EPISODE NOTES 203 – “King and Commoner”
This is one of my favorite episodes of the season, not the least because it properly introduces us to two of my favorite Asimovian characters – Bel Riose and Hober Mallow, both of whom were merely spoken of in the last episode.
Asimov based Bel Riose on the real-life military commander Belisarius, who served under the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian the Great. Belisarius was super competent and very popular. Eventually, he was put on trial for conspiring against the Emperor (and we’ve taken a few cues from that for our version of Riose).
We first meet Riose on the prison planet of Lepsis, which we filmed at the Salinas de Janubio in the Canary Island (a salt farm). It was starkly beautiful.
Later on in the episode, Hari, Gaal, and Salvor touch down on Oona’s world, an old, pre-Cleonic Imperial holding, long since abandoned. Assuming the show keeps going, we’ll return to Oona’s world in Season 4. These scenes were filmed on Fuerteventura. It looks hot – and it was.
We could only access this location via 4x4s – 30 minutes of driving over sand dunes. On our first scout eight of our 4x4s came over a dune only to discover a couple having intercourse in what they assumed was an otherwise desolate spot. They grabbed their clothes and ran naked into the distant horizon.
We filmed the interior of the cave in Prague. Oxygen had to be pumped in every few hours. This was our first and 2nd assistant director standing in for Hari and Gaal during a blocking session.
Near the end of the episode, Gaal drops down onto the hand of one of the giant statues. That crane in the background was used to hoist Jared Harris and Lou Llobell back up into the Beggar’s.
The sequence was storyboarded, then pre-visualized. When we’re filming a complicated sequence, we sometimes have a very analog method of keeping track of which shots we need to complete – which is useful if the sequence is being filmed over the course of months, in multiple countries.
Despite the fact that it is normally quite hot in the Canaries, it was bitterly cold on the days we were filming. Ben Daniels was a good sport – and only scantily clad while the rest of us were in 2 or 3 layers. He’s here with Pius Mcgrath, who played one of the Overseers. Don’t let anyone tell you filming is glamorous. It isn’t!
Later on in the episode, we finally meet Hober Mallow, played by Dimitri Leonidas.
During rehearsal, Lou showed up to visit and decided to tickle Dimitri while he was strapped into the killing frame.
We filmed this particular sequence over 3 days. We had a lot of different weather – totally sunny the first day, pouring rain the 2nd, on and off rain the third – it created a lot of challenges in terms of trying to balance out the color and contrast once we were grading the final episode.
And sometimes, there’s just a lot of waiting on the set while a new shot is being prepared.
Finally, a video of us shooting Hober’s ‘execution’ in the rain, in the middle of Prague. Wait it out for the drone angle!
And a clip of our day with Bel and Demrezel below…
