“It’s impossible to tell Jamie and Claire’s story without telling these other stories.”
It’s safe to say that whenever a series like Outlander airs, there’s always going to be some level of scrutiny and criticism from some corner of the fanbase.
For Outlander season 7, as the majority of fans were excited to see how things would unfold for the Frasers this time around, there have been some that have been pining for more appearances from Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe).
And that criticism? Well, Outlander executive producer Maril Davis has seen it – and is surprised about it for a number of reasons, most importantly because season 7 follows the original Diana Gabaldon books closely.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the season 7 mid-season finale, Davis said about the Jamie and Claire criticism: “I’m kind of surprised by that because– we can’t always, but we try to follow the books as much as possible, and this really does follow the books.
“Jamie and Claire are always going to be our centre of the wheel, but there are quite a few characters to service and Diana [Gabaldon] has done a great job of doing that throughout this book series, and building characters you want to follow.
“So, it’s impossible to tell Jamie and Claire’s story without telling these other stories.”
Davis explained: “It won’t be their story if you can’t also tell the story of their kids, William and Bri, and their grandkids and everyone else in their life – that’s what makes Jamie and Claire’s story, it’s a tapestry.
“Jamie and Claire are the start of that, but they’ve woven these other stories around them, and it’s impossible to tell theirs if you don’t tell everyone else’s.
“This is the book, the book is Brianna and Roger go back to their own time, and you can’t tell their story if you’re not servicing that. You have to give their story just as much of a chance as everyone else’s. I don’t know how you tell their story without including their story.”
Unlike some of the other previous seasons, season 7 has had more of an intense focus on multiple storylines rather than solely honing in on leading Outlander couple Jamie and Claire.
This time around, the season was split early on with Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin) time-travelling to 1980s Scotland with their children while Jamie and Claire remained in 1770s.
Like Davis, many fans have been vocal of the fact that reading the books and diving into the war-focused time period that Jamie and Claire find themselves in will help fans understand that the TV series really is sticking close to the source material.
As for where they are now, fans will likely be very happy in the fact that Jamie, Claire and Ian seem to be at a positive point in all their lives, having successfully made it out of the Second Battle of Saratoga, and they are on their merry way back to Scotland.
Though the same cannot be said of Brianna and Roger’s son Jemmy and that season 7 part 1 cliffhanger – so we’ll just have to wait and see what the anticipated second batch of episodes has in store for us.
