Here we are for a sneak peak at the sixth Zeitgeist series, Broken. We’ll handle this like we usually do, tell us about the concept you’ve got going here.

A: This time around, we’re going back to a land based series, on Earth, where demons and vampires are still running around. This takes place in what would be the northeast united states on a current map, and though I can’t say too much, I will say that this series has changed more than any other show from start to finish. When I started working on the concept, I kept the tradition of alternating the show’s gender lead, which means this time it was going to be a female. I also decided that this show was going to be one of the more emotionally messed up casts that I worked with, so I looked for actors and actresses with a great deal of range. The basic story in this series is that they’ve found a site believed to contain artifacts from the oldest race, the Ancients. What they find is more than they bargained for.

Q: The Ancients? Older than the precursors?

A: Yes, they’re even older than the precursors. They were the first race, the oldest race to obtain sentience. After this race had come and gone, then the precursors came about. The only other race in comparable age to these two races was the dragons. All others came later.

Q: Tell us about the cast.

A: The first one cast was Nikki Cole. She was intended to be the show runner, though her role somewhat changed in later seasons. She’s a red panda, and I knew I wanted someone different for this show, so we had to audition a number of different anthro actresses for this role.

Nikki: When I auditioned for the lead role on this new series, they had seen some of my previous work in porn in South Fur Lands and I was chosen to be the main character for this series. Since they had already cast ZigZag in the third series, they had no stigmas or reservations against using porn actresses. Though my species did help in my selection, because they didn’t want a fox or a common fur species to helm this show, I think they also appreciated that I have a significant range as an actress, having been in other dramas and scifi’s before. Nikki to me seems like a strong person, but even she still has difficulty handling some of the weighty issues that get dumped on her shoulders.

A: When I was designing the breakdown for this show’s cast, I knew I wanted a token human, at least, and most certainly a big wuss. I gave him a very bookwormish name, Weylon Ashmore, which actually came from his nickname “Ash”, which was developed first, and the other name around it. This was bearing in mind that his character would change dramatically over the course of seasons 1 and 2, and in season 2 he would prefer Ash, to Weylon Ashmore. We found a man that cleaned up incredibly well in a suit, and looked almost totally different when we grunged him up to test his second season look.

A: Rakkar was the only character added to this cast that I didn’t invent myself. When I developed the role that I needed to fill, I asked around and found a character that seemed to fit the bill of the fringe character, acting mostly in his own interest. Rakkar was able to pull of that role, as well as handle the rifle we gave him for the show. He was good with stunt work, and is one of the more sought after raptor actors in today’s film industry. We were lucky to get him for this role.

Rakkar: I had a few other options I was considering, and I thought about my long-term career. I figured I would be able to go the furthest with this show, as it would likely get a cult following or something of that nature. I had a feeling that it would result in a lot of con appearances and contact with the fans, and so far, from the other five series, it’s proven to be true, so…

A: Lakota was a transplant. Initially I was happy with his two-year regular role on series 3, but then later I decided that I wanted to see if I could do more with him. He ended up as the second lead on this show for the first few years, and since I already knew what he could do, I had no reservations at all to adding him to this cast. He was still available, after doing a few minor roles in some movie projects, and then signed on with us again, which made me very pleased.

A: When I created Allaris, I was drawing off of inspiration from Angel, and the character Illyria. I saw how interesting this character could be, so I developed my own version of the character, and tried her on a regular role on this show. Not only did it significantly affect the story curve for season 1, but I also wanted to do it as a writing challenge to myself, to see if I could manage a character for 7 years that had to at the same time grow, but stay static. I wanted her to be different from the others, not really ever being anyone’s friend, or becoming ‘just another part of the gang’. She was always intended to be separated somehow. As I started to play around with the story, she always found a way to make her presence felt, and usually pretty in tune with the others, so I was satisfied at the balance I’d found.

A: Anara was a little harder to cast than the others. I wanted a deer, so that limited the number of actresses I could audition, but the species wasn’t the problem. I had to figure out what her character and story was like that would make her as memorable as Calais or Steve, or even Doctor Corelli. I ended up giving her a specialty in holistic medicine, though that didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. Though I did find things for her to do, and I certainly am not displeased with the results, she ended up being a general doctor rather than some kind of a specialist. If anything, I liked her look, and she brought a level head to the cast.

Q: What kind of threats are we expecting?

A: Aside from the usual throwaway threats like vampires and such, you’ll see the first threat emerge at the end of the first episode. I can’t tell you much without spoiling the arc for season 1, but in the second half you’ll meet a force that becomes very important in later seasons, Iridescence Inc. Just think of them as basically hell, incorporated.

Q: Anything else you can tell us?

A: Well, the only other thing I can think of to mention is that we do manage to keep up the tradition somewhat of having someone from an earlier show help us kick things off. Willis is in the first episode, though unfortunately after this series we weren’t able to keep that tradition going.

Q: Thank you for your time.

A: You’re certainly welcome. I’ll have a lot more to say when we’re looking at the season 1 retrospective at the end of the year.