(no subject)

[doyle]

- this was the first thing Ultimate Drew wrote for TV, ever? Wow.

- he's such a fanboy. He points out all the stuff like Xander's Lie and the amulet from Something Blue, and David Solomon says that he was on every episode and doesn't know all that stuff.

- The First was supposed to appear to Anya as Halfrek in CWDP but Kali Rocha wasn't available.

- Anya's name and backstory came about because when Drew G was doing research for the episode he found a Viking King called Olaf whose wife, Aud, was known for her 'strange sense of humour and ability with money'.



CWPD

- Jane Espenson is adorable. As are Tom Lenk and Danny Strong.

- Jane loooves Jonathan. I think it's Drew Goddard who snarkily says "you could go in and pitch an episode about Spike and Jane'd be like, ooh! Can Danny play Spike's mom?"

- I shall maturely say nyah to the person on my friends-list or on BAPS (can't remember which) who said Tom was lying about making up some of his own lines. (Also Jane tells a story about watching TV with Tom in a hotel room in Britain and him getting too tense to watch a gameshow - "ohh, I can't watch these things, I get too nervous for the people. It's why I don't like ice-skating." - which is a line she wanted to use for Andrew)

- Xander wasn't in this episode because he's 'never known anyone who died'. Uh... Jesse? Larry? Snyder, which would fit with Restless?

- the actress who plays Cassie is apparently identical to Rebecca Rand-Kirshner, who created the character. Thinking about Help, Cassie's the definition of a Mary Sue, isn't she? Tragic background (she knows she's going to die), mystical powers. Plus she becomes best friends with Dawn, Buffy's obsessed with saving her, she uses her next-to-dying breath to encourage the Spuffy and her actual dying breath to give Buffy a morale boost, and everybody sits around weeping over her death. And yet I still like her a lot. Hm.

- Jane says yes, Joyce was The First, and that yes, the First can appear in more than one place at a time. Which I guess we saw in Bring on the Night when it was masquerading as a potential and appearing to Spike. Shame it didn't think to exploit this omnipresence a bit more considering that confusing your enemies might be a good idea (I have issues with the source of all evil being dumb as a rock, tactically speaking).

- the writers had next to no outline for this episode beyond "Buffy and Holden scene. Dawn scene." They had three days to write it and were majorly stressed. So Jane took off to Vegas. I want to be her when I grow up.

Comments

[emony.livejournal.com]

- Jane says yes, Joyce was The First, and that yes, the First can appear in more than one place at a time.

It always confused the heck out of me when people said "oh, but can the First appear as more than one person at a time??" Of course it can. It was Warren and Cassie at the same time in CwDP, but people always seem to ignore Warren-slash-the-First for some reason and just go, "oh but could it be Cassie *and* Joyce?" Yes, it could. And Warren too. It is nice to have it thoroughly confirmed though.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

How exciting, esp. the Jane and Tom in the hotel thing.

A nice preview while waiting how many months? Until the Season Seven DVDs come out in Region 1? November? Grr. Argh.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's in at least three places at once. Possibly four if it's also appearing to Spike in the bar while he's talking to the girl.

Oh, and everyone on the commentary mentions the shot of Warren by the basement door as one of the scariest moments in the whole series (which I agree with, that shot scares the hell out of me)and there's much praising of Adam's acting. Danny calls him his best friend, too.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Aww :pets you: I'm sure I'll watch the rest of the season - and make my Kennedy mood theme since she's my girl *g* - as soon as I've watched CWPD another jillion times. Love Holden something crazy.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Do they explain why there's no Xander bit in "CWDP"?

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I love Holden, too, although for my money Knox and Tracey are also quite interesting. Woodward's a lucky guy having a hat trick like that. He's like superWhedonActor.

[emony.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. And if it's appearing to Xander as Jesse and Anya as Halfrek and we just don't see it ... which it so should, if it wants to freak the "good guys" out, so I chose to believe it did and they just never mentioned it.

Maybe it's a bad sign, but that doesn't scare me at all. It makes me want to run over and give him hugs and ice cream. Hehe *g*

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

And yet Joss kills him every time :cries:

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've edited the post to put that in - Xander has 'never known anybody who died'. To which I say: Larry? Snyder? *Jesse*?

[mogens.livejournal.com]

"ohh, I can't watch these things, I get too nervous for the people. It's why I don't like ice-skating."

Hee! I feel the same way.

I think TL improvised some lines in the butcher shop scene in NLM. Maybe the "mmm...steak sauce" bit.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so. And the "I have swimmer's ear!" in Chosen was one of the straight-from-real-life-Tom-Lenk lines the writers stuck into an episode, I think.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Tom makes up his own lines! Oh, like I needed another reason to adore him. :)

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Jenny? Kendra?

[shadowscast.livejournal.com]

I chose to believe it did and they just never mentioned it.

I also choose to believe that.

Man, the First just totally failed to be scary. And it totally failed to use its abilities to full advantage. For instance, it could appear as Buffy. Why didn't it ever wait till Buffy was out of the house, then appear as her to the Potentials and give them bogus orders? Say, send them into a Bringers trap, or something? And did the First ever do anything with the intelligence it gathered while it was hanging out at Casa Summers pretending to be Eve?

[emony.livejournal.com]

I think they probably just made that whole First Evil plot up as they went along. More holes than plot that season. That whole thing with "oh, if the ubervamps come and cover the earth the First will be Way Poweful and corporeal, for some reason, but if they don't .. uh .. it'll just go away and won't bother us anymore." Made no sense! It had such potential, but really didn't fulfil it.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

My thought was that they were using Buffy's insularity, setting her up to see a world-destroying action as good, but decided that they couldn't go out with their hero as the final big bad, and the house of cards fell down.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Have you heard the bit about how he came to Damage with props he made himself? The Union Jack snack bag made it onscreen but we never got to see Andrew's stash of David Beckham photos *g*

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

The Succubus Club (thesuccubusclub.com) has a great interview with Drew Goddard in their mp3 archive. He tells the story of how he got the job (he was actually approached by David Greenwalt to work on Angel at the same time) and his first day on the set spoiled him on Tara's death and he was like "Oh my god, Tara's dead??? Nooooo!" while everyone was looking at him like, "Who's this guy?" Haha! Drew is so funny.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Bwah! And he's cute, too [/shallow]

[electrcspacegrl.livejournal.com]

Joss Whedon has said that the way Buffy ended was planned all along and I heard that if season 5 had been the final season he would have ended it with Buffy sharing her powers then.

Buffy was never going to be the Big Bad, although they did discuss having The First become corporeal in Buffy's form but the symbolism of that was not what the season was about, so it didn't happen.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Exactly! If it can appear as Buffy or Spike, the other characters can't trust *anything* those two say or do - in a panic situation there's not always going to be somebody close enough to check for corporeality. Plus it could be appearing to Andrew and Dawn, and to all of the Potentials like it did to Chloe (and Annabelle?)

The First had the ability to wreak psychological warfare on the Scoobs (hey, I'm sure Robia laMorte wouldn't be willing to return as Jenny but how about appearing to Giles as Randall, the guy Eyghon killed? Or to Xander as Jesse?) And yet... it didn't. Talk about a lazy Big Bad.

And what did it want with Spike, anyway?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I've heard versions of The Gift where literally *everyone* died and the Hellmouth swallowed Sunnydale...

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Drew G was doing research for the episode he found a Viking King called Olaf whose wife, Aud, was known for her 'strange sense of humour and ability with money'.

::loves::

And how cool would be to see Halfrek!FE talks to Anya and Jesse or Snyder to Xander... I think Jesse's death had a prety strong influence on Xander and his attitudes to vampires. Also, I'd pay to see Snyder intimidating Xander...

But I love CWDP the way it is, too. So, not complaining much.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

It came in 9 minutes long - I really wish there was a director's cut. I think it was mostly Andrew and Jonathan who were cut, including an Indiana Jones sequence, plus some more stuff with Joyce (with Dawn thinking that her mom's actually back from the dead).

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

His own props?! *loves more*