What were Morgan and Wong planning?

[Guest byron lomax]

I've recently been re-watching Season 2, and what a joy it's been; like other people here have said, watching these episodes again always reveals new depths.

And then, after watching the two-part finale, a question came to me: what exactly had Morgan and Wong planned to do once they had moved on to a new season, had they actually stayed? Has any information ever been given on what they were hoping to do with Millennium in its third season?

Or, were they under the impression that Millennium was being cancelled, and thus decided to bring an (apparent) end to civilisation as we know it with the Marburg outbreak?

To anyone who could fill me in on this, or provide a link to some info, thank you in advance.

[Guest Laurent.]

I think that pretty much everyone in the production crew (including the writers and producers) thought that the show would be canceled. I remember that Micheal Perry said in the bonus features that he started looking for a new job even though he was still in contract with Millennium. I don't know if anyone knows more than I do on the subject, but I'd suggest watching the bonus feature of s2 or reading the transcript.

[ethsnafu]

Morgan and Wong were only ever signed to one season, their agreement to do the Millennium gig rested on the proviso that they would commit to the series for a single season with a view to perusing their own interests beyond it.

So, in a nutshell, they never had a vision for the third season as they never intended to be part of it, they were, however, instructed to end the season on a note that would be a satisfactory finale as it was still undecided if Millennium would return. A vast portion of the crew signed to other productions, believing Millennium to be concluded, only to receive the news that it was given the green light for a third season. Kay Reindl noted that all hell broke loose in an an attempt to reunite a production crew who had sought work in other arenas. Michael Duggan was given the role of showrunner, until such time as Chris Carter intervened, as Reindl notes...

""During season three, it was very hard to get anything through and when you did, the life was bled out of it,It was more of a negative atmosphere: 'We don't want serial killers, angels or secret societies.' It's hard to do that when you don't replace it with anything else. In contrast, we had so many ideas during season two that it was definitely, for us, the more creative season. I also think it was monumentally terrific television and if the series hadn't had the stigma of being dark and a failure, maybe it would have gotten more praise." Eventually Carter intervened, and became responsible for some of the finer entries to the canon. I guess the rest is history.

Best wishes,

Eth

[Guest byron lomax]

Thank you for the info guys. It looks like the early days of Season three were rather difficult times for the crew. Serial killers, angels and secret societies were defining features of the show!

[Guest ZeusFaber]

^ The idea with that wasn't to ignore the defining features of the show (which were really very different from Season 1 to Season 2 anyway), but more to avoid getting stuck in predictable patterns. They didn't want the show to grow stale and become overtly formulaic, hence avoiding out-and-out "serial killers", and wanted to get the show back on track as originally devised, hence avoiding "angels secret-societies".

It makes sense from a creative standpoint, and payed dividends in the second half of the third season.

[ethsnafu]

Y'know I absolutely agree with you on this,

Maybe Kay has a valid point that in subtracting from the composition of the show it is fair to give some guidance as to what should replace it, but, I would not have desired a continuition of Season Two during the Third Season especially as it played to the strengths of of departing creative team. There seems little of merit to adhere to someone elses vision when a new creative team will present with ideas of it's own. To be fair, I disagree with Kay on many issues, I'm not a huge admirer of her opinions and I am sure there are as many contributors to the first season who shared similar views during the transation to the second. Yes there were problems but these were most notably caused by the unexpected commisioning of a third outing not simply from a lack of direction. Once the melee of bringing together a stable creative team had settled we were served with some suberp episodes. As much as I love Season Two, I love Millennium and I for one, would never wish away Seven and One, The Sound of Snow and numerous others that represent Millennium at the height of it's powers.

Best wishes,

Eth

[The Old Man]

Definitely agree with you guys. Difficulties and constraints aside, every season has some amazing episodes that stand out from the crowd and other traits that continue to flow from season to season. Even in Season 3, which despite attempts to play down the secret society stuff that to be fair hordes of fans do find interesting, you still see things like the inclusion and references to the number of days remaining which despite being brought into S2 continue to appear throughout the series until even the final episode (224 days remaining out of interest).

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Indeed. Good points, all.

It's also worth baring in mind that, to put it as diplomatically as possible, Ms Reindl is notoriously outspoken when it comes to her views of and experience in the industry. Anyone who reads her blog will know what I mean.

[The Old Man]

I here ya, for better or worse Ms Reindl too.

[Beerbelch]

BEER----> Who is this Ms Reindl?

BELCH