Although produced in Canada, Stargate Atlantis is not immune to the effects of the strike begun this week by the Writers Guild of America against television and motion picture productions. Members of the union are obliged to go on strike unless they work and reside in another country. Stargate writer and producer Carl Binder is a WGA member, and although he is Canadian and works in Vancouver, his residence is in Los Angeles. That rule, in addition perhaps to his loyalty to the cause of the union, forced him to leave Bridge Studios this week after completing his duties as a producer for Season 4, as both Joe Mallozzi and Alex Levine have noted. Carl will not participate in writing episodes for upcoming Season 5 until the strike ends, a big loss to the production and to fans.
Carl joins thousands of union members and many sympathetic actors and producers on the picket lines in Los Angeles. Beau Bridges, SG-1’s General Landry, was on hand with a sign earlier this week (pictured above and at NYTimes.com).
At the core of the dispute is whether and how much writers should be paid when content they write is sold on DVDs or shown on the internet. Currently writers receive $0.04 per DVD sold, literally pennies, and are paid nothing from sales on iTunes, nor for airings on network websites, even when the on-line versions have paid advertisements. In this YouTube video, writers from the popular show The Office describe how they wrote 11 “webisodes” of the show that ended up winning an Emmy award. NBC still provides the webisodes on its website for free, with paid advertisements from which they profit. Yet, the network classified the webisodes as “promotions” and never paid any of the writers for their efforts, nor have they even paid for the Emmy trophies that are due the writers. Steve Carell, the lead actor on the show and also a writer for it, refused to cross the picket lines and did come to work to film this week.
This is not an unusual case. As Battlestar Galactica producer Ron Moore describes in this interview, the Resistance webisodes became a great source of contention between Sci Fi Channel and the production, over payment and credit. Ron Moore is walking the picket line.
In fact it’s hard to find anyone who isn’t on the side of the writers, from film crew to actors and even show runners. Producer Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) posted to Whedonesque about why he supports the writers:
… when it comes to the internet and the emerging media there’s nothing there for the artists. There’s no precedent; these media didn’t exist the last time a contract was negotiated. We’re not just talking about an unfair deal, we’re talking about no deal at all. Four cents from the sale of a DVD (the standing WGA deal) sounds exactly as paltry as it is, but in a decade DVD may have gone the way of the eight-track. We have to protect the rights of the people who tell the stories, however they’re told.
… This is an era of change, and for the giant conglomo-tainment empires, it will either be the Renaissance or the Ice Age. Because we will not stand down. Writers can be replaced, as we are constantly reminded. But so can companies. Power is on the move, and though in this town it’s been hoarded by very few, there are other companies with newer ideas about how to make money off of — or possibly, wonderfully, with — the story-tellers.
There’s no question the impact of this strike is huge, to television viewers and to the many thousands of people who are paid directly or indirectly by the industry. Talk shows such as The Daily Show and David Letterman are already in reruns. Many scripted series will stop filming soon, and others won’t start; the full impacts are listed here. As productions shut down, crews will be laid off and related businesses impacted as well. WGA is aware of the impact, and also that other unions stand to benefit once a fair deal for writers is completed.
Sci Fi projects, including those of Sci Fi Channel, which carries Stargate in the U.S., are not escaping the tumult. Only 10 of the needed 20 Battlestar Galactica episodes have been written, and writing for the third season of Eureka will also be impacted if not halted. Although these shows are filmed in Canada, it’s fair to assume a significant number of their writers are American.
A Farscape convention attendee reported that Ben Browder said his upcoming project, presumably the Going Homer miniseries, would be affected. It’s not clear whether filming of the project by Chris Judge and Michael Shanks, Rage of Angels, will be delayed, since Judge is reported to have already written it.
As Stargate fans, we’re grateful our show is not as heavily impacted as others, and we hope that a fair nationwide resolution can be reached soon.
To read about the strike from the writers’ perspective, visit UnitedHollywood.com.