SGA 5.09 "Tracker" Episode Guide

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Précis

Keller is abducted by the Runner Kiryk who brought the Wraith to a village on a planet where she, McKay, and Ronon were visiting. After helping the villagers to safety, McKay and Ronon set out to rescue Keller, running into booby traps left by the Runner along the way.

Guide | Transcript

MGM/SciFi.com Official Summary

McKay and Ronon, each unaware of the other’s motive, volunteer to assist Dr. Jennifer Keller with a medical follow-up away from Atlantis. But once in the settlement, a nervous child patient prompts Keller to ask Ronon and McKay to wait for her in the local tavern while she finishes her treatment.

Later, when the pair return, they are surprised to learn that she left sometime ago. An exhaustive search of the village turns up no sign of her. But a set of footprints in the dirt just past the village confirms Ronon’s mounting suspicion that Keller has been kidnapped.

Ronon, wasting no time, begins to track her abductor while McKay runs back to the stargate to radio for assistance. But just as he reaches the DHD, four Hunter Wraith come through the gate and fan out in separate directions. Ronon, knowing full well that these Wraith exist to chase Runners, suspects there is a connection to Dr. Keller’s disappearance. And he knows he must draw on his uncommon skills as a former Runner if he is to save her.

Modified by Solutions.

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

Video Interviews:

Production Notes

  • "Carl is going to jump on #8 (interesting developments in this one that had Priscilla and the gang at MGM very excited)" — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, January 20, 2008.
  • "Gave Carl notes on his revised beat sheet for Tracker. My one big cover note: Change the guy’s name. Clearly frustrated, Carl informed me he was open to suggestions. I consulted the list of ingredients listed on the packaged mixed nuts sitting on the coffee table, immediately coming up with the inspired 'Peanutia'." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, February 27, 2008.
  • "Carl works on Tracker..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 4, 2008.
  • "Carl continues work on Tracker..." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 13, 2008.
  • "Carl put out his first draft of Tracker today. In a word: awesome! McKay and Ronon make a terrific team." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 19, 2008.
  • "Carl put out a first draft of Tracker late Wednesday so we should have notes for him first thing Tuesday morning. Or maybe third thing Wednesday afternoon." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 24, 2008.
  • "As predicted, we didn’t get around to giving Carl his notes on Tracker. Maybe tomorrow." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 25, 2008.
  • "Thank you to Carl for his continuing patience. We didn’t get around to giving him notes on Tracker today either. Maybe tomorrow." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, March 26, 2008.
  • Keller’s Patient writes: “What’s Jason on about a Ronon/Keller/Mckay scramble? Is this just an episode or a season long plotline, Joe??” Answer: "Tracker." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 9, 2008.
  • "Carl, meanwhile, has been running his Tracker prep on a parallel track. He’ll pop his head into my office and inform me: “You’re up!”. I’ll head into the conference room, have my meeting, then stroll by his office and tell him: “You’re turn!” He disappears into the conference room and then, an hour later, tags me in passing. I’m in!" — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 15, 2008.
  • "Casting continues for Tracker. ... Otherwise, the front half offers up some great team-episodes as well as episodes which go a long way toward cementing the bonds of friendship between our various players (... Ronon and McKay in Tracker are a few that immediately come to mind)." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, April 17, 2008.
  • "Looking forward to some great outdoors fun in the lovely and talented Carl Binder's episode "Tracker". Will Warring (who some of you may know as the camera operator on "A Dog's Breakfast"...okay, and he directed a few Atlantis episodes too apparently ;-) will bring his usual wicked sense of humour and Zenlike calm as Director (when I'm not trying to avoid biting bugs, I will bring down my merciless teasing upon him). Carl has decided to throw the whole episode at one on one time between Ronan and McKay as they try to rescue Keller from a mysterious new fella! Action and banter galore...can't wait (where's the bug spray?)!" — David Hewlett in his blog, April 28, 2008.
  • "Fortunately, it was only a half day for me as, by early afternoon, the three Whispers scenes were completed and the focus shifted to Tracker. While I would have loved to stick around for this one, I thought it would be presumptuous of me to be making producorial decisions on Carl’s episode." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, May 1, 2008.
  • "There are a number of standalone episodes that contain bigger arc elements (ie. The Seed, Broken Ties, Whispers, Tracker, The Queen) in addition to your one-offs (Daedalus Variations, The Shrine)." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, May 19, 2008.
  • "Wow! All I can say is these are going to be some seriously great Atlantis episodes! It feels like only yesterday we wrapped up "The Shrine" and now we've knocked off "Tracker" a great Ronan, McKay and Keller episode with some great stuff from our mysterious "Kiryk"!" — David Hewlett in his blog, May 23, 2008.
  • "Along with Tracker, of course. We screened Will’s director’s cut this morning and, boy, this one is a lot of fun. McKay and Ronon team up, Keller kicks ass, and guest star Mike Dopud squares off with Jason in a particularly memorable throw-down." — Joseph Mallozzi in his personal blog, May 28, 2008.
  • David: "What is your favourite Stargate Atlantis, or SG1, episode that you have worked on?" Answer: "Well......there have been just too many to mention.....Sateda? Missing? Tracker? I can't just say one......there are many, many more!!" — James Bamford in his GW Q&A, June 1, 2008.
  • “They are definitely pursuing that [romance with Dr. Jennifer Keller]. It’s very funny. McKay just can’t have a normal relationship. It definitely comes up in ‘The Shrine,’ and there’s another one that we’re going to be shooting, called ‘Tracker,’ which will be really fun because that’s going to have some Ronon and McKay stuff, basically addressing what has become a love triangle. It’s Ronon and McKay out in the woods the whole time, so that could be humorous. There’s definitely a begrudging friendship there, it’s obvious from episodes gone by, like me healing his wounds when I had the power to do that. Ronon seems to be very good at getting to and judging the core of people - unless he’s being misled by his friends. I think he knows that McKay is not a bad person at the core, he’s just bad at showing it. And bad at doing anything that involves any physical dexterity!” — David Hewlett in MGM interview, June 3, 2008.
  • "Character interactions between each other ... I don't know if we've planned that far ahead. There is a nice thing going on, which I haven't really had to deal with or had a chance to write for yet, which is we're setting up a bit of a love triangle. There's a possibility of a love triangle. Last year we saw Dr. Keller get in a near kiss with Ronon, and towards the end of the season in 'Trio' and following up in '[The] Last Man,' we see a version of an alternate future where she and McKay get together. We thought it would be fun to [experiment] ... To be honest we don't know how we're going to resolve it yet. We're playing around at the moment. Carl's written a great episode this year which delves into that relationship in a little more detail, that triangle. And then I don't know. We'll see. I don't know what we're going to do with it to be honest. We haven't decided." — Alan McCullough in Gateworld interview, published June 4, 2008.
  • "I'm ready [for Tracker]. I don't know too much. All I know is there's another Runner. And I'm going to save Keller and find out that he [the Runner] is doing it for a good purpose. But still, I'm trying to beat his ass for beating his ass's sake! But I can't wait to read that one, bacause Carl Binder's wrote that one. I really love Carl's stuff." — Jason Momoa in Gateworld interview, published June 11, 2008.
  • "My most difficult episode so far has been "Tracker." Once again I am kidnapped in the woods and filthy and crying and in peril. I don't know what Carl [producer/writer Carl Binder] has against me." — Jewel Staite, io9 interview, July 26, 2008.
  • "She handles it quite well, actually. I was happy to see that. She sees something in her kidnapper that isn’t necessarily evil, and she works on him the entire time and softens him. It’s an interesting dynamic and he’s a really interesting character." — Jewel Staite, exclusive interview with Cinema Spy, July 30, 2008.
  • "I'm just starting another script. Well, not starting. I've done the first draft of "Tracker," which is a lot of fun. Because it's another "in the woods" adventure/action piece with Ronon and McKay. [They've] been teamed up to track down Keller who's been kidnapped. And kidnapped by someone who is very similar to Ronon. So that one's a lot of action. That one's going to be a lot of fun. ... The thing that I loved about "Tracker" was that the idea was pitched by a freelance writer. When I heard about the idea -- they would call me when I was on strike -- they'd say "Here's what's going on. Here's what we're doing. We just took a pitch from this guy, and he pitched this idea." And I was like "Ooh, that's good. That sounds good!" And later they said "Well, he did an outline and we're not quite happy with the direction it's going, but is that something you're interested in when you come back?" And I said "Yeah, I'll do that." So when I came back, they're like "Okay, you do it!" So I jumped on it. I love having this dynamic of McKay and Ronon, which we haven't really seen. I also wanted to revisit Keller a year later. We saw Keller in "Missing" and now we're going to see Keller in a different way in this episode. ... we're going to see a growth from where she's been a year ago to where she is now." — Carl Binder in Gateworld interview, August 9, 2008.
  • "There's a day 2 mix of episode 509 "Tracker" to watch..." — Alex Levine in his scifi.com blog, August 18, 2008.
  • "We’ve done a bunch of stuff. We just worked on an episode which was basically Keller, Ronon, and McKay, and with Ronon and McKay basically hanging out in the woods together. Which is always amusing. So it’s been a lot of - it’s always fun when they take the odd-coupled characters and stick them together. And the great thing about McKay is that he doesn’t really get along with anybody, so they are all odd characters. It’s McKay and anybody. There’s always something he doesn’t like about somebody. “They’re too good looking.” “They’re not good looking enough.” “They’re not smart enough.” “They are too smart.” They’ve been having a lot of fun with that. ... You end up with Ronon in a forest with traps and Wraith and all sorts of things. And a lot of running. God. I had no idea how unfit I was until I had to run through the forest for a week." — David Hewlett, Cinema Spy interview, August 24, 2008.
  • "I spoke with James Bamford, our Stunt Coordinator, and Will Waring, who directed this one, about the episode. Both raved about the abilities of our guest star, Mike Dopud, who plays Kiryk. Not only is this guy a solid actor, but, in Bam Bam’s words “We didn’t double him at all. He did all his own action.” Of course it helps that Mike was a stunt man for years." — Alex Levine in his scifi.com blog, September 16, 2008.

Further Reading

--DeeKayP 20:53, 3 April 2008 (PDT)

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