[Warning: Since Katie talks about what we can expect in the next couple of weeks, we've also included a couple upcoming episode photos.]

House has redefined the traditional medical drama by adding more mystery and the fact that we don't see a leading doctor character roaming the halls of a hospital in a white coat yelling "Stat" every few seconds. When House executive producer Katie Jacobs was first given the opportunity to bring a non-traditional medical drama to the TV airwaves, gone were the white coats in favor of Hugh Laurie and his now trademark cane.

Now in its fifth season, House is admitting even more TV patients into its weekly waiting room with room to spare for new viewers. And while we'll be watching Foreman take on a case of his own on November 18 in the episode "Emancipation", the following week on November 25 we'll be seeing House, Cuddy, Thirteen and a few patients get taken hostage when a man forces his way into Cuddy's office in "Last Resort".

With House still going strong without the aid of network medical attention, we caught up with executive producer Katie Jacobs on a conference call to talk about the past, present, and the future of House's "Last Resort".

THE DEADBOLT: What was the decision behind using the "walk and talk" technique of filming on the show?

KATIE JACOBS: First of all, I’m phenomenally grateful for the fact that Hugh Laurie stands at six foot two and is taller than everybody else, because it certainly makes those walk and talks pop in a way. It’s funny because one of the very first things, before the idea of the show House came about, my partner, Paul Attanasio, and I were meeting with the different heads of networks seeing what they wanted and Gail Berman at the time was at this network and she said, "I want a medical show but I don’t want to see white coats going down the hallway." And that was one of the many seeds that contributed to the idea of House. But I just think that when you put a scene on the move it’s a different way of creating an urgency and an intensity and I think that Hugh is so... mesmerizing. I mean, here he is with a cane and a limp and yet he’s able to lead the charge. It was never a conscious decision, it was more of just a creative ode that seemed like the right decision.

THE DEADBOLT: Since most of his cases involve weird or strange medical conditions, how do you guys pick and choose which ones to use from all of the research you do?

JACOBS: That’s also a good question. Unfortunately, there are so many cases to choose from. A surprising number of times when something is wrong with you and you go into the hospital, they don’t know what is wrong. And the way that they find out, the only option that they have is kind of this high stakes trial and error where they start to treat and see if you respond to that treatment and it eliminates certain possibilities and puts in other possibilities. So very few, if any, doctors take it to the extent that Dr. House takes it to. But the sort of way of thinking about "how do you figure out what’s wrong with someone?" is all around us, unfortunately.

THE DEADBOLT: But are there cases where you say, "Oh, we have to do this one. That one can wait for later." Is that how you decide on which ones to do?

JACOBS: You know, I don’t think so, because then you have to put in the twists and turns to getting the diagnosis - I suppose, occasionally, all of our writers bring their individual medical mystery ideas to the table. They all are responsible to come up with those medical mysteries and then bring them to us. So maybe I’m not the best person to answer that. [laughs]

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Katie Jacobs on following the fan response online:

"I will say that I used to, because I care. But I stopped because I found that - this could just be my own personal short comings - but it felt to me like it wasn’t a productive part of the process for me. No matter how I tried to recognize what the issues that were important to them were, it didn’t feel like I was doing a satisfactory job. So I have retreated [laughs]. I care immensely about the fans. I think we have the most amazing fans. I don’t mind the controversy or the arguing between them. But at the same time I think you can kind of lose yourself in trying to make too many people happy all at the same time."

Jacobs on the storyline of Thirteen:

"She’s kind of at a spirally place, kind of lost all hope and feels like - She’s been diagnosed with Huntington’s and we know that to be a terminal illness and she watched her mother die from Huntington’s. She’s kind of given up and it’s one of the stories that’s in "Last Resort". The hostage taker, played by Zeljko Ivanek, decides that every drug House is going to try on him to see what is wrong with him, he’s going to make somebody else take it first. And that person has to take all of the drugs to see how they interact together and Thirteen, as part of her spiral, volunteers for this. She thinks there’s no better candidate, since she’s sick anyway, to take all of these drugs. But by the end of the hostage episode she’s going to come to a very interesting, different place than we’ve seen her before having gone to sort of the very edge in this episode. So we are going to deal with it and it continues on, her Huntington’s and how her new point of view or new ideas of how she wants to deal with it. That’s a storyline we will carry on into the new year."

On whether the hostage episode was based on a real life event:

"Yeah. In fact I talked to several S.W.A.T. guys and one had a really interesting story about how the hostage taker was moving through the hospital, or actually moving outside the hospital, from one area to another, and they were all poised to get him. And when he came out, he and the hostages that were surrounding him all had on surgical scrubs and masks. So they couldn’t figure out who the hostage taker was and who the victims were. So, yeah, we researched this."

Katie Jacobs on House and Cuddy’s unorthodox relationship:

"It’s funny because I think you’re right to say unorthodox and at the same time I think it’s probably more real than any other love relationship on TV, in so far as relationships are complicated. House and Cuddy work together, there’s obvious chemistry, there’s obvious respect, but there are barbs and there’s jousting. It is unorthodox, and at the very same time I think incredibly real."

Jacobs on whether it’s a challenge trying to give each character proper screen time:

"It is a challenge. I mean, it’s something we really wanted to do for our own... We wanted to expand for our own stories and broaden out and do things a little different just to keep it fresh for ourselves. But absolutely, you’re right, it’s hard and yet I always find it satisfying when were able to do it, because what I love about what David Shore created is every character, I feel, has their specific point of view on the sort of topic of conversation we're exploring that week. So I think it’s hard to do but very satisfying when we get to hear the different voices and different opinions. Kutner, Taub, Cameron, Chase, they all have different slants. I mean, the hostage episode that’s coming up sort of reveals that, how they all feel about what House is doing inside while trying to get the gun away from the guy and treating the guy."