Alexander Theoharis on how he approached the script for Episode One
Hello everyone! I’m Alexander JL Theoharis, the writer for Night Zero. A pile of work went in to making sure this first episode put Night Zero’s best foot forward, and plenty of thought went in to crafting a script that makes it happen. So what makes a good first episode?
An introductory first episode has to do three things really well:
- Introduce the World
- Introduce the Characters
- Set up the Story
Later episodes have an easier time with one and two above, but Episode 1 gets the brunt of setting up those foundations. What’s worse – your reader knows what you’re trying to do, and thinks its boring. Exposition-laden scenes are like blunt-force trauma – it hits hard, and it takes a while for the ringing to go away. So how do you do the dirty setup deeds without boring your audience?
Part of dulling that blunt-force trauma comes in the form of Claire, a new recruit. As Claire learns the world, so does the reader, and it allows the reader’s questions to be answered in a natural way. Claire was recently rescued, and is just being introduced to the New City for the first time, allowing a lot of organic exposition that simply can’t occur with die-hard veterans. If there’s someone to explain the circumstances, we can cover a lot more ground in the introduction episode without leaving the reader behind.
It certainly wasn’t set-it and forget-it, though. The first script went through no less than eight major revisions – it’s tricky stuff, and we wanted to be sure we got it right. The intended script for Episode One was written by Anthony, but there was some last-minute worry that it wouldn’t be the ideal setup for introducing the world. Remember – this is our first date, and we want to put on our best. Or at least, our most resilient. Who knows where the night will take us?
Well… I do. You’ll just have to wait and see. Trust me, you’re going to like it.