This is time in the season where things start to get a little wonky. Sort of like that episode of Voyager where time is fractured. 7 day preps are suddenly transformed into 5 day preps. Episodes slated to shoot in early September magically move up a week in the production schedule. A rupture in the space-time continuum creates a weird temporal anomaly in which Peter DeLuise is directing an episode simultaneous to prepping another. And, of course, the time in which we have to write a script can mysteriously shrink from weeks to mere days. Such was the case for pool Paul who faced the daunting prospect of having to write The Tower in less than a week. He didn't have an easy time of it, but ended up writing a terrific script. That makes two Atlantis scripts for Paul this year (Intruder was the other) to 0 for me. All of my writing has been on the Stargate end this year, including tonight's episode, The Ties That Bind. Along with Ripple Effect, TTB tops my list of "fave scripts written to date".
Speaking of Ripple Effect - I received a heads up that the episode is timing long, which invariably means I may have to lose a scene or two. If I do, however, chances are very good you'll get to see or, at the very least, read the scenes that don't make the cut. Also, I read a report that the mystery character I've been referring to with regard to this episode will only be appearing in flashbacks. Let me be clear. There are NO flashbacks in Ripple Effect.
Michael and Off the Grid prep next week. Loved Carl's first draft of Michael. Its very clever, very well-written, and I have a feeling it'll be an episode that fans will talk about for some time to come. Off the Grid sees the machinations of the "new set of players" we introduced in Ties That Bind.
The Scourge is coming along nicely, thanks. Act I is always the toughest and this script was certainly no exception. But now that I'm into Act II, its smoooooth sailing. No kidding. I should be in Act III by tomorrow. So - what is this episode about? The Scourge: SG-1 is given the seemingly menial task of escorting a team of foreign delegates on a tour of the Beta Site. However, the babysitting mission suddenly becomes a much bigger deal when an insidious new threat creeps onto the scene.
Next week also sees us start work on editing Collateral Damage. Wil Waring did a super job directing what has turned out to be a really tight episode.
Rob isn't satisfied with pitching out story ideas. He's taken to pitching out ice cream flavors as well. Last week, it was Fudge Ice Cream which I followed up on with a batch of Milk Chocolate Fudge with Dark Chocolate Fudge Chunks. This week, it was Doughnut Ice Cream. As a result, this Ice Cream Friday's selections included Marzipan with Dark Chocolate Shavings and Chocolate Chocolate Frosted Doughnut Crumbles, and Vanilla Toffee Doughnut - both winners.
Well, we've reached episode 18 of Alias and it looks like we'll be switching to another series after season one. They lost my wife with the whole Prophecy angle. Two thirds of the way through Sports Night, and 3 episodes into the second season of Babylon 5. On the movie front, as Ivon mentioned in his blog, we watched a Hong Kong actioner for movie night. The movie was called Infernal Affairs and boasts a pretty impressive cast including Andy Lau, Anthony Wong (he of Untold Story and my favorite John Woo movie, Hardboiled), Tony Leung Chi Wai (speaking of Hardboiled), and Eric Tsang (who gave a terrific performance in the creepy Three) sporting peroxide blond do. Great premise. Neatly directed and very well edited, but a little relaxed in story pacing. Now that they're through redoing old t.v. shows, they've moved onto redoing foreign films (since, presumably, North Americans can't be bothered to watch the originals).
Well, I'm itching to get started on my In the Making: Ties That Bind entry even though I haven't finished my In the Making: Origin entry. Expect at least one tomorrow.
Joe
Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi has been on the SG-1 writing
staff since Season Four. Along with writing partner Paul Mullie, Joe has
written such fan favorite episodes as "Window of Opportunity," "Summit,"
and "Lockdown." Joe lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. 
Doughnut ice cream?
Oh, you're a man after my own heart.
Now, show us proof that Sam and Jack are together, and I'm yours. :-D
doughnut ice cream? hm... Did you think of inviting Vancouver's finest for some coffee/doughnut ice cream? It'll save SG money in parking fines thus increasing your production budget!
Seriously? You have to sit through Season two, if only for the huge payoff with the superbowl episode... Well, that and the extremely funny Victor Garger and Lena Olin talking about the last time they drunk too much and nearly burned their house down, while JG's Sydney looks on with what I can only refer to as total shock. I really think that the S1 finale will suck you in to Alias. Clifford (the big red ball) makes his debut, and it's always good to have Clifford. He has presence.
Donut ice cream? Are we talking raised or cake? Sacred Krispy Kreme or some imposter!donut?
Hardboiled is your favourite Woo movie? Oh Joe, I had such hopes... ;p
(It's just a movie I can't take as, mm, I don't want to say seriously because that suggests it has to be a serious film, but, well, seriously as his other Hong Kong flicks. Oh well - at least you didn't say something like Face/Off!)
Hmmm... Doughnut ice cream eh? I wonder if it would be any good with those mini-doughnuts you can get in San Fransisco? You get them on Pier-39... mmmm... sooo goood.
I am looking forward to more action with the acclaimed, 'Lucian Alligance'.
It's very interesting!
I loved tonights bounty hunter theme! Very cool!
Love the blog! :D
I feel for you on "Alias" you either love it or hate it and he totally went off the rails eventually. We just started counting the number of times Sydney "runs" during an episode for fun. (We also thought NYPD was a comedy.)
Babylon 5 takes a little patience. For me it took off when Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan) joined the mix.
Sports Night is a pure hoot though.
Mmmmm...doughnuts.... I knew the Krispy Kremes would make it into the blog someday, Joe! (Yet another proud shout-out for my home state!)
Thoroughly enjoyed 'The Ties that Bind,' which I subtitled 'The Six Degrees of Vala Mal Duran' about the time we met the reluctant monk & his power coil. A fun story to offset the gravity of the previous three weeks. I'm enjoying the fact that poor ol' "SG-Me" still isn't getting buy-in from his heroes. Hang in there, Cameron.
I'm apparently susceptible to suggestion this week: after recommending banana pudding ice cream to you a couple days ago, I started having a hankering for same. I think it's off to the grocery store with me!
Good luck straightening out the space-time continuum, Joe!
I could never get into Alias. Try La Femme Nikita to get your spy on (the series filmed in Canada too!)
Definitely agree that Sheridan does good things for B5... patience has big payoffs with B5.
My TiVo has a show called Dead Like Me on it this week that I am enjoying (though not as much as donut ice cream). Rescue Me and The Closer are keeping me occupied until Sci Fi Fridays. Last night was all good - Firefly, SG funnies and a wonderful BSG.
Looking forward to more "making of" info from you all as well.
cheers,
Ok, I can't blame you with Alias. If it didn't work for you in season one, you would have hated the last two seasons. But at least you'll always have the ice cream :)
I really enjoyed both Atlantis and SG-1 yesterday; that was the best two hours of tv I've seen in a while! Give my kudos to David Hewlett!
I have a theory, and maybe you could set this straight: the character Khonsu from the episode The Other Guys was based of Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Yes? Observe:
http://www.stargatecaps.com/sg1/s6/608/6x08%5F0175.jpg
http://www.absoluteanime.com/trigun/vash.jpg
Same hairstyle, similar outfit... You know it's true.... ;)
-Caitlyn
Absolutely loved The Ties that Bind (and not because of the lovely costume you put DJ and Mitchell in). Please pass on my heart felt thanks to the costume department!!!!! : )
I really love the humor!!! Wallace Shawn was wonderful. It was fun to see those alien guys from PU.
Looking forward to reading your In the Making entries.
I agree that B5 is really worth the effort. It just blows up away with the stories it comes up with.
The fractured ep of voyager is one of my fave eps!
Ooh yeah i agree with you on Alias...my fiance's mom and sister love the show...but to me it just wasnt that great. I'm always so general in my reasons why...but i'm deep...no i'm not. I mentioned it once before but Rescue Me is a really good series. Soo messed up but sooo good.
My fiance just watched Hardboiled and liked it alot. If you havent seen these, i suggest them!
1.) Moon Child - It was filmed in japan and china...or was it taiwan...either way it uses both languages and stars my favorite singer gackt. its not really HK action flick, its super depressing flick.
2.) Storm Riders - This one is a fantasy based one like uhm...whats it...oh yeah crouching tiger. This one has...oh hey what a coincidence one of my fave chinese singers Aaron Kwok! There's some good magic scenes in there and it reminds me in a way to Hero (i hope you've seen Hero...you know with Jet Li? if not that one is a must see too, even more than this one!)
Wow, you've thrown spoiler nuts a lot of bones this blog! I can't wait to see the new eps. And Ties That Bind was a great show. I wasn't surprised at all to see your name on it! SGA cracked me up too. You know the slashers are gonna go nuts with it!!
More ice cream temptations. I don't know if you saw Donald Trumps reality show last season but one of the teams made doughnut ice cream for one of their tasks and it was a huge hit! Just cost me too much time on the tread mill. So as much as I love doughnuts and ice cream, I dare not mix the two!
I am disappointed that you are not sticking with Alias. Yes, it is a bit, um, unbelievable as far as mythology goes(I definately had to suspend my disbelief on it) but the suspense, action and acting are great enough to see it through. It gets better imo.
The in the making stuff will be so fun for me. I'll look for it! You are so busy that these kind entries are a special treat. Hang in there during crunck time! Thanks for all the info to the fans, we love you.
The thing to remember about the first and especially second season+ of B5 is that J. Michael Straczynski tells you exactly what's going to happen at least half a season in advance. The trick of it is, you don't know howor why it's going to happen until you get there. Jo Straczynski wrote half the eps in season two and all the eps in later seasons (you think you're busy, try his shoes on!). I am in awe of his writing just from the sheer quantity of it.
Sorry,I really DISAGREE.I hated "The Ties That Bind".It was not up to your usual fine talent and I must say,did NOT belong in the Stargate universe!!LOSE the Vala character!She stinks!
I echo the raves for both "The Ties That Bind" in particular and the overall scripts from all of you so far this season.
Friday night's storylines just blew me away! Keep up the good work...
Last weeks eps were extremely good! I loved every minute of it.
One thing I didn't like: Can you please tell Shanks to shave? The scruffy look does not suit him.
Good Luck on the DVD marathons... I loved the first few seasons of Babylon 5 (kind of lost track of it after that) and Sports Night is one of the best written sit-coms of all time. The characters are amazing...
Congrats on a brilliant episode with "The Ties that Bind". I loved it. One of the best comedic episodes in Stargate history... and a great homage to MASH. And can you bring back the leather pants?
Is it just me, or did the wormhole in "ties that bind" look like the one used in Atlantis?
michael shanks looks good scruffy!!!!
i was at this restaurant in san francisco last night (i'm on vacation) called the stinking rose. anyway i bought their cookbook and got the garlic ice cream recipe (they have it at their restaurant all the time but...we were all too full to try it). here it is for you
http://www.livejournal.com/users/etoilerouge/129778.html
I wonder what tonight's movie and ice cream flavors are.
Me I would have gone for "Kung Fu Hustle" and Green Tea/Ginger.
Yes, I thought that the wormhole looked like the one from Atlantis. For a second there I thought I was watching Atlantis!
TTB made me laugh so hard that I had to watch it again after it showed!
I love the title of that episode since it is title of my new book, THE RIPPLE EFFECT. Though my book is slightly less cool as I focus on maximizing relationships for life and business, it is still cool to share the title with a soon to be famous episode! Good luck in your scene cutting!
first of all, a fangirly YAY! for "the ties that bind". i saw it on monday and LOVED it. i adore vala. can we keep her? *puppy dog eyes*. she's an amazing character, and so different from everything else sg ever had. i love her verbal banter with daniel, and she manages to bring out a side of his that's kinda hidden. i haven't seen "farscape", but claudia black owns! ;)
and yeah... like someone above said... what's up with sam and jack? will we ever find out? just curious... ;)
how strange... the "phophecy" eps were the only ones i saw of "alias", and i laughed so hard it hurt. it wasn't supposed to be funny though. ;'
On the B5 note, what are the chances of some of those actors being approached for guest starring roles? I was totally hooked to see Colm Meaney on Atlantis!
I'd love to see Jerry Doyle or Andreas Katsulas make a guest appearance, they're wonderful actors.
mmm, doughnut ice cream! sounds good. I really liked the Ties That Bind, it was an excellent episode. I love the Vala character, and her verbal sparring matches with Daniel. I wish she was staying around for more of the season, she's so funny. great work, and i can't wait for this week's episode. oh, and to echo the sentiments of the posters above, are we *ever* going to have a more solid answer about sam and jack? i mean don't get me wrong, i loved the way it ended with the fishing (that's actually how i wanted the series to end, after a big battle with lots of explosions of course.) but i'm still wondering if there will be something else more...definite. i'm thinking no though because so many fans are not into that can you give any hints?
- Sarah
I just love Vala! Get Claudia Black as a regular on SG-1 NOW! YOU HEAR ME? NOW!!!! :-D
I went back here to read a post left by someone "journalist" but now it's gone. Are posts removed?
Never mind. Found the post. Darn site opened on the wrong blog entry. Sorry!
Loved Infernal Affairs... Very dark... but some amazing perfomances from Andy Lau and Tony Leung...
EL