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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 July 25, 2006 07:30 AM