Update, December 1st: Oopsie on my part. I mis-read information on the show, and Juliet Ceasrio will not be re-joining the cast. Peter Jurasik will, however be joined by Gameela Wright, and I’ve updated the article to reflect this. My apologies to Gameela and the cast and crew!

Sunday December 1st sees the re-opening of Harland Quinn’s toughest case to date, the mystery of The Blackened Mirror.

Those who watched season one of the show will know that things all began when the mysterious Ms Alais Alleyn (Aisling Sinclair) and her faithful companion, Mr. Biggins (Mavromichali Szondi) stepped into Quinn’s office seeking his assistance to “find their way home” – home being something entirely unrelated to what you or I might consider it to be. By the end of the season, Quinn, Ms. Alleyn and Mr. Biggins were trapped in a bar surrounded by murderous zombies when in walks none other than Quinn’s own bespectacled doppelgänger, complete with a sinister greeting.

Season two picks-up the story precisely where season one left-off and promises more twists and rides. As I’ve hinted at in previous posts, the show also features a special guest star: none other than Mr. Peter Jurasik.

While perhaps best-known for his role as the tragic Centauri Ambasssdor (and later Emperor) Londo Mollari in Babylon 5, Mr. Jurasik has had a long and distinguished career on stage and in film and television, including several recurring roles on popular television series over the decades, such as that of Sid “the Snitch” Thurston in Hills Street Blues and its spin-off series, Beverly Hills Buntz.

Interestingly, he also appeared alongside future Babylon 5 co-star Bruce Boxleitner in both Boxleitner’s own TV series The Scarecrow and Mrs. King and in the feature film Tron.

He is also no stranger to Harland Quinn’s world. In 2012 he guest-starred as “George” in the radio show featuring Quinn, Death in Velvet.

Also accompanying Peter Jurasik in joining the cast is Gameela Wright. Based in New York, Ms. Wright has over 15 years experience in theatre, television, voice overs, film and commercials. She has appeared in such top-rated US shows such as Blue Bloods, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Orange is the New Black.

As in AvaJean Westland in Second Life, Ms. Wright has worked with the Avatar Repertory Company, and also developed projects as Virtual Girl Productions in Association with Running Lady Studios. In 2013, she took over hosting duties for the Second Life leg of the 2013 Relay for Life. As well as appearing as the character of Martha Pearse later in the season, Gameela Wright played an invaluable role in the show’s production, puppeteering a number of the characters on behalf of those actors unable to be in Second Life for the actual filming, creating a physicality to the characters to match the voice performances.

Both Mr. Jurasik and Ms. Wright will be joining season one regulars Scott Simpson (Zander Greene in SL) as the enigmatic Harland Quinn, Aisling Sinclair as the mysterious Alais Alleyn, and Mavromichali Szondi as the light-on-words Mr Biggins, as well as a host of guest stars.

Star of stage, screen and television, Scott Simpson has appeared alongside the likes of James Earl Jones, Teri Hatcher, Katie Holmes, Charles Shaughnessy, Charlotte Ross and Ellen Burstyn, to name but a few. He’s been directed by Michael Apted, and has played the lead in Richard III for NYC’s Looking Glass Theatre, as well as “Vanek” in Audience as part of New York’s 2006 Vaclav Havel Festival. He is also an accomplished voice-over artist.

In Second Life, through his alter-ego, he is an educational and non-profit environment developer for organisations including the American Cancer Society and Valdosta State University and the original moving force behind Fantasy Faire. Not only does he play the hero of the piece in The Blackened Mirror, he also creates the music for the series.

The talent involved in The Blackened Mirror isn’t restricted to in front of the camera, either. David (or Da5id, if you prefer – all the v-spellings had gone when he signed-up, so he improvised), is a writer who has published both fiction and non-fiction and worked in radio. The Blackened Mirror stands as a perfect example of the subject for his next book, You CanNot Do It: The Power of Procrastination, which he would have been writing but for the fact he put it off to write the The Blackened Mirror. The show is directed and produced by Saffia Widdershins, co-host and executive producer of the show Designing Worlds and CEO of Prim Perfect Publications.

It was Saffia who coaxed Aisling Sinclair, who among many other talents directs the Designing Worlds show, out from behind the camera to star in The Blackened Mirror. Saffia also helped introduce us to the character of Mr. Biggins (now voiced by builder-creator Mavromichali Szondi as noted above) through the New Babbage comic series produced by Prim Perfect.

Other talent involved in the show includes Honour McMillan, Petlove Petshop and Emmo Wei, and you can read more about all of the season one cast and crew on the show’s website.

The first instalment of season two of The Blackened Mirror airs at 14:00 SLT on Sunday December 1st, 2013, and you can catch it on Treet TV.

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