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July 25, 2006

Crossing over and stepping on…

Well… I’m still on hiatus, so still no news from the writer’s room. Although, I can tell you about something that happened before we left and let you in on another piece of writer’s lingo.

When writers are coming up with new ideas, it’s often the case that one story, or part of a story, is too similar to a story idea that has already been written or agreed upon (or purchased, as is the case with freelance writers). When this happens, we say the idea “steps on” the other. And that happens quite a lot. So often really good ideas get squashed because they would be repetitive. And it happened on SG-1 just recently with two stories that at first glance don’t appear to be too similar but once you take a good look at them they are. Joe Mallozzi had come up with a time travel story, and Alan McCullough was working on an alternate reality story. Now it doesn’t take a genius to realize that if you go back in time, and change the future, that you’d be dealing with a present tense alternate reality. So they stepped on each other. And only one went ahead. But you’ll have to wait until later in the season until I tell you which one went ahead… but I’m taking the political middle ground – in my opinion, both episodes would be a lot of fun.

So this week we get a great cross-over SG-1 written by Brad Wright, entitled “The Pegasus Project” and a hilarious, absolutely hilarious Atlantis episode starring Richard Kind, entitled “Irresistible.”

In “The Pegasus Project” Daniel finally gets to go to Atlantis, and we get to see the cast of both shows interact. Personally I love the cross-over, and the fact that the SG Universe is present tense and inter-connective. Watching Sheppard and Mitchell talk about McKay is just plain cool. And this is a great episode for space-gate science. So get your protractors out, because there’s going to be some math involved. Great performances all around. And when listening to the characters talk, keep in mind that this is a Brad Wright script, and he is ground-zero for the voices of the characters, as Carl Binder likes to say.

“Irresistible” is a story Brad and Rob came up with in the off season (Carl wrote the teleplay), and just to let you in on a little secret, the working title was “Delicious Fat Guy”. But Irresistible works too! And Richard Kind was perfectly cast for this part (not because he’s fat – he’s not). This is the kind of show that separates Stargate from other sci-fi – it’s one of the fun, humorous episodes that still have high stakes but that keep you chuckling throughout. And I got to meet Richard Kind a couple of times (in the office, and at Joe Mallozzi’s chocolate party)… What a classy, genuine guy. And here’s some good news: He reprises his character in another episode this season.

Also keep your eyes open for the bevy of beautiful babes that appear, especially Julia Anderson playing one of Lucius’ (Richard Kind) wives. She’s a personal friend and a serious babe! Enjoy!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at 07:30 AM

July 21, 2006

Summer hiatus…

So we’re on our summer hiatus, the month in which production stops so we can all enjoy our summer… Vancouver gets pretty rainy in the winter, so it makes sense that we take a nice, extended, month long vacation right in the middle of the summer when the weather is gorgeous. But strangely, when I don’t work, the paychecks stop! Weird! So I’m actually looking forward to getting back to it.

As a result, I don’t really have a lot of writer’s room gossip for you… The writers have all gone their separate ways, some in Ontario, one in Hawaii, one in Cali, and others just chillin’ like me in Vangrouvy. But no matter where they are, you can count on one thing: they’re all writing. In fact, I’ve got to get back to the office the Sunday before so I can prep those scripts. Because when we get back, it’s right back to full speed.

This week you’ll see Morpheus and Misbegotten…

I personally think Morpheus is one of the best looking SG-1 episodes ever. The backstory is this: at the start of the year, there were some changes with the Art Department/Production Design team, and modifications were made to our village set which… well… let’s just say not everybody was a fan. But we have some absolutely superb painters and set dressers. They did a paint overhaul, and added a lot of vegetation set decoration. And then Peter Woeste – well all I can say is he is one hell of a photographer. He added just the right amount of atmosphere (read: smoke), and did his photographic magic, and made the village set look amazing for this episode. I think you’ll agree when you see it.

Also get a load of the VFX lizard. Very cool. I was talking to the producers about the VFX for the show. The show has an in-house VFX department, of course, but sometimes we have so much going on they have to outsource certain effects, and with varying degrees of success. Rob Cooper was mentioning how you can usually tell if the VFX are going to be great at the initial modeling stage – when the VFX artists come in with their rough models of the character or ship and its related action. It’s either “Yeah!” or “Uh oh.” But all the shops put a lot of effort into it. And Image Engine did a superb job on this lizard!

Misbegotten is a spin-off story that carries over from No Man’s Land. It deals with some hefty moral issues and I like the fact that the writers attack these moral issues, knowing they make great drama. I think other shows might shy away from this kind of stuff, but not here!

And here’s something to keep your eye on: I talked to Martin Wood, and he mentioned that they had to reuse extras in some of the Wraith scenes on the planet. So see if you can spot continuity errors… for example the same Wraith in a shot AND the reverse shot. We also got another great performance from Connor Trinnear in this one.

Until next time!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at 07:23 AM

July 14, 2006

Back up on the cliff....

So, first things first. The broadcast season is upon us, so I’m back to blogging. This week, get ready for the premieres of Season 10 of Stargate SG-1 and Season 3 of Stargate Atlantis. Now… season 10? It’s a little surreal. Every season people wonder how long SG-1 can continue and every season we’re pleasantly surprised to find out that nobody knows the answer to that question.

Next up, a little housekeeping. For those of you conspiracy theorists who thought that a string of my blog entries from late last season had been removed (redacted!) because of inappropriate content, stop theorizing! I wasn’t overly rude – in print anyway. I didn’t tell things I shouldn’t have – okay well I did that once but I was repentant and I learned from my mistakes. And I didn’t get fired! Yet. I think it was just some technical glitch, so the Scifi people tell me. Not to worry – I put the old entries back up, or the ones I could find, in any case. So enjoy. Discuss. Relive.

Now for the meaty business of the upcoming shows… As many of you know, I’m the script coordinator here (read: writer’s right hand man, producer’s adherent and aide-de-camp). I proofread scripts. I deal with clearances and product placements. I wear a lot of grey and taupe. And the result: they say all kinds of CRAZY stuff around me, as if I’m not even here! I mean… if I didn’t have to show these blogs to them before I post them, well… you would simply know too much! You would become a liability, and you would have to be silenced. So thank goodness for censorship. To recap: every week I sign on and tell you a bit about the upcoming shows and what it’s like to work behind the scenes… To wit:

On Stargate SG-1’s premiere, you will see Flesh and Blood, and this show, my friends, pulls all the characters back from the cliff. But who survived and who didn’t? Wouldn’t you like to know! All I can say is, contracts had to be negotiated, there wasn’t enough money for everybody, and the allied forces of the Tau’ri and the Lucian Alliance and the Jaffa got demo’ed in Camelot, so there’s going to be a lot of damage to sift through. What!? No! That’s not true, is it!?

I can’t really say.

Anyway, all the characters are in deep peril. But here’s some good news. Get excited for… the new Ori supvillain, and she is… I mean… it is… I mean… dang! There I go again. But you’re definitely going to have to get used to an Ori super-menace in splendid human form and this person, as you will see in the episode, means business. But would you expect any less from the evil-side Ancients we call the Ori?

And Atlantis comes back swinging in No Man’s Land. The Wraith on the way to Earth, the Daedalus making one last ditch effort to stop them. And this show features the return of… yup… you guessed it… Michael (Connor Trinnear). And there’s a great b-story in this one concerning Weir and the SGC as well… so Richard Woolsey (Robert Picardo), General Landry (Beau Bridges) and Walter Harriman (Gary Jones) all cross over from SG-1. Come to think of it… there’s going to be a heaping helping of cross-over this year. So buy a new couch and don’t make Friday night plans.

And make note of the new airtimes… Fridays at 9/8 C for SG-1 and 10/9 C for Atlantis.

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at 09:22 PM