Boy, that was fast! It seems like just yesterday we were touring the half-constructed Destiny set over on Stage 4, watching it all come together and working on scripts for Stargate: Universe’s first season. Suddenly, it’s nine months later, we’re finishing up production on year one and already thinking ahead to next season.
This week, we say our goodbye’s – actually, let’s stay positive and call them see-you-later’s – to our wonderful cast and crew. Yesterday, it was two actors whose work I’ve admired for years and who, over the course of this season, surpassed my lofty expectations both on set and off: the lovely Ming-Na and the equally lovely Lou Diamond Phillips. Great performers, yes, but, more importantly, incredibly warm, kind, and buoyant individuals. Lots fun.
Today, it was see-you-later to three more cast members. First up, another class act: the great Robert Carlyle. On any production, number one on the call sheet sets the tone for the entire cast. If your star is a jerk, then you’re in for a hellishly loooooong production. But if your headliner is professional and considerate, then the production will be heavenly and over before you know it. And, like I’ve already said, time HAS flown. Bobby has been a delight to work with – kind, humble, and nothing short of spectacular every time he’s onscreen.
It was also the last day for funnyman Louis Ferreira. Yes, it’s true. Funnyman. In truth, Louis is VERY different from the brooding, authoritarian Colonel Everett Young you see on SGU.
Trust me, it’ll be a while before you see Young wildly launching into hilarious impersonations or jumping into the catering truck to serve that day’s lunch:
Louis is a wacky, wonderful guy who really should be doing comedy. But only once SGU wraps. Give it another 5-10 years.
Finally, another see-you-later for the drop-dead gorgeous and hugely talented Elyse Levesque whose performances this year have never failed to impress. Also, she is quite possibly the sweetest person I know.
Between all those goodbyes, we finally found time to sit down and start tossing around ideas for season 2. We have a general sense of where we want to go in those first ten and have some surprises in store for all of our major players. Tomorrow, we get down to it and start fleshing out those individual stories, seeding and developing the various character arcs.
Mailbag:
Matt Boesch writes: “my question is does Daniel Jackson have the ATA Gene?”
Answer: Nope.
JYS writes: “Apparently a friend of Katherine is on SGU playing someone in the military…”
Answer: Yes. Airman Becker (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman).
Sarah Lee writes: “Can the SGU shuttle go through a Stargate?”
Answer: The shuttle is significantly larger than a puddle jumper, and a jumper could JUST make it through, so I’d have to say no, do not even try it.
Bilo&Bella writes: “On another note, Joe, have you read any Naomi Novik?”
Answer: Yes, I read the first book in the series and liked it. If you do a search of this blog, I’m sure you’ll come up with my thoughts on In His Majesty’s Service.
Tim Gaffney writes: “Does that mean that the ship can’t dial Earth or that it would require an incredible amount of power.”
Answer: The latter.
Tim Gaffney also writes: “If it is the later, could they dial Earth at a point that they are inside a Sun refueling?”
Answer: Hey, that’s a pretty good idea!
Saltygrapes writes: “They’ve known each other… two, three days now? In those few days, Scott was off-world twelve hours and they were dealing with a life support and power crisis. Scott also spent a ton of time figuring out how to operate the shuttle. Chloe’s relationship with Eli was much more fleshed out and shown on-screen in Darkness, while Chloe and Scott had minimal interaction (if any?). Through the series so far, we have seen Scott ask Chloe about her father, and we have seen them share a moment at the end of Air III.”
Answer: It’s less about the time than what they make of it. The conversation they had about her father and Scott’s later confession about his family after he almost died off-world were intensely personal moments in which the two trusted, took comfort, and fully opened up to one another. There’s also the fact that they share a mutual physical attraction. Suddenly, facing seemingly certain death, they are afforded the one opportunity to consummate this relationship and they take it. Comparing the Chloe-Scott relationship with the Chloe-Eli relationship isn’t fair since, in spite of how well Chloe and Eli may have hit it off, she doesn’t like him “that way”. If it were simply a matter of forming a romantic relationship with whoever you’ve spent more time with then, by that logic, I should have married my writing partner.
Saltygrapes also writes: “Furthermore we are shown flashbacks of Scott’s past in which he had a major negative experience in a situation like that. Don’t you think that would weigh into his mind before sleeping with a girl he’s known all of three days?”
Answer: Again, if you’re faced with the prospect of no tomorrow, you’ll try to make the very most of today. And they did.
T’loc writes: “My 1st thought as to how the writers view Eli based on your response to both Tammy Dixon and Mary questions and also the Kino scene thats now on the MGM website is that Eli is a punk who should hold and bury his feelings for Chloe and accept Scott but still be her friend. I don’t know any real young man or woman who would do that to themselves.”
Answer: That would be the mature response. What alternatives do you suggest? Should he end his friendships with both of them because Chloe had the audacity to fall for someone else?
T’loc also writes: “So I hope whatever path you folks are going with the Eli-Scott-Chloe thing will not go further than at least the next two episode…”
Answer: In the interest of full disclosure prepare to have your hopes dashed.
DasNdanger writes: “Joe – a quick question about Chloe and Scott – did they know (or know of) each other before getting stranded on Destiny??”
Answer: Nope.
Josua Meyers Extraordinary Teenager writes: “You say it takes several million years to get home with FTL technology if the Destiny does a U-turn. But what if somehow they retro-fitted a wormhole drive or hyperdrive?”
Answer: Where the heck would they pick up a wormhole drive or hyper drive?
Ryan writes: “How did the Ancients go about making their ZPMs, and why hasn’t the Atlantis crew figured out how to replicate the process yet?”
Answer: No one knows how the Ancients went about making their ZPMSs – which is why the Atlantis crew haven’t figured out a way to replicate the process.
Aragon101 writes: “Do you ever read SG Fanfiction?”
Answer: Nope.
Skontel writes: “ However, my position would be that she doesn’t really share a friendship with Eli. She pretty much abuses the fact that Eli has feelings for her, and offers him little in return in form of friendship.”
Answer: If Eli didn’t value Chloe’s friendship and enjoy her company, he wouldn’t be spending time with her.
Skontel also writes: “Can you tell us if Rush has always been difficult to work with, or has something (recent?) event in his life made him so? If it was something recent, will we learn the details of it (apart from a photo and some tears)?”
Answer: Some later episodes (Human in particular) will shed some light on the good doctor.
J writes: “I will only say that I think that gratitude should be a mutual thing. And, I am hoping that you feel the same way because I am not sure that I felt that from your response.”
Answer: I was being sarcastic.
GateShip1 writes: “Where do we post questions to be answerd in the mailbag stuff?”
Answer: Uh, here.
Sparky writes: “For me i dont understand how scott could go from troubled and having sex with someone in the closet type to softie gentle and ‘loving’ cloe type.”
Answer: Perhaps one was nothing more than a fun hook-up while the other was more meaningful.
Anais33 a ecrit: “Regardez Joseph j’ai déguiser mon chien^^!”
Reponse: Il est bien cute!
Mary writes: “I meant it in terms of using her body in exchange for Scott helping her get a place on that shuttle (and if she did it once, I see her doing it again; I think she’s very likely to manipulate Eli, for example).”
Answer: If that were her motive, why didn’t she ask Scott to get her on the shuttle? More importantly, given that the decision was in Colonel Young’s hands, wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to sleep with him?
Mary also writes: “I think yes, he’d go to bed with Chloe, but I would think there would be a little more space and time between James and Chloe, and I think he’d actually develop a relationship with her.”
Answer: See my response on this subject above. Given what they both went through (Chloe’s loss of her father, Scott’s near-death experience) they have grown close and bonded. This IS the beginning of their relationship. And while it certainly would have been nice to wait, they were faced with the prospect that they wouldn’t get another chance so they took it.
PBMom writes: “John Shepard’s character on SGA was quite the womanizer. I don’t recall hearing any complaints about that.”
Answer: No. In his case, it was viewed as amusingly incorrigible.
PBMom also writes: “My husband wondered, however, how the docking seal wasn’t damaged after the shuttle violently backed up into it because it certainly looked like the whole thing moved. How did they possibly get a hard seal?”
Answer: You’ll get a better look at how those docking clamps work later this season.
PBMom also writes: “Is this the first episode that Peter DeLuise directed that he wasn’t in even in the background.”
Answer: Actually, he does have a cameo. In one of the first scenes at Homeworld Command, Telford walks up to a guy sitting at the stone console and relieves him. He ever refers to him as Peter.
Sprinkles writes: “Have you reached the Vimes/Nightwatch series of the Terry Pratchett series of books? I have read them all but these are my favourites.”
Answer: A few. Loved Guards! Guards!
Juralas writes: “Have you read the Song of Ice and Fire series?”
Answer: Yes. I’m a huge fan of the series.
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