The Return (once again)

Hey everyone,

it's indeed happening. I'm updating my blog again. First off, my apologies for not having gotten around to doing this as much as I'd like to. It's not that I don't think of it, or don't want to do it, it's quite simply a matter of time. But, here I am once more.

On Horizon we're working on the last few episodes of the season. Things are looking good, even though the schedule is getting tighter and tighter. But, that's normal when heading toward the end of a season. I'm still working on "Journalist's Day" actually. This one has been quite a challenge. We had talked about doing an episode that's told completely from Zach's point of view early on in the season. And initially the episode was actually supposed to go in a very different direction as it ended up doing. The first concepts actually made it kind of our version of the SG-1 episode "Heroes". There were a few parallels with regard to what it was all about. But, for reasons too elaborate to go into, it didn't work out that way. In short: the story just wasn't working. So, we started from scratch.

What's now "Journalist's Day" is still similar in concept to what we initially had talked about doing, but the story is very different. It's a fun episode, very light hearted in many places. I had a lot of fun writing what might turn out being some of Zach's most memorable lines from this season. There's a really fun scene with Christine and Zach, which involves Christine being dressed in a bathrobe. Nope. Not going any more into that. You'll have to check out the episode for details. The episode also introduces an interesting new character on Horizon. Let's just say, he spends a lot of time in the Mess Hall. And, Zach gets to hide in someone's closet in this episode.

All in all "Journalist's Day" is a fun episode. And, at the same time quite a challenge to write - a fun challenge, though. I'm still struggling with getting the fifth act to work, but it should turn out quite well. Then, I'll finally be able to turn in the first draft, as everyone has already been eager to see it. This one's kind of a last minute deal. Fortunately it's not like that with all episodes.

Vincent just finished the first draft of his first episode, "Aversion". You can expect some great Tom and Lenori moments in this one. Quite a big episode for both of them. Mike is working on his fifth script for this season: "In Times of Despair", the episode that in many ways sets up the big season finale. Some great character moments for a lot of our characters in this episode. We'll see the return of some old friends, some old not really friends but not really enemies just yet, and we'll pick up on a relationship from the past.

Joe has finished his first draft of "Uprising", the Return of the Aschen story. He should be turning it in pretty soon. Looking forward to seeing it. This one has got some nice twists and turns in it as well. Can't really say any more about it just yet, only that both Elin and Seeta will be back. But on who's side will they be on this time?

We've broken the first part of the season finale. We'll be breaking part two shortly. I've started on the outline for part one, while still working on "Journalist's Day" and pretty much every other episode in production.

And, we're FINALLY making some progress in the visual department as well. We've got not one, but three new designers on the team who will be joining Peter in creating designs for future episodes. Nick is our new CG artist. You can find an impressive sample of his work on the GateWorld Horizon Forum. He's working on the Horizon interiors and exteriors. From the conversations we've had so far, this should be quite amazing. He's got some great ideas for how to approach what will become typical Vorian architecture. Then we've got two new concept artists, Michael and Travis. Michael will start off with tackling Vorian architecture in terms of the Vorian home world. Travis will be working on costume designs, starting off with the Horizon uniforms. He's already expressed interest in working on some ship designs as well. Looks like we've got great things coming up.

On other fronts, I'm still car-less, which forces me to spend at least 90 minutes a day riding the bus to work. And, because I love it so much, I'll also spend 90 minutes riding the bus back home. I just love wasting my precious time like that. Sitting in dirty buses, that sometimes might be ridiculosly late, or sometimes strangely early. Hardly ever are they on time, however. But it's fun. Just to think, the time I waste there I could spend with doing other things, like say... recording podcasts. Seriously. Okay. I don't like riding the bus, but I'm very eager to finally get some podcasts up again. The two I've done so far are only available on the GateWorld forum, since the files were too big to go on the website. But, they're available at least - although I'm aware it's inconvenient. For future podcasts, I'll be doing individual files for the teaser and each of the acts again. Just like last season, with one change: better sound quality.

After I finish this blog update, I'll be off to watching last night's 24 on tape. I'm usually off Tuesdays (except for every three weeks), so what I'll do is just save the episode for Tuesday nights, as I'll be less tired than Monday nights. Also, watching it on tape allows me to skip the commercials. They just keep popping up after every act break. Another change in my 24 watching strategy is that I'm not watching the episode trailers until after I've seen the episodes. For the first time in a while, I'm watching the show without having any clue as to what will happen next. Best way to watch it. And, boy, have there been a lot of twists going on lately.

Well, that about wraps it up. I'll try my best to update this blog on a bit more of a regular basis. What can you expect from this week's episode, "Convergence"? In one word: Super-Yusuf! You'll see what I mean. And, interesting little piece of info. During the production of this episode we weren't sure for a while if we should change the title or not, since the title is quite similar to the Atlantis episode, "Conversion". But Mike had ultimately convinced us that "Convergence" was the ideal title, and so we went with it.

And now, before I go, a little something to have made the long wait for this blog update worth it. A little surprise at the end. I'm a big fan of surprise endings, so here's one for you... I will now share with you the two final episode titles of Stargate: Horizon Season Two. Feel free to speculate what those episodes could be all about. Okay. You ready for it? Here we go. The titles of the two part season finale are...

"Preemptive Strike" and "Revolution"

Until next time,

Alex