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November 02, 2007

Misinformation...

So, further to last week, the writers are back in there, breaking Season 5. And, as Joe Mallozzi put it, it’s slow-going. But I have faith. They’ll pick up speed. After all, you don’t make 300 episodes of a tv show without having a literally endless supply of new stories. But right now they’re in there talking concepts. Often the story of an episode comes out of a simple idea, or a kernel of an idea that the writers build upon.

Take this week’s episode, Tabula Rasa. It started with an idea of McKay in a room, tied to a chair, with no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. Talk about a riveting teaser! No, don’t worry – I’m not going to spoil it for you. But the tease was why they made that story.

Wait - this just in! That's actually not true. See, I wrote an earlier version of this blog and told Joe about that last paragraph, which was something Paul told me, and he said, "That's not true". So I'm fixing it! Joe told me that Alan pitched a story about the Atlantis team going offworld and getting infected by some spores or something that affects them. And Joe had always wanted to do an amnesia story. So that's how it went down. To be fair, it is hard to keep track of how these story ideas originate. Hell, many a copyright law suit has been brought from such disagreements. Anyways, THEN, and only then, did Alan come up with the cool tease. But to be fair to Paul, the tease is the most memorable part, and the story gained momentum based on that tease (some stories die in the room before they are developed unless they have a "cool" factor.

It’s also a cutting edge visual story. As you will see, the story isn’t told chronologically. It takes place in flashbacks and in the present, and it cuts back and forth quite regularly. So they decided to “treat” the cinematic look of the present day story line to differentiate it. You’ll find it’s quite “pushed”, meaning desaturated and high contrast. I love that look personally. I think you will too. Jim Menard, the DOP, did a terrific job (it was actually done in camera, not as a post-effect).

From the writer’s standpoint, Alan McCullough, who wrote the script, told me he did several drafts of the story as it is presented in the show – as in, not chronologically. But then, just before handing it in, he wondered if the story actually made sense. So he decided to take it apart and outline it chronologically, just to make sure he got the logic right. And sure enough, he found some logical wrinkles in there he had to iron out. Alan said it was a really tough write. But the result is a cool episode.

Enjoy!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at November 2, 2007 01:49 AM