All I know about PROBE is that I believe it contains the lowest rated story on the site
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This is true. I fought for Baggs to give me an advance on Deadwood. He paid me $60, $10 of which was eaten by PayPal’s international fee.
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Technically! Giles is in it but it’s a Hellscape story. BBV nonetheless.
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That’s terrible! Also, hi! I really enjoyed your writing on this one. It stood out like a sore thumb, in a great way.
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One of those post-workout sore thumbs that feel good, in a sense. But thank you! This was supposed to be a totally different story - FEATURE LENGTH - and then Bill said “can you condense it and write something totally different?” so this was the result.
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Damn, that explains a few bits. Overall I found it a move in the right direction for visual PROBE. I really liked the 90’s stuff and even the Liz recast, but none of the visual media in the modern era has really been that great. I liked in this one having a larger cast, and an actually interesting plot. Helps too I’m a big fan of a show which did a Roanoke theme so any mentions of the mystery always get me excited. I think there’s a BF to do with it actually I really should do that.
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There is, and I wanted to vaguely connect this to that with an implied Sixth Doctor cameo. Bill basically vetoed that between my writing it and his filming of it.
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Oh that would’ve been so good 
This series has potential honestly just wish he’d tap into it more. I’d love more of the Liz recast too. I looked up a few of the actors from these and it seems they’re their only credits so perhaps he hires friends & family?
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Bill hires actors from his local theatre group. Jemma and the new Minister were both in Bill Baggs’s non-DW romcom film. Simon Fisher-Becker was supposed to reprise his role as Sir Andrew but unfortunately passed away before he could complete his part, so the new Minister was swiftly cast.
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Ahhh makes sense. Hope we see more of the new minister, honestly I’d like to see more of anyone not Giles but especially Liz! It’s a shame your story didn’t get fully realised with him shortening it.
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I’m sorry, WHAT???
$50 for ~16 mins of content
that’s what, $3/minute (and usually 1 page = 1 minute)
I’m getting paid more than that for an editing job I’m doing at the moment, what the actual ■■■■
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That was when I wrote the first, feature length version. Then I wrote a completely different, more practical story for Bill.
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Don’t fret for me, though. My cup of coffee in BBV has opened other doors for me. [:D]
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Definitely glad to hear that at least
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Me too! If you guys have any other questions I can answer them.
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Would you be able to shed more light at all on lost plot points from the feature length original script? Also am I right to assume you won’t be writing more due to the conditions? I’d understand but it’s a shame as I said I liked this one a lot more than normal.
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So for the brief answer on writing more: I will be writing more! Just most likely not for BBV.
The original feature I wrote in about a week back in late 2023. I had sent some non-DW samples to Bill and he liked them enough to ask me to write a PROBE. My original 40-something page script was about a woman transferred from Radio 4 to P.R.O.B.E. and finding herself in a loop of the day a la Groundhog Day, which was to distract the team while the antagonist (the original Escaldos, a knight in red from the age of King Arthur who was struggling to keep his immortality) stole vials of DNA and actually at one point took on the appearance of an evil Giles. I found it very interesting when Portents of Doom, which I was not aware was in production, had an evil Giles itself.
I actually wanted a lot of the P.R.O.B.E. team to appear - Bedevere, Maxie, Trisha - but then Bill read it over and asked me to write something that was a little more manageable for him. Even in Deadwood I wanted Maxie and Sam (Trevor Spencer’s character) to appear, but I guess it couldn’t be done.
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Ooooo, the arthurian link is interesting with PROBE’s connections there, also Maxie really is the best part of NuPROBE tbh
On the one hand, shame we didn’t get her, on the other, kind of glad
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That’s a shame but also not due to the working conditions.
Wow that sounds so good!!! Also more of the team is exactly what I want from them also, it would make so much sense.
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(Interestingly Trevor does appear in Deadwood, but as an image of Lucifer and not at all as Sam. I wanted the story to be a continuation of both Mission: Find Lilith and Portents of Doom, so I wrote nods to those stories in. Continuity!)
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