Joseph Mallozzi is back for Part Four of his interview with Dial the Gate, this time to focus on Season Six of Stargate SG-1. This was a pivotal season for the show and franchise in many respects, and Joe will explore many of them before taking your questions LIVE!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:20 – Opening Credits
00:50 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:13 – Call to Action
02:23 – Guest Introduction
02:46 – “Powder Mage” (New Show)
08:44 – Stargate SG-1 Season 6
10:17 – Joe’s Perception of Season Six
14:28 – Fan Reaction to Jonas
16:21 – Anubis
19:23 – “Descent” (SG-1 6×03)
23:13 – “Nightwalkers” (SG-1 6×05)
28:21 – “Shadow Play” (SG-1 06×07)
33:54 – “Prometheus” (SG-1 6×11)
36:40 – Prometheus Design
38:09 – “Unnatural Selection” (SG-1 6×12)
43:21 – “Smoke and Mirrors” (SG-1 6×14)
47:11 – Bottle Episode
52:09 – “Prophecy” (SG-1 6×21)
54:45 – A Path Without Stargate
1:01:08 – Letting Characters Tell You the Story
1:02:17 – What “chevron” is SG4 on now?
1:03:38 – Any Missed Opportunities for Jonas?
1:05:53 – What would have happened to Jonas had he stayed on SG-1?
1:06:51 – Were there any plans to bring back Jennifer Hailey?
1:07:49 – Most Important Ingredient for Good Story
1:09:38 – Stargate Revolutions
1:10:34 – Thank you, Joe!
1:11:13 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:13:17 – End Credits

***

“Stargate” and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television.

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome to Episode 43, everyone, of Dial the Gate. My name is David Read. Thank you so much for joining us for another weekend. Joseph Mallozzi, writer and executive producer of Stargate, is back. He is joining us for his fourth appearance to discuss mainly Season Six of Stargate SG-1. But before we bring Joe in, if you like Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you would click the Like button. It really makes a difference with the YouTube algorithm and will definitely help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend if you’ve got some Stargate buddies out there. And if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the Bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops, and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. This is key if you plan on watching live. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next several days and weeks on Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net’s YouTube channels. As episodes before, this one will be no different. Joe and I will discuss the main subject at hand, which will be Season Six and his episodes. And while we’re doing that, you’re welcome to submit questions to the mods in the YouTube chat on youtube.com/dialthegate. After Joe and I talk a little bit, I’ll be going to the mods to provide me with those questions so you can participate as well. And without further ado, Joseph Mallozzi, welcome back, sir.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Hello there. Good to see you.

David Read:
It’s good to see you. How was your New Year?

Joseph Mallozzi:
My New Year was, as most every other New Year has been for the past 10 years. We were in bed by 10:00 PM, and I…

David Read:
We’ll DVR the ball drop. That’s great. And congratulations on your development deal.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Oh, thank you. You’re referring to Powder Mage.

David Read:
Powder Mage, yes.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, so Powder Mage trilogy. It’s a series of really interesting, atypical fantasy books that… I’ve read the first book, Promise of Blood, back in 2017. And I blogged about it, and it’s been on my radar ever since. And after working with J.B. Sugar, who is a producer, who did a show called Bitten, but he’s also a director. He directed an episode of Dark Matter. He’s been a longtime friend since his time on Dark Matter, and we talked about working on something, and I put Powder Mage on his radar. And lo and behold, the deal closed and full steam ahead towards development and hopefully a series green light sooner than later.

David Read:
What’s the elevator pitch for Powder Mage? Can you give us a brief synopsis of what it is? It sounds fantasy.

Joseph Mallozzi:
It is fantasy, and it takes place in a, call it sort of an alternate Earth, 19th century setting where magic exists, but very specific magic. It’s, thematically… it’s called flintlock fantasy in that it mixes gunpowder with magic. And in this realm are these individuals with the innate ability to control gunpowder. They’re called powder mages. And they’re able to ignite gunpowder. In some cases, they’re able to sort of redirect bullets. And when the book opens, Lord Field Marshal Tamas has staged a coup and taken down the king of the nation of Adro. And he and his powder mages have essentially taken out the king’s cabal of magic users. And in essence, basically by staging this coup, they unknowingly have set some wheels in motion that will spell potential disaster for them and the nation. So, yeah, it’s an interesting… In that I’m usually not a big fan of magic because, in a lot of magic shows or books, there are no rules.

David Read:
I was about to say…

Joseph Mallozzi:
You don’t know, basically.

David Read:
You have to be careful with them when you do introduce them.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Exactly. Why doesn’t Gandalf just disappear everybody out of the chamber and teleport them out? Well, he can’t do that, but why not? I don’t know. Whereas in the Powder Mage trilogy of books, it’s called a trilogy. The first series is a trilogy, but there’s another trilogy following it, and a number of other short books. The magic, there’s a framework to all the magic. And you know the rules. The rules are fairly straightforward and simple, which is one of the reasons I really like the book a lot. It’s atypical…

David Read:
Yeah, what you’ve just described, it sounded like the climax of a normal book, and they open right to it.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Spectacular battle sequences and really interesting, colorful characters. And also, a lot of the twists, turns, shocks and surprises, political machinations that I am always a fan of. So, watch for it eventually or follow the blog, follow me on Twitter and I’ll keep you posted on any developments.

David Read:
Are you looking to adapt the published material or go in a new direction?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, Brian McClellan, who’s the author, has done a terrific job of creating this world, these characters. It’s funny because whenever I would be brought in to pitch source material like books down in LA, I would pitch them and whenever someone would pass it would say, “Well, you stuck too close to the source material.” And my response is, “Well, yes.” I mean, that’s the point. Fans of the book are going to want us to remain as true as possible to the source material. So, that’s one of the things. I’ve spoken to Brian and told him I want to try to remain as true to the source material as possible. And to that end, he is going to be very involved in the development as well. I told him he’ll read everything I write and he can weigh in with comments and suggestions. And when we come to build the series, I will consult him, since he is the oracle of all things of Powder Mage.

David Read:
Yeah, ’cause you’re not gonna want to do just a one-to-one substitution. I’m sure at certain points somewhere, not necessarily with narrative or anything else, you’re gonna wanna introduce something new and you go to the author to do that.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Oh, absolutely.

David Read:
Because that’s how it fits.

Joseph Mallozzi:
There will be newer elements, there will be more than anything detail added to the world and the characters, the relationships, and the story.

David Read:
I just was rewatching The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1, and the first 15 minutes of it happen before that book starts. So, it all fits in. And it’s like, “You know what? I didn’t even think about those scenes.” But those scenes had to have logically happened. And so, nice things about an adaptation, you can do just that. You can embellish and fill in detail. It’s cool. So, thank you for coming back with me. We had an introductory interview, I guess in October now. November, Season Four, December, Season Five, and we’re in January. I’ve been really looking forward to discussing this season because it was a pivotal one for the show and for, I think, the franchise as a whole.

Joseph Mallozzi:
It was.

David Read:
The show got its second or third wind at this point with a transfer to Syfy Channel. It was thematically a great season, introducing a number of different concepts. You had a huge hurdle to overcome, because arguably the conscience of the show in terms of the character voices was gone. And Corin Nemec did a pretty darn good job substituting. And then there was a fracture in the fan base at the same time throughout this season. Web sites like Save Daniel Jackson emerged, I believe, at this point. And online forums were developing in such a way where sides were really beginning to be drawn. We’ve kind of gotten over the honeymoon stage of the internet where everyone’s all, “Oh, you can think whatever you want to think. There’s plenty of room for us over here.” And people are starting to take sides, and SG-1 Season Six came out about that time in 2002. What was your perception of this season coming back in and being like, “OK, I guess we’re not going anywhere just yet, so… year three, yay. What do we do?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
I did mention, when Paul and I joined for Season Four, it was with the understanding that we would do two more seasons, and we did those two seasons. When the fifth season ended, we assumed that would be it, and then Brad came in and told us that Syfy had picked up the show for a sixth season. I said, “Ah, OK.” And for that reason, from a totally uncreative, non-creative standpoint, from a delivery standpoint it was very different for us. One of the reasons being that when we produced the show for Showtime, we didn’t really get many notes per se. But then when we shifted to Syfy, the Syfy executives had a lot to say on the scripts, on the cuts, and then progressively over time became more involved as well. So, that was different as well. And then, as you mentioned, the departure of Daniel Jackson and the introduction of Jonas Quinn certainly changed things creatively and also behind the scenes. You mentioned the Save Daniel Jackson campaign, and that was interesting in that it almost created a fracture in the fandom that I think existed prior to Daniel’s departure. And really what it came down to ultimately was the Daniel supporters and the Sam and Jack supporters, which was kinda strange. So, much so that even after Daniel came back, and I remember an episode… What was the episode? We’ll come to it. I think it’s a Season Seven or Eight episode where Sam and Daniel are basically captured, and they’re being held in a warehouse, and then O’Neill comes in and the first person he goes to is Sam to see if she’s OK. And that created such a sort of outrage on certain boards because…

David Read:
I don’t remember this.

Joseph Mallozzi:
…they were like, “Well, he should’ve gone to Daniel first.” And it was the smallest things. But, yeah, this was always present. My first taste of it was back in my very first episode, “Scorched Earth,” where O’Neill kind of presses the button to destroy the ship…

David Read:
And Daniel.

Joseph Mallozzi:
…that has Daniel on it, which wasn’t in the first draft, but ultimately was included in the subsequent drafts and also was in the final cut. There was also a scene, a post-climactic scene, where O’Neill and Daniel have a little ‘talk it out and everything’s cool’ moment, which was cut, which I think would’ve helped a lot. But since then, that was the beginning for me of my realization that there was certainly a rift in the fandom when it came to Jack’s affections.

David Read:
Loyalties as well. I don’t think it was intentional of you guys by any means, but when Jack said in Season Five to Hammond about the Kelownans, “You cannot capitulate to these people. They are lying bastards,” people looked, there was a sizable number of fandom that looked at Jonas as a lying bastard in Season Six. And they had to kind of walk their way back from that to see this character as, “OK, he was someone who would not stand up against his government, and then by the end of that first episode did stand up against his government.” But he still had a lot to prove in terms of a lot of those fans who were just like…

Joseph Mallozzi:
To be honest with you, I think there were certain fans who just saw him as a replacement and they were gonna hate him no matter what. So, for instance whether it was Jack’s line or they held him responsible for Daniel’s death, I personally thought all that was kind of a bit of a stretch. It felt like they were looking for excuses not to like the character, and you can not like the character, I would always take issue with the reasoning. Really, the reason they didn’t like the character was because he was a…

David Read:
Corin had an uphill battle…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely he did.

David Read:
…one way or the other. Could not envy him for that. That was a hard job. But I think that he added such a flavor to that season that people with an open mind didn’t see coming. And Season Six has a real mixed bag of stories. I’d love to get into some of them with you. Arguably one of my favorite Stargate shows is “Descent.” But before we get into that, I wanna get into the overarching arcs for the season. Anubis is now a threat, and I think my understanding was, and correct me if I’m wrong, that Anubis was probably… There were hopes to do some kind of a movie and that Anubis was going to be the big bad for the movie. But then you guys got a Season Six and it’s, “Well, we’re going to milk this one because he’s our new villain, and this is where we’re going to go with him.” So, what was that sixth season like when you guys were sitting down and discussing, “OK, what do we want our goals for this year to be?” Because Syfy hadn’t greenlit a Season Seven yet. It was just gonna be Season Six. Is that correct?

Joseph Mallozzi:
But to be honest with you, every year we went into the season assuming it would be our last.

David Read:
From this point forward. I guess Season Five forward.

Joseph Mallozzi:
From Season Five. And from this point forward, we always assumed it would be the last. And so, we went into it assuming this was it, bizarre as the situation was, the fact that we were picked up for a sixth season. The thought of a seventh season was just so beyond us that, really, it’s a good thing. Every year we put all our cards on the table looking to finish strong, and usually a month or two before end of production we would hear about a pickup, and either we had written the scripts already for the finale and had to figure a way out, or basically we had a little time to write a season finale as opposed to a series finale. And like you said, Anubis was the big bad, and I kinda liked Anubis. He was very different from previous System Lords that we had battled. I felt almost a Star Wars overtone to the character.

David Read:
And you have a couple of those visual effect sequences in Season Seven to emphasize that.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Rob Cooper was and is a huge Star Wars fan.

David Read:
Rightly so. And let’s be fair, Anubis is the only villain that arguably cannot be destroyed. Because he’s stuck in some kind of subspace lair between human reality and Ascension. Not even Oma Desala can take this guy out. And it’s one of those where she tells Daniel, “Anubis can’t be killed, not by you, not by me.” And I just remember thinking when I watched this, “Don’t let the Jaffa hear that.” Seriously. But “Descent.” We pick up with a great idea about Thor having been downloaded into that one particular Goa’uld mothership. And was there a chance to bring Michael back to do the voice work? Was that just not in your mind? “We’ll just take some samples from the previous season for this. Let’s tell a cool story aboard a mothership, aboard this existing asset that we have, these standing sets.” Tell us about “Descent.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
That’s a lot. First of all, I wasn’t privy to Michael’s conversation with Brad. But I understood it was very amiable, and it was ultimately Michael’s decision.

David Read:
The Season Five departure.

Joseph Mallozzi:
The Season Five departure. With regard to the voice, I didn’t really think at the time. To be honest with you, I wasn’t as involved in the post-production of the episode. So, I don’t think I was even aware that he was doing the voice, to be honest. So, it was really an afterthought. The episode itself is very unique in that the mechanics of doing that scene where Jack and Sam are in the room filling with water. I’m like, “Well, how are we gonna do that?” We ended up doing that by going to an Olympic pool, building that three-walled set, and sinking it. So, rather than the water rising, really the set is descended.

David Read:
Going down.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And there was a lot of really interesting sequences. There was one where Corin swims down, and I think switches the crystal, and swims back. And he did it twice, and the first one he dropped the crystal, and the second one he did it perfect– Well, he didn’t do it perfectly. Basically, he did it in one long sequence. He must have held his breath for almost two minutes. But I don’t know, there was something, some of it was the way the prop shifted. I remember Paul didn’t like, and I remember we had an argument in the room. I’m like, “This is one take, it’s such a…” And he’s like, “No, no, we have to.” And so, we ended up, in the final edit, there’s a cut in there, but…

David Read:
But he really held his breath.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
Wow, that is exceptionally cool. I remember you telling us that at dinner a couple of years ago on Dialing Home, and it was like, “He actually did that.” That was so neat. And having… it was an interesting dynamic, because we see a couple of characters play together that we don’t normally see. Major Davis, played by Colin Cunningham was back.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
And Jacob Carter played by the late Carmen Argenziano was in that episode as well. It was a real buddy episode. There were so many layers to this, because you did a great round of visual effects for that, and the characters were just firing on all cylinders. You had, you were also integrating Jonas into the team with him trying to figure out what his place was, and everything just fit. The ending is fantastic with the gliders escaping under water “Can we even do this?” “Well, we’re gonna find out.” So, everything just fired on all cylinders for that episode.

Joseph Mallozzi:
It was a lot of fun. And for me, I look back on this season, it was definitely one of my favorites. The ones we wrote, anyways.

David Read:
Absolutely. “Nightwalkers.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
“Nightwalkers,” that’s another very atypical episode. So, you can either love or hate.

David Read:
You didn’t typically do night shows.

Joseph Mallozzi:
We did not, no. Those were, frankly, always kind of a pain in the ass, because they would kind of screw up the schedule, ’cause you always have to kind of push… you have that turnaround for the actors. A certain amount of time for the actors. So, you wrap at, what is it? 1:00 AM, then your next day starts at, whatever it is, 12 hours later, 1:00 PM the next day. So, yeah, it was kind of a fun, atypical episode. This was the episode where I kind of, speaking of Jonas and Corin, noticed his penchant for eating. So, throughout the season, he has a lollipop, he has the banana. I think in this episode he had the cup, the coffee mug of tea. And I remember Rick was like, “Actually, that’s my bit.” Rick, yes, he would always find something in his coffee, or tea, or whatever he was drinking.

David Read:
It’s a great idea that an entire town of people have been taken over by premature Goa’uld symbiotes.

Joseph Mallozzi:
We shot at a location in, oh shoot, what was the name of the…

David Read:
It’s used for every Christmas movie up there.

Joseph Mallozzi:
For everything. It was used for every Christmas…

David Read:
What is it called?

Joseph Mallozzi:
It was used for a series called Chronicle, it was used for a…

David Read:
Once Upon a Time.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Once Upon a Time.

David Read:
Yep. I can’t think of the name of the town. Yes, but it was Steveston, Oregon in the show.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Steveston, actually it is Steveston.

David Read:
Seriously?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, Steveston.

David Read:
There we go.

Joseph Mallozzi:
There we go.

David Read:
There were… A couple of my Stargate friends love that episode because they love the dynamic with O’Neill removed. You have the first real episode where Rick is not really present. They kind of did that in Season Two with “Spirits,” but with this one, he’s removed pretty much for the entire thing. And that dynamic of Carter, Teal’c, and Jonas really fit pretty well. There was a lot riding on that episode because if the show didn’t work with O’Neill removed, I mean, if everyone was like, “Well, with RDA not in it, it’s not happening.” We might have had a problem on our hands. But it’s a great show.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Thank you. I look back on it and you’re absolutely right, this is at a point where Rick wanted to spend more time with his daughter, and I think contractually he had less episodes. So, we had to pick our spots. As it turns out, it fell on us to write him out of an episode. And this was one of the first ones. And you’re right. I think creatively it worked. Whether it would work for the fans was sort of another question entirely.

David Read:
Absolutely. And it’s interesting that the things that you had to do behind the scenes in order to accommodate his schedule. For better or for worse, he’s earned the time, the opportunity to do what he wants with his time and, we were lucky to still have him involved with the show. He coulda left. And so, you hear stories of “Abyss” where you see Cliff Simon on the screen and the back of Jack’s head, that was Dan Shea. That was his stunt double. You just had to take advantage of when he was there and make sure to get the material that you could get when he wasn’t there.

Joseph Mallozzi:
We had to be creative, like you said. And I think for the most part it worked well. It’s just that as time went on, there was a gradual transition with the O’Neill character from series regular to recurring to guest star.

David Read:
And how do you keep it fresh…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, exactly.

David Read:
… at the same time? You play with that in, in 200. Well, you could have the characters refer to him a lot and get him on the phone every once in a while. Hey, dog!

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, sorry. She’s…

David Read:
Hello.

Joseph Mallozzi:
This cranky thing. What’s up? Look, it’s David. He’s a big fan.

David Read:
Hi. Hi, welcome to Dial the Gate. “Shadow Play,” Dean Stockwell.

Joseph Mallozzi:
“Shadow Play.” Oh yeah, Dean Stockwell.

David Read:
Tell us about “Shadow Play.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
To be honest with you, not one of my fondest episodes.

David Read:
Really?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah. But it was fun in that it allowed us to shed some light on Jonas’ backstory. So, for that reason I really liked it a lot. I don’t know what it is, but looking back, there are those episodes that you always have fond memories of, and there was nothing really negative about the production of the episode, but in general as an episode. I didn’t find it as strong as some of the other ones. And other people may disagree because they may say “Nightwatchers” or “Descent” are atypical and not really Stargate. But Dean Stockwell was great, a lot of fun to work with, I don’t know. What did you think of the episode?

David Read:
Cards on the table? Season Six overall is one of my least favorite seasons.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Is that because of an absence of Daniel?

David Read:
Part of it is an absence of Daniel. And nothing to say about Corin. Corin was great. Daniel wasn’t there. And one of the things that has always drawn me in about the show is that the show asks the why questions. Why are we doing this? What are the consequences of this? And Corin did a great job in episodes like “Unnatural Selection” when you realize what you did. Fifth, you left him behind. So, there was that, but there was a texture to the season that did not resonate with me as much as Seasons Four and Five had. And I’ve always tried to sit down and figure out, “OK, now why is that?” And it’s just that the type of stories that were told, maybe part of it was a little bit of Rick dialing back as well. This is really when the texture of the show begins to shift because you have to be a little less conventional in terms of your storytelling approach. Not everything that was reliable in past seasons is reliable anymore, and you have to be a little bit more clever, for better or for worse. And with an episode like “Shadow Play,” it’s one of those where it was pretty obligatory that we were gonna have to do a Jonas episode sooner or later, and explore what happens in terms of his sociopolitical planet world. And the episode’s strength was going to live or die based on what was going on on that planet and how good it was as a story. Does that make any sense?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, it makes perfect sense, and it’s true, and you said some seasons resonate more than others. Some episodes resonate more than others. And sometimes it’s kinda surprising which episodes, when I rewatch them, that I respond to, and others that I recall reflecting on fondly that I’ll rewatch and I’ll say “Huh, I don’t know, it was a fine episode but…”

David Read:
Having said that, I will speak now for a number of people who are screaming at me in that I have lost count over the years of the number of people who say Season Six is their favorite. So, you know what? It’s a fact that infinite diversity and infinite combinations, as the Vulcan in me would say.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I’ll be interested to hear why, why it worked for them because in my mind I was trying to put my finger on it. It was like, “Well, maybe there were less mythology stories.” But then I thought, “Not really because I think we…”

David Read:
Not really.

Joseph Mallozzi:
“… there was always an even mix of the mythology latent stories and those fun standalone episodes like “Nightwalkers,” like “Shadow Play.”

David Read:
I think for me, the biggest part of it is that every time Rick was on screen, in my mind because I knew that you didn’t have him as long as you could, when he would be on screen, in my mind I would start the timer and be like, “OK, now he’s on screen. Now he’s on screen. Now he’s on screen. We have him for this for a little bit. These scenes really need to work, in my opinion, so that I can really maximize my enjoyment of them. Oh, and now he’s gone again.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
But that didn’t change in subsequent seasons. In fact, the situation got…

David Read:
Even tighter.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… even tighter.

David Read:
That’s a very good counter… I’m not sure then. The total number of episodes are not really a fair sum of the overall quality of a season. But I don’t know. So, for me, there are episodes in there that are immensely strong. “Descent” is one of my favorites. “Abyss” is one of my favorites. “Prometheus” and “Unnatural Selection,” you guys had to take… We might as well go to “Prometheus” now. It was time to take the replicators down a new evolutionary path in my opinion.

Joseph Mallozzi:
“Prometheus” was another one that was a fun episode. I love the concept, but it was fraught with issues, I think, throughout. I remember getting the first draft back and Rick and his partner at the time, Michael Greenburg, would give notes. And I got the script back, and I was like, “Brad, I think Rick really likes this script. He’s all like check marks all over.” He’s like, “No, check marks are bad.” Like, “Oh.” So, he never bought that the Prometheus could be hijacked. So, no matter, we did various revisions to sort of try and sell it, but he…

David Read:
The whole premise is built on that.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… he was never on board with that. So, he was never on board with the premise, which made it a little difficult. And then I think that was the de Lancie episode.

David Read:
Yeah, you killed Q.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And one of my favorite visual effects shots from this season is him getting spaced.

David Read:
Tumbling through space. Doing a back flip. That two-parter had so much going for it. You introduce Kendall Cross as Julia Donovan. I think it’s Kendall Cross. And my issue with this, if I am to… This is David airing all of his laundry with…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Get it off your chest.

David Read:
… with the show. You guys were great about selling stuff ahead of time and build up. You mentioned the Enkaran problem a couple of episodes before we see the Enkarans. This is our first spaceship. And there is no mention of the Prometheus project at any point before. So, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t going on. Obviously, that you had everything in place for it to work. That’s one of those things that I wish we had had the chance to hear murmurs of earlier on. Something called Prometheus, and then, “Whoa!”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, that’s a fair point.

David Read:
Prometheus! I wanna know how satisfied you were with the design.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I recall being pretty satisfied, I think. When I think back, obviously, some of the other ship designs always come more readily to mind than the… The Destiny is a gorgeous design, whereas the Ori ships, I always thought they were, everything we discussed, they were like toilet bowls.

David Read:
I love the Ori design. I think it’s cool.

Joseph Mallozzi:
The Ha’tak vessels, I loved. I mean, the Prometheus, and all the Earth ships were, I always thought, fairly utilitarian looking. They were fine ships. But in terms of the pantheon of sci-fi spaceships, for me, it’s not a top 10.

David Read:
There we go, that’s fair. And it’s, again, it’s one of those where there are gonna be plenty of people who disagree. And it’s an aesthetic thing. That’s what I was genuinely curious about. “Prometheus” and “Unnatural Selection,” they are one of the uncommon two-parters in that it is a two-parter, but it almost isn’t a two-parter because the setup is really the only thing that leads one into the other. And this was the winter break episode, where Thor shows up, and we’ve got Michael Shanks’s voice back. And he has a mission for us for the replicators. And I’ll never forget sitting in my living room hearing Joel’s music start up because he had the best ending tags, whatever you want to call that, whatever the TV phrase…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Music cue.

David Read:
… cues at the end of the shows of any composer. And that’s a perfect example because he plugs the replicator theme in there and you just get goosebumps thinking, “Uh-oh, what’s gonna happen next?” The Asgard are calling us to help them with their bug problem again. So, send in the Terminix guys. That whole show, it had to… You had to tee it up for, I forget who did “Unnatural Selection” for them to-

Joseph Mallozzi:
I think that was Brad?

David Read:
… knock it outta the park. Let me see here. I’m curious.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Believe it was Brad. But check it.

David Read:
Yep, give him his due.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Story by Brad and Robert. Written by, I believe, Brad Wright.

David Read:
There we go. Absolutely.

Joseph Mallozzi:
That episode had one of my very favorite endings. Just the…

David Read:
“Unnatural Selection?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
… the notion of… Yeah, you know, trapped in that, was that time dilation bubble? Forever reaching.

David Read:
Absolutely, and replicators all the way down to the core, potentially to the core of the planet. I was so scared that they were going to just clamp onto the legs of the ship and you were just going to have to detach the landing gear and take off. What was that like in that writer’s room to come to the decision of betraying, for all intents and purposes, a genuinely human replicator?

Joseph Mallozzi:
It’s interesting because it was really dependent on time and writers. Sometimes we would sit in the room and we would beat out an episode, every act, every scene of every act, and then the writer would go off. Often in Brad’s case, he would just come in and wanna spin ideas, and we would get a general notion of what we would discuss, and sometimes when he’d hit a wall, he would talk things through. But he was a very independent writer, I found. Brad had basically, he seemed to be at his best when he was on his own.

David Read:
Really.

Joseph Mallozzi:
When he was armed with the ideas after an initial discussion, and then would just go off and write the outline and then the script. And that was all Brad, that decision. And I love it. I look back on, there were so many… I wanna put together a blog post of the top 10 most controversial Stargate moments. And that was one. There’s back in Season Four, O’Neill shutting the gate on poor…

David Read:
On Odo.

Joseph Mallozzi:
…Rene Auberjonois.

David Read:
Alar.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And this is another. There’s Alar. There’s Sheppard feeding a human being to the Wraith. And there’s this moment, the betrayal of Fifth.

David Read:
I would also put up there blowing up all of Asuras in, “Be All My Sins, Remember’d.” As spectacular as that was, that one grinds my intellectual gears to this day. That’s good. And I really am looking forward to getting into those with you later. But no, it showed the strength of the show, that it was willing to go those places with its heroes. To do pretty awful things to innocent creatures, for the greater good, and saying that, not every solution is going to be ideal. But sometimes we just have to do this thing because what if we let this thing out?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Sometimes…

David Read:
What if we let them out?

Joseph Mallozzi:
They were faced with a dilemma. And no choice is a good one, so you have to choose the least offensive choice.

David Read:
And Carter pays for it later.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
Which was perfect. And what a tour de force from Amanda in that episode with Patrick Currie, holy cow. In Season Eight, “Smoke and Mirrors,” you did the teleprompter on that.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
Hey, Suji.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Sorry, I’m gonna set her down here.

David Read:
No, it’s fine.

Joseph Mallozzi:
There we go. Sorry.

David Read:
It opens with…

Joseph Mallozzi:
“Some and Mirrors.”

David Read:
It opens with, arguably O’Neill’s wet dream assassinating Senator Kinsey and it’s not him. And it’s another callback taking advantage of building on your own mythology… with the memetic alien devices… from Season Three, before your time.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
Tell us about “Smoke and Mirrors.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Again, another very atypical episode, which are the ones that we really enjoyed writing. The ones that were not necessarily mythology-based, certainly not ancient-based. The ancients were Rob Cooper’s playground. More than anything, I just love having Ronnie Cox back. And I think I mentioned I ran into Ronnie Cox in LA a couple of years ago while I was pitching DC Comics, and I had a little time between my next pitch and he walks into this diner as I’m walking out. And I was like, “Ronnie,” I’m like, “I don’t know if you remember me, but I was on Stargate.” And he goes, “Ah.” He’s like, “I had such a great time. You guys were always… You treated me so well.” And it was just, I’m always heartened to hear either cast or crew reflect fondly on my past productions, so whether Stargate or Dark Matter. It’s always very heartening. And he played frankly an asshole politician, but Ronnie is a terrific guy.

David Read:
You love to hate the character.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
There are just some that do that so well. It’s one thing with… ‘Cause when you go online to the forums you see people talking, “Oh, I hate that guy. I hate him so much.” I’m like, “Yeah, he’s doing his job.” “I know, but I hate him.” Much better than being indifferent to a character. An artist is not doing their job, or at least not resonating with you if you’re not being provoked by what they’re doing. And he did that in spades.

Joseph Mallozzi:
By the way, this episode is notable for featuring a young Peter Kelamis as Dr. Langham, who gets clothes-lined by Teal’c at one point.

David Read:
There’s power in sound effects when Teal’c leans forward and you hear the chair creaking. It’s like, “What?” Peter Kelamis, what a gold mine. He and Gary Jones did a sketch at GateCon a couple of years ago, and I have rarely laughed so hard. He is so funny.

Joseph Mallozzi:
He is funny. He is very funny.

David Read:
Great guy, and I’m looking forward to having him on the show at some point here, ’cause the life that he brought to SGU. I would love to have those three scientists on at some point ’cause that was such a fine group of actors. Jennifer Spence and… Was it Jennifer Spence?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah.

David Read:
Yes. And then Peter Kelamis and then… For God’s sake, Dale Volker.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Patrick Gilmore.

David Read:
Patrick Gilmore.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
Thank you for saving me from Google. All right. Ronnie was back in “Disclosure,” and Season Six had a clip show. Let me ask you this. When you would get near the end of production on a season, is that around the time… because that’s usually when the clip shows would appear? They would not be earlier in the show. How often was it a, “You know what? We really could use one to save on budget,” versus, “You know, so much has happened. We’re about to do a bigger show, let’s review.” Was it strictly budgetary, or was it otherwise?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I’d say roughly 100% the first one and roughly 0% at the second. It was always, absolutely always budgetary. And it always happened at the end, because you have a certain amount of money to make the show, and you have what’s called a pattern budget, whatever, I forget what at the time it was, say, 3 million an episode. You would get the preliminary budget for an episode as you’re going to camera. And a lot of the time, basically it’s, let’s say, $3,600,000, and things broken down in terms of visual effects and your guest cast and everything. And as you go through production and prep as a season progresses, those numbers usually shake money out and it gets lower and lower. But usually at the two-thirds, three-quarters of the way through the season, you get a pretty good sense of how much money you have left, what you want to do in that finale, and what it’s gonna cost and, as a result, you sometimes will need to do a clip show. It’s really an episode, I’ll be honest with you, everybody hates to write. We’re always like, “Oh my God, we have to do the clip show.” And the bottle episode is another example. I think I’d rather do a bottle episode, obviously, than a clip show. Some of the best, I think, episodes tend to be bottle episodes, or…

David Read:
I agree. At least with that, you’re writing new content. With a clip show, it’s literally, “Insert scene here.” If the episode runs short, we’ll insert more clips to make it work.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Given the choice, however, I do have to say that a clip show is also a lot cheaper than a bottle episode. Anyways, we did the clip show. Yes, and Ronnie came back, and as far as clip shows went though, this was actually, I think, more entertaining than most. But maybe I misremember.

David Read:
No, I would agree with you, because you are growing the sociopolitical — man, that’s the first time I’ve used that word twice in one day — landscape of the show in such a way that it’s going to impact the franchise forever. And you may not have known for the series going in, but not necessarily the franchise ’cause Atlantis wasn’t really around that yet. But this is key for that. By that token alone, introducing the Stargate program to five or six other nations was a big deal. From that, we’re gripped to see how they respond. Is China gonna play ball? Russia’s clearly playing ball. They’re getting some good deals out of this. They’re on our side. But what’s gonna happen here? And that was solid. You had some solid performances by those actors as ambassadors.

Joseph Mallozzi:
There’s that, and as you said, most clip shows tend to be episodes that look back without moving forward. But definitely this one moved the big-picture story forward. And also it was a, I remember for that one terrific shot, Director Bill Gereghty, where I think Kinsey raises his finger and then basically it’s, you have a shot of sort of Thor in the foreground…

David Read:
His little fingernail.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… with his finger raised. When you rack focus to him.

David Read:
Was Thor saving the day in the original draft?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I believe he was.

David Read:
OK. What a great… I genuinely did not see that one coming. Arguably, deus ex machina. But it made complete sense because we needed to see someone come in from outside of us to say, “This is why this is important, and I’m not gonna hold y’all to it. But don’t make, don’t make me… Don’t test me.” It was solid. “Prophecy.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Thank you. “Prophecy.”

David Read:
Another Jonas episode.

Joseph Mallozzi:
This was a tough one. This was a tough one because I remember when we wrote the outline, we didn’t have an answer for the end, the climactic moment where there’s that turn.

David Read:
If I may insert, I’m a huge fan of Lost. And one of the principles of Lost when they started doing time travel stuff was, you can’t change what has already happened. It’s happened.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
You can only, you can only be responsible and change things in your present, but that’s already fixed. One of the problems with some of these time travel stories is, nothing can be changed until… And I think this was one of my issues with “Prophecy,” and maybe I’m just misremembering it, until the last scene, the last premonition, nothing could be changed except for this one, because if this one does happen, we kill everybody. So, we can’t allow this one to happen.

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, again, I don’t recall the twist in this one, but I remember it was that exact problem. How do we stay true to…

David Read:
The premonition.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… the premonition without breaking the rules? And it was actually Paul, my writing partner, who came up with the solution, which I thought was quite brilliant at the time, but I will have to sort of re-watch.

David Read:
I need to re-watch it too, to be perfectly honest. I should’ve done that before this, but it’s a pretty solid show. Lord Mot. I think that was Lord Mot, and then Frida Betrani’s husband was in that episode as well. And it was one of the better send-off episodes for Corin. I’m glad that we got that one in there, knowing what happened later, before he returned to his planet. Absolutely. I have questions submitted to us from the fandom. Let me see here.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Please.

David Read:
This is interesting, from Jett Ison. “Joe, what do you think would have been your path if you and Stargate had never collided?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Man, that’s a good question. I honestly don’t know. At the time, I started my career working in animation and then made the step up to live action teen sitcom and then from there to one-hour action/adventure. I probably would’ve stuck around that action/adventure realm and maybe made my way to procedurals. Maybe. And probably would not have loved it.

David Read:
There is something…

Joseph Mallozzi:
I certainly would have been less successful, I think, if it were not for Stargate.

David Read:
There, procedurals, they do have their place and, you know, when I’ve got one on, it kind of sucks you in. But there’s just something different about the mechanics of them.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Does it suck you in? I have been told…

David Read:
OK, suck it is the wrong word.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… by people who produce procedurals that the whole point of procedurals is that they’re the type of show you can watch while you’re doing something else, because they have a very specific structure. And I look back at a show like House was the show that I enjoyed, I used to watch with my ex all the time. But, I mean, there was a very…

David Read:
That’s a good point.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… definite formula. You would open with whatever the interesting…

David Read:
Of the week.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… to the case was, and then, amidst the backdrop of the character relationships or whatever is going on in the serialized element, you have the team trying to figure out what the disease is. They get it wrong. Finally, they figure it out. And then in the last act, House has an epiphany and realizes, “No, that’s wrong, this is what it is,” and then he saves the day. And that was it. I mean, every episode. But it worked.

David Read:
It is like Power Rangers for adults.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And I think it’s the same with procedurals, and some, a lot of people are very good at it and once you know the formula…

David Read:
You can infer the rest.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t think I could be good at it, to be honest with you.

David Read:
My folks winter with me for three months out of the year and they’re here right now, and my mother is a huge fan of Below Deck and Deadliest Catch and Housewives. And when I’m up there hanging out with her, I get sucked into the damn things and I don’t even care. So, there’s that aspect of gimmickiness to it, that pulls me in. But I couldn’t watch a series long-term like that. I tried 24 and I didn’t like it. I tried that series for five or six episodes. Did you ever watch Jack Bauer?

Joseph Mallozzi:
It’s funny, I did.

David Read:
Tell me, tell me what you think.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I had a real issue with the first season, to be honest with you, because it’s the type of show that requires you to know exactly where you’re going. And it became very clear that they didn’t know where they were going, where essentially characters who would turn out to be, I don’t know, turncoats or moles later in the season took actions that, in retrospect, were completely idiotic. And for me, basically, there was this one incident, I think. I’m not even sure which episode it was, but his wife and daughter were kidnapped and they escaped. And so they’re in their car and they drive away from the kidnappers, and rather than keep going to a police station, for some reason, the mother pulls the car over and then runs back up the interstate to see if they’re still being followed and which I don’t know why. And then she comes back to the car and for some reason she parked the car too close to the edge of a ravine and the car fell over into the ravine with the daughter in it. And then the mother is so overcome by her parking…

David Read:
Stupidity?

Joseph Mallozzi:
… that presumed to claim the life of her daughter that she collapses and gets amnesia. So, there’s a trifecta there. Stopping the car to go back and look, happening to park the car so close to the ravine, and then getting amnesia. And I was like, “OK.” At this point, the writers don’t give damn. I don’t want to say it, but basically at that point I was like, “Come on.” And look, as a writer, watching TV and film, I know it’s tough. And I do excuse some things. But then there are other things that are just inexcusable, and that trifecta, I think, looking back, I don’t think there is a worse trifecta of…

David Read:
Unfortunate events.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Events, yes, in television that I can recall.

David Read:
That show in particular was one of the earlier ones where we know the story that we want, we know where we want it to finish in each season. So, what hoops do we have to make those characters jump through in order to achieve that end result?… As a result of that, you can make characters do things that are not in their nature and the audience go, “Huh?” It, uh, as a writer, I would wonder how often you would, and I’m sure there’s a term for this, let the characters tell you where the story is gonna go while you’re writing. I mean, obviously you have a structure, you have your outline. But in some cases, I would think that the story doesn’t always go where it’s where you expect it to, and the characters reveal things to you as they’re talking.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I’ll be honest with you, it’s less a case of the characters telling you where they want to go as the other writers reminding you where the characters should go. So, one of the great things about Stargate is that Rob and Brad had been there from the beginning. They created the world, these characters. So, they always knew and they would call you on it. There was never, it was always easy to try to do something and further the story, some sort of an interesting motivation or convenient action you could take, but Brad and Rob would never let you get away. So.

David Read:
There you go. Raj Luthra. “At what chevrons is SG4 on now? And will we see Jonas Quinn’s return?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
I think we said, what did I say? He’s chevron five, locked.

David Read:
I think you said chevron five was locked.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah. Chevron Five is locked, and we’re still spinning because of this pandemic Everything has kind of ground to a halt. In fact, actually, we were gonna go out and pitch. I had two sci-fi shows that I wanted to go out and pitch. We were gonna go pitch in October, but things shut down. And I’ve yet to hear from my agent about going out again. So, one is the pandemic because it’s hard to put things into production. Two is the fact that there were a lot of shows in the pipeline that were greenlit that were going to go into production, so it’s kind of hard to green light new stuff with the pipeline clogged. So, as a result, things have slowed down. It’s frustrating. And I totally empathize with the fans. I would love to get a new Stargate series going. But as long as Brad, as I keep saying, is the guy to bring it to us creatively, and as long as he has the backing of MGM, I am confident that we will get a series sooner than later.

David Read:
There we go. Carlos Takeshi, “Was there a storyline for Jonas that you wish you could’ve done?” Or did he fulfill his purpose?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t know if there was a specific storyline that I think that we wanted to do. I think I would’ve liked to have seen more of the character rather than seeing him off at the end of the season, and that was that. It would’ve been nice to have him guest more.

David Read:
I think it would’ve been nice to have him back at least once more, especially after the dynamics of the show had changed. There’s a reference to Langara being taken over by the Ori.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, and he does come back for an episode. That story by Corin where he dates his sister in the episode. I keep saying. Only because I think it’s supposed to be his girlfriend, but their haircuts were so similar. This is kinda creepy. I remember watching the dailies.

David Read:
It’s the fad on Langara. JohnFourtyTwo, “Was there any consideration given to Jonas ascending?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, not that I recall.

David Read:
I don’t think so.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t think so. No.

David Read:
CaptainMark RedAngel, “Are you a fan of golf?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
No. Absolutely not. I was the only producer on Stargate who was not a fan of golf. And I would, we would come in every Monday morning and talk about our weekend, and 50% of the conversation at least would revolve around golf. Either the golf they played or the golf they watched. I ended up starting, I started following Japanese baseball. So, whenever they’d start talking about golf, I’d be, “Oh my God, the Orix Blue Wave are on top of the Pacific Division, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters are making a run at the pennant.”

David Read:
Good for you.

Joseph Mallozzi:
So, no, I never went on any of those golf trips, which is, in retrospect, sad. I think they were more of a bonding experience. They would’ve gone to Las Vegas, and occasionally they’d go to Hawaii, or to Arizona.

David Read:
We’ve got a few good ones out here. Shantel Leo, “If Jonas had stayed on SG-1, what would you have liked to see happen with his character?” That would’ve been interesting, had Michael never returned.

Joseph Mallozzi:
That’s a good question that I never really thought of because he left after…

David Read:
It was never an option.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t know. I like Corin a lot. I think he did a great job. It would’ve been great to explore more of his backstory, focus more on Langara, and maybe what potential role he could’ve played in the political and social situation, the evolution of things back on his planet.

David Read:
Was there a plan to bring him into SGU when we visit Langara?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No. To the best of my knowledge, no. But that was a Brad episode, so you would have to ask him about that.

David Read:
I will. Jakub Olejarz, “Were there any plans to ever bring back Jennifer Hailey?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
No definite plans, but she’s a character that, when we wrote the character, it was with the intention of having her come back. Making her sort of a junior Sam Carter. But ultimately, whenever we would sit down at the end of every season and look ahead to the next season, it was always story driven. Whoever had a great idea for a story, whatever that story would be, we would… Sorry.

David Read:
That’s okay.

Joseph Mallozzi:
We would kind of develop that or spin that, and I guess we just never came up with a great Jennifer Hailey story.

David Read:
Makes sense. Losing patience, I’m almost done, I understand.

Joseph Mallozzi:
He’s like, “Where’s dinner?”

David Read:
Couple more and then we’re good.

Joseph Mallozzi:
We’re good.

David Read:
RMR V, “What do you think, Joe, is the most important thing for a good story? What’s the most critical element?” That’s an interesting question.

Joseph Mallozzi:
There are two things. One is the hook. That’s what’s gonna sell your story. The great idea, that is the seed of the story. And it’s frankly the hardest thing to come up with, a unique, engaging idea. So, the idea, I think, is the most important. But, as I’ve often said, viewers tune in for the hook, but they stay for the characters. The hook will sell a series, a hook will greenlight your episode, but at the end of the day, it’s always the characters and the character interactions. And frankly, it’s always the small moments. The banter, the throwaway lines, the looks that fans will always remember more than anything.

David Read:
I hear you. Two more. R Radev, “Do you read Stargate fanfic?” Or did you?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I do not. I never did. Legally we were just not allowed to read fanfic.

David Read:
That makes sense. You gotta protect yourself.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And after the series ended, I never did either. In the event that a Stargate show ever came back, and I was fortunate enough to land on the writing staff, I wouldn’t want someone to say, “Hey, this is my ‘Teal’c opens the ice cream shop’ fanfic that you read back in 2012.” And I’ll be like, “Holy shit.” For that reason, I try to avoid it.

David Read:
That’s true. And finally, Steffan Ames, “Was there ever going to be more cooperation between the countries in Stargate other than Atlantis planned that never panned out?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
There was some discussion about that and exploring some of the other countries and their ship programs, and I think we were discussing the possibility of a China Gate at one point as well.

David Read:
You’ve got the Sun Tzu flying around out there.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And there was, I think, in the planned third SG-1 script, Stargate: Revolution, which would have focused on the program going public, other nations would have figured very much into that story as well. But alas, that, like Stargate: Extinction, is…

David Read:
On the shelf.

Joseph Mallozzi:
On the shelf.

David Read:
Joe, this has been a delight, as always. Fascinating discussion. I always, when I come back, part of me is always, “Is this gonna be as good as the last ones?” And I feel like we are gaining momentum, that this is snowballing and getting better and better, and I really appreciate you being on the show.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Thanks for having me.

David Read:
It’s been fascinating. You get that little one fed.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Actually my wife is already on it.

David Read:
There we go.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
I appreciate your time, and I look forward to talking to you about Season Seven in February.

Joseph Mallozzi:
So, do I.

David Read:
You take care of yourself, sir.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Thanks, David.

David Read:
Take care. Bye-bye now.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Take it easy.

David Read:
Joseph Melozzi, everyone. Thank you for tuning in, and thank you so much for submitting questions. Thanks to Sommer, Ian, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, and now Rhys for moderating and organizing the questions as well. One of these communication stones is screen-used and one is screen-accurate. And for the month of January, Dial the Gate is giving away the replica. To enter to win, you need to use a desktop computer or a laptop computer and visit dialthegate.com. Scroll down to Submit Trivia Questions, and your trivia may be used in a future episode of Dial the Gate, either for our monthly trivia night or for a special guest to ask me in a round of trivia. There’s three slots for trivia, one easy, one medium, and one hard. Only one needs to be filled in, but you’re more than welcome to submit up to three. Please note the submission form does not currently work on mobile devices. Trivia needs to be in, for this round, it needs to be in by February 1st. If you’re the lucky winner, I’ll be notifying you via your email address right after the start of the new year to get your address to get you the communication stone. So, thank you for that. And I do have fan art this week from MyIndigoSky of Jonas Quin in celebration of discussion of Season Six. Very, very nice. And before we let you go, if you like what you’ve seen in this episode, I’d appreciate it if you’d click the Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will definitely help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing the video with a Stargate friend, and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click that Subscribe icon. The Discord link has expired. I’ve put the correct one in the show notes panel on YouTube already, and by next week, I’ll have the new Discord link on the screen right here, I do apologize for that. But the correct link is now in the show’s description. That’s what we have for you in this episode. Mr. David Blue, Eli Wallace will be joining us in just a few minutes so I’m gonna go get him and get this set up here. My name is David Read. I really appreciate your time. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you again to Joe, and we’ll see you on the other side.