Back when I was in San Diego for Comic Con, I ran into former Stargate: Universe writer-consulting producer Remi Aubuchon who was in town promoting Falling Skies, a scifi series he is showrunning for Dreamworks Television and TNT. He informed me that he would be back in Vancouver to start production on the show’s third season sometime in August and that we should definitely get together.
Well, the other day I received an email from Remi informing me that he was Vancouver, prepping production, and had a window of dinner opportunity before crunch time. The last time he was in town, we went to Ki, an overall underwhelming dining experience. I sought to rectify that misstep by suggesting we head on over to one of my favorite local restaurants, Miku.
So we got together, caught up, talked shop, and enjoyed a great meal…
A much more successful Japanese dinner this time out.
Rather than order dessert, we walked the block down to Bella Gelateria for a couple of double scoops of gelato.
Continuing our trip down Atlantis memory lane…
THE GAME (315)
Great premise.
Hmmm. For some reason I’m unable to approve comments. I approve ’em and then they magically unapprove. Was ist los?
Today’s entry is dedicated to long-time blog regular Anne Teldy. Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Hi Joe,
Good to see a familiar SG face on the blog.
I actually ran into Remi at Warner Brothers Studios Commissary at the end of July. I mustered up the courage to introduce myself, saying I recognized him from the blog.
We talked for a little while about your blog, Stargate, how SG influenced my life, and Falling Skies.
He was such a pleasant person, and incredibly talented too (Season 2 of Falling Skies is fantastic). Can’t wait to see what he does with Season 3.
Was the rather short reminiscing of “The Game” by accident, or do you just not like the episode? 😀
Major D.
The Game was a bit of stretch, in terms of believability, there was nothing prior to this episode that would suggest the Ancients would place a ton of satelites in orbit of a developing world, and give ‘orders’ to the citizens in what would appear to be some kind of game.
It was a nice, self contained episode, with some good drama, some humor, and a few bits that were pretty fun, however the above.
Why would the Ancients do that? 214 episodes of SG1, and Earths flagship team found nothing like that in the Milky Way. Infact there was nothing in SG1 that implied the Ancients ever did a pseudo social experiment like that to study the development of a culture.
Great premise – that’s the best you can come up with?
I loved this ep, mostly because of sexy bald dude. 😀
das
I just saw a new slew of blog comments approve in the old entry, 9 more to make 35. Never mind, it’s down to 33. :/
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Regarding Fanta Grape, I never liked it. Grape Crush is where it’s at.
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I thought it was a difficult to execute well premise. Some of the visuals and rapid-fire dilemmas were fun on first viewing but not subtle/deep enough to weather too much ruminating. Your review is easier to say and more fun to extrapolate on.
The Old Star Trek did a timeless take on a computer-run war – it would have been so easy for science fiction to get distracted by the tech back then, but they drove hard at the moral dilemma.
Thanks to everyone for your hugs and wishes. And to you, Mr. M., for the dedication. I can use the moral support!
Before the scare, I was rereading Les Miserables [in honor of the musical coming out on film in December] but I may have to put it away for now. I’m so weak, holding the thing for long is a little difficult. I’m going to try propping it on a pillow. If that doesn’t work, hello audiobooks! 🙂 Probably James Masters reading the first Dresden book.
As for “The Game”, not my favorite episode, but it was well done.
I’m sorry if I messed up the HTML tags. It’s been awhile since I’ve used them. I’m rusty.
Anne Teldy
Did Remi Aubuchon happen to mention how Falling Skies is doing? I like it a lot and agree with Major D. Davis that the second season is fantastic. 🙂 Hoping that Falling Skies won’t be canceled like so many other shows… StarGate Universe and so on. 🙁
Ack! I meant Marsters! James Marsters read the first 12.5 Dresden books!
Anne Teldy
Haha, I just realized I’m biased in my empathy for the task of finding depth for this premise. Part of my job was (and will be again) writing rapid-fire dilemmas for a massively multi-player version of this genre of game. The difficulty of imposing a narrative over something that’s about resource management is not a new question, but at least my players will get to use their loot.
Yeah, they’re war games and that sounds story-rich when you write that on a white board, but at the dilemma level, the stakes you live and breathe are resources.
Remembering these strategy games are just fancified tabletop games helps clarify the problem. Think of it this way, do you need a back-story for bridge?
Now I’m mad at Netflix again because I want to watch it again.
@anneteldy: Please get better soon, we’re all thinking of you! Hang in there!
@Joe: “Great premise.”? Huh? 🙂
The Game was entertaining. Two pretty leaders. Rodney would put pictures of himself everywhere. This episode reminded me of the movie WarGames with Matthew Broderick.
Nice to see Mr. Aubuchon. He looks good. The food looks good too!
OK Joe, surely you could say a bit more about The Game – I thought it a fun episode!
Finally read the Q&A, which took me half the night. So many terrific questions! It looks like it was great fun, and I hope you can do it again soon. But I was kind of concerned when you mentioned possibly moving to LA. I understand why, but after the Toronto fiasco, do you feel you know LA well enough that you would feel comfortable here? I know there are a lot of folks you know (yeah Carl!), but I can’t help but feel that home for you is in Vancouver.
Would you consider just renting down here until you hopefully find work, and still keep your Vancouver place?
@anneteldy Talk about a cliffhanger! So glad you’re feeling better, and thrilled you’re back on the blog! I’ve missed you’re witty sense of humor, and hope you continue to post.
Joe,
Will I ever receive a notable mention in your blog? Or a gold star?
Nick
The Game reminded me of “Civilization”, a world creating computer game where you ultimately go to war with different civilizations to try and wipe them out and be the top civilization. It’s one of my favorite games. So, when you guys created your version, I thought that might have been where you got the idea. To be honest, your game would have been much cooler, even if the player ultimately was playing God with real people. And, Das is definitely right. Sheppard’s bald leader was a real hottie.
@Anne Teldy. Every time you make an appearance here, I think about the episode with the character named after you. Feel better soon.
Joe, between the raw fish and the oodles of rice you get with sushi, I’m not sure I would enjoy eating that sort of thing. Besides, although Edmonton has Sushi restaurants, where I am in North Eastern Alberta, everything is pretty much either dead cow or dead chicken. There are some awesome white fish and a few rainbow trout about, but no great restaurants serving them, so we have to do the honours ourselves. To make a long boring tale short, where I live, is pretty much Dallas meets the Klondike. All that’s missing is the young oil workers shooting up the local saloon. Yippe Yie Yo Kiyay.
The food and the company look,terrific as always. As for,the Game, this episode reinforces my theory about the degeneration of the Ancient stock. From being mentors to the Pegasus humans, the Ancients have gone to literally playing God? With the computers they got, they couldn’t settle for a virtual reality instead of mucking with real people? Along with needing a mechanical aid to Ascend, This season’ episodes shows just how far the Ancients have fallen, and why the Wraith were able to defeat them.
Did love the Zelinka/Lorne competition and how it mirrored the play between Sheppard and McKay. Loved Weir as the scolding mom. I do question that societies could or would have remained so static without input after 10k years. As for all,those orbiting satellites, I suppose most of the p,antes that might once have had such a system in place were hit by the Wraith, the satellites destroyed. Even for a small galaxy. Pegasus is big enough that our heroes had not had time to stumble on such systems. And the Ancients of the Milky Way would never have stooped to such a “game” to start with.
Hope you feel better soon AnneTeldy, and looking forward to the next daily fix.
We’re loving Falling Skies here. It’s a Sunday night event for us. And tonight’s the season finale which looks really good.
Hope everyone has a great day!!!!!
@anneteldy –
Can you get your hands on a Kindle? I know people with various issues for whom Kindle made the difference against giving up reading. For you, it’s light and if the regular reading positions are unwieldy for you or you need it mounted, it could help.
My brother-in-law was thinking of running a charity that sets people up with Kindles ready-to-go, he was that touched by seeing something so simple as the ability to change font size bring reading back into his grandpa’s life. It would involve him setting the Kindle and reading material up because some of the people who have had to give up reading aren’t in a position to set it up either.
@anneteldy: Hope you’re feeling better soon!
Great too see Remi around again, and that food does indeed look fantastic.
As far as “The Game” goes, it thought it was very entertaining, but while it did start out well, as the stakes became higher it became less and less believable. Still a pretty entertaining episode, though.
Hey, JOEEEEEEEEEEY! I’m here to warn you about yet another scary food risk! Be verrrrry careful next time you dine on squid…you just may get pregnant in the mouth!!
Yummy!! 😀
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/15/womans-mouth-falls-pregnant-squid-seafood_n_1599218.html
das
ANNEEEEE TELDY…..big hugs to you!!!
The upside of the Kindle –
– can hold lots and lots of books
– amazon kindle has tons of FREE books – some contemporary many clasics
– they also on occasion offer potential best sellers free
– they “lend books” but you can only “borrow a book” one per month
– if people know your email address (that you use to register your Kindle) they can gift you with kindle selections.
the downside
– books cost range 6-10….and there are some that are higher.
@Patricia – Now you or someone has to tell me the story of an episode with a character named after anneteldy in it. Please.
I liked the Game. The actress…can’t remember her name. I’ve seen her in other roles and liked her. The whole situation was so…it showed the power of the Ancients. Or maybe, the misuse of power but still. Interesting and the storyline was rich with possibilities.
AnneTeldy: We missed you! I hope you continue to feel better. Personally, I enjoy audiobooks. Especially, when I’m doing something with my hands that doesn’t require a lot of thinking. Ender’s Shadow & The Moon is a Harsh Mistress were both excellent in Audio format. If you are having trouble concentrating try the The Narnia books. They were so relaxing when I had Mono, I would fall asleep in the car line to pick up my kid from school. All the Dresden books are good in Audio too. Hugs to you and I pray you are back to good health soon!
I enjoyed the game a lot for the McKay-Sheppard rivalry. And how hilarious was it that Sheppard’s ‘team’, all dressed in leather and studs, looks like a bunch of S&M dudes just out of San Francisco. What is in John’s subconscious? 🙂
@DP As I’m sure you’ve been told by now, I won one of Mr. M’s contests and he gifted me with the limited edition 10th anniversary SG1 watch (all 100 pounds of it :-)) and a character named after me in the 5th season episode “Whispers”. Christina Cox played Major Anne Teldy.
The constest was for the first post after the one millionth page view of his blog. We all had a great time posting over and over hoping to be the one.
The watch can be seen here.
Anne Teldy
I verymuch enjoyed that episode!
Ack! Hit post accidently before adding: The watch is made to resemble the Stargate when it is closed. The picture is of the opened watch; I don’t have a picture of it closed.
I also wanted to say I chose for Mr. M to use my nom de internet as it is what my niece — all grown up now — called me as a baby. She couldn’t say “Aunt Kelly”.
Anne Teldy
Waves at Anne Teldy… good to hear from ya! I’ll be sending another Burning Man postcard very soon, if I can find my address book… it has vanished. Love and hugs, Anti M (which is my playa name and I can’t recall how I signed my cards in the past…..)
People still aiming Stargate questions over at the Syfy twitter Joe, there’s a recent one in which someone asked.
>Any chance @syfy has renewed interest in the #Stargate franchise? Esp now with MGM getting back up there?
To which Craig Engler responded.
>If MGM wanted to discuss something I’m sure we’d talk to them. I have no insight into what they want to do with Stargate however
here http://twitter.com/Syfy/status/237190207923970048
Bah, equally frustrating, yeah I knew this already, and you and everyone else did too but bah..
Stargate doesn’t deserve to be dead. MGM needs to bring it back, it has a network that wants it already.
@Michelle – the visuals come from the genre of game, which the Germans are great at and often feature German feudalism as the setting.
Go to tribalwars.net, click on the far right image under the heading “Screenshots of the browser game:”. Okay, that’s a little too dead on. From my memory of the tribal wars site, I do believe SGA hired the actor before that image showed up, so no worries. Artist’s collective consciousness they call it. You’ll probably find the studs in another game that uses the German feudal setting.
I’m totally not even linking to where some of the non-Carter part of the visuals for the other side came from. This comment would go straight to Joe’s spam folder. That’s the reputation that game has. I will name it cryptically as “Boobs, M’Lord”. And there are more games still that I’d tag various aspects as being similar to, such as how pursuing tech leads to using dirigibles to drop bombs.
And, BTW, these visuals don’t mean much to the gameplay, I prefer to play with the information displayed in tabular format if the game allows that.
There’s a game in this genre that uses an adulterated version of the Stargate Universe, too. I think it has Asgards as a “side”. The mechanics and setting don’t make sense together in that case.
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@Tam Dixon/Anneteldy – I consumed Ender’s Game in audio format. The pacing was excellent for that. Except my husband happened to walk in both times testicles were mentioned. He thought that sampling was representative of the work.
I also liked The Game. Remi is doing a great job with Falling Skies; am looking forward to a fabulous season finale cliffhanger tonight.
On another note…
While doing backyard work just now, cut some vines on the back fence and saw a black cat “S” harness hanging on the fence top. Froze me in my tracks. Then images of a family missing their cat flooded in and I reached for it. The tag read “Farley” with a little bell and red heart token, address too. Everything was well rusted, couldn’t make out phone number. Or maybe it was the tears in my eyes. Placed it into an envelope with a note about how I found it and walked it over 1 block to neighbor’s house. Left in mailbox when no one answered doorbell. I hope it provides some closure for a lost cat. Or better yet, Farley wiggled free and went home.
Since my cats are housebound, they wear no collars or I.D. One has an implant chip given at the shelter when I adopted him. They don’t dash to run out the door. But I would hope if the one who was chipped did become lost, someone would let me know his fate.
2cats
Joe,
I don’t think I have heard much of “Falling Skies.” That is were Colin Cunningham went on to, right?
This is one episode in which I would have liked to have seen Sheppard take Rodney out back and beat the snot out of him. And I think rightly so. McKay has shown he has no end to his conniving ingratiating and absorbing petulance. As in McKay and Mrs. Smith it was not lesson enough by destroying a whole solar system. But, it was uninhabited. McKay continued on his malfeasant manner even after it became know his actions were having real consequences. He still sided with the idea of clandestine absconding of the neighboring lands coal reserve on the principle that they were not using it. As far as fashion goes, where was Rodney influenced by the short blond hair style, hmmm I wonder? It was interesting on how trade broke down because the societies took on the personalties of the players.
It was fun to see the diminution of the Zelinka/Lorne arc as it mirrored the main story. They tried to start out so nobly and fell into the same trap. As Deborah notices and as the commentary discussed Weir had to come in like a scolding mother. The commentary also discussed the difficulty of playing against the green screen.
I have to say I was really hoping to see more close up shots of Baden’s assistant.
Falling skies was already green-lit for S3. Great did Remi here. I really like The Game.