This interview with Ethlie Ann Vare was originally conducted as part of a 2001 project that was never completed. It was eventually published as part of Xenite.Org’s 10th Anniversary Feature in 2007.
Ethlie Ann Vare
Ethlie was very busy when she answered our questions. In fact, we sent her a lot of questions and she wrote back sparingly, sending a few answers here and there. She was extremely nice about the whole project.
If you want to know more about Ethlie’s background, check out the official Ethlie Ann Vare Web site. We’ll just dip right into the questions (which were compiled from suggestions made by Xenite.Org staff members). The first question was actually suggested by Ethlie, as she often heard it from fans.
Xenite.Org: Did you go to film school?
Ethlie Vare: No. I went to the University of California at Santa Barbara, entering as a pre-med student and graduating with a degree in World Literature. Everything I’ve learned about either journalism or screenwriting, I’ve learned through apprenticeship.
Xenite.Org: You’re Andromeda’s executive story editor. Does that mean you have the
responsibility for catching major continuity gaffes concerning characterization and history? If so, how do you keep up with the unfolding universe? If not, what, exactly, do you do in THAT capacity?
Ethlie Vare: Season One my title was Executive Story Editor. Season Two, I’m a Co-Producer. All these titles are just staff writer stripes: The members of the writing team have varying levels of experience and responsibility, but we pretty much do the same job. All of us write scripts, all of us maintain continuity, character development, etc. Robert Hewitt Wolfe is the top dog — the head writer, his title is Executive Producer. And since we all work together and discuss everything all the time — we quite literally live in the Andromeda Universe every day — it’s not hard to keep up with.
Xenite.Org: You wrote “The Pearls That Were His Eyes” and “It Makes A Lovely Light”. Flash figures prominently in both episodes. Was that your concept or did you make the pitch for writing stories about it? Also, did you draw upon your Rock entertainment background (as a journalist and historian) for inspiration in portraying out the Flash phenomenon (i.e., the impact it has had on pop culture)? What is the rationalization for Flash catching on in a futuristic universe? Why did people need or want to be stronger, faster, etc.?
Ethlie Vare: People are always going to want to be faster, stronger, better, don’t you
think? Flash was actually in the series Bible; that Beka Valentine’s father was a drug burn-out really interested me, and I wanted to write stories around it. And I was the perfect writer to do it, not only because I identify with Beka but because I overcame a pretty nasty drug habit myself, once upon a time. I do a lot of work in drug recovery now, and the dynamic of the drug-addicted family, the inherited aspects of drug dependency, the affect of an addict or alcoholic parent on the self-image of a child…. that’s all really strong character stuff to work with, both for the writer and for the actress. I think Lisa Ryder did a tremendous job with a challenging role in both those episodes.
As far as how Flash (an obvious cocaine analogy) relates to the pop music community — there’s one moment in It Makes A Lovely Light when Dylan asks Tyr why he didn’t tell anyone that Beka was using Flash. And Tyr just shrugs, “It was working.” That’s why a lot of musicians (and movie stars) never get better. There are too many people making too much money from them being just as messed up as they are. It’s sad.
Xenite.Org: Trance is an enigma who has entranced many fans, especially guys. Do you look at the scripts by the other writers where they deal with Trance and try to impose order on the chaos? What people want to know is, do you folks have any more of a clue as to who and what Trance is than we viewers do?
Ethlie Vare: Yes, we know a lot more about Trance than we’re telling. Keep watching. All will be revealed in due time….
Xenite.Org: Your writing for Beka is very strong, very powerful. Writers have to reach down into their own experience to build good character. Would you say you’re putting a lot of yourself into Beka? Have there been any surprises for you in Beka’s character, in terms of the way Lisa Ryder portrays her, or perhaps the way the direction on individual episodes have taken the character? Have you found yourself thinking, “Hm. Maybe we should follow that line a little further”?
Ethlie Vare: I definitely put a lot of myself into Beka, to the point where I ometimes find myself channeling her in story meetings – which freaks the guys out, big-time. They joke that somehow I’ll find a way to make Beka a redhead, like me — and if you look carefully, you’ll see I’m slowly sneaking that in there!
But Lisa Ryder brings a lot of herself to the character, as well. Lisa’s sweeter than I am, and it shows. I have to be careful not to write Beka too snarky (I tend to be snarky), because the dialog would sound odd in Lisa’s mouth. This doesn’t mean that our male writers don’t also do a great job of writing Beka, because they do. But I guess I am the one with the closest life experience.
Xenite.Org: As the Andromeda phenomenon grows, more and more Web sites are going to document the show’s universe, including its history. If the marketing people see money in selling books about the Andromeda universe, do you think you might want to dip into the history? Maybe work on a book like The Illustrated Star Wars Universe?
Ethlie Vare: We already have a writer who insists on doing the Andromeda Trivia Guide. We want to see Andromeda reference books and Andromeda novels and Andromeda action figures and Andromeda soundtracks and Andromeda starship models and naughty Andromeda lingerie.
Xenite.Org: We’ve had only glimpses of the entertainment found in the Andromeda universe. Have you discussed opportunities to explore the pop culture of the Long Night with the other writers? When a scene is set up, like in the casino from “Fear and Loathing in the Milky Way”, do the writers have much input into the kind of environment that is developed? Or is it just a case of writing, “Harper and Trance walk into a cheap casino”?
Ethlie Vare: Since we’re all a bunch of pop culture junkies (except Joe Reinkemeyer, who reads Kirkegaard for giggles) we’d love to do more episodes that show future entertainment. The problem, of course, is that anything unfamiliar enough to be truly futuristic probably isn’t going to be very entertaining! But we do have a couple of wacky ideas for Season Two….
As far as the casino set (and every other environment) – it’s on the page first, and Production Design brings it to life. The longer you all work together, the more everyone is on the same wavelength, and the less specific you have to be in the description.
Xenite.Org: What is the basic process for assigning a story to a writer or team? Do the writers get together and pitch what kinds of stories they want to write? Do the producers come up with the basic concepts and then hand out assignments to writers?
Keep in mind that in series television, the writers are the producers. Head writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe is the Executive Producer. I’m a Co-Producer. So yeah, the producers (us) sit around at the beginning of the year and talk about what kinds of stories we want to tell over the season to bring the story arc (yup, got one of those…) forward. Then we all go to our separate cubbyholes and dream up what we think are cool story ideas we’d like to write. We present them to RHW and, if he likes them, we go forward and develop them, present them to the network… I actually described the whole process in stultifying detail in a “column of the week” called TV 101 on my website: www.ethlieannvare.com.
Xenite.Org: You wrote for Earth: Final Conflict, a show which is set in more-or-less contemporary Earth history. EFC is also a young Roddenberry franchise like Andromeda, having no previous shows to follow like Star Trek: Voyager. Was it easier to develop a story for EFC’s universe than for the Andromeda universe.
Ethlie Vare: I find it much easier to write for Andromeda, because the universe is bigger and more varied and offers a far wider range of storytelling. In EFC, at the end of every episode, the bad guys are still standing… pretty much in the same place you left them. It’s hard to have satisfying dramatic conflict when no one can actually win.
Xenite.Org: In terms of fan recognition and appreciation, do you get much overlap between the people who used to follow your column or watch you on TV (E! Online) and the Andromeda fans? Do you know if any of your fans followed you to Andromeda, the way fans of some of the actors followed them to the show?
Ethlie Vare: NOTE: It was The Gossip Show on E! Entertainment Television, not E! Online.
I don’t notice it. Occasionally an Andromeda fan will note that my name’s familiar. And there are people who used to read me as a music journalist and now recognize my name on television credits. But mostly I think only a writer’s immediate family pays any attention to their by-line).
Xenite.Org: Star Trek is famous for naming ship sections and tools after staff members. Has Andromeda developed any similar traditions, even if they haven’t been used in episodes?
Ethlie Vare: There’s lots of inside jokes in the naming of characters. We’ve named guest roles after people with fan websites (Hohne, in “Banks of the Lethe”; Andulasia, in “Fear and Loathing”) or with a high profile on the ‘net (Spacer Cronan Thompson, in Under the Night.) I named a bad guy after an ex-husband, Joe Reinkemeyer named one after an ex-girlfriend… it’s part of the fun of writing a show.
Xenite.Org: Andromeda has reached out to its fan base in various ways. The writers have visited fan forums. Previews are made available on the Web. Three Web sites have been designed to build up a community and provide background information for the show. Do you feel that helps build up pressure from inquisitive fans, or does it work like a pressure valve? Are you working in a glass office or just visiting the people who watch the show?
Ethlie Vare: I think there were 159 fan websites for Andromeda at last count, which is just terrific. The writers don’t get to check in with all of them, of course, but we do try to stay in touch with the loyalists. It’s nice to have that kind of feedback. Otherwise, you work in a vacuum except for the ratings, and ratings don’t tell you what works and what doesn’t in specific, just whether the show works in general.
It’s important, though, to realize that this “active audience” is but a small percentage of the 4 or 5 million people who watch Andromeda every week. Most viewers don’t see every episode twice; in fact, most viewers don’t see every episode, period. Sometimes it’s hard to cater to both groups without confusing one or insulting the intelligence of the other.
Xenite.Org: How much impact would you say the extensive makeup for Brent and Laura (and guest stars) has on the writing? Do you have to say to yourself, “Well, we’re only going to get so many hours of camera time, etc.”?
Ethlie Vare: I was always taught: Write with a keyboard, not a calculator. Sure, actors’
“turnaround time” and “day out of days” and all those other wonderful production terms affect how the script is shot. But you have to write to tell the story. Later on, the production team will sit down with the script and do all they can to make it happen. And if they can’t, they’ll call up and say “Can you possibly take Trance out of Scene 32?” or “Can the scene with Rev be set in the Maru instead of Command, so we can shoot it on Tuesday?” You try to accommodate them without changing the story. It’s all part of the process.
Xenite.Org: Computer technology (animation for exteriors, internal screen readouts) brings Andromeda a long way forward from the old painted special effects and cardboard cutouts of 1960s SF television. But are there still practical limits which must be observed in terms of story-telling? Is there still a point where production costs for special effects force the writing group to abandon otherwise good ideas?
Ethlie Vare: There’s lots of things we can’t do on a TV budget. If it was up to us, Andromeda would look better than The Matrix on a weekly basis. But just because we can’t stage a big fight sequence or a bunch of space battle opticals, doesn’t mean we can’t still tell a cool story. So it’s not so much about abandoning a good idea, as finding a way to convey it within reasonable parameters. For me, that’s one of the things that makes writing for television a fun challenge. It’s not just “How do I tell this story?”, but “How do I tell this story broken up into a five-act structure and using only two guest stars and four locations?”
Xenite.Org: In “The Pearls That Were His Eyes”, there is a scene where Rev Bem finds Dylan about to make an unannounced excursion. Rev insists on going along because he is sure Dylan has a plan. Dylan always has a plan. Is there a rule for the writers that requires them to make sure Dylan always has a plan? He stated in “D Minus Zero” that he always has a plan, but do you think there will be stories where Dylan can’t have a plan?
Ethlie Vare: There’s no “rule for the writers” that Dylan has to have a plan. But it’s in his character that he generally has an A, B and C agenda going at all times. It’s who he is. (Tyr is much like Dylan in that way.) Sometimes Dylan’s plan doesn’t work out like he thought – look at “To Loose the Fateful Lightning” and “Devil Take the Hindmost,” for example. The reason our skittish Beka is coming to trust Dylan — that the whole motley crew of the Eureka Maru sticks with him, in fact — is precisely because he is a strong, smart commander with an agile brain for contingency planning.
Xenite.Org: If there were one totally crazy idea you’d like to do for an Andromeda episode (a gag, a storyline, etc.), what would it be?
Ethlie Vare: Here’s an inside tidbit for you. I’m an alt-rock fiend, as is Robert Hewitt
Wolfe (our tastes diverge at Megadeth and converge at the Clash), and from the beginning he wanted ’80s and ’90s source music in the show. The concept was (and you still hear references to this) that Beka had “liberated” the contents of a museum archive and has a beloved collection of “antique” music. We wrote shows that used Jane’s Addiction, Midnight Oil… even Who songs as part of the action. And then we learned how much that was going to cost 🙂 So, someday, whether it’s in Andromeda: The Motion Picture or the Special Edition DVD, I want us to finally rock out.
We’d like to extend a very long overdue thanks to Ashley and Ethlie and everyone who contributed to Xenite.Org Today.