We’ve reached the end of our analysis of SG-1! Stargate Writer & Executive Producer, Joseph Mallozzi, explores the tenth and final season of the landmark series in this LIVE episode.

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:17 – Opening Credits
00:46 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:32 – Call to Action
02:08 – Guest Introduction
03:48 – Producing Season Ten
06:17 – Claudia Black as a regular cast member
10:39 – “Morpheus” (SG-1 10×02)
13:42 – Robin Mossley as Dr.Reimer
16:12 – Merlin’s weapon
18:53 – “200” (SG-1 10×06) and the Farscape parody
23:15 – SG-1 cancellation
28:55 – “Memento Mori” (10×08)
31:42 – “The Quest” (SG-1 10×10&11)
37:15 – “Family Ties” (SG-1 10×18)
42:47 – “The Ark of Truth” and “Continuum”
45:44 – Success of the two films
51:50 – What were your favorite or least favorite episodes to write?
57:15 – Would you move outside of Canada to produce a new show abroad?
59:28 – Were you happy with how the Ori storyline was resolved in The Ark of Truth?
59:56 – SG-1 and SGA crossover episode in Season One
1:02:05 – Was there a storyline that you weren’t ever sold on but let it fly? (Ancient stories)
1:08:48 – What’s your favorite character to write for?
1:10:17 – Lucian Alliance story expansion
1:13:01 – The new aliens in an alternate universe (SGA 5×04 “The Daedalus Variations”)
1:14:59 – Time loop episodes in Dark Matter
1:17:34 – Sam and Jack Kiss Scene
1:18:27 – Script Software and Anime
1:19:38 – Daniel becoming a Prior (“The Shroud” SG-1 10×14)
1:21:36 – Communication stones in Stargate Universe
1:24:07 – Carter and Teal’c getting together (SG-1 10×20 “Unending”)
1:27:25 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:33:53 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, and welcome to Dial the Gate. My name is David Read. Thank you so much for joining me. And Joseph Mallozzi on this Sunday, the 23rd of May. We are discussing season 10 of Stargate SG-1. So get your questions for Joe and submit them over to him. It doesn’t have to necessarily be about season 10. But that is our focus for this episode. So he and I are going to go through discussion of that specific season and then we will move into your fan questions over at youtube.com/dialthegate. My tie has been out of sorts, I cannot get this one to cooperate, you can see why I never wear it. But before we get into the show here, if you like Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click the Like button, it really makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and we will definitely help the show grow its audience and please consider sharing this video with the Stargate friend. And if you want to get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the Bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guests changes. This is key if you plan on watching live and clips from this live stream willl be released over the course of the next several days on the GateWorld.net YouTube channels. Joseph Mallozzi, Writer and Executive Producer, Stargate SG-1, Season 10. Thank you for joining us, sir.

Joseph Mallozzi
Thank you. I feel woefully underdressed. I think next series of discussions I think I’m gonna have to wear my suit.

David Read
Shake things up a little bit.

Joseph Mallozzi
I think so.

David Read
Space Cowboy. Where does the shirt come from?

Joseph Mallozzi
You are not familiar with Cowboy Bebop?

David Read
No.

Joseph Mallozzi
What? The greatest anime, ever? I mean, I guess that’s debatable. Certainly the greatest science fiction anime.

David Read
I mean, I don’t think I, I’ve seen Attack on Titan. That’s sci fi anime, right? Yeah, that’s horror. I’ve seen Princess Mononoke, which I loved. But I’ve never really been the biggest anime fan, Joe. So you’re saying that Cowboy Bebop is at the top of the list?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yep, 24, 25 episodes beginning, middle and end.

David Read
A series? Okay.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes.

David Read
Okay, that’s the thing that I love about everything that everyone has said about anime. They are a complete story. Everything, it’s all self contained. And yeah. And Avatar: The Last Airbender, my buddy has been telling me to watch that. But yeah, so I want [inaudible]

Joseph Mallozzi
That one I can’t weigh in on

David Read
Weigh in on?

Joseph Mallozzi
So you will have to report back.

David Read
I will check out Cowboy Bebop, I promise. I don’t know if over this next month, I’m getting ready to do a couple of things here, but we’ll definitely check that out. Okay, season 10 of Stargate SG-1.

Joseph Mallozzi
This is the end.

David Read
This is the end for SG-1. Sad.

Joseph Mallozzi
Bittersweet.

David Read
And this was the one where at the beginning of it with all the actors you had for the first time, and correct me if I’m wrong, contracts for season 11. Is that right?

Joseph Mallozzi
I believe so. I know for certain that this was the season, after so many seasons of assuming we will be canceled, this was the season that I was fairly confident we would get that season 11.

David Read
Me too.

Joseph Mallozzi
Simply because we were producing alongside Atlantis and just made sort of economic sense and SyFy had their SciFi Friday lineup and why would they be foolish enough to tinker with that? And all that. And as it turns out, I was wrong.

David Read
Yeah, no, I was too. I remember joking with Brad and Rob in their office. “What kind of stories do you guys have planned for seasons 14 and 15?” Because I think Brad had made the joke before like the NID stuff or summer stuff, seasons 14 and 15, you know, we’ll deal with that. And I just remember saying to them, “It probably will happen.” And they’re like, “Well, we’ll see.” And I part of me, to be perfectly honest, in the back of my mind has always felt like I kind of jinxed it.

Joseph Mallozzi
Okay then, I have someone else to blame.

David Read
Oh, there you go. No, yeah, please feel free. But I mean, 10 seasons, what a run. And I mean, seven for you guys, for you and Paul. I never thought that it would go that far. But with the concept it proved that it had legs from the beginning. And that this was a sci fi idea that could go forever, as long as the the creative minds behind it kept on, getting the energy that they needed to continue to produce the content.

Joseph Mallozzi
And if by energy you mean, the green light from the network, then yes, I would totally agree.

David Read
Well, yeah. Energy burn out, I mean, sooner or later, it’s like, “Okay, I’ve done enough that I can with this ring here. I mean it’s time to do something else.” Like Cooper did near the end of SGU. So let’s talk about season 10. So, you had Claudia Black joining the cast.

Joseph Mallozzi
Finally, as a regular .Yes.

David Read
Tell us about this.

Joseph Mallozzi
Well, I mean, as I mentioned in season nine the plan was to make her a regular then, but the network said no until they saw the dailies and then they said, “Oh, let’s make her season regular.” But at that point, the ship had sailed. So we said, “Okay, season 10we’ll make her a regular.”

David Read
So that was exclusively a network call.

Joseph Mallozzi
Sorry, what? About not making her a regular in season 9? Yes, they basically resisted the idea. And so we said fine. And then when we got the pickup for season 10 everybody was happy with the character creatively. And so we ended up making Claudia the offer and she came on as a series regular, and it was really a blast writing for her character.

David Read
Yeah, well, I mean, to take a character that is really much more of a wildcard and unpredictable with her own backstory and issues throughout the galaxy, as demonstrated in episodes like the Ties that Bind. It’s like, what have we gotten ourselves into with this person? We don’t know what this person is, how many planets does she have enslaved under Qetesh. God knows.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah. I remember this season because we went off and I decided to just kind of push myself to see what I could do. And over the hiatus I ended up writing actually three scripts in, it was actually like, probably two and a half weeks. So it was Morpheus. I think it was Morpheus. Morpheus, Counter Strike, and Memento Mori.

David Read
Yes, those are right up against one another so that would that would add up. And some pretty heavy use of Vala in each of them so you really, particularly went to town.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, it’s like you get the toy and mom says you can only play with it on Mondays, and then suddenly you can play with it every day of the week. And so I really made the most of it. It was just great especially Memento Mori, but that point you kind of cement her place in kind of the team, where she had that conversation with Daniel at the end, when he kind of talks her down and from there she, in my mind anyways, kind of became like a it true member of the team. Well, I know that like certain fans never sort of never took a shine to her.

David Read
And I can understand that. She was so outside of the normal sphere that people would be like, well, what is her contributing factor. And I think making her the mother of the enemy Messiah was really a great excuse to have her on the team right there because you know, if SG-1 is the flagship unit going out and defending against this force that is attacking our galaxy, then it makes sense to have any advantage that we can against this enemy force. And so she’s Adria’s mom, but also she’s clever and she’s crafty, but even as I’m saying these things I don’t know if she is still 100% a perfect fit for SG-1 because in SG-1 every person has like a focus expertise in something. She more or less knows the galaxy and that was really key for this season. I’m sounding like I’m painting myself into a corner. But I’m by no means suggesting that I didn’t think that she had a place in that season. I was more than welcome to see her there. So

Joseph Mallozzi
Well great.

David Read
All right, so let’s have a look at Morpheus, which is actually one of my more favorite Vala episodes with I forget let’s have a look at who this actor was she played against the psychologist? Let’s see.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, Brett Ratner.

David Read
Hey, there you go. Look at it. Yes. Ben Ratner

Joseph Mallozzi
Benjamin. Yeah. Brett Ratner.

David Read
Dr. Hutchison

Joseph Mallozzi
Benjamin Brett Ratner. Yes. And that was fun, any episodes where I get to do humor and so that whole sort of like with a Rorschach test where basically, you got the tortoise lying on on its back and the callback to Blade Runner and yeah, I mean, it was great time.

David Read
Well, I mean, I thought the Rorschach test was real. When I’m watching this I’m like, “I figured, yeah, I guess someone used this as a real thing.” And it’s like, well, wait a second, no. It’s not really used that much anymore because it’s kind of inconclusive. So it’s funny to have SG-1, the Stargate Command go off and do it. So was it always cemented in your mind, we’ve got to use this element. This is crazy.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, any opportunity I have for humor, I would always use it. And I mean, kudos to Brad and Robert, who always embraced the humor, and kind of allowed me to like, I mean, it’s a pretty crazy sequence. All things considered, but it was a lot of fun and it goes to her character. And I’ve often said that humor allows audiences kind of a shorthand to connect to characters and which is no surprise why Rodney was such a fan favorite on Atlantis. Just the same way, I mean, I think given time Vala would have become a fan favorite as well.

David Read
I think she was. I think if you look at the people who have taken a closer look at season 10, especially on social media, she’s going to be more of in the stream of Jonas Quinn, where there are some people who are just not going to be happy with anything but the original four, Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal’c, period. I was watching the forums and people when season nine arrived, and there was a decent percentage, who after Rick left, left with him. I mean, they just weren’t interested in watching a show that didn’t have him in it. So it was a different dynamic. But I mean, the alternative would have been that the show didn’t continue after Rick. And, frankly, that would have been a shame.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, I agree.

David Read
Robin Mossley returns in this episode.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Yes. I was like, “Where have I seen him before?” Yes, yes.

David Read
Did you have anything to do with casting in these episodes at this point.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. At this point. Yes. Very much so. Yeah.

David Read
Okay. So he came into the room and it’s like, “Oh, I remember you.”

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Yes. So, and again, kind of appropriate that he bookends our run on SG-1, one of our first episodes, and I guess, kind of one of our last episodes as well, Window of Opportunity and Morpheus.

David Read
Why didn’t you write him as Malikai, when he came in, it’s like, “Let’s just make it Malikai.” His wife was gone. We offered him a position at Stargate command. It’ll be a great nugget for fans to call back.

Joseph Mallozzi
Because I wrote the script before we did the casting. And then after we did the casting, I would have had to rewrite the script. And I think that it would have been interesting, but I think it would have been kind of weird in that the fans would have asked, “So what is the significance of having Malikai back and is there going to be some sort of like time travel angle?” So ultimately just to make him like a [inaudible], the fans are always looking for the meaning beneath kind of the words, always, or the actions.

David Read
Absolutely. Now that makes a lot of sense. Like in season three, Nyan goes back to Stargate Command after New Ground and Daniel says, “You know I really could use an assistant.” And we never see him again. But supposedly he’s there somewhere and it’s just that you just kind of have to separate the characters from the actors. It’s a relatively, at that point it was a relatively small pool in Vancouver. So, a lot of the talents would continue to reappear.

Joseph Mallozzi
Especially after nine seasons. Yeah.

David Read
Exactly. There’s only, I mean, it’s not to say that there’s only so many but at a certain point, especially I would think if you know that someone can do the job let’s bring him back in. He definitely did that for this episode, and he died doing it. So Morpheus is the beginning of the journey that is searching for the, okay if I remember correctly, so we’re looking for Merlin’s weapon I think at this point. Is that right?

Joseph Mallozzi
I believe so.

Joseph Mallozzi
The MacGuffin.

David Read
Right? So, Castiana, Sahal, and Vagonbrei and this planet is, I believe, Vagonbrei, Verus Gen Bree. One of the things that I wanted to talk with you about is one of the things that I was noticing later on in the later seasons of the show, where one of the objectives would be and it started off with like, we have a problem and now we need this thing to solve it or there is this this mythological thing that we need to solve it. We need to find the Lost City, we need to find the Ark of Truth, we need to find Merlin’s weapon.

David Read
The MacGuffin. Yes. What was it that kept on leaning towards MacGuffins near the end of the show? Or was it just a shake up in the writing styles, like we want to have something episodic to pursue? And so this is an excuse to pursue something episode over episode.

Joseph Mallozzi
I mean, we always looked to episodic storytelling. And honestly, I think it really was just a matter of, I guess just the stories we came up with in the room at the time. I don’t think there was any specific aim to tell those specific types of stories throughout season 10. I mean, really, there was the arc, the kind of major arc, that we wanted to sort of deal with with regards to the Ori. But in terms of the individual stories, that was really up to the individual writers to really come up with like a great tale with a beginning, middle and end.

David Read
Got it. That’s fair.

Joseph Mallozzi
And really at the time, I mean, you’re up against the Ori so you need to find a means to defeating them. And clearly, when we left things in Camelot the season nine finale, cliffhanger finale, we realized that we were probably no match for them. So we needed help. And so season 10 was kind of a quest to find the means to defeating this like, incredible enemy.

David Read
Absolutely. And I want to come back to Matthew Walker and Merlin in just a moment here, but 200.

Joseph Mallozzi
Hmm.

David Read
I mean, holy cow. I remember being in Brad’s office and him saying, “They’re gonna love it, fans are gonna love it or they’re gonna hate it.”

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes.

David Read
And I was like, “Okay, well, one way or another, it’s going to be interesting.” I have never, maybe since Window of Opportunity, maybe never laughed so hard at an episode as I laughed at 200. It really was made for all of us who loved the show.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, I mean, it’s everything. We report everything in that the episode was informed by everything that went on behind the scenes as much as in the fan community. So it was really a salute to the franchise and the fans as well.

David Read
How far ahead of time were you guys thinking about doing something special for the 200th episode?

Joseph Mallozzi
You know, that’s a better question for Brad and Robert. I know Brad and Rob were thinking of what they would do and then Rob sat down and was like, “Okay, this is what we do. We should do an episode called Remember When, they reflect back on these crazy or I think it was like the idea being that everyone was telling Mitchell stories about past missions that were just totally ridiculous.” And I was like, “I like that, but I don’t know, I think it feels like it needs a little more of a center core, like more of a sort of a narrative engine.” And then so we ended up bringing back Willy Garson. And sort of that kind of became the frame for these always kind of crazy individual stories. We just got to sort of pitch out a bunch of just kind of the the wildest sequences we could think of and let me know, for instance. And there were a bunch of which kind of never make the, didn’t even make the cut. I remember I wrote a Gilligan’s Island parody that didn’t make the cut. The Farscape parody did. I was like a huge fan of Farscape. And so basically, we did the Farscape parody and right before it shot, I remember Michael and Ben coming to me, and they’re like, “Why don’t we switch roles?” Because Ben was originally supposed to play Creighton and…

David Read
Claudia plays Aeyrn.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah. And so they switched up the parts and it was great. I mean kind of like the set look very Farscape-esque, and the camera angles were very Farscape-esque.

David Read
It was an extraordinary achievement. Which are your favorite segments besides Farscape.

Joseph Mallozzi
Aah, which are my favorite? I’m just gonna try to think. I liked the Star Trek parody featuring Brad Wright as the engineer.

David Read
Which was apparently a last minute thing. It was supposed to be Paul McGuillian.

David Read
Really. Yeah.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, yes. Yes. I’m just trying to think which one basically was, I mean, I love the Willie Garson through line through out. I kind of like the industry, poking fun at the industry is always fun, because it’s such a ridiculous line of work. In terms of segments, I’m trying to think, it’s never the ones the fans loved.

Joseph Mallozzi
So the puppet thing I liked.

David Read
The puppets I loved. I think that the story that it hangs on, I would have picked something a little different. That’s kind of like bring it back to the beginning that was an interesting choice. For me the one that just makes me laugh probably the hardest is the the the teenage SG-1.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, yeah.

David Read
Martin Gero. I think Martin Gero did that one. And it’s just I think you’re so totally awesome. Because it’s so ridiculous. And Vala’s pregnant at the end, “I don’t think Mitchell likes me anymore.” But there really was something for everyone. I mean, you guys poked fun at at shippers, gave Jack and Sam a wedding.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, yeah, actually, that was another high point for me.

David Read
Put them in a tailspin. Yeah. That’s not real though. It’s like okay, okay. Come on. Yeah.

Joseph Mallozzi
I especially liked the fact that he calls her Carter at their wedding.

David Read
Well she walks up she says, “Sorry, Sir. I’m late.” And he’s like, “It’s sorry, Jack.” Exactly. But fan reaction? Did you guys think that it was everything you wanted it to be? Would you have done it any differently in hindsight?

Joseph Mallozzi
I don’t think so. I think, I mean there’s always little moments here and there that you would change I’m sure but the fan response was great. And I guess that’s not that surprising.

David Read
Yep. One of the arguments that we had, that Darren and I had while doing the Omnipedia, was where does this, is this inside or outside of canon? And we basically decided that this one, especially the thing that took the cake was when Walter comes around the corner and has an instant change of outfit running into the into the Gate room because he’s like, “I don’t have the right outfit on.” He’s just in his Air Force suit, onesie, and then comes in fully decked out from head to toe in SG gear. It’s like okay, that is physically impossible for him to achieve that. That’s the nail that I’m gonna hang it on, this episode and not be in the Omnipedia. But it is a love letter to fandom and it was a great achievement as far as I’m concerned.

Joseph Mallozzi
And we got to finally see the Furlings. It’s something the fans were looking for and so we finally got to see them.

David Read
That’s exactly right. Absolutely.

Joseph Mallozzi
And kill them off and immediately kill them off.

David Read
That’s why we never see them again.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, exactly.

David Read
And that was Friday. And then Monday, we got the news that SG-1 had been cancelled. And it was a stab through the heart. GateWorld had just launched version, I think, 2.0 of its web design. We were tremendously excited about it and then we found out that SG-1 was going bye, bye. And it just sent this wave through fandom. It’s like, “Oh!”

Joseph Mallozzi
It was very weird. We found out about it at the 200th episode party. I think the show had aired, or was it was airing, I think it was like it was a part of the Friday night and they were making speeches. And I was listening, and I forget who was saying basically, the show had such a great run, and talked about it in the past tense, and everybody was like partying everything else. I turned to Paul and I was like, “I think we were just cancelled.” But everybody was just kind of having a good time, and just kind of missed it at the wrap party. And it didn’t really sink in until later that weekend. And we’re doing next week when the official word came down.

David Read
So it was a SyFy rep who was saying something on behalf of the show?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, I don’t recall who said it. But it definitely wasn’t Brad or Robert, it was someone from the outside. So it was kind of weird. And then of course, I mean, I think we’ve already talked about how MGM made efforts to save the series, and then Apple reached out about an 11th season and things were actually looking very good. And then SyFy pointed out the clause they had in their contract that if we can’t have you no one can. So, that was that.

David Read
Were you there when the news was broken to the cast? Who broke the news to the cast?

Joseph Mallozzi
It must have been Brad or Robert, I wasn’t there. I mean, we did it, or I ended up doing it for Atlantis, but they have showrunners would have been the ones to go down and break the news.

David Read
Understood. Well, a hell of a run. And you had a job to do to finish the rest of the season, which must have made it an interesting change of energy knowing that this is it, let’s really make what’s left the best that it can be knowing that the next step is going to be in a new medium. So.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, we found out though, I mean, by the time we found out we’d already written almost all of our scripts for the season. But I mean, I think Rob held back on the finale just because he didn’t know, and he wanted to. So I mean we got a lot of flack like Family Ties was an episode I loved especially because I got in a few shots at the network.

David Read
Yes, you did. This network of planets.

Joseph Mallozzi
But the fans were like, “The show is canceled and you’re giving us Vala’s father’s story?” Is like, well, when we found out the show was canceled it’s not like the exact, I mean, by the time we found out the ship had already sailed up to a certain point. So, yes, but we’ll talk about Family Ties.

David Read
Yeah, let’s get to that in just a second here. Memento Mori, we found out that the gal who was running Ba’al’s company on Earth was Athena a Goa’uld. So what some of us had suspected but wasn’t really certain. And then we get one of the better cold openings, not better than there were a few good ones, one of the best cold openings for Stargate which is she’s in a diner, she’s a waitress, and she’s kicking ass. Tell us about about this episode.

Joseph Mallozzi
This was I believe Peter Delouis directed this.

David Read
I think so.

Joseph Mallozzi
Because I just remember it was just the perfect episode and it was just, again it was a lot of fun. Basically, we went back and forth with Sol’s versus Sal’s Diner. It was originally it was Sal’s diner. And then we change it to Sol’s Diner.

Joseph Mallozzi
In fact, yes. He is.

David Read
Sol was the owner or something, he got it from Sal, one of them. I think that having Vala as this greasy spoon kind of waitress really fit her temperament. And it was an interesting change of pace for one episode to know that she could find her place among friends on Earth even though her memory was wiped and SG-1 is trying to figure out what the heck has happened. If I’m not mistaken this is the episode I think where Mitchell is tied to a bed.

David Read
In his underwear.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes.

David Read
Great, great beat at the end with Vala and Daniel, as things are coming back in and you can kind of sense an underlining layer of, romance is not the right word, there’s belonging, there is family, there is love there in that scene.

Joseph Mallozzi
And yeah, exactly. It really reaffirms everything I’ve said and I’ve always said and continues to say about what makes great sci fi and it’s this central concept of family or found family, if you will, and whether it’s the crew of the Enterprise or team SG-1 and she is in that final moment with Daniel she’s kind of welcomed into the family, which is kind of a nice kind of little cap on her story.

David Read
The Quest, part one and two,‎ Morena Baccarin as Adria in season 10.

Joseph Mallozzi
I feel one of the things that I remember most about this episode, and she was amazing, but I felt terrible for her because she ended up having an allergic reaction to the contacts.

David Read
Correct.

Joseph Mallozzi
So we ended up having to actually do a visual effect on her eyes for the rest of the episode but she was fantastic. I just remember the episode just so much going on. I remember, it was a bit of a snow planet and we ended up using this substance that kind of mimics snow. But if you stepped on it, it would stick to the bottom of your shoes like glue. It was impossible to remove. Yeah. So that, of course basically, this was one of my favorite Ba’al episodes. The great late Cliff Simon.

David Read
The slugging that he gets.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah. Carter punching his lights out. Going briskly, “I’m gonna run and get help,” and kind of taking off and it was just him at his finest and Cliff was, as always, brilliant.

David Read
He brought his A game and he looks fantastic in that outfit. I think that’s one of Ba’als better outfits. So that just kind of ribbed black…

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Yeah.

David Read
He just looks gorgeous.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah, Val Halverson, our costume designer.

David Read
Yes. Valerie Halverson, we don’t sing her praises nearly enough. The stuff that she was able to come up with. It’s just extraordinary. And she made Morena look fabulous as well. So for sure, that we bring back Merlin in the form of Matthew Walker. And it’s kind of one of those chicken and egg things as far as I’ve always been concerned. This is another one of those situations where like going back to the Robin Mosley situation, not situation but opportunity, missed opportunity, however you look at it, where you had an actor who played Moros, the last High Chancellor of Atlantis, in season one of Atlantis which was at the time season eight of SG-1. And then season nine, we bring him in as Merlin. That was just a casting coincidence. Am I right about that?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes.

David Read
He was picked again?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes.

David Read
Then you tied the two together, which made sense era-wise when the Atlanteans were retreating back to Earth. So that’s a real fine example of, okay, this makes sense story-wise to make that character the same over the course of time.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. In that case, it wasn’t just obviously like a one off episode. It was part of like a much larger story and background, so.

David Read
Franchise spanning

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

David Read
And we got to see him all the way through Ark of Truth as well. That was one of the nice things about Ark of Truth was getting to see like the return of Morgan Le Fay, Sarah Strange, character that I love. We get to see her for like a glimpse pretty much in the Pegasus Project and then we got to bring her back for the movie. But The Quest, one and two. I got to ask you, that dragon.

Joseph Mallozzi
Gimpy legs, poor gimpy-legged dragon.

David Read
Gosh, what were your, I mean, did you buy it when you were getting those?

Joseph Mallozzi
It was never quite what we had imagined but you

David Read
We’ve been spoiled with the production of Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, and I mean, the show or franchise created so many wonderful visual effects. But sometimes, I mean, there was another episode so, what was the one where basically they go to a Landry’s cabin?

David Read
Oh, yes. That was um, mum, mum, mum. Uninvited.

Joseph Mallozzi
Uninvited. Yeah, that creature was a bit lacking as well. So I mean, kind of the same thing with our dragon. It was a bit…

David Read
Creatures aren’t easy.

Joseph Mallozzi
No, no. And the fact that visual effects have come a long way since

David Read
Oh, yeah. I mean, Battlestar tried something similar in Caprica, and I don’t think that it really worked that well for that one. But you got to try some stuff. And if you take a look at that, versus the Nakai in Universe, I mean, there’s no excuse. I mean, there’s no comparison, those things are flying off the screen. They look real.

Joseph Mallozzi
But then again, I mean, visual effects had come a long way between those, what is it three years?

David Read
Yeah. And I think that was Image Engine. So they had already done the prawns in District Nine and had a chance to really evolve that. So yeah, you’re right the advancement of effects was happening very quickly. Yeah. So Family Ties.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. So there’s several sort of digs at the network. I mean, the episode actually starts with Cam, and who is it off the top? Is it Cameron and Syler or someone kind of walking down and Mitchell’s first line is, “It’s canceled, I didn’t even know it was back on the air.” And that was a dig at the fact that we would go on hiatus, and then we would come back and without any fanfare or announcement SyFy would just start airing us again. And it’s, “How would our audience know we’re back?”

Joseph Mallozzi
The casual audience, level of the audience.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. And then, of course, there’s that whole sequence where he’s in the room with Carter.

David Read
Doctor Lee.

Joseph Mallozzi
[Inaudible] character and Dr. Lee’s in the background. And he’s like, “Given everything the Stargate program has done for this network of planets, you would think why aren’t they giving you the respect they deserve?” And, of course, Dr. yells, “Eureka!” And that was one of the other shows on a SyFy that did they get a lot of love because they were a SyFy original.

David Read
Did the network give any pushback in terms of notes on any of these little digs?

Joseph Mallozzi
No, because I will be honest with you, I am convinced they stopped reading the scripts. We would get notes all the time. I mean, when I put that sort of final scene in where Teal’c is at a reading of the Vagina Monologues, or what did we call it? The Virginia…

David Read
Virginia Dialogues.

Joseph Mallozzi
Virginia Dialogues, yes. I thought for sure that was gonna get killed and when it didn’t, that pretty much cemented the fact that they were not reading the scripts anymore.

David Read
You think that they would be like legally obliged to do that?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. Well, that was fine with us because it meant no notes.

David Read
Yeah, I mean, the inmates ran the asylum at that point.

Joseph Mallozzi
Exactly. Pretty much and Teal’c ends up at, uh, you know.

David Read
I love that scene, personally, because Brigitte Prochaska was a friend.

Joseph Mallozzi
Publicist?

David Read
Your publicist, and she was so good to Darren and me. And her and Carol Appleby did such a bang up job on that franchise that for her to get a the tip of the hat in that scene on one side, and then Ocean, the Prop gal, on the other it’s like, this is perfect. Everyone’s getting their nods, especially in that wedding scene in 200, as well. I mean, you’ve got Jan Newman, you got Andy Mikita, that you got so many people there who are getting to be, have the light shined on them for one more time.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. Yes.

David Read
It just worked. And Fred Willard.

Joseph Mallozzi
He’s brilliant. Brilliant actor. Yeah. He was great, super friendly guy. Very nice. He would, I went down to set and I kind of talked to him a bit, and then kind of left them alone because before every scene, he would not only go over the scene in his head, but the wheels were always turning because he would always kind of ad lib stuff, especially at the end of the scene. He would give us what we needed and then just kind of like ad lib. Like there’s that scene where basically he’s playing bingo, or something, or with the old ladies in the building. And there basically the money’s like, “You’re kind of light there Hazel.” That was all all him. But at the end of the day, there was again, that kind of a nice kind of core story that kind of informed us a bit about Vala’s background and we saw a bit of her kind of vulnerable side.

David Read
Very much so and lying about the box jewelry. “Oh, I lost that years ago. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” And it’s under the bed. As much as she got around, this was one of the things that she managed to keep with her. It’s a good family story. Near the end of the series, you kind of get like a different energy for it, because you’re right. I mean, I being one of those people that’s like knowing that this is the end I would have probably preferred another kind of story near the end. I would have preferred to have like Bra’tac back again, or, for instance, which we did.

Joseph Mallozzi
Honestly, if we had known that we were canceled much sooner then I’m sure like the back half of the season would have probably played out very differently. The finale probably would have been the same,

David Read
Right? Yeah, it’s about them. But ya know, it’s great. And we cannot forget to mention, like Tony Amendola coming back once more Talion, and really sitting down next to Teal’c and telling him, “You are the son I never had.” That was, oh, it got me right there.

Joseph Mallozzi
Tony’s great.

David Read
Tony was great. I still think we owe him his due. If there’s an SG four, or anything, I mean, he needs a send off. I think that that needs to be one of the things at the top of Brad’s list in terms of like a returning character. So for sure. And then there was the Ark of Truth and Continuum. I’d like to briefly discuss them if you don’t mind.

Joseph Mallozzi
Sure.

David Read
So when was it clear that SG-1 was going to be continuing in the form of DVD movies? Were you still in production?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, actually, we shot those during production of the show’s 10th season so…

David Read
Eleventh, it would have been the eleventh season.

Joseph Mallozzi
When did we shoot those?

David Read
Along side season four of Atlantis.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, okay. All right. Okay.

David Read
I don’t mean to contradict you, you were there.

Joseph Mallozzi
No, no, actually, no. My memory is frankly terrible. But yeah, you’re absolutely right. Of course. Yeah. After the show’s 10th seasons So, I know the plan was to hopefully have the DVDs do well, and as you said continue in the form of movies. And so much so that we’ll talk about Atlantis when the time comes. But I mean, Paul and I ended up writing that Stargate Atlantis Extinction movie that never saw the light of a TV screen because ultimately the bottom fell out of the DVD market. And that was that. I blame, Blu-rays.

David Read
Oh, the change in quality you mean?

Joseph Mallozzi
Well, I mean, it’s certainly the change in quality, but the fact that basically, it’s like, okay, we’re introducing DVDs and everyone goes out and gets DVDs and then they introduce Blu-rays, and granted the quality is better, but suddenly, it’s like all those 1,000s of dollars you spent on DVDs because now you got to switch to Blu-rays. And then I know a lot of people who were like, “You know what? I’m done.”

David Read
You think so? You think that was the big nail in the coffin.

Joseph Mallozzi
I think so. I could be totally wrong.

David Read
What about streaming?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. And obviously streaming. I remember actually when we were on Stargate, our visual effects supervisor very early on, James Titchener, was telling us their use like, “Streaming is going to be the next is going to be the next big thing.” I was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” And theoretically it all made sense. But I’d been hearing that for years and nothing was happening. And he was like, “Okay, Netflix is going public you should definitely buy this stock. Because it’s gonna go through the roof.” And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” It reminded me at the time like my wife was telling me to buy Bitcoin at $100. I was like “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

David Read
Oh, God.

Joseph Mallozzi
So, if you’ve got any, you have any tips for me?

David Read
I’ll keep you in the loop. I definitely do buy Bitcoin though. Okay, I’m not a financial advisor whatsoever, but definitely buy Bitcoin.

Joseph Mallozzi
Now’s the time before it hits zero.

David Read
Well, I should have bought it when it was XYZ, it’s always going to be that. Buy some now, you can buy it eighths of a decimal point. But I’m not a financial advisor.

Joseph Mallozzi
Right. Okay.

David Read
But I mean, my understanding was MGM even admitted that Ark of Truth and Continuum performed well, from all of their benchmarks, but it was just that they were moving on in terms of the approach, and it just makes me sick.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, I mean, that whole DVD, I mean, as a bottom was falling out of the DVD market is actually just kind of sad and infuriating seeing, they used to release the box sets of each series. And suddenly, it was like, the half series. And it was such an obvious cash grab, to sort of try to make up for the fact that the numbers were, the sales were falling, and it just, again exacerbated the problem.

David Read
But Ark of Truth was Rob’s opportunity to shine, and conclude that Ori story arc, and have a little bit more fun with the the history of the franchise, bringing back Replicators There was there was a lot to love about that movie.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Yeah. It was interesting because those two movies were so different. Ark of Truth was steeped in kind of the mythology and all the serialized elements that we would kind of refer to back, time and again. Whereas the other movie was more of really kind of embraced the standalone feel of like the very best time travel episodes,

David Read
But also still resolving one of the greatest villains.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, you would assume. In my mind, I always thought that I’m sure there were a few more Ba’al clones out there.

David Read
More Ba’als running around.

Joseph Mallozzi
Out there, yeah, more Ba’als.

David Read
I think in hindsight we can probably say that was probably it. But with Cliff Simon passing now, but I think that they were just, I was fortunate enough to see Stargate Continuum with the cast and crew. And I’ll always remember that is one of my fondest Stargate memories, just to experience this film with everyone who made it. And seeing the best of the best in terms of visual effects in terms of performances in terms of story. Going to the Arctic, man, what an opportunity. Thank you, Barry Campbell.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, it was great. They all headed out except for Chris, soon as he heard about the dangers of polar bears, backed out, you can ask him about that.

David Read
I have asked him about it. He said, “Okay, so hold on a second. I am the one who looks most like a seal with the color of my skin. Not going to happen.” I was like, “Oh man,” yeah, he excused himself immediately. Oh, gosh. But just a great, great couple movies. If it’s all we got, we could have just been left with season 10 and then that was it. So I’m really, really thankful you guys got to finish it. Question for you about the Ark of Truth in terms of a device. Is it your opinion, that the Ark of Truth made you believe in something that was true or made you believe in whatever you programmed it to believe, to make the person believe?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Hmm.

David Read
Because that’s one of the earlier morality questions in the film.

Joseph Mallozzi
Right.

David Read
Does this thing, is it designed to actually line up with the universe and have you connect all the dots? Or is it brainwashing you? And at the end of the day, wasn’t that the Ancients issue as well?

Joseph Mallozzi
I would not answer that question. What I would do I would…

David Read
Okay, leave it up to the viewer.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, I think so.

David Read
I haven’t asked Rob yet. I just talked to him again this past week. So we’ll have to wait and see.

Joseph Mallozzi
I would be curious to hear if you he would actually answer that question.

David Read
That’s fair. Yeah, absolutely. What a run, what a show. And we have two more to talk about, but this one was really the one that made…

Joseph Mallozzi
I have to say probably my favorite of the three.

David Read
Of the three, really?

Joseph Mallozzi
Last one, yes, yes. Just because, I mean, it was my first Stargate, for one, but also in terms of my writing style, it really, as kind of a show of the characters and kind of the setup really lend themselves more to my writing style, which kind of leans more towards humor at times. So like, Window of Opportunity to like Ripple Effect to like Family Ties, all very different episodes but they always have an undercurrent of humor. Striking kind of Universe was kind of a different animal and I enjoyed writing for it, but, I mean, it didn’t have that same undercurrent of humor, whereas Atlantis did but the characters lent it a kind of a different type of…

David Read
Different energy. Yeah, very much. So I agree. Yeah, well, Universe is a much dire situation to start off with, you’re not going to get a lot of opportunities for excessive laughs I think in that. Except for like between the characters themselves, like in a specific situation, one or the other. But yeah, all three of them, that’s what I love about the three shows is because they’re all so different, and that’s okay. Yeah, it’s okay, that not everyone is going to love all of them. It’s okay for us to have our favorites too. Fan questions?

Joseph Mallozzi
Let’s do it.

David Read
All right. Kicks 394, “What were your favorite or least favorite episodes to write?”

Joseph Mallozzi
To write? It’s funny, that’s an interesting question because there are those episodes that I will look back on after watching that I will love or hate. During the writing process, overall Stargate or just SG-1 are we talking about?

David Read
Let’s keep it to topic. Let’s keep to SG-1.

Joseph Mallozzi
I mean, the most fun, I think Ties that Bind was one of my favorites to write. Again, it was an episode that just kind of really moved but at the same time had humor, a lot of great character moments at its core. So that’s my favorite. In terms of episodes that I disliked or had a harder time, I would have to actually go through my compendium to see sort of which episodes I actually wrote of the series. Off the top of my head. I mean, I know what the answer to that would be on Atlantis but on SG-1?

David Read
Okay, let’s take it for Atlantis.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, This Mortal Coil.

David Read
Really?

Joseph Mallozzi
I had a miserable time writing that episode because basically I would…

Joseph Mallozzi
It just was a bit of a complicated episode though. I mean, it wasn’t any more complicated than…

David Read
Why is that?

David Read
Remnants?

Joseph Mallozzi
Remnants, which was actually a fairly complex episode that basically it was just one of those episodes that I got like a lot of notes on the first draft and then went back and tinkered and revised and then it came back and there were a lot more notes on the second draft. It was one of those that basically that I just…

David Read
That would suck.

Joseph Mallozzi
Had a difficult time. So that was, yeah, that one stood out for me as not a great experience. I’m sure there’s other ones. Yeah, I just can’t bring them to mind.

David Read
That’s fair. Yeah, similar question from Kirsty Green, “What’s your favorite episode that you wrote for season 10?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Ah, I hate to say it but Family Ties even though it’s probably the lowest rated final episode of the season, I got my shots in, I basically went all out, I got to write for the Vala character who by then had become one of my favorite characters to write for. I got to work with Fred Willard. And capped the episode off with a scene that I was sure would get killed. And I actually kind of wrote as a joke that didn’t get killed. And I just love seeing Teal’c uncomfortable. I think that’s probably the most uncomfortable I’ve ever seen Teal’c on the show. So.

David Read
I loved one of my favorite parts of that episode is that it proves that Sam and Vala click. That Sam had….

Joseph Mallozzi
They come back from shopping and conversation.

David Read
From shopping, from sales and Victoria’s Secret, they look fantastic. That under normal circumstances they may not have run in the same crowds. But Sam has welcomed her into the world and they have found a place in each other’s heart. They can be girls together, they can be they can be warriors together, they can find a place for themselves on all these levels, I would have loved Sam and Vala episode. If I were to redo anything with that one, I probably would have used that episode slot nearing the end of the show as a Sam and Vala show.

Joseph Mallozzi
If we had gotten a season 11. Maybe that is probably one of the stories you could have done. And I mean, that’s one of the things that I love writing as well. That just seemed like throw aways to executives, “Like why is this scene here?” But it means so much to the fans. I remember writing another episode where they talk about movie night. And they’re like, I forget what episode it is.

David Read
Yeah, I’m gonna find it..

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, and they’re talking about, I wrote like little scene in.

David Read
No, that was The Scourge.

Joseph Mallozzi
Oh, The Scourge. Yeah, yes. It’s just a small moment that seems meaningless to like, basically kind of the casual viewers but to the fandom it means a lot because it means that these people don’t just work together, they hang out on their free time. That they mean enough to each other, that they have formed a true friendship. And if there was ever an opportunity to put in a little moment like that, like the scene to open Family Ties with the Vala and Sam coming back from shopping that I always seized it.

David Read
Agreed. There’s no proof of it but I would have assumed that they probably, depending on who they had back on Earth probably would have spent Thanksgivings together, things like that. So, at least some of them certainly would have. Let me see here Ákos wants to know, “Would you move outside of Canada to produce a new show abroad?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Absolutely, I would, it would depend on the show. I mean, I’m out pitching a show called Powder Mage, or Blood and Powder, if you like, that really would need to be shot somewhere probably in Europe. If the opportunity presented itself, absolutely, I’d love to travel somewhere to to produce a show. And in fact, I mean, one of the great things about sci fi is that it plays so well, I want to say overseas from where I am in Canada or North America in general. I will say it actually plays better in Europe and those parts, than it does in North America, which is kind of crazy. So yes, if you are an executive in another country who would like to do a sci fi show, maybe a co-production, let’s talk.

David Read
There we go. It has always surprised me just how big of a base Stargate has in Europe. I mean, it’s an American paramilitary team, and the Europeans just eat it up. I think because maybe it just has a similar energy to Doctor Who, I mean, it’s not as campy in my opinion, but there’s just something about it that is so endearing. And it just goes back to the accessibility of the show, and to the characters, and to the franchise that pretty much anyone can watch it and love it. You know? It works. Gate Gab, “Is Cowboy Bebop good for my middle school and high school students or is it to adult?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Middle school I’m not so sure. I think high school would be good.

David Read
Okay.

Joseph Mallozzi
I think high school would be good. It’s fun. It’s kind of fun sci fi. There are some kind of darker elements and some violence, but it’s a great series. I would recommend it to the high schoolers. Sure.

David Read
Okay, perfect, Scotty0709, “Were you happy with how the Ori storyline was resolved in Ark of Truth. And do you know why the Replicators were included?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Again, this would be a question for Rob, the latter part of the question. For myself, I was satisfied, I mean, we had to end the story rather than leaving the fans hanging, and we were afforded the opportunity to do that. So, win, win.

David Read
Absolutely. Given a season 11, Goran Andonovski wanted know, “Would you have considered more crossover episodes for SG-1 and SGA?” Pegasus Project was I mean, it totally worked. It totally worked.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, absolutely. We could have, I mean, we probably should have done more. Yeah, definitely in it virtual season 11 we probably would have had two crossover. The big two-parter. The mid-season two-parter.

David Read
That would have been legit. Rachel Baker, “Did you go down to the set on the last shooting day at all?” By where when they wrapped.

Joseph Mallozzi
I was not there when they wrapped is ended up wrapping it around close to 11 pm. And by that time I was probably home in bed. But I did go down to set and say goodbye to everyone on the last day,

David Read
Were emotions high?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, they were not so much when I went down. But I heard that when they yelled “Cut” for the last time, yes, emotions were very high.

David Read
They saved the last shot for the Gate room, which was fitting. So I’ve seen the photos from that. I mean, it would have just been, “Whoo!”

Joseph Mallozzi
Crazy now, I think about the fact that we could have done a season 11. That didn’t have to be the end. But SyFy wouldn’t let us do it.

David Read
Yeah, in moments like that, I always have to stop and tell myself be thankful for what you were given because so much of it was such a gift. And it’s easy to sit back and say, “What could we have done?” And fun to sit back and do that. It’s so easy to miss sight of the fact of such as 17 seasons of television and a fan base that’s continuing to talk about it a decade after the last one aired. It’s a thrill. Teresa, “Was there a storyline that you weren’t ever sold on but let it fly anyway?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Anything involving the Ancients. I did not like those stories at all. I found them too esoteric. I mean, I know they were deeply ingrained within the mythology of the series. And the fans, a lot of the fans love them. I found them firstly, the most uninteresting storylines.

David Read
Was it because they were always, it was often the note of, okay, they’ve left this thing, and now we have to solve it.

Joseph Mallozzi
Not even. I mean, as kind of beings they were kind of, I wouldn’t call them angels but they’re pretty damn close to angels.

David Read
Oh, in their ascended form.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. And for me, it felt too far from science fiction. I think that’s what it was. And I mean, I’m not like a huge, I mean, I love hard sci fi, but I don’t write a lot of hard sci fi. I guess you could call it soft sci fi. But it really took it more into the realm of fantasy. And it’s something that we did with episodes like The Quest and such. But I mean, in those episodes, like The Quest, there was always kind of like a sci fi backing to everything that kind of went on that despite the fact that the fantasy elements they were more kind of window dressing to be honest with you. Whereas whenever we dealt with the Ancients that we just got so esoteric, and their powers were so, I mean, it’s another thing I can’t stand magic. I don’t know if we discussed this already, but I can’t read books or TV shows or movies that have kind of magic as its kind of central concept or rules. Unless that’s exactly it. I mean, in my mind, I’m always like, “Well, why doesn’t Gandalf just teleport them out of the cave?” It’s like, “Well, he doesn’t know that spell.” Like always make it convenient for the storyteller that he doesn’t know that spell. Oh, I see. But he doesn’t know this spell. Okay, so basically, it’s like, “Oh my god, they’re in for it. Now what are they going to do?” And suddenly it’s like, “Oh, but he does know this spell and it just…” I mean, having said that the Powder Mage has a magic as kind of central conceit but the rules are very structured, they’re very specific. So it’s just the magic is mainly gunpowder related so they can control bullets. You can sense gunpowder, you can ignite it at a distance. You can’t manifest dragons or whisk us away on a flying cloud that’s not how it works.

David Read
The rules have to be tight.

Joseph Mallozzi
I guess just as a writer, it feels like a “Get Out of Jail Free” card so that you don’t have to set up a proper and satisfactory payoff to any of the situations you find yourself in.

David Read
It’s one of the issues where my father and I have always connected on science fiction, but he’ll only connect with it to a point. Like we would watch Star Trek, and he would only get invested in it so much. I was like, “Wasn’t that good?” And he’s like, “Well, why did they have to do that? They can just take their Bird of Prey and fly around the sun a few times and fix it.” And that was always like his starting place, Bird of Prey, fly around the sun, go back and fix it. Because once they introduced the time travel element, then almost all bets are off.

Joseph Mallozzi
Superman.

David Read
Superman around the earth.

Joseph Mallozzi
And I’ve had this conversation with some people and I know people love Superman. I hated it. I hated it merely because of that last, it’s because you can basically undo time. So why don’t you just do that every time? So there’s no drama anymore. There’s no stakes, because you can just go back in time.

David Read
Yep, exactly. It’s one of the weaknesses of that plot device where if you’re going to deploy it, you’d better have a damn good excuse for the door being open behind you unless you’re closing it tight so that you can’t do that again.

Joseph Mallozzi
Exactly. And this is an issue when you do 10 seasons of a show, you kind of open that door. And you end up with beaming technology. Yeah.

David Read
And three shots disintegrate, you know?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, yes. And so you could either do one of two things, you come up with increasingly inane explanations for why the technology does not work. The ionization in the atmosphere.

David Read
Too much interference.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. From beaming technology, or you just ignore it, which is the case with the Zat gun.

David Read
That’s ridiculous.

Joseph Mallozzi
I mean, you have four shots picks locks, as you recall. I mean, come on.

David Read
Four shots pick locks. That’s great. Oh, gosh, ChillCosmos, “Where are we at with the cheesecake being really just a pie?

Joseph Mallozzi
Ah…,

David Read
You know what this means?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, this is basically every once in a while I will tweet about food and I was hit by a revelation that cheesecake is not cheesecake. It’s a pie.

David Read
It is a pie.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah,

David Read
This is true.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. So basically, I put that out there, controversial opinion, and there was great debate about whether it’s cheesecake or pie. A lot of people fell, which I kind of respect their opinion, fell down on the side of tarts. So you know, kind of interesting.

David Read
It is very, yeah, a cake is like a spongy thing or it has… Yeah, it really is more of a pie.

Joseph Mallozzi
I mean, I look at I look at the closest thing I can compare it to is Key Lime pie, which is the pie and fairly very similar to cheesecake. Yeah, yeah. It’s very similar. Yeah, and very similar to cheesecake in composition. It’s a pie and cheescake is a cake. So honestly, anyway, thank you for bringing it up, now I’m all worked up.

David Read
Thanks to ChillCosmos we appreciate it. Yes. Russell Baldwin, “What character on SG-1, recurring, did you most look forward to writing for?”

Joseph Mallozzi
I think, obviously, it was Vala. I just loved her character, kind of like the roguish personality, the fact that despite kind of that appearances she was actually quite vulnerable. She was so different from everyone else, that it wasn’t just a matter of writing her character that was fun, but it was just writing her within a script that allowed other characters to play off her and other characters were as much fun just because of the way they kind of interact. So Vala that’s kind of a [inaudible]

David Read
Well, one of my favorite episodes is, I’m blanking on the name, the episode where we go to Cam’s class reunion. It was Bounty. Yes, yes, that’s exactly right. And that’s just fantastic. I love the Kansas beats back on his farm. That was just, “What department you say you work in again?” “Accounts receivable.” She’s great. YUKI at HOME, “I was always really interested in the Lucian Alliance and how the Galaxy worked politically. Were there plans to expand on the political nature of the galaxy?” SGU kind of continues that even though we’re not there.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, yeah. I mean, in the back of my mind I don’t know if there were any plans to really expand on it, but it would have been interesting. I thought in my mind, it probably would have been more interesting to me than the Ancient storylines, but because it was a final season, especially, the Ancient storylines got a lot of the attention. But yeah, absolutely, it was something that we could have done, something that we should have done and something that I attempted to rectify a little with, yes, Stargate Universe’s big three-part [inaudible] terrible…

David Read
Incursion?

Joseph Mallozzi
It was Incursion one, two and… Was it called Incursion three or was it?

David Read
It was, no, it was…

Joseph Mallozzi
It was effectively Incursion three. It was the season two opener.

David Read
They get stranded and I’ve got to find out the name of it because it’s just gonna drive me nuts now if I don’t. It was…

Joseph Mallozzi
The C, I want to say it starts with a C.

David Read
Intervention.

Joseph Mallozzi
That’s not even a C.

David Read
No C, how do our brains do that, it’s like Tom, Todd, Matt? RenoKiing, another Cowboy Bebop question, “Your favorite between Edward or Ein?”

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Ein. Ein is the mascot. Ein is a corgi. Yes. Radical Edward is a kid, you think is a he is actually turns out a she is a young hacker. She’s like 13 years old and I have to tell you, I love Radical Edward so much that if you watch dark Matter, you will notice elements of character of Radical Edward in the character of Five.

David Read
I was about to say.

Joseph Mallozzi
Jodelle Ferland, very much even to the point where basically there was one episode, Ed wears these goggles. And it’s one of the kind of the staple cosplay elements in their costume. And I had an episode of Dark Matter where Five ends up picking up very similar looking pair of goggles. Yes, very much a nod.

David Read
All right. REDUX, “One of the most interesting cliffhangers from SGA season five was a new species in an alternate universe that seemed like a real threat or challenge foreshadowing what was to come. What were they? And would we have seen more?” I think they’re referring to the Daedalus Variations the more monochromatic creatures with Borg-like implants in them.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes. Yeah,

David Read
I have one of their detonators.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah. Again, again. That was an episode where we wanted, we needed to come up with a bunch of scenarios. And that was kind of one of the scenarios. And to be honest with you, the finished look of those aliens looked so much better than we had even imagined. So the idea of actually continuing or bringing them back came, actually later in kind of that season. And it’s more than likely you probably could have seen them in season six.

David Read
So it was an honest consideration.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

David Read
Yeah. Well, I mean, that was just one of those, I know the comics bring them back at one point they get a name. So, it’s one of those situations where you have to throw a bunch of different situations at the wall, because we’re moving from reality to reality. And then we come upon this baddie, and even I was like, “Okay, this is cool. This is really cool. They can go somewhere here.” Absolutely. Chris Gartland, “If season 10 wasn’t the last, would you have continued with the Ori as the big bad in season 11? Or would you have wanted to take it into a different direction?” Like pretty early on in the season wrap up with like the Ark of Truth story?

Joseph Mallozzi
If it was up to me, I probably would have done the exact thing we did and wrap the Ori and maybe introduce a new villain in season 11. I don’t know what that villain would have been. But it’d be nice to sort of start a new chapter.

David Read
There we go. Yeah. George Fotis Dramesiotis, I apologize, George, “Please tell Joe that Dark Matter’s All the Time in the World, was so nice to see a time loop episode that felt fresh. And thanks for making Anthony sing in French.”

Joseph Mallozzi
Well, yes, thank you. You know that episode I knew I wanted to do a time loop episode. I thought it would be perfect that I bookend my career with Window of Opportunity possibly end it with All the Time in the World and then end up watching 24 episodes of different time loop shows and a bunch of movies, distilling the formula and coming up with a show that very much like what Dark Matter does all the time. It’s just kind of like you take a kind of a sci fi chessnut that the audience knows what to expect, and you undermine it. And the fact that Anthony speaks fluent French was a bonus so I made use of that. The fact that he’s learning French. It’s sort of like O’Neill and Teal’c learn how to juggle [inaudible] and Latin. Yes. But I’m like, “What can he learn?” And I’m like, “Oh, well French.” And it was perfect for him. And then of course, if you’re going to do French and you have to somehow find a way to include Dominique. The song Dominique and so there’s a great sequence where Two comes in and finds him and the Android singing Dominique in the mess hall. She just kind of turns and walks out. It was a lot of fun. It was an episode that I actually wrote in pretty much a day just because we weren’t able to break it in the room. I got very frustrated, and it just came together.

David Read
It’s interesting how some of those happen.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, not all that often, but when they do it’s great. It’s like Dark Matter [Window of Opportunity] was the fan favorite episode of the Stargate franchise, apparently, according to the poll I ran last year. All the Time in the World is the fan favorite episode of Dark Matter. So if you haven’t seen Dark Matter, I would suggest checking out episode 304, All the Time in the World available on Netflix followed immediately by episode 309, Isn’t That a Paradox, which is a time travel episode. Both back to back time episodes.

David Read
Eva Lipenska, Was Morena Baccarin the first choice for Adria?” Big Firefly fan here.

Joseph Mallozzi
I believe so, yes, absolutely. I believe so. Yeah.

David Read
Right. Regarding Heroes, Lisa M wants to know, “Is it true that the hug between Jack and Sam was supposed to be a kiss in the original script?” You know anything about this?

Joseph Mallozzi
I doubt very much.

David Read
I doubt it because…

Joseph Mallozzi
I was probably the biggest shipper in the writers room.

David Read
It’s an Air Force thing though.

Joseph Mallozzi
And so yeah, if it had been a kiss, I would have remembered it. And yeah, exactly that it would be an Air Force thing.

David Read
And that’s a grieving scene too. I don’t know. I mean, if it was a cheek thing that would have made sense, but there should have been no passion in that. Yeah, that was just loss. Interesting. I had not heard that. All right. George Turner. I’m wrapping this up, I swear.

Joseph Mallozzi
To take your time. I’m enjoying myself.

David Read
Okay. Okay, well, George Turner, “Script writing had moved from the IBM Selectric typewriters. So what script software or word processors did everyone use? And did that change over the run of the shows?”

David Read
Okay.

Joseph Mallozzi
Please.

Joseph Mallozzi
No, we always use Movie Magic Screenwriter. I know that it’s not as popular as Final Draft but Movie Magic Screenwriter is what I worked with on Stargate and it’s something I’ve worked with through all my productions. So usually, the showrunner makes a call and I choose Movie Magic Screenwriter.

David Read
Okay, there we go. Raj Luthra. “Have you seen Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo and My Hero Academia and if so, what do you think of any of these?”

Joseph Mallozzi
I haven’t seen Dragon Ball Z. It feels a little old style for me, to be honest with you. I did watch Tenchi Muyo ages ago and loved it. I haven’t watched My Hero Academia just because I haven’t watched anything. I still have to watch this last season of Attack on Titan. So my wife and I watch usually anime every night, we watched, like we just finished doing a rewatch of Twelve Kingdoms. Not sure what’s next. Maybe, maybe something? Maybe? My Hero Academia, we’ll see. Thanks for the recommendation.

David Read
Goran Andonovski, “Was it planned to turn Daniel into a Prior from earlier in the season or was that something that was decided along the way?”

Joseph Mallozzi
I think it was decided along the way. Again, this is a question for Rob, but I’m pretty sure it was decided along the way.

David Read
That was an episode, to be perfectly frank, I imagined very differently when I heard the the idea for The Shroud, because Jack was going to come back and I always had the impression that it was going to be like Jack, like trying to find Daniel’s soul, whatever Daniel Prior had become and then he was Daniel Prior which was just going to be fire and brimstone. And then the episode starts and it’s like, “It’s me.” How do you prove it? “Well, because it’s me.” Well, how do you prove it. “Because it’s me.” And it was a different energy than I expected and it was one of those situations where my expectations kind of really altered the quality of my satisfaction and enjoyment of the episode.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, yeah. That’s a very fair critique.

David Read
Yeah, but I mean, still, I think you get those two on screen and it’s just magic. That he walks in and then there’s this pause, and “This is new.” Oh, gosh, what… I mean, the Jack and Daniel scenes are some of the best of the entire show. There was something about Rick and Michael. There was a mutual respect and trust there that had to happen. And just we were just so awarded as audience members. Let’s see here. Akos wanted to know, “Was Unending a test episode of Stargate Universe regarding the hopeless escape from his spaceship based journey?”

Joseph Mallozzi
No, it was not. It was not.

David Read
And ChillCosmos, “If SGU ever came back, would you write out the communication stones so the stories will keep away from from communicating with Earth?” That’s an interesting thought.

Joseph Mallozzi
Ultimately, that’s not my call. I told you basically, look I understand why we use the communication stones and I kind of find them as a kind of an interesting technology, but always found the stories where we ended up back on Earth the least interesting stories for me. I like, you’re stuck on the ship, and even though it does feel claustrophobic, that is kind of the appeal for it.

David Read
Lean into it.

Joseph Mallozzi
Basically. Yeah. And that’s why basically, wherever you end up on a planet, those rare occasions, that’s when it makes them all the more special.

David Read
Yeah, I always thought there was a certain amount of hopelessness with the Earth based stories because they were there, but it wasn’t them. They weren’t even in their own bodies. It was kind of like a zombie-ish experience.

Joseph Mallozzi
It was interesting. It was very interesting. But I mean, sort of once you get past that conceit, I found kind of the kind of the meat of those stories, not as engaging for me.

David Read
Darren and I also asked, we were talking about in podcasts a lot at this point, and we can get into this when we get to Universe, but what do you sign over to the other person to do in your body? I mean, if you’re a celibate person, is it okay for them to just have sex with their spouse? And we were always wondering would that ever be addressed in the show, and it was just one of those things that off screen had to, I guess, just had been dealt with. That anyone who touches the stone recognizes that they’re going to, the person is going to assume their lives in the process of doing that?

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, absolutely. And that was an issue and, in fact, there were discussions in the room about that as well. And yeah, I mean, we’ll talk about it when we get to Stargate Universe because it was blowback at one point over why so one episode when casting came out, when a casting breakdown went out, but we’ll we’ll talk about that.

David Read
Yeah, yeah, it raises a lot of interesting questions about consent.

Joseph Mallozzi
Yes, absolutely.

David Read
And Ava finally wanted to know, “What was your opinion on Amanda and Chris’s idea of Carter and Teal’c gotten together off screen in the future in that time dilation field in Unending?”

Joseph Mallozzi
I kind of felt neutral about it. I mean, I thought it was interesting and the fact that in a way kind of made sense because they had been so close for so long and again, I kind of in my mind, always imagined her and Jack getting together so for that reason her with [anyone else] strange for me? So you know, but having said that it actually makes sense, I think.

David Read
Yeah, given the circumstance, yeah, it doesn’t surprise me.

Joseph Mallozzi
And how long they were caught on that on that ship.

David Read
Fifty years. Yeah, God knows what you’ll do become a become a remarkable cellist at the very least. Yeah, I’m rewatching that episode and just seeing the time lapse with a CCR over scoring the top of it and the scene where Vala and Daniel are embracing one another. And having watched that at the time didn’t even occur to me that she had lost a child. So and I was sitting in Rob’s office and Darren and I are talking with him about it. And that’s when I discover because Darren is bringing it up because Darren has kids. Yeah, it’s like, wow, I didn’t even think of that, you know?

Joseph Mallozzi
And Darren figured it out? [inaudible] Darren.

David Read
He sure did. No, it didn’t even occur to me. Those little things that really add up when you get a chance to explore the the situations like well, they would have had to try to go on with their lives somehow. This is really, this is really something Joe, I really appreciate you taking the time with me through this entire series.

Joseph Mallozzi
Thanks for having me.

David Read
Thank you. We’ll be bringing back discussions on Atlantis season one, new show, new energy, new opportunities for storytelling. There’s a lot to mine here. I appreciate you come in month over month to join us.

Joseph Mallozzi
It’s gonna be fun.

David Read
I hear Suji walking around out there. So

Joseph Mallozzi
Yeah, I think she ate. She always does this thing where she realized I’m on a Zoom call. So she’s kinda move around and kind of asked to be fed. It’s a way of asking to be bribed is what it is.

David Read
Well, all the best to you and I will definitely have a look at Cowboy Bebop.

Joseph Mallozzi
Awesome. Report back and also the time loop episode of Dark Matter.

David Read
Yes, absolutely. We’ll definitely go for that. Appreciate your time, sir. I’ll go ahead and wrap up the show on my end, as always, thank you, so much.

Joseph Mallozzi
Alright. Later.

David Read
Be well, Joe. Joseph Mallozzi, Writer and Executive Producer, Stargate SG-1. Thank you so much for joining. We’ve got a couple of questions for me here. Let me see here. Kicks394, “What was your opinion of Unending? Did you find it a nice way to wrap up the series?” We didn’t even get into the fact that they axed the Asgard. Yeah, I enjoyed the episode very much considering that we knew that it was going on to DVD movies, this wasn’t the end. And that was a real big deal for me was to make sure that given what the series was going to continue into, which was Ark of Truth. If that wasn’t the case, then I would have preferred that the Ori storyline get wrapped up but in some way, shape or form in 42 minutes, but the fact that we had Ark of Truth coming, Unending was perfectly facilitated by the fact that it was an SG-1 story and that was really important to me. Claire Byrd, “Did you get Odyssey yet? I don’t like it and asked for a refund but Steam thinks my 677 hours of Elite the core game is two hours on Odyssey and they won’t give me my money back.” So she’s referring to the most recent Elite Dangerous expansion called Odyssey, which after seven or eight years, you’re allowed to finally walk on foot on planets, a galaxy full of planets. If you are a gamer, and you like Open World, it’s a one to one scale Milky Way galaxy. It’s you know, it’s tremendous. It’s 110,000 light years across is tremendous game, I completely recommend it. I just purchased Odyssey and my buddy and I are going to start playing this week but they have turned off several elements in the game that were definitely present in a lot of the trailers. So I expect a lot of those will be like textures specifically have been toned down quite a bit even if your all your settings are on Macs, something on the back end has changed. A lot of the plants don’t do not look as as they did. So Claire Byrd give it a chance. I think that it’s basically a paid beta at this point. Basically what everyone is thinking is happening. And when the console version comes out later this year, it’ll be back to standard so but it’s definitely not there yet I agree. REDUX, “Having seen SGA several times I never noticed or realized the stairs have actual written text on it. Who came with the idea with having a welcome Message and why in the Ancient language?” I do not know who did that. But the staircase is in Ancient and some of them are inverted and reversed. Let me see here Stargate Atlantis staircase message. Let me see here. So, if you are interested in knowing what the Ancient stairs say, this is the translation approximately from top to bottom so when you walk into the Atlantis gate room and you’re reading them. “We hold these as the truth, a hearty welcome to those of other worlds visiting our home for the first time, welcome again, to those returning you have been gone too long, and your absence has weighed heavily on our souls. We are whole again that you are among us and we celebrate you being here again. As we leave for distant worlds, we pledged to respect the lands of our neighbors and to act with integrity as ambassadors in peacetime of our people. Travelers with open hearts will always welcome refugees from tyranny may seek shelter under our roof, and our people will lay down their lives protect the weak and the just let this be our pledge.” It goes further on but you can Google the the complete translation online in Ancient. It’s some font substitution so one for one for English. Oh, let me see here. REDUX, “Any interest in having those who made the languages or texts in the show, on the show?” Absolutely. I’m game for that. That’s a production thing so I’ll ask James Robbins about that. He probably has all of those contacts, so we’ll absolutely check in with him about that. Okay, that’s what we got for this episode. Pierre Bernard is coming up at the top of the hour. The Stargate superfan who got his career, his Stargate career started on Conan O’Brien’s Late Night show. He’ll be joining us and we’ll be discussing his Recliner of Rage segments. We’ll be showing off some of his art, his set photos, I have them all queued up here and much more. So this is going to be a thrill for me to have Pierre on. He’s always been one of my heroes so we’re gonna bring him in and discuss some of his work. Next week we have, if I can pull it up. Darren Sumner, the owner and managing editor of GateWorld is going to be joining us for Twelve Things we Want from the Next Stargate and that is going to be a pre-taped discussion that will be premiering at 12 noon on May the 30th, followed at 2 pm by Robert C. Cooper, Writer, Producer and Director. We’re going to be discussing Stargate Atlantis, the creation of the show and his episodes. He didn’t do that many so we cover all of his Atlantis experience in this in this one episode. We talked with him last week for an hour and a half. That was a fascinating discussion, Rob is is thoughtful and insightful and never comes to an answer quickly. He’s very slow in his intent and methodical. And it’s just an absolute pleasure to always sit down and talk with him and mine the content of this franchise with him. So that’s what we got for you right here. And we’re gonna be again, Pierre is going to be back at the top of the hour. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I really appreciate you tuning in and we’ll be back in just a bit here with Pierre. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you on the other side.