The above picture is sadder than a boatload of stranded orphans having to eat their au pair for survival. I mean, just look at him. Heartbreaking, no? I snapped the above pic as Carl Binder was preparing to head off into the sunset, luggage and script outline in tow. After a wonderful week of story spinning and endless distractions, Carl took his leave, voicing his desire to, someday, work with us again. It was, indeed, just like old times while he was in town – with the addition of a loopy German wildcard (Alex) – and I know I speak for everyone in the writing department when I say: “Carl, as you leave to catch your flight back home, know this – We are really counting on you to deliver a solid draft! Everybody really liked your first script so there’s incredible pressure on you to do an equally fantastic job on this one. Don’t screw up! Make sure it’s great!!!!!”. I know, I know. A little sappy. But I’m the sentimental type.
Last night, we saw Carl off in the fine Indian style he so grew accustomed to growing up on the streets of Calcutta – with a wonderful Indian meal at Babur Restaurant (clickthrough.html). We all came away very, very impressed by what turned out to be one of the best meals (Indian or otherwise) any of us had enjoyed in quite some time. You know how, when you visit a nice restaurant, there is always one, maybe two dishes that really stand out and make you say “Damn, I have GOT to come back here. Preferably with less hungry fellow diners.”? Well, an astounding six of the seven dishes we ordered last night were that “Holy Smokes!” fantastic (The lone dissenter being the lentil dish, but expecting a lentil dish to be fantastic is akin to assuming the Toronto Maple Leafs will make the playoffs. I mean, come on. Let’ s be realistic.).
Whew! Feeling a little overwhelmed of late what with prepping the show, the conference calls, the spinning sessions, the script meetings, the writing, the rewriting, the blogging, and the search for a new place. I miss my Vancouver routine: dinner, blog, workout/watch t.v. or dvd, read, and sleep. I have little time to watch anything anymore, my workouts have been sporadic, it feels like forever since I’ve actually sat down and read a book, and sleeping through the night is next to impossible in this uncomfortably warm apartment. I am pleased to report, however, that I’ve managed to continue my dinner-eating ways. Would love to go back for a visit, even if it’s only for a weekend, but with the dogs here in Toronto that’s most unlikely. Sadly, it doesn’t look like I’ll be back in Van until January of next year at the earliest.
That’s it for today. I’ve got some story synopses to finish up and a pile of notes to consider. Gute nacht!
Pass auf!
Some people LIKE lentils!
I always love it when english-speaking people write or, even better, try to speak German (in most cases, it is very funny)! I love it even more, if everything is correct. In this case: Yes, everything is correct. I love it!
Here’s a question: Can you speak German? Or does Alex help you with it? If you can speak German, here’s a challenge: Try to write a whole entry in German! I think it would be funny to see the comments from your readers!
Gute Nacht, Joe!
Sounds like you are staying busy. My boys are finishing their school year tomorrow. (We homeschool.) It’s hard to believe my oldest will be doing high school work next year.
No news on the job front yet. 🙁
Have a good night!!!!
Why do keep making fun of him? He deserves some more respect! He is, after all, the man who wrote Pocahontas.
hi, joe,
is brad going to come to the blog and talk ‘stargate: revolution’? or carl?
Joe, take care of yourself and make time for rest. Good luck on the house hunt,,again, what a pain in the,, well good luck. January, hmm, yeah probably will be good weather there in TO… click your heels together three times and say there is no place like home! thanks for talking about food.
And yet another fracking remake:
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Bill-Nighy-Total-Recall-1033550.aspx#comments
An awesome series like StarGate is cancelled and hollywood comes out with more and more horrible remakes. It’s like there are hardly any writers around these days who are capable of writing original stories. Might be a good business opportunity for you Mr. Mallozzi, teaching writers that ‘There is more to writing than just digging out old previously done scripts and adding new special effects to them’.
Hey Joe,
So are you and/or Akemi spending any time looking for a new place since this one is so chaud? (<< like my French-Canadian?!)
Joe,
Have you joined Toronto Public Library yet? Free ebooks
I think Lentils are evil…maybe I’m allergic to them…but nice diss….hehe
Cheers, Chev
Joe, Are you learning German?
Cheers, Chev
Thanks Elminster….cool!!!
Cheers, Chev
Jusy a tiny reference to hockey you made, but it gives me the chance to say…
Go Canucks!
So, Joe. Your wild and crazy life finally catching up to you? You must be human after all.
Sebastian Meyer wrote, “Why do keep making fun of him?”
Because it’s fun!!! 😀
Is that a pet rat Carl’s holding in his hand? Good bye Carl! See ya next time. Take care! 🙁
That Indian restaurant looks fantastic! LOVE the decor!
Since my extended ‘family’ (through my foster sister) is from India, I am quite partial to Indian food. But a couple months back my sister’s cousin was visiting from India (Chennai – formerly Madras), and when we invited him over for dinner he said, ‘Sure, as long as it’s not Indian food!’ Seems he’s rather sick of it. 🙂 He stayed with us one summer – nice guy, beautiful family. He dabbles in film, and made this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl8njAm3B5M
Oh, and Carl…My eyes! That is a REALLY white shirt. O_o
das
Hello Joseph,
I decided to post here since you would actually ‘read this’ d hopefully respond. I have a solution for SGU. Can you please sent this message through to MGM. I talked to “The Syzgy Network”, a new channel coming in 2012. Attached below is the response from “The Syzgy Network”.
—————————————————————————
Thanks for your letter.
We would certainly consider a comprehensive deal for Stargate if we were in a position to, but as yet, we haven’t had any luck attracting the kinds of investors it would take to launch a new cable network (potentially as much as $50 million).
If you’ve had any contact from companies who might be interested in getting this going, we’re all for it. MGM themselves would make ideal partners, not only because of Stargate, but all of the other existing content they could bring to the table. If I could find a way to get them to sit down with us, we’d certainly be amenable.
Thanks again for your contact!
Dave Andrews
CEO and founder, The Syzygy Network
————————————————————————–
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO MGM
Good for you that you are finding time to do the important things in life, like having dinner with friends and writing the blog! glad you have your priorities in order.
Have you found that your language skills have come in handy with the European crew and locations? Will you have to go to europe to oversee filming or will you have your hands full in Toronto? Good eats in France.
I’m rewatching season one of SG-1 and two questions came to my mind:
1. How come some civilizations (like the Touched in The Broca Divide and the Cimmerians) are so primitive and still have the same culture, behaviour, etc as when they were taken from Tau’ri when they’ve had hundreds or thousands of years to evolve?
2. Do you have any explanation as to why all the alien cultures (except the Goa’uld and a few others) speak fluent modern english? I know that the writers did this originally to save time and make the story progress but you must have come up with some off-screen explanation during the series.
@Alex Crawford: Thanks for posting the link to the Syzygy network. I liked it on my Facebook page.
transporter is a big deal so its all worth it i hope.
Hey Joe, thanks for the updates on Transporter! Just wondering; what language will you guys using for the series? English only? or perhaps some french/german influences? I like the use of more languages, it gives some authenticy to a series.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Squishy
Alas, the lowly lentil gets no respect. But then, lentils are lentils. They are nothing without bacon.
Take care of yourself, m’kay?
Hi Joe,
I originally meant to post this a number of days ago, but wrote it late at night then forgot about it. In any case, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed the 2 seasons of SG:U, ironically for many of the reasons some ‘devout’ “fans” hated it. Part of it too was the grittier, more realistic/authentic look and feel to the sets and how you weren’t sure who you should be rooting for to come out on top (Rush vs Young). Eli being an avatar for us the viewer worked well in my mind. It is ironic to me that the (unintended) Series Finale should be so apt and appropriate to the series, as short as it was.
A couple of complaints I always found curious were 1) that there was too much sex and 2) that SG:U lacked humour. To the first complaint, I thought that (for the most part) the sex/love scenes either played to insight to the characters (James & Scott in the closet) or to the story line (Park having sex with Grier and another marine bookending one episode). It also played to how the show was being more ‘realistic’ in my mind which suited the atmosphere. Regarding the second complaint, people tend to forget that the first couple seasons of SG-1 were quite humour free compared to later years. The vaunted “Stargate Humour” really didn’t make itself felt until I feel Season 3 and really got going after the “Window of Opportunity”. I think SG:U started to find it’s funny bone part way through season 1, but it was taking time to develop, just like it did in SG-1. I don’t think there’d ever be a wholly funny episode like you would have on SG-1, but I could see a spin on the above mentioned episode working in SG:U. People just need to take off the rose-coloured glasses most times I think. And get a rabies shot.
At the moment, I’m re-watching the series episodes back-to-back and have a couple question:
.
1) The Lucien Alliance seemed to have greater for-knowledge about Destiny and as to what it really was than anyone involved in Stargate Command. I was left with the impression they (SGC) had no idea what on the other end of the 9th chevron address, but L/A seemed to know a lot more and were prepared for what they were to encounter when they arrived. I realize Telford probably fed them some intel, but I have a hard time believing what he could have given them would have been enough (ie the gadget that opens the locked doors). Ginn mentions in “Aftermath” about legends and stories told about it. Were there any plans to expand on what the L/A knew about Destiny and where that information came from?
2) Were there any plans in future seasons to introduce any ascended Ancients as guest characters that might ‘walk the line’ to help out the Destiny Crew, in a similar way that Oma or Morgan le Fay did in SG-1?
3) You mentioned in the past technologies that you felt shouldn’t have been introduced in past Stargates as they hurt the ‘drama’ of the stories (such as beaming tech). Was there much debate about having the “Stones” be present as a plot-device? For me, it seemed to be stretching it a bit that SGC would have been able to R&D a new ‘docking device’ for the stones to interface with that was that portable in such a short period of time given the radical concepts the technology uses (ie: instant transfer of consciousness over millions of light-years). To me, it would have made more sense that they either a) had found another Ancient interface to use the stones to bring with them or (better) b) found such a device on Destiny itself, which could be reasoned away as being a practical measure on the part of the Ancients given Destiny’s far-reaching mission. As it was previously demonstrated that via some of the computers in the Cheyenne Mountain complex that they were experimenting with the tech but still didn’t have it 100% figured out, some sort of “accidental” body swap (Like Vala & Daniel) could have kicked of a tenuous (and not totally reliable) tether back to earth. Thoughts?
Thanks for your insights into the series. I’ve enjoyed reading your point of view on things and look forward to future installments.
Dale
(P.S. Just read your opening outline for Extinction. Have some thoughts but will post those another time)
On the plus side, your blogging is helping flesh out your new show’s fan base… and it hasn’t even aired yet!
That picture of everyone around the table is really good. I wish you would have someone else (dinner staff) take the picture so you could be in it too. Then it would be great!
Okay , HAPPY HAPPY to see Akemi’s smiling face in the photo. Glad you are, as we all suspected, finding some good places to eat! Carl has the most expressive face… he really should so SOME acting. 🙂
Speaking of which, is being in Toronto cutting down on your anime time too Joe? Guess when you’re back in Vancouver you’l have a small backlog of titles to watch lol
I can imagine working on The Transporter must be hard, because obviously it has more of a budget than pretty much most Stargate seasons, and thats only for 12 episodes(Guess that covers the locations shoots and stuff) but still, Transporter does sound like it has a heck of a lot more stuff to organize than the average Stargate season, am I right Joe?
Mailbag question.
Do you think Brad will produce a new Science Fiction show Joe?
Doesn’t have to be Stargate, but does he have anything planned, or any ideas?
Seems a shame for a talented Scifi writer like himself to just fade away.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH….
*inhales deeply*
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Sorry…holiday weekend. 😛
das
Two more questions 😉
How come the concept of time is the same on almost all the planets SG-1 and SGA visited? Is it just to make the story easier to tell or do you and the others have any explanation?
Also, every time they visit a planet in SG, they just scout the immediate area (a few kilometers) around the gate. Does the SGC send other teams afterwards that investigate the whole planet (or a lot of it)? If aliens scouted planets the same way we do, and they landed in the Sahara dessert, they would immediately determine that Earth doesn’t have any intelligent species.
Hello, I want to ask: How did you get to the scene “Numa Numa” 😀 it was really great, have you some interesting story from behind of scene? How did you think it up?
I contributed to at least ten of those Julia Benson searches.
Joseph, God’s team will make the playoffs next year, so I wouldn’t give up on those lentils yet.