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