Editor’s Note: One of the things we here at LOSTblog.com like to do is highlight fan contributions either as art, video, or even the written word. For the record, I would be interested in reading (or viewing) a behind the scenes, inside the writer’s room account of the creative processes that worked largely behind the scenes during it’s six year run.
If anyone wants to submit another article from another point of view get my attention on twitter, or email me or any of the staff. Even if I disagree with a point of view, I would certainly try to give anyone equal space.
Jon (@LOST_BOSS)
As Lost comes to a close there’s one loose-end I’d like to see tied off: I want an honest, uncensored account of the writing and production of the show. Not because I want them to prove they weren’t making it up as they went along - we know that’s what they did, more or less, for the first season and something they probably intermittently continued throughout Seasons 2-6. No, I want a biography of the show (written either by the writers, or in conjunction with them) because it could be an invaluable look into the creative process. What stories did they plan that never panned out? How did their vision change and mutate as old writers left and new ones came aboard, and with them new ideas? How did they deal with the reality of running a television series where actors who had signed on for one year only decided to leave the show - forcing them to kill them off prematurely and do their best to patch up the storyline. (I mean, come on, the back-cover practically writes itself!)
That’s the interesting thing about Lost, that differentiates itself from, say, a Dicken’s serial. It wasn’t created in a vacuum. Walt’s story will probably go largely unfulfilled because of the simple reality that he was a pre-adolescent when the show started and he’s well into his teens now. The show couldn’t advance the storyline fast enough to keep up with him, so he was dropped. Such a Lost biography would be a rich mythology in itself; an official bit of fan-fiction revealing all the twists and turns the story might have taken. And, for a show that’s gorged itself on such conceits as time-travel and, perhaps, alternative-universes it’d make perfect sense.
The creators have gone on record saying that revealing too much about their creative process would deflate the show, sucking all the mystery out of it. I think it might do the opposite. It would explain things, to be sure, but it’d also open up fans to whole new vistas of possibilities. As much as it would answer our questions, it’d also make us wonder “What if?” and “If only?” Such a biography would both relieve fans of embarrassing storylines the creators wisely chose to abandon and lament over stories we think we might have liked better than what we actually got.
I don’t want them to answer everything. Giving a scientific, technical answer to explain how you move an island through space and time by turning a frozen donkey wheel is both impossible and ludicrous. But it’d be interesting to know how, exactly, they came up with the idea. I mean, you don’t just drive to work and come up with something like that? (Do you?) And it’d be interesting to know at what point they came up with the idea that the island moved at all. Or perhaps they knew early on that the island was moving but only figured out the ‘mechanics’ of that later on. At any rate, this ‘Lost Biography’, along with a good canonical sendoff for the series are the two things I’d most like to see from Lost.
