Tuesday, January 05, 2010

The Third Age: Episode Seven - 'The Tree of Life'



If you watch one episode of The Third Age, make it this one! This week, Holly leads a ritual to find out the truth about Morning, and is shocked by what she discovers! It's a more experimental episode than usual, and is my personal favorite of the series to date. I'd love to hear what you think.

In other news, after the epic posting frenzy of best of time, things will probably slow up for a bit. In the next couple of days, I'll be posting my most anticipated movies list for 2010, and in the next couple of weeks, Caprica, Lost and Big Love will start up, all shows I'll surely be writing about.

3 comments:

suncore598 said...

Another mind-blowing episode of the Third Age as always, Patrick. Love the imagery and the part of the episode when we see a clip of the old man with the words of CONFINE, TRAP, and DIVIDE popping up on it. It reminds me of that scene in Season 3 of Lost when Kate and Sawyer enters the room with that Other boy who was strapped in a chair being forced to watch some kind of brainwashing clip show.

We finally learn some more about Morning which still leaves us with some questions. I've noticed that Morning has spoken more lines in one episode than she has in the past six episodes. I'm interested in the Creation Space and I'm sorry it took me until now to wonder how in the hell Jerrod was able to abduct someone as powerful as the old man. Am I right to assume the old man is God because that hasn't been really clear? And why did Christopher reacted to the way he did to Holly and Morning's mind trip?

On the topic of Holly, I am impressed. For a while there, I've been waiting for Holly to pull off some magic. Don't get me wrong. I love the character. She reminds me in some ways of Zhaan from Farscape but in human form. However, I really wanted her to show us what she got which is better than I imagined. Does she have other powers? And what will become of her after this episode's events? Will she be altered fundamentally? And will she, Christopher, and Morning be immediately kicking off the search for Morning's father after this?

And on a personal note, have you received the message I sent you about your feedback to my pitch document?

Patrick said...

I actually saw that episode of Lost a while after we had scripted and shot this, but when I was watched it, I instantly noticed the similarity as well. It's just a coincidence, the same idea floating around the collective subconscious.

Essentially, yes, the old man is God, or at least a god. In the mythos of the series, it's essentially that the beings like Morning and the old man incarnate certain emotions or concepts, in the same way that Greek gods were living incarnations of love or war, etc. The closest explanation, so far at least, for what he is is in the scene where Holly sees him in the prison room at the end of this episode.

The reason Christopher reacted the way he did will be explored a bit in the next episode, but the basic of it is that they're going on this journey up human consciousness, and in order to be able to make it to the higher realms, you need to have a certain mental strength, and belief, which he has been shown to lack.

All the questions about Holly will be answered by the end of the series, with some of it being touched on next time. The experience definitely alters her, and it sets in motion the next stage of the plot, which will be largely laid out in the next episode.

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed this one. It's a personal favorite for me, and was the attempt to do something a bit more experimental and structurally different, while still moving the narrative forward. Hopefully it succeeded.

As for your response to the notes, I haven't seen anything, the last e-mail I've got between us is 12/26/09, when I sent the notes out. So, re-send them over and I'll respond once I get them!

suncore598 said...

Alright. I've sent you my message again. It's titled "Thank you for your comments."