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January 11, 2008

The Heat Is On

The heat is on, and this is a good thing. It was freaking cold in these offices most of the week. My theory is it just takes time for the building to warm up. But I also have tragic news: the monitor on the Golden Tee golf game is busted, so Paul Mullie is going to have fork out some more dough to get our favourite office pastime repaired. Should happen early next week. But the heat is also on in a different way. These producer writers have to come up with twenty more episodes of Stargate Atlantis, and they'd better get to it, because we're shooting in February.

I also want to take this opportunity to plug Ivon's behind the scenes featurettes. He had the heart to show several of them in the writers room during lunch the other day - specifically his piece on the "Bring Carson Beckett Back" campaign, as well as the first blooper reel ever to leave the building. Well, despite the chiding he got from the producers (hey, they're producers, they're PAID to be opinionated), both pieces were fully enjoyed, and partly due to the comic stylings of one Martin Q. Gero. His intro's and extro's on the blooper reel are funnier than the bloopers. And his interviews of the die-hard Beckett fans when they protested outside the Bridge Studios gate are pretty damn funny too. So definitely get your hands on those when they come out on the season box set in the summer sometime.

So tonight you'll see Spoils of War, written by Alan McCullough. I just chatted with Alan about the script. He explained that the idea for the episode was to explore the fallout from the destruction of the replicator planet, but I guess the title already told you that. It was also important to tell another story that had to do with the season arc - Teyla's pregnancy, our Wraith ally, the inter-Wraith wars. All these story lines play a part. Because of that, it was often referred to as part three of the mid-season two parter.

In addition, you're sure to learn something vital in this episode about the Wraith. As in... did you ever wonder how the Wraith procreate? Well, tune in my friends, because this episode discusses that very topic. There were lots of ideas thrown around the room, by the way. Some people thought the reproduction process should be asexual. Others thought it should have something to do with the ship, because of course the Hive ships are organic in nature. I figured they would just press their feeding hands together in what Shakespeare called a "holy palmers kiss" and suck each other's lives away. But then again, I didn't get sex ed until grade 12, so what do I know?

Lastly, big ups to Todd Masters for his prosthetics in this one. Keep an eye out for the newborn Wraith in the goo sack, and try to forget the fact that the poor Wraith extra sat in a sack of goo for four hours that day. The results, however, are amazing.

Enjoy!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at January 11, 2008 06:49 PM