Cascade Library Interview with majik

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Cascade Library Interview with majik
Interviewer:	Cascade Library
Interviewee:	majik
Date(s):	September 25, 2000
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	The Sentinel
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

In 2000, majik was interviewed for Cascade Library.

Some Excerpts

My mother made me do it! My mother watched the show all the time and mentioned it once, off the top of her head. I kinda blinked at her -- all I knew about The Sentinel at the time was that there was a whole lot of slash fic about it out there. So I watched it with her one night and I got hooked.... I watched Survival with my mother, was horribly impressed, then went upstairs, parked myself in front of the computer and wrote A Blessed Protector's Thoughts on Survival in about 45 minutes. Then I spazzed, read about two hundred fics, revised the story fairly heavily, and posted it. It was probably the most nervous I've ever been about a fanfic. I'd written fiction before, mostly X-Men and Star Trek stuff, but all the Sentinel stories I'd read had been so good! I didn't want to post the first horrible fic for the fandom.

Survival was the first ep I ever saw, and it's the first one that comes to mind whenever I think of the show. But I'd say Siege, Reunion and The Rig are currently my favorites. Siege was just cool. Blair and Jim getting settled, Blair's first intro to the department, and of course it was nice to see Blair getting in a few good hits to the bad guys. Reunion is undeniably a Simon episode and one of the best out there. I absolutely love it. As for The Rig -- what isn't there to love? I mean, hidden fears, house rules, Jim worrying about Blair, shower scene <grins> and a bomb. What more could a girl ask for?

I love smarm stories, everything I write has smarm in it to one degree or another. In general I tend to write a lot of missing scenes for The Sentinel, but drama/case files are my favorite to write. Dramas have so much potential to them, and so much capability. You can really take yourself and your readers to whatever lengths you like with them. Plus, with shorter stories, you tend to have to actually come out and say a lot of what you're trying to get across, while with a drama you can show them in detail exactly what you want them to be getting out of the story.

Well, I started yelling at the television and scared a whole lot of people [when I watched "Sentinel Too"]. I wrote What Matters Most just to calm myself down. I really hated the way Jim and Blair's friendship was handled in these episodes, especially since with just a little change I think it could've been one of the best episodes they've ever done. The idea that Jim would be that strongly affected by another Sentinel was a fantastic plot devise, but the fact that he seemed willing to completely ignore everything she'd done to Blair served to diminish the bond between him and his Guide. This episode is the reason I now have an unreasonable hatred of Jeri Ryan.

No laughing now, promise? [The first piece of fan fic I wrote] was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fic that I wrote during study hall in sixth grade. I still have it saved. I killed Donatello.

The characters in this show are some of the best I've ever seen. I don't know if it's the writers, directors or actors (though I'm inclined to credit the latter) I think these three guys are some of the most fleshed out people you'll see in an hour-long, under-budgeted cop show. It's single greatest weakness was, in my opinion, trying to make too many people happy at once. Here's a bit of buddy-buddyness for one batch of viewers, here's an explosion for that batch over there, oh and a mini-skirt for our target audience... As great as it was, there was never any real introspection between them. Beyond that, less worry over guns and explosions and professional basketball players, and more concentration on canon and storyline.