My Professional Work in

Films and Television

 

 

 

 

 

Roland Michel Tremblay

 

 

 

 

 

RM Tremblay, 44E The Grove, Isleworth, Middlesex, London, TW7 4JF, UK

Tel +44 (0)20 8847 5586  Mobile: +44 (0)794 127 1010

www.themarginal.com   rm@themarginal.com

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

 

E=mc2 The World’s Most Famous Equation (Channel 4, UK)

SouthBeach (FTV Entertainment and Maverick Films)

Black Hole High (Strange Days at Blake Holsey High) (NBC)

 

 

 

 

 

E=mc2 The World’s Most Famous Equation

 

 

I was instrumental in developing that two hour film which presents a brochette of the best British actors. It was on Channel 4 in England, I don’t know if it was on PBS in the US, I believe it was.

Here is quite a website I built for that film containing all my reports. I was asked to put it offline at the time, from fears that someone might steal our material, but now I don’t see what harm it could cause. You can buy a copy of the film from the production company I had a contract with as a Development Producer, and I sure believe that what you will see next will prove to you how great a Development Producer I can be:

 

http://www.darlowsmithson.com/catalogue.htm

 

Portal to everything I did for this film:

 

http://www.themarginal.com/emc2.htm

 

I probably did more and wrote more, however this is the website I did at that time, up until I was asked to put it offline.

 

 

 

SouthBeach

 

 

SouthBeach was a television series in the US which was cancelled after 8 episodes. I need to stress that I had nothing to do with the series, neither the initial ideas were mind. I was however asked initially to work on this project, I was told it could be a film or a television series, and as it took a long time for them to get back to me, I had already written a film script by the time I learnt that it would be a series and that I was not going to be part of it.

This is the original film script that I have written which could have been SouthBeach. To be honest, I was so limited with the original material given to me, I’m not sure the film would have done any better than the series. However, this is so far off the television series, it could easily be modified to be a film in its own right. For a start, I wouldn’t mind moving it to London so it wouldn’t be a repeat of Scarface (though I think it was supposed to be like the Godfather):

 

SouthBeach   DOCPDF - LIT

 

     Here are the two other film scripts and one synopsis I have written for that production company. I haven’t put them on my website up until now because I wasn’t sure of were I stood about copyrights. If you are interested in those scripts, like for SouthBeach, please let me know and I will put you in contact with the production company:

 

Corporate America   DOCPDF - LIT

The Triangle   DOCPDF - LIT

GIA (synopsis)   DOCPDF - LIT

 

 

 

 

Black Hole High

(Strange Days at Blake Holsey High)

Television series on NBC

 

 

My life has inspired this television series, and I developed a lot of the characters’ personalities and some episode ideas. No time to develop further at this time, but below you will read an email I sent to a fan site followed by the initial brainstorm I sent them. You will see that a lot of it has ended up being in the series.

I was not credited for my work on Black Hole High, but I was paid and I have the proof here that I worked on that series. They have not kept all my ideas, but a lot of them they did, and I am pleased about it. You can see at the beginning in the intro of each episode that Josie has a T-shirt with the word Anarchist written on it, that’s me, my website is called The Marginal, my most popular published book is a book called The Anarchist (poetry), and Josie is very much as I described her in my brainstorm, she’s based on me, like most other character profiles. (I hope I won’t get shot for stating this! But the series is dead now, and I wanted to tell someone for quite a while, because I am proud of the work I did on Strange Days at Blake Holsey High.)

 

 

Bruce Kalish, Director, Writer and Producer (US)

 

(On the Jubilee week-end, while I had 4 days off work, I wrote 8 episode synopses for the series Black Hole High. The Executive Producer of the series Bruce Kalish was so impressed he wrote back:)

 

Roland, you are so prolific, you put everyone I know to shame... I think as our working relationship continues I will give you some movie ideas I have been mottling over and let you run with them if you want. Or if you have ideas I'd be glad to listen to them and give you some input. In this first order I will not be able to get you a script, however, if we get the pickup for the back half of the season, hopefully by the end of this year, I will get you scripts, I can promise that. Sorry I can't do more for you now with all the help you given... other then get you paid for the research you're doing for me and seeing if I can get you a technical advisor credit. Thanks so much for responding with the speed and more importantly the intelligence that you communicate with the writers. Thanks for your notes they are extremely helpful, I was inspired by your hard work and finished off the piece. Thanks again for coming into my life!

 

Credits: Black Hole High, The Famous Jett Jackson (including the Movie), The Fall Guy, Incredible Hulk and Eight is Enough

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0435888/

 

 

Here are those 8 episode synopses:

 

(Actually, at this late hour I can only find seven… where is the eighth? When I find it I will add it here. These synopses might not have been picked up per say, they however influenced and inspired many of the episodes of Black Hole High:)

 

Room-Mates   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

Missing Time   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

Parallel Universe   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

Lady Queensbury   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

Mixed Universes   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

The Alchemist   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

Asteroid   DOC  -  PDF  -  LIT

 

 

 

 

My email to a fan website:

 


De : Roland Michel Tremblay [mailto:rm@themarginal.com]
Envoyé : 20 July 2006 23:29
À : X
Objet : Black Hole High

 

Dear X,

 

I have read your fan website with interest. I live in London and I have played an important part in making what Black Hole High is today. In fact, I was there at the very beginning working on the pilot with the executive producers and, as a Technical Adviser/Science Consultant, I have influenced a lot of what happened in the series. I have to admit that I only worked on the first 13 episodes, however I can still see my influence on what came up later. I even wrote a long description of almost all the characters (mostly based on myself, and so Josie is some sort of anarchist like me, and Lucas is a gay guy in the closet (yes I am gay)), and many of my ideas have been retained. The brainstorm is attached. For example, you wanted to know about some sort of gay relationship between Lucas and Marshall, here is what I wrote about that at the beginning:

 

 

Lucas vs. Marshall

 

They are best friends, but they are nothing alike. One completes the other. Lucas is the intelligent idealistic guy and Marshall is the practical down to Earth guy. Therefore, whenever they are confronted with a problem, their different skills are necessary otherwise they could not resolve the problem. I think that Lucas should like Marshall like a brother, like the person he might have wanted to be, but could never be. Lucas should always defend Marshall whenever we question his loyalty to the group because of Marshall's friendship with Vaughn. Lucas should sort of love Marshall without really ever saying it, but he could act like he loves him. Marshall should not realize that, but Corinne should suspect it and not like Marshall too much. It should not come to jealousy though. Marshall should be good at sports, and Lucas useless at sports. Lucas should be the gay in the closet and he should never have to admit it to anyone. That will be part of the interest of the show. So his relationship with Corinne will never happen. We should put the viewers off track by showing that Lucas could appear interested in some girls, like Josie for example, but it should never be convincing, he will be lying in order to fit in even though it is hopeless.

 

I think Marshall should want a girlfriend at any cost but cannot get one, that will depress him. And the irony of it is that Lucas wants a boyfriend and thinks that he is even less likely to ever find love. He cannot really admit this to Marshall, but he can understand it perfectly. So Marshall should not be too good looking.

 

 

Please read here on my website some of the reports I wrote about the science and possible solutions to problems the characters had to encounter. I had to take out any mention to Black Hole High to put these reports online at the time, however it is clear that it is about the show. It shows the possible situations we considered. Please read it and let me know what you think:

 

http://www.themarginal.com/#science_fiction_helper_reports

 

 

From my CV, what I did on the show (note that I have not been credited for working on the show, so my name does not appear anywhere, and I don’t mind that):

 

 

Brewster (Black Hole High) Productions inc. (April 2002 to October 2002)

Technical Adviser/Science Consultant/Writer (working mainly from London)

 

We had 7 months to write and research 13 episodes of a children’s television programme that is now being broadcast all over United States and Canada on the NBC Network. We filmed all 13 episodes on location in Hamilton, Ontario. I was the technical adviser and science consultant and I worked on most of the scripts. The project was a joint venture between NBC, Fireworks, Discovery Network and Brewster (BHH) Productions.

 

Many of my reports can be read online: http://www.themarginal.com/index.htm#science_fiction_helper_reports

http://kids.discovery.com/fansites/bhhigh/bhhigh.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Days_at_Blake_Holsey_High

 

 

Regards,

 

Roland Michel Tremblay

http://www.themarginal.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Hole High

 

 

Brainstorm Session

 

 

Distribution List:  the executive producers and writers on the show

 

 

Please note that everything that follows is just for brainstorm sessions and inspiration, nothing is fixed in the story. You will find many contradictions and that is healthy. Please modify, delete and update with your own notes and circulate. Don't be afraid to invent new psychological, social and physical traits to the characters instead of building on what has already been defined here or in the episodes already written. You can also create new sections or topics to be defined by you and others. Feel free to reorganize everything. Change the color and highlight everything you modify/add so we can easily identify it.

 

I intend this file to be alive, in progress, being modified and added to all the time by everyone. It could be the basis for any new episode. Every time you modify it please save it adding one number to it (for example bhhbrainstorms34.doc if it was called bhhbrainstorms33.doc) and then send it around to the distribution list. Feel free to add new names to the distribution list.

 

(The only new thing in this is the first entry, a description of Prof Z which will inspire me my third episode idea. I intend to link this with the study of the sky with the telescope somehow. I think all the writers should be given this file after you modify it to your liking. Please delete this paragraph after reading it.)

 

Roland Michel Tremblay

 

44E The Grove, Isleworth, Middlesex, London, TW7 4JF, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 8847 5586    Mobile: +44 (0)794 127 1010

rm@themarginal.com    www.themarginal.com

 

 

 

 

Prof Z

 

Prof Z did not come from nowhere, he is an inventor and used to work at the lab with Mr. Pearson. He was a bright student then and a bad employee, he did not get along too well with Mr. Pearson. But he is a genius and without him the machine would have never been a reality. His quarters are in the basement and lead to lots of tunnels under the school that reach the lab. The kids will discover his little room of inventions and be fascinated by this hidden side of Prof Z. He used to be working down there without anyone knowing until the science teacher disappeared and then he was asked by Mr. Pearson and the Principal to take over the science class. He always liked to be left alone to work on his projects and inventions but today he enjoys teaching the smart kids, he is learning to get out of his cavern. In his lab we will see a lot of fascinating things with boards filled with equations and calculations.

 

 

Josie the Genius and the Feminist

 

The big Josie… for some reason I imagine her as a fatty or at the very least tall and acting like a boy, I can already see her defending the weak Lucas against bullies (I knew a Josie at the University of Ottawa and she was fat and a lesbian). Josie will need to prove that she is The Genius and I think it would be a nice touch if she was a feminist defending the right of girls. Of course, I would not have her talk politics or starting a rebellion, but she could often have comments about how girls are better and more intelligent than boys (which of course is true!).

 

How can she prove that she is a genius? We could start in class, the teacher could be asking a whole bunch of questions and the only one to answer or holding her arm in the air could be Josie. Vaughn could have a try and make mistake after mistake, humiliating himself, and Josie would have the right answer all the time. She could even correct the teacher once or twice. That should establish her reputation. The teacher should be annoyed and send her to the principal.

 

 

Principal Durst vs. Josie

 

I think Josie should always get into trouble and end up in the principal office all the time. Like three times in a row. Each time the speech of the principal would change and Josie will attack her more and more. About her lies, about what is going on with Mr Pearson, etc. The principal should threaten Josie of kicking her out of the school, witch should pleased Josie no end in a funny way. We should see her smile suddenly appearing, and she could play the game that she is horrified by the prospect of being kicked out.

 

When the principal realizes that Josie wants to be kicked out, she will promise her that she will die in this school, she will never be kicked out no matter what she does, but she will have to be punished. And we could see Josie having to clean the toilets and finally get helped by her friends Lucas, Marshall and Corrine. We could have Corrine arguing that she should not be helped, that she deserves it. Ultimately she will help her.

 

 

 

Corinne vs. Josie

 

I think they should never really like each other even though we could have real proofs at times that they actually like each other. I think that most of the time you never really like the person you are sharing your room with and your whole life becomes how to live with it and accept it. So they should ultimately like one another, but could never really admit it and they should act consequently. Tensions between each other. Corinne should get jealous because Lucas and Marshall see her as a genius when, before, she was the genius. Corinne's IQ is 172, Lucas think that Josie's IQ must go over 200. That annoys Corinne no end. As well, she is highly frustrated because everything Josie says or suggests, always sound like a great idea, but not hers anymore. They are no longer listening to her.

 

 

Corinne vs. Lucas

 

Corinne should be secretly in love with Lucas, and Lucas should be completely blind to it. They should have both always been first in class, big competition between who will have 100% in the next maths exam, and they should have always studied together. The thing his, Corinne needs to study a lot but Lucas never really had to study. Things come so easy for him, he can sit down at 3 am the night before the exam and get 100%. Corinne needs to work a lot harder to reach the same result and she should always be at the teacher office to get the next problem explained to her. Lucas never did, but he always come to her to find out the problems he cannot solved. She will get annoyed with that. Corinne and Lucas should have always been very close and Josie will be threatening that relationship. Corinne will have admiration for Lucas, and that will annoy Josie no end. She will think it is not deserved, that Lucas is just a big dreamer without logic.

 

 

Lucas

 

Lucas should be the philosopher of the group and he should never really have fit in. He should always bring back citations of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Josie will be much more Descartes (Cartesian, logical, like Pascal). Lucas will have a bunch of theories that could revolutionize physics as we know it (like we can go faster than the speed of light) and will greatly need Josie to fill the holes in his ideas. Therefore Lucas will admire Josie completely. They should argue about the stupidest ideas until they run out of things to say and fall asleep out of exhaustion. They should have a secret place in the school where they could meet at night to discuss philosophy. Corinne will sort of suspect that and find out. She will no longer speak to them until something brings them back together. Of course, the wildest gossips will go around about Lucas and Josie's meetings in the dark secret place.

 

Lucas should be living a permanent existential crisis and find comfort in philosophy. I think he should be openly suicidal in a funny way, even though there will be real deep moments. He should be helped by Corinne who would love to understand him better, to be part of his closed universe. He should be the one becoming invisible, living between two times like a ghost, and see the philosophical side of it. Lucas should be bullied in school, he must be seen as a nerd and a computer wizard with Corinne.

 

Lucas should be much more sensible to weird phenomena, and things should be happening that he sees and the person is with will not see. So it will annoy him that sometimes only him saw something and he will waste time trying to convince the others.

 

 

Lucas vs. Marshall

 

They are best friends, but they are nothing alike. One completes the other. Lucas is the intelligent idealistic guy and Marshall is the practical down to Earth guy. Therefore, whenever they are confronted with a problem, their different skills are necessary otherwise they could not resolve the problem. I think that Lucas should like Marshall like a brother, like the person he might have wanted to be, but could never be. Lucas should always defend Marshall whenever we question his loyalty to the group because of Marshall's friendship with Vaughn. Lucas should sort of love Marshall without really ever saying it, but he could act like he loves him. Marshall should not realize that, but Corinne should suspect it and not like Marshall too much. It should not come to jealousy though. Marshall should be good at sports, and Lucas useless at sports. Lucas should be the gay in the closet and he should never have to admit it to anyone. That will be part of the interest of the show. So his relationship with Corinne will never happen. We should put the viewers off track by showing that Lucas could appear interested in some girls, like Josie for example, but it should never be convincing, he will be lying in order to fit in even though it is hopeless.

 

 

Marshall

 

Marshall should sleep with the enemy, he should be a friend of Vaughn Pearson because they could have come from the same area and went to school together when they were younger. Mr. Pearson might have help Marshall's family or whatever, and this could help greatly to bring Vaughn in the group and maximize interactions with Lucas, Corinne and Josie. Otherwise it would be difficult to have Vaughn in the picture. Marshall would want to be friends with everyone, and Vaughn will be pleased to have a sort of spy on his side, of course Lucas and company won't like it and will try to break up this friendship. They could try for a while without success.

 

Marshall could also be totally different than the others and should not be a brain like the three others. He could be the normal one (but not dumb, otherwise he would not be part of the science club). His results in class should not be that great and he should not mind that much. He is the one who most of the time will bring back the others on Earth. He should be much more practical, very much like a street kid who was rejected by his parents and had to find his own way in life. That is why he should be good at breaking in the Lab, or have dark connections with unknown people that owe him, and he can sometimes get equipment that will be needed for whatever reason. He will be very resourceful.

 

Marshall should be the one believing more in God and Destiny than science. He should have been forced into the science club by his best friend Lucas. He would not believe in god because he has been brainwashed or brought in a catholic family, but because, as he says, he should be dead now. Only God and a destiny that he is following could explain why he has escaped death so many times.

 

I think that kids today are not stupid, they are very much clued up. I think they are dealing with suicide, drugs and deep psychological problems. The show would benefit greatly in content if we were to talk about these subjects in a very nice manner (without the details) rather than having this Happy-Go-Lucky universe. If drugs are not mentioned, at the very least it should be suggested in the dark past of Marshall struggling to come to terms with it.

 

Lucas should be his greatest confident and probably his sort of psychoanalyst trying to understand what is really the secret of Marshall that appears to be very heavy on his heart. That secret should be that his father was deaf and his mom left his dad because of it. Then his dad, in a big depression, will have sort of kick Marshall out of the house at an early age. Today he his very close to his dad and they go see football together all the time, but Marshall suffers a lot from not being able to communicate with his dad and from his terrible past on the street.

 

I think Marshall should want a girlfriend at any cost but cannot get one, that will depress him. And the irony of it is that Lucas wants a boyfriend and thinks that he is even less likely to ever find love. He cannot really admit this to Marshall, but he can understand it perfectly. So Marshall should not be too good looking.

 

 

Principal Durst

 

Principal Durst was a good person at heart. She suffered a lot from all her colleagues (especially males) in the days when she was just a teacher. They were always laughing at her, considering her not too intelligent and they tried to get her fired. One day she was very down and thought of leaving, she woke up and thought she would fight back. She would show them what she was made of, that she too could be an iron lady. She devised a plan to get the respect of the old principal, the administration office and especially Mr. Pearson. She became a good friend of them and when the time came and the old principal had to leave, she was the logical choice. She managed to be nice to everyone involved with the choosing process and with the help of Mr. Pearson she made it, she became principal of the Blake Holsey High School. It was not easy to get there, and now she would not let anyone close to power. She is in charge, she proved she was intelligent and capable, and now she enjoys her position and wants her High School to be number one in all America.

 

 

Principal Durst vs. Mr. Pearson

 

Principal Durst is a woman who never had any lover and she cannot date a teacher because in her eyes she is in a position of power. The only acceptable person for her is Mr. Pearson. Mr. Pearson knows that Principal Durst is interested in him and will use this to his own advantage in order to get what he wants from her. Unfortunately for the principal, Mr. Pearson is in love with his lost wife that he wishes to get back somehow. And though Ms. Durst looks like she wants to help him to get back his wife, she secretly despises that idea that she will often reject as ridiculous. According to her Mr. Pearson should get on with his normal life and look at other people who cares for him today, like his son Vaughn and the school's staff (her). This is why and how Mr. Pearson was able to get Ms. Durst on his side.

 

 

Mr. Pearson

 

Mr. Pearson was some sort of genius in his old days, he had a vision that gave him the chance to experiment with some sort of time machine. He had a vision and he built it. It went wrong and he lost his wife in the process. Now he starts noticing that different times are co-existing and he gets the idea that he could somehow get back his wife before she dies (or disappears). Either his wife has been thrown into a different time, like thousands of years ago, or perhaps she died during the experiment or died of something else somewhere else. If she is in the past, he will want the kids to experiment with the machine in order to see if they can make it work so eventually he could find where in time his wife is. If his wife died, it will be a question of going back in time before she dies in order to get her back to the present or prevent her death.

 

He tried a lot of different things to get his wife back and he never succeeded. Understanding that the kids are quite bright with the help of Prof Z, he is willing to let them try again and again without really telling them. Today Mr. Pearson is building stratagems and plans to get that help, he kind of lost it a little even though he is still very intelligent. I don't think he should be that crazy demented man with a big laugh, he should still appear as normal.

 

He gives a lot of attention to the kids because he is afraid they know too much already, but he also gives them a lot of information indirectly because he needs them to help him find his wife.

 

 

Mr. Pearson vs. Vaughn

 

In order to reach the kids and lay down certain paths to follow to the children, Mr. Pearson needs an insider, his son Vaughn. He already has Principal Durst on his side, so he can already manipulate them very well. Mr. Pearson should be sometimes the person creating a problem or a situation that gets sort of delivered by his son Vaughn. Of course the children will always benefit from the great resourcefulness of Vaughn who is helped by his dad. There should be tunnels and caves under the science lab, with rooms with equipments remaining from the times when the lab was working at full capacity. Perhaps there should be a tunnel from the school to the lab in which certain episodes could take place.

 

Vaughn is not a happy kid as he lost his mom and is unsure about the love of his father. He blames his dad for this and always wants to know how and when they will get her back. He will get to understand that his last chance is the science club since all else failed. He could confide this to the others and perhaps they could be aware and helpful, try to get her back (of course they should never succeed). At the very least they could see her in the past, try to save her but fail. That will be the big psychological problem of Vaughn, the lost of his mom even though he knows there might be a way to get her back, so he keeps some hope and dreams about it. Eventually, despite being a spy for his father, he will become more and more on the side of the science club against his dad, even though he will never stop from reporting everything, like a good boy. He could eventually do something against his dad and will be punished for this. Then he would get back to normal in his relationship with his dad (for the need of the show).

 

 

Vaughn vs. Principal Durst

 

Principal Durst should gets reports from Vaughn as well about what is happening within the science club, but Vaughn will be much less responsive to her, he will lack respect and he will play against her many times. He will not like her too much because he knows she is interested in his dad and he does not want her as his new mom. He says that they will get back his real mom somehow one day.

 

 

Analysis of Ally McBeal and Frasier

 

The whole success of Frasier and Ally McBeal was due to one particular thing happening over and over again. First of all it was a very formal environment. The court, the judges and the lawyers for McBeal, and the high class family, good manners and importance of the projected image in Frasier. All of this makes funnier the lies, the things we cannot admit, that cause us to lie even more in order to cover our first lie. And always we lose face completely. Then ultimately the truth time comes up and the story resolves itself.

 

 

How I transpose this to Black Hole High

 

I believe we can have a lot of fun with the Principal, Mr Pearson and his son Vaughn, if they are very formal or solemn and very high class. Often the funny side comes from people who cares a lot about their image and suddenly find themselves in very bad situations that compromise their image, formalism or solemnity. But we have to be careful to not become grotesque or clownesque, like for example Cruella in 102 Dalmatians. It should not become a circus.

 

Examples of this: the principal could have a bunch of habits that are very important to her and the kids could displace her things, or prevent those habits from happening. She could loose face in front of other teachers or even worse, in front of the whole school. Same for Vaughn, he could be very proud of one of his experiment, and it could turn sour because our science group would have played with his experiment as a revenge on him for something he might have done. (I am assuming that on top of the science club, there will be normal chemistry, physics, mathematics and philosophy classes.

 

 

Surveillance

 

I think the principal should hire Vaughn as a spy, to keep an eye on our friends. And we should see the principal and Vaughn in very compromising situations, like in the rooms of the students, or looking in their things. Or suddenly they are around them trying to listen, and perhaps the kids could find some microphones in their room and use this to their advantage, for a joke, in order to compromise the principal (echoes of Richard Nixon surveillance at the White House).

 

 

The most Haunted Prep School in America

 

I think the school should be heavily haunted, people should hear things at night, see people walking by that suddenly disappear. Animals suddenly flapping in the dark. Everyone should have their own little story to tell. Of course, we will come to understand that this is because many different times are co-existing in the same space, but until we know that for sure, ghosts frightening students could be a nice little touch to the show. Everybody likes ghost stories and suspense, especially if you can discuss it in the science club and explain the phenomena scientifically.

 

 

 

Sets

 

Science Club Room

 

This show should be different than other school shows because it is Science Fiction. Even though this will be in a school, we should try to make it look more like if we were in space (I said look like). A bit like the merging of the old English Harry Potter school with a touch of sci-fi in it. Walls made of stones would be much better, and there should be many computers and monitor screens. We need to feel like we are on a ship, like in Star Trek, even though we are in a school (so perhaps we should forget about the old stones style?). It should be very clean and look very nice, a bit hi-tech.

 

We are in the almost number one school in America. We have the latest technology given by Mr. Pearson who had a science laboratory and is keen on the latest gadgets. Most of the time we will be in the science club room. It needs to be a nice room, with a lot of scientific stuff in it. I would have a circular room looking like an observatory with the telescope in the background. I will have computers and desks all around the room on the walls, circling the room. Wood, brown, beige, black, warm colors should be used.

 

 

Scientific Laboratory

 

For the laboratory, I liked a specific feeling that was used in a Star Trek Voyager episode. The one where the holographic doctor is shipped into the Alpha quadrant and arrives on a prototype Federation ship called Prometheus. The sick bay is very nicely done, nice colors, with lights in the ceiling. This looks like the best they have ever done. The episode is called: Message in a bottle, season 4, episode 14.

 

 

The Rest - Very Futuristic

 

As this is a science fiction series and that usually we have certain expectations when it comes to sci-fi, I will have everything look a bit futuristic. Like if we were in the future. This can be easily justified by the fact that Mr. Pearson, who is rich beyond belief, will never have less for the school that his son is attending. I would not go as far as having the doors opening like in Star trek, but almost. We should find the latest gadgets on the market and have them everywhere, like PDA or Pocket PCs like the Compaq iPaq which is the nicest looking one. It can be used as a mobile phone and a satellite Global Positioning System (GPS). This could be used as some sort of tricorder to find out that we are displaced in time and space. We should use e-books in class and e-book readers. They exist in the market, but are not very popular yet. They ought to be. Perhaps we should have computer desks for every student. I had that in certain of my classes at the University of Ottawa. These desks are not obtrusive, the screen is inside the desk that you see through a dark window, not like a normal computer monitor.

 

This show should give us a taste of the future, even though it would only use things that exist today. I think the school should be run by a main computer that could be used to control everything. The most sophisticated security system that the kids can break into and also the type of system "House of the Future" that permits you to control everything with a mobile phone/PDA Pocket PC.

 

 

Casting

 

Just one word about the fact that perhaps the cast should not look so perfect, or too beautiful, like models. Personality should come first. We should not have the feeling that these people are out from LA with a sun tan, and that they are the perfect kids on the block that every parents want. They should all look intelligent, even the baddies. We should not be too obvious with the Manichaeism, the baddies should not be stupid or looking bad. Most often baddies are intelligent and they are not so well identified. They don't have a tag over their heads saying: I am a baddy. Intelligence should be required in order to discover who are the baddies and how to fight them.

 

What I like about those kids is that they appear intelligent and curious by nature, they are not models, they don't look like your perfect kid that every parents want, they don't have this attitude of "I am the best, listen to me and I want to take over everything" and finally they appear dysfunctional. The perfect definition of a kid in a sci-fi series. Please no dumb girls or fat stupid guy, nobody likes them. Nobody should act like if they were kids, they should act as they are. Ultimately they should not act at all, they should be themselves. That is why the casting is very important.

 

 

Atmosphere of the show

 

I know it sounds a bit stupid to mention, but the old English school atmosphere sounds good in this context, a bit like Harry Potter. I understand we cannot have the cast starting to speak in a British accent, but to have one British kid might be a good idea (Marshall for example). And give him a British royalty look. As a joke, they could even call him Harry Potter (but not necessary).

 

 

One model couple representing the perfect parents

 

I think that we need a couple that loves each other and could potentially go out together without ever really admitting it or doing anything about it. I think this should also be a complicity with the kids and they should not interfere that much, even though they will suggest it at times. So the couple can still continue to pretend that nothing is happening whilst they are in love. That can be a lot of text in the season. And it can be funny.

 

Now, who should they be? It cannot be the old woman, because she exists in the present and she is old. And this pseudo relationship should be happening in the present and the past. The new or old science teacher with the principal? That is an idea, but that would mean getting the principal much more involved in everything. She would need to be able to go in different times too at some points.

 

 

What happens with the second science teacher?

 

One of the science teachers could be a woman, and the other one a male. As I mentioned they could wonder about the fate of the other when the old one comes back. They might not want to be separated and they would have to find a solution about keeping him or her. Then the principal could be a man instead of a woman. Though the dichotomy man/woman, when it comes to Mr Pearson, seems more interesting than two men.

 

 

Old Civilization in the Past

 

It should be obvious that the experiment worked before exploding and that they used it to go in the past. So later on in the series we can get to know their secret dealings with a civilization that existed before us, and we will discover that even though they lived before us, they were much more futuristic than us. So in the lab we should see very hi-tech equipment and perhaps the kids should find the equivalent of a Star Trek Tricorder. That device could do many things and it will help them find the portal in order to go back.

 

 

How they find their way back

 

The old woman should say that the big magnets are creating a huge magnetic field that opens a hole in the fabric of space. She was not that involved, but she knows that they must have gone somewhere because they brought back impressive objects. They also observed weird phenomena, like time appears to be running at different rates in certain places of the lab.

 

Josie will then have a look at the device and from what the old woman said, she will sort of understand that she can see some areas where the gravity is stronger. The old teacher will deduct that time might be running faster in those areas and that might be a way to find the portal and go back to the future. Pushing buttons should indicate where to go in order to go back.

 

 

What happens in the long term and

how to survive beyond season one

 

I think that even though a lot of things can happen in the school, you will quickly run out of idea. The series really should be revolving around the lab and the experiment. Therefore, after the weird phenomena happening around the school in the first episodes, puzzling most students and revealing the science behind the whole experiment, you will need something more. That is why the kids should go back into the past and find a way to control the machine. At the very least they could visit that old civilization and discover this very futuristic society and sort of not believe that there are no traces of their existence. We could then learn that if our civilization would die today, nothing would guarantee that in thousands of years another civilization would find traces of our own existence. Therefore it is important to protect ourselves from asteroids that could potentially destroy our planet (it could be the reason why they disappeared, and this could be the conclusion that the scientists reached by learning more about them before the machine exploded). We could have a nice little speech about the universe. How Jupiter is so large that it attracts most of the asteroids that otherwise could come and crash on Earth. It should also be known that a relatively small asteroid could destroy a whole city like New York and that there are a lot of smaller asteroids hitting the Earth every year. (If you want that particular speech about asteroids, ask, and I will give you something interesting).

 

Not only that, but the kids could finally have their own time machine and go in different times, just by finding the right portal. I would not do it every time, and perhaps only once or twice in the first season (including the whole civilization).

 

 

What happens in the few subsequent episodes

 

-The invisibility is one, so we can talk about ghosts and people trapped between two times, also between two realities (dream and reality).

 

-Episode about the Déjà-Vu and what it could be. So things happening in the future could have happened in the past and by concentrating we can remember the future and change it (we would talk about the fluctuation of the timeline) the past and the present are not what they appear to be.

 

-The snow episode and the interpretation of the experiment as being a nuclear explosion. An episode about the principal and Mr. Pearson, the confrontation. We would also understand more about the fact that different times are co-existing in the same place, and this is because of the natural magnetic fields of the Earth being trapped in our No Man's Land bubble. And obviously we could talk about what is a nuclear explosion, radiation and the consequences of that.

 

-Episode about time rate being different in certain areas. A plane could just freeze in the sky and the kids and the population needs to deal with this. What would the principal do in front of this astonishing proof that something is going on around here? So the kids will learn that by applying more gravity or less gravity in the area of the plane, they can change the rate at which the plane can go, and therefore unfreeze it from the sky.

 

-The kids should regularly look at the sky using a telescope. We need to review what is the universe, its scale and life story. We should also get to know what stars, planets and galaxies are and where we are in our own galaxy the Milky Way.

 

-There should be an episode about that. They could be finding a way to travel in time by figuring out the speed at which the solar system is going at right now, and the speed it was going at during these different periods in history. They would figure that out by looking at all the other solar systems and galaxies, the gravity that has been exerted on our solar system, and the famous device from the old civilization capable of calculating/processing these things.

 

-We could have an episode about another weird device from the old futuristic civilization. And this device could be used in some exploration of the very small, like the atomic world. We could study Quantum Mechanics, but incorporate that into another story with a crisis and a solution involving Quantum Mechanics. Give me more time and I will come up with something.

 

-Table of the Elements. Find a situation, a crisis that can only be solved by figuring out the interactions between certain elements (chemical reactions) and applying them. We could learn that we are made of Carbon, and computer intelligence from Silicon, and that ultimately none is better than the other. It is a bit the story of Evolution, the Movie. The Aliens are made of Nitrogen instead of carbon, therefore their poison, instead of being Arsenic, it was Selenium. But we could do something like Plutonium decaying and involve the story of Pierre and Marie Curie, discovering radioactivity and dying from radiation poisoning. The weird situation in the bubble would have, for example, transformed some normal matter into radioactive matter. We will then see how we can take matter and transform it into something else.

 

-We could write a story around exploring things like Thunder and electrical storms. Also Fire Balls (have you ever heard about this phenomenon? Fire Balls appearing out of nowhere and chasing people before exploding into something. Very interesting and frightening.

 

-Other subjects related to science: Force and Energy, Light, Sound (waves), electricity, electronics and telecommunications.

 

 

 

 

 

Roland Michel Tremblay

www.themarginal.com   rm@themarginal.com