January 18, 2013: Continuing our trip down Stargate Atlantis Memory lane! The Shrine!

Continuing our trip down SGA memory lane with…

THE SHRINE (506)

Three hanky alert!  Executive Producer Brad Wright delivers one of the most talked-about episodes of the show’s fifth and final season. Described as a “reverse Flowers for Algernon”, it charts the emotional and intellectual erosion of the brilliant Rodney McKay after he is infected with a seemingly incurable disease.  It’s an episode highlighted by terrific performances, touching scenes, and a surprisingly gruesome surgery scene.

During the episode’s prep, one of the fan sites reported that its title had undergone a couple of changes.  It had initially been called “amort” before being changed to “The Shrine of Talus” before, ultimately, settling on “The Shrine”.  Amort?  The fan site based this assumption on the fact that, under the heading of episode title in one of the art department hand-outs, was the word “amort”.  Oh!  Amort!  Usually, when sets are built for a given episode, their cost comes out of that episode’s budget. However, in cases where large sets are built that are used more than once (say, the village set or the Daedalus set or even a cave set that is used multiple times a season), their cost is amortized over the course of several episodes.  Amort!  Short for amortized!

Still, there was a slight alteration after the original episode title, The Shrine of Talus, didn’t clear.  Why didn’t clear?  No idea.  Presumably, the name was already taken.  Somewhere out there a Mr. Shrine Talus continues to live in relative obscurity.

The submerged gate sequence made use of a piece of the gate, the green screen, and a water tank to convey that “we’re flooded!” feel (Photo @MGM Television)

EP and episode writer Brad Wright on set (Photo @MGM Television)

More green screen to convey the size and scope of the surrounding city of Atlantis (Photo @MGM Television)

It’s the little things that made the show special – like the work that went into designing these rock formations for the grotto surgery.

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Ancient carved tablet – detail. “The ancient lettering should be chipped, worn and faded to the point that it is not readable.”

The grotto. A mix of construction, set dec, greens, SFX mist and VFX green screen.

Gruesome stuff.  Rodney undergoes cranial surgery.  (Photo @MGM Television)

The surgery and parasite escape – prosthetics and visual effects.

Tagged: Atlantis, science fiction, scifi television, SF, SF television, SGA, Stargate, Stargate Atalntis, Stargate: Atlantis, The Shrine