And Even Yet Another New Slideshow

Speaking of additional scripts, were there any other scripts actually written?  I seem to recall reading on Stuart's site that six scripts were ordered.  Did they actually make it to print or were they killed before they even got started?

According to TPTB behind the pilot, that report was erroneous. They've said no such script order was ever issued by the WB and, therefore, no scripts were ever produced in any way, shape or form. And that's odd because the source for the report was Entertainment  Weekly, which is run by Time Warner Publications, so one would think they might have an inside track on what other Warner divisions are doing. But quite obviously wherever the info came from, it was mistaken in that case. But we should have only been so lucky because, even if six additional scripts had never gotten past the outline phase, we would have still had some concrete ideas where the series was planning to go. As it is, all we really have are some postmortem interviews...

Thanks for the insight, MB.  Too bad that EW report wasn't based in fact.  It would have indeed been interesting to know what was being cooked up, so to speak. 

Interestingly enough, today's quote -

Page 11 - Victoria: 'I've never been big on crowds. (a shrug) Anyway, fewer distractions just means I can spend more time with David.'

- was replaced by Vicki musing with a simple "Hmmm..." in response to Carolyn's explanation of how they deal with 200 rooms.

But getting back to the cell phone vs. TV reception, as Midnite will attest, I'm hardly a big cell phone advocate. Do I own one? Yes. But I resisted getting one until about four years ago, and I'm certainly not as obsessed with mine as some people are with theirs. My feeling is that no adult should always be instantly reachable 24/7 by another adult. So given all that, my first inclination when the subject of reception came up in the script was not to think of cell phones. And when Vicki spoke of how fewer distractions would mean she could spend more time with David, I didn't see a cell phone as that sort of distraction. Watching TV came to mind as a bigger potential distraction. Plus, lack of cell phone reception hardly means that one would be completely deprived of being able to make or receive phone calls. After all, there's still such things as land line phones. They were still very much in use in 2004. And it's not even hard to imagine that with a family as wealthy as the Collinses, the family's and Vicki's bedrooms could each have their own land lines. Throw in separate answering machines and where's the real loss when it comes to bad cell phone reception? And using a landline to converse could be pretty much as distracting as using a cell phone could be when it comes to taking time away from Vicki's time with David, especially considering that Vicki would in all likelihood be making any type of calls on her own time and not while she was with David.

Though when it comes to the dropped dialogue, the whole cell phone reception vs. TV reception is completely incidental up against comparing Collinsport to a third-world country. As I said, I realize it was to emphasize how isolated Collinsport is (plus a start in getting into Carolyn's dissatisfaction with living in Collinsport). But equating any sort of bad reception, no matter how bad that reception might be, could ever come close to being as consequential as some of the very real deplorable conditions in many third-world countries, so at best the comparison comes off as awkward - and at worst, well... Plus it potentially made Carolyn come off as far more insensitive and self-absorbed than I would have liked to have thought they intended. And I really do suspect that's the main reason the whole exchange was completely reworked for the actual pilot.

But anyway, now that all that's behind us, beginning with tomorrow's quote the remainder of the scene will play pretty much as it was scripted - and free of any potential awkwardness...

Because Vicki's originally scripted line referencing David does not appear in the pilot, one of the differences between today's quote -

Page 11 - Carolyn: 'How much did they tell you about him?'

- and what's in the pilot is that Carolyn asks specifically about David, not simply "him." The line she delivers with a bit of artful playfulness is "So, how much did they tell you about David?"

The difference between today's quote -

Page 11 - Victoria: 'Only that he's troubled, and runs through tutors like most kids run through socks.'

- and what's in the pilot is that Vicki sighs before responding and the pilot drops the "and runs through tutors like most kids run through socks" part. And it's too bad about the dropped bit because, unlike the whole third-world comparison, I honestly thought it was sort of cute - and a perfect analogy given what we've been led to believe in the various versions of DS. 

The pilot also drops Carolyn's scripted response to Vicki, which is "At least they were honest." Instead it follows with Vicki's quote for tomorrow...

That is a very Vicki-thing to say.  I am also saddened it was cut. 

Today's quote -

Page 11 - Victoria: 'I read his psych evaluation on the trip up. According to his shrink, he's hyperactive, suffers from A.D.D....'

- is only very slightly differently delivered in the pilot because Vicki says "And I read his psych evaluation on the trip up. According to his shrink, he's hyperactive and suffers from A.D.D...." - and was probably just Marley Shelton's own twist.

Eww...  That is one the least believable pieces of dialogue I have seen from this script.  It's just... awful.  It's terribly cynical to think that anyone in Victoria's position would talk like that -- especially with someone she just met (basically her employer), or that Victoria Winters -- the character -- would use such words.  Psych...  Shrink.

No. No. No.

I can't believe that made the final cut. 

Cousin Barnabas, I would tend to agree.  But this Vicki is very different from any other version of the character we've ever seen.  She's expensively and carefully coiffed and groomed, reads Forbes mag, and seems to have had some medical/psychiatric training--the snippet you just quoted is supposedly typical of how social works specializing in disturbed children talk, amongst themselves, about their cases (and having been privy on occasion to such conversations, it's not really that wide off the mark).

This Vicki seems so far almost more like an update of Julia than Vicki as portrayed in either the OS or the 1991 series.  There's no innocence and certainly no sense of a personal quest bringing her to Collinsport.

I don't remember enough of Vicki's further scenes to say more, but I'll be interested to see how this Vicki plays out as we continue our collective viewing of her journey...

G.

Yes, I would agree that this Vicki seems like the most educated version of the character that we've seen. Not only does she possess a degree in education, it's very probable that she's also schooled in some sort of social work. She's not simply an orphan with a teaching certificate.

Though like the other versions of Vicki there is also a sense of a personal quest to the character because in Vicki's opening voiceover she refers to how she's hoping to somehow finally find answers to the mysteries of her past. From reply #20:

Page 02 - Victoria (V.O.): 'I've been hired to tutor a
troubled boy,'


Page 02 - Victoria (V.O.): 'but I keep feeling like that's
only the beginning of my journey.'


Page 02 - Victoria (V.O.): 'I'm hoping that somehow, out
of the darkness,'


Page 02 - Victoria (V.O.): 'I'll finally find answers to the
mysteries of my own past...'

The difference between today's quote -

Page 11 - Carolyn: 'Trust me, David's problems go deeper than some Portland doctor's psychobabble... (Carolyn stops, realizing she may have said too much.) ...and I hope I'm not scaring you.'

- and what Carolyn actually says in the pilot is that the pilot's version is simplified. Carolyn says "Trust me, David's problems go much deeper than that..." - then similarly to the script, realizing she may have said too much, she follows with - "...I hope I'm not scaring you."

... the snippet you just quoted is supposedly typical of how social works specializing in disturbed children talk, amongst themselves, about their cases (and having been privy on occasion to such conversations, it's not really that wide off the mark).

"Psych eval" is okay for a coworker situation, though usage with clients/employers seems pretty brazen.  But "shrink" with your employer, your client...  It's rather unprofessional and comes across as typical Hollywood.  I've never heard either of the terms used around clients/families, and -- had I -- I probably would still be recovering from the shock.

Yes, I would agree that this Vicki seems like the most educated version of the character that we've seen.

 

She may be educated, but she isn't that smart if she can't understand the difference between a coworker and an employer. 

Those are very good points, Cousin Barnabas.  I've never heard anyone outside a movie say "shrink"--the last time might have been the 1970s.

I can't recall specifically but my memory of seeing this the one time is that there was potential, but there were also some spectacularly awful decisions about characters... can't recall the writing... in some cases I was just too "done" with what was being presented to even pay attention to the dialogue.

This presentation is fascinating, though, especially the material about what was originally written and what made it into the "final" cut (which, from what I understand, was still a rather provisional edit--unfinished FX and I don't think it had been scored?).

best, G.

The pilot had a temp score using pieces of music from the films Jennifer 8, Deep Red, and even Klute - and the practice of using a temp score is pretty much standard for all films when they're in the editing stage. And in fact, some have gone so far as to say that it would have been a challenge for an original score to match the atmospheric cues that were used in the temp score because what was used meshes so seamlessly with what's on screen and even induces goosebumps in several sequences.

As for the FX, it's been reported that about 80% of the CGI was complete, and in some of the instances where it wasn't, partially complete CGI was used. I only remember a few instances where the screen briefly read something like insert such and such here.

And as for Vicki's comments to Carolyn about David, I don't really see a problem with them - especially considering Carolyn instituted the discussion of David's condition. It's not like Vicki went up to Carolyn out of nowhere and started discussing David in clinical terms. Carolyn asked what information Vicki was given, and Vicki responded. And trust me, as someone who worked in education for years, the terms Vicki used are terms that would have been and are routinely discussed as such with families.

The only difference between today's quote -

Page 12 - Victoria: (a smile) 'He's a little boy, not the bogeyman.'

- and how it was delivered in the pilot is that rather than a smile, Carolyn's fear that she's scared Vicki prompts a laugh from Vicki, which prompts a similar laugh from Carolyn.

And as for the next two upcoming quotes in the slideshow, believe it or not, they're delivered exactly as scripted...