The biggest laugh to be gained from reading that document is the idea that Lost was conceived to be a self-contained show, not a sprawling epic. The idea is that their might be an overarching plot that tied everything together, but that mostly new viewers could drop in and watch any episode without feeling confused. Each episode would tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. That's where the claim it would be a cross between a cop show, a soap opera, a courtroom drama and medical series makes more sense. The idea wasn't for Lost to prefigure the highly serialised likes of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but for it to fit into the standard for TV dramas. It was more like a police procedural, with an active case in each episode, so that they could be watched without any prior knowledge of the show or characters. Eventually, that ultimate mystery they also claimed not to be doing and the huge ensemble cast meant that was impossible, but seriously if they'd kept to that, Lost would be a totally different show. No time travel stuff. No losing characters at random. No unanswered questions. But probably also no polar bear, or Hatch, or Desmond, or The Others, or the weird stuff that made Lost great. The fear of serialisation came from the failure of JJ Abrams' Alias. In the end it was sort of a waste of time, but when Lost was on, it was really on. Any of these little differences had happened, it would have been a totally different and possibly not quite as good a show.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
