Round three, anyone? Stargate Writer & Executive Producer Joseph Mallozzi is back to discuss his sophomore year at Bridge Studios with Season Five of Stargate SG-1. We cover season arcs, episodes he wrote, and also take your questions LIVE!

Share This Video ► https://youtu.be/HW8a3ukaSaA

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
Episode Artwork ► https://www.deviantart.com/davide-sd/art/Goa-uld-Space-Station-WIP-294675811
3DTech.pro (Sponsor) ► http://www.3dtech.pro

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

Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:33 – Opening Credits
01:03 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:27 – Call to Action
02:29 – Guest Introduction
03:52 – Stargate SG-1 Season Five
07:50 – “Enemies” (SG-1 5×01)
17:49 – “The Fifth Man” (SG-1 5×04) and “Red Sky” (5×05)
23:32 – “The Tomb” (SG-1 5×08)
28:42 – “Desperate Measures” (SG-1 5×11)
32:03 – “Wormhole X-Treme!” (SG-1 5×12)
35:30 – The last season on Showtime
39:17 – “Fail Safe” (SG-1 5×17)
43:19 – Ba’al (Cliff Simon) and Osiris (Anna-Louise Plowman)
47:07 – “Revelations” (SG-1 5×22)
52:54 – Season Five – A Strong Season
54:31 – “2001” (SG-1 5×10) and September 11
59:15 – Is there any particular storyline you would like to have expanded?
1:00:56 – Stargate Extinction
1:05:15 – Is Martin Lloyd based on traits of anyone in particular from inside your writer’s room?
1:06:14 – At what point was the creation process for an episode the most intense?
1:13:10 – When can we expect a Sci-fi show?
1:17:38 – Bringing back Elizabeth Weir
1:19:09 – In-jokes about MacGyver
1:20:33 – What are your tips for emerging Sci-fi riders for getting a foot in the door?
1:22:50 – High definition SG-1
1:25:13 – How do you keep writing without repeating yourself?
1:28:27 – Thank you, Joseph!
1:28:51 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:35:25 – 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 to Dial the Gate. My name is David Read, and this is Episode 31. We are very fortunate to have back executive producer and writer Joseph Mallozzi of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe. We will be bringing him in, in just a moment here. But first, before I do so, let me go ahead and pull up some information here. If you enjoy Stargate and you want to share and see more content like this available on YouTube, please consider clicking that “Like” button. And there are several options here for you available to submit information regarding this series to your friends and to anyone who’s in your immediate sphere who is a Stargate fan. Please consider subscribing, as well, for future episodes, and we will be releasing new content every single week in the new year, as well. So, what’s going to happen in this particular episode is I’m going to bring in Joe, and all my fonts are screw…You know, if anything could go wrong in this episode, it absolutely is. Now all my fonts are screwed up. I appreciate Joe’s patience. Let’s go ahead and bring him in here. Hello, Mr. Mallozzi. Geez.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Hey there, you seem to be having a rough day.

David Read:
I’m having an interesting morning. We just did a…. I just found out how YouTube programs all of the live shows, and it depends on the computer’s time zone. Unfortunately, you pulled the lucky number in me figuring this one out, so I really appreciate you working with me on this one here.

Joseph Mallozzi:
No problem.

David Read:
I have been looking forward to talking with you for a while about this particular season, Season Five. For a very long time, it was my favorite. There was just…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Really?

David Read:
Yes, because it had a mixture of everything that was really great about the show in it. I think a large part of that is you were beginning to pull together threads. Season Two really started doing that, pulling threads from Season One, obviously. But Season Five had this perfect mixture of past threads and future story ideas all rolled into one season. And I think you did a great job of introducing Anubis, and, unfortunately, if I must be honest, a great job of killing off a lot of our allies.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Sorry about that.

David Read:
How do you feel about SG-1 Season Five, looking back on the body of work, your sophomore season?

Joseph Mallozzi:
It’s funny you mention the mix, because I remember at the end of Season Four, I think Season Four was a tough season for us, because Paul and I were always …. Most of the stories that we wrote were really, I think all of them were one-offs, self-contained stories that really had not that much to do with what had come before. And I remember at the end of the season, Paul and I sitting in my office, talking about Season Five and “What the heck will we do for Season Five?” because we were so tapped out of ideas. The cupboard was bare. But one of the things that we realized in Season Five was that rather than come up with those wholly original ideas, there was a wealth of previous stories to tap and the mythology and the relationships that have been established in the previous four seasons. So, that’s why it made me think of that when you just said that the series was really a mix of a bit of old, a bit of new, and it was very, varied storylines. And that’s something we always loved about Stargate, the fact that we could tell different types of stories, not just tonally, but also in terms of having connections to the past mythology or introducing something completely new.

David Read:
When you realized that you could tap into the resources that you had built into Season Four, and tap into the resources that had been paved before you had arrived, what stories were you really interested in telling when that first became a possibility to you?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Off the top of my head, I don’t really recall if there was a specific story, but I remember kind of doing the deep dive into …. We were familiar with the show, obviously, before landing on Season Four, and we’d done our research. But we did more of a deep dive in between Seasons Four and Five, specifically with regard to the mythology. So, that kind of appealed. The tomb was an interesting one. In that, even though the connection to past mythology was tenuous, still in kind of a big-picture view, it was a great opportunity. Invariably, it would always be a matter of we would think about storylines and I would always think, what about… “How come we’ve never explored….” And one of the things that fans kept on coming up with was, “What about the Chinese? What about the Russians? Are they in pursuit of their own gate program?” So, this was an opportunity to introduce a Russian team, which was kind of fun.

David Read:
Yeah, that idea of the Asgard mothership bailing out into the Pacific Ocean really was the spawn, that incident at the end of Season Three, really was the spawn of much… It leads to the Atlantis expedition. It leads to the IOA. That first, initial exposure of the Russians to the Stargate program. And in Season Five, we finally learn that they did their own thing. And it didn’t go so well. I wanna get to the tomb in just a minute here, and I wanna remind those who are in the YouTube audience, submit your questions for Joseph Mallozzi, now. My moderating team is Ian today. And Ian, thank you for being there for us in there. The questions for Joe don’t have to be about Season Five, but my line of questions are, today. You open up the season with a “Story by” credit for “Enemies.” And this episode, it looks like, let’s see, who this… This episode, it says the writing credits, it says the teleplay was by Rob. So, when a situation…Fill me in on the little “Story by,” “Teleplay by” thing. So, the story came from all of you…

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, it rarely happens, to be honest with you. Whenever you get in a room as a group of writers and you spin a story, whoever gets assigned the story writes the script. It’s very, very rare; it does occasionally happen when someone will come in with a fully fleshed out idea and pitch it, and they’ll get a teleplay credit. Usually that more often happens with a freelancer, when they’ll come in and pitch an idea and maybe they’re not able to write the teleplay. In this case, it was actually a very interesting scenario because we, I believe, spun the… We didn’t even spin the story, but usually Paul and I came up with the idea. And we wrote an outline, and we got notes and one of the notes from Rob was, I forget what exactly it was, but in terms of the timing of something happening in the script. So, we went back and tried to address this note, and if we weren’t able to address it, he’s like, “No, no, you have to do this.” And Paul and I kind of grew frustrated, and we were like, “You know what? You kind of have a firm idea of what you wanna do, so why don’t you write the teleplay?” And so, it was our story because we had basically gone through various permutations, but Rob wrote the teleplay. And I have to say, what’s interesting about the teleplay is that the note he gave that we were unable to accomplish was something that he realized when he was writing the teleplay either didn’t make sense or he couldn’t do.

David Read:
Same brick wall for him.

Joseph Mallozzi:
That’s the story. I completely forgot about that story until now you mention it. But that was the scenario.

David Read:
I love this episode. This two-parter, “Exodus” and “Enemies,” are some of the best that you guys did. The Vorash sun explodes. And through a quirk of hyperspace travel, we find ourselves on the other side of the universe. And we’re stuck with Apophis, and I think the more mortifying thing is that there are replicators that far out. So, God knows how many galaxies they have absolutely just wiped out. I’m convinced, if Universe had continued, we would have found more replicators. I think that the fate of Earth would have been always to encounter those guys at some point or another. Because Rob Cooper pointed out with us, they’re harmless fun and killing. It’s like you’re in a video game.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Exactly.

David Read:
So, did you approach… I’m curious about this particular season. When you sent SG-1 across the universe with Jacob in this lone mothership, did you know that you were gonna knock Apophis off in that first episode, and have Teal’c go rogue, and have replicators back? Or was this, “You know what? Let’s put them at the corner of the universe. We’ll deal with it next year.” Now, somehow, I doubt that last part.

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, we kind of had a… We usually have a pretty good idea of where we’re gonna go. It really depends on… It went from season to season in terms of how detailed we were on our game plan. But usually, we would know where we were headed.

David Read:
So, what was it like having Apophis finally, truthfully, 99% be dead? The main villain.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I guess it didn’t land as hard enough on Paul and I as on everyone else, because we joined in Season Four. And he… I forget. Did Apophis even put in an appearance in Season Four?

David Read:
Yeah, he did. But it was really minimal. It was only like two or three episodes.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t believe it was something that we would have pitched, just because he’s such an established villain that Brad and Robert had laid so much groundwork for. But then again, in the back of my mind, I always assumed, because I always say this is science fiction, and no one ever stays dead in science fiction.

David Read:
That’s certainly true.

Joseph Mallozzi:
You stay dead for as long as I am out of ideas for your character. If I come up with a brilliant storyline, then all bets are off. In the case of Apophis, even though he’s dead, Peter did come back for several appearances later on down the line.

David Read:
With certain sci-fi truists, Apophis Prime was basically gone.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Right. Peter was amazing in the role. I love the character of Apophis, and the fact that we killed him off for good, shall we say, really was more sort of a reflection of the fact that we had so many other storylines in the works, and so much other ideas to tap from the past, I mentioned the mythology, that we had that freedom to kind of open things up.

David Read:
I think that there is something delicious from a story perspective. It’s insidious from a real-life perspective, of course. But I think that there is something really delicious about Apophis always saying to Teal’c, more or less, over the course of four or five seasons, “When I get my hands on you.” We think that he’s gonna just keep killing him a la Baal with O’Neill again, and again. Instead, he turns him around. And it’s like, “Whoa.” Because I remember watching, it was like, “Well, I didn’t expect that.” What was that?

Joseph Mallozzi:
That’s good. That’s good you did that.

David Read:
Was that a subversion of the audience expectations? One that was like, “Well, you know what? If we’re gonna go this far, if we’re gonna go in this direction, let’s at least have Apophis go out having done something that affects Teal’c in at least the next episode.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Definitely, you always wanna subvert our audience expectations. And often it’s very hard to do. But in this case, you would think, “What is the most impactful thing that our villain can do?” And obviously something that would have not necessarily lasting consequences but consequences, as you said, beyond that episode, and the fact that it would affect one of our regulars so deeply. And, as a result, end up affecting those he cared about… So, I don’t remember who came up with that idea. It was either Brad or Robert. But it was just really a terrific little twist.

David Read:
It wouldn’t surprise me if it was Brad because of just what he does with it. He makes a meal of that. Brad does, in Threshold. What an extraordinary hour of television. Chris and Tony still talk about that one to this day. It was so cool seeing their backstory. Because in Season Five, of any typical other show, even to this day, you’d be like, “Season Five, we’re kind of finally getting to the backstory, the significant backstory, of how Teal’c became a rebel.” And boy, do those actors eat it up. And there’s some marvelous scenes between those guys in that show.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And poor Chris having to lie down shirtless in the snow.

David Read:
Exactly. His poor nipples are so frozen. And his back. Oh gosh, that was so funny. But I love this opening show in that it also subverts our expectations about seeing the replicators this quickly again. And the visual effects, at least the movement of the camera. Martin Wood, it appears, at this point, has never had more freedom to just run backwards through the hallway with SG-1. Replicators coming around all corners, and it looks, at least for the time…It still holds up pretty well today, but it looks so good.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Is that the episode where he brings them into the elevator, and the doors…?

David Read:
We get to see what happens when you use the ring transporters. That whole sequence is one of the best in the entire franchise.

Joseph Mallozzi:
It’s funny, actually. I just did a kind of a video panel with Martin Wood on Monday, and I mentioned the fact that he was our action go-to guy. And he just tore it up.

David Read:
It was a great show, and a solid entrance into a brand new season of television. You went on to do “The Fifth Man.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
Dion Johnstone.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
One of the best recurring actors that you guys had.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely.

David Read:
Where did the idea for “The Fifth Man” come from?

Joseph Mallozzi:
That was an idea that Paul pitched. I remember he pitched it in the room, and then Brad was like, “This is, I think, similar to an episode of Star Trek.”

David Read:
I think, “Conundrum.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
I was familiar with the original Star Trek. Look, I never got into Next Gen just because I thought the uniforms didn’t fit right. It was an odd thing to be turned off by. It was like, [inaudible].

David Read:
The spacesuits. You do have to stare at them a lot.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Brad watched it, so we were like, “OK, as long as we do our own thing.” It would always be the case. We would always pitch something and it’d be like, “Oh, either we did it in Seasons One to Three, or Star Trek already did it.” So, it was very rare we would find something that was something totally original. But this, apparently the basic premise had echoes of the Star Trek episode. But, of course, we made it our own. And you’re absolutely right. Dion is a fantastic actor who comes back later as an Unas, and, I think, one of Vancouver’s very best.

David Read:
We had the privilege of talking with him on GateWorld a few years ago. And he just ate up the roles that you guys created for him. We rarely get exposed to non-humanoid species this early on in SG-1. I remember the Reol, in talking with Bruce Woloshyn, was one of Rainmaker [Entertainment]’s first chances to do a creature. And it was one of the more exotic ones that you guys did. And it’s a really, really great technical achievement. And also, a really cool sci-fi idea, that you’ve got this species that makes… If it’s near you, you are manipulated into thinking that it’s an ally. It’s an interesting camouflage idea. And it was a powerhouse for Rick. Rick had some great scenes with Dion.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Actually, fifth season was…This and, I think, “Red Sky” follows soon after, are two of Rick’s greatest, I think, performances on the series. And they happen to occur back-to-back.

David Read:
They do indeed. And “Red Sky” was written by Ron Wilkerson. So, Ron, I don’t see that name come up very much. Was that someone who pitched an individual episode? Or how does that…

Joseph Mallozzi:
We were always looking to add to the staff. But it was always a very, very tricky show to get. I mentioned before the fact that it was really not a reflection on one’s skill as a writer. You either get it or you don’t. I mean, for instance, I watched Queen’s Gambit recently on Netflix. And I was like, “That’s a great show.” I, personally, would not be the guy to be in that writer’s room, but I thought it was terrific. But it’s the same way with Stargate. We would reach out and try out writers, and more often than not, they just didn’t work out. And in case of Ron, I believe, I don’t know how he came to us, but he pitched, and I think maybe “Red Sky” was his pitch. I think he went through the same process that we did with our first episode. We pitched the idea, they liked it, we talked it through. He wrote the outline. We gave him notes on the outline, and then he delivered a first draft that we thought was strong enough to warrant acceptance into the cabal. So, he delivered on that, and then became a part of the writer’s room for the fifth season.

David Read:
OK, so you recall him being there for the full fifth season?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Oh, yeah.

David Read:
OK, definitely. I’m gonna wanna reach out to him, for sure.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I just remember…Actually, the one Ron story I do remember is actually later in the season. He came in and he was having a really tough time with one of the episodes, one of his scripts. I don’t know what it was, but we were in Rob’s room and we were talking, and he had a script out on the couch. And then John Lenic, who was our line producer, his dog came in, jumped up on the couch, and peed on Ron’s script. And Ron jumps up and shouts, “John, your dog’s peeing all over my script!” And Rob followed up with, “Well, in all fairness, we’ve all been doing that.”

David Read:
God. Jeez, man.

Joseph Mallozzi:
True, crazy true story.

David Read:
Gosh. His writing credits for Season Five are “Red Sky,” “Between Two Fires,” “Proving Ground,” and “The Sentinel.” Gosh, oh man. So, the next one that you guys put out was “The Tomb.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes. That was a lot of fun.

David Read:
Repurposed old sets. Not exactly, but the bricks and the tunnels were built like them.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, not exactly repurposed, but certainly visually very similar.

David Read:
Claustrophobic episode.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I love that.

David Read:
A really creepy show. Talk about “The Tomb.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
As I just mentioned, we came up with the idea… More often than not, the story ideas come about as a result of questions. Like, why haven’t we learned more about what the Russians are up to, or the Chinese are up to? Are they aware of the Stargate program? What steps are they taking towards acquiring technology? And so, we introduced this Russian team. And it’s interesting, one of the actors, Jennifer Halley…and I mentioned this in Season Four…She auditioned for the role of a character who originally in the script was titled Jennifer Holly, and then my writing partner changed it because he said, “Jennifer Holly sounds like a nonsense name. It should be Jennifer Hailey.” But an actress named Jennifer Halley auditioned for that particular episode, didn’t get the role, so I thought of her.

David Read:
It was meant to be.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I loved her audition. So, we brought her back and she was in “The Tomb.”

David Read:
And you introduce Colonel Chekov in this episode, as well. Garry Chalk. Fantastic actor.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, he is amazing. He is terrific.

David Read:
I think he only has one scene at the end of the show. When you create these characters, are you sometimes surprised at their longevity in the long term? It’s like, “Man, I didn’t think we’d get this much mileage out of this guy.” In the scheme of things, he just fit the bill.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, it always occurs to me… The best example of that, I think, is Robert Picardo’s Woolsey. A character who’s introduced as really a thorn in SG-1’s side, and then you can’t help but love Bob and his portrayal. And so, the Woolsey character starts off as a pain in the butt, and then slowly over time transforms into kind of a more amusing character. And then ultimately, after he takes over command of the Atlantis expedition, you redeem him, and so his character almost comes, I wanna say full circle. It’s more like 180, really.

David Read:
It’s like what you guys did with McKay.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, that is actually the best example.

David Read:
You don’t wanna get rid of his edge. His edge is still there…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Correct.

David Read:
…But at the same time, he’s someone that you can at least, from not being able to tolerate being in the room at all to being, “You know what? I accept these character flaws of you because you’re such a great asset to the team.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, and honestly, you get to know them. You get to see the other side. And so, really, the side that you were introduced to in the beginning is still there, but you qualify those annoyances, if you will.

David Read:
Absolutely. And Garry, with Colonel Chekov, is one that eventually gets his due by blowing up with the Korolev. Whose idea was it? — And I think it’s still officially the worst way to go, getting put inside of a sarcophagus with a creature that wants to and is actively eating you and feeding off of you while the sarcophagus is trying to keep you alive.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t recall. It was either Paul or I, but I remember thinking, “You’re absolutely right. That is…”

David Read:
I can’t think of a worse way…

Joseph Mallozzi:
“… absolutely the worst way to go.”

David Read:
… the prolonged pain?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, yes. That is absolutely the worst way to go.

David Read:
And then the Goa’uld would think, “Okay, you know what? I’m just gonna have to jump ship and go ahead and go inside of a lower.” The Goa’uld can take other creatures as hosts if they have to. They just choose not to. So that was also creepy as well that… It’s suggested that these things could be in anything.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yep.

David Read:
And what a cool creature. Ken Rabehl did a wonderful design on that. Squid-like and spider-like.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes. I’ve always liked the squid-like elements or characteristics of alien creatures, whether it’s Giger’s Alien or the kind of stuff we did on our show. It wasn’t just this but various things.

David Read:
Time, the squid’s there. Teyla eats something similar in “Missing.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Space gopher.

David Read:
Space gopher. That’s right.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
“Desperate Measures.” This is an episode where we posit, “What if a person with unlimited resources and knowledge of state secrets like the Stargate program, what if he had the ability to get a hold of a Goa’uld to save his own life. What ends would you go to, to manipulate a situation and take advantage of other human beings, capture them, imprison them, study them to extend your own life?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
One could almost ask, what desperate measures would one take to prolong one’s life? Yes.

David Read:
There’s a sick and twisted yet darkly sympathetic quality to this character in Bill Marchant’s Adrian Conrad. And I think it’s only fitting when he does become a Goa’uld that it ends as badly as it does for him. I was trying to figure out how to… No, let’s go for the full way here. And you’re again going back on a previous story arc with Carter and Jolinar. Did that episode turn out in any way that you didn’t expect? And it also continues the ongoing story, the ongoing adventures of Harry and Jack.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, I love that relationship, and it was always a pleasure to write those two. Tom and Rick would always have a really good time playing off each other. In terms of the show actually, I think the episode pretty much delivered on what we imagined, except for the fact that we ended up something ridiculous like 30 seconds short. So, there’s that sequence when they’re searching the hospital that seems to go on for maybe a little too long. Maybe would you say 30 seconds too long? But otherwise, I think it turned out pretty well.

David Read:
I always wonder. Sometimes, there are episodes, and it’s rare this early on in Stargate, but in a lot of more modern shows, there are episodes that are built back to back. And one of the advantages of having a serialized story is that you can go back and retell certain parts of it again. I always wonder if that’s secretly a time-saving or time-extending technique, where, “We really didn’t actually film this much, so let’s actually show a little bit more of this past episode because it actually does have to do with this plot, and fill in that time so that we can hit the minute mark that we need to.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
It rarely happens. But I’m sure it does happen on occasion.

David Read:
OK. “Wormhole X-Treme!” Willie Garson returns as Martin Lloyd. And it’s the 100th episode bash. What was that atmosphere like hitting that milestone at the studio? And up at Bridge Studios, not MGM.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Obviously, it was very exciting. Paul and I joined in the fourth season, so again, it wasn’t as impactful for us. But it was obviously a huge deal for everyone. And we considered ourselves fortunate to be able to write the 100th episode, but again, even though Paul and I wrote it, we were all in the room, and you just can’t help but have fun with this particular episode. And I think on one of my blogs or multiple blog entries, I went over all the in-jokes that pepper this episode. There’s a lot of them, and all the cameos. I remember we made… Hank Cohen was vice president of MGM Television. We gave him a cameo. He wanted a cameo, and we gave him the line, I think he’s about to get into a car and his line is something like, “What this show needs is a sexy female alien.” And we gave him that line because in Season Four, that’s one of the things that he pitched. In fact, that’s, I think, an exact quote from him. He was like, “What this show needs …” And then I got to express outrage about the fact that there were no donuts left at craft services, and Rob played a kind of a harried writer. Rob Cooper played a harried writer.

David Read:
“Just do it the way it was in the script.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
And DeLuise.

David Read:
DeLuise was great in that. Peter was an actor first, I believe.

Joseph Mallozzi:
He was.

David Read:
Huge seaQuest fan, here. The franchise always… SG-1 in particular, really seemed like a DeLuise tour de force ’cause you had pretty much everyone in that family except for Peter’s mother as far as I’m aware, and the kids, their grandkids, in that show. They brought in Michael to play Jack O’Neill’s part. What was it like having Willie Garson back?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I loved Willie in “Point of No Return.” It’s great to have all these funny ideas, similar to “200” where everybody’s spinning ideas, but you need some sort of a framework to hang all these ideas off of. And then Willie became the guy, and he became the guy in “200,” as well. And he’s just a great comic actor, and really great timing, and really got along well with Rick. And it was a pleasure to have him back. Again, if you can pay off something that has come before, the fans really appreciate.

David Read:
Absolutely. This season was the last season that you were on Showtime. So, throughout the season you guys were, I imagine, in your head space preparing to be unemployed and be out there at the breadline again.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, this was gonna be it. This was the end.

David Read:
I’m preempting this a little bit here, but when was the pickup for Season Six realized? Were you still in production of Season Five?

Joseph Mallozzi:
We were still in production.

David Read:
You were?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, I remember Brad calling us into the office, and he was like, “What would you guys think about a Season Six?” And we were like, “How is that possible? I thought we’re only doing five seasons on Showtime.” He’s like, “Well, apparently SyFy has put the show up for a sixth and final season.” So, we’re like, “Oh, well great, we receive a reprieve, so we’ll do one more season.” And Brad was like, “Look, but this is it. It’s great, so let’s make the most of it.”

David Read:
You’re going throughout this season and, as far as…we do say, there was always a movie plan, there was always a movie in the works. But I was, from my knowledge, reading the news articles and everything else that were published at that time, the intent was to do some kind of a feature at the end of Season Five. Because you’re setting up Anubis. You weren’t just gonna end the show and have Anubis out there. It was gonna be some kind of a lost city, beginning to pull the pieces together from “Solitudes” and that gate that was found at the Arctic. The Antarctic, rather. And you were systematically eliminating our allies throughout this season. Was that a mandate going into Season Five to make Earth as isolated as possible?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I don’t know if it was necessarily a mandate. As you said, we were working towards a series finale. And in working towards a series finale, you wanna wrap up as many storylines as possible, and Stargate had so many ongoing storylines that you were never gonna wrap them all up in satisfactory fashion. And you’re absolutely right, there was always the thought of doing a movie, but a full season is even better. I forget at what point in the season we realized we were coming back. But, obviously, the finale, “Revelation,” was written as a season finale rather than a series finale.

David Read:
When “Meridian” was conceived, was that with knowledge that Michael would not be joining for Season Six?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, to the best of my knowledge, that was the case. That’s exactly what I thought of when you just mentioned the fact, “When did we know?” And yes. The fact that he decided to leave, I remember he had had the conversation with Brad, and Brad was like, “Well, the door is always open if you wanna come and play.” So, remembering that leads me to believe that, by the point we were writing “Meridian,” we knew we were coming back.

David Read:
OK. And it’s one of the reasons that I think those last few episodes are so delicious, as well, because you’ve now boxed us in story-wise to a brand new threat and circumstances. But before I get to “Revelations,” “Fail Safe.” So, how many stories in the universe have been done about asteroids coming and wiping us out?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes. Exactly.

David Read:
What gave you the idea, “You know what, what we haven’t done? Is an asteroid story.” And to make it as unique as it was.

Joseph Mallozzi:
This is the point in the series where Paul and I began to write separately. So, up until this point, we had always written together in the room. And although we always shared credit, he tended to write more of the rewrites, uncredited rewrites on other writers, and I tended to write more of the originals. But at this point in the series, we were actually writing separately. So, I believe I wrote “Summit” and he wrote “Fail Safe,” this time. And then we ended up co-writing “Revelations.” But this is one of those instances where I remember we were actually writing two separate scripts just because I think it was just because the production machine had eaten up all of the existing scripts and we just desperately needed scripts.

David Read:
And this example of “Fail Safe,” I don’t know why I went to “Fail Safe” first, but it’s reversed on IMDb. Let me go back to “Summit” because “Summit” and “Last Stand” is where the idea of “Fail Safe” comes from. Because Anubis threatens, to the System Lords, to destroy Earth before they reintegrate him into their group. “Summit” and “Last Stand.” Longstanding, for a long time, my favorite episodes of the show.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Fantastic.

David Read:
You have the Reol chemical, the Tok’ra, the Goa’uld System Lords. You have Yu returning. There’s like five or six disparate elements in that first episode that come together and are responsible– Go ahead.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely. No, those are the type of stories I love. The ones that you said were the disparate storylines that end up dovetailing in the end. They’re very tough to do, but if you pull them off they are the most dramatically satisfying. I think for fandom as well, they seem, they always respond to the type of stories that seem to juggle a lot of ongoing storylines and find a way to sort of pay them off in satisfactory fashion.

David Read:
It almost feels like with “Summit” and “Last Stand,” you are moving the whole fricking mythology forward in that one show. The Tollan are gone at this point. The Nox, and I guess a few of the other more incidental, frankly, races at this stage are not involved. But really, all the big pieces of the show, except for maybe the Jaffa, are moved forward in those two episodes in important ways.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And this is the episode where, I believe we introduce Ba’al.

David Read:
Cliff Simon.

Joseph Mallozzi:
In a way, the intent was to open up the…I always loved the System Lords…but, to open things up in terms of the System Lords. And he was one of, I think about a half dozen System Lords we introduced in the episode. And Cliff really popped and he just became, in time, my favorite System Lord to write for. He’s got that acerbic sense of humor.

David Read:
What do you think about his performance that really stands out? There is a menace to him in that initial episode that carries into Abyss. He’s just a great character all around. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a mustache-twirling villain, per se, but he does have that murky, “I don’t know what he’s gonna do next” quality to him.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely. As you said, menace, but there’s also something humorous, devilishly humorous about his performance, which I always liked, and we mentioned the fact that I always liked the humor in Stargate and the opportunity to take advantage of that. So, he was a System Lord who you could play with that humor and have him get decked by Carter in a later episode. Cliff was amazing, obviously a terrific actor, but he also was able to deliver on the humor, which was always important to me.

David Read:
What was it like getting to bring Osiris back? Anna-Louise Plowman, my favorite.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, actually, she made such an amazing villain. The only issue, I think, was the fact that she was in the UK, so it made scheduling difficult. Otherwise, I’m sure she would’ve been all over that series. But it was terrific to have her back, and another fantastic performer.

David Read:
She has a layer that she’s playing throughout that series. Some of the performers behind the Goa’uld really get to play up that duality. If you look at Alexis Cruz, Alexis is playing that layer of it’s not always fully Klorel. Skaara’s also always there pushing and pushing. And I think part of what I’m doing is ignoring the fact that, in that case, we happen to know both symbiote and host. And in the case of Sarah Gardner and Osiris, we do know symbiote and host, but when she talks about Daniel, and when she interacts with him and deals with him in that episode, and in “Revelations” later when she finds out that he’s dead, she’s stunned. And if it was just an evil villain, “I want him to be dead,” it would be a completely different response, but there’s layers of subtext in Osiris’s, in Anna-Louise’s performance.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And you write a role and you cast to the best of your ability, and every so often, you’ll have a performance that pops and you know that this is a character you wanna bring back. And after “The Curse,” we thought, “Definitely, she’s the character.” By the way, I kept on saying the UK, but I think she’s from New Zealand, or maybe she was in, I think she was in, the UK. I think she was originally from New Zealand.

David Read:
I think that’s correct. And Dame Maggie Smith’s daughter-in-law.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Really? I did not know that.

David Read:
Her husband is Toby, I can’t remember his last name, but Maggie Smith’s son. So, he’s the one in Lost in Space, he’s Robinson.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I did not know that. Nice trivia.

David Read:
So, “Revelations” introduces the Asgard genetic flaw. Whose idea was this?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Again, it was either Brad or Robert. And again, you’re always looking to subvert audience expectations, throw those curveballs given our established mythology, given our established characters, and this is a huge one with regard to the Asgard. It certainly was not Paul or I. It was an idea that was so big and that would have had such an impact that it really had to have been either Brad or Robert.

David Read:
It’s a rare story that takes five years to unfold, from this to the end of the series. And it’s a tragic one. It was tough losing those little guys in the end. And I always wish that we had gone back to Janet Fraiser…Janet Fraiser…Teryl Rothery’s performance as Heimdall. Was Heimdall a character that you, in hindsight, would have revisited if you had the chance?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I think so. I always liked the Asgard. Thor, obviously. But, who’s the Asgard we had on Atlantis?

David Read:
That was Hermiod. Hermiod was neurotic.

Joseph Mallozzi:
He was a bit sassy. He’s kind of passive-aggressive, and he was fun to write for. In general, I absolutely love the Asgard.

David Read:
Trevor Devall played Hermiod and Kvasir. Kvasir was cool, too. I liked Kvasir.

Joseph Mallozzi:
If we could have actually had… Actually, there was another one with a sense of humor. I think he was…what episodes do you think? Was he in “Ripple Effect?”

David Read:
Yeah, he was.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, that was Kvasir. I remember because I always tended to write the sassy Asgard, and so “Ripple Effect” was mine. And I remember when he was like, “Yeah, well, good luck.” And beams out.

David Read:
That’s right. “Well, good luck to you all.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
“Good luck to you all.”

David Read:
But to be fair, he is there when the Ori come through and start blowing everybody up. I think he does also duck out too, because he survives for the season. There was something always tongue-in-cheek about the Asgard, especially when they start interacting with us more. That scene, I don’t know if it’s Rick or who it is, and you have to wonder about these little timings on set, because both the puppet…in “Revelations” is the case…the puppet, the CG character, and then the live actors have to be in on it, as well. There is a shot where Rick holds out his hand, and you see Heimdall look down at it and start holding his hand out, as well. And it’s a tight on Rick, and his hand is being shaken like this. As if the performer off screen is actually doing that. Is that something that Rick was really good about saying, “Go with this,” “Bring it in tighter on me?” Or was that, little details like that, written into the script more often than not?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, to be honest, there was what was written in the script, but really when you get to set, we defer to our visual effects supervisor as to sort of… And working in conjunction with the director. Usually the director will be like, “Can we do this? Can we do that?” accordingly. Of course, Rick’s contribution had a lot to do with it. For instance, I remember sort of Rob and Brad were always fond of saying that we would establish our force fields, our invisible force fields, but we would know there was a force field because we would script in a shot direction where the actor would run their hand across it, and you would see it come up and be like, “$1,000.” But of course, you would do it once, but Rick, of course, on the day would always be like, “Mm.”

David Read:
Be playing with it.

Joseph Mallozzi:
$2000, $3000, $4000.

David Read:
And had a fair way of enjoying blowing through the ammunition budget, as well.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, of course.

David Read:
I can’t imagine that was cheap…

Joseph Mallozzi:
It was not.

David Read:
…that artillery.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I was talking about it recently, the fact that our offices, the writer’s offices, the production offices were in this very old brick building right above the set. And whenever they would fire off their weapons, our offices would shake. Pleasant memories. At the time, I’d be like, “Holy, is it an earthquake?” And then I’d realize, “Oh, actually, no, they’re downstairs. They’re just shooting up the SGC.”

David Read:
It would have to put a smile on your face. It’s like, “Look where I’m getting to go to work.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
It was never dull. Never dull.

David Read:
So, Season Five, one of the best seasons of the show. You’re really at a crossroads with a lot of the story elements. The Ancients really, I think, begin to come into their own. You had a wonderful guest performance with Sean Patrick Flanery, who unfortunately wasn’t able to join you again for Season Nine. But there’s some good stories in this sophomore year of yours, my friend.

Joseph Mallozzi:
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed, but in preparation, obviously, for our little chat, I went over a few of the episodes for the season. And I will have to say it was a strong season. It was a fun season, great performances, and, as you said, storylines that really push our various arcs forward, the relationships of our arcs, the story arcs. You mentioned the Asgard and the Goa’uld. I love the fact Season Five was the introduction of Ba’al who would come to be a fan favorite in time.

David Read:
It’s a good year. And it’s, I think, one of the reasons that the franchise… That season is one of the reasons that, I think, the series, itself, remains as strong as it does to this day. I have…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Sorry. I was gonna say one more topical point that someone pointed out to me was Season Five was also the year of “2001,” in which the Aschen offer us a nefarious vaccine at a time when vaccines are very much in the news.

David Read:
This is true.

Joseph Mallozzi:
So, that’s interesting.

David Read:
“2001,” being the episode title of that season. It’s the sequel to “2010,” which was in the previous year. September 11th, you were in production on “Menace.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
And is that a pupper?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes. Hang on just a second.

David Read:
Oh, you’re fine.

Joseph Mallozzi:
She is. Hi. She just wants to say hi.

David Read:
Hi, hello.

Joseph Mallozzi:
She’s looking for mom who’s in the other room practicing her Chinese. OK. You OK?

David Read:
You good?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I can’t give you anything. Just, relax here. Old-timer.

David Read:
Absolutely. Those can be the best. When the attack had started, were you at the studio yet?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No. I remember my sister calling me and it was, I think it was like 7:00 AM, 7:30 AM, my time and she’s like, “Are you watching the news?” And I was like, “No.” She’s like, “Turn on the news.” And that’s how I learned. At that point, obviously production was underway and I came in and there were TVs, televisions in the boardroom that we would sometimes use to screen episodes, and CNN was on. Anyone who was not on set was basically glued to the TV. I remember Brad having a discussion, and I think we ended up shutting down that day. It was tough. I remember actually, also the actress who played Reese…

David Read:
Danielle Nicolet.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Lovely, lovely, amazing actress and a lovely person. She was unable to fly back to LA because all…

David Read:
Traffic was stopped.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, everything was grounded. Having to stay those extra few days…But it was “Menace” and, I think, “The Warrior.” I think we were prepping the “Warrior.” Those were the two productions that I remember were impacted at the time.

David Read:
I can’t imagine how easy or hard that would be to… ‘Cause I remember being in those offices and looking at that production board and just seeing everything lined up. Is it a situation where you, “Guys, it’s one of these calls where we have to just call this day a wash,” and everything gets adjusted down one day or two days?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely, that’s what we have to do. Usually, there are contingencies in place, but productions are such a well-oiled machine that you’ve booked locations down the line. And it’s really like Jenga. You pull out that one piece and the entire structure is in danger of collapsing. So, at that point, it’s really up to your first AD to reschedule, juggle, and make sure everything works.

David Read:
A lot of phone calls, I bet. A lot of phone calls. But, at that point…Now, I’m sure, especially with the film and television industry, September 11th looked like a fricking square dance, with what’s happened with COVID. Christopher Judge talked about how somber it was on set, and how apparent it was, fairly quickly, that even if we shoot, we’re probably not gonna get anything usable.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Exactly.

David Read:
It’s a terrifying situation for everybody. I have fan questions for you.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely.

David Read:
Thank you for answering that. I’ve always been curious about what it was like going on upstairs. Tracy wanted to know, “I’d like to know if there is any particular storyline you would like to have expanded upon given a chance with any of the Stargates moving forward?” If there was any particular thread that you left that was like, “You know what? If I could go back and…”

Joseph Mallozzi:
There are so many of them. The obvious ones are, frankly, for me, the Destiny, picking things up for them on the other side of the great expanse. Although, of all the endings, even though I know fans felt like they were left hanging, I thought there was an elegance to The Universe ending in that final shot of Destiny jumping, leaving us behind. And the fact that we don’t know. In all likelihood, they’re still in stasis and they’ll outlive us all.

David Read:
Quite possibly.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I very much would have loved to have seen Atlantis get back to the Pegasus Galaxy. That is actually one of the bigger ones for me. In terms of SG-1 storylines, I always felt that there were Ba’al clones kicking around so…

David Read:
Really? Still?

Joseph Mallozzi:
… he was a character. Absolutely. It would have been fun to sort of go back to him. You mentioned the Asgard and we talked about the fact that whoever stays dead…

David Read:
The Vanir. There are still Asgard bodies floating around in the universe.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah. I am sure I could go through and list like thousands of storylines that I would’ve loved to see.

David Read:
This is ultimately, I think, gonna be a yes or no answer. But I’m interested to see just how far it was developed. The story with Stargate: Extinction, it was suggested that it wasn’t gonna be a conclusion to The Wraith, but rather an expansion to their story. Is that a fair… I just need to sit down and read it.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah. Don’t you have the script?

David Read:
I do, but I never touched it because I wanted to see it first. The more that we talk about it, the more I don’t wanna see it because I don’t wanna be put in a position where I’m like, I am against the audience, and having more information.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Really, it was intended to either be a movie or the opening two-parter for Season Six. Really all it was, was designed to bring Atlantis from Earth back to Pegasus. And they have an adventure along the way, and Todd happens to be along for the ride. There’s nothing really Wraith-specific outside of the Todd character. You’ll have to read it and let me know what you think.

David Read:
Just take it in front of the audience. “You know, I really loved scene 32. It just really hit home, man.” Let me rephrase this, then. Was the end game for the Wraith, like the end game for the Goa’uld and the Replicators and all that, ever determined in an initial framework concept? So that, were Atlantis to ultimately end, you knew where you were gonna go with that species? Because even, in my argument, when people say that they need more Atlantis, I think, largely, what they’re saying is that they want a conclusion to the biggest arc of that show. Which is you’ve got this vampiric, life-sucking species running around out there in the Pegasus galaxy, and their story wasn’t resolved. Obviously, you had intent to resolve it, but were the bones in place? Did you do what you were going to do?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I would say Brad and Robert certainly, as the creators of the series, would have had an end game in mind. But we were not actively working towards that conclusion because, in all honesty, I thought we were coming back for a sixth season.

David Read:
That’s fair. That makes a lot of sense. Ian wants to know, “How long did it take roughly, if you put all the seasons together, and visual effects, and everything else, how long did it take roughly from when your first draft was written to when you had a completed story ready for air?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
It really depended on what point in the production schedule and how quickly you had to write. But, I would say usually it would take a couple of days. You come up with an idea. You take a couple of days to spin. You have maybe outside of a week to write your outline, usually maybe it takes a few days. Then you’ll do a rewrite of the outline, and get notes on that. That’s maybe a couple of days. A first draft will take you two weeks approximately, and then each subsequent draft usually maybe a week or so. So, I would say about a month and a half to two months from idea to shoot ready, production white.

David Read:
OK. I’m trying to figure out how I wanna phrase this. You know what? Let me come back to that. So, Martin Lloyd…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
… carlostakeshi wanted to know, “Is Martin Lloyd based on traits of anyone in particular from inside your writer’s room? A composite?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Not really. To be honest with you, he was more a composite of the more extreme fandom voices we would come across. He begins as this weird conspiracy theorist and then progresses into a more lovable ally. But no, there was not… You would think that he would be one of us, but, in fact, no. When we were writing it there was not very much of Martin Lloyd in any of us or vice versa.

David Read:
I remembered what I wanted to ask you earlier. When you were in production for a show, at what point… Because I remember going and visiting you guys in production. I think it was production of Season 10 and Season 3. And Martin Gero was in his office with his soundproof headphones on, his head down, writing away. And it always made me wonder, obviously you’re not doing that 24/7 or at least eight hours a day, five days a week. At what point was the creation process for an episode the most intense? When you’re actually sitting down and hammering out that first draft script, where you looked at the forecast and was like, “OK, on these episodes, or, excuse me, on these days up ahead, I am unreachable because I have to get the thing out.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
First of all, I have to correct you in your saying you’re not working 24/7. In fact, as writers, you are always writing. I would write when I’m driving, I would write when I was in the shower, I would write when my significant other would be talking to me over dinner, which is why I ended up getting divorced. So, as a writer, you’re always writing. And, as I mentioned, we were always very careful about trying to get as much… As many scripts production-ready before the first day of principal photography so that we were never scrambling. But of course, invariably there were… The machine eats up those scripts, and you have to get right down to it. And I think there are varying degrees of intensity. There’s the intensity of the writer’s room, in which case basically you’re dealing with disparate opinions and trying to sort of make a story work. There’s the intensity of once you have the outline approved, getting that script written. And everyone has a different process. Martin, as you said, exactly would put on the soundproof headphones and get right down to it. I would always have to pace, and people would notice. I would write a scene, I would print it up, and then I would pace the halls and go over the scene, revise it, and then use that as almost a running start into the next scene. Paul would be the same way as Martin. He would close the door in his office, open up his bottle of Scotch and…

David Read:
Get to work.

Joseph Mallozzi:
… and get to work.

David Read:
Geez.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I would actually see Rob every once in a while, and I’d come by his office, he’d be kind of staring at his screen, and he basically… Suddenly just kind of a little flurry of tapping, and then it would fade, and he would sit, stare at the screen for a while. Everyone had a different way.

David Read:
So, did you all have your own signals to one another when you were not to be disturbed?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Usually the closed door was a good signal.

David Read:
OK, I was gonna ask.

Joseph Mallozzi:
That was the signal.

David Read:
I don’t know if I could have my desk pointed so that I could see through into the hallway there.

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, that’s why you had the blinds.

David Read:
Oh, you did?

Joseph Mallozzi:
The door would be closed, the blinds would be shut.

David Read:
Got it. So, you were, for all intents and purposes, inaccessible, except in the event of fire.

Joseph Mallozzi:
This is why we weren’t on set a lot. A lot of people are like, “Wow, what’s it like being on set?”

David Read:
There’s hardly any time.

Joseph Mallozzi:
There is no time because you’re upstairs either writing scripts, or you’re prepping episodes, or you’re in editing, working on your producer’s cut, or you’re watching mixes. Being on set would have been a luxury, and we’d try to do it as much as possible, which is why it was always embarrassing for me after a certain point to go down the set, because even though I’d been with the show for multiple seasons, I didn’t know all the crew member names because I just was never on set. I was the guy who would be upstairs working all the time.

David Read:
You did what you had to do. I think it was you who mentioned, over our dinner a couple years ago for the Dialing Home interview that we did, that any time you went down to the set, that’s the amount of time that you would have to make up when you went back upstairs. Because that’s… It was like when you would go down to the set, it was almost like you were clocking out. But there were a certain number of hours to whatever you had to do every single day to get your work done, and there was no other choice but to look at it that way and get it out.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Especially true when, for a couple years, we were producing 40 episodes of television, which is insane.

David Read:
Mind-boggling. Crazy. And to your earlier point about working 24 hours a day, I guess there’s just like a drip in your brain that you can’t shut off when you’re involved in a season of television. Because I know what it’s like for me when I have deadlines. There is a tightness in my gut that does not go away. Because there’s an amount of appropriate anxiety that’s healthy. To make sure that you hit all your deadlines right. And I suspect that’s…unless you’re a carefree person, it’s like, “You know what? I’m not gonna worry about it. It’ll get done one way or the other.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
No.

David Read:
That’s always present with you.

Joseph Mallozzi:
It’s exactly that. And as a writer, it’s particularly frustrating because you can’t really take time off. As you said, if you don’t care, you can take time off. But if you’re working under a looming deadline, you could be doing something completely different, like I said, driving your car or out for a walk or out shopping and you’re invariably running dialogue in your head. And that’s how I write. I will run dialogue in my head and the scene will take shape as a result of the back and forth of that dialogue, and you can do that anywhere. You can do that lying in bed at 3:00 AM…

David Read:
We’re always having conversations with ourselves.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes.

David Read:
It’s a great way to try out a scene.

Joseph Mallozzi:
My wife last night came and was like… I was in the shower and she was in the bedroom, and she was like, “Did you say something to me while you were in the shower?” I’m like, “Actually, no. I was writing dialogue.”

David Read:
Oh, God.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And maybe not in my head, out loud. Sometimes that’ll happen.

David Read:
Yousufi wants to know, “Joe, when can we expect another sci-fi show from you?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Hopefully sooner than later. I have actually two sci-fi shows, two time travel sci-fi shows. One of them I keep mentioning, if you liked “Window of Opportunity” and if you watched Dark Matter–All the Time in the World, Isn’t That a Paradox? The funny sci-fi, Timescape is a show for you. And then I’m working on another one with the executive producer [sic] of The Outpost, Doug Pasco and the amazing Christine Amenti [sic] we have developed a time travel series that we were gonna go out with in October but because Hollywood shut down, we’re gonna have to push it off ’til January. So, I’m working on that. I actually am working on two major sci-fi shows. I’ve actually been hired. It’s actually…it’s contract work, it’s not just me writing, but one crazy sci-fi series that combines gaming, anime, K-pop, and science fiction. So that’s what I’m working on now. And I’ve got a near-future android murder mystery that is also next up on tap. I’ve got a really fun adaptation of a comic book with one of the major comic book publishers that I’ve been working on for a while. I’ve got something in the fantasy realm, which is a terrific book series that I can’t say now because they haven’t announced it publicly yet, but I had a conversation with the author last week, and he’s amazing and the books are amazing, and it’s a very unique fantasy series that I’ve mentioned on my blog, I think more than once, so you can check out my blog too.

David Read:
Josephmallozzi.com.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Josephmallozzi.com. Actually, there’s two comic book properties. One of them is a sci-fi property that I’m in talks with. So, I’ve got a lot going on. Oh, and also…It’s just so crazy…I mentioned the fact that it seems like I got a lot in the works, and I do, but you never know what’s going to go. So, which is why you have to have all these balls in the air. And there was a script I wrote several years ago that I sent out on a lark a couple of months ago. I didn’t think anything would come of it, and I got an email earlier this week that was from a streamer that was like, “Hey, we’re interested to talk about this.” And that one is a small-town supernatural mystery series. Who knows what’s going to go. You always have your favorites. My heart is with sci-fi, especially the more humorous sci-fi. So, Timescape is number one on my list. But who knows what will happen? So, hopefully sooner than later, I would say. By 2021, I’ll be in a writer’s room working on something.

David Read:
My goodness, man. The bandwidth that it must take to manage the projects that you just said. There was like five, six, or seven of them. How do you sleep?

Joseph Mallozzi:
I know.

David Read:
Obviously, you’re not working full bore on all of them simultaneously. They are at various stages of…

Joseph Mallozzi:
I should be working…Yes. And the fact that whenever I talk about this, I can feel the anxiety rising in me because as I’m talking about this, I’m like, “I really should be getting more work done on that pilot script,” for instance.

David Read:
“Instead, I’m stuck with Dave.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, not stuck. But honestly, when I’m not stuck with you, I may be researching my fantasy football or checking out the new Korean horror series on Netflix.

David Read:
I do have to say, with modern streaming and everything else, there is definitely a situation, I think, where we have more quantity than quality. But, at the same time, these longer form novel-length series that are coming out now are just some of the best entertainment that’s ever been devised. It really feels that way. So, ChronosChiron, “Back in March, Joe gave out a paper of how they could bring back Dr. Weir, but never got a chance. Can you elaborate on this a little bit more?

Joseph Mallozzi:
That was the scene. As I said to you at Comic Con, not the last one, but the one before that wasn’t the last one. Like I said…

David Read:
The last live one…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Two years ago.

David Read:
…three years ago.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah. We ended up doing a reading of excerpts from the Stargate: Extinction script…Stargate Atlantis, what would have been the Stargate Atlantis movie. And ever since we lost Weir, Elizabeth Weir, presumably lost Weir, in my mind she was not dead even though the Asurans basically told Sheppard, “Oh, we killed her.” Are you gonna take the word of your enemy? Of course, they’re not gonna kill her. She’s like a font of information. So, they would’ve kept her in stasis, on ice. And I always thought, “Well, how would I bring her back?” What I ended up doing was writing the scene for San Diego Comic-Con, the scene that I would’ve written to bring Weir back. And I posted it on my blog somewhere, so you’re gonna have to look that up, as well.

David Read:
I remember being there and hearing this. As far as I’m concerned, this is canon. Full stop. That’s it. She persists. Her human form persists in the universe. It was too solid a character to just wipe out. The Time Prophet, “The in-jokes about MacGyver in Stargate. Did Rick have any input on putting those in or did he just…”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Absolutely, he had absolutely no input whatsoever in putting those in. In fact, I don’t think he even liked them, to be honest with you.

David Read:
I was gonna ask. Redox, “Who came up with Grell’s line at the end and what’s your take on it?” So, I believe they’re referring to 200. He has the quote from Isaac Asimov.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, that was pure Brad. And you can tell it’s Brad because Brad does not only write science fiction, but he reads science fiction. And, obviously, contemporary, but the classics, as well. Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, and I think we recently talked about Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, so yes, that was absolutely a Brad Wright line.

David Read:
Kevin Leech, “Sean Patrick Flanery’s character, Orlin. Was it a scheduling conflict that he didn’t return for Season 10?” Or just not interested?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, I believe it was a scheduling conflict.

David Read:
OK. Let me see here. E Ti, E space Ti, “Joe, what are your tips for emerging sci-fi writers for getting a foot in the door into a writer’s room as an assistant or something like that with the view of gradually moving up the ranks?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
If you haven’t had anything produced before, being an assistant would be the best way to get your foot in the door. There are other trades that list what productions are gearing up. So, reach out to those productions, see if you can land your position as an assistant or maybe even sort of front office staff. For me, the advice I give first-time writers is to follow the path I took, which was an atypical path in that I actually got my foot in the door in animation writing. Animation companies tend to be more receptive of new writers. You get your foot in the door, you get to hone your craft, you get paid doing it, and then you can make the transition from animation to live action, which is what I did. Paul and I, we transitioned from writing for animation to writing for live-action teen sitcom to writing one-hour action-adventure to ultimately landing on Stargate and working our way up. So, those are the two ways to go about it. Also make sure you have a great script. I would suggest two scripts, one spec script, which is obviously a script based on an existing series to demonstrate your ability to capture the tone and the voices of a show, and also an original pilot.

David Read:
Wow. Man, thank you for that clarification. It’s easy to look back and go, “This is my story,” but this is a process that took years, just like any typical journey where you have the number of credits that you do and you have to be willing to go on that journey, as well, and climb that mountain starting at the bottom. So, Redox wanted to know “Where’s the SG-1 and SGU Season Two Blu-rays?” This is an MGM question.

Joseph Mallozzi:
People ask me that all the time and I always tell them, “This is a studio question.” Sadly, I have nothing to do with that.

David Read:
SGU is at least available in high definition on the streaming sites. SG-1, there is a Blu-ray that actually just came out. And it is my understanding that it is legitimate, but it is in HD up res. I will post the link to it in the blog, or excuse me, in the YouTube links so you guys can take a look at it for yourself. It’s obviously not what I would’ve wanted, which would’ve been a full restoration.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I have to say I’m pretty active on the Stargate subreddit. I occasionally post behind-the-scenes photos and one of the fans had up res’d one of the episodes, one of the SG-1 episodes, and it looked amazing.

David Read:
Really?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes. It looked really good.

David Read:
If a lot of these studios don’t get on board, then the fans are gonna start ahead of them. Have you seen the Rogue One deep fakes where the deep fake technology was used instead of the CG that was adapted for Peter Cushing and for Carrie Fisher?

Joseph Mallozzi:
No.

David Read:
They look better than the multimillion-dollar CG products.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Wow.

David Read:
It’s spooky how you can apply this software…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yes, it is spooky.

David Read:
…and it’s better than what came out four years ago. Matthew Hall, “Thank you for writing the best show ever. You have helped many people and are very appreciated by us all.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
Helping to write the best show ever. Thank you.

David Read:
Ákos Tamás Nováki, “Why was the Goa’uld Shiva changed in the script of Summit?” I wasn’t aware of that. Is that true?

Joseph Mallozzi:
Why was she changed?

David Read:
Shiva. The Goa’uld Shiva.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Why was she changed to Kali?

David Read:
Was it changed to Kali? OK.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Because…

David Read:
I thought Shiva was benevolent.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I think that’s why maybe we did it because Kali was a better bad than Shiva.

David Read:
Kali was definitely a bad, for sure. The Time Prophet, “Joe, how do you keep writing without repeating yourself?”

Joseph Mallozzi:
That’s a good question. I don’t know how I managed to do it. I don’t know. My mother says I am blessed with original ideas. Really, what it comes down to is the characters. I always think back to “Window of Opportunity.” When we first pitched “Window of Opportunity,” Rob Cooper was like, “No, change it to this, change it to this, change it to this.” Ultimately, I ended up saying, “You just want us to write a Groundhog Day?” He’s like, “Yeah.”

David Read:
“Yeah, just write it.” “So, you don’t want me to do any work!”

Joseph Mallozzi:
“We can’t write Groundhog Day.” But it became a fan favorite because it was less to do with the premise; the premise was great, but it was because it was our characters. You can be original if your characters are original, because you’re always writing for unique voices. Like on Dark Matter, I ended up doing a time loop episode, and everybody’s done time loop episodes. But it ended up, again, being a fan favorite because it was unique to our characters.

David Read:
It was yours.

Joseph Mallozzi:
And to those characters.

David Read:
So, at a certain point, you just kinda have to accept the fact that there are only nine or 10 story ideas in existence, and make the best darn show that you can with the best darn characters that you have.

Joseph Mallozzi:
I wanna say it was Hemingway. It was someone, one of the greats once said that there are maybe a half dozen stories out there, and it’s all a variation of these handful of stories. And I remember, I think in Season Five of Stargate, Paul and I were interviewed, and Paul said pretty much the same thing. There’s only a set amount of story; every story’s been told. And the fans went berserk when they read that article, because they were like, “You’re saying that there’s no original stories and that’s not true.”

David Read:
That’s not what they’re saying.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Basically, they had claimed…

David Read:
That’s not what he’s saying.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Actually, for some reason, the quote was attributed to me, so I was the one who got raked over the coals. I was like, “Well, I didn’t say it, but regardless, it is true.”

David Read:
We have had long conversations about how the fandom is a beast with many, many heads. Most of those heads are cool and appreciative of the content and are thankful to have access to you, who are willing to go into the dens where those beasts reside. And every once in a while, you come across some who think that when you’re shooting at a fan, you’re shooting at them, so…

Joseph Mallozzi:
Yeah, that is … That was another one I was gonna bring up.

David Read:
“Homecoming.”

Joseph Mallozzi:
I couldn’t believe that.

David Read:
Season Seven.

Joseph Mallozzi:
OK, all right. Move along.

David Read:
I’ll never forget that. I remember like…that’s not true!

Joseph Mallozzi:
The fact that we would go through all the trouble of, “OK, we gotta put the fan in the scene, a mechanical fan in the scene, and we have to have the bullet bounce off it so that…”

David Read:
Joe, it’s been a pleasure to have you back.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Oh, it’s always a pleasure. Thank you so much.

David Read:
It means so much to me. Thank you for putting up with my time change shenanigans and everything else. This will not happen again, I swear.

Joseph Mallozzi:
No, we got it done. It was great. I look forward to the next one.

David Read:
You have a good holiday. We’ll see you in 2021, OK?

Joseph Mallozzi:
All right.

David Read:
Thank you so much, sir.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Gonna get my dog. Take it easy, David.

David Read:
Sounds good. Be well.

Joseph Mallozzi:
Bye.

David Read:
Bye-bye. Joseph Mallozzi, everyone, on Dial the Gate. Questions for me. Ian, “I know that one goal of Dial the Gate is to be an oral history of Stargate.” That is still the intent here. “To that effect, I’d love to see James Robbins, Mark Savela on the show, Brad Rines and Rick Martin, editors. Are these folks people you’d be interested in having on?” Absolutely. James Robbins, I messaged him a month and a half ago, and I have not heard back. So, if anyone out there is in connection with the production designer, James Robbins, I would kill to have him on the show. It would be an absolute pleasure. We would have a lot to talk about. Mark Savela is someone that I would love to have on in the very near future as well. Brad Rines and Rick Martin, I really wanna do an editor panel as well as a director panel, for sure. Watcher652vids, “Why don’t you have a Stargate that lights up? This is in reaction to your Enterprise.” I would love to have a Stargate that lights up. I just don’t have one. So, the SGU Stargate is my favorite gate. It’s elegant. The lines are beautiful. The chevrons are white. There was one that someone put out, one that actually spins. And I would love just a static one that lights up and just sits on a base. Clairrburr, “Wondering about a Dial the Gate Discord server chat.” Claire, asked and answered. So, Claire and I are working on that. I sent her an email. So, a Dial the Gate Discord chat server may be in the cards, here. Let me see here. Matthew Hall asked for Joe to… let me see here, “Thank you for writing the best show ever.” So, we already answered that. Kevin Leech, “How’d you get into doing Stargate interviews in the first place?” I made a phone call, and that was between Season Seven and Eight. I reached out to Amanda Tapping’s agent and asked her to take my call. And within like a week or two, we had an audio interview and posted it up on GateWorld. And that is my first or second or third interview for GateWorld. So, that was really the turning point. And it was a matter of continuing to do that since. And making connections with these people and raising GateWorld’s profile and moving everything forward. “Question for David. Do you have any of Don’s artwork?” I don’t have anything that Don made, unfortunately. I do have General Hammond’s wedding ring from his deceased wife who died of cancer. That’s upstairs and that’s in my safe. I think that’s my only piece of Don that I have, is the wedding ring that he wore during production. Don’s artwork is available at donsdavis.ca. While we’re mentioning websites, Joseph Mallozzi’s website is at josephmallozzi.com. That’s where his blog is posted. We have a sponsor! Dial the Gate has partnered with 3D Tech Pro for the month of December to give you a chance to get your very own desktop Stargate and customized Ancient keychain. To enter to win these items, you need to use a desktop or laptop computer and visit dialthegate.com. 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: 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. Your trivia must be received before January 1st, 2021. If you’re the lucky winner, I’ll be notifying you via your email right after the start of the new year to get your address and what word you want on your Ancient keychain. Be sure to check out our partner’s website for more Stargate-related merchandise at 3Dtech.pro. I think that I have artwork as well before we let you guys go. I do indeed! This is from guest artist David-sd. It is a 3D rendering of the Goa’uld space station from the Hasara system in “Summit” and “Last Stand.” It’s labeled “Goa’uld Space Station Work In Progress.” David-sd said, “I’m still alive and currently I’m working on a Goa’uld space station.” This is a few years old that this was posted. “The one seen in the episode Summit. Almost finished the modeling part.” This is amazing work and this is something that I would love to be able to…a model that I would love to have behind me sitting on some kind of special stand or whatever to keep it straight. It’s one of the coolest builds in the entire franchise. So, thank you so much for joining us. Before I let you go, one last thing: if you like what you’ve seen in this episode, I would appreciate if you click that 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 the Subscribe icon. If you plan to watch live, I recommend giving the bell icon a click so you’ll be the first to know of any schedule changes, which will happen all the time, like it did today, except for today; it was my fault, not Joe’s. Bear in mind clips from this livestream will be released over the course of the next several days and weeks on Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net’s YouTube channels. We have two more shows coming up for you tomorrow. The first one is going to be actor David Hewlett. Rodney McKay himself. And that is scheduled for 11 AM Pacific Time followed by Jacqueline Samuda at 1 PM Pacific Time, Nirti. So, come with your questions and we will be having them answer them. Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is David Read and we will be seeing you on the other side.