OT: Greg Cox The 4400 novel
- Thread starter phrog
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^ Buck up; at least there's still no "C" in "Shwartz". 
I was thinking of the packet mixes we have here in the UK for cooking when I was typing it, mea culpa.^ Buck up; at least there's still no "C" in "Shwartz".
KRAD, I'd lay off the booze--and the coffee--if I were you.
Try something healthy like green tea.
BTW, when I use smilies, I'm joking.
Christopher got a joke that KRAD missed? I'm going to have to rethink my view of the universe.
Kind of on the same lines, the Wardilmore entity is doing a 4400 novel called Wetwork which is due out October '08; so the 4400 are definitely not gone yet.
4400 people, abducted from various places and times over the last sixty years or so, are mysteriously returned . . . with strange new abilities and no memories of where they've been. A government agent (NTAC) is tasked to watch over The 4400, but things get out of hand . . . .
It's a good show. You should check it out. There's also plenty of information on the series on the internet.
Hope this helps!
It's a good show. You should check it out. There's also plenty of information on the series on the internet.
Hope this helps!
It follows a group of 4400 people who have all been slowly kidnapped from different points in history beginning in 1946, and who are then returned in ball of white light in '04. After they are returned the 4400 all begin to develop all sorts of different special abilities, that were some how given to them while they were gone. The show originally started mostly as a 4400 of the week type thing, but as time went on and the 4400 learned who took them and why, it started the get more into that purpose and some government conspiricy type stuff. The show obviously dosen't focus on all of The 4400, just a small number of them, and two agents from the government agency who are assigned to deal with The 4400. If you want more details here's the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_4400
FYI the show was created and run by Rene Echevarria, a producer and writer from TNG and DS9.
FYI the show was created and run by Rene Echevarria, a producer and writer from TNG and DS9.
It was, and is, on one of Sky's channels. Ira Steven Behr was the showrunner if I recall and Robert Hewitt Wolfe wrote a few episodes. There were other writers from DS9 working on it as well.
What I'd like to see the books explore is something the series totally failed to develop beyond the most cursory level: the culture shock and adjustment of people who found themselves abruptly transported decades into their future. That was given little more than lip service in early episodes, and got completely abandoned as the show got more into its arc about the factions from the future and the promicin thing and all that. Heck, in its final season, the show was hardly about the returnees at all anymore, so the title no longer had any relevance.
Not that the arcs they did explore weren't interesting (though I always found the show to be of mixed quality), but I always wanted to see more exploration of the cultural adjustments the abductees from one or two or three generations ago would've had to make. And I felt the writers were too hesitant to explore that; most of the returnee characters were taken within the past decade or so, it seemed. Sometimes I wonder why they even bothered to have the returnees be from different eras in the past if they weren't going to make use of that concept in any significant way. It's like it was just done to copy the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a red herring to make us think it was about UFOs.
Not that the arcs they did explore weren't interesting (though I always found the show to be of mixed quality), but I always wanted to see more exploration of the cultural adjustments the abductees from one or two or three generations ago would've had to make. And I felt the writers were too hesitant to explore that; most of the returnee characters were taken within the past decade or so, it seemed. Sometimes I wonder why they even bothered to have the returnees be from different eras in the past if they weren't going to make use of that concept in any significant way. It's like it was just done to copy the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a red herring to make us think it was about UFOs.
You probably did, with a lot of continuity-porn involved as wellWell, Christopher, I'll be curious to hear what you think of the book, since I actually tried to address the whole culture shock thing with respect to one character. You'll have to let me know if I pulled it off!
CSI is filmed in California, but they go to Vegas, Miami and New York to take establishing shots. There's no reason why The4400 couldn't have done the same.
^^But that's not actually employing locations in the sense that would apply in a novel, i.e. using them in a way that's integral to the stories.
Christopher, I understand that, I was merely making the point that The 4400 could have taken establishing shots for the series. I was not actually referring to the novel.
Greg, I take your point about CSI's budget, but The 4400 ran for four years. They only needed about sixty seconds worth of shots taken from a helicopter. hiring a helicopter and pilot for an hour or so is not that expensive, and it would have given the series more authenticity.
I guess I'm spoiled by the effort that shows like CSI and Law and Order actually put in to make things seem authentic (and yes, I am aware that they cheat sometimes).
