Wright On Target

Beware of SPOILERS in this interview for a number of upcoming episodes, including “Flesh and Blood,” “200,” and “No Man’s Land.”

Stargate SG-1 charges into a record-breaking tenth season on Friday, July 14, with the SCI FI premiere of “Flesh and Blood.” Meanwhile, Stargate Atlantis must prove itself as a veteran series with staying power as makes its third season bow (with “No Man’s Land”). At the heart of both series is the production offices at The Bridge Studios, where the hardest working team of writers and producers in Vancouver create 40 hours of entertainment every year.

At the heart of the writing team is Brad Wright, the Vancouver-born executive producer who co-created Stargate SG-1 (with Jonathan Glassner) a decade ago, and more recently co-created Stargate Atlantis (with Robert C. Cooper). Wright is now the show-runner for Atlantis, and keeps his hands in SG-1 as well. In short, he is the conductor of the orchestra that is Stargate.

GateWorld sat down with Wright this spring for a one-on-one conversation about where the shows are now, what Season Ten will bring that is new and interesting, and where the franchise might be in five years. Wright discusses such things as the inevitable second Stargate movie, the evolution of the Wraith, the challenges faced by a long-running series, the introduction of a new Ori villain, and much more.

GateWorld’s interview with Brad Wright is available in MP3 audio format for easy listening, and is a whopping 40 minutes long. It is also transcribed below. You can also download the interview to your MP3 player and take GateWorld with you!

Our special thanks to Brad Wright and the team at Stargate Productions for welcoming us into their home!

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GateWorld: For GateWorld.net I’m Darren Sumner, and this is David Read, we’re here with Brad Wright. Thanks for being with us, Brad — or for letting us be with you!

Brad Wright: It’s my pleasure.

GW: We were talking about “Camelot.” Tell us a little bit about your final evaluation. And we don’t even know yet how the show did on SCI FI.

BW: Yeah, we do.

GW: We don’t. You must!

BW: Oh, sorry! I think the night was 1.91 [SG-1], 1.81 [Atlantis], 1.9 [Galactica]. So SG-1 won the night with “Camelot.” It’s a great episode. My original concern at the script stage was it’s two stories. It begins in this Arthurian town and then, zip! Now we’re fighting the new beachhead — which is obviously the part that I was the most attracted to because of the Supergate. [It] was my kind of thing.

But it worked! It worked very effectively. And I think the thing that is most remarkable about the episode is that it reflects so well on our in-house visual effects department. Because that last sequence is mind-blowingly good. And that was not done by one of our super-duper effects houses in town. That was done right here in our backyard by our own vis-effects team. And, boy, did they pull out all the stops.

The shots were really nicely designed. Robert participated in that, of course, but — holy cow. I was just blown away, and jealous, by how good those shots were. Now we’re fighting over the in-house vis-effects team.

GW: I was taken aback by the shot with the formation of the event horizon — the puddle — and how it ripples across that massive expanse.

BW: Well, the thing about “Beachhead” is we were thinking, when I wrote the episode “Beachhead,” Robert and I were debating about — My original pitch was they build it and the Ori come through. I wasn’t planning on doing it until the end [of the season]. The threat of the Ori came, but they didn’t physically come until the very end. The Priors are all we get at first.

GW: But now they’re here.

BW: Now they’re here.

GW: And Vala is back. So tell us your overall impression of Season Ten, how it’s shaping up with this new twist on the series.

BW: You know what? It’s great! The same energy that we had with the addition of Claudia and Ben and Beau has continued. It’s like a new series. In fact, I was having a conversation with Ben the other day about a script, and I said, “Well, last year in Season One — I mean …” [Laughter]

It’s kind of how Rob and I think about it, and in many ways that’s what it is. It’s got a whole new energy.

GW: Do you think that the show has reached this point where it could potentially go on indefinitely, E.R.-style, where there’s a cast change every time it’s necessary? Or is this new incarnation something that you view as having more of a finite life, however long that may be?

BW: Well, sadly, it could’ve gone on much longer had we re-branded it entirely. One of the problems of SG-1 going into its tenth season, and potentially further on into its eleventh, is that when a show has been on for a very long period of time [is] the baggage. That’s not even the right word — but there’s a lot of money that is spent that stops going on the screen.

That’s the reason Star Trek: The Next Generation went off the air. Not because nobody would want to watch it, but because Patrick Stewart was becoming a big star and needed to move on. And now, of course, he doesn’t even do television anymore. That’s what happens to a really successful franchise.

And because seven years is the maximum, generally, the business model goes out to. That’s generally how far the actor deals have been made. In fact, probably, they had to do one-year extensions after five years. I don’t know the details. I do know that on our show, for the last couple of years, we’ve had to renegotiate every year, and that is very difficult from our perspective.

We don’t know, A) whether or not we’re going to get a network pickup, and B) how much money we’re going to get to make the show. And all of those things are contingent on the cast deals we make. Which comes first, right? So it’s been difficult the last couple of years. This year, I think one of the big advantages of Season Ten is we got a great start.

Unlike what most people think in terms of how the shows are made, we wrap at the end of September, or early October, and people think we all go away. Well, everybody goes away but the writers. We just stayed here and kept working. And we quickly put together a bunch of stories for both shows, which has given us a better head start than we’ve ever had which, again, helps you put money on the screen.

So for those reasons, I think Season Ten and Season Three are starting out gangbusters.

GW: Last year you told us that Earth-based politics would be something you would hope to focus on in seasons 14 and 15. Obviously light-hearted, but now more than ever these seasons are probably very real possibilities. Story-wise, where do you foresee the direction of SG-1 to be at that stage?

BW: Seasons 14 and 15? [Laughter]

GW: It could happen. It probably will.

BW: It could happen, yeah. Well, like I just said, there are still pressures on the show that would make it more difficult to go out that far. When we started SG-1 it was fun to imagine, for the fans, that this was going on. And I think that is one of the fun things about Stargate SG-1, that this could be happening right now. And because it’s set in the here-and-now, and because it’s a secret program.

The longer we are on the air the more — especially when we are building space ships and devoting, obviously, enormous resources to Stargate Command — the harder and less likely that secret being kept becomes. It’s getting increasingly difficult to imagine, “How the hell is this still a secret?” And I think that a lot of the intrigue could be in that, if it continues.

GW: We already have separated ourselves to the point where, “OK, Stargate is going to be given it’s own President, and it’s very obvious now that it can’t be our Earth. Maybe possibly eventually exposing the Stargate to the world and see where that takes us.”

BW: Well, actually, I’ve kind of wanted to save that. In one of the incarnations of a feature script, that was a big part of the story, for two reasons. First of all, it’s fun, and also because it was a great vehicle for bringing new viewers aboard. If you’re explaining the Stargate program to the world, you’d better come up with a cogent and interesting way of doing that. And that would also bring aboard anybody who doesn’t know about the show.

And the other thing I don’t want to do is have the show come to an end, or such a paradigm shift that there’s — [Laughter] — BS and AS. “Before the Stargate” and “After Stargate,” in terms of how the world would be perceived. It would change a whole bunch of stuff in the world. They would not just go —

GW: “Hmph!”

BW: Yeah, exactly! It would be a big deal. It would be such a big deal that it would change the nature of every episode beyond that. It would be like a new series. And so, for that reason alone, I would want to hold that back.

GW: Permanently, or just for a while?

BW: Well, for Stargate SG-1. Not necessarily a new incarnation. The thing that has definitely become true with the introduction of Atlantis — it might not be successful as SG-1. It’s incredibly unlikely that it would be as successful as

SG-1. But we’re into our third season, and that is successful as a television show by any standard. And that proves, I think, that this is a franchise.

Whether Robert and I do it or not, somebody is going to make a movie, make a mini-series, make another series, create the massive multiplayer role-playing game that’s coming out — [it] is going to be huge. Stuff like that wouldn’t be happening if there wasn’t an awareness of Stargate as a franchise. The success of your site! There’s a lot of proof that it isn’t just a little TV show anymore. It’s the potential for many, many platforms and potentially many series down the road.

GW: Do you foresee that the next evolution of the franchise would be, “One of these shows has got to come to an end. We’ll get back down to one series for a while. Maybe there’ll be a third?”

BW: Well, interestingly enough, we have become so — I don’t even want to say “dependent.” “Adept” is the wrong word, too. But we take advantage of making two shows now.

It was something we had to do in Season One and Season Eight, respectively. There was just no way we had the money to do either series well if we didn’t share stage space, have one art department, have one writing department. It’s a stupid amount of work, but the synergy you get in being able to share such resources is very, very good for the show, in terms of being able to put money on screen.

So, in other words, that’s a long way of saying I think we’ll try to pair whatever is going on with something else. For example: If Season Ten is to be the last — which, like you say, probably won’t be. But if it were to be, I think we have some commitment from the studio to do some sort of miniseries, potentially a movie in addition to that. Keeping the multiple production going on for practical reasons, but also for reasons of building the franchise.

GW: Tell us a little more about Season Ten. What does it offer to you as a writer?

BW: It’s fun writing Vala. It’s one more ball to keep in the air, though. When Jonathan and I were originally coming up with the four-person team it was a bunch of writer reasons that drove that. Two people can split off. You can write scenes about these people and these people. You can get four people in a shot.

You add a person to that mix, and it adds a level of difficulty in servicing all of the characters properly. My first Season Ten story is called “The Pegasus Project,” which was a lot of fun for me — and confusing — because it was an

SG-1 that took place in Atlantis. So I had this, I didn’t know where I was. [Laughter] “What’s going on?!”

It also included cast members. There’s a significant amount of crossover in Atlantis. We’re not afraid of that anymore. I wanted to keep the two shows separate at first for the reasons of having Atlantis — in Season One it was so Atlantis could find its roots, and in Season Nine it was so that the new incarnation of SG-1 could find its roots, and now I think we’re both fairly well-established. And it’s a question of, “Sure, we can cross over now.”

And the “Pegasus Project” story involves Daniel in Atlantis. This is where he’s always wanted to go — with Vala. And it puts David Hewlett as McKay back with Carter, which is particularly fun after the events of “Grace Under Pressure.” There’s a little scene I wrote that speaks to that which is, hopefully, very funny.

So it’s a lot of fun! I have to say, Robert got the whole “Camelot” thing going, and I had to do more research. I had to catch up a little bit. “Morgan Le Fay, who the hell is that? This is a nice series! Let me go back and work on that.” So it was a lot of fun.

Most of my time is still dedicated to Atlantis this season, but like I said, we both do both [shows].

GW: So it sounds like a five-person SG-1 team? Can you put to rest the fears of some fans that Sam is being replaced?

BW: Oh, Sam is not being replaced, no. Not at all. The way it’s going to work is that because we have more people the dynamic is just going to shift every now and then. Carter may end up being in an Atlantis or two, and Daniel is only in 16 out of 20, so even then, now you’re getting down to far fewer numbers where we have all five cast members — well, six including Beau, of course.

But in “Pegasus Project” it was easy just because I put Daniel and Vala over here, and I put the rest of them on board the ship, and Teal’c is in his scout ship. And it all worked out just fine.

GW: So will they all be going to Pegasus as an SG-1 [team]?

BW: Yeah. They all end up arriving on the Odyssey.

GW: OK. I imagine to follow a lead?

BW: Yes. A lead they come up with in “Morpheus.” There’s a nice twist in “Pegasus Project” that I don’t want to reveal, but it’s a fun
one.

GW: Tell us a little bit about a very cool new character we’ve heard about for Season Ten — “A-dria?” Or “Ad-ria?”

BW: “Ad-ria” Yeah, Adria. I should let Robert talk about her.

She’s an interesting character because she’s the Ori cheating. If an Ori had come to lead their armies in ascended form, that would’ve broken the laws of the Ancients, and they would’ve been fought by the Ancients. But essentially Adria is the Ori equivalent of a Harcesis, which only you guys would understand. [Laughter]

But it’s as much [of] the knowledge of the Ori that they could cram into a highly evolved human — that also happens to be Vala’s daughter. I don’t think I’m spilling too much by suggesting that we knew, at the end of last season, that she was about to give birth … and she does. And that child becomes Adria.

And in a very, very great script by Robert — “Flesh and Blood,” which you should talk to him about — she starts to grow.

GW: Freaky.

BW: It is freaky.

GW: Stargate‘s milestone two-hundredth is coming up. It’s amazing to see such a great big, round number. What can you tell us about the way in which the show is going to
celebrate this milestone?

BW: There will be a cake.

GW: [Laughter] Excellent.

BW: Somebody actually sent us a photograph of a cake for our approval, and we looked at it and went, “We’re getting cake approval?” [Laughter] “Are you serious?” I laughed. Actually, I almost sent back an outraged letter saying, “You call this a cake?!”

GW: Send back notes on the cake?

BW: Notes on the cake. I have a note on the cake. No, it’s fine. It’s great.

In addition to the cake, we’re going to make an episode. I’ve got to give Robert the credit for coming up with the frame, although we spun the frame from the original idea. The essence of his idea was that we’ll all write it. And that’s a lot of fun. We each took sections, and my section is possibly the most outrageous. And fans are either going to love it or they’re going to hate it. But I thought it was fun. And I figure every hundred episodes you should be allowed to go outside the box a little bit.

GW: I hear that everybody wrote it, and I think of things like Simpsons

vignettes where it’s multiple stories together.

BW: Well, that’s what it is. It’s very much the “Treehouse of Horror” structure. Not as … I almost said, “Not as outrageous as Simpsons,” but maybe. Let’s just say that we’re doing a sequence that is reminiscent of “SG-1 meets ‘Team America’.” We’re getting’ puppets. We’re doing marionettes.

GW: Any familiar faces, possibly?

BW: We’ll see Willie Garson.

GW: [Laughter] It’s full circle!

BW: He’s coming back. It’s sort of a full circle thing. The story, in short strokes is Martin Lloyd has come to the S.G.C. because even though “Wormhole X-Treme!” was cancelled after three episodes it did so well on DVD they’re making a feature. [Laughter] A little kiss to “Serenity” and Firefly, which was possibly one of the best cancelled series in history.

And we’re the Air Force consultants on the script. So it starts with a read-through, but the vignettes spring from suggestions by our characters, and material in Martin’s script, which is kind of outrageous, too. We jump all over the place. I mean, we are going all over the place in this story. It’s out there. In a good way! It’s fun! Hopefully it’s funny. Hopefully it’s very funny. If not, it’s at least fun.

GW: The Wraith. So far we’ve identified four types of Wraith in their hierarchy: The Keepers and the Queens, played by Andee [Frizzell]. The commanders, played by James [Lafazanos], and the warriors. Are there any plans to introduce a fifth sect in the Wraith?

BW: Well, there’s going to be sort of an off-shoot. The character of Michael is almost a hybrid Wraith-human, and in the first two episodes of this season we’re going to discover that he’s no more welcome among the Wraith than he is among us. He’s unfortunately this kind of “flying Dutchman” character who now has to find a home for himself, and through the course of events in the first two episodes of this season, he may or may not be out there. It’s kind of left in the open as to where he is and what he’s doing.

I like the notion that Michael is that other species, that Wraith-human hybrid that has issues with both races — for good reasons.

GW: And it’s our fault.

BW: And it’s our fault. Boy, is it our fault. The first two episodes — we have very strong reasons to how we get to where we are, but we screw up.

The one thing I love about Stargate is that, quite often, our mistakes lead to the repercussions that lead to further stories. We’re doing it probably as much now in Atlantis as we did it in the early going of SG-1. SG-1, in the later years, naturally got better at it — [we] took over the galaxy and everything and was fine, until we called the Ori! Now we’re back to Square One. But a lot of our experimentation — especially genetic experimentation — with the Wraith, comes back to snap us in the ass. That’s maybe saying a statement.

GW: What is the reason most of the adult male and female Wraith are played by the same actors? Is it solely to make a simple job of casting, or do you plan to incorporate a legitimate explanation, say some form of cloning, into the lexicon of the species?

BW: Yeah, I think the latter — and the former. [Laughter] The latter is the excuse for the former. I like the notion of, if not cloning, but genetic similarity. I mean, a cougar is a cougar. Most species are very genetically similar on Earth. I pick [a] cougar because I read in some science magazine once that they are very, very genetically similar to each other. And possibly the Wraith are, as well.

My mind’s been running through scenarios to as to how the Wraith came to be. I’ve got a couple of other ideas as to how that similarity came about, but I haven’t fully fleshed out that story to it that explains that. I have a pretty good idea, though.

GW: The male Wraith are always identical, but the queens — and the Keeper — they all have their own identity in terms of the makeup job.

BW: Yeah. Well, that’s how we define them. Andee’s been very good at playing different characters within the Wraith. We’re changing it up a little bit in terms of the males. James has played so many different Wraith. We’re actually going to be using different actors to play the male Wraith in the future.

The warriors — they’re for all intents and purposes “storm troopers.” They are all the same. They don’t speak, so it’s fairly easy to just make them all the same.

But even in the males, we’re going to be introducing more individualization. We started doing it last year in the episode where that Wraith had a deal with the planet. … “Condemned.” I should know, huh? “Condemned.” That’s obviously a separate character. Michael is a separate character. The female Wraith in “Allies” is a very distinct female.

And we’re going to do more individualization of the Wraith. There’s an upcoming episode in Season Three where Sheppard is essentially in a cell adjacent to a Wraith, trapped by a famous Genii commander. Hopefully it’s Kolya, if he’s available. 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.

GW: Will that be played by James, or are you going to find someone else?

BW: It’ll probably be Chris Heyerdahl, who’s going to be playing a few male Wraith characters this year.

GW: Compare and contrast what you accomplished last year on Atlantis with Season Three. How would you say the show is evolving this year?

BW: Seasons Two and Three are always building seasons. Season One had the very clear arc of “We’re on our own, we’re on our own. The Wraith are going to come. We have to ask for help. Are we going to make it?” We’re no longer on our own in Season Two, and so the arc is beginning again. So we’re planting new threads.

And I think Season Three is taking advantage of many of the threads that we sewed into the fabric of the show in Season Two. Like developing “Michael,” for example. Evolving the level of complexity of who the Wraith are — building on another villain that we’re going to meet in Season Three.

Like the Goa’uld were our mainstay villain in the first few years of SG-1, of course that would’ve gotten boring eventually if we didn’t have other villains. So we always had one-off villains, and then of course we introduced the Replicators. So we’re going to meet a new villain in Atlantis this year, who are going to ultimately be the villain who I always originally intended to be the villain in Atlantis.

GW: The “Hot Zone” villains.

BW: The “Hot Zone” villains. That’s right. That’s right.

GW: Intended to be the show’s primary antagonists?

BW: Well, when I was first coming up with ideas for the series. A lot of things changed, as I told you, when we realized we were doing SG-1 and Atlantis simultaneously. Robert and I had to re-conceive most of the notions for what Atlantis could be.

But I think now it’s time to introduce a new villain. And those guys are a great villain. I’ve wanted them in the Atlantis universe for some time. They were introduced in “Hot Zone,” and they’re really going to come in episodes five and six this year. And our mid-season two-parter is significantly about them.

GW: Do you have a favorite episode so far? Or maybe a favorite scene that you saw the dailies and you said, “That’s going to be cool.”

BW: I can say I have a favorite episode so far, in Atlantis. We had an idea of a character. We wanted to do a fun one, a balls-out fun one, because Atlantis hasn’t done that in the same degree that SG-1 has been able to do over the years. It was this idea of a character who is essentially, literally an addictive personality. It’s a notion that Robert had, that Carl and I spun into an episode called “Irresistible.”

GW: [With] Richard.

BW: Richard Kind. And he is fabulous. And you know, you try to come up with a script, and I was doing some preliminary casting with L.A., and I was looking at a list. And I said, “That’s him! Richard Kind!”

So I did a pass on the script trying to imagine Richard’s voice in my head, and hoping he would accept the part. This is pilot season! It’s very difficult to get people of his caliber. And he just liked the character enough that he said, “I’m giving up a lot of stuff, you know.” And I said, “I know you are! I really appreciate it!”

But he’s so great. Hopefully, of all the characters we’re trying to create as recurring, he is possibly in the forefront. And he’s so great. Richard is so great, one. And two, the character is so fun. How do I put it? He’s our Harcourt Fenton Mudd of Atlantis. Again, there aren’t very many people who would get that, but I knew you would!

GW: Oh, yeah. GateWorld readers will get it! When you see a name like Richard Kind on a list, does it affect your casting decision at all when you see an actor who was in the original film?

BW: Yeah! It does! I wanted him, actually a few years ago for a part, and he wasn’t available. But I’ve always liked him. Boy, am I glad we saved him for this one because he’s perfect for it.

But it is neat that he was in the original film. The first time we spoke on the phone I mentioned that. And he wanted to see our Stargate, because it had been ten years — more than that — eleven years since he had walked on to that set. He thought ours was still pretty impressive in comparison.

GW: We were talking with Connor Trinneer a few weeks ago, and he said he had his agent ask if he could get a read-through, and five minutes later the part was his.

BW: Well, what happens with casting is breakdowns go out and actors see what’s coming down the pipe. He kind of went, “Ooh, this is an interesting character.” Paul, our casting director in L.A., said, “Brad, what do you think of Connor Trinneer?” And I said. “Book him!” Because I knew he’d be perfect for Michael.

Again, “Michael” was one of my favorite episodes from last season, if not my favorite. And again, it depended hugely on the strength of the guest star. You get a Richard Kind or a Connor Trinneer and you know you can’t loose. Exactly.

GW: This is a question that is a bit specific and esoteric. I apologize in advance.

BW: OK.

GW: One of the storytelling devices that’s common on SG-1 is that the team is always searching for that one piece of advanced technology that’s going to beat our unstoppable foe. All sorts of examples: The Dakara weapon. The Prior inhibitor. Merlin’s anti-Ori weapon now. Where do you think is the balance between defeating Earth’s enemies with technology versus defeating them with ingenuity? Is this a storytelling device that you think is part of the SG-1 formula?

BW: Well, yes and no. The original thing about SG-1 is that it’s low-tech. And low-tech quite often wins over high-tech. There’s a really good Arthur C. Clarke short story. It has nothing to do with Stargate, but it demonstrates that so well. I can’t remember what it’s called. But it essentially was a General from the loosing side confessing as to how they lost. And in every case they had the superior technology, but there was always an aspect to it that could be defeated.

My way of incorporating that in SG-1: I wrote a scene in “The Warrior” where O’Neill is talking about a staff weapon versus a P-90. And to try to demonstrate, “OK, this is why we win, folks. This is a weapon of terror.” Bang! “It’s incredibly high technology, but it doesn’t repeat very well. It’s designed as a weapon of terror, to scare people.” [She] fires a P-90. “This is a weapon of war.” Cuts the thing in half — which, you know, would happen every time we shot somebody, if you really did use P-90s. They’re very powerful weapons. And that, to me, went a long way to help explain that.

But as the show kept evolving, it became a relationship between the amount of time we’ve spent going out among the stars, and how much stuff we’ve been bringing back in terms of technology. And our alliances with races like the Asgard — who owed us enough after we saved their butts so many times — to share some of that technology and figured we earned it, that we would need Daedaluses and Odysseyes and Prometheuses.

And so it kind of has evolved toward the quest for higher tech from the lower tech. But generally speaking, strategy-wise, it’s still the old-fashioned way that wins out. Courage. Stuff like that. “We don’t leave our people behind.” That’s a huge theme.

GW: Well, leading into the season premieres in July, if you had a message that you could say straight to fans, what would you tell them about July?

BW: Wow. “Please watch our television show.”

GW: [Laughter]

BW: I’m always surprised by how fans respond to the show. I guess I would say we are still trying to make the best show we can. Even after all these years, we’re still here, and we’re still doing our best.

I got a little disheartened last year as I read fan things on your forum, or about Season Nine. All the changes. Some fans just didn’t buy it. And I get mail, and occasionally I’ll open one or two, looking for some smart criticism. It’s frustrating when people assume we’re being lazy, or, “Why would you do this story when you could do this story?” Or “Why did you get rid of O’Neill?”

There are things that are not up to us. There are things that are simply not in our control. And we’re trying, with the resources we have and with the limited skills we have, to make the best show we can. That’s what I’d like to tell the fans.

I’m still here, for God’s sakes. There are not a lot of show-runners that stick with a show for 10 years. If that doesn’t show that I give a s***, I don’t know what else does. And I would say the same of Robert. To read, “Oh, looks like they phoned that one in.” No, that was a lot of blood and sweat. And maybe it didn’t turn out as good as you hoped, or as well as I hoped. But this is a tough thing to do. Especially when you’re trying to make a television show that is trying to grow.

It would be easier, I think, to just try to make the same show we’ve always made. But we say to each other, “No, we’ve done that.” “No, we can’t do that, we’ve done that.” Or “Maybe we could do that if we put a big spin on it.” We’re trying not to just cookie-cutter the series out. And when you’re coming up with your 258th story, that takes some effort.

I think the majority of fans are with us, but I think there’s a lot of fans who are not accepting change because they think we’re — especially the Rick one. That’s silly. That’s just silly.

GW: It’s not up to you.

BW: It’s not up to us. In fact, what is up to us is bringing him back. And you know what? We’ve asked him, and he’s going to come back. Not certainly [for] the whole time, but he’s going to come and play with us again. That door was left open and he’s going to come back and step through it.

GW: Very good.

BW: And I think, in future years, that’ll apply to me, too. You’re right, if there is a Season 14 … I hope whoever making it is having a good time! [Laughter] It probably won’t be me. I’m hopefully still making something called Stargate, but maybe it’s a movie.