One of my alternate yahoo accounts received an email from a Hajia Mariam, the widow of a Nigerian General, who was looking to for help in accessing the $12.6 million dollars her husband had left behind. Well, this was just the kind of offer Aloysius P. Hazzencockle was waiting for…
“Dear Hajia,
You have perfect timing! Due to some mysterious delays and unforeseen complications, I’ve been unable to access monies owed from my various lucrative side projects (my Irish Lottery winnings, my U.K. National Lottery winnings, my Ocean Blu Lottery winnings, my cut of a cash transfer from a bank in Burkina Faso, my cut of another cash transfer from another bank in Burkina Faso, my cut of a different cash transfer from a different bank – also in Burkina Faso, my Lottery Board winnings, my inheritances from several dying individuals who contacted me via the internet in their final days, my British National Lottery winnings, and, of course, the handsome sum I’ve been promised for helping a deposed Nigerian Prince relocate to Scottsbluff, Nebraska) and, in the interim, have fallen behind on my payments on the Orphan Castle/Cheap Labor Factory I operate. For the children of course. The money you are offering would go a long way toward ensuring the little tykes continue to have a roof over their heads, considerably less balsa wood shavings in their meatloaf supreme, and actual working respirators for those pesky asbestos clean-ups. It would also, incidentally, help me afford the onyx and pearl-inlaid gold-trimmed backgammon set I’ve been eyeing, as well as that new 2009 Ford Excessive (seats 12 and comes with a picnic table and a hibachi grill in the back!).
Get back to me!
Sincerely,
Aloysius P. Hazzencockle”
Well, received a little bad news from the Art Department on the Whispers front. Apparently, the flare sequence may not fly. The flares they tested were problematic in that they released an unmanageable amount of smoke and dripped a substance that could effectively burn through clothes. I wanted to suggest the crew just suck it up on the day (not literally of course because it turns out the flares are also highly toxic), but relented and suggested we look into alternatives. James is off to brainstorm with the model shop and hopefully come up with something less deadly but just as visually satisfying. Failing that, I’ll have to cut what is a very cool, exceptionally creepy sequence. Ah, the harsh realities of television production.
Speaking of Whispers – I got a call from Paul McGillion yesterday who touched base to thank us for The Seed and tell me how much he’s looking forward to Whispers. Of course he says that now but his upbeat tune could change once those smog machines start running overtime.
In other production news – Will Waring is working on his director’s cut of The Seed, Broken Ties is shooting the Solen scene, looks like the Visual Effects department is going to have their hands full with The Daedalus Variations, Carl just put out the blue pages on Ghost in the Machine, Brad and I await the network/studio notes on The Shrine of Talus and Whispers, Carl continues work on Tracker, Alan has gone to script on The Queen, while Marty G. hammers away at the still untitled mid-season two-parter.
Finally, I was giving our book of the month club some thought and wanted to show my appreciation to those taking part. So I went through the previous BOTM club discussion and gathered up the names of those who participated in last month’s chat (including multiple entries for those who commented on more than one of the titles), rolled my twenty-sided die, slew an ogre and came up with a winner. I did the same for the previous BOTM discussions as well. Congratulations to Iamza and Thornyrose! Send me your addresses (moorsyum@yahoo.com) and your prizes will be on their way.
Today’s pics: Oh, this and that.
Okay, I seem to have fallen a little behind on the mailbag. Let’s see what I can do about rectifying that…
mom2398 writes: “Did you say, in an earlier post, that Michael Shanks will make two appearances in Season Five?”
Answer: Michael is presently scheduled to appear in our mid-season two-parter.
Squeakiep writes: “Any chance we can get a scene by scene on The Last Man???”
Answer: Sorry. That was Paul’s script.
Billy Rencich writes: “Was catching up online and came across Cooper’s new interview. So SciFi made you guys add Ben Browder, eh?”
Answer: Nope. SciFi was certainly supportive of the decision and we knew they would get behind Browder from their very positive experience working with him on Farscape, but the decision to cast him came from the production. In fact, I remember being in Hong Kong when the casting discussions were going down, and emailing them the suggestion to go after Ben from my room at The Peninsula.
Majorsal writes: “Do you consider resolving a relationship to be closing a storyline?”
Answer: That depends on the characters involved. In the case of Rodney and Katie Brown, it certainly closed that storyline.
Kelly writes: “That said, we’ve a specific question about Sam’s death: did the transporter actually fail?”
Answer: Yes, it did.
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