part 2: the writers are in fact insane
The writers' room. Or rather, its home from home. The coffee shop down the road.
Mark sits back. "So, fine-tuning?"
Greg looks up from his coffee. "First, we give thanks on casting. They've not gone for anyone stupid, and they can all act."
"True." Rabia says. "I'm a little worried about the Jenny casting, admittedly - all-action Jenny? Is that wise?"
Mark examines the pen in front of him. "She assured me on twitter that she is fully committed to the task of being an alcoholic pessimist. She's prepared to go method." Pause as he flips it. "Though her boyfriend pointed out that for proof, just check her twitter."
"Dedication is a good thing." Rabia notes. "Though Drew was asking me what accent we pictured for Hawksmoor."
Mark scratches his chin. "I'm not sure about that, to be honest. I think he's American - he's first seen in New York, after all, and the whole alien abduction thing screams American."
Rabia nods. "What he said. He was citing bits in Stormwatch but really hates, hates the whole mecha thing that happens in the Jenny Sparks mini."
Greg eyes her. "The Jenny Sparks mini? He knows about that?"
Rabia grins. "Oh, you didn't know? Drew and Ross are Warren Ellis fanboys. It's pretty amusing, though it'll be interesting on set."
"I think generic mid-west should do. Or whatever one he can pull off best. have we got any plans to mention the abduction in this series?"
"Not that I know of." Greg says, flicking to his notes on later episodes. "Considering we're mostly going with the first 12 issues for plot with a few bits from Stormwatch, the alien abduction is pretty unnecessary. The only ones we really get any handle on about how they got their powers are Apollo and Midnighter, and that's because we've got an episode devoted to them."
"And The Engineer." Rabia points out, picking up her coffee but not taking a sip from it yet. "Injected herself with nine pints of liquid machinery. I don't think we'll go into it in detail, but it's definitely mentioned a few times."
"This reminds me." Greg says. "You know we were planning to have the Change or Die thing as a storyline - how are we going to resolve that? Not to mention having Angie's predecessor as part of the group."
"May have to change that as 'she got her tech from him but he's still an Engineer'. Give him a different name like 'Maker'?" Mark says, sipping his coffee, then looking round, frowning. "Why are there no cookies?"
"They were waiting for a new batch to be baked when we came in." Greg says. "You can get some in a minute. But yeah, 'Maker' works. This reminds me, did we want to do the 'God comes back' thing as the final ep?"
"I'm really, really not sure about that." Rabia says, frowning. "I mean, it worked in the comic but there's no real tension and though a giant faceless pyramid with extra explosions and navigating through its body works on paper, on-screen... meh. You need a face." She pauses, taking a sip of her coffee and leaning back, staring at the ceiling. "All right, how about this: Instead of having Change or Die climax in the second to last episode so it doesn't detract from the final act, we say 'fuck it' and really do the double whammy. Go full-on Rome instead of Galactica. We think everything's fine and they've defeated everything, Jenny's completely fucked up over seeing another of her old friends stroke lovers and some of her old hopes go down in flames, and then we kick them when they're down."
Greg eyes her. "I knew those episodes of Supernatural you did were a warning sign."
Rabia smirks, still looking at the ceiling. "The Winchester boys are there to be hurt, dammit. Any fangirl worth her salt knows that." Pause, she sips some more coffee. "Also, removing the navigation through an alien body will cut down on the effects. The budget people will treat us much nicer if we do. And possibly give us cake."
"The budget people will never give us cake. They're heartless. And we'll have to invent another ep out of thin air, you know." Mark points out. "And guess who's going to have to tie it all in? Oh, just guess..."
"Shh. Know your place, monkey boy." Rabia says. "We'll just have to invent plot. Possibly character stuff."
Mark looks unimpressed. "Character stuff? In this? I thought that was considered just *wrong*. You said so in your outlines."
"We could extend the Blue Albion storyline to three rather than two, and put more flashbacks in." Greg says, getting up. "Hold that thought. Fresh cookies have appeared on the counter."
"You do realise there's already been a batch since we got here, right?" Rabia asks. "Also, get more coffee."
"Yes, but I didn't see them, therefore they didn't exist. Well known philosophical logic." Greg says. "Cappuccino and flat white?"
"With sprinkles." Marks says. "Lots of sprinkles."
Rabia drinks some more of her coffee and eyes him. "It disturbs me that you don't actually care what type of sprinkles they are. He could put anything on there."
"The sprinkles are the important thing." Mark sniffs.
Greg gets back, having managed to get a tray out of the barista due to the extra plate of cookies. "Okay, flat white, cappuccino with unspecified sprinkles, plain coffee and cookies."
"Gimme cookies." Rabia says, reaching for them.
Greg smacks her hand. "Wait your turn. You can have them when you finish your first coffee. Not before."
"Meanie." Rabia mutters, shaking her sore hand and glugging the last of her lukewarm coffee, putting it down and grabbing a cookie from the plate, which she nibbles on resentfully.
"Okay." Greg says, sitting down and crossing his legs after he's put the coffees down and the tray to one side. "If we remove the God Comes Back episode for the final and have Change or Die as the climax, we're going to have to shuffle everything else around. Not least losing a good five minutes off the end of the Change or Die episode for the series ender."
"Actually, much more than that." Mark points out. "We have to have the Jenny waking up bit pre-credits. That's another three minutes gone."
Greg nods. "Okay, so run-down. Pilot, which is the first part of the Gamorra thing. Big bang, introductions to the characters, sets up the universe, proves the world-spanning nature which only they can do. We're keeping the notion that Jenny, Shen and Jack were in Stormwatch Black, but we need to fine-tune the post-credits scene to remove things like the satellite mentions. Yes, Stormwatch were big but they weren't that big. Second ep is the clean-up and continuation. This also includes the Change or Die first mentions, with a shadowy cartel observing this stuff." He says, marking them off on his fingers. "Somewhere in there, the Jenny flashback ep, and the Apollo / Midnighter backstory. Blue Albion is two, after the Jenny flashback ep. Actually, we could have an extra ep where the majority of the action takes place in the past, where the seeds were sown for them fighting off some big beasty in flashforwards. We don't explain that it was Jenny's actions that caused the big beasty until the last scene. Can also shove The High in there some more if you like." He takes a sip of his coffee. "Ow, too hot. Okay, where was I?"
"Gamorra, Jenny flashbacks, Apollo and Midnighter, Blue Albion, another Jenny flashback combined with modern day." Rabia says, making notes. "That's six. We can have the rest of the Authority playing the main characters in the extra ep to really fuck people over and cause fan-conspiracy theories."
"Including ones about The Authority being these characters' descendants?" Mark asks, then says admiringly "You're evil, Ravs, I like your style."
"Added points if the characters are nothing like the Authority ones - Apollo playing the real bastard, Midnighter being chatty and nice, that sort of thing." Rabia adds, making a new document and typing out her own notes.
"Understand that some of the actors will adore you and some will utterly hate you." Greg says, pointing at her with a stirrer.
"I'm a writer, it's what I'm here for." Rabia smirks.
"You still concern me. They should noticed the plans for world domination decorating your house when they hired you." Greg says. "Okay, what with the fact that we have to add the extra Jenny stuff to the final ep, Change or Die was two eps, so we can stretch it out to 3, maybe if we start them on clean-up from another job and then do the search to find it was linked into the Change or Die aims."
"That bit from the beginning of the first Change or Die stretched out to a quarter of the new ep. Got it." Mark says, dipping his finger into the foam of his cappuccino to get some of the sprinkles and sucking on his finger thoughtfully. "Ooo, cinnamon." Pause again. "Okay, we still need another episode since that brings us up to nine."
"To the Stormwatch issues!" Rabia says gleefully.
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