Paul finished up his pass on Gauntlet over the weekend and, today, heads prep on episode 20. Boy, that last scene… Dare I say it? Not a dry eye in the house!
Hey, guess who dropped by the office today!
Go ahead. Guess.
Nope. Guess again.
Nope. One more guess!
No! Come on, people!
Dropping by the office today was none other than…
They traveled all the way from Singapore (where they watch Stargate: Universe on SyFy Asia) to come see me. And, also, visit the set.
Two more contest winners headed our way, one from Montreal tomorrow (I get to practice my French) and one from Calgary on Friday (I’ll get to show off my rodeo skills by roping and throwing one of the office PA’s!).
I also received a few belated birthday somethings in the mail today. From blog regular Luvnjack this awesome t-shirt –
And these super cufflinks from Ireland’s own Shirt ‘n Tie –
Many thanks!
Today’s entry is dedicated to the memory of Paul the Octopus: http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle/post/Paul-the-oracle-octopus-dies-may-get-permanent-?urn=sow-279968
You brought us joy with your picks clairvoyant.
So sorry to hear you’re no longer bouyant.
January 2008 – 26 October 2010
Now go watch our show!
hey joe,soory to botter,but again how can I call the blueberry aliens in spanish language,because alienigenas mora azul,is a too silly name in spanish-
Twin Destinies will involve time travel with stargates,as in Time,or the future Rush will get there thanks to a time machine of some source?
I am writing a story/comic called Terra,I hope to finished it,at leats some chapters,and I hope you can read it and give me your opinion? It is about a project led by Earth lead scientists ,constructing 13 space colonies,in a to get humans aboard,due to Earths inminent destruction,on the year 2020,however the project called Project Venture,started just too late,and only six colonies managed to flee into the depts of space,but luckily the seventh colony called Terra,launched itself just in time into the sky and entered hyperspace before the explotion of Earth could wiped it……………my first chapters are called:
Volume 1 (Uprising)
-Venture
-Chain of command
-Seeds of change………….writing more
where you a fan of Paul?
hi Joe,
hope you enjoy my home land’s superman cuff links i was wondering would you read a of a SGU episode that i wrote.
hope you enjoy the cuff links
I’m watchin’, I’m WATCHIN’!!
Sheesh. The pressure. 🙄
Coolio prezzies. I would send you something, but you haven’t answered the right questions, so…ya know…you lose. 😀
Okay…Greer has really sucky taste in music. 😛
I don’t trust the cop… 😉
*back to the show*
das
hey Niall McNamaraw,I hope theres no problem,but l’ll like to read what you wrote for SGU,can you pleasse send it to my email : gate_shiptwo@hotmail.com
I hope theres no problem in requesting you that?
I was soooo getting you cufflinks for your birthday until a certain Tokyo bound friend advised me not to… 🙁
Still working on the uber gift…you’re gonna love it!!!
Cheers, Chev
p.s. why don’t we ever have a contest we can enter in Australia….I want to visit too
Cheers, Chev
FINALLY! I only ordered the thing almost 4 weeks ago! Glad the shirt finally showed up. I was afraid Ashleigh had absconded with it as a form of protest. I hope it’s not too big…it looks big… :S Anyway, happy belated birthday. Thanks for the show(s) and the blog, all of which keep me thoroughly entertained.
heard about Paul the Octopus. The species is truly under appreciated. Paul was merely the most visible member to demonstrate their rather alien intellegence. And they are yummy to eat too, although chewy.
Horrible confession time. Missed SGU, and out of sheer stupidity. Will try to catch the rerun. with all te crud SyFy shows, you would think they’d offer us reruns later in the week. I mean, even their parent network reruns some of their big shows on the weekends.
Congrats to the contest winners.Thanks for sharing the pics with us, and would love to see some of their comments here once the tour is over.
Did David Blue lose like 50 LBS between last episode and Cloverdale?
Good ep. Weird, but good…the whole thing sort of felt like a 60s low-budget horror flick…only without the hippies. 🙂
Now I’m watching the Rocky Horror Glee Show ep – first time I’ve ever seen this show. It’s weird, too (Glee, that is…it’s already a given that RHPS is weird).
Tonight is weird night…all it’s missing is some of your food, Joey. 🙂
das
From yesterday’s mailbag (I’m a little slow):
>Answer: Atlantis is parked in an out of the way place,
>somewhere the average citizen wouldn’t be likely to stumble
>over (or into) it.
You forgot where you parked it, didn’t you.
*goes back to hiding from spoilers* (Looking forward to watching “Cloverdale” tomorrow on iTunes).
– KB
Great episode. I was wondering what camera Eli was using in the episode though. I’m into cameras and such and was really curious the whole episode trying to figure it out but I couldn’t because there wasn’t a close up of it. Can you help me figure it out?
Nice hit out of the ballpark, Joe! The ep was great!!!!
Hey Joe
I’m sorry to say that tonight’s episode just didn’t do it for me. It is one of very few so far that left me feeling as if i watched more commercials than the program itself due to any number of things, one being the constant back and forth on the screen. Anyway, looking forward to next tuesday’s episode! I see lots of FX shots in the near future!!
-ZPB
Oh, and that contest winner should have been me 😛 jk
Okay, Mr. Das says that it reminds him of The Day of the Triffids, and that’s probably why it reminded me of an old horror flick, like something you’d see on MST3K.
I feel better now. 🙂
das
Now Joe, if there are going to be tears at the end of episode 20, it can only mean one thing – Peter Kelamis’ character, Brody, is making onion gin.
Looking forward to seeing more of Mike Dopud in upcoming SGU episodes. He’s a wonderful actor.
Patricia
**CAUTION**
*LITTLE SPOILERS – JUST ENOUGH TO RUIN IT FOR YOU*
Hey Joe, was Brad Wright’s inspiration for this episode based on one of your wacky dreams? Where was the town of “Cloverdale” filmed, and how did you get rid of all the people? The streets and sidewalks were empty. Six a.m. on a Sunday morning? I loved Matthew’s “Dad”. My favorite part was Young and Telford hugging. And something was really weird about seeing Rush pushing that metal table through the woods. Only complaint I have was when that thing on his arm (did it explode?) came off, I couldn’t see it very well. It looked really cool but was shot too fast and too choppy. It looked like it glowed like lights then shattered off his arm. But I couldn’t see what happened very well. Darn!
*END LITTLE SPOILERS – GO WATCH IT YOURSELF*
Liked Cloverdale too. Won’t make a huge comment detailing what I loved and disliked as this episode was a huge improvement. Brad did a great job 🙂
LITTLE SPOILER-Y
What a great homage to Wizard the Oz in a wacky sort of Halloween way with the creatures. It was like Brad Wright did his story, and Robert Cooper (although I know there is no writing credit there for him) did a “Time” like episode, and they merged the two together like a mash on Glee.
Congratulations to Jennifer Spence on her engagement! It was nice to also see her have more lines tonight.
I’m going to have to watch this episode a couple more times and get back with more. Chloe was stunning in her wedding dress. Was that made in-house or bought elsewhere. Nice seeing Becker have more lines, too. I always worry about people having lines. They tend to be the ones disappearing at the end of the episode (i.e., Riley, Telford), etc.
END OF SPOILERS
Hey Joe,
I am still…so…teary over “Cloverdale”…truly Stargate at its BEST.
I am sorry I missed your birthday…sounds and looks like it was full of fun gifts. 🙂 Love your show-n-tell.
Best to you Joe,
Always,
Cheryl
PS – An interesting fact about October 2010: This October has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays, all in 1 month. It happens once in 823 years.
Ha…no more little green man..hmmm Tricky…that is all I can say.
Cloverdale…I don’t quite know what to think of this episode…
Spoilers
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Spoilers
Spoilers
Spoilers
The writing and directing were tremendous. Whoever came up with the idea of showing how Scott became infected by having him watch it in a movie theater is brilliant. Almost “Wormhole Extreme-like.” And the back and forth was seamless, although I would have prefered to stay with the reality instead of the dream. Amazing job by B. Smith & J. Smith. Nice to see LDP again as well, although this is the scene we saw in the trailers that made me think he would return in real life for a future episodes. Now there are no guarantees for Telford. For most of the episode, I was kind of ambivalent. It seemed like a rehash of the SG-1 episode “The Changeling” with a substitution of Scott for Teal’c. It seemed like, although an interesting episode, it wasn’t going to advance the story. We know they weren’t going to cut off Scott’s arm, we know he loves Chloe, etc. The dreamworld seemed to be a complete waste of time, with the only danger being in the real world of having to leave someone behind, first Scott and then Chloe as well. Though Greer was certainly in his element. His enthusiasm with the flamethrower makes me wonder is there were any “accidents” while filming. Then we have the reveal. Chloe wasn’t cured by the chair. Rush has to make up some excuse while basically saying who cares if she is still infected, she can cure Scott. I didn’t see the part about the alien “influence” possibly being able to be transfered to Scott coming . That came out of left field for me. The fact that it cured him doesn’t necessarily mean that he has been “changed” like Chloe. But now he has become a potential threat to the ship, and thus the isolation with Chloe. But this brings up a huge plot hole. Rush was with the blue aliens far longer than Chloe was. Why hasn’t he shown any symptoms? And why was/has no one had any concerns about him being infected? And judging from the trailer for next week, the blue aliens are back. Didn’t Destiny jump to another galaxy. How did the aliens follow them? Not just how did their ships catch Destiny but how did they locate them. Are they tracking Chloe? I guess I will put Cloverdale in the positive column, but just barely because of the last few minutes of the episode. Next week looks a lot more exciting…Bring on Trial and Error!
So, um, I was wondering….
The IOA hasn’t used a ZPM to send supplies to Destiny (assuming there’s still one available after the Atlantis movie). Does this mean a single ZPM is insufficient to establish a wormhole over such a great distance? And if so, then how is it that the stargate-seeding ship has sufficient power to dial Earth? Because if it collected that much energy from stars, that implies that the solar-collector technology can amass more energy than a ZPM would provide. If it’s that good, why do the Ancients seem to have abandoned it on their later ships, such as the Aurora-type? Does the solar collector tech have some disadvantage?
*Climbs out from under rock*
There were contests!?
For shame on me.
OH I have a theory about Rush and Chloe… Perhaps the little pathogen in Chloe only became active after she died when Eli left her, then it became active and takeover her vital functions, since rush has not died he has not shown symptoms like Chloe did. Either that, or they intended to catch and release Chloe from the start.
Notreadingepisodecommentsnotreadingepisodecomments.
What contest did the folks win in order to get to see you *and* visit the set?? I’d probably drop dead if that happened to me. 😀 Guh. 😀
Goddamn, sometimes Stargate fandom just pisses me off.
So many seems to be saying that that dream part was pointless when it was fairly obvious that it had everything to do with Scott’s doubts about himself and how his relationship with Chloe has been, especially after their conversation in Pathogen.
Not enjoying it is one thing – that’s subjective; but when you can’t even SEE it! When you just completely dismiss it; that is frustrating…and I didn’t even write the damn thing!
But anyway, I did see it, eventually (I was hoping to rewatch Pathogen but stupid Syfy Rewind decided to not upload the episode until a time when it’s useless), and after thinking about it I think this was a great episode. I can always tell a Brad episode apart from the others and this was no different; he can write some damn good dialogue, and in the mouth of skilled actors such as those of SGU’s, it becomes magic. The scenes in Dream!Brody’s was great, seeing all the characters interacting as if they were ad-libbing. It was so natural.
And that ending. My God that ending. With all the chaos and fire all around, the slow motion, the gate activating over and over, and that MUSIC WOW. But at the end, it was all about characters, and it all built up to that.
All through the episode we had Scott questioning everything; his surroundings, himself, his relationship, you name it; and why not? His life has been filled with loss; his parents, his surrogate dad, and in a way, his son. But now he’s got Chloe, and recently they seemed to have been drifting apart. Then comes the dreams; he gets cold feet; he wonders if he will screw it up and lose Chloe like he lost everyone else.
And then that magical moment. Chloe walks up the aisle and Matt was all smiles as they both stood there as Rush read out the vows. He’s found peace, with her. And, at the same time in a bit of great parallelism, Chloe’s saving his life by giving him some of her blood. They are now bonded.
I asked you a long time ago how “arc-y” Season 2.0 was, and you said it was similar to Season 1.5. I respectively disagree now that I’ve seen half of it – it’s definitely more serialized and I love that. Chloe’s character is just undergoing change after change, and now Scott’s intertwined within as well. The plot is moving smoothly and fast and I’m loving the ride.
Oh, and it was fun seeing all the other characters as imagined by Scott. Rush was a rude, but insightful man in Scott’s mind – makes sense, since I’m sure he’s aware how smart he is in real life even though he’s a bit of a dick. Young was his father figure who seems to be somewhat ineffective, always saying everything’s fine even though things are clearly not fine. TJ is a paramedic – that part’s obvious. Eli is Chloe’s brother, which is hilarious; Scott obvious sees a brother-sister relationship between those two, and probably have no idea of Eli’s feelings; Greer is the best man – again, obvious, while Volker and Brody are two bumbling dudes who are just hilarious – again, obvious. Oh, and Telford is the cop. That fits; Telford seems more authoritative and less familiar to Scott in real life, and so his role in his dreams is similar.
Huh, I just realized that Wray wasn’t in this episode. That’s too bad; I wonder what she would’ve been. The Mayor? Since it’s a small town, maybe she could’ve offered her congrats to the happy couple at some point.
Ok, I think that’s all I got for this episode. The more I think about it, the more I love it. Meanwhile, here’s a thing that I wrote for Pathogen last week that I forgot to post here. Also, Trial And Error looks freaking amazing. Can’t wait!!
@Alexander of Houston
Probably Syfy(network) run contests. Haven’t got a clue, I don’t frequent any of the Syfy run forums or sites unless there’s a chat going on. It would explain how you wouldn’t of heard of the contest lol
@how is it that the stargate-seeding ship has sufficient power to dial Earth?
Well the Seeder ships for one have to travel to planets, plant gets, produce Stargates, things like that. It could just be they have a better power management system.
Also not to mention Destiny isnt operating at full power at the moment. It was already established that Destiny running at full capability could potentially dial earth. Rush mentions when the Destiny was docked with the seedership he would have to bypass somethings to keep the charge. I would assume that Destiny in its current condition couldnt hold the required power for long so dialing the gate and getting through before any side effects would be wise lol
Okay…so the “interesting fact” was given to me by a 12 year old…who actually is quite brilliant…but not on the facts. Watch this on YouTube…too funny…says a lot about how we look at the Internet….
Cloverdale was fantastic. Easily one of my favourite SGU episodes ever – the characters were a great ensemble, and I loved the Scott focus. Poor guy has his moments, but it’s great how Chloe’s centring him as much as she is. The Telford moment in the car was no doubt the best moment of the episode, right behind Greer staying behind to help the other two.
Can’t wait for next week’s episode either.
Joe, I’m gonna be honest. Cloverdale was….AWESOME! It has immediately become one of my season 2 favorites. Pass along congrats to Brad.
Request: Could you post more schematic/concept artwork. Looking at that stuff really makes us all happy.
Mailbag Q’s:
1. While doing arduous Stargate research for my dissertation in Stargate (which I just made up), I was wondering what is your stance on:
a) If Colonel Everett (Atlantis: The Siege, Part 3) lived through the process of being fed on.
b) The location of the bridge on 304’s: some say the superstructure, others say in the middle of the ship, evidence supports both. Would there be two bridges?
Spoilers ahead!
I’m sorry to say that it was the only SGU episode I did not enjoy at all. I also apologize if this sounds too negative but I hope it’s offset by the fact that I praised and advocated this show in the past.
First off, the dream world scenes were long, predictable and superfluous. That’s a bummer considering I was pretty excited to see the beginning of a Scott and Greer adventure there, until about one minute in when it became painfully obvious what this was all about. A lot of solid dialogue, good set and camera work was simply wasted on scenes that I kinda wish I had fast-forwarded through. Though there were a lot of nice elements (like the cinema scene), in the end it felt tiresome and added nothing at all to the story.
The flow and pacing of the episode felt very rough and it was hard to get invested in the unfolding struggle. Maybe it was by design, but I kinda shared Eli’s resignation when he stepped through the gate after Chloe “infects” herself.
I’m really sorry if this seems like sniping from the cheap seats here (always easier than to go out and actually create something). Maybe this ep was designed to appeal more to the “traditional” Stargate crowd which I’m not a part of. If so, this is probably a bad sign of things to come, at least for people who share my taste 😉
Sorry to hear about Paul the octopus, read where their life-span is like 2 and 1/2 years. Nice tribute poem for him btw.
–
Did Ashleigh know October is/was vegetarian awareness month. I missed that. I did have several meatless meals(chocolate counts,right) this months but not sure they were related to the celebration.
– Such neat gifts for your birthday, congrats on the haul.
– COngratulations to the contest winners. any winners from the US? Heres hoping I win the next one, would love to visit the sets of SGU and see where the magic is made.
– And I woud be careful with the roping/rodeo skills on the PA’s…they may have some moves on you…
–Have a wonderful day!!
Joe
Good luck with SGU, however I do not watch, I tried last year to watch and could not get interested. I am a SGA addict. I read where you and gang have stopped work on SGA Extinction. I would have started watching SGU if you had done the movie and if you had crossed over Joe Flannigan for guess appearance and even paired Shepperd with someone. When A Good Day For It and The Other Side with Flanigan comes on next year on SyFy I will watch them but other then that I have quit watching SyFy.
Whose idea was to shoot Scott’s dream without the shaky camera style? Bloody brilliant. It contrasted very well with what was really going on on the planet.
@Randomness:
Yes, I can understand how the seeder ships might have considerably more power available than Destiny, because they’re in better shape (and, as you point out, may have been designed differently in the first place). But my real question is, if the solar collector technology can amass so much power (more, apparently, than ZPMs can provide), then why did the Ancients switch to ZPMs?
But your comment did give me an idea on that. Maybe the solar collector technology is more difficult to maintain because it operates continuously, while ZPMs are disposable like alkaline batteries. In that case, ZPMs wouldn’t necessarily be more powerful, but they would be more convenient, which might make the switch worthwhile.
Hey Joe, I gotta be honest too…Cloverdale was not one of my favorite episodes. I found it hard to sit through the first airing, let alone the second. Yes I watched both airings and will continue to do so regardless, because I want to see a third season. The speed of the show is what did it for me. It seemed like an old school SG-1 episode, but slower. It seemed like the episode was building up to something, but never got there. I hate to say it but the best part of last nights episode was the sneak peak at next weeks show, which looks like action from beginning to end.
On another note…since you’re a basketball fan which college team are you a fan of? Please don’t tell me your a North Carolina fan or a Duke fan! Go Illini! Look out for them…Final Four all the way. Are you going to have a stargate fantasy NBA league?
@ cherluvya, I didn’t even realize just how many saturdays and fridays where in this month! I did notice that 10-10-10 didn’t seem to generate as much interest as 8-8-08 did.
Will have to see Cloveradale on Amazon due to the Hulu SGU embargo.
What contest? What the devil? Well I never! Jason and Grace are very lucky (and very elegant-looking!) I’m guessing it’s too late to enter the contest, which is just fine because I would never look as composed and calm as Jason and Grace. More likely I would be attached like a World Cup octopus to Mike Dopud’s leathers.
The t-shirt is perfect for the next time you cross the picket lines to much on foie gras; just be careful that the protestors don’t stomp on your head like the poor Move on girl who crashed a Tea Party rally.
@ pg15 – As always, you saw the head, and hit it square-on. This ep was full of symbolism. Unfortunately, a lot of people just don’t get that sort of thing, more used they are to spoon-feedings than actually figuring out the recipe for themselves. I think the final ‘marriage’ was most powerful…although – I must admit – to being distracted by several medical concerns: blood compatibility, hepatitis, HIV, cytomegalovirus infection, fatal overtransfusion, and just the general sanitary conditions at the time. But, I suppose, all marriages come with risks. 😉
das
How could I forget to say… I really liked the Cloverdale episode, great writing and the actors did a terrific job.,,, although I sit here wondering,
There are a lot of scenes with so much stressful situations going on, and it may be a matter of time til it becomes too much.. I can see how Greer releases his stress( flamethrowers come to mind) and then theres Brody’s bar, but I wonder how they are dealing with it, pretty intense at times and Tamara is good to talk with, but will it all come to a head anytime,,>? Not sure I want to be in the room when it does, they are handling it well for now.
And the promo for next weeks show, can’t wait, thanks!
Great show last night! Two questions: Was that a real wedding cake? If yes, did the cast/crew eat it after?
“Now go watch our show!”
I would…
But, Hulu says, “episodes will become available 30 days after their original airdates”.
*sigh*
🙁
hey joe did you know we (the fans) can download free full episodes of SGU at a web page I will not reveal.After 1 hour of its airing the page allow us to donload them free,it’s legal or not? just wondering,want your permission to download them.
Hey Joseph,Im writing a fanon comic about Stargate,it is about a new ”series” for Stargate,what anem do you like? Stargate Venture, or Stargate Sagas? please answer……………..thanks.
I never get any work done. I’m always on here laughing.
hey Joseph.i want to know,please what criteria does the SGC Command and the Atlantis expeition use to designate a planet’s code name………P87-977,that stuff?
I want to know why Milky way planet’s name started witha P,and the Pegasus planet’s name started with an M?
dasNdanger: yeah, I was thinking along the same lines: “boy, better hope Scott and Chloe have compatible blood types.” If I’ve done the math right, given the distribution of ABO blood types listed for white people in the US (taken from the “Blood types” page on Wikipedia), there’s a 35% chance that the blood types are such that Scott is in trouble, so not as bad odds as I guessed at first.
Goddamn, sometimes Stargate fandom just pisses me off.
So many seems to be saying that that dream part was pointless when it was fairly obvious that it had everything to do with Scott’s doubts about himself and how his relationship with Chloe has been, especially after their conversation in Pathogen.
Not enjoying it is one thing – that’s subjective; but when you can’t even SEE it! When you just completely dismiss it; that is frustrating…and I didn’t even write the damn thing!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
I agree with you 100% on those points, pg15. I’ll try to share more later.
Das: With Chole being “infected” by the alien virus she may not have a blood type anymore.
Hi Joe,
When you started in the entertainment business, obviously you probably wanted to get any job you could but creatively did you want to work on a certain genre? Like science fiction, or drama, or comedy? I know any job you could get you had to do but did you start writing to work on something certain?
I was curious, because I’m very interested to work on Stargate Universe in some way, but not if I can’t really put my best work forward. Obviously you probably have a favorite kind of writing to work on, but is just having one favorite enough to try getting a job or try to get a degree?
Just something I’ve been trying to figure out for myself, was curious what it’s like for you.
Thanks,
Jordan
P.S. Just went crazy spell checking this.
@Alexander of Houston: RE: “OH I have a theory about Rush and Chloe… Perhaps the little pathogen in Chloe only became active after she died when Eli left her, then it became active and takeover her vital functions, since rush has not died he has not shown symptoms like Chloe did. Either that, or they intended to catch and release Chloe from the start.”
Actually, Rush did die. It was his body who Young suffocated (the one Telford was occupying with his consciousness).
I, personally, don’t think Chloe is so much ‘infected’ as ‘afflicted’ with something. Say some sort of micro nanobots.
Hey Joe, how’s it going?
Elminster
Excellent “review” pg15. This episode is one of my favorite Stargate episodes of all time!
“Scott obvious sees a brother-sister relationship between those two, and probably have no idea of Eli’s feelings;”
That is such a good catch! Funny in a sad way…
Scott always struck as pretty dumb. That vacant look in his clueless face, never questioning orders, and always a couple of steps behind the rest of the crew. But yeah! The guy is so clueless he’s got no idea that Eli got the hots for his gal.
Coucou!
C’est moi :), ça fait longtemps!
Désolé mais en ce moment j’ai BEAUCOUP de travail et je n’ai pas le temps d’aller sur le net..vous me manquez BEAUCOUP!!!
ahhhhhhhh j’aime BEAUCOUP le foie gras!!!!!!!!! vivement les fêtes pour que je puisse gouter celui de mon tonton! MIame!!! Le t shirt est cut! ^^!!
A bientôt,
je vous adore BEAUCOUP, BEAUCOUP,BEAUCOUP !!! 😉
@pg15
“But at the end, it was all about characters, and it all built up to that.”
That nicely sums up all that is wrong with SGU. Personally, I don’t care at all about characters, I usually skip over those bits. It took me 2 minutes to watch this episode.