June 18, 2011: Set construction begins on Transporter: The Series! Looking back on Stargate: SG-1′s ninth season! Links!

Since work has commenced on the standing sets for Transporter: The Series, fellow Executive Producer Alexander M. Ruemelin and I figured the least we could do was swing by and check out the work-in-progress before redirecting funds and manpower to construction on the sundecks of our new cottages in Muskoka.

Hey, look! It's Frank's place!

Series Director Andy Mikita (who you may remember from such shows as Stargates SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe) says "Tadaa!" (or "Chadaa!" for those of you in Japan).

Stairs leading up to...upstairs! Where else?

Sarah documents everything from the future lawsuit.

The room where Frank keeps his collectibles (ie. comics, Randy Bowen supervillain statues, etc.).

Not sure. Fireplace? I tried testing it out but only got as far as lighting the kindling before I was tackled and escorted off the premises.

Alex presides over construction, offering such helpful input as "Let's move everything two feet that way.".

And…

Tarconi's office.

Getting back to my reminiscing on Stargate: SG-1′s ninth season…

STRONGHOLD (914)

In this episode, a Jaffa undergoes the Rite of M'al Sharran to rid himself of his symbiote – and dies in the process.  The rite was performed a grand total of three times before and only one of those instances proved successful (Teal'c being the rare exception).  Them 25% odds are pretty bleak.  Compare to the Tok'ra extraction process which, if the Tok'ra are to be believed, has a better but still iffy 50% success rate.  Paul and I called BS on that.  Every time we could remember it being performed, it worked beautifully, so it seemed to be more like 100%.  Which brings to mind one of the many amusing stories from our early days on the show.  Way back when we first started on Stargate, Paul and I wanted to know more about this Tok'ra extraction process.  Brad suggested we check out an episode called Pretense.  Apparently, all we needed to know about the extraction process was covered in that episode.  And so, Paul and I fired up the VCR and sat through forty-five minutes of Stargate's version of Boston Legal and Zipacna walking around with a Carmen Miranda headpiece and, all the while we kept wondering: "When are they going to get around to extraction process?!".  Then, as the episode was drawing to an end, the character of Skaara was ordered to undergo the "extraction process".  Finally!  I was all sorts of curious.  Would it be a surgical procedure or something much techier and advanced?  Would Skaara be awake through the procedure?  If so, how would he react?  So many questions about to be answered!  We watched as the court made its ruling, then watched a time cut to the next scene in which the tok'ra trot out the goa'uld symbiote and proclaim the extraction process a success!  End episode.  WTF?!!!
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention guest star Reed Diamond who plays the part of Mitchell's doomed buddy in the episode.  The former Homicide lead turns in a brilliant performance and, for the record, was terrific to work with.

ETHON (915)

This episode marked the last episode of the earth ship Prometheus, and its unfortunately named commander Pendergast.  To be honest, I would have felt a lot worse for him had he been named, say, Evans or Fitzgerald or even Pangbourn – but Pendergast?  Whenever his name came up in a script, I would always ask where the name came from.  Did some fan win a contest that necessitated we use their name in a script?  Close!  Apparently, Pendergast was the last name of a friend of one of the writers.  With Stargate over, I now regret the fact that I didn't name one of my characters Jelly.

OFF THE GRID (916)

Look out!  That corn is highly addictive!  Ah, sweet sweet Kassa.  How you've been mocked, forced to share ignominious conversation company with the likes of explosive tumors, Zipacna's silly hat, and Carter infamous "Just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn't mean I can't handle whatever you can handle" line.  Granted, it was one of our sillier episodes that saw the team going undercover decked out as extras from The Road Warrior while, back on Earth, Landry matched wits with the gluttonous goa'uld Nerus (played to pompous perfection by the late Maury Chaykin).  At one point during the editing process, Brad objected to the amount of food Nerus had in his cell on the grounds that it was "over the top".  !  In my mind, that ship sailed the second Mitchell uttered the line: "Get all the population jonesing for space corn."

Speaking of silly – a number of fans complained about the fact that the Lucian Alliance weren't cool enough, that they were a little too silly to be considered a formidable threat to Stargate Command.  Well, to be fair, respect was admittedly an uphill climb considering the concept of the Alliance was introduced by these two lovable members -

Longtime blog regular Paul O'Dwyer gives our little Book of the Month Club a shout-out in the Irish Times (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2011/0618/1224298893096.html).  Thanks to Paul for the mention.  And a reminder that July's book of the month club  kicks off July 4th with a discussion of Jeff Lemire's Sweeth Tooth (volume 1) -

A heads up from another blog regular, Steve Eramo, who has just posted a recent interview with actor David Hewlett (SGA's Rodney McKay) here: http://scifiandtvtalk.typepad.com/scifiandtvtalk/2011/06/stargate-atlantis-david-hewlett-checks-in.html

And, of course, opening this weekend: Remember Green Lantern?  Sure you do!

Tagged: SG-1, Stargate, Stargate: SG-1, Transporter: The Series