Deborah Stewart

[Ryan]

Perhaps I should have put this in C&M, but if you were to become Script Producer and asked by Cameron to introduce Deborah Stewart, the forgotten Stewart sibling into the current show, how would you go about it and perhaps explain her absense? Just a little bit of creative fun.

[j.laur5]

I would like it if she is Morag's twin, and the actress who plays Morag plays Debra as well and Debra is evil like Morag was in 80s - then we can see nice Morag vs Nasty Morag, only that she's Debra.

Or i would like it if they bought back Judy Nunn or Vanessa Downing to play her.

[Jeremai]

Ryan, do you know if there have ever been any other references to Deborah or was it just the one from Celia in last week's re-run? I'm not at home so I can't double check the episode but I'm sure she said something along the lines of, "You, me, Morag, Deborah and Barbara... one big happy family"... which doesn't specifically state Deborah was their sister. Perhaps she was fostered or a cousin who stayed with them for a while or something like that? I'm not sure I'd bother introducing her but it would be nice if they wrote in a line to explain it.

[Ryan]

I don't know if it's stated specifically in any other episodes, but I'm sure Dan has some stuff from the beginning of the show, perhaps a press pack or something that states the birth dates of the Stewart siblings and I'm sure it includes Deborah. Now here comes the difficult bit about what can be considered canon. My general take on anything on this is it's considered canon until they do something to disprove it on-screen. Deborah, I think was the youngest of the Stewart children.

[Red Ranger 1]

My own take is if it's not stated on screen, it's not canon.Publicity material and behind the scenes material that's not intended for public consumption is apocrypha.Which basically means it might be true but then again it might not.

[Red Ranger 1]

Sorry, I keep forgetting to answer the original point.So, assuming Deborah wasn't the family pet or something, how to bring her back?I kept coming up with increasingly bonkers theories(the one where she'd been trapped alone on an island for decades and turned into a feral woman was the point where I really decided I need some sleep...)and eventually came up with this:When she was young, Deborah was friends with some old fisherman guy who used to take her out in his boat and they went missing in a storm.Everyone thought they were dead but they got washed up somewhere with amnesia.Everyone thought they were father and daughter so they never worked out she was Deborah Stewart and she grew up there, married, had children, maybe even grandchildren.Present day and they're planning to demolish the town to build a highway and in true Stewart style Deborah's leading the protest.Alf sees it on the news and recognises her so he and probably Colleen, Martha and Morag head down there for a family reunion...

Hmm, I don't think they'll be offering me a job any time soon.

[monkeyhound]

Yeah, Deborah's existance has always been random and very forgotten.

I think, that if they ever wanted to introduce her, it would be a good way for Alf to have more family on-screen. Perhaps she could be a much younger sibling, a later-in life child, the baby of the family, maybe even 20 years younger than Alf. So she could be a 40-something mother of 3-5 with a husband. A great way to introduce a stable family to the Bay.

[ilovehomeandaway25]

I wrote a Home and Away script earlier this year and I made it that Deborah was forgotten because she drowned when she was 13. Just an opinion.

[Bobby Forever Missed]

I'd have her come to visit Alf and I'd explain that she ran away in her teens.

[beau_t]

I wrote a Home and Away script earlier this year and I made it that Deborah was forgotten because she drowned when she was 13. Just an opinion.

Interesting idea that she may have died. However the whole fascination with "Deborah" began when Celia mentioned inviting her to a party early in 1988. So unless Celia sees dead people, Deborah (whoever she is) was alive then. She was also not missing at that point so she couldn't have ran away in her teens.