It took the opening of the double doors for Chris to realize just how pitch black the room he had been waiting in was. Almost as though he was actually opening his eyes after a long while of them having been closed. Through the double doors revealed blinding white light for a short moment until clarity gave way to a seated silhouette before a gigantic screen. There were several other screens throughout Chris' peripheral view. Various images flashed across all of the screens, but since they were seemingly the only source of light in the room, it was difficult to make out exactly what was playing on them as they were otherwise seen as visually projecting white light. As soon as Chris walked through the path of the double doors, they closed automatically behind him. The shadowed figure before the gigantic screen appeared to remain still, so Chris cleared his throat at a respectably high volume. The figure's head seemed to make some movement, as if to recognize Chris' presence in the room. Seconds later, all of the monitors turned off at the same time. The room was rendered dark for only a second before overhead lights were turned on.
The figure was revealed to be a woman, looking as though she was transitioning from middle age to elderly. There are some wrinkles present, but otherwise her skin was surprisingly smooth. Her short silver hair was cut to be level with her chin position with the front combed mostly to her left. She appeared to be wearing what could have been a full navy business suit had a tie been included with the top of her shirt collar unbuttoned, allowing for a gold necklace to be barely visible Also lacking visibility were her legs as everything below the waist was covered by the gold chair she was sitting in. The sleek design only added to its already impressive ability to hover off of the ground.
"Greetings, Christopher," the woman spoke. It was a stern, seemingly British voice she had. She cracked a smirk as the hovering chair turned enough so that she was fully facing Chris.
"Ma'am," Chris responded with a slight nod. "I take it this is a pretty serious matter for me to be in your presence."
"Something along those lines," she said with a slight chuckle. "Walk with me."
The chair turned so that she was facing a particular side of the room and began moving in that direction. Chris immediately followed and moved to keep pace with her. They moved their way toward a hidden door that opened automatically behind a few monitors near one of the corners of the room. This led them into what appeared to be a very long hallway with light shining upward from the floor and the walls lined with a seemingly never-ending series of monitors. Each one displaying images featuring some very familiar faces.
"So this is the hallway displaying all the different alternate dimensions of the show," Chris mused aloud after letting out a low whistle. "Nice."
"It's actually one of many such hallways," the woman noted. "Total Drama was popular enough to spawn a rather hefty number at its peak."
"'Was'?" Chris questioned, raising a curious brow as he moved his eyes to focus on her.
"What was the last thing you were doing before being summoned?" she asked in return.
Chris thought for a moment, managing to avoid being distracted by the monitors they were moving past. "Noting to the audience how even I was concerned with a couple of incestuous monsters in the clique Heather hooked up with at the school," he answered.
"How long ago was that?" the woman asked. The entire time she had not looked to face him, instead looking ahead down the very long hallways of monitors.
"An hour ago?" Chris responded with confusion.
"What if I told you it's actually been over eight years since you did that?" the woman questioned.
Chris hesitated to reply for a second, taken aback slightly at the idea that eight years had apparently passed and he was oblivious to it. "I'd be wondering how badly I got inebriated as someone's hilarious act of revenge against me," he managed to say. This elicited a slight chuckle from the woman. It also resulted in her hovering chair to stop moving, forcing Chris to stop walking as well, and then turning so that she would face him.
"Plausible explanation, but not quite, I'm afraid," she said, a smirk having formed on her lips.
"I take it this has something to do with that 'was' you said earlier," Chris said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"It does," the woman responded. While it was not visible, Chris assumed she was making herself relaxed and comfortable in her chair. "By the time of your last appearance in that confessional at the school, the popularity of the Total Drama brand took a pretty bad hit. In the eight years since, it's been seen by some as a shadow of its former self and hardly as relevant."
"Seemed to be doing alright to me," Chris noted with a shrug.
"That's because you're not the Christopher McLean from the prime dimension," the woman stated.
"Thought as much," Chris mused, unphased by what would have seemingly been a revelation. As this was happening, the monitors around them began to change until they were all projecting the same image in unison.
"On occasion, the alternate dimensions can sustain the popularity of a brand," the woman began to explain. "There may even be the rare instance where one could supersede the prime dimension in generating the brand's success. But otherwise, and is generally the case, the brand is dependent on the prime dimension and its ability to be pertinent in the social and cultural consciousness of the audience. If the prime dimension falters and falters hard, even the alternate dimensions lose their luster of interest."
"What you're saying is that the prime dimension hasn't been doing too hot of late," Chris summarized aloud.
"It went dormant and for the past few years the dimension where your contestants are pre-schoolers has been keeping the brand afloat," the woman proclaimed. The monitors began broadcasting images of the dimension in question.
"I thought any version of me would be deemed a terrible fit with parenting babies," Chris noted, perplexed and yet somewhat mesmerized by what was being displayed on the monitors.
"That's still the case," the woman said with a chuckle. "That dimension's Chef is the parental supervisor."
"Chef trying to a run a daycare," Chris said. At that moment, the monitors displayed that version of Chef screaming about his ability to find his Rainbow Juice. Chris chuckled at the sight of this. "That's a funny thought."
"It has its moments," the woman admitted, bringing the attention back to her. "But while that dimension has kept the Total Drama brand active, it's very far from the glory days in terms of popularity. Research hypothesizes the prime dimension made way too many missteps over the years, thereby driving away interest."
"Lemme guess, my prime counterpart was so much of a psychopath to the point that putting someone else in charge was seen as the best remedy," Chris said, rolling his eyes as though this was something to be expected.
"Almost," the woman responded. The monitors began to change again, though no longer in unison as different images were once again displayed on each one. "It did get bad enough that your prime counterpart was arrested after one of the seasons and was later relieved of hosting duties for a 'spin-off' season. But that, admittedly, was a fraction of what caused the popularity to diminish. There were inconsistencies with the personalities of the contestants, drama for the sake of drama, attempts at fan-servicing that were badly executed or managed, implausible scenarios that were unable to suspend disbelief, et cetera."
"Sounds like a typical reality show to me," Chris stated with a shrug.
"That's the problem," the woman responded sternly. "Total Drama was not supposed to be a typical reality show. It was supposed to be something unique. That's what made the initial season such a success in the first place. It's how we ended up with so many alternate dimensions such as yours."
"You saying things went downhill immediately after the initial season?" Chris questioned, raising a curious brow.
"It's debatable and certainly a matter of opinion," the woman sighed in response. "But yes, there are some within research who hypothesize that things went 'downhill' in the prime dimension as early as the show's second season. It's been suggested that these problems were subtle enough that they were either ignored or deemed inconsequential. A line of thinking that proved fatal as the problems grew uncontrollably as the series progressed that by the time they were finally recognized as being detrimental to the brand it was too late to administer any sort of remedy. The damage had been done and the popularity has since all but faded."
Chris glanced over the woman and watched some of the images being displayed on the monitors. Some of the scenes he managed to catch included the likes of Courtney and Duncan fighting each other constantly, Ezekiel being transformed into a hideous creature, Cody falling into the Statue of Liberty's breasts, Gwen dumping Trent, and Blaineley becoming a contestant, among others. Chris appeared rather confused by what he was seeing before turning his attention back to the woman.
"Begging your pardon, ma'am, but this seems like a roundabout way of explaining why I'm here," he said.
"Very astute of you, Christopher," she responded with a chuckle. "The bottom line is that these missteps within the prime dimension resulted in disinterest in the Total Drama brand. Unfortunately, it has become one of those brands where the disinterest has greatly affected some of the other alternate dimensions. Yours being one of them. As respectably popular as your dimension was, the disinterest in the prime dimension was bad enough that it leaked onto yours. Thus it was on pause until an appropriate course of action could be determined."
Chris took a moment to digest what she had told him thus far. The conclusion he came to made him frown. "How close were we to being abandoned?" he asked.
"It almost happened on a few occasions," the woman answered.
"Yipes," Chris uttered.
"Outside circumstances beyond our control, as well as other, far more interesting brands emerging over the last eight years didn't help your chances," she added in explanation
Chris paused again and took another moment to think about everything he was hearing, stroking his chin. "I'm assuming I'm being privy to this information because something is happening," he noted.
"Correct," the woman responded. "We're giving serious consideration to rebooting your dimension."
"Rebooting?" Chris questioned. He raised a brow as that was not something he was expecting to hear.
At the same time, the images on the displays changed again. This time, they were showing scenes that have passed thus far in his dimension. Familiar moments such as Trent managing to win Brunch of Disgustingness, the war between Courtney and Duncan against Harold and Leshawna, Gwen convincing Bridgette to purchase the extra lavish and extra expensive dress the show would pay for, and Katie kissing Noah, among others.
"Yes, rebooting," the woman said. "Some intriguing ideas have emerged recently and it was liked enough that we want to implement them. Your dimension provides the ideal setting. But the current, albeit paused, conditions make it difficult to work. We would have to reboot from the start and change things up a bit in order to use them now before they are forgotten. And these ideas have been deemed too tempting not to let sit and possibly go to waste."
"Seems unfortunate to me," Chris noted, stroking his chin again.
"I imagine it would be," the woman responded with a smirk.
"Well, putting on my producer hat and not that of the host psychopath who likes to torture the kiddies for a second," Chris said rather suddenly. He mimed putting on a hat before he resumed speaking. "I get where you guys are going and it kinda makes sense. But we left a lot of ongoing ideas hanging in the eight years we've been dormant. DJ and Justin about to vie for the affections of the same nice girl, Heather's association with the Dodekatheon getting heated, whatever it is that Izzy is doing. Ideas that have built a fan-base and, while it is reasonable to assume most of them got tired of waiting and ventured off elsewhere, they probably wanna see these stories resolved."
"Rather eloquent of you, Christopher," the woman stated in an impressed tone. "Coincidentally, you've expressed one of the arguments used to keep your dimension from being abandoned."
"But wouldn't rebooting be considered another form of abandonment?" Chris questioned.
"Not if the reboot is a separate dimension," the woman answered.
Chris thought once more and nodded. "Two Total Drama Academy dimensions, eh?" he uttered.
"If you want to get technical, there are many dimensions dubbed Total Drama Academy out there," the woman noted with a chuckle. "You will be one of the few that will have a direct reboot dimension splintered off."
"But what happens to my original dimension?" Chris wondered aloud.
"We're still keeping it on pause for now," the woman replied. "But perhaps sooner than later it'll become active again."
"Really?" Chris uttered in surprise.
"There's rumblings that interest in the brand is slowly picking back up," the woman explained. "It helps that the prime dimension is getting revived."
"Cool," Chris mused with a chuckle.
"Don't misunderstand, I give you no promises," the woman said very sternly. "My words are not set in stone. Things can happen and before you know it everything gets abandoned. Your dimension, the reboot, the redux of the prime dimension's second season. All gone. Just like that." She snapped her fingers for effect, which echoed for a moment.
"Quite the buzzkill, ma'am," Chris noted with a whistle.
"Thank you, Christopher," the woman said, forming a smirk on her lips.
"Okay, so I got summoned before you to be informed of my dimension possibility getting a reboot splintered off while the original may get reactivated," Chris summarized, listing off points with his fingers. "But there are no guarantees and I might get abandoned when I least expect it."
"That about covers the subject of our meeting," the woman responded with a chuckle.
"Quick question," Chris said. "Am I appearing in both dimensions or will there be a reboot version of me?"
"The latter," the woman replied.
"He gonna have any idea about all this that you laid down on me?" Chris asked.
"Probably not," the woman answered.
"Am I gonna remember any of this should my original dimension be reactivated?" Chris questioned.
"We'll see," the woman stated with a smirk.
"Mysterious," Chris mused. He then let out a chuckle. "I like that."
"While on the subject, I should warn you that your original dimension would undergo a few modifications should it become active again," the woman noted. "There are a number of elements within that haven't aged well after being on pause for eight years."
"How we gonna explain that to the audience?" Chris asked.
"Allow me to throw that back to you as a challenge," the woman replied. "Ideally while you're metaphorically still wearing your producer hat."
Chris began to think again. He mimed adjusting his hat before stroking his chin once more. "Well, before we paused, Gwen, Trent, Courtney, and Harold were trying to get to know their new band-mate Thompson," he began to say. "He was rattling on about a whole buncha wibbly wobbly, timey wimey talk that kinda went over my head. I just remember the simple act of Courtney placing her elbow on the counter caused a disruption in his space time continuum stuff or something. Guess we can play with that."
"Very good, Christopher," the woman said. It was then that a dinging sound was heard, not so dissimilar to a dinging alarm used at schools. "I'm afraid our time together has expired." Her turned and moved her back in the direction of the previous room with the gigantic monitor. Chris followed suit and kept pace with her. "Regardless of whatever happens, chances are we will never meet again. So do appreciate this opportunity you have been given."
"Right," Chris uttered with a shrug. "For all I know, this actually isn't happening."
"Indeed," the woman muttered quietly.
Nothing more was said as they soon entered the previous room. Chris headed toward the double doors to exit while the chair moved the woman back to her original position. Only this time she faced Chris to watch him leave. The double doors opened automatically and Chris walked through. He turned to see the woman one more time. It was then that the overhead lights were turned off. The room was completely black but for a second before the monitors would turn on. And yet in that one second of darkness, Chris swore he saw a pair of red eyes glowing where the woman was. When light from the monitors began to illuminate as much of the room as they could, the red eyes were gone. In their place were the natural brown eyes of the woman. Seconds later, the double doors closed and Chris was back in darkness.
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Total Drama Academy
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Return to Total Drama Island
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Total Drama Action Redux
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Total Drama Academy: The Reboot Paradox
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Stay tuned...