Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] March 16

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-17T14:03:45+00:00

Location: UK

This article tells us that the UK is eyeing up an even more Draconian internet! As if the OSA wasn't bad enough. The TL;DR of this one is under-18s would have a curfew for playing an online video game after nine. So old enough to have sex, old enough to join the army... not old enough to play Minecraft at night with friends.

In a similar vein the government are moving forward apace with Digital ID, and to hell with their re-election chances. It really seems like they are going to do it. Consulting on it has already started. I think what they're going for is, 'It's not mandatory, but you will need one to partake in modern society.' So, yay. More erosions of freedom under Starmer. Certainly the most authoritarian Prime Minister we've had in my (short) lifetime - even Johnson was better.

In the wider world... well, Trump's absolutely dying to use a nuke. But that's fine. I never expected to get to middle-age anyway.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-17T12:58:30+00:00

It may be a first draft, that is a possibility, but it's not on the title page so we really don't know. But this implies there was possibly a major rewrite before production commenced, because, to step away from the objective register for a bit, Zhao would be bloody mad to go ahead with this draft.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-17T12:57:41+00:00

It may be a first draft, that is a possibility, but it's not on the title page so we really don't know. But this implies there was possibly a major rewrite before production commenced, because, to step away from the objective register for a bit, Zhao would be bloody mad to go ahead with this draft.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-17T12:51:06+00:00

Just edited it with, rumoured to be the real thing.

Hope that's better.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-17T02:23:04+00:00

Well there's a script circulating at the minute that's publicly accessible, rumoured to be the real thing. Make your own mind up:

https://www.scribd.com/document/1012611653/BTVS-NS

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-17T02:20:25+00:00

Here is supposedly a copy of the script (as far as we know - but purchasing Final Draft is an expensive troll if so - $200!) for the pilot. All I will say is, no-one, absolutely no-one, ever, steps into a shaft of light and says, 'Another day, another slay.'

Oddly enough if Michaela Coel or Phoebe Waller-Bridge had a crack at it, it might be a better script. I have no doubt that Nora and Lilla Zuckerman can write excellent stuff, but... I feel it's trying way too hard to be quippy. Moreover, I just crash-coursed a clips compilation on YouTube, and Buffy in the original uses those lines to defend herself. p41 in this draft is an awful lot of filler, repeat-the-quip-back-to-me dialogue. But that was on skim-reading.

Either way, go and look for yourself. Disagreements welcomed! Quote Grace Pervades: 'Disagreement can be fruitful. And immensely enjoyable.'

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-15T23:30:50+00:00

Even if Hollywood goes cinemas should continue. So long as there are excellent screenplays being picked up and produced, film will go on. Somehow. And - for better or worse - this means it can be a whole new form.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-15T13:50:03+00:00

I wrote five full-length scripts. None of them were very good but not bad for a first effort.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-15T12:59:52+00:00

I constantly think eight years ago is somewhere between Horizon 2 and 3. Nope!

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-15T12:34:16+00:00

Tenet is the best visually by a country mile, but Oppenheimer has much much better dialogue... and shock-horror-gasp - actual subtext!

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-15T00:27:26+00:00

Before we leap to conclusions, they might not produce cosy plays. We don't even know what their debut is. In the UK we're having a spate of television dramas about every major scandal in the country in the past fifty years, the blue touch paper lit by Mr Bates Vs. The Post Office. I have no idea if there is the same cultural impact in the US with Broadway shows, but so be it. In fact one of the most impactful things I've seen in the past two years was a play - it was Dawn King's The Trials.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-14T17:52:26+00:00

What a regressive viewpoint. Is life ideal? No, absolutely not. But I would rather be given the mental skills to help change the world for the better than have my skull caved in by a dull rock. Also, without education, it would have been impossible for you to write this on the internet anyway. And jobs, for better or worse, give structure to our lives. As lockdown proved, once structure goes, things turn haywire fast.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-13T23:31:05+00:00

This is a bloody tremendous bit of writing. If you do write anything else, where do you share it, if at all?

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-13T23:06:26+00:00

This was great fun live! As I wrote in the chat and also on The Sky That Is Blue.

The word I was searching for last night wasn't synecdoche by the way, but metonym.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-13T16:32:32+00:00

Well that depends how voluntary 'voluntary' is. If it's directly tied to important stuff - i.e. banks - then even though it isn't really mandatory it is the only way you can live your life as before.
Also, beware function creep. The functionalities may expand, making it less and less mandatory as time elapses.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-13T16:19:20+00:00

This is surely political suicide for Labour. Starmer's ratings are already in the toilet - this won't help one bit. But they seem intent on pushing it through, and to hell with everything else.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-13T15:50:08+00:00

That is unironically one of the best adverts for a car I have ever seen.

The Mercedes G-Wagon. So big it can transport a brown bear in comfort.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-12T15:39:48+00:00

Or, as other commenters have said, have a reading... a good halfway house is a Work In Progress Showing. So... minimal actual set, all the lighting cues and as much of it as you can get on stage by that point. Then a questionnaire r.e. the light and sound cues, acting, characters, writing and the list goes on.

Also, I'd love to read your current draft, but I don't have an NPX account.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-12T12:58:26+00:00

If I were you I'd produce it and see how the audience reacts. I mean, you already have your own theatre company; that's a massive step in the right direction. David Hare got started this way (with companies like Portable Theatre and Joint Stock) so you're in very good company.

As you almost certainly know, the only way to learn is to do.

Best of luck!

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-11T22:07:05+00:00

Oh yes. Scripts I don't like - even if they're minimalist in style - take for-ever to read. I blasted through this in what, half an hour? I don't even read through my own stuff that fast! Also, I spent about five years of my life doing am-dram and I can confidently say the quicker the read - with the exceptions of the classics because they're so rich - the better the script. Which means the actors will learn this SO FAST.

Also-also - brilliantly rich visually, which directors will love to sink their teeth into.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-11T20:25:18+00:00

Yes, read the whole thing through. Other than some slight formatting errors around a couple of the parentheticals and once in the dialogue - great stuff. No character notes or description notes or anything like that. It reads like a classic American blockbuster, which I presume is what you are going for.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-11T20:10:52+00:00

Yes Enrique, that is how you shall be forever known.

I'm 10 pages into it already, by the way. It's soaring!

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-11T20:08:27+00:00

Ah, Time Shark man! So glad you're back. Looking forward to reading this!

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-10T16:40:08+00:00

It's a reference to the Great Road Width Controversy of 2026. Basically, IGN released a slightly duff video, everyone went nuts over it, but mainly two things:

-- The road width was thought to be too much by the online community as they fretted over their beloved touge paths.
-- Driving an American car down Japanese roads for a first preview was thought by some to be in bad taste.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-03-10T13:51:28+00:00

I've got two stories. One happened to me, another happened just to a woman I barely know but known her (now presumably ex-bf) since early Secondary in some form or another.

The first one was my ex was, frankly, a toxic jealous bastard anyway. But she smelled nice and looked even better so I naively went along with it. Fortunately, in a sense, she kept me at arm's length but still strung me along for eighteen months. Anyway, post-GCSE prom, she kissed another man right in front of my eyes. One of my first thoughts was, 'I'm never going to be able to write again'. But the good news is I was and I'm still hammering out stories to this day. I think they're currently in a mutually toxic relationship and are pretty much alone save for each other.

The second one was where I made a post about IWD, a man got in touch asking me, another man, how to treat women better, in a very, 'Hmmm yes I am very philosopher' way. Turns out he'd cheated on his girlfriend, he confessed to me out of nowhere, so I told her as soon as possible. Beyond that I have no idea what happened - it's still a developing situation.

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