We’re only three weeks away from the debut of our brand new episode of 00Carter! This week, the countdown continues as we look back on Episode 9: “Wreckage in a Winter Wonderland,” which is one of my favorites. I wrote the blog about it!
With another Winter Olympic Games coming up in a couple months, this episode feels both timely and dated. After all, it took place at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and here we are heading into 2022! How time flies.
“Wreckage in a Winter Wonderland” is another one of my favorite episodes. I’ve always loved the Olympics, especially figure skating, so this plot was right up my alley. If I remember correctly, this episode was not part of our original plan for the first “season” of 00Carter. We came up with the idea just a few months before the Olympics took place. I don’t remember for sure what inspired it, but it may have been Kim Yuna’s short program to James Bond, which we ended up incorporating into the episode.
After “FANthrax,” which took us a grueling eight months to finish, we were determined to write this one quickly and post it in time for the Olympics. We set a deadline, and somehow, we succeeded in meeting it! We even managed to edit some of the details just before or after posting to account for what happened in the actual Olympics, like Evan Lysacek winning the gold medal in men’s figure skating. Unlike its predecessor, this episode is pretty succinct. It gets right to the point and doesn’t have a lot of fluff (except for Lancy’s pink mittens and matching parka), although it manages to pack in plenty of humor.
One of my personal favorite elements is our use of the Vancouver Olympic mascots, Miga, Sumi, and Quatchi. I fell in love with these cute little guys while researching, so of course we had to corrupt them by having the FANS minions wear their costumes while committing dastardly deeds. “Miga looove bomb!” still makes me laugh every time I read this episode. I also love Nick’s Bigfoot sightings, which turn out to be Drums dressed as Quatchi the Sasquatch.
Oddly enough, this is the episode with the most direct James Bond parodies. Somehow, it took us until Episode 9 to work in the line that inspired Rose’s idea for the entire story: “Hot cocoa, shaken not stirred.” The bobsled chase was also pulled from a Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, one of several that I forced myself to watch during the early 00Carter era to familiarize myself with the Bond universe.
Of course, we also parodied Speed with the bomb on the Zamboni, which was so much fun to write! I love that Lancy gets to be an action star in this episode – on ice, no less! I think that’s why I enjoy this episode so much. It’s the perfect blend of action and comedy — 00Carter at its best!
This is the only episode that we set during a specific time period. What are the pros and cons of writing an episode around a real event like the Winter Olympics rather than making up our own spoof version like we did with Global Idol?
Rose: It did force us on this revisit to go back and figure out the timeline more specifically. There’s something to be said for keeping it vague but I actually like knowing how much time has gone by. I think that’s both a pro and a con. It dates the story but the tech does that too, lol. So that’s not a worry. Also yes it was the Bond routine that inspired this episode lmao. Little things.
Julie: Thanks for confirming! Also, that’s a great point. The technology, music, and other pop culture references already date this story, so it’s not that big of a deal that this episode established it as taking place circa 2010. That actually gave us a good excuse to leave the outdated technology alone when we were editing. Whenever we came across a mention of a flip phone or Blackberry, we just laughed and thought, “Oh, the early 2000s…”
Rose: I know, I laugh too. And what’s funny is that we can “upgrade” their tech and since it’s the secret agent world it’s not even weird so we don’t have to change it. Besides as we get older I don’t mind being stuck in the early 2000s lol.
Dee: I agree, it’s good that it made us really look at the timeline and figure how far apart things were. It helped us catch some other things later, so I guess I’m pro-”hard timeline.” Plus, it’s fun to toss in something topical every now and then. I know when we were editing “FANthrax,” I thought of recent events many times, so it’s nice that 00Carter works both ways. And then we get the nice blast from the past with the music, tech, and ebonics. 😉
This is the first episode where we get to see Mr. Lancybassy in a leading role! What do you love about Lancy?
Dee: What don’t we love about Lancy?
Rose: Lancy is just fun. He’s our one “normal” in the world of 00Carter crazy. And I’m sad we didn’t boost him up to main cast sooner. Though he’s definitely firmly in place now!
Julie: It’s a sign of just how crazy 00Carter is that Lancy is considered the “normal” character in the story. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You do you, Lancy! In all seriousness, I love how Lancy started out as both a joke (created as a parody of James Bond secretary Miss Moneypenny) and a walking stereotype, but turned into this genuinely loveable character that we all enjoy writing about. Lancy is just so pure. What you see is what you get with him; he doesn’t try to hide his true self. And although he annoys Nick, Nick and the others at HimTak accept him for who he is.
Rose: And honestly I just love annoying Nick in this story lol. But yes, Lancy is absolutely pure. There’s no lies, no manipulation, or secrets. He’s just himself and in future episodes I love that we delve into him more.
Dee: He was robbed by having the same bit roles over and over again in the early episodes. Whenever he has the focus, he just shines (the S.M.I.L.E ranking in “Remember Me” is a great example of this). I think this was a perfect episode for him to shine and become an expert on the mission of the day. And you’re both absolutely right, in every interaction he’s just unabashedly Lancy and it’s wonderful to have a genuine character like that in the story.
