Behind the Scenes Commentary "No Easy Rides"

As I don't want to give too much of the story away so early on and the previous episode ending was a bit of a tease, Mrs Berg is utilised to get us out of the situation and highlights that perhaps there's more to Mrs Berg than has so far met the eye, which again was something I wanted to come back to in this episode. I didn't just want to keep using Doris moving in time to get her out of each situation so Mrs Berg seemed liked the perfect remedy to the situation. Doris does move in time but we get a sense that Crandall wouldn't now have said any more even if Doris hadn't moved in time.

Doris finds herself back in events that have already happened in the story. Again she doesn't want to change things so quickly moves but that creates new events that affect the time line. We also get another little scene where Leroy's suspicions are raised. Doris and possible the reader think that Leroy notices and follows Doris because of what we've read previously about his accident but for Leroy that is yet to happen!

One of the issues I've had all the way through this writing was how to make a time travelling, sci fi themed story fit in with Fame. I felt that some people may have been put off from reading as the story wasn't enough like the original show. Up until now I hadn't utilised the use of performance and songs. We'd referenced some of the songs that were actually performed on the show but that was it. So I decided to try and include more songs in the episodes.

This was my first attempt to do that. It was important to have a song that expressed how Doris was feeling as I didn't just want to throw a random song in. I've always loved Tina Turner's version of "Help" and the emotion and lyrics really seemed to sum up Doris' emotions and how lost she is feeling at this point in time.

Another aim was to bring in different people for Doris to interact with and Jim Hamilton seemed like a great choice. Particularly as he is blind there wouldn't be any issue of how Doris looked. So using the episode he came back to the school to help Doris perform "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" I put him in the story. We actually reference that episodes title "A Friend In Need" in a statement Jim makes to Doris.

Doris had always had a crush on Mr Hamilton and of course as our character is now middle aged she can act on those feelings more, particularly as she is feeling so lost. These feeling echo that she was lonely in her current life and not just now she has found herself in the past. So I added a kiss with Mr Hamilton to portray this. If we remember in the original episode Mr Hamilton has just been rejected by Lydia so he is also feeling vulnerable. Then Mrs Berg comes in to burst that bubble but also to give more of an explanation to Doris. This time Mrs is Berg is softened and we discover that she doesn't have all the answers and whatever is happening is down to Doris and she has a choice to make. We don't know it yet but ultimately that choice is life or death!

For me this is the most fully rounded episode yet, with the music, the links to the original episodes and characters. Also because we discover that this is Doris' journey and only she can resolve it. Which inspired the title "No Easy Rides" which comes from the Season 5 song "Love's a Journey Not A Place".