So, yesterday I uploaded the following photo online –
With the caption: “Thousands of hours of unseen behind the scenes footage from Stargates SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe – Back when he was the Special Features Producer on Stargate, Ivon Bartok spent years capturing behind the scenes footage on all three shows. Unable to make arrangements to send the footage to MGM after SGU was cancelled, he was at a loss as to what to do with all those tapes and discs taking up space in his apartment. I offered to take them in and, for the past seven years, they’ve been sitting in storage. Well, I’ve finally made arrangements to have everything shipped to MGM where a dedicated team will peruse the digital contents in the first step of making this goldmine of never-before-seen footage available to the fans.”
I figured fandom would be thrilled – but, alas, fandom being fandom, there was a vocal minority who was downright angry because –
1 – I’m not backing up all these files before sending them to MGM.
2- I haven’t personally uploaded them directly online.
3 – They’re going to MGM who will review, catalogue and ultimately make them available.
Look, I get it. I empathize with those worried about being able to access these materials, especially fans living overseas. However…
1 – I don’t have the time, money, or equipment to back up these files. And while, yes, it would be great to take fans up on their kind offers to do it for me, these files are the property of MGM Television. Which brings me to…
2 – These files are the property of MGM Television. This isn’t simply a case of me uploading an image here and there. This is thousands of hours of video and supporting materials. I have a great relationship with a number of the executives there, many of whom are Stargate fans as well, and they are overjoyed at the prospect of revisiting all this material and, eventually, making it available to fandom at large. I don’t own the right to the Stargate franchise. They do. So they will be the ones to make the call on what is released and how. I am simply returning something that is rightfully theirs. And no, I’m not taking any payment for this.
3 –
Lovely.
To tide you over, here’s another page from the Stargate: Extinction script:
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that you (someone?) needs to take that SG1 Extinction script and fill it out into novel form. I’d buy that!
They seem to be adding plenty of bits to Stargate Command, so hopefully these will end up there.. right?
Hope so!
Might be legal stuff before we get to see anything, though. There’s always legal stuff!!
Fingers crossed, though.
..Still haven’t heard the Citizen Joe commentary. Wasn’t on the UK DVDs 🙁
Joe, you should write that script into a book, it would be amazing. Also, thanks for sending the box of stuff to MGM and for storing it all these years. We can only hope they share it with the fans. What a true amazing find.
Thanks for all you do Joe. If MGM has any decision making capacity, you’d be hard at work on new Stargate with a well deserved pay rise.
Thanks again.
So it’s taken 7 years for MGM to even make arrangements to have the material shipped to them? It will probably take another 7+ years for them to catalogue it all and make it available to fans. Bummer. Behind-the-scenes footage was the gems of the DVDs.
I hope the people who have a problem with what’s going on realize nobody would’ve had anything to get happy or angry about had Ivon not taken the time to capture it all. And on top of that, had you not held on to it for all these years it could’ve literally never existed to the outside world. That would’ve been a shame, a problem, perhaps something to get angry about, not the fact that it was found and given back to the owner. This is why we have alcohol. This is why I need alcohol. Mmm, alcohol.
The script is epic and perfect as is. I would buy the script as a published script. Novelizing would ruin it.
I originally read about this on Reddit but don’t subscribe or post. I just get links to stargate stuff in my news feed and post here when I can. I think it’s great that you held on to the these tapes all these years. I was surprised so many people on reddit had the reaction they did. Guess they think it will end up in a warehouse like in the Indiana Jones movie. I have hope though. It seems like MGM went through its archive after its restructuring and sees the value it has in Stargate. I have faith that good things will be happening.
You know the old saying – no good deed goes unpunished.
I think this is fantastic news! And I don’t get why some people cannot understand “ownership”. Thanks Ivon and Joe for your efforts.
That’s very exciting! Thanks for arranging that.
Christmas in April, I like it. This is making me wanna settle in with my favorite SGA and SGU eps.
Thank you so much for your continued relationship with the SG fandoms. We are, admittedly, starved for content, but I’m sorry that such a wonderful, exciting, and thoughtful gesture was ultimately marred by such overzealous fans. We appreciate your continued support and engagement so much, and I’m so excited to see what comes out of this treasure trove of footage!
One thing I have learned in life–no matter what decision you make, someone is going to be unhappy about it. I appreciated Jenny’s reply to me on Twitter.