Hello, all.

My name's Michael Reaves; I'm the story editor and head writer for the first 13 half hours of Gargoyles. I came onto the show after doing two years of storyediting and writing for Batman: The Animated Series. I'm not on the Internet yet, but Diane Duane has kindly forwarded me some of the mail concerning the show, and she's sending this reply back for me. If I can figure out how to sail the seas of cyberspace, maybe I can do this for myself eventually.

The people at Disney TV Animation are very glad that the show is so well received; it was, as you can imagine, something of a risk for them to do a show so different from anything they've done before. The reviews have been excellent, for the most part, and even those who don't like the show grudgingly admit it's well done, if you like that sort of thing.

The first 13 half hours are all part of an extended story arc, and so there is strong continuity between them. Because of this, we have to run them in order, which is difficult to do because of production realities. One of those realities has just bitten us in the leg a bit, and we're going to have to put on some reruns for a few weeks while the next episode in the continuity is redone to bring it up to the high standards of the series. So, be patient; new episodes will be coming as soon as we can arrange it.

So far the poorest animation we've had has been on "Thrill Of the Hunt"; if subsequent episodes look no worse than that, I think we'll be okay in the animation department.

Someone mentioned a bit of interspecies lust for Brooklyn; I'll pass this along to Jeff Bennett, who does the voice of Brooklyn (as well as the voice of Owen, Xanatos' right-hand man, and a bunch of others as well). All three of the trio are fun characters, and bring a bit of much-needed lightness to the show, I think.

There was also mention made of Demona and Goliath going through a window at the Cloisters in "Temptation"; it's true that breaking glass is a big bug-a-boo of Standards and Practices. Our S&P person has taken big chances on the show, and those of us on the creative side are very grateful to her. (How strong an episode "Deadly Force" is is due as much to her as anyone else.) There's much more creative freedom on this show in that aspect than we had on B:TAS.

Someone's pointed out that the "freeze-in-a-funny-pose" bit is already getting a bit stale; that's our opinion too, and we're not going to play it any more if we can help it.

Re: continuity glitches; there are a few mistakes in the first run that we weren't able to retake in time. Those who are purists can wait until the second or third run to tape the show; by that time all the retakes should be in.

About Demona: All I can say there is, keep watching. As you've already learned, her story about being put in suspended animation by the Magus, like the rest of the gargoyles, isn't true. Just how she came to survive the centuries will be revealed further down the line. I think you'll find it an interesting story. Let's just say that, by her lights, Demona is wholly justified in her hatred of humanity.

Re: Elisa; she will continue to be a strong element in the story lines, never fear. We have a couple of stories in development which feature her quite prominently.

Re: Lexington and his "inventions"; keep in mind that, however innately intelligent Lex is, he's still a product of the 10th century. While he's grasped some of the basics of now things work, and he'll pick up more knowledge as the series progresses, don't expect him to be tinkering together any inter-dimensional portals or matter-energy converters or suchlike. We don't want the trio to turn into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Gargoyles, so we're trying to keep them as believeable as possible within the series' context.

This letter's gone on much too long, so I'll wrap it up. I hope you all keep enjoying the show; we're going to keep trying to make it as good as we can. Thanks for your enthusiasm.

Michael Reaves