Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on July 24, 2009 at 14:46:51 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Thoughts on posted by Ross Cossar on July 24, 2009 at 01:28:48:
As a wise contributor here said once before, Commander Walker is so all round competent that he takes the adventure out of the story as soon as he steps into it.
This is not his fault!
Captain Flint is competent, but his competence can be marred sufficently to get a plot going by his defects of character - he is irascible, impulsive, etc - and his family committments to his aunt and his sister.
Commander Walker, being an actual parent, has family committments to the main characters, rather than elsewhere, and it would not suit the plot to make him irascible and impulsive.
The solution is to give him a demanding job, which takes him out of England for two years and then whisks him off to London as soon as he is back.
Any story involving him would have to be somewhat like SW, with him setting up the machinery and then dashing off.