June 7, 2011: Breakfast! Nightmares! And mailbag!

Today's breakfast, compliments of Akemi.  In my Happy Panda bentox box = a happy panda fashioned out of steelcut Irish oatmeal and nutella.  Also includes various fruit and one of the nutella mini-cupcakes Dede made yesterday -

The other night, she texted me a picture of the above.  I texted her back.  Although I wrote "Oooooo!", for some reason, my iPhone's auto-correct changed by response to "Poopy!" Needless to say, I scrambled to correct the auto-correct.  Reminds me of the time I was supposed to meet Ivon for lunch only to discover our first choice, Chronic Tacos, closed.  So, I suggested Romer's Burger Bar instead:

Hmmmm.  Chronic Tacos is closed.  Timers?

Toners?

Romers?

Ficking auto correct.

Fucking!

Anyway, it wasn't until some twenty minutes after I'd finished my breakfast that I noticed the Happy Panda bento box contained a hidden compartment.

What treasures lie within?

Another nutella cupcake!  And pepto bismol!!

All sorts of weird dog-related dreams of late.  The other night, I dreamt that I was informed I did not, in fact, own my pug, Jelly – that she was actually a dog actor I had mistakenly picked up off some set and now her original trainer wanted her back.  Then, Maximus and Bubba were eaten by sharks.  And finally, last night, I dreamt  I was back in Montreal checking on my neighbor's old, decrepit house.  My walkthrough complete, I hit the remote to close the garage door.  It groaned and squeaked as it slowly came down behind me but, as I turned to head back down the driveway, I heard it groan and squeak again as it slowly rose back up. Curious, I approached to see whether something was interfering with the door – when Jelly raced by me and started barking at something.  As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I spotted it, right next to the garage door opener: a person standing on a chair, perfectly still, his face obscured by the garden pail covering his face. Which is about when I woke up.  Freaky – and a perfect image for my future horror flick!

Mailbag:

Debra writes: "I didn't say all the women, but the strong kick butt woman you wrote was intended to be lesbian."

Answer: Actually, no.  The two kick-butt female members of the team in Whispers – Major Teldy and Dusty – weren't.  Vega may have been, but it was never canon.  SGU's Camile Wray was gay and, I thought, a character with a lot of depth and strength.

Debra also writes: "T.J… puleeeze… she was not strong, screwing a married man, let him force her to return to the ship, etc. I don't see her as strong. She coped, she survived, but she was not what I call strong."

Answer: There are two sides to the coin.  One could argue that Young was just as weak for having the affair.  Also, one of the aspects of the T.J. character I liked a lot were her strength as displayed in episodes like Water and Divided – which is why I enjoyed seeing her demonstrate the resolve and toughness in The Hunt.

Debra also writes: "Carter…Again, after the first few seasons she certainly got strong. But the fawning "sir" crap…and the indecision over men."

Answer: Not sure what the fawning "sir" crap refers to.  As her commanding officer, she would refer to him as "sir".  I saw no fawning.  Indecisive?  Besides the relationship with Pete, I didn't see any other instances.  And even then – so what?  People (men and women) are indecisive.  Given the show ran for ten years, why not explore Sam's personal life?  We did so with Teal'c and Daniel after all.

Debra also writes: "Vala is one of my fave characters, and I enjoy her "out there" ness. But a lot of that is the actress. "

Answer: No, actually – it may surprise you to learn that, while Claudia was fantastic, her character was scripted.  All those funny lines were written, not improvised.

Bryan M. White writes: "What has Rob been up to lately?"

Answer: In addition to his work on Transporter: The Series, Rob Cooper is busy on a host of other exciting projects.  Once he gives me the green light, I'll tell you about them.

Elliott writes: "

Some questions: 1.) Is it still technically a pilot episode if a full season has already been ordered?"

Answer: It was the series pilot prior to the show being ordered so, internally, we're still calling it "The pilot episode".

"2.) Why is "Dark Matter" called "Dark Matter"? What is the significance of the title? It's probably a spoiler… "

Answer: Yep.  Spoiler.  All will be revealed January of 2012.  Well, maybe not all – but a lot.

"3.) How come in "Divided" Rush can transfer control of the ship away from the control interface room remotely, and yet Telford has to do it from the gate room in "Incursion"?"

Answer: To avoid a scenario similar to the one in Divided, Young put safeguards in place to ensure it wouldn't be so easy.  Of course, Rush may have foreseen the implementation of said safeguards and hidden a workaround program in the event the opportunity presented itself.

"4.) What scholarship did Greer apply for, but not get?"

Answer: Sorry, don't recall.

"5.) Why did you pick Greer shooting a spider as the reason for the tunnel collapsing in "Human"? Wouldn't it have been more realistic and a little less… "silly" if the tunnel had already been unstable and it just collapsed on them?"

Answer: But there had to be a reason for the tunnel to collapse otherwise it would have felt contrived for the ceiling to suddenly, and conveniently, come down.