Today marked the final day of Amanda Tapping’s directing gig on Dark Matter episode #104 (pictured above with 1st Assistant Director Brandon Tataryn).
We’re going to miss her. And not just because she treated the cast and crew to a mobile coffee, tea, and hot chocolate stand!
Meanwhile, Assistant Production Coordinator Travis Lowry celebrated his birthday in fine style today with streamers and balloons and a Steel Magnolias-themed cake (featuring him and the ladies). Pictured above, the birthday boy takes a break from the festivities to pose for an Executive Producer mandated birthday photo. Note the look in his eyes, a mixture of excitement, delight, and pure terror.
While Travis was celebrating his birthday on Earth, the rest of the production was on Shaofu 2 for our last day on the space station!
I’m going to miss this place. After a terrific six days in its atmospherically controlled environs, we capped things off with a visit to the station’s clinic…
That’s a wrap on #104. Next week, we’re on to episode #105, moving from space station to space freighter!
You can always have Amanda back for Season Two right? Looking forward to this so bad I can taste it…….ummmmm Dark Matter marshmallows 🙂
LOVE all those posters and background filler stuff! It’s all that little stuff that really fills in a show’s set and makes it feel more real, even if it’s all just from it being pure whimsy.
Bye Amanda! Thanks for what I’m sure will be a great episode!
-Mike A.
Great to see Amanda again – and of course she did something nice by leaving an awesome parting gift.
Happy birthday, Travis!
Love the medical posters – especially the one offering the various “procedures”. The “Celebrity Facial Reconstruction” made me think of that scene in Logan’s Run, where they have a facility that does something very similar. I think it was run by Farrah Fawcett’s character, Holly?
Happy Birthday Travis! 😀
I’d like a height and weight adjustment please. :p
I need to enlarge those posters so I can read them. Except for the Wellness poster – that one I can read just fine!
Who came up with those?
What would have been funny on the advert would have been getting a group shot of Saving Hope on there…. 😀 and yes I know you can’t because of Copyright laws… 😀
Kriss 🙂
Amanda is indeed a class act!
That cake ts terrifying, so many toothy smiles, eek! Happy Birthday?
I could use a prolonged visit to the clinic. Do they take Tricare?
Happy Birthday Travis! I had to 😆 at that cake.
Thanks Das for the recommendations! I watched the Murdoch Mysteries last night. It’s a cute show. I believe all your recommendations are on Netflix except for the Artful Detective.
Interesting background posters! Any casting news you can share?
I just remembered what the significance of the Japanese belief root beer tastes like medicine is. I knew some notion was poking at me, I just couldn’t coalesce it into a full thought. Some sodas in the U.S. were originally marketed as health tonics. Look at an old Andy Griffith show. They sell the sodas in the pharmacy. I think there may be a link there with legalistic Bible belt prudence, where a new-fangled indulgence such as a new soda flavor would only be tolerated due to a purported health benefit, especially if sold on Sundays. So, what is Galactic Tonic’s link to Bible belt prudence, just a centuries-honed marketing scheme or something deeper?
Plus, the root beer flavor origin is sassafras. My dad told me that in the mountains, they’d dig up the root and make a tea out of it for medicine. I only see sassafras concoctions sold as a basic beverage these days, even the tea. Web MD tells me an excess of sassafras root can be poisonous. So, the Japanese have retained this reaction (probably not for sassafras, but something chemically similar), whereas Americans have stamped that drinkable-only-in-therapeutic-doses reaction down for the chance to have sugar on Sundays. That’s not the only mountain remedy I’ve heard of that has some serious drawbacks, if not only drawbacks and no therapeutic effect. Maybe I shouldn’t be so sore that older mountain folk aren’t so talkative about such topics.
I don’t what use a sex change would be if it wears off after 15 minutes. What happens if you buy two?
1. Lookit dat Amanda – just as pretty as ever! 🙂
2. @Tam Dixon – Artful Detective IS Murdoch Mysteries – just renamed for airing in the US.
3. This is why cats rule…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoUEQYjYgf4
😀
das
Hey, if I go to that clinic can I get a total bowel replacement – preferably from a donor who has no trouble eating nuts? 😛
das
Height and weight adjustments!? OOH, OOH, OH, WHERE DO I SIGN?
Happy Birthday, Travis.
Tam Dixon: I watched the first three seasons of Murdock Mysteries on Netflix, and then had to switch to Amazon Prime to see the fourth season. Perhaps Netflix has it now.
So long, Amanda. Hope to see you back again soon. 🙂
DP, when I was growing up, there was still a soda fountain in the local pharmacy. They would custom mix flavor combinations for you (if you asked nicely). One of my favorites was chocolate coke! And they did the standard phosphates, Green River, malts, shakes, ice cream floats, etc. I never really questioned why there was a soda fountain there – I just enjoyed it – but now I’m curious. And there was a lunch counter at the local Woolworth’s (also known as “the dime store” though nothing cost a dime there except maybe a piece of candy)
And as for the medicinal benefits – we always had a bottle of Coke syrup in the medicine cabinet. It was a great throat and stomach soother.
DP – I just noticed your 15 minute sex change comment. 😀
Happy Birthday Travis!! He must really be liked too. I see someone risked life and limb to stand on his desk and swivel chair to hang streamers and birthday signs. And that cake… um…like…okay…interesting. He looks too young to have worked on that show. Maybe it was his favorite movie?
See you on your next directing episode Amanda! Can’t wait to see your #104. I would love you for the hot chocolate alone, in addition to being an awesome person and talented professional.
Thanks Joe for all the behind the scenes goings-on with the creation of Dark Matter!
Can`t wait to see the first Dark Matter – Trailer ^^.
Is there a chance that you can post some Arts of the Alienships from SGU?
Did I miss the story behind the Steel Magnolias cake?
Happy Belated Birthday Travis. He looks less than thrilled about having his picture taken but knows he can’t refuse or he will be put into the Dark Matter jail.
Bye Amanda Tapping. Can’t wait to see the episode.
@sparrowhawk I have memories of all that as well. They sell coca cola syrup for nausea still.
@DP re: sex change – maybe it’s just so one can take it for a test drive before buying?
Yeah, what about that casting announcement, anyway?? Wasn’t that supposed to be this week? 🙂
RE: Coke Syrup A study done about 10 years ago (or so) found that the only ingredient in coke syrup that actually helps with nausea is the sugar. That’s when I stopped using coke to settle my tummy and started sucking on star mints. (Neither of which I need to do anymore since going gluten-free.) It has something to do with the sugar blocking the nausea signals between the brain and the stomach, or some such thing. Not sure if the findings still stand, though. I used to take a sip of Jager to settle my tummy, too – one of the main ingredients in Jager is supposedly an herb that’s good for the stomach – and it did work. However, it may have been the sugar in it that was doing the job, and not the herb. Again, haven’t needed it since going gluten-free. Now, if only I could find something that settles the rest of my gut. 😛 (The fresh garlic I just ate probably ISN’T the answer. 😛 😛 )
@ Tam Dixon – I just started watching a show called The Pinkertons (about, ya know, The Pinkerton Agency). It’s a new American production – just found it last week. I’m only getting around to watching that episode right now, and so far it’s okay. Of course, I’m typing here and TRYing watch, so I have to keep rewinding, etc. It comes on at 8:00 pm on some obscure Indy station out of Philly, so not sure where else it can be found in the US.
das
Cannot tell you how jealous I am of that cake! Hope you enjoyed every bite of Shelby, M’Lynn, Ouiser, Annelle, Clairee and Truvy 🙂