Blog Wars - Episode 0.279: Untitled Late Night Blog

Hey, and Happy New Year to everyone!

First off, my apologies for being a little later with this blog update as expected. There were actually a few reasons for that, which can all be placed together to form one main reason: time. My problem is really that unlike on Vorian, where you'd have 28 hour days, here we only have 24 hours, which every now and then just don't happen to be enough. These 24 hours do make for one extraordinary television series, though. More on that later.

Anyway, a lot of times I find myself going to this one place where I do some work, every now and then, and then get paid for it. A lot of other times, I find myself writing and producing Stargate: Horizon, which takes up a lot more time than people tend to think. As the showrunner you have a lot more to do than just write your own episodes. I'm involved with every episode from start to finish, which, you guessed it, takes up some time as well. And, then there are those times where I find myself being occupied with that certain private life, that entails things not at all related to... uh, any other things. And, this private life, that contrary what you've been lead to believe, really exists, has been going extremely well, and it might see a pleasant development in its future actually. Can't go any further into that, though, as it's highly classified. But anyway, those are pretty much the reasons for me not having been around as much as I'd like to lately. It's much easier every time I'm over on Vorian, where, as I said, a day lasts 28 hours. Last time I visited the capital city, you wouldn't believe how much I got done in one day. Those four hours do make a difference.

I figured I'd inform you that after long deliberations we've decided to shelf that Ancient/Santa Claus idea I pitched. We might pick it up some time later, but for now there aren't any concrete plans for it. On a related note, things have been very busy lately as the second half of Season Two (or Season 2.5, I guess is the modern term for it) is in full production. We're down to two writers, so I've taken on the task of working on three episodes more or less simultaneously. They're all in various stages of development, though. Since our mid season two parter has now become a mid season three parter, I'm hard at work at writing the script for part three. We've tried hard to keep it a two parter, but after finishing the first draft of "The Chamber", it became obvious that it just wasn't working. The last two acts of the script seemed way too rushed, and there was so much that couldn't be dealt with properly. So, parts of the last two acts have been rewritten, to have the episode now lead up to yet another nice, quite explosive cliffhanger, leading straight into part three, tentatively called "Path of Revelation". Part three is basically a strongly expanded version of what the final two acts of "The Chamber" used to be. Expect some interesting revelations in this one, and a conclusion which I believe will be quite... how shall I say, conclusive.

I'm also working on finishing the outline for "Zach Story" as well as outlining "The Adversary", which will be a fun stand alone episode in which Grant gets to show his tactical skills. We've decided to put "The Game" on hold, and go for "The Adversary" instead, basically because the feeling was that it was time that we gave Grant the opportunity to show himself from his "soldier-side", if you will. "The Adversary" will see him in a situation where he'll be depending on his tactical skills more than ever. Interestingly I started thinking about this episode idea while watching Kiefer on 24. We're still breaking the story, but it's looking to become a fun episode.

Meanwhile Mike is hard at work at "Yusuf Returns", which has been titled "Convergence", but we're still wondering whether or not that title would be too similar to "Conversion". Mike will also be working on "David Story", in which we'll be getting to see David's wife. And he'll also be getting back to "Catch 22", which once worked out should be a great episode to continue our Tok'ra storyline.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, I've been very busy today. I started the script for "Path of Revelation" at about 1pm this afternoon, and I had quite a writing spree. I finished act two earlier this evening, and I'm about halfway through the episode. I'm trying to see if I can break my record, and write a script in say, three days. Wish me luck.

Well, we're less than 24 hours away from Season Five of 24, which kicks off with a four hour premiere -- two hours on Sunday, two hours on Monday. I must say, not often does it happen that you get quite excited about something that's about to air on TV. I'm starting to have this strong feeling of anticipation, and, knowing what that big event in the first ten minutes of the premiere will be (the one that changes everything, as they say in the adds), all I can say is... wow! I'm still rewatching Season Four on DVD, I'm up to 4.14. I probably won't get to the end of the season before tomorrow's (actually today's) premiere, unless I somehow manage to watch ten episodes between now and 7pm central time. Hmmmm. Perhaps I should give it a shot, but if I stay awake all night watching 24, how will that affect my writing spree come morning? Should I give it a go? Have to think about that one.

I'm also watching Season Eight of SG-1 on DVD, but I'm only five episodes in. I was rather annoyed when I came to realize that I had purchased one of those sets that contain the one hour version of "Threads" (thought they had gotten rid of those by now). Now I'll have to send it this rebate that I got online, so that they can send me a replacement disk. I should probably mail that away soon, as it has to be done before January 31st. Looking at it from the positive side, at least I'll be having both versions of "Threads" on DVD. That is, once the replacement disk finally arrives.

Never mentioned this before, but something Joe Mallozzi and I have in common is our love for ice cream. Yup, that's true. Only that I buy mine in cute little boxes, as I have no clue how to actually make ice cream. But I plan to learn that one day. So, today, as I finished act two of the script, I was so proud of myself that I decided to take an ice cream break, before starting revising what I had written. The flavor was triple-chocolate, and I recommend that everyone try it. It's great. A blend of Dutch Chocolate, mild chocolate, and vanilla ice cream mixed with a rich chocolate sundance sauce. That's just what it says on the box.

Well, it's pretty late (or early actually). Now I'll be off, watching -- you guessed it -- 24. Of course. Other developments on the TV front include new episodes of SG-1, SGA and BSG. Some great episodes, and -- almost forgot to mention this -- some great new opening sequences for SG-1 and Atlantis. I must say, some of the best I've ever seen. We should be really grateful to have them back.

Well, that's it for tonight. Next time I'll be able to share my thoughts on the first couple of episodes of Season Five of 24 with you. Only about 18 hours away now.

Until next time.

Alex