PRODUCTION
The Wraith in "Common Ground" is played by actor Christopher Heyerdahl, who also plays the recurring Athosian character Halling on Atlantis. Heyerdahl's first Stargate appearance was as Pallan in the SG-1 Season Seven episode "Revisions."
"Currently, as we speak, Brad [Wright] is at home being miserable rewriting that episode," Joe Flanigan told fans at The Official Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis Convention in Vancouver. He also said that "Common Ground" will delve into some characters' backstories, particularly John Sheppard's participation in the armed forces.
(Actor Joe Flanigan, on stage at The Official Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis Convention in Vancouver [March 2006])
"Sheppard is essentially in a cell adjacent to a Wraith trapped by a famous Genii commander. Hopefully it's Kolya, if he's available. And that Wraith has been in that cell for who knows how many years, and has been separated from the hive. And there's a bit of a difference between how he behaves and how he interacts with Sheppard [and how a typical Wraith would]."
(Executive producer Brad Wright, in an interview with GateWorld)
"[Ken Cuperus] is going to write his first episode, 'Common Ground,' that I think the fans are really going to like. [It deals] with Sheppard, [and] the return of Kolya, possibly. I think it will be really neat."
[Regarding "Kolya" actor Robert Davi:] "He'll come. He wanted to come for 'Coup D'etat.' And it was written written for him, of course. But he was in the middle of filming a movie that he had written, was directing, and starring in."
(Atlantis writer Martin Gero, in an interview with GateWorld)
"That was a great time from beginning to end. Will Waring is one of my favourite directors on the show, it was a strong script, and Sheppard got to go toe-to-toe with a Wraith. It's what I said before about us having more individual stories this year and more character deveopment, the latter of which really comes out in this episode.
"'Common Ground' was mainly Sheppard and a Wraith, and we had some neat scenes that are both funny and dramatic. Even if the episode hadn't turned out as good as it did, I still would have said it was a positive experience and I'm thankful to the writers for putting it together. Luckily, the final cut was great, and hopefully they'll decide to do more of these mano a mano type stories.
"The only thing I didn't like, though, were the prosthetics. They take forever and I can't stand them. I'm just praying I look a heck of a lot better than Sheppard did when I get older."
(Actor Joe Flanigan, in an interview with Starburst magazine [#346, January 2007])
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