Who is your favourite writer?

[JCC]

For me, it's either the Jossman himself or Mr David Furey. Ben Adlund gets a close third for Smile Time. 😀

Who's your pick, and based on which episodes/moments?

 

[anyatara]

I can't pick. All the writers bring something to the show. Without 'em all, the characters wouldn't be so indepth, they all add things, so to be honest I love 'em all 😀

 

[TrueVengeance]

Joss for sure...but I'm also a fan of Marti Noxen. Dunno why many people don't like her *shrugs*

 

[Bangelxx]

Joss all the way!!!!

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Jane Espenson is my favourite INCLUDING Joss.

She is great at both comedy and drama.
Her episode lists some of my favourites.

Band Candy
Gingerbread
Earshot
Pangs
A New Man
The Replacement
Triangle
Checkpoint
I Was Made to Love You
Intervention
Life Serial
Same Time, Same Place
Conversations with Dead People
Sleeper
First Date
Storyteller
End of Days

And Angel - Guise will be Guise.

And then on top of that all the great episodes she was story editor and producer.

I do like Fury and Noxon too but Espenson is my favourite.

Joss actually comes low down on my list.

 

[GATEGOD]

My favorite writer is J. Michael Straczynski, who is a god! He wrote and created Babylon 5. Second would be Joss Whedon for giving us Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, and third would have to be Ronald D. Moore who wrote my favorite episode of Roswell and is currently on BSG.

 

[palabravampiress]

Jane Espenson, pretty much for all of the reasons already mentioned by BoTD. I also liked her work on Gilmore Girls, Firefly, and Dinosaurs.

 

[JCC]

Jane Espenson was pretty mediocre, in my opinion. If you've listened to her commentary of Earshot, her first draft jokes were DIABOLICAL, and thank God that Joss told her to change them.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Jane Espenson was pretty mediocre, in my opinion. If you've listened to her commentary of Earshot, her first draft jokes were DIABOLICAL, and thank God that Joss told her to change them.

Conversations with Dead People was NOT mediocre
Checkpoint was NOT mediocre
Life Serial - Same time, same place - Every other episode on that list is NOT mediocre.

So she didn't get it spot on in her first draft - please don't try and say any writer gets it 100% on their first draft. That is why it IS a first draft.
A script will generally go through 5 - 10 re writes and then a further 3 during shooting to get the feel of what works and what doesn't.

She was still cutting her teeth on the show when she did that episode and it only got better.

 

[Joyce Summers]

Jane Espenson all the way. She not only writes excellent episodes (on her own or in collaboration with another) but she really understands the characters. She seems to see them as real people, in the way we all do. I mean if anyone questions a character's action she knew and understood them enough to be able to genuinely explain why such a thing happened. I mean I think in one interview she said after all the Spike/Buffy hatred she finally came to the realization of 'oh my god! he loves her!'. I mean if that isn't the sign of a good writer I just don't know what is. Another example is at a con she was asked about the Giles/Ethan relationship and she reasoned that it was very likely that the two had a relationship of the sexual variety considering...and then she went on to list several things. And she also seems to really get fans and where they're coming from, I mean all the writers in the Buffyverse did, but it's strange she seems to understand it on a whole other level.
And Bored of the Dead pretty much did the episode listing for me. My favorite of all hers has to be Band Candy though. Seeing that it just makes me thing 'dear god, the woman is a genius!!' and the scenes she wrote in CwDP? C'mon, recognize the talent people! Hehe.
And Palabra did the mentioning of her other works for me.

Damn you two beating me to my own opinion!! haha.

Edit: Oh and that's another thing I've just remembered; she's excellent at writing the older characters. I mean Giles' best sarcastic and humorous comments usually come from her mind. And she gives Joyce her glory moments. :-D

Edit:

Bored of the Dead agrees: I don't do Cons....what Ethan and Giles sexual stuff? I think she is a fan of the characters not just a writer of the stories.

Just that as they both went to public school in England and they were in a magically experimenting group that comprised of only one female that it is more than likely that Ethan and Giles were a...double entendre (C'mon! I'm wary of younger readers here...). That yeah they definitely were more than friends. As Willow said in Checkpoint 'Lesbian gay type lovers'. Though in this case we leave out the lesbian part and it was probably a lot more selfish and demanding a relationship than the lovely one between Willow and Tara but still. She did mention other stuff but it was a writercon several years back and my memory is embarrassingly fuzzy haha

 

[Tranquillity]

i too must give my vote to Jane Espenson. i love most of her episodes and love how she can mix humor and emotion in the same sentence. I also respect the master, joss himself because so often when watching a comentary you will discover that a pivitol scene was actually written by him, not the credited writer. his instinct for where to take the story and characters is second to none.

 

[GATEGOD]

I can see why you would all choose someone who wrote for Buffy but J. Michael Straczynski is still first on my list.

But I do love alot of the episodes you listed that Jane Espenson has written. She seems very talented!

 

[white avenger]

If we're only talking about writers of the Buffy/Angel shows, then certainly it has to be Whedon. If you mean writers as in ALL writers, it would have to be Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan and the immortal John Carter, Warlord of Mars, followed by Stephen Hunter, a man who writes with skill and a definite expertise about his subjects.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

I can see why you would all choose someone who wrote for Buffy but J. Michael Straczynski is still first on my list.

But I do love alot of the episodes you listed that Jane Espenson has written. She seems very talented!

No the reason we're picking Buffy writers is because this is about them.

If this as about writers in the whole world, I'm pretty confident that most people that have posted would be thinking outside of that and in that world(and this one) J. Michael Straczynski still doesn't come close to beating anyone with actual talent

 

[kanani]

I didn't pay attention to the 'written by' part of Buffy until I watched it the second time and I have to say... props to all the Jane Espenson love.

I reeeeally like her episodes. Joss' as well.

 

[alexa]

I find it really hard to just pick one... after Joss that is. He's my favourite by far.. he doesn't always write to his best (like I'm not a huge fan of Lessons or Conviction), but usually.
Apart from him Jane Espensen is up there, also love Doug Petrie, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg sometimes. Steven S DeKnight and David Greenwalt also aren't bad.
Got to say I'm also a fan of Tim Minear for his Angel and Firefly work. Wish Tim and the Davids would write for the BtVS or Angel comics.
I'll stop now, prolly almost mentioned the whole staff.