David Fury, scriptwriter for Lost, recalled a memorable moment of liaison with the ABC-TV network: ‘There’s an episode in which [the long-term character] Said is being tortured by the French woman, and she is giving up the story of how she got there, and she was there with a research team, and Said asked her what were they studying, what was their expertise, and she said, “Time.” And the network said, “You can’t say that, that’s veering into science fiction.” [Audience laughter.] And at this point, we’d had a paraplegic stand up and walk, we’d had a smoke monster no one had seen, and they’re going “No, no, no, you can’t have this ‘Time’ thing, it’s too science-fiction, the audience won’t go for that.
Ansible 290, September 2011
