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RETORTS 2004-03 (Mar)

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Zarok writes...

Dear Greg
What was the "horror story" involving Team Atlantis and the Loch Ness Monster?

Greg responds...

In Team Atlantis, the Loch Ness Monster was actually a series of monsters. And these monsters were actually human beings transformed by an ancient Atlantean magic/tech chamber.

In the story we worked on, a little girl found her way into the chamber and was transformed. Her father mistakenly assumed that the monster had eaten his daughter and set out to hunt the thing down.

That was version one.

Then execs stepped in and made us change the little girl into a teen-age boy.

Then, believe it or not, different execs stepped in and killed the story.

Then, as you know, different execs stepped in and killed the entire series.

Response recorded on March 30, 2004

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George writes...

Hey Greg, I was just wondering, if you had the opportunity to start up Gargs again would you start it from the end of the Goliath Chronicles or from the end of Hunters Moon III

Greg responds...

I've answered this MANY times before. But the short answer is: it would depend on the circumstances and requirements of the renewal. How we were developing the restart.

The Archives will have a more complete answer.

Response recorded on March 30, 2004

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Todd Jensen writes...

In "Bad Guys", would the Matrix have been "powered down", so to speak, i.e. portrayed as less powerful than he was in "Walkabout"? In "Walkabout", he was capable of covering the entire world with his nanites, and was unstoppable by force (Goliath and Dingo were only able to prevent him from reformatting the Earth by reasoning with him); obviously, if he was still on that level in "Bad Guys", it would make things too easy for the Redemption Squad.

Greg responds...

Matrix's potential would have been one of the major issues of the series...

But it wouldn't have necessarily made the Squad's life any easier. His power to destroy and refashion was unlimited in Walkabout. His ability to save something... not so much.

Response recorded on March 26, 2004

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Zarok writes...

Hey Greg
I've just finished reading your "Roswell Conspiracies" bible, there are some really great ideas in it. The ban on faster than light travel is somewhat revolutionary and unique in a show like this. It's a shame that it didn't work out but it did get me thinking about outer space and aliens in the Gargoyles universe so…

1) Do the "Greymen" exist in the Gargoyle universe?

2) Did the "roswell incident" or some version of it occur in the Gargoyle universe?

Greg responds...

All things are true. One way or another.

Response recorded on March 26, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

1. Why does Siobhan try to kill Markus and betray the Alliance?
2. How was the alliance to defeat the agenda and the uber-villains?
3. Why does Markus become the final night officer? What happens to Hawking? What about the alliance?

Greg responds...

Well, I remember more of this stuff, at least. But I'm still not going to answer. I may some day canabalize some of this stuff and use it.

And in any case, you're talking about material that would have covered episodes and episodes. This isn't the format for novel-length responses.

Response recorded on March 25, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

1) Have the Nosferatu discovered the secret of faster than light space travel? Is there an armada on the way?

Greg responds...

You get that they didn't end up using my development to make the show, right?

I had some notions, but I never got the opportunity to work them all out -- and clearly the notions I had haven't stuck in my memory, BECAUSE I never got the opportunity to work it all out.

Response recorded on March 25, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

1.Why is Apollo working for the Skray? Is Niko also working for them? If so why?
2.Who was going to be replaced with a Vampyr?
3.Who was going to betray all that the Alliance stands for?
4.Who was going to be revealed as a Lycanth?

Greg responds...

I'm not even sure all of the premises for your questions are correct. And I don't think I remember all the answers either.

Sorry.

Response recorded on March 25, 2004

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Blaise writes...

AVALON PART TWO

Ah, the Archmage's ep. David Warner is another actor whose name and/or voice instantly catch my attention. He really does fantastic work in any of his roles (his turn as The Lobe on FREAKAZOID! always makes me smile), and this episode is no exception.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
When Angela showed up, I can't quite remember what my exact thoughts were. I think I may have been pleasantly surprised that here was a *good* female gargoyle, who was also *alive*. I'm pretty sure that within the first few seconds of seeing her, I recognized her coloring pattern, and determined who she was. I thought it neat that she was named Angela (the opposite of Demona, and fitting, I thought, with the mindsets of her human parents). Gabriel's parentage took a bit longer for me. I think, some weeks later, I was trying to envision Gabriel in my head and Coldstone's face kept popping up (or was it the other way around?). Anyway, at that moment, I pretty much recieved a lightning bolt to the brain and realized Gaberiel's lineage.
The beach fight. I thought it was very well done (and am a little surprised that it wasn't in there originally), with the Archmage making good use of the material. I enjoyed the lines, too (especially Tom's idea that the air might attack them). In fact, when I showed this episode to my mother, she got a great kick out of "You beat up a beach." Just the way David Warner says it is great, too.
I had never picked up on Elisa's jelousy over the idea that Goliath and Demona were actually parents. It's a nice touch, a great character bit, and I wish I was more aware of it the first time.
Seeing Katharine and The Magus as older was a neat thing for me. I liked their new designs. And Kath Soucie and Jeff Bennett did good work aging their voices (although when old Magus speaks for the first time, Jeff Bennett seems to sound slightly different than he does for the rest of the three-parter).
I liked Goliath's reaction to seeing "laser burns." I don't know why, exactly. It just struck me.
I got the Archmage's Time Loop right off the bat. I liked it a lot--to me it was (at the time) a different approach to the whole "time travel" business. This sort of "you do what you always did" thing was touched on in VOWS, but here it's really exploited for all its worth. And I think it works well.
Now back to David Warner. I still find it hard to believe that he did both versions of the Archmage during the same session. He's able to invest each with particular mannerisms and yet keep the idea that they're basically the same guy. His line readings are great, too. You've already mentioned most of them, Greg, but the "No, no," and "Nine-hundred and seventy-five YEARS??!!" bear repeating.
The Archmage's plan was also pretty cool to watch. The picture of the happenings in Demona and Macbeth's life began to be completed, and (as cliched as he may have been) the Archmage took on a somewhat more majestic tone with the revelation that he had orchestrated so much (with a little help from the timestream/Luna--man, that girl can be subtle). I would have loved to have seen the rest of his planned time stops in there, but what we got was still pretty good.
As for the Weird Sisters...I think I was more disappointed than angry when I saw their "Fury" aspect dominant in these eps. It seemed to diminish their majesty and mystique when they revealed how much "vengence" had motivated them to do. (Hmmm, actually that could be another "lesson against vengence" there, Greg--it diminishes the respect one has in the eyes of others...or something like that, I guess).
BTW, in later airings, older Demona's model was fixed some. At least her hair's red, now.
The Archmage's intial attack on the palace was well choreographed (funny thing--even with the gargoyles as flesh, if he kept up like he did, he would have won; pity he didn't think about that). One thing that really struck me during the battle was Ophelia (of course, until ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, I just knew her as "that female gargoyle with the triceratops plate"). Her design was that striking, probably because of her unique forehead. I think I was one of the ones who kind of thought there might have been something going on between Angela and Gabriel (they had always been seen together up until now, and, like I said, expectations of "animated relationships" kind of led me down that path). Even then, I had always found the scene with Gabriel and Ophelia here one that gave me pause. I really wish enough screentime remained to get a sort of stronger "nod" to the fact that THEY were the item (and for the rest of the Archmage+'s travels--they made his plan seem even bigger, and gave a better explanation of his knowledge of Goliath's being alive). But, "what you gonna do?"
The "caption countdown" was something I don't think I noticed, at least not consiously (sp?), the first time around. But it was pretty neat.
We return, finally, to "NOW" and the good guys as they start to come up with a plan. I liked the little moment between the Magus and Katharine after M has his bout of self-pity and K tries to snap him out of it. One wonders if they've had this conversation before. Goliath takes Angela and Gabriel with him for a strike on the Archmage, and suggests to Elisa that she come up with a contingency plan (I'm not sure, but I think my mother may have said, "Smart Goliath."). I like the look on Elisa's face here--the phrase "in case this doesn't work," is never really good, but it has the potential to be very bad.
Then she asks about "the Sleeping King" (and I *know* my mother said, "OOoo, smart Elisa!"). Now, I will admit my ignorance and say that at the time I watched this, my knowledge of Arthurian Legend encompassed only the Disney movie "The Sword in the Stone," a few episodes of the Family Channel's "Prince Valiant," and various pop-culture references. As such, I had no idea about Arthur's connection with Avalon, and in fact had never even heard of Avalon before this (I just liked the sound of the name). So the revelation of who "the Sleeping King" was turned out to be quite a nice surprise for me. (As for my mother...I'm pretty sure she knew who they were talking about--she had read ONCE AND FUTURE KING).
And then the Archmage sees his would-be attackers, and laughs...and quickly vanishes for "To be concluded." I liked that phrase here, actually. It begged the question of how they were going to get out of this mess in so little time.
A cool episode, it served as the centerpiece of the "triptych" (sp?) quite well.

Greg responds...

I'm glad you liked it. Clearly it was one of our most challenging. One that I got a lot of heat for actually at Disney (and at first among the fandom). People seemed disappointed by Avalon relative, I think, to the heavy cohesiveness of "City of Stone", but we were trying to do something different.

Avalon-2 was experimental. But then again, so was "The Mirror" when we were working on that, and it turned out all right.

I still think it's fun, but I also think that Frank was right, and it was a good thing that we Beat Up That Beach at the beginning.

Response recorded on March 25, 2004

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kimmer14@comcast.net writes...

Looking for a website that will give me a list of all the title names of the action figures of "maxsteel".We have about 8 of them.Example:"wave flier","samurri warrior",etc. Trying to collect for my son.Any help?Thanks

Greg responds...

Sorry, aside from the time displacement that's unfortunately typical of ASK GREG, I didn't even know the answer to this back in 2002.

Response recorded on March 25, 2004

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Todd Jensen writes...

My ramble on "Avalon Part Two".

I really liked this episode (and never had any confusion with the time loop, since I've done similar things in my own fiction, conceived years before "Gargoyles" ever came out; indeed, a certain time loop that I've planned in the book that I'm currently writing - although I can't say anything more about it than that - fits beautifully the part where the Archmages say to each other "You're sure you know what to do?" "Of course. I've watched you do it.")

The introduction of Angela and Gabriel's names (alongside the whole "gargoyles being given names" process that you referred to) illustrates nicely just how Princess Katharine and the Magus's attitudes towards gargoyles have changed since "Awakening Part One". Now, they're naming gargoyles after angels rather than villainous giants. (Although, regarding Boudicca's name, as we agreed earlier, they couldn't have been too familiar with the original Boudicca's career when they named the gargoyle beast.)

I picked up easily enough on Angela's parentage (especially because of that article that I mentioned in the "Double Jeopardy" ramble); I never even suspected that Gabriel might be Othello and Desdemona's biological offspring until I discovered Gargoyles fandom on the Internet, though.

I definitely guessed from the start who the Sleeping King was (of course, from the moment that Avalon got into the story, I was hoping that Arthur would show up - and was mentally jumping up and down in excitement when Elisa actually asked about him at the end of Part Two). It's interesting to note that, judging from the Archmage's response, even by the late 10th century in the Gargoyles Universe, Arthur had faded into the mists of legend (of course, the same thing must have been true of him in the real world, judging from what I've read about early mentions of him in medieval writings predating Geoffrey of Monmouth).

About the Weird Sisters: I was more bothered over the Grace vs. Vengeance conflict than the Fate vs. Vengeance one, for my part. I was having a very difficult time reconciling their desire for blood and vengeance with all their talk in "City of Stone" about every life being precious and vengeance being wrong. (It actually made them seem worse than the Archmage, in fact; he, at least, was introduced in the series as a villain from the start, while the Sisters started off appearing to be benevolent. Truth to tell, my response to their behavior in "Avalon" was probably not too different from how Lexington felt in "The Thrill of the Hunt" when he discovered that the Pack weren't quite so heroic as they'd seemed to be).

I agree with you on David Warner's voice; it's great. Definitely justified bringing the Archmage back. (I'm actually reminded of an episode of "Batman Beyond" that I once saw. In it, Bruce Wayne had a reunion with Talia, only to discover that she'd been "taken over" by Reis el-Ghul following his final defeat by Batman (off-stage, some years previous), who'd somehow transferred his consciousness into her body. During the latter part of the episode - after the truth was revealed - Talia spoke in Reis's voice, done by David Warner as per "Batman: TAS". Although I knew that that was scientifically impossible - a mere mind-transplant couldn't have altered her voice - I didn't protest because David Warner did such a great job that he simply had to be in that episode. Leaving him out of the voice actor roster for the story would have been unthinkable.)

And I agree with you that, despite all his power, the Archmage ultimately comes across as not all that bright. (My favorite part is where he has to admit that, although he's spent all that time seeking to unite all three magical objects into one big Triad of Power, he hasn't even decided what he's going to do with it. And he even has to be nudged by his future self into picking the obvious goal for a cliched villain: Taking Over the World.) I LOL when you mentioned that the real reason why the two Archmages can't work together for long was because of their utter arrogance.

The scene where he becomes the "enhanced Archmage", as I call him, was very effective - and the bit where he eats the Grimorum definitely jolted me. It'd been around from the very start of the series, and so it shook me up a bit to see it go. (I know that the book's real end is in Part Three, but for me, the bit where the Archmage eats it is where it exits the series). And I also really liked the "caption countdown". It gave a feel of approaching ominousness and tension.

I'm eagerly awaiting your Part Three ramble now.

Greg responds...

Re: Boudicca. I dunno. A Celtic heroine and martyr? I'd guess they knew that.

Response recorded on March 24, 2004


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