1. The team returns to Atlantis following a routine two-day fact-finding mission. But the second they step through the gate, they are immediately surrounded by armed wraith hybrid in Atlantis uniforms. As a shocked Sheppard and co. are disarmed, they are welcomed back by the base commander: a hybrid Dr. Weir.
Sheppard’s team is informed that they have, in fact, been missing for several months and presumed dead. During their absence, things have changed. Armed with the knowledge he gathered in Allies, Michael has taken Atlantis with the help of his own aerosolized version of the retrovirus. With the Atlantis personnel transformed and the resources available to him in the city, he has successfully mass-produced enough of the agent to proceed with the next phase of his plan. With the help of his fellow hybrids, he intends to launch the agent through the gate and into Stargate Command, the first step to an invasion of Earth.
Pitched: Season 3.
Why I liked it: I simply loved the potential for visual impact provided by hybrid versions of characters like Weir, Zelenka, Lorne, and even Chuck. And, in terms of raising the stakes vis-à-vis the ongoing Michael storyline, this would have been a doozy.
Why no one else did: Not sure. I think it was the time travel angle.
2. As part of their freshly-formed alliance with the Genii, Atlantis prepares to embark on a joint op deep into wraith-controlled territory. The Genii have pinpointed a facility purported to be of immense importance to the enemy. It’s near-inaccessible positioning and never-before-seen security suggests a target of key importance that targeting it could very well eliminate the wraith as a threat in the Pegasus Galaxy. Curiously, despite the ongoing battles between their various factions, the wraith have put aside their differences in order to safeguard whatever it is that sits within the facility.
The joint op is launched. But, as the mission progresses, the team suspects that the Genii haven’t been completely forthcoming with them regarding what lies inside the facility. They claim not to know, but Sheppard and co. suspect they are lying. Upon gaining access to the facility, while the others are setting charges, the team breaks away to look around. And discover the truth.
The high-value target is, in fact, a nursery holding some twelve wraith children, females destined to be queens.
The team is faced with a huge ethical dilemma. Destroying the target will, without a doubt, deal the wraith a crippling blow. But at what price to the team’s conscience? And if they elect to pull the plug on the op, there’s the Genii to contend with…
Pitched: Season 4.
Why I liked it: I like the huge ethical dilemmas. Also, it would shed some light on wraith culture, particularly its child-rearing practices.
Why no one else did: Again, not sure. It could well have been because, at the end of the day, no matter what the team decided they’d have ended up making an unheroic decision (target innocence or walk away from an opportunity to eliminate the wraith threat to millions of human civilizations).
3. Ronon accompanies Weir on an off-world negotiation to the planet Drazia. Their potential new ally is a society of Genii-level advancement that, like the Genii, have managed to conceal much of their technological advancements from the wraith. Sheppard is in the gate room when they receive a transmission from Weir who informs him that, after careful consideration, she and Ronon have decided to abandon Atlantis for new lives on Drazia.
The team infiltrates the main city. Their investigation leads them to the underbelly of the society, an area peopled by the society’s disenfranchised: the weak, the sick, the infirm. There, they are approached by a decrepit old woman who claims to be Dr. Weir.
It turns out the Drazians have discovered a novel way to avoid being culled. Long ago, they realized that whenever the wraith came, they would feed on the strong and the healty and ignore the weak and sickly: the tainted. Seizing on this fact, the Drazians have been avoiding cullings by “swapping bodies” whenever the wraith draw near, transferring their consciousnesses into “the tainted” and sacrificing their former bodies (and society’s have-nots). With the threat gone and trapped in less-desirable bodies, they prey on any healthy visitors to their world, claming their bodies and banishing their consciousnesses to the city’s underbelly.
Pitched: Season 3.
Why I liked it: I’ve always enjoyed the stand-alone stories where the team travels off-world, gets into trouble, gets out of trouble, and goes home.
Why no one else did: Don’t recall.
4. While off-world, the team rescues a young girl from a frenzied mob of villagers. The villagers believe the child is possessed of a dark evil and no amount of reasoning will convince them otherwise so, kid in tow, the team beats a hasty retreat back to Atlantis.
On Atlantis, Teyla forms a bond with the young girl who, frightened at first, gradually begins to come out of her shell. As Teyla looks into finding a new home for their young guest, she learns of the supposedly dark circumstances befell her community: suspicious deaths, mysterious accidents – all attributed to the youngster. The team dismisses the villagers’ medieval fears – until some decidedly dark circumstances begin to befall Atlantis personnel, in particular those falling on the young girl’s bad side.
Ultimately, the team return to the planet and discover the truth. As it turns out, she grew up a normal little girl. But, one day, while she and her friends were playing in the catacombs located beneath a series of ancient ruinss, something happened – something that changed to her. She became withdrawn, quick to anger – and accidents befell those who displeased her.
The team explore the catacombs where they uncover an Ancient lab – and an open stasis pod holding the body of a long-dead Ancient. They realize that, while playing with her friends, the young girl inadvertently released the Ancient from his deep sleep. Near death, his mind addled, the Ancient transferred his consciousness into the only available vessel: the little girl.
Armed with this knowledge, the team returns to Atlantis to face off against a very pissed off and confused little girl possessed of the abilities of a near-ascended amnesiac Ancient.
Pitched: Way back in season 2.
Why I liked it: I’ve always wanted to do a creepy kid run amok story.
Why no one else did: Apparently, I’m the only one who did.
Thanks to everyone who weighed in with their happy Atlantis memories. Tomorrow is the deadline to get in those questions for Paul Mullie. Tomorrow also marks the beginning of discussion of On Basilisk Station. Let’s hear your thoughts and start posting your questions for author David Weber who will be paying us a little visit.
Finally, check out the run-through of Atlantis’s final scene.
Um, just my two cents. The story with the Wraith queens would have been a great one for Atlantis, a show that is often given the misnomer of “dark”. Unheroic, no right decision to be made–these are the types of stories that make the audience sympathize with the team. These are the kinds of stories that SG-1 did all the time that allowed the audience to relate to the characters. This story would have been worth fighting for.
Sorry, but the others sound like they fall into the “shite” category for me.
Well I liked your pitches… they seemed very reasonable & the cool factor would have been off the charts! Thanks for sharing and for the video… Awesome!
Hey Joe,
I would have loved to see story idea #2. I always wondered where all the Wraith females were and how one became a Queen!
Can you do a blog dedicated to the Wraiths? I would love to know how they reproduce..I know how they make the mask warriors but how do the others come about? What type of family structure do they have? Did Todd have loving parents? 🙂
Any chance that if Atlantis gets a second movie it would be Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow? I personally thought it was a great idea, possibly the best time travel concept Stargate has come up with.
Like the creepy kid!! Can you find a way to work it into SGU?
I can see the good and bad points of all of those stories, but I really wish that the other PTB had let you run with that second story idea. That is exactly the kind of dilemma that science fiction is so good at addressing and one of the things I’ve loved the most about the genre through the years. I would be very interested to know how you decided to handle the situation in the end.
How would you have written it? Would Rodney be the one to step forward and point out exactly how bad the idea of killing innocents would be? Would Ronon or Teyla have pointed out that by destroying the Wraith’s future generations they could save thousands, or even millions; that the dilemma was not really one of ethics but long term strategy? Would Sheppard have flashed back to a situation in Afghanistan and given us some insight into one of the myriad reasons he is so emotionally withdrawn? *sigh* Seriously, Joe, I really do wish that you had been allowed to run with this one. It probably would have been one of the better episodes of the series.
Yeah, I know, I’m an old Gene Roddenberry fan who thrives on that kind of social commentary and the exploration of humanity’s morals. I think you would have done well with this one.
Wow, the first three of those sound awesome! I would have loved to see those made, because:
1. — I love Michael. — I love seeing known characters turn into other (known) races.
2. — I’ve hoped for a while now that more would be explained about wraith kids, especially the queens. — Anything that would make the heroes face ethical questions about the wraith, particularly something that might lead to them deciding not to kill wraith, is always good, and would have been a nice counterbalance to some of the other wraith interactions.
3. — I love body-swapping eps.
As for the fourth, I’m afraid I’m also of the mind that scary kids run amok are a bit overdone.
Of the 4, my personal opinion is I would have loved to see the first 3. Thanks for sharing this. LOVED the video!
Opps, the BOTM listing had the week of Jan 14 – so, I was thinking you changed the book report day to Wednesday. NOT. Gotta go finish my homework…. That will teach me not to ask questions.
Really interesting story ideas that never got pitched, i think my favorite of the 4 would have been the last one with the possessed little girl running around Atlantis. It would have been a fun standalone story.
On to Basilisk Station, I have to say I found this book really interesting in many ways first and foremost was the way the political and military clashes were played out throughout the novel. I feel that you can really see this with what is going on with navy leadership in particular Sonja Hemphill, who is in charge of weapon development completely revamps Honor’s ship the Fearless in what seems to be a very politically motivated move on her part.
I also like the fact that Honor doesn’t just have to contend with one enemy but many, from political forces against her at home, to the Havenite’s, the Medusan’s and to a lesser extent the other criminal types that had been calling Medusa home until Honor showed up. It was more then just a simple A vs B scenario which really made the book more interesting and fun to read.
I also like the way Weber handled the role of gender in this novel, i’ve read many scifi/militray novels that make most women the “had to face all the hardships of being a woman in the military type”. Yet in this novel all respect Honor earns from her crew is all earned on her actions.
The think however the made me really enjoy this novel was the detail in which Weber was able to articulate the space battles. The last battle as the Fearless goes up against the Q-ship made me feel like I was right in the middle of the battle with Honor and the rest of her crew, that is what really made this novel….and the other books I’ve read so far in this series so fun to read.
Questions for David Weber.
1: When you first came up with the idea for this book did you see it as a multi-part series?
2: When starting a series like this, before writing the actual book did you have to sit down and spend a lot of time coming up with the science, back story and other elements of the universe before siting down to write the actual book?
3: Looking back on this first novel, On Basilisk Station, is there anything you would have liked to change in the story or for that matter in the universe as a whole?
I would have loved the creepy kid runs amok story! Damn!
nice ideas… two words for you…
graphic & novel
I liked all the pitches, Joe, but speaking of unwritten stories, will you be able to upload your color coded outline of that time travel story – “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”, I believe you said in the AU season 6 list.
Also, from that list, was the “Children of the Corn/Fantastic Four” story about coming across children on a ship based off your wraith queen children story? And was the “Hexed” story about Sheppard being cursed based off the pitch of the young girl/ancient?
Too bad you didn’t produce pitch #4 – another time to see that village set. Again. By the way, is that set still standing, or has it been taken down?
I think that pitch # 2 definitely had serious potential. Though given the similiarities to Reunion(other half of the combined team having their own motives), it could have been played the opposite way. The team comes across the fledgling queens as the Wraith, the Genii, and possibly a third party come hunting them. Any way it was approached, this was definitely in intriguing premise.
Pitch #4 also had some potential I think. It brings to mind the Bill Mumy Twilight Zone episode, and could have been played as an off-world team episode as easily as being played out back at Atlantis.
Ok, so I’m tired. My apologies for telling you how something might have/should have gone. But it’s so much fun rolling the ideas around in my head, I couldn’t resist. Thanks for sharing, and looking forward to the discussion tomorrow.
hi, joe,
seeing as sam was in ‘enemy at the gate’, what are the chances of her being the the 1st atlantis movie?
sally =D
J
I liked #2. The queen bee becomes a queen because she is given royal jelly. A few males are born to mate with the queen but the rest are females. It would have been very interesting to go into the hive society. Maybe the young queen would remember the humans that helped her and try to find a new source of food. After all there aren’t enough humans to go around now and maybe there’s a better source of food than humans. Since they feed off the energy of humans maybe a new source of energy which would give them an almost endless supply.
mary
#1 sounds good, but here’s a question: how are they gonna get out of it without killing all of them? Unless Beckett was off-world with them and somehow managed to not get caught with the team AND managed to synthesize a cure that could be dispersed easily in aerosol form, it seems pretty much impossible. (okay, okay, so maybe I can think of a couple other ways for them to get out of it… but it wouldn’t be believable)
#2 was good!!! This SOOO needs to be expounded upon! It would have answered many of our pressing questions about the wraith, as well as given us a completely different side of them to think about. And I think everybody loves a good moral dilemma. As depressing as it was, I *loved* the ending of SG-1’s Ethon, because it really made me feel the full weight of the battle with the Ori and how it effected SG-1.
#3 was way to complicated to explain completely in 42 minutes! It sounds like it would make a good movie though!
#4 was maybe too similar to the Shifu storyline in SG-1? Except he was not a kid run amuck…
Blehhh classes start tomorrow, but I’m excited about beginning discussions about On Basilisk Station. Haven’t finished it yet, but hope to have done so by tomorrow!!!
Hey Joe.
I liked the first idea the best. I always thought you should do an episode, whether in an AU or not, where the Wraith successfully overrun Atlantis……maybe in the movies.
Thanks Joe!
**QUESTION FOR PAUL**
Hi Paul. First of all, thanks for 5 great years of entertainment! Secondly (if that’s a word), I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind:
1) What has been your favourite episode of SGA you wrote?
2) Is Joe often hard to work with, or usually easy-going?
3) Why do you choose to write as a partner wth Joe, as opposed to on your own?
Thanks again!
I, too, would have loved the Creepy Kid story! The Bad Seed all over again!
I also would have loved the Wraith nursery story, only – at the end of the day – we all know the choice that would have been made…the facility would have been blown up, the children killed, and ‘yay! We’re so much better than those nasty Wraith and their evil, life-sucking ways!’ 🙄
Sometimes I’m glad the show’s been cancelled. 🙂
das
Oh, also, I think #2 would have worked out better without the Genii involvement. There would have been enough of a dilemma without the added need to make their new allies happy.
J
The queen could be called Elizabeth after Elizabeth Tudor. A young queen who used her brain to keep her people from going to war.
mary
@ Perragrin – *waves* I know yer lurking… I’m pretty sure my comment under yesterday’s entry got gobbled up in the 200+ replies. Just heal up quick, I miss you around these parts! *hugs*
*goes off to think up questions for Mullie…*
das
Hey Joe! Its me again..here are my questions for Paul.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your time and Thank you for the great stories you have given us over the years! I’m not just saying this to be nice. The stories you, Joe M, and Carl have written are really some of my favorites. I have a few questions if you don’t mind..
1. How do you and Joe work together; Do the two of you come up with ideas together or does one of you come with an idea and then you both work on a story?
2. Do you have a favorite character to write for?
3. Which of the SGA episodes you’ve written is your favorite? And why?
4. While writing a story with Joe is there anything you wanted to add/leave in (or the opposite) and had to argue with him to get him to agree it with you? If yes, can you tell us what it was?
Thank you!
Story idea #1 is the most interesting of the bunch. Story idea #3 reminds me of an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and idea #4 reminds me of the Charlie X episode of the original Star Trek series.
I liked the body snatchers pitch best, personally.
Hay Joe,
I just wanted to say congratulations on 5 great seasons. it’s too bad it couldn’t have gone further. That final episode was GREAT…. out with a bang!!! Way to go.
Reading you story ideas brought to mind a story that I had thought would be interesting for SG-1. Now I’m no righter but had a sudden inspiration. It would have been in season 10 when I thought it would have been cool to find a way to bring one of my favorite characters back, and that was Jacob Carter. I thought it would be cool if somehow the Ori or a Prior in a cloaked ship came to earth with the intention of bringing someone back to life and make a prior out of someone that would really tug on the heart strings of SG-1. Then of course SG-1 would find some way to save him and as a result he would lose his prior abilities. Just a thought I had.
Kevin
Is it me? Or does the scene just play better with dialogue? I was starting to make up stuff to fill in.
🙂
I would have gone with pitch #1. More Michael is always a good thing.
Not so much the creepy kid thing.
BTW, Joe, I’ve often wondered – what with the whole Ancients going back to Earth and some ascending and others and/or getting it on with the “Locals”… – during the years of SG1/SGA, did *anyone*, ever pitch or make a comment regarding the idea that perhaps Jesus may have been an Ancient…?
Not to offend any Christians here, but when one goes over the whole Easter thing and other aspects of His life, it could all very easily fit into the SG mythos. Seriously, Egyptology and most other mythologies haven’t been the same since! [Viking Thor is a little grey guy… Okaaay…]
And if someone did, I suppose it probably would have been too hot of a topic to broach…? Personally, I would have loved to have seen it! Still hoping to!! However, I could in the interim settle for a “Elvis was an Ancient” tabloid headline… I’m picturing Teyla [or better yet, RONON] sitting at some Bay Area bistro patio reading some rag and asking Sheppard, “What’s an elvis…?”
Hi, Joe.
Thank you so much for the video clip.
Question for Paul Mullie:
1) First, not a question, but a thank you for a wonderful episode and a fantastic series finale, Enemy at the Gate! Marvelous…
2) Having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years, I noticed that Atlantis was NOT in San Francisco Bay, but outside the Bay, in the Pacific, looking into San Francisco Bay, through the Golden Gate Bridge . (Which is why you can see the Berkeley Hills in background, and the Fort Point arch on the right hand side of the bridge.) I’m presuming Atlantis landed way further out in the Pacific, and then somehow made its way to the San Francisco area. Was this written in homage to Star Trek, as Star Trek Academy and Starfleet Command are based in San Francisco…in the future, of course?
3) Was the scene of Ronon dying and then being revived the scene that the other writers were split on when the script was being written (per a comment made on Joe’s blog)?
4) What’s your favorite episode of SG1 and SGA that you’ve written?
Thank you and best wishes!
Well, I like all those ideas, especially 2 & 4!
@ Das, re your chocolate centers line — ROFL!! XD
#1 love it but with out Michael. Maybe an airborne pathogen got loose in an alternate reality. Will pay big bucks to see what happens if Ronnan gets infected… talk about inner struggle. So planet of the apes but with a twist.
#2 I also didn’t like anything Genii they just got under my skin. But love the whole wraith nursery thing. That would be a twist. Maybe give them to Todd since he doesn’t have a real queen. Question though how would that work with the wraith having different hives and all. I always saw them as termites which means there would only be one queen until she died or a swarm came then a swarmer would become a queen. All the other little bugs would be male.
#3 reminds me of when Daniel and that guy switched bodies. We all want to escape something don’t we.
#4 I love creepy little girls. This one is my favorite.
(Doing this one in a separate post in case you want to delete it, Joe, which I would totally understand.)
All the talk in the last journal entry of so many people’s love for my own fave scene, “Beer on the Pier” (so catchy!!) got me thinking that I wanted a (McSheppy) t-shirt/button homage to wear at the next Dragon*Con, and this idea popped into my head:
http://wolfenmoondaughter.deviantart.com/art/Rodney-s-Greatest-Equation-109222128
To all my fellow McSheppers, enjoy. 🙂 It’s posted at Cafepress, but you can download it and print your own (for personal use only) if you want. 🙂
It’s a pity. I would have loved to see number 1, 2 and 4. They definitely sound better than the (few) SGA episodes I don’t like at all. They even sound better than the (for me) neutral ones.
Who knows how many other good ideas were never realized? And what would have been if…?
I liked every single one of your pitches, seriously I would wanna see them all.
Interesting ideas. I like the hybrids and the queens.
Heya Joe, thank you for approving WolfenM’s post with info on her t-shirts and such! I wound up buying one of the Team McShep shirts, which I’ll definitely be wearing for one of the days of the Vancouver convention. *g*
Yeah, I broke down and gave my business to Creation Cons, I just couldn’t resist coming up to see all of the beautiful sets before they’re struck. It pains me to think that all of that beautiful work will be torn down and scrapped, or, at best, put into storage somewhere. 🙁 I really hope that the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle buys the bulk of the main props, like the ‘gate and puddle jumpers or that they are at least sent around to various museums in an exhibit, like the Star Trek exhibit currently in San Diego. It would be a crying shame to lose all of that.
Ok, I’ve put aside all homework this weekend to finish my Stargate marathon once and for all, and managed to finally watch all the new Atlantis episodes, including the finale.
Damn Joe…that was brilliant. A little rushed, yes, and a little low on character moments, but brilliant nonetheless. The “full circle” comment was right, and it was absolutely amazing seeing Atlantis back home. The one before that, Vegas, was just extremely cool in all sorts of ways (and kind of depressing, in a good way), and offerred some of the most amazing shots and sequences of the series.
I now consider Solitary Man my own theme song.
I gotta say…I thought I had let the mourning period of Atlantis’s ending pass (thank you incredibly distracting schoolwork), but watching the last episodes these past few days…it just all came back. I’ve always felt more of a connection to Atlantis than to SG1, so this was doubly hard. Since I watched Enemy at the Gate 6 hours ago, I’ve been listening to country music like Solitary Man, to keep me in the mood. I feel that it is appropriate.
These characters whom I can relate to so well, especially McKay and Sheppard, have almost been a bit of an alter-ego of mine, doing all these fantastic things that I’ll never do since 1). it’s SciFi and 2). my life is not very exciting to begin with, even compared to normal people. I’ve laughed my ass off with them all, I’ve teared up with them, I’ve cheered, I’ve gasped, and I’ve even snarked. Seeing them go, and only return in movie form more than a year from now is just painful.
With your comment yesterday about the best moments of Atlantis, I got to thinking on it. Besides realizing that your evilness knows no bound (ONLY 3?! WTF?! IMPOSSIBLE!), I also realized something about the Stargate series as a whole. Is it perfect? No. Do I wish there were more serialization, perhaps more in-depth dealings with many story elements and characterizations? Very much so.
However, taken as one entity, the sheer variety and intensity of the MANY incredible sequences, character, CGI, or otherwise, within both series add up to something above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen. That is the charm of Stargate: no matter how long it lasts, the series will never cease to surprise or to impress. Sure, there may come a stretch of episodes that kind of slips into dullsvill sometimes, but within them you can often find little gems of banter or character moments or CGI or whatever; with no other series, movies, franchises can I say this.
Though you guys have pretty much just made things up as you went along, the Legacy you guys have created for Stargate is simply amazing. Look back at all the greatness you guys have done; it’s…well, great.
Ok, so sometimes we’ll spend an episode in a quaint medieval village and ultimately it was a fun but unimpressive hour. And then right next week, we get a scene or an entire episode that just digs to the very core of human nature and the meaning of life. That is Stargate. I find very few scenes in all of entertainment that can match the awe-inducing-ness of, say, The Fifth Race, or the raw emotions of Sheppard and Rodney while they drank some beers on the pier. These incredible sequences are always short, just enough to leave you stunned, without lingering on them, thus losing their impact.
This is Stargate, and it is unique.
So picking the best moments is impossible…but I’ll try. Instead of 3, I’ll pick 1 from each season, and 1 more:
1. Season 1: Atlantis Rising. ‘Nuff said.
2. Season 2: Beyond the Night; perfect editing, perfect music, perfect voice.
3. Season 3: The 1st half of Season 3 is the best part of the entire series, so this is hard. It’s a toss up between Rodney hugging Jeannie (I tear-up every time I see this), and Rodney and Carson’s goodbye on the pier.
4. Season 4: Sam’s sacrifice, The Last Man. The music was perfectly depressing and hopeless, the intensity grew exponentially as the battle waged, and the lone-female “choir” after the battle, combine with the pans through an empty Atlantis and Rodney’s “And we buried another empty casket” just created the perfect storm of Awesome. That whole episode is my current #1 of the series, just because it hit so close to home in terms of the “I’m tired of my regrets and I’m gonna do something about it” theme of Rodney. So heroic and self-less, sort of.
5. Season 5: Beer on a Pier, again, ’nuff said.
6. Extra: Reading everyone’s reflections on the comment page of the previous day’s blog entry. It brought back a lot of memories. Thank you; all of you.
And thank you, Joe, and all others who worked their butts off on this series, for FIVE GREAT YEARS OF STARGATE ATLANTIS.
COOL! Ideas for a virtual season 6. Anyone?
Hey Joe,
Can I just say that your idea for the genii and wraith queens is great.
I would have really liked to seen that.
Shame the other writers didnt like it.
That wraith story would have been brilliant Joe, why didn’t you push for it? Some truly cringeworthy episodes have been made over the five years but this story, handled correctly, would have been a standout.
The ethical dilemma the team would have faced, friction between members, getting answers on wraith culture and seeing another side to them, all would have been great. An ending where the team walked away realising their children not a tactical advantage and the decision coming back later either as a positive or a negative.
Why oh why didn’t you push for this story Joe?
Would it be posible that any of these ideas or previous ones you’ve posted could be done in another form? Either movie, anime, book, comic etc…
and going on from yesterday, favourite ep from each season.
1. Rising Part 2
2. Duet
3. Common Ground
4. Be All My Sins Remembered
5. The Queen
Question for Paul: What do you consider your personal writing style?
And of course many thanks from this fan for all the work you did (and will do) with SGA.
And whatever happened to that autograph I asked for? 🙂
My favourite is number 4
I like kids involvements too. Such a pity the story never made it. I can’t imagine why anyone would vote against it. It’s a wonderful idea.
Well who knows how many versions of those 4 ideas will certainly soon be published on fanfiction.net ;o)
Wow! Those were very cool pitches in my opinion. Is it weird that when I read the creepy kid pitch I pictured my youngest daughter as the creepy kid? 😯 It’s just that she’s into making *spooky* faces lately and enjoys trying to scare Allie and myself. It’s hilarious and yet eery. Plus she looks so sweet and innocent but can be very devious. And she’s does have a temper. Also she says really odd things that little kids don’t usually know about. Like telling my sister (who had just bought a house) that my sister needed to pay off her mortgage because until she did, the bank owned it. And she told me I wouldn’t want to share ice cream with her because she’d taken a bite and it had her DNA in it already. 😕 Erin was six at the time.
Hey wait a minute. Maybe there IS a crazed ancient trapped in her body! That would explain A LOT!
Ok… sorry. Just kidding. But Erin does know the oddest things.
I guess I love the creepy kid thing, too. Who isn’t scared of *Children of the Corn*?
Thank you for the run-through of the final Atlantis scene. Was that scene actually the last scene shot for Atlantis?
It’s so weird it won’t be a weekly thing anymore. *sniff*
Trish 😀
3 and 4 are great – both (like most SGA stories) could easily have been two parters.
Over all and referring to yesterdays topic, i’d have like to have seen more of Sheppard’s wife and tons more of Mrs Miller in the show. While the stuff with Torri got sadly awkward, there was a lot of possible twists and turns her new character could have brought to the future – except the future was killed off bar a film or two.
Question:
Aside from you’re projects now, while you were writing SGA you obviously have to eat sleep and breath inside the SGA concept – when the news of closure actually hit home, how devastating was it for you?
Truthfully I always did want to see a “Ronon-Weir” episode. The one you described sounds interesting, but I can see that there could be technological issues in making it work.
As to the one with the Queens …..
I like the ethical dilema but wouldn’t have seen it early in the series, but much later. Early on, the decision would have been made out of fear, ignorance, and so on and that is not as interesting as what could have happened later.
As an example … Shepherd suggesting the solution to the scientist about feeding Todd. That was dark, but also nuanced. Your idea implemented later could have been more nuanced – and even more ethically challenging – because the team would have been smarter and tougher.
As to the other two ideas …. well, I have already forgotten them so I can’t comment.
Pretty good. Ya know, you could always expand any of those ideas into a novel and pitch it to MGM & Fandemonium as a SGA book release…
DD
Hi Joe!
Greetings from chilly Hungary once again. I’ve got two questions that came to my mind the other day:
1. Does it feel it very different to write SG-1, Atlantis or Universe? I mean different kind of humor, feeling, atmosphere, etc.?
2. SciFi Channel released the first Universe teaser and it featured a sightly slimmer Stargate with red chevrons. Is this the final design? (I kinda hope it is, I love these red chevrons.)
Thanks and I liked these pitches, especially the one with the young Wraith queens. It would have been awesome.
Still thinking about EATG and one thing still puzzles me. I can’t figure out why O’Neill wanted Sheppard in the Earth-chair. I mean, as far as I know O’Neill is a strong gene-carrier himself, right? And manning the chair is a question of mental capability, not of physical fitness (since I don’t know in which pysical state Gen. O’Neill is supposed to be – never watched much SG-1). Which means, since O’Neill is still in charge of making decisions, his brain must work perfectly fine. *G*
It would have been the easiest way, just get the guy with the strong gene who *is* already on Earth down to Area 51 and let him sit in the chair. O’Neill could have been there before the Hive came dangerously close, at least long before Sheppard, and Atlantis could have started their journey to the Milky Way with the experienced and best pilot they have for flying the city, Sheppard. Surely, a situation like we had in EATG would call for “the best man in the best place” and O’Neill manning Earth’s chair while Sheppard flying Atlantis would have been exactly this.
That’s a detail I just don’t understand, what am I overlooking? 🙂
I can’t wait till Universe!!! Before I ask my question, I have to state that I am in no way pushing for old characters to be used in the new shows.
My question is this, what is the driving force behind the decision to not use old characters in the new series?
(apart from Amanda)
#1, 3 and 4 sound like ‘meh’ to me… #1 sounds interesting but it’s not likely Michael would do something like that. #3 gives me a ‘deja vu’ feeling, not sure why, and #4 stands or falls with the acting of the little kid, and the acting of kids is usually well…. not so great.
#2 would’ve been Absolutely (indeed, with a capital A) gold. The moral dilemma, combined with the always interesting (at least in my opinion, that is) ‘what the hell are they up to now and can we actuallly trust them?’ Genii would make a wonderful episode. Hell, you should consider this for an Atlantis movie!
Hey Joe, for that Wraith Queenies story, is it really too late now? Is it un-movie-worthy, I mean?
I think that story could be made into an awesome episode or two, but perhaps they can come up with a way of smuggling the girls out, or beam them up, instead of either killing them, or angering the Genii, not that I mind angry Genii, but there’s now the Coalition to worry about, too, and you’ll know that word will get out if Atlantis came back on what they were set out to do in that mission… Being sneaky, it is.
Atlantis has Todd now, or that depends on what further happens to his character, Sheppard isn’t being very nice to him at the moment, but if Todd really believes in having his people develop past the feeding on humans habit, like he has suggested with taking the drug himself, and keeping it that way, then perhaps a few Wraith girls, young enough for him to train with his goals in mind, the survival of the Wraith by separating them from the others, no more feeding, is what the guy can really use. Not that he would look forward to babysitting, but still…
If they’re ever going to find a way to cure a Wraith of the side effects the drug treatment brings along, then they’re going to have a need for Queens who see things the same way that Todd does, so they’ll order the spread of it, and what better way to have Queens listen to *Todd* than those he trained himself, and spread out over his Alliance himself? If he teaches them not to dislike each other, the way it looks like other Queens do, then perhaps he has his hands on something really good, future-wise!
Yes, or no? 🙂
Spikey
I really enjoyed the Honor Harrington books. The political climates on the different worlds were fascinating, the consequences of heroic actions weren’t always positive, and the shades of grey made both the heroes and villians richer and darker.
My question for David Weber: with the incredible detail and woven tapestry of your Honor Harrington series, how do you keep track of all the plot points and character motivations?
I like the creepy kid running amok stroy line. That would have been cool, maybe a story line for SGU?
Cool pitches that never were! I think Pitch #3 would have been my favorite of the 4.
The Atlantis finale was absolutely amazing!!! The cameos, action and story were all fantastic. If the intent of TBTB was to leave us wanting more, then I believe you all succeeded!
On a random note, I had a dream with Todd and Sam last night. Todd told Sam his real name, which was actually pretty cool. But, unfortunately, I don’t remember what he said he name was. I do remember that it started with an M.
Loved the story idea of the wraith children – would love to see that one made – do a book.
Wasn’t it end of last week that we should know some off the cast members for Universe?
Btw, I liked tht time travel ep. you described.
Joe – I can totally sympathize with your pukey pup problems a while back. This morn, I woke up in a vomitorium (not the theater kind…but the other kind…).
First, Cowcat decided to throw up in the bed at about 5 am. Fun. Then…he went into the livingroom, and spewed again…conveniently missing the hardwood floor in favor of the area rug. Then, Marbles decided to start licking my face – for an entire half hour. I tried hiding under the covers, but to no avail. Finally, I relocated myself to our ‘ship’ room, snuggled under a blanket on the captain’s bed-cum-couch, and started drifting off to sleep…only to be jolted back to wakefulness by Marbles who, not content with just licking my face, decided to jump up in the bed with me and puke on one of my pillows, and then the blanket…
The other two cats – and my husband – just blissfully slept through it all. 🙄
das
Coucou Joseph!!
Sa va ??
Ahh, ma premiére journée de stage c’est trés bien passer, les dames de la comptabilité sont trés gentil, je ne pouvai rêvez meilleur 1er journée! =)
…Sympas la video, sniff, nostalgie, tout cela me manque deja..Vraiment impatiente de voir le film de sga et de tous les retrouvait!!
Paseeez une trés bonne journée, a demain!
I’m sort of sad that you mentioned these plots-that-weren’t, because people are discussing them so now you can’t develop them! I would’ve loved to have seen #2. Ethical dilemmas are interesting — Sheppard and Ronon would’ve been all for it, while I can see Rodney (and possibly Teyla?) feeling queasy about killing kids, even if they’re wraith. You could’ve had a resolution where the wraith daycare workers kill the queens-to-be themselves because they’ve been “tainted” by humans (sort of like how you’re not supposed to touch baby birds because that causes the mommy birds to ignore them).
I think that while queens are powerful and respected in their own right, they could be little more than commodities and assets to cultivate and use (and then discard). It’s an interesting send up of how women are valued/viewed in general and Wraith anthropology is fascinating in it’s own right, y/y?
Me revoila…
Je me posais une question en voyant un dessin de wraith…..
Le wraith posséde t’il un sexe? (qu’il soit mâle ou femelle)
…je ne sais pas du tout, remarque peut être que vous aussi.
Joe, thanks for approving that post! Sulien, I’m glad that you liked it! I got an email from someone else who got the pin of Team McShep for xmas, and she was thrilled — I’m pleased to make people so happy and to share the fandom love. 🙂
GoSpikey, I like the way you think! 😀
I gave my bunny, Evil Alice, a bath this morning. It was traumatic for both of us. XD That’s why I try not to do it too often, but since she had her bottom teeth removed, she can’t groom herself too well anymore, and has to eat soft food, which is messy. 🙁 I read once to try cornstarch instead of water & soap, but that didn’t really do anything — and she didn’t *like* it, either ….
Hi Joe, in the SGA’s episodes ‘Midway’ and ‘Lost tribe’ Daniel Jackson and Teal’c were both guests in altlantis, but they weren’t using any SGC uniform and non SG-1 either, can i assume that they are no longer members of SG-1 ? and Teal’c is back into Free Jaffa nation ?
Have a Good day.
I loved your second idea, it’s too bad it didn’t get made. I’m a big fan of the ethical dilemmas myself. A similar story with Jack on SG-1 would have been very interesting as well.
Re: On Basilisk Station, by David Weber
Okay, I loved this book. This is one of those books I’ve picked up at the bookshop, and thought, “Hm, maybe…” and then, for whatever reason, put it back down. I am kind of kicking myself for that now, because once I got into it, I absolutely didn’t want to put this book down.
One of the things I like most about Honor Harrington’s universe is that gender doesn’t seem to be a huge issue. Women are captains and soldiers and engineers and doctors, and some of them are great at their jobs and some of them (the doctor, for example) suck. But you can’t point at any of the female characters in the book and say, “Yep, there’s the victim/romantic lead/hapless heroine in need of rescue. Likewise with the male characters — some of them are good at what they do; others not so much. They’re all just people, and I really liked that.
I also appreciated the lack of romantic entanglements in the novel. So often, if sci-fi novels have a strong leading female character, the novel will also have a strong undercurrent of romance. I liked that in this novel, the tension between Harrington and her second in command, McKeon (I hope I spelt that right), was not due to romance, but rather because of McKeon’s hurt professional pride. Romance didn’t really come into the story at all, which was a truly welcome change for this reader.
I did find myself skimming over some of the nitty-gritty techno-details of the gravity drives and walls and the like, mostly because the explanations tended to unfold against a backdrop of enormous space battles, and I was rather more interested in the big explosions. Hollywood blockbusters have trained me too well, I fear. 🙂 (I did wonder if David Weber had spent a not inconsiderable amount of time coming up with a way for his gravity drives to work, and if he felt slighted at all that readers like me disregard/skim over all his hard work).
Questions for David Weber:
1) How much work went into researching the gravity drives/walls/waves etc? Did you speak with anyone involved with gravity wave research, or was it mostly all done through published journal articles? What made you think of this idea for propulsion/defense to start with?
2) Do you enjoy reading science fiction as well as writing it? Do you have any particular favourites that you like to re-read often, and if so, what is it about those stories that draws you back again and again?
One of the things I enjoyed so much about OBS was that there seemed to be quite a lot of background politics. Is this something you look for in books you enjoy reading as well?
Thank you for your time, and for writing such a marvellous heroine. I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the Honor Harrington series. (Just in time, too, as I’m about to be separated from my library for an extended period of time. Bookstores, here I come! Whee!)
Questions for Paul Mullie:
1. What are the benefits of writing with a partner, and what are the benefits of writing on your own?
2. First, a comment: Common Ground is my all-time favorite SGA ep because it showed that Wraith and human can work together, and that – perhaps – you can’t always judge a book by its minty-green cover. It gave many of us hope that we would see something positive come of this Wraith, as well as see growth is Sheppard’s character because of it. In S4 there were signs of this happening, of Sheppard coming to some kind of mutual understanding about Wraith, and with Todd in particular. It promised to be a great relationship. But as S5 has progressed – all positive development between these two has been undone, and Sheppard has become this dark, narrow-minded jerk who kills out of spite and hate. There was a little redemption for him at the very end of Infection, but now? He justifies killing Todd because Todd stirs up the pot a little? This ‘death threat’ scene in EatG totally ruined both Sheppard, and the episode, for me. I know I’m just one person, but I am one person who has grown very weary of Sheppard’s bloodlust, and his inability to see that he’s no better than the enemy he hates so much.
So, my question: Why take a relationship that promised to have a positive effect on both human and Wraith, one that many besides myself hoped would be something different from the status quo – a real turning point in human/Wraith relationships and in the basic understanding of each other’s kind – and allow it to stagnate in a mire of distrust and death threats? Were you aware of how much of a moron Sheppard would sound like for condemning Todd to death – after he’s helped save countless human lives and the Pegasus as a whole time and again – simply because he’s stirred things up a little in the process? Or, in your mind, is there just no hope for Wraith, ever, and so Todd – like all the rest – is simply destined to be just another bad guy who needs to be eliminated?
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I do thank you for being a part of the production and writing team that made this show possible in the first place, even if I do not like the direction the show took throughout the backhalf of S5. I can only hope for something positive to happen in the movie, but I am not going to hold my breath, not now.
Thank you again.
Deirdre
A quick non-Stargate question for you, Joe. Do you use one of the IngenuiTEA teapots? I used the search function on your blog but didn’t find a reference. I’ve got one and it works beautifully; it even manages to strain out all of the little needle-like leaves of roibos and the fine particles of chamomile flowers.
Anyway, the reason I’m asking is because one of the shops in town here has them and I would be happy to send one up as a small Thank You.
Yovonne
Paul: What is a typical day of work with Joe like? And what are your plans now SGA is finished?
To reply to yesterdays question…well the one on the 10th.
My top three favourite scenes would have to be:
1. Sheppard and Rodney having beer on the pier. That was a truly amazing scene.
2. In “Rising” when they first enter the city and it starts to power up. The sense of wonder and awe at something so vast and important was done so well.
3. The moment Todd first fed from Sheppard and the looks of utter helplessness on everyone’s face.
There are plenty more but the first two really captured some beautiful character moments and emotion for me.
Those episodes look real cool on paper. Some might even be even better on screen.
Shame really. Who knows, there are movie ideas in some of these stories… When the time for standalone movies come..
I would go with choice #2 myself possibly 4, but definately 2.
Hi Joe:
Regarding On Basilisk Station, as I began reading the story, my first thought was that there is an obvious parallel to our current international affairs with one “nation” looking at a preemptive strike on other nations to solve it’s economic woes. The Captain, and our hero, Honor, gets to take her pet to work? Now that I wouldn’t mind. She walks into a mess that she has to clean up; again, sounds like my life. Most Sci-fi stories don’t grab me as much as this one did, because, in this story, I could see myself as the protagonist. That hasn’t happened to me in a very long time.
Patricia
Question for Paul Mullie:
Where is your blog???
Hi Joe!
Idea #2 (Queen children) sounds very interesting! Since Instinct, I hoped to have some more background on Wraith families.
Idea #4 (creepy kid) could be cool. Creepy kids are always creepy.
LibraryThing has a widget that’s supposed to work with WordPress now. http://www.librarything.com/tools
Take care!
eddy
@dasNdanger: I’ve got one better with the pukey pups. About 3 years ago, my 20-soemthing yr. old daughter was sound asleep in her bed and Elway (the big epileptic one) got on her bed to wake her as he did every morning. She yawned, and as she did, he puked in her mouth. I’ve never heard anything like what ensued. “Cowcat”? LOL.
Hi Joe!
Enemy at the Gate …………………SPOLIERS……………………
Hi all,
Was able to talk with Anne Teldy very briefly today. She’s getting over a bad cold that makes it difficult for her to breathe, but she did watch “Enemy at the Gate.”
Her niece joined her for both airings of the finale, which they both loved. She hasn’t been online for a week or more, and also has been avoiding the comments section ever since it was known that Vegas and the EatG were leaked. No spoilers for her!
Anne says to tell Joe, “You nearly killed me with the General Hammond thing! No, really!” she says, laughing. “I was crying so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. My niece wanted to call a nurse to come bring in the oxygen. It was a terrific scene and I thought Amanda Tapping and Joe Flanigan played it perfectly. It was a great way to honor Don Davis.”
Her niece was horrified when Ronan was killed, and Anne wondered, “Gee, I wonder how well that Wraith reverse feeding really works.” They both thought Ronan looked completely dead. (I’ll second that thought. Between the incredible work of the makeup department and Jason Momoa’s utterly spot-on acting, it looked as if he had literally died on camera.) Both were relieved when the reverse feeding worked just fine!
In other news, (this is where Anne would say you can skip the following, because it’s a medical update), Anne says to tell everyone that her hemoglobin test came back as “her normal.” This is still lower than regular normal, but everyone is satisfied that the transfusion had a good result. She is recovering from a bad cold, which gives her a rougher time than the rest of us, especially when talking, coughing, breathing, and watching heart-wrenching scenes from Enemy at the Gate. She’ll be back when she can.
Not sure if you follow Dvice, but look at this:
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/01/asgard_flagship.php
@ Deni B. – Aye…Cowcat:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/dasNdanger/cowbutt.jpg
😕
I showed Bam Bam that picture, and he said, ‘that’s not a cat, that’s an elephant!’
😆
@ for the love of Beckett – Thanks for the update on Anne! Give her hugs from me! 🙂
das
PS @ Deni B. I forgot to say… EEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!! I think I just threw up a little in my own mouth… 😛
das
I must say that Stargate Atlantis has turned out to be the best scifi show ever (beside Sg1). Every storyline was great. The only thing that bothered me was Elizabeth Weir’s ending…I wish it had more closure, not a wantingof more to feel it has ending, which would have been nice to see if it happened in season 6 (another reason it sucks that it was cancelled)!!! I loved the final episode, but wished it was a two-parter so that there could have been more character moments!!! The final scene was amazing, and the storyline was a great way to end it
The first episode the wraith find out about Earth, eventually trying to get there. In the final episode they do, but they stop them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sorry not to have read the books, since I was offline away sooo long, Maybe I can catch up on the next group. I haven’t seen the last epi yet, so didn’t read the posts here. Will do that this evening. I have enjoyed watching the actors bring the characters to life and much more thru the writers wonderful ability to write. I can’t write so therefore I read. I really enjoy reading your posts. I liked your pitched stories, sorry others didn’t for whatever reason. Looking forward to SGU! Have a wonderful day!! ;-D
Question for Paul:
I love McKay and Keller as a couple, but what’s with the corny dialog of late? Their little moment at the end of Enemy at the Gate started out cute and snarky (and fitting), but when he said, “…and I’ve got you. What else would I need?” I started to wonder if McKay spends his free time watching old Molly Ringwald movies. Not to mention his comment was a bit of a dis to his three teammates standing within earshot. I half expected Teyla to kick him in the leg and say, “Does this mean you will be saving your own ass the next time we are surrounded and under fire?”
Thank you for indulging me. Now may I just add that I loved Enemy at the Gate and only wished it had been longer. Thank you for five great years.
Wow, I LOVE those ideas. I know there’s potential for things to change or go pear-shaped during production, but the first and second could have potentially been Best Episode Ever material. It’s a real shame that they didn’t happen and only makes me more sad about the cancellation.
—–
Questions and comments for Paul Mullie:
Hi, thank you so much for doing this, it’s wonderful for us fans to have this kind of access to the people that create our… what’s a nice word for obsession?
1. I can’t help but feel ‘Enemy at the Gate’ is a little rushed [but then so many of Atlantis’ best episodes are.] Was there ever any consideration of making it an extended episode, Threads-style? If so why couldn’t/didn’t you?
2. Was wormhole drive a new invention for this episode or had the idea been around for a while?
3. What was the Odessey up to? It must have been VERY important or VERY far away for them not to pull it to defend Earth. Is it related to the third SG1 movie?
4. I assume we’ll be seeing the Apollo again one day, but is the Tsun Tsu(sp?) salvagable?
5. Did the expedition just get three ZPMs from Todd or were there more? Lorne’s case only showed two so we know we didn’t see them all.
6. The only thing I really felt was missing from the final episode was some mention of Weir and Ford. I thought it could have slipped in nicely when Woolsey was giving Ronon and Teyla the option of leaving – ‘Your people gave their lives for us, etc’. Were there mentions in the script that got cut? If not did you consider having them mentioned but decide against it?
7. I’ll join the chorus in saying well done for the wonderful tribute to General Hammond [and Don S. Davis].
8. Finally, I’d like to thank you, not only for the great final episode but also for all your work on Atlantis [and SG1], and say I can’t wait for the movie!
—–
Questions and Comments for David Weber:
First off I’d like to say thank you. ‘On Basilisk Station’ was my introduction to SciFi literature back in my pre-teens [1997/8]. I have been an avid fan of the Honor Harrington series ever since but OBS remains my favourite if only for memories of the two nights I first read it all those years ago. [I admit I skimmed the chapter detailing Manticoran politics back then – It took a couple of years before pouring over those sort of detailed sections became fascinating.] I also feel compelled to tell you that you are the only author to have ever made me cry [in ‘At All Costs’].
Here are my questions, though I’m sorry they aren’t all that OBS-centred, I hope that’s alright:
1. What do you enjoy writing most – the relatively tightly focused, independant ship captain stories like the first few HH books or the more expansive stories of the more recent novels?
2. Do you still plan on writing the Stefanie Harrington/Sphynx Forrestry Service series one day? I’m very much looking forward to those, but I can certainly understand why they aren’t a high priority being prequels and with everything else you have going on!
3a. I’ve heard you say in other interviews that showing the cost of war is an important part of the series [and rightly so IMO], and that you don’t tend to outline your stories very tightly before writing. When you were writing OBS how did you decide which charcters survived? Was there a starting plan or did you just let things happen as you wrote?
3b. Have you ever felt at the end of writing a book that not enough sacrifices were made? Or that too many characters died? If so have you ever gone back and changed someone’s fate to accomodate those feelings?
4. The heavliy detailed universe is one of the most appealing aspects of the Honorverse to me. Has the detailed background ever prevented you from doing something you wanted to, or forced you into doing something you didn’t want to?
Thanks for taking the time out to do this. I’m counting down the days to ‘Storm…’!
—–
Cheers for arranging this Joe. Just the blog is fantastic but these Q&As are above and beyond.
All the best,
Mark
Some of the storylines that were written by you were very entertaining and good. I’m looking forward to some more of your work, and I sincerely hope in the future your work will not leave place for any complaints.
However, I have to express my utter disappointment with the moral of the whole SGA story. The creators of SGA portrayed us in worse possible way. From last seasons of SG-1, trough the SGA the moral get worse and worse. It seems to me that the whole story served to give justification to extreme military solution of the problems, to justify the intolerance here on the Earth.
But the ending of the SGA is definitely the worse so far. The team stole the only working ship capable to make difference within the Pegasus galaxy. They came there, caused problems, caused countless victims, behaved, in principle, like the terrorists, stole the advanced technology and then left!
Why? Why did the creators of SGA portray us in such a bad way?
I’m a bit afraid to think about what kind of the storylines are planed for SGU. I mean, the concept itself makes perfect for the main characters to avoid any kind of consequences or repercussions. Please, please do your best to avoid that. Please!
There is another complaint I have, however, I’m mentioning it just because I am a scientist.
So the science, the creators of the show made too many illogical errors within the show. If this trend is continued in the SGU that show will turn into the fantasy show. Please, can you reverse that, can you make SGU a bit more logical?
Best regards,
Dr. A. Andic
Been pondering my favourite scenes. I can’t name just 3 so I’ll list them as follows:
Fave John & Rodney scenes
Beer on the Pier scene (especially the spit-take)
Confrontation in Adrift
Scene in Sheppard’s quarters at the end of Miller’s Crossing
Rodney’s plea to trust him and the subsequent apology after he blew up 5/6 of a solar system
Fave visual fx
Shep/Zelenka space walk
BAMSR space battle
Atlantis rising
Fave fight scenes
Ronon/Teal’c
Ronon/Ford
Michael/Teyla
Ronon taking out the wraith in Sateda
Fave musical moments
Teyla singing as they prepare for battle in Critical Mass
Death scene in Vegas to Solitary Man
SGA theme
Bagpipes playing at Carson’s funeral
Wraith putting on makeup to Beautiful People in Vegas
Fave banter scenes
John/Rodney – John wants a bigger number when Rodney tells him how long the replicators will be frozen
John/Rodney – At least my superhero is real
Rodney/Lorne – Rodney should forgo reproducing.
John/Rodney – Gateship/Puddlejumper
That’s all for now. Ill try ad come up with some interesting categories.
Cheers, Chev
p.s. Glad you didn’t do the creepy kid one. I’m sure I’ve seen that one before. Would have like the wraith children one – love a good moral dilemma.
(((Perragrin))) – Hope you have a speedy recovery. We’ll miss you ’round here.
Chev
“Dr. A. Andic” what makes you think Atlantis won’t go back to Pegasus?
And what’s wrong with stopping an UberHive ship, which only Atlantis has the power of stopping, from destroying the 6 billion people on this planet? Isn’t that moral?
eddy
Yesterday I passed greetings along from the totally whumped Perragrin (who now knows what Sheppard feels like 😉 ), and now I pass them along from Narelle. Lots going on for her right now (one of her fishes died, too), so she asked me to say ‘hi’ to everyone for her…so, ‘Hi!’, from Narelle! 🙂
das
Questions for Mr Paul Mullie.
Hi, there.
First of all, a very big thank you on the work you’ve done for Stargate Atlantis, especially a big thumbs up on your work of the last two years, season 4 and 5 were simply amazing, thank you, and Joe, for bringing in a certain amazing, tall green guest star that often, and giving us so many wonderful Wraith-related episodes in the fifth season. It was truly amazing.
Now, let’s see what kind of questions I can come up with. Oh boy… You’ll notice that I quite like Todd.
1. In Season 1’s Before I Sleep it’s mentioned that the Ancients sent out a delegation protected by their most powerful warships in the hope of negotiating a truce with the Wraith. Were those the same ships that Todd was talking about later, in Spoils of War, the ones that had ZPMs on board, and also a bunch of careless Lanteans to go with them? Probably not, but it would be so funny, if the Ancients practically delivered the ZPMs to the Wraith like that.
2. Have you guys ever thought out how Todd could have been captured by the Genii? In Season 1’s Underground there’s mention of a downed Wraith Dart during a culling many generations ago, and that’s where the Genii managed to get a data storage device from. Todd has said that he had been imprisoned for many years already, but is several generations close to how long it had been? If not, in your mind, how long ago was he captured? And what kind of activity was he exercising? Perhaps he was captured in one of his facilities.
3. Back in the days of the Ancient War, did Todd help create the cloning facility seen in Spoils of War? The other Wraith mentioned he had a very firm grasp of the technology used there. Or could that mean that Todd and the used technology is much older than those Wraith were, Queen included?
4. In Season 2’s Aurora, we learn that a Wraith has invaded a severely damaged Ancient warship, and is trying to collect some data on hyperdrives. His progress is followed up by two Cruisers, which are blown up. Later on, in Allies, a Wraith Queen is trying to fish the report of the Aurora-mission out of the Atlantis database. How did she know about that? Did all the Wraith know, or did those two Cruisers belong to her Hive/Alliance, and therefore she was very interested in finally getting those upgrades?
5. In Season 1’s The Gift we learned of a Wraith performing some experiments behind the other Wraiths’ backs. Have we ever seen more of that Wraith on screen? If it’s a yes, would you mind telling us who/where that was?
6. Is there another old cloning facility out there, in your opinion? I would imagine that that one was the only one they used back then, as you need ZPMs to power up that massive cloning project, and those don’t grow on trees, like they said in EatG, I believe. Awesome episode, by the way!
7. Did the Wraith perfect their cloning techniques, or start cloning in general, when the Asgards came into the Pegasus galaxy? In other words, did the Wraith steal the cloning technology from the Asgards? It would be ironic, one of the four great races being pushed back to Earth because the rogue ones of another came to pay their galaxy a visit.
8. Is or has Todd ever been a Keeper? Or what was his function before he got captured by the Genii? What exactly was the function of a Keeper again?
9. What function did Michael have on his original Hive?
10. Does Todd have worshippers? Did he turn them himself, or did he let someone else do that job, pre-‘cure to feeding’ injection.
11. Is Todd going to do something with the cure to feeding? Is he still investigating how to counter the problem that occurred in himself and the other (dead) Wraith?
12. What does Todd eat nowadays? I doubt he eats nothing at all, but I don’t see the Lanteans offering him anything either.
13. In Season 4’s The Kindred Part 2 we see Michael injecting something in Teyla’s womb. What was that substance exactly?
14. In The Seed, we’ve learned that Wraith ships are grown from injecting humans with an organism that grows out of them. Is the same done with Wraith, sometimes? How does one give a ship a designation? Are the floors grown by the organism, too? The machinery, other equipment, the hyperdrive… Where does the ship get the bony structure from? In short, how does one build a Wraith ship?
15. We already know that Todd is a very smart guy, and that he’s quite old already. It came as not much of a surprise to hear that ‘he was there, 10,000 years ago’ when the Attero Device was started up the first time. Do you have more of an exact age for him in your mind? What would that be?
16. We have seen that Michael no longer needed to feed on humans in order to sustain himself in The Kindred Part 1. In Search And Rescue, the team stumbles across his research in that matter, the about same research they later show to Todd to see if there’s a possibility for a different future for the Wraith Nation. However, Todd tries the research out on himself, and finds out that it’s not exactly safe yet. The only way to get himself healed of his disease is a ‘date’ with one of his ancestors’ Queens.
May we assume that Michael had to do the exact same thing to get himself better, too, that he knew of the same treatment of last resort, or did he not have the same problem because he was no longer a full Wraith?
I hope I’m allowed to ask those things. Anyway, good luck with the Stargate movies, Stargate Universe, and all your other projects. Thanks again for agreeing to do this Q&A!
Spikey
Hybrid Dr. Weir! Wouldn’t that have been a shocker to see? I like the idea just because you know it would have been one of those Atlantis “holy $#%!” moments, the first time she was revealed on camera.
On a related note…okay, semi-related note…you know you’ve watched a little bit too much Atlantis over the past week when you see a preview for 24 which includes Tony Almeida inexplicably showing up ALIVE and the first thing you think is: “Whoa, a clone? Alien technology, maybe?”
@dasNdanger: No kidding, eeeewww. The weird thing is that about a week later, the daughter started vomiting, etc. and had to have her appendix taken out (for nothing). When the situation continued, she had to have an endoscopy and it turned out she had 3 ulcers. You’ve gotta wonder, hey? She still gets grossed out by the mere thought 😉 Your cat/elephant is adorable!
Questions for PAUL MULLIE 🙂
1) How did you get into writing in the first place?
2) What is the normal process when you write a script?
3) Which SGA episode was your favorite, and which SGA episode, in retrospect, would have done differently and why?
4) Both you and JoeM will be consultants on SGU, correct? I’m just curious, what does that entail?
Thanks!
I really like those ideas! Especially 1 & 4!
I like the whole set up of #3 but I’m not sure I could have personally dealt with either outcome. That would surely be a hard episode to watch but no doubt be a very good one.
It would be a very interesting situation to see the team in and see them discusing it……very interesting.
hey Joe!!
pitch #2 would’ve been amazing to see!!! i love stories that deal with ethical dilemas, and to see team atlantis deal with one would’ve been awesome!!! i don’t know how that story didn’t make it!
I especially liked the first one; the second was not my favourite; the third and forth were good.
The first – 9 stars
The second – 6.5 stars
The third – 8 stars
The forth – 8.5 stars
Awesome story ideas. Quite frankly would rather see any of these than SGU.
“wraith culture, particularly its child-rearing practices.”
Ooh, I like the sound of that! We would really love to know more about the Wraith. ‘The Queen’ was so interesting, and learning it all from Todd too. Any chance of something like that in the upcoming movies?
Hmm… they sound nice but number 4 kinda sounds like that episode in the early SG1 where a planet is separated into Light and Dark and the people that live in the dark/shadow are infected with something and turn “crazy” and infect the SG-C
I loved 3 and 4. Think the ‘fix’ angle on 1 would ruin it unless you could come up with something completely new. Agree with 2 being a no win situation… unless they could turn the kiddy wraith human but then you relive the borg children on the enterprise. **Grin**
Think you should open a fanfiction account and write 3 and 4 for us. Would love to read them in their entirety. Although, you maybe able to use something similar in Universe.
You could open up a dump account on fanfic and all you writers could post your rejected ideas because we just eat up anything and although it might not apply to the masses some of us would probably count them amongst our favorites.
Mirth
xx
Maybe you can answer a quick question for me… Why was the “Amelia” character on the balcony, but not Lorne or Zelenka? I was pretty disappointed because it seemed like this was supposed to be a parting shot of the whole gang and we see an also-ran gate technician up there instead of two regular characters, some might say crucial characters characters?
With Atlantis on Earth, what is going to happen to the human races in Pegasus (Athosians, etc.) who had become dependent on Atlantis for protection from the Wraith (who are still around)?
Hey, are we going to find out who the gay character was?
I loved the last one, about the maniac kid. That would have made an awesome episode!
It would also be interesting to know more about the wraith. Even though it’s been five seasons I still don’t know that much about them.
I’m really going to miss Stargate Atlantis after this… all i can do is wait for the movies and Universe. and The Stargate Worlds Game.
And I’m hoping Todd will be in the movie^^
Thank you for these past years!
~Samantha
PS english’s not my first language(I’m from Sweden) so forgive for all the mistakes
Your story idea #2 sounded mature and interesting. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t get made. It’s much more interesting if the ‘enemy’ doesn’t always have ‘horns and a tail’.
It seems like a waste to create the mold for such a fascinating antagonist and then not follow through and truly make them three dimensional. I kept waiting for the interaction between the Wraith, Atlantis and the Pegasus natives at large to make the jump to something more morally ambiguous and a bit deeper; a little philosophical content to go with my action scenes; more episodes like Michael or Common Ground.
Well perhaps you’ll get to make the movie (although I’d rather a mini series) and explore some of those complex ideas and moral dilemmas involving the Pegasus natives, the SGC and the Wraith. I think it would make for some compelling drama.
“Why no one else did: Again, not sure. It could well have been because, at the end of the day, no matter what the team decided they’d have ended up making an unheroic decision (target innocence or walk away from an opportunity to eliminate the wraith threat to millions of human civilizations).”
Just wondering, why is there such a focus on being “heroic”? War doesn’t always allow for everyone to make 100% agreeable decisions all the time. Sometimes things get murky, you know? I don’t remember SG1 ever shying from that sort of thing, so why does the Atlantis team have to be portrayed as extremely heroic in all situations?
Liked all your epi ideas!
And I’m not just being a suck-up!
This time.
Check.
It was called Walker: Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Wow. Thanks for doing this write-up. I wish more show did this. It’s nice to know what could have been.