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October 05, 2007

Office Politics and Lifeline...

I walked into Carl Binder’s office to talk to him about tomorrow night’s episode, “Lifeline”, but was immediately sidetracked when I noticed was that he was wearing a really cool new Stargate Atlantis fleece jacket. Waves of envy washed over me. But I can’t go running around demanding things. I mean… Carl’s a Co-Executive Producer of the show, for goodness sake, and I’m just the script coordinator. So I played it cool and just said, “Nice jacket, Carl. Where’d that come from?” Well he gave me that superior look of his and explained in his usual deadpan delivery: “Set Dec made them up for the people they like.” Ha ha. Good one Carl. See – he was trying to make me feel bad. It’s really just seniority. The producers get them, and us plebes don’t.

Well, in walks show-runner Joseph Mallozzi, eyebrows raised. “Nice jacket,” he says, with a look that suggests an interior monologue along the following lines: “Why is Carl Binder wearing a new Stargate Atlantis jacket and I’m not? That Carl Binder is so fired.” Strangely, Carl didn’t tell Joe that Set Dec had the jackets made up for the people they like. Rather, he immediately jumped out of his chair, took the jacket off and tried to press it on Joe. But Joe politely declined, backing towards the door. You see, he didn’t want Carl’s jacket. After all, Carl’s was now… all stretched out and ruined. Joe wanted his own new jacket, with tags still attached.

Well, this is where the story gets crazy. Apparently, Paul Mullie told John Lenic earlier that Joe wouldn’t want one because he’d never wear it! Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Joe in anything so unfashionable as a Stargate Atlantis fleece jacket, but (and this is me speaking) is it really Paul’s place to say?

More good news: the gang here decided on our costumes for Chris Judge’s Halloween party – we’re going as the guys from the hip hop Pepto Bismol commercial. I’m going to be Indigestion, Mallozzi is going to be Heartburn, Lawren is going as Upset Stomach. No word on who’s going to be Diarrhea.

Now, onto tomorrow night’s episode “Lifeline.” This was the first episode Carl wrote in Season 4, and it came out of a general idea he had in the off-season that he wanted to do a ‘heist’ episode. But of course, the writers had no idea where it would fit in the overall season arc. It was just a vague idea. But as soon as they broke “Adrift,” they realized that the heist story flowed quite naturally out of that, so it became the second episode.

Here’s another little known fact. Even though Martin Wood is credited as the director of the episode, Andy Mikita actually directed much of this episode because Martin Wood was busy with one of the Stargate SG-1 DVD movies. And he did a great job. So if it feels a little more Mikita than Wood, well… now you know why.

Lastly, Carl wanted me to say how thrilled he is with the performances of Torri Higginson and Joe Flanigan, especially Torri. As this episode is sort of a send-off episode for Weir, Torri’s performance was all the more meaningful, and difficult. I know Carl, and this compliment wasn’t mere puffery.

Enjoy!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at October 5, 2007 12:00 AM