Untitled Blog... it's Friday, June 9th 2006... only a day before Saturday, June 10th 2006... but there's no title for this blog...

Just figured I'd post a quick blog to keep you apprised of latest developments. Let's start with the really important stuff: I've started rewatching Season Four of 24. Yup. I couldn't help it. After Season Five had finished its run I had developed extensive withdrawal symptoms. What are those symptoms you wonder? It all started with me developing an unusual urge to announce "the following takes place between time-a and time-b" at the top of every hour throughout the course of the day. That's when I realized something was wrong, but I didn't make too much of it yet. However, when I found myself feeling compelled to head out to try and find out where the local CTU here in Houston is located, I came to the conclusion that I must have been in the process of loosing my mind. I realized I was loosing the ability of separating reality from the fictional environment of a television show. But I tried to ignore that, and pretend that everything was fine. But only a few days later, I went to work and... my memory is a little sketchy at this point, so bare with me. The next thing I knew, I was pointing a pen at a confused man's head, asking him intently where the bomb is. He was unable to provide me with a satisfactory answer, and I was just about to proceed to a more "invasive" questioning method, when a co-worker pointed out to me that my name was in fact not Jack Bauer and that that pen was not a weapon. Confused I was when I went home that day, still keeping close track of the time so that I would be aware whenever a new hour/episode was about to kick off. Eventually I realized there was only one solution... I had to start watching 24 again. It was the only way out. Deep down I knew that if I were ever to regain my sanity, I had to grab one of the DVD sets, place the DVD into the DVD player, and hit the play button. Aaaaaaaaand... voila! Here I am. I'm seven episodes into Season Four, and will most likely watch an episode tonight. And I'm relieved to report that, very slowly, I'm beginning to regain the ability to tell the difference between reality and a television show. But it was tough.

Somehow in the midst of all that chaos, I've still managed to do some more work on "Revolution." I'm now in the middle of act four, and things are looking good. Our visual effects department (if we had one) will be having their hands full with this episode. I think I've said before that the guest cast list of this episode is quite long, it might be the largest guest cast of an episode of Horizon yet. One of the characters will be returning in a bit of a different way than we're used to seeing him/her. Including this character, and especially including this character in such a unique way, was a last minute idea actually. Often they're the ones that will work best.

A lot of people are probably expecting to see quite a huge space battle take place in this episode. After all, we'll be seeing lots of ships. But you have to wonder... just who exactly could be involved in this battle? All I'll say is... it's someone or something that no one's probably expecting. I'll just leave it at that.

We're running a little late this year compared to last year. Last year this time I was working on the season two premiere script. But I'm glad to say that we've still managed to stay on schedule for the most part. Season Three will probably premiere in November, and - even though we're not yet one hundred percent sure how many episode the season will contain - there'll probably be a shorter mid season break, due to the later premiere date. There's really not too much more to report on Horizon related things. We're expecting Making Of's to be coming out shortly; but I couldn't tell you what the progress on those is, as I haven't spoken to Mike since Tuesday. Will be talking to him this weekend. But I'm sure whenever they're ready, they'll be up. And once I finish this episode, I'm planning to do one or two Making Of's again as well.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some more active staff members on board throughout the coming weeks. I've been pondering a couple of episode ideas that I'll be pitching for Season Three. Naturally I couldn't give anything away here just yet. But it's a few ideas that I'm looking forward to. Speaking of which, we've already discussed a variety of potential Season Three episodes. I think the feeling right now is - at least for me - that we're finally nearing the end of a long marathon, as Season Two is about to wrap. However, after a brief break to recharge, I believe we're very eager to do the whole thing again. And this time take the experience from two seasons, and implement it for Season Three.

I'm off this weekend, including Monday. So I plan to have the first draft of "Revolution" finished by Monday evening. Tomorrow I'll be taking the time to go get a hair cut, so that I'll be looking presentable again. And that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a new update.

By the way, I'm seriously having trouble coming up with blog titles lately. Just take a look at this one. So I'm considering trying a new approach for my next blog. Perhaps I'll do a title in Latin. Keep an eye out for that.

Alex