User:Blue Rook/Forbidden characters

While any character with a name gets an article all his/her own, many unnamed characters who appear on 24 are eligible for entries in this encyclopedia too. They simply have to have lines or be given an actor credit in their episode. Those without lines or credits cannot receive entries on any of the unnamed character pages for the simple fact that there is no objective criteria for judging why or how they'd be included: a slippery slope if there ever was one. The wiki could very well be flooded with entries for the endless amount of background extras that have appeared.

As such, these characters cannot have entries as a matter of policy. Below are some of the characters of the 24 universe, who I find notable enough, that are nevertheless forbidden to have their own entries in this project.

Krugman's partner


The woman in this picture was the partner of Krugman, an undercover anti-narcotics LAPD officer. She had a few good seconds of isolated face time in a very tense scene.

This is a very special case, as many of the frequent contributors here already know: a woman named Mariah Pasos received a co-star credit for playing "Sam's Partner", but we simply cannot be sure if this refers to her for certain unless someone gets ahold of a script or an image of that actress. Of all the forbidden characters on this page of mine, this is the only one who may eventually be promoted to an entry-worthy unnamed character, because Pasos is one of the few to remain listed in the Wanted characters project page.


 * Appeared in Day 1 6:00pm-7:00pm

Kidnappers of Kate and Paul


The two goons that kidnapped Kate Warner and Paul Koplin for Syed Ali were particularly memorable to me for some reason. They got good screen time and were involved in a cool action scene.


 * Appeared in Day 2 3:00pm-4:00pm

Trepkos' co-conspirator


So it was just Max and Alexander Trepkos who were Peter Kingsley's bosses in Season 2, right? Nope. In each of the two scenes where we saw Trepkos, he was always with a third man. This man was an equal of Trepkos, as evidenced by the glance they shared when Kingsley tried to persuade them that everything was all right with their unraveling plot. His body language was not an unimportant part of the scene of Trepkos' personal visit to Kingsley. Of course, though, he didn't have any lines, or he'd have his own page. It is implied in the premiere of Season 3 that this fellow was arrested.

I consider this character the prototype for the unnamed Day 5 Bluetooth cabalist (further down the page). They're both at the top of their season's conspiracies and were never explicitly seen to face justice.


 * Appeared in Day 2 3:00am-4:00am and Day 2 7:00am-8:00am

Brody's bodyguard


Brody had a bodyguard who had good screen time, and whose facial expressions were critical to the drama of the opening scene of this season's premiere. He's also one of the first characters we see.


 * Appeared in Day 4 7:00am-8:00am

Train passenger


An unsuspecting fellow on the train was eyed by the bodyguard in the entry above, and Brody. Again, an important character establishing the tension from the first moments of the Season 4 opener.


 * Appeared in Day 4 7:00am-8:00am

Marwan's cigarette man


Habib Marwan almost went through more second-in-commands than USA went through O-1 2nd Lieutenants in Vietnam. Navi Araz, Omar, Yosik Khatami (whose work was mostly done before the day), Ali, Rafique, Hikmat Palpatine, and Yassir all ran separate sub-cells or operations in Los Angeles. He even had Sabir Ardakani and Abat in other states entirely. But the first person seen at Marwan's right hand, seconds before we even see Marwan himself, is this fellow (that's where I got this great image of him)

In addition to that scene, at 1:40 this man specifically is ordered by Marwan to give Navi Araz anything he needs to clean up his family "mess", and he gets even more lingering camera time then, too. I really do believe this guy is notable.


 * Appeared in Day 4 1:00pm-2:00pm, possibly others

Nathanson's attacker


One of the mercenaries sent by Ostroff to kill Nathanson had a great amount of camera time. Especially when he walked over to Nathanson and took aim for the kill; the camera had two distinct angles of this man. He's a beast! Despite his size, of course, he was no match for Jack.


 * Appeared in Day 5 3:00pm-4:00pm

Gassed girl


A girl was poisoned with the horrific Sentox gas at the Sunrise Hills Shopping Mall. But Jack famously saved her with an atropine injection. She had a huge amount of screen time for a forbidden character, and was very important to the drama of that episode.


 * Appeared in Day 5 2:00pm-3:00pm

CTU Sentox attack survivors
Read the brief section toward the end of this page labeled "SignorSimon" about the fellow contributor who posted the pics and content about the first four of these CTU survivors. Essentially, these characters, another female staffer, and some of the main characters were locked in a hermetically-sealed CTU room from nerve gas. They survived, and are arguably note-worthy given this fact and their relatively high screen time.


 * Appeared as a group in Day 5 6:00pm-7:00pm and Day 5 7:00pm-8:00pm, perhaps numerous other appearances before and after individually

Wilshire headshot agent


One of the two nameless agents who went with Jack and Curtis into the Wilshire Gas Company. He was killed in a headshot by a long-distance pistol round from Vladimir Bierko... through a tiny window in which his face was barely visible. Nice shot you separatist billionaire!! It's a scene that's very easily missed, go watch it again!

This character has a great story attached to him too. From '06 July 6 to '08 April 7, the information on this wiki's page for Steve (Day 5) was erroneously for this character, and it was assumed that Matt Huhn was the man in the picture seen here. It was created in good faith, no doubt, by User:Falconfan. So convincing was this information that many users (yes, including myself, as evidenced by the page's history) unwittingly contributed to the page and User:Lud even innocently uploaded an image of the character he thought the page was written for. (This is a link to the last incorrect version of that page. The red-linked "Sam.png" is the exact same image you see here, I just brightened and re-uploaded with a different name.) However, after a long period of suspicion, I found out who Matt Huhn really was, and that he played a Secret Service agent. The rest is history.


 * Appeared in Day 5 9:00pm-10:00pm

Bluetooth cabalist


Here he is. From my experience, this is absolutely the quintessential forbidden character. This guy's at the top of the laundry list of Season 5 villains, even above President Logan, and he was never named or verifiably arrested. When I created this shrine in worship of the Cabal, it was essentially for him and Robert Joseph. Read the "Blue Rook" section at the bottom of this page about my further history with this character.


 * Appeared in Day 5 1:00am-2:00am, Day 5 2:00am-3:00am, and Day 5 3:00am-4:00am

Hero flight passenger


During Jack's hijacking of Flight 520, a burly passenger (who no doubt was afraid of another 9/11) made a move to rush Jack and subdue him. Jack threatened him to sit back down; nobody was harmed. He even had a face close-up before this point, where he sits in open-mouthed fear of Jack.

This character was so notable for me that I fudged something of an entry for him, but over on the Flight 520 list of passengers section. I was even able to determine who played this character: stunt actor Bill Leaman. The image seen here is the same one I grabbed for the Flight 520 page.


 * Appeared in Day 5 2:00am-3:00am

Marika's driver


Ryan Burnett chose a driver from his crew to pick up Marisa for Iké Dubaku. Burnett offered to have the driver kill Marika, indicating that this wasn't just a "driver", he was actually a mercenary and murderer. He got off scot-free when Dubaku sent him away.

A highly notable character in my opinion, and the opinion of at least one other contributor, Thief12, who uploaded a perfect image of him.


 * Appeared in Day 7 4:00pm-5:00pm

Users who've made entries for "forbiddens"
Below is a list of contributors who have created articles or unnamed entries for one or more of these characters. The reason why I'm listing these is to demonstrate that, over the history of this project, there has been a real demand for articles/unnamed entries for these characters among frequent and respected users. Let me know if I've missed anyone.

Blue Rook (me)
I chose to list the users in alphabetical order so I'd be first. I want to be first so people immediately can see that I'm not compiling a "list of morons/rogues/etc" or some kind of similar insult. If you're listed here, don't for a second assume this is a place for people I consider to be clueless or violators of policy. I'm here too!

Shortly after arriving at the wiki in April 2007, I made a page for the two unnamed conspirators working with Graem Bauer and Ron. The page was deleted and I had this discussion with elder editors and found out why. Since then, the name (Robert Joseph) of one of the two has been revealed, but the fourth guy still remains unnamed. Recently, another user, Gonzalo84, added red-links for this character, as well.

Falconfan, Lud
Falconfan created a page for a forbidden character, but it seems he did it more out of misunderstanding and incomplete data. Still, however, he believed that the unnamed, no-lines "Wilshire headshot agent" was notable enough, and figured the was played by Matt Huhn. User:Lud even added the image. For months, the forbidden character these users created content for masqueraded in the spot of the named one whom Matt Huhn really played.

SignorSimon
Simon added perhaps the largest collection of "forbidden" characters to the Unnamed CTU agents page; only 1 (possibly 2) was permissible for inclusion. Since then, they have been relocated to the gas attack page where all the survivors are listed (much like how I put the "hero passenger" on the Flight 520 page).

Thief12
Thief12 made an unnamed terrorists entry for the character labeled as "Marika driver", and even uploaded a great pic. Another excellent, but forbidden, character.

What's my agenda here? Is there a solution?
So what's my agenda? I believe it's simply unfortunate that Carl, a character we absolutely never see and who is 100% insignificant to the plot, is warranted his own article (I would know, I made it for him)... whereas a girl with amazing screen time (whom Jack saves from Sentox poisoning) in a truly tense and memorable scene from Season 5 gets nothing but a mention in an episode guide.

Despite that agenda, I don't necessarily view the fact that these characters lack linkable Main namespace entries is a "problem" that requires a solution or answer. As I mentioned in the introduction to this page, the slippery slope for making entries for these characters is so worrisome that I'm very comfortable if these characters never receive entries.

However, I can't say I wouldn't feel satisfied if a policy-friendly repository page was created where they could go and perhaps even be linked to, like all the others. Below is an idea for such a repository:


 * Perhaps there can be a page called Other unnamed characters where they can be listed. The immediate problem with this is the inclusion criteria. It would be impossible to have all the background extras on such a page, so there must be some criteria... but anything we agree on would have to be based upon consensus, not some objective standard. There are many possibilities, but the problem is that someone's favorite forbidden character will always be left out.
 * 1) A total number of seconds-on-camera?
 * 2) Relative importance to the plot or drama?
 * 3) Arguably memorable for the audience?
 * 4) Reasonably clear image of face?

If the difficulties of the selection criteria magically disappeared, still, getting this page made is not even a low priority for me. At the moment, Season 7 continues to air, there are gads of red-linked actor articles that need making, we've still got incomplete episode guides, and there is the mind-numbing project of tagging almost every Main namespace article with those new top-of-the-page icons.

Suggestions?
I'm sure that I have forgotten some really great Forbidden Characters for inclusion in this essay. If you know of or find a character that you believe to be noteworthy enough, drop me a note on the Talk page for this essay and I'll take a look. If I agree, and can grab a good image, I'll add him/her with a nice big note that you were the suggester.