McKay and Mrs. Miller

| Production | Transcript

Rodney McKay is reunited with his estranged sister back on Earth, who has given up a brilliant career as a scientist to raise a family.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 9.07 
NIELSEN - 1.6 
EPISODE #308
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 09.08.2006
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 11.05.2007
DVD DISC: Season 3, Disc 2
WRITTEN BY: Martin Gero
EXCERPTS WRITTEN BY: Carl Binder
DIRECTED BY: Martin Wood
GUEST STARS: Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), Kate Hewlett (Jeannie Miller), David Nykl (Radek Zelenka), Brendan Gall (Kaleb Miller), Madison Bell (Madison Miller), Trevor Devall (Voice of Hermiod), Sheri Noel (Scientist)
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PRODUCTION NOTES

  • Production Goof: There is a tiny error in the split-screen visual effect around the 33:30 mark. After Rodney takes the laptop from Rod he tilts it slightly back toward the left of the screen, and the corner of the laptop momentarily disappears.
  • "Whenever [Martin Gero] finishes up the premiere, he'll follow up with that other story he pitched which will finally give fans a glimpse at one of the most moderately requested characters in fandom: McKay's sister Jeanie." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)
  • "McKay and Mrs. Miller" was difficult to write because "for the first act and half it's just McKay and his sister on Earth. ... I'm really excited about that episode, and I hope you guys like it." (Writer/producer Martin Gero, on stage at The Official Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis Convention in Vancouver [March 2006])
  • "It's an episode that I've been wanting to do for about a year now and just haven't found the right door. It kind of came out of the fact that I was back in Toronto last summer. ... And I saw a play starring David Hewlett's sister, Kate Hewlett, and she was spectacular. She's a phenomenal actress, and had a lot of – dare I say – 'Hewlettisms' about her. And they have a great chemistry in real life. ... But after I saw the play this summer I said, 'David, I've got to do an episode about your sister.'"

    "She's equally brilliant. Let me put it that way. But she has kind of left the physics game. She got pregnant, basically, when she was in university, and decided that being a mother was really important to her. She kind of put that part of her life on hold. McKay never forgave her for that. He felt that she was potentially more brilliant than even he was, and feels like the contribution she could've made to humanity far outweighs going home and raising a kid.

    "It's those two schools of thought meeting. It's about compromise. It's about accepting who your brother or sister is and trying to find some middle ground with them."

    "It's a neat story about siblings. I have a brother and two sisters. It's less trouble than McKay's relationship with his sister. But I think there's something universal. It's kind of [about] family and pride. It's quite a funny episode." (Writer/producer Martin Gero, in an interview with GateWorld)
  • "When we did 'Hot Zone,' where [McKay] confesses that he has a sister, it had originally been written as a brother. And I said, 'Look, just on the off chance, I've got a lot of sisters and one of them happens to be an actress. I'm not saying you have to cast her, but just on the off chance, can I say 'sister?'' And they said, 'Oh, that's a good idea. That's fine."

    "I've just worked with Kate, because we just did this film together in January. And she's fantastic. And that's me saying it – I'm usually tougher than anybody on that kind of stuff. And one of the producers actually saw a couple of things she did recently, as well, and said she's good." (Actor David Hewlett, in an interview with GateWorld)
  • "I truly love working with David Hewlett. When he's given the chance to sink his teeth into something meaty he doesn't let go. In this case, David would have 9 or 10 pages of dialogue to do in a single day and he'd come in and act his heart out for you."

    "Kate was absolutely wonderful. She came in and whenever her character and David's entered into an onscreen battle it was a true brother/sister battle and was classic. Kate has this thing she does to David, and I gather it's something she does quite naturally, where she hits him. She'll [playfully] hit him in the forehead with her hand. The first time I saw Kate her do that I said to her, 'You have to do that on-camera,' and she was like, 'Do what?' Kate didn't even realize that she'd hit her brother, and neither did David because she does it so nonchalantly. Funnily enough, Kate's reaction is the same as David's in that she's oblivious to what she's doing, and that's what makes it so amusing.

    "'McKay and Mrs. Miller' was written by Martin Gero and he spoke at length with David about how he felt the relationship between Rodney and Jeanie should play out. By doing so, Martin was able to emulate in his script the way that David grew up as well as his real-life bond with Kate, and that really comes across in an honest way throughout the story. Our writers have been right on the mark with those types of relationships this season and it's paid off." (Director Martin Wood, in an interview with Steve Eramo)