Character backgrounds

[2nd Opinion]

I've been thinking. How much do we actually know about background of the regular characters (past and present)? The BBC bios are brief to say the least. Here are a few things that we do know: Marc was adopted, Ben fathered a child at fourteen, Mac and Julia were married before he married Kate and Helen, George and Ronnie were at university together. However, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Why did Marc join the army? Why did Ronnie choose George over Helen? What was Mac and Julia's first marriage like? What sort of families and upbringings did the characters have? What made them choose their careers? If we had to describe a character's personality, what would be the most obvious things to say? Perhaps some people know the answers to some of these questions or would like to hazard a guess. Either way it might be interesting to try and build up some detailed character profiles, based on what we know or suspect.

[Katrina]

this could be interesting, and i agree about the BBC site. Some of the things mentioned (like the George, Ronnie and Helen thing) also has scop for being a fanfic.

[iris]

2nd said:

I've been thinking. How much do we actually know about background of the regular characters (past and present)? The BBC bios are brief to say the least. Here are a few things that we do know: Marc was adopted, Ben fathered a child at fourteen, Mac and Julia were married before he married Kate and Helen, George and Ronnie were at university together. However, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Why did Marc join the army? Why did Ronnie choose George over Helen? What was Mac and Julia's first marriage like? What sort of families and upbringings did the characters have? What made them choose their careers? If we had to describe a character's personality, what would be the most obvious things to say? Perhaps some people know the answers to some of these questions or would like to hazard a guess. Either way it might be interesting to try and build up some detailed character profiles, based on what we know or suspect.

i think this is the main thing about fanfiction and why it is so important for fans. in fanfic we can not only create sub-plots and stories in present and future tense, but also to fill in gaps in characters bios. i'm very much into harry potter fiction lately and there you can have it easy, about one third of the fics talk about the childhood of characters, especially harry's father and his mates, but also others. i think you should go to our doctors fanfics section and contribute your share by writing fics about the characters' past.

i'm not that conservative about the results, i can accept fics that are easy to explain the past just as much as i can love fics that you can be sure that couldn't have happened in the "real" life of the characters, both kinds have their charm, so go on and add yours!

whatever you choose, i think the invented bios should be in the fanfic section, imo.

good luck!
love
xx
i

[2nd Opinion]

I was thinking more along the lines of collating all the character info that has been given in the series (be it things that were actually said or more subtle hints), in order to build up some more detailed "real" bios, rather than simply making some up. This might have the advantage of making discussions more interesting by given an added dimension to the topics. Admittedly, some of this info might give people ideas for fics and, of course, there is going to be a point where we will rely more on speculation than "fact" and then we might be more at home in the fanfic section. At the moment, however, I'm not really thinking in terms of a fanfic.

[Katrina]

2nd said:

I was thinking more along the lines of collating all the character info that has been given in the series (be it things that were actually said or more subtle hints), in order to build up some more detailed "real" bios, rather than simply making some up. This might have the advantage of making discussions more interesting by given an added dimension to the topics. Admittedly, some of this info might give people ideas for fics and, of course, there is going to be a point where we will rely more on speculation than "fact" and then we might be more at home in the fanfic section. At the moment, however, I'm not really thinking in terms of a fanfic.

ah now i think i understand a little more as to what you mean. I do think this would be a good idea although a lot of work The BBC ones are vague but on saying that the best character bios I have seen are those on the BBC Neighbours site.

As for information - I guess it's true that eventually it would get to a point where it would become more speculation - but that would also be half the fun.

[iris]

ok. here's a plan.

kat, can you add a sub forum in the fanfic section for bios?

then start new threads, each thread - on the name of one character, start by copying from the BBC site - (important - disclaimer, they own the rights, not us!) and then anybody can add bio info as they like, whichever info that comes up in an epi or in anybody's memory.

2nd opinion, we trust you to be the major post maker here! can you do it?

good luck everybody!

[Katrina]

Iris should i include past characters?

[iris]

i think only main ones like helen and maybe marc, since he became important in her life and it can be a good basis for fanfics.
jude and kate were major characters so they should be there. not sure about ben, nathan and the others. some people just don't have an interesting past. i don't think we can say anything about sarah. all we know was there in the show, nothing hidden, no secrets...

if anybody thinks we should add more characters - just feel free to add their names and bios. it's open for everyone! (daisy, you are good in finding things on the web - do join us here).

love
xx
i

[2nd Opinion]

Sorry to disappoint you Iris but I'm afraid I may have to take a back seat on this. What with school, uni and now work I've always been a bit of a sporadic viewer, where "Doctors" is concerned. It's usually depended on a) whether I've been able to watch it (it's never been something I went out of my way to record) and b) whether I'm particularly interested in it at the time (N.B. as a general rule: interesting = anything to do with Helen and Marc). I used to be able to keep up, fairly well, with the series by checking the BBC catch-up section and sneaking a look at Soap mags in newsagents. Nowadays, however, I have to manage by reading some woefully brief ep. guides and trying to work out what you lot are talking about in Episode Chat. Of course there's always the Soap mag ploy, which I mentioned earlier but there are only so many times you can do that without feeling compelled to buy the wretched things.

[iris]

2nd said:

Sorry to disappoint you Iris but I'm afraid I may have to take a back seat on this. What with school, uni and now work I've always been a bit of a sporadic viewer, where "Doctors" is concerned. It's usually depended on a) whether I've been able to watch it (it's never been something I went out of my way to record) and b) whether I'm particularly interested in it at the time (N.B. as a general rule: interesting = anything to do with Helen and Marc). I used to be able to keep up, fairly well, with the series by checking the BBC catch-up section and sneaking a look at Soap mags in newsagents. Nowadays, however, I have to manage by reading some woefully brief ep. guides and trying to work out what you lot are talking about in Episode Chat. Of course there's always the Soap mag ploy, which I mentioned earlier but there are only so many times you can do that without feeling compelled to buy the wretched things.

i understand that, of course. i myself lost interest the minute helen left. but i still think we can count on you for doing marc and helen, since they are your fav characters! can you at least try?