Funky Frozen Wheel!!!

[To protect the imaginations of the innocents of Old Blighty, the original title of this thread was kindly changed from "Funky Frozen Wheel" to the wonderfully bland and uninteresting ""Budget Constraints?". Contrary to popular opinion, it is not about Congressional sub-committee voting patterns. But now, O fraptious joy, the name can be restored.]

I dunno, maybe the show was running out of prop budget, but it seemed like the big "frozen donkey wheel" that Ben had to turn to move the Island was rather flimsy and poorly made. You could almost see the fake styrofoam rock of the subterranean chamber flex as Ben, normally a very good actor, tried to appear to struggle to turn the wheel. Can you say disbelief unsuspended? LOL.

Oh, and yeah, the producers lie as much or more than Ben Linus. I distinctly heard them say in a podcast that the codename "Frozen Donkey Wheel" had no significance to what would happen in the season finale. I guess they meant there wouldn't be a donkey, but... I won't be as trusting of what the produces say in podcasts in future.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the final 2 hours. There were some especially good moments, such as the fight between Sayid and Keamy. Ben deadpan saying "So what?" when told that killing Keamy would also kill everyone on the freighter. Juliet getting drunk on Dharma rum on the beach as she watches the freighter burn. The Others teaming with Kate and Sayid to vanquish the Keamy Kommandos. Ben knifing Keamy in the jugular... just deserts. And, of course, Desmond and Penny finally hooking up on the "Searcher". Just one question: what was that weird language the crew was speaking?

I wasn't as impressed with the Orchid station. In addition to the hokey "moving" wheel, the idea that loading a lot of scrap metal into the time shifter would conveniently blow a hole in the back of the chamber leading directly to a ladder leading ot the donkey wheel... ok, fine.

Looks like the show is also introducing a new elemental force of nature into the plot... namely, temperature. Obviously the donkey wheel was frozen. Why is the room kept so cold? Their A/C bill must be enormous ;-). Then there's the liquid nitrogen Michael uses to freeze the car battery on the pile of explosive and therefore delay the detonation. But not sure how kill the battery with extreme cold is much different than cutting its wires.

I loved the show but I agree the donkey wheel was a bit too much. There is only so much disbelief you can ask me to suspend. That part should have been better.

I agree, too. That wheel was pretty lame looking. And did anyone notice some odd film textures. I have no idea what to call it - but it looked as if some shots were spliced in at a later date and the texture/graininess of them did not match the rest of the shots surrounding them. Seems like another budget cut to me.

[quote="Veefre"] Just one question: what was that weird language the crew was speaking?

Portuguese.

CosmicJewels wrote:

Veefre wrote: Just one question: what was that weird language the crew was speaking?

Portuguese.

Ah, yes. Whenever a generic mariner is needed, insert the portugese. They even do it on Family Guy. But it does tie correctly to the men in her Arctic listening post. Although they had been mistakenly refered too as Russian, they, too, spoke Portugese.

Did anyone notice this bad shot of Jack when they were on the raft? It was just a face shot, poor quality, looks like it was filmed inside - everyone else looked their usual glowy, zit free selves. Jack just looked greasy and old. Looks cheap.

The "Frozen Donkey Wheel" made me feel that behind that frozen, glyph covered wall there are giant gears and cogs that construct a giant watch. Perhaps turning the wheel was just like adjusting a giant clock. In that aspect I did like the "Frozen Donkey Wheel", but I do agree that that scene could have been 10 times cooler with a more intricate and grand-scale mechanism for moving the island.

Puchita- I did realize that, I'm sure everyone did, but it was so obvious that I guess those shots were done on purpose. I don't know why though, to be more artsy ?

What I didn't get was, why was Ben still lying to Locke about the Dharma station ? And why was he speaking of time-travel as if it were just some stupid experiment to send animals a few minutes into the future ?

And I liked the frozen donkey wheel, I think it was alright.

I don't know. I love LOST, its almost a 'sickness' you could say. But last night was sorta a let down. I sat here thinking "a wheel, really, a wheel?" It was kinda cool to think that the fail safe key was a more modern version of that, but I don't think that the island moved when Desmond turned the fail safe key. However, does this mean that Ben will now subconsciencously travel into the future or the past? I mean we do see him in Oct 2005.

I was thinking the same thing PRW. Behind all the Dharma Initiative crap (that Ben blew up) was the original (dare I say Atlantian style?) mechanism.

And to prove that the ancients weren't as unsophisticated technology wise as some may think, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

It was like a dharmachakra wheel laid on its side:

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/symbols/wheel.htm

Veefre wrote: but... I won't be as trusting of what the produces say in podcasts in future.

Veefre, they also said time travel will not be an element in Lost. HaHa. They couldn't be more wrong there.

And I think we are all being a little harsh on the frozen donkey wheel. It wasn't that bad, at least I didn't think so...

Iroc,

I remember getting chastized over on Lost Theories for posting a theory that went against something the producers had already said in a podcast. All this stuff about canon, etc.

Basically the producers lie more that Ben Liar-nus. Sometimes this show seems more like a high school creative writing exercise. And for that, the Funky Frozen Wheel surely fits in.

I think we have to sit on the fact that the donkey wheel was a small part of a larger thing - and we didn't get to see the larger thing.

We saw the light switch, and not all the internal wiring leading through the walls leading to the bulb that makes the thing glow.

It's tough to take, I think, because we were basically presented with a mechanism that makes a man (Ben) travel through time and space as though kicked out the back of a moving car - the moving car being an entire Island area that disappears (also, potentially, through time and space). We saw the mechanism and were offered no explanation, and that's tough to take.

Portroyal,

I didn't have a problem with the ancient look of the wheel. The problem was that for a wheel that was supposed to be frozen in place, it was extremely wobbly - and not just side to side, but up and down. If it was really offering that much resistance I don't think it would have reacted in such a flimsy manner to Ben's exertions. And it wouldn't have been so flimsy and lightweight if it had been built to withstand all the force Ben was supposedly putting upon it.

Altogether, a quite unsatisfying set and prop.

And that's not even getting into the predictably lame probable future explanation as to how an old shoddy wheel in a walk-in freezer manages to shift several million tons of island in space and time.

Lost has given us high expectations on each episode. The donkey wheel (I thought) was a little cheesie. They've earned enough points for past episodes for me to let it go. My wife, who is more critical of the writing, was fine with it.

Maybe it's just me. All in all I thought it was fantastic.

Our entire towns TV cable and high speed internet system went down 55 minutes before the final episode. You've never seen anyone trying harder to find 10 year old "rabbit ears" antenna to work the TV. Aluminum foil and speaker wire work wonders. The cable came back on 10 minutes into the show.

OMG Tracker I would have been running round like a headless chicken!

I thought the wheel did look flimsy for what it was supposed to be doing - but then I thought, well it has been there a long time? Maybe it was shoddy prop design, but I still loved the whole show

I've got a theory about what happened, but I'll start a new thread

puchita wrote:

Did anyone notice this bad shot of Jack when they were on the raft? It was just a face shot, poor quality, looks like it was filmed inside - everyone else looked their usual glowy, zit free selves. Jack just looked greasy and old. Looks cheap.

I think there is more to this scene than meets the eye.
Did anyone else think that this shot had the appearance of an image on a viewing monitor, as if someone or something was watching Jack and we are simply seeing it from their perspective?

I thought the director during editing, added this shot in the studio after they filmed it in the ocean. It was probably just easier (and cheaper) to add the scene that way instead of getting an entire crew and boats back in the water. I don't think it's anything more than that. We're just very perceptive.

I'm not so convinced.
I can't recall a single other episode where this type of photography was used. It seems purposeful as if the producers were handing us a clue.

Veefre wrote:Just one question: what was that weird language the crew was speaking?

Just wanna add someting bout that... its Brazilian Portuguese, the same language used in the end of Season 2 in the episode "Live Together, Die Alone - part 2". It seems that everyone who works for Penny is from Brazil... maybe theres a reason for that... maybe not.

great points and comments. Thats a great point about Brazilian Portuguese, Shion, perhaps the island has moved closer to South America.

puchita wrote:

Did anyone notice this bad shot of Jack when they were on the raft? It was just a face shot, poor quality, looks like it was filmed inside - everyone else looked their usual glowy, zit free selves. Jack just looked greasy and old. Looks cheap.

Reminds of the cheesy blue screen stuff in the old Saturday morning classic "Land of the Lost".

haha yeah....

Seems like there was a scene with Hurley in it that looked a lot like the one of Jack. I think that they had to add in some extra stuff to fill in that extra hour they were given for the finale.