GateWorld Network!

Hi everyone,

I'm back to follow up this weeks big announcement. StargateHorizon.com has now officially joined the GateWorld Network, which will eventually grow to become an entire network of sites, all connected with each other and with GateWorld. Well, this was this mysterious "major announcement" which had been hinted several times over the past few weeks. It was hard to keep it from you all, but we wanted to surprise you. I bet some of you might have been surprised.

Well, with Horizon's new affiliation with GateWorld, a whole new group of audience members has been introduced to the show. So, I would like to take this moment to welcome all of the new fans out there to Horizon! I hope you'll enjoy Season One, as Season Two is only 27 days away now. I also encourage you to keep checking out this blog, since this is one of the places where occasional hints on upcoming episodes might be dropped. Not giving away any major spoilers (I could never do that), just some teasers, which might give you an idea of what is to come, and which will hopefully add to the anticipation. You can find the general Stargate: Horizon blog at http://www.stargatehorizon.blogspot.com. That's a blog which in the past has mainly been updated by Sam Jones, Horizon's supervising producer and webmaster, and myself. However, there might just be more staff members starting to update it very soon.

Me, I'll continue updating this little blog of mine on a regular basis. It's the place where I'll talk to you about Horizon, and every now and then perhaps about some...uh, other very relevant things. One of these other things might be 24, that incredible show that I might have mentioned one or two times in the past. Not sure right now. Could I've mentioned that before? Hm. I suppose I might have.

Anyway, back on track: I'm pleased to let you know that the pink draft of "Connection" has been completed. I'll be looking over that over the weekend, as it contains some editions from Joe. Speaking of Joe, as most of you probably know by now, there's been a little promotion. Joe Hodkiss is now the official co-executive producer on Stargate: Horizon. I've already let him know that with great power comes great responsibility, and that none of us are allowed to abuse these massive powers that have been given to us. At least...we shouldn't. And we don't. Really.

Okay. What else is new? Joe is still working on the outline for "Troika". I'm working on some notes and editions for not one, but two outlines. Yup. Lot's of work. "Valiant" and "In One's Pocket". I need to get them both done as soon as possible, to ensure that the respective writers of those episodes will be able to get started with the scripts. "Valiant" will be written by Aaron Percival, the first and only freelance writer this season; he also pitched the idea. "In One's Pocket" will be written by Horizon staff writer Marian Mijinyawa. It's one of the first stories that she has pitched. While "Valiant" is most likely the episode's final title, expect "In One's Pocket" to change at some point; it's currently a working title. And the episode has nothing to do with an actual pocket. That's all I can tell you.

I've had what I think is a great idea for how to continue a certain major plot thread, which will be introduced in the season opener "A Time To Rise". I'm still playing around with the idea, and have yet to pitch it to the writing staff.

Work on the 3D designs has taken a short break, as our head designer Vinny has been on vacation for a couple of days. He's back now, and we should have an update on Sunday. The plan is to have at least one major Horizon interior set done by the time Season Two premieres. With one set, I don't mean only one room, but basically one section of the station. So far Vinny has been working on the upper level, which is the control room, the gate room, the briefing room, and the office. The sketches and preliminary 3D designs look amazing!

Well, I have about an hour until SG-1 comes on. Can't believe it's only a few more weeks before Sci-Fi will give us this huge FOUR MONTH rerun period. I've stated this before, and I'll say it again: I think that's way too long for a break in the middle of a season. But what can you do? By the time the second half of the seasons premiere in January, the new season of 24 will have arrived as well.

Speaking of 24. I have to speak of 24 in ALL these entries; look at them as my signature. I'm still rewatching Season One, and I'm loving it. I'm up to episode 15. Just a great show! All of you who haven't seen it, I recommend you check it out! I think with rewatching earlier episodes between now and January I might just be able to survive the wait for Season Five. Not that I have a choice, anyway.

One more thing: ratings! Just like a television show, a virtual show can have ratings. That's basically the number of episode downloads, which we're able to track. And since the announcement of our affiliation with GateWorld...WOW! We've definitely set a new record! I won't be giving away any numbers just yet, but episodes have been accessed less than a minute apart from each other for most of the time. I can't say how amazing it is to finally have some more people out there, who might become regular readers.

I'll conclude this entry with letting you know that over the coming weeks there'll be a couple of releases (primer, plot info, special features, etc.), which should keep up the interest and the anticipation for Season Two.

That's it from me for now. Got some shirts and towels to get out of the dryer before Sci-Fi Friday starts. I'll talk to you later!

Alex

Another update...

Well, I thought I'd let you all know that just a few minutes ago I've completed the first draft of "The Connection." This was a tough one, that's for sure. Initially I thought the exposition scene in act one would be the most challenging part; way off I was. Turned out that act one was surprisingly easy, act two was easy as well. It wasn't before act three, that I started encountering some serious length problems (once again). So I ended up having to drop a couple of scenes before even finishing the first draft. Currently the length might work out the way it is, but I think I can shorten one or two scenes. Well, no matter how many scenes end up being deleted, you guys will get to see them anyway. Deleted scenes coming up soon! And sometimes (like in the case of this episode) it's just a painful sacrifice to make. I liked both of the scenes I dropped very much, but what can you do?

The real challenge, however, was not so much the length (you learn to work your way around it) yet another exposition scene. In fact, it's the first scene of act four. It was one of those moments where as a writer you find yourself confronted with having to explain why did this happen, why did that happen. But if this happened, why didn't that happen? Oh, yeah, and it also has to be plausible, believable, and in this case it needs to be backed up by some authentic scientific facts. That's where the research part came in. Well, after a countless amount of rewriting that particular scene, I finally got it to a point where I felt it was working, and I moved on. Therefore act five was pretty easy to get through, though; I'd describe it as a nice wrap up to the story. We've got some smaller plot threads hanging around, and they'll be picked up in the next episode "Troika."

My personal feeling is that "The Connection" is an ideal episode to follow up the big two part season premiere. It feels like an episode early on in the season; we have some nice moments in which we get to know Callen a bit better. Zach's got some "Zach moments" (pretty soon you'll see what those moments are like), and here's something you might be interested in: the episode introduces yet another new recurring character. This guy is our new Vorian head of security, and suffice it to say he and the rest of our characters will not always see eye to eye. We felt early on when going into Season Two, that we needed to have some more conflict on our show. We wanted to have some more edgy moments in some of the episodes. So essentially this Vorian head of security -- oh, let's just call him H.B. -- is a Vorian who's clearly opposed to the Earth/Vorian alliance. It seemed reasonable that if we'd have half of the Horizon crew consisting of Vorian officers, that we'd find some Vorians among them who -- very much like Minister Kalos -- are opposed to the Horizon mission. So I think H.B. is a great addition to our cast, and you'll see more of him in the future. He'll be in "Troika" as well. I have someone in mind to cast for him, especially after having written him in "The Connection." After I get some additional opinions from the staff, I'll make sure to let you know which actor it will be. Now, I'll be revising the first draft before turning it in tomorrow. And after some notes from the staff come in, I should be getting to the blue draft (second draft).

Well, I'm not quite off for tonight. I'll get to finishing my behind the scenes special for "Collision" to ensure it'll be ready to be released tomorrow. I think you'll find some of the deleted scenes quite interesting. And after I finish that, you know what...I might just watch another episode or two of 24. Yeah, that seems like a tempting thing to do. For those of you who have been wondering, I've indeed started re-watching Season One, and I watched episode 6 last night. Yup. I just couldn't resist. I had this urge, and I hadn't seen Season One in quite some time, so here I am. It's interesting to see how things first started, especially if you know where things will be going, and what will happen. Some nice developments for the characters between S1 and S4. Great show, I'm telling you! Great show!

Work on the 3D designs is coming along very well. Last week Vinny, who is our chief designer, handed in some sketches, which were floor plans for the upper level of Horizon. He's currently working on a design for the control room, based on a drawing that I gave him. I can't wait to see this. He's just a fantastic designer; I think once you'll see the actual 3D models of the sets, you'll have to agree. We were very, very fortunate to get him on the team.

Big meeting coming up tomorrow. Joe is now working on "Troika"; he and I had a meeting on that episode earlier this evening. What can I tell you about "Troika"? Let's say, you'll be surprised by the return of an old friend. Hmmm. Can't tell you more than that right now.

The meeting tomorrow will be mainly about the current designs, things involving the "major announcement" which is coming up soon (it should really be very soon now), and perhaps some more discussions regarding "Troika."

Right now I'm off to working through "The Connection" again, but I might save working through the complete draft for tomorrow, since, as I said, I'll have to finish the behind the scenes special. And once I do that...24 TIME!!! WOOOOOOO!!!

Alex

That new main character...

Well, after all the speculations, and the different possibilities that might have been considered by the fans, it has finally been announced today: the name, position, and background of our new main character, DC, or as we can call him from now on: De'van Callen.

We're about six and a half weeks away from the premiere, and I'm anticipating it just as much as you are, simply just because I'm looking forward to seeing the reactions to the new episodes. We've left on a high note, if I dare say so myself. I was very happy with how the season one finale turned out, and I'm quite proud of the seven episode arc that we've done. That, naturally, made it challenging, since we want to maintain that high note in any case, or ideally even improve. Now, without sounding incredibly vain, I personally think we have improved. Adding a new main character to the mix is certainly one of the improvements. From what we have written so far, Callen is just turning out to be a wonderful addition to an already wonderful group of characters.

As I've mentioned over at our forums, we decided to go for a more classic Stargate setting this season. This means having one character as base/station commander, and having another character as the team leader. Both Grant and Callen will be faced with many challenges in their new positions. Grant is more the action-guy anyway, which is why his character now will finally receive the chance to go out into the adventure, and have some fun, without having tons of paperwork waiting for him on his desk. When the season kicks off, there will be a dangerous development which will shake Vorian space up to quite some extent; this major development has been mentioned several times, and trust me, it will be big. It will have an impact on the entire season, and it will be a recurring theme as the season progresses. It was this development which became the crucial factor for why this specific man, De'van Callen, would be chosen to become the new commanding officer of Horizon. Callen's background, his famous name, and his strong leadership skills are of course the additional reasons.

Looking at our virtual cast, Dennis Haysbert is just perfect for this character in so many ways. I will admit, I had considered him very, very early on because he just never ceases to impress me on 24. He's simply a great actor. I realized he'd be a wonderful choice for the Horizon equivalent to General Landry on SG-1, and Dr. Weir on Atlantis. So, when actually fleshing out the character of De'van Callen, I did have Dennis in mind, which turned out very beneficial. But just as Colonel Grant is not Jack Bauer, or David is not Tony Almeida, Callen is not David Palmer. These aren't the same characters as on 24; they're just envisioned to be played by the same actors, which has nothing to do with the fact that they're on 24, but more with the fact that I saw them there, and thought they'd be great choices for these specific characters. This goes for our entire cast, by the way. Each of them have played some very different types of characters at one point or another. So you see, even if it's virtually, we don't type-cast actors. We write new and original characters, and then go out and look for talented actors who we'd want to play the characters if we were on television. And what a great group of people we've found. Once I end up working in the business, and will have the opportunity to meet one or the other in person, I'll have to let them know about the virtual television show I cast them on. Yup.

Speaking of television shows (what a great transition), last night I finished re-watching Season Four of 24. I sat down with some delicious Diet Coke and some popcorn to watch the final two episodes. Great show. Incredible season finale. When I saw it the first time, I was surprised by how it had ended. A wonderful way to end the season, and to go into Season Five. And I do have a bit of an idea of what happens early on in Season Five, because there's this website and forum I frequent, and they post the latest info. The new season just started shooting two weeks ago actually. There aren't any too big spoilers as of yet, and even if there will be, I will stay away from them. But from what I do know...can't wait until January comes around!!! Can't wait for Season Four on DVD in December!!!

Last year they had this really great special DVD feature: it was a prequel, which was actually a short film, which depicted the events that had taken place between Seasons Three and Four, and which lead right into the season premiere. From what I hear, there will be another feature like that included into the Season Four DVD set; however, this prequel will be 24 minutes long, that's if what I've read is correct. The former prequel was about 6 minutes in length. Well, can't wait. I'll now start re-watching Season One very soon, followed by Season Two. I'll keep you posted, as usual.

By the way, I did go out and buy some Diet Coke after my last entry. I realized that particular store does sell Pepsi after all, but I didn't find any Diet Pepsi. Now, one could wonder why always diet? Diet Coke? Diet Pepsi? Diet Pepsi Lime? Is it because I'm obsessed with maintaining my wonderful, attractive, and girlish figure? Yup. Considering the amounts I consume, I just couldn't do that with the non-diet versions. I actually used to work out on a regular basis, before I kind of stopped doing it on a regular basis. It's a shame, I know. But I'm planning to get back to the gym at some point this year, though. I'll let you know once I do. But either way I just enjoy Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke. I know some people who don't; they prefer the "real thing", but I love it. Tomorrow I'm headed to do some more shopping, and it's time for fill up the supplies of Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke. In case you were wondering, you'll always find one or the other in the refrigerator around here.

Yesterday I've started working on the script for "Disconnected". It might seem that I'll write the whole script after all because of time reasons. We want to have at least a first draft of it done before getting to the script for "Troika", since the first four episodes of the season are really quite closely connected. They kind of introduce the new season, while "Providence" is the first regular Season Two episode. So, since I ended up having a bit more time available than Joe this week, I've already gotten started on it. I wrote and revised the teaser yesterday. Today I started act one, and finished it. Then I started revising it. Now, I'll be going through the whole thing, the teaser, and act one, and again do some revisions, before moving on to act two tomorrow. Writing is rewriting is an old saying, and that's how my writing style works. Can't wait to finally do this for a living, as you might imagine.

Well, work on this script is going very well so far. There's this one big scene in act one, which really sets up the whole deal, and explains what exactly we will be doing later in the episode. It's quite technical, but it ended up going more smoothly than I expected. I've been having fun with some new scientist characters, that make their first appearance in this episode. The whole scene ended up a bit longer than I expected, which means I'll be deviating a bit from the outline, and I'll be moving what was actually meant to be the final scene of act one up to become the first scene of act two. At least two scenes from the outline will have to be cut from the actual script. That's pretty much how it goes a lot of times when working on the various episodes. I'll keep you updated on how things will progress. It's very, very likely now that the title will change after all, by the way, since "Disconnected" doesn't seem to fit all to well when looking at the final version of the story.

Right now I wondering if I should start watching Season One of 24. Yeah, I can't be without it for too long. But maybe I'll rewatch the new episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis tonight. Again, some great episodes last Friday. I say that, as usual, without spoilers. So I'll just give you a great. I seem to be using that word a lot during this entry, but hey, what should I say? The things I call great are great in my opinion. I also thought that BSG was great. In fact, I think that this was the best episode of the second season so far. I've heard some other opinions, and interestingly they were the same as my own. Wont' be giving away spoilers, but I like where the storylines seem to be headed from this point forward. I just have to decide now what I'll be watching tonight. I'll let you know in my next entry what I ended up doing.

I'll talk to you later.

Alex

These blog entry titles...

At times it seems to become increasingly difficult to come up with an appropriate title for the new entries. Well, but here we are. Some first info on "Disconnected" got released today, and this afternoon we've spent almost an hour discussing the details of this particular episode. Let's just say it's quite a challenging script because there are many little technical details which we have to work out, and we did, for the most part.

So since this episode involves the Stargate to a very heavy degree, we have to keep in mind a whole lot of things which have been established about the gates over the many years of SG-1 and since Atlantis premiered. Well, we've figured out how to do all this. There's some research to do regarding some scientific aspects, and I'll be reading up on those things later on. Because of time reasons, Joe and I have both been working on the outline for this episode, and currently I'm reworking some earlier parts, as I'm working toward resolving the situation in the end. The fifth act presents a whole new challenge, because here we don't have to set up and explain a problem in a scientific plausible way, but we actually have to solve the problem. But we're getting there too, and the episode stays on schedule. The outline should be done and ready by the weekend, and next week we'll be able to proceed to the script.

Marian has been making some great progress on the episode she is currently working on. For this one we've only got a very interesting and somewhat misleading working title: "Body Snatchers". That actually came from the initial idea, which has changed a lot, so it's no longer fully accurate. You could also call this "The Mystery Episode", because there's a great mystery involved, and if it pans out right you should not be able to tell until toward the end what it is. But we really need to come up with an appropriate title at some point.

While we're at it, I'll throw in another working title, and this one should give you a clue: "Sivok Returns". Yup, he's still out there, as we've learned at the end of last season's finale "Judgment Day". We'll check in on what he's been up to recently.

As I'm typing this I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go and buy some Diet Coke, because the supplies are currently empty. I've mentioned several entries back that I switch regularly between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. Don't know about you, but I like them both. So if I don't go over to the store to buy it now, I'll be without it until tomorrow. Hm. I think I might just go and buy it real quick to ensure I will be able to survive. It's hard to survive without it.

An update on the 24 front: last night I've watched two episodes. Episodes 18 and 19 of Season Four. Five more to go, and my re-watching of the season will be complete. Once I pick up Season One of Battlestar Galactica I'll be re-watching those episodes, and I think it's also time I've watched some Star Trek episodes again. I haven't seen TNG in some time, but I might just watch some of the classic episodes of the original series very soon. With almost 40 years old, that show just continues to be one of my favorites. It's the great stories, the wonderful character dynamics, and just the classic Star Trek elements that make it what it is.

Naturally it won't be long until I'll get to re-watching Seasons One and Two of 24 once again. It's actually been a while since I've seen the early episodes of S1, so it's time to go back and re-experience them. Expect regular 24 reports, as usual.

It's also not all too long until S8 of SG-1 and S1 of Atlantis come out on DVD. So naturally there's some re-watching coming up there as well.

Well, now I'll just get over to the store real quick, and obtain my new supply of Diet Coke. This particular store only sells Coke, but I'll be getting some Pepsi soon as well. Hey, you have to keep a balance with these kind of things. I'm sure you all agree with that. Where would this all end if there wasn't any kind of balance to keep things interesting?

Until next time! Have a good night!

Alex

An update...

Let's start with a quick movie update: I've finally seen the new War of the Worlds movie last week, after also having seen the original. I liked both of them. I thought the new version was a really well done remake of the original. It stays very, very true to the original actually, although it in a way tells a different story. All the characters are new ones, and the situations are a bit different as well. But I have to say that I was really impressed with how the movie works as a completely new version, but still stays very true to the original version.

I've always been a fan of Steven Spielberg; I think he's a great director. I like how he's been doing very different types of movies over the years. I actually forgot to mention that the mini series I was talking about in my previous entry, was produced by Steven Spielberg. What made me realize that I didn't mention that was the fact that Joe Mallozzie brought it up in his blog over at GateWorld. He didn't bring up the fact that I didn't mention it, but he brought up the mini series with regard to the fact that it went up against SG-1 and Atlantis. But it was also on again on Saturdays as well as Sundays. I caught the episodes I saw on Sundays, so don't you worry, I haven't been betraying Stargate. Just for the record.

Anyway, I loved War of the Worlds. I've seen some various critics about it, but my personal opinion was that I thought it was a great movie. In a more technical review, I was particularly impressed with how some of the car scenes were shot. I liked how the camera kept moving 360 degrees around the car as it was driving; I thought that was a very original way of shooting a scene like that. You should know I always look at movies or television episodes from two point of views. One is the point of view of just an audience member, but then there's the part in me that looks at it as someone who's on his way into the film business; I carefully evaluate the directing, the writing, the acting, the camera work...everything! Naturally I hardly get a chance to really give people my in depth professional review, because most people are actually more interested in was it good or not? Every now and then I give people my in depth analysis anyway. People who know me have learned to life with that; that's the way it is if you're dealing with someone who's a writer himself. So every now and then I explain why I thought a particular script was good, or why I might have thought it could have benefited from some rewriting. Always very carefully examining other people's work. Now I won't include spoilers of course, but as I said, it's a different movie, but very true to the original. The original is pretty impressive in terms of visual effects, considering it's from 1953. No effects like today...okay, nothing at all like today, but considering the time it was made in, I imagine that was one huge visual effects movie back then.

Well, some of you might already know, our new recurring character has finally been announced today: Zach Hoffmann, with two f's and two n's. He doesn't like people getting that wrong. Pretty soon the DC mystery should be unveiled as well. But from the hints that are out there, you're probably already assuming what his role might be. Come on, I know some of you have to suspect it. We've "cast" Dennis Haysbert; he's played the President of the United States on 24. We're not going to just give him a small secondary part now. That wouldn't be right. Suffice it to say he'll be a very important character on Horizon.

I've finished my revised version of "Condition One" which I've renamed "A Time To Survive". Not sure if it'll be the final title, but it's likely since it connects the episode so nicely to part one, which is of course called "A Time To Rise". So it's about rising, as well as about surviving. "Providence" is making some nice progress. Erik is now working on a revised draft after I've handed in some notes. A new writer has joined the staff; her name is Marian, and she is already busy at work on an episode idea she's pitched. Then we've got a 3D artist on the team now, and we call him Vinny, which is derived from his actual name. He's doing some great work. I'll be getting some more descriptions over to him later today, and then he'll start working on designing the Horizon interiors, before getting into the more episode specific designs. And, hey, we've got a look for Horizon. It was designed by another great 3D talent by the name of Andrew. I think it looks pretty amazing, and it's not even finished yet.

Tomorrow I'll have to talk to Joe about "Disconnected". There are some story points he came up with, and some ideas I came up with, and we definitely have to get the final version of the outline done. The way it looks, this episode might introduce yet another recurring character. A character that will add a bit more conflict to the show actually, because he's got a bit of a different opinion on how things should be handled. Thursday we'll have a story meeting, and we'll have to get the final points of "Troika" worked out. Then Sam should be all set to write the script.

Now I'm off to lunch (late lunch), then I'll go over the new draft of "A Time To Survive" before turning it in. I'll also have to talk to Magnus about a possible upcoming musical theme, and I'll have to get to doing a new podcast. I've been informed that otherwise a riot might be just around the corner.

New episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis were again great. SG-1 has a lot of potential for future developments there; Atlantis just introduced its new cast regular, Ronon Dex, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. Naturally I'm still very much busy with re-watching Season Four of 24. Haven't seen an episode since last week; that's extremely long. Boy, in fact, that's way too long. I think I might watch one tonight.

That's all for now. Until next time.

Alex