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August 25, 2006
The birth of a nickname...
There’s a new writer on Atlantis this year; it’s Copernicus, the Polish astronomer (1473-1543). Well… not exactly. That’s actually the new writer’s nickname. His actual name is Ken Cuperus.
The back story is this. Usually at the start of the year, when the writing staff first gets together to come up with episodes and start writing the season, the writers take pitches from freelance writers. There’s also the outside chance that freelance writers will be hired onto the staff if there’s a need for a new staff writer. With 40 hours of TV to produce each year, there’s often such a need. So this year, on Atlantis, Ken successfully pitched an episode that will be shown tonight, called “Common Ground,” and was subsequently hired onto the staff.
So how did Cuperus become Copernicus? Well, listen close my friends and I’ll tell you. During preproduction, Robert Davi arrived, ready to reprise his role as Kolya, and stopped by the writer’s room to say hello. And just to let you know, Robert Davi is kind of rough and tough in real life too. So Robert Davi walks into the room, greets everybody, and then asks, right out of the blue, “so which one of you guys is Copernicus?” And Ken, being new on the staff, chose not to correct Robert Davi. He just quietly raised his hand. Mr. Davi just wanted to say he liked the script, but… well… sometimes nicknames just stick. By the next day somebody had taped a number of photocopies of pictures of Copernicus onto Ken’s door, with a perfectly placed square cut-out that you can look through to see “Modern-Day Copernicus At Work”.
Other nick names from the writing staff? “Grudgy Grudgerson” (Joe Mallozzi), “Mr. Jeopardy” (Paul Mullie), Martin “Gero-Worship” aka “The Class Clown”, Carl “The Truth” Binder – because he tells it like it is, Alan “Pretty Boy” McCullough, “Coop” and “Big Idea Brad” Wright aka “Mr. Science”.
Enough babbling! Onto this week’s shows:
Common Ground is a great Atlantis episode. Mr. Jeopardy would be soooo proud. You’ll be impressed with the prosthetic make-up, done to perfection as always by Todd Masters.
Counterstrike, tonight’s SG-1 episode, features the first appearance of Morena Baccarin. Morena is most famous for her role as Inara Serra in Firefly. She graces us as Vala’s grown up daughter, Adria, the Ori supervillain. And I do mean grace. Morena is one of those actors that is as beautiful in person as she is on camera.
Also, and this is straight from the mouth of writer Joe Mallozzi, as far as the relationship between Daniel Jackson and Adria is concerned, their scenes in this episode kick off a through-line you’ll see all season. There are small moments, if you pay attention, that show that these two are going to have lots more to do with each other in the future. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Say no more.
ATL
Posted by Alex Levine at August 25, 2006 10:25 PM
