Wow! My blogs usually average about a 100 fan comments, but the October 21st entry boasted 401+ posts and counting! Congratulations to everyone who's accolades, criticisms, and belligerent tirades made my last blog number one.

Well, its that time of year again when all manner of rascals and rogues take center stage to thrill and chill, dispensing tricks and trickery with bloodcurdling, spine-tingling aplomb. I'm of course referring to contract negotiation time. Speaking of which, I couldn't help but notice more than a few near-hysterical posts touching on this very subject. Who's staying? Who's going? Who's staying and going? Let's put some rumors to rest or, at the very least, attempt to allay some concerns.

1. There are currently no plans to introduce Star Jones as the new sassy, straight-shooting Chief Medical Officer. This rumor has no basis in fact.

2. There are currently no plans to introduce Dominar Rygel XVI as the new sassy, straight-shooting alien/scientist team member. Okay, this one has some basis in truth. We did, in fact, contact his representatives about the possibility of his coming aboard, but reached an impasse when Rygel insisted he be granted a bigger trailer than Ben Browder's. There were suggestions of a on-going feud between the two dating back to their Farscape days, so the negotiations were shelved. For the time being.

3. There are no plans to turn Stargate into Farscape (the aforementioned rumor notwithstanding). Yes, Ben and Claudia were on Farscape but - and here's where it gets tricky for fans who never watched Farscape - the characters they played on that show were very different from the ones they play on this show. This is particularly true of Claudia who's Aeryn Sun was, for all intents and purposes, the dissenting voice of sanity aboard Moya - a far cry from Vala Mal Doran. So, no. There are no plans to turn Stargate into Farscape.

Unless we get Rygel.

4. I'm not involved in the contract negotiations and so have no say in who is being offered what and when (If I did, I would have been asked to return for the show's 10th season by now). However, I do know that all members of the cast have made known their desire to return for a 10th season. Now, its just a matter of working out a deal that is amenable to all concerned. Hopefully, that will happen sooner than later.

5. Finally - I've always felt that Amanda has one of the toughest jobs on the show as she's the one usually relied upon to deliver reams of scientific exposition - and sound believable doing so. She does and - she does. Its a tough task, but she's done it time and again. So much so that we almost take it for granted she'll do an excellent job as we script those dense, chock full o' technobabble soliloquies. Like the characters of Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, and Mitchell, Samantha Carter brings more to the show than a mere area of specialty - so its ridiculous to suggest "we wouldn't know what to do with her character". HOWEVER, taken in the general sense, such a statement could apply to season 10 (the overall arc, the individual character storylines) because we can't really start work on season 10 until: a) our deals are in place so that we can begin spinning, b) the actors' deals are in place so that we know for certain who we are writing for. We're still in the preliminary planning stages, so before everybody gets bent out of shape regarding any proposed changes, be aware that, at this point, nothing is written in stone.

6. Oh, and - I've read the comments and concerns being circulating and, while I want to reiterate that nothing has been firmly decided re: season 10, I'm also going to come out an make a potentially heretical statement. As a fan of Samantha Carter and Amanda Tapping, I would be thrilled at the prospect of seeing her do some cross-over into Atlantis. There's no reason why she still couldn't travel off-world with the team (same old, same old), AND put in some appearances in the Pegasus galaxy as well (like she did in the upcoming Grace Under Pressure). If you stop to think for a moment - there were episodes (as evidenced by this season in which we had to service a number of new elements including the introduction of a new villain, a new team member, a new General, a new CMO, and an ongoing Jaffa storyline) in which the Carter character played a significantly smaller supporting role (and, of course, there were episodes in which she was in the thick of the action, like Horsemen I and II, Ripple Effect, and Camelot to name a few). So what if, rather than having Carter play the supporting role in a particular SG-1 episode, she were to, instead, play a more decisive role in an Atlantis story? We're not talking about minimizing Carter, but quite literally making the most of her character across two universes (and I dont' mean that literally). In fact, fans of the character would actually be getting more front-and-center Carter, not less. Again, nothing has been decided and when all is said and done this could be much ado about nothing but, personally, I think that, given the chance, it would be a shame not to make full use of the character's potential.

7) Finished the 5th season of OZ and am impatiently awaiting the 2006 release of the 6th and final season. Have moved on to season one of the Outer Limits (so far so so-so) and Futurama season 3 (fave line: The Professor on his new girlfriend - "Some say I'm robbing the cradle - but I say she's robbing the grave." Finished season one of Lost (I really hope against hope they're not just making it up as they go along) and have started season 4 of Alias (No, seriously. When's Lena Olin coming back?). I'm heading onto the final volumes of Wolf's Rain, Read or Die, and Peacemaker - and have completed Level One of Pimsleur's Cantonese (Cheng-mun siu-je!).

Well, that's it for now. As they say in Cantonese: Bye-bye!

Well, I'm back from Vegas and I'm sorry to say I wasn't able to double my savings by betting it all on black - so it looks like I'll have to work next year. Overall, it was a fine time although I don't think I'll be heading back anytime soon. We stayed at the new Wynn Hotel which was nice, had some stellar restaurants (Alex and the brasserie), but some of the most uncomfortable beds (and equally uncomfortable pillows) I've ever slept on. My bad luck at the tables kept me cranky. Still, it was nice to spend time with some of the gang off the lot.

I couldn't help but notice all of the comments with regard to the show and the various characters. What I found particularly interesting was that while some people were enraged that Mitchell was receiving too much attention, others were complaining that he was being overlooked. Some were outraged by the lack of Daniel-centered episodes while others complained because the season was so Daniel-heavy. Well, let me make something clear. There is no exact recipe we follow when writing a script (ie. 1/4 Mitchell + 1/4 Carter + 1/4 Daniel + 1/4 Teal'c = 1 complete episode). The types of stories we tell dictate who gets the focus in a particular episode. Because we wanted to establish new villains in season 9, and because said villains were linked to the Ancients, and because Daniel Jackson was linked to the Ancients, then the first six episodes were more Daniel-heavy. Because we have brought on a new team member, and because we want to explore his character now that we have established the new villains, then some upcoming episodes will be Mitchell-heavy. Teal'c will continue to have an active storyline given the ongoing events on Dakara, while Carter's skills as both a scientist and a soldier will continue to play a significant role in upcoming episodes.

As I said in previous blogs, I appreciate the input, the accolades, and the critiques. But I do have a bit of a problem with personal criticisms specificially targeting our actors and their respective attitudes. Feel free to complain about the direction of the Mitchell character if you like (although, as I said, we've just started exploring him). However, those of you complaining about Ben the person and/or actor might be better off actually writing out said critiques in a letter and mailing it to Santa c/0 The North Pole. I thought Ben did a terrific job on Farscape - and it was his work on Farscape that led me to suggest bringing him aboard (on two earlier occasions prior to his landing the role of Cameron Mitchell). He has done an equally terrific job on our show and his attitude has been nothing less than remarkable. He loves the show and is 100% committed to doing everything he can to make it better (and if that means sticking around set rather than heading back to his trailer or coming in on his days off, then he'll do it). So to those criticizing him or any of the show's actors on a personal level and presuming to be "in the know", I'd encourage you to start addressing all further comments to Mr. Clause. Or, to quote that principal on who the movie Lean on Me was based on: "Stop flapping your vaseline lips".

Well, its back to the office on Monday where we'll be watching some mixes (The Tower and Epiphany), a producer's cut of Inferno (compliments of Martin Gero), and Paul and I get to work on Camelot.

In the meantime, I'm into season 5 of OZ (where the show takes an unfortunate hairpin turn into "the not so wonderful world of fantasy"), and heading into disc 6 of Wolf's Rain, R.O.D., and Peacemaker (and enjoying them all). Also, almost done with the second season of Arrested Development (Great!), and seven episodes into the first season of Lost with my wife (after finishing up with the first season of Airline which we really enjoyed).

Oh, and I forgot to mention this in my last blog, but I couldn't help but notice the Gateworld "What do you think of season 9 so far?" poll. Your choices are:
A) Fantastic! The best SG-1 ever.
B) Entertaining, but not great.
C) Fair. I'm not impressed.
D) Lousy. Where's my Stargate?
E) I haven't seen it yet.

Or, in other words:
A) The greatest SG-1 ever!
B) Not good.
C) Not very good at all.
D) Terrible.
E) No opinion.

Whatever happened to Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, and Terrible?

Let me start off this installment by congratulating golden boy Martin Gero on his Gemini nomination for best writing in a dramatic series for "The Brotherhood". He won't win, of course, but its great that he's been nominated. Okay, okay. Let me clarify. I would love for Martin to win - but the sad fact is there's no way. And it has nothing to do with the quality of the scripts. Truth be told, besides Martin's script, I haven't read any of the other nominees. In fact, I honestly thought that one of the nominated shows had been canceled two years ago. No, the deck is stacked against a Martin Gero win for two other reasons: 1. We're a damn science fiction show and that's one huge strike against us. Scifi doesn't get the respect here that it gets in the U.K. If this was the visual effects category, then maybe. Heck, as ridiculous as it sounds, even that isn't a slam dunk because we're talking about the Gemini's. 2. Even though the show's crew, writers, producers, and most of the actors are Canadian, Stargate is still considered, for all intents and purposes, an American production. In other words, we're not Canadian enough for the Geminis and it just wouldn't do to reward that sort of behavior. Still, I wish Martin all the best and will do my best to pretend he's got a fair shot at winning.

Just finished watching the director's cut of Camelot. Well, not exactly. I just got off the phone with Martin Wood, congratulating him on the terrific job he did on Camelot - which I just finished watching. Its huge in scope and really feels like a two-parter. There's so much going on including that swordfight I mentioned in a previous blog. HOLY CRAP does Ben take some punishment in this one. He lays it all out and, well, kicks ass. He's been an incredible addition to the show. Michael is also great in this one - determined, occasionally flustered, occasionally cool, and funny. Amanda gets to play both the scientist and the adventurer, while Chris gets to do some throwing down himself. Overall, a terrific season (let's hope not a series) ender.

I was watching the cut with my wife who saw the new SG-1 opening credits for the first time. Wow, was she impressed. She thought it was the best opening credit sequence she'd ever seen. And my wife is an admittedly tough audience.

Still holding off on the ice cream. Now that production is over and I won't be tempted by the lunch truck, I'm going to try to get down to my fighting weight. One hour of cardio a day. One hour of weights. No junk foods. Only leans meats and fish. And I'll study one hour of Cantonese in the morning, and one hour of Japanese in the afternoon.

Oh, almost forgot. We watched the director's cut of Crusade this morning. Robert did a great job with his directorial debut. Some great shots and overall great moments in this one. Of course, he was helped by some amazing performances, and some equally amazing lighting by Peter Woeste. Its nice to have Claudia back.

Tomorrow, Paul and I are going in to watch the day one mix of Collateral Damage (a great Mitchell episode that is not only an off-world adventure, but focuses on Cameron's relationship with his father). To all of you complaining that we hardly know Mitchell - wait 'til the second half of the season. We're just getting started.

We're all off to Vegas for the weekend. In the event we don't come back next year, I've saved up this year's salary and will be putting it down on black. This way, I double my money and don't have to worry about working next year. Wish me luck!

I went to Summer camp once when I was a kid. It was a fairly unmemorable experience except for that killed nicknamed Monkey who ate styrofoam cups on a dare and, of course, "tuck". Now "tuck" was, for all intents and purposes, a junk food free-for-all - one hour out of every day during which the young campers were permitted to purchase and eat whatever treats the "tuck shop" was offering. It was the first time I'd ever had an ice cream sandwich. And I loved it so much that I decided "Tomorrow, I'm going to get two!" So, when tomorrow rolled around, I bought and ate two sandwiches. And they were twice as good. So I decided that when tomorrow rolled around, I'd get three. But when tomorrow rolled around, I didn't get three. I bought five. And after eating two, I was pretty satisfied, but ploughed ahead and ate the third. I was stuffed. I tried to give away my last two ice cream sandwiches but no one wanted them. Not one to watch food go to waste, I ate them both. It was the last time I had an ice cream sandwich. Just the thought of them makes me slightly nauseous. Which brings me to last Friday night. With company over, I trotted out 11 different ice creams. I had to taste all 11 of course, then went back for seconds on the chocolate with crushed snow flakees. At which point I hit the wall. I think I'm going to have to take a couple of months off from the ice cream making.

Well, we're wrapped. Carl packed up his stuff and headed back to L.A. on Friday. Ever the modest one, he expressed hope that, if Atlantis gets picked up for a third season, he would be invited back. IF Atlantis gets picked up for another season (and contrary to rumors, we have yet to hear word on either show), there is no doubt he's going to get the call. He's a hard worker and one of the most solid writers on either staff. My favorite Carl Binder script this year: Michael.

Chris had a poker game Saturday night. Attendees included Steve Bacic, Jeff Judge, Alex Levine, Paul McGillion, late arrivals Ivon Bartok and Paul Mullie, and, of course, Martin Gero who did pretty well, cleaning out a couple of financial advisors who dropped by long enough to lose every hand they played. "Well, at least they're good with money,"quipped Martin as he called it a night. Martin will be sticking around rather for the next couple of months as we await word. My favorite Martin Gero script this year: Duet.

Martin Wood popped his head into the editing suite the other day as we were doing the SciFi notes on Arthur's Mantle. Apparently, the Camelot cut is 8 minutes over. Paul and I will go in on Thursday morning to watch it, and then head off to Vegas for a couple of days of R&R.

By the way, I was offered the option of turning off the comments option on the blog, but turned it down. As most of you probably already know by now, I love to hear from the fans, good or bad. Its also fun to read the ramblings of the occasional wackjob as, if nothing else, it makes for highly entertaining reading.

So, what now? Well, there are still mixes and cuts to watch, but we definitely have more free time on our hands. I suppose now would be a good time to get to work on those spec pilots and that horror feature I've wanted to get around to. And, of course, those DVD's aren't going to watch themselves. Halfway through season 4 of OZ and season 1 of Airline. Still working my way through Read or Die, Peacemaker, and Wolf's Rain on the anime front. On deck: Arrested Development season 2, and Alias season 3.

Well, things are finally winding down after yet another hectic, incredibly stressful, yet oh-so-satisfying season. Production wraps on both shows this Thursday and, as the actors and the crew take a much-needed break, the production office, accounting, visual effects, and post continues business as usual. Paul and I were in editing today, doing a visual effects spotting session for The Scourge. Lots of creepy bug sequences in this one. Guaranteed, these critters'll get under your skin. Overall, great performances from out guest stars, especially Tamlyn Tomita (who you played Waverly in my wife's favorite movie, The Joy Luck Club), and the ever-solid Robert Picardo (who's wife Linda, incidentally, makes the most amazing rumcake I've eaten in my entire life). We're expecting a director's cut of Allies any day now. The director's cut of Camelot will soon follow. Speaking of which, Michelle showed us the animatics for the space battle and EVA sequence today. They're going to be great. Also, checked out dailies today. Ben getting was getting good and muddy showing off his mad sword skills. John Noble (aka Denethor from Lord of the Rings) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) guest star.

Wrap party last Saturday night. Martin G, David H., his lovely girlfriend, Rachel, Rob, his wife, and I hit Yuji's for sushi and sake before making our way over. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Special mention should be made of CJ's outfit which was somewhat reminiscent of the movie The Cotton Club. Styling.

Still awaiting any official word on next year. Just in case, I've signed up for an intensive reiki training so that I have something to fall back on should things not pan out. And, of course, there's always the ice cream. Last week's stand-out flavor was Chestnut Cream (proclaimed by many as "the best ever". Also on deck was German Chocolate Cake). This being the last Ice Cream Friday, I'm going all out with: Black Forest Cake, Vanilla Clotted Cream Advokaat, Fudgeeo, Dark Chocolate with Dark Chocolate Pudding and Dark Chocolate Chunks, Milk Chocolate with Shaved Dark Chocolate Toblerone, Burnt Sugar Caramel with Flakies, Vanilla Tuxedo (black and white chocolate chunks), Dark-Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter Chips, Baileys and Dark Chocolate Cookies and Cream.

On the t.v. on DVD front, we finished the second season of Nip/Tuck. Chris was in the office the other day and said "Season 3 is even weirder". At the time, I found that very hard to believe. Then I watched the first two episodes of season 3. We're up to date. Waiting for the fourth season of Alias to come out in a couple of weeks and doing my best to avoid any season 5 spoilers. Also waiting for the second season of Arrested Development to come out next week (and looking forward to getting around to the episodes I PVR'd). I'm a couple of episodes into the fourth season of OZ (I forgot how well-written and engaging that show was). My wife and I are mulling over which t.v. show on DVD to start on next. On the t.v. front, its The Amazing Race and, natch, Survivor. And then there's the NFL, the MLB playoffs, and NCAA football (Big game for the Longhorns this weekend against the Sooners). Found time to squeeze in a couple of movies (Narc, Bully), and some anime for good measure: started Wolf's Rain (love it), R.O.D. (like it a lot), and Peacemaker (don't hate it).

By the way - in response to those decrying the fact that I didn't give a definite answer to some of the burning questions in my last blog: the reality is, nothing is written in stone. I can say "No, Jonas is definitely not coming back" because there are no plans to bring it back and yet, if circumstances change and he does happen to come back next season, then other fans will be screaming blue murder. Circumstances have a habit of changing, and that applies to everything, from exploring Sam's love life to Kawalsky rejoining the team.

Unfortunate news on the Dreamwatch front. Atlantis's Instinct was beaten by the model car from Stephen King's Christine.

Rob, Martin, and Alan checked out Serenity over the weekend and liked it alot. Alas, since getting my home theater, I won't set foot into a public theater and suffer the indignities of sitting through commercials, cell phone rings, conversations, and trailers for that LL Cool J movie that I've been seeing for three years running that has GOT to be released sooner or later. Looking forward to seeing Batman Beyond though.

As always, am checking out your commentary. Yes, even the one hundred and forty something. Keep 'em coming. And play nice.

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