‘Gaters Gonna Rate’ Podcast Launches With Stargate’s Joseph Mallozzi and Guest James Bamford

If there’s one thing that fans love to do, it’s talking about our favorite episodes, characters, and moments from the shows we love. And if there are two things we love … it’s ranking them.

Enter “Gaters Gonna Rate,” a new audio podcast from our friends at The Companion. The show is hosted by Joseph Mallozzi — writer and executive producer on all three Stargate series, and the co-creator of Dark Matter — along with a member of The Companion team.

In each episode the hosts (and often a special guest) will reminisce about Stargate’s long history, and see how the fans voted in The Companion’s latest poll on a specific topic.

In the premiere episode Mallozzi is joined by The Companion contributor George Mole as co-host. Fans were asked to vote on Stargate’s best fight sequences.

And they’ve got just the right special guest for this conversation: Stargate fight and stunt coordinator James “BamBam” Bamford. After working on all three Stargate shows (plus the two SG-1 movies) Bamford moved to the DC universe, working on Arrow for eight years — including stepping into a co-executive producer role, and taking his seat in the director’s chair.

Bamford has directed 17 episodes of Arrow, and to date also episodes of Supergirl, Batwoman, and Superman & Lois. (In fact, you can enjoy his episode “Haywire” on Superman & Lois next week, on March 16.)

He talks about a 26-year-old Jason Momoa joining Stargate Atlantis in Season Two. With a background in modeling and a role on Baywatch, Momoa wasn’t yet the action hero he is today.

“Jason hadn’t thrown a punch — ever — when I met him,” Bamford told Mallozzi on the podcast. “It’s the same thing we did with Stephen Amell [Oliver Queen in Arrow]. It’s the same method that I’d apply to any actor who wasn’t a martial artist.”

“Jason would quite often, even if we were going with what I like to call ‘slow with flow’ pace to smooth it out to begin with [in rehearsals], ramp it up pretty quickly — which is key from taking a fight sequence to looking like it’s choreography into the position where it looks like an actual fight. The timing, the speed, and aggression — Momoa would immediately apply all those things.

“So if you put somebody in ‘the ring’ with him, they better be ready to go.”

So what did readers pick as Stargate’s greatest fight scene? Check out the full conversation and subscribe to “Gaters Gonna Rate” on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts.