February 28, 2012: Jelly on a roll! Projects and such! Mailbag!

Wow.  Two years after the stem cell transplant, my pug Jelly is an all new pug.  This was the same dog that, at one point, could barely stand…

Heard back from my writing partner, Paul, this morning.  He just read the first draft of the horror script and is very enthusiastic about it.  He made a few excellent points, came up with some excellent suggestions, and informed me he wanted to re-read the script a couple of times and give it further thought.  Tomorrow, I meet former Stargate Special Features Producer Ivon Bartok to talk about the script and start envisioning the trailer he's going to shoot for it.  The script is also in the hands of my Toronto nemesis, Tara Yelland.  I sent her a copy a couple of days ago and she turned around some notes in record time, but complained about the fact that the script was unfinished.  Turned out I had sent her an early version that was about 50 pages light!  I mean, seriously.  How can she start studying her lines without a proper script?  Anyway, I sent the proper draft her way and am looking forward to reading her accolades/criticisms/innumerable character requests.

Well, this is interesting.  Just heard from my agent in L.A. who called with some intriguing developments on the Dark Matter front.  Looks like we've got a big conference call later this week to discuss.  Will, of course, keep you all posted.

I needn't remind you all the the next selection in our continuing Supermovie of the Week Club will be Superman III which we'll be discussing Monday, February 5th when guest reviewer Cookie Monster weighs in with his review.

Mailbag:

poundpuppy(Erika) writes: "Hi Joe I know it has been awhile but I have a question for you, you said you saw Jack & Sam together in your AU what about Daniel & Vala are they together in your AU or your mind?"

Answer: Hey, Erika.  Just this morning I was thinking about some of the former regulars I hadn't seen in a while, including you.  How goes?  To answer your question – in my mind, Jack and Sam got together not long after the events of Threads and Daniel and Vala not long after the SG-1 series finale.  But, of course, given that we never saw any of this play out onscreen, my opinion is just that – an opinion, no more or less valid than that of any other viewer.

gforce writes: "One of things that's great about Joe's blog, in this case the Supermovie club, is that I find it encourages me to try things like these movies that I never would have normally."

Answer: Given the quality of the movies we've screened s far, that's not necessarily a good thing.

howdy doo writes: "Are you retired from tv writing buddy?"

Answer: Nope, not retiring – just doing what I should have done last year, something I had always told myself I would do once Stargate ended: taking the year off to focus on my own projects (features, pilot scripts, pitches for an original series or two) and do a little traveling. In addition to going back to Japan, I 'm also considering trips to Hong Kong, Vegas, San Francsico, Paris, and Berlin (to visit my friends Alexander and Sarah).  One of the many great things about those eleven years on Stargate is the freedom it's given me to be able to take the time off, make my own schedule, and, for the first time in twelve years, not worry about deadlines or what's coming up next.

Aussuu writes: "Quick question about the inspiration for the writing of Stargate, particularly the story line of the ancients. I was invited to go see a pre-screening of John Cater this last weekend and couldn't help but see the correlation between the ability to travel between worlds and a superior race that over saw everything. Having not read the books by Edger R Burroughs I can't say for certain, So my question is was there any inspiration taken from Burroughs writing in the creation and continued writings of Stargate?"

Answer: This one's a question for Robert Cooper since he was the one who created and developed the whole Ancient backstory.  I doubt, however, that he was influenced by Burroughs though.

Lisa R writes: "And Joe, you don't know what The Hunger Games is?"

Answer: Sure.  Isn't it Battle Royale with Western actors?

Matt writes: "I started reading Dark Matter and i picked up the first two issue and i was wondering during the creation of the characters for Dark Matter, did you and Paul ever wonder if your work on stargate was going to affect how you developed the characters? such as one character would end up as a Jack O'Neill type character. one character end up as the Carter type? the daniel type? teal'c type?"

Answer: As much as I loved the characters that made up team SG-1, there was never any danger of their personalities bleeding into the characters I'd created for Dark Matter.  I think that both groups of characters are distinct enough, something that will hopefully become obvious as the personalities of the DM crew develop.

Lewis writes: "If the X-Men's Nightcrawler were to walk through an open Stargate would he be able to "transport" his molecules outside of the wormhole while still in the wormhole before reaching the Stargate at the other end? And if he were able to do so, where would he end up? (a random point outer space between the 2 Stargates? the nearest planet? back at the 1st gate/point of origin?)"

Answer: Hmmm.  Interesting question – although I'm not sure I understand the question.  Given what I know about Nightcrawler's teleporting ability, he would be a simple physical form (no different from, say, a Cyclops or aWolverine) in order to walk into the event horizon – at which point we would be demolecularized, transported to the receiving gate, and remolecularized on the other end, back to his physical form.  He wouldn't be able to teleport while in his demolecularized state, much less think.  On the other hand, I'm not sure what would happen if he was to teleport inside the event horizon – and doubt that would even be possible.  Again, I'm not sure how his teleportation abilities work, but I would think he would need some knowledge (or mental picture) of wherever he intended to teleport.  If, for the sake of argument, he was able to teleport himself beyond the event horizon (unlikely, but let's say), I would imagine he would be instantly demolecularized within the mouth of the wormhole, transported, then remolecularized on the other side like anyone else.  The key here is that in order to be transported, he would need to physically reappear when he teleports himself beyond the event horizon.  In Kurt's case, he teleports traveling not by dispersing his molecular structure and crossing to a certain target area but disappearing and reappearing from one location to the next instantaneously.   Or at least that's the way I believe it works.

Sparced writes: "Personally I think Blu-rays killed the entire home video market."

Answer: That's what did it for me.  I used to purchase 4-5 dvd's a week – then, when Blu-ray came out and made my dvd collection obsolete, I just said "Screw it!" and looked to the web for all my entertainment needs.

roger reynolds, Dallas Texas writes: "Joe, I wanted to write and say thank you (!) for what you created in Stargate Universe – i just watched again, the first three episodes – "Air" and am blown away by the musical scoring, the performances of the ensemble of talented actors and the expression of the storyline. The work stands repeated viewing and still impresses."

Answer: Thanks, Roger.  A lot of very talented people worked very hard to produce Stargate: Universe and I'm very proud to have been a part of it.  Hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to work with most of them again in the near future.