'Lost' producers: Time travel will rock Season 5

TCA -- "Lost" is about to get very, very interesting ... and very, very complicated. After critics watched the first three episodes of the upcoming fifth season, executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse answered some fairly general questions about the story to come. 

If you want to know nothing about Season 5 -- stop reading now.

As has been heavily suggested in past seasons, the story of "Lost" is all about time travel. Instead of mental flash-forwards and flashbacks, in season five characters will actually move through time (and not just in recent years, either).

Asked if such a move is "fraught with peril" for disturbing the show's plot or continuity, the executive producers say....

Cuse: "It's a veritable mine field to do time travel but it’s also incredibly exciting... we didn’t want to have season five be a stall... as we always have on 'Lost' we're going to take some risks and take some chances... and if we make some missteps that’s okay... there's a greater degree of difficulty in that... we’ve tried very hard to resolve a lot of those [past season] conundrums that you refer to ...Once we committed to doing time travel there was only a certain amount of distance between that and where the story will end."

Lindelof: "I think we've become fairly masochistic in our writing. You say 'fraught with peril' like it's a bad thing... we sit around the writers room and say, 'Is it fraught with peril? Let's do it.'... The show has been a time travel show for the past four years, we’ve just making it more apparent now."

On the infamous glimpse of the island's four-toed statue:

Cuse: "The idea [was] to say the history of the island was a long one, and that people had been on the island for a long time... and this season, as we’re skipping through time, hopefully they’ll see that."

On Sawyer playing a key role this season:

Cuse:: "Sawyer has a lot to do this year. For those who are not fans of time travel, we have his shirt off in the season premiere."

Lindelof: "Sawyer is also not a fan of time travel. You will find him constantly bemoaning it."

On season three resulting in producers lobbying ABC to set an end date:

Lindelof: "We all knew [the show] was treading into an area of complete and utter suckiness... it simply couldn’t go on the way that it was... we didn’t know how to continue doing the show anymore."

Lindelof also gave an example of "stall" episodes, such as "Jack flying a kite."

On the chances of Claire and Jin appearing in future episodes:

Cuse: "Claire is not a series regular, but you will see her this season... you will see more of her in season six... Jin, we will definitely be seeing Jin stories... since we’ll be telling stories from past, present and future."

On the challenge of building an audience despite the show becoming increasingly complicated:

Cuse: "If the first episode of 'Lost' you ever see is the premiere of season five, you probably wouldn't understand the majority of it, but hopefully it will be engaging and cool." Lindelof cited the Harry Potter novels, how J.K. Rowling was able to keep growing her audience throughout the series, and that "Lost" does find some new fans via DVD.

On Nestor Carbonell's (playing Richard Alpert) seemingly heavy use of eyeliner: "We've had the same note ... but he is completely 100% sans makeup ... just watch him on smaller screen I guess."