June 30, 2012: NOT so fast! A return visit to the Night Market! Days of Stargate: Atlantis Past! Aurora! The Lost Boys!

I woke up this morning to a new set of notes.  Wait!  Notes on what?  I have even started a new writing job yet.  Oh, wait.  These are notes for the LAST writing job.  The miniseries I assumed we’d completed work on a week and a half ago.  Paul and I handed in the second draft, hadn’t heard back and assumed that, with the start of production only weeks away, we were done.

NOT SO FAST!

The notes are – particular.  Which is fine.  I prefer clear, detailed notes that leave no room for misinterpretation .  Unfortunately, this being a long weekend, my writing partner is away (and computer-less) until Tuesday, meaning I’m on my own until then.

So much for that barbecue.

Speaking of barbecue, last night Akemi and I paid a return visit to the Richmond Night Market with our friends Errol and Janice.  Feast your eyes on this feast for your eyes:

Errol does his best Fred Flintstone imitation.

Janice paces herself with lemonade.

Akemi gives the barbecued corn a tough/chewy go.

Barbecue pork skewer!

Barbecued baby octopi and grilled quail eggs.

Something called a Xian Burger. The secret ingredient is spicy pork.

Errol partakes in some offal stew.

The Hurricane Potato is the perfect cure for what ails you.  Provided that what ails you isn’t an upset stomach.

The deep-fried Mars Bar. How could I not?

The deep-fried cheesecake.

Akemi feeling rock ‘n rollish (or borderline Gaga).

We followed up dinner with a walk through the flea market stall section where Errol bought a couple of Angry Bird pens for his kids, one of which promptly broke only seconds after the purchase was made.  Errol returned to the stall and asked if he could exchange the obviously faulty product.  The owner claimed that the pen was intact when he bought it so, as far as he was concerned, the fault lay with him.  A little back and forth at which point Errol fired the “What’ll I say when my kid cries himself to sleep tonight?” volley which was effortlessly deflected with a shrug and casual: “I don’t care.”  But Errol was not done yet. After retelling the story – and working himself up – he returned to the stall, snapped a picture with his cell phone, and informed him that was an editor for the local paper.  At which point the owner finally came around  - and asked him whether he wanted his two dollars back.  Errol flatly refused and left, two dollars poorer but satisfied.

Continuing our trip down Atlantis memory lane.  We’re almost at the halfway mark of season 2…

AURORA (109)

I love a good scifi story and this episode was brimming with cool, SF concepts: time distortion, virtual reality, time travel (of sorts) – and a new (technically Ancient) space ship.  A great premise and an equally great ending (for those of us who, as I’ve already said, prefer our endings like we prefer our chocolate: bittersweet).  The Aurora set was a redress of the weapons platform from Trinity.  We did A LOT of redressing on both shows as a way to keep costs down.  Boy, did we get good mileage out of that village.

My fondest memory of this episode had nothing do with the actual episode per se but a behind-the-scenes problem wardrobe came up against.  Turned out the helmet on those environmental suits were too small for a dreadlocked Ronon.  After some consideration, the obvious solution presented itself: Have Jason’s double take his place in the suit.  Anyone notice?

And, finally, the question that everybody asks after the conclusion of this episode: What WAS that crucial piece of data pertaining to a weakness in the wraith that apparently went down with the ship?  The answer: You’ll have to ask the writer, Carl Binder.

THE LOST BOYS (110)

Lieutenant Ford makes his triumphant return.  And he’s brought along some friends (one of whom, Kanayo, is played by Martin Gero’s friend, and occasional writing-producing partner, Aaron Abrams)!  Atlantis goes Independence Day as our heroes hatch a plan to pilot a dart into a hive ship and, once there, plant explosives that will take out the ship – once they’re long gone of course.  Naturally, this being Stargate (and a two-parter no less!) things don’t go exactly as planned.  It’s interesting seeing the increasingly unbalanced Ford manipulate his former teammates, equally interesting to see McKay, Teyla, and Ronon (in an appetizer for Broken Ties) react to the drug coursing through their respective systems.

As was the case with all of our mid-season two-parters, although they may have aired months apart, they were shot back to back.  In this case, directors Brad Turner and Martin Wood did the honors – Brad on The Lost boys and Martin on The Hive although, for efficiency’s sake, all of the hive ship sequences were directed by Martin while Brad directed all of the scenes on Ford’s planet.

Tagged: Atlantis, Aurora, science fiction, Science Fiction Television, scifi television, SF, SF television, SGA, Stargate, Stargate: Atlantis, The Lost Boys