cFans of ABC’s Lost (Losties, as those fucks at Creation Entertainment call them) are a singularly obsessive lot. These are people who scour episodes a frame at a time for clues, who rigorously research every element of the show from the home port of mysterious pirate ship The Black Rock to tracking down the island’s very GPS coordinates.

Normally something like the announcement of the titles of the first three episodes of the new season wouldn’t be newsworthy, but you just know that the Losties will be able to dissect these titles and come up with some serious theories as to the first few hours of season 2.

The latest edition of the Oceanic Air In-Flight Magazine (aka the Lost hype email) has hit mailboxes, and this is the info it contains:

Greeting from the writers’ room of Lost!

Even though production has only just begun on the sandy shores of O’ahu (as well as the lush jungles of O’ahu, and the mysterious soundstages of O’ahu), the writers’ room has been working overtime for several months to turn the overarching visions of the show’s creators into episodic teleplays.

The writers’ room is one of the main hubs of creative activity on Lost. To anyone on the outside it probably looks like an ordinary conference room, albeit one festooned with white boards and memorabilia.

One wall, for example is decorated with head shots of the cast. Another features the "Lost Survivors Count" where we keep a running track of the characters who have died on the series. Others are decorated with maps and posters of islands and beaches to keep us in the tropical mood (not a lot of white sand and clear water in sunny downtown Burbank — but then again, not a lot of invisible monsters either).

But the nexus of the writers’ room are the four massive white boards that span the length of the space. On these boards, we plot out not only the broad strokes of the entire year, but also the individual episodes, down to acts, scenes and beats, in an exhaustive process designed to bring the best out of every idea.

Several scripts have already been completed and are in the pre-production process, with many more in the pipeline. To give you a taste, here is an exclusive glance at the titles and writers of our first three episodes:

Episode One:
"Man of Science, Man of Faith" written by Damon Lindelof

Episode Two:
"Adrift" written by Steven Maeda & Leonard Dick

Episode Three:
"Orientation" written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Craig Wright

– and this is only the beginning!

Thanks for getting Lost with us!

What does it all mean? Well, I will tell you that the first episode is written by the series co-creator, and that the title seems to allude to what I think is going to become this year’s overarching theme – the conflict between Locke and Jack. But who knows?

Meanwhile, Hercules at Aint It Cool News got his grubby gimp hands on the Lost season 1 DVD box set. It looks pretty great, and he gives a rundown of the very comprehensive special features. Check it out.