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October 25, 2007

Season Five?

YES! Season Five is a go. Get set for launch. After we heard the news (actually we heard the news just before it was published in Variety magazine), the writers went right back into the writer's room. They erased the list of episodes from last year, wrote down the numbers 1 through 20, stared at the blank spaces for at least a half an hour, and then went home. You see, it's pretty daunting. The elation that comes with getting renewed for another 20 episodes is always tempered by the fact that... there's 20 more episodes to produce! But we're excited. And employed.

I had the privilege of attending the mix screening of the SG-1 DVD feature "The Ark of Truth" at Sharpe Sound last Friday, which was a great time. The big sound mix studio is like a small theatre (not that small - like a miniplex theatre) with the very best sound system you can imagine. So for me, I wasn't there to give sound notes as the producers were - I was really just there to enjoy the film. And, as I told Rob, it's a rollicking good time of an adventure. SG-1 fans are going to love this movie. Now I can't wait to see Brad Wright's movie "Continuum", although that's still a ways off.

Tomorrow night, you'll see one of my favourite SGA episodes of the season entitled "Travelers". This episode guest stars Jill Wagner, who you might know from Blade: The Series, or Punked!. She plays Larrin, the commander of a group of Travelers who capture Sheppard for nefarious reasons. As it turns out, Jill Wagner and Jason Momoa are good friends who met in LA. And I had the good fortune, along with Ivon Bartok, of running into them and sharing some drinks last year here in Vancouver, long before Jill was cast for this part. I can tell you that she is a classy woman and a serious beauty.

Paul Mullie wrote "Travelers" and he was actually in the office today so I got to speak to him, albeit briefly, about the show. The other writers, it should be noted, are home brainstorming. Paul was on his way out, so I kind of felt like papparazzi, trying to get him to sit down and wax poetic. No dice. Paul did mention the amazing set that was built for this episode: the junked out space ship the Travelers themselves fly around in. The only problem is it was only used for an act or two of the episode, and in no other episodes. They planned on reusing it but it never happened. So keep in mind this is an expensive episode as a result.

I also asked him about the idea for the episode. He explained that, aside from the fact that everybody loves a sexy alien (especially McKay), TPTB have wanted to do a story about another technologically advanced race in the Pegasus galaxy for a long time and he finally figured out a way to do it. You see, because the Wraith are so dominant, they can simply destroy any race that gets too big for it's britches technologically. So the only way societies can develop past a certain level in the galaxy is by hiding or running (see Underground from season one, for example). So this is introduces another technologically advanced race to add to the mix.

Enjoy the episode. I did!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at October 25, 2007 07:50 PM