Well, aren't we popular?

Snow Monkeys Win!  Snow Monkeys Win!  Down 17+ points going into the Monday night game, my Snow Monkeys scratched, bit, and clawed their way to victory over the Vancity Viktors, improved their record to 3-5, and positioned themselves one game out of that final playoff spot.

Set guests David and Tiffany joined us on set via the Stargate Auction by Propwerx. The proceeds of David's winning bid went to the B.C. Children's Hospital.

A new episode of Stargate: Universe airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. on SyFy – and it’s one of my favorites: Trial and Error.  For a sneak peek at tonight’s action as well as a little insight from actress Alaina Huffman (SGU’s Lieutenant Tamara “TJ” Johansen) head on over to Curt Wagner’s blog:

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/show-patrol/2010/11/sgu-preview-alaina-huffman-praises-louis-ferreira-trial-and-error.html

And, while you’re in the neighborhood, why not check out Curt’s behind-the-scenes piece on that outtake from episode 3, Awakening, that has been making the internet rounds:

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/show-patrol/2010/10/how-they-did-lou-diamond-phillips-stargate-universe-outtake.html

David Blue gives his best "blue steel".

A couple of very dusty days on set saw various members of the cast and crew walking around, doing some spot-on imitations of ghosts, ghouls, and the living dead.  Actor Louis Ferreira stopped by my office to chat and ended up leaving a powder trail of oat, bran, and what I believe to be wood shavings in his wake.

 

Mike Dopud flexes some Lucian muscle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now go watch Stargate: Universe, then come back here and let me know your thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s entry is dedicated to blog regular Lisa R. and her hubby.

47 thoughts on “November 2, 2010: New SGU! Snow Monkeys Pull Off Incredible Comeback! Stargate Set Pics!

  1. i can’t wait for this next episode, the pictures look awesome 🙂

    ps, “Well, aren’t we popular?”
    made me laugh so hard.

  2. David Blue is looking pretty sexy this season. Is it the sideburns? More styled hair? What is it about him that is different? I like it! Hi Daaaavid! 😉 😳

  3. Joeykins…

    Wouldn’t it be much more fun if I made you GUESS my thoughts??? 😀

    das

  4. Mike is allllll dirty!!! He looks great!

    Joe, get the writers to find a way for him to do an episode with his shirt off….heh heh.

    Patricia

  5. Hi,

    To those that live in the GTA[Greater Toronto Area], the cast of Stargate Universe will be appearing live on Canada AM on Friday, November 12 2010 am from 8:30am-9:00am. My blog has been working with CTV to promote this event. For more information on the event and how to register , please visit my blog at http://abbaskarimjee.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/meet-the-whole-cast-of-sgu-on-canada-am/.

    Thanks and look forward to seeing you there!

  6. Gotta make this quick ’cause I’m pooped…

    Great ep, Greer was a treat, and – really for the first time – I really liked Scott. I thought he shined in this ep.

    Now, I gotta go to bed before I pass out. It’s been a looooong day.

    das

  7. Trial and error was my favorite so far, I really enjoyed the plot progressions and hints at things to come.

  8. ‘Trial and Error’ was a very good episode. I thought the whole premise of Destiny interacting with Young was really clever. Louis Ferreira did a fantastic job. Also, I loved how Eli and Greer interacted in this episode. I couldn’t help but smile and laugh with them at certain moments, epecially when Greer asked how much time Eli thought he needed!:P Anyway, great episode! I’m really looking forward to next week.

  9. Wow, what a powerful episode! If the Emmys truly recognized Sci-Fi shows, L. Ferreira would have a great chance, due to his amazing performance tonight. Not much I can say without:

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    Spoilers

    This episode started out reminding me of sort of a cross between the Star Trek The Next Generation episode “Cause and Effect” and a twisted version of SG1’s “Window of Opportunity.” Young has just hit rock bottom, and now he is given 3 opportunities to save the ship, and he fails all 3 times. The laugh he gives after the aliens start to board the ship is that of a man who has truly gone mad and is barely fit to walk around the ship, much less be in command. I am surprised that Scott or T.J. haven’t told someone to cause an “accident” to the still so that Young can’t get any worse. Although it seems T.J. is taking out her problems the same way, to a lesser extent. Scott took a big risk with his speech/wake-up call to Young. Even way out there, there are risks to what he did, although it had the desired effect. The only thing I didn’t like was that it seemed like Young suddenly just pulled himself together and went to the control room. A man in his state would have needed more time than that. A minor nitpick in what was a truly solid episode. One wonders if Rush hadn’t overriden the program, would the ship have jumped anyway with Young somewhat back in control. Also liked the Greer/Eli interaction. Greer is the kind of guy you would like as your wingman, even if Eli didn’t seem to want his help at first. Great to see Ginn again, please bring her back more often, especially since she and Eli seem to have so much in common. Liked Eli’s comments in the control room where he was talking about him and Ginn and his mouth was moving much faster than his brain. The look Scott gave him, and then the looks he saw from everyone else was priceless. Kudos all around. Can’t wait until next weeks The Greater Good, but really can’t wait until Sunday when I will see B. Smith & E. Levesque in person at the L.A. Convention! Bring them both on!!!

  10. What a great episode. However, my husband was nearly killed as a side effect. After watching it live, I went to watch it on the DVR with him. We finished, he skipped to the end and then was going to hit “Delete recording.” I said, “Don’t delete, don’t delete, don’t delete…..” He HITS DELETE RECORDING. I screamed at him, “WHAT DID YOU DO????? I SAID DON’T DELETE!!!!!” I told him he was batting a thousand tonight. First he destroys our sound system set up and now can’t figure out how to get the components back to work properly and now he just deleted MY SGU RECORDING!

    Little did he know that I fortunately recorded it on my computer via my satellite box. But don’t tell him. He can be in the dog house for a little while. Eh, eh, eh.

    Tonight’s episode also reminded me a little of Farscape’s episode from season 1 “Back and Back and Back To the Future” minus the temporal distortion.

  11. PBMom, you are very sneaky! I don’t have to worry about my wife deleting anything, she is a real technophobe and doesn’t touch anything she’s not completely familiar with.

    Again I can’t wait till Friday night my time to watch the episode live.

    ps. I also have two boys diagnosed as autistic (one more Aspy though – like me). Thankfully it seems we have a much better support system here (in Australia) and they were both helped greatly by our local Early Intervention Centre. My 7 year old is now in second year of primary school and doing quite well – helps that every class at his level has an integration aide to assist the teacher (we have four other kids from the same intervention centre who joined us at the school and combined we got enough government support to pay for them).

    pps. Well done Snow Monkeys! Arian Foster also did enough for me to win some games I thought I was going to lose (even at half time of MNF).

  12. Great episode! I won’t go into detail, but Young(Louis) sure was…..sexy!

    @Arctic Goddess I agree!!

  13. Wow, great episode!

    *spoilers*

    I have to agree with Brody “it’s the little things that matter”. There is a scene early on in the episode where we just see Greer smiling as Eli and Ginn chat that just seemed wonderfully warm and normal. This episode did wonders for how I look at Greer, it was nice to see him as just a normal guy and friend to Eli; bringing in a bit of levity to counterbalance the depression around Young.

    Are we going to be seeing more of Camille soon?

  14. Joe, you weren’t lying when you said Trial and Error was some of Paul’s best work (Unless you were talking about another episode or something. Remembering things is hard). It was a great episode, with lots to chew on and some great moments throughout – the Young stuff especially, but the Eli/Ginn bonding with a side helping of Greer playing matchmaking were the kind of friendship (and more) moments that I really feel balance out the conflicts between characters. They feel earned, and they feel great to watch.

    Props all around.

    Looking forward to Carl’s The Greater Good next week (It’s Carl’s, right?). He does character beats really well, and more Young Vs Rush is always appreciated! 😀

  15. Woah, i have a new favourite episode after Sabotage ^^
    This time the ratings can´t be under 1,9 million viewers and they are never going to be under that number.
    But that ep. made a few new questions

    1.Was that only a hint on the repairing of the big dome or are we going to see repairing soon?
    2.If that was only a Battle Scenario of Destiny, how can the ship think the we meet them again, is that Chloe or does the ship know more than we do?
    3.If the others find the bridge, what does that change? they could controll the countdown clock, but steering the ship doesn´t help because if fly into another part of the galaxy they fly away from the path of stargates and without the shuttles they can´t visit the planets

  16. Coucou! comment ça va?

    Moi très bien, j’ai beaucoup de travail mais j’essaye de passé sur votre blog le plus souvent possible!

    Merci pour ces photos, ça fait plaisir de voir le cast, la 1er pic est très drôle^^.

    Je ne suis plus trop ce qui se passe dans sgu en ce moment =S….j’attend d’avoir plus de temps pour voir les épisodes.

    En tous cas c’est toujours un plaisir de venir sur votre blog.
    Gros bisous,
    Anais. 🙂

  17. Just wanted to write in and say: great episode!

    The character interaction was awesome, and it was nice to see how Destiny deals with problems; without a process such as stopping for a full simulation until a probable solution is figured out it would have been hard to imagine how it survived all those years on its own. And the way it appears to tie in with the crew’s brains is also an excellent idea, even though it begs the question what the chair is actually for if a physical connection isn’t required for a neuro interface. I’m still hoping the chair is some kind of mind uploading device, as it was hinted at when it deep-froze and dissolved that scientist guy in season one.

    By the way: was Young’s spinning wedding ring just before the dream sequence an homage to Inception? 😀

  18. Personally I thought the battle scenario for Colonel Young was a little unfair as he didn’t have the knowledge of the bridge or any of the systems that could of essentially moved Destiny out of danger before being destroyed.

    I liked the human element of Youngs problems, it was more a damned if you do and damned if you don’t. You can’t exactly blame him for breaking down, whatever he did. They all still died.

    Just had he had the bridge as a card to play and couldn’t jump to FTL, he could of easily ordered the ship to focus on a defensive strategy then once the ships are behind them augment the ships shields to the rear of the ship and make a run for the nearest star to recharge.

    Well personally if I was in that situation I would of done that anyway. As running away is the only option in the form Destiny is currently in. Even the best of ships bar the Super ship Anubis had can’t take on that many ships lol

    Anyhow, been reporting The Amazing Race will be filmed in HD as from the next season. Kinda expensive all things considered, if you take into account the number of HD cameras the crew will need.

  19. reporting = reported.

    Anyway hoping things will improve on the viewing front for SGU.

  20. I would have liked to see some subtitles for the Aliens in Space and Awakening, maybe something humorous like “Die filthy beige thing!” or “Come, let us rise against the khaki oppressors!”. I mean the gibberish doesn’t have to actually mean something, but have the subtitles there to give extra details like “We need the Destiny to breed, that’s why!”, I don’t know, something like that, maybe.

  21. Joe, now that I’m awake and showered and finally drinking my coffee (decaf – alas, I drink for flavor, not for jolt :p )…I have a few moments to clarify and add to my earlier comment about Scott…

    When I say that I liked him for the first time in this ep – I mean – I liked Scott…not just what Brian is able to do with Scott. For the first time I found Scott compelling, not just this ‘whipped, sort of whiny fella who – though he could be brave and all – you still always had the feeling that he’d rather be knockin’ boots in the supply closet. Well, in last night’s ep he was something very different, and I liked it. Maybe it’s because he seemed more like a man to me, rather than just a kid following orders. I hope he continues to grow in this direction.

    das

  22. Hey Joe,

    Excellent job on Trial and Error. It seems yours and Paul’s eps have become my favorites of the series, like “Space” and “Divided”. Don’t tell Brad, lol. Anyway, Keep it up!

    Best,

    Squall78

  23. In honor of 11-year-old Broadway singer Shannon Tavarez, who died of leukemia without ever finding a bone marrow donor match, go register to be a donor.

    I just registered and it was easy. A cheek swab kit is being mailed to my house.

    There’s also a new donation option that extracts the lifesaving cells from your blood. No surgery!

    To register to be a bone marrow/stem cell donor,

    Look up your country
    http://www.crir.org/affiliatestemcell.php

    Or,

    In the U.S., BeTheMatch.org
    In Canada, onematch.ca
    In Australia, http://www.abmdr.org.au/
    In Ireland, http://www.giveblood.ie (I’m looking at you, Shirt ‘N Tie)

  24. @asms Glad to hear other countries are doing it better than the US. Patrick is doing awesome where he is at. The school district is going to be feeling pretty nauseated when they discover all the new things he is doing that they couldn’t seem to do over years and years and years. Can’t say more than that in an open public forum. Wish I could be a fly on the way when they get that information.

    Forgot to mention I’d love to be Alaina right there in that picture up above. Maybe some day at a con I might get so lucky.

  25. Last night was a bit nuts, SGU on DVR waiting for tonight. Heard its another “reset” type of ep, hope there’s more to it than that.
    DD

  26. Joe,

    I haven’t been impressed with SGU at all (keep reading), I thought most of the drama was frivolous, the plot has been moving too slow, not enough humor, not enough action, the characters aren’t likeable and I was about to stop watching altogether …. that was until I watched Trial and Error.

    As far as I can tell not a single one of my complaints above applies to Trial and Error, it was just a great episode of television in every way.

    If you can keep that standard in every episode you will have one hell of a show on your hands.

  27. I felt it was a fairly decent episode, and a stepup from the last two. I was hoping Young’s descent would end soon, so he could start climbing back up, and it looks like that may have started. I’m hoping he continues to climb in future episode, although I suspect that, because of the turnaround being so quick, that it actually means that it’ll take more time. But the important thing is that he continues to climb.

    I get the impression that the whole vision thing was an attempt to push Young down to the bottom of the barrel and get his breakdown over with. Once you’re at the bottom, the only direction you can go is up, and sometimes people need to break before they can get better.

    I would have liked to see Scott take command at least for a bit and give Young a “vacation” as it came across as a bit hypocritical for Scott to tell Young to get over his cowardice and reluctance to make hard decisions, when Scott admitted that he himself didn’t want to do them, either.

    I’m sorry, but, I don’t buy Destiny fiddling with the crew’s mind like that. I know you haven’t explained everything, but I currently don’t buy what the crew suggested. I do think there is something more going on, and perhaps Franklin or the Faith aliens have something to about it, but I don’t buy Destiny being sentient… unless something has happened to it along the way (like the faith aliens modifying Destiny).

    Overall, I did think this episode was a better mix of sci-fi and character development than Cloverdale. This is how it should be done. And I am looking forward to the next episode!

  28. Holly Cow! It was the _best_ Universe episode you’ve made so far. Just keep this quality, and I’m gonna love even more.
    And please, switch the lights on, ‘couse we can’t see anything in some scenes.

  29. Joe – I’ve been loving all of SGU Season 2. I’ve been very generally please with the storylines and character developments. Incidentally, I was watching the Syfy channel this weekend (in Southern California) and they were promoting the hell out of SGU. I’ve never seen such a robust SGU campaign before. I guess that criticism in the wake of Caprica’s cancellation has led them to increase support for SGU. I hope we see a corresponding movement in the ratings to justify the effort.

  30. Hooray! This picture means Varro’s still alive. We love Varro. *waves a Don’t Kill Varro flag*

    I’m really liking the fact that Destiny seems to have some sort of intelligence and am hoping we learn more.

    A friend of mine was talking about how annoying he thought using godlike aliens as a plot point was, and I was all, “…dude. WHAT SHOW HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING FOR THE PAST DECADE!?”

    Two thumbs up from Sia & family.

  31. I can’t seem to find the answer anymore, but some time ago I asked about an SGU AU episode. You hinted that such episode is coming up. Was it AU-ish “Cloverdale” or can I still look forward to seeing what would’ve become of the characters hadn’t they gotten stranded on the Destiny?

    Loved “Trial and Error”, btw. 🙂 You wrote it? Somehow I remembered it was from one of the new writers. Good job, the effects were spectacular. I had been really looking forward to the scene between TJ and Young that Alaina had been hinting about for months now. Well, I expected more, but also understand why Young acted that way. So now that TJ really has tried to talk to someone, but got turned down, she’ll turn to Varro? I can see that happening and it would make sense.

    Loved sneak peek for “The Greater Good”. Hehe, looking forward to it. 🙂 🙂

  32. Awesome episode. One of the best of SGU so far.
    Question:
    You’ve said that this episode was 7 minutes over when you watched director’s cut (or producer’s cut?) and you had to cut out some scenes. Is there any chance we could see those deleted scenes somewhere (DVD maybe?)

  33. My brother and I would like to see more of 2nd. Lt. Vanessa James and of course more action scenes. Both of us are in the 18-25 age group, and would like to see less of Wray, and more of the Aliens or SG1/SGA crossovers with SGU. Nice going with the Chloe Armstrong plot, btw. 😉 Also we would like to find out more about Franklin, and what is going on there.

  34. @asms – Hey!! I’m an Aussie too, with an Aspy nephew…he’s in high school now. The integration aides are fantastic aren’t they?

    Cheers, Chev

  35. Wait – Joe…you wrote this episode?? (Or did Paul write it, and you just watched?? 😉 )

    Anyway, it is going to go down as one of my favorites. Loved the suspense of it all, loved the character interactions. It raises a lot of questions, too. Was Destiny responsible for T.J.’s visions about her child? Is Eli being played like a fiddle? Is obvious REALLY good?? (I sure hope so! 😀 )

    Of course, now that I’m finally getting into SGU, it’ll probably be cancelled. I’m like the kiss of death for Stargate shows. 😛

    das

  36. @ Andrew – so would Mr. Das like to see more of Lt. James… 🙄 …but I can’t complain, not after what I put him through with Todd & Co. 😛

    das

  37. I hope they would secretly let you know whether you need to write a series finale or not, just to give SGU fans the satisfaction that many SGA fans never felt they got.

  38. If you’re happy because the snow monkeys won, then we’re happy. As for Trial and Error, excellent showing. Solid performances with a tight script. What most excited me are the implications of the ship being somehow tuned to Col. Young. Rush so far seems to be denying or overlooking what it might mean to his own control of the ship. This is a storyline I am really hoping you’ll be following up on.
    Thanks for the post and I hope I can catch the next one a bit sooner after you put it up than I did this one.

  39. Sorry Joe, but I fell asleep during your little TV show last night. (I kid you when I say “little” because it is like a major motion picture ever episode! Your production is first class!) Falling asleep was definitely NOT SGU fault. The first half was great! I just had too big of a dinner (roast) and working too hard at work made me so sleepy. I even stuffed peanut butter into my crazy beagle’s bone so she would chew it for an hour or two and not bug me while I watched. I’ll try to rewatch it this weekend. But what I saw was great. Those explosions are so beautiful yet so realistic. I am loving this second season. I hope you get a third.

  40. Hi Joe, I hope that the story arc between Eli and Ginn will continue. Although the next episode will be the fifth and therefore last episode for which Julie McNiven signed I hope she will return in season 3. My biggest fear is the she will be killed in the next episode, I hope you don´t do that, because the character of Ginn is very interesting and her story arc with Eli simply great. Also it would be if she would betray the team, that would be not her. Unnecessary to say that Julie as an actress is simply gorgeous. Can´t wait for the next week, still hoping for the best. Please keep up your good work.

  41. Hi Joe,

    Thanks for having us on set and for letting us have such a great day of geekery! 🙂

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