Tag: Alaina Huffman

Stargate Planner: Week of May 17-23

You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below. We’ll update this article if something comes to our attention during the week.

Calendar

Monday, May 17 Ming-Na returns to her role as Judge Linda Harris in the episode “Gumby with a Pokey” in Two and a Half Men on CBS at 9 PM ET.
Tuesday, May 18 Stargate Universe “Sabotage” on the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM.
Wednesday, May 19
Thursday,
May 20		 Today, The CW is holding their Upfronts and they’ll announce whether or not Ben Browder will be appearing weekly as a regular cast member of Tom Welling’s Hellcats. The word is that this show is a strong contender. ETA: The CW did pick the series up, but Browder has decided not to appear in it. Instead, he will be pursuing some film projects that have become available to him.
Friday,
May 21		 Stargate Universe “Pain” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM.

Stargate Universe “Subversion” on Syfy at 9 PM ET (Canada’s Space has delayed it until May 28 at 10 PM ET). Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks guest star!

Torri Higginson‘s turn as Beatrice in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing ends tonight at A Noise Within theatre in Glendale, California.

Saturday, May 22
Sunday, May 23

News Notes

There have been several recent interviews with Alaina Huffman and David Blue that cover the end of Season One and into Season Two of Stargate Universe:

Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. These articles don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:

Reminders

For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.

Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.

For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.

Reminder: Shanks, Huffman in "Smallville" Finale Tonight (May 14)

Alaina Huffman as The Black Canary (The CW)Michael Shanks as Hawkman in SMALLVILLE (The CW)

Alaina Huffman as The Black Canary and Michael Shanks as Hawkman in SMALLVILLE (The CW)

Before you tune into SGU’s episode “Pain” tonight (May 14) at 9 PM ET on Syfy, check out the season finale of Smallville at 8 PM ET on The CW! You’ll be seeing Stargate stars Michael Shanks and Alaina Huffman reprising their superhero roles in cameos in “Salvation”. Stargate SG-1 veteran Britt Irvin will also be making a cameo as Star Girl, a role she established in Smallville: Absolute Justice.

Smallville has been renewed for a tenth season, so will we be seeing any of these actors return? Luckily, we’ve heard from both Huffman and Shanks about their characters’ arcs.

Huffman was interviewed by Movie Web and she was very generous in her response (Stargate Universe is also covered in this interview, so beware of spoilers). “I was up there shooting a few weeks ago and I was kind of probing the producers to see what was going on with season ten. They weren’t giving me any information so I hope my character makes an appearance in the tenth season as well. I do have a nice hiatus over the winter from Stargate Universe where I could make a few appearances so I’ve made my pitch to them. I’m hoping I will get to go back because it’s a lot of fun to work on and Black Canary is just a great character. … I definitely feel like aside from the Black Canary character that Dinah and Ollie have a whole history from the comics to explore. … It would be something interesting, if not to explore in the tenth season of Smallville, I have a feeling that they may do something after that. Not necessarily Smallville but they have all these sets and I think they may do something along those lines.”

Shanks attended the Vulcan Event in Florida recently (video at Wormhole Riders) and he briefly discussed Hawkman’s future. “I’m not sure about next year; I know that there has been some dialogue about it, but I’m not sure what’s going on with that. But, I expect to see him next year, maybe not full time, but possibly guest.”

Since the episode summary and video promo might be considered spoilers, we’ve included them under spoiler cuts for safety:

[spoiler intro=”Episode Promo”]

[/spoiler]
[spoiler intro=”TV GUIDE SUMMARY”] Zod claims to be the Blur and asks Lois to steal the Book of Rao from Clark; Lois asks Clark for full disclosure, but he refuses; Oliver disappears while he and Chloe attempt to fight the Kandorians by reconnecting Watchtower’s satellites; Tess is seriously injured after confronting Zod; and Clark and Zod have a showdown as they battle for Earth.[/spoiler]

Ask Alaina Huffman Your Questions

Once again, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi is opening his weblog up to fan questions directed to someone attached to the production of Stargate Universe. This time, you’re invited to ask Alaina Huffman (Lt. Tamara Johansen) your questions:

I begin today’s entry with another BIG guest blogger announcement. As you all know, Jamil Walker Smith and Elyse Levesque have your questions and are furiously working away on them, also managing to squeeze in time for their full-time jobs on Stargate: Universe. So to those of you asking – yes, they’re working on ‘em and should have their answers back our way…soon-ish. In the meantime, while we’re waiting, let’s put another Q&A into play…

Actress Alaina Huffman (SGU’s Tamara “TJ” Johansen) wants to hear from YOU. Yes, YOU. NOT that other guy or gal, but YOU. So if you have a question for Alain, post away. I’ll be gathering them up over the course of the next few days and will be sending them her way by week’s end – after which I’ll start collecting questions for yet another guest blogger!

To submit your questions, do the following:

  1. Go to this entry in Mallozzi’s weblog: Alaina Huffman wants to hear from YOU!
  2. Scroll all the way down until you get to the comments section.
  3. Fill in the form. Make sure to proofread your entry because you won’t have a chance to edit it after you submit it.
  4. Click on “Submit Comment”.

Mallozzi reviews all comments before they get posted, so it might take a little while for your entry to make it through.

Stargate Planner: Week of May 10-16

You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below.

Calendar

Monday, May 10
Tuesday, May 11 Stargate Universe “Lost” on the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM.

Claudia Black guest stars as Velvet Road on NCIS in the episode “Borderland” on CBS at 8 PM ET.

Paul McGillion guest stars as Dr. Lawrence Parker on V in the episode “Fruition” on ABC at 10 PM ET.
Wednesday, May 12
Thursday,
May 13
Friday,
May 14		 Stargate Universe “Sabotage” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM.

Michael Shanks, Alaina Huffman, and Britt Irvin reprise their superhero roles in the season finale of Smallville, “Salvation”, on The CW at 8 PM ET. To see the network’s promo, visit our LJ Companion.

Stargate Universe “Pain” on Syfy at 9 PM ET and on Space at 10 PM ET.

Saturday, May 15
Sunday, May 16 Beau Bridges and his daughter Emily will close their play Acting: The First Six Lessons tonight at Threatre West. The two did a segment on The Bonnie Hunt Show concerning this play, the video for which can be viewed in our LJ Companion.

News Notes

Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. These articles don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:

Reminders

For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.

Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.

For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.

Stargate Planner: Week of May 3-9

You might be interested in these news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below.

Calendar

Monday, May 3
Tuesday, May 4 Stargate Universe “Human” on the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM.
Wednesday, May 5
Thursday,
May 6		 Today is Kavan Smith (Maj. Evan Lorne)‘s birthday! His most recent project of note is Red, Syfy’s adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood. SyfyMovies posted a twitpic that includes Smith along with other cast members. Red is due to premiere in 2011.
Friday,
May 7		 Stargate Universe “Lost” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM.

Stargate Universe “Sabotage” on Syfy at 9 PM ET and on Space at 10 PM ET.

Saturday, May 8 Sean Patrick Flanery in the premiere of Syfy’s Mongolian Death Worm at 9 PM PT.
Sunday, May 9 Robert Picardo, Armin Shimerman, and John Billingsley are three of the four “Bald(ing) Eagles of Star Trek” who are taking part in a birdwatching adventure to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Los Angeles’ Audubon Society. There may still be time for you to join them, so check out the links in the article for more information.

News Notes

On our Stargate Wiki front, we’ve created episode guides for the first ten episodes of Season Two of Stargate Universe. This means that all episodes in the first half of the season have names. Filming for the first five episodes has pretty much been wrapped up, and these episodes will next go into the post-production process that includes adding visual effects and a soundtrack.

Last week, we posted a few background articles in our LJ Companion that you might be interested in. These articles don’t have a companion piece in our News Blog here:

  • Stargate Planet has a brief interview with Patrick Gilmore, who has had several Stargate roles and can currently be seen as Dr. Dale Volker on Stargate Universe.
  • Voting closes May 28 for the Vancouver YWCA’s Connecting the Community Award for which Amanda Tapping has been nominated.
  • Website benzinga.com has a press announcement that states that Joe Flanigan‘s latest film A Good Day For It (you might be able to catch a glimpse of Flanigan in the trailer at this link), which also stars SGA’s Robert Patrick (Col. Marshall Sumner), has been picked up for distribution.
  • A new trailer for David Hewlett‘s movie Splice has been released and it is very intense, so be warned. The movie is coming to theaters June 4.
  • Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks a little about his cameo in SGA’s “Brain Storm” in this video Q&A.
  • The Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan conducted an interview with George R. R. Martin, the author of the fantasy book series on which Jason Momoa‘s HBO series Game of Thrones is based. The new show is coming in early 2011.
  • Smallville executive producer Brian Peterson gave Digital Spy a few hints about the show’s upcoming season finale “Salvation” in which Stargate stars Michael Shanks, Alaina Huffman, and Britt Irvin will reprise their superhero roles. “Salvation” is scheduled to air on Friday, May 14, on The CW at 8 PM ET.
  • Comic book author Brandon Jerwa did an interview with First Comics News concerning Issue #3 in the Stargate: Vala Mal Doran series being published by Dynamite. To see a list of all of Dynamite’s Stargate comic books, click on this link.
  • Rachel Luttrell posted to her blog in the middle of last month to give her fans an update on what she’s been doing. She’s working on her own production, a project called Nothing Ventured, and is about to record a CD later this month!
  • A picture of Torri Higginson has been used to illustrate an article in the LA Times entitled “Three local companies receive NEA grants to help kids brush up on their Shakespeare.” Higginson is portraying Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at the A Noise Within theatre in Glendale, California, until May 21.

Reminders

For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.

Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.

For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.

Stargate Universe Gets Constellation Award Nominations

Stargate Universe has been nominated in two categories in this year’s Constellation Awards, “Canada’s annual science fiction awards focused on rewarding excellence in science fiction film and television. Now in its fourth year, The Constellation Awards celebrate and honour the actors, writers, and technical artists behind the best of today’s science fiction film and TV works – with an added focus on Canadian contributions to science fiction film and television.” The Canadian viewing public gets to select the nominees and winners in all categories.

The two categories in which SGU has nominations:

Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2009: Competing against Being Erica, Defying Gravity, Doctor Who, FlashForward, Sanctuary, and Supernatural.

Best Overall 2009 Science Fiction Film or Television Script: For Robert C. Cooper’s “Time”. Going up against Being Erica “Leo” (Jana Sinyor), Defying Gravity “Kiss” (James Parriott), District 9 (Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell), FlashForward “No More Good Days” (David S. Goyer & Brannon Braga), and Torchwood “Children Of Earth: Day 1” (Russell T. Davies).

Additionally, Amanda Tapping has been nominated for Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television in 2009 for her roles as executive producer and actor in Sanctuary. She’s up against Stargate alum Damian Kindler, who is also a producer and writer for Sanctuary. Tapping has also been nominated for Best Female Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode for the Sanctuary episode “Veritas”, while her co-star (and also Stargate alum) Agam Darshi has been nominated for her performance in “Penance” (as a sidenote, “Penance” was the episode in which Michael Shanks guest starred and with whom Darshi shared the majority of her scenes).

Make sure to visit The Constellation Awards for the complete list of nominees. The 2010 Constellation Awards ceremony will be held at Polaris 24 on July 17, 2010. SGU’s Alaina Huffman is also scheduled to appear there.

Stargate Planner: Week of April 12-18

There are some news tidbits and announcements that have been noted on this editor’s calendar and notebook that maybe you’d be interested in for this week. If you’ve got more to add, please don’t hesitate to announce them in the comment section below.

Calendar

Monday, April 12
Tuesday, April 13 Stargate Universe returns to the UK’s Sky One at 8:00 PM with “Space”.
Wednesday, April 14 Today is Robert Carlyle‘s birthday!
Thursday, April 15 The Official Stargate Convention in Vancouver kicks off today and lasts until Sunday, April 18. Make sure to visit Creation Entertainment for the latest in the schedule, which includes appearances by Michael Shanks, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell, Brian J. Smith, Elyse Levesque, David Blue, Mark Burgess, Peter Williams, N. John Smith, Cliff Simon, Colin Cunningham, Christopher Heyerdahl, Dan Payne, Dan Shea, James Bamford, and Andee Frizzell.
Friday, April 16 Stargate Universe “Divided” on Australia’s Sci Fi Channel at 8:30 PM.

Stargate Universe “Faith” on Syfy at 9 PM ET and on Space at 10 PM ET.

Lou Diamond Phillips will be attending the Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) for the first screening of his movie Transparency at 10:30 PM.

Jewel Staite will be appearing at the Anaheim Comic Con, which starts today and ends on April 18. Several actors who appeared in supporting roles will also be in attendance.
Saturday, April 17 Today is Alaina Huffman‘s birthday!
Sunday, April 18 Today is David Hewlett‘s birthday!

News Notes

Unfortunately, Corin Nemec‘s web series Star-ving did not win the Audience Choice Award for which it had been nominated in the Second Annual Streamy Awards. The award went to Agents of Cracked. You can see a list of all of the nominees and winners at Mashable.com.

Stargate SG-1 character-focused comic books are being developed by Dynamite. Stargate: Vala Mal Doran is written by Brandon Jerwa and involves Vala in an “Ocean’s Eleven” type heist. It’s supposed to be released in May. Stargate: Daniel Jackson, written by Doug Murray, focuses on Jackson’s “voice of reason” and intellect while going on a classic SG-1 adventure.

On our Twitter, we provided a link to Chicago Tribune‘s Maureen Ryan’s review of the Supernatural episode in which Michael Shanks briefly appeared. Do you agree with those among Ryan’s readers that his role was way too small (although he did warn us that it would be so)?

Reminders

For news as it happens, make sure to visit the Stargate Twitter Superfeed for tidbits directly from the Stargate stars and production crew. And don’t forget our new feature Beyond the Event Horizon, which consists of “home pages” with dynamic feeds from our LJ and Blog for the stars of SG-1 and Atlantis.

Our LJ Companion has news bites, polls, and glimpses into the lives of the actors that we don’t necessarily cover here in our more formal news blog. Make sure to visit the LJ’s feed on our front page or visit the site directly to see its mostly fun little tidbits.

For the latest in convention appearances, which are subject to change, make sure to visit Stargate Actor Appearances.

Alaina Huffman Returning for "Smallville" Season Finale

Alaina Huffman as The Black Canary (The CW)
Alaina Huffman as The Black Canary (The CW)
Before she was Lt. Tamara Johansen in Stargate Universe, Alaina Huffman was Dinah Lance/The Black Canary in Smallville. Comic Book Movie has confirmed with the studio that Huffman will return to Smallville in this season’s finale, “Salvation”, currently scheduled to air May 14 (The CW, 8 PM ET).

Smallville is currently in their ninth season and has been renewed for a tenth.

According to her IMDb profile, Huffman has appeared in three episodes thus far. Her first appearance was in “Siren” in the show’s seventh season, and her last appearance was in the season finale for Season Eight, “Doomsday”.

Huffman is also currently filming episodes in Season Two of Stargate Universe.

13-4-13: Stargate Universe 1.0, Feature Wrap-Up

SGU Season One Cast

It’s hard to believe, but that time has arrived! We’ve reached the final installment of our Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) series. You know what that means? That means that new episodes of Stargate Universe resume next week on Friday, April 2, at 9 PM ET/PT on Syfy! Canadians watching Space will also see it on April 2 at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT. Australians getting Sci Fi will see it April 9, and UKers getting Sky One, April 13! (For more information on these schedules, visit the Stargate Universe main page in our Stargate Wiki.)

In the meantime, let’s look back at the beginning of the third series in the Stargate franchise. Premise-wise, Stargate Universe had been in the making for several years, first as a stand-alone Stargate movie, then as a series. Brad Wright told The Official Magazine, “The germ of Stargate Universe began as a movie by Robert Cooper [series co-creator/executive producer], as do many of our ideas. We always come up with a movie, pitch it to MGM, and they say, ‘Terrific, let’s make it a TV show.’ When we were spinning the film idea, we knew deep down that Universe was really a series because it had so much scope.

“Oddly enough we pitched Universe a couple of years before we actually thought we were going to end up doing it. We went to the Syfy Channel with the idea and it appeared to be really well-received, but then a very long time went by without us hearing anything more. At one point we thought, ‘Oh, well, it looks like it’s not going to happen,’ and then we received the series order. It came as a little bit of a surprise. Honestly, I expected Atlantis to go another year, and then we’d either have another year before Universe started up, or we would just wind up doing a couple more direct-to-DVD Stargate movies. Now, however, we’re doing Universe, which, believe me, is great.”

Getting down to the driving force behind the change in Stargate‘s proven 15-season signature of maintaining a sense of humor while not taking themselves too seriously, co-creator Robert C. Cooper explained to the Canadian Screenwriter Magazine, “What I really wanted to do was to shake up the approach to the show. I wanted us to move stylistically in a very different direction. We had made a plot-driven, action adventure show previously. The characters were fun and interesting, and one of the key reasons people liked the shows was because of the characters, but when people tuned in they knew what to expect: the crew would get into some trouble, go through the gate, have an adventure and then come home after saving the world. I don’t mean it in a derogatory sense, but it was a comic-book adventure, with larger-than-life bad guys, all about bad vs. good—very broad, primary colours. I felt like we had done as much of that as we could possibly do.

“I pitched the idea of doing something slightly more real as a character drama. It’s a sci-fi show: you’re still dealing with space ships. But I wanted the characters to feel real.”

Reaction to this change in format has been mixed, but ultimately, the first season of Stargate Universe has been deemed successful enough that a 20-episode second season was ordered (and is currently filming). Stargate Universe indeed is quite different in style, but still at the heart of it is the foundation laid in the previous twelve years’ worth of work done for both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

Universe Season 1.0

If you haven’t had a chance to watch SGU 1.0, there’s going to be a marathon on Syfy to lead into the new episodes on Friday, April 2, starting at 11:00 AM ET!

The SGU Ensemble Cast

Cast interviews have been aplenty for the newest Stargate! Here at Solutions, we’ve reported on several, both here in the Solutions Blog and at our less-formal LJ Companion. Recently, we’ve added tags to both places that will lead you directly to the reports. We’ve also started actor and character biographies in the Stargate Wiki. Click on the following links to get you to your favorite’s entries (clicking on the image will get you to our Gallery’s larger version):

Robert Carlyle as Dr. Nicholas Rush

Robert Carlyle
(Dr. Nicholas Rush)
 Louis Ferreira as Col. Everett Young

Louis Ferreira
(Col. Everett Young)
 Brian J. Smith as Lt. Matthew Scott

Brian J. Smith
(Lt. Matthew Scott)
Elyse Levesque as Chloe Armstrong

Elyse Levesque
(Chloe Armstrong)
 David Blue as Eli Wallace

David Blue
(Eli Wallace)
 Alaina Huffman as Lt. Tamara Johansen

Alaina Huffman
(Lt. Tamara Johansen)
Jamil Walker Smith as MSgt. Ronald Greer

Jamil Walker Smith
(MSgt. Ronald Greer)
 Ming-Na as Camile Wray

Ming-Na
(Camile Wray)
 Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. David Telford

Lou Diamond Phillips
(Col. David Telford)

Solutions

Did you enjoy our journey through the years of Stargate in this Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years series? Would you like to see more series of this type in the future? If so, what would you like to see? Let us hear from you in the comment section below, or contact us through our e-mail address. Thanks. 🙂