Greetings fellow I-persons,

So sorry about the lag in getting this to you. They ended up switching shooting dates on me and I had a few more days this week than I anticipated. After a couple of long days follow by one dedicated to sleeping, I feel that I now have the right frame of mind to tackle "Perchance to Dream".

This is turned out to be a fun, slightly creepy episode surrounding sleep and lack thereof. We all know how dreams can at times seem real. This takes that concept to a frightening degree.

Here are some odds and ends.

* The title refers to a line from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. In the monologue, "To be or not to be" Hamlet contemplates death and the sleep he refers to is actually death.
* Off Topic, but someone recently E-mailed me asking help with Ralph Ellison’s "The Invisible Man".
* Our special guest star is none other than Wil Weaton A.K.A. Star Trek’s Wesley Crusher. It’s rather weird to see him all grown up and mean. I tried to meet him but we were shooting on different days and I didn’t want to walk up like a dork and say "I’m a really big fan and I remember in that one episode where you...". Perhaps another time.
During one take where Wil is taunting Fawkes and Hobbes that they can’t reverse Claire’s condition, Paul sort of smack Wil upside the head. It was totally spur of the moment and Paul felt bad afterward. The take or Wil’s very surprised look did not make the cut.
* When Shannon was strapped into the chair there was more than one joke made at her expense about well you get the idea. There was also an impromptu attempt to change the end scene so that no one let’s her out of the chair.
* Michael Grossman did a fabulous job on setting the tone and coming up with unique camera shots. The final scene required us to remain very still for the opening shot as they ran the camera first at a slower speed, then at normal. This had the effect of a quick jumpy move to a normal speed. Michael had directed among other things a recent episode of Angel.
* Also in this episode is Gary Cerventes playing the doctor. You may recognize him from a recurring role in "The West Wing".
* A great job by Shannon in handling this tough role.
* We seem to have an incredible amount of cross-pollination between our show and the soon to be premiered "The Tick". Shannon’s new husband (And congratulations to both of them) is featured on the show as ‘Batmanuel’. Joining him is our very own Kevin Fawkes (David Burke) as the Moth. Finally our previous D.P. Paul Maibaum now has a new D.P. job on (altogether now) The Tick! Expect a crossover episode any moment now called "the Invisible Tick".
* Jumping back to FFH: my struggles with the projector screen were not originally intentional. The hook was actually about 1 inch too high for me. After the first take Paul and Vince convinced the director to keep the gag in. "Think tall" was also an ad-lib.

Well, that does it for me. You may have heard that I have a chat coming up this Tuesday. I found out about it on Wednesday with a call from someone saying "I just want to go over a few things about your upcoming chat". Huh? And how did they get my website? Anyway, I’m excited and hope that you can attend. After all, it was you guys who made it happen! Plus, I promise to reveal spoilers for the next seven episodes! Maybe.

As always thanks. You’re all the best.

Mike