Paradise Lost

Robert Cooper’s long-standing distaste for arugula is finally revealed.  The mysterious plant Jack and Maybourne eat in order to survive apparently tastes horrible – not unlike arugula.  Not only that but, at episode’s end, we realize it’s the cause of the frightening hallucinations that almost get them killed.  Rob’s aversion to spicy leaf plants isn’t restricted to arugula alone.  Back in the day, we used do our annual trips to Vegas to celebrate our respective birthdays that all used to fall in the same month (Rob, Chris Judge, John G. Lenic, and myself).  I remember going to The Cheesecake Factory with him once and, when our two orders of corn tamales arrived, having him look down at the heavily cilantro-topped tamale he’d received and lamenting: “Hey, why do I get to have all the cilantro?” as if to imply I’d been left out because my tamale was relatively cilantro-less.  A clever bit of reverse psychology.

Metamorphosis…

And the award for Most Awkward Seduction scene in an episode of Stargate goes to… Whenever I see the Nirrti’s Bedchamber scene, I vacillate between squirming and laughing out loud.   “Mrs. Nirrti, you’re trying to seduce me!”.  Poor, simple, innocent Jonas.

Another thing I recall about this episode was the gratuitously gory shot of the mutant exploding on the hospital gurney that ended up being cut.

Disclosure…

No concept art 🙁

When Paul and I learned SG-1 would be doing a clip show in its sixth season, we lobbied hard and eventually won the opportunity to write it!

Juuuust kidding.  When we were first handed the assignment, we were less than enthusiastic.  But, as we started writing, it became, if not exactly fun, then certainly interesting.  It’s Stargate 101 as the series deals with an issue that would plague it for years to come: How the hell can the government possibly keep the existence of the Stargate program a secret?  Sure, there were past incidents that required some fast-talking (“Exploding spaceships?  No, no, no.  Those were Cinco de Mayo celebrations.  Er, yes, in November.”), but the apparent crash of a spaceship into the Pacific Ocean was going to be tough to cover up. And so, rather than even try, we come clean.  Of course it stood to reason that our allies would be annoyed at being kept in the dark for so long, so Rob Cooper suggested an appearance by Thor, the ever-affable Asgard, to smooth things over (and put the conniving Kinsey in his place). I love the sequence where Kinsey raises his finger to interrupt only to have Thor trump him by raising his finger (shut up) and continuing.

Forsaken…

Tiny nitpick but, in the opening scene, O’Neill peers through Carter’s telescope and remarks on the fact that he can’t see anything.  She points out that, no, he wouldn’t because it’s daytime.  Amusing and all if not for the fact that the show had already established Jack as a guy who likes to check out the stars at night through the telescope in his backyard.  Was Jack being purposely dense?  Perhaps.  In fact, as the series went on, O’Neill became increasingly “intellectually relaxed”.  After some six years of playing the role, I guess Rick wanted to have a little more fun with the character.  And that was fine with us, the writers, since it allowed us to do something we always enjoyed doing – bring the funny.  Less so some of the fans who began to derisively refer to the new and improved(?) O’Neill as Dumb Jack.

The Changeling…

Actor Chris Judge tries his hand at writing with surprising spectacular results.  I say surprising because, while I had no doubt it would be a solid script, I was mighty impressed by how good it turned out (this despite the fact that he neglected to include act breaks in his first draft – “I leave that sht up to you, mthrfcker.”).  From what I remember, Chris really enjoyed the process and was quite proud of the final product.

Memento…

What was this episode about again?

Prophecy…

This episode turned out to be one of my biggest disappointments of the season.  I thought the script was solid but the entire episode rested on the final twist, the moment in which O’Neill hears the horn and calls out to Pierce.  It’s meant to be the episode’s big, defining moment but it’s so casually underplayed that it loses any dramatic impact.

Full Circle…

h, another series finale.  Executive Producer Robert Cooper wraps up SG-1 in fine style – except that, as we learned late in season 6, this season would not be the show’s last.  After six seasons, SG-1 was still going strong, much to the delight of our new broadcaster, SciFi, who were more than happy to pick up the series for one more year.  Which, of course, we assumed would be its last…