One of the nice things about this blog is the sense of community that has developed over the past 5+ years I’ve been updating it. Readers have come and gone but many have stuck it out and become regulars, distinguishing themselves through insightful posts, amusing anecdotes, or their single-minded devotion to the wraith. One such regular is Kelly Hurt who has been following yours truly since 2007. Although the name may not ring a bell, her pseudonym probably does: Anne Teldy. Back in January of 2008, I held a contest to celebrate the 1 000 000th visit to this blog. In my January 19th entry, I allowed our buddy Cookie Monster to announce the winner:
“COOKIE MONSTER: Congradulation to Anne Teldy who post at 10:03 a.m. and be first comment after one millionith visit! Enjoy watch for tell time and hit people with! Also enjoy possible red shirt charakter Anne before she be eated by carnivorus space cow!”
Yes, that’s right. Anne not only won a Stargate 10th Anniversary watch (not suitable for children under 12 since the damn thing was so heavy it would no doubt dislocate their fragile little shoulders):
– she also won a part on Stargate: Atlantis! Sort of. I ended up naming a character after her in an upcoming episode.
And she was, naturally, pleased to hear it, leaving the following message in the comment section in which she thanked me – and then offered some constructive criticism for my upcoming script:
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“Mr. M, I was so excited I couldn’t sleep last night! I have a gabillion ideas for the character which I know wasn’t part of the contest and you couldn’t use even if I sent them to you. So I thought I’d ask for three small things which aren’t really ideas and which you are completely free to ignore. 1. If at all possible, please don’t make my namesake a ‘space bimbo’. I wouldn’t mind if she were pretty, but please not a slutty airhead. That could get a wee bit embarrassing if people thought the character was based on your actual impressions of me and was not just a random character you gave my name. That said, if needs must, go for it. Better a bimbo than nothing.:-D 2. If at all possible, please have Sheppard growl/shout “Anne!” the way he does “Rodney!” when he’s exasperated or frustrated with McKay. (Sheppard saying my whole name would be nice, too.) 3. If at all possible, have Rodney include “Anne Teldy” in one of his speed-speeches or rants. That’s my top three requests for my namesake character. I will not say or ask anything further about my crazy ideas for her and you can just ignore them if you want. I trust you. Thanks again for the marvelous prize! Anne Teldy” |
In the end, Sheppard didn’t yell her name and Rodney didn’t rant about her, but Major Anne Teldy was no airhead bimbo. She was a pretty kick-ass character; the leader of an all-female team Sheppard teams up with in season 5’s Whispers.
The plan was to eventually bring Major Teldy and a couple of her teammates back in a future episode but, unfortunately, time ran out on the series before we got a chance to see her again (frankly, before we got a chance to do a lot of things). Nevertheless, I like to think that Major Teldy is out there somewhere, leading leading Porter and Dusty through the gate on all sorts of amazing adventures (Come on, people. Where’s the fan fic?).
As it turned out, Anne Teldy was just a pseudonym, an online handle like the one Baron Destructo uses (Vince Ramone) to leave anonymous critiques on the Downtown Abbey fan forums. Anne Teldy was, in reality, Kelly Hurt – as she revealed to us:
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“By the way, “Anne Teldy” is just a nom de Internet I adopted years ago when I first came online. [It was the way my then not-yet-two-years-old niece said “Aunt Kelly”.] My actual name is Kelly Hurt. I asked Mr. M. to use “Anne Teldy” for my character instead as I prefer it and, in a way, it honors my niece as well.” |
It was a nice thing to do for her niece. And, upon further reflection, made things easier for me since Major Hurt would have opened the character up to all sorts of ribbing.
In time, we got to know a little more about Kelly. That she was unwell. That she was occasionally bed-ridden. And that she was an avid reader. This led a number of her fellow blog readers to send her well-wishes in the form of postcards and letters and, in a couple of instances, books!
Over the past couple of years, Kelly has continued to visit this blog, but these visits have become somewhat infrequent owing to a recent downturn in her health. Then, earlier this week, we received the following message:
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“Hello All This is Anne Teldy’s little sister. We received test results on Anne today. The news was not good. Her care will now be overseen by Hospice. Our information is sketchy at this point. We will know more tomorrow. What we were told today was at best we will have a couple of more months with Anne. A test will be done tomorrow morning that will let us know if we will be lucky enough to have that much more time with her. If Anne is up to it, she will pop in herself to visit. If she can’t, I will be her eyes for her and share the latest news from this blog with her. Anne is experiencing difficulty with spasms in her muscles making it hard for her to type. I will be happy to provide updates as time permits for those that are interested. This blog has always meant a lot to Anne, and I will be sure she is able to enjoy it for as long as possible. Anne Teldy’s Little Sister” |
So, Kelly, please know (and I’m sure I speak for all of us here on the blog when I say) we are wishing our Major Teldy all the best and sending positive energy her way.
This entry is dedicated to all of the members of this extended blog family but especially to Kelly in this most difficult time.
And I’d like to cap off today’s entry by continuing our look back on one of Kelly’s favorite shows, Stargate Atlantis – and an episode that turned out to be a fan favorite:
BE ALL MY SINS REMEMBER’D (411)
Actress Michelle Morgan was originally cast as Linara, Davos’s grand-daughter in The Seer, but scheduling conflicts required us to recast the role. Two episodes later, when we were looking for a Fran, we immediately thought of Michelle. And her resemblance to actress Torri Higginson clinched the deal. Michelle was great in her original audition and simply terrific as the friendly but doomed replicator. Fran’s altruistic eagerness and ultimate sacrifice at episode’s end is truly heartbreaking.
Another scheduling conflict through a wrench in the production when Chris Heyerdahl, who had previously played the part of the captive wraith, Todd, was unable to reprise the role. As a result, actor Brendan Penny stepped in for this episode. Chris later looped Todd’s dialogue during post-production. Hats off to our amazing hair and make-up department.
The VFX budget for this episode surpassed those of any other episode of the series. And, in my opinion, it was money well spent:
And another hats off to VFX Supervisor Mark Savela and the rest of the VFX crew.
Not surprisingly, Be All My Sins rates as one of the most popular episodes in Stargate fandom.
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