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February 15, 2008

Carl's Back!

Well, the WGA strike is over and that means Executive Producer Carl "The Truth" Binder is back in da house! And not a moment too soon, because, in addition to Carl being a great guy and making such wonderfully colorful comments in the room, I really needed someone to talk to about tomorrow's episode "Midway" and Carl is the obvious choice because he wrote it. But before I tell you about Midway, I'll relate a couple of wonderful anecdotes Carl told me about his time on the picket lines in LA.

Yes it's true, as a WGA member, Carl was one of the sign waving picketers down in LA during the writer's strike. But those writers were not without support. In addition to horn-honking drivers and famous actors, there were also buoyed by Don Knotts' daughter, who frequented the picket lines with her very own hand-puppet, doing her best to keep everybody's spirits up. Hilarious. Carl also told about the time they were picketing outside the Disney lot, and Calista Flockhart drove up to the gate. Several of the writers walked out onto the crosswalk in front of her car, effectively blocking her from getting into the lot. One even yelled something like "Don't go to work, Calista!" But then, as Carl explained, she gave those writers the look that wives give husbands, and they sheepishly parted. So there you go, a little taste of what it was like out on the front lines.

Now tomorrow you will see Midway, which is a pure action episode. I'm going to be watching it on HD myself. Carl said this was a very difficult script to write. In fact, he wrote several outlines and then had to set it aside because it was determined that the episode was likely going to be too expensive to produce. So he actually wrote Quarantine, and then came back to this one. But then, once the costs of the previous episodes started to come in, the producers realized they would be able to afford the episode. The major cost, of course, was building the midway station, which had been discussed in many episodes but never seen. And that meant a set build, as well as significant set extensions through the use of visual effects.

Andy Mikita directed this one, and apparently it was a logistical nightmare, not just because of the aforementioned build, but also because, in addition to the midway station, they also had to create a midway gateroom. And this part is cool: the midway gateroom is an entirely virtual set. Everything in the set, with the exception of the gate itself, is a visual effect. Pretty cool. So when you're watching it, keep in mind that the physical gate is the same for the SGC gateroom and the midway gateroom.

You SG-1 fans will surely enjoy seeing Chris Judge reprise the role of Teal'c in this one. Carl's favourite part of the episode is when Teal'c and Ronon are passing time at the midway station by watching the Three Stooges. Hilarious. Two macho aliens watching slapstick comedy in black and white. Carl's first choice was a Daffy Duck cartoon, but apparently we couldn't afford the use license. But he's a huge fan of the Three Stooges, so it works out great. Jason Momoa and Chris Judge have great chemistry on screen. I recall that, shortly before filming, Chris was asked who would win in a fight between the two characters and he said something funny, like "with these messed up knees, I don't think it'd be much of a contest".

Enjoy!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at February 15, 2008 12:08 AM