A Writer's Tale (Production Blog)

[Grizz]

Hello there and welcome to this brand new thread. That's right - a new thread. Exciting times, huh? No, not really, but anyhow. The purpose of this thread is to track progress on the creation of the new season (without giving much away, of course) and then for myself and Griffiths to share our thoughts on how our episodes went - from what we initially envisioned, to what was delivered on the night. This is a replacement for my reviews which I just didn't have time for. As the details for the season opener have gone up today - this shall be forever known as Day One!



Day 1

For my Asteroid Field business today, I have been focusing on an issue which I talked typed about in the last update of Season One. Balance. Following Griffiths' request for your feedback on the continued development of your characters, we have already received numerous responses. This means we can start acting on your requests from the word go - some of which will be evident in the season opener.

There have clearly been some darker moments. I like to exploit these, without turning it in to a farce. For the first season, I was very much back and forth on how far I wanted to go. The entire finale arc began as a result of the deaths of several children... and it seemingly ended with a public execution. So long as it isn't gratuitous, and serves a real purpose with thought-out consequences, I don't want to shy away from that side of things. But this brings up back to the balancing act.

The whole of creation will not be at risk for as long as I play a part in developing this roleplay. While, admittedly, Asteroid Field has the largest scope I've worked with before (by featuring political figures & the highest profile villain I've ever created) - it has never been about the total annihilation of the Federation as we know it. It has been about the slow-burning corruption of a select number of high-ranking military and Government personnel and how their actions have affected one region of space. We can have the battles in Earth's solar system and the sweeping military actions against G'rath - but it always has to come back to Asteroid Base: Alpha and Pioneer Station. For that reason, a lot of events have taken place 'off-screen' and we have only seen the response of the crew when they learn the news.

Building on this, we need those uplifting moments. We need those proper, feel-good achievements and personal developments which keep everybody invested. I'm deliberately packing quite a bit in the first episode back. It's an episode riding off the back of a very dark moment, but there will be plenty for everyone to do - completely detached from the on-going conflict in other parts of Federation space. We have new characters coming in (which doesn't happen all that often) and existing characters taking up new positions. I'm excited to see what all of this will do to the current dynamic, and how it shapes the second season.

Professor Fox, for example, is no longer hiding away in the once-vacant Counsellor's office. Now he's holding the position taken up by David Rush and jointly by Renee Hampton & Daniel Thrace. Speaking of which, what will become of that position when Thrace returns? Jemma Etis has been acting Chief Science Officer for some time - and has endured a personal crisis during that time, despite a big step forward in the Accobar project. It's not currently clear what has become of Chaplain's position since the loss of AB: Alpha. At the very least, we have Jenson on hand, should anybody reach the breakdown stage.

Despite a series of mishaps, mis-steps and unavoidable delays in the first season - I'm looking forward to the relaunch. When do we start? That remains to be confirmed. It won't be too far down the line, I promise. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait... and this coming season proudly props itself up on an inevitable game-changing event in the form of the Hobus Supernova. We have devoted a lot of time to building bridges with the Romulan Star Empire - knowing that in the not too distant future, we'll be eroding Romulus to mere space dust. How that effects our sole station on the edge of Federation-Romulan space... well, one step at a time.