Jane Espenson drafts for Whedon shows #2 'The Replacement' (with correct links...)





During the Writers' strike of 2006, I was fortunate to strike up a correspondence with Buffy, Angel and Firefly writer Jane Espenson. The email exchange will be published in my forthcoming Joss Whedon book. But in addition, she sent me drafts to all the episodes she wrote while at Mutant Enemy (the production company that made the shows mentioned).

These are the Outline and the four draft versions before the shooting script. You will all find your own nuggets but a couple of things worth noting. First, the episode's title in the Outline is different from Draft 1, and D54raft 1 is different from 2, 3 and 4 all of which have the title as we know it, 'The Replacement'. Jane Espenson said in an email to me, 'Note the title changes and the change in the way ‘Xander’ is identified in the script - this was an attempt to help with the mislead that Xander had been copied rather than split in two'. [An edited version of the email correspondence will be an appendix in the book].

Also, the teasers shift around so much. As the full archive of her drafts indicates, the teaser was often very hard to get right. Remember each of the changes will have been suggested 9occasionally written by) Joss Whedon. And look at how quickly the re-writes have to happen. Who's be a TV writer, huh?Meeeeeeeeee!!

Outline - note the title of the episode here

Draft 1 - and here...

Draft 2 sees quite a shift in the teaser

Draft 3 also needed to re-orient the focus of the teaser to ensure that both 'the Buffy of it' and the Xander-ness of it are equally weighted.

Draft 4 is my favourite, for what that' worth.

The brothers acting on screen and sharing a moment off it.

A little snippet of the email correspondence between myself and Espenson that will be in full form in my forthcoming book. This is copyright to Manchester University Press.

"Notice that although this appears to be a Xander story -- Xander has the A-story, the Buffy story concludes the episode and is, in a way, deeper -- Buffy is worrying that Riley prefers the non-Slayer parts of her, when in the end we learn that the problem between them actually comes from her not loving him.  A powerful, deep little story.  Joss always asked "What's the Buffy of it?" when we were trying to break a story, and this is a great example of how even an apparently Xander-centric story has a strong "Buffy of it."

 And for more insights and scripts try out Band Candy (3.6) and End of Days (7.21)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrity Culture, Brand Whedon and the post-Romantic fallacy

Image
Over the last couple of weeks there have been a number of responses to the allegations made by Kai Cole against her former husband, television producer and self-declared feminist Joss Whedon. The accusations of serial infidelity against her with numerous female co-workers have produced, on the one hand, maliciously joyful expressions of schadenfreude (‘see, I always knew he was no feminist’ / ‘ha – all icons get what’s coming in the end’); and on the other such out-pourings of grief and anger one might think he had murdered all newborns. Whatever the truth of the claims, and whatever the justification of the responses (some of which have been eye-wateringly splenetic), what is clear is that Brand Whedon has taken a hit. I do not know, and do not care about Joss Whedon as a person (I don’t mean I wish him harm; simply that I am not interested in him). I am however interested in Brand Whedon. I have spent nearly 20 years writing about it, so it makes sense that I have a view. Bran
Read more

Buffy Draft: End Of Days 7.21

Image
Here is the next set of drafts from Jane Espenson (this one co-written with Doug Petrie). This one is 'End of Days', the brilliant nail-biting lead in to the final ever televisual Buffy . Faith and the girls are blown up, Buffy meets a very old woman who tells her about a scythe, Spike and Buffy get close; Angel and Buffy get seemingly closer... It's a great episode. Only two drafts, but also a snippet from the email correspondence between myself and Espenson, some of which will be in my forthcoming book, Joss Whedon . The drafts remain the property of FOX television, and the email snippet is copyright to Manchester University Press. Draft 1 Draft 2 " Attached is ‘End of Days’, another co-write with Doug.  He wrote all the big actiony bits, I wrote all the funny Andrew/Anya, Willow/Giles, Xander/Dawn stuff." Go here for a little snippet about one of her insights into "The Replacement" And try out for drafts for Band Candy , and mor
Read more

Draft scripts for 'Buffy' #1 First Date

Image
During the Writers' strike of 2006, I was fortunate to strike up a correspondence with Buffy , Angel and Firefly writer Jane Espenson . The email exchange will be published in my forthcoming Joss Whedon book. But in addition, she sent me drafts to all the episodes she wrote while at Mutant Enemy (the production company that made the shows mentioned). For the second batch of drafts for 'The Replacement' go here .  I use part of some of them in my book to highlight the creative process of producing a television show, but as I was re-watching 'First Date' last night ( Buffy season 7, episode 14), I thought I'd post what I have of them. They belong to FOX Television. The shifts between the Outlines and version one, and version two and the aired show are really instructive. Little details such as the shift away from acetylene  torches to ropes (presumably because of the scope for bondage jokes, and the eventual fate of poor old Xander), or the removal of C
Read more