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July 25, 2005

Medium

I’m sitting in my office, alone, when suddenly… a strange feeling comes over me… I feel the spirit of another life force overtaking me… my eyes roll back into my head, and my eyelids start to flutter… my body starts to shake and then…

Suddenly something is forcing my hands to type these words… I feel compelled to answer some questions posed by fans on Gateworld.net! Information courses through me… How do I know these answers? It’s as if I am speaking the mind of the Executive Producers!

So here’s some information you might want to know about Avalon Pt. 1, Avalon Pt. 2, and Origin. Actually, Robert Cooper wanted you uber-fans to know this stuff. And then later in the week I’m going to talk about Jason Momoa’s character on Atlantis – his big introductory episode, Runner, premieres on Friday.

As you’ve no doubt become aware, Avalon Pt.’s 1 & 2, and Origin is a three – count ‘em – three-parter. Very unusual, very serial. But! It was not originally intended to be so. It was intended to be a two-parter. So that might explain to you why the structure is so avant-garde, so new-age, so… 21st century. The original show-break, or half-way point, or cliffhanger, was when Vala and Daniel go to another galaxy and meet the worshippers of the Ori. But there was so much material and story, and Cooper was so white-knuckled about all of his witty character moments (the new SG-1 member interviews, the flashbacks in the hospital) all of which were well-liked by all of the writer/producers, that they decided to make it a three-parter, which is what we ended up with… so the unusual structure is because of that.

Also, there was originally a more interesting and involved role for Teal’c in the story. The way Avalon was originally written, the book discovered in the treasure cavern in Avalon was supposed to indicate the existence of an Ancient communication device which was to be found by Teal’c on Dakara. In order to get his hands on it, Teal’c was going to have to cede power over the high council to Gerak. Teal’c, like everybody else, would see the importance of the Ancient communication device that would lead SG-1 to the Gatebuilders (the Ancients or, as referred to in Avalon, the “Alterans”), even at the expense of the democratic future of the Jaffa. This subplot, however, had to be cut because of time, and the Ancient communication device was therefore found in the treasure cavern with the book in Avalon Pt. 2.

Another fan also mentioned that the number-puzzle that Mitchell solves in the caverns in Avalon uses Arabic numbers. We actually shot a Daniel scene which explained the connection to the use of Arabic numbers. But, again, that scene had to be cut for time.

Lastly, the Daniel/Vala puzzle may have seemed simplistic and a 50/50 chance (pick the pot with the coin in it) but in actually, the important part of the test was “truth of spirit” – to see whether anyone would steal the coin, which Vala, of course, did. Gotta love those second chances…

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at July 25, 2005 10:50 PM