflicts going on: the one happening to
the crew of the Dragon, and the one happening within Chris as
he remembers his days with Sarah. It should prove to be one of
the most active episodes yet, action-wise and character-wise.
Furthermore, Chris will still be effected by her death even
after the episode. You'll see him thinking of her every
episode in S3, unable to get her out of his thoughts.
Sarah's death
wasn't just for a one-off episode, but instead will be the
cause of a story line that could never have other wise occurred!
Many of you seemed disappointed about her death, and to my
surprise, some even said she had been their favorite
character! Well, like Chris won't, I'm not going to let her go
easy. In fact, you're going to learn more about Sarah in the
next episode than you have yet! It may become a long episode,
yes, but I'm convinced that it'll be worth it.
later
~Jon
Note: if you
wish to contact me about either the episode or this author
commentary, please feel free to do so! jonwasik@yahoo.com |
