It's me...the guy who lives in your computer!

Hey, everyone! It's been almost two weeks since my last entry, so I figured it's time to give you a bit of a heads-up.

Though first I'd like to briefly address a bit of a more serious topic, and say that our hearts go out to all the people affected by Hurricane Katrina, and the tragic aftermath. New Orleans is, I believe, about a six hour drive from here. My grandfather has actually spent the last couple of days helping out at a near-by church where some of the victims of this catastrophe have been taken. It's an event brought upon by nature, but that doesn't make it less tragic. But at the same time, it's been great to see how people have been volunteering to help those who have lost so much, and we've been seeing an incredible support from all over the world.





Now, with regard to some of the brighter topics, I shall let you know that the first three episodes of the season are all finished now. They're just waiting to be released actually. "Providence" is almost done as well; after some final and minor polishing, we'll be having another great episode at our hands. What I love about "Providence" is for one the fact that the episode has a classic Stargate feel to it; you could say it's a "Go through the gate, get into trouble!" episode. I love doing ongoing story arcs, and I'm very happy with the seven episode arc that concludes Season One. But I've felt early on when we began Season Two that we would need some more classic Stargate-style episodes this season. All in all (as I've said before) Season Two sees the return to a more traditional Stargate setting and feel, but at the same time the show is still the show. I'm very happy with how it's been going so far, and I'm looking forward to September 22nd when we'll be seeing some first fan reactions to the new season. What I also like about "Providence" is that it's a story which might make you think about one or two things; it deals with some very compelling topics, which I like very much. Although I think that Erik thinks I'm only saying this because I'm being nice (and I am such an INCREDIBLY nice guy, by the way; my grandparents dog tells me that every time I see him), the truth is, "Providence" is a fantastic episode!

Another fantastic episode is "Troika." If what I've seen so far is any indication, this episode will be great. Joe has been adding a lot of new ideas to it, and he's improved it from what we've initially had in mind for the episode. Let me see if I can sum it up. Hm...you'll see an opening which will shake things up for many episodes to come; not necessarily only Horizon-related, but with regard to what's going on in the Stargate universe at the time Horizon takes place. Then, this event will lead to the return of THAT character (sorry if I'm kind of sounding like Joe Mallozzi now, but I don't know how else to put it), then THAT character will play a role throughout the rest of the episode, and we go on a mission to save THAT specific XXX. But at the same time there's a b-plot going on, which in the initial version of the story was the a-plot, and it deals with THAT OTHER storyline. How's that for some vague episode info? As usual, you may interpret this in any way you see fit.

"Valiant" is coming along very well. Aaron has completed the teaser, and he's currently working on act one. Can't tell you much about that episode actually, except that the Valiant will appear in the episode...at least once...but maybe more than once. Who knows for sure? For those who haven't heard it yet, the Valiant will have a new permanent commanding officer in Season Two. Grant's defintely picked a great guy for the job; couldn't have done it better myself.

With regard to me, I've been extremely busy, and I've just started working on what will be my fourth episode for Season Two. Currently it's got the interesting working title "Callen/Son Story." Although I sometimes also refer to it as "Untitled Callen/Son," "The Callen/Son Story," "Callen/Son," or as episode 2.07. This is another story I'm quite excited about. As all but one of the working titles would suggest, we'll get to see quite a bit of our new series regular, De'van Callen. Let me share with you what I've worked at so far with regard to this episode: we've been kicking around some ideas, and Joe suggested something of which I thought it was brilliantly complex as well as great, with regard to the episode's back story. So, I've been spinning it around a little, and I've come up with an interesting way of approaching this specific plot point.

I know, you'd like to have some more details. Okay, here we go: right now I'm working on the outline, which is also referred to as "breaking" the story, because you break the story into a teaser and five act structure. I'm almost done with writing act one of the outline (the teaser is done of course). The way I see it, the teaser as well as act one will set up the whole thing. Act two will set it up some more, as we reveal this specific other thing, while the final three acts will deal with that thing as well as one or two other things. And in the midst of that, we'll see some other...how should I say...really cool stuff. And...there's a bit of a b-plot that I'm working on setting up. I love the idea, but I'm not yet sure how well it'll fit in, and how much of it will actually be featured throughout the episode. Boy, I'm giving away a tone of information today, aren't I? Alright, I'll admit it, I'm not really giving away all too useful information, I guess, but hey...it's something.

Okay. Now we reach the point in this blog entry where I speak of this specific topic of mine. Even now I can hear some of you saying: "Here we go again." But you didn't seriously think I wouldn't mention it this time, did you? Of course I'm talking about 24. Got four more episodes to watch and my re-watching of Season One will be complete. As I've been watching these early episodes again, I've come to realize again that it's quite obvious that initially the network had only ordered 13 episodes of the show. This is interesting in terms of how the story had to work for a potential 13 episode season, but it also had to be able to be expanded over a full season. Basically you have this big showdown in episodes 12 and 13, which - if changed around a bit - could serve as a conclusion to the season. Obviously the network had eventually ordered a full season of 24 episodes, so after episode 13 the storylines take a bit of a different direction. To stick with with my newly found fondness of referring to things I don't want to name as...uh things, I'll say that the first thing is kind of resolved in episode 13, while the second thing is sort of born out of the resolution of the first thing, while both things are still very much connected to each other, and in the end they're one big thing.Uh...yeah, that should describe it well.

Anyway, so in the middle part of the season, I've found there are a lot of set-up episodes (still great though), and as we approach the conclusion of the season, the show develops a new momentum, which makes the final run of episodes of the season quite impressive. And you just have to love that MAJOR TWIST that occurs at a certain point. Don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. As it should be with shows, the first season is great, but from that point on it gets better and better. If any of the people involved with 24 happens to be reading this blog (yeah, right) good job, everyone! Same goes to the people involved with the Stargate television series (yeah, right; I think I'm lucky if two or maybe, just maybe, three people read this blog).

Okay. I think that's it for today. I don't want to bore you all too much. Next time I'll talk about some other...uh things, very interesting things, which will keep you at the edge of your seats. What these things are? Haven't got a clue.

To quickly get back to Horizon, I'll let you know that with Season Two we're planning to release some specials along with some of the episodes; i.e. more of the Making Of series; I'll be getting started on the one for "A Time To Rise" very soon. We'll also be releasing deleted scenes in the same week as the new episodes. Deleted scenes of course only when it's an episode that actually has deleted scenes. So far you can expect two additional scenes for "Connection" and at least one additional scene for "Providence."

I'll be back soon with more.

Take Care!

Alex