From: "Ed Reynolds" <ed@>
Date: Mon Dec 1, 2003 12:23 pm
Subject: Re: A few questions and comments

> I agree. One thing in particular that we'll want for it is her
interactions
> with the other regulars. We already know about her interactions
with
> Arthur, and Ed brought up the possibility of some friction between
her and
> Griff. I don't know as yet how well she'd get along with Merlin
or Mary -
> although I do have the creativity demon that she might become
something of a
> mother-figure to Mary.

Yes, I think that would be interesting. I'm not sure what to suggest
for Merlin at the present time, but perhaps that will become clear
once we start developing plots and see how the characters'
philosophies are likely to complement or clash with each other in
the various dramatic situations we find ourselves in. (I'd
definitely like to see a little bit more friction in the group this
season. Not that they should be at each others' throats or anything,
but it would be nice to get back some of the lively squabbles and
banter of season 3, as well as maintaining some of the internal
disagreement amongst the travellers that went down well with the
audience in "Flight from the Enchanter", although full-blown
arguments like that ought to be quite rare.) Another thing worth
highlighting is that Jennifer is a civilian and like Mary at the
start of season 3, she won't have any real battle experience. I
think it would be nice if Jennifer wasn't really all that good at
the battle stuff (although to contrast, it would be cool to see Mary
going from strength to strength). Not everyone is naturally adapted
to this sort of thing, and this might give an interesting strength
and weakness to the famous five.

> Too true. (The problem usually arises from the person who created
the
> character leaving TGS without having first shared his or her
insights on
> that character with the staff enough so that others can feel
confident in
> using that character. Kind of a "the person who had the recipe
died"
> syndrome.)

Yes. Having said that, I feel a little more comfortable with writing
Dulci and Leba now.

> Macbeth probably stands in the least need of a bio,
since "Gargoyles" fans
> (and I doubt that anybody working on Pendragon will be unfamiliar
with the
> series) know a lot about him already from the series. But I doubt
that it'd
> hurt to include one.

Yes, it all depends on time and enthusiasm really. I included him
because I thought having a written record of how he and Camelot
interact would be useful.

> A Frankenstein's monster story might be redundant since Coldstone
already
> served as a counterpart to the monster in the television series.
(Of
> course, this also gets into the issue of how people from
relatively recent
> literature - "relatively recent" as in, post-Elizabethan Age - fit
into the
> Gargoyles Universe, as opposed to the ones from ancient and
medieval myths
> and legends. I'd assumed for a long time that the ones after
Shakespeare's
> lifetime generally didn't literally exist in the Gargoyles
Universe - except
> maybe Dracula, and he was based on the 15th century Vlad the
Impaler - until
> I found out that Greg Weisman saw Jean Valjean from Victor
Hugo's "Les
> Miserables" as a "real person" in the Gargoyles Universe. That
was probably
> one of the most astonishing revelations for me that he ever made.)

Although the physical similarities are there with Coldstone -- a
corpse animated by science -- the stories aren't really very
similar. The original monster, however, shows a lot of the ideas
from 'Gargoyles' -- a monster shunned for his appearance, trying to
make sense of the world, and ultimately driven to revenge and then
to despair. My idea was that as he despairs in frozen wastes after
the end of the book, the Guardian Tom emerges from Avalon and he is
taken back there. This opens his eyes to the fact that he is not the
only monster that is unacceptable to the human world, and after a
time he would set out from Avalon again with his hopes somewhat
renewed. There are several angles here that interest me, but I'd
particularly like to see a unique creature in its dying days
desperate to have a positive legacy of its own, both for itself and
to mean that Frankenstein's death wasn't in vain. I think there are
a lot of interesting possibilities to go into here.

(And after all, the development of vampyres in season 2 didn't stop
the introduction of vampires in season 3).

(Mary
> giving Merlin a bit of a tongue-lashing over it - not for turning
her
> ex-classmates into animals, but rather for intervening; she's
taking an
> attitude of "I'm perfectly capable of defending myself without your
> championing me"). If we did it, it would be a relatively light-
hearted
> episode like "The Mirror" and "Vendettas".

It's a funny creativity demon, but I suspect most teenage girls
would have a stronger reaction to their old classmate being a
werewolf so I'm not sure if it would work as an episode.

Speaking of creativity demons for light-hearted stories though, one
that did come to me just last night was a story about the hunt for
the Jules Rimet trophy. The trophy used to go to the winner of the
football world cup, but was stolen a couple of times -- once in
England in 1966, the same year that England last won. At the time,
Brazil was furious because they said it proved that the English
weren't a true nation of football-lovers if their thieves could do
something like this (Brazillian thieves loved the game too much,
apparently). Luckily, the trophy was recovered. After Brazil won the
world cup for the third time, the trophy was kept permanently in Rio
di Janeiro in Brazil... until in 1983, it was stolen again! This
time, I don't think they ever recovered it.

The trophy remains a huge dream for footballers though (albeit now a
replacement version). Indeed, during the Euro '96 competition, when
the now-famous record "Three Lions" was created, it's mentioned as
one of the verses ("Three Lions on a shirt/ Jules Rimet still
gleaming/ Thirty years of hurt/ Never stopped us dreaming"). This
has ended up a national pop anthem of sorts, particularly during the
late 90s, and could be heard at non-sporting events too (e.g. when
Blair returned Labour to power after eighteen years of Conservative
government, his supporters could be hear singing a variation of the
chorus, "it's coming home/ It's coming home/ It's coming, football's
coming home", outside Number 10).

Now, Britain is famously considered a nation of football-lovers. As
Bill Shankly once famously said, "football isn't a matter of life
and death -- it's much more important than that." While the hunt for
the original Jules Rimet trophy would be a change of pace for Arthur
from his usual antics, if he did succeed in recovering it (without
suspicion of being involved in its theft in the first place), he'd
probably become an international hero overnight. (Although perhaps
we wouldn't want to change from the real world in having the trophy
recovered, I'm not sure).

Obviously this would need a bit of explaining so that American
audiences who aren't likely to be as familiar with this sort of
thing can get on board with it as well, but that isn't fundamentally
different from any of the other premises we have. I think it could
be funny and emotional, and an informative glimpse for Arthur at one
way that people bond together (through sport).

(Although that raises the question of which teams the heroes
support. Arthur won't be familiar with football, and Mary will
probably be one of those people who has no interest in the game
whatsoever. I suspect Merlin began supporting one of the South
Yorkshire teams on the quiet while growing up there after his last
regeneration, not that I expect he'd admit it too often --
especially to Mary. Perhaps Barnsley. I suspect Griff is a Spurs
enthusiast, though he wouldn't be able to follow it very well. I'm
sure it's the kind of atmosphere he'd love, and I can quite imagine
him and Leo trying to watch or listen to matches in their youth,
probably against the wishes of the clan elders. Jennifer... hard to
say. But she'd have a particular investment in the Jules Rimet plot
if she and her family were West Ham fans. West Ham players scored in
1966 when England won the cup, you see.)

Another British-centred plot that 'Pendragon' would absolutely have
to touch on (or at least mention) when the chronology catches up is
the Golden Jubilee in 2002.

> I had a creativity demon once of Togrul and Selden teaming up - it
could
> make a particularly alliance, given that Togrul used to protect
mythical
> animals and Selden likes to hunt them. (Probably one of those
awkward
> alliances as a result, with the protagonists winning partly
because of the
> uneasiness between the two partners.)
>
> At any rate, if we ever have Togrul return, we'll definitely need
to find an
> answer to the nit about why he didn't expose Nyctimus to the other
Wardens.

I like the idea of a Selden team-up. Although he's only had two
appearances, they've both been extremely important episodes -- one
introducting Dulcinea, and the other being the season premiere. Not
sure about the plot hole, though. We'll have to think about it.

Ed