Dana...you're quite correct. Getting a show sold is next to impossible;
getting it actually produced at *all* and finally actually on the air is even
unliklier. With all the ten zillion elements that go into any one episode,
where any one element -- script, guest star, effects -- can kill the episode
if it goes wrong, that *anything* gets made with any quality at all is really
a case of swimming upstream.

Re: self-sacrifice as a recurring theme...yes, and it's something that
has become kind of passe; you don't tend to see it much in TV. It's a very,
very old-fashioned notion, but I think it's an important one.

We've now finished shooting episode number one of season two, and today
began filming on episode two, "Revelations." The first episode is just
*gorgeous*. John Iacovelli, our production designer, absolutely knocked
himself out improving the look and feel of the sets, making it all look
bigger, better, more *real*...and Bruce has been doing a bang-up job. (No
major guest stars in the first episode, "Points of Departure," just our
regulars and Bruce. Guest in "Revelations" is Beverly Leech, playing
Elizabeth Sheridan, John Sheridan's sister.)

jms