A lot of interesting takes on this whole Blu-ray debate. To upgrade or not to upgrade? That is the question. Well, after reading some of your informed opinions regarding continuing technological developments and the likelihood that tomorrow’s hot, new gadget will be next week’s microfilm, tape deck, or Vin Diesel, I’ve decided to forego any future entertainment upgrades and wait for the that all-in-one neural chip they should get around to inventing any day now. When that time comes, a slightly invasive procedure that implants the hardware directly into your brain is all it will take to control everything from internet searches to grocery purchases.
And, hopefully, allow me to finish a script in a timely manner. Last night, I completed the fourth act of my work-in-progress and got well into the fifth act. Only five more beats to go and I’m done. Now if this was an SG-1 or Atlantis script, I’d probably already be finished but SGU is a different animal. In this series, character focus will prove as important as the prevailing storyline which means more of those quieter, reflective moments fans seem to cherish.
Today was Superbowl Sunday and, as is tradition, we all headed over to Robert Cooper’s house and ate ’til we were sick. The last time I visited, I was on the program and had to forego the eats. But I more than made up for it this time out, scoffing down a couple of dozen wings, cheese nachos, chopped liver, and a home made waffle topped with nutella and three different kinds of ice cream. My compliments to the chef! As for the game – meh. Often dull, somewhat frustrating, but given to occasional bursts of excitement. The Good: The last half of the second quarter and all of the fourth quarter except for the last 18 seconds. You know, there was a time I used to wake up early on Sundays to catch the pre-game show, then watch both games of the double-header, the 7:00 p.m. recap show, and the night game – capping off the weekend with Monday Night Football – but no more. The officiating has become so horrendous that I just can’t do it anymore. I’m done with the NFL and shifting my allegiance to college ball.
To those of you asking about the dogs – nothing much new with them although Lulu and Maximus have been roughhousing of late. Bubba continues to be the t.v.-watcher among them and Jelly is as lazy as ever. Enjoy the pics.
Mailbag writes:
Brendan writes: “So will it air on Sci-fi first then DVD or DVD then Sci-fi?”
Answer: No idea at this point.
Shadow Step writes: “Btw, you look at twitter all wrong – the whole point of twitter is you can only write SHORT messages, much more productive not to have to write tons of words in a blog”
Answer: Which would kind of defeat the purpose my having a blog.
Judy in STAX writes: “Did you get the short story “Nigerian Scam” that I sent?”
Answer: Yep, thanks. And enjoy the books!
AMZ writes: “As a writer of (predominantly) television shows, do you watch other shows when they air or wait for them to come out on DVD?”
Answer: I’ll usually record a bunch of my favorite shows and then sit down to watch them – although, of late, the number of those fave shows has been dwindling. Occasionally, I will pick up TV on DVD – usually something Brit like M-I5 (Spooks) or HBO (Rome).
Ray writes: “Has a decision been made on whether Robert Carlyle is keeping his native accent or adopting a North American twang for Universe?
Answer: According to Rob Cooper, Mr. Carlyle will be keeping the accent.
D.W. writes: “1:Is the Sun-Tzu a Daedalus-class ship? We never saw it on screen.
2: What happened to the Jaffa after the defeat of the Ori?
3: Can we expect to see any Daedalus-class ships in Stargate Universe?”
Answers: 1. Yes. 2. They continue to rebuild and enjoy their freedom. 3. Probably not.
Vee writes: “Is there even a remote possibility that someone who loves SG1 so much (me…) outside of the States, will be allowed to write a script for… say, one of the future movies that might come?”
Answer: Unlikely since you’d have to fight Brad, Robert, Paul, Carl or myself for the honors – and we’ve been training.
Belouchi writes: “ Tell me buddy, when you graduated from Mcgill University, how long did it take you to find your first job within your field of study?”
Answer: Don’t recall. Maybe a year – although my job was in no way related to my Masters Degree in English Lit.
Majorsal writes: “ i’ve read and reread your post and then the article you linked. this has been on my mind, because i was wondering if this was your way of letting us know there might not be stargate movies coming up?”
Answer: No. My way of telling you whether or not there will or won’t be a Stargate movie would be to tell you whether or not there will or won’t be a Stargate movie. Sneaky, no?
Vv0472 writes: “Did you see RDA on SNL last night?”
Answer: Missed Rick’s appearance, but Lawren taped it.
It was great seeing RDA in another Superbowl commercial/SNL sketch! Now if only was a Jack O’Neill spoof it would have been even better. 🙂
Looking at the pics of your dogs, I’ve decided I like Maximus the best. Great pics!
politician joe said: “No. My way of telling you whether or not there will or won’t be a Stargate movie would be to tell you whether or not there will or won’t be a Stargate movie. Sneaky, no?”
oy! i’m moaning here! is this how you want to make a woman moan, in mind destroying frustration!? 😯
i think someone’s going to be sleeping on the couch tonight, mister!
😛
I found the game to be of moderate interest, especially in the later third quarter. I did spend a few minutes cussing the Cardinals at the end of the second quarter, when they allowed the interception to be run back for a touchdown. Cost me a quarter in the football pool. They redeemned themselves by holding Pittsburg to the field goal in the third quarter, thus ensuring me a modest profit. As for the commercials, well, a bit better overall from last year but it seems to me that we are facing a qualititive decline in them. I mean, come on, doing a send up on the classic Mean Joe Green commercial?
Animal Planet is showing a modestly entertaining Puppy Bowl. More like an extended you-tube clip of puppy cuteness, but a nice slow down after the game.
Great pics of the dogs. I have decided I aspire to be Jelly. Such perfect sloth! That’s a dog that understands the joys of living for the moment. Nice counterpoint to Lulu’s energetic activities.
While more character moments are usually nice, I hope that this doesn’t mean we’re going to be losing out on action and excitement. One of the joys of Atlantis was the nice balance of the two. Character is great, but I want my space opera too. The other point of interest for me right now will be the scheduling. With Friday nights being eviscerated, except for the final Battlestar Galactica episodes, it looks that Universe will have to carry the prime time hours. Unless they are looking to put the show on another night. Which they might as well do. There doesn’t seem to be anything else in the works that could be matched with Universe to give us a full 3 hours of worthwhile entertainment.
There is a lot of new movies comming out huh? So when will we get to see a sneak peak of the new stargate? OO Joe i love the video of the dog playing in the snow my dogs do the same thing everyday with out the snow ( damm New Jersey not getting snow). So how did you like the SuperBowl ? Well keep working hard on that script and plz dont make it nothing like star trek.
Cute puppies.
Jelly is still the most beautiful. Sorry boys and bat ears girl Lulu. Jelly has got you beat.
@ Izzy… Sorry but hands down Jelly is the best of the 4.
@ Ponytail… Come on Pony!!! Jelly lovers unit!!!
@ Joe… Joe, your switching to college ball instead? Very interesting. So who is your pick of the liter and are you into basketball as well? If so is your pick the same school? And don’t let my loyalties to Michigan or UNC sway your judgments.
Answer: According to Rob Cooper, Mr. Carlyle will be keeping the accent.
WOO-HOO!
(That is all.)
Hi Joe,
How are you going to watch the best of Stargate Atlantis on Blu-Ray without a Blu-Ray player???????
Personally, I can’t wait to see Todd in all his glory 😉
If you don’t want to buy a plain Blu-Ray player then get a PS3 instead 😀 Just make sure your TV goes up to 1080p Full HD resolution!
Also, have you found out yet if the wraith in Vegas had nipples or not? We’re still waiting…… 🙁
Thanks to Vv0472! I love YouTube. RDA was very funny.
And hey, Joe. Even if the game wasn’t great, you got some good food. In the end, isn’t that why people really watch? And the commercials, of course.
Darn those steelers anyway. Sure looked like the cardinals were going to pull it out. Oh well. I’m with you 100% on college ball though. Just give me a real playoff and not that BCS nonsense (unless my team wins the BCS, and then of course it’s the best system ever for designating the #1 team!)
You always take great pictures of the five pups.
I think it’s a good idea not to get a Bluray player just yet. We have one, while it is a good thing for some movies, most movies are just OK on it. It did make the movie Cars look better, believe it or not. And I don’t think they’ve quite fixed the technology yet. It has a problem with regular discs sometimes.
Oh come on. That game was exciting. Bruce was good too. What more could you ask for?
Aww, great pictures. My favourite is the third on – Bubba has quite the attitude happening there.
Thanks for answering my question Joe – it’s lead to another.
Do you think that the reason you have a dwindling number of favourite shows these days is because of time, show quality or a combination of both?
Amz
I’ve finally started listening to SG1 season 10 commentary. So far, I’ve only had one you yourself have done (“Morpheus” I think, a good episode regardless).
I still find it surprising how many times Messers. Cooper, Wright, et al. express surprise how fans often thank them for doing commentaries; how they assumed nobody cared for them. By this point I would assume much of it is just being aloof, which is fine.
Whatever you guys might do different character-wise or arc-wise for SGU that there could be a conceivable backlash for, I hope you can find the time to keep the commentaries going, because we sure as hell appreciate the time put into them, and while others may disagree I love it the most when the conversation turns away from the episode every now and then.
Doubtful I’m the first to state this request outright, but I just thought I’d say.
We’ve been re-watching the first season of SG-1. It’s interesting to watch things develop. We didn’t start watching the show regularly until about Season 4 or 5, so this is fun! GeekBoy has two questions: whose idea was the Kleenex box message in the pilot, and whatever happened to Jonathan Glassner?
Great photos of the dogs! We had to have Radar put to sleep two weeks ago. While I am definitely sleeping better without his bony knees poking me and pushing me out of bed, I miss the old guy.
I was disappointed with Rick’s appearance on SNL – not with *him*, because as always rather good, but the quality of the writing in the sketches could’ve been much better.
Also, what is your advice for people snowed in in the UK atm?
Hi Joe,
I think your dogs are so darn cute! Great pic’s!
Is there going to be an SGA movie in the near future? Is there going to be any big names in SGU in the first season?
Thanks!
Cathie
Ah! Thank you for the update – especially for that one sentence that I truly loved to read: “In this series, character focus will prove as important as the prevailing storyline which means more of those quieter, reflective moments fans seem to cherish.”
As a fan, I can totally confirm that impression: I don’t just seem to, I do cherish those moments. As much as I love Sci-Fi, and Stargate in particular, with all its action and imagination, and the many connections to Eartn mythology, I’ve always been looking out for the “quieter, reflective moments”, few and far between as they were (I know it’s pathetic, but I sometimes re-watch them on DVD, cause I like them so much).
After all, the characters are what we identify with. And I trust you guys not to make a soap opera out of SGU.
Rotflmao! Hey Joe! I dreamt about you tonight. I dreamt that somewhere I found pictures of you as a teenager with a giant blonde/redhead afrobop and then I got arrested by airport security for trying to take the pictures on a plane to the united state…
Weiiiiird.
Joe, please drop by Solutions to see RDA’s skits. We’ve got them embedded there for your viewing pleasure. 🙂
http://stargate-sg1-solutions.com/blog/?p=2845
Cute pictures, Joe! Have you had any difficulties with the dogs tearing holes in your leather furniture? We have been considering getting leather couches, but I’m concerned my 2 dogs would put holes in them with their nails.
My hubby and I totally agree with your assessment of the officiating of last night’s game. With so many bad calls, it really put the game in the Steelers’ court.
Hey, my Dad went to McGill! lol Waaay back in the day though.
The only thing wrong with MI-5/Spooks is that Tom left…I miss Tom. I have found that our antenna picks it up from the states and even though they are old eps. I still watch.
Glad you had a fun super bowl!
That was so cool seeing RDA ( I heard along time ago – like General Hospital days, he was called Ricky Dean, did that carry over to SG-1?) anyway – it was cool seeing him in that commercial, it was strange seeing him without grey hair. He’s such a cool guy anyway.
Hi Joe, no kidding the officiating in NFL has become terrible. I couldn’t believe some of the stuff that went on yesterday (#92 in particular). I’ve been done with football for a while, since John Elway retired, but get stuck watching anyway (hubby).
Your dogs make me smile, and smiles are welcome around here this week. In for a bunch of medical tests on Thursday, a little/lot scary, we’ll see what happens. Good thing I have all my SG1 and Atlantis DVD – escapism is a good thing sometimes!
Have a great week!
You’re right not to upgrade to Blu-ray because it was an outdated technology 4 yrs ago, heck it’s been ready for market since 2000.
Simply, A memory stick has more capacity these days and I simply do not understand why they have not been selling movies on them instead – heck, if you don’t like the movie at least you could reformat the memory stick and put it to good use.
Joe M. wrote: “…hardware directly into your brain is all it will take to control everything from internet searches to grocery purchases”
Even after an SG1 episode like Revisions, I never expected Joe Mallozzi’s blog to go cyberpunk. That’s what keeps me reading–always a surprise.
Ahhh I watched the Superbowl yesterday, or should i say early this morning for me =) It’s was very exciting and frustrating the last 22 seconds !!!!
According to what you said, I suppose that you were for the Cardinals (such as me) ;-): “The last half of the second quarter and all of the fourth quarter except for the last 18 seconds” !!!!
What a pity !
Elodie V. (sorry if there are some mistakes in my english 🙂 )
Jura, France.
Hey Joe,
I picked up a gift for you and Carl. I figured you needed a little something to help motivate you and get the scripts and not so super secret project done. And while I was there I got something for Carl’s moustache’s birthday. It’s a little known fact that Carl’s moustache is actually a Furling and he turns 32,471 today!
Would it be ok to send to Bridge Studios or would that be frowned upon? I promise it’s not a bomb or anything minty
Did someone mention snow? in Britain? Where? LOL I’m lucky we’ve only seen some dust particles rather than the full-fledged flurries occurring elsewhere….(uh-oh probably just jinxed it and will wake up to feet of the stuff tomorrow)
shiningwit – i’m in Devon and theres little sign of snow here
@ Shirt’n’Tie – Wow…I know so few Deirdres, and you’ve got two! Amazing. My first day of kindergarten – in a class of about 15 (at most) in a small farming community – there was another ‘Deirdre’ (spelled the proper way, too!). Not sure what the odds were on that one, but in my little world it was quite unusual. I am now quite fond of my name – it’s different, and – well…so am I at times… 😛
@ Joe – Thanks for the puppy pics! They make me feel all warm and fuzzy! Still a little Maximus-lite, however… 😉
One of my cats – Marbles – likes to not only sleep on my pillow, but on my head as well. She’s about 15 years old now, so maybe she’s going batty, I don’t know…but she gets on my pillow as soon as I lie down, and stares at me like…well…like she’s gonna eat me, or something. Sometimes she touches her nose to mine, and just…stares. Spooky as hell. Then she tries to lick my face…VERY annoying when you’re trying to fall asleep. When that fails, she proceeds to walk on my face, claws digging in for a good footing and all. Finally she’ll settle down on top of my head – I must look like I’m wearing a ushanka to bed… 😛
@ Todds worshipper – I’m pretty sure Mr. Cooper answered the nipple question indirectly – he said that they made subtle (no nipples) and not-so-subtle (bony spine) adjustments to the Wraith’s physical appearance. Joe can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that means no nips.
RE: Stupid Bowl – I hate football, I really do…but I watched for the commercials. Was mostly disappointed, save for two or three. My absolute favorite commercial was the Career Builder one – this is SO me (at one time my dad used to sit in the office in his tighty whities…at 5’8″ & 240 lbs, that was NOT a pretty sight!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79tMMFja-Fw
God…that is my life… 😛
das
Aaaand…my post just went in the spam bin. 😛
Story of my life.
das
Joe,
what do you say, is it worth buying the Sopranos DVDs? Haven’t seen it.
How is Fondy?
Hey! thanks for the update and lovely pics!
I feel my love of hockey (specifically NHL) going the way of your feelings towards the NFL. Its quite sad to watch once great sports fade away….
Concerning SGU, For me the best parts of SG1 and SGA were that these reflective moments were always present, just never very pronounced, a lot of the details were things that didnt need to be said in the first place and it was a quick couple of lines and on with the action! My greatest fear is that the show will go the way of that hilarious 200 skit with the younger and edgier cast. hahaha that will never happen. I trust you guys unconditionally with these incredible shows and whatever scary beast you must face ( i.e. extended potentially boring and unnecessarily long and dramatic quiet reflective character moments) i know you’ll do a fantastic job.
Concerning techno-talk… until the movie and recording industry realises that clinging to outdated forms of distribution and resisting the changes that are already well into the norm is not the way to approach the situation there is no point in supporting their industries.
this link has a little rant that says it best: http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html
I realise it deals with illegal downloading, but the main points still ring true even to those who do not choose to partake in such activities.
Honestly, ive gone back to having my nose endlessly stuck in a book. Its far more entertaining and fulfilling most of the time. My dvds have been limited to only to the very best of the best. cause honestly, i died when spaced came out in north america. I got the stargate dvds for christmas (Tell the guys thanks so much for the commentaries, though i do wish we could go back in time and include them for the first 3 seasons as well! lol)
anyways… thats enough of a rant from me.
Cheers! Have a lovely week all!
Thanks for answering my questions. Got just a few more if you dont mind
1. Could you at least write in a small role or at least give a cameo(like in Continum) to Major davis in project twilight?
2. What episode that you have written is your favorite?
3. Do you eat at fancy restaurants every day?
4. I am kinda knew and this may be a really dumb question but when an episode is written by you and Paul, do you both write it? If not, why does all the episodes you guys have written have both your name and Paul’s name in the credits?
Thanks again.
Well I was entertained. We were saying at the start that it had all of the makings of a massacre. Glad it wasn’t.
Both teams were extremely undisciplined. Over here I think it would have erupted into an all in brawl.
The food sounds great – we had hot dogs. Beats working 🙂
Cheers, Chev
Thanks for the dog pics! I have a lab and a beagle and the beagle loves to be anywhere that he is up higher than the lab.
Nice pics of the pups. Very nice indeed.
And good choice on the no Blu-ray.
🙂
I had the game on as background noise. I think I watched 6 or 7 plays. (Did catch the 100yd interception TD run.)
I have a question. If you were given the mission (and you chose to accept it) of writing SG1 or SGA in the style/manner of SGU, would it have been difficult with the established character dynamics and environments of those two shows?
Have the characters and setting of Universe been designed purposely to make it more natural to write in a more reflective and angsty fashion?
Thanks
Just wanted to ask you something.
Today I stumbled on a re-run of SG-1 on a commercial channel in Germany and tried to watch it. After less than 10 minutes I popped in the DVD, to watch it in English, AND I was reminded of my first impressions of Stargate.
Although liking Science Fiction and occasionally watching both SG-1 and the first season of SGA on (German) TV, I thought the series were quite boring. I never became a fan until I visited friends in England and got to see some of the original versions. Then I bought a (big) shelf full of DVDs and became addicted to both series – as long as they were in English.
Surely many viewers don’t have a choice, when they are not native speakers of English. They have to watch your shows in dubbed versions, and as I understand, many of them become fans nonetheless. But do you have any idea of how much of the quality you produce gets lost in translation? The humour, the irony, the precision, the timing – it’s all but gone. What we get on TV are rather stiff and awkward dialogues with badly mixed sound.
Thus my question: Do you guys care what happens to your scripts once they get translated? Is there anyone from your side who is looking into subtitles or dubs in other languages? If not, I think you should start asap.
Hello Joe!
I found this Google Translator this week:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#
It supports so many languages (including Japanese), that maybe it will be useful for short sentences and simple words.
I am not sure, but if the program doesn’t mistranslate it, than this is “stargate” in Japanese : スターゲイト
Have fun!
Ákos
Ok, your dogs are absurdly adorable. Love the pictures.
Hey Joe,
You recently said…
“Last night, I completed the fourth act of my work-in-progress and got well into the fifth act. Only five more beats to go and I’m done. Now if this was an SG-1 or Atlantis script, I’d probably already be finished but SGU is a different animal. In this series, character focus will prove as important as the prevailing storyline which means more of those quieter, reflective moments fans seem to cherish.”
As you know fandom, especially the folks on GateWorld tend to twist and distort the facts. The newest thing they are saying is that you did not give a crap about SGA and SG-1 and did not write them to their full potential or give them 100 percent since you are spending more time on an SGU script than a SG-1 or SGA script.
I think folks will cause a riot for any little thing said. Like these rumors that the SGA movie will never happen. Honestly it makes me sick how people distort facts and whatnot to what the producers say. What are your thoughts about this?
Thanks!
Squall78
Thanks so much for doggie pics, enjoyed them.
Hi everyone! I tried to post last night to weigh in on the Blu-ray controversy and other matters, but the computer/internet ate my post, so I threw up my hands in disgust and went to bed.
@Joe: No Blu-ray for me either. I think it is just a phase like the 8-track (no offense intended to you 8-track fans). My DVDs work just fine, thanks. I think that the downturn of the economy is more to be blamed for decreasing sales than downloads and Netflix. I do a lot of renting from Netflix, mostly episodes of some series I never got the chance to watch like Numb3rs and the original NCIS seasons. But I still buy DVDs of movies I have seen in the theater and enjoyed.
@Narelle: Thanks for thinking of me! I did enjoy the ads, though I didn’t think they were as good as last year. I liked the “grease monkeys” and the Coke commercial with the bugs conspiring to steal the Coke bottle. I hated most of the Doritos ads and the “enhancement” ad (not mentioning the company name) near the end. Some bits of the actual game were good toward the end, but I was reading “Infoquake” for much of the game.
@das That ad you mentioned was pretty funny. I’ll think of you whenever I see it!
Sounds like I had the better deal. While you were watching the Superbowl yesterday, I had the greatest time watching the best Superbowl of all time: “PUPPY BOWL 5” on the Animal Planet Channel. This was the first time I had ever heard of it and wish I had heard of it years ago, because this is number 5. I would have watched them all. They had everything a regular bowl game has… instant replay, highlights from other years, Most Valuable Player, touchdowns, take-downs, fouls, even a streaker. Although I didn’t really understand the streaker bit.
It was fun to see the dogs wrestling with each other and running around with the ball in their mouths. And watching the one even carry the ball through the goal posts.
The half-time show was even more fun for me… because the entertainers were kittens. Kittens doing what kittens do best, playing. The Kitty half time show was sponsored by Bissell (one of the main sponsors of the show, another being Pedigree for dogs), so now I’m off to find the Bissell site and tell them how pleased I am with them supporting Kitty half-time.
Check.
do you have a photo page that displays all the photos you have posted here on wordpress?
“Shadow Step writes: “Btw, you look at twitter all wrong – the whole point of twitter is you can only write SHORT messages, much more productive not to have to write tons of words in a blog”
Answer: Which would kind of defeat the purpose my having a blog.”
1. No no, they can compliment each other.
2. I thought you might be pressed for time. You could free up some for more restaurant … (hang on, he’s trying to lose weight) – free up time for more jogging!