I consider myself a fairly adventurous eater. I’ve tried snake, duck tongue, alligator, and turtle. But those dishes pale in comparison to the just-plain-crazy dessert I had last week: a garishly violet ube cake. Ube, for those not in the know, is the Filipino word for purple yam, a more-than-key ingredient in this very unique dish. Fondy picked up a cake for visiting niece Megan’s birthday while they were in town. “What is it?”asked younger brother Eric, not quite sure what to make of it. “Vegetable cake,”I informed him. “Enjoy.” He did. And, I can honestly say, so did I. And so did Fondy. In fact, she liked it so much that she picked up another ube birthday cake the other day – this despite the fact that her family had already left town and there was no actual birthday to celebrate. So, bottom line – fruit and desserts don’t mix, but veggies and cake are a-okay. Especially when they’re topped with some pistachio ice cream and Advokaat.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. As I related in one of my previous blog entries, Lulu make the rookie mistake of trying to snag Jelly’s treat and ended up learning a painful but powerful lesson on appropriate newbie behavior. And that, I assumed, was that. Well, not quite. Jelly has taken to testing Lulu snatching up her toy (that wonderful leopard-spotted squeaky stuffed bra) and walking away with it. Lulu will protest loudly and then, finally, redirect her interest to something else. At which point Jelly will scamper over, toy in mouth, and bat her upside the head with it. Want it? Waaaant it? You know you waaaant it! To her credit, Lulu has shown incredible restraint. Until the other day when she challenged Jelly and ended up on her back, shrieking in terror as Jelly chewed on her hindquarters. At which point Maximus and Bubba jumped into the fray as if possessed by some berserker rage. No sooner do I pull Jelly and Maximus off than I look up and see Bubba dragging poor Lulu across the lawn by one of her oversized ears. Needless to say, I had to rescue Lulu, reprimand Bubba (correcting a puppy is okay, but I have to draw the line at outright dragging), and restore a general sense of order to the clan. They’re much calmer around one another and Maximus has even warmed up to the little one, resting his chin on her back when he’s feeling unusually amiable, but after that 3 on 1 takedown, I’m concerned about leaving the our of them alone when we go out. Also, Lulu is the runt right now, but in a couple of months she’ll grow into a stocky little thing. Let’s hope she doesn’t have a long memory to go with those barracuda teeth. Hmmm. Now what would Cesar Millan do?

Today’s pics: Lulu settling in, Et Tu Ube?, shooting Kindred I.

Let’s move on to the Q&A –

Neep writes: “Lulu is gorgeous! I can’t imagine her making the strange noises that I associate with French Bulldogs.”

Answer: The other writers think she sounds like a gremlin.

Promogirl writes: “If we get a season 5 (fingers crossed) are there plans to keep Carter and Keller around?”

Answer: We’re not even thinking about season 5 right now. But if and when we do get the pick up, given everything we’ve seen so far, we would very much like to have both of them back.

Scifan writes: “Since alot of the cast and maybe crew are musically talented, have they ever thought of doing a cd for charity?”

Answer: Don’t think so, but this is a question for them. I’m musically disinclined.

PG15 writes: “How does a fan get the chance to come on set for a visit without paying the obscene amount asked for by Creation Con?”

Answer: Get cast in an upcoming episode.

Arctic Goddess writes: “Speaking of tattoos, do you have any?”

Answer: Nope.

Sheppardsonlypie writes: “Have they started any casting calls for Stargate Universe yet?”

Answer: Nope.

KirFect writes: “Who is that big black dog in the background with Kavan?”

Answer: That is John Smith’s dog, Haida.

Cathain writes: “I just wanted to check in and see if I couldn’t get permission to post the photos of Kavan and Lulu snuggling up on KavanSmithFans.com?”

Answer: Sure, go nuts.

Anonymous #1 writes: “Will Shep’s ex wife be mentioned in the backstory?”

Answer: She will be making an appearance.

Anonymous #2 writes: “Do any of the cast and crew listen to classical music?”

Answer: I do. I’m a Strauss man.

Nicobar writes: “I your learned opinion what place in Montreal serves the best smoked meat sandwich?”

Answer: I’m a big fan of Smoked Meat Pete’s in Ile Perrot (I think it‘s in Ile Perrot).

IB writes: “Any Dalmatian restaurants in Vancouver you maybe heard of??”
Answer: A what? Is that anything like a Pomeranian Café?
This answer made me laugh :D! No, I mean Dalmatian like Dalmatia the Region in Croatia.”

Answer: Oh. Then no. Still, I think an actual restaurant for Dalmations would do very well here.

68 thoughts on “August 9, 2007

  1. A gremlin! Heh.

    Lulu stretched out in that second photo is exactly how my nephew’s dog sleeps across my feet.

    Just wait till she bulks up, she will be as solid and heavy as a wombat.

  2. How does one get cast I wonder? would we have to send in a short (read ten+ second) fan video or something? or just show up? (the latter of the two work for me)

  3. hi, joe,

    to the unnamed joe f. storyline; how about ‘a sheppard’s journey’?

    sally 🙂

  4. Strauss eh? Good man.

    I lean Borodine myself, but I’m definitely a Strauss fan as well.

  5. Ok…and how do we get cast in an episode then? Is it easy? Gosh, I hope it’s easy.

    I’m dreaming, aren’t I? Ah well…

    I’ve listened to the interview you did with Shaun Farrell over at “Adventures in Science Fiction Literature” (Link) today, and I got 2 questions stemming from that:

    1. You said that a podcast is a good idea (or something like that). I agree. Now that you guys have significantly less work to do, any chance of enlightening us with your thoughts on each episode after they air like Ron Moore did for BSG in the form of podcasts? Please? It’d be ever so wonderful.

    2. You said today:

    Promogirl writes: “If we get a season 5 (fingers crossed) are there plans to keep Carter and Keller around?”

    Answer: We’re not even thinking about season 5 right now. But if and when we do get the pick up, given everything we’ve seen so far, we would very much like to have both of them back.

    But according to that interview above, you said that “we know where we want to head in Season 5. We’ve set up this arc, a very dark arc, [that’s] gonna build to the end of season 4 and kind of leave things, as often the case, hanging. We know how we want to pay it off in Season 5, but this is just in general terms.”

    ^This part starts at about 25:21 in the interview.

    So…are you guys planning for a Season 5 at the moment?

  6. My birthday was celebrated the other day, and can you believe how tickled pink I was go get the first two seasons of Atlantis AND the first season of Psych!? Seriously, it was great!!

    Along that note, my friends and I threw a Psych party, and we noticed that many people (Don S. Davis, Teryl Rothery, David Nykl, etc.) have been in both Stargate and Psych! Just a funny coincidence, or something more? Feel free to respond to thing interesting occurance!

  7. Whenever I see purple Ice Cream I’m reminded of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure; eating ice cream with Napolen Bonaparte at the Ziggy-Pig.

    But that’s not the most bizarre ice cream I’ve ever seen. They sell garlic ice cream at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in CA. And it’s actually popular. o.o

  8. Heh. Dogs are so funny. When our two oldest dogs were puppies (a male german shepherd and female rottweiler who’s a month younger), the shepherd used to drag the rotty around by her leash, just to tease her and keep her in line. But yeah, sometimes you gotta step in and let them know who’s really in charge of the pack. At least you’ve got little dogs. It’s a bit more of a challenge to break up a shepherd/rottweiler fight.

    Okay, so there’s a question that’s been bugging me since I saw Moebius. What happened to the Sam, Jack, Daniel and Teal’c that got left in the past? Will that ever come back into the story? Because I could see some really interesting stuff coming from that.

  9. So I listened to an interview about Comic Con where they said there were about 6 journalists waiting for the SGA people, and they got to talk to the actors one on one, while there were about 80 for BSG.

    Does that worry you?

    You’ve said you have no plans for season five yet, but you want Keller and Carter back. What’s the plan when it comes to Weir, since you’ve already given en indication for those two.

  10. If you liked the Ube cake, you gotta try the ice cream. 🙂 Just a suggestion.

  11. “Promogirl writes: “If we get a season 5 (fingers crossed) are there plans to keep Carter and Keller around?”

    Answer: We’re not even thinking about season 5 right now. But if and when we do get the pick up, given everything we’ve seen so far, we would very much like to have both of them back.”

    I know you don’t have all the specifics yet for Season 5, but I would assume you already know the direction you want to go with the season.

    Since you opened the door a little bit into Season 5…..Are there any plans to include Elizabeth in Season 5? If there are, how likely is it that she will have more than 4 episodes?

    Thanks,
    SMB_BOOKS

  12. Anonymous #2 writes: “Do any of the cast and crew listen to classical music?”

    Answer: I do. I’m a Strauss man.

    Richard, Johann I, Johann II, Josef, or Eduard?

    I have a feeling it’s Richard. Somehow, I can’t see you as a lover of polkas and waltzes. Just doesn’t fit with the whole ‘villain’ persona that you are trying to cultivate. 😉

    Do you have a favorite piece by Strauss?

  13. Ube! I love ube! I always get nostalgic when I eat it, but it never does taste the same here, in America, as it does in the Philippines. That’s usually the case with any sort of food, I suppose. My favorite way to eat ube is in ice cream form, in what’s called a Halo-Halo, a dessert that combines corn flakes, ice cream, shaved, ice, condensed milk, and who knows what else. No two places quite makes it the same way. Anyways, just thought I’d mention that basically made my day.

  14. Awwwww Poor Lulu! She supposed to play with the chew toys not become one!! As always love the piccies from the set;).

    Again I have another question thats probably been asked (and please apologies if it is. We have episodes that saw our hero’s sent into the past and back into the future (briefly) then back in the present. Will we ever see an episode where they get launched into the far future? Just something that was rattling in my brain last night while discussing the up coming fourth season and comparing past episodes with current ones in the Alpha Command Forums.

  15. Hey Joe!

    Gotta say, your blog is always a great thing to look forward to at the end of a long day of work (I work for the government, DMV to be more precise 🙁 …)

    NEways, tomorrow is kassandra aka mackenziesmomma’s birthday and I was wondering if you could dedicate tomorrow’s blog entry to her. She used to post a comment here everyday, but alas is in the middle of the throws of pea season and so can’t get on very often. I will make sure she gets on tommorrow though 😉 She was off last saturday night and so sat down and read like the last 3 weeks of your blog in one sitting…It was quite humorous. Thank you!!!

    Cheers, Dani

  16. That ube cake looks really good.

    I love purple yam. I usually cook it with rice or just steam it in the rice cooker and eat it. Yum… You should try it… 🙂

  17. Are you guys going to have Sheppard be jealous at the fact the Teyla is pregnant and its not his?

  18. Hi Joe, thanks for answering my questions. How would I go about asking them? I’ve never written a fan mail before. Do I just send it to the studio?
    Question: With Sheppard’s backstory, is any of his team going with him? Like Teyla, Ronon or both? Thanks Scifan

  19. Is Katie Brown going to get upset at Mckay for his out-of-control attraction to Carter?

  20. Okay i have two questions regarding Stargate… you said a while ago that there would be a hint of Carsons return in late Season 3… what was that hint… i don’t recall it… and secondly how does one go about getting a Stargate Atlantis jacket… i think those things are so cool

  21. Hey Joe,

    Just wondering if you’ve had time to see the Simpson’s Movie yet? And what you thought of it.

    Ann M.

  22. I haven’t heard it mentioned for season 4 and I know you aren’t thinking ahead to season 5 yet, but will we be seeing Cliff Simon or any other Goa’uld in Atlantis now that SG-1 is over? That is, assuming they’ve survived the movies.

  23. “Promogirl writes: “If we get a season 5 (fingers crossed) are there plans to keep Carter and Keller around?”

    Answer: We’re not even thinking about season 5 right now. But if and when we do get the pick up, given everything we’ve seen so far, we would very much like to have both of them back.”

    What about Carson and Weir? will they be back in season 5 if it happens?

  24. Hiya Joe, your dogs are adorable!

    Just wondering – any races that speak a different language this season? I know it’s probably hard with no translators on the team, but SG1 encountered a few in their time, and I imagine there must be at least one race of people in Pegasus that don’t speak English, considering the Ancient’s didn’t even speak it.

    Thanks!

  25. Hey joe just thought i’d pop by and say HI from the wonderful pea fields of washington state! I’m working full time right now(read 13 and 1/4- 14 hour NIGHT shifts) but am still making it a priority(right after 4 hours of sleep) to stop by everyday and read.

    Tommorow is a very special day in my world its my 20th birthday think ya could pretty pretty please dedicate a blog to me?

    BTW, Lulu is absolutely adorable!

  26. Shep story: “The Good Sheppard” or “Guided by a Sheppard” or what about “Sheep” that could be fitting on so many levels…

    Strauss man eh?

    I can Handel the Messiah myself *boom boom* 🙂

  27. Salut salut joseph!!
    =}Superbe les photo aujourd hui!
    J adore vos chien!!
    =}Vous connaissez le cuisinier Thierry Marx ? Il sont restaurant est pas loin de chez moi, il fait de la cuisine moderne, je me demande ou il trouve toute ces idée…regarder sur cette page voila quelque un de ses création:

    http://www.cordeillanbages.com/pagesEditos.asp?IDPAGE=53&sX_Menu_selectedID=m1_F1EEC76F

    Quesque vous en penssez?

    J ai une question:

    Si sa serez vous qui deviez décider du nombre de saison pour stargate atlantis, a quel saison vous arrêteriez la serie?

    Voila merci bc!! bisou! je vous adore! passer une bonne journée!

  28. Hey Mr. Mallozzi! Poor Lulu, I hope she’s okay. I had a bad expirence where another dog ganged up on a smaller one. The runt nearly had its ear completely severed by the other, and we were afraid leave them alone after that. I hope that your doggies continue to play peacefully.

    Quick question for you: In “Rising Part I” Sheppard mentions that he’s flown. “Apache, Blackhawk, Cobra…” Those are all helicoptors that the Air Force doesn’t use. How could Shep, being an AF officer, have flown those at all? Did he transfer to the AF from another branch that flies those? Was he in some Special Ops program where he would have recieved special training? Or is it due to a lack of research on your part (no offense intended.)?

    Thanks!

  29. Any chances we’ll see or hear tell of a gay or bisexual character in season 4? Or is it just not something you guys concern yourselves with when writing?

  30. Happy birthday to mackenziesmomma & me,
    Happy birthday to mackenziesmomma & me,
    Happy birthday dear mackenziesmomma & Kimberly,
    Happy birthday to mackenziesmomma & me!
    Yep, August 10th is my bday too!
    Hope you have a terrific weekend…with no work!

    Eat a piece of ube cake for our birthday….see a perfect excuse. It’s always someone’s birthday.

    Could you dedicate the blog to mackenziesmomma & me since it’s both of our birthdays?

  31. Joe and Kavan AGAIN? You’re spoiling us! I feel like Christmas has come early.

    As for Lulu, go girl! Though comparing her to a gremlin is a little cruel… Which writer came up with that? It was Gero, wasn’t it?

  32. Speaking of Strauss, what’s the classical music scene like in Vancouver? Do you guys have an orchestra?

    I’m very lucky in that my college has a massive concert hall, so we manage to snag all the orchestras that come to the region, and we get discount tickets! For a fiver I’ve enjoyed Vivaldi, Strauss and Tchaikovsky (still my favourite).

    Mary

  33. Will Rodney find out about the alternate reality from “Road not Taken” where he was married/divorced with Sam? How will he take it?

  34. I just had to laugh at the expressions on Lulu’s face, compared to the expressions of your other babies. They are SO over her puppiness. 🙂

    And Tesajb, I’ve had the garlic ice cream at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. You can have my portion the next time!

  35. In the 10,000 years since the Ancients left the Pegasus galaxy, have the Wraith upgraded their ships … and if not, why not? Surely they were not hibernating the whole time!

    Steve

  36. ROFL. oh dear your dogs sound like my kids when they were younger and here was me thinking how much easier just having dogs would have been!
    How are you getting on with Clash of Kings? I’m thoroughly into it but keep getting dragged away by reality stuff like cooking and cleaning and entertaining kids.
    Have great weekend Joe, that li’l Lulu is so snuggable.

  37. “Are you guys going to have Sheppard be jealous at the fact the Teyla is pregnant and its not his?”

    Talk about nausea-inducing. Some people need to be watching soaps in the afternoon instead of SGA.

  38. I’ve read a lot of reviews of “Flash Gordon”; some critics like it, others have said it ‘fizzled’ and one even compared it to “Plan 9 from Outer Space”! If the ratings are less than stellar, do you think SciFi might give SGA the 9pm slot?

    Teyillia asked
    How does one get cast I wonder? would we have to send in a short (read ten+ second) fan video or something? or just show up? (the latter of the two work for me)

    With my abbreviated experience, you can do the latter ONLY if the set is relaxed, you’ve already got a friend on the crew, and the director okays it, otherwise, nope. These days security is tighter on sets and I suspect they go with ‘regular’ extras so they can weed out whacko fans 😉

    To get on a show/movie, scour your paper, etc. for casting calls for extras. To be an actor, you’ll need an agent, but extras just need to be warm bodies occupying space. And you’d no doubt need to live in Vancouver to be an extra on SGA. And for everyone like you who wants to be on the show just for the fun, there are hundreds who want the job so they can be working actors. Check out a board like http://www.hollywoodnorthreport.com/forums/index.php?showforum=38 for casting call notices.

    Of course, having a lot of cash to win an auction ($$$$) to get onto the set is another way, if you’ve got the money, that is 😉

  39. [quote]So I listened to an interview about Comic Con where they said there were about 6 journalists waiting for the SGA people, and they got to talk to the actors one on one, while there were about 80 for BSG.[/quote]

    Where did you hear this interview and who did it. Just asking because I was a member of the press in the SGA/SG1movies press conference and I can tell you from fact that the room was packed with reporters.

    There were camera crews let in first to do individual one on one’s with the cast, but the other part of the press conference was absolutely packed with reporters so that none of us actually had time for one on ones with the cast in that conference. Though I did get to have my picture taken with JM:)

    Marla Reed
    Eclipse Magazine

  40. SMB_BOOKS said…

    Since you opened the door a little bit into Season 5…..Are there any plans to include Elizabeth in Season 5? If there are, how likely is it that she will have more than 4 episodes?

    I hope not.

    The Weir character is a lot like the Augura “Augie” Jowil character from Star Wars Episode One .

    It was a great idea on paper but dragged the show down from the time she appeared on the screen.

  41. Hmmm, you appear to be having the same kind of intruder adjustment issues that I am with my new kitten, which I brought home 10 days ago.

    While Tia’s now perfectly settled in and just loves to cuddle and play with me, whenever she gets into close proximity to my other two 13 year old cats, all hell breaks loose, with the growling, the biting and, yes, there’s even been a few dragging by the throat incidents.

    Then there’s my two bunnies, who were so used to the older cats, that they could frolick and bounce around right in front of the felines without a care in the world. However, Tia, a former feral, regards them not a potential playmates but as lunch. Thankfully, my rabbits are faster and can charge to the safety of their cage.

    I really hope they can all work things out and become friends because it’s starting to get a little tedious, jumping up to rescue someone from someone else’s jaws every half-hour!

    KJC

  42. Please don’t turn this into a soap by having Shep go all jealous and love triangle on us. How completely out of character and just… wrong.

    On the subject of Shep, any chance that Katherine Kousi (or Flanigan,, whichever name she uses when she works!) will play his wife?

    They did it on XF, with Robert Patrick’s wife playing Barbara Doggett..

  43. So Jelly is top dog in the house? Where are you in the pecking order.

    I wonder where Bubba was off to with Lulu – was he going to bury her for later or was he rescuing her from Jelly?

    You have got to love dogs – they are never far from the wolf when it comes to behaviour.

    Is Joe F’s dog a girl or boy?

  44. Anonymous said…

    The Weir character is a lot like the Augura “Augie” Jowil character from Star Wars Episode One .

    Are you sure you didn’t mean “Jar Jar Binks”?

  45. I have just seen the trailer for season 4. aaagghghh!!!! I want it now! I’ll send you a life times supply of deep fried mars bars (up to 4 months) if you send me some episodes from season four (Stargate Atlantis – you’re not getting out of it that way!) on DVD (or video)

    Deal?!?

  46. Your dogs are so adorable. I just want to reach through my monitor and scritch them behind the ears.

    So what does that cake taste like? Could you compare it to anything else?

    Nicole at YVR South
    Who got a blogger account to make things easier.

  47. Re: Strauss and other Classical Composers

    My first thought of a Strauss is Franz Strauss. He composed a soulful French Horn solo called “Nocturno, Opus 7” that I played in competitions as either a Freshman or Sophomore in high school. After all those hours praciticing, I’m shocked I can’t remember which.

    Other favorites:

    Mozart–for his 4 French Horn concertos, two of which I also performed in competitions

    Holst–That German-sounding Briton most famous for The Planets (Jupiter is a horn player’s dream)

    David Holsinger–Modern Wind band composer (also check out DCI’s Cadets of Bergen County’s 1992 show ‘To Tame the Perilous Skies’

    Respighi, Mahler, Copland, Gershwin, Grainger, Hindemith, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and of course, Bernstein.


  48. nonymous said…

    Are you guys going to have Sheppard be jealous at the fact the Teyla is pregnant and its not his?

    chevron7 said…

    Is Katie Brown going to get upset at Mckay for his out-of-control attraction to Carter?

    Anonymous said…

    Any chances we’ll see or hear tell of a gay or bisexual character in season 4? Or is it just not something you guys concern yourselves with when writing?

    MrsB said…

    Will there be any romantic encounters that you think will surprise fans this season?

    Anonymous said…

    Will Rodney find out about the alternate reality from “Road not Taken” where he was married/divorced with Sam? How will he take it?

    Gag choke sputter. Please everyone take up one of the many afternoon soaps for your viewing pleasure and to feed your inner romantics. Atlantis is a sci-fi show, not OC.

  49. Joe – regardless of the “story” put up for Mitchell (arctic assitance, hero-worship, learn from the best, sg-1 dismantled, they all left, there was no SG-1, yadda, yadda) why won’t anyone, anyone at all, involved with SG-1 answer this simple question:

    why was a guy with absolutely no gate or off-world experince (a guy who had actually clearly never seen the gate and never even been to the SGC) be written in to fill a role that didn’t need filling – everyone knew Sam Carter (AT) would be back, she had 7 years of 2IC experience and 1 year as sole leader of SG-1.

    It is a very simple question — why won’t anyone answer it?

  50. Joe, please say all that talk about John being the jealous lover is just rumor. That’s all a couple people at GW are talking about, John’s jealousy ends up bring him and Teyla together as romantic partners. I’m really getting in to Teyla and want to finally see her developed as an individual, not as someone’s lover. That isn’t character growth in my book. Please make Teyla interesting, and not a toy for Sheppard. Please!

  51. In regards to the Shep/Teyla romance stuff people are up in arms about, it probably came from this Cult Times (Aug 2007) snippet from a Rachel Luttrell interview:

    The question (or paraphrase?) was: ‘In addition, Teyla and Sheppard have undeniably shared a special bond, perhaps even bordering on romantic feelings, and her circumstances will only strengthen that relationship.’

    Rachel’s reply was: “We shot a scene a couple of days ago and Joe [Flanigan] and I were talking about the whole pregnancy. He said, ‘You know what I think is going on is there is a lot of jealousy in terms of my own character and what that means for the two of them and their relationship. It is going to be interesting.'”

    I don’t know if that’s the whole text from the issue or not, but it can be vastly interpreted as I guess whatever you want to interpret it as.

    I saw it as the actor’s motivation for certain scenes myself…

  52. Ain’t-it-cool-news has collected various reviews for SciFi’s new “Flash Gordon” and the consensus is “reeks of Uranus”. Go here: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33634

    With SGA stuck with this as a lead in, you won’t be getting anywhere near a season 5.

    Any chance you guys can get SciFi to switch time slots?

  53. Hey this is a question that I has been bothering me for sometime. I just didn’t know how to go about getting it answered.

    Do the Ori know about the Pegasus galaxy, or are the ancients protecting them like they were protecting the Milkyway?

  54. –why was a guy with absolutely no gate or off-world experince (a guy who had actually clearly never seen the gate and never even been to the SGC)be written in to fill a role that didn’t need filling —

    Technically everyone who joins the stargate program has no prior offworld experience unless they did something they haven’t told anyone about. Once upon a time, with the exception of Teal’c none of the original members of SG1 had prior offworld experience before their first time going through the gate and that includes Jack and Daniel whose first time was on the first Abydos mission.

    As for the idea that Mitchell had never been to the SGC before, I think it was established in the 7th season that all F-203 pilots were brought to the SGC to learn about the technology from Sam Carter. This probably included Mitchell. That the writers never made mention of this I think was detrimental to the character. I think it would have more firmly established the character’s background if we would have been made aware of something like this.

    Mitchell made a heroic sacrifice and showed the kind of leadership and courage that gets someone into the Stargate program.

    –everyone knew Sam Carter (AT) would be back, she had 7 years of 2IC experience and 1 year as sole leader of SG-1.–

    “everyone” in the SGC universe of the series did not know that Sam Carter was coming back. Fans knew the show was coming back. Fans and writers knew that Amanda Tapping was expecting a baby and that RDA was not coming back as Jack O’Neill. This had to be worked around so the writers came up with the idea that the original SG1 was disbanded and gone in different directions. Mitchell was to form a whole new team with that designation, but he really wanted to work with the original members and went on a crusade to get them back together. Mitchell wanted what the fans wanted, the team they admired and had come to know.

    There was nothing to be done about Jack because that situation could not be resolved due to RDA’s personal decision. The writers worked with what they could.

    In the SGC universe, Carter had walked away from her command of SG1 and taken a new position. In reality Amanda Tapping had a baby. Whether or not the decision to have Carter be shown as walking away from command of SG1 and then coming back in as a member of the team instead of the leader was the right thing to do in retrospect is something the writers can’t change now.

    Just because some fans might find it not accepable, doesn’t mean the writers didn’t think it was a good story to write and tell.

  55. Anonymous said…

    “I hope not.

    The Weir character is a lot like the Augura “Augie” Jowil character from Star Wars Episode One .

    It was a great idea on paper but dragged the show down from the time she appeared on the screen.”

    You must be mistaken – I think you’re talking about Teyla (The character that couldn’t get a storyline until they got rid of Weir).

  56. Rache Luttrell has mentioned a new enemy, the Bola Kai. Will they be yet ANOTHER group of humans? Or well they be an actual new race of aliens? Please, please aliens. Lol. I mean really, I understand why there are primarily humans, but when almost ever group we’ve encountered are humans, it starts to look cheap.

  57. Hey Joe! Was re-watching the Comic Con panel just now, and realized that you had your camera out for the most part – any chance we’ll get to see a little clip of what the panel looked like from the stage?

  58. The shot of Lulu splayed out in the yard made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the chuckle.

    I saw the preview for season 4 this morning. Now I’m more excited than ever. Love the scene between Shep and Sam. As a person who makes promos for a living (on a local TV level)… I was impressed with this one. Did Sci-Fi put it together? Because their spots for you guys aren’t usually that well done. 😉

  59. Mitchell is OK said: “everyone” in the SGC universe of the series did not know that Sam Carter was coming back. Fans knew the show was coming back. Fans and writers knew that Amanda Tapping was expecting a baby and that RDA was not coming back as Jack O’Neill. This had to be worked around so the writers came up with the idea that the original SG1 was disbanded and gone in different directions. Mitchell was to form a whole new team with that designation, but he really wanted to work with the original members and went on a crusade to get them back together. Mitchell wanted what the fans wanted, the team they admired and had come to know.”

    That’s blowing smoke. A.K.A. Talking in circles. The writers knew AT/Sam was coming back. She was only gone for 6 weeks or so out of the schedule. And they created the…issue. Yet they still wrote Mitchell in as team lead. *Why?* Sam could still have been gone. In a car accident, unavailable w/the Tok”Ra, on TDY with the ships. But no, Mitchell just had to lead – even though they didn’t give him the skill set *to* lead. Why?

    Mitchell was at the SCG to “get briefed on tech”? I’m okay with that. How does a tech briefing train him to go through the gate? Especially as he was being briefed to fly a jet – not go through the gate.

    Actually, I’d be fine with hearing the truth about the reasoning. No prevaricating. Just the blunt truth to the question posed. I doubt I’d like the answer. But I don’t like the answer I’ve come up with myself either. Though I think it is the same answer. Unfortunately.

    Why was Mitchell put in charge when the team lead was still on the show, just missing for a few eps?

    First question: anonymous posted:
    “why was a guy with absolutely no gate or off-world experince (a guy who had actually clearly never seen the gate and never even been to the SGC) be written in to fill a role that didn’t need filling – everyone knew Sam Carter (AT) would be back, she had 7 years of 2IC experience and 1 year as sole leader of SG-1.

    It is a very simple question — why won’t anyone answer it?”

    suse

  60. It is a very simple question — why won’t anyone answer it?”

    It has been answered innumerable times, you just refuse to accept the answer. How can we put it very small words? Ben Browder is the lead. Amanda Tapping is number three. Therefore Mitchell is team leader and Carter is not. Capish? It’s really not a very difficult concept to grasp.

  61. Thank you for the picture of Joe F. Your pictures of him always brighten up my day 🙂

  62. Holy cow on that cake! I say anything that has purple in it is ok by me 😀
    The doggies are too cute. Mine bite eachother when they are competing for my affection but Labs are a bit harder to pull apart, eek!

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