Prop collecting is a passion for many fans. Some are satisfied with replicas. Others will only accept screen-used pieces into their collections. Still others have both! Richard Johns from Empire Movie Props joins DialtheGate in a special episode to discuss his company, the props industry, its pitfalls and promises, and several Stargate pieces in our mutual collections!

Share This Video ► https://youtu.be/mpTMqYRs8_c

Visit DialtheGate ► http://www.dialthegate.com
on Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/dialthegate
on Instagram ► https://instagram.com/dialthegateshow
on Twitter ► https://twitter.com/dial_the_gate
on Discord ► https://discord.gg/z7xRrs4cQX

MERCHANDISE!
https://dialthegate.redbubble.com

SUBSCRIBE!
https://youtube.com/dialthegate/

Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:15 – Opening Credits
00:44 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:04 – Call to Action
01:53 – Guest Introduction
03:22 – When did you fall in love with the Stargate franchise?
05:48 – Ra’s panel
07:18 – Terminator props
07:48 – The Beginning of Collecting Props
09:54 – How Empire Movie Props grew out of his love for Stargate
18:43 – 18 feet tall Stargate (Picture on screen)
19:54 – Stargate Origins props
27:28 – Anubis helmet
28:48 – Mud Man masks from “The First Commandment” (SG-1 1×6)
31:05 – Gary Jones coming to look at Richard’s Stargate
36:12 – Breaking Bad props
38:19 – Exploded DHD (SGA 3×09 “Phantoms”)
39:44 – Maintaining the Value of Props
43:03 – A Favorite Stargate Piece
44:03 – Notebooks of Daniel and Jonas
44:24 – Advice for New Prop Collectors
47:13 – SG4
49:18 – More Stargate Props!
51:38 – Hats from “Emancipation” (SG-1 1×04)
53:56 – Paul McGillion in “The Torment of Tantalus” (SG-1 1×11)
57:58 – General Hammond’s Ring, Worn by Don S Davis
59:21 – Ingenuity of fandom (Kino from SGU)
1:02:03 – Thank You, Richard!
1:02:30 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:06:29 – End Credits

***

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

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#TurtleTimeline

TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
Welcome everyone, to Episode, I believe 52. Is it 50?… Yes, because we had Kate Hewlett earlier. It was a pre-recorded show. I was like, “52, I feel like I skipped one.” No, I just did it pre-recorded. My name is David Read. Welcome to Dial the Gate. Thank you so much for joining us, and happy Valentine’s Day to you. I’m in my red. So, before we get started with this episode, which is gonna be featuring Richard Johns, owner of Empire Movie Props, I invite you to like, share, and subscribe to the show. If you like Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal to me if you clicked the like button. It really makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm, and will definitely help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. And if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click that 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 of this live stream will be appearing over the next few days and weeks on specifically, gateworld.net. So, without further ado, I appreciate you tuning in. Let’s bring him in. Richard Johns, owner of Empire Movie Props. Hello, sir. How are you doing?

Richard Johns:
I’m doing great. How are you doing?

David Read:
I am doing extremely well. I always talk about my menagerie behind me here, but I think you blow me away. Tell us a little bit about this.

Richard Johns:
I’ll start off by saying who I am.

David Read:
Yes, please.

Richard Johns:
A little bit about me there. So, my name’s Richard, and I own Empire Movie Props. I’m married to a lovely lady named Beverly. She puts up with my collecting props and helps out at shows and stuff. Without her, I wouldn’t be able to do this. I’ve got three kids, Jasmine, Josephine, and Sophia. And two of them actually help out at shows as well. Sophia and Josephine help out. Empire Movie Props actually started off as a hobby, and it’s turning into a business. I work full-time as a law enforcement officer. I’ve been doing that for 15 years. And prior to that, I did corrections and security, so I’ve been in this field for almost 25 years now. So, I’ve started, Empire Movie Props started out as a hobby, and now it’s turning into this business. And it’s getting bigger and better, and I’m here to talk about it today.

David Read:
When did you fall in love with the Stargate franchise?

Richard Johns:
OK. 27 years ago, a friend of mine gives me a call, and they said, “Richard, do you like science fiction movies?” And I said, “Yeah.” And they said, “And you collect ancient artifacts? I’ve got Roman Egyptian artifacts.” I said, “Yes, I do.” And they said, “There’s a movie that you have got to see.” And I said, “OK, what’s it?” And they said, “It’s called Stargate.” They said, “It’s everything.” Because the other thing too is they said, “You’re into the ancient astronaut theory type of thing.” And I said, “Well, yeah, I’ve read up on that, and I think it’s an interesting concept.” So, they said, “You gotta see this movie. It’s called Stargate.” So, I’m going, “OK, if they’re saying I gotta see it, I gotta see it.” So, I’m sitting there and I’m watching the show, and the music starts. I’m going, “This is great.” And you see the camera panning over this carving. I’m going, “OK, it’s getting more interesting.” And the camera pans back and you see Ra’s face there. I’m going, “OK, that looks like King Tut. You’ve got me.” And through the whole movie I sat through like this. My mouth open, and I was just amazed at everything. The story was amazing. It was a whole new science fiction concept. Costumes, props, they had two big name actors, Kurt Russell and James Spader. They’re both my favorite, two of my favorite actors. And the special effects were absolutely amazing. When Daniel Jackson goes up to the Stargate and he puts his hands up to the gate when it’s activated, and the water’s rippling, I was just blown away by that. And I watched Stargate again last week, and I must have watched it at least 300 times over 27 years. And my wife, it’s a joke, my wife says, “Every time you open up the DVD player, the Stargate movie’s in there.” And it is. But I just watched it last week, and the special effects from 27 years ago still stand up today. And in some cases, the special effects are better than some of the movies that are out there. And that was 27 years ago. So, I saw this movie and I said, “Oh my God.” It’s my favorite movie, it’s still my favorite movie of all time. And what happened was, I said to myself, “I’ve got to get something from this movie to hold in my hands.” And a couple of years later, an auction came up, and a piece of Ra’s panel came up at this auction. And I said, “OK, that’s gonna be in my hands.” And I won the auction.

David Read:
Ra’s panel?

Richard Johns:
Yeah, from the pyramid, the ship? Because what happened — I did a little research on this — and what happened, I… There was a really large pyramid. It was about 15… like huge. And they didn’t have any place to store it, and I heard they had cut it up and sold it for pieces, and this is one of the pieces from that. It’s a shame that they cut it up.

David Read:
They had it in storage for quite a while, the pyramid ship. I did not know that they dismantled it, ’cause it was intact 10 years ago.

Richard Johns:
Yeah. So, I have a piece of it, and I’ll show it right now.

David Read:
OK.

Richard Johns:
So, the detail in that’s absolutely amazing.

David Read:
Patrick Tatopoulos is a genius.

Richard Johns:
Yeah. Absolutely amazing. I got that prop, and I had it in my hands, so I put the movie on, that’s next to the TV, and I’m watching Stargate all over again, and I’m looking at this and I see the scene where Ra’s ship is there, and I’m going, “Oh my God, that’s the piece from that.” And I was just… I said, “OK, I gotta have more. I gotta have more.”

David Read:
That’s how it starts, man.

Richard Johns:
I was hooked, and I had to have more Stargate props, and then it was Terminator to Terminator 2, and it just accumulated. Like I said, 25 years later, I’m still collecting.

David Read:
What do you have from Terminator?

Richard Johns:
I have props from every single movie, including the TV series. The T-1000, I’ve actually got some of the bullet hits. Of the liquid kind. I’ve got costumes. Just about everything you can think of, I’ve got. On our web site we’ve got pictures of all of our props from the collection.

David Read:
That’s empiremovieprops.com, right?

Richard Johns:
Yeah.

David Read:
Got it.

Richard Johns:
And I got about 400 props in my private collection.

David Read:
So, you were collecting before Stargate?

Richard Johns:
No, Stargate was the one that actually got me.

David Read:
It got you into it?

Richard Johns:
It got me interested. Yeah.

David Read:
You started collecting 27 years ago?

Richard Johns:
Well, 25. It was a couple of years before I actually made the connections of where you can get… ‘Cause I had no clue where you can buy props.

David Read:
Mostly it’s private collectors. I’ll still get people coming to me saying, “Where can I get something exclusive?” For Stargate stuff, GateWorld is pretty good about making news announcements when something comes online. Prop Store London usually always sells something Stargate related sooner or later. But it’s so many of them. The barrier to entry, if you don’t have a lot of capital, if you don’t have a lot of liquidity laying around, if you’re planning on mortgaging your house, maybe you’ll get some of these pieces. One of my issues with the industry is that it’s what people are willing to pay. So, few people have access to a lot of this stuff, unless you’ve got… unless you’re willing to sell a kidney.

Richard Johns:
After 25 years collecting, I’ve made a lot of connections. And a friend connects me with another friend, and another friend, and a lot of things that I have in my collection, people know that I’m not buying it to sell. They know. ‘Cause a lot of the stuff has got a lot of personal meaning with a lot of people, and they don’t wanna have it sold, and then they’re broken up and sold to other collectors. They, if they’re passing it along to somebody, they want it to go into a collection that somebody’s gonna appreciate as much as them.

David Read:
The buy-to-sell part of it can be a little frustrating, because not often, or not always, do the sellers know the intrinsic worth of a piece, and… Because they’re planning on making a profit with it. So, how did Empire Movie Props grow out of your love for Stargate? Tell us its story.

Richard Johns:
When I was 10, I used to watch a show called Monster Movie Matinee, and I loved the old black and white Frankenstein and real Dracula movies. And I said to myself, “I wanna run away and I wanna go to Hollywood, and I wanted to make these.” But at 10 years old, that was a pipe dream. You grow up, reality hits. You gotta work for a living. So, I said, I started getting into the security field type of thing, and I ended up having a company. We had 40 security officers and private investigators, and it was in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. And they decided to film a TV series called Body and Soul in about 2002, and it was a doctor series. It’s about Eastern medicine and Western medicine, and the two clashed. And the doctors would have arguments, and an actor named Peter Strauss was one of the main actors on the show, and he’s done lots of movies and TV shows over the years. And what they would do is, each week, they’d have a special guest star on the show, and do a show about a character, and Pat Morita from… who played Mr. Miyagi on Karate Kid, he was on one of the episodes, and he had a zen garden in the back. My company was hired to provide the security for the studio while they were filming for a year, and then all the– When we shot off location, we had to do security for that. So, here I am. Everything’s shut down for the night. I’d be walking through, and they have these sets, and you look at the TV and it looks like it’s real. And you go into these sets and it’s all paper and plastic and make believe, and I was just amazed at what they can do to make things look real.

David Read:
It’s an illusion.

Richard Johns:
It is. It’s magic. It really is. So, that got me pumped up again about the props, and I started getting more and more props. And about five years ago, they had their first comic con here in Kelowna, and there was a gentleman there who was gonna be a guest speaker named John Delaney, and he does comics such as Wonder Woman, Batman. He does the Simpsons graphic novels. He’s a really good artist, and he was gonna be there doing a talk and signing autographs. So, my daughter, Josephine, she’s an amazing artist and she loves drawing and loves comics. So, I took her there as a surprise so she could meet him. So, she met him, they chitchatted, he did some drawings for her, and he did a big talk about comics and everything. So, she sat there and she watched that. And we were leaving, and my daughter says, “You know, Dad, I’m a little disappointed.” And I said, “Well why? We just spent the whole day; you had a good time.” She said, “Well, I thought there were gonna be some props here, and you could talk to some people about props and talk shop, and you could maybe buy something.” She said, “There was nothing here. What you need to do is you need to talk to the people who run this and see if you could set up a table at their next convention.” So, I said, “No, they’re not gonna be interested.” So, she kept hounding me and hounding me so I said, “OK, I’ll do it.” So, I phoned up and I spoke to a lady named Bonnie Gratz, and she runs Kelowna Fan Expo. And I had a meeting with her and I brought some props down and I said, “I’ve got these, I’ve got these props and I’ve got this… I can show ’em to you.” And I gave her a concept of how I would display them. So, she says, “You know, yes. We want you here.” And she says, “What’s the name of your company?” And I said, “I do this for fun. I don’t have a name for a company.” And she says, “I’m not telling you what to do here.”

David Read:
You need a name.

Richard Johns:
But she says, “You’ve got some really cool props and you got some really cool ideas on how to display ’em, and I think this is gonna be big here.” So, she says, “Come up with a name. We’ll promote that name is gonna be here.” And she says, “And if you go through with what you’re saying,” she said, “I can see other comic cons picking you up and wanting you at their conventions.” I’m going, “Really? People would want that?” And she said, “Yeah.” So, I went, “OK.” So, I go home and I’m thinking, “What am I gonna do here? I gotta…” I said, “I’m gonna do this and I’ve never done anything like this before.” So, now I’m starting to panic a little bit. And I’m trying to come up with some sort of idea. And of course, it’s gotta be Stargate. And at the time, I had just acquired an Anubis head from the 1994 production, a used Anubis head from a gentleman by the name of John Allred. Now John Allred owns Here Be Monsters, and he’s a famous model maker, and he’s won competitions all over the world. He’s done numerous articles. And he had it in his private collection. And he was redoing his house, and it didn’t fit into his concept anymore. Now John had got it from a gentleman who actually worked on the 1994 movie, and it was given to him as a thank you for the work he did. And he had it in his collection for 10 years, and then John had it in his collection for 10 years. So, John wanted to go to a collector who would really appreciate it. So, I made him an offer and he took the offer. And I found out after I made the offer, somebody else came along after me, a higher offer, and John didn’t accept it because he thought the person was gonna buy it and sell it. And he didn’t wanna see that happen. So, I got that in my collection so I’m, “OK, that’s gonna be a centerpiece. Now I need something, a wow factor. ‘Cause I want, when people walk into the convention, to go, ‘Hey, what’s that over there?”

David Read:
Exactly.

Richard Johns:
So, I have to come up with something big. So, I had just gotten a replica panel, it was about this big, of the Stargate with the home emblem on it. So, I thought, “OK, what I’m gonna do is put it on a pole, stick it up in the air, shine some lights on it,” and I’m gonna go, “OK, that’s gonna be it.” So, I did it, did a mock-up in my house. In my house I had 20-foot vaulted ceilings at the time, so I’m doing it in my living room. And I’m going, “No, that’s too cheesy, it’s too small. Need it bigger.” So, I got some cardboard and I made a bit more of an arch and I put that on there and drew something so I kinda get a feeling. “Nope, too small.” Made it bigger, still too small. Next thing you know, I got half an arch that I’m gonna put on a table, still too small. I’m going, “Gotta do a full-size Stargate.” So, OK, well now I’m gonna do this full-size Stargate. So, there’s a gentleman that I know, he goes by the nickname Stargate Jesus, and he’s in Spain. And he did some preliminary design work of the gate. And then, based on his ideas, I spent nine months building this full-size gate. And it’s not like I can phone up, “Hey Bob, your gate, you had this problem, how did you fix it?” I’m flying by the seat of my pants; I’m trying to figure out how to do this. Running down to local hardware store, and I go to a Home Depot and I would say, “OK, I need some PVC pipe,” and they would say, “OK, indoor or outdoor? Water or air?” I would go, “Stargate.” They’d go, “What?” So, weeks of going down there and buying stuff, and I got to be known as the Stargate guy when I would go down there, ’cause everybody got to know me and knew that I wasn’t just asking for typical stuff. So, nine months later, this Stargate’s in my living room, and I’m working on the chevrons to– and in the movie, the chevrons were actually the same color as the gate, they were gray. They didn’t light up in the movie. On the TV series, they lit up. So, again, I want the wow factor, so, let’s get them to have an orange look to ’em. Three quarters of the way done, they were painted and I’m going, “No, they don’t look right. They look cheesy.” So, we had to get ’em with the orange lens and light up. So, I have to scrap all of ’em, redo ’em all. Six weeks before the convention I’m doing this. So, actually three days before the convention, I’m standing in my living room and I’ve got this Stargate that’s 18 feet tall by 18 feet wide. With the crystals all lit up, and I was going, “Holy cow, I can’t believe it’s actually here.” And I went over to the TV and I put in the Stargate movie and I turn on the opening credits, like the TV series? Yes. And I crank the TV up and I’m standing there, the music’s playing, and I’m looking at the Stargate and I’m going, “OK, here we go. We’re gonna go on a really cool adventure here.” So, we go to the, I go to the comic con, set everything up. It goes off amazing. We have over 2,500 people come by to check out our Stargate and all of our Stargate props. Bonnie says, “Richard, we’re booking you for next year already.” So, she had us booked for the following year already and away I went.

David Read:
Now is that the same Stargate as the one that you sent me? Because that seems like more human size.

Richard Johns:
The picture?

David Read:
Yes.

Richard Johns:
That’s the one.

David Read:
That’s 18 feet tall?

Richard Johns:
That’s almost 18 feet tall, yeah.

David Read:
The one that has the Jaffa standing next to it?

Richard Johns:
Yeah.

David Read:
OK. I’m showing that on the screen right now. Man, that is absolutely crazy. Boy oh boy. How long did that take from, uh, to fabricate from beginning to end?

Richard Johns:
It took… We upgraded a few more times over the years and I’ll talk about that in a little bit. Total, it took about a year and two, or three, months total time from beginning to end to get to where it is today.

David Read:
Wow. Absolutely extraordinary. So, it’s one thing to collect props, it’s another thing to make set pieces yourself. It’s a completely different process.

Richard Johns:
It is.

David Read:
That’s a sign of a true fan, I think. Wow. Man. So, you’ve been doing conventions for how long now?

Richard Johns:
For five years.

David Read:
OK. And Stargate is always featured prominently.

Richard Johns:
It is. I guess everybody wants the Stargate there ’cause it’s a huge crowd-pleaser.

David Read:
Absolutely. Tell us about the pieces that you’ve brought, uh, to show us.

Richard Johns:
Here today? I’ll stand here. This is Ra and on the other side is Horus. And there’s a gentleman by the name of Brian Capri who owns really cool props, and he actually made these for the TV miniseries Stargate Origins. So, he–

David Read:
So, these are the ones that were used in Origins.

Richard Johns:
These were the ones that were used in Origins, these two on either side. They were the screen-used ones.

David Read:
Wow. All right.

Richard Johns:
Now, the thing is, Stargate Origins gets a bum rap. A lot of people either love it or hate it. And people don’t realize that when they made the movie, they had millions and millions of dollars, when they made the TV series, they had millions and millions of dollars, but when they made Stargate Origins, they didn’t have that big of a budget.

David Read:
Correct.

Richard Johns:
And they didn’t have the big names, and they didn’t have hundreds of screenwriters writing for the script, and they didn’t have the money to do all the computer graphics, and they used a lot of practical effects to do that. I mean, considering all that, it… I thought it was really good. And to me–

David Read:
Considering what they had, yes.

Richard Johns:
What they had, I thought it was really well done and it added a prequel to the original movie, fit a lot of things in. And I know some people said that more questions were made than were answered type of thing. But if you’re a true Stargate–

David Read:
If you’re looking closely, no. I agree. But if you’re a true fan, try to go along for the ride and give it a shot.

Richard Johns:
Exactly. If you’re a true Stargate fan, anything Stargate, you love. There is the cartoon Stargate Infinity. A lot of people don’t even know that’s out there.

David Read:
I don’t particularly care for it, but I recommend, if you’ve got young kids, show it… to them. Every episode has a moral conundrum. Absolutely.

Richard Johns:
So, like I said, I got those from Brian. He also had the Anubis head, and I heard he had these up and I wanted them for my collection, so I gave him a call and I said, “I want the Anubis head too.” And he says, “Oh my God, Richard, if you had called me one hour earlier, you could have had it.”

David Read:
You’re kidding.

Richard Johns:
He said, “I just sold it literally one hour ago.” And I said, “Ah, no, no, no, no.” But we got these two. And then right behind me here is our SG-1 Jaffa armor. And there’s a gentleman named Stefan and he owns Stargate Prop Shop and he’s got a huge collection of Stargate items.

David Read:
I’ve met him.

Richard Johns:
And we’ve got quite a few props from him. And we got the armor from him. When we got the armor, it was in pieces. Like the collar and the neck piece was in six different pieces with pieces missing, like chunks taken out of it. The armor was cracked, the leggings were cracked and broken and pieces were missing. And the gauntlets had three different color paint. There was a blue, there was red, and then there was the silver, and it was peeling off because they used pieces over and over again and would repaint them for different things. I had all the pieces, and I’m looking at this going, “It looks like a heap of garbage on the floor.” And we took a year to restore the armor and we restored it all. And like I said, we have it all complete and it looks like the first day that they used it on the show.

David Read:
Wow. That’s great.

Richard Johns:
And another thing too is, when we upgraded our Stargate… I’ll tell you a little bit of a story when we upgraded it. But on either side of the Stargate now we have two big, tall pillars and they’re actually made out of Goa’uld mothership panels. And Stefan actually did his whole basement in these panels. He got all the panels and it looked spectacular. So, he had some spare pieces left over. So, I got a hold of him. I said, “Can I get these off of you?” And he said, “Sure.” So, we actually used those to make the gold pillars on either side of the Stargate that we have.

David Read:
Oh, I see them. It’s over here next to the Jaffa, in this one shot here. That’s really cool.

Richard Johns:
Good. ‘Cause we wanted to add a little bit of actual authenticity, like prop to the gate. So, we added those to the gate to do that. And then, getting back to our Ra here for a second. When I designed him for this, ’cause he’s gonna be at shows coming up, I had him with his hand out and I wanted him to hold the necklace, the Ra necklace that you saw Daniel Jackson in the original movie and Catherine in Stargate Origins. But I didn’t want to have one that kinda looked cheesy or whatever, so there was a gentleman named Cody Emery and he has a company called Sci-Fi Prop Factory and he’s got a lot of the studio molds. So, I contacted him and I said, “Look, can you make me an exact replica of the necklace that they used in the movie, in Stargate Origins?” So, he knew somebody who actually worked on the movie and they had the one from Stargate Origins that was used in that. So, he made us an exact replica, and it’s beautifully done, and Ra’s holding it in his hands. ‘Cause that’s the other thing too, and I’ll tell you a story in just a minute here. Everything that we’re doing now, we try to do with as much detail and authenticity as possible ’cause we want to give the Stargate fans, when it comes to our shows, to get their true feeling. And when they look closely at everything, we want them to see the detail in everything. We don’t want it to be something cheesy or half-done type of thing. So, he’s holding that. Now, this is the production-use Anubis head from the 1994 movie that we got from John Allred. And it’s kind of hard to see on screen here, but if you go to our site, you can actually see close-up pictures of it, and the detail in the patina is amazing. I mean, the gold on it, the way they’ve layered it, it’s like a work of art. It’s like something you see in a museum. Like if you went to see an Egyptian exhibit, they were showing thousands-of-year-old artifacts, that’s how detailed and beautiful that looks. So, that’s there. And then, on this side here, we have an actual production-use Ra face from the 1994 movie. And I never thought in a million years, when I sat there and I watched the opening credits and I saw the Ra there and it started my adventure, that I thought I’d ever actually have something like that in my collection. And he’s here. Now, when we got him, he’s got cracks, he’s got a lot of weathering, and he needs some TLC. We’re gonna get a company called Tom Spina Designs. They do a lot of restoration of props. And we actually have a prop in our collection from Babylon 5. And it’s one of the early bar scenes and it was ripped, torn to… I mean, it looked like it should be thrown in the garbage. And Tom Spina Designs restored it and it looks like day one, brand new, like they made it. It’s absolutely amazing. So, we’re gonna get them to restore him ’cause he’s an iconic piece and I think he deserves to have the full glory of how he looked 27 years ago.

David Read:
You were talking about the Anubis piece that’s sitting to your immediate left. I do have that picture here and I’m gonna show that to everyone now. The detail of it is absolutely exquisite. It looks like it’s been pulled out of the ground on the Giza Plateau. Just absolutely insane.

Richard Johns:
And the way they did the colors and layered it, the gold and everything, the detail is just phenomenal how they did it. Like I said, it’s like a work of art.

David Read:
Absolutely. It is a work of art. Absolutely.

Richard Johns:
And then, one last thing I wanna show here. There’s a gentleman, his name’s Terry Shewchuk and he has a son named Travis and they own Ravenous EFX and they do a lot of props for movies and TV series, like big name movies and TV series. And Terry collects Stargate props. He’s got a big private collection. And I’ve gotten to know him and we’ve gotten some props off of him over the years. And Terry’s the same way. It’s all personal. He doesn’t wanna sell stuff and have it cut up and divvied out or as soon as he gets it you sell it for a profit. So, Terry knew that we have these shows that we do and he had, from Season One, Episode Six, “First Commandment.” At the beginning of the show, you see two SG team members running for the gate through a forest and there’s tribal warriors chasing them, and they’re… We call ’em the Mud Men. And Terry was selling one and I said, “I would like to have it.” So, I got ahold of him. I said, “I want this.” So, he got it to us and I said, “If you have anything else, I’d love to get it from you.” He says, “Well actually, Richard.” He says, “They made seven of the Mud Men for that episode and I have all seven.” I said, “Well, would you be willing to sell them to me?” He says, “For you, yes. Because I know that you do these shows and I know that they’re collecting dust in the warehouse right now and it’s a shame. And I would like to have people see them. So, I know if I sell ’em to you, that you’re not gonna sell them, but you’re gonna display them.” So, he sold us six of the seven ’cause he said, “I’m keeping one for myself.” But he sold us the other six, so we have all six. And we’ve built a forest background with real trees and we’re gonna have all seven on mannequins. And I actually have one of the heads here and I’ll just get it up here. That’s one of the Mud Men heads from that episode.

David Read:
“First Commandment.” Wow. Is there a prop out there that you are pursuing or want to get that is on your list but you just… it’s been out of reach?

Richard Johns:
No. Anything you find from a Stargate movie, I would love. OK. So, I’m always on the prowl for that. And there’s a couple of things that I’ve got feelers out for. But really, the shows that we do, if we have enough props, we look at these props and we go, “OK, how can we do some display to show these props at a convention?” Like I said, we have Terminator and Star Wars and all this stuff. That’s what we started doing now, is, “Can we add to this collection and can we turn it into a display for an upcoming comic con?” There’s… I’ll tell you, a couple of years ago, when we did our second convention, I had the gate at the first one, I wasn’t happy with the gate, it just didn’t look completed. So, what I did was, initially the picture you showed of the gate, it didn’t have the pillars and it didn’t have the base; it was just the arch. So, we ended up putting the base on it, we ended up putting the pillars on it. We got our Jaffa warrior, we restored him, and we had him at the show, and it was at Kelowna Fan Experience. And Bonnie had given me a call and she said, “Richard, do you know who Gary Jones is?” I said, “Well, yeah, he’s Sergeant Walter Harriman from Stargate.” She said, “Well, a friend of his saw your Stargate at a show. He called Gary, told Gary he’s gonna come see this, so guess what? Gary’s coming down to see your gate. He asked if he could be a guest at our convention.” And I went, “Are you serious?” She said, “Yes.” So, I’m going like, “This is exciting. Gary Jones is coming to look at my Stargate.” And then I went, “Oh my God. Gary, who sat in front of the gate for 10 years, who knows that gate inside and out, every inch, is coming to look at my gate.” And I’m thinking, “Oh my God, he’s gonna think mine’s so cheesy, ’cause mine can’t compare to his.” So, now I’m nervous. My wife is going, “Richard, you got nothing to be nervous about. He’s a nice guy. He’s gonna love it, don’t worry about it.” I said, “Still, he’s the chevron guy. He’s gonna have an opinion of my gate.” So, I get the gate set up, we got the Jaffa Warrior there. And luckily, we had done the extra stuff for it. And I see Gary come walking in. He sets up a table next to us because Bonnie wanted him next to us for the gate. So, I’m getting even more nervous. So, Gary comes over, and he says, “Hi, Richard, right?” And I said, “Yes.” He says, “Nice to meet you. Gary Jones.” He said, “So, this is the gate, huh?” I went, “Yeah.” So, Gary’s standing there like this, “Huh.” So, he’s looking at it like this, and then he looks over and he goes, “What’s it made out of?” I said, “Well, it’s made mostly Styrofoam.” And he goes, “Styrofoam? Seriously? This thing’s made out of Styrofoam?” So, he goes over to the gate and he’s touching it and he’s looking at it, and he goes, “I have to say something here,” and I’m thinking, “OK, here it comes, here it comes.” He says, “That is amazing.” And I went, “What?” He said, “That is absolutely amazing.” He said, “It looks like the real gate.” He says, “When you stand here and look at it, it looks like the same color, texture, and everything.” And he says, “They made the gate out of wood and everything else, you made yours out of Styrofoam.” And he says, “It looks like it’s real stone, metal-looking, heavy.” He says, “I’m impressed,” he said, “and I’m not just saying that either.” So, he says, “Show me the other stuff.” So, I showed him the Jaffa armor, explained how we restored it, and I showed him the other props. And we had also done a Planet of the Apes scene, and we have costumes from Planet of the Apes, so we actually made real apes with real fur, glass eyes. And we had those there.

David Read:
The new one or the original?

Richard Johns:
From the Tim Burton version. So, we had those there so I showed Gary that. So, Gary says, “OK, now, I want to talk to you. When you got some time tomorrow,” he said, “I wanna sit down, I wanna talk to you about a few things here.” He says, “I think I need to talk about a couple of things.” So, I said, “Sure.” Now I’m getting even more nervous. I go, “OK, what is he gonna talk to me about?” So, the next day, Gary says, “When you have some time, come see me.” So, I went and saw him, we sat there, and he says, “Now, I’m not telling you what to do here, Richard.” He said, “I’m not just saying this to make you feel good.” He says, “You got something really unique here.” He said, “You don’t come here and do displays.” He says, “With the Jaffa armor, you built a Jaffa warrior and it looks like a warrior. When you got the Planet of the Apes, you got the actual costumes on the apes and they’re not on a mannequin, you’ve actually built the faces and the arms to look like the real things. You built a full-sized Stargate to enhance your Stargate props.” He says, “I’ve been to a lot of conventions, and I’ve never seen anything like this to this degree before.” So, he says, “You need to go to the bigger conventions, like Vancouver or the San Diego Comic-Con. You need to go there, and you need to think big, outside the box, detail…” And he just gave me a whole bunch of advice on how I should take this. So, we actually took his advice, and we have taken everything to a whole other level now, because with the Stargate, again, I wasn’t happy with the Stargate ’cause it wasn’t quite finished yet. We had the black backdrop, it was a bit cheesy at the time, we had a little Christmas light shining on the front to give a water effect. What I did was, we ended up getting a custom-made backdrop for the back of it, and I had a custom-made light made, and it has two lenses: one rotates one way, one rotates the other, with a ripple effect on the light. And you shine on the back and it actually looks like the water is moving. And it was all done CGI in the movie, so I had to do this for real life. So, Gary has got us thinking outside the box now, and we did that. We’re building our sets bigger and better now, more detail to ’em. Right now, we’re working on a Breaking Bad display for our comic cons this year, if they have any. We’re set to go for it. And we got a couple of hazmat suits, prison outfits, a whole bunch of other outfits from different actors that were on the show. We’ve got different props from the show. We’ve got something, the money. We have some little baggies with the drugs and everything.

David Read:
Oh, my God. Los Pollos Hermanos merchandise?

Richard Johns:
Yes. Yes. What we ended up doing, we built a life-sized drug lab with the hazmat suits.

David Read:
YouTube censors. Here we go. We built a life-sized drug lab. Here, come over. Have some Blue Sky. Jeez.

Richard Johns:
And we built– we made Walter White and Jesse look and live just like the real characters, ’cause we went, again, detail. We built a full-sized prison scene with prisoners behind the bars and a police officer out front. And we made a section of the Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant where people are actually sitting there and standing and waiting in line, so we’ve done that. And everything is detailed. It looks really good. I’m quite pleased with how it’s come out because it’s come out better than I thought. Again, that’s thanks to Gary giving us think bigger, better, thinking outside the box, detail. So, we’ve got that coming up. And like I said, I can’t say enough to Gary for taking the time and believing in us and doing this. And again, he didn’t say it because he was just trying to make me feel good. He saw something and–

David Read:
Yeah, he pushed you.

Richard Johns:
He did. And because of his talk, it’s changed our whole way we’re doing things now.

David Read:
Wow. Have you told him that?

Richard Johns:
I owe him one.

David Read:
Have you told him this?

Richard Johns:
Yes, when we did everything, I told him he hasn’t seen our Breaking Bad or all that stuff now. But when we upgraded the gate and did the lighting behind it, I got ahold of him. I said, “I just wanna thank you, Gary, for giving us that advice.” I said, “You’ve taken us to a whole new level,” so.

David Read:
Good. I’ll make sure he watches this too. That’s great, man.

Richard Johns:
Oh, thank you.

David Read:
Absolutely. And I really want to thank you because this month we’re giving away a piece of Stargate Atlantis to people who are submitting trivia questions to the show. Pretty much every month, not this month, we’re taking a break this month, but we do a trivia challenge and anyone who submits trivia, their email address goes into a blender and at the end of the month, a prop will come out. Do you by any chance have that piece?

Richard Johns:
Yes, I do.

David Read:
Present?

Richard Johns:
Yes, I’ll just come up.

David Read:
Yes, let’s see it in close range here. So, the Stargate Atlantis DHD exploded in an episode of Atlantis called “Phantoms.” And so, this is one of the buttons and Richard and Empire Movie Props are kindly sponsoring this giveaway for this month. And at the end of the month, anyone who goes to dialthegate.com and scrolls down to Submit Trivia Questions, as long as you submit one trivia question to us, you’ll be in the running for getting this piece sent to you. So, it’s absolutely cool. It’s almost cooler than a full piece, a full section of the DHD ’cause you get to see what’s inside it. It’s a cross-section. Very cool, man.

Richard Johns:
I’m glad that somebody’s gonna enjoy it.

David Read:
Absolutely. And I really thank you for that. Have you ever come across any collectors that really just turned your stomach and it’s like, “You know what? This is the kind of thing that I don’t appreciate or I wanna stay away from.” There is a collector, and let me at least tell you from my perspective of it. There is a collector out there who with absolute impunity damages the props that he buys. And he takes it and he takes it apart and rebuilds it to what he thinks is cool, adds lights and effects and everything else, and just absolutely destroys the prominence of a prop because it’s no longer, it no longer looks like it was when it was screen used. It looks like it’s something else. And that really bothers me, because we are stewards of these pieces. They belong to– I mean, you do own them while you have them, but potentially, you will die and/or get tired of it or get bored with it and it will go to someone else. And it’s so important for the provenance of a prop to maintain as much value and sync with what it was on screen as when it goes to the next person who’s going to cherish it. What do you feel about that?

Richard Johns:
Exactly. And the props that we have, again, we keep it as original as possible. There are some that are damaged, and you don’t want it to deteriorate further, so you have to do some restoration to it. But you keep it looking exactly the way it is. You don’t change the color or add things to it. You keep everything as original as possible. I mean, ’cause that’s one of the reasons why you want the prop, because you see it on the screen and you fell in love with that and you want it in your hand. So, to buy it and change the color or add things to it, it’s a crazy thing to do. It’s a shame that people buy something and again, “It’s mine, I can do what I want with it.”

David Read:
Anyone can buy a piece, and you can only hope that, especially if it’s something that you want to see again or have a chance at, that it reenters the props market in the future and has been maintained and taken care of.

Richard Johns:
And the other thing too with us, when people come to see our props at the shows, they’ve seen it on the screen and they wanna see the same thing when they’re standing there in the same context. Which is like I said, when we do the Mud Men, all the Mud Men look exactly the same as you see on screen. Nothing’s been changed. We added a forest, a life-sized forest, real trees. So, when you’re standing there, you almost get the feeling you’re in that scene, with the real thing.

David Read:
You create a diorama. So, cool.

Richard Johns:
That’s what we want. We wanna give everyone that experience when they come to our shows and they see the stuff. Like you’re really there. You’re really experiencing it.

David Read:
Absolutely. I do have a few questions submitted by the fans who are watching live right now. GateGabber wants to know, “Do you have a favorite Stargate piece that you will absolutely never part with?” I think you answered that a little bit before: you keep them… You get them to keep them, but at the same time, I suppose if you were forced to lose all but one, which would stay with you?

Richard Johns:
It would be the Anubis. I absolutely love him. The raw Egyptian panel was my first one that I got, but the Anubis was one of my higher-end items and one of the most detailed and complete and everything items. I mean, it’s like I said, I just fell in love with it and I still can’t believe that I actually have it in my collection.

David Read:
It’s a museum piece. I mean, you could put it in New York and people would be like, “Whoa.” That’s absolutely legit.

Richard Johns:
And he’s a favorite at the shows. Everybody wants their picture taken with him.

David Read:
JohnFourtyTwo asked, “Would it be possible to get photos of Daniel or Jonas’s notebooks?” So, a lot of people have been asking about Daniel and Jonas’s notebooks. Have you ever come across them?

Richard Johns:
No.

David Read:
I haven’t seen them either. Someone got them earlier on. Maybe Legends Memorabilia. I’m not entirely sure. Those are not… I’ve not come across them. Tracy wanted to know: any advice for new collectors? Where to find those special props, how to determine their credibility?

Richard Johns:
There’s… The best thing to do is, I know on Facebook there’s a prop group there, and you can become a member, and if you’re interested in a piece you can say to the group, “I’m interested in this piece. Does anybody know anything about it? Do you know who the seller is?” And I think that’s a good thing to do because there are a lot of bad sellers out there. There’s a lot of people who do fake stuff. There’s a lot of people who are just in it for the money, not anything else. It’s good to find out who these people are and that you know you’re buying a legitimate prop. I’ve seen several times that so-and-so is selling fake stuff again, and he’s going by a different name this time. And it’s nice then to know that so you know what you’re getting is real. And that’s the thing with all of our stuff, the stuff that I have, and we do sell some stuff. I get it from legitimate prop houses. I’ve made connections over the years and I get it from actual collectors. There’re a few people that I know who actually have worked on different sets, and after they shut down the production, they start tearing apart the set so people get to take some stuff home. So, I’ve gotten some stuff from them. So, everything that I check out, it’s 100%. And that’s the thing. I don’t want to get a reputation that we’ve got fake stuff at our shows. I don’t want to get stuff we’re selling fake stuff. So, I am very tedious about checking up everything. And, I mean, things do get through. I mean, you have big auction houses like Christie’s have sold stuff and found out half of that is fake because there are people who are good at faking stuff. There are people who are good at making fake money, fake paintings. There are people who do fake props. It’s just do your due diligence and ask questions. And if you want it, if people are saying, “No, don’t buy it. It’s fake,” don’t buy it, and you’re still, “Oh my God, I really want it,” don’t get it. Because it’s hard when you really want a piece and you find out that it’s not worth it or it’s not what it really is. It’s hard.

David Read:
There is a whole market out there of paintings that are faked. I don’t know if you saw Sneaky Pete, that Bryan Cranston show on Amazon, but one of the seasons was about someone who recreated famous paintings, and she was a painter whose sole purpose was to duplicate a painting so that they could scam buyers. Absolutely… never underestimate human ingenuity.

Richard Johns:
Exactly.

David Read:
For better and for worse.

Richard Johns:
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

David Read:
What are you looking forward to, the possibility of the fourth Stargate series that Brad Wright is trying to get off the ground, and if so, what would you like to see?

Richard Johns:
I am so looking forward to anything Stargate. I know when they originally did the first movie, the ’94 movie, they wanted to make a trilogy of it. And then I know that there was… talk about rebooting it and doing a trilogy. I would like to see something like that. And when it comes to the fourth, anything. I would like to see anything good, exciting, something that can last 10 seasons.

David Read:
Another 10 seasons, yeah.

Richard Johns:
With science fiction, you could do anything. I mean, you can do the craziest thing, concept, you could do anything. And I mean, Star Wars has been around for over 40 years and they’ve done how many movies? And then they redid the series with The Force Awakens, and there’s a whole new generation now watching. They’ve got The Mandalorian now on TV. You look at Star Trek. Star Trek’s been around for over 50 years. And the same thing. They did the movies, and then they were doing Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise. They’ve got Star Trek: Discovery now, a whole new generation.

David Read:
Picard, Prodigy, yeah.

Richard Johns:
So, you’re looking at 40, 50 years of these series. Stargate’s been around for 27 years and it’s got just as big a following. Stargate’s the baby and it’s growing, and it’s got the exact same following. So, I mean, they can go for another 25 years easily with what they’re doing. And the fans are there. The fans are chomping at the bit for more Stargate, ’cause it is, its amazing concept, it’s amazing way… used to have been on the show. I mean, you don’t get a show lasting 10 seasons, 10 years, without saying that there’s something good about it.

David Read:
To say nothing of Atlantis or Universe that ran another seven. Extremely cool. I appreciate you coming on. Is there anything else that you’d like to add before we let you go?

Richard Johns:
I just wanna talk about our upcoming, with Empire Moon Props. Like I said, Gary says “bigger and better,” and we’re doing that. We’re doing Breaking Bad this year. And like I said, hopefully there’s some conventions to actually, with the COVID and everything, we’re hoping some conventions near the end of the year will actually go. But our next big thing that we’re doing is we’re revamping our Stargate display, and it’s gonna be big. It’s gonna be somewhere in between 1,500 square feet, maybe even more than that when we’re done. And what we’re doing is we’re gonna be doing an Egyptian temple concept. And what we’re gonna have is we’re gonna have the Stargate at one end, and we’re gonna have… it’s kind of hard ’cause I’m trying to show on the show here. So, where my bookshelf is, that’s where the Stargate would be, and we’re gonna have Egyptian backdrops all the way down, at least 60 feet, maybe more, on both sides. And it’s gonna look like the inside of an Egyptian temple with that stucco and paintings on it. And we’re gonna have Ra and Horus on either side of the Stargate, and then we’re gonna have our Jaffa outfit. We have, from the pilot episode, “Children of the Gods,” there’s a scene where they’re in the castle dungeon part thing, and the elite Goa’uld come in, and they’re picking kids to be their…

David Read:
Children.

Richard Johns:
…children. There’s a scene where one of the elite Goa’uld picks Skaara and says, “I want him.” Well, we have that elite Goa’uld’s outfit, and we have two servant outfits, you see the servants coming with the turbans and the fancy dress? We have two of those, so we’re gonna have a little scene with that. And then we have a couple more outfits that we’re gonna have next to those. And then we’re gonna have our mud men outfit, that whole scene next to that. So, all of our mannequins that we have are all gonna be on one side, all little scenes from the different episodes. And then on the other side, we’re gonna have tables set up, and we’re gonna have a table with all the Stargate props from the movie. And then we’re gonna have all the props from Stargate SG-1 and other shows all the way down. And some of the props we have are really amazing. There’s an episode called “Emancipation.” I think that was Season One, Episode Three. And they had Abu and Nya, they were two kids, so to speak, and they wanted to get married in their warring houses, they couldn’t do that, it was kind of like a Romeo and Juliet…

David Read:
Yeah, the Mongolian settlements.

Richard Johns:
… type of thing. We actually met Jorge Vargas and Crystal Lo at a convention, and they played Abu and Nya. And it was a total, total fluke that that happened, because a gentleman by the name of Mike Kay. was running the convention, it was Kelowna Comic Con is what it was, it’s different than the other one. And he had actually booked Jorge there first, and there was another cancellation, so he got Crystal to come in after, and they didn’t know they were gonna be there. So, they show up, and it was like a family reunion. “What are you doing this? What are you doing here?” And it was really cool. So, we were there, we got to meet ’em, and we got to talk to ’em and everything, and got pictures taken. And six months ago, we actually got a whole bunch of hats from “Emancipation.” So, we got the hat that Jorge wore and the one that Crystal wore. The one that the dad wore, we got his fur hat, and also Amanda Tapping, she had a black one with a little chain necklace thing. We got that one as well. So, we’re gonna have all those on display. And so, it’s gonna be really amazing. The whole other side of our display is gonna be all these props. So, it’s gonna be really big. And when you walk in, you’re gonna get a really, really cool experience with that. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We want, when people come to the convention, we just don’t want them walking through and going, “Oh, that looks interesting.” Or, “That’s nice.” Click, “Here’s a picture.” We want them to have that experience, that experience when I watched Stargate for the very first time. My hair stood up, it was like an electrical feeling, I was like, “Oh my God.” We want them to have that feeling when they come to the shows and see our stuff. We want them to talk about it, get pictures taken. When they have their picture taken, they go home and look at it, it looks like they’re there actually on the set with something. When they have the picture with the Stargate, it looks like that they were actually there with the Stargate. When they do a video and it shows the Stargate moving, and it looks like it’s really there. And sorry, one last quick story if it’s, OK?

David Read:
Sure.

Richard Johns:
We were doing a convention in Penticton called Penti-Con, and there’s a lady there who runs it, her name’s Lillian. She got ahold of us and said, “We want you at our show because we have Paul McGillion here.” So, I’m going, “Wow, this is really cool. Paul McGillion’s gonna be there.” And that’s, he did, what was that episode? “Torment of…”

David Read:
Tantalus.

Richard Johns:
“…Tantalus.”

David Read:
Ernest Littlefield.

Richard Johns:
He was there. And that’s one of my favorite episodes.

David Read:
It’s terrific.

Richard Johns:
Because I liked that it went back to 1945, showed the black and white footage, and it showed the gate, and the whole concept, I thought, was really cool. And they also had Catherine there, the character Catherine from the movie, she was in that episode. So, it kind of brought the original movie in there. And so, Paul played Littlefield in there. And so, Paul was at the convention. So, we had everything set, Paul comes over. And I’m ecstatic that Paul’s there, and Paul’s going, “Oh, so you’re the guy with the Stargate.” So, he’s there, and he’s looking at the gate and everything. And we said, “Can we get some pictures and a few other things?” He says, “Sure,” he says, “I’m here all weekend.” And he says, “Can I ask a favor?” He says, “Can I bring people over and get their picture taken with it, fans and stuff?” I said, “Sure. My gate’s your gate, so whatever you want to do.” So, Paul was back and forth all day. So, I say, “Paul, could we get some pictures taken?” He says, “Sure.” So, my wife is there, and I take a picture of my wife and him, and he looks at the picture and goes, “No, no, no. That’s not good enough. That’s not good enough. What if we do this?” So, we do that, I take a picture. He goes, “No, no, no. That’s not good enough.” He says, “OK, put your foot back at an angle like this,” or, “Do that,” and it actually looks like you have been thrown through the Stargate in this photo. So, Paul looks at this, and he is killing himself laughing, ’cause it looks so real. So, he starts telling people, “Come over here, come over here.” So, people who were wanting to get a picture taken, he’d get everybody to do this pose. So, Paul is killing himself. He said, “I’ve gotta do my talk and I’ve gotta do other things. I’ll be back.” So, about half an hour later, I hear over the PA system, “Yes, if anybody would like their picture taken with Paul McGillion, he’ll be at the Stargate in 15 minutes. Paul McGillion.” And it’s his voice. I’m going, “That’s Paul’s voice.” The whole convention, he was getting people to come over and get their picture taken with him doing this pose. And he was so funny, so personable. He had everyone in stitches the whole weekend. Super nice guy. And I liked him. I loved him ’cause that was one of my favorite scenes, and I liked him in that. And he also played Dr. Carson Beckett in Stargate Atlantis as well, and I liked his character in that as well. So, it was great that Paul was doing that. And then I said, “Paul, could we do a little video?” So, he says, “Sure.” So, we started interviewing him, and then he turns around and starts interviewing us, and it was funny. It was hilarious how, what he was saying and what he was doing in the video. And that’s on our site if anybody wants to see him. But that was an experience with Paul. And that’s one thing I’ve found. We have a lot of Stargate… When we have our gate, anybody who’s been on Stargate always stops by and sees it. We’ve had people who’ve done the special effects for years on the show, they’ve come by and checked it out. We’ve had people who have just been on one episode. We’ve had extras there. There was one guy who came by, and when he saw the gate, we saw the smoke coming from the gate, but he was the guy who did that. He came by. Everybody comes by and wants to get their picture taken with the gate, and starts talking about the gate and their experiences. So, we hear all these stories and everything. So, it’s really cool that we’re keeping that dream alive, so to speak, by promoting Stargate. And the other thing that’s cool, our Stargate’s getting a little bit iconic now. Because anyone who comes, whether it’s an actor or anybody who works on the show, signs the back of the gate. So, the back of the gate now, we’re getting hundreds of autographs from everybody who’s worked on the show. It’s really neat that everybody signs the gate when they come by and gets their picture taken with it.

David Read:
That’s really cool. It’s a pleasure to spend some time talking with another serious collector who really gets this stuff. I brought one of my favorite pieces to share, and I’ve not shared this one on-air before. This is Don S. Davis’. This is General Hammond’s wedding ring.

Richard Johns:
Wow. That’s cool.

David Read:
There were two of them that were made, and Don wore them both during Stargate SG-1. Don and I, we met years ago. Found out he went to the same university that I did, Southern Illinois. And when he passed, it was bad. So… I think about him constantly. I have a little piece that he wore during the show, and it means the world to me to have. The–

Richard Johns:
Sorry.

David Read:
Please go ahead.

Richard Johns:
I was gonna say, it’s… Some of the smallest props are some of the best props. They really are. And a lot of the times, the smallest props get lost. And they’re iconic.

David Read:
Absolutely. The ingenuity of fans. Did you see Stargate Universe? Did you watch it?

Richard Johns:
Just me?

David Read:
Yes.

Richard Johns:
No, I haven’t got to that yet, ’cause I’m working my way through all the series, so I’m not there yet.

David Read:
Got it. It’s good. So, this is an ancient kino, which is a camera, floating camera, essentially. This was one of the ones that was screen-used during the production. My friend Remington Phillips created this one. And they, aside from a little bit of sheen, they are identical in size, in weight. The paint jobs. The ingenuity of fandom is absolutely ridiculous. The stuff that they are able to come up with. And when they get ahold of something, they just don’t let it go. It’s so cool to see that so many of these pieces are being cared for with reverence. And I really appreciate the work that you’re doing in preserving so much of this stuff for the future. Because it’s so important.

Richard Johns:
I love sharing this. It’s just not sitting in my house or in storage. And anybody who’s ever sold us or given us a Stargate prop knows that it’s gonna be cared for and that it’s gonna be shown to the fans at our shows, and they can enjoy it. And that’s the thing. We just wanna keep that dream alive. We wanna have people have that, the amazing experiences that we had. And again, we’re trying to do our part to get that fourth series going. There’s a fan base there.

David Read:
Absolutely right. There’s… In some ways, it’s not bigger than it ever was before, ’cause that’s certainly not true. But it seems like it’s coming back. It seems like the fervor for it is building with the amount of exposure that the franchise is getting on these streaming services now. And that can only be a good sign of good things to come in the future.

Richard Johns:
I’m excited.

David Read:
I hope to see you at a convention live at some point here in the not-too-distant future, please God. And–

Richard Johns:
Yes, definitely. And I hope to touch base with you and show you our big display when it’s all done and you can see where we’re going.

David Read:
I can’t wait to see it and I thank you for coming on. And I thank you so much for donating to the show to give fans a piece of Stargate Atlantis history for the month of February.

Richard Johns:
It’s our pleasure and we’re just glad that somebody else is gonna enjoy a Stargate prop.

David Read:
Absolutely. Richard Johns, owner Empire Movie Props. You can check them out at empiremovieprops.com. And thank you so much for being on, sir.

Richard Johns:
Thank you for having us. It’s been an honor and a privilege to be here today.

David Read:
I appreciate you as well. It’s an honor to have you. You take care of yourself and I’ll be bumping into you at some point in the future here.

Richard Johns:
That sounds good. We’ll see you on the other side of the gate.

David Read:
See you on the other side. Take care, Richard.

Richard Johns:
OK, bye.

David Read:
Be well. Richard Johns, Empire Movie Props. Thank you so much for tuning in and a happy Valentine’s Day to all of you. Let me bring back around that explanation for the giveaway again, for those of you who are really wanting that piece. So, it’s a piece of the Pegasus DHD from specifically Phantoms. This is the part of the DHD that was designed for when that scene was filmed, when the gate exploded. So, for the month of February, Dial the Gate is partnering with Empire Movie Props to give away this piece of the DHD from the Atlantis episode, “Phantoms.” To enter to win, you need to use a desktop or a laptop computer and visit dialthegate.com. You can scroll down to Submit Trivia Questions. 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 are three slots for trivia on that screen: one is easy, one is medium, one is 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 for mobile devices. Your trivia has to be in before March the 1st. If you are the lucky winner, I’ll be notifying you via your email right after the start of the new year to get your address. And again, big thanks to Empire Movie Props for making this item available to a member of our audience. Dial the Gate is brought to you every week for free and we do appreciate you watching. But if you wanna support the show further, buy yourself some of our themed swag. We’re now offering T-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts, and hoodies for all ages in a variety of sizes and colors at RedBubble. We currently offer four themed designs and hope to add more in the future. The word cloud designs have both a solid background or transparent option, so you have some flexibility between choosing a light or dark color. Do keep that in mind when you are making your selection. Checkout is fast and it’s easy and you can even use your Amazon or PayPal account. Just visit dialthegate.redbubble.com. And thank you for your support. So, we have coming up a huge list of guests that have been announced for the rest of the month and into March. Next week, February the 21st, we’re going to bring you Joseph Mallozzi, writer and executive producer, for Part Five of our interview series. He’s gonna be on at 11:00 AM Pacific Time on the 21st. Mika McKinnon, science consultant for Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, will be joining us on February the 21st at 1:00 PM, two hours after Joe. Ask her your Stargate questions, your Stargate science questions. She is familiar with the entire franchise and will be happy to answer any of those questions live. I’ve got some questions for her as well. She is a real treat and she is a bundle of energy. It is awesome to sit down and talk with her, because she’s got so many Stargate stories and she is genuinely excited about the work that they did on that show. And then Martin Lloyd himself, Willie Garson, will be joining us at 3:00 PM Pacific on the 21st to discuss his role in Stargate SG-1. He was, of course, in “Wormhole X-Treme!” and he was in “200,” as well as his initial episode, which I can’t remember the name of right now. I wanna say it’s “Point of No Return,” but I’m not entirely, I don’t think that that’s correct. But his initial episode escapes me. Someone in the chat will correct me. That’s pretty much all we have for you. If you enjoy the show, please like, share, and subscribe. Especially like the show, give it a like because it makes a real difference with YouTube’s algorithm as well. That’s all we got. We’ll be seeing you again next week live for those three episodes. My name is David Read. See you on the other side.