This month marks two years that I've been doing interviews for GateWorld. Well, that's not actually true. In January of '04 I debuted my interview series with Jacqueline Samuda, but it was text-only. Amanda Tapping launched our ongoing audio interview series, and I am proud to say that it this series a major contributor to our popularity today. GateWorld Interviews has allowed me to meet people I never imagined I would have otherwise, and two years later I can say I have made a handful of good friends.

However, with 30 published interviews under my belt, there are still a handful of things I am not pleased with. When I was in High School I took a speech class, taught by a radio personality I now work with. Dee ingrained a very simple phrase into my head: "No fillers!" She was referring to anything that would occupy space between the point you were trying to make and your audience. You know? Uh, so ... yeah, anyway, like ...

Reviewing my last six or eight published pieces, I discovered several months back that I have a recurring filler in my interviews. More often than not, I start a question off with "Um." Shame on me.

I like to go back and review my interview material on a semi-regular basis. Not to pat myself on the back, but to view it technically to make improvements with intros and outtros, and to try my darndest to generate my own distinct style. This is to make it separate from other Web sites, and even other interviewers on GateWorld -- especially Darren. I think that's important.

I also watch for handicap questions. "What is your most poignant memory" is one example of this, which I am boxing and replacing with different words. The answer delivered by the interviewee, I think, is an interesting one (and so it will stay -- in various forms). It's just important not to get in such ruts with language and delivery.

It is not my intention (necessarily) to parade my faults in this blog. I'm mainly doing this to stick them out to ensure that I have legitimate reason to try and narrow the chances of them occurring. There are some audio samples that are live which may not necessarily be up to par with the Web site's quality, but thank God for transcripts -- and my inestimable assistant Dustin Giffin -- for helping me to clean them up.

Occasionally I will receive a message from a reader who is irritated because I have an agenda in my interviews. "Agenda," I honestly ask. One example of this is in my most recent interview with Ben Browder. Ben discusses the changes made in Season Six, harkening back to my previous interview with him when he said how Jonas Quinn was a breath of fresh air for the series. "Which you liked," was one of my replies to Ben this time around. The reader interpreted this as a nudge of support for Jonas, and perhaps Corin Nemec, and took offense. In reality, it was another filler to keep Ben running with the question before I moved on to the next one.

For the record, I think Jonas is a fine character. Is he a particular favorite of mine? No.

However, I will admit to the only agenda I can think of out of my entire body of interview work. In my most recent interview with Amanda Tapping, I plugged a question regarding her hopeful return to directing. I did this for two reasons. One, because it was a moment in her career that was very ... poignant ... and Two, because I'm frustrated with the fact that she hasn't had a chance to direct again. An episode like "Prometheus Unbound" would have been perfect for her.

But I digress. I just sit here in a little room in Southern Illinois getting ready to launch the next interview, chuckling at the fact that Bob in Iowa may be interpreting my comments in this next piece as a way of trying to hook up with a hot chick. Bob, this one is for you:

Um ...

I don't enjoy being disappointed. Who does?

When I first found out that Stargate SG-1 would be coming out with a video game I was both excited and hesitant. What will it be about? Who will be designing it? Will it include the voices of the stars? Will the production offices fully support it? Maybe you went through something similar.

"Stargate SG-1: The Alliance" was intended to be a rump through late Season Seven of the series, taking us back to destinations such as Langara, Tartarus, and exposing us to a few new worlds as well. With encounters from Replicators, Re'tu, the naggingly ever-present Goa'uld, and a remarkable new foe, I just about could not be more thrilled.

But this little voice sat in the back of my head, on an empty beach, under a big umbrella soaking on an iced tea with lemon. "You just wait," the little voice said.

"What do you mean," I replied to myself.
"Juust wait."

Aside from the DVDs, the little Stargate merchandise that has been released to date hasn't really broken records. I haven't heard about the comic books outside of our Stargate circles and Creation cons. I can't go to Wal-Mart and pick up the SG-1 board game ("... they made a board game?"). Heck, even my Barnes & Noble has ceased stocking Stargate SG-1/Atlantis Magazine -- something which warrants swift severing of genetalia.

So who was to say "The Alliance" would be any different? Well, that little voice in the back of my head was right. Months back GateWorld reported that JoWooD was unhappy with Perception's progress on the series. Yet Perception's staff diligently continued their work, not concerned with the consequences. Already a year's effort had been poured into the product, so I would imagine I may have done the same.

Then, recently, MGM finally pulled the plug. Funding had stopped, and there was nothing to continue forward. So they quit. And, yet again, fans were pushed out of the wagon, their asses sore and their boots dusty.

Now we have no game.
And the sad thing is, I'm not surprised.

One of the things I've never enjoyed about Jack is his prickly pessimism. I guess that's because it's a trait he and I occasionally share. I anticipated this would happen. When MGM signed on a company that no one had ever heard of, that had released next to no titles, to design and complete the first game for one of the greatest science fiction genres to exist in the early 21st century, that little voice on the beach said quietly, "Oh, boy. This is almost the recipe for disaster."

But I must give Perception credit where credit is due. The images and footage that they released have nothing short of knocked me out of my chair with excitement. Their work was exceptional -- nothing less. I was so looking forward to playing this game. I'd get to walk down the corridors of S.G.C., something I recently had the privilege of doing in real life. Not only would I get to play the game itself, but they may have included little bonus levels, such as the Foxtrot Alpha Six simulation.

Who is really to blame? Is it MGM? Were they not responsible enough to put care into selecting someone for the job -- someone with a proven track record -- if even costing them a bit more cash to ensure it? Was it JoWooD? Were they not paying close-enough attention to the pace in the game's development? Was it the job of Perception, a company in its infancy which may have been simply unprepared for the demands of a game of this caliber?

Or was it the fault of the fans, whose demands of the designers to remain so ridiculously true to established canon were so high that these demands, in fact, broke the game's back before it ever had a chance?

Such arguments are academic. We've all lost. Game director Peter DeLuise, the actors, the guest cast, the fans.

Let's face it. MGM may have been trying for the ump-hundredth time to save cash by banking its bucks on a company from a continent that, in my opinion, doesn't get nearly enough attention as it deserves from us northerners (I am of course talking about Australia). They could've been safe going with someone like Activision, a company that has released astounding products with the record of getting things done.

Oh, but no. In a very amusing irony, MGM's penny-pinching lost them their entire investment anyway. Years of work. Thousands of man hours.

I hope someone has learned something.
Have a good sigh. I know I did.

September, 1998.

I'm fifteen, and am enjoying a nice evening off. Haven't started work yet, so it's a pretty typical night for me, writing and watching a little television. Canadian programming has been a regular item in my life for some time now. Poltergeist: The Legacy, Earth: Final Conflict and The Outer Limits are shows I regularly tune in to on Channel 3 late night. They may be using it to fill their air time before the station signs off, but I love it.

News 3 ends, and thus begins the show. A crane shot in a vacant military base, with a quartet of officers playing a card game. A few moments later a large metal ring is swirling. First thought that runs through my head: "That had to be an awfully expensive prop ..." Eventually the teaser ends, and the opening title "Richard Dean Anderson -- Stargate SG-1" commences.

Not my Outer Limits.
I am not a happy camper.

I can't tell you why, but I never turned the show off. I made it through the first hour, but when I realized it wasn't quitting I had this feeling of endlessness, so I popped a tape into the recorder, hit REC and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and finished, what I would soon realize, was the pilot to SG-1.

Interestingly, "Stargate" aired on network television the following night. I got into it late with my Dad, but we watched the rest of it. Later that week I rented the movie and watched it from start to finish. By the time "The Enemy Within" aired in syndication, all bets were off. I was hooked.

I've read comments on our forum about people's first tastes of the series, and I must admit. I'm surprised at how little diversity there is. Most people saw the film and started to watch the series immediately. Others just stumped onto the series by chance - like me - and, like me, it just happened to be the pilot episode too. So prove me wrong. How did you find SG-1?

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