During my blog hiatus, I pledge to accumulate tons of fun and interesting anecdotes so when we come back, there will be a veritable deluge of exciting behind the scenes stories for you. All about the office staff and what color paper is my favorite. How Tanja rearranged the office furniture up front, and who the recent inductees are into IATSI 891 (the film union). It'll be great!

Meanwhile, the scripts are flying fast and furious. Brad Wright turned in his first draft of a fun if atypical McKay driven story. And Joe Mallozzi turned in what may be my favorite "scary" Stargate of all time, "Whispers". Joe is a big horror fan and has used his knowledge of the genre to create a suspenseful and exciting creature feature which I'm certain everyone will enjoy.

But tonight, you'll see "The Last Man", written by Paul Mullie. I just sat down with Paul and Joe and chatted about the show. Paul explained the idea for the show "just came to him." Ahhh, that guy really knows how to make these behind the scenes blogs interesting. So I pressed: "Just came to you? How does that work?" And the dam broke. It turns out it all started with an image. He envisioned Sheppard returning to Atlantis through the gate and finding the city completely empty and the planet in the midst of an ice age. Pretty cool visual. Those key visuals are often the door in to a great story. Brad Wright is famous for building episodes off of images in this way. It's not at all uncommon -- film and tv is, after all, a visual medium.

So, after realizing that Brad was using the snow-covered landscape of Antartica for his movie Continuum, they decided to change the setting to a desert, as if the planet was going through a massive dry spell. Now, I don't want to spoil the story - after all, Joe is about to read this and give me what for if there are any spoilers, but I will tell you it's a time travel story that involves a very old McKay.

Joe said that during pre-production he looked up from his desk and there was some old guy standing at the door. His first thought - "Oh, rats. Somebody's annoying father or some fan made it into the building and now I'm going to have to talk to this guy for an hour instead of working on my script". But it was just Hewlett! The make up is that good.

Lastly, look out for some extraordinary visual effects sequences in this one and a masterful score by Joel Goldsmith. Paul explained that he had a number of conversations with Joel because there were three sound elements competing in many of the sequences: voice over, explosions, and music. For the biggest such event (the Carter battle sequence), they decided together to keep the explosions in the background (much quieter), and let the music ring out. It really makes the sequence powerful and dramatic. I have to say this story actually made me a little emotional, and I'm no softy.

So enjoy! See you all in the Summer.

ATL

So I hope you all enjoyed The Kindred Pt. 1. That reminds of a funny story about this two-parter. Ivon Bartok did a behind the scenes piece about Season 4, basically a general overview, and showed it to the producers a couple of weeks ago. It's a great piece, but the funniest part for us was Alan McCullough's interview, during which he unwittingly suggested that The Kindred Pt. 1 was basically all set up for The Kindred Pt. 2 -- which, of course, Alan wrote. It was pretty funny, because Alan is the nicest guy in the room, so he didn't mean to say anything that might be construed that way, but that's how it came out, and he got roasted over it. All in good fun though.

So did you all see the return of the beloved Dr. Carson Beckett? Joe Mallozzi noted that, these days, you can't say Dr. Beckett without using the adjective "beloved". I think he might be right! Another of Ivon's behind the scenes featurettes covers the "Save Carson Beckett" campaign and the protest which occurred outside the Bridge Studios gates last year. Good stuff.

Meanwhile, we're in full swing here, once again. Jason Momoa came by my office yesterday to get a couple of computer tips. I think this guy is the nicest, most down to Earth actor I know. I don't think fame or success has changed him one iota. And that is awesome to see. Paul McGillion also made an appearance this week - he's a friend and I'm personally excited he's back for an arc this season. And David Nykl stopped in and gave the producers chocolates. There have also been some new characters cast in the last couple of weeks, but I'm not going to spill the beans on that stuff. I know which side my bread gets buttered on. And, another general note - I have to say I'm really enjoying the Season 5 scripts I've read so far.

I spoke with Alan about The Kindred, Pt. 2, just now. First, he gave me all the platitudes: fun episode, lots of emotional scenes, McGillion was great. Then he got down to brass tacks. He said the location we used - Terminal City - in his opinion, gave us the creepiest Michael lair yet. I personally think it's a toss-up between Terminal City and Riverview Mental Hospital (used in Vengeance). He also reminded me that this was Rachel Luttrell's last full episode before she had the baby, so she was very pregnant for this shoot, which is always a challenge. And he let me in on a couple of other great behind the scenes tidbits. Look for the two boys in the scene with the Athosians - those are Joe Flanigan's kids. And also, the Wraith style ultrasound images were adapted from real ultrasound images from one of the Stargate babies. Unfortunately, I don't know which - there were so many babies born last year we've lost track!

Enjoy the episode tonight.

ATL

If it's any consolation, I woke up last Friday at 4:00 a.m. in a cold sweat and realized that I'd blown it. But by the time I was able to edit this blog to remove the reference, that diligent Morjana had copied snippets of my blog onto Gateworld, including the offending paragraph. Curse you Morjana! No, no, I take that back. I appreciate your support and the fact that you alert the other gateworld subscribers to my postings. Besides, it's really Carl's fault anyway.

Meanwhile, the producers got to see Continuum with its score this week at the sound mix studio, and by all accounts this movie rocks. I'm looking forward to checking it out next week when a small amount of sound mix DVD's are released internally in the office. Should be another great addition to the Stargate SG-1 story line. Let's all hope for more movies in the future. And, of course, production started this week, beginning with Search and Rescue, the first episode of season 5. Much of our shooting this week was on the Norco stage, but now they're shooting on our Daedalus set. Trust me, this is going to be a very cool season 5 premier (read: expensive with lots of VFX).

Okay, so... tonight's episode: The Kindred Pt. 1, working titled "Rise of the Googlions". Hilarious. That was just a silly working title Carl Binder came up with, but everybody liked saying it so much that, yup, you guessed it - it actually ended up on some of the production paperwork, specifically art department sketches. And then it was used frequently in conversation as well. "What's up with Googlions?" "When are we shooting Googlions?". So, as a result, we've become a little more careful with our working titles.

And, of course, I now have to be extra careful with my spoilers. But what I can tell you about The Kindred Pt. 1 is that Connor Trinnear's Michael plays a central role in this two parter. So all you half-wraith fans, get your popcorn ready. And also this is sort of a "Teyla" story as well. Okay, I better shut up now before I get in more trouble. Look for Joe Mallozzi to discuss this episode at length in his blog tomorrow at www.josephmallozzi.wordpress.com.

Enjoy!

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

So tomorrow night you'll see Trio on Scifi, yet another great Season 4 episode. Now, unfortunately for me, Martin Gero, who wrote and produced this episode, is out of town for a few days. So I was in a bit of a panic as to who to talk to about this one, because Martin Wood is also unavailable these days. But then, as luck would have it, I stumbled in to the writer's room and Ivon Bartok was airing a new special feature for the producers entitled: "The Making of Trio". Eureka!

So, I got to see an amazing, in depth, behind the scenes documentary which I strongly urge you to see when the DVD's come out for Season 4. And in that special feature: yup, you guessed it, Martin Gero and Martin Wood flap their jaws all about this terrific episode. So I'm going to steal some of Ivon's thunder and tell you some of the coolest stuff they talked about. But trust me, the behind the scenes footage, the cast interviews, and Martin Gero's stand up make this a special feature you really need to see.

In any case, Martin explained that Trio was intended to be another smaller, bottle type episode - three people in a room. Those three people, Sam Carter, Jennifer Keller, and Rodney McKay. The idea of course, was to save money. But the story became so logistically complicated, and so dependent on some amazing stunts and "gags" that saving money was not really an option. It became a very expensive show. And the good news - the money shows on the screen.

You may not know this, but there was a "gimbled" set built for the SG-1 movie Continuum, and the SGA producers told them not to tear it down because they wanted to use it. That was, in fact, the inspiration for this episode. But in shooting Continuum, the producers realized the set didn't gimble enough - only about 8 degrees. So they raised the set so it could slant to 20 degrees. There's your first big expense. Martin explained that the trick to shooting a gimbled set is to level the camera to floor. Otherwise the effect doesn't work at all. And engineers were called in to make sure it was all safe.

Martin Wood explained that this was the most difficult episode he directed all year, because it relied on not less than eight different gags. His job, as he explained it, is to push the real action as far as possible, right up to the point that it becomes dangerous for the actors. Then the stunt men and women are called in. And according to James Bamford, our intrepid stunt coordinator, the stunts in this one are awesome.

One final note: the cast had a great time shooting this one, even though it was rigorous and the days were long. Amanda, David, and Jewel literally danced and laughed during takes. I think there was even some dinner theatre in there. So enjoy it, because they enjoyed making it.

ATL

Here in the story department we get inundated with unsolicited spec scripts -- scripts by unrepresented writers, usually fans of the show, hoping that we'll read their scripts and hire them to become writers. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't ever happen that way. The reason: we're legally prohibited from reading spec Stargate scripts due to legal concerns. You see, if we did, and then we independently came up with a similar idea for an episode, we might get sued by that writer who would claim we stole his or her story. So, as a policy, we can't read them. We destroy them or send them back. It's sad, but that's what we have to do. Once, however, we were sent a spec Stargate script and it was printed on all sorts of different colored paper. You see, the writer had seen a production draft of a script for the show and decided to mimic it. She thought we did that just to make them look pretty.

Tomorrow on Atlantis you'll see "Outcast". This story was originally pitched by Joe Flanigan. He thought it would be cool if a replicator gets loose on Earth. And the producers agreed. Great idea. Alan McCullough fleshed out the story and wrote the teleplay. And I just spoke with Alan about the episode.

Alan explained that the writers had been wanting to do a story that exposes more of Sheppard's backstory for a while, and this proved to be the perfect vehicle. That being said, there was a lot of debate over what actually occurred in his past. There was also some general consensus, however -- he probably came from a wealthy family, and in the episode Sunday, we learned that Sheppard was previously married. So there you go - a couple of minor spoilers for you before you watch the episode.

Alan said there was a terrific guest cast in this one; he was particularly impressed with Kari Wuhrer (Sliders) who plays Sheppard's ex-wife. And because the replicator character was required to do a number of stunts and action scenes, the producers actually cast a stunt man, Adrian Hein, for that role. But ironically, because the biggest stunt had to be scheduled for early in the shoot, we had to hire another stuntman to do that one hair-raising stunt because we couldn't risk our guest star getting injured. The stuntman's stuntman? Our very own stunt coordinator and fight choreographer James "Bam Bam" Bamford. That guy is a stud. There's currently a campaign to get Bam Bam to be a contestant on MGM's new American Gladiator series. Trust me, that would be good TV. By the way, in that big stunt showpiece I just mentioned, see if you can spot executive producer N. John Smith (hint: he's on his boat).

Lastly, Alan want to put a shout out to Joel Goldsmith for a wonderful score in this one; a score Alan described as quite different than the typical Atlantis score.

Enjoy!

ATL

Down in the art department, James Robbins, our Production Designer, and Chris Beach, one of our Art Directors, are hard at work on the first few episodes. We've seen a number of excellent drawings and Chris is busy designing sets on the computer. It's going to be a busy construction season, so you can look forward to some interesting new sets and "looks". There have been lots of discussions about Ronon's hair, Teyla's child, and the Traveler's set. And the first day of principal photography is rapidly approaching.

But of course you're still enjoying the fourth season, and tonight you get one of my favourite fourth season episodes, Harmony. Martin Gero penned this one based on a concept that was originally put forth by Carl Binder. And I believe the words "Golden Child" were bandied about during that original spin session. The guest star in this episode is played by none other than Jodelle Ferland, who you might recognize from Stargate SG-1 (she played one of the younger Adria's). Her role is so important in tonight's episode that Martin told me they didn't even start writing the episode until they knew Jodelle was available and willing to play the part. That's how difficult it is finding an 11 year old who can really act. In fact, she was such a super pro she typically had all the other character's lines memorized as well!

The show was shot several hours’ drive from our studio, at Widgen Provincial park. It was so far away that for a few days we had to put our cast and crew up in hotels. But the benefits are gorgeous shots of vistas and scenery, the likes of which you've never seen on our show before. Show runner Joe Mallozzi had the privilege of attending the shoot every day, and despite being mostly an indoor cat, he actually embraced it. I'm not sure he enjoyed the 'getting up at 5 am' part of the process, but he had some fun stories, and made friends with many of the teamsters to boot! Joe also took some videos, which you can see if you check out Joe's blog at http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com.

So enjoy tonight's episode and have a great week.

ATL

Carl said Quarantine was a group effort that sprang out of the necessity to make a less expensive episode. Why less expensive, you ask? Well, you see, we had just blown our budget making the amazing VFX sequences for Be All My Sins, and we had to pare back or we would have gone way over budget for the season. So they had to come up with what we call a "bottle episode" - existing sets only, no guest stars. But, as is usually the case, these types of episodes end up relying on wonderful character moments, and Quarantine is no exception.

So the writers sat around, and someone (some say it was Joe Mallozzi, others say it was Martin Gero) came up with the idea that the city locks down and everybody is quarantined in various rooms. Perfect bottle episode. Once that was decided, all that was left was to figure out which characters are trapped with which characters, and what the story line for each "pairing" would be.

I won't let the cat out of the bag too much, but I will tell you that Carl's favourite pairing was McKay and Katie Brown, because McKay could be vocal about his nihilistic view of life, which mirrors Carl's own world view. That reminds me of a study I learned about in college: psychologists have actually proven that pessimists have a more realistic view of the world than optimists... Turns out it's the positive, happy people that are deluded.

Lastly, I should mention the amazing VFX sequence of the tower climb. When Carl envisioned the script, he knew most of it would take place in interiors, so, even though this was a bottle show, it was going to need a breathtaking sequence to open up the episode. So you get to see your hero, Sheppard, in a death defying climb up the Atlantis tower. Carl called it a "visual showpiece", which is exactly what it is.

That's what you're in for tomorrow night. I hope you enjoy the show. In other news, I'm sure you'll all be relieved to hear that our Golden Tee golf game has been repaired. Now if I could just get some free time to play 9 holes. Until next week.

ATL

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

So, we're not quite back in the office yet. But I went in over Christmas just to make sure I wasn't falling behind, and was in for quite a surprise. I went into my office and discovered all the furniture had been moved around, and the computer and phone uplugged. Everything had been taken out of the shelves and put in stacks willy nilly. It was like everything had been taken out of the office and put back in my office, in no particular order, by dimwitted thugs. Well, as it turns out, workmen had replaced the carpet. So that is all, in fact, true. So now, just as soon as I replace the broken computer keyboard, fix the now broken internet jack, and replace the phone extension cable that mysteriously disappeared, I'll be back in business. Whine. Gripe. Moan.

Meanwhile, I spoke with Martin Gero today about Be All My Sins Remember'd, which you'll get to see tomorrow night on Scifi. The title is a Shakespeare quote - another one pulled from the same Hamlet soliloquy that Joe Mallozzi took "This Mortal Coil" from. And it's fitting, because this is, of course, the second half of a two-parter.

Martin is a big fan of this week's episode, and not just because he wrote it. He said acts four and five contain the most ambitious special effects sequences we've ever done. And I know we've said similar things before, but that's because our VFX department is constantly outdoing itself. In fact, many of the big space shots that Martin wrote in the script were true head-scratchers. The VFX guys read it and thought to the themselves, "how the hell are we going to do that?" Well, as usual, after some brainstorming and batting it around with the producers, they figured out a way.

As for the story, Martin said the script was a blast to write, because it's provides some closure to a lot of different story arcs that began this season. He said almost every story that we've done this season tees this story up. And lastly, he explained that, often in these large action episodes, it's difficult to have strong character moments because the story is so dense with action. But again, this one breaks the mold, because there are some wonderful - and important - character moments in there. Sorry, no spoilers. I want you to be surprised!

And there's also that trademark Martin Gero brand of Pythonesque humor. Look for the scene where the Colonels' greet each other, to McKay's bewilderment. Awesome stuff.

Enjoy.

Well, first off, a word about spoilers. I appreciate fandom. Heck, it makes the show go. And I know the fans are curious about upcoming episodes. But there's got to be a limit. I've met Darren and the Gateworld guys, and I appreciate what they do for the show. It's great that real fans can have a social networking site like that to discuss all things scifi (and not so scifi). But when you can go onto Gateworld a week before an episode and read a pretty accurate synopsis of the upcoming show, I just wonder if it's good for the viewer. Maybe I'm on an island here, but I just despise movie trailers that tell you the whole story so that there's no surprises left. So bah humbug.

Now, here's some spoilers!

Just kidding.

So I talked to Joe about writing This Mortal Coil. And he said, first off, that the script almost killed him. He's not being dramatic. I walked into his office one day when he was writing This Mortal Coil and looked at him and... he was nearly lifeless. There was a look in his eye that suggested the script was taking all... the.... life..... out .... of.... him. He could barely type. But he recovered. And talking to him about why the script was so hard actually gave me some insight on the job of the writer.

Joe described the act of writing a script like This Mortal Coil like playing a game of Jenga. You see, each episode's story is structured into acts. The acts are broken down into scenes, the scenes into beats, and the beats into dialogue and action. The whole script, and each scene, only works if it's in a rhythm, and the rhythm is dependent on who says what. The trick, especially in an episode like "This Mortal Coil", as you shall see, is to get the information out in the least expository way so the audience doesn't know they're being spoon-fed the information they need to understand the story. Examples of poor exposition: the end of every scooby doo, where Shaggy or Velma explains the backstory of the haunting (just before the villain says: "And I would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling kids.")

So anyway... Jenga. Joe writes the first draft. He pares it down so it's nice and tight and hums along in rhythm. He circulates it (actually that part was me) and receives feedback. And there's a lot of notes. Lots and lots. So he starts to try and incorporate the other writers' notes, which means pulling a piece out here and another piece out there... and ..... JENGA! The whole thing collapses. And he has to rebuild it. So there you go. Now, Joe does admit that unlike other writers he's one who gets a little too close to the script he's working on. But he knows as well as anyone WIlliam Faulkner's words still ring true: you have "kill all your darlings"; meaning, nothing is sacred when a writer takes to editing his own material. But hopefully this gives you some idea of the psychological discomfort that goes with writing. I pray you never have to suffer it.

Joe mentioned that Joel Goldsmith did an excellent job on the score. And, of course, we get our beloved Dr. Weir back for this episode.

Enjoy!

ATL

So immediately I barked at Lawren - "what do you know about Miller's Crossing?", but my query was met with stunned silence. "Hello? Anybody there?" Well, we started talking about what little we know about the show anyway, and then I heard the familiar voice of Atlantis writer Alan McCullough. Thank goodness - someone who actually knows something behind the scenes! So Alan and I chatted about the show.

Alan reminded me of a hilarious scene that sparked a great deal of debate. Martin Gero wrote the terrific script in which Sheppard and co. return to Earth to track down the McKays. In one scene, Ronon and Sheppard are watching tv in a hotel room, more specifically Battlestar Galactica, and Ronon turns to Sheppard and says something like "we should help these people!" Well, most everybody laughed about it at the script stage. Even Rob Cooper. But Cooper had misgivings. I recall him saying that it makes Ronon look stupid. Like the guy doesn't even understand what a television set is and that the stories on tv are fictional. But damn it was funny. It turns out the scene is still in the final cut (according to our trusty Post Supervisor Kerry McDowall) but that portion of it has been cut and you no longer know they're watching tv. So maybe you'll get to see that portion of the scene in one of Ivon's behind the scenes featurettes or something.

Other things to note about Miller's Crossing. The title is a riff on the great Coen brother's movie. Speaking of which, somebody out there go see No Country for Old Men and tell me what the hell happened at the end. Also, in Miller's Crossing, the character Henry Wallace is played by Stephen Culp of Desperate Housewives fame. According to David Hewlett, Culp and Kate Hewlett (David's real and on-screen sister) have great chemistry, great repartee. And I concur. It's a fast paced episode which you'll enjoy. I also love seeing David and Kate work together. You get the feeling their real life relationship is a lot like what we're seeing (whether it actually is or not!).

One more thing I wanted to add. The writers here are often asked how one gets into screenwriting. Well I have some info for you! Brad Wright describes his big break in a great article in Canadian Screenwriter Magazine. Now your first test will be to get a hold of this periodical. But Joe Mallozzi had the best advice. He said to buy yourself some screenwriting software and start writing speculative episodes of the shows you love. And he said it's easier to break in writing animation. So I offer that to all of you aspiring writers out there.

Ivon, by the way, has a job any Stargate fan would kill for. He interviews all the actors, directors, producers and cuts that footage in with clips of the show and other footage to make behind-the-scenes featurettes. He also does a “Directors Series” in which he follows around a director for an episode so you really get to know that director and how he works. Lastly, he does some special features that are more specific, about a particular set or stunts or visual effects. Those special features are almost like a film school, in terms of how much information you get by watching them. So if you haven’t checked them out on the DVD’s, you should! Ivon also does the web featurettes as well on this Scifi site, so you can get a taste of his work here too.

This week on Atlantis you’ll see “The Seer”. I pulled Alan out of the writer’s room and spoke to him about the episode just now. The thing he remembered most about the episode is how much it changed from inception to final execution.

Alan told me the story started out as a test of Carter’s leadership. The intention was to put her in the cross hairs, sort of a “trial by fire” situation, to see how she handles her new role as the leader of Atlantis. And the intention was to do that in a stand-alone episode involving a specific and isolated incident. Sorry to be vague here but you know the powers that be could have my job at any conceivable moment! In any case, the episode became much more about what is happening in the Pegasus Galaxy on a bigger scale – in other words, they worked the story arc of the season into the plot, interweaving it with the bigger story. I think it’s a testament to the writers that they can see the bigger picture and adapt episodes in this way.

Alan told me he really likes writing for Colonel Carter, Amanda Tapping’s character. Alan came over to Atlantis this year from SG-1, where he was on staff for several years. While on SG-1, Alan wrote some terrific “Carter” episodes, such as “Line in the Sand”, and “The Road Not Taken”. He said the challenge in “The Seer” was to give Carter a real dilemma, one in which she questions herself, but not to make her look weak-willed. After all she is the leader of Atlantis! Alan said Any Mikita did a terrific job directing. And Robert Picardo comes back in this one, reprising his role as Woolsey from the IOA.

Enjoy!

ATL

This episode and Phantoms from Season 3 are my two favourite episodes written by Carl Binder, who told me about Missing from the writer’s standpoint.

Carl said the genesis of the story was that he wanted to take some of our characters and isolate them from their technology, so it’s basically a survivor scenario. They are without weaponry and tech, and must face off against a tribe of primitive warrior types. Yes, that’s right, a NEW VILLAIN, the Bola Kai, are introduced in this episode and they’re pretty cool (look for the lollipop shot, you’ll know what I mean when you see it).

Carl also wanted to do a Teyla episode, but not like the Teyla episodes we’ve seen in the past. You see, in the past, we’ve seen Teyla in stories dealing with her mental powers, battling it out with Wraith queens. We’ve seen her kick ass in fight sequences, but we never really focus on it. Well, this time, says Carl, he wanted to push Teyla into the dark side, where she is forced to use all of her skill and power as a warrior, and make harsh moral choices along the way. So you’ll see some really great fight sequences in this one.

And, further to the ongoing discussion about the WGA strike, our Carl will be “missing” from the story department until the WGA strike is resolved. He’s WGA and resides in California (although he is a Canadian citizen), so he’ll be manning the picket lines. So be sure to give Carl a honk if you’re driving by and you see the signs.

Ciao for now.

ATL

Take this week’s episode, Tabula Rasa. It started with an idea of McKay in a room, tied to a chair, with no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. Talk about a riveting teaser! No, don’t worry – I’m not going to spoil it for you. But the tease was why they made that story.

Wait - this just in! That's actually not true. See, I wrote an earlier version of this blog and told Joe about that last paragraph, which was something Paul told me, and he said, "That's not true". So I'm fixing it! Joe told me that Alan pitched a story about the Atlantis team going offworld and getting infected by some spores or something that affects them. And Joe had always wanted to do an amnesia story. So that's how it went down. To be fair, it is hard to keep track of how these story ideas originate. Hell, many a copyright law suit has been brought from such disagreements. Anyways, THEN, and only then, did Alan come up with the cool tease. But to be fair to Paul, the tease is the most memorable part, and the story gained momentum based on that tease (some stories die in the room before they are developed unless they have a "cool" factor.

It’s also a cutting edge visual story. As you will see, the story isn’t told chronologically. It takes place in flashbacks and in the present, and it cuts back and forth quite regularly. So they decided to “treat” the cinematic look of the present day story line to differentiate it. You’ll find it’s quite “pushed”, meaning desaturated and high contrast. I love that look personally. I think you will too. Jim Menard, the DOP, did a terrific job (it was actually done in camera, not as a post-effect).

From the writer’s standpoint, Alan McCullough, who wrote the script, told me he did several drafts of the story as it is presented in the show – as in, not chronologically. But then, just before handing it in, he wondered if the story actually made sense. So he decided to take it apart and outline it chronologically, just to make sure he got the logic right. And sure enough, he found some logical wrinkles in there he had to iron out. Alan said it was a really tough write. But the result is a cool episode.

Enjoy!

ATL