News, spoilers and updates in the Stargate world
Creation has just announced that Michael Shanks will be appearing with Don S. Davis at their “Salute to SciFi Television” convention on November 12 and 13, 2005 in San Jose, California. This is an extra convention beyond the now-completed 2005 Stargate convention tour. Presumably, actors from other shows will also be announced as guests.
Tickets are not yet available but Creation promises they will be soon. Read more at Creation Entertainment.
9.19 CRUSADE PART 1
Summary
Using the Ancient communication device and its stones, Vala takes over Daniel’s body at the SGC and recounts the story of what has happened to her since she was transported to the galaxy of the Ori. She is married and mysteriously pregnant, and she warns the SGC that the Ori are gathering ships and armies for a massive crusade to rid the Milky Way galaxy of its evil unbelievers.
Details
After arriving in the Ori’s galaxy, Vala was taken in by a kindly, crippled villager, Tomin. Tomin believes in the Ori but, as a result of his disability, is a second-class citizen in his own religion. He marries Vala, and Vala becomes mysteriously pregnant. Since they have not had relations, Vala suspects that the Ori had something to do with her pregnancy.
One day, Tomin arrives home no longer limping, claiming a Prior cured him and that he can now be a soldier in the crusade against Earth. After his cure he is a more fanatic follower of Origin than ever.
Vala is befriended by a barmaid, Denya, who appears to be a follower of the Ori but is in fact working to subvert them. The unseemly barkeep, Seevis, appears to be a true believer but is secretly a leader of an underground movement. Their goal is to sabotage the Ori plans to launch their ships and troops to fight in the name of the Ori. Under cover of being suspicious of Vala, he tortures her by thirst to see if she might admit to her true beliefs. Finally Tomin releases her, and she meets with Denya and Seevis and learns their true intentions — to blow up ten Ori ships that will soon be in orbit with tens of thousands of would-be soldiers aboard.
Vala believes the plan may work, and at this point, working with Seevis and Denya, she finds the Ancient communication terminal and uses it to contact the SGC, through Daniel’s body.
Guest Characters
Ori galaxy: Vala Mal Doran, Tomin, Seevis, Denya
SGC: Col. Chekov
Production
Written and Directed by Robert C. Cooper
Before Cameras: September 19-27
Spoilers are subject to change as the episode is still in production.
We’ve completely reorganized and spiffed up our interviews pages and made them easier to navigate. Included are recent interviews with many SG-1 cast members, with more to come soon. Visit our new interviews home page here!
Most recent is an interesting excerpt from the latest Official Stargate SG-1 Magazine interview with Amanda Tapping, here.
Sky One in the UK has confirmed to Solutions the following premiere dates and times for the 9th season of Stargate: SG-1 and the 2nd season of Stargate: Atlantis:
Stargate: SG-1 commences at 8 pm on Tuesday, 18 October 2005
Stargate: Atlantis commences at 8 pm on Wednesday, 19 October 2005
Thanks to Helen and to Angela Hart of Sky for confirming this; we’re sure UK fans will be happy to hear it!
The Women of SciFi Calendar is a joint project between photographer Chris Judge and producer Michael Shanks. The two have been showing exciting previews of the accompanying DVD at recent convention appearances. The calendar and DVD will feature Brandy Ledford, Lexa Doig, Erica Durance, Laura Bertram, Rachel Luttrell, Ona Grauer, and Teryl Rothery. The calendar is available for pre-orders now:
Please note, the current web order form does not use encryption (https) so it is risky to send your credit card information, as it may be intercepted along the way. It might be prudent to wait for the secure PayPal option. Edited to add: apparently the site will be secure starting August 27. We suggest you not order before then. Thanks SueB for that info.
Thanks to Elyse at sg1_spoilme for the tip.
Perception Pty Ltd of Australia has released a statement rebutting JoWooD’s claims about the production of the Stargate: The Alliance video game. Perception claim it was JoWooD who violated the contract agreement between them. They also state that production of the video game is proceeding as planned.
Here is the statement:
Sydney, Australia, 12th of August, 2005; Perception Pty Ltd would like to rectify certain statements that have been made to the press by JoWooD Productions. To be clear, Perception is the official licensee of MGM on Stargate SG-1: The Alliance. Any suggestion that JoWooD has rights to Stargate SG-1: The Alliance upon termination of the contract is incorrect and not based on commercial or legal fact.
Development on the game will continue uninterrupted at Perception’s Sydney studio. Perception is committed to giving fans the best gaming experience possible.
Ben Lenzo, CEO of Perception said, “We view it as unfortunate that JoWooD would elect to make such misleading and libelous comments to the media and the marketplace. Over the last 9 months, JoWooD has openly acknowledged being in breach of contract in a number of areas including many legal and confidentiality breaches as well as several financial defaults for work performed by Perception and accepted by JoWooD.”
Perception has tried to work with JoWooD to resolve these issues for months but to no avail. This resulted in several breach notices being served on JoWooD, giving them ample time to remedy. As these newest issues had not been resolved by the August 5th 2005, Perception gave notice that all outstanding issues would need to be resolved by Monday August 8th 2005, or Perception would terminate its contract with JoWooD.
“It’s disappointing to hear of this so called termination via the press on the basis of a “get in first” tactic. This further suggests that JoWooD do not understand the terms of the contract. We are not surprised by their behavior or lack of appreciation for the goodwill Perception has afforded JoWooD on many occasions,” said Lenzo.
Perception has begun personal prosecution proceedings against both the CEO, Albert Seidl and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JoWooD, Andreas Rudas, for the libelous comments made in their press release and will use all legal remedies available to it for the substantial monies owed to it by JoWooD.
“Perception will not allow its name to be tarnished in such a manner and view such matters extremely seriously and will always protect the reputation of our staff, our products, licensing partners and the company.”
Perception will not discuss any further the outstanding issues with JoWooD in public as legal action is underway. We look forward to the release of Stargate SG-1: The Alliance.
The press release is here
Thanks to Elyse and the sg1_spoilme list for the tip. We will provide updates on this unfortunate situation as they develop.
The national overnight ratings for the 5 August 2005 SciFi Friday lineup are in, and SG-1 is still going very strong, beating both Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica once again. While SG-1 has held nearly steady since its 9th season premiere, the other two shows have seen their ratings decline, with Battlestar losing over 25% of its audience.
The Aug. 5 ratings of SG-1 are of special interest because the episode that aired, the humorous 9.04 “The Ties That Bind” followed a 3-part opener. While one might have expected a bit of a drop as casual viewers didn’t feel compelled to tune in, in fact they stuck with the show.
The Atlantis episode, 2.04 “Duet” has been embraced and lauded by the on-line fan community across many forums. However it was marketed by SciFi Channel as a Ronon Dex-heavy episode, with no mention at all of the strong role that Rodney McKay would play, as acted by the exceptional David Hewlett. This may have backfired for SciFi Channel as McKay’s many fans failed to tune in.
SG-1’s second airing ratings also remain very strong, and taken together, SG-1 has beaten the other shows in total ratings every week this year.
The ratings to date for the SciFi Friday lineup are as follows, with each episode followed by the first airing rating, second airing rating, and total. Recall that the rating is the percentage of households with SciFi Channel that were tuned to the channel at some point during the broadcast.
15 July 2005
9.01 Avalon Part 1 2.1 1.4 3.5
2.01 The Siege Part 3 2.2 1.0 3.2
2.01 Scattered 2.6 0.7 3.3
22 July 2005
9.02 Avalon Part 2 2.1 1.2 3.3
2.02 The Intruder 2.0 0.9 2.9
2.02 Valley of Darkness 2.0 0.7 2.7
29 July 2005
9.03 Origin Part 3 2.0 1.1 3.1
2.03 Runner 2.0 0.9 2.9
2.03 Fragged 2.0 0.6 2.6
05 August 2005
9.04 The Ties That Bind 2.0 1.2 3.2
2.04 Duet 1.9 0.9 2.8
2.04 Resistance 1.9 0.7 2.6
Thanks to Gateworld for the 5 August ratings info
Step up for your latest dose of Nialla’s Breadbox Editions, in which she parodies an episode that parodied the fans, 8.15 “Citizen Joe”.
Read it here!.
Fans were saddened to learn today that production of the Stargate video game has halted just two months before the scheduled release data. From the JoWood press release (JoWood):
Rottenmann, Austria, 5th of August 2005; JoWooD regrets to be forced to cancel the development agreement with Perception, the Australian developer currently responsible for the Stargate-SG1: The Alliance™ license title. “The title in its current form, initially scheduled for an October 2005 release, does satisfy neither our quality requirements nor the fans expectations. We will not release anything that does not do justice to this well known license” says Albert Seidl, CEO JoWooD Productions Software AG. “In recent months we have invested a lot of time and resources in helping Perception finish the development, but we now simply have lost confidence in their ability to finish this project in time and sufficient quality.”
Following the termination JoWooD has asked for repayment of their investment in development and further expenses.
According to our reading of the contract the rights to the title as well as the source code are transferred to JoWooD. “After delivery of the code and assets JoWooD will review the possibility of seeking out developers if it is economically viable to finish the title” reports Michael Paeck, Executive Producer for JoWooD Productions Software AG. “We are, however, not prepared to release anything but a top quality title. Fans of the show as well as gamers would not accept anything less. There are several options to consider, among them potentially moving to next-gen consoles for the title.”
This is sad news for fans who had looked forward to the game, especially because it was to be voiced by the SG-1 actors. Michael Shanks mentioned at a convention that he and his colleagues, including RDA, had recorded on the order of 250 pages of dialog for the game. Since Shanks and Chris Judge had both expressed their anticipation at being able to play the game themselves with their children, no doubt they are disappointed as well. We hope JoWood will be able to find a new developer quickly.
Thanks to Elyse of the sg1_spoilme list for the tip
Overnight ratings for the third episode of the season are in for Stargate: SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica. For the episode 9.03 “Origin”, SG-1 earned a rating of 1.95. More importantly, SG-1 was the number one cable show for the night for the highlyl desired demographic of people aged 18-34 years (P18-34). Further, SciFi was the number one cable network for the night for P18-49 and P25-54. Stargate Atlantis scored a household rating of 1.98 and Battlestar Galactica a 1.96. Thanks to Mary McNamara for reporting this here on the Our Stargate forum.
The ratings to date for S9 of SG-1, S2 of Atlantis, and S2 of Battlestar are as follows:
July 15:
Stargate SG-1: 2.1
Stargate Atlantis: 2.2
Battlestar Galactica: 2.6
July 22:
Stargate SG-1: 2.1
Stargate Atlantis: 2.0
Battlestar Galactica: 2.0
July 29
Stargate SG-1: 1.95
Stargate Atlantis: 1.98
Battlestar Galactica: 1.96
In the limited information we have, SG-1 has fared very well in its second airing of the night as well, earning a 1.2 on July 22 for Avalon Part 2.
It is clear that SG-1 is performing very well in spite of being a series that plays in the less-watched 8 pm timeslot, that is in its ninth year of production, and that has undergone major casting changes this year.