December 1st, 2018

Each of us here in the PsyBorgs camp has been mega-busy with all kinds of stuff. Which is why much of our social media has been quiet (thanks to me - I’m supposed to be running those dang things). But hey, I can only give myself a hard time for so long; I’ve been so committed to WRITING MORE PSYBORGS that I haven’t even paid attention to the PsyBorgs that’s already out in the world! The ‘Borgs have been screened in Virginia at the wonderful GenreBlast Film Festival, in Utah at the monstrously-fantastic FilmQuest, and we’re soon to play on a completely different continent with TWO screenings at the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Film Festival next week! Whew, that was a mouthful.

Anyway, back to what’s been keeping us busy. Since early 2018, within a few months of wrapping production on season one of The PsyBorgs, we’ve been thinking of a season two. The ending of season one (for the 99.9% of people who haven’t seen it) sets up a bunch of ridiculous possibilities, plot lines, and misadventures so it’s only natural that we’ve mused about the future of this oddball squad of psychics. Like I said, these talks “officially” started in February of this year, but David, Nick, and I have been riffing ideas since, well, the original short was produced (for those keeping track, that was late 2015/early 2016). There’s a huge world of Psystuff out there, and season one only scratched the surface. Which leads us back to those February talks… While not giving away any spoilers, the dynamics of the team as you may have known them in the short (here’s the link: https://youtu.be/fjlC2LMit4I) have certainly changed by season’s end, but we also mess around with time, Egyptians, and aliens. Yep, you read that correctly: aliens. But what really turned our (or at least MY) crank by February was further exploring John’s characterization of his friends and his ideas of friendship. What does an immature dope think leadership looks like? How does saving the city from T.O.X.I.N. every week affect the friendship he has with Deutsch, Rolling Thunder, Ricky Blaze, and Frank Bladecop? Stuff like that. In the following months since season one wrapped, I wrote two “spec” episodes (one was the first part of a two-parter) to explore those dynamics. These questions have even gone into the NSI Totally Television half-hour pilot script that Dave and I wrote in the summer, but I’ll talk about that one another time.

Now, these specs - even specs that I’ve written as one of the writers of PsyBorgs - are a far cry from ever being made, especially in the condition that you’re about to see. For me, these first two screenplays are an exercise in finding the tone and character of the show - or what the show could grow into. Finding a groove, I guess. Anywho, here’s a few pages from an early draft of an episode I called “Thief of the Dreamer”, which is aworking title I swear to gosh. The only context I’ll give is that John Carbon’s best friend, Ricky Blaze, is now a mental patient at a place called Happy Daze, and his doctor has trained him as a master cribbage player. The goal of this episode was to explore Carbon’s distress when faced with his friend losing his memories. So, it’s about flashbacks and war stories and dreams and stuff. Obviously.

Also, feel free to make note of some bad writing throughout. There’s stinky prose, unclear descriptions, and some soggy/uncrisp action lines. These really are first writes with some revisions and a spell check. But, you know, that’s alright! I find that the more one shares their writing, flaws and all, the more comfortable one becomes with their writing. Many a night I’ve sat at my computer, banging myself over the head over what a shitty sentence I just wrote. Then you just don’t get anything done. At least if you air out your pages, even months/years later, you as a writer can take a step back and see those words for what they are, which is really just keystrokes that can be edited, expanded upon, deleted, revised, crossed out, italicized. Whatever! That’s the beauty of writing! Like I always say: don’t leave your sweaty gym towel in the bag for six months and expect it to be dry and pleasant. But back to Thief of the Dreamer. Sound cool? Alrighty!

The Thief of the Dreamer:

Note the overt world-building here. I’ve gone and added a crazy fictional war that precipitated why telekinetics live in this universe and that a “Dark Comet” gave a bunch of people on Earth telekinetic powers. Fun, right? Definitely not ridiculous. Not at all. Keen viewers of the original short will also recognize that “bunker” line - yep, the one about Ting Gong Tza. This scene anchored this script as the first time John Carbon uses his fantastic powers of the mind to open a door to save himself, a teenage Ricky Blaze, and a crying Burmese family(?). This is also the first page of the script and of course it’s a flashback. But what better way to start off a subsequent season of a series than with a cold, hard BLAST FROM THE PAST? I betcha CSI did it tons of times. Between Dave, Nick, and I, the PsyBorgs’ backstory, especially John’s, has been a hilarious sandbox to play in. And since the show is an exercise in the absurdity of G.I. Joe and Power Rangers it’s really just been a case of throwing al dente noodles at the wall and seeing what sticks. (Sidebar: Al Dente is another villain we’ve thought of writing into the show - but I’ll just let that one simmer…) ((SidesideBar: I’m sorry about that one, I truly am))

Here’s the page in the script that introduces the episode’s villain, an ingenious (if not a teensy bit lazy) play on the name of the 1980’s spookiest baddie: Freddy Krueger. Honestly, we all know where I went with this guy, Dr. Eddie Lüger, right? A generous helping of Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark (a film I will never, ever get tired of emulating/ripping off), a sprinkling of Craven’s striped dream-creeper, and a smidge of that Nazi doctor in Brain Dead. Oh! And definitely Mikkelson’s Le Chiffre from Casino Royale (I’m contractually obligated to reference Bond when Nick Haywood is around, FYI), especially in this introductory situation. Who doesn’t love that seatless-chair/knot scene, amirite? But Lüger, yeah, he’s a real bad egg, and just the type of personality that evil terrorists like Blight attract. More importantly than Lüger here, however, is the series introduction of Dr. Psyrus Borgosian. He’s the Charlie to their Angels, the Giovanni to their Jesse and Ja— alright, more of the Professor Oak to their Ash, Misty, and Brock. Now, a bit of history lesson regarding Psyrus: In March of 2016, on the eve of Storyhive’s release of the original short, a bunch of us got together and put on a show called LIVEBORGS. It was this rad premiere thing we hosted at the Plaza in Calgary that featured improv, live music, a couple PsyBorgs sketches, and, of course, the short film. One of the sketches that we did was of a scientist named Dr. Psyrus Borgosian (played by the immutable Jesse Collin), pitching the audience of how great it is to be a PsyBorg. It was framed as a TEDTalk-type of presentation that was then rudely interrupted by General Blight and some T.O.X.I.N. mercenaries - which resulted in John Carbon and Deutsch showing up to save the show just in the nick of time. Ever since that LIVEBORGS event, Dr. Psyrus Borgosian, the bumbling brainiac who saved John’s life after being shot by some criminals, has been part of the PsyBorgs mythos. Come to think of it, there is actually a discarded script for season one that actually features Borgosian; maybe I should discuss those at some point too!

Woa-holy man, what the heck was I doing here? I am sorry, Bill Paxton, but I guess I needed to make a joke about Twister there in that line at the top of the page. How else could I pack in three separate films that feature tornadoes though (the other two being The Wizard of Oz and Man of Steel)? What I really love about this page is that sublime image of Ricky letting himself be taken by a tornado. Like some sort of dorky ascension, this is the moment where his subconscious is choosing to let go of his memories completely, so obviously Carbon and Deutsch fly after him. I have no idea how we’d have the budget to pull this crap off, but man-alive does it get the blood pumping.

So what stuck here, even as this “spec exercise” I keep labelling it as? Well, the idea that John Carbon is actually a veteran in an army called the “Commonwealth Coalition” is a nugget of backstory that has stuck around since February. The Telekinetic War itself has become part of PsyBorgs lore - used now as a generator of episodic/two-bit villains with some psychic-themed powers (where do you think Whirl Wind came from, huh?). Most of all, the wartime scene and the ones that accompany it later in the episode introduce the reader to the first time John Carbon saved people with his mind. It was a cool little cranny to shine a light on, and it’s informed how I’ve written the character in subsequent scripts, outlines, and season arcs.

I hope you enjoyed that little tour of one of the many unused PsyBorgs scripts floating around in my hard drive and I’ll be sure to uncover some more in the coming months!

Braden Brickner
Writer/Producer