Stargate: Continuum - MGM Stargate: Close Up: Amanda Tapping

From MGM Stargate:



Close Up: Amanda Tapping

July 31, 2008 (Actors)

She’s crossed the universe with Stargate SG-1, but filming Stargate Continuum gave star Amanda Tapping her greatest challenge yet – filming inside the Arctic circle.



A brief excerpt:

...“The one thing that I really missed on it was Teryl [Rothery]. I was hoping that there would be a way that we would find Dr. Fraiser somewhere. I know that the scope of the movie was so huge that the odds of us actually finding a comrade from our time was slim, but it would have been nice,” she says. “But the fact that we had Don Davis there, and we had William Devane come back as the president, and we had Cliff [Simon] – we were very lucky in the people that we were able to bring back...”

...Nor does Tapping think that the film marks the end of her involvement with Samantha Carter, the character that she has carried with her for so long.

“I don’t think that it’s the last for anyone. I think we all hold out hope that there will be a possibility for more, and I think it’s safe to say that we would all happily go back and do another one,” Tapping states. “I’m sure we’re all working on our own things right now, but if the opportunity came up and I was able, I would jump through flaming hoops to do another SG-1. I have so much respect for the people that run the franchise, for Brad [Wright] and Robert [C. Cooper] who wrote the films, and if they asked I would do everything I could to do it.”

Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate: Continnum - MGM Stargate: Peter Woeste - Behind the Scenes: Continuum

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=88

Behind the Scenes: Continuum

June 26, 2008 (General)

Peter Woeste describes the challenges of filming on Stargate SG-1’s most expensive ‘set’ yet – a fully operational US Navy nuclear submarine!



Photo courtesy of MGM Stargate

A brief excerpt:

Director of photography Peter Woeste has filmed in a lot of interesting places during his decades in the business, including plenty of locations with aspects of the US military. But never, until the filming of Continuum, had he filmed on an operational nuclear submarine. Before the Stargate: Continuum crew could even get aboard the sub, naturally it had to surface – and the opportunity to film a sub punching through the arctic ice wasn’t one that either Martin Wood or Peter Woeste would willingly pass up.

“The shot that we were really looking for, something that was unattainable anywhere else, was that we wanted to tie the sub coming out from under the ice in with our actors,” Woeste explains. “We wanted them in the same shot; so that there was no doubt that we were there. Otherwise we could have done it all with VFX!”

**snippage**

Next, Peter Woeste discusses the dangers the crew encountered whilst filming on the ice itself – including frostbite and Polar bears!


Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate: Continuum - MGM Stargate: Director's Cut: Continuum (Pt. 2)

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=87

(Please follow the link for the complete article. Photo at the site.)

Director's Cut: Continuum (Pt. 2)

June 19, 2008 (General)

You can’t get a much more stunning location than the Arctic to film in – or a much more difficult one, either. Director Martin Wood had his work cut out to make Continuum’s icy patches a success.

A brief excerpt:

**snippage**

“I have a still photograph of a five-person crew standing on the ice and two green screens in front of them and a helicopter in the air and seven snow mobiles. I actually showed this to the assembled group when we finished that day and I said, ‘On any given day on Stargate SG-1 the TV series, I would never have any of these elements! This is remarkable!’”

**snippage**

In our next look behind the scenes at Continuum, Peter Woeste discusses filming in an operational US Navy nuclear submarine!


Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate Atlantis - MGM Stargate: Close Up: Paul McGillion

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=89

Close Up: Paul McGillion

June 17, 2008 (Actors)



Photo courtesy of MGM Stargate -- Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) from "The Seed" a Stargate Atlantis fifth season episode, airing Friday July 18 '08 on the SciFi Channel (US).

Carson Beckett’s death in season three caused heartache aplenty for his loyal fans. But no one ever really dies in science fiction - and to prove it, season five promises to be the doctor’s most interesting year yet, says actor Paul McGillion.



Paul McGillion and Nicole De Boer from "Whispers" courtesy of Joseph Mallozzi's blog.

A brief excerpt:

...In his trailer, actor Paul McGillion settles down out of the rain to talk about Beckett’s return in season five. It’s telling that the actor even has a trailer – he’s no passing guest star, but rather an important, permanent part of the show. In fact, McGillion is back for at least five episodes of Stargate Atlantis’ fifth year, happily reprising the much-loved character that met his untimely demise in season three’s ‘Sunday’. Paul McGillion “I’m happy to be back,” he says with a smile, “I never wanted to leave the show in the first place!”

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that this Carson Beckett isn’t quite the same timid doctor we met in season one, and that’s not just because he’s become a little more inured to the terrors of the Pegasus galaxy. No, this Carson Beckett was cloned from the original by one of Atlantis’ arch enemies, Michael, and rediscovered in season four’s ‘The Kindred’. Still, the differences are subtle… so subtle, in fact, that McGillion laughs at the question of whether they are there at all.

“He’s basically exactly the same. I think he’s much more handsome in season five,” the actor jokes with another laugh. “He’s been away from craft service and he’s dropped a few pounds! But no - there was some comment in our first episode back, ‘The Seed’. There’s a little awareness [that he’s a clone] at first, but that’s diminished now. ‘Outsiders’ is my third episode back, and I think it’s almost like, ‘Whatever!’” He laughs again. “You know that it’s Beckett. I don’t have any special super powers or anything. There’s really not too much comment.”

**snippage**

Story by Sharon Gosling



Photo of Paul McGillion from "Whispers" courtesy of Joseph Mallozzi's blog.

Stargate: Continuum - MGM Stargate: Director's Cut: Continuum (Pt. 1)

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=86

(Please follow the link for the complete article.)

Director's Cut: Continuum (Pt. 1)

June 12, 2008 (General)

As Stargate Continuum gets closer and closer to launch, director Martin Wood talks about the fun he had fitting 11 years of history into one excellent adventure.



Photo courtesy of MGM Stargate

“The whole thing for us was to make the biggest Stargate that’s ever been made aside from the original feature,” says Wood, of what exactly he wanted to achieve in making Stargate Continuum. “The biggest that we could in the time and with the money that we had.”

Few could argue that the veteran director has failed to achieve his ambition. After all, Continuum stretches from the icy expanses of the Arctic ocean right into the farthest reaches of the stars – and also gives viewers a very definite idea of ‘what might have been’, if not for SG-1 as we know it. Continuum is a classic Stargate SG-1 adventure, and the director is in no doubt as to what makes it such.

“The team that we had,” he says immediately. “Having Richard Dean Anderson in the show, having our core team, and getting to have everybody back. It was so funny because all the people that I’ve worked with for 11 years were standing on the set and I was saying, ‘I did three shows with you and five shows with you and a season with you…’ It was such a classic Brad Wright run-and-jump-and -sit-and-cry type of story, that makes it classic SG-1 immediately, and then having that team and all those characters back – it will remind everybody what’s happened over the last eleven years. I think that’s part of the brilliance of Brad Wright and Robert Cooper when they write these things – Brad is so intimately aware of 11 years of evolution.”

**snippage**

In the next installment, Martin Wood tells us about filming in the Arctic circle for those memorable icy scenes!

Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate: Continuum - MGM Stargate: The Making of Continuum (Pt 2)

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=85

(Please follow the link for the complete interview/article at MGM Stargate.)

The Making of Continuum (Pt 2)

June 5, 2008 (General)

Continuing on from his introduction to writing Stargate Continuum, Brad Wright takes readers behind the scenes with some more hints about the spectacular Stargate SG-1 movie!



Photo courtesy of MGM Stargate

A brief excerpt:

Besides shooting in the Arctic, producing Continuum as a feature film provided some other fantastic opportunities, particularly in the area of production design.

"There were things that we could do in Continuum that we simply couldn't afford to do in the television series. We actually built the bridge and several decks of a 1939 cargo ship, and it looks pretty damn good on the screen," Wright exclaims. "Rather than just doing a cargo hold, we did a gimballed cargo hold, and rather than just saying it's cold, we refrigerated the set. I had originally thought that we could maybe find an old ship in the harbour that we could shoot the deck scenes in, and we would have to just build the bridge. But marine technology has gone so far that there just aren't any ships around that have [that style] -wooden decks, wireless and portholes. Even the slightly newer ships have technology that would have had to have been swapped out, and it would have cost almost as much to refit an existing ship with 1939 level technology as it would to build one on the stage. It would have cost a fortune to shoot it on location and it might have even been dangerous. So, since we knew we had to build the cargo hold anyway, we decided to build the front of the ship, which was costly but it gave us a lot of fun."

**snippage**


Look out for more interviews with the cast and crew of Stargate Continuum – coming soon to Stargate.MGM.com!

Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate: Continuum - MGM Stargate: The Making of Continuum (Pt 1)

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=84

(Please follow the link for the complete MGM Stargate article. Photo at the site, courtesy of Martin Wood, is in its original full-size, high-resolution format.)

The Making of Continuum (Pt 1)



Photo Courtesy Martin Wood

May 29, 2008 (General)

From the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle to the terrors of a changed timeline, the SG-1 team’s latest adventure is their most amazing yet! Writer and Executive Producer Brad Wright opens our series on the making of Stargate Continuum.

A brief excerpt:

**snippity doo-dah**

[Richard Dean] Anderson isn’t the only familiar face that long-term fans will recognize in Continuum, either. Amongst others, William Devane returns as President Hayes and Cliff Simon reappears as SG-1’s old Nemesis Ba’al – which provided an opportunity for Wright to explore a few alternative paths for another favorite face.

“I wasn’t going to use Vala as extensively as I did,” Wright explains, “and then Robert [Cooper] suggested a certain twist that makes her far more villainous and essential to the final part of the movie.”

In fact, Claudia Black gets a chance to explore Vala’s life before ridding herself of Qetesh. “It’s fun because this is a Qetesh that would have been different, even from the other timeline,” Wright points out, “because this is a Qetesh who was forced into marriage with Ba’al. Ba’al says, ‘I want you to be my queen’, which is a Goa’uld way of imposing servitude. But Qetesh is a Goa’uld, and obviously wants the power for herself.”

**snippage**

Watch out for the second part of our chat with writer and executive producer Brad Wright – coming soon!


Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate Atlantis - MGM Stargate: Atlantis Season 5 Exclusive Preview!

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=78

(Please follow the link for the complete MGM Stargate article.)

Atlantis Season 5 Exclusive Preview!

April 29, 2008 (General)

As season four prepares to conclude airing, executive producer Joseph Mallozzi gives fans the low-down on what they can expect to see when Stargate Atlantis returns later in the year.

Joseph Mallozzi



It’s hard to believe that Stargate Atlantis’ fifth season will culminate in the airing of the show’s 100th episode. The Stargate franchise’s first spin-off is now no longer a fledgling production – it has well and truly come of age. Season five will be the second year that the executive producing and writing partnership of Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie have acted as show-runners on the series. Despite being rushed off his feet as production on the season gets underway, Mallozzi was happy to spill a few secrets about what fans have to look forward to in this, the first of our two-part chat.

**snippage**

Q: When you first started talking about the season as a whole with the writing staff, what things did you want to see happen throughout the year?

JM: 'Well, first of all we left things on a cliff-hanger at the end of season four, with ‘Last Man.’ We wanted to resolve that in the premiere, ‘Search and Rescue.’ We had to deal with the change of command ¬– Carter leaving and Woolsey coming in. Then there were a couple of other things that we set up last season that we wanted to continue to explore and develop, like Teyla’s pregnancy and her relationship with Kanan, and Ronon’s reunion with his old buddy Tyre, who turned out to be a Wraith worshiper. Potential romantic relationships are something that we’ve been really subtle about in the past. I think, much to the delight or perhaps the chagrin of fans, we will be getting into more of the relationship stuff in season five.

Then there’s the fact that we have episode 100 coming up, which will be funny. Robert Cooper actually came in and he pitched an idea for episodes 19 and 20, which we thought was great, so we know what we’re working towards.

Finally, we talked about shifting the status quo in the Pegasus galaxy. When we first arrived in season one, the Wraith were the main threat and by the end of season four, the Wraith were significantly weakened. So an opportunity has opened up in the Pegasus galaxy, much in the way that it did in the Milky Way once the Goa’uld were defeated. We’re suggesting that in the past when societies reached a certain level of advancement, the Wraith would sweep in and cull them, so you didn’t see many technologically advanced societies, if any at all. So what we’re going to say is that the technologically advanced societies that do exist have been in hiding and fearful of drawing the Wraith’s attention. But now, with the Wraith significantly weakened, they’re taking the opportunity to step up. So we’re going to be introducing a technologically advanced society in season five."

**snippage**

Check out the concluding part of our chat with Joseph Mallozzi to find out about the base’s new commander Richard Woolsey…and the further adventures of Doctor Carson Beckett!

Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate Atlantis / SG1 - Big Finish: Audio Dramas

The UK web site, Big Finish, now has two web pages up for the first of the two SG1 Audio Dramas:

Gift of the Gods



http://www.bigfinish.com/SG-1-Gift-of-the-Gods

(Please follow the link for the complete detailed information)

CD Extras

Behind-the-scenes interview with Michael Shanks


Technical Details

Featuring: Michael Shanks and John Schwab
Writer: Sally Malcolm

CHRONOLOGICAL PLACEMENT

This story takes place during season three, before Fair Game.

Synopsis
"Years ago, I'd have felt uncomfortable with a Beretta in my hands. But not now..."

Doctor Daniel Jackson wakes up on the floor of his SGC lab, with no memory of what happened or how he got there. With him is Lt. Hunter of SG-12 – the team that should have accompanied SG-1 on their mission to P2K-797. But now, here they are, back on Earth with the whole of Stargate Command incapacitated around them.

So what happened? Why can no one remember? And why is the Stargate apparently connected to an alternate reality?



A Neccessary Evil



http://www.bigfinish.com/Stargate-Atlantis-A-Necessary-Evil

(Please follow the link for the complete detailed information)

CD Extras

Behind-the-scenes interview with Torri Higginson

Technical Details

Featuring: Torri Higginson and Timothy Watson
Writer: Sharon Gosling

CHRONOLOGICAL PLACEMENT

This story assumes that Doctor Weir was mind-probed by the Asurans following her capture at the beginning of season four. During the probe, the incident she recalls is set during season three, after Common Ground and prior to First Strike.

Synopsis

"This planet that you love so much... If you were not hidden, it would not exist, or at least not like this."

When Sheppard's team encounter a culture with phase shift technology that keeps their entire population invisible - and immaterial - to the outside world, it looks like Atlantis might have found the perfect protection from the Wraith. Eager to make a trade for the technology, Doctor Weir embarks on a diplomatic mission to negotiate
with the people of Lannavulin. But once there, it becomes apparent that not everyone is happy with the planet's status quo...

<><><><>

You have the option of purchasing from Big Finish or Amazon.UK, and can also download the dramas from Big Finish. More information at the website.

Morjana

Stargate Atlantis - MGM Stargate: Close Up: Torri Higginson

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=44

(Please follow the link for the complete article)

Close Up: Torri Higginson



December 10, 2007 (Actors)

When we left the Pegasus galaxy at the end of season three, no one knew what fate had in store for Doctor Weir...

**snippage**

Story by Sharon Gosling

Stargate Atlantis - MGM Stargate: Fight Club

Stargate Atlantis - MGM Stargate: Fight Club

From MGM Stargate:

http://stargate.mgm.com/news_detail.php?id=34

(Please follow the link for the complete article.)

Fight Club

November 13, 2007 (Episodes)



In this week's episode ("Missing"), Teyla Emmagan finds herself up against not one, but two groups of opponents eager to stop the Athosian warrior in her tracks. When she discovers that her people are missing and a tribe of fierce hunters called the Bola Kai now occupy their settlement, Teyla is determined to find out what happened to them. But first she has to keep herself and Doctor Keller safe until Atlantis realizes they are missing and sends help.

Teyla's fights – and, more recently, Ronon's – have always been one of Stargate: Atlantis' trademarks. They are the brainchild of James Bamford, the show's stunt coordinator. It's his job to take the writer's words from the script and realize the fight sequences for the camera.

"The script specifically said that she was armed with a stick and a knife," he says, of this week's episode. "They got the idea from previous training sequences that we'd done in other seasons. When you have a stick in one hand and a knife in one hand, there are specific techniques that are used in a fight sequence. Teyla's got her own style, so I stay with movements that we've [already] done – not completely the same techniques, we don't copy things over and over again, but I stay with her style that we've seen in the past."

**snippage**