As many of you know, the new show I’m working on – The Transporter – has a few Stargate connections. In addition to Paul and I who are show running the series (alongside Alexander M. Ruemelin), there’s Executive Producer Robert Cooper and series director Andy Mikita. And now, another tenuous connection of sorts. The director of the series pilot is the amazing Stephen Williams –
If he looks familiar, it may be the family resemblance. His brother, Peter, played the villainous Apophis in Stargate: SG-1.
Yeah! Japan wins the Women’s World Cup in dramatic fashion. Let’s celebrate with dog pics and a mailbag!
Mailbag:
cwillmanbunge writes: “Nothing personal, but when it comes to series finales the ones for SG-1, SGA, and SGU were okay, but they weren’t satisfying.”
Answer: To be fair, with the exception of SG-1, they weren’t planned as series finale but season finales. In the case of both SGA and SGU, we thought chances were good that we would be back or, in a worst case scenario, would at least be afforded the opportunity to wrap things up with a movie.
cwillmanbunge also writes: “Sadly to say it would kill me to not even know the single answer to one of these questions.”
Answer: Hey, believe me, there are a lot of us who are equally disappointed because we’ll never get the opportunity to answer them. I could certainly provide you with potential ideas or scenarios but, at the end of the day, I’d imagine they’d be equally unsatisfying since they wouldn’t be canon.
cwillmangue also writes: “If at all possible, please, do what you can to at least get a movie for Atlantis and Universe.”
Answer: Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to see an Atlantis and/or Universe move go into production. Brad Wright (franchise co-creator and Exec. Producer) pushed hard but, in the end, the final decision lay in the hands of MGM. At present, it seems unlikely they’ll be giving the green-light to any SG-1, SGA, or SGU-related project.
Blake Linton writes: “Netflix is the ONE company with the money to produce more Stargate, the distribution channel to play it, and the built-in ability to precisely measure its success. We must awaken the sleeping giant! With 6.5 MILLION total Netflix ratings averaging 4 out of 5 stars, would it really be so hard to convince them that continuing the Stargate franchise is a fabulous idea?”
Answer: Unfortunately, convincing Netflix is only half the battle. You would also need to convince MGM.
Randomness writes: “However I do find the whole Self destruct thing a little Deus ex machina, because well it’s a random twist that has come out of nowhere with little to no build up to push an event forward.”
Answer: I disagree. It’s the move away from Pegasus (something new and unforeseen) that triggers the self-destruct. Given the way things were going in the war against the wraith, it makes sense that the Ancients would take measures to ensure the city not fall into enemy hands. Furthermore, we did establish the city’s self-destruct system early in the series run.
Trevor writes: “Thank you for all your hard work guys, what a fabulous name! I will inform Holly that Eufemia has won. Or perhaps on second thought, I won’t inform her and will just go ahead and fill out the birth certificate first, and then show her afterwards. Yes, I think that will be best.”
Answer: If you can hold off on telling her until her birthday, it would make for an awesome surprise. Just a suggestion.
dodoalda writes: “Any news from Joel Goldsmith regarding the SGU soundtrack?”
Answer: Joel has actually been quite busy, out on the road, doing his own thing.
Samantha Padilla writes: “Hey, if I send you some of the Atlantis story ideas I have taken from when I desperately wanted to join the writing staff only for Syfy to drop the ax on the show and MGM to continue to hack away at it’s (still can’t believe I’m saying this) corpse, can I take a shot at turning Extinction into a novel? That’s if you like my stuff.”
Answer: Sorry, Samantha. I have no influence on who gets hired to write the novels. Again, those decisions lie in the hands of MGM.
majorsal writes: “anything on sg1′s ‘revolution’?”
Answer: Nope. All quiet on the Stargate front.
dioxholster writes: “Was Todd with them for the ride? why?”
Answer: He was on Atlantis at the end of Enemy at the Gate. We included a little scene in the Extinction script in which Woolsey and Sheppard go “pick him up”, essentially rescuing him from the clutches of government R&D.
Ben writes: “The story arc between ‘Faith’ and ‘Incursion Part 3′, regarding the ‘Eden’ planet and TJ leaving her daughter there was absolutely incredible-one of the most emotional scenes I’ve seen on tv, nevermind Stargate alone. Obviously later we found that Destiny was behind her ‘OOBE’ and those who stayed behind on Eden didn’t really survive. The way it was left before we discovered that was brilliant because you truly didn’t know what to think (I was thinking while watching how amazing the writing was). Were you at all tempted to leave that arc open ended?”
Answer: We knew we were going to do a story in which we revisited the people we’d left behind on the Faith planet eventually so, when that happened, the truth would be revealed. I don’t think it would have been possible to have kept that particular element open-ended.
Ben also writes: “I’m not into all the legal details, but when a show is cancelled, is it not possible to be picked up by another network?”
Answer: Sure, but it would ultimately fall on the studio to give any such plan the go-ahead. Are you sensing a trend here?
ruffles writes: “Is it typical for showrunners to also write? If you had to choose between writing and producing, which would you choose?”
Answer: It is typical in television but rare in film where the writer is often at the bottom of the pecking order and usually has nothing to do with his work moving forward once he’s completed that final draft. As for which I would choose, writing or producing – it would depend on what I was writing and producing.
Wow! Amazing family resemblance. Hubby and I got to meet Peter Williams at a convention several years ago, and he was a class act to all of us fans.
Moving preparations continue. We will be leaving for the West Coast in seven days.
Lisa R: good luck with the move!
Thanks Mr. M. for the Q & A! The dog’s look very cute. Bubba is doing a good cat impression. My cat always get in front of whatever I’m doing/watching.
Trevor that was hilarious! I hope your wife has an easy delivery and the baby is colic free! Due date?
WOW Stephen Williams fair looks like Brother.
Joe not sure if you’ve ever answered this before(I’ve looked back can’t see).
I was wondering, who was the first person to come up with the idea of the Wraith and them being life sucking aliens?
Awesome idea don’t ever remember seeing anything like them before, everything about them is totally unique.
Steve
Thanks for the mailbag. It kind of twerks me that MGM is not interested in making the movie, yet still won’t give permission to release details of Extinction. What do they possibly have to gain from this?
Glad to hear Sheppard and Woolsey spring Todd!
@Furthermore, we did establish the city’s self-destruct system early in the series run.
But you didn’t however establish that Atlantis couldn’t be moved from Pegasus through fear it would self destruct, I understand this is a device that can be used and have some plausability, however viewers will find it slightly ridiculus that the Ancients would place such value on Pegasus.
I mean, after all they lost the war with the Wraith and essentially retreated back to Earth. They had no intention of returning at some stage obviously due to ascension, but also due to the fact the Pegasus galaxy was over run with teh Wraith.
Why in that case would they essentially insist Atlantis stay on Pegasus? It makes no sense.
We can obviously conclude that they didn’t just fly Atlantis out of the Pegasus Galaxy when the Wraith were bombarding the city from Space because they MAY be able to follow them back to Milky Way.
As much as I know you’re an amazing writer, I’ve said enough times how great your episodes are. I just can’t buy this plot twist, much in the way a lot of fans found the other deus ex machina Wormhole Drive hard to believe too.
Another thing being if the Ancients ever returned to Atlantis in the future after abandoning it(Say a hundred years from the date they first left the city) and had to move the city for one reason or another back to Milky Way, if this self destruct thing couldnt be deactivated, it’d be kinda stupid no?
Also, sorry for my poor grammar, I didn’t proof read that response.
Another point being, if the self destruct was placed on the city to prevent the Wraith from boarding it when they left(They left it underwater lol), the Ancients energy shield is a sure enough protection from any Wraith incursion, for one once the shields fail, and the power goes down, the city floods and essentially becomes useless.
And as the Wraith are incompatable with the Ancient technology it seems there would be no physical way for the Wraith to movie Atlantis out from beneath the ocean, nor do they have any physical way to survive under water for long periods of time, had some managed to board Atlantis and had to lol hold their breath.
Joe, were there no better ideas for this movie?
Anyway best of luck with your Transporter stuff, looking forward to watching.
Thanks for doing these mailbags, Mr. Mallozzi. I have always wanted to ask you a couple of things about SG:U.
I’m curious to know why hyper-drive and hyper-space technology, as used in SG-1 and Atlantis, were not used for Desinty’s superluminal drives? Did you and your team choose to go with a simple FTL drive to make Destiny’s methods of faster-than-light travel seem more realistic?
Don’t get me wrong, I think I preferred Destiny’s drive technology over that used in previous Stargate shows. To me, it was cool way to show off the ancients ‘old-school’ drive technology before they had advanced to the point where they were capable of hyper-space travel.
I also have a question about Matthew Scott as a character. In hindsight, do you think Scott’s background was overly melodramatic? Both his parents die in a car crash when he was four, he is then raised by an alcoholic priest who drinks him self to death. Isn’t this a lot of material to expose to an audience only three episodes into a new series? I also felt Scott didn’t really have much to be defined by. We knew his past, but I felt like I didn’t really know anything about him. I suppose, in short, I just didn’t get Scott. Looking back on the character, do you have any thoughts like these?
I’m thinking of adding another dog (a puppy) she is half yorkie, half Maltese (a morkie) can’t decide between naming her Saphie or Aubrie what do you think. Is having 4 so much different then 3. I have 2 shi-tzus and a yorkie-poo they’re names are Daka, Dorje, & Ellie. She’s also $500!! haven’t 100% decided. HELP!!
You mention giving your dog canned pumpkin is there a specific brand you give them? Aren’t you worried about sugar content? I find my 2 are having some issues in that department.
Did you do a location shoot in or near Kitchener?? We had beer and Ribfest this weekend and it was AWESOME!!
Mailbag greatly appreciated. When Trevor and wife are ready for the next baby lookign forward to the contest to name him/her. Hope all and sundry have a good week.
Looks like Bubba was watchingTV when you interrupted him. What is that he is watching?
You guys should make up a fake birth certificate for Trevor to give to his wife while she is in the hospital.
Thanks for the story update on Atlantis. I keep trying to be hopeful that in some form the show can return, I’m afraid you’re right. It doesn’t look like MGM will be doing anything further with the TV franchise. I’m still wondering if they have any plans to move forward with another version of the original movie. I just can’t see them dumping the entire concept. It’s such a great idea.
And thanks for the puppy pics. It’s been tough lately and their boorish, goopy faces brings a smile.
My mom was admitted to the hospital early Wednesday morning. It looked like she had a stroke. She tried so hard to speak, but none of her words were making any sense. And as my nephew Jamie said, since she’s completely bedbound, her mind is really all she has left. She’s a very smart woman with an incredible memory, and she’s a talker. We tried asking her questions, but we could see how frustrated she was getting. Then suddenly, she burst out singing the “Star Spangled Banner”, loudly, in the ER. She sang all the words, and we were thrilled, although the other patients, not so much. Slowly during the day she started making more sense.
By the end of the day, I was starving and grabbed Jamie and his brother Ryan and took them out to dinner. During dinner, Jamie kept talking about how cute the waitress was. I asked him about his girlfriend. She’s up north. Ack! Just before we left, he started ripping my french fries apart…and left his telephone number, in fries, on the table. After such a traumatic day, it was hilarious!
Mom had a TIA, where the blood flow to the brain is interrupted. She’s regained most of her mental capacity and is now home. But they also found a brain aneurysm. They couldn’t get a good look at it through the MRI because she moved around too much, and after that she refused any other tests. So we’re hoping it’s small, and it may never affect her health. She still can have a stroke, or another TIA. But right now she’s talking, a lot. 🙂
Crazy last few days (but good crazy). The weather’s been BEAUTIFUL! In the 80s, but dry, and so pleasant! Friday before work I mowed the grass, and raked up all the dead holly leaves from under the holly trees. Made the yard all neat and purty. 🙂 Work was okay, went out for Italian afterwards and that was better! Saturday cleaned the house, then spent the afternoon/evening with friends. Went out for an early dinner, sat on the deck overlooking the bay, and then back to my house to chit chat. Nice day. Today it was services, spent the afternoon with my brother and sis-in-law, then did some shopping, spent some time in my neat and purty yard, and did absolutely nothing this evening – woo! 😀 Well, I did chat on the phone with my bestest buddy, and then watched Zen on Masterpiece Mystery!, but other than that,I did nothing. So…very relaxing and much needed relief from what the past month has been. Now it’s supposed to go up into the 90s, with possible 100-degree weather by week’s end. NOT looking forward to that, but at least I’ve been able to enjoy this lovely weather the last 4 days.
Hope your weekend was a good one, too, Joe. Have a good one, sir!
das
Wow, what a stunning resemblance. Before reading the text, I thought is was Peter in the picture. Cool.
And, thanks for the puppie pix
Are you sure that is Stephen and not Peter in disguise?
Kriss 🙂
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t MGM owned by Spyglass Entertainment? Shouldn’t we be convincing Spyglass Entertainment?
Coucou :)!!! ça va aujourd’hui??
Moi super!!!
Waou O_O en effet la ressemblance est frappante..en même temps normal si c’est son frère 😉
ohh vos chiens son so cute:) votre maison à l’air sympathique, vous devez bien vous y sentir bien.
Merci pour ces Q&A ça faisait longtemps 🙂
Gros bisous
Bonne semaine!
Do you know what makes me sad ? Today I don’t see any show that has the substance of SGU.
Syfy summer line up is incredibly dry. Eureka is almost OK, but Warehouse 13 is total crap. Alphas is interesting but smell a so low budget. Not much on other channels… Falling Skies is quite empty. The characters have little substance. Even Torchwood lost its Brittish soul over its americanization.
The TV landscape became so sad and dry.
I miss so much Stargate, the complex plot, the laughs, Brody/Volker/Park bridge’s talks, Telford’s Kenny’s adventures. I miss the discovery, I miss the mystery, the Twitter talks with the cast on the night of an episode, and above all I miss a conclusion.
I also know that some of those folks are looking for job and deserve a job. Mark Savela better get the Emmy. They better fucking give it to the guy that is the best because not rewarding the best would be the ultimate insult. And I hope he could use it to launch Echoes (this is also why I want Falling Skies to fail BTW, to make room for Echoes). I apologize to be so negative, but TV has gone to shit. I can understand there is a need for a casual market, but I don’t understand that the casual market kills the serious market and something as rich as SGU needed more.
Ok I stop here. I wish you all guys the best. I would die to see some more SGU done, even in a few years. I know there are some connections between people, I see the cast talking to each other, I know they would love to work together again and this is only about the ‘powers’ understanding what the fans want. In the meantime, I am waiting for that non dry, complex and mindblowing Transporter !!! this should be a good deal 😉
take care and Hi to Jelly 🙂 (is she doing better ??)
Have you and Akemi visited J-Town yet?
Tread carefully, Trevor – my father actually did tat! They had one name chosen and he changed his mind when my mom was still whacked out on baby-birthing drugs. She woke up and asked the nurse where her baby was, using my supposed name, and when the nurse was clueless, my mother assumed the baby was stillborn. and went into hysterics. My father laughing about it when he was told did not help the situation. I think I was eight before I remember him NOT sleeping on the couch…
Ben also writes: “I’m not into all the legal details, but when a show is cancelled, is it not possible to be picked up by another network?”
Answer: Sure, but it would ultimately fall on the studio to give any such plan the go-ahead. Are you sensing a trend here?
Due to old management, the MGM lion lost its roar— due to new management, the lion has forgotten how to roar… 🙁
Ponytail: Good idea. I bet that the art department could make up a fake birth certificate!
Das: Stay cool.
And on this point
@it makes sense that the Ancients would take measures to ensure the city not fall into enemy hands
For one the Ancients energy shield around Atlantis was established to be very powerful with a full complement of ZPMs. Meaning if the Wraith were attacking they had enough time to submerge the city.
Because of this had the shields failed the city would be flooded and the water presure would play havok on the structure of Atlantis
Thats why this self destruct thing makes no sense, you established that whilst the Ancients were aboard Atlantis the Wraith could never breach the citys shields, they were too strong, and they couldnt do it underwater, thus the Ancients had no reason to make a self destruct device, as the city would never fall into the hands of the Wraith, even if they wernt there.
You could argue once the expedition (cue pilot) arrived on the city that the city was vulnerable to the Wraith but the Ancients didnt exactly make Atlantis to be found by Earthlings tens of thosands of years later, they obviously wanted to return to Atlantis themlseves once the war died down.
Because of that. even if the Wraith did board Atlantis, for arguements sake say from the episode Siege and killed everyone(cue end of Atlantis at the end of Season 1 lol) the Wraith can’t use Ancient Technology, you even confirmed, and chances are, they wouldnt be able to use the city to the fullest anyway, not to mention its likely if the city was about to be over run, the Weir, or say Carter, or Woolsey would likely just evacuate. place the self destruct on, and beam anyway, and had that failed, if the shields were down anyway, bombard the city from space, or at the very most, leave a few nukes behind.
I can’t honestly see a scenario where the Wraith could ever board Atlantis and actually move it, or do anything of value on it.
Hope you dont mind me debating the points you made Joe 😛
Another thing that might be a reason for Stephen Williams looking familiar, would be having seen him in various behind-the-scenes type features on the “LOST” DVD’s. If I’m not mistaken, he was one of the main directors on the show. Didn’t know he was related to Peter, though.
Bubba on the coffee table; in Miss Doggie Manners guide it says hopping on the table during footie is the best way to calm your excited master down during tense game play.
@ Tammy Dixon – My home AC seems a bit warm (probably needs refrigerant), and the office AC was off when I got into work, and it was 90 degrees inside. Not sure it will pull down now (the office is a trailer that sits in full sun all afternoon). I am not too cool today. Oh! And guess what our business is??! That’s right…refrigeration, heating and COOLING… 🙄 Shoemaker’s kids, and all that. 😛
das
Joe, were you guys in on it? hiding the truth about the pyramids from us? lol check out these popular threads from the biggest conspiracy site:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread729646/pg1
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread729602/pg1
Have you abandoned your Stargate memory lane trip?
Just told my Stargate fan fiction to a friend and she really liked it. I feel great now :>
Good night(/morning) everyone!!!!
@ paloosa – glad to hear your mom is doing better. A lady I work with, her mother-in-law had the exact same thing happen to her. It was not a stroke either, but something to do with blood flow. She might have had a small blockage that they cleared out. She is doing real good now and i believe she is on blood thinners. Hopefully they will get your mom fixed up just fine.
@paloosa: I hope your mom gets better soon.
@das: Stay cool. It’s HOT and HUMID here. I’m wilting. 🙁 My AC is running a lot more than I would like (I get nasty notes from the electric company telling me how much more I use than my neighbors).
Thanks for the reply about Netflix, Joseph. I’m deeply honored! I well understand that MGM has expressed total disinterest in more Stargate. That’s why I suggested (elsewhere) you approach Netflix *first*. They’re the ones who have the phenomenal statistics for the Stargate franchise in their own database–bigger numbers than Avatar, and almost as highly rated. Nabbing exclusive rights to new episodes would be an incredible coup. And would MGM really stick to their guns if Netflix offered to foot the entire bill? Money talks!
Yes, this is new territory. Nothing like it has ever been done. But television is on the brink of a sea change as profound as the transition of music, newspapers, and books from physical to electronic form. You can either ride the wave or be left in the wake.
@Blake –
Since MGM has the rights to Stargate, they are the only ones who can actually negotiate with Netflix. Outside that, anyone can suggest it to Netflix, but that’s all it is, just a suggestion. Perhaps since Joe is overloaded at his new job for the moment, you could talk to Netflix and see if you can get it started.
Hey Joe, any idea why we haven’t heard anything from MGM about the fate of the franchise? Seeing as its future is in their hands, it seems strange that they’ve been entirely quiet about its, at least for the present, death.
@afg1 –
Agreed. But which message is more likely to get Netflix’s attention: “I’m Joseph Mallozzi, producer of Stargate Universe. I’d like to bounce some ideas off you about Netflix approaching MGM to pick up the show for a third season,” or “I’m Blake Linton, a totally unknown Stargate fan….”?
Nonetheless, we fans will do all we can to sway Netflix. Many thanks for your input! http://facebook.com/SaveSGU