Characters 101 – Captain Ternep

Each month this blog will feature a character from one of the SFF productions.  This month we’ll take a look  at one of the memorable comic characters from Destiny III (and Destiny: the Mini-Series) – Captain Ternep, played by the wonderful and hilarious Ryan Segovich.

Captain James Jonathon William Ternep II, is an officer in the Liliyan Navy charged with hunting down and capturing pirates.  He’s not a very clever man, and actually seems very boastful and somewhat arrogant, but he’s funny and is well matched with his nemesis – a female pirate known as The Great El Banyo.

History

In the movie we don’t really know much about him, other than that he’s a captain and soldier who chases pirates, commands a ship, and has trouble keeping a crew.  The purpose of his character was to provide comic relief and a method of transportation for Melantha and her friends to get them to the island of Valdrondez to rescue her children.  They had to disguise themselves as men to get on board because Ternep – who’s ship was the only one in the harbor at that point – followed the Navy code and didn’t allow women on his ship as crew.  Although, he probably would have made an exception since he only had a crew of one at the time.

It’s very clear in the movie that there’s some sort of back story with Ternep and El Banyo and I always felt like the main characters were stepping into another story for a few chapters before jumping back into their own adventure.  So I’ve done some further work on his character since then and actually figured out what their story (Ternep and El Banyo) is. 

Ternep is the middle son of a large and illustrious military and naval family including two admirals. He never really wanted to be in the Navy, but he wasn’t given a choice since he was raised to be in it.  He is one of seven children and has three brothers and three sisters.  He also has a scary grandmother who is the matriarch of the sailing clan and was married three times to different sailors including one of the admirals.  So Ternep goes through the training, his family buys him a commission as a Captain as well as a ship, and he sets out to sea.  He’s determined to make his family proud and do the best job he can even if he doesn’t really like his job.  Hunting down pirates seemed like a good niche because if things do go right, he can always blame them. 

Pirates love to make fun of his name, especially El Banyo who routinely calls him Turnip Boy.  Although he comes from a long line of famous sailors, they’re mostly through his mother’s side of the family.  His father’s family was less illustrious, though not shunned or anything, so all of his brothers use their mother’s maiden name to move up the ranks more quickly.  Ternep is not ashamed of his father or his family name and doesn’t care to move up the ranks, so he keeps it – much to the relief of his mother’s family who are able to avoid a lot of embarrassment.

Appearance

Ternep is tall and slender, but stronger than he looks.  He has wavy blonde hair and bright blue eyes.  Although he wears the standard black and gold uniform of a captain in the Liliyan Navy, he adds some flair with accessories including a blue and green plaid sash and a ridiculously big hat with pink feathery fluff to match his vest.  He looks silly, but has the kind of personality that actually makes the hat work.

Personality

The best word to describe him is bravado.  Ternep has very low self-esteem due to his family situation – he’s kind of the family joke, and he doesn’t get along with any of them except his sweet younger sister.  He covers his insecurity with bravado and is determined that if he’s going to be laughed at anyway he’s damn well going to give them a good reason, and if he can embarrass his family even a little along the way than so much the better.  Go big or go home is a good way to put it, especially since he hates going home. 

He would actually make a good captain if he believed in himself a little, but since he doesn’t he’s pretty bad.  He treats his crew pretty well and can gain loyalty from them if they stay with him long enough to see that, but most of them can’t stand working for a buffoon and leave as soon as they can, so he’s perpetually short staffed.

He has delusions of grandeur – honestly believing that he can become famous if he can capture or kill an infamous pirate like El Banyo.  He seeks fame and fortune to validate his existence, and can be very materialistic, always wanting to try new fashion trends or fads – the more impractical the better.  He’s very eccentric and likes to own strange things.  His favorite thing is Percival, a glass “dippy bird” that he views as a sort of pet.  It sits on his desk and he can stare at it for hours.  He finds it very calming to watch the bird drink again and again. 

Raised as a gentleman, Ternep can display manners as well as anyone else of his rank or in his family.  However, only shows respects to those who have earned it or who respect him.  Playing the buffoon is actually a good way to tell who the real idiots are.  Although he is a gentleman (and a gentle man a lot of the time), he doesn’t adhere to all the gentlemanly traditions regarding women.  He doesn’t respect all women simply because they’re women and if a woman hits him, he will damn well hit her back (unless he was being a cad and truly deserved it).  He would never rape a woman, but he would never rape a man either – he believes in the true equality of humans regardless of race or gender.  However, since that doesn’t jive with the party line of his family or the Navy who reveres women while at the same time infantilizes them - viewing them as delicate creatures who are less intelligent (with a few major exceptions among the nobility and of course the Queen and Princess), he doesn’t say what he believes, just what he knows people want to hear.  When he does speak up about his beliefs on equality, he is laughed at since he is generally seen as an imbecile.

But no matter how silly or strange he may seem, when his back’s against the wall or his crew is in danger is when he really shines.  The man behind the comic façade emerges and he actually becomes rather dashing.  Suddenly he takes charge, fights really well, and his plans actually work due to his determination to protect his life and the lives of those he cares about.  He can open a can of Whoop-Ass on his opponents when they least expect it.  He’s probably bi-polar now that I think about it, considering that he does suffer from periods of depression too.

He also doesn’t like the sight of blood.  He doesn’t faint or anything, but it makes him nauseous.

Abilities

As a navy officer, he learned to fight.  Given his family, he actually learned to fight growing up.  The sword is the primary weapon used in the Navy for a solider, but Ternep is more than a little clumsy.  He wasn’t all that tall growing up, but he had a sudden growth spurt when he was sixteen and grew a full foot taller in less than a year.  The sudden change in height made him have trouble with physical coordination and he still suffers from being clumsy and ungraceful.  He’s a terrible dancer, of course, but he’s also not very good at duels.  Running, jumping, leaping, fighting all rely on good coordination which he lacks.  So he’s a pretty bad swordfighter.

However, he’s a very good marksmen when he’s standing still and is a great shot with a pistol and an even better shot with a crossbow.  Unfortunately crossbows aren’t used at sea much, and pistols are seen as more of a pirate’s weapon and less honorable than a sword, so he doesn’t really use them much.  However he does tend to win darts whenever he plays.

As part of his clumsiness, he has trouble adjusting to land or sea when he’s been too long on one or the other.  He gets seasick on land if he’s been sailing for a long time, and landsick at sea if he’s been living on land too long.  In both cases he has trouble staying on his feet for a few days depending on how long it’s been.  His gets used to the rhythm of the sea and it takes a while for that to change, making him more clumsy then usual and vice versa for when he’s been on land.  It’s very unfortunate.  Maybe he has too much ear wax or is prone to ear infections and that affects his equilibrium.  Hmm…I need to think about that.

Again, when his back is against the wall he’s able to hold fast and his shear determination and force of will keep his clumsiness in check.  However he can’t sustain that kind of amazing coordination and skills for very long because his bad self-esteem tends to get the best of him in the end. 

Relationships - Allies & Enemies

I’m only going to cover his relationships with the people in the movie, but know there are other characters, like his niece Arista Carthos, that he has interesting and often complex relationships with.

First Mate Bob is his first mate (obviously) and is actually called “First Mate Bob” because there have been a few other Bobs on the ship over the years like “Chef Bob”, “Doctor Bob”, “Gunner Bob”, and “Bob, the Powder Monkey” (also known as Monkey Bob).  First Mate Bob is his longest serving crew member – which is how he became First Mate – and has been with Ternep for twelve years.  Bob knows that for all his eccentricities Ternep can be a good leader and is fair to his crew and treats them well.  Ternep risked his own life to save Bob more than once and because of that Bob will always be loyal to him.  Also, Bob just thinks he’s fun and gets along with him really well.  He respects the real Ternep – the insecure man under the bravado and false arrogance – and makes it his mission in life to help bring that Ternep to the surface.  He is basically the smart sidekick to the silly hero.

Ternep, in turn, respects and values Bob as not only his First Mate but also his best friend and Bob is the only one who Ternep really listens to.  If anyone tries to tell him his plan won’t work or that he’s being a stupid jackass, Ternep will yell at them and then ignore whatever they said would work better – except for Bob.  If Bob points out flaws in a plan and suggests alternatives, Ternep will listen to him and often follow his suggestions.  And if Bob tells Ternep that he’s being a stupid jerk about something then Ternep with listen and try to change his behavior because he knows that Bob wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. 

The Great El Banyo is his nemesis.  She is a feisty, fiery red-haired pirate who is just as eccentric as Ternep.  As the most infamous female pirate in the world, Banyo is a fierce fighter and a tough opponent.  Ternep has been trying to capture her for years and she always slips away.  They have clashed swords and words dozens of times, and both of them genuinely enjoy the fights and confrontations. 

El Banyo is an extreme feminist in a lot of ways, always railing against the male-dominated elite and how women are poorly treated.  She seems to hate men and has an all female pirate crew –the only one in the world.  To her, most men are scum – stupid, pathetic, and lecherous.   Considering her past and the fact that she’s beautiful, curvaceous, and extremely busty you can kind of understand why she thinks the way she does.  She not only hates men who abuse women, she also hates men who are complete suckers for a pretty face and the women who use their bodies to get what they want from men.  She’s very opinionated, much like Ternep, but unlike Ternep she’s not afraid to tell people what she thinks.  In fact, she shouts it the world as loud and often as possible.

There are some men she does respects – the kind who treat women as true equals and don’t view her as either a stupid bitch or a sexy slut (she isn’t stupid, isn’t a slut at all, and doesn’t dress sexy, hating to wear dresses or skirts – however, she is a bitch and proud of it).  Ternep is one of them.  He treats her as a true equal and pursues her more often than other pirates because he likes the challenge.  He does actually have a crush on her, but has never made a pass at her or anything – not because he’s afraid of getting killed for it (which he would be), but because he doesn’t flirt with anyone.

No woman has ever been able to seduce him because he never responds to flirtation, however overt it may be.  Some people think he doesn’t like women in that way, but the truth is that he’s shy around ladies when he thinks about romantic possibilities and his self-esteem is so low that he genuinely believes that no woman would ever actually want to date him, therefore any woman who flirts overtly enough for him to notice most likely trying to trick him.  He’s terrible with the ladies when he’s in a social situation like a ball or dinner party, never knowing what to say, but with Banyo it’s different.  There are no romantic possibilities with her because she’s the enemy.

He never gets tongue-tied around Banyo because he sees her as a pirate first and a woman second.  She knows that and respects him for it since he’s one of the only men who see her that way.  Although she would never willingly admit it, she has a big crush on Ternep.  They are well matched in a lot of ways, including their flamboyant wardrobes and eccentric behaviors.  In the movie they fall in love and get married in the end; in the books they get together but don’t actually get married.

Paco the Taco and Nina the Fajita are Banyo’s first and second mate and he treats them like he treats every other pirate – male or female – they’re the enemy.  Paco is a huge flirt and initially had a crush on Ternep, but he was no fun to flirt with so she ended up having a crush on First Mate Bob.  Bob isn’t into her (he’s actually gay), but they do become good friends and end up opening a restaurant together in the movie.  Nina is not a flirt at all and is Paco’s opposite in many ways, and ends up taking over as leader of Banyo’s crew when Banyo eventually retires.

Melantha, Elaina, Maggie, Molly, and May are the heroes in Destiny III who end up as his crew in exchange for a ride to Valdrondez.  He treats them like he treats any of his crew and doesn’t really get to know then very well.  

Production Diary – The Curse, Part 3 – The Second Half of Production

Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production, what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen.  This month I’m going to talk about The Curse. However, since the Curse is a complicated TV Show with quite a bit of behind-the-scenes back-story, I’m going to split this into three posts.

Previously on Production Diary – The Curse we found out how Morgan became Maria, spent three pages learning more than we ever wanted to know about the Goreville shoot, discovered how wonderful Peter Normand is at finding locations, filmed a few scenes running through the hallways screaming for help while managing not to get in trouble with the RAs (or arrested), and figured out how to fake an archaeological dig site twelve years too late. 

The Curse was filmed and edited in the Winter/Spring of 2001.  It’s a landmark show for Sine Fine Films for a number of reasons.  To find out what they are read this.  In Part 3 we’re going to talk about Yibble’s decent into madness…I mean filming, and learn how the series came to a tragic end.

THE FILMING CONTINUES

I had written more episodes before and during Spring Break to film during the rest of the semester.  I’m not sure when Spring Break happened that year but I think it was in mid March.  The first “season” was supposed to be ten episodes, but only eight were written (Eps 3&4 where originally one script) and only six and a half were filmed.  To find out why keep reading.

A nervous breakdown was on the horizon for me, but I honestly don’t remember now what really made it happen, I don’t remember the exact trigger.  I know that I unfairly blamed Liz and Mike D separately for various problems on set, but the real problem was me.  

After Spring Break we filmed the big murder scene in Episode 5 where Tony Tarino gets killed.  The scene has three people in it and was filmed in three separate shoots – each person by him/herself because I couldn’t seem to get everyone together at the same time.  It would probably have been more dramatic to see the characters on screen at the same time, but I think I made it work.  The hardest part by far was that two of the characters have to bump into each other which is really hard to do without both actors on the set and a wide shot.

Then we turned to filming most of Episode 9 and some scenes from Episode 8.  I wasn’t too bad yet (comparatively speaking at least), and I think we all had fun filming the campus “treasure hunt” scenes from Episode 9 which we filmed all in one day.   I remember it being very fun to watch everyone working together as their characters.  There was a lot of running around – literally running, so by the end of the very long day of shooting everyone was tired.

  You can tell which scenes were filmed last on that day because there’s a sudden drop in both energy and volume in the scenes at the library.  You’d think I’d have learned to exhaust my actors less by now, but no.  There was also a great outtake on that day with a coffee machine that totally refused to give us coffee.  As the memories…of no Folger’s in our cups.

Actually the exhaustion was a recurring theme on the Curse set I think.  Every production has some running…well not always a joke but something that actors like to do when the camera’s off or there’s a pause in the filming.  In Destiny series it was “stir?”, in Pandora’s Box it was dancing, in the Curse it was sleeping.  Several of the actors lay down on the nearest semi-comfortable piece of furniture and dozed until it was time for them to shoot.  I don’t know what made this set more exhausting then the others but apparently it was.  Or maybe it was late-night research papers or weekend parties and hangovers.  Or maybe it was me…maybe it was exhausting just being around me and my crazy weird mood swings at that time.

Whatever.  By this point I was foaming at the mouth for unknown reasons (my bi-polar disorder was in full form at the time, though I didn’t know it quite yet), and on April 1^st I finally had my complete meltdown. 

The series premiered on SPC-TV on April 1^st, and that same day I cracked in a thousand shattered pieces, put up a note of the SPC-TV studio door that basically said “The Curse is cancelled” and possibly a few expletives, I really don’t remember.  Then I went home, half-heartedly tried to kill myself, obviously failed, and ended up bawling my eyes on a concrete staircase in a corner of the dorm.  Yeah…not good day for me.  Then of course I decided to blame all of my problems on other people, as I used to do in these situations (not so much anymore, now that I have my oh so loverly medication). 

The next day some of the cast members were surprised to find out I was seriously.  They thought it was a joke.  I was totally serious – why did they think it was a joke?!?  Oh right, because I had posted the note on April Fool’s Day!  If only it had been a joke…*le sigh*.  So there was some ‘splaning to do and it wasn’t pretty and I went home for the weekend.  I returned determined to finish up filming the rest of the episodes written and finish out the first and only season, rather than just calling it quits there.  I didn’t want to just drop the episodes that were only half-finished, that just seemed…rude. (oh sure, I find that rude, but not everything else)

However, I didn’t think I could do all the directing because I was insane and channeling unfounded anger at some of the actors (primarily Liz), so I decided to see if I could get some guest directors on board to help out.  I have always wanted to encourage people to do behind-the-scenes stuff like directing to test things out before doing a project completely on their own.  Luckily Adam Herriks was happy to direct Episode 6 - The Lost Colony, and J’ae volunteered to direct Episode 7 - The Gift Bearer. 

I helped get everything set up for the weekend shooting of Episode 6 over a Saturday and Sunday in April, but didn’t actually go to the shoot (one of the very few shoots of a SFF production that I was not actually there for), which was kinda weird yet kinda nice.  Adam and Pete took the cast to Giant City State Park and filmed several scenes.  Unfortunately I had broken all the actors into my peculiar style (or just broken them in general maybe…oops).  What’s my style?  Fast.  “shoot it! Shoot it!  Shoot it now!  Did you say the line?  Good!  Next shot!  Next scene!”  I like to film quickly to get a lot done in a little bit of time, so the actors were used to one shot per line and move it along quick as you can. 

Adam decided to actually do a good job, take his time, and really try to direct.  Apparently this was a bit of a problem.  A couple of the actors complained to me after the first shoot that Adam was going too slow, I replied that it probably just meant he was doing a good job (or cursed at someone, I don’t really remember).  When I started talking to Adam about the problem, he was way ahead of me and admitted that he needed to block things to be more efficiently since we had so little time.

The next day I went along after kidnapping asking Brittany to come with us and play the part of Eleanor Dare.  We arrived at the location a little while after the others did and I costumed Brittany (discovering that dark bobby pins do not work with a white cloak) and got her ready to film.  Then I found a large rock/boulder, sat down, and watched the filming.  It was very strange, yet very nice to watch the filming without having to be in the middle of it.  I got to hang out with the actors when they weren’t filming and I realized that hanging out as an actor was pretty fun. 

This was a fun day (at least it was for me) and had some very memorable moments.  I remember there was some drama on the set with two of the actors that I had stupidly gotten in the middle of and made ten times worse.  There was also a time when Mike Meyer wasn’t filming and he and I sat on the boulder talking about life and sanity that was very important to me (and still is). 

Non “drama” wise, there were some fabulous moments.  Mike was playing Richard Rowse who turns into a monstrous cannibal demony sort of thing and so he had to strip off his shirt, cover himself in mud and blood and act all rabid-demon-spirity.  He really threw himself into the part, dousing himself from the fake-blood bottle and practically rolling in the mud.

 He was fantastic and hilarious.  I think he had to wash it all off in a cold stream nearby.  Huge props to you, Mike, for being bold, brave, funny, and willing to be monsterificly grossified.

 

But I think the most memorable thing to me was the fact that the canyon sort of area we were using as the set was also being used by a group of military rock climbers who enjoyed repelling directly onto the set (I think they were military since they were wearing camo-outfits, but maybe they weren’t).  They started doing fancy moves and clearly showing off when they realized there was a camera.  We had to wait for them to finish before we could continue shooting and they kept coming back so…yeah, that was annoying.  Annoying, kind of funny, and definitely memorable.

Adam was a great director and I loved watch him work.  He was (and still is) very creative and inventive, trying out new and fun angles and shots that had never even occurred to me.  He’s now a pro and it’s not surprising, cause he totally rocks.  Awesome guy to work with – definitely want to work with him again. Now if I just had the money to pay him for his time…

The other guest director was J’ae who left an unusual legacy during his short stint as a director.  He was scheduled to shoot Episode 7.  I did the producing work as I usually do and lined up locations, actors, set the schedule, etc.  All he had to do was read over the script and show up to direct on the day of the shoot.  On that day he was late to the set and I had to call him and remind him to get over to the Student Center if he still wanted to direct.  We were slated to film almost all of the non-beach scenes from the episode that day and time was precious.  Looking back I really should have just said “never mind, I’ll direct today” but my head was so far up my…well, I was an idiot. 

When he arrived he seemed a little…off, but I didn’t know him that well so I figured he was just distracted.  Oh boy, was I ever right about that, but I totally unaware of what was really distracting him.  Like all directors on my sets he did his own filming and I just assumed that he knew how to compose a shot and do basic filming stuff.  We filmed a few scenes with me as Professor Grayson, then he filmed some other scenes in the Student Center with the actors while I hung out in the station.

At one point they checked in with me and J’ae was happy about some of the shots he’d gotten.  The actors, however, were less than thrilled and he was taking a long time to shoot things without much in the way of good communication.  I joined them on the set for the second half and understood some of where they were coming from. By the end of the day everyone was frustrated and there were several scenes left unfilmed that I figured we could pick up another day.  

When I looked at the footage that night was shocked and dismayed to find out that J’ae had no idea how to compose a shot.  The actors were at the bottom of the screen with a huge amount of wall and ceiling behind them filling up the rest.  It was terrible.  I had no idea anyone could shoot that badly.  I briefly mentioned it to him the next day and he apologized and said he wasn’t feeling well that day.  It wasn’t until over a year later (if not longer) that I found out why he had left so much space at the top of each shot – he was making room for the Giant Purple Lizard.

                That’s right. 

The. 

Giant. 

Purple. 

Lizard.

 The one apparently crawling on the wall and sitting in every shot – the whole day.  I only found out when I made a comment about the terrible framing to Morgan Thomas and she gave me a funny look and said something like “you don’t know?”.  That’s when she told me that he was leaving room for the GPL and his framing was not bad if you took that into consideration.

He had told Morgan on the day of shooting that before showing up at the set he had just dropped Acid, so he spent the say seeing giant purple lizards and god knows what else.  When I found this out all I could say was “that explains soooo much!” 

Now I think back on that day, look at those terrible shots, and laugh.  And there are many jokes in SFF to this day involving Giant Purple Lizards.  It was truly J’ae’s biggest contribution to the company.

And I'm going to take a quick moment to thank Morgan Thomas for the lovely coloring of the Purple Lizard!

But it left us with a lot of scenes that had not yet been filmed.  I had already realized Episode 5 – Buried Treasure was never going to get filmed and had scratched that, but the majority of Episode 7 still had to be done.  Several of the scenes take place at a beach.  I arranged an all-day shoot to film it.  A couple of the actors were late so we didn’t hit the road until 11am and it turned out that one of the leads had to leave by 1pm (I didn’t know that when I set up the shoot).  Since there’s a beach at Campus Lake I just assumed we could shoot there, but when we arrived there it was closed.  Apparently it didn’t open until after school was over and closed shortly after school began – that’s just stupid.  Stupid and annoying. 

Peter knew a place where some other SPC-TV people had filmed some beach scenes for a movie, but when we got to the area we couldn’t find it.  We spent over an over looking for it, but ended up giving up and going home and I think we called it a day.  We were never able to film those scenes and that’s still one of my biggest regrets.  Marc Ring was cast as Marcus, the Roman ghost.  Although he didn’t actually film any scenes, and I really wish I had been able to work with him more, I do want to take a moment to remember him.  Marcus Ring passed away a few years ago.  He was a very talented actor and great friend of many of the SFF members including Neil Cappetta and Michelle Chapman and although I didn’t really know him very well, I did like him and I enjoyed watching him as co-host of B- TV, the show he and Neil produced together.  The still above is the only footage I have of him, waiting with Michelle Chapman.

By this point in the filming tempers were flared, time was running out, and I was bat-shit crazy.  I managed to compile a list of the scenes we still needed to film and scheduled an intense, all day shoot that would get it all done in one fell swoop.  The schedule was set, the day arrived, and the lead actor did not show up.   I called and she said she didn’t want to come.  Crap.  So I basically took the actors I had, improved some segway stuff to explain some of the missing scenes and called it a day.  That was the last day of filming.

We ended up with three unfinished episodes out of nine total and a fourth that was never filmed at all.  Two important scenes were missing from Episode 6 – the set up and conclusion at the hotel that we couldn’t seem to get everyone together for and it makes the episode less cohesive.  Episode 7 was missing almost half the episode with 7 out of 15 scenes unfilmed (including two very long ones).  Episode 8 was almost as bad with 6 out of 14 scenes unfilmed. 

I ended up combining what I had from Episode 7 and 8, adding the ad-lib scene to sort of bridge the gap, and used title cards to explain the content of some of the missing scenes.  I edited it together to make it seem like all the Ep 7 scenes were part of a “previously on the Curse” sort of thing.  I still considered this Frankenstein like episode to be Ep 8, and I did have all of Ep 9 so that left no officially Episode 7.  I started referring to it as the “lost” episode, but it didn’t fool anyone.  Not sure I was really trying to honestly.

THE LEGACY

I have to say that my biggest regret of all the mistakes and blunders I have made in regards to SFF productions, cancelling The Curse was the worst.  It still haunts me to this day and writing this particular pro-diary, especially part 3, is pretty hard for me even now.  I wasn’t ready to let the characters go and the story had no end.  It took me two more TV Shows – a prequel (Dream Chasers) and a sequel (Eidolon) – to finally feel some sort of closure for the whole project.  I deeply apologize to all the people I hurt while making The Curse and I am extremely grateful to those who stuck by the project through the bitter end and gave it their all every day.

Although there was a prequel and a sequel, there was also a strange sort of semi-spin-off involving the statue from Episode 7.  The statue, and the name of the episode was “The Gift Bearer”, which, as most of you already know, is also the name for another TV show by SFF.  The statue, name and all, became the central figure and plot device in a new show, developing a personality of his own along the way.  The show was filmed in the Fall of 2001 through the Spring of 2002.

  Originally there were three seasons of The Curse, planned to be filmed through that same time period but with the cancellation of the show, that left me free to plan other projects which led to The Gift Bearer.  If I had not cancelled the Curse, I might not have done The Gift Bearer which is a wonderful show in it’s own right.  So, although I am sad at how everything turned out with The Curse and have a lot of regrets with it I am glad that I did get to do The Gift Bearer. 

Now, about all that missing stuff…

I’ve set up an account on fictionpress to as a place to publish documents like missing episodes and fan fiction (believe it or not there is some fanfic, and it’s not all written by me).  Here are links to the following episodes, including all of the missing scenes for those of you who have seen the show and are curious to know what was missing, or simply for nostalgia’s sake for those who were in it. 

Episode 5 – Buried Treasure

Episode 6 – The Lost Colony

Episode 7 – The Gift Bearer

Episode 8 – Shadows on the Wall

Please forgive the plot holes, bad grammar/spelling, and cheesy dialogue.  I swear I’m a much better writer now.

I also had some scenes written for future episodes and episode summaries for Season 2 and Season 3.  I’m posting those too, for anyone who is curious to see what other episodes might have been filmed.

Thanks to those who have actually read all of this post and all of the previous two posts.  It’s a lot of needless information and fun (mostly) memories.  For those who have stayed with it I leave you this beautiful present of a Giant Purple Lizard.  Enjoy.