Season 1 Wrap-Up

While the show went through many twists and turns in the writing process, fans might be surprised to learn that some of those twists had a lot to do with variables in the real world. For example, many of the cast members are public school teachers in Baltimore City. We (meaning myself as the writer and main actor and my colleagues) have tried very hard to make our schedules flexible so we could record after a long day of dealing with middle school students. Sometimes, these schedules wouldn’t work and the availability (or lack thereof) of some of the actors forced me to re-write parts of the storyline all together -sometimes midway in the production of an episode. But, of course, I’m a well seasoned writer and these bumps actually made me think of more creative ways to make the story stay in rhythm.

But now that Season 1 is complete, I can honestly say much was learned from both the writing aspect and the production. Season 1 was way over budget and I blame my lack of experience in the production side of things for this. Next season, there will be less of a need to spend so much money on things I can do myself. Plus the publishing company that finances this show has put a cap on the budget for next season. Anyway, as the season progressed, there was more of a conscientious effort to streamline the production for a finer quality sound. The equipment wasn’t any different; the finesse in the production improved.

I’m certain Season 2 will be much more action packed and intense because there is so much conflict that needs to be resolved. Plus, I will spend a great deal of time over the summer planning the next two seasons and get a jump start on the production long before the next school year begins. You see, we can’t do Season 2 right now because the school year is about to end and we (meaning most of the cast) won’t have access to everything needed to produce the show. We want to preserve the environment as much as possible so when September rolls around, it’ll be like Season 1 -only we’ll be better prepared and more experienced. But like every school year, teachers move around and I am praying everyone stays at the same school when the fall session begins. If not, that would present a little problem in accessibility to some of the characters and thus I’ll have to work around that. Not to mention there will be more students who will want to be part of the show (as many have expressed great interest) and that will also be something to consider. The more staff and students participate, the cheaper the production because it’s essentially an after school project and there’s less money involved -just what’s spent on pizza and sound effects.

I don’t want fans to think I’m being cheap. On the contrary, the less money spent on actors, the more can be spent on the production -and that’s really what’s at the heart of this project. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be paid actors in the show -of course there will be. In spite of having a company finance the show, the truth is it isn’t a very large company and money is tight. Professionals and semi-professionals will likely join our cast because let’s face it -when you pay for an actor, you generally get good stuff. I literally had to shelve characters on the show because the (free) actors were so bad. Anyway, the storyline for Season 2 is quite ambitious, so there will be many late nights editing and fine-tuning every second and every sound effect. That’s really where my focus will be on. Oh yeah, and I’ll be finishing the novel while all of this is going on.

~JV Torres

Nabal: Wanted Dead or Alive

It tingled warm and strange, causing a sudden, faint shock down his spine which made the Spartan open his eyes and gasp. He realized a finger had been probing his brain and his body jerked to the pulse of his heart as a bloody hand pulled away and into view. It was King Asilas and he was looking closely at something. The Spartan slowed his rhythmic convulsions to a still.

Holding the small, pebble-like object between his index finger and thumb, the king asked the Spartan, “Do you know what this is?”

“I-I’m not sure.” He replied.

He held the tiny object up to the lights overhead and examined it closer as streams of blood ran down the backside of the king’s forearm. “It’s a bullet.” Asilas lowered it close to the Spartan’s face. “Do you see that it’s a bullet?”

“Yes. I see now, my king. It is indeed a bullet.” The Spartan spoke lucidly to the king’s delight. He was still breathing heavily, but otherwise appeared to be aware of everything around him. The Spartan moved his eyes throughout the room and back towards the king’s drilling stare.

“And do you know your name, Spartan?” The king leaned to the side of the Spartan’s head, evidently studying his wound.

“Yes, Your Majesty. I am Nabal…”

The Trishul: King Asilas’s Super Weapon

 

King Asilas named his most powerful weapon the Trishul after the trident once believed to be wielded by the Hindu god Shiva. Asilas and Lord Oreb originally called this weapon  the “poison filter,” which was used to simply block mysterious frequencies that contained Satanic, subliminal messages from various forms of media. These frequencies manipulated the population into accepting evil and corruption as normal and acceptable behavior. Oreb and a team of scientists discovered with tweaking the machine and making some modifications, they could not only block certain frequencies, but also reverse the effects of long term exposure to many other previously unknown frequencies which inhibited the human brain from working at full capacity. The poison filter’s original design had changed from a one-prong device to a much larger three-prong machine about the size of a small car. It could be fitted on a stealth chinook, which was Asilas’s vehicle of choice, tanks, stealth bombers, off-road vehicles and ships. However, there was only one main Trishul, and it was made to be mounted on a variety of vehicles and be deployed at a moment’s notice.

 

The Trishul’s range was limited to an area over land or sea and could only affect people within the radius of its transmissions. It worked much like a radio transmitter, emitting frequencies which countered other specific frequencies, allowing only natural emissions to penetrate into the human body. The Trishul worked within a 40 mile radius, like any normal radio station transmission. People could only escape this range of the Trishul in large, fortified buildings or even underground bunkers. Even if some of the wealthy and powerful managed to shield themselves from the Trishul’s emissions, millions of people in the general population could not. Therefore, when people had their “fog lifted,” they gained a heightened awareness of everything around them and used a peculiar telepathic ability to locate Satanists, who emit a specific frequency unique to only worshippers of the devil. For inexplicable reasons, people who had their fog lifted, conjured an innate urge to destroy Satanists completely.

 

The most frightening effects of the Trishul occurred days after the fog was lifted. People initially engaged in irresistible celebrations, dancing, singing and overall elation at their newfound understanding of the world around them. Lords Oreb and Roberts discovered in this initial “happy stage” people’s production of natural endorphins spiked, as well as other biological chemicals which caused people to literally whirl in endless carousing. However, once the elations subsided, the sinister phase of the Trishul’s effects came to light. The people changed their focus to finding those who emitted frequencies of Satanists. Some scientists on Oreb’s team discovered these subtle frequencies hidden within other body frequencies which were later isolated to further single out those with evil intentions. Once the people with these frequencies were found, even amongst themselves, they murdered them in the most horrific ways imaginable. From levitating them in the air and making them drop to their deaths, to physically ripping their arms and legs off, decapitation, hacking them to pieces, tearing their skin off with their bare hands and throwing them against walls, and smashing them to a pulp.

 

King Asilas instructed Lords Oreb and Roberts to manufacture smaller versions of the Trishul that could be carried in a Spartan’s backpack. These smaller units were used when Spartans secretly entered the capitals of small countries in Latin America like Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guiana, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the Caribbean Islands. The larger countries were places for Oreb and the main Trishul unit. Strategically placing themselves at the center of the capitals, the elite Spartan teams changed their physical appearances to mimic the local people. Once in a secured location, they began transmitting the frequencies from their small Trishuls. Spartans were not effected by the Trishul themselves because they were implanted with nano devices which counteracted the frequencies. Every person within a 5 mile radius of the capital were effected and the Spartans remained in their places for three days before moving on to other capitals in other countries. What resulted were catastrophic revolts within every country in Central and South America until no governments were stable enough to contain the social unrest that ensued. America’s military forces arrived at these strategic times, commandeering the nation’s armies and reestablished order and announcing to all of its citizens that they were now a part of the New Kingdom of America.

 

While the Trishul’s main function had been blocking frequencies and unleashing long dormant brain capacity, there was one final facet: the effects of suggestibility. Once the effects of exposure to the Trishul’s direct transmissions subsided, for a short period of time, people became easily swayed to the king’s commands. Of course, the only person who truly knew the code on how to circumvent and exploit this consequence of the Trishul was King Asilas himself, and he told absolutely no one about it. In fact, when Oreb and the others discovered the anomaly that would ultimately lead them to this property of the Trishul, King Asilas told them all to ignore it and concentrate on other matters, squashing further investigation into it and protecting its secret.

 

However, when the Chinese leader, President Wei, and his team of scientists, discovered an antidote for the effects of the Trishul, this presented an enormous problem for the king. It meant he would have to allow Lords Oreb and Roberts to learn of the mysterious suggestibility effects of the Trishul’s use. In order to keep the Chines from completely derailing King Asilas’s plans of world conquest, he allowed Lords Oreb and Roberts, and a very select team of the New Kingdom’s top scientists, Dr. Paul Gentile and Dr. Miriam Moses, to counteract the effects of the Chinese antidote. To do this, the Americans would first need to capture a Chinese soldier or someone who had been injected with the antidote, since it was unlikely the Chinese would ever sell it -in spite of President Wei’s threats to do so. For this, King Asilas and his High Council devised a plan to corner the Chinese and trick them to inject their soldiers with the antidote -in anticipation of an attack using the Trishul- and capturing one of them to study. Only Lords Oreb and Roberts knew the truth about why this plan would be put into motion, keeping all of the other members of the High Council in the dark about the mock attack. America had to deliberately pick a fight with its only significant ally.