Category: Atlantis

"Brain Storm": Great Minds Don't Always Think Alike

Keller and McKay in "Brain Storm"

Not that long ago, Dr. Rodney McKay and Dr. Daniel Jackson had a heart-to-heart conversation that went something like this in Martin Gero’s “First Contact”:

DANIEL
I’ve…spent the majority of my professional life being ridiculed for my theories—most of which turned out to be correct, by the way. I’m kinda used to it, Rodney.

[McKay slumps back in his chair and sighs.]

MCKAY
Doesn’t that bother you? I mean, no vindication, no recognition, no…credit?

DANIEL
Well, I could say the same thing about you. The discoveries you’ve made, you…probably could’ve won the Nobel Prize five times over by now.

MCKAY
(relaxing)
Too true. So, I guess none of us signed up to get famous, huh?

DANIEL
(deadpan)
No, we did it for the money.

[Daniel grins. McKay snickers.]

MCKAY
Good one.
(sobering)
Wait a minute—you don’t get paid more than I do, do you?

Dave Foley in "Brain Storm"

Tonight, Gero continues to address McKay’s insecurities and lack of vindication, as well as his envy of those who make more money than he does for his work, in “Brain Storm”, an episode which he also directed. McKay gets an invitation from an old science rival of his, Dr. Malcolm Tunney, portrayed by Talk Radio‘s Dave Foley, to witness the activation of Tunney’s new invention.

“Publically he’s very successful, which McKay finds incredibly galling, because McKay is like a hundred times more successful than he is, but he can’t tell anybody that,” executive producer Joseph Mallozzi told SCI FI WIRE. “He’s really annoyed. McKay wants to find out what this guy is up to. He takes this guy up on his invitation, and he invites Keller along as his date.

“They are picked up in a Lear jet and taken to this remote location where Tunney informs them that he’s been working on his own green initiative: the means to eliminate greenhouse gases by creating a bridge to alternate universes and sending the heat out that way. Which sounds incredibly familiar to McKay, because he invented it back in ‘McKay and Ms. Miller.’”

Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson

Several of science’s great minds meet at the “Carl Binder Memorial Theatre” (see Mallozzi’s weblog for the in-joke of naming this fictional location after the still living writer-producer Carl Binder and for more behind-the-scenes pictures at the high school gym location shoot), including real-life astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, who makes a cameo appearance. To top it off, Bill Nye (The Science Guy) also got an invitation! “They turned out to be a lot of fun both in front of and away from the camera, regaling the rest of the cast and crew with stories of their empirical exploits. They seemed to be as happy to be there as we were to have them,” Mallozzi wrote.

“Martin told us it was really fun having Bill and Dr. Tyson on set because they are incredibly knowledgeable about the scientific world,” script coordinator Alex Levine wrote in his scifi.com blog. “And they are both engaging and were very friendly with the crew and other actors. At one point, one of the grips asked Dr. Tyson if we really ever landed on the moon. Well, instead of sloughing him off, Dr. Tyson waited for a break in the action, went over to him, and explained the scientific evidence that backs up our lunar landing.”

After all of his invitees are settled down in the auditorium, Tunney turns on his device … and then things go terribly wrong! Tune in tonight at 9 pm (repeat at 11 pm) on the Sci Fi Channel to see how fortunate everybody is that Dr. Rodney McKay knows how to use his brain, even when in the face of a storm.

Preview Video – Beware of Spoilers! –

Solutions Coverage –

[Images from MGM. Transcript excerpt by Aurora Novarum for the Solutions Stargate Wiki.]

"Remnants": "Surface Impressions Vs Inner Realities"

Remnants

“I sat down with Joe and we had a lengthy conversation about the origins of the story,” script coordinator Alex Levine wrote in his scifi.com blog, “and in the midst of this conversation (which was going very well, by the way) something clicked and Joe realized that just talking about the origins of the story would give away the third act twist. And who wants to watch more than half of an episode knowing what the twist is? How lame would that be? So we went back to basics and started over.”

We here at Solutions encountered the same dilemma when we actually read the third act twist in the audition sides for Dr. Vanessa Conrad, played by SG-1 veteran Anna Galvin (“Collateral Damage”). So, to solve the problem, we stopped at a certain page in the sides and used writer Joseph Mallozzi’s blog entries as a guide as to how far we could go with the spoilers. “Remnants”, directed by William Waring, includes three storylines that, according to Levine, “dovetail in the conclusion.”

“First, there’s Sheppard and his mainland troubles,” Mallozzi revealed in his weblog during the production of the episode. “Then, there’s McKay and his Zelenka-assisted investigation of the mystery find. And, finally, there’s Woolsey and his good news/bad news/bizarre news day.”

Sheppard and his mainland troubles: Sheppard has flown a Puddle Jumper to the mainland of Atlantis’ new home planet and is captured and bound. He begins to try to free himself when he gets one of the biggest surprises of his life when his captor reveals himself. But how could it possibly be him—he’s supposed to be dead, shot by Sheppard himself about two years before! What’s even worse, Sheppard faces one of the darkest forms of torture that he could have ever imagined.

McKay and his Zelenka-assisted investigation: McKay flew a Puddle Jumper out of the underwater bay and recovered a device left behind in the ocean by an ancient alien race.

Woolsey and his good news/bad news/bizarre news day: Woolsey is up for his nine-month evaluation from the IOA. He’s nervous, but while entering the transporter in the city, he meets Dr. Vanessa Conrad, a scientist in her late 30’s or early 40’s who just arrived from the Apollo. She is everything he finds attractive in a woman, including her choice of recreation: Yahtzee. Woolsey and Conrad part ways on a first-name basis as he reaches the floor of his quarters, hoping that maybe Vanessa would join him there for … a meal. The doors close on her instead. The bad news? Richard learns that Vanessa’s not exactly his type after all.

There it is. You’ll just have to watch the episode tonight to the Sci Fi Channel at 9 PM (or its rerun at 11 PM) to find out what Mallozzi meant when he told Levine, “It’s about surface impressions versus inner realities.” And if that’s not telling you what the third act twist is without actually telling you what the third act twist is, I don’t know what is. …

Preview Videos – Beware of For Real Spoilers! –

Solutions Coverage –

[Image from MGM.]

SGA Spoilers: "The Prodigal" Has Returned. . .

The Prodigal

Tonight, both Stargate Atlantis and the Expedition’s “prodigal” return to the Sci Fi Channel at 9 PM (repeat at 11 PM). This episode, written by Carl Binder and directed by Andy Mikita, has been described by executive producer Joseph Mallozzi as having “mucho angst” for Teyla, and with good reason: Instead of returning “home” to ask for forgiveness and mercy, Michael (Connor Trinneer) invades Atlantis because he still wants Teyla’s son for his nefarious plans. Not only could his return spell disaster for little Torren, but also for the rest of the Expedition, the city of Atlantis itself, and possibly the entire galaxy.

Script coordinator Alex Levine relates in his scifi.com blog about how the story developed for this episode. As it turned out, it’s a progression of ideas in which the final product doesn’t resemble the initial pitch at all. Check out his blog entry “Red Shirts and Kick Boxing” for all the behind-the-scenes details.

Preview Videos – Beware of Spoilers! –

Solutions Coverage –

Other: Episode Title’s Literary Allusion –

[Image from MGM.]

Working the Beats for the Movies

Stargate Atlantis executive producer Joseph Mallozzi has just reported in his weblog, “The beat sheet for the SGA movie is in Paul [Mullie]’s hands and he has promised to work on it this weekend and put it out on Monday.” Mallozzi also reported earlier this month, “Carl [Binder] put out a preliminary beat sheet for the next SG-1 movie and will, no doubt, be expecting notes in the coming days.”

What exactly is a beat sheet? One of Mallozzi’s readers asked that very question back in February this year, so Mallozzi answered it in his “mail bag”: “A beat sheet is a general breakdown of an episode’s key moments. It can be something as simple as = Act 1: 1. The team arrives off-world and discovers the device, 2. Back on Atlantis, the device is triggered, 3. The Atlantis personnel start acting funny, 4. Everyone wakes up to discover they’ve changed gender. End of Act 1.”

What follows the beat sheet could be a revision or an outline: “The outline, on the other hand, is a fleshed-out, scene by scene breakdown of the episode.”

The process went something like this for an Atlantis episode: “Although the scripts are written individually, the formation of the story and its various beats are a team effort. Someone will pitch out a story, we’ll offer suggestions, then that person will go off and work on a beat sheet. We’ll all weigh in with our suggestions, then they may go off and flesh out the beat sheet into a proper working outline. From there, after another round of input, it’s off to script.”

Several years ago, Mallozzi published a “Production Diary” for Solutions that stepped through the production process. His current weblog is an even more detailed reference for the day-to-day procedures of producing a season of episodes (but also includes Mallozzi’s other non-Stargate subjects of interest).

Because the Atlantis movie was originally conceived as a two-part episode to follow the events from Season Five’s finale, “Enemy at the Gate”, it will probably adhere to similar production steps, but in Mallozzi’s words, “…the difference being that we’ll be able to tell our story on a much bigger, visual effects-laden, character-centered canvas.” The yet-to-be-titled movie is scheduled to be filmed in the late spring or early summer next year and then make its broadcast premiere on the Sci Fi Channel following the first ten episodes of Stargate Universe—possibly in the fall of 2009—before being distributed on DVD by MGM.

The third SG-1 movie has not yet been officially announced, however. If it follows the same production path as its two predecessors, it will be released directly to DVD. According to Mallozzi, “If all goes as planned, we should be filming both the SGA movie and the third SG-1 around the same time next year.”

Visit Solutions’ SG-1 Movies and Atlantis Movies pages for updates on the development of these two movies.

The following entries in Mallozzi’s blog were references for this article:

Flanigan, Hewlett, Picardo, Mallozzi on SGA S5

Season Five of Stargate Atlantis will return to the Sci Fi Channel on November 7, but in the meantime, there are a few interviews you can watch and read in which Atlantis stars Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, and Robert Picardo and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi make observations about what’s going on this season.

WARNING: Those who are adverse to spoilers should probably avoid the rest of this article.

MGM’s Official Stargate website has three video interviews:

Mallozzi’s interview with SFX Magazine has been excerpted in an article by David Bentley for the Coventry Telegraph in which the executive producer reveals that there will be “love, loss, betrayal, revenge, secrets revealed, exhilarating victories and crushing defeats”—and a “significant character death”—this season!

Sci Fi's Howe Comments on Franchise-Building

In Reading a Show’s Life: Many Factors Weigh into Deciding the Fate of a Popular Series, Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn of Multichannel News talked with Sci Fi president Dave Howe about building the Stargate franchise:

THE SPIN FACTOR

Creating a spinoff of a series can certainly help bolster a franchise’s longevity. For its part, Showtime has tapped Chaiken for an untitled L Word spinoff, in which the character of Alice Pieszecki (played by actress Leisha Hailey) moves on.

“I was especially interested because the way the challenge came to me was, ‘Let’s do a very different show,’ and that’s what makes me think it might actually work,” Chaiken said. “Often an audience, particularly fans of a show, will wind up being disappointed that the new show isn’t the old show. But when you’re doing something completely different, you can side-step some of those expectations.”

Another key is having a really strong creative vision, said Tomassi Lindman. “And having strong writers and strong producers, the people who are going to bring those great ideas and fresh storylines that keep a show going season after season,” she added.

Such a strong vision led Sci Fi to give the green light to executive producer Ronald Moore’s Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica; and to co-executive producers Brad [Wright] and Robert Cooper’s Stargate: Universe, the third series in the long-running Stargate franchise.

“This was a creative call to move Stargate Atlantis into [made-for-television] movies and then to launch Stargate: Universe,” said Sci Fi president Dave Howe. “Stargate SG-1 went 10 years; Stargate Atlantis is now in its fifth season; and the producers looked at the stories and how it played out and how many more iterations of that story felt right and we totally agreed with them.

“Stargate Atlantis had been great, but it was now time to think about the next chapter.”

The holy grail in terms of media and entertainment these days is franchise-building, according to Howe.

“We’re focused on it. Hollywood theatrical movies are focused on it, the level of investment that is required to develop and launch a series is, from a marketing perspective, huge,” he said. “The difficulty in terms of breaking out and attracting and sustaining that audience, if you can create something that is franchise-able, then the business model is much more powerful and much more long-term, and so much more consistent and viable, and that’s the business we’re all in.”

Sci Fi Channel currently shows reruns of Stargate SG-1, but didn’t have a say in the production of the previous SG-1 movies. This may change with the production of the third SG-1 movie, currently being penned by Brad Wright and Carl Binder. According to Thomas Vitale, senior VP of programming and original movies at Sci Fi, the network is “very interested in partnering with MGM to do additional SG-1 movies as well, and we’re talking about it.” If Sci Fi partners with MGM for the third movie, then the movie will most likely premiere on the channel before being distributed on DVD by MGM.

This is the type of arrangement that Sci Fi has with MGM to produce the first Atlantis movie, being written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. The script is still in its early stages, and filming the movie is set to start in the late spring or early summer, according to Amanda Tapping. Both the SG-1 movie and the SGA movie will be filmed at or around the same time, allowing crossover possibilities for Tapping, Michael Shanks, and Christopher Judge. Sci Fi plans to air the movie after the first half of Stargate Universe has premiered. This would put the movie’s debut in the last quarter of 2009.

In the meantime, episodes in the final season of Stargate Atlantis continue to premiere on Fridays at 9 pm Eastern (with a repeat at 11 pm). The next episode to be shown is “The Prodigal” on November 7, as the Sci Fi Channel is planning a large Halloween celebration next Friday, October 31, with their Ghost Hunters.

Stargate Universe is currently casting, building their sets, and outlining episode scripts. Co-creators and co-showrunners Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper will be joined by creative consultants Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, who also plan to write a few scripts. Filming will start in February 2009 and the two-hour pilot will premiere on the Sci Fi Channel in the summer of 2009.

Stargate Worlds, the MMORPG, is also moving along, having just started closed beta on October 15, and is scheduled for release in early 2009.

Keep up with the Stargate franchise here at Solutions and in our Stargate Wiki, which is updated with production and spoiler information for the television and movie series.

"Inquisition": The Road to Hell. . .

Sheppard stands before the Coalition Council

You’ve heard the saying “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” and tonight’s episode of Stargate Atlantis, “Inquisition”, shows how some humans of the Pegasus Galaxy perceive that the Atlantis Expedition poses more of a threat than a hope to their civilizations in their fight against the Wraith. The Expedition’s presence in the galaxy for the last five years has definitely been felt, but some of their good intentions to help the less-advantaged and preyed-upon have in actuality caused great harm. Some of the surviving human civilizations have formed a Coalition to bring the Expedition to trial and to answer for their deeds.

At first it all seems innocuous enough; the Coalition contacts the Expedition and requests Sheppard meet with them to discuss the Wraith situation. Woolsey sends Sheppard’s team with the belief that they were called in to help this group of humans, but once Sheppard’s team arrives, they are placed under arrest and charged with “crimes against the people of the galaxy.” The Coalition Council, comprised of three representatives, charges that the Expedition has been “making unilateral decisions that affect the lives of millions without consultation and without accountability.”

Once Woolsey learns of his team’s predicament through an informant, he immediately places himself before the Council to argue in the Expedition’s defense. This is the exact kind of situation for which Woolsey has trained his entire life: he is a man of law. Will his arguments win over the Council or are there other factors of which he is not aware? Will there be Hell to pay if the Expedition is removed as humanity’s most technologically advanced military power in the galaxy?

“Inquisition” was written by script coordinator Alex Levine. He’s contributed story ideas in the past (SG-1’s “Dominion” and SGA’s “The Queen”), but this is the “first dramatic live-action script” he’s written. “Here’s what I have to tell you about writing for television,” Levine relates in his scifi.com blog. “It’s tough. And even though the show you’re going to see this week, Inquisition, is a clip show, that didn’t make it any easier to write. You see, there’s a particular aspect of writing clip shows that’s extra tough, and that is the part where they move in and out of the clips. Of course Paul Mullie, who did the re-write and produced the episode, has lots of clip show experience, but this was my first attempt. And writing specs and other scripts didn’t prepare me one bit. So let’s just say it was a great learning experience.

“At the end of the day, the writing staff was very kind. They met with me on my first draft, gave me notes and some time to re-write the script. I did another draft too on another round of notes. In the writing I found some things about the characters and the story that worked well; other stuff was discarded. There’s certainly some of my writing in the finished product, but I must credit Paul Mullie and the writing staff with much of the episode’s success. And my experience is not unlike other first time writers of any show. Stargate is no exception.

“The coolest part of the show, which is always why people watch clip shows, is that you’ll get to see pretty much every cool space battle we’ve done. There’s also great acting in this one – keep your eyes open for the character of Myrus (the Council Liaison), who is played by my real life brother, Tobias Slezak (different last name). He did a great job.”

“Inquisition” premieres tonight at 9 pm Eastern on the Sci Fi Channel. There is a repeat at 11 pm.

Preview Videos – Beware of Spoilers! –

Solutions Coverage –

[Image from MGM.]

McCullough Prepares for Gemini Awards Tonight

Alan McCullough (photo by Joseph Mallozzi)
Alan McCullough (photo by Joseph Mallozzi)

Tonight, the Drama, Variety & Comedy Gala for the 23rd Annual Gemini Awards will be held in Toronto, and Stargate Atlantis writer Alan McCullough will find out if he has won for his nomination in the Best Writing in a Dramatic Series category for the Season Four episode “Tabula Rasa”.

McCullough was interviewed by his hometown Edmonton Journal about his career change from actor to writer and about his nomination. “It’s an honour,” McCullough told Isabelle Gallant for the Journal. “I feel privileged to be in the company of the other shows that are nominated. You know, you try not to put much stock into these things, but at the same time, it’s exciting.”

McCullough’s “Tabula Rasa” is up against stories for Durham County, Murdoch Mysteries, ReGenesis, and The Tudors. “The Geminis celebrate excellence in Canadian English-language television,” according to their website.

Other Stargate nominees include Best Achievement in Make-Up: Todd Masters, Leah Ehman for “The Last Man”; Best Visual Effects: Mark Savela, Marco Checa Garcia, Sebastian Greece, Shannon Gurney, Paul Hegg, Brandon Hines, Jesus Lavin, Nikolas Slotiuk, Toby Taplin, Ray Van Steenwyk for “Adrift”; and Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role: Jewel Staite for “Missing”.

To read McCullough’s interview, visit Edmonton Journal: Career turn works out for the best: Gemini nod affirms local screenwriter chose well.

MGM Features Mid-Season Two-Parter

Suited Aliens

MGM’s Official Stargate website has a few features concerning the making of Stargate Atlantis‘s mid-season two-parter, “First Contact” and “The Lost Tribe”.

The two-parter was written by Martin Gero, and he got to do some directing in second unit with Michael Shanks and David Hewlett. Gero was interviewed by MGM’s Sharon Gosling about how the writers wanted to get Dr. Daniel Jackson back to Atlantis. Gero said, “It was definitely something that I had wanted to do for quite some time, and was finally afforded the opportunity to do. My favorite Daniel stories were always the ones where he was on the treasure hunt, with puzzles and figuring out this and that. We hadn’t done that in forever.”

Michael Shanks talks more about Dr. Daniel Jackson’s return in the video interview Dr. Daniel Jackson Returns to Atlantis. Shanks seemed thrilled to reprise his role after nearly a year away from the Stargate sets and stated, “I’m always up to coming back to the Stargate universe.”

Gero, Shanks, stunt coordinator James Bamford, who played an armored alien, and Keith Arbuthnot, model maker, give a brief overview about the development of the suits “with a secret inside” in the video Designing the “New” Alien in “First Contact”.

The fifth and final season of Stargate Atlantis continues to debut new episodes on the Sci Fi Channel on Fridays at 9pm (with a repeat at 11pm). Coming up next will be Alex Levine’s “Inquisition”.

[Image from MGM.]

"Outsiders": The Needs of the Many. . .

Paul McGillion as Dr. Carson Beckett

If there is one thing that Dr. Carson Beckett, the clone, can attest to, it’s the feeling of not quite belonging—of being an outsider. Fortunately, he’s got friends who really care for him and welcomed him back, as it were. But still, feeling the guilt for his part in the refinement and release of the Hoffan Drug by Michael, his creator and captor, Beckett feels the great need to go out into the galaxy and heal people. It’s his way of making penance for the role, although forced, that he played in Michael’s bid for galactic domination at the expense of thousands of human lives.

Beckett’s work has brought him to a planet that is actually the combination of two societies: the indigenous villagers, ruled by a Council, and the Balarans, who were welcomed as neighbors after they were nearly wiped out by the plague. Although the Balarans have been welcomed into the community, they are still called “Outsiders” by the Council.

So, when the Council learns that a Wraith hive is on its way to kill those who survived the plague, their vote will play a huge role in who will live or die. Even though Sheppard offers to help all of the people to relocate temporarily to Atlantis before finding a new homeworld, the Council and the Balarans have other ideas because neither wish to leave. What unfolds is a study in human nature when people are faced with the concept of “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…or the one.” But just who will that “one” be?

“Outsiders” was written by Alan McCullough and directed by William Waring. In addition to seeing Paul McGillion return to portray the beloved Dr. Beckett, the guest cast includes several other Stargate veterans: Sean Tyson, Sarah Deakins, Tyler McClendon (who has portrayed several Wraith already this season, including Todd’s second-in-command, Kenny), and Aaron Craven. Tyson and Deakins you may readily recognize, but McClendon and Craven might be more difficult as they’ll be under Wraith prosthetic make-up.

“Outsiders” premieres tonight at 9pm Eastern on the Sci Fi Channel. There is a repeat at 11 pm.

Preview Videos – Beware of Spoilers! –

Solutions Coverage –

[Image from MGM.]