World on Fire discussion

[Adam]

A place to discuss Walker's next adventure, a feature length special that will air this Easter, written by Tony Black and featuring the first phase of the return of The DSR, an essential jumping-on point for Season Six.

Fire away, ladies and gents!

[Tony O'Stark]

I can reveal too that hopefully this week, you will be treated to a special prequel for World on Fire that adds a little extra connective tissue between the end of DSR Season Five and where we are by this point.

Let me also add that I'm as excited to write this as a very excited person with a very special reason to be excited!

[Adam]

Damn right. And Tony's cooked up a truly magnificent storyline for this movie, I'm as excited to read it as anyone else.

[Fhithich]

Looks like I'll have to catch up quicker. 

[Adam]

You're doing just fine, Li - hope to see you here eventually.

Though you've got four months until this airs, so you could theoretically be caught up. Only 36 scripts left to read

[Fhithich]

I think I can just about manage that. 

[Adam]

I look forward to seeing you here then.

[Adam]

And there we have it folks - Walker's 2011 Easter Special and the triumphant return of The DSR! Hope you all enjoy it.

[Monster Zero]

Not bad - I had to let go of my usual reservations whenever the DSR steps in to overshadow the Walker crew because that's kind of the point of this one. This feels like a Walker case that just happens to sweep the DSR team up along for the ride, following on from the DSR prequel minisode nicely...

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... except it also seems to be a giant Reset Button for the DSR plot, almost as if Tony released that 6x00 prequel and then changed his mind about half the cast. It does unfortunately undermine the whole setup of that and make it something of a wasted exercise, with Travers, Daneen and Harlow all gone by the close of play.

Still, despite the atrocious name Smiler makes for a good villain - all the best bad guys demonstrate an unshakeable faith in what they're doing, no matter how abhorrent (although the truly great ones have a shakeable faith too), and the clinically psychotic march of the WOF army, while lumbered a touch with the kinds of post-911 terrorism metaphors that so much spy-fi is these days, gives both teams plenty to do.

Nitpicks? Kendall comes across as a real prick for the first half of this, seeming unusually out of character, the Owen/Sara story was pretty eye-rolling and the above mentioned issue with the DSR team also take points off this. The defusing of the power plant feels very rushed too, sapping the drama somewhat.

More shunts and setups for Walker S4 are in place with the addition of Watchtower, so once that gets off the ground these two movies will have felt less like chesspiece-shuffling diversions, I think.

And overall? Pretty good. The raid on Camp David is fun, the Core Four are more solid than ever now Jackson has more oomph behind him, and Alec and Smiler's final showdown is handled really well too. Now give us Season Four!

[Tony O'Stark]

There won't be quite a Season Four, something much better infact...

As for the prequel concern, I can see why that might come across, but this was never meant to be setting up the new DSR crew - I always said this was part of a bridge between S5 and S6, and the consequences of WOF will form part of a catalytic change in the agency we'll see in S6.

So bear with us on this - as ever, we know what we're doing.

[Adam]

And well played for being the first to read this one, Lee!

Not bad - I had to let go of my usual reservations whenever the DSR steps in to overshadow the Walker crew because that's kind of the point of this one. This feels like a Walker case that just happens to sweep the DSR team up along for the ride, following on from the DSR prequel minisode nicely...

That was very much the intent. This was a somewhat odd experience for me given that it's the first time I'd ever written Walker from someone else's outline (Tony of course was originally going to write the whole thing and then real life got in the way and I had to step up). What impressed me, given the brief, was that Tony did what you suggest above - it's very much a Walker episode, Team DSR are the supporting players.

More shunts and setups for Walker S4 are in place with the addition of Watchtower, so once that gets off the ground these two movies will have felt less like chesspiece-shuffling diversions, I think.

As Tony said, there's not going to be a season four. Announcement coming in the not too distant...

And overall? Pretty good. The raid on Camp David is fun, the Core Four are more solid than ever now Jackson has more oomph behind him, and Alec and Smiler's final showdown is handled really well too. Now give us Season Four!

There's not much I'll take credit for with this movie, given that Tony did most of the legwork on it, but I am particularly proud of that final scene. It was boarded as being a fistfight between Alec and Smiler, but when I got into the writing of it what became obvious ws that Alec had to truly defeat Smiler rather than just beat him up, and that meant getting one over on him. Having it be a verbal duel was the only thing that felt right and I'm pleased as hell this came off okay.

Thanks for reading, and, like I said, stand by for that announcement very soon...

[Dr. Kyle Banner]

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World On Fire - Right then.

What goes on in Tony Black's mind I'll never know.  Here we have a well crafted tale outlined by Tony and half written by him and finished off by Adam.  It's a testament to how well these two work together that I couldn't tell where Tony stopped and Adam started.

Smiler Gorch is basically The Joker if he were an arsonist.  The level of insanity that man has is actually quite creepy.  I expect I shall have nightmares tonight.  Casting David Tennant was a good move as he fit the role so well.  I could quite clearly imagine the insanity he would bring to the role.

I kinda twigged that Sara might be pregnant when she had to run off to be sick.  Her story with Owen came to a nice conclusion.  I liked the DSR elements, in particular Kendall.  I'm still at the beginning of S3 of Alias, so it was nice seeing him turn up again.

Jackson's strained relationship with Kendall was needed I think and seeing them fighting each other subtly before coming to a mutual understanding was a brilliant arc.

Onto Alec and Chloe for a second, I feel like something else is gonna come up and spoil their relationship during Army of God.  Part of me doesn't want to see that now that they've gotten together.  On that note, Raina's cameo was nice and it was good to touch base and see what's going on with her.

I do wonder what her first meeting with Baines was like tho

The humour in this tale is brilliantly written.  Jackson and Boone are a perfect comedy duet and Alec is a one-liner machine, particularly in the beginning.

The finale scene sets up Army of God then.  What has Gideon got himself now then?

All caught up now.

[Adam]

Kyle's all caught up! Well played mate!

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World On Fire - Right then.

What goes on in Tony Black's mind I'll never know.  Here we have a well crafted tale outlined by Tony and half written by him and finished off by Adam.  It's a testament to how well these two work together that I couldn't tell where Tony stopped and Adam started.

Very kind of you to say, Kyle. The answer is that Tony wrote up to the end of the briefing scene and I took over pretty much as soon as it hit Utah, so basically Tony wrote the first act, though he did take a pass at the whole thing when we had a complete draft in hand.

Smiler Gorch is basically The Joker if he were an arsonist.  The level of insanity that man has is actually quite creepy.  I expect I shall have nightmares tonight.  Casting David Tennant was a good move as he fit the role so well.  I could quite clearly imagine the insanity he would bring to the role.

I'm glad he came off well - I know Tony had a blast creating him and he was great fun to write.

Jackson's strained relationship with Kendall was needed I think and seeing them fighting each other subtly before coming to a mutual understanding was a brilliant arc.

Again, all Tony, I just did the typing. But it was a very good arc for Jackson definitely, cementing his position as commander.

Onto Alec and Chloe for a second, I feel like something else is gonna come up and spoil their relationship during Army of God.  Part of me doesn't want to see that now that they've gotten together.

Hmm. Interesting theory. Let's see how it pans out.

On that note, Raina's cameo was nice and it was good to touch base and see what's going on with her.

I do wonder what her first meeting with Baines was like tho

You might get to see that quite soon, actually...

The finale scene sets up Army of God then.  What has Gideon got himself now then?

Pay particular attention to that box, it's going to be a big deal going forward. That post-credits scene was a lot of fun, basically borrowing a trick from the Marvel playbook, but it's a nice little hint for where we're going from here.

Thanks once again for reading, Kyle -- see you in June for Army of God!