March 29, 2013: Build your own wraith facility! Here’s how!

So, how’s everyone doing?  Good, good.  Enjoying the long weekend? Great.  Here in Vancouver, it looks like we’ve finally put winter behind us.  The sun is out, the temperature has risen, and my french bulldog, Lulu, is in full spring mode -

Toasty

Ready to hit the park – little buddy in tow

Out and about

As for me – well, I’m taking the long weekend off.  I plan to hit a couple of farmers markets, do a little dim sum, sit in my backyard with the dogs and read – maybe even get around to trying that bottle of Absinthe if I remember to pick up the sugar cubes.  Oh, and, of course, update this blog.  There are a few subjects I want to hit, some thoughts on the ill-fated Atlantis movie I’d like to post, a Supermovie of the Week review I need to remind Cookie Monster about, and those Art Department packages I’d like to upload.  But, for today, let’s just concentrate on one -

Unfortunately, I don’t have the entire Spoils of War package but, or the wraithly inclined, I did come across these pink tech pack revisions…

Wraith facility – cloning chamber & corridor chamber

Ah, this takes me back.  In addition to our standing stages at The Bridge Studios, we would also make use of the stage at Norco which housed, among other things: various wraith facilities, hive, Earth, and goa’uld ships.  Eventually, we consolidated production so that, in the final few years of the franchise, all of our standing sets were at the Bridge.

Wraith facility – corridors

Why did we refer to them as chicken legs and mushroom consoles?

Mmmmmm.  Tasty-looking chicken legs.

The HERO mushroom console

Wraith facility – Queen’s lair & corridors

“Projector to be hidden behind chair riser”.  Well, ideally.  I remember watching dailies of one episode where the projectors were exposed for all to see.  They were so cool and techy looking that the director (not one of our regulars) assumed it was actually part of the wraithy set dec.  Also those “umbilicals strewn across floor in Queen’s lair” and other wraith ships and facilities were the perfect cover for wires and electrical cords.

Wraith facility – entrance

Greens: “Dense mixed forest green set outside North entrance”.  Yep, one of the many talented departments that made up the production was “Greens” who were tasked with creating believable vegetative backdrops.  In this case, just a touch of forest greens give a hint of an exterior beyond the entrance way.

Puddle Jumper

From the comfy confines of Stage 1, the puddle jumper would travel throughout the Pegasus Galaxy and back through the magic of that greenscreen out its front window.

Wraith dart

I always liked the design of the wraith darts, alternately organic, techy, creepy, and comfy-looking.

Tagged: Atlantis, SGA, Spoils of War, Stargate, Stargate: Atlantis, wraith, wraith facility