One of the pilot episode big mysteries was the emergence of the smoke monster. This immediately led to the basic questions of what was the monster? Why was it attacking the survivors?
But the guide had a disturbing foreshadowing of how TPTB would answer such basic story elements:
WHAT ABOUT THAT "MONSTER?" HOW THE HELL DO YOU SUSTAIN THAT
OVER A HUNDRED EPISODES?
The short answer is we don't.
We want to dispel the inevitable "Jurassic Park" comparisons as soon as possible. This is not the "run away from the obscenely huge and obscenely hungry creature" show.
True to our commitment to provide rational, real-world explanations for the seemingly bizarre, our castaways will make a series of discoveries in the first few episodes that indicate the "monster" may indeed have man-made origins which offers a variety of possible explanations illuminating its true nature. Perhaps the result of the experiments performed by the island's past inhabitants or simply a small part within an elaborate security system designed to protect yet undiscovered facilities, the beast is almost as scary when it's NOT there.
As the series progresses, the group begins to figure out the ''rules'' of the monster - locations and times of day that are "safe"... but·the reemergence of this creature (which may be more machine that animal) is an ever-present threat.
As established in the Pilot's ending, the much realer threat that begins to emerge is married to the realization that there may be other intelligent people on this island - people who are not necessarily happy to be sharing their stomping ground.
The writers establish early on that they could not "sustain" the Monster for the life of the series. It is an odd concession and abandonment of story foundation to create a major character/plot point with the realization that it does not matter in the big picture. However, TPTB promised that "true to our commitment to provide rational, real-world explanations for the seemingly bizarre," the smoke monster explanation and purpose remains an open question. The writers guide gives "possible" explanations, some which are mirrored in fan theories, but recall that even after Ben summoned it to attack the freighter soldiers, he had no idea what it was. The guide infers the monster was "man made," a machine or the result of a Dharma experiment, or part of an elaborate security system. The writers were going to fade out the monster by having the castaways learn "the rules" of the monster (locations and time of day that are safe). But as we saw in the series itself, the monster did not have any day-night, dry or wet limitations other than the alleged "sonic fence" which was contraindicated when the monster could shape shift into ghosts of the past island visitors like Rousseau crew, Christian or Alex. No modern security system can morph into physical replicas of human beings, then turn into a violent black mass of smoke. We did hear the mechanic noise and the animalistic bellowing as the smoke monster would approach, but those elements appear only to enhance the viewer expectation of scariness than provide an answer to what was the monster.
Further, the alleged use of the "monster" to set up the premise that the island could be inhabited by intelligent people who would not want to share the island is mixing apples and oranges. The people left on the island, the Others, apparently were not intelligent enough to create the monster. In fact, we are not sure that Dharma did because it could not control Smokey. The smoke monster is a supernatural being - - - and theorists believe that it may be the dark soul of MIB or past island guardians, or an alien race running lab rat experiments on humans. But clearly, TPTB did not provide any concrete rational, "real world" explanation for the smoke monster.
The distinction that LOST was not going to be a "run and hide" from the monster show like Jurassic Park is fine, but Spielberg at least provided viewers with a logical "science fiction" based explanation of how dinosaurs are now alive in the present (scientists extracted DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber, then re-used the DNA sequences into living amphibian eggs to create live dinosaur offspring). Viewers bought that premise, even though modern science says it is impossible, because it had true elements (DNA, gene splicing, fertilization of eggs outside womb, etc) that were tied together in a logical fashion that made it "believable." A mystery without an explanation is merely stage dressing, and should be treated as such.
But LOST needed to have some solid explanations so fans could understand the interconnected elements. The series takes on a different perspective if the monster was:
(a) a mechanical machine of advanced technology;
(b) a natural swarm of unknown animals;
(c) a alien (with shape shifting abilities);
(d) the physical transformation of a person's nightmare into reality;
(e) a supernatural creature that may or may not feed off human emotions and fears;
(f) a evil spirit;
(g) the devil in various shape shifting forms (then implying that the island is hell); or
(h) Jacob, MIB or a host of immortal gods playing with their human dolls in a world between worlds.
It would not be hard to "sustain" a monster character throughout the series. In fact, the smoke monster was used throughout the series - - - with its glorious rampage as Flocke took down the Temple. But was Flocke the smoke monster or the monster's zookeeper? The consensus is that MIB was the smoke monster, which means that it assumed the human intelligence of a dead human, learned to extract the memories of any visitor, then assume their bodies to interact with the characters to change their behavior or actions. But there is also a school of thought that Jacob was also a smoke monster, due to his equal footing with MIB in the island power (neither could kill the other). It is also possible that Jacob, who changed himself into a child to mess with MIB/Flocke, could have changed into other people on the island, such ghost Alex telling Ben to follow Flocke's instructions (which would lead to Ben killing Jacob, something that both MIB and Jacob wanted to happen as it was clear Jacob was tired of being the guardian.)
If the Island was considered a main character of the show, the monster would have to be considered a major character on the show, too.
The short answer is we don't.
We want to dispel the inevitable "Jurassic Park" comparisons as soon as possible. This is not the "run away from the obscenely huge and obscenely hungry creature" show.
True to our commitment to provide rational, real-world explanations for the seemingly bizarre, our castaways will make a series of discoveries in the first few episodes that indicate the "monster" may indeed have man-made origins which offers a variety of possible explanations illuminating its true nature. Perhaps the result of the experiments performed by the island's past inhabitants or simply a small part within an elaborate security system designed to protect yet undiscovered facilities, the beast is almost as scary when it's NOT there.
As the series progresses, the group begins to figure out the ''rules'' of the monster - locations and times of day that are "safe"... but·the reemergence of this creature (which may be more machine that animal) is an ever-present threat.
As established in the Pilot's ending, the much realer threat that begins to emerge is married to the realization that there may be other intelligent people on this island - people who are not necessarily happy to be sharing their stomping ground.
The writers establish early on that they could not "sustain" the Monster for the life of the series. It is an odd concession and abandonment of story foundation to create a major character/plot point with the realization that it does not matter in the big picture. However, TPTB promised that "true to our commitment to provide rational, real-world explanations for the seemingly bizarre," the smoke monster explanation and purpose remains an open question. The writers guide gives "possible" explanations, some which are mirrored in fan theories, but recall that even after Ben summoned it to attack the freighter soldiers, he had no idea what it was. The guide infers the monster was "man made," a machine or the result of a Dharma experiment, or part of an elaborate security system. The writers were going to fade out the monster by having the castaways learn "the rules" of the monster (locations and time of day that are safe). But as we saw in the series itself, the monster did not have any day-night, dry or wet limitations other than the alleged "sonic fence" which was contraindicated when the monster could shape shift into ghosts of the past island visitors like Rousseau crew, Christian or Alex. No modern security system can morph into physical replicas of human beings, then turn into a violent black mass of smoke. We did hear the mechanic noise and the animalistic bellowing as the smoke monster would approach, but those elements appear only to enhance the viewer expectation of scariness than provide an answer to what was the monster.
Further, the alleged use of the "monster" to set up the premise that the island could be inhabited by intelligent people who would not want to share the island is mixing apples and oranges. The people left on the island, the Others, apparently were not intelligent enough to create the monster. In fact, we are not sure that Dharma did because it could not control Smokey. The smoke monster is a supernatural being - - - and theorists believe that it may be the dark soul of MIB or past island guardians, or an alien race running lab rat experiments on humans. But clearly, TPTB did not provide any concrete rational, "real world" explanation for the smoke monster.
The distinction that LOST was not going to be a "run and hide" from the monster show like Jurassic Park is fine, but Spielberg at least provided viewers with a logical "science fiction" based explanation of how dinosaurs are now alive in the present (scientists extracted DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber, then re-used the DNA sequences into living amphibian eggs to create live dinosaur offspring). Viewers bought that premise, even though modern science says it is impossible, because it had true elements (DNA, gene splicing, fertilization of eggs outside womb, etc) that were tied together in a logical fashion that made it "believable." A mystery without an explanation is merely stage dressing, and should be treated as such.
But LOST needed to have some solid explanations so fans could understand the interconnected elements. The series takes on a different perspective if the monster was:
(a) a mechanical machine of advanced technology;
(b) a natural swarm of unknown animals;
(c) a alien (with shape shifting abilities);
(d) the physical transformation of a person's nightmare into reality;
(e) a supernatural creature that may or may not feed off human emotions and fears;
(f) a evil spirit;
(g) the devil in various shape shifting forms (then implying that the island is hell); or
(h) Jacob, MIB or a host of immortal gods playing with their human dolls in a world between worlds.
It would not be hard to "sustain" a monster character throughout the series. In fact, the smoke monster was used throughout the series - - - with its glorious rampage as Flocke took down the Temple. But was Flocke the smoke monster or the monster's zookeeper? The consensus is that MIB was the smoke monster, which means that it assumed the human intelligence of a dead human, learned to extract the memories of any visitor, then assume their bodies to interact with the characters to change their behavior or actions. But there is also a school of thought that Jacob was also a smoke monster, due to his equal footing with MIB in the island power (neither could kill the other). It is also possible that Jacob, who changed himself into a child to mess with MIB/Flocke, could have changed into other people on the island, such ghost Alex telling Ben to follow Flocke's instructions (which would lead to Ben killing Jacob, something that both MIB and Jacob wanted to happen as it was clear Jacob was tired of being the guardian.)
If the Island was considered a main character of the show, the monster would have to be considered a major character on the show, too.
