Cancellation/FX Airings/The Future

• Chris Carter: "I think in the end it looks rather misguided to have premiered the show without any promotional base, certainly when the reviews of it were good. I have a feeling we're victim of a much bigger problem at Fox. When I first met [Fox Entertainment President] Doug [Herzog] I realized he wasn't a fan of The X-Files, which made me paranoid that he didn't know what we did over here."
• Second assistant director Morgan: "I have heard...that the eight complete episodes may be sold to another network, possibly the Sci-Fi Channel or Space [actually FX], so don't touch that dial!"
• "U.S. District Judge John Martin of the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction that requires a new credit be added to the beginning and end of each episode of the series. The new credit must read: 'Inspired by the Harsh Realm Comic Book Series, Created by James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette, Published by Harris Publications, Inc.' In addition, the information must also run in close proximity to the credit that says 'Created by Chris Carter' [actually in the credits of the first act]. ...The original Paquette and Hudnall credit was a 'Special Thanks' that ran far from the 'Created by' credit [in the end credits]. That credit was modified as a result of the litigation to 'Inspired by' [in the first airing of 'Inga Fossa' on Fox], but it was still [in the end credits] and did not occupy a full screen." The new credits will be on all the FX airings of the episodes.
• CC: "I have this idea that I think Harsh Realm was underappreciated and mistreated, so there is a way I may be able to resurrect it. I actually have an idea how to do that but I have to be secretive about it, so I'm not going to tell you more just yet."

What to Expect

• A lot of action!
• Chris Owens was going to be on the show.
• Opening credit text:
  A WORLD
  WITHIN OUR WORLD
  HARSH REALM
  IT'S JUST A GAME (tagline)
• "The premise of it is that there is a virtual reality computer game that is so perfect that it looks exactly like our world except that things have gone terribly wrong. And you play this game and everyone that you know in this world is also there in a virtual character. It's a double of the people you know in this world, except they don't have the consciousness that there is another world. They don't understand that they are part of a game. So it's wide open because it's a computer game [and] you can do anything. Anything is possible and you can break the laws of physics and it's very exciting actually for all of us because it's such a huge landscape in which to tell stories."
• Harsh Realm is "an imposed pseudo-utopia with militarized gated communities and characters who rotely walk through life playing their parts."
• There could be cast changes for characters, since people's faces are in flux, which can be digitally captured by virtual technology and then altered or erased.
• At a recent conference, Frank Spotnitz was asked if Hobbes is the one who is meant to save all the virtual characters, how can he do this if they can't exist outside the virtual world? He said that this will be the theme discussed throughout the first season.
• CC: "Down the road you'll see that Santiago has taken over a certain part of the geographical United States and that he has a plan to take over the real world and make it militaristic, too. There's some threat that he'll leapfrog into the real world."
• Brendan Beiser was going to guest star in an episode. William B. Davis too.
• The show may have gone into other countries later on.
• Mark Snow: "I think that it will be a combination of many, many different styles because the show is virtual reality at least 80 to 90 percent of the time. I think they're planning to have many different virtual worlds from periods dating back to the Dark Ages, futuresque, and all over the world. It's going to be wide open to a lot of different cultures and we'll be using a lot of different musical styles."

Characters

• Lt. Thomas Hobbes - He is sent into Harsh Realm to kill Omar Santiago.
• Lt. Mel Waters - Hobbes' friend who was sent into Harsh Realm and sided with Santiago.
• Omar Santiago - The real-life general who took over Harsh Realm.
• Sophie - Hobbes' fiancée, who once existed in Harsh Realm as Waters' wife.
• Mike Pinocchio - An offbeat character who befriends Hobbes. From actor D.B. Sweeney:
  
  "Pinocchio's meant to be a little mysterious, but some of his background gets revealed in the first few episodes. He's a top special forces-type soldier who's been badly injured. In the real world, he's in a coma like all the other soldiers [who are playing] Harsh Realm. Plus, he's got some dark secrets back in the real world."
• Florence - A mute ally to Hobbes. She has the mysterious ability to heal people of their wounds, but she pays a price for this and her power is limited.
• Inga Fossa - An associate to Santiago who can move in and out of the game at will.

October 8, 1999 / March 24, 2000 (FX) 1H79: Pilot

• Written by Chris Carter, directed by Daniel Sackheim.
• Harsh Realm, a virtual reality universe, was created for training by the military. Real-life General Omar Santiago is the highest scorer of the game. Lt. Hobbes finds out that his best friend Waters has sided with Santiago after the former is sent into Harsh Realm to kill Santiago, leaving his fiancée behind. Waters was sent in with the same mission. Hobbes meets Mike Pinocchio in the virtual game, an offbeat and sometimes violent person; Florence, who is mute; and he is also shocked to meet his wife there! She isn't married to him in Harsh Realm, but to Waters. He also discovers the harsh truth--that Santiago is revered as a god by the people of the virtual world for beating the highest-scoring character, he has "hijacked" the simulation, and that he has found a way to go back and forth from the real world....
• Sarah Jane-Redmond of Millennium and "Schizogeny" and Lance Henriksen are in this episode, and Gillian Anderson plays a computer voice!
• "Dexter [Hobbes' dog] helps Thomas take out a guard. Tom, Sophie, and Dexter pass through the glitch in the fence (I mean software); meanwhile, the trio sets off a series of spotlights and an alarm...so that makes Dexter a *useful* member of the virtual gang...."

October 15, 1999 / March 31, 2000 (FX) 1H01: "Leviathan"

• Written by Chris Carter, directed by Daniel Sackheim.
• This episode has a lot to do with bounty hunters.
• Hobbes and Pinocchio are captured by bounty hunters while, in the real world, Sophie questions the military's account of Tom's death. Florence and Hobbes have to rescue Pinocchio. All 3 are on the run from Santiago's troops.
• OFFICIAL SUMMARY: As he comes to grips with both the gravity and permanence of his virtual reality situation, Thomas Hobbes is thrust into the fray when Mike Pinocchio is lured into a trap and captured by a mercenary bounty hunter. Aided by the mute and mysterious Florence, Hobbes goes in search for Pinocchio but winds up captured himself. As Florence works to free our heroes, the bounty hunter, unbeknownst to his female partner (May), cuts a deal with Omar Santiago. In lieu of cash the bounty hunter wants access to the mythological (though real) "portals" that allow individuals to move between Harsh Realm and the real world. Sensing a deal being made behind her back, the female bounty hunter hides Hobbes and Pinocchio in an abandoned tanker truck.
• Sophie attends Hobbes' funeral, while Inga Fossa gives Sophie hints about Hobbes and what has happened to him. All the men who enter Harsh Realm are said to have been killed on missions, but they're really alive.

October 22, 1999 / April 7, 2000 (FX) 1H02: "Inga Fossa"

• Written by Chris Carter, directed by Bryan Spicer.
• We will learn the consequences of occurrences in Harsh Realm on the real world. Also Hobbes and Pinocchio will look for a portal back to the real world.
• Has to do with the character Inga Fossa, who can go in and out of the virtual world.
• OFFICIAL SUMMARY #1: Hobbes' fiancée, Sophie, continues her investigation into his disappearance. Santiago's shadowy associate Inga Fossa arrives in Harsh Realm. She is apparently able to transport herself into and out of the game at will. Hobbes meanwhile, anxious to find a way out of his virtual nightmare, enlists a reluctant Pinocchio in his quest to find the mysterious "portals" that will take him back to the real world.
• OFFICIAL SUMMARY #2: Hobbes, Pinocchio and Florence search for Freddie, the chip forger who will help them access Santiago City and gain entry to the secret portal taking them back to the real world. More is learned about the true nature of Inga Fossa, and her relationships with other characters in the Realm.
• "Hobbes and Pinocchio go to a village where they are searching for a man named Freddie that can help them in their search. They get into a den of inequity where patrons bet on virtual fighters. The game is raided and they fight to survive from Santiago's men."

October 29, 1999 (N/A) / April 14, 2000 (FX) 1H03: "Kein Ausgang"

• Written by Steven Maeda, directed by Cliff Bole.
• Hobbes and Pinocchio are captured by opposition forces. They have to escape, and meet Sgt. Sommer, a soldier trapped playing the same position of the game for years.
• Hobbes and Pinocchio risk being caught in a perpetual battle loop after traveling through the virtual fabric of the game.
• OFFICIAL SUMMARY: While looking for a soldier who once nearly penetrated Santiago's forces, Hobbes and Pinocchio get stuck in a combat simulation game of a World War II battle. They must find the jump-portal to escape the game, or else be destined to watch the battle scenario repeat over and over with the same outcome.
• "'Kein Ausgang' takes place in a simulator program within Harsh Realm, which studies the tactics of the U.S. and German armies in 1944. It is a loop, in which all the VCs within it are destined to repeat their actions over and over again, every forty or so days. There is a glitch somewhere in the software, and it's the only way out, but where is it? Hobbes and Pinocchio inadvertently leave the confines of their titular game; too bad they end up in a time warp fighting Nazis! The episode's teaser was based in a farmhouse, where a soldier calmly prepares tea and announces to himself each little event a moment before it occurs."
• "Driving through the countryside in search of a mysterious soldier who may hold the key to getting rid of Santiago, Hobbes and Pinocchio unexpectedly travel through a 'tear' in the Harsh Realm virtual fabric and enter what seems to be another dimension. Immediately coming under fire from WWII-era Nazi soldiers, our guys eventually learn that they are in an earlier (and thought to be discarded) version of the Harsh Realm simulation (the beta version). After one of the American GIs asks for help, he shows that he can predict the next shot, bomb, etc. before it happens as he has been trapped in this game playing it over and over again for years. As Tom is captured by the Nazis and Mike fights for the Allies, our heroes fear they are doomed to repeat the fate of the GI and be stuck in this perpetually recurring battle simulation...."

November 5, 1999 (N/A) / May 5, 2000 (FX) 1H04: "Manus Domini"

• Written by John Shiban, directed by Tony To.
• This episode finds Hobbes and Pinocchio lured into and stranded in a mine field with deadly results, but they encounter a group of women who have the power to heal their wounds.

November 12, 1999 (N/A) / April 28, 2000 (FX) 1H05: "Three Percenters"

• Written by Frank Spotnitz, directed by Daniel Sackheim.
• "The error, as it were, is actually a lake which, when a person gets near enough to see his reflection, replicates the person digitally. That replicant is a virtual zombie.... They have no thoughts like the original person. The original is then captured, killed and fed to the others as a horrible soup. Waters is still searching for Hobbes and his missing men while Hobbes and Pinocchio are trying to extricate themselves from the replicant prison before Waters finds them or worse, they get eaten themselves."
• "In 'Three Percenters' Hobbes is introduced to a commune of Three Percenters, aberrations no one meant to create. Pinocchio explains that the game designers of HR supposedly had a three-percent error rate in some pretty angry virtual characters. Hobbes, Pinocchio, and Florence find themselves captives of Three Percenters posing as a group of pacifists...."

April 21, 2000 (FX) 1H06: "Reunion"

• Written by Greg Walker, directed by Kim Manners.
• This episode is about Hobbes' reunion with his mother, Katherine. It centers around a work camp that you can't escape from.
• Hobbes is captured and incarcerated in a concentration camp where he finds a virtual version of his mother.
• Pinocchio and Hobbes are captured by bounty hunters and taken to a labor camp.

May 12, 2000 (FX) 1H07: "Cincinnati"

• Written by Chris Carter, directed by Larry Shaw.
• OFFICIAL SUMMARY: Santiago wages a personal war against a Native American rebellion in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hobbes and Pinocchio attempt to use the opportunity to kill Santiago.

May 19, 2000 (FX) 1H08: "Camera Obscura"

• Written by Steven Maeda, directed by Jefery Levy. Title means "Dark Room" in Latin. The last episode to film.
• OFFICIAL SUMMARY: When they take a job as bodyguards, Hobbes and Pinocchio find themselves in the middle of a family feud mitigated by a priest who can see the future.
• In Harsh Realm, a nuclear bomb went off in 1995 in New York City, leading to the chaos that Santiago has now capitalized upon to build his dictatorship.
• The episode is based in post-nuclear attack New York City, and the sets and prosthetic makeup were the best yet.

1H09: "Circe"

• Written and was to be directed by Mark Rosner. Preproduction began for this episode but it was never filmed. There was a rumor that this episode was filmed and shown on Asian and Polish TV, but this is not confirmed.
• "Hobbes, searching for a resistance group, meets a woman who claims to be his lover."

1H10: "Malfunction"

• Was to have been directed by Daniel Sackheim.

1H12

• Was to have been directed by Daniel Sackheim.

Others

• Bryan Spicer was to direct at least two more episodes, then he left the show.
• William Gibson may have written one or more episodes: He wanted to get in on Harsh Realm "early enough to affect what he calls 'the architecture of the world.'"

Season 2

• Jose Chung may have come back season 2 as a character in the virtual world! Darin Morgan would have written and directed. However, Morgan is working on his own projects.
• Harsh Realm is currently contracted to 24 episodes (season 1) including the pilot. :-) (BULL!)

Beyond

• CC said (jokingly?) that the show would take place in Australia in season 3.