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Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass.

Several of Lloyd Webber's songs have been widely recorded and widely successful outside of their parent musicals, such as "Memory" from Cats, "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You" from The Phantom of the Opera, "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita, and "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In 2001, The New York Times referred to him as "the most commercially successful composer in history". The Daily Telegraph named him in 2008 the fifth-most powerful person in British culture, on which occasion lyricist Don Black said that "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical."

Lloyd Webber has received numerous awards, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage for services to the arts, six Tonys, seven Olivier Awards, three Grammys (as well as the Grammy Legend Award), an Academy Award, 14 Ivor Novello Awards, a Golden Globe, a Brit Award, the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors, and two Classic Brit Awards (for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2008, and for Musical Theatre and Education in 2018). In 2018, after Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live), he became the thirteenth person to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

The Really Useful Group, Lloyd Webber's company, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, of Lloyd Webber musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group. He is also the president of the Arts Educational Schools, London, a performing arts school located in Chiswick, West London. Lloyd Webber is involved in a number of charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child. In 1992, he started the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation which supports the arts, culture, and heritage of the UK.

Early life
Lloyd Webber was born on 22 March 1948 in Kensington, London, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982), a composer and organist, and Jean Hermione Johnstone (1921–1993), a violinist and pianist. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a world-renowned solo cellist. On the BBC's genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, he learned that his mother's great-great-uncle was the soldier Sir Peregrine Maitland who in 1815 served as a major general at the Battle of Waterloo.

Lloyd Webber started writing his own music at a young age: a suite of six pieces at the age of nine. He also put on "productions" with Julian and his aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at Viola's suggestion). In his memoir, he writes: "mum was determined that I should be a prodigy in something or other." His aunt Viola, an actress, took him to see many of her shows and through the stage door into the world of the theatre. His father enrolled him as a part-time student at the Eric Gilder School of Music in 1963. At this time he was working on a Genghis Khan musical called Westonia!.

From 1960 to 1965, Lloyd Webber was a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School. An avid listener of 1960s rock and pop music, he called The Rolling Stones song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" the "best record of the Sixties", and Dusty Springfield's rendition of "Son of a Preacher Man" the song that taught him "the power of a perfect pop song". He studied history for a term at Magdalen College, Oxford, although he abandoned the course in the winter of 1965 to study at the Royal College of Music in London and pursue his interest in musical theatre.

Early years
In 1965, when Lloyd Webber was a 17-year-old budding musical-theatre composer, he was introduced to the 20-year-old aspiring pop-song writer Tim Rice. Their first collaboration was The Likes of Us, an Oliver!-inspired musical based on the true story of Thomas John Barnardo. They produced a demo tape of that work in 1966, but the project failed to gain a backer.

Although composed in 1965, The Likes of Us was not publicly performed until 2005, when a production was staged at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival. In 2008, amateur rights were released by the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) in association with the Really Useful Group. The first amateur performance was by a children's theatre group in Cornwall called "Kidz R Us". Stylistically, The Likes of Us is fashioned after the Broadway musical of the 1940s and 1950s; it opens with a traditional overture comprising a medley of tunes from the show, and the score reflects some of Lloyd Webber's early influences, particularly Richard Rodgers, Frederick Loewe, and Lionel Bart. In this respect, it is markedly different from the composer's later work, which tends to be either predominantly or wholly through-composed, and closer in form to opera.

In the summer of 1967, Alan Doggett, a family friend of the Lloyd Webbers who had assisted on The Likes of Us and who was the music teacher at the Colet Court school in London, commissioned Lloyd Webber and Rice to write a piece for the school's choir. Doggett requested a "pop cantata" along the lines of Herbert Chappell's The Daniel Jazz (1963) and Michael Hurd's Jonah-Man Jazz (1966), both of which had been published by Novello and were based on the Old Testament. The request for the new piece came with a 100-guinea advance from Novello. This resulted in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph, in which Lloyd Webber and Rice humorously pastiched a number of pop-music styles such as Elvis-style rock'n'roll, Calypso and country music. Joseph began life as a short cantata that gained some recognition on its second staging with a favourable review in The Times. For its subsequent performances, Rice and Lloyd Webber revised the show and added new songs to expand it to a more substantial length. Continued expansion eventually culminated in a 1972 stage musical and then a two-hour-long production being staged in the West End in 1973 on the back of the success of Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 1969, Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the Eurovision Song Contest called "Try It and See", which was not selected. With rewritten lyrics, it became "King Herod's Song" in their third musical, Jesus Christ Superstar (1970). Debuting on Broadway in 1971, by 1980 the musical had grossed more than US$237 million worldwide. Running for over eight years in London between 1972 and 1980, it held the record for longest-running West End musical before it was overtaken by Cats in 1989. The planned follow-up to Jesus Christ Superstar was a musical comedy based on the Jeeves and Wooster novels by P. G. Wodehouse. Tim Rice was uncertain about this venture, partly because of his concern that he might not be able to do justice to the novels that he and Lloyd Webber so admired. Rice backed out of the project and Lloyd Webber subsequently wrote the musical Jeeves with Alan Ayckbourn, who provided the book and lyrics. Jeeves failed to make any impact at the box office and closed after a run of only 38 performances in the West End in 1975. Many years later, Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this project, producing a thoroughly reworked and more successful version entitled By Jeeves (1996).

Mid-1970s
Lloyd Webber collaborated with Rice once again to write Evita (1978), a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. As with Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita was released first as a concept album (1976) featuring Julie Covington singing the part of Eva Perón. The song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit single and the musical was staged at the West End's Prince Edward Theatre in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Elaine Paige in the title role. This original production was enormously successful, eventually running for nearly eight years in the West End.

Evita transferred to Broadway in 1979, in a production starring Patti LuPone as Eva and Mandy Patinkin as Che; it won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, helped launch the careers of both LuPone and Patinkin, and ran for almost four years. Rice and Lloyd Webber parted ways soon after Evita, although they have sporadically worked together since then.

In 1978, Lloyd Webber embarked on a project with his cellist brother Julian, the Variations, based on the 24th Caprice by Paganini; this reached number two in the pop album chart in the United Kingdom. The main theme was used as the theme tune for ITV's long-running South Bank Show throughout its 32-year run. The same year, Lloyd Webber also composed a new theme tune for the long-running documentary series Whicker's World, which was used from 1978 to 1980. He also composed the instrumental "Argentine Melody" as the theme music for the BBC's coverage of the 1978 FIFA World Cup held in Argentina.

1980s
Lloyd Webber was the subject of This Is Your Life in November 1980 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the foyer of Thames Television's Euston Road Studios in London. He would be honoured a second time by the television programme in November 1994 when Michael Aspel surprised him at the West End's Adelphi Theatre.

Lloyd Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist, turning instead to the poetry of T. S. Eliot. Cats (1981) was to become the longest-running musical in London, where it ran for 21 years and 8,949 performances before closing. On Broadway, Cats ran for 18 years, a record which would ultimately be broken by another Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of the Opera. Elaine Paige collaborated again with Lloyd Webber, originating the role of Grizabella in Cats, and had a Top 10 UK hit with "Memory".

Starlight Express (1984) was a commercial hit, but received negative reviews from the critics. It ran for 7,409 performances in London, making it the ninth longest-running West End show. It ran for less than two years on Broadway. The show has also seen two tours of the US, as well as an Australian/Japanese production, a three-year UK touring production, which transferred to New Zealand later in 2009. Starlight Express runs full-time in a custom-built theatre in Bochum, Germany, where it has been running since 1988. The German production holds the Guinness World Record for most visitors to a musical in a single theatre.

Lloyd Webber wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, William, who had died in 1982. It premiered at St. Thomas Church in New York on 24 February 1985. Church music had been a part of the composer's upbringing and the composition was inspired by an article he had read about the plight of Cambodian orphans. Lloyd Webber had on a number of occasions written sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival. Lloyd Webber received a Grammy Award in 1986 for Requiem in the category of best classical composition. Pie Jesu from Requiem achieved a high placing on the UK Singles Chart and was certified silver. Perhaps because of its large orchestration, live performances of the Requiem are rare.

In 1986, Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned a short musical from Lloyd Webber and Rice for his mother's 60th birthday celebration. Cricket (1986), also called Cricket (Hearts and Wickets), reunited Lloyd Webber with Rice to create this short musical for the Queen's birthday, first performed at Windsor Castle. Several of the tunes were later used for Aspects of Love and Sunset Boulevard.

Lloyd Webber premiered The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in 1986, inspired by the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel. He wrote the part of Christine for his then wife, Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside Michael Crawford as the Phantom. The production was directed by Harold Prince, who had also earlier directed Evita. Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for Phantom with some additional material provided by Richard Stilgoe, with whom Lloyd Webber co-wrote the book of the musical. It became a hit and is still running in the West End; in January 2006 it overtook Lloyd Webber's Cats as the longest-running show on Broadway. On 11 February 2012, Phantom of the Opera played its 10,000th show on Broadway. With over 14,200 London productions it is the second longest-running West End musical. The Broadway production closed on 16 April 2023, having played 13,981 performances, the most in Broadway history.

Aspects of Love followed in 1989, a musical based on the story by David Garnett. The lyrics were by Don Black and Charles Hart and the original production was directed by Trevor Nunn. Aspects had a run of four years in London, but closed after less than a year on Broadway. It has since gone on a tour of the UK. It is famous for the song "Love Changes Everything", which was performed by Michael Ball in both the West End and Broadway casts. It stayed in the UK Singles Chart for 14 weeks, peaking at number 2 and becoming Ball's signature tune.

1990s
Lloyd Webber was asked to write a song for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and he composed "Amigos Para Siempre — Friends for Life" with Don Black providing the lyrics. This song was performed by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras.

Lloyd Webber had toyed with the idea of writing a musical based on Billy Wilder's critically acclaimed movie, Sunset Boulevard, since seeing the film in the early 1970s, but the project did not come to fruition until after the completion of Aspects of Love when the composer finally managed to secure the rights from Paramount Pictures, The composer worked with two collaborators, as he had done on Aspects of Love; this time Christopher Hampton and Don Black shared equal credit for the book and lyrics. Sunset Boulevard opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 12 July 1993, and ran for 1,529 performances.

In 1994, Sunset Boulevard became a successful Broadway show, opening with the largest advance in Broadway history, and winning seven Tony Awards that year. Even so, by its closing in 1997, "it had not recouped its reported $13 million investment." From 1995 to 2000, Lloyd Webber wrote the Matters of Taste column in The Daily Telegraph where he reviewed restaurants and hotels, and these were illustrated by Lucinda Rogers.

In 1998, Lloyd Webber released a film version of Cats, which was filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in London. David Mallet directed the film, and Gillian Lynne choreographed it. The cast consisted of performers who had been in the show before, including Ken Page (the original Old Deuteronomy on Broadway), Elaine Paige (original Grizabella in London) and John Mills as Gus: the Theatre Cat.

In 1998, Whistle Down the Wind made its debut, a musical written with lyrics supplied by Jim Steinman. Originally opening in Washington, Lloyd Webber was reportedly not happy with the casting or Harold Prince's production and the show was subsequently revised for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards. The production included the Boyzone number-one hit "No Matter What", which remained at the top of the UK charts for three weeks. His The Beautiful Game opened in London and has never been seen on Broadway. The show had a respectable run at The Cambridge Theatre in London. The show was re-worked into a new musical, The Boys in the Photograph, which had its world première at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in April 2008.

2000s
Having achieved great popular success in musical theatre, Lloyd Webber was referred to by The New York Times in 2001 as "the most commercially successful composer in history". In 2002 he turned producer, bringing the musical Bombay Dreams to London. With music by Indian Music composer A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Don Black, it ran for two years at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. A revised Broadway production at the Broadway Theatre two years later ran for only 284 performances. On 16 September 2004, his production of The Woman in White opened at the Palace Theatre in London. It ran for 19 months and 500 performances. A revised production opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on 17 November 2005. Garnering mixed reviews from critics, due in part to the frequent absences of the show's star Maria Friedman due to breast cancer treatment, it closed only a brief three months later on 19 February 2006.

Lloyd Webber produced a staging of The Sound of Music, which débuted in November 2006. He made the controversial decision to choose an unknown to play leading lady Maria, who was found through the BBC's reality television show How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?, in which he was a judge. The winner of the show was Connie Fisher. A 2006 project, The Master and Margarita, was abandoned in 2007.

In September 2006, Lloyd Webber was named a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson. He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to American performing arts. He attended the ceremony on 3 December 2006; it aired on 26 December 2006. On 11 February 2007, Lloyd Webber was featured as a guest judge on the reality television show Grease: You're the One that I Want!.

Between April and June 2007, he appeared in BBC One's Any Dream Will Do!, which followed the same format as How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?. Its aim was to find a new Joseph for his revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Lee Mead won the contest. Viewers' telephone voting during the series raised more than £500,000 for the BBC's annual Children in Need charity appeal, according to host Graham Norton on air during the final.

In 2007, Lloyd Webber's cat, Otto, leaped onto his Clavinova piano and "destroyed the entire score for the new 'Phantom' in one fell swoop". The Phantom in question was The Phantom of Manhattan, a planned sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. On 1 July 2007, Lloyd Webber presented excerpts from his musicals as part of the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium, London, an event organised to celebrate the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death. BBC Radio 2 broadcast a concert of music from the Lloyd Webber musicals on 24 August 2007. Denise Van Outen introduced songs from Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game, Tell Me on a Sunday, The Woman in White, Evita and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music, which Lloyd Webber revived in 2006 at the London Palladium, and the 2002 musical Bombay Dreams.

In April 2008, Lloyd Webber reprised his role as judge, this time in the BBC musical talent show I'd Do Anything. The show followed a similar format to its Maria and Joseph predecessors, this time involving a search for an actress to play the role of Nancy in a West End production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!, a musical based on the Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. The show also featured a search for three young actors to play and share the title character's role, but the show's main focus was on the search for Nancy. The role was won by Jodie Prenger despite Lloyd Webber's stated preference for one of the other contestants; the winners of the Oliver role were Harry Stott, Gwion Wyn-Jones and Laurence Jeffcoate. Also in April 2008, Lloyd Webber was featured on the U.S. talent show American Idol, acting as a mentor when the 6 finalists had to select one of his songs to perform for the judges that week.

Lloyd Webber accepted the challenge of managing the UK's entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow. In early 2009 a series, called Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, was broadcast to find a performer for a song that he would compose for the competition. Jade Ewen won the right to represent Britain, winning with "It's My Time", by Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren. At the contest, Lloyd Webber accompanied her on the piano during the performance. The United Kingdom finished fifth in the contest.

On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber launched the musical Love Never Dies at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original Phantom has been running since 1986. Also present were Sierra Boggess, who had been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who portrayed Phantom, a role he had recently played in the West End.

2010s
Following the opening of Love Never Dies, Lloyd Webber again began a search for a new musical theatre performer in the BBC One series Over the Rainbow. He cast the winner, Danielle Hope, in the role of Dorothy Gale, and a dog to play Toto in his forthcoming stage production of The Wizard of Oz. He and lyricist and composer Tim Rice wrote a number of new songs for the production to supplement the songs from the film.

On 1 March 2011, The Wizard of Oz opened at The Palladium Theatre, starring Hope as Dorothy Gale and Michael Crawford as the Wizard of Oz. In 2012, Lloyd Webber fronted a new ITV primetime show Superstar which gave the UK public the chance to decide who would play the starring role of Jesus in an arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. The arena tour started in September 2012 and also starred comedian Tim Minchin as Judas Iscariot, former Spice Girl Melanie C as Mary Magdalene and BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles as Herod Antipas. Tickets for most venues went on sale on 18 May 2012.

In 2013, Lloyd Webber reunited with Christopher Hampton and Don Black on Stephen Ward the Musical. For his next project, a 2015 musical adaptation of the 2003 film School of Rock, auditions were held for children aged nine to fifteen in cooperation with the School of Rock music education program, which predated the film by several years.

In April 2016, the English National Opera staged a revival of Sunset Boulevard at the London Coliseum. The limited run, semi-staged production directed by Lonny Price brought Glenn Close to reprise her star turn as Norma Desmond, which was her first time performing the role in London; she had originated the role in Los Angeles in December 1993 and then on Broadway in November 1994 (which won her the 1995 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical). The 2016 London revival was so well-received that the production transferred to the Palace Theatre on Broadway in February 2017, making Lloyd Webber the first musical-theatre composer since 1953 to have four musicals running simultaneously on Broadway – a feat that his heroes Rodgers and Hammerstein had previously achieved.

Lloyd Webber's memoir, Unmasked, was published in 2018. On 9 September 2018, Lloyd Webber, along with Tim Rice and John Legend each won an Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. With this win, Lloyd Webber, Rice and Legend joined the list of people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. Lloyd Webber wrote the song "Beautiful Ghosts" with Taylor Swift for the film adaptation of Cats, produced by Greg Wells and released in December 2019. In an interview in August 2020, Lloyd Webber called the film "ridiculous" in the ways that it changed the musical: "The problem with the film was that Tom Hooper decided that he didn't want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show." He said that seeing the film caused him to get a dog.

2020s
Lloyd Webber's new version of Cinderella opened at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End in 2021. The opening, which was originally set to take place in August 2020, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a book by Emerald Fennell, Lloyd Webber wrote: "Emerald Fennell has written something truly exciting and original, and the moment I read her outline I knew I'd found my latest collaborator." He garnered press attention in July 2021 for saying that he was "prepared to be arrested" to open Cinderella to full houses in spite of rising Covid cases and in defiance of Government advice. A 2021 feature in Variety suggested: "Lloyd Webber, at 73, appears to have been reanimated creatively in recent years. Both School of Rock and Cinderella earned him some of the best reviews of his career and had a lightness and wit that had been missing from his work. They came after a grueling period in the wilderness, one characterized by failures, disappointments and missteps. ... It seemed, for a time, as though the Lloyd Webber formula, which relied on swooning, rapturous melodies and razzle-dazzle, had grown stale."

In 2022, Lloyd Webber appeared alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda in the BBC Platinum Jubilee Concert for Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. They initially appeared singing alternative words to "The King's Song" from Jesus Christ Superstar and "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and "The Phantom of the Opera" from The Phantom of the Opera were parts of the musical theatre section.

In 2023, Lloyd Webber was one of twelve composers asked to write a new piece for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla. His anthem, "Make a Joyful Noise", was performed during the enthronement of Queen Camilla.

Accusations of plagiarism
Among the accusations of plagiarism that Lloyd Webber has received, the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen stated that he: "has yet to think up a single note; in fact, the poor guy's never invented one note by himself. That's rather poor". Lloyd Webber's biographer, John Snelson, acknowledged a similarity between the andante movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor and the Jesus Christ Superstar song "I Don't Know How to Love Him", but wrote that Lloyd Webber: "...brings a new dramatic tension to Mendelssohn's original melody through the confused emotions of Mary Magdalene. The opening theme may be Mendelssohn, but the rhythmic and harmonic treatment along with new lines of highly effective melodic development are Lloyd Webber's. The song works in its own right as its many performers and audiences can witness."

An accusation of plagiarism regarded the 1971 Pink Floyd album Meddle. The sixth track of the album, "Echoes", has a riff on which Lloyd Webber allegedly based the opening organ riff in "The Phantom of the Opera". The two riffs share very similar notes and the order of the notes played. Lloyd Webber's pipe organ riff from "Phantom of the Opera" plays D, C♯, C, B, A♯, then ascending A♯, B, C, C♯, D. Pink Floyd's "Echoes" plays C♯, C, B, A♯, A, then ascending A, A♯, B, C, C♯. Pink Floyd bassist and co-lead vocalist Roger Waters pointed this out and said it was "probably actionable", but stated that he did not care to take it to court.

Noting similarities between Lloyd Webber's "The Music of the Night" and a recurring melody in Giacomo Puccini's 1910 opera, La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West), in 1987 the Puccini estate filed a lawsuit against Lloyd Webber, accusing him of plagiarism. The case was settled out of court, but details were not released to the public. The songwriter Ray Repp claimed in a court case that Lloyd Webber had stolen a melody from his own song "Till You", but the court ruled in Lloyd Webber's favour.

Personal life
Lloyd Webber has been married three times. He married first Sarah Hugill on 24 July 1971; they divorced on 14 November 1983. Together they had two children, a daughter and a son:
 * Imogen Lloyd Webber (born 31 March 1977)
 * Nicholas Lloyd Webber (2 July 1979 – 25 March 2023)

He then married English soprano Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical The Phantom of the Opera, among other notable roles. They divorced on 3 January 1990, but have remained close friends and have also continued to work together.

Thirdly, he married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on 9 February 1991. They have three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom were born in London:
 * Alastair Adam Lloyd Webber (born 3 May 1992)
 * William Richard Lloyd Webber (born 24 August 1993)
 * Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber (born 30 April 1996).

Lloyd Webber and his third wife Madeleine founded the Watership Down Stud in 1992. In 1996, they expanded their equestrian holdings by purchasing Kiltinan Castle Stud near Fethard in County Tipperary, Ireland. They were invited to ride in the King's procession at Royal Ascot 2023.

In a 1971 interview with The New York Times, Lloyd Webber said he is an agnostic. He also said he views Jesus as "one of the great figures of history".

He is a lifelong supporter of London-based football club Leyton Orient F.C., just like his younger brother Julian.

In late 2009, Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer, but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free. He had his prostate completely removed as a preventative measure.

In 2023, Lloyd Webber's son Nicholas died at the age of 43 after an 18-month battle with gastric cancer.

Lloyd Webber has a house in Eaton Square in Belgravia, London; in 2024 he revealed he had had his house blessed by a priest in an attempt to displace a "poltergeist" that was haunting the property.

Wealth
The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest person in Britain with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him 101st in 2008. The Sunday Times Rich List of 2019 saw him ranked the richest musician in the UK (overtaking Paul McCartney) with a fortune of £820 million ($1.074 billion). He lives at Sydmonton Court, Hampshire, and owns much of nearby Watership Down.

Lloyd Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian painting. An exhibition of works from his collection was presented at the Royal Academy in 2003 under the title Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. In 2006, Lloyd Webber planned to sell Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. In November 2006, he withdrew the painting from auction after a claim that the previous owner had been forced to sell it under duress in Nazi Germany. An out-of-court settlement was reached, where the foundation retained ownership rights. On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.

Charity
Lloyd Webber is involved in a number of charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child. In 1992, he started the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation which supports the arts, culture, and heritage of the UK.

In 2013, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Programme was launched to aid the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST), which aims to give every child at participating schools across the UK the opportunity to study a musical instrument as part of the curriculum. He told LBC: "What music does in these schools, isn't actually necessarily about trying to make the children musicians. But what it does, is it really helps them as people."

In 2014, Lloyd Webber designed a Cats-themed Paddington Bear statue, which was located in Chinatown, London (one of 50 placed around London), with the statues auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Politics
Lloyd Webber was made a life peer in 1997, sitting for the Conservative Party. By the end of 2015, he had voted only 33 times in the House of Lords. Politically, Lloyd Webber has supported the Conservatives, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated one million people before the 2005 general election. In August 2014, Lloyd Webber was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

In October 2015, Lloyd Webber was involved in a contentious House of Lords vote over proposed cuts to tax credits, voting with the Government in favour of the plan. Lloyd Webber was denounced by his critics because he flew in from abroad on his personal plane to vote, when his voting record was scant. In October 2017, Lloyd Webber retired from the House of Lords, stating that his busy schedule was incompatible with the demands of Parliament considering the upcoming crucial Brexit legislation.

In July 2021, he told Good Morning Britain that he would never vote for the Conservatives again, due to their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and poor treatment of the arts sector during that time.

Awards and honours
Lloyd Webber was knighted in the Queen's 1992 Birthday Honours for services to the arts. He was given a life peerage in the 1997 New Year Honours and created Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire, on 18 February 1997. He is properly styled "The Lord Lloyd-Webber"; the title is hyphenated, although his surname is not. He sat as a Conservative member of the House of Lords until his retirement from the House on 17 October 2017.

On St George's Day 2024, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG).

Theatre credits
Note: Music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber unless otherwise noted.

 * The Likes of Us (1965)
 * Lyrics by Tim Rice
 * Book by Leslie Thomas
 * Not produced until 2005
 * Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968)
 * Lyrics by Tim Rice
 * Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
 * Lyrics by Tim Rice
 * Jeeves (1975)
 * Book and lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn
 * Revised in 1996 as By Jeeves
 * Evita (1976)
 * Lyrics by Tim Rice
 * Tell Me on a Sunday (1979)
 * Lyrics by Don Black
 * Cats (1981)
 * Lyrics based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
 * Additional lyrics after Eliot by Richard Stilgoe and Trevor Nunn
 * Song and Dance (1982)
 * Lyrics by Don Black (revised by Richard Maltby Jr. for Broadway)
 * Combination of Variations (1978) and Tell Me on a Sunday (1979)
 * Starlight Express (1984)
 * Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe
 * Later revisions by Don Black and David Yazbek
 * Inspired by The Railway Series books by The Rev. W. Awdry.
 * Cricket (1986)
 * Lyrics by Tim Rice
 * First performed for Queen Elizabeth II's 60th birthday
 * The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
 * Lyrics by Charles Hart
 * Additional Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe
 * Book by Richard Stilgoe and Andrew Lloyd Webber
 * Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux
 * Aspects of Love (1989)
 * Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart
 * Book by Andrew Lloyd Webber
 * Based on the David Garnett novel
 * Sunset Boulevard (1993)
 * Book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black
 * Based on the Billy Wilder film (1950)
 * Whistle Down the Wind (1996)
 * Lyrics by Jim Steinman
 * Book by Patricia Knop, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Gale Edwards
 * The Beautiful Game (2000)
 * Book and lyrics by Ben Elton
 * Updated as The Boys in the Photograph (2009)
 * The Woman in White (2004)
 * Lyrics by David Zippel
 * Book by Charlotte Jones
 * Based on the Wilkie Collins novel
 * Based on elements of the short story The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens
 * Love Never Dies (2010)
 * Book & Lyrics by Glenn Slater
 * Book by Ben Elton & Frederick Forsyth
 * Additional lyrics by Charles Hart
 * The Wizard of Oz (2011)
 * Book by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Jeremy Sams
 * Music by Harold Arlen
 * Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
 * Additional music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
 * Additional lyrics by Tim Rice
 * Based on the 1939 motion picture The Wizard of Oz
 * Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
 * Stephen Ward (2013)
 * Book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black
 * School of Rock (2015)
 * Lyrics by Glenn Slater
 * Book by Julian Fellowes
 * Based on the 2003 film
 * Cinderella (2021)
 * Lyrics by David Zippel
 * Book by Emerald Fennell
 * Based on the classic story

Film adaptations
There have been a number of film adaptations of Lloyd Webber's musicals: Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), directed by Norman Jewison; Evita (1996), directed by Alan Parker; The Phantom of the Opera (2004), directed by Joel Schumacher and co-produced by Lloyd Webber; and Cats (2019), directed by Tom Hooper and executive produced by Lloyd Webber. Cats (1998), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999), Jesus Christ Superstar (2000) and By Jeeves (2001) have been adapted into made-for-television films that have been released on DVD and VHS and often air on BBC.

A special performance of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall for the 25th anniversary was broadcast live to cinemas in early October 2011 and later released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2012. The same was also done with a reworked version of Love Never Dies. Filmed in Melbourne, Australia, it received a limited cinema release in the US and Canada in 2012, to see if it would be viable to bring the show to Broadway.

Other works

 * Gumshoe (1971) - film score
 * The Odessa File (1974) – Film score.
 * Variations (1978) – A set of musical variations on Niccolò Paganini's Caprice in A minor that Lloyd Webber composed for his brother, cellist Julian. This album featured fifteen rock musicians including guitarist Gary Moore and pianist Rod Argent and reached number 2 in the UK album chart upon its release. It was later combined with Tell Me on a Sunday to form one show, Song and Dance. Lloyd Webber also used variation five as the basis for Unexpected Song in Song and Dance. The main theme is used as the theme music to The South Bank Show.
 * Requiem (1985) – A classical choral work composed in honour of his father, William.
 * Watership Down (1999) – Lloyd Webber and Mike Batt, main soundtrack composer of the animated series adaptation of Richard Adams' novel of the same name, composed the song "Fields of Sun". The actual song was never used on the show, nor was it available on the CD soundtrack that was released at the time. He was however still credited for the unused song in the show's opening titles.

Discography
Musicals and show recordings

 * The Likes of Us (1965)
 * Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968)
 * Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
 * Jeeves (1975)
 * Evita (1976)
 * Tell Me on a Sunday (1979)
 * Cats (1981)
 * Song and Dance (1982)
 * Starlight Express (1984)
 * The Phantom of the Opera (1986)
 * Aspects of Love (1989)
 * Sunset Boulevard (1993)
 * Whistle Down the Wind (1998)
 * The Beautiful Game (2000)
 * The Woman in White (2004)
 * Love Never Dies (2010)
 * The Wizard of Oz (2011)
 * Stephen Ward (2013)
 * School of Rock (2015)
 *  Cinderella (2021)
 * Bad Cinderella (2023)

Other albums
 * Variations (1978)
 * Variations with London Philharmonic Orchestra (1986)
 * Symphonic Suites (2021)

title: Andrew Lloyd Webber


text:
War (card game)

War (also known as Battle in the United Kingdom) is a simple card game, typically played by two players using a standard playing card deck — and often played by children. There are many variations, as well as related games such as the German 32-card Tod und Leben ("Death and Life").

Gameplay
The objective of the game is to win all of the cards.

The deck is divided evenly among the players, giving each a down stack. In unison, each player reveals the top card of their deck—this is a "battle"—and the player with the higher card takes both of the cards played and moves them to their stack. Aces are high, and suits are ignored.

If the two cards played are of equal value, then there is a "war". Both players place the next card from their pile face down and then another card face-up. The owner of the higher face-up card wins the war and adds all the cards on the table to the bottom of their deck. If the face-up cards are again equal then the battle repeats with another set of face-down/up cards. This repeats until one player's face-up card is higher than their opponent's.

Most descriptions of War are unclear about what happens if a player runs out of cards during a war. In some variants, that player immediately loses. In others, the player may play the last card in their deck as their face-up card for the remainder of the war or replay the game from the beginning. There also exists a variant where the player that possesses a larger amount of cards must provide the cards to fight the war.

War can also be played by multiple people. Each player in a three-player game receives 17 cards, while each person in a four-player game receives 13. Each player must simultaneously reveal their card, just like in the two-player version. If the highest cards played are tied, they will go to war. All players, including those who are not tied, will play one face-down card and the following face-up card. The person who has the highest card at the end of the war obtains all of the cards that have been played. When a player runs out of cards, they are eliminated and are no longer in the game. The game will continue until one player has collected all of the cards.

Game designer Greg Costikyan has observed that since there are no choices in the game, and all outcomes are random, it cannot be considered a game by some definitions. However, the rules often do not specify in which order the cards should be returned to the deck. If they are returned in a non-random order, the decision of putting one card before another after a victory can change the overall outcome of the game. The effects of such decisions are more visible with smaller size decks as it is easier for a player to card count; however, the decisions can still affect gameplay if taken in standard decks.

Variations
Being a widely known game, War has many variations. Recorded variants include:

 * Casino War: A simple variation played for money in casinos.
 * Three cards: Many play with three cards being played face-down during a war.
 * Prisoners of War: Usually played with more than 2 players. When a player wins a battle, they can choose to take one of the cards as "prisoner"; this must not be one of their own cards. If they do, they put the card face up in front of them, away from the discard pile and the deck. When another battle is started, a player may choose to not play a card from their deck, and instead of the "prisoner" card. (They cannot look at the card they would have drawn and then choose to play the prisoner.) If a player wins the battle, it works like a regular one. If they lose, however, they give the winner the card they played as well as the card they would have drawn if they chose not to play the "prisoner" card. If a war is initiated, it works the same way. If a player wins a war, they can also choose to "capture" one of the face-down cards.
 * Bettelmann ("Beggar Man") and Tod und Leben ("Life and Death"): German variants mentioned as early as 1833. Uses a 32-card Skat pack for 2 players with cards ranking in the natural order and suits being irrelevant, except that in Tod und Leben, one player plays with the red suits and the other with the black suits. Players get 16 cards each face down. They turn over their top cards at the same time and the higher card wins. If the cards are equal, players turn the next card and the winner takes all four cards. The player with the most cards at the end wins.
 * Automatic War: Laying down a two of any suit causes a War to be declared.
 * Peace: The opposite of War, in that the lowest card always wins.
 * Underdog: The losing player of a War steals the victory if one of their three discard cards is a Jack.

Literature

 * Gööck, Roland (1967). Freude am Kartenspiel, Bertelsmann, Gütersloh.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: War (card game)


text:
95 BC

Year 95 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crassus and Scaevola (or, less frequently, year 659 Ab urbe condita) and the Second Year of Taishi. The denomination 95 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Republic

 * Consuls: Lucius Licinius Crassus and Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex

Seleucid kingdom

 * Philip I Philadelphus and Antiochus XI Ephiphanes succeed as co-rulers after the deposition of Seleucus VI Epiphanes.

Ireland

 * "Forty metre structure" at Emain Macha (near modern Armagh, Northern Ireland) built and destroyed, presumably for ritual or ceremonial purposes.

Asia Minor

 * Tigranes the Great becomes king of Armenia

Births

 * Clodia, daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher
 * Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, Roman politician (d. 46 BC)

title: 95 BC


text:
Star Trek: Phase II

Star Trek: Phase II was the initial working title for what officially became titled Star Trek II, an unproduced American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as a sequel to (and continuation of) the original Star Trek, which had run from 1966 to 1969. The plans for the series were first developed after several failed attempts to create a feature film based on the property, coupled with plans for a Paramount Television Service (PTS) as a fourth broadcast television network in the United States.

Both PTS and the Star Trek revival were announced in early June 1977, with PTS to debut as one evening of programming each Saturday night and to gradually expand to other nights; a strategy successfully employed by the Fox Broadcasting Company a decade later. Star Trek: Phase II was to be the flagship show, and be broadcast at 8pm EST, followed by a movie of the week starting at 9pm. The initial order was for a two-hour pilot, followed by 13 hour-long episodes.

With the exception of Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, who had ongoing disputes with Roddenberry and Paramount, the entire regular and recurring cast of The Original Series were contracted to return, notably William Shatner as Captain Kirk. Three new and younger regular characters were created, science officer Lt. Xon, navigator Lt. Ilia, and ship's executive officer Willard Decker. Xon, Decker and Ilia were later influential in the development of characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and two of the scripts written for Phase II would be re-developed for use in that series.

Behind the cameras, Roddenberry recruited Trek-novices Harold Livingston and Robert Goodwin as producers. Veterans of The Original Series were few, and included costume designer William Ware Theiss and illustrator Mike Minor. Art director Matt Jefferies was otherwise employed and brought in as a "technical advisor" and to update the design of the starship USS Enterprise. Special effects (on set) were to be by Jim Rugg. Science fiction novelist Alan Dean Foster received the assignment to write the story outline for the two-hour pilot, but, with a looming production deadline and unable to find a suitable writer to develop this story into a teleplay, Harold Livingston took on the writing job himself. Of the remaining 12 script assignments handed out, about half were to veterans of The Original Series.

Pre-production began in earnest, with the emphasis on what would be the standing sets of the Enterprise, which differed radically in layout, design and detailing from those for The Original Series. Many costumes and props, too, were designed. Ultimately, Paramount's plans for its network and Star Trek 's TV return faltered, as the low anticipated advertising revenues for the Paramount Television Service indicated that it was not viable, and the Paramount Pictures parent company Gulf and Western's chairman, Charles Bluhdorn, refused to back the plan, resulting in the eventual exit of Paramount chief executive officer Barry Diller. In August 1977 Paramount president Michael Eisner announced—internally—that the two-hour pilot script was to be the long sought-after feature film story. However, In order to prevent negative publicity, the "cancellation" of the series and network was not immediately disclosed and development of the series and its scripts continued for a further five months, during which time tests were filmed on the incomplete Enterprise sets in widescreen format - a clear indication that whatever Star Trek would be, it would not be a TV movie.

On March 28, 1978, any illusions that Star Trek would be returning to television were ended when Paramount announced that instead of a series it would be producing what became the big budget film titled Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), which was itself a massive reworking of the "In Thy Image" two-hour pilot script.

Preproduction work on the series did not entirely go to waste. The standing Enterprise sets would be extensively reworked for the film (and its eventual sequels), and an unfinished admiral's office set's walls became part of the Enterprise cargo deck. However, the visual effects people hired for the feature film decided that the miniatures under construction were not up to the standards of a post-Star Wars feature, and all were scrapped. Director Robert Collins, who had been hired to direct the pilot, and promised he was to direct the feature, was replaced by Robert Wise.

The concept of a "Paramount Network" led by a flagship Star Trek series finally came to fruition in January 1995 when Paramount launched the United Paramount Network (UPN) and the Star Trek: Voyager series.

Background
Star Trek: The Original Series was cancelled in 1969, following three seasons on NBC. Afterward, it saw success in broadcast syndication, resulting in science fiction conventions being held for the fans of the show. Influenced by this success, Paramount Pictures soon sought to create a new film from the series. Series creator Gene Roddenberry told the Associated Press in March 1972 that NBC wanted a Star Trek television film as pilot for a new series. Barry Diller, the chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures between 1974 and 1984, later explained that Arthur Barron, the chief financial officer at the time, was pushing for renewing Star Trek as a low-budget film, and that any suggestions that Paramount's owner Charles Bluhdorn had some involvement were untrue.

In May 1975, Roddenberry signed a contract with Paramount for Star Trek: The God Thing, with a budget of $5 million. However, his contract was terminated in August of the same year after inviting several writers to pitch story ideas for the film. Paramount instead placed Jerry Isenberg in charge of the project as executive producer in July 1976. Chris Bryant and Allan Scott were hired to write a script, which they entitled Star Trek: Planet of the Titans. Bryant and Scott turned in their script on March 1, 1977, which was rejected by Paramount. The duo left the project, citing conflicts in the film's scope between Roddenberry and director Philip Kaufman. Shortly before the scheduled release of Star Wars on May 25, the Star Trek film was cancelled on May 9. Kaufman claimed that Paramount attributed this to the idea that science fiction fans would not go see two films released so close together.

Conception
The Paramount Television Service was announced on June 10, 1977. Seven days later, Roddenberry announced that Star Trek would be returning to television on the new service, saying that "Hopefully it will be even superior" to The Original Series and that casting would include "as many of the old faces as possible, as well as an infusion of new ones". At the time, The Original Series was being broadcast on 137 stations in the United States in syndication, and it was expected that the new television service would provide a single evening package that could be broadcast by these independent stations as well as Paramount's recently acquired Hughes Television Network. It was hoped that this station could become the fourth national network in the United States; Diller and his assistant Michael Eisner had hired Jeffrey Katzenberg to manage Star Trek into production, with a television film due to launch the new series at a cost of $3.2 million – which some claimed would have made it the most expensive television movie ever made to date.

Roddenberry said that the show would continue to cover modern themes in a science fiction way as had the first series, saying that these could include hijacking, nationalism, and radicalization of both individuals and groups. He also wanted to show 23rd-century Earth for the first time, and said that this had been the answer to Paramount executives asking him if there had been anything he wanted to do on The Original Series but could not. A further change was to be the number of female cast members, as NBC had a requirement of a maximum of one-third, and Roddenberry wanted to have them appear in authority positions.

Crew and production design
The expectation was that the two-hour pilot film would be broadcast in February 1978, with weekly episodes following, broadcast in an 8 pm EST timeslot on Saturday nights. Gary Nardino, who was placed in charge of the new network, said that "Star Trek was absolutely the lead horse of the new network. Because the advertisers recognized the strength of Star Trek in the syndicated market." Prior to commencing production on the new series, Roddenberry took a two-week vacation in order to rid himself of negative feelings about the way that production on the feature film had gone. He described his concerns saying that he did not want to "drag a corpse of anger, defeats and double-crossing behind me" onto the new show. Robert Goodwin was placed in charge of developing the feature films that would follow each week's episode of Star Trek, and the movie-length pilot as well. Roddenberry wanted to meet him, and despite Goodwin's lack of Star Trek background, he was convinced to be a producer on the series instead. Roddenberry described him as the "producer producer", in that Goodwin would deal with all the technical aspects of the production. For the screenwriting aspect of the production, Harold Livingston was recruited, who recalled that the technical/screenwriting split of the executive producer role was innovative for the time. Like Goodwin, Livingston had not previously worked on Star Trek, but had worked on Mission: Impossible, a different Desilu Productions television series.

Roddenberry was given complete creative control over the new television project by Paramount, which had promised him that it would be able to make the project a "first-class effort" with the budget to suit. Matt Jefferies, who had worked on The Original Series, was recruited as a technical advisor. He had designed the original USS Enterprise alongside Pato Guzman, but was unwilling to give up a position on the television series Little House on the Prairie for a 13-episode order on a new Star Trek series. Roddenberry was adamant that Jefferies was the right person to update the Enterprise, and agreed a position that the designer could advise the new show, but would have to choose between it and his main duties on Little House on the Prairie if the Star Trek work started to interfere. This occurred quite quickly, after Jefferies conducted design work on the new version of the Enterprise at a hotel in Tucson, Arizona, while on a location shoot for Little House on the Prairie, and could not attend meetings with Roddenberry and the producers in Los Angeles. He recommended Joseph R. Jennings as the main art director on the series; Jennings had worked for Jefferies during the second and third seasons of The Original Series. Jefferies' re-design of the Enterprise was based on the principle that the technology was updated over time, but the general silhouette remained the same. He highlighted that the engines would specifically be designed to be replaced, so the external design of them was completely changed. Brick Price Movie Miniatures was hired to produce the physical models of the vessel in two sizes, an 18 in version for long shots, and a larger 5 ft model built by Don Loos cast in moulds of fiberglass. Other models were built specifically for the pilot film included an open frame orbital drydock, tetrahedron shaped models for a space office complex and space taxi, and the golden head and neck of the impossibly long "Vejur" space entity.

Only a few former Star Trek crew members were recruited. Costume designer William Ware Theiss began working on new designs for the Starfleet uniforms, some based on his creations for The Original Series, others being a radical departure. Michael Minor—who had created set decorations and props for The Original Series ' third season—was brought in as a production illustrator, working with Lee Cole in the Art Department under Jennings.

Other creations that were updated included the phaser, which were built to the same design as in the previous series, but were built out of aluminium instead of the fiberglass resin props used before. The battery packs were detachable, and contained actual batteries that activated strobe lighting on the main body of the prop. Technical advisers were recruited, such as Marvin Minsky, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his wife Gloria Rudisch.

Set production was underway by the start of August, with stage 8 on the Paramount lot designated as the "planet set", while stage 9 was where the Enterprise sets were located. By August 9, the foundations of the bridge set was built, with a plaster mould used to produce fiberglass "skins" for the various prop consoles and walls.

By August 16, Livingston had held pitch meetings with more than 30 writers who were interested in scripting episodes of Phase II. Some of these, such as Theodore Sturgeon, David Gerrold and Norman Spinrad, had previously written episodes of The Original Series. Also pitching to write an episode was Star Trek actor Walter Koenig. In order to have the scripts delivered in an efficient manner, Roddenberry decided that he wanted all the scripts for the first batch of episodes completed prior to filming began on the pilot. He was confident that because of The Original Series, that the writers would not have difficulty in writing new scenes with already established characters. However, Livingston and the writers did not know how the new characters would relate to the original ones. Despite this, Roddenberry claimed at the time that the relationships between the characters would take time to be built over the course of several episodes, and that fan reaction to certain characters and events would define how frequently they would appear.

By September, it had become apparent that they needed to hire a story editor. Roddenberry's assistant, Jon Povill, had already been conducting these duties on a script entitled "The Child", and so Livingston suggested that Povill should be recruited in that role permanently. Roddenberry disagreed, but Livingston threatened to quit unless Povill was hired. Povill was subsequently recruited as story editor, but Livingston said that this action was the one that caused a breakdown in the relationship between Roddenberry and himself.

The two-hour pilot film was to be based on a story outline Roddenberry had written for the aborted series follow-up to his 1973 Genesis II TV movie. That story, titled "Robot's Return" featured a gigantic alien craft coming to Earth searching for its origin. Alan Dean Foster, who had previously adapted episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series in a series of short stories published in the Star Trek Logs series of books, was hired to adapt this story idea for Star Trek and in the process introduce the newly redesigned and refitted USS Enterprise and its crew, both old and new, as they confront a gigantic, aggressive, seemingly omnipotent alien intruder bound for Earth. With a looming production deadline and unable to find a suitable experienced TV writer to develop this story into a teleplay, Harold Livingston took on the writing job himself.

Cast
By August 1977, discussions had been held with the main cast from The Original Series, as well as some of the actors who had played recurring characters. While none had been signed at the time, Roddenberry expressed confidence that they could do so with the exception of Leonard Nimoy, who had stated that he would not return to television. However, Nimoy said separately that the first offer he received from Roddenberry for Phase II was only for the pilot and then guaranteed appearances in two out of every 11 episodes that followed, which he rejected. Nimoy and Roddenberry were not on good terms, following a legal suit launched by the actor against Paramount over merchandising rights featuring his likeness; Roddenberry had refused to support Nimoy in the case. There was also a problem with the return of William Shatner: owing to the pay he was to receive for the pilot and the first thirteen episodes, the studio wanted a contingency plan to replace him afterwards. Shatner was aware at the time that the plan was either to reduce his appearances after the initial episodes and reduce his ongoing fees, or—he believed—to kill off the character permanently if he refused the pay cut. Negotiations began with Shatner on June 10, but it was not until September 12 that his return was announced.

Each of the returning former cast members was signed to contracts stipulating that they would be paid for the pilot and the 13 episodes regardless of whether the series went into production. They were also given substantial pay increases over what they had received on The Original Series. For example, DeForest Kelley was paid $17,500 for the first four weeks, then $7,500 per episode for the rest of the first season. Regulars actors including James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Majel Barrett had on The Original Series only had contracts for a certain number of appearances or been freelance players paid a daily rate, but here all were under contract for the initial series order. Roddenberry had expressed interest in including Grace Lee Whitney but she was not contactable at the time.

The problems with Nimoy and Shatner necessitated the creation of two new characters. In Goodwin's first draft show bible, he included descriptions for a new "Ship's commander" character, and a "Young Vulcan". The latter character was specifically attributed as being a second-cousin of Spock, and also a half-human/half-Vulcan. He also added a new Yeoman character, but Roddenberry was concerned at the time about the character, writing to Livingston "Simply adding a 'flunky' female to the bridge may not satisfy our needs for gender equality." This discussion began the process that resulted in the creation of Ilia, a new female character who was not intended to replace one of the previous cast members. In charge of casting these new members of the crew was Robert Collins, who had been hired to direct the pilot. Xon would later be changed to a full-blooded Vulcan.

David Gautreaux was cast as Xon on September 26, after approaching the casting director himself, having no agent. He had heard about the part, as he was dating the employee of an agent at the time. The final audition for the role had eight actors, including Gautreaux, of various ages and sizes. Gautreaux later said that the one thing they all had in common was a slightly alien appearance. He was hired to a $15,000 fee for the pilot, a guaranteed payment for the 13 episodes whether or not they were filmed, and a six-year option on his contract. Despite this, he was required to return for a further audition within a couple of weeks. Majel Barrett was due to return as Christine Chapel, this time as a doctor, and the actress was concerned that the romantic chemistry she shared with Nimoy might not work with a younger actor. She instead wanted an older British actor to play the role. Gautreaux, now with an agent, secured a further $2,500 fee to return and audition again, since it would cause him to miss out on a guest appearance for the same fee on the television series Fantasy Island. He retained the part, saying that the other actor was "absolutely abominable". It was only after this further audition that he was told what few others knew at the time: that Phase II had already been cancelled, and they were instead going to make a feature film.

Following announcements of Gautreaux's Xon replacing Nimoy's Spock, Gautreaux began to receive threatening fan-mail suggesting that he was going to be poisoned or dosed with LSD. He began to prepare for the role by purchasing a television set and watching old episodes of Star Trek, in order to portray the most accurate Vulcan he could. He fasted over the course of ten days and grew his hair long. Gautreaux sought out potential coaches who had worked on The Original Series, and later highlighted the help provided by Jeff Corey who had appeared in "The Cloud Minders". Despite not being a Star Trek fan previously, he said he had begun looking forward to portraying Xon by that point.

On October 28, Persis Khambatta was hired to portray Ilia. She had been required to wear a bald cap for her screen test, although at this point the character also wore elaborate headgear in some footage. Roddenberry was insistent on this as a character attribute, but others such as Eisner hated the idea of a bald female character. His notes said that while a bald female character would be an interesting addition, it may prevent the audience from feeling at ease with Ilia and so the style may need to be given to a different character entirely. The auditions by this time were not held under the pretence that they were to play a part in a television series, but were openly talking about Star Trek becoming a feature film.

The casting for first officer Willard Decker had been delayed, both because of a slight delay in the production but also because the writers were no longer sure that the character was needed at all. This was despite auditions being conducted at the same time that Gautreaux was cast as Xon, during which, in his second audition with Barrett, he also read lines against ten actors competing for the role of Decker.

One further change to the cast was to have been the return of Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand. In 1977, having read the back cover of Susan Sackett's Letters to Star Trek book and discovering that one of the frequently asked questions sent into the production team was "Whatever happened to Grace Lee Whitney?", Whitney herself got in touch with Sackett and was invited along to meet with Roddenberry at his office in Paramount Studios. He was excited and happy to see her, and immediately offered to bring back the character for Phase II, describing the removal of Rand from The Original Series as his greatest mistake and blaming it on NBC executives. He said that "when Captain Kirk came back from having affairs with all these other women on all these other planets – he'd have to deal with [Rand]. What a great plot-thickener that would have been!".

Cancellation
A key premise of the "In Thy Image" story was to see Earth itself threatened for the first time in Star Trek. Producer Goodwin proposed that this story should be the two-hours pilot of the series at a meeting with Eisner on August 3. He would later recall that this specific meeting changed the direction of the franchise, as Eisner declared that Foster's story was the one that he had been looking for to make a feature, not a television, film. At the same time, Paramount had come to realize that the expected advertising revenues for the Paramount Television Service could not support a fourth network, and so there was no possibility of creating the series. By this point, costs for the series had already reached $500,000, and the studio was looking to recoup those expenses in some manner. The initial concept was to continue with the pilot, and then attempt to sell the series to NBC, CBS, or ABC. But the Paramount executives were concerned about losing control of a potential franchise, and by moving the pilot into a feature film, it gave them the ability to keep it in-house.

However, because of the number of times that a Star Trek film was announced in the 1970s, the Paramount executives decided that they could not lose face once more by making an announcement, only to potentially reverse the decision in several months time. Because of this, production continued on Phase II for a further five months after the decision was made that it would not go into production. By November, Livingston and Roddenberry were no longer working well together. They had each re-drafted "In Thy Image" themselves, and presented these versions to Eisner. The Paramount executive's response was that Roddenberry's version was suited for television, and Livingston's was better for a motion picture – and better overall. Collins was assigned to combine certain elements of Roddenberry's version into Livingston's and to complete that draft by the end of the month.

The first public announcement of the cancellation of the Paramount Television Service and Phase II came at the hands of the gossip columnist Rona Barrett at the start of December. In response, Paramount released a statement that said the new network had been pushed back to the fall of 1978, and that Phase II had its episode order increased from 13 to between 15 and 22. Despite this, behind the scenes, production continued on Star Trek as a film, not as a series. One of the changes around the same time as Barrett's reports was the realization that all the model work completed thus far had to be restarted from scratch, as it was not detailed enough to be blown up on a motion picture-sized screen. Two further changes took place in December: Collins was dropped as director, for Paramount wanted a motion picture director and not one with experience only in television; and Livingston allowed his contract to run out and left the production, owing to the poor relationship he had with Roddenberry. By January, Paramount no longer pretended that Star Trek was to be anything other than a feature film. Livingston was brought back, but only in a writing capacity, and Robert Wise was hired as director on the film to replace Collins.

Legacy
After production was underway on The Motion Picture, and Nimoy signed up for the film, Gautreaux requested that Xon be eliminated from the script entirely instead of being shown in a reduced capacity. Gautreaux would go on to portray Commander Branch in the film instead, in his only appearance in the franchise. At the time of the production on the film, the idea was to keep Xon in reserve for a future film or television series. Gautreaux was subsequently called in for an interview with Nimoy during the early work on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The pair started talking about the impact that Nimoy's return to Star Trek had made on Gautreaux, with the latter telling Nimoy that he had treated it as a play that had been cancelled on the first night of the performance, which had not made a major impact on his career.

The Phase II sets were located on stage 9 of the Paramount lot. The main layout and structures remained when those sets were overhauled to appear in The Motion Picture and various following films within the franchise. The sets were re-worked and converted prior to the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation to appear on television for the first time, and when Star Trek: Voyager aired, they were used once more. It was only with the start of Star Trek: Enterprise that the setup of the Star Trek sets at Paramount were completely changed and the Phase II foundations no longer remained.

The idea of a young male Vulcan scientist was once again proposed early in the work on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which was attributed by later reviewers to the influence of Xon from Phase II. The gender of this character was subsequently changed to female, and called Saavik. She was played by Kirstie Alley in that film, and later by Robin Curtis in The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Several minutes of test footage, including a view of the redesigned Engineering Room, costume tests with crew, screen test footage of Gautreaux as Xon and costume test footage of Khambatta as Ilia, were included in a featurette on the DVD release of the Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The presence of a second five-year mission, as would have been shown in Phase II, was included in the Star Trek timeline in the Star Trek Chronology book by Michael and Denise Okuda in 1993. This would have taken place after the events of The Motion Picture.

A book based on the production of the series, Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series was published in 1997 by Pocket Books. It was written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and went into detail about the conception of the planned and later aborted series, looking at several aspects of production, with behind-the-series information, color artwork, storyboards, blueprints, technical information and photos. It also contained two full scripts from the planned series.

James Cawley purchased the costumes that would have been used in Phase II, and later repurposed them for his fan series Star Trek: New Voyages. He felt that they represented the step between those seen in The Original Series and the uniforms in The Motion Picture. The series also made other references to Phase II, as Xon was added in the episode "Blood and Fire", which was based on an unused script for Star Trek: The Next Generation. In New Voyages, Xon was played by Patrick Bell. In February 2008, Cawley announced that New Voyages would be re-titled Phase II in reference to the abandoned 1970s series. The change was reverted following an announcement by Cawley on June 9, 2015.

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Phase II would prove influential on The Next Generation, whose creation began just over seven years later. The characters of Xon, Decker and Ilia were used as the basis for the creation of Data, William Riker and Deanna Troi. However, the series was allowed to be different in tone from the planned Phase II, for the feature films that had come before it had changed the audience expectations of what Star Trek was. It was originally proposed in Gerrold's The Worlds of Star Trek to have the second-in-command leading the away team, and it was anticipated that this would be included in Phase II – it was instead first introduced in The Next Generation.

Owing to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, work on the second season of The Next Generation was delayed. The producers sought scripts that could be put into production as quickly as possible once the strike was lifted, and so "The Child" from Phase II was picked as one that could be used in the new series with Ilia's place in the script swapped out in favor of Troi. A further Phase II script was adapted later in the series, when "Devil's Due" was converted for The Next Generation in the fourth season.

Certain elements of Klingon culture, such as the Emperor, and a general influence of Japanese culture with honor at the forefront, were first explored with the script for the two-part "Kitumba". Writer John Meredyth Lucas said that "I wanted something that we had never seen before on the series, and that's a penetration deep into enemy space. I started to think of how the Klingons lived. Obviously for the Romulans we had Romans, and we've had different cultures modeled on those of ancient Earth, but I tried to think of what the Klingon society would be like. The Japanese came to mind, so basically that's what it was, with the Sacred Emperor, the Warlord and so on." While the episode itself was later filmed for the fan production Star Trek: New Voyages, Star Trek first visited the Klingon homeworld in The Next Generation episode "Sins of the Father", and the themes would be revisited through the series.

Star Trek: Voyager
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens described Voyager as the "conceptual cousin" of Phase II, in that it was used to launch the United Paramount Network (UPN) in January 1995. This was the fifth network, as Diller had moved to the Fox Entertainment Group in the years between Phase II and Voyager, where he launched the fourth network, the Fox Broadcasting Company. They hypothesised that Phase II would have seen a similar decline in ratings as seen by Voyager during the course of the first season, except this decline would have resulted in the cancellation of Phase II at the time of first broadcast in 1970s. While they felt this would not have been the end of the franchise, they suggest it would have resulted in a more immediate reboot with the entire crew re-cast.

title: Star Trek: Phase II


text:
Sima Guang

Sima Guang (17 November 1019 – 11 October 1086), courtesy name Junshi, was a Chinese historian, politician, and writer. He was a high-ranking Song dynasty scholar-official who authored the Zizhi Tongjian, a monumental work of history. Sima was a political conservative, who opposed the reforms of Wang Anshi.

Early life and career
Sima Guang was named after Guang Prefecture, his birthplace, and where his father Sima Chi (司馬池) served as a county magistrate. The Sima family were originally from Xia County in Shǎn Prefecture, and claimed descent from the 3rd century Cao Wei official Sima Fu. A famous anecdote relates the young Sima Guang saving a playmate who had fallen into an enormous vat full of water. As other children scattered in panic, Sima calmly picked up a rock and smashed a hole in the base of the pot. Water leaked out, and his friend was saved.

At the age of 6, Sima heard a lecture concerning the Zuo Zhuan, a work of history dating to the 4th century BC. Fascinated, he was able to retell the stories to his family when he returned home. He became an avid reader, "to the point of not recognizing hunger, thirst, coldness or heat".

Sima obtained early success as a scholar and officer. When he was barely twenty, he passed the Imperial examination with the highest rank of, and spent the next several years in official positions.

Political ideology
Sima believed that civilization was created when the sage kings transformed humans from their original animal state using hierarchical order, property rights, moral instruction, and penal law. He believed that the problem with government was not in its structure, but rather in the people that ran it. He wrote multiple memorials detailing how to make the government more effective and argued that his views were in accord with history (in contrast with Wang Anshi's emphasis on the Classics) and Heaven-and-Earth. A static and well-maintained country would, according to him, last forever. Accordingly, he disliked commercial growth (which he believed encouraged social change) and preferred a recommendation-based imperial examination system.

Rulers were supposed to only determine official assignments, reward achievement, punish failure, care about their servants, have good morals, and be immune to outside influence. On a wider level, a society with clear inferior-superior roles would be stable. His deeply anti-change perspective made him a political conservative (in contrast with Wang Anshi's reformism). For Sima, to be ethical was to accept one's social status, and personal cultivation meant exercising restraint; indeed Sima interpreted the "investigation of things", a fundamental tenet of the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-confucianism, as "restraining things". He also agreed with Xunzi's postulation that humans were inherently evil and wrote a work called "Doubting Mencius" that criticized Mencius' encouraging of the overthrow of hierarchy.

Under Emperor Renzong
After the failure of the Qingli Reforms under an unenthusiastic Emperor Renzong, the future reformist Wang Anshi submitted a 10,000-word memorial in 1058 detailing a system of comprehensive reform. Sima Guang did the same thing in 1061, but his proposals were more conservative.

Under Emperor Yingzong
In 1064, Sima, then just a policy critic, raised the issue between performing rituals for Zhao Yurang, Emperor Yingzong's biological father, and Emperor Renzong. This issue would dominate Yingzong's reign and cause political gridlock. Sima himself believed that priority should be given to Renzong since he was the emperor's ritual father. Yingzong overruled this belief and, partly due to personal affection for his biological father, gave Zhao Yurang high ritual honors in 1066. In the same year, Sima sponsored Su Zhe for a special decree examination.

Under Emperor Shenzong
Emperor Shenzong promoted Sima to chief censor in late 1067. He opposed Shenzong's irridentism and favored a defensive stance towards the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Western Xia, and Liao dynasty. Sima hoped that the "barbarians" would commend the Song dynasty's good government. Since the end of the Qingli Reforms in 1045 did not end the Song dynasty's problems, factions developed around how to solve these issues. Conservatives like Sima Guang advocated for a smaller government budget and gradual reform. As such, Sima opposed the New Policies of Wang Anshi, which increased government authority and spending. Sima argued that more state revenue would mean less money for farmers and that the government was immoral for competing with merchants. Somewhat counterintuitively, he emphasized the unifying role of the emperor more than the reformists; he wanted the emperor to manage the bureaucracy and control officials with rewards and punishments, while the reformists wanted to implement new policies for new problems. In response to Emperor Shenzong of Song appointing him as head of the new Office of Expenditure Reduction, Sima released a scathing report that criticized the oversized bureaucracy, imperial extravagance, and an inefficient army and which called for imperial discussion rather than offering specific solutions. Shenzong quickly dissolved the office but continued to accept Sima's counsel.

By 1070, Sima was part of the Hanlin Academy, the Bureau of Military Affairs, and the Council of State. Frustrated with Wang Anshi's dominance over court and despite Shenzong's urging for him to stay, Sima retired to Luoyang in 1071, which would become the center of the conservative opposition. This made Wang largely unopposed in government. Sima was disturbed by the New Policy's control over the dynasty's people and resources.

Sima had multiple objections to the New Policies. He believed that:
 * 1) The economy was a zero-sum game, so any increase in state revenue naturally meant taking away from the commoners.
 * 2) Wealth gaps were beneficial to both the rich and the poor due to the stability that such inequalities provided.
 * 3) The economy functioned best with minimal governmental intervention.
 * 4) Money was not distributed evenly across the empire, so peasants would struggle to pay cash fees for the New Policies.

Retirement
Sima retired in Luoyang from 1071 to 1085. While there, he wrote the Zizhi Tongjian and cultivated friendships with Shao Yong, Cheng Yi, and Cheng Hao. Massive famines and droughts fueled resentment towards Wang Anshi and garnered support for Sima, contributing to the conservative restoration of 1085. However, Sima was not restored to power following the unpopular Wang's retirement in 1076 since Shenzong took personal control over the New Policies. Cai Que, a semi-reformist leader, blocked Sima's re-appointment to power despite the failure of the war against the Western Xia. Cai nonetheless ingratiated him to the influential Sima by appointing Sima's disciple, Xing Shu, as a scholar.

Under Emperor Zhezong
For 40 years following the death of Shenzong, the reformist and conservative factions alternated control over the Song government. Both factions engaged in "ethical factionalism" as they engaged in ruthless purges against each other. An attempted coup by the reformist faction (including Cai Que, Zhang Dun, Xing Shu, and Cai Jing) intended to dethrone Emperor Zhezong failed and aggravated the conservative faction. Sima was an old and tired man in Luoyang and was reluctant to return to the capital, but Cheng Hao convinced him to do so. When Sima arrived in Kaifeng, a large crowd swarmed to touch his horse, and palace guardsmen saluted him as "Prime Minister Sima". He encouraged people to openly express their grievances about the New Policies.

Sima was soon made chief councilor by Empress Dowager Gao, the regent for Emperor Zhezong and herself a staunch conservative. He and other recalled conservatives like Su Shi, Su Che, Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, Wang Yansou, Fan Chunren, Wen Yanbo, and Lü Gongzhu formed the Yuanyou faction, named after the current era. Sima made ad hominem denunciations against Wang Anshi, saying: "[Wang] was self-satisfied and self-righteous, and considered himself to be unparalleled by figures past and present." Sima also blamed the Song dynasty's defeat at Yongle City during the war with the Western Xia on poor, glory-oriented leadership, while presenting himself as the "savior of the dynasty". As the conservative leader, he headed his coalition to demote reformist leaders to lowly prefectural-level posts (while promoting conservatives into high positions and, one by one, abolished many of the New Policies. He also wanted to combine the Secretariat and the Chancellery, arguing that the latter was redundant: "[The Chancellery] serves no purpose except to double the number of clerks and multiply paperwork." The two departments would be combined in 1129. Cai Que and Zhang Dun would lead the reformist opposition against the conservative restoration.

Abolishing the Baojia system
The compulsory Baojia village defense system trained and enrolled nearly 7 million men across the dynasty. Sima criticized the system's detracting from agricultural productivity and its potential for creating bandits. Wang Yansou criticized the unnecessary brutality of the system In mid-1085, an imperial edict abolished the system in the capital and its surrounding areas, with more restrictions imposed on this system in the following months. Reformist opposition to the system's abolition was weak and primarily logistical rather than ideological. Zhang Dun's call for moderate abolition was reasonable considering the shock that followed the rapid abolishment of the Baojia system.

Abolishing the equal tax law and market exchange law
The equal tax law was a system of land evaluation and taxation that was probably the most successful of the New Policies. The law was removed with little opposition in late 1085.

The market exchange law established government monopolies that were intended to buy cheap products and sell dear products. However, the established agencies cornered the market in staple goods and became focused on generating revenue. Throughout 1085, executive orders forgave debt owed to the agencies and abolished loan bureaus before abolishing the law altogether. This signaled the turning point for the reformist-conservative conflict.

Abolishing the labor recruitment law and the fall of Cai Que and Zhang Dun
The labor recruitment law replaced corvée labor with professional laborers funded by service exemption fees paid by the richest rural households. Similar to the market exchange law, this law primarily became a method for revenue extraction. Sima argued that the law was simply another tax imposed on the commoners. Cai Que's refusal to remove the labor recruitment law led to his character assassination by the conservatives Liu Chi and Su Che; this pushed him to resign as chancellor of the right and he was reappointed as the administrator of Chenzhou. Zhang Dun continued to resist and pointed out Sima's hypocrisy regarding the law: in early 1086, Sima said that rich households were harmed by the law, while just 14 days later he said that rich households benefitted from their preferential treatment under the law. Zhang also criticized Sima's demand to abolish the law country-wide in a mere 5 days. Indeed, Sima was impressed when Cai Jing, the mayor of Kaifeng, was the only one who abolished the law in under 5 days. 21 days after Cai Que resigned, Zhang Dun was demoted to a prefectural-level post after offending Empress Gao during a debate. In spring 1086, Wang Anshi died. The conservative restoration was complete.

Nonetheless, the debate over how to remove the labor recruitment law revealed cracks in the conservative coalition. For example, Su Che (and many other conservatives who were typically closely aligned with Sima) argued that "an entire system could not be abolished overnight without serious repercussions" and that a framework for the replacement system should be formulated first. Su Shi, Su Che's older brother, formed a third faction and proposed that the funds from the labor recruitment law should be used to buy up public lands to grant to volunteer laborers in addition to their wages. Sima did not accept dissent from either group.

Abolishing the green sprouts law and peace with the Western Xia
The green sprouts law was intended to give low-interest loans to farmers but, like many of the aforementioned policies, became a method of revenue extraction. Conservative opposition to this policy was unified and Fan Chunren, the son of Fan Zhongyan, was the only dissenter. His argument that the law could boost the dynasty's base revenue annoyed Sima Guang and he was only saved by Wang Yansou's intervention. This incident revealed the deepening divisions within Sima's coalition that would exacerbate after his death.

Following the protracted, expensive, and ultimately disappointing war against the Western Xia, the conservatives wanted to appease the Western Xia for peace. The concession of Lanzhou to the Xia was highly controversial and, along with 4 fortresses that were ostensibly ceded to Xia, remained a source of border tension for the following decades. The official truce was signed in 1089 and was broken by a 1096 invasion by the restored Zhang Dun.

Historical work
Sima Guang is best remembered for his masterwork, Zizhi Tongjian, and the Australian sinologist Rafe de Crespigny describes him as "perhaps the greatest of all Chinese historians".

In 1064, Sima presented to Emperor Yingzong of Song the five-volume ("Chart of Successive Years"). It chronologically summarized events in Chinese history from 403 BCE to 959 CE and served as a prospectus for sponsorship of his ambitious project in historiography. These dates were chosen because 403 BCE was the beginning of the Warring States period, when the ancient State of Jin was subdivided, which eventually led to the establishment of the Qin dynasty—959 CE was the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the beginning of the Song dynasty.

In 1066, he presented a more detailed eight-volume, which chronicled Chinese history from 403 BCE to 207 BCE (the end of the Qin dynasty). The emperor issued an edict for the compilation of a groundbreaking universal history of China, granting full access to imperial libraries, and allocating funds for the costs of compilation, including research assistance by experienced historians such as Liu Ban (劉攽, 1022–88), Liu Shu (劉恕, 1032–78), and Fan Zuyu (范祖禹, 1041–98). After Yingzong died in 1067, Sima was invited to the palace to introduce his work-in-progress to Emperor Shenzong of Song. The new emperor not only confirmed the interest his father had shown, but showed his favor by bestowing an imperial preface in which he changed the title from Tongzhi ("Comprehensive Records") to Zizhi Tongjian ("Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government"). Scholars interpret the "Mirror" of the title to denote a work of reference and guidance, indicating that Shenzong accepted Sima as his guide in the study of history and its application to government. The emperor maintained his support for the compilation of this comprehensive history until its completion in 1084.

From the late 1060s, Sima came to assume a role as leader of what has been identified as a conservative faction at court, resolutely opposed to the New Policies of Chancellor Wang Anshi. Sima presented increasingly critical memorials to the throne until 1070, when he refused further appointment and withdrew from court. In 1071, he took up residence in Luoyang, where he remained with an official sinecure, providing sufficient time and resources to continue the compilation of Zizhi Tongjian. Though the historian and the emperor continued to disagree on policies, Sima's enforced retirement proved essential for him to complete his chronological history over the following one and a half decades. Contemporary accounts relate that, in order to work more and sleep less when he was writing his great opus, the Zizhi Tongjian, he had a wooden pillow made from a log that was designed to slip from under his head whenever he rolled over. He called this Jingzhen 警枕 (Alert Pillow), and used it throughout the period of Zizhi Tongjian's compilation.

Historiography
Sima rejected the roles of the dynastic cycle and Five Phases in legitimizing dynastic succession. For Sima, dynastic succession was instead a result of power struggles; dynasties rose and fell according to consistent factors. He believed that history was a "mirror" for the present and could provide the government with historical context for their current situation. Literati could thus use history as an aid to governance. His histories are structured in a way that promotes these theories.

Sima and the other Yuanyou faction conservatives (except for Su Shi, who had an unorthodox interpretation of the Tao) would be positively associated with Neo-confucianism. Liu Anshi, an important Neoconfucian, was Sima's disciple.

Death

Emperor Shenzong died in 1085, shortly after Sima had submitted Zizhi Tongjian to the throne. Sima was recalled to court and appointed to lead the government under Emperor Zhezong of Song. He used this time in power to repeal many of the New Policies, but he died the following year, in 1086. His death fractured the conservative coalition, which split into the Shuo (Hebei) faction, the Luo (Henan) faction, and the Shu (Sichuan) faction. This ushered in a period of political gridlock from 1086 to 1093.

Achievements
As well as his achievements as a statesman and historian, Sima Guang was also a lexicographer (who perhaps edited the Jiyun), and spent decades compiling his 1066 Leipian ("Classified Chapters", cf. the Yupian) dictionary. It was based on the Shuowen Jiezi, and included 31,319 Chinese characters, many of which were coined in the Song and Tang dynasty. His Family Precepts of Sima Guang (司馬溫公家訓) is also widely known and studied in China and Japan.

title: Sima Guang


text:
RP (complexity)

In computational complexity theory, randomized polynomial time (RP) is the complexity class of problems for which a probabilistic Turing machine exists with these properties:

 * It always runs in polynomial time in the input size
 * If the correct answer is NO, it always returns NO
 * If the correct answer is YES, then it returns YES with probability at least 1/2 (otherwise, it returns NO).

In other words, the algorithm is allowed to flip a truly random coin while it is running. The only case in which the algorithm can return YES is if the actual answer is YES; therefore if the algorithm terminates and produces YES, then the correct answer is definitely YES; however, the algorithm can terminate with NO regardless of the actual answer. That is, if the algorithm returns NO, it might be wrong.

Some authors call this class R, although this name is more commonly used for the class of recursive languages.

If the correct answer is YES and the algorithm is run n times with the result of each run statistically independent of the others, then it will return YES at least once with probability at least $1 − 2^{−n}$. So if the algorithm is run 100 times, then the chance of it giving the wrong answer every time is lower than the chance that cosmic rays corrupted the memory of the computer running the algorithm. In this sense, if a source of random numbers is available, most algorithms in RP are highly practical.

The fraction 1/2 in the definition is arbitrary. The set RP will contain exactly the same problems, even if the 1/2 is replaced by any constant nonzero probability less than 1; here constant means independent of the input to the algorithm.

Formal definition
A language L is in RP if and only if there exists a probabilistic Turing machine M, such that
 * M runs for polynomial time on all inputs
 * For all x in L, M outputs 1 with probability greater than or equal to 1/2
 * For all x not in L, M outputs 0

Alternatively, RP can be defined using only deterministic Turing machines. A language L is in RP if and only if there exists a polynomial p and deterministic Turing machine M, such that In this definition, the string y corresponds to the output of the random coin flips that the probabilistic Turing machine would have made. For some applications this definition is preferable since it does not mention probabilistic Turing machines.
 * M runs for polynomial time p on all inputs
 * For all x in L, the fraction of strings y of length p(|x|) which satisfy $M(x,y) = 1$ is greater than or equal to 1/2
 * For all x not in L, and all strings y of length p(|x|), $M(x,y) = 0$

Related complexity classes
The definition of RP says that a YES-answer is always right and that a NO-answer might be wrong, as a YES-instance can return a NO-answer. The complexity class co-RP is the complement, where a YES-answer might be wrong while a NO-answer is always right.

The class BPP describes algorithms that can give incorrect answers on both YES and NO instances, and thus contains both RP and co-RP. The intersection of the sets RP and co-RP is called ZPP. Just as RP may be called R, some authors use the name co-R rather than co-RP.

Connection to P and NP
P is a subset of RP, which is a subset of NP. Similarly, P is a subset of co-RP which is a subset of co-NP. It is not known whether these inclusions are strict. However, if the commonly believed conjecture P = BPP is true, then RP, co-RP, and P collapse (are all equal). Assuming in addition that P ≠ NP, this then implies that RP is strictly contained in NP. It is not known whether RP = co-RP, or whether RP is a subset of the intersection of NP and co-NP, though this would be implied by P = BPP.

A natural example of a problem in co-RP currently not known to be in P is Polynomial Identity Testing, the problem of deciding whether a given multivariate arithmetic expression over the integers is the zero-polynomial. For instance, x·x − y·y − (x + y)·(x − y) is the zero-polynomial while x·x + y·y is not.

An alternative characterization of RP that is sometimes easier to use is the set of problems recognizable by nondeterministic Turing machines where the machine accepts if and only if at least some constant fraction of the computation paths, independent of the input size, accept. NP on the other hand, needs only one accepting path, which could constitute an exponentially small fraction of the paths. This characterization makes the fact that RP is a subset of NP obvious.

title: RP (complexity)