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August 12, 2006
Money talks... and shows on screen.
I read the reviews of the last Stargate Atlantis’ episode on Gateworld the other day. I was so pleased to see that everybody loved Sateda, and they’re right to, because… well, what’s not to love? It’s got a great story, accomplished acting, tons of action sequences, amazing special effects and digital effects, great sets etc…. It’s awesome. But what I wanted to respond to was the inevitable whining that goes along with such great audience response. And the whine is: “why aren’t all the episodes this good?” Well, it’s not for lack of effort, that much I can tell you. Making TV isn’t a perfect science. And the powers that be on this show sure get it right more often than they get it wrong. But among many other reasons why some shows are better than others, I’m going to talk about one: money!
Sateda had a bigger budget then most of our other episodes. There was an extra day of shooting, and extra costs for special effects, visual effects, prosthetics etc… I mean, just look at the number of special skills extras and stunt men they needed to pull off some of those fight sequences. Plus there were extra costs in using a variety of film stocks for the flashback sequences, and prosthetics and new costumes for that number of Wraith – you get the point: it was a bigger show than a lot of others, and the money shows well on the screen. Not taking anything away from Rob Cooper (I’m really not!), who wrote a great story and directed the hell out of it, but you can’t make action and fight sequences with that level of excitement without the dough!
Now, here’s an interesting little factoid: sometimes, if a number of shows are expensive in a season and the season is over-budget, the producers will recognize that and pare down costs for an episode. Yup, it’s true. They’ll actually look for ways to save cash. So how is that done? Well... the easiest thing to do is to shoot an entire episode on the lot, on existing sets. We call that a “bottle show.” Which is not to say that these shows can’t be great – in my opinion, great creativity often comes from a lack of resources, when you have to do things in new and exciting ways. Often these smaller stories are character driven, which are the stories that I enjoy best. And to make a good television series you need the smaller, quieter character driven episodes. Because too much shoot ‘em up is… too much! But don’t worry – this isn’t a lead in. This week we don’t have bottle shows, we have two more great episodes.
SG-1’s “Uninvited” is a creature feature and has a great B-side plot featuring Landry and Mitchell. I gotta say, wait for the Fulvus Whistling Duck call… I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder watching an SG-1 than this scene… And Joe Mallozzi just mentioned that Beau Bridges is actually a bird-watcher. Ahhh… It’s the little known facts that I love the best.
In Atlantis you get another Carl Binder gem, Progeny, which is an episode that introduces the new Atlantis villain… and it’s one you SG-1 fans will be well familiar with: The Replicators. I got a chance to watch the final visual effects for this one last week and it is a feast for the eyes. I don’t want to spoil the story but you’ll get to see the city of Atlantis like you’ve never seen it before. And you M*A*S*H* fans will enjoy seeing David Ogden Stiers out of his military greens – he played Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in that great sitcom.
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at August 12, 2006 12:28 AM
