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Lost: The Complete Fifth Season  Released on DVDLost: The Complete Fifth Season on DVD is set to be released on December 8, 2009, but you can pre-order your copy today on Amazon.com! The 5-disc DVD box set is packed with special features, including: 7 Lost on location, A Day with Josh Holloway, Los Angeles crew tribute with Michael Emerson, the 100th episode, Time Frame and Continuity, Bloopers, and Deleted Scenes. The set is available for you to pre-order at Amazon.com. Also available for pre-order is Lost: The Complete Fifth Season on Blu-ray .Partner Sites
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Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib (Episode 39 - March 15, 2009)
 [INTRO] Hello this is Master Xander from LOST-TV.COM. You're listening to Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. [Music in playing in the background. It is a combination of I'll Be Watching You by Sting and Billy Jean by Michael Jackson.] [LOST Logo music plays.] SOHAIB: And we're back on Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. I'm your host, Sohaib Awan and we have a very, very fun show for you today as we always try to do and we had a little technical difficulty here this week but we're working through, plugging through. Karen is getting everything in order and for you LOST fans, I'm sure you're all eagerly anticipating the LOST-TV.COM's monthly segment with us. We're going to start with them in a minute after we hear from two guests from the site and that's why it is going to be a real treat because we're going to hear from two of the luminaries involved with the site. Master Xander himself, the founder of the site, as well as Scott Gotschall, who's been working with us over the last two months. They're both going to be on this week. We're going to hear from J. Scott Campbell who's one of the premier artists in the last twenty years, I'd say, in the comics industry. He's going to be on and we're going to wrap up this show with one of my favorite guests, Chris Ryall, the editor-in-chief of IDW comics. He is going to be on live and we're going to talk about everything related to IDW's latest releases but also we're going to hit something I'm sure people probably have wanted to talk about for the last, I'd say, week or two and that is the premiere of the movie The Watchmen. I did see it, and Chris and I are going to talk about whether or not it lived up to the huge amount of hype that I think was [chuckle] warranted in some ways but also a little bit excessive in others. But right now we're going to hear from Master Xander. He's online right now all the way from overseas in the Philippines. Master Xander, welcome to Fictional Frontiers. MASTER XANDER: Hey Sohaib. Thanks for having me here. SOHAIB: Hey so finally the man behind the Dharma Initiative website is with us because I know [pause], I'm just joking, of course. I was going to say that you had sent a tape with you describing the history of the site ala our friends from the Dharma Initiative but of course I'm just kidding. I just want to say welcome to the show. I'd thought we start by talking about a little bit of the history of the site because it's a pretty big time for you all over at LOST-TV.COM. MASTER XANDER: Yeah. It's, I believe, it is the first unofficial fan site for the show. We actually started on March the 20th in 2004, way before ABC had announced it had any intention of picking it up. While it was actually in the middle of filming the pilot episode, so really in the early days of the site it was all about collecting various casting information and filming information from the location, and about a month later on April 19th I ended up getting LOST-TV.COM and a month after that the show gets officially picked up by ABC, and a couple of months after that in September, the show becomes a huge hit and so does the site. SOHAIB: It's interesting because, as you mentioned, you started the site before the show premiered. What led you to believe that this was going to be, I mean I don't anyone could've realized, would have, was aware of the fact that this was going to become the phenomenon that it eventually became. What led you to take the initiative to go ahead and put so much effort and energy into a site dedicated to the show? MASTER XANDER: What really attracted me to the series, first of all, I was also running a fan site for Dominic Monaghan at the time, and I came across the casting information that he'd been cast in this new pilot for ABC called LOST. I read up a lot more about it and I found out that the man behind it was J.J. Abrams, and I am a huge fan of J.J. Abrams as well. I used to watch Felicity a lot and I was watching Alias at the time. So the plot intrigued me. The people behind it intrigued me. The bits of casting that I got were intriguing as well. Ian Somerhalder, I was familiar through Young Americans, and Matthew Fox through Party of Five, which was a show I used to watch prior to everything else. And I decided to put up a little site just to collect all the information that was coming out bit by bit, collected it all in one page, and it served a dual purpose at the time of collecting all the information and putting it together just so there's a reference point if anyone wants to look at it. At the same time I was actually running this campaign. It was a pledge that we were telling people to put up banners or little graphics on their scenes, or on their sites rather, "Promise to get LOST on ABC this fall." So it actually got, that campaign actually got some attention from the media. When they were talking about LOST, how the show, even before airing, has its own "save the show" campaign [Sohaib chuckles] without a single episode being aired. So yeah, I guess it was really the plot, people kind of, and the desire for such a show with such an interesting concept to work and succeed, and I don't know if the site had any impact at all on the big premiere numbers, but I'll take a little credit for that. SOHAIB: [laughing] I think it's well deserved too and as I mentioned at the outset, previously on our other broadcasts, your site, and again, I just want our listeners to be clear that it is LOST-TV.COM. I consider it to be the premiere fan website in the world and if you just look at the amount of visitors to the site, it's pretty staggering because you are, as I mentioned at the outset, you're calling from overseas, you're in the Philippines, you and we have listeners from everywhere. I mean all over the world… MASTER XANDER: Yeah. SOHAIB: …and it's an international phenomenon that's really sort of, I guess you could say grown into the site as well. It's sort of an extension of the fan base of the show itself. MASTER XANDER: Oh definitely, definitely. SOHAIB: The thing that is amazing to me is that whenever you have a question or there's something that sort of a little bit unclear about the show itself, when is LOST never completely unclear, correct, I always go to your site, even before we had segments in our show to try and glean a little bit of information. So because you're the master behind the site itself, and you know Scott is going to be on in a couple of minutes, ten minutes or so, talking about what we've seen so far, I want to go to the source of the inspiration for this site because I think you probably have some unique insight into where we are right now with respect to the show. I'll just ask the big question that's been on my mind, with respect to the show itself: Is Ben the villain in this piece or is it Widmore? Because I, for so long, thought that it was Ben at first then I thought, okay, it's Widmore but now I'm starting to think it is Ben again, or are they both simply just two players manipulating the characters as chess pieces in a game that they are playing between themselves? MASTER XANDER: My view on it, and I've actually posted this on the message boards, losttv-forum.com, my view on it is that I think eventually we'll see that both Widmore and Ben, at least with respect to the island, are going to be the bad guys. There's this thing on the site right now called where they basically refer each side as Team Linus for Ben's team and Team Widmore for Charles Widmore's team and people are asking whose side are you on and who do you think is the good guy or who do you think is the bad guy and I actually opined that I'm going for Team Island. I think there's going to be a third force that we haven't even seen yet, probably in the second half of Season 5 or the start of Season 6 is going to be about because if you look at it, Hurley, you have both sides trying to convince Hurley to go back to the island. You have Widmore trying to convince Hurley through Locke and I guess through Abaddon as well, and then you have Ben actually going to Hurley and telling him the island needs him and he needs to go back, and Hurley actually listens to neither of them. When he gets the visits from Locke, and he gets the visits from Abaddon, he gets the visits from Ben, he basically does the exact opposite of what they want him to do, but when Hurley is told by dead Charlie that he needs to go back to the island, that's who he listens to. He listens to basically the dead characters who are people who have died on the island visiting him or playing chess with him or apprehending him for traffic infractions. Those are the people whom Hurley has been listening to, and I think that you'll see that there is a separate force that is drawing these characters to the island. Maybe it's Jacob. Maybe it's Jacob and Christian. Maybe it's someone we haven't even seen yet. Maybe it's Hanso. But I call them Team Island because really if you think about Hurley's driving force for going back to the island, it wasn't Ben convincing him to go. It wasn't Locke convincing him to go. It was Charlie convincing him to go. It was Ana Lucia convincing him to go. It was Hurley's belief that his friends needed him, that the island convinced him to go back. It wasn't Team Linus and it wasn't Team Widmore. SOHAIB: Right and you know that listening to your explanation of why you believe that it's the island that's ultimately the, for lack of better phrase, the hero of the piece, I have to, I tend to agree with you. At first I said I was a little confused about the two sides, Team Linus and Team Widmore, you know they are both so, so skilled at manipulation and yet you have the island through Christian, Jack's father, and also to a certain extent, Richard as well because Richard, again we don't know exactly where his loyalties lie but it seems… MASTER XANDER: Yeah, that's true. SOHAIB: …but it seems to be that he's been waiting for Locke to lead his people and his people seem to have a primary interest in protecting the island. And again, I don't know, Ben, it seems to me is clearly evil after we've seen what happened to Locke, and we always go into spoilers here so if you haven't seen these episodes yet, you've been warned. [chuckles] But in my opinion, what we've seen with Ben, it's clear to me there's some selfish motivation there, going back to even the past seasons where he found out that Locke had been chosen and that look on his face of sadness and his attacking Locke even before, there's a sense of jealousy and entitlement that he feels that he should have gotten control of the island and he wants the island. And Widmore, again for someone I thought was clearly evil, now again we don't know his motivations completely, but given the way he had treated Desmond and Penny, and in that whole way they conducted themselves, it seems the only real hero, as you mentioned, is the island itself and maybe Locke is the avatar for the island and is going to be ultimately the saving grace. That's why I have always said, from the beginning, I feel Locke is the most important character in the show. I don't know why, but I asked Scott this before, who do you feel is the central character in the show? Is there a central character in the show? Is it Jack? Is it Locke? Scott mentioned Desmond. He thought he was the most important character, but I'm going to stick with Locke. MASTER XANDER: I think that it is hard to pick just one central character but I think given the lobbying that both Widmore and Ben have done for both Locke and Hurley, especially, I think these two people, for very different reasons, are going to be the central characters here, and Hurley goes by a different thought process and decision process than Locke does. I mean with Locke pretty much all you have to do is say "I think you're special." He's going to do everything you tell him to, and I think eventually we will see that, I guess, with Locke resurrecting on the island. We will see that the island does need Locke and, as I believe, that the island is going to be the third force in the war between or the war for the island. I think ultimately we'll see Locke on the side of the island alongside Hurley and possibly most of our characters on the show, main characters on the show. I guess, yeah indeed, Locke is going to be one to watch. Ben's told him he's important and Ben tried to use Locke for his own purposes. Jacob has something in store for Locke. Christian has something in store for Locke. Widmore has something in store for Locke. And the fact that he's back from the dead obviously means there's more to his story that's coming and he's definitely going to be very important to how the end of LOST is going to shake out. SOHAIB: Scott's on the other line. He's going to be on in a minute, but before we head out, Xander, a couple of quick questions. One, as someone who's been so emotionally invested in the show from its outset, even before its premiere, how pleased are you on an A to F scale with the season so far? That's the first question I want have before we head out, and two, what can we hope to see from LOST-TV.COM that we haven't seen so far? Are there any surprises in store for visitors to the site who, I'm sure, are going to be [chuckles] following your efforts along with the show's efforts, as well? MASTER XANDER: I'm sorry. I didn't catch the first question. Would you please repeat it for me? SOHAIB: Yes. The first question I had was since you've been so involved with the show, even before its premiere, on an A to F scale, you know A being excellent and F being a failure as grading scales go, what would you say the season so far rates in your opinion? Is it an A, excellent? Is it an F? Or even a 1-10 scale, what would you give this season so far? MASTER XANDER: The season so far? I'd definitely give it an A. I mean, every time I watch the episodes, I'm at various points yelling at my screen, pounding on the nearest hard surface, raring to figure out what happens next. I think with the new shift in how the show is paced, we're really getting a lot more meat out of the episodes and we're getting a lot more interesting stuff to dissect and look into and try to figure out and guess you know, be happy about them. Be frustrated about and all that. So I definitely give it an A because I can't wait for every new episode that's coming. SOHAIB: And as far as LOST-TV.COM, any special things related to your anniversary or anything we're going to see that fans who have visited your site before have not seen yet? MASTER XANDER: For the site? I don't know. I mean I'll try to get in contact with my people on the inside. Hopefully we'll have a little celebration going. It's amazing that we've lasted five years and it's definitely something to celebrate about. I'm actually working on another site as well. I feel a need to plug this because after LOST I'm sure everyone wants to try and look for the next big thing. I actually chanced upon this new upcoming show called Flash Forward so I am busying myself with that as well. There is also a site for that, flashforwardtv.com. I believe ABC priming it to be or to position it maybe as a post-LOST show in the 10PM Wednesday slot. Just go to flashforwardtv.com for more information about that. Sonya Walger who plays Penny on LOST has actually been cast in that show as well. It should be another interesting sci-fi series to watch on ABC. SOHAIB: Well if that show replicates the effort you've put in with your site, and again I say it is LOST-TV.COM. If you go to the forums they cover other shows as well. Another show called Heroes, which at one point was considered to be a rival of LOST [laughs] which most of us have come to realize that was a grave error in evaluation to judge. But anyway, there are fans of the show. They cover quite a few other shows as well and I just want to say Xander, it's been fantastic. We're going to hear from Scott, who is also regular contributor to your site and I just want to continued success and we're definitely going to have you back on again in the next couple of months as well. And I give it an A as well and as I said, keep up the great work, my friend. MASTER XANDER: All right. Thank you so very much for having me here. I consider it a great compliment to the site and that you decided to contact LOST-TV.COM to be the official LOST presence on your series. When you told me that you had monthly or bi-monthly segments with TheOneRing.net, I was immediately sold on doing this show because I did see LOST-TV.COM as sort of the... given analogy of LOST-TV.COM is to LOST as what TheOneRing.net is to The Lord of the Rings. It's been great and I'd love to be back on the show soon. SOHAIB: Great, Xander, and I'll pass that along to Chris and Mike and all the guys and girls over at TheOneRing.net who have done an amazing job as well. We'll talk to you soon Xander. And that was Master Xander, the founder of LOST-TV.COM and as with any venture you have your leaders but you also have your quote-unquote foot soldiers, and one of these foot soldiers is Scott Gotschall. He's back on the show again. LOST-TV.COM wouldn't be what it is without his efforts. Scott, welcome back. SCOTT: Thanks for having me. SOHAIB: Let's get right to the meat of the last couple episodes. There haven't been quite as many because of last week's repeat airing but what we've seen so far is nothing short of astounding. Let's get right to what I have found to be the most intriguing aspect of the show and that's the fact that all of the Oceanic 6, or at least it seems to be all of the Oceanic 6, are back on the island, already there midway through the season. Talk a little bit about their return and their interaction with Daniel Faraday's mother before they got there. SCOTT: Well I think we all knew they'd be returning to the island because after all, as Xan mentioned, the show is basically about the island. It is LOST island but I don't think anybody is really too surprised that they wouldn't be spending too much time sort of off-island in their quote-unquote normal lives. What is interesting is that Aaron is not there yet and he seems to be quite important. We remember Claire's psychic telling her emphatically that he must not be raised by another. So, or it could also be interpreted as he must not be raised by an Other. So I think probably, eventually we will see him return as well, but I don't think anyone is surprised to see them back on the island and that's where they belong. That's what they've been called to do. SOHAIB: It's funny because I thought they would take a little bit longer to advance that storyline but I'm so thankful that they've gotten to this point in the season where now the story, [pause] I have no idea where the story's going to go but I will tell you one thing, and as always I mentioned this to Xan that I am a huge Locke fan so there's a tendency to be a little biased in my views, but for me, The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham was one of the best episodes that the season [pause] series has seen in a very, very long time. Let's talk a little bit about that episode where Locke returns to the States and he tries to recruit the Oceanic 6 to come back and he fails at every level. Let's talk a little bit about that episode. What were the most surprising elements of that episode to you as a frequent watcher of the show? SCOTT: The most surprising element was the opening, and that's one of the things LOST does so well is those cold opens, where you've sat down, you've got your popcorn, you've got your beer, your soda, and you're ready to watch LOST and it comes on, and you're freaked out right away. Right away your mind is engaged. You're excited. You're ready to go. You can't wait for more and them finding Locke alive, in his funeral suit that he wore to his own funeral…[Sohaib chuckles] …and the shoes on the beach, I think that was one of the most fantastic scenes I've ever seen. Of course then his murder at the end of the episode was both heartbreaking and sad but yet exciting and pivotal at the same time. That was really a fantastic, fantastic episode and Terry O'Quinn, and the rest of the cast, just acted the heck out of that. SOHAIB: Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Going back to the murder of Locke, now I know it's unclear and I am sure we are going to find out more as the show progresses, but did Ben, you think, murdered Locke in order to do what Daniel Faraday's mother had requested needed to be done or do you think it was simply out of fear that Locke was going to be able to do something that would, sort of, foil his schemes? SCOTT: I think, in a lot of ways, Ben and Locke are similar in that they need to feel special. They need to have a purpose. For the last ten years, Ben has been the leader of these Others, these natives, this group that reveres him and almost worships him. They follow his every order, they've been investigating pregnancies on the island and so forth, so I think what he sees in Locke is his replacement. Rather than let that happen, I think Ben's motives, for many of the things he does, is to both usurp Locke as the leader but to also remain the leader himself. That's what I believe his motives are. SOHAIB: So you don't think it was completely [laughs] and again I hate saying, I don't think I can say, an altruistic killing, so to speak, but he wasn't necessarily looking out for the benefit of the island. You think he was also looking out for himself as well? SCOTT: I think he was mostly looking out for himself. I think once he found out Locke had the information that Eloise Hawking was kind of or held the key to get back to the island, either Ben previously had that information and thought he was the only one, or he needed that information and once he had it, he no longer had a use for Locke. SOHAIB: And I'm sure, because I know you have mentioned in the past that Walt was one of your favorite characters, we saw him in a very touching sequence in that episode. It sort of hearkened back to the opening, the very first episode of the show, when Lock and Walt sat together playing backgammon, talk about that. Do you think this is the last we are going to see of Walt and what kind of impact will that have on the show, if it is? He was on the island but evidently, as Mrs. Hawking mentioned, they have to do the best they can at bringing the people back so maybe it's not incumbent to have everybody back. Just the most amount they can bring back would be the way to go and if Walt's not going to be there, so be it. Talk a little about that sequence. SCOTT: Well I really enjoyed seeing Walt again. I believe he is like the little Buddha of the island. I do think we will see him again. I have a feeling that it will eventually play out into a kind of generation sequence where we have Ben's father who came to the island, Locke's father, I'm sorry, Jack's father who was obviously playing a role in the spiritual sense of the island. Locke's father who was pivotal for both him and Sawyer, and then we have our Losties generation but then we also have the children of our Losties. We have Aaron. We have Walt. We have Ji Yeon. I think that as we come closer to the end of the series, that third generation of Losties, who are now children, will play a very important role. I think what points to that is in the episode, I believe, of the beginning of the second season, The Other 48 Days, when the Others capture the children. We learn at that moment how important children are to the island. SOHAIB: Well you know what's interesting to me also is that you have an episode like The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham and then you think that, okay, it can't get any better than this. This is one of the best episodes in the entire series, and you turn around and have an episode that might be even better in LaFleur. Talk a little about LaFleur because the biggest storyline of that episode, and the surprising twist, is the relationship now, or the romance, between Sawyer and Juliet. Talk a little bit about that and who would have thought, so to speak, that Sawyer would become the Head of Security of the Dharma Initiative? SCOTT: Right. I mean that is really the shock of the episode and it brings up [pause] it's one of those episodes with The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, we seem to get a lot of answers. What happened to Locke? What happens? Is he going to be alive in the island? Is he going to be a ghost? What's going to happen to him? How did he die? Was it murder? Was it suicide? All those questions get answered. Then in LaFleur, we have all kinds of new questions. What role does Sawyer and Miles and Jin and the Other, Juliet, play in the Dharma Initiative? Are they part of or the cause of the Incident that the doctor talks about, Dr. Wickman, or Dr. Candle, or whatever his name is. For LOST fans it's those questions that keep us coming back. SOHAIB: Exactly. It's funny because in the season premiere we saw Daniel Faraday wearing a Dharma Initiative outfit so I am assuming that the reason he is wearing that outfit is because of what happened or what we found to have happened in LaFleur. That's what I sort of gleaned from that opening, but for me, and I'm sure you'll echo my sentiment as well here, how exciting was it to finally see what I think was the statue, in its full glory, at least the back of it, the Four-Toed statue. I guess there is allusion to it that now and there's some strange ties, it appears, to Egyptian culture. SCOTT: Oh yeah! Talk about a freak out moment. When that, I think it was how many frames but it was but, it was less than a second maybe. The boards, the discussion forums at losttv-forum just exploded, just exploded!. What was it? Who's it look like? Who could it be? Is it Egyptian? Which god is it? What are those things in her hands? So yeah, that was really a fabulous moment because a lot of people have been wondering about that for a very long time. Then from a narrative point of view it's brilliant because for a long time we've had the Cerberus connection, which of course dates back to some of the Latin and Roman mythology. Now we have going back even farther into Egyptian mythology. It sparks a lot of new conversations and interest. SOHAIB: Scott, before we head out, one thing that this season has done for me, personally, is that it has truly led me to believe wholeheartedly now, without any doubt, that the writers know where they're going and what they're doing. Because to get to this level with such intricacy, in every aspect, they've tied everything in so well. As you mentioned, questions have been answered, and we're still getting that wonderful character development that I know some people were concerned about, especially in the last two episodes. We've seen aspects of Sawyer and Locke that hearken back to the very beginnings of the show, even other seasons as well, where we try to see where they're going as characters and how they're developing. It's amazing to me. That's why I asked Xander what grade he would give the show and he said he would give an A. I would probably give it an A+ because to me, right now, as far as fictional storylines, in any medium, I personally believe that so far, right now, LOST is at the top. Everything else pales in comparison. You're talking about comics, movies, you name it, the level of detail, the level of character interaction, the level of development and intrigue. Think about it. Every episode has a cliffhanger and it makes you so hungry for the next episode that you wish you were one of those people who caught LOST late and you were watching everything on DVD. SCOTT: Yeah and I think you hit it right on the head in that it really has everything. It has complex, interesting characters. It has plot. It has all kinds of different genres from romance to comedy to action to mystery. It really does have something for everyone. I do want to mention, before we conclude, that Xander was really quite humble in his description of his LOST-TV site. It was incredibly forward thinking for him to start that in March of '04. SOHAIB: I agree. SCOTT: Even I hadn't realized that he actually started it before ABC had picked up the show, which definitely to me shows that Xander is smarter than ABC executives. [Sohaib laughs] So he was one of the first people to score some of the early interviews with J.J. and some of the other producers and he continues to be at the forefront of the cast news and all news LOST. It was interesting this week talking with him, in preparing for today, that the hits on his website actually increased this week without a new LOST episode and he was wondering how that could be. It was pretty clear to me that when LOST has an off week, people turn to his site, in part, to fill the void and I think he does a wonderful job of satisfying that need. SOHAIB: Well Scott, it's been fantastic and I just want to say continued success with all your efforts and you've really helped us as listeners, and that goes for Master Xander as well as your efforts on the site and on this show. You've really helped us in gaining a deeper appreciation for this amazing, amazing mythology. Next month, at first, when I originally planned for these segments to be about ten to fifteen minutes, the show, in my opinion, warrants an hour-long discussion monthly, at least. We'll see if we can do that next month. Maybe if you're game we'll go even longer next month. Continued success, my friend. SCOTT: We appreciate the opportunity. Thanks Sohaib. SOHAIB: Thanks Scott. We'll talk to you soon. SCOTT: Bye. SOHAIB: That was Scott Gotschall. One of the primary contributors to LOST-TV.COM. [END] |