June 27, 2012: Days of Stargate Atlantis Past! Runner! Duet!

Meetings, meetings, meetings.  My head is spinning.  It’s a wonder I was able to get any work done today – but I did, completing a couple of new scenes for the horror script.  One more and I’m more or less done.

Up on tap tomorrow: yet another meeting, some document reviews, completing that last scene for the horror script, and coming up with some episode springboards for the new series I’m developing with the usual suspects.

RUNNER  (103)

Exit Lieutenant Ford.  Enter Ronon Dex.  Although that wasn’t exactly the plan, that’s the way it turned out.  Yes, Ronon was intended to assume the newly vacated position on the away team, but the intention was to make Dark Ford a recurring character along the lines of a Todd or a Michael.  For various reasons, it didn’t work out.  However, what did work out was Jason Momoa as Ronon!  And as much as I can’t imagine anyone else in the role, the casting process was a hell of a challenge.  As I said in a previous entry, the more people involved, the more choices, the slower the process.  And, whenever casting is up for discussion, EVERYONE has an opinion.

From the get-go, Robert Cooper envisioned Ronon as a rough-and-tumble outdoorsman/warrior.  His template was the affable mountain man, Rupert, who’d enjoyed, if not success, then certainly popularity as a contestant on two seasons of Survivor.  Ronon had to be brash, colorful, and larger than life. Unfortunately, some of the contenders put forth by…err…other parties…were all wrong.  I’m talking skinny, soft-spoken soap opera actor wrong.  And then, one day, we got Jason Momoa’s casting tape.  Rob took one look at him and declared we had found our Ronon.  Then, it was simply a matter of convincing everyone else of the fact.

Anyway, loved the introduction of the character in this episode, and also loved his interactions with Dark Ford.

If there is one question that almost always comes up after this episode airs, it’s “Why did the wraith stop feeding on Ronon?”.  In the flashback, we see the wraith place its feeding hand on a defiant Ronon, then suddenly pause and draw back.  It LOOKS like something has prevented it from feeding.  In fact, it is merely pausing, amazed by Ronon’s defiance in the face of certain death.  Its internal monologue isn’t “Why the hell can’t I feed on this guy?” but rather “This guy’s got balls.  He’d make a simply splendid runner!”.

DUET (104)

This episode is one of my top ten Atlantis favorites, a wonderful McKay episode with echoes of All of Me compliments of the hilarious Martin Gero who is firing on all cylinders here.  We get jellied mice, Dr. Fumbles McStupid and, i I’m not mistaken, the first guy on guy kiss in science fiction history.  We’re also introduced to a couple of new characters (Laura Cadman, played by Jamie Ray Newman who would go on to headline ABC’s Eastwick, and Katie Brown, played by Brenda James, who would develop into a surprising love-interest for our awkward Rodney), and treated to some glimpses of a fish-out-of-water Ronon adjusting to life on Atlantis.  It’s a lot of fun and was, without a doubt, one of the most enjoyable episodes to shoot.

I thought the aforementioned episodes were a couple of season 2′s best.  Agree?  Disagree?  Present your case.

Tagged: Atlantis, Duet, Runner, science fiction, Science Fiction Television, scifi t.v., SF television, SGA, Stargate: Atlantis