Zerks Log 04

Here is another episode of 'Zerks Log,' the premier project from StoryForge Labs.

You can see 'Zerks Log,' in its entirely, at www.Zerkslog.com, where you can watch in high quality, subscribe to it on iTunes and see some behind the scenes material. Feel free if you want to skip ahead and watch all episodes.

Notes: One of the challenges I saw with 'Zerks' was how much 'universe building' we should do as writers. Do we invent a whole set of terminology or do we just build upon the kernal of human-understanding, tweaking what we need to? I see excessive terminology as a hindrance. We're already asking the audience to suspend their disbelief that the rubber headed alien is really a starship captain. We shouldn't ask them to learn a second language.

But, in order to create atmosphere and help with establishing a certain flavor, some terminology is used in Zerks Log. Patty Pino came up with most of them, I think (but you'll have to ask her.) With Episode 04, "Second in Command," Zerks speaks of 'fragmettes' and 'fragments.' Patty had an idea to have a Zerks lexicon available on site, explaining what these terms (and whatever else we came up with) to the curious mind. Ambitious as we were, that fell through.

In this episode, we introduced the two subplots of 1) Gurel's interaction with Zerks and 2) the notes that Zerks keeps finding on his seat. Gurel and Bridge-Ensign Fil were introduced to round out Zerk's cast, to give him someone to talk about. Only two other people are ever seen onscreen besides Zerks and one of them was in the first episode. Gurel was to Be a straighter-than-straight man for Zerks' antics. Fil, less expierenced, would be the helpful assistant that would bridge the two extremes.

'Narco-embellisment,' which means, 'drinking.'Though, it's funny. Here I'm writing againg exessive terminology and I wrote the word 'hooch' into the script. Huh.