« Money talks... and shows on screen. | Main | The birth of a nickname... »
August 19, 2006
200 or 246?
I say 246. The reason: I count Stargate Atlantis too. I know it’s Stargate SG-1’s 200th episode, but there’s really been 246 Stargate shows produced if you include Atlantis. I don’t want to take away from the milestone, I just want everyone to be aware of how many Stargate stories have been told in total! And hey… if Air Force personnel are going through a big ring and traveling to distant planets, I say it’s Stargate.
Around here, everyone’s excited about the big party. Yup, there’s a party to celebrate the 200th episode and some of the brass from Sci-fi and MGM and Sony are even coming up for the visit. Now, I wasn’t around for the 100th episode party, but I hear that one was a blast, so I’m looking forward to getting my drink on and my feed on and my groove on.
Meanwhile, as I write this, Rob Cooper and Brad Wright are brainstorming the SG-1 season finale down the hall. Yes, it’s true, we’ve got 18 episodes of each series written now, and another episode of each series in outline stage. So they’re down to the finales. It really is amazing how time flies by, but it’s been yet another great season here in Burnaby, BC.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the sci-fi promo about the 200th but I promise it truly is just the tip of the iceberg. RDA is back in full effect, and Willie Garson, Christian Bocher, Herbert Duncanson, Peter DeLuise and Jill Teed all reprise their characters from the 100th episode, Wormhole X-treme. Now, the 200th episode (aptly titled “200”) has been kept extremely confidential because the producers did NOT want to let the cat out of the bag. I wasn’t even allowed to upload it onto our Virtual Production Office website for fear of spoilers…. Darn you spoilers! You just have to spoil everything, don’t you? Naw… just kidding… I understand why you do it… but for those of you who like your entertainment to be… well… entertaining, mind those spoilers. And hopefully you’ll be pleased and delightfully surprised by 200, which was written by all of the writers together. Each writer or team of writers wrote a particular act or vignette, and then Rob did a pass on the whole thing. I watched Ivon Bartok’s behind the scenes featurette on the 200 and it’s a doozy! Keep an eye out for that one on the DVD’s.
So, in addition to the 200th, which I’m not really going to say anything more about because it would SPOIL the fun, on Atlantis you get to see yet another episode written by Carl Binder entitled “The Real World”. Since the Sci-fi promo already gave away the basic plot elements, I can tell you the working title was “Weir’s Ladder”, which will only mean something to you movie buffs out there. Now, I don’t think this was Carl’s fault, but quite a few of his scripts this year involve apparitions, ghosts, characters seeing things etc… and as a result Carl has developed a bit of a reputation. So now in the writer’s room when anybody suggests a plot point involving a character seeing ghosts, all eyes turn to Carl and Rob Cooper starts making eerie ghost noises. And we laugh at Carl because it’s funny and he doesn’t mind. Oh, good times. Good times.
Until next week!
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at August 19, 2006 01:00 AM
