Hailee starts out as a mercenary pilot-for-hire who gets caught up in the resistance against the Federation against her will. For this reason, there is frequently a great deal of friction between her and her colleagues aboard the Liberator. She's something of a habitual ingrate, very tough and always looking for excuses to complain. She is often rude to the rest of the crew, especially Vila, whom she regards as an annoying wimp, and Kyben, whom she blames above all others for her predicament. She has an authoritarian streak that she manages to balance alongside Avon's command with some ease - she accepts that Avon's the boss but she doesn't let anyone else tell her what to do. She is a talented martial artist, and a decent sharpshooter. There is a lot to like about Hailee really, but it takes a lot to ger her to show her lighter side. All-in-all, she's a cynic with a nice girl inside her screaming to get out. And if she ever does all hell could break loose...

I created Hailee for two reasons. One, to continue the tradition of much tougher female characters than you tend to get in things like Star Trek or Doctor Who, but also hoping she doesn't fade over time (characters like Jenna and Dayna started well but then began to weaken and drift). Secondly I wanted someone to do the Jenna-role in the stories adapted from the Main Sequel Project, but who could be a bit more adaptable. Hailee has all sorts of grizzled characteristics that make her less predictable than Jenna, and I felt a personality like that could be put into more varied situations.

UPDATE: From feedback received, Hailee has proven to be, quite simply, the most popular and enduring character I created for Blake's Legacy. It was always my intention that she remain in the series for the long haul, and her popularity is all the confirmation I needed. It's clear that the readers love her mixture of rough-mannered sarcasm, cheerful whinging and big-hearted courage.

At first glance, Farin may appear to be similar to Avon. He has a similar fierce nature and is as likely to turn and shoot a friend in the back as shoot an enemy. (Some better-informed people might argue that that is more of a distinction than a similarity.) However, scratch the surface and the substance beneath is more brittle. He is actually somewhat cowardly, certainly more so than Avon, and is really just a short-tempered berserker. He hates weakness, and as one of Blake's former followers from Gauda Prime, he hates the Federation even more, because of the role it played in the death of his brother. But the hatred that drives Farin is not guided by a sharp mind - indeed it is the what causes his carelessness. In truth he is quite incompetent, and takes himself far too seriously. There is also a very petty side to his nature, which is at least as irritating as his aggressive behaviour. He is a gifted fighter, but overall he is nowhere near as useful as he believes he is, and the others know it. Avon is often questioning if there's any reason to persist with him.

Farin is the biggest problem for me in terms of the future. I've deliberately chosen not to decide too much about him yet so I can make a few things up while I write. That makes it a more interesting experience for the writer as well as the reader. A berserker in himself isn't much of a character, so I'll have to find other ideas about him.

UPDATE: In stark contrast to Hailee, Farin proved to be a bit of a "quick-drier" as a character so I killed him off late in season one. I don't think the story has missed him very much.

Kyben is probably the nearest character to Roj Blake, although there are some very pronounced differences. He is a former Federation Doctor who deserts and tries to join Blake on Gauda Prime, only for Avon and co. to show up. He appears to be a mild-mannered idealist, compassionate almost to a fault, not a warrior nor a leader. But hidden away there is a very dark side to Kyben indeed, which will come to the surface over time. Like Travis, his left eye has been destroyed and has been replaced with a mechanical eye-patch. This device allows him to project holograms and to fire low-intensity lasers. His injury was caused by Dev Tarrant, the man who twice betrayed Blake, and Tarrant is the one who brings out the worst in Kyben. Although he is physically among the strongest of the Liberator crew, and very inventive, Kyben is not much of a fighter, nor unduly brave.

Kyben's long-term future may be very very different from how he starts out because there's a schizophroenic element in him, which will be triggered whenever he meets Dev Tarrant. At first he's a bit of a goody two-shoes, as I needed moderate mentalities to balance Avon and Farin. However, once Nij Blake joins the crew, I'll be free to bring out the other side of Kyben's personality, which should make him more interesting.

UPDATE: Kyben proved to be an interesting but ultimately unlikeable character. His demise at the end of season one of Blake's Legacy followed a rapid descent into madness. The principled, even sanctimonious, man of medicine from the early days had been shown to be a false mask, and coupled with his ugly past was his own inadequacy as a freedom fighter. He simply wasn't equipped for the path he chose, and that mistake - apparently - cost him his life. But did it? Consider what we actually saw at the end of that episode, and then decide again.

Vila's niece is a mish-mash of characteristics, some of which are indentical to her uncle's, others are absolute opposite ones. Like Vila, she has that same tiresome chatty quality, but where Vila is timid but clever, Stella is an eager bird-brain - what you see really is what you get. She's among the first to volunteer for a dangerous mission, perhaps because she's not bright enough to share her uncle's sense of fear. She has a very bitchy relationship with Farin, who despises her stupidity. Stella is not terribly strong, but she is skilled at attacking the weak-spots on the human body, a talent she often practices on Farin whenever he annoys her.

Stella, I fear, is merely a functionary in terms of the story. Without wanting to give too much away, she won't be with the Liberator crew for long. For her and Vila to both stay would make for some pretty tiresome dialogue, while I have some ideas for how Vila would react if she left.

Nij Blake will be a little different in this version from Neil Blissett's original creation. I've decided to make him a few pseudo-years younger (mid-teens), to make his claim to being Roj Blake's son sound a bit more plausible (Roj Blake was about 38 when he died, and Nij was, what, 24 at the time? I don't think Avon or Vila would've believed it somehow). He is also going to be less prominent in the story at first - he's introduced a lot later for one thing - and there will never be any possibility of him taking command of the Liberator. He will show inherent leadership qualities at times, but there will be a very different air of motivation surrounding him. Where Roj was an unwavering freedom fighter, Nij will often fight for more personal reasons, and there will be occasions where one could almost call into question both his loyalty and his sanity.

Nij Blake remains an idealist for the most part, but he is not the fanatic that Roj was, at least not the same kind. On many occasions his reasons for fighting will appear to have little long-term value for the war against the Federation, and more to do with personal vengeance or even greed. However, some of the values of his "father" remain there, albeit slightly distorted.

UPDATE: Nij Blake didn't play a very big role in season one, largely due to lack of available space, but with a scary discovery early in season two, he moves very much to the heart of things as he tries to learn the truth about himself. He will be instrumental to the movement of the series right up until the very end, and the path he takes will be quite shocking.

Chaesla has been the victim of indoctrination treatment, though not quite of the type that Roj Blake endured. Dismissed to the prison planet Craeus at a young age, she was brought under the tutelage of the son of the dead rebel leader Shivan. An obsessive opponent of religion, he relentlessly and stridently taught all his followers to become as violently opposed as he was to all forms of supersition, religious worship, or faithful belief in the unproven. The militarised and heavily-controlled nature of the society he built has led Chaesla to be easy to dominate and intimidate, and to find it difficult to question those she perceives as in authority over her. On the other hand, she was taught by Shivan to be one of his main enforcers in the field, so as long as she knows she has the approval of her superiors, she can be ruthless and aggressive in doing her supposed duty.

Chaesla has a terrible secret. The people of Craeus know it, but, at the time they rescue her from the planet, the crew of the Liberator are unaware. Without going into details here, which would give the game away, she is a mutant, which is, in effect, an affliction. The way in which she has mutated, and how she came to be that way, will be a sad, bitter and frightening story for her to tell.

The computer aboard the Daedalus. The Gan computer was a bit of a non-persona in Neil's version, so I decided to turn him into a kind of "Admirable Crichton" type of butler character. Imagine Gan's lines in Derek Nimmo's voice and you'll get the idea.

UPDATE: The Daedalus has played very little part in Blake's Legacy since midway through season one, and as such, Gan has scarcely had a look-in. No great loss, you might argue, seeing that the Liberator crew have three other computers to irritate them. But Daedalus, and by extension Gan, will play a very important role towards the end of the series as the crew embark on one of the largest, longest and most complicated missions of their lives.

On a point of curiosity, in the other Sequel Project, Gan was the flight computer for the Sevener, which I'd had Hailee rename the Daedalus as in an early draft of Sentiments. However, to be perfectly blunt I've never liked the name so I changed it back in the most recent draft. I got the name wrong from the outset anyway, as I managed, in a fit of quite breathtaking mental clumsiness, to get my Greek mythology muddled up. I was actually supposed to name it the Icarus, after the boy who flew too close to the sun and fell from the sky to his death (just as Hailee's ship would be destroyed when it fell from the sky of Taurus III). Instead I gave it the name of Icarus' father. So, if you ever get lost on holiday in Greece, don't stop and ask me for directions. No good will come of it.

(Have you noticed how except for Servalan the Presidents never have a name? Well, there was Practor of course, but he was only President-Elect.) Servalan's successor as President and Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation is a stern, dictatorial man who is a poor judge of character. Despite his officious manner, he lacks the strength and forcefulness to command unquestioning loyalty. This makes him as vulnerable to those he commands as those he battles, and he can be swayed by the word of his officials quite easily.

Based on the character from Neil Blissett's story, Mablar answers direct to the President from Space Command. He is a man of talent for his job which few could deny, but he is also a man of real authority, which means he often solicits actions without the approval of the President. On the surface he is a gentleman of loyalty and dedication. He has an agenda of his own to follow however.

UPDATE: It's strange, but this guy got off to a smooth enough start, an officer of seniority and experience, a man with a calm and wise presence, but then, for reasons I'm still unable to fathom after all this time, I just lost interest in him completely. Initially I'd pictured him playing a big role for a long while in the series, but I ended up killing him off in episode six of the first season.

Funnily enough, a similar thing happened in Neil's project. He'd originally planned to keep Mablar in the series for the long haul, but then decided to offload him and replaced him with his version of Commander Kreel. It also happened at almost exactly the same stage of his first season. Must be something in the water.

Demwuhl (pronounced DEM-wool) is Rontane's successor at the High Council (such as Rontane has a successor in these days of direct High Council control over Space Command). She is nervous and easily-agitated, clearly with little time for the down-and-dirty world of the military. On the whole, her jumpy manner makes for a poor politician but there are many reasons for her gaining such a high position, not least being the almost-blind trust the President has in her judgement.

Demwuhl will remain a fringe character throughout Blake's Legacy. Like Mablar, she has an agenda of her own to follow, and we'll see that there is a fanaticism hidden within her that rivals many freedom fighters.

With the reorganisation of the Federation after the High Council was restored, in some ways the different wings of the regime operate in reverse from the way they used to. For instance, the High Council no longer sends ambassadors to Space Command. Instead, Space Command must send an attache to report regularly to the High Council. That it Major Brecht's job. He is a man of clever military administrative ability, but of limited combative talent. He is very loyal to the President, who has done much to advance Brecht's career.

In case anyone's interested, the name "Brecht" is taken from an officer played by Alastair Locke in the Kaldor/Horizon audio play The Logic Of Empire. He's not really the same character, although to be fair, the incarnation from Logic was not defined to any great degree, so they're probably quite interchangeable.

Another of Neil Blissett's creations, I've made Kreel into a more intimidating character. He is almost robotic in manner and completely relentless in his duty. He appears to be prepared to disregard anything, up to and including breathing, in order to do his job. He talks in a very machine-like way, and is so focused that it's impossible to say if he's capable even of thinking about more than one thing at a time. His single-mindedness, however, is coupled with a total lack of ego. He won't tolerate insubordination, but that is because of the value he attaches to discipline. He cares little on a personal level what people think of him, just as long as they know he gets the job done.

UPDATE: One or two readers were disappointed that I decided to write out Kreel at the end of season one, but to be honest I was beginning to find him tedious to write for. His robotic dialogue may be fun to read (or at least that's what I was told), but there were times when it gave me a headache thinking it up. "It seemed like a good idea at the time..."

Re-introduced after a lengthy absence, the man who betrayed the Freedom Party has risen in the ranks of Federation Security since the Galactic War. Devious, wise, manipulative and unscrupulous, he will sacrifice anything and anyone, including himself, for the Federation to win. His rivalry with Kyben is a source of great amusement to him, as he knows he is much the greater warrior of the two even with that awful limp, and he's sure he can destroy Kyben any time he feels like it. His devotion to both the Federation and the President could almost be admired if it weren't for the lengths he seems prepared to go to to back them.

Dev Tarrant only merited one episode in the original series. Del Tarrant merited two seasons? HAH! I never thought very much of Del to be quite frank, but I always thought there was plenty of potential in the Dev Tarrant character, if only because of his provocateur involvement in the resistance groups, and so I'm trying to tap into that as far as possible. Giving him an archenemy should allow me to bounce some ideas off him and see how he reacts.

UPDATE: Tarrant had a good innings in season one, but I felt that he was going nowhere toward the end, and it was only his rivalry with Kyben that had room for further development. And as Kyben was on his way out, I thought it best to get rid of them both together. As with Kyben though, don't assume that absence is permanent.

Incidentally, the above ideas about Tarrant's provocateur history never quite emerged after Veron's death early on, simply because I found better things for Tarrant to do.

Another politician with more mouth than courage, Brekim has a nervous, indecisive way of trying to appear confident. He is very unsure of what he believes in, and can be bullied quite easily as a result. He is very knowledgeable however, which makes him a useful man to have on-side, even if you have to do all the thinking for him.

No idea how far this guy will last. I may end up using him as cannon fodder late in the first season.

UPDATE: In fact, well into season two, Brekim is still around. Still don't know exactly how long he'll last though. It's almost a case of a character being so superfluous that I can't even be bothered with getting rid of him.