HAPPY SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY TIWWA!

Seven years ago to this day a very momentous event happened that would forever shape the future of the Millennium Fan Community. Graham P Smith, gathered his Elders around him and formed TIWWA, a haven for souls appreciative of Millennium and Lance Henriksen and pining from the loss of the show and the loss of Frank Black. Over the last seven years, TIWWA has grown to become the single most important hub in Millennium fandom and Graham is, undoubtedly, the single most important figure in that fandom. He goes by the screen name, The Old Man, and like his namesake, he is our Old Man in more than name.

A few years ago, Graham asked me to become a member of his staff team. It is the thing of which I am most proud in all my years of loving Millennium and were it not for TIWWA and for the support of Graham, BackToFrankBlack.com would not exist today. TIWWA was the haven from which this project was born and it remains the heart of this project, perhaps more-so than ever, today. I am proud to be a member of that forum and proud to call Graham my friend.

Please join with me in raising a toast to TIWWA, to Graham P Smith and to every good soul who has helped build our community into the finest, and I mean the finest, fan community is existence. Happy Birthday TIWWA, long may you reign!

Mark

British exports rake in nearly £1 billion!

Can you believe it? Britain now exports £980 million worth of TV formats every year. In the old days it used to be steel and tin we'd give the world, but now it's talent shows and celebs eating kangaroo genitals! Okay, that's not really fair -- there's a fair amount of drama that international broadcasters are keen to buy, too -- such as Spooks, Torchwood and Doctor Who (which is sold to 93 countries.)

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Callum Keith Rennie's feeling Shattered



Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica) will take the lead in the Canadian continuing drama Shattered, playing a homicide detective with multiple personality disorder. His co-stars include Molly Parker, Camille Sullivan, Karen LeBlanc, Cle Bennett and Martin Cummins. The crime series will air on Canada's Showcase channel, and is currently being shopped to international broadcasters.

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TV Picks: 30 November - 6 December 2009



Pick of the Week: "Live At The Apollo" – BBC1, Fri @9.30pm

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AVATAR VISION PROUDLY PRESENTS: AMBER SKULL AND BONES!

Time once again for another Millennium music video courtesy of our video guru Josef. This week is something of an additional treat, as Josef has turned to fellow musician and friend Cindi to provide the music for this weeks montage. BackToFrankBlack is particularly proud to support talented individuals such as Cindi and we are indebted to her for allowing Josef to use her wonderful composition in this weeks video.

This week, Josef has turned his attention to the season three episode, Skull and Bones, that dark foray into executions Millennium Group style. There are so many notable things about this episode it's hard to know where to start but the fate of Cheryl Andrews and Peter Watts' horrifying confrontation of Emma Hollis in the charnel house must rank high on the list. Coupled with a stellar performance from Ayre Gross and you have an episode that's as controversial as it is good. So, sit back, enjoy the show and let us know what you think of the episode, the music and the video...



So don't be shy. Let Josef know what you think of his latest creation and tell us what you think about the episode. We want to know your thoughts so please do leave us a few comments as we really enjoy hearing from all you good people.

As promised, each music new release from Josef will be accompanied by a postcard that we urge you to send to Steve Asbell at 20th Century Fox. Making 20th Century Fox aware that we are here to stay and active in our support of a Millennium Movie is a vital way you can help this campaign achieve its ends. We are regularly asked what is the best way to help this campaign and there is no finer way than sending this postcard. The only way we can bring this show back is to make some noise and continue making that noise. That's how we will bring Frank Black back.

Mark

To see the address you need to send this to as well as a range of others you might like to send, click here!

  • To visit Josef's Youtube page and ch eck out his own collection of videos, click here!
  • To check out his myspace page and listen to some of his original compositions, click here!

Millennium Group Sessions 16: Top 5 (Free!)

MILLENNIUM GROUP SESSIONS 16:
Top 5!



BacktoFrankBlack: The Millennium Group Sessions, hosted by Troy Foreman and co-hosted by Jim McLean is now available for free download via our website AND on ITunes!


Listen to the Mp3 on the BacktoFrankBlack Stream or download using the links below!


To download from BacktoFrankBlack.com
To download from ITUNES
  • To subscribe to the Itunes podcast, simply load up the Itunes store on your Itunes application, search for BacktoFrankBlack and wait for the podcast to pop onto the list. Then click "subscribe" - you will need to sign up to a free Itunes account to do this - but Itunes does run a great service for podcasts of all types (including our friends ThaDarkSideVibe and Spooktalkular)

BacktoFrankBlack: Millennium Group Sessions 16: Top 5!

In this episode of the Millennium Group Sessions series, the focus is TOP 5 MILLENNIUM EPISODES! Jim and Troy analyse Dirt's recent top 5 choices - found here - and then look at the picks of other Millennium fans before their own! Plus news and opinions on the Millennium scene!

This free podcast is available on a weekly to fortnightly basis via ITUNES and BacktoFrankBlack.com. We'll naturally update you all on information on the podcast from this blog as well.

With ITUNES, anyone who has an Itunes friendly account will be able to subscribe easily and download the podcasts as they are released.

Send your letters and postcards to FOX:

STEVE ASBELL
Twentieth Century Fox
10201 West Pico Blvd.,
Bldg. 88, Room 132
Los Angeles, CA 90035#


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS BLOG!

Box-Eyed: I ♥ Miranda



This week, my Box-Eyed column at Newslite.tv takes a quick look at BBC2's silly-yet-endearing old-school sitcom Miranda, based on comedian Miranda Hart's Radio 4 comedy series Miranda Hart's Joke Shop.

"Miranda Hart plays a comic version of herself; a posh-accented owner of a small joke shop who delegates the everyday running to her friend Stevie (Sarah Hadland), while essentially trying to get her thirtysomething singleton life on-track. Think a girly Black Books with penis-shaped pasta instead of books, and no alcoholism." Continue reading...

MERLIN 2.10 - "Sweet Dreams"


[SPOILERS] I'm glad this tenth episode spent some time looking at the Arthur (Bradley James) and Gwen (Angel Coulby) relationship, if only to reaffirm it. That certainly helped this otherwise forgettable episode pass by smoothly. I certainly wasn't bored by anything in "Sweet Dreams" (it worked quite well as a knockabout love farce), but the story felt like a combination of ideas we've seen tackled before, and better...

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COMEDY SHOWCASE: The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret


[SPOILERS] More than anything else, the pedigree of this comedy pilot is by far the most interesting thing about it. Very much an Anglo-American venture, it finds Anglophiles co-writing and directing a one-off pilot that didn't feel at all deserving of a full series...

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Box Office Charts: w/e 27 November 2009


The Twilight Saga: New Moolah

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BACKTOFRANKBLACK EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: JAMES JORDAN LOOKS BACK ON VIRTUAL SEASON FIVE OF MILLENNIUM!


With news that the Virtual Sixth Season of Millennium has now gone into production, coupled with the stellar response we received to our previous retrospective on Virtual Season Four, James Jordan kindly agreed to talk to BackToFrankBlack about his time working on twenty new episodes of Millennium. Millennium Virtual Season 5 was created by a dedicated group of Millennium fans eager to continue the journeys of retired FBI Agent and Criminal Profiler Frank Black. Each professionally written weekly episode aired online from January to June 2007. This is a behind the scenes look at their journey.

MARK HAYDEN: Could you tell us a little about yourself in terms of any writing projects you were involved with prior to Virtual Season Five? Was this a steep learning curve for yourself or something you had dabbled in to some degree previously?

JAMES JORDAN: I’d written a few odd scripts and I was honing the craft, so the mechanics of screenwriting weren’t new to me but I’d never undertaken such a huge, collaborative project before. I don’t think you can truly be prepared for how much hard work it is until you’re caught up in everything.

MH: At the time the Virtual Fourth Season was created the team involved were fuelled by the very recent cancellation of the show and a desire to see it reach the millennium and tie up the loose ends of the televised series. Considering that they felt they had achieved their mandate what inspired the Virtual Fifth Season and what story did you believe there was left to tell?

JJ: That’s a very good question! It was Tony Black, my fellow executive producer, who first proposed it. At first I wasn’t sure if it was viable or something I’d be interested in for those exact reasons, but the more we talked about the storytelling possibilities and the enduring character of Frank Black, the more tempting it became.

When we hit upon the idea of tying together all the post-millennial catastrophes and how that could be interpreted as an apocalypse unfolding in very real terms, that seemed to be the key to making the series relevant and interesting to our present times. Plus of course, Frank and Jordan hadn’t stopped living in the intervening years and there w
ould always be lots of opportunities for standalone episodes, so the chance to expand on this compelling world that Chris Carter created proved irresistible.

MH: I am fascinated by the mechanics that went in to the creation of any virtual season. From working on BackToFrankBlack I am all too aware of the sheer hard work that goes into a fan product of any kind, work that remains undetected by those who enjoy the results. Could you describe the experience of working on that season and offer a brief synopsis of the highs and lows of it?

JJ: We approached it as much like a television production as possible over the internet, which I suppose is the main difference between a virtual season and fan fiction, if you will. We worked out of a private forum where the staff would gather together to plan and structure the skeleton of the season, break individual episodes and organize deadlines and such. I’d take a pass on each script in the tradition in which US shows are run, then the final versions would go up on the website every Friday.

The highs were seeing all these people doing great work and getting some very gratifying feedback from readers. But of course we had our hits and misses and it could be both tiring and stressful. I think the hardest it got was when I got a draft in very late that was basically half finished, and I was up all night feverishly rewriting to get it out on schedule that Friday. Thankfully it only went down to the wire that once, and most of the time we were having fun with these characters and telling their stories.

MH: Could you tell us a little about the Virtual Five crew? From where did you draw supporters and contributors, how were roles assigned and so on and whether the team has continued to communicate and contribute to further projects of this kind?

JJ: At first there was an open call at the well-known fan site This Is Who We Are, which is where Tony and I first started working together and assembling a staff of volunteers. As we realized we needed confident scriptwriters as much as we needed dedicated Millennium fans, we moved over to a network that Tony had set up with ties to an existing writing community which is where we teamed up with Angelo Shrine who wrote some of our most popular episodes.

We also got I
an Austin to step in fairly late on and pick up some of the slack, and one of the unsung heroes of the project, JT Vaughn, who did all of the graphics and images for all our promos as well as our variant of the main title sequence. One or two of the other writers have lost touch, but Tony and Angelo have written episodes of a Night Stalker continuation that I’ve been running, and all those guys have got projects of their own on the go at MZP too. I would never have imagined how much I’ve been sucked into this world back when we first started VS5.

MH: Once you'd established a creative team what ground rules, or guidance, was implemented to ensure that the final product felt like a Millennium project rather than an original work with the Millennium characters inserted into it. Are there any particular televised episodes that you allowed to flavour the tone of the season you were writing?

JJ: To start off, I put together a bible that established the basic points that Tony and I had agreed on, along with where we saw characters like Frank Black at this point in time and the overall tone and direction we were aiming for. So all the writers had that to keep us on the same page, plus we’d break all the episodes together to make sure things stayed consistent, or sometimes I’d write the outline and hand it to a writer to do their script from, because some people prefer to work that way. We’d try and pick out as many little details as we could to evoke the visual sensibilities of the show, the opening epigrams and the legends for example, just to add to that authentic Millennium experience. I don’t think there were any specific episodes we picked out for reference, but broadly speaking we always said we’d try to hearken back to the tone of the first season while bringing our own flavour to it all.

MH: You introduced a number of original characters in the Virtual Fifth Season. Were you aware of any differences between writing for characters you had created as opposed to those you had enjoyed as on screen creations. Is it harder to ensure a consistent personality and voice for an original creation than one who was already very established?

JJ: Absolutely, yes. When it comes to Frank Black, you’ve got the benefit of 67 TV episodes and everything an actor brings to the character, all Lance Henriksen’s brilliant facial reactions and mannerisms, not to mention that fantastic voice. There’s so much to draw on and replicate with points of reference an audience would recognize. With an original character you have none of that. A reader will never hear an actor reading the lines, never see them bring it to life, so you have to try and compensate for that on the page as best you can.

We had our young detective Brad Locke as our second lead, and to try and get him to stand up to Frank Black and not feel overly similar to any other past characters could be very difficult. The same could be said for Miranda Graff, the romantic interest for Frank who couldn’t just be another Catherine but at the same time had to be carefully written so as not to disrespect her memory either. I think most people would a
gree that it’s generally easier to write for Frank, and I know that I certainly found the same to be true for the likes of Lucy Butler.

MH
: For the fans, a virtual season allows them to enjoy another slice of the characters and the show they support but wherein lies the enjoyment for those behind the scenes? Given the amount of sheer hard slog involved with creating something like this how does all that hard work reap its dividends?

JJ: The writing is its own reward, in many respects. As much as it is hard work, the enjoyment is just as you say in revisiting these characters and having fun with them in their world. We did it for the love of it and nothing more, after all. But I suppose the greatest reward is when someone reads our work, or I should say when someone tells us they’ve read it and what they thought, be it good or bad. Otherwise it’s like a tree falling in the forest. As enjoyable as it is to do, the scripts are written to be read, of course, and when someone spends their free time reading 60-odd pages of fan-written stuff and maybe even sending us a little feedback, it’s the most gratifying thing in the world.

MH: Virtual Season Four was heavily inspired by the mythology of Season Two of Millennium. What particular mythology drove your own season and can you give us a brief, spoiler free version, of what the particular arc for your season was if any.

JJ: We agreed fairly early on that we wanted to go in a different direction to the season two style mythology. Just as all three seasons of Millennium had their own unique identity by virtue of three different sets of showrunners, we decided we’d follow that pattern and establish our own identity compared to VS4 since, true to history, we were yet another different creative team. But we were always very firm on respecting the great work of our predecessors and treating it as canon, or “fanon” if you will. Our mythology episodes are basically about the idea that the apocalypse is in progress having only just got started in 2001.

We sort of follow the concept of “an apocalypse of our own creation” posited towards the end of season three. We look at things that are happening all around us like H5N1, missile defense platforms, natural disasters and terrorism with an eye for how they
might be interpreted as symptomatic of the end times. There’s also quite a lot of what fans would call “Legion” throughout the season and how this force of evil may be turning its eye from Frank to Jordan.

MH: The virtual Fourth season was able to bring itself to the attention of Chris Carter who, almost, appeared to endorse it. We know Lance was particularly impressed with the project as was Kay Reindl who passed comment and offered praise regarding the project. Were you able to bring your own season to the attention of any of the cast and crew?

JJ: Not that I’m aware. We got a brief mention in Sci Fi Now magazine once, but that’s about it. The internet is such a different beast now to what it was in the 90s, there’s no novelty value to this kind of thing now, and of course the show had been off the air for a long time before we got started. I’d be very surprised if anyone outside our little corner of the internet knew VS5 existed.

MH: With hindsight and experience what advice can you give those who are currently in the process of working on Virtual Season Six of the show?

JJ: Give yourself plenty of time! You really don’t get a sense of how much work it is until you’re in the thick of it all. And focus on making the scripts the best they can be. As much fun as it is to come up with new ideas and play with promos and extras, if you haven’t got the scripts you haven’t really got anything. Best of luck!

Please join with me in thanking James for taking the time to answer our questions and if you have not had the chance to enjoy the Virtual Season Five of Millennium then may I urge you, as one who has enjoyed it many times, to do just that. You won't regret it.

Talking Point: Who are you people?

I thought it might be nice to get to know the regulars here a bit better. So many of you use "handles" and lurk behind cartoon-y avatars. And, beyond your general taste in TV/film, I don't know much about anyone personally -- especially some of the newer commenters. I don't want a full biography (and I realize some of you value anonymity, which is fine), but it would be nice just to know ages and locations at the very least. I was surprised to realize 4LeafClover is from Romania today, for instance! And what does everyone do for a living, or are there more students reading than I realize? If so, shouldn't you be studying?

Anyway, it's up to you if you want to share a bit about yourself. I'll let this run over the weekend. Age, sex, location -- that's not too much to ask, is it? You'd be surprised how wrong my impressions are of you all, so please help set me straight.

MISFITS 1.3


[SPOILERS] The least compelling episode so far, but still not without ribald charm and absorbing moments. Ostensibly focused on Alisha (Antonia Thomas), but finding time to give gobby Kelly (Lauren Socha) and timid Simon (Iwan Rheon) something to do, episode 3 found the gang struggling to move the dead bodies they buried under the motorway flyover, before the council discover them while building an "environmental monitoring centre"...

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Virgin TiVo



Virgin Media have announced plans to partner with TiVo, the PVR market leader in the US. TiVo actually launched in the UK back in 2000 (partnering Thomson Multimedia and Sky), but their boxes never really took off with the British public. It was left to Sky to push the idea of PVR's into British homes alone, via Sky+ in 2001, which people were far more willing to upgrade to. Virgin Media followed Sky's lead a few years later with V+ (formerly TVDrive). But now Virgin are teaming up with TiVo, as outlined by this press release:

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DEFYING GRAVITY 1.7 - "Fear"


[SPOILERS] I've gone space-crazy. My consciousness drifts in and out of Defying Gravity now; a glazed expression descending every time Donner (Ron Livingston) gives us another of his easygoing, patronizing voice-overs. It's all very didactic and stilted. Anyway, it's Halloween (prematurely scheduled in the US, belatedly so in the UK), and "Fear" revolved around the Antares crew having to act in a live, televised commercial for a confectioners who have pumped $10 billion into the mission. I guess selling chocolate is big business in 2052; maybe everyone who isn't affiliated with NASA are fat, chocoholic couch potatoes glued to the mission on TV?

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V, 1.4 - "It's Only The Beginning"


[SPOILERS] Here it is, the final episode of V before its four-month hiatus. Perhaps if they'd known earlier this opening quartet could have been crafted as a purer mini-series (echoing the genesis of the '80s series), but it instead feels like a handbrake has been pulled too soon. The appropriately-named "It's Only The Beginning" ends with two surprises intended to get us excited about the show's return, but they're not enough to keep you on tenterhooks until March.

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