WOW! That was one good analysis of the present and potential future situation evolving the show. In fact, I read it twice and think you are absolutely right. Some of the problems you mentioned were already looming in the backround during season one, but will become painfully aware during season two, unless something is done about it (as already pointed out by many others on the board):

- THE LOVE COUPLES: OK, so they are nice to look at for the moment, but the question remains: What are the writers/producers going to do with them? Do we really want the plateau to be turned into "Love Boat - The Early Years"? If you DO let them develop a real relationship all the suspense will be gone. I know, I know, that's an uncomfortable truth, but that's just how the cookie crumbles. Just as you pointed out: Sometimes the suspense lies in what we cannot see, in what doesn't happen, in what only takes place in our imagination (the BEST stage of all!). Then again, if you DON'T let them become real couples, you have a problem: You will have to play hit and miss for some time to keep the audience interested, because you already took the two couples so far in season one. However, I predict this little game of "yes, they are attracted to one another, but something always gets in the way" won't work forever (not even for Mulder and Scully). Long term speaking I see a dead end here.

- QUO VADIS, EXPEDITION? You are quite right. During the first season we watched the expeditions' strange encounters with a Boris Karlow doppelganger, an Egyptian Pharao, Norge warriors, a Gypsy, the entire court of Camelot and God knows who else. Fun for ONE season, sure enough. Great stuff to make fun of at the writers' expense for a while, why not? But I, too, am afraid that these kind of storylines will turn out to be increasingly unsatisfying as we go along in season two. As you pointed out: It's all to static and not dynamic. Or in other words: They are REACTING towards their surrounding rather than ACTING and taking the situation into their own hands. Besides, at the end of the day, they always have a comfy treehouse to come home to. So comfy indeed, that apart from a few annoying raptors every now and then one cannot help but wonder why they should want to leave the plateau in the first place. The only real chance for a change I see here would be for the treehouse to be completely destroyed and the gang being forced to constantly move around.

As for my own comments regarding Telescene: Never mind that, Steve (:-))))), I cannot help being the hot-headed German Fräulein/Loreley-sitting-on-her-rock-throwing-her-comb-into-the-river-Rhine that I am... I need a bit of fuming around every now and then and I'd much rather do it here, feel better and get back to business - aka getting it out of my system. Of course, I realise, we are but a small group of viewers and don't really count, when it comes to target group analysis. I just have a general problem with this attitude towards viewers, ratings etc. All these statistics must eventually point in the same direction. Assuming that producers will take similar steps to push ratings and make shows attractive according to the target groups' demands, the result is inevitable: Most shows will eventually look the same - and IMHO they already do. Quite frankly, I have my doubts that nowadays a show like say "Northern Exposure" would stand a chance of survival, because it dared to be different. I always felt that what made TLW special was a certain kind of atmosphere, really hard to describe, something very old-fashioned, endearing (I compared it to the 30s Flash Gordon serials at one point). The Prof was one of the main contributers to that atmosphere and I am not very optimistic they will keep up this "flair".

- ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: I am wondering how they can call it "Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" any longer, if they already threw out one of the original lead characters. I agree, that Challenger has a dim future, too, and once they finish him off this whole show will really become ridiculous. If you don't intend to keep the original leads, don't bother to call it TLW altogether, give this child a different name, call it Tom, Dick or Harry. There are so many people here that love the books by ACD and must feel like this is a garage sale of his work. Taking his other famous characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: Would Telescene just finish off Watson if the viewers said so?

OK, 'nuff said!!! (;-)))

Hugs, Chiara