problems with character doubles.

[kahaokamoku]

I have characters who are killed by their double who is a alien shape shifters.

lets say I have John . . . should I introduce the new character as alien John????

Or John's double????

[StRogue]

I'm not sure there is any right or wrong here, but a matter
of preference. ALIEN JOHN, REAL JOHN, HUMAN JOHN...

whatever works.

Charli

[Deus Ex Machine]

I agree with Charli. I also like ALIEN JOHN and ALIEN TOM and ALIEN PETE for consistency as the alien assumes their form. Of course you would call the original characters just by their names, no need to say they are human because that is assumed.

[altoption]

Unless, of course, we don't know which John is which. Then you've got JOHN and ANOTHER JOHN. Could even have a CROWD OF JOHNS, too. You may want to take a look at T2, for kicks, see how Cameron handled it.

[TwoBrad Bradley]

A technical consideration:

- If you have the same actor playing both John and Alien John
- and that alien might change into many different characters
- and there are many aliens changing into many characters ...

... use JOHN ALIEN or JOHN (alien).

The characters will sort better on the Character List.
It will be easier to find the character cues.

[Deus Ex Machine]

A valid consideration. I'd probably use: JOHN/ALIEN

[kahaokamoku]

John (alien) I like that.

All seem to work.

In most cases, the same actors will play both alien and human. In most cases, the alien eats the human. Upon meeting the alien, the human disappears except with my main character which I have both kind of running around through most of the script until the end where they finally meet.

I am going to look up some scripts. T2 would be a good place to start.

Most helpful.

BKG

[altoption]

If the audience is always aware of who JOHN is, and who JOHN/ALIEN is, sure, that works. The issue I was raising was specifically when the audience doesn't know who's who. A character, say MARY, walks into a room and sees JOHN. A SECOND JOHN enters.

Mary and the audience have no idea who's who. If you ever have a moment like that, you wouldn't want to call one of them JOHN/ALIEN. It destroys the suspense for the reader, and it gives them a completely different experience than the viewer in the theater.

Similarly, if there's only one JOHN in a scene, and, surprise!, he winds up ripping off another character's head, you don't want to tip off the reader, either. If there is some behavior, or distinguishing characteristic that allows us to track the alien, say in a scene where you're going for suspense, then sure, in those cases use JOHN/ALIEN.