To: Gavin Blair
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 01:38:25 -0800 (PST)

> I was interested to hear your thoughts on the directions the show is taking
> since the middle of season 2?

Well, let's back up to the first season.  Since everything was put back to
normal by the end of the story, the episodes could be shown in any order.
With minor exceptions (such as the fore-shadowing of Mouse in "The Crimson
Binome") there was not much continuity - not many things from previous
episodes were referred to in later episodes.  This was the sort of thing
that drove the writers for Star Trek batty; while Gene Roddenberry was
alive, they were not allowed to make permanent changes to the settings or
characters.

Then "Talent Night" came along.  This episode delineated a noticeable
boundary between the old and new; Enzo had upgraded and there was no going
back.  (And although he has a different look and different voice, it is still
the same character, not a major change.)  "Identity Crisis" is a lull before
the storm.  (Side note: the Data Slide created at the end of "Identity Crisis
part 2" appears to be the one that Bob and Enzo are using during "Talent
Night", meaning that IC should be before TN, but Enzo is wearing "10" instead
of "01" so it that IC has to come after TN - a continuity failure that I've
given up on trying to rationalize.)

A trend started when Megabyte became nasty in "Infected", "When Games
Collide" and "Bad Bob".  MB is serious about getting enough energy to create
a portal to the Supercomputer, even if it means destroying all of
Mainframe.  And in "Painted Windows", Hexadecimal shows that the
uncontainable power she demonstrated in "Medusa Bug" is not a fluke; she
could wipe out Mainframe on a whim.  Our heroes, who had been living fairly
normal lives, can no longer assume that the status quo will remain for much
longer.

Even though Old Man Pearson's past is revealed in "High Code", it does not
really change anything.  But this episode does provide some fore-shadowing,
implying that "the Web" is worse than the boogie-man.

And, of course, "AndrAIa" throws us for a loop.  The primary change is the
permanent addition to the cast.  Another significant item is the the
backstory that is partially revealed.  What really happened to Dot and
Enzo's father?  Did the failed experiment create a bunch of Nulls?  Will we
ever find out more about the Twin City?  Is Lost Angles the ruined remains
of the Twin City?  Which came first, this disaster or the arrival of
Megabyte & Hexadecimal?

Even the kids understand that this is important.  Future episodes of ReBoot
will be referring back to this episode.  This exciting piece of drama is
going to enhance the story, heightening anticipation.  We have to be sure to
watch every episode now, and in the right order.

Now that we, the viewing audience, have been introduced to the idea of
a continuing story line, we get hit with the tetralogy.  One USENET poster
said it was as if J. Michael Straczinski, the producer of Babylon-5, had a
hand in it.  There is a long story arc, told over several episodes, and a
mysterious (almost unseen) enemy with fearsome black tentacles.

"Nullzilla" shows us that the Code Master's dire warnings about the Web were
not exaggerated.  Something evil is out there, and now it's here.  At this
point, the action is still almost light-hearted.  The silly big monster
is defeated by a send-up of "Thunderbirds Are Go", "Voltran", Power Rangers
(aka "Dynaman"), Rockem-Sockem-Robots, etc.  But two things at the end of
the story are quite disturbing.  The black nemesis is still in Mainframe,
and Megabyte called his Null "Father".  (His father?  Dot's father?)

"Gigabyte" revealed an awesome enemy.  If Gigabyte and Hexadecimal were
to combine again, even without the Web spore, they would overpower
Mainframe's existing defenses.  This bodes not well for our heroes, even
after they get rid of the Web creature.

It was great that the press gave notice to the X-Files crossover in "Trust
No One".  (The writer for the New York Daily News is obviously smitten by
Gillian Anderson.)  This brought in a wider audience for the show.  For the
X-Files fans, missing the first two parts of the story was not a handicap.
All it takes is the X-Files mentality - something unexplainable is out there
(how it got there is not important, just that powers that be do not believe
in its existence) and it needs to be tracked down.  Throw in a mysterious
cabal and the conspiracy kooks are happy.

Now we have to wait for "Web World War".  Mainframe is no longer the idyllic
setting it used to be.  The sky is shattered, an overpowering enemy is
approaching, and the former allies in the Supercomputer want to destroy, not
assist.  Who is going to save the day?  Where are the Code Masters when you
need them.

	-Joe