Press Teleconference with Tim Kring & Zachary Quinto (Part 2)
NBC held a press conference last week, and our very own moderator wolfbro7 was able to participate! His question is first the first one under "General", about the helix symbol.
Here is a the final part of the Q and A session.
I've tried to group the questions into a few basic categories, and put the more "spoilery" info at the end.
Press Teleconference with Tim Kring & Zachary Quinto (Part 1)
NBC held a press conference last week, and our very own moderator wolfbro7 was able to participate!
Here a portion of the questions covered during the phone call. I've tried to group the questions into a few basic categories, and put the more "spoilery" info at the end.
TIM KRING, ON SEASON TWO:
I wanted to kind of clarify something because it’s been brought up a couple of times, this idea of Season 2 versus Season 3, versus Season 1.
The truth is what you were referring as Season 2 was not really our Season 2. It was - it turned out to be Season 2 because of the writers’ strike. It was really, you know, sort of like watching a movie and having the projector break 40 minutes into it.
So what we’re doing now on - for Season 3 was really going to be contained within the body of Season 2. So to the extent of a character like Sylar who spent the first volume of Season 2 without his powers, in the subsequent volumes he would’ve gotten those powers and all of - back and then gone on, you know, a series of adventures.
So I just kind of wanted to clarify that, you know, what people are referring to as Season 2 was not by our design. It was really by the design of the fact that there was a writers’ strike.
Q: to follow up on just what you said there when you talked about it was like the projector broke, so weren’t there some advantages to that long break, too? In other words, you were rushing along like this. All of a sudden you had a huge pause ... Were there any advantages to the long break?
A (TK): Yes, you know, obviously the break was very difficult for so many people. You know, lots of people that - the crew and the cast and writers that all were out of work and unemployed all that time, it was very difficult and also difficult for the audience not to be able to have the remaining half of - literally half - a little more than half of the season truncated that way.
But the silver lining, as you said, was it allowed us a little bit of a break from the creative, you know, day-to-day of the show that had been pretty relentless for two years.
And so, you know, with any creative endeavor you just - you absolutely need some time away to reassess and to think about, you know, what to do next and to sort of assess what you’ve done well, and what you want to improve on.
So absolutely, I agree with that.
Q: You mentioned a little about Season 2 ... about what was lost due to the writers’ strike - (I would like to know) if the virus storyline will come back and ... what happened to Caitlin.
A:Well, the virus story was really the casualty of the strike and I think a lot of people have already heard this story. We re-jiggered literally the last couple minutes of that volume when we knew the strike was imminent and changed the ending so that that virus never broke out.
The second volume of Season 2 was going to be an outbreak story that would last eight episodes and it was all avoided by Peter Petrelli catching this (vial) of a virus and so it did not break; and therefore, did not get out into the community.
And so, you know, three episodes into that volume we would have found out what happened to Caitlin, and as a result of the writers’ strike that has been sort of a lost part of the mythology of the show that may never return.
Q: the show was so embraced by critics and fans in the first season. Do you think it was judged too harshly in the Season 2, and is that something that you worry about moving on?
Are you always going to be held to a higher standard just because it was such a hit critically and with fans early?
A:Yeah, I think we - you know, that is always the nature of something that hits in a big way, in a very zeitgeist kind of way. It’s very hard to be shiny and new all the time.
And so of course that’s something that, you know, that always concerns us but there’s not a whole lot we can do. We just make the story that we make.
And as for how the season was judged, I think, you know, the fans that really stuck with the show saw what ended up being, you know, the second - especially the second half of that volume, you know, finally came together in the way that the first season did.
In the first season, we took about eight or nine episodes before the characters even crossed paths with one another. And if you stuck with it, you were rewarded to see where that story went.
In the second season, as I said, there were 13 episodes that will never be seen. And so I think it was obviously very hard to judge it as a whole without literally over half of it never being seen. So, you know, that’s kind of all I can say about it.
For those that aren't keeping track, we are coincidentally now down to a one month countdown to the premiere date of Heroes Season Three (September 22, 2008 at 9/8c)!!
