Logo for the FK4 season.
- See Category:FK4 for a simple, alphabetic listing of all articles related to the virtual fourth season written by Greer Watson.
FK4 is a series of fan fiction stories written by Greer Watson and set in the world of Forever Knight. Based on the premise that the series finale, "Last Knight", never took place, it continues the Forever Knight storyline into a virtual fourth season using essentially the same regular cast as Season Three.
Ms. Watson's virtual season was written between 1996 and 2004 and "ran" with consecutively posted episodes on the FK4 website from 20 October 2004 to 8 May 2005. In all, twenty-two episodes written in a modified script format comprise the full fourth season. Each episode includes notes and TV Guide-style blurbs, as well as other ancillary material.
In September 2009, along with many other Forever Knight fan sites on GeoCities, FK4 was moved to the Forever Knight Website Archive.
Writing a fourth season[]
For Greer Watson, as for a number of other fan writers, the impetus to write Forever Knight fiction came from her dissatisfaction with the series finale, "Last Knight". Three weeks after it aired, she began to write an alternative version of a Forever Knight finale. She used full script format in order to simulate an actual episode of the series. "Fall of Night" was completed in a couple of weeks, though—like all subsequent episodes—it would be revisited and revised later.
The quick completion of this first piece of Forever Knight fan fiction prompted Greer to start a second story, using a concept that had been in mind for some time. Again, she employed full script format. "Hunt the Hunter" was completed in July, prompting her to begin two more stories, on which she initially worked simultaneously, though "Change of Life" was completed in September and "Night Vision" the following month. Although she would subsequently sometimes start an episode and then temporarily leave it incomplete, she did not again attempt to write actively on two episodes at the same time.
By the following April, nine stories in full script format had been completed. Greer was, however, finding frustrating the attempt to visualize action on the sets employed in filming the series. Some portions of the sets had rarely been in shot; and the action of the camera distorted the layout of the various areas within a set. For this reason, during the spring and summer of 1997, she took the time to run through her tapes of the series in order to piece together what the actual sets must have looked like.
With this additional detail, it became possible to visualize more accurately the exact movement of the actors through the sets and the camera angles that would be employed—or would have been employed had the stories she had written not been fan fiction. She wished to add this additional detail to her stories in order to aid in visualizing what would be seen if it had been filmed, so that the reader would be able to watch the story mentally, as if it were on a television screen. This degree of detail is not included in professional scripts, which are antecedent to the actual directing and filming of a television series. Including it therefore resulted in a significant modification of the canonical full script format, not least in length. Scripts in the modified format are typically 115 to 120 pages in length.
After this, when she wrote new fan fiction, she employed the new format. The first story to be written as a modified script from scratch was "Walk Out Once More Beneath the Sun", in June 1997. Over the next year, however, most of Greer's time was spent, not in writing new stories, but in converting each of the full scripts that she had already written from its original format into the new modified script format. She conceived the idea of ordering and organizing the episodes she had already written, and writing a sufficient number of others to make a full season.
She had not been satisfied with one of her stories, "Sang Ordinaire", originally written in April 1997 as a single episode. The plot seemed too crowded, the events too compressed. She therefore decided to expand it into a two part story and make it the season premiere. The second part retained the original title; and the first act and a half was rewritten into "Dawn of a New Knight". By the time this "Season Four" premiere was completed in March 1998, she already had so many story concepts in mind that she decided that she would actually need to write two virtual seasons of Forever Knight in order to incorporate them all.
By January 2001, most of the episodes for Season Four had been completed and put in order, and work had begun on revisions to avoid continuity errors and even add some elements of deliberate continuity. One completed episode, "Change of Life", could not be fitted into the standard twenty-two episode season and was reserved for Season Five.
Greer filled in the last gap in the first half of Season Four with "Death Shall Be No More" in March 2001. However, she decided that it would be prudent to write more episodes for Season Five before completing Season Four to encourage her to continue with the project. The final episode of Season Four, "Tangled Web", was not completed until July 2001. Revisions continued, to ensure that all episodes meshed.
The first other person to read Season Four was Margaret L. Carter, who pointed out two typos. Her comments were favourable. Greer continued work on Season Five.
In August 2002, she took the liberty of revising an actual Forever Knight episode, "Ashes to Ashes", in which the characters Vachon and Urs had died. Since both appeared in Season Four, and the events in the flashback to "Ashes to Ashes" had been alluded to in her story, "Daddy's Girl", she felt that it would be prudent to offer an alternative version of the episode, as it might have been made in a universe in which it had not been decided to cancel Forever Knight.
Additional episodes, intended for Season Five, were completed until October 2002.
- (For a list of the episodes in the order in which they were written, see Writing order for FK4 episodes.)
In late December 2003, Greer's computer crashed. When she replaced it in the spring of 2004, her new computer provided her with Internet access. After some months of reading other people's fan fiction, she decided that she ought to make her own available. To this end, she learned HTML in order to write a website of her own on which it could be presented.
Greer's Season Four was given the name FK4 to distinguish it from another virtual Season Four, V4S. It was announced on FORKNI-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU, and FK4 debuted on 20 October 2004, running until 8 May 2005. Each episode was checked carefully and revised if necessary before being announced on FORKNI-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU. Episodes were linked in more or less weekly, with a hiatus for FK War XII, another for Christmas, and sufficient skip weeks to simulate the schedule of an actual television season.
Eleven further episodes have been written; but Season Five has not been completed.
Characters in FK4[]
Because FK4 is based on the premise that Forever Knight was never cancelled (and "Last Knight" therefore never aired), there are no major cast changes between Season Three and Season Four.
- Main article: Characters in FK4
Series Regulars[]
Recurring Characters[]
Additional recurring characters:
- desk sergeant
- bartender at the Raven
- Virelle (dancer at the Raven)
- Marchetti (vampire, patron of the Raven)
- Mark Seymour (TV news anchor)
- Fr. Sean O'Connell (priest at St. John's Church)
Guests from Previous Seasons[]
Rating/Warning[]
Generally PG, some episodes are 14+. The Canadian television rating system is employed.
Episodes[]
Season premiere. Nick and his partner Tracy investigate a gay-bashing in High Park; a hijacking threatens the vampires of Toronto. Rated: PG
Conclusion. Nick persists in working on the hijacking case, neglecting the murder he's supposed to be investigating. Rated: PG
Red roses are sent to a murdered prostitute; Nick dreams of Janette; Tracy gets increasingly curious about her partner's secrets. Rated: 14+
Nick is suspended after shooting a black suspect in the back; Vachon recalls his arrival in Toronto with his friends Urs and Screed. Rated: PG
An arson murder reminds Vachon of the Great Fire of London; Tracy has Sunday dinner with her mother. Rated: PG
Nick investigates a suspicious car accident; Tracy tries to pump Natalie for information about Nick's past. Rated: PG
A woman is stabbed on the dance floor of the Raven; Nick recalls his relationship with Janette in the Renaissance. Rated: PG
A frozen body is stolen from cryonic storage; in early 19th century Edinburgh, a medical researcher helps Nick in his search for a cure. Rated: PG
An attack on an accused Nazi war criminal results in the death of an innocent bystander. Rated: PG
A vampire hunter stalks the Raven. Rated: PG
Seasonal episode. A friend of Natalie's goes mysteriously missing; Tracy throws a Christmas party. Rated: PG
Police besiege a downtown high school after an evening class is taken hostage. Rated: PG
Nick investigates a hit-and-run murder, while Tracy's uncle waits for a heart transplant. Rated: PG
The body of a Quebec separatist politician is found in the trunk of a car in Toronto. Rated: PG
A hotel employee is found shot in one of the guest rooms; Urs remembers Vachon teaching her about vampires when she first came across. Rated: PG
A high school hockey player is found beaten to death in an alley; an old friend visits LaCroix. Rated: 14+
A lawyer is shot dead while defending a man accused of incest. Guest-starring Kathryn Long as LaCroix's daughter Divia. Rated: 14+
A case that Nick worked with his first partner is reopened when new evidence links it with a series of similar killings outside Toronto. Guest-starring John Kapelos as Det. Don Schanke. Rated: PG
Nick tries to avoid meeting Tracy's Uncle Sam, whom he met in San Francisco in the seventies; Vachon recalls his hippie days. Rated: 14+
Conclusion. A priest refuses to break the seal of the confessional even to catch a serial killer. Guest-starring Michael McManus (Lexx) as Father Rochefort. Rated: PG
While Natalie is at a conference, the body of a vampire victim is autopsied by another pathologist. Rated: PG
Season finale. Tracy goes celebrating, but finds murder; Nick believes he is finally regaining his mortality. Rated: PG
Awards[]
- Forsaken Fandom Awards (Round 2): Winner — Best Series.
Reviews[]
- Forever Knight: A comparison of two virtual continuations by Amelia Hill (http://www.helium.com/items/1535024-forever-knight-virtual-season-4)
- Fan Fic: FK4" - article on TV Tropes