User:Sceptre/Doctor Who (series 4)

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Doctor Who Series 4
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Network ABC
Original run 5 April 2008 – May 22, 2008
No. of episodes 13[1]
Previous season 3
Next season 5

The fourth season of the U.S. serial drama television series Lost began airing on Thursday, January 31, 2008.[2] With the season originally planned to contain sixteen episodes, eight were filmed before the start of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Since the resolution of the strike, the network and producers of the series have confirmed that only five of the expected eight episodes will be produced to complete the season.[1] Lindelof and Cuse intend to "condense what were supposed to be the season's final eight episodes into what Lindelof calls a 'lean, mean' five."[3] The last of the initial eight episodes is scheduled to air on March 20; a five-week hiatus will precede the other five episodes, set to air from April 24 through a season finale on May 22.

The season continues the stories of a group of more than forty people who have been stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific after their airplane crashed ninety-three days prior to the beginning of the season. They are assailed by a group of dangerous island inhabitants they call the "Others" and attempt to escape the mysterious island.[4] Episodes will continue to feature secondary storylines showing points in characters' lives before and after their time on the island.[5]

The series is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions and is aired on the American Broadcasting Company Network in the U.S.[6] Co-creator/executive producer/head writer Damon Lindelof and executive producer/writer Carlton Cuse serve as the show runners.[7] The show is primarily filmed in Hawaii with post-production in Los Angeles.[8]

Contents

Production

Broadcast history

Actor Jorge Garcia called the premiere's script "awesome"
Actor Jorge Garcia called the premiere's script "awesome"[9]

The eight staff writers attended a "minicamp" in June 2007 to map out the storylines of the final three seasons of Lost.[10] Filming on location Oahu, Hawaii, USA began on August 17, 2007[11] and halted on November 21, due to the strike.[12] Sixteen episodes will be produced in total,[4] with the season finale being twice the length of a normal episode. In response to complaints from fans about reruns, the season will run with one new episode per week for sixteen weeks in early 2008.[13] Executive producer/writer Carlton Cuse stated that doing a sixteen episode season, instead of a twenty-four episode season as had been previously done, will give the crew less pressure and more creative freedom to produce higher quality content.[14] E! reports that ABC insiders have said that the completed fourth season episodes are "crazy good" and will "even satisfy the haters."[15]

While the previous seasons aired on Wednesdays in the US,[16] the fourth season will air new episodes Thursday nights at 9:00, replacing a strike-halted fourth season of Grey's Anatomy.[2] A world premiere of the fourth season of Lost was to be held outdoors at Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki, Honolulu,[17] where movies are regularly shown on a 30-foot screen free to the public.[18] It was, however, cancelled due to the continuing writers' strike.[19] Advertisements for the season played in movie theatres.[15]

The Writers Guild of America went on strike on November 4, 2007,[20] which resulted in a lack of new episodes for many series.[21] As Lost writers began work on the fourth season in late June 2007,[22] Lost was one of the few series to continue airing new episodes during the strike.[23] The script coordinator has said that the eighth episode's ending is very shocking and will serve as something of a finale as it was the last to be completely written before the strike began.[24] The show runners wanted to hold the eight episodes until they were able to produce more of the season[25] because they thought that the eighth episode's cliffhanger, which they wrote without the strike in mind, was not enough to end a season on.[26][27] ABC decided that the eight episodes would air from February to March, regardless of whether any more episodes were produced in the 2007–2008 television season.[28] Despite picketing on most days, Cuse, a member of the WGA negotiating committee, continued to oversee post-production,[29] until negotiations between the Guild and the AMPTP broke down in December, after which he boycotted his producing duties on the show until the strike was resolved.[30] After the strike was resolved it was confirmed that Lost would have a 13-episode season which would be split into two, eight of the episodes airing before March 20 and the remaining five airing beginning April 24.[31] Lindelof has said that the effect of the strike on the fourth season will be minimal and the season's story arc will be completed as originally intended.[32] Production of the season resumed on March 10.[33]

Crew

The executive producers are co-creator J.J. Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, and Cuse.[34] The staff writers are Lindelof, Cuse, co-executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz,[35] co-executive producer Drew Goddard, supervising producer Elizabeth Sarnoff, co-producer[36] Brian K. Vaughan[37] and executive story editor Christina M. Kim.[38] The regular directors are Bender and co-executive producer Stephen Williams.[39]

Casting

Stuntwoman Zoë Bell guest starred in several episodes
Stuntwoman Zoë Bell guest starred in several episodes[40]

Despite his importance in the previous season and the mysteries surrounding his ageless character,[41] recurring guest star Nestor Carbonell was at first not expected to return to reprise the role of Richard Alpert soon, due to his work with the CBS series Cane.[42] With that series now cancelled, he has since been announced to make an appearance in at least one of the final five episodes of the season.[43] The producers had hoped that Harold Perrineau, a former main cast member who had been absent since the second season finale,[44] would return for the third season finale, but he was busy with the pilot for CBS' Demons.[45] Since Demons was not picked up, Perrineau signed a full fourth season contract of Lost.[46] Cynthia Watros was given star billing in the second season. However, she became the first (and thus far, only) starring actress to not receive an episode with flashbacks from her character's perspective as she was killed off late in the season, although she did appear in a few flashbacks of other characters' episodes.[47] While a flashback episode was originally planned for Watros's character Libby in the second season, it did not happen,[48] and despite statements that Watros would appear in flashbacks throughout the third season this also failed to happen.[49] The writers have now said that Libby's mysterious backstory needs to be revealed through multiple flashbacks of a new character who was not aboard Oceanic Flight 815 and will be introduced in the fourth season.[50]

Fahey appears in multiple episodes
Fahey appears in multiple episodes

There will be at least five new recurring guest stars in the fourth season. Fake names and fake occupations have been temporarily assigned to the characters during casting to limit the leak of credible spoilers on the Internet.[51] Rebecca Mader was then added to the main cast as "successful academic" Charlotte Lewis, due in part to her English accent.[52] After seeing Ken Leung guest star on HBO's The Sopranos, Lindelof and Cuse wrote a part for him.[53] The producers had hoped to audition Lance Reddick for the second season starring role of Mr. Eko, however, he was busy on HBO's The Wire.[53] For the fourth season, he was cast as Matthew Abbadon[54] in two episodes of the first half of the season.[55] Jeremy Davies joined the main cast as physicist Daniel Faraday[54] because he is one of the producers' favourite film character actors.[52] Jeff Fahey was cast as pilot Frank Lapidus, with Cuse commending his "intense eyes." Grant Bowler[56] and singer Azure McCall will also guest star.[57] Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu has been approached to guest star in the fourth season.[58] Kristen Bell, best known for her starring role on The CW's Veronica Mars, negotiated the prospect of her joining the cast, though no role was offered to her.[59]

Characters

From left to right: Hurley, Claire, Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Jin, Sun, Juliet, Locke, Sayid, Ben and Desmond
From left to right: Hurley, Claire, Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Jin, Sun, Juliet, Locke, Sayid, Ben and Desmond

The season features sixteen major roles with star billing. The following main characters are briefly summarized and ordered by number of prior episode appearances. Matthew Fox stars as doctor Jack Shephard, the leader of the castaways.[60] Evangeline Lilly stars as fugitive Kate Austen, who is unsure whether she loves Jack or Sawyer more.[61] Josh Holloway portrays the sardonic con-man James "Sawyer" Ford, while Jorge Garcia's character Hugo "Hurley" Reyes serves as the show's comic relief.[62] Terry O'Quinn plays John Locke, an alienated survivor with a deep connection to the island.[63] Naveen Andrews acts as Sayid Jarrah, a former Iraqi Republican Guardsman.[64] Daniel Dae Kim plays Jin Kwon, the son of a fisherman, with Yunjin Kim as Jin's pregnant wife Sun.[65] Emilie de Ravin portrays single new mother Claire Littleton.[66] Perrineau returns as single father Michael Dawson, after he and his son escaped the island after cutting a deal with the Others, which led to him killing two of his fellow castaways.[67] Michael Emerson acts as Ben Linus, a high-ranking manipulative Other and Henry Ian Cusick plays Desmond Hume, a man who can see flashes of the future.[68] Elizabeth Mitchell portrays Juliet Burke, an Other of three years who is trying to escape the island and is romantically involved with Jack.[69] Jeremy Davies joins the cast as Daniel Faraday, Ken Leung as Miles Straume, and Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis.

The show always features numerous guest stars. Recurring character Danielle Rousseau, portrayed by Mira Furlan, may be given a flashback episode, however, this may be delayed until the fifth season.[70] Tania Raymonde plays her daughter Alex[71] and Blake Bashoff plays Alex's boyfriend Karl.[72] L. Scott Caldwell returns as Flight 815 survivor Rose Henderson[73] and Sam Anderson acts as her husband Bernard Nadler.[74] Marsha Thomason returns as Naomi Dorrit, a woman from a freighter 80 miles offshore of the island. Little is known about the recurring characters played by Jeff Fahey, who plays Frank Lapidus, and Lance Reddick, who plays Matthew Abbadon.[53] John Terry as Christian Shephard and Billy Ray Gallion as Randy Nations reprise their recurring roles in the premiere episode.[54] Also, actor Fisher Stevens voices George Minkowski, the man on the freighter whom Jack formerly made contact with.

Special guest stars are actors and actresses who were once given star billing, but due to a character's death or escape from the island, now appear on occasion. First season main cast member Malcolm David Kelley will return again to play Michael's son, Walt Lloyd.[75] Watros will appear in flashbacks as Hurley's murdered girlfriend Libby.[76] Greg Grunberg will reprise his role as the Flight 815's pilot.[77] Guest star Fionnuala Flanagan, who portrayed Ms. Hawking will return sometime during season 4.[78] Sonya Walger's character Penny Widmore[79] and Andrew Divoff's dead character Mikhail Bakunin will be returning as well.[80] Rodrigo Santoro, who played the late Paulo, has expressed that he would enjoy returning to work on Lost in flashbacks or dreams.[81] Dominic Monaghan who played the late Charlie Pace also makes guest appearances in this season, receiving star billing for episodes in which he appears.

Plot

Episodes

"Series #" refers to the episode's number in the overall series, whereas "Episode #" refers to the episode's number in this particular season. "Featured character(s)" refers to the character(s) who is centred on in the episode's flashbacks or flashforwards. A clip-show recapping the first three seasons titled "Past, Present & Future" preceded the premiere.[82]

Series # Episode # Title Directed by Written by Featured character(s) Original airdate
70 1 "The Beginning of the End"  Jack Bender Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse Hurley January 31, 2008
After learning Charlie's final message, part of the survivors start wondering if they should trust Naomi's associates or not and end up dividing from the other half. In flashforwards, Hurley is visited by unexpected people. 

Ratings

Episode # Title Original airing Audience Appreciation Total viewers Rank per week

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