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"Behind the Script of Rapture/Tribulation" by Dan Owen
It was perhaps destiny that our mid-season two-parter would involve the Rapture, since we wanted VS4 to be mounting up to a possible apocalypse in 2000. Foreshadowing this by visiting an infamous belief that "believers" will be taken up to Heaven from the Earth, where they will be spared the horror of Armageddon always seemed like a good two-parter idea!
But, interesting as the Rapture and the Tribulation is, it's not really the kind of thing that you can base a 110 page script on! It's really just an interesting backstory to the episode's main focus: remote-viewing.
Throughout VS4 it's been a constant that we've elaborated on, or intended to improve, many season 3 episodes. Season 3 actually showed a lot of promise in some ways, but the writers never seemed capable of continuing or capitalising on their rich mytharc.
So, for "Rapture" and "Tribulation" I essentially tried to resolve season 3's "The Innocents" and "Exegesis". I've always enjoyed multi-layered stories, so The Board (originated in "Gestalt") was also returned to again.
The crux of the episode was an unsolvable puzzle: the disappearance of an entire plane of people. By the end of the story, there is never any positive answer - it's all down to your own personal belief. But obviously the likely answer is one normal policing would never believe.
To that end, it was necessary to involve an aspect of the story that could be solved. This came in the form of abducted babies, being investigated by Emma and McGreevey. Throughout the episodes the similarities between the missing babies and the missing passengers is a major part of the "teasing". They are actually two uninvolved stories, really - linked by The Board. It's quite a labyrinthine plot in many respects - with a lot of subterfuge and interconnecting subplots.
Again, there is a lot of research involved here - with remote-viewing and religious beliefs - which also had to connect to some elements in "The Innocents". It was a very difficult thing to pull off, but I think it was mostly successful.
Our two-parter - at face value - is very different to "The Innocents" and "Exegesis", yet when you watch those season 3 episodes again and try and "read between the lines" I think readers will see we've actually added to and improved whatever idea Chip Johannesen and Michael Duggan had.
This episode is also significant for a number of characters. We get to see Emma Hollis at work with Finley again, but her suspicions begin to be raised in a more definite way. Then there's Ryan Frost's character, who develops by showing his loving fiancé Cindy Milton.
In a lot of ways Ryan is handling what Frank had to deal, but coping much better, since he has his "perfect homelife", works a rigorous lifestyle, yet finds a balance Frank never did. Frank should actually envy Ryan quite a bit, yet in these episodes the cracks in Ryan's life begin to show through. Unfortunately, a possible "fall of Ryan Frost" subplot throughout VS4 never came into being. Which is a shame, but time and effort didn't allow for it.
There's also a telltale sign of a terminated arc here, when Mr Epstein takes an interest in Frank and Jordan's ability. Around this time we were toying with the idea of The Board perhaps kidnapping Jordan in the finale, and this would have been the beginning of that... but, again, it was never to be. The excuse around that, of course, is that Mr Epstein was arrested and so his agenda terminated.
I liked a lot of aspects of this script, but I've always felt it could have been improved. It's a mixed blessing in my writing technique that I tend to get a good idea, research aspects of it to get me excited, loosely plot inside my head, and then almost improvise the story. It's a tactic which works, generally, but obviously if I had more time and vested interest, a proper breakdown and script analysis would have helped.
I particularly enjoyed the whole "remote viewing" idea (which also links Le Saux's words on "psychic spies" in "The First Prophet"). I especially liked writing 718's journey back to World War I. I've seen many documentaries on remote viewing in my time, and it was nice to be able to write about something I already knew a fair bit about. It gave me some freedom.
718 was also a character I've have liked to written more with, since I kind of saw him as an exploited Jordan. He also has a sort of link to Ed The Writer, especially because of the "eye hieroglyph" both characters are linked to. Perhaps Ed was an escaped viewer?
With such a huge amount of things to think about, some stuff does suffer, but I'm glad the basics of what I envisioned came through very well. It may interest some people to know that - originally - 718 was going to be revealed as being the missing son of Edward and Maisie. This would have meant that perhaps the only reason Edward saw 718 in his WWI trench was because they were related.
This idea that "bloodlines" have a connection through space/time was also loosely visited in "The First Prophet" with Frank, Jordan and the Prophet Caveman. But this was abandoned when it became clear there was just too much going on and we didn't want to bewilder readers!
There's such a lot to talk about! We also nudged on the idea that The Elder and Mabius have completely gone against The Old Man by having them ignore his fax message, and the vendetta between The Board and The Group was prodded along by The Elder's kidnapping. And, of course, Mabius' strange loyalty for The Elder recurred.
Overall, good episodes, with plenty to get your teeth into, and things to ponder after you read the last sentence.
TRIVIA:
- Cindy Milton's surname is in honor of John Milton, the famous writer.
- The Society of Theosophical Science is an extension of an existing paranormal research center called The Theosophical Society.
- The methods shown of remote viewing, using "senders" and "receivers", are based on first-hand reports from ex-military personnel who claim the Air Force, CIA and the NSA use "psychic espionage" routinely - most famous in the Cold War and the Gulf War.
- Strangely, in the original draft the flight number for the airline in "Rapture"'s teaser was Flight 990. It was changed at the last minute for being too similar to the emergency number '991'. Then, mere weeks after the episode's release, a real Flight 990, operated by Egypt-Air, crashed in strange circumstances...
- The scene where 718 remote-views World War I was inspired by accounts of visions of guardian angels and the Virgin Mary hovering over WWI battlefields. Could they just be remote-viewers from the future?
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