SGA 5.07 "Whispers" Episode Guide

Précis

Sheppard and Beckett join Maj. Anne Teldy’s team on a planet with one of Michael’s research facilities for the early versions of his human-iratus hybrids concealed inside a cave system. Unfortunately, the explorers have a role in setting loose creatures that hunt down each of them as they get separated in a blinding fog.

Guide | Transcript

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

The official summary is not available as this episode has not yet aired in the United States.

Spoiler Summary

Sheppard and Beckett are on their way to rendezvous with Maj. Anne Teldy’s team to see something of great interest. It’s a far walk to their destination from the Stargate, enough that Beckett complains that he’s not in shape for such a trek that included rappelling down the side of a mountain and walking through a forest. The two men compare their times in stasis pods and its effects on the body. Sheppard has Beckett beat, though, since he was in a pod for 800 years versus Beckett’s two months.

Maj. Teldy introduces Sheppard and Beckett to her team: Sgt. Dusty Wells, Capt. Alicia Vega, and Dr. Alison Porter. Once the group arrives at the destination inside a cave system, Beckett immediately recognizes it as a research facility that Michael used to create the early versions of his human-iratus hybrids. There are twelve people in stasis, but Beckett and Porter decide not to revive them until they understand their conditions first.

This kind of mission isn’t much fun for the members of the team who have no scientific interest in the discovery, but Beckett and Porter hit it off as they share in each new discovery. The two scientists request to stay the night so that they can read the records they’ve downloaded into their tablets, so Sheppard and Teldy start to make preparations in a nearby abandoned village. They meet a lone man from another village named Mirellus who was on a hunting trip when he saw them. He wanted to find out what they were doing there and to warn them about the village’s curse: villagers had begun disappearing about a year and a half ago, and eventually, the remaining villagers left because they felt that the village was cursed by some kind of creature.

Mirellus is an observant man, and he is aware that Sheppard came from the direction of the cave system, which he says is cursed by wild animals as well. But, what Mirellus stupidly does next puts everyone in tremendous danger as a blinding fog, which also affects flashlights and electronics, begins to pour in, and the team gets separated in it.

NOTE: Sgt. Dusty Wells was renamed to Sgt. Dusty Mehra.

Cast

Guest Stars

Production

Written by Joseph Mallozzi
Directed by William Waring

Production Gallery

The following are links to images concerning the production of this episode and were published by Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog:

Production Notes

"Anne Teldy writes: “Will my namesake be eaten by space cows in “Broken Ties” or are you going to torture me by making me wait for it?” Answer: Nope, not Broken Ties. Whispers maybe." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, January 31, 2008.
"The character in Search and Rescue has been changed to Captain Alicia Vega. Now DOCTOR Allison Porter will be making her debut in Whispers." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 8, 2008.
"Well, I completed all of two pages on Whispers today, finally hitting that all-important 10 page mark but, more importantly, establishing the other team: Captain Alicia Vega, Lieutenant Anne Teldy, Sergeant Dusty Wells, and Dr. Alison (with one L) Porter. Carson will be in for a treat - when he’s not fighting for his life. Come tomorrow, I’ll probably rewrite the whole thing anyway but, hey, it’s a start. A slow, laborious start." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 11, 2008.
"Speaking of which - the prosthetics meeting with Todd Master has been moved to tomorrow morning. For Whispers, I’d like something elegantly simple yet shockingly terrifying. I can’t wait to see what Todd and the gang come up with." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 11, 2008.
"I told her [Jewel Staite] she’d have to get in for 4:00 a.m. every morning so that prosthetics could get an early jump on the body cast process which would take about 3-4 hours. “The trick is not to breathe too much or let the latex touch your skin,” I advised, “as it’s not only toxic but highly corrosive. Anyway, relax and have fun with it.” She wasn’t sure whether I was kidding or not." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 11, 2008.
"Despite the delay, I got in about five minutes before the prosthetics meeting. We discussed upcoming episodes Whispers, The Daedalus Variations, The Seed, and Broken Ties. Among the subjects covered: visual versus practical effects, stunt people vs. acrobats, fog, elements of the visual we saw in Spoils of War, yogurt, and, of course, methacil." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 12, 2008.
"More slow and laborious progress on the Whispers script today, but I’m pleased to report that I am finally out of the Beckett -Porter scene. I was actually on a bit of a roll this morning (if half a page can be considered a roll - which, in my case, it can) only to be distracted by: ... the unwelcome suggestion that we shoot parts of Whispers at Fantasy Gardens..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 14, 2008. (Fantasy Gardens was the filming location for SG-1's "Revisions" and SGA's "Irresponsible".)
"Well, this week is the calm before the storm, and a golden opportunity to make some major headway on Whispers before prep begins on Broken Ties. I’m pleased to report that I’m out of Act I and making progress on Act II. Right now, I’m feeling pretty good about what I’ve got but, traditionally, the second-guessing doesn’t really begin until, oh, Act III. There’ll be a lot going on in this one production-wise and I’d like to put it out early so that we can commence the planning/hair-rending/tearful recriminating as soon as possible." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 20, 2008.
"On the script end, the past couple of days on Whispers have proven a breeze as I approach the end of Act III. I’m finally into the fun and fog and it’s utterly creeptastic. I’m hoping to complete a first draft before Thursday - when prep begins on Broken Tie." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 22, 2008.
"Read, re-read, and re-re-read the 56 pages I’ve got on Whispers so far, hoping it would put me in the proper frame of mind that would allow me to write the final scene. It didn’t." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 27, 2008.
"Said hello Paul McGillion back who dropped by the production offices on his way to his wardrobe fitting for The Seed. I pitched him Whispers. He was predictably delighted at the prospect of being stranded off-world with an all-female team." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 27, 2008.
"Well, Whispers is almost done. Almost - except for that last scene. I’ll see how I do tomorrow and if I still come up empty, I’ll just hold a contest for the best tag." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 28, 2008.
"Rejoice! For I have completed my first draft of Whispers! Finally, after three torturous weeks (one and a half of which was spent spinning my wheels on that last scene), I’m done. For now. Once the guys have had a chance to read the draft, I’m sure that’ll change. The early reviews (actually review) have been very positive. 'I think it‘s great!' raves Alex Levine." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 29, 2008.
"I received notes on Whispers, worked on the rewrite, and took a tour of some of the new construction on the FX stage." — Joseph Mallozz in his personal blog, March 4, 2008. Images from his tour of the FX stage are also included in this entry.
"Congratulations to me as I finally completed my revised writer’s draft of Whispers. I made some dialogue adjustments, changed the end of the fourth and the top of the fifth acts, lost the compasses, lost the dead end beat, lost the Land of the Lost gag, and fiddled with the act breaks. I’m loving Dusty! Oh, and congratulations to Anne Teldy on her promotion from Lieutenant to Major and command of her own team." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 5, 2008.
"I finished my rewrite on Whispers and it goes wide tomorrow. I haven’t seen everyone this excited about a script since the last one that came out(!). BamBam came by office this afternoon and he seemed quite excited at the prospect of auditioning some really unique walkers. I can’t wait." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 6, 2008.
"SusantheTartanTurtle writes: “Is Carson getting his turtles back?” Answer: The burning turtle issue will be addressed in Whispers." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 6, 2008.
"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." — Alex Levine in his scifi.com blog, March 7, 2008.
"I’m in the eye of the storm, that eerily calm period between putting out a Final Draft and receiving the network and studio notes. Although, really, “Final Draft” is a incredibly hopeful misnomer given that the Final Draft is never ever THE final draft." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 10, 2008.
"Well, received a little bad news from the Art Department on the Whispers front. Apparently, the flare sequence may not fly. The flares they tested were problematic in that they released an unmanageable amount of smoke and dripped a substance that could effectively burn through clothes. I wanted to suggest the crew just suck it up on the day (not literally of course because it turns out the flares are also highly toxic), but relented and suggested we look into alternatives. James is off to brainstorm with the model shop and hopefully come up with something less deadly but just as visually satisfying. Failing that, I’ll have to cut what is a very cool, exceptionally creepy sequence. Ah, the harsh realities of television production." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 13, 2008.
"Speaking of Whispers - I got a call from Paul McGillion yesterday who touched base to thank us for The Seed and tell me how much he’s looking forward to Whispers. Of course he says that now but his upbeat tune could change once those smog machines start running overtime." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 13, 2008.
"Brad and I await the network/studio notes on The Shrine of Talus and Whispers." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 13, 2008.
"To say that this afternoon’s notes session didn’t go well would be to seriously understate the fact. As a rule, when the person on the other end of the line begins the call by complimenting your script in general terms (ie. “We really like what you did here.” or “You used a really standout font!”), you know you’re screwed. ... Rewriting a script is like playing a game of Jenga. You try to your best to make adjustments that will not compromise the structure as a whole. But there are times when the adjustments require you to shift the blocks at the bottom and, as a result, the whole thing collapses, leaving you to sort through the scattered pieces and reassemble them over the Easter long weekend." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 17, 2008.
"I stayed up late last night wracking my brain, juggling scenes in my head into the wee hours of the morning. And then, spent most of the day trying to incorporate the notes. I feel confident I’ll be able to do most of them, but one in particular poses a problem due to military regs." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 18, 2008.
"The second round of network and studio notes should be coming my way on Whispers." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 24, 2008.
"Thank you to James Robbins who has been going all out on the designs and concept drawings for Whispers - and clearly having a hell of a time doing it. This morning, we took a stroll through the village set, the entrance to the cave network, the catacombs, the chamber, and the well. Creeptastic. We’ve done a number of “monster” episodes, but we have yet to do an out and out “horror” eppy. You know, the kind that has you sleeping with the lights on for nights to come. That’s what I’m going for." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 26, 2008.
"Well, a conference call has been scheduled for notes on the revised Whispers script. How that particular chat goes tomorrow morning will pretty much dictate my mood when it comes time to write tomorrow’s blog entry - so you’ve been warned!" — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 27, 2008.
"My notes call on Whispers went swimmingly..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 28, 2008.
"I’m very close to completing the pink pages on Whispers and, now that the script is almost bulletproof, my concerns switch to prep - and specifically the fog. We had an impromptu fog meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss the options open to us which included tenting, shooting through smoked glass, and having the VFX department help out with some visual enhancements. Also, got the first audition streams for Teldy and Dusty, and am very, very pleased with the candidates so far. Round two tomorrow." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 3, 2008.
"Will Waring was the director [of "The Seed"], and he has such an understated humour and a clear vision of what he wants, so it’s always a pleasure to work with him. In fact, he’s directing the next episode we find Carson in, “Whispers”, which is a lot of Becektt and Sheppard on a planet with an all-female SG team, thank you very much. Sorry, no ladies for McKay this time." — Paul McGillion in TV Zone interview, excerpts in Solutions Blog, April 4, 2008.
"With prep on Whispers less than a week away, I decided to do a little research to put me in the proper frame of mind. And so, over the weekend, I picked up my research materials - I Am Legend, The Mist, 30 Days of Night, 28 Weeks Later, and The Devil’s Backbone - figuring I’d finally put out those pink pages this morning and then spend the next couple of days getting creeping out. Alas, ‘twas not to be. We had our last Whispers casting session this morning...I never did get around to putting out those pinks. Maybe tomorrow. Nonetheless, a productive day in that we have made our final choices on Teldy, Dusty, and Porter. As Marty G. put it: “It’s going to be a really strong cast.” Once the deals have been closed, I’ll let you know all about ‘em." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 8, 2008.
"So what scares you? ... The “unseen” is far more frightening than the “revealed” because Hollywood’s best visceral creations have got nothing on what the imagination can conjure up. And, when it comes to the revealed (because, let’s face it, there’s nothing more dissatisfying than being teased and not rewarded by even the briefest of glimpses behind the dark curtain) the familiar is scarier than the unfamiliar. But I’d argue that what is far more horrifying than either is the…not-quite familiar…Which brings us to Whispers…" — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 9, 2008.
"I continue my “research” for Whispers...Speaking of which - the deals have been closed and we finally have our guest cast in place. And quite the kick-ass guest cast it is: Major Anne Teldy… Christina Cox (http://www.christinacox.com/); Captain Alicia Vega… Leela Savasta (http://www.leelasavasta.ca/); Sergeant “Dusty” Mehra… Janina Gavankar (http://www.janinagavankar.com/); Dr. Alison Porter… Nicole de Boer (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0207498/)" — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 11, 2008.
"Well, as expected, reaction to the Whispers casting news has ranged from excitement and anxious anticipation to “Hey, Joe. Couldn’t you cast anyone hideous?” Well, sure, we could have - but rather than basing our casting decision on looks, we chose to pick the best actress for each of the three roles. ... Over the hiatus, I pitched out the idea of introducing an all-female team as a means of addressing the male-female imbalance on the show. I would introduce them in an early script and whoever survived the episode could potentially be brought back as a recurring character. As Martin started work on the season premiere, Search and Rescue, he suggested he introduce one of the team members in his episode - a character that eventually became Captain Alicia Vega." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 12, 2008. The majority of this entry is dedicated to the all-female team and finding their actors. As to whether or not they'll be recurring, Mallozzi stated, "That depends on a lot of things. First and foremost = who survives the episode."
"Prep begins tomorrow on Whispers. Looks like it’s going to be a full day: 8:30 (Concept meeting), 12:00 (Art Department meeting), 13:30 (Prosthetics meeting), 14:00 (Costumes meeting), 15:30 (Props meeting). The second Fog Test has been moved to later in the week." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 13, 2008.
Filming of the episode is to start next Tuesday (April 22). — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 14, 2008.
"We kicked things off with a 90 minute concept meeting during which we went through the script, scene by scene, and adopted a game plan. Two sets of costumes, five stunt people, Porter packs a 9 mill, flying balsa wood can be dangerous, we’re going with mannequins, and glow sticks are go. Our main concern remains the fog. It shouldn’t be as heavy as what we had on stage 6, but it needs to be a lot thicker than what appeared in Morpheus. Hopefully, our late week fog test will allow us to find a happy medium. ... We followed the concept meeting with the art department meeting that clocked in at a whopping, soul-sucking 90 minutes as well. Here, we discussed the possibility of tenting certain areas of the FX stage for those heavy fog sequences (ie. the reveals). ... Next up was the prosthetics meeting. Like I said in a previous entry: the more eerily familiar, the more unsettling. ... After lunch, we had the costumes meeting. We need THEIR look to be broken down, but we need his look to be mid-season 3-ish. Teldy’s team will be in their off-world blacks. ... And, finally, we finished the day with the props meeting (starring Evil Kenny, natch). We’re going earth tech with the opening PFD, tablets over laptops, and P-90’s in full force. We’re going to try to get the ladies in early so that we can put them through gun school. ... Today, we had our VFX/Playback meeting. Mostly generics for the playback and some split screen translations. On the visual effects, I flagged sections in the script in which we might try some visual enhancement on the fog. Mark Savela, ever the optimist, assured us everything was going to work out with the practical fog and that it would require little, if any, enhancement from his department. More of a pessimist myself, all I really hope for is an episode that finishes on-schedule. ... We also had our extras meeting, during which I politely turned down the role of the twitcher." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 15, 2008.
"8:00 a.m. stunts and SPFX meeting this morning with Bam Bam, Wray, and Scott during which we discussed candy glass, ratchets, and squibs. We’ve also finally set a time for our second fog test = 6:00 a.m. on Friday! The whole thing will take about three hours after which we should have a pretty good idea of how much actual fog we’ll need to make the scenes work. As John Smith pointed out, it can go one of two ways. The fog could prove a frustrating complication and slow us down, or it could prove incredibly forgiving and allow us to breeze through the shots. ...This afternoon, I worked on the green pages for Whispers ... I promise: no knife-wielding maniacs, no stupid victims, no running around screaming (unless it’s Sheppard). ... I’ll admit that one of the reasons I wanted this team of potentially recurring characters for this episode is that the audience won’t know what to expect. They can be pretty certain that Sheppard and Beckett may survive the experience but as for any of other four… In this particular case, the fact that they’re female is less important than the fact that, as guest cast, there’s no telling who will make it out alive. ... I intend to be on set for the shooting of this episode so, yes, plenty of behind-the-scenes pics, video, and commentary coming your way." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 16, 2008.
Sheppard's Delight asks: "I understand that you are filming Whispers next week. Is this going to have a lot of action or stunts that you will be involved in? Anything good for Sheppard coming up???" Answer: "Yes.....lots of stunts and stunt people in "Whispers".....and yes.....Lots of good ol' Shep." — James Bamford in his GW Q&A thread, April 17, 2008.
Joseph Mallozzi's April 18 blog entry is dedicated to the fog test, which went well.

SGA 5.07 "Whispers" Episode Guide

Contents

Précis

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

Spoiler Summary

Cast

Guest Stars

Production

Production Gallery

Related Articles

Keywords

Other

Related Links

Production Notes

Further Reading

Navigation menu

SGA 5.07 "Whispers" Episode Guide

Précis

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

Spoiler Summary

Cast

Guest Stars

Production

Production Gallery

Related Articles

Keywords

Other

Related Links

Production Notes

Further Reading

Navigation menu

Search