Hurricane Katrina

I think this blog can not go any further without a mention of Hurricane Katrina.

This is a tragedy on so many levels.

Our thoughts are will you...

"Providence" and Other Stuff

Hey all!

Staff Writer Erik Pasternak here, bringing you the latest from the Horizon front!

I turned it the pink draft of "Providence" Sunday. "Providence" will be episode five of season two, and, will in a sense be the first "normal" episode of the season, as "A Time to Rise" and "A Time to Survive" both mainly help set up the new season, while "Connection" and "Troika" ease us in, introducing us to a couple new characters, including our versions of Zelenka/Lee and a new character Alex has mentioned in his blog, with the initials of H.B. He's a very interesting character, and I think you'll all get a kick out of him. As for our versions of Zelenka/Lee, we actually have two people filling the role, and I know you'll enjoy their interactions and contrasting personalities.

Elsewhere on the episode front, ATTR, ATTS, and "Connection" (no cool abbreviation for that) were all written by Alex, and are all finished. Joe's in the middle of the white (first) draft of "Troika" at the moment, and I know it'll be a great episode, both because Joe is writing it and because Alex, who helped with the story, came up with some great ideas.

Marian Mijinyawa is our newest staff writer, who joined the staff a little after I did. She's working on episode ten at the moment. The working title for that is "In One's Pocket." It's defintely a very interesting episode, and very complex. She's written the outline actually, which Alex is now helping to revise, before writing will begin.

Episode six, titled "Valiant," is a freelance script, most likely our only one this season, is currently in first draft as well. It is being written by Horizon fan Aaron Percival (and crew member for Stargate: Destiny), and the story is absolutely fantastic. Alex also saw it as the perfect opportunity to learn a little bit more about the Draque, which we'll be doing in this episode.

Episodes seven through nine, and eleven are currently in various stages of pre-production, and most of them do have stories. We're not quite sure who is writing them yet, although I bet Alex will be penning eleven, as he not only pitched it, but practically wrote the episode outline in doing so!

We've also been talking a little bit about where we want to go this season, and its really pretty cool. You'll defintely see the expansion of the Horizon mission, as we are adding additional teams to the station. We'll also return to Earth later this season, and we'll see Henry Hayes, who is nearing the end of his second term, be replaced with a new President.

Anyway, exciting things are happening beyond the Horizon here and I hope you'll be enjoying them as much as I do.

--Erik

Season Two is nearly here

Season Two is fast approaching and with that comes a lot of hectic meetings, last minute changes to story ideas, new character creations, a BIG surprise, and tons to do on the website.

Having already read Parts One and (a draft version of part) Two of new season, all I can say is WOW!!! Alex who has written both parts has done a fantastic job with kicking of the season with style. I can also let you know that the rest of the episodes are just as good (if not better, but don't tell Alex I said that ;)) with episodes from Joe, Eric, Alex, Marian, myself and Elite Anubis Guard ( a SG:H fan who you can find and talk to on the forum).

With not one but TWO new writers for this season (Eric and Marian) on board, season two is taking a more traditional Stargate stance - in my humble opinion - with plenty of off world missions where our favourite team gets themselves into a bit of bother. That being said we are also sticking to the story arch setup in Season 1 and trust me you will be hearing loads from the Enoly.

In addition, we have a 3D graphic designer, Vinny, who will be producing screenies to go along with each episode.

For more information about the crew behind Stargate:Horizon have a look at the Cast & Crew section of the website.

As for the website, what can you - the SG:H fan - expect?

Not only can you access all of Season 1 episodes, but also, come September, you can get the first of the Season 2 episodes. There will be more downloads such as wallpapers, musical themes and episode podcasts.

The Fun never ends !!!!

~Sam~

Secrets of Horizon...

This was a suggestion that came from the Horizon forum.

We are introducing a ‘Secret’ section for members of the forum that contains interviews with the staff behind Horizon, downloads and even episode previews… It’s really a way of getting people to register on the forum and start discussing the show. At the moment we have 40 members, which for a fictional show is not bad at all…

It is hoped that by having this secret section that more people will register on the forum and actively take part in the discussion of all thing Stargate and anything else that takes their fancy…

Guess I’d better get cracking on those wallpapers and banners ;o)

~ Sam ~

Season Two plans!

Well, it's been a while since I've last posted something here, and I want to apologize to all the loyal people following this blog regularly. I keep saying I'll post something soon, but the truth is there's just been very much work lately. By very much work I'm only referring to work on Stargate: Horizon, by the way. That's also the reason for the podcast commentaries being a bit behind schedule, but I'm happy to say that the commentary for "Home Front" will be going online today with the new episode. Audio commentaries for the remaining Season One episodes will be following.

With Season One being almost completed, and the season finale airing in a week from today, I figured I might just talk a little about Season Two today. I figure it might be interesting... Now, first seasons of television shows are what you normally use for finding your footing; finding out what works, finding out what doesn't work. It's the season that shows you in which areas you need to improve, and in which areas you're on the right track. That's the way it works on television shows, and virtual television shows, otherwise known as online series, aren't any different.

So at the end of the first season the staff gets together, and looks back. I can say that I'm really happy and proud of the things we've done this past season. I think Horizon has managed to evolve into a series which is in many ways different from it's televised cousins, but at it's core it is still Stargate; it's what Stargate has always been about. I believe it's definitely managed to capture that typical humor that Stargate has always had. Suffice it to say that in Season Two the show should really start finding its footing, and it will.

Now, one thing that I realized when looking back at the season was that Horizon, the space station itself, while being a really huge station, doesn't really seem as huge as it actually is. By that I mean we only get to see small parts of the station; we see corridors, quarters, the control room, the reactor room, etc., but there are a lot of parts of the station which we have yet to see. I guess you know where this is going... yep, in Season Two we'll see some new areas of the station, and if we were shooting the episodes we'd be having some new sets for Season Two in addition to our standing sets. I guess if we were shooting the show, the sets would be under construction right now, and I could tell you about how great they are going to look once they're finished. Well, I'm going to tell you that they'll look great anyway. They look great the way they're being envisioned, and if we find the right people for it we might be having some graphics and images coming up for Season Two. We're already in the process of hiring additional writers, so we'll start looking out for people for the art department as well.

Now one could ask what kind of new sets are we going to be seeing? But could I answer that question without giving away spoilers? Hm, I'd have to say I could... but then again the season isn't even officially in production yet, so things might still change around. So all I can say is that this new section of the station which we'll see has always been there, but the crew just hasn't been using it so far. In the first few episodes of Season Two they'll actually be re-fitting those parts of the station. I'm afraid that's really all I can say right now. But I have a feeling you're going to like it; I'm definitely looking forward to having that location around for playing out scenes inside of it.

So what can we expect from Season Two? We'll be getting a much better idea of how HUGE Horizon actually is (in addition to that we can expect a whole lot of other great things of course). The best way to describe it would be that while in Season One the station really was just a remote science outpost (with one Stargate aboard and another one outside), it'll turn into a center of buzzing activity in Season Two (still with one Stargate aboard and another one outside). The station continues becoming a more and more important strategic post, and that will be underlined very strongly in the new season. Let's just say it will definitely be a fun development.

Now, some time ago I hinted toward the possibility that there might be a new character showing up at some point. All I can and want to say about that right now is, I think you're going to like what we have in stock for that, too. Is there going to be a new character joining the cast or not? I'll just leave that open for discussion for a while. And, please, feel free to discuss it... I'll just keep giving those subtle hints.

Well, that's it for now. I'll really try and make some more new entries over the next few weeks. I should be able to do that, now that Season One is pretty much completed. I'll be keeping you up to date on the latest developments.

I hope you'll enjoy tonight's episode.

~Alex~

Production Report on upcoming Season One episodes:

Currently we're in the final stages of Season One. We will start airing the final six episodes of the season tomorrow night, and everything looks pretty well; we're on schedule, and we should be able to keep the release dates as they were announced.

What can you expect from the upcoming episodes? Well, let me say there is a brought variety of different types of episodes coming up, and at the same time they're all connected to the overall seven episode arc which will wrap up the season. With tomorrow's "In Purgatory's Shadow" we'll be continuing the events which were started in "The Enoly". We'll be learning a bit more about the Enoly, and the intentions of this mysterious species. "Counterpoint" will be the big climax of the three-parter, and I think if you liked part one, you're definitely going to like parts two and three.

An episode I've been talking about a couple of weeks ago is "Home Front". As I mentioned that episode will be exploring some completely new territories; we'll be seeing what consequences the new and public International Stargate Command is causing on Earth. And we'll also be bringing back the Vorian extremists; those terrorists, or religious fanatics if you will, that were first mentioned in "Rise of the Aschen". And guess what, their group will actually have a name. Yep, they have a really interesting name, which I can't reveal to you at this point... well, I could... but that wouldn't be right... so I won't.

As we approach the final four episodes of the season, we'll be dealing with some very interesting new story points which will lead to a pretty big finale. I won't be giving away any story points here, but suffice it to say that the season finale is going to have some really huge consequences for the Stargate: Horizon universe.

Currently we have episodes 1.18 and 1.19 already written; they're pretty much ready to go out (how nice to have some episodes ready a bit earlier for a change); Joe Hodkiss is writing episode 1.20 "Absolution" right now, and it should be ready on time. The timing will be close on that one, but cutting it close is something we've been doing a lot this season. I've already written 1.21 which is currently being called "Secrets and Lies"; we originally called it "Inquisition", but I realized that just wasn't fitting the story and the tone of the episode. It developed a bit in different directions throughout the writing process, so I ended up changing it. Right now I'm in the middle of working out the story for the season finale; the title of that episode I won't be giving away just yet, but it will be one that really sums up what that episode will be all about. The story is all worked out, so what I'm actually doing right now is writing the outline for the script, and I'll be starting work on the actual script next week. A lot of story lines and threads we've been following over the season will be coming together in this episode.

So, with having a bit more time in the schedule, I've been able to direct some of my attention on recording podcast commentaries for our episodes; I just recorded the one for tomorrow's episode earlier today, or actually yesterday, because now it's seven minutes past midnight, and it's actually Thursday (at least in my corner of the universe it is). Yeah, that's how inspired I was by the fact that you can find commentaries like that on the Sci-Fi website (Battlestar Galactica and Stargate: Atlantis), so now I'm doing my own little series of commentaries. What an unusual and intriguing thing to do; you know, it's a nice way of practicing for when I'll be doing some first DVD commentaries, which I'm planning in at some point in the near future.

~Alex~

Writing is rewriting...

You want to know something really funny? Okay, you asked for it. Sometimes you're so consumed in what you are doing, that you really start loosing perspective. Now this is completely normal. It's normal, but it's also funny. Well, what I mean is simply that it is a tone of work sometimes to get a script ready on time so that it can go on the air. What you should know is, it's not only about writing the episode. If it were that easy, all you'd need is a good story, break this good story into a quality outline, and then write the script. There you go. Well, but as I said, it's not that easy.

There's an old saying which is "writing is rewriting". In other words, it's not just about writing the script; in fact, very often that's the easy part. Writing is rewriting because in pretty much every case in which you write something, you're going to have to take your work, go through it and change certain parts of it. If you just write something, and leave it the way you originally wrote it, it most likely will not work. You have to polish it, perfect it, play around with sequences, scenes or as little as a couple of words of dialogue, if you want to make your creation work. Be it script, novel, short story, just simply anything. In our case it's obviously a script.

What you should know is, we approach writing episodes just like you'd do it on any television show. The regular process is to work out a story idea to the point where you'll be able to write a solid outline. What is an outline? I'll take the liberty and quote Stargate writer/executive producer Joe Mallozzie when answering that: "An outline is a blue print of the script you'll write". That means you break your story into a teaser and five acts (some one hour shows use a four act structure; it doesn't affect the approach). Once you do that, you know exactly what will happen in act one, act two, all the way until act five. Then you start going through the set-up; that means you write a short description of every single scene which will be in your script. You write what the scene will be about, why it will be there, and where it will take the story. It should give you a clear idea of what the scene's purpose is. If you look at a scene, and you can't answer the question "Why is this scene there? What is its purpose?", then you'll have to seriously rethink your script. Every scene is there for a reason; to drive the story forward, to evolve a certain character's development in the story. The outline will help you reaching a point where you have a clear overview of all of these things.

Once you have the outline (which in itself can be rewritten several times) you may begin to write the script. This is very often an extremely easy process, or an extremely difficult process; it varies. Once you reach the point where you have a first draft of your script, you'll need to look at it, listen to your fellow writer's comments on it, and in nine of ten cases you'll have to make some changes. So here we go; writing is rewriting. You change and rewrite pieces until the very end, until you reach the point where you have a script which works.

Now add to this whole process the fact that you are feeling like you're constantly running out of time. You have certain deadlines to meet, and you want to meet them. Otherwise you won't be able to publish the episodes when they're supposed to be published. Believe it or not, it's a fun process. I like working towards something which you'll eventually be able to enjoy. In a funny way I also like having to deal with deadlines... well, at least sometimes... not all the time, I admit it, but... okay, actually this might sound a bit confusing, but consider this thought: Basically very often the fact that you have to meet a deadline can inspire you to come up with some great ideas. It can inspire you, or drive you crazy; it'll be one of those two. Now if you wanna work in the television industry, it should better be the first of those two. If it's the second, just make sure no one notices, and you'll be fine too.

You wanna know a little secret? If you're working on television you'll have to accept that running out of time might sometimes be your inspiration. Yep, that's the way it is. I did mention that my intend is to do this for television, haven't I? I started off with producing an online series, and I'll go from there. I guess that's how you do it in the 21st century. And since I have no problem whatsoever with deadlines (even if I did, I wouldn't tell you... clever, isn't it?) I think I'm qualified for it. You know, I think I'm getting off topic now... but that tends to happen sometimes, so consider yourselves warned.

What my initial point actually was, very often you're so consumed in your work, meeting your deadlines, making sure each episode is as good as in any way possible, you won't really know how good something you've been working at can actually be until you get to sit back and look at the final product. Of course you think it's good, but you might just reach the point where you realize it's not just good, it's great. So just recently we've made the experience where we believed we had an episode that was going to be good. It was a difficult episode to write, and on that one we definitely knew that writing is rewriting. So after getting the script to a state were it seemed good, it was ready to go out. And what happened with this particular episode was, it turned out to be one of the most successful episodes; it was a fan-favorite. Everyone seemed to love it; it wasn't okay, it was great. And after it was out I looked at it, and realized...you know what, this is really great! And it was. It is a wonderful episode.

And here we're back to where I started, you often work so hard on something that you won't know how great it might be until you're able to look at it, without working on it, and just approach it from an audience, from a fan's point of view. For me, that's a very rewarding thing. That's one of the things I enjoy about this. And for that I'm willing to work very hard. It's a great gift to work on something you actually enjoy, something you can read yourself, and say this is good. I know how this is on a virtual series, now imagine how it is on a television series. You get to watch the final cut of the episode you worked on, and you realize...this is pretty amazing. For that I'm willing to accept deadlines, tight schedules, and all the other things that keep a producer's life interesting.

Now this whole thing is not just something writer's experience; I was listening to an audio commentary the other day where actors were talking about the same thing. Sometimes you're so consumed in what you're doing, you just don't know how great it really is. And I remember thinking, that sounds very familiar.

Interesting little revelation, isn't it? I was looking at the final draft (or final cut) of tomorrow nights episode, and I was again thinking... hm, this is a great episode. I'm pretty sure you'll like it. What I can tell you about all our upcoming episodes is, that they're all developing towards some really big highlights. You'll be seeing an arc connected in several intricate ways; and I think you'll be surprised by some of the things that will happen. We've just renewed ourselves for a second season; most likely we'll be doing 24 episodes, and I'm looking forward to some new things we'll be exploring this next season. Just keep following the series. If you liked it so far, I think you're gonna have to love some of the things we have in stock. I have a feeling we're just now starting to find our footing, and we'll be making some good use of it.

That's it for tonight's issue. I'll leave you with a little clue that will make you wonder... is this guy actually human... or not?

Live long and prosper!

~Alex~