TIME MARCHES ON

“Because we didn’t get that fifth season, I have always thought there was an unfinished nature to all of this. But time has really changed what that might be, and for the better, I think, now that we have the benefit of five years’ distance.

“I don’t know how many days our premiere is from the air date of the final episode [February 8, 2010], but we’re saying that’s the exact time span since the story left off. We’re treating this as if it’s not the fifth season, but the 10th season, as though there were actually unseen seasons that took place in between.” SMOOTH TRANSITION “We had a brand-new writers’ room, and that was very good, because I wanted this to be brand-new idea. I wanted to honour the previous show and its mythology: an indeterminate number of ordinary people around the world waking up to discover they have some sort of unique abilities and, layered on top of that, the idea that we always have to save the world from something. But that’s such a broad premise, and I wanted this show to occupy a new stage. I had always wanted to tell the story of what happens in the world after the world discovers these people.” NOT A COMIC BOOK GUY “This is my 30th year as a writer in Hollywood. was my 46th paying job as a writer. was my 47th.

is my 50th. I have written all kinds of things, and my taste as a writer sort of mirrors my tastes as a viewer — extremely eclectic ... I never saw myself as pigeonholed, and I certainly was never a sci-fi writer. ” IN TOUCH “I’ve always liked exploring global consciousness and interconnectivity in my writing. That was a message I explored even on shows like and ... ...”

“Random events may or may not be random. The consequences of your actions have ripple effects. So if you understand that deeply, you’ll live your life in a more conscious way. That idea resides again in OVER AND OUT?

was always talked about as an ‘event series,’ and the purity of that lets the audience know there’s a clear beginning, middle and end. An origin story is almost always the most interesting story, and once a character has learnt all that they need to know existentially about what is happening to them, and what it all means, those big questions end up being replaced by plot questions — which are not as powerful and exciting.” (It’s why the original lost its focus, and a chunk of its audience in its later seasons, Kring theorises.)

“A show like this wants to repopulate itself, to recast, and I think we proved that here by adding so many characters. There has literally been not a single conversation about extending

beyond 13 episodes. But, yes, it is a brand that I feel very comfortable doing another version of.”—AP