Kate Ross

[cymbaline]

I wonder did the producers ever plan to bring Michael Ross's daughter Kate to Summer Bay? Although we never got to see her, she sounded like a miniature version of Cynthia. Once Cynthia returned to the city, she barely got a mention again. Why bother creating her if we only got to see Haydn? There was enough of a back story there for it to have made sense for her to come to Summer Bay and shake things up a bit.

[Sally Keating]

I imagine she was name-dropped early on in Michael's stint to keep the options open for her possible appearance later on.

Just like Morag, Barbara, Debra, Alan, Rebecca and Danny are all mentioned early in 1988 despite not appearing until much later (the only one to never appear was Debra).

I imagine this was because back then, characters are created with an in-depth and rich backstory pre-planned. When they created Pippa, they knew she had a brother through whom she met Tom. When they created Donald, they knew he had kids with one of Alf's sisters. So much history was given to characters and look how much it fuelled their stories throughout the years. For example: Because the writers bothered to do this, we ended up with the very popular main character of Rebecca from 1996-1999 - who we'd never have had if those writers in 1988 hadn't put in so much detail.

Unlike nowdays. Look at Tony and Gina. Tony was in the show 3 years with no mention of his life before Summer Bay, no character depth at all and as a result he never had interesting stories. And then the writers decide they need a new female older character, so suddenly he's got a never-before mentioned sister who moves to the Bay. Such a drop in standards.

[Luigi Severus Fletcher]

It'd be pretty redundant bringing her back nowadays, she'd have no place in the bay, unless she becomes a cop and looks for Michael's remains.

[cymbaline]

I meant back when Michael was on the show. It would be utter nonsense to bring her back now. What age would she be anyway? Assuming she was older than Haydn, she'd be in her late 40s now. As for Michael's remains, my memory of his death was that they found him and had a funeral. Were there grave robbers in Summer Bay who pinched his body and spirited it away to some undisclosed location?

I never see the point in people suggesting long-vanished characters should come back now. They're best left as happy memories from the past, rather than as fish out of water in the present.

[j.laur5]

Was Michael supposed to be older than Tom?. 

[cymbaline]

I always assumed he was younger (Roger Oakley is 6/7 years older that Dennis Coard) but this is Summer Bay we're talking about. Tom and Pippa married in 1969. Neither Vanessa nor Debra would've even been teenagers at that stage.

[CaptainHulk]

On 24/08/2019 at 16:04, Luigi Severus Fletcher said:

It'd be pretty redundant bringing her back nowadays, she'd have no place in the bay, unless she becomes a cop and looks for Michael's remains.

*into megaphone* HIS BODY WAS FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUND!