There are some talented fans in the Stargate world, and graphic art is where you will find many of them! Dial the Gate is pleased to welcome long-time Stargate fan Ryan Begemann, a.k.a. “Mallacore,” to discuss his SG-related art!

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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:26 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:50 – Welcoming Ryan and design of the puddle jumper
07:15 – Thought on Ancient drones, design functionality
09:44 – Stargate and Ryan’s beginning with design
12:09 – Going through Ryan’s design archive
29:12 – Discussion of future Stargate and a new Gate design
33:13 – Jaffa Ships, connecting sci-fi and fandoms
37:13 – 3D designs and what’s next
39:57 – Wrapping up with Ryan
42:25 – Post interview housekeeping
43:50 – End credits

***

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

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Hello, everyone. My name is David Read, and welcome to Episode 139 of Dial the Gate. It’s a pleasure to have you with us. We’ve got quite the line-up today. We’ve got Bonnie Bartlett coming up in a little bit, followed by Rainbow Sun Francks, so an SG-1 icon with Linea, and an Atlantis icon with Aiden Ford. Before we get started with this episode, which is Ryan Begemann, RJB / Mallacore, depending on how you know him in the art communities. If you really enjoy Stargate, and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you clicked that Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube 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, and 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, and clips from this show will be released over the course of the next few months on the Dial the Gate YouTube channel. As this is a pre-recorded episode from a couple weeks back, Ryan and I will not be taking any questions from the YouTube chat, so I hope you enjoy. We’re gonna show off a great deal of his artwork and have a good time with this. Let’s go ahead and bring in one of my favorite fan artists, Ryan Begemann. Thanks so much for tuning in. Ryan Begemann, graphics artist. Hello, sir. How you doing?

Ryan Begemann:
Not too bad for a Wednesday.

David Read:
For a Wednesday. It’s hump day. This is good. But this’ll be airing on a weekend, so for everyone out there, it’s a weekend. I came across your work, I guess this was about a year ago at this point. I was scrolling around on, I think, Facebook. And I was wanting to start, at this point, sharing content from fan creators, of stuff that really blew my mind. And I came across this design for a what-if. If technology had continued to grow out in the direction that it was growing, if humanity were to make a Puddle Jumper, like they’d made their own spacecraft, so essentially a Stargate shuttle, what would it look like based on the design parameters given to us in the ancient design context? And you had gone and created an Earth-based reverse-engineered Puddle Jumper, and it blew my mind. I’d like to– Before an introduction to you or where you got into graphics design, tell us about this design up front.

Ryan Begemann:
Basically, it was really based on the Puddle Jumper and what we could of build off of with human technology. So, I was trying to take those elements of what you would see in helicopters and that, those shapes, and incorporate it into a Puddle Jumper design, and build that backstory to it, where they always call it the pickup truck version of the Puddle Jumper, ’cause of how the back drops off. But there’s a logic behind that, too. In my mind, because our technology wasn’t as advanced, I wanted to keep the engine area separate from the crew area, so if there’s damage, you don’t get contamination. So, there’s a lot of functionality thought that went into it.

David Read:
How did you start this particular item? Did you say, “I wanna create my own Puddle Jumper?”

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah, that’s —

David Read:
Or, “I wanna create a version that, if Earth were to continue designing this stuff, this is a potential direction they might have gone?”

Ryan Begemann:
A lot of my art basically starts from 2014 where it’s an alternate timeline where disclosure actually happened. And in this case, Puddle Jumpers being very limited, and obviously you can’t make any more, there was a need for a smaller ship that could travel through the gate. So, they basically took what worked, as far as the Puddle Jumper retractable engines, a long body, so I started with some basic sketches, and took the basic Puddle Jumper look, and actually built it into something that looks like it could be built by humanity.

David Read:
This is pretty legit. What’s interesting about this design that’s very unique compared to the ancient version is that the back half of the second module that trails the ship is exposed. It’s not enclosed. What was your design process for that?

Ryan Begemann:
Originally, I didn’t have the second module, and people were asking about what to do with the back end, and I came up with the idea of you come through the gate, and you have… It’s more like a storage unit. So, you come to the planet. They drop it off. You have extra weapons and that, and you can scout ahead, while having people left behind to guard the Gate. So, it’s basically like a little mobile field base that they can drop off while carrying on with the Puddle Jumper.

David Read:
Absolutely. And I love your design process. I’m looking at the ship technology breakdown. You’ve incorporated pretty much all of the original components that would have been found within the Puddle Jumper, but you’ve pushed it forward to include the Asgard beam weapons. So, after we lost the Asgard, they handed that technology over to us. And I know that the Daedalus was using the Asgard beam technology as well before the end. It wasn’t just the Odysseys, is that right?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. It was eventually, I believe, upgraded to the same–

David Read:
The others as well. So, by extension, some probably less powerful versions would have been included in these little ships to make them pretty darn badass.

Ryan Begemann:
And as we investigate the technology and understand it better, I can see us miniaturizing things. It may not be as powerful as something on a capital ship, but you can scale it down and still be quite effective.

David Read:
What is your thought process on the ancient drones? I see that the ship fires drones.

Ryan Begemann:
Yes.

David Read:
Is it your assumption that we’ve begun …

Ryan Begemann:
At some point, we reverse engineer–

David Read:
… to reverse engineer them?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah, that’s my idea. At some point, obviously I’m doing tech breakdowns as I’m doing projects. And at some point, I wanna do one for human drones and come up with my idea on how they actually function.

David Read:
One of the things that really drive the point home of reality is James Cameron’s Avatar. Everything in that world has a scientific process from which it stems. It isn’t just…

Ryan Begemann:
A functionality.

David Read:
It has a functionality. It’s not just, “Oh, let’s do this because it looks cool.” And going through this art here, everything has a design functionality. If it’s on there, it’s not on there just because it looks cool. It’s on there because this ship would have to have that.

Ryan Begemann:
It has a function and it has a part to the ship.

David Read:
And if we’re gonna do it, now let’s go ahead and make it look cool.

Ryan Begemann:
And that’s always been important. Even with my other ships, I always look at them, “What does each part actually do? What is its relevance to the ship?” It’s nice to have things that look cool, but people really connect when they can actually feel the functionality of a design.

David Read:
And sci-fi fans are always gonna be the first to be like, “OK, why is this there?” Don’t just tell me it’s there because it looks cool, because A, I don’t accept that. If you’re gonna go out of your way to build as real a world as possible, something has to be here for a reason.

Ryan Begemann:
And that’s the thing. It draws you into the environment. It makes you feel part of that world when you can actually understand the mechanics behind it, even if it’s far-fetched. If you can make that connection, it really draws you in.

David Read:
Have you spoken to James C.D. Robbins before?

Ryan Begemann:
No, I have not.

David Read:
I’d love to introduce the two of you. If no other reason than to say hello, I think that he would be really impressed with these designs, as an outgrowth of what he and Bridget McGuire created, particularly for Atlantis. So, I’m gonna have to set up that conversation.

Ryan Begemann:
It would definitely be interesting to get their feedback on —

David Read:
Absolutely. How long have you been creating stuff like this? And where did you first fall in love with Stargate?

Ryan Begemann:
Stargate, I pretty much fell in love with since the beginning. Right from the pilot, I loved the series and —

David Read:
SG-1?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. Longtime Stargate fan. And as far as CGI and computer modeling, my first influence was Babylon 5. And I started into it probably around ’98, ’99, very crude stuff and that’s where I got my feet wet in there. Back then, there wasn’t really much. Everything you learned, you learned yourself through trial and error. It’s not like today where you have a lot of tutorials and communities to help you.

David Read:
YouTube.

Ryan Begemann:
It was the Wild West of the era.

David Read:
Have you always used the same software?

Ryan Begemann:
Software? Yeah.

David Read:
Or have you grown from one to another?

Ryan Begemann:
I basically started with LightWave, which was actually the same software they used for Babylon 5. Fun little connection there and I’ve stuck with it since.

David Read:
I think Star Trek Voyager was also using LightWave, if I’m not mistaken.

Ryan Begemann:
I think so. It’s played a part in a lot of TV series. I have a friend that did some stuff for the new Battlestar Galactica series and a lot of the stuff he did was through LightWave as well. So, it plays a huge part in TV sci-fi.

David Read:
This wouldn’t be a particular individual who was featured in the Trekkies films, would it be?

Ryan Begemann:
Don’t know.

David Read:
OK. I forget, Gabriel Köerner?

Ryan Begemann:
No, not him.

David Read:
OK. So, Gabe was a big Stargate fan, or a Star Trek fan, and was picked up to do some of the more amazing shots in Battlestar Galactica. But there’s a huge pool of talent out there that gets found in the fan community and gets brought in to do these passion projects like Bab 5 and Battlestar.

Ryan Begemann:
And a lot of my friends in the 3D community are like that. They started off as fans and they got tied up into different shows. And it’s very inspiring to see that.

David Read:
Take me through some of your designs here. This is the main reason that I wanted to bring you on was to really show off your archive of stuff and big thanks to you for organizing them into a kind of narrative, if you will. If you wouldn’t mind taking us through and I will display these items as we go and I’ll ask you some questions as are pertinent to what we have. Stargate is arguably more of a land-based series. You’ve taken to the stars with more of the ship-based technology and explored from there. So, where would you like to take us first?

Ryan Begemann:
If you wanted to start at the beginning of where my art started, which would have been … I think the Excalibur was my first Stargate design.

David Read:
What year would this have been?

Ryan Begemann:
That would have been 2014, I think I started on that.

David Read:
OK, so long after Universe wrapped.

Ryan Begemann:
No, sorry, it would have been 2007. ‘Cause the Excalibur I came up with during the first season of Atlantis. And in the first season they had that satellite weapon that they used to cut through the Wraith ships. And I really loved the concept.

David Read:
Of the satellite weapon?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. And the Excalibur is actually built around that concept. On the side of it is actually a pair of weapons that are based around that technology.

David Read:
I can see that. Absolutely. And also, I see the nose is more of a reminder of the Daedalus look, but there’s some Prometheus in there as well.

Ryan Begemann:
That’s the hard thing too. For Stargate, you really only had two human ships to work with. To sort of expand from that while still keeping that feel that the show has created has been quite a challenge.

David Read:
And the F-302 would be classified as a fighter so it’d be much smaller, wouldn’t be the same thing we’re talking about here. If we’re talking about carriers, we really only have Prometheus and Daedalus at this point. Absolutely. Pretty.

Ryan Begemann:
And in the case of the Ares, it was actually my idea of a dedicated warship. It dropped the whole concept of having any kind of hangar and just focused on weapon setups.

David Read:
So, this thing wasn’t firing off fighters? It was just a dedicated weapons array?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah, ’cause in my mind, the evolution was battle groups. You can’t just have one ship try to do everything. You have to have those roles and fill in like a modern navy.

David Read:
Exactly. I’m looking at these things at this point and I’m like, “Disclosure really would have had to have happened in order to get…”

Ryan Begemann:
To that point.

David Read:
“… to this point, or good luck trying to maintain secrecy.” If we’ve got tens of thousands of manned personnel floating around in the stars, this would be quite the labor to keep tight.

Ryan Begemann:
Endeavor to keep secret.

David Read:
Absolutely. So, Excalibur and Ares. These are really cool.

Ryan Begemann:
Excalibur’s probably my oldest ship, and at some point in the future I’d actually really love to rebuild the design and actually modernize it to the level that I’m working at today. So, that’s something to look at at some point in the future.

David Read:
Legit. What’s next?

Ryan Begemann:
Probably the next one would have been the Phoenix, and that’s the design that I’m probably most well known for.

David Read:
Is this Sam’s Phoenix?

Ryan Begemann:
For me, it goes back… I was a big part on GateWorld way back in the day.

David Read:
I remember those days.

Ryan Begemann:
And we had this huge mega-thread on ship designs, and towards the end of Atlantis, they were talking about having an episode with the Phoenix in it. And they posted some screenshots and you could see on the bridge that on the consoles was the shape of the ship, and everybody thought it was gonna be a brand-new ship. The episode finally came and it was basically another Daedalus-class ship and there was a huge amount of disappointment in our design group. So, for me, it was what could I do with the Daedalus to take Asgard technology and completely modernize the design? So, it’s sort of my alternate universe where the Phoenix became the George Hammond in our universe and in this one, the Phoenix existed but it became a modernized version using Asgard technology.

David Read:
I see your wings. I see the wings off to the sides here are indicative of the Beliskner and the Daniel Jackson seen in later seasons of SG-1 here. It echoes the apple core kind of shapes.

Ryan Begemann:
And for me, when I looked at Asgard designs and I saw those wings, I always thought they were some sort of gravimetric inertialist engine to guide the ship. So, for me, that was our evolution into better engine design. One of the other elements I included on it is the ring in the front. If you remember the Beliskner, it had a bunch of circles along the neck section.

David Read:
Yes.

Ryan Begemann:
So, I wanted to bring those elements into the ship to bring that heritage in. And even along the bottom, I actually incorporated a human version of the neutron ion generator that they had running along the length of the underside of the ship.

David Read:
I see there these tube-shaped– And on the front end of it here, the only thing I can think of is a great big watch battery. If we turn this door open, this whole thing will pop out, or a super gigantic Stargate.

Ryan Begemann:
A lot of people ask me if it was a giant ring transporter. I’m like, “No, no, it’s just design.” It’s just something to make that connection between the heritage of the past technology.

David Read:
This cylindrical shape that runs through the bottom of the ship just like it did on the Beliskner, that’s really cool. I did not notice that before. That’s legit, man.

Ryan Begemann:
And that’s the thing, with my designs, I really try to incorporate a lot of functionality and a lot of little Easter eggs from the series.

David Read:
They were there for a reason, so they would be here for a reason. Makes sense. Absolutely. Cool. What else do we have?

Ryan Begemann:
We talked about the Puddle Jumper.

David Read:
Yes, we did.

Ryan Begemann:
I have a folder with some mixed designs if there’s any specific designs that you want to discuss.

David Read:
I’m still mesmerized by the intent to create something out of a furtherance of the technology of the Ancient design. I like the idea that this ship could have been modular, so that you could, like an 18-wheeler, attach a different unit to the back of it depending on the mission, like a mission-specific module design. Is that what you were going with here?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah, originally it didn’t have that design, so people asked about why it had the pick-up design. I joked to myself, “Let’s go with the whole pick-up idea and actually put something in the back bed of it.” And I started with one module, and down the line, I wanna do different modules for it. It does tie into that whole modular concept.

David Read:
It works.

Ryan Begemann:
And you can see that in one of my other designs, the Abydos class, and that whole ship is based around the concept of being modular.

David Read:
I’m looking up the Abydos class right now and it’s almost got a different array of engines.

Ryan Begemann:
The concept behind it, if you look at the second picture —

David Read:
Gunships.

Ryan Begemann:
Because the center part is its own ship. And the side wings are designed to be able to be detached and changed out with different setups. At this point I’ve only done the gunship module which makes it basically a support ship to a larger group of ships. But down the line I wanna do a heavy weapon module where it would have heavier weapons, and even a troop transport set-up, and even possibly a hangar fighter set-up. So, depending on the mission, it can be refitted to fit the role that it needs to be. And the idea of it grew from the concept that building these big-big ships is extremely costly. So, building a fleet of smaller ships that can be modified to specific missions, especially post-disclosure while you’re still building up your fleets, still trying to defend Earth, would be a good beginning point.

David Read:
Tell me about the Fenrir class.

Ryan Begemann:
The idea behind that is basically a patrol ship transport. You’d have your big ships off doing their missions exploring the galaxy, but you’d still need something left at home or around your colonies to defend it. So, the Fenrir was my smaller ship that would protect your planets. It would move troops around as needed, ’cause the gate is not always the easiest transport method if you’re moving large quantities of people through it, like we see in the show. Like the Goa’uld bringing Al’kesh ships and amassing forces and not using the Gate for that. So, very similar concept.

David Read:
OK. And the Helios?

Ryan Begemann:
That originally started as a commission that I was doing. And unfortunately, it fell apart at the end. But the concept behind that was a long-range strike ship. So, it’s like the Daedalus on steroids. I always joke it’s like if the Daedalus went to the gym and worked out a little bit extra.

David Read:
That’s funny.

Ryan Begemann:
So, basically built around drone weapons, missile weapons, basically anything that you can launch long range, and sort of a counter to Hive ships where you’re basically being combated against large number of fighters, you just basically fill the skies with enough ballistics and —

David Read:
Bob’s your uncle. Absolutely. You included a number of fighters in here as well. Is this called the Mara?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah, the Mara is actually my version of the actual Al’kesh.

David Read:
OK, so it’s a bomber.

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. It does have a troop capacity, but it’s more for a special forces group. So, in my mind it was like, let’s say your Stargate is under enemy control, so you’d bring in this ship via hyperspace, it would come in, lay down bombing fire, deploy troops, and then the troops would take back your Gate so that you could move your forces in via the gate itself.

David Read:
I see you did your own design, advancing forward on the F-302 design. Is it the 322?

Ryan Begemann:
322 Valkyrie.

David Read:
Also an Asgard extension?

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. This one went with the Phoenix. So, a lot of the design elements that I did for the Phoenix, I incorporated into that. So, it was like taking the 302 and cramming as much Asgard technology into it as you could.

David Read:
This is so cool. I’m also seeing — I skipped over one, I think — the Tempest?

Ryan Begemann:
Yes. Tempest was —

David Read:
This is almost a callback to Prometheus.

Ryan Begemann:
That was my “what if,” if they actually did a production run of the Prometheus. What would that ship have actually looked like? I was never a huge fan of the Prometheus. I always felt that it felt too top-heavy, so I tried to smooth —

David Read:
Function over form. That’s what James Robbins was told when he designed it. So, office building in space.

Ryan Begemann:
I tried to smooth it out and make it that in between the Prometheus and the Daedalus. And it was my first attempt at coming up with something smaller ship-wise to fill in that gap.

David Read:
These backgrounds in a lot of these wallpapers that you created here, are these another passion project for you to design some of this atmospheric nebulous stuff, or is it in the same line of thinking for you to go and create a lot of these environments to put your ships in?

Ryan Begemann:
It really is more the environments for the ships. I want something that’s vibrant, full of energy, and that’s why they’re a lot more colorful than just stars and space. I just want something to show off the ships that have this energy that makes the ships really feel like they’re popping in these environments.

David Read:
They do. The Dauntless class. Tell us about Dauntless. Is this more recent?

Ryan Begemann:
Yes, that’s the one that I just finished probably a month back. Your Daedalus would have been your first generation of ship, and then things like the Phoenix that would have been the second generation, and this would be reaching into the third generation of the evolution of the ships. And this one’s sort…

David Read:
It’s more like a tank.

Ryan Begemann:
… this one’s the Ancients, Asgard, all that technology finally coming together into an actual ship. And I didn’t really notice it at first when I was building it, but when you look at the side view, it actually really has that Aurora sort of design. So, it wasn’t intentional but pleasantly worked out that way.

David Read:
Very much so. I see the Ancient design elements worked in here.

Ryan Begemann:
I tried to build the front a little bit more in that style while still keeping the normal Earth profile while also working in the Asgard technology, but more incorporated into the ship itself.

David Read:
You went on to create an Ancient drone fighter design.

Ryan Begemann:
Yes.

David Read:
Probably after having some Star Wars influence, I think, too. There’s echoes of that as well. Tell us about this.

Ryan Begemann:
A lot of this, again, goes back to my GateWorld days. We were actually running a contest to come up with Ancient ship designs. And in my mind, with their war with the Wraith, personnel would probably be limited. So, you wouldn’t be able to necessarily have all these people piloting the ships. So, I took the idea of actually having unmanned drone ships. So, you’d have a command ship and then drone ships that would function with it.

David Read:
So, someone who’s a telepresence.

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah.

David Read:
Plugging themselves in. So, they’re not actually aboard.

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. It would be a mix of technology. You’d have a person in command of the ship, but the ship would also be able to make certain choices within a limited range of its own.

David Read:
And then an Ancient bomber. And destroyer. These are legit. Sorry, I’m going fan crazy here. I wanted to save some of these before I actually looked at them in detail. And then I’m going, “Oh, my gosh, these are cool.” I have a bit of a challenge for you that I’d like to place out there. I think at some point, were Brad’s Stargate series to continue, and I may be wrong, but at some point, we would take a crack at creating our own Stargates. And I would be very interested to see what a US Air Force-inspired Stargate design would look like. We got the briefest glimpse of the Tollan design. We see what the Supergates look like. They’re the only Ori Stargate technology that we’ve seen. If their ring transporters are anything to go by, their Stargates would have been gorgeous to look at. But I’m really interested to see what an Earth-based Stargate…

Ryan Begemann:
Would actually look like.

David Read:
… would look like. Because I think that we would want to, not that we can surpass the Ancients in terms of their design knowledge and God knows all the codes that they built into theirs to throw out all kinds of error messages that we’ve been trying to interpret over the years and years, I think that we would eventually begin to develop our own. Maybe not, but I would love to see what one looked like.

Ryan Begemann:
And it is a concept I’ve been thinking a bit of, ’cause as I said, a lot of my designs are my own vision of a post-disclosure future. And as Earth expands out, there’s worlds that aren’t even part of the Stargate network that the Ancients didn’t see value in, but humanity may for resources or for strategic value. And we may want to expand the Gate network ourselves.

David Read:
Absolutely. In “First Strike,” and in a few episodes around there, whoever was the vendor for Stargate Atlantis in pushing out a lot of those Stargates made an eight-chevron gate. And I don’t know, I guess this just got past the creatives when they were watching the episodes but my thought process was, “Maybe like in ‘First Strike’, the Asurans designed their own stargates that didn’t require nine chevrons because they didn’t need them.” And I always —

Ryan Begemann:
If you’re not traveling to another galaxy, what’s the point of …

David Read:
… have any reason of catching up to Destiny. I’d also be interested in seeing stargates with seven chevrons and eight chevrons based on what their desired purpose was. Also, as a safeguard, if this thing ever gets out of control, it can’t go X, Y, or Z. If it ever gets out of our control into someone else’s hands.

Ryan Begemann:
And if it’s a seven-chevron Gate, you’re limited to people in our galaxy, so the enemy that you know.

David Read:
Correct, exactly. Or maybe a certain series of Gates with some missing coordinates so it can’t go certain places. All these things I’ve been interested in.

Ryan Begemann:
If Earth built gates, they could build their own closed network compared to the open network of the Ancients.

David Read:
Correct. Exactly right. The Ancients designed it as an open network on purpose, not realizing that generations down the line, their enemies would be using them to incite all kinds of things.

Ryan Begemann:
These are things I do think about quite a bit ’cause you’ve seen the amount of content that I’ve built over the years and my grand goal is to put it all together in some sort of understandable form that people could actually use if they wanna role play in the Stargate universe in that post-disclosure future ’cause there is a huge, passionate group that still follows Stargate even now.

David Read:
Absolutely. The Free Jaffa. This is a departure from the other designs ’cause it goes more back to the Egyptian bent, but if the Free Jaffa were to go in their own direction technologically, tell us about some of these.

Ryan Begemann:
This was a collaboration. The concept behind them is that I wanted to take the decadence of the Goa’uld and simplify it a bit while also incorporating more of a mechanical technology into them because the Jaffa would still be very much learning how the technology works. They’d be using whatever infrastructure the Goa’uld has left.

David Read:
Correct.

Ryan Begemann:
So, everything that they’d build would be built around that idea, and they don’t need their ships to be as fancy as the Goa’uld, but they still would have that cultural element, even though Goa’uld being false gods to them now, they were raised in that culture and it doesn’t change that that’s …

David Read:
That’s theirs.

Ryan Begemann:
… the aesthetics.

David Read:
In fact, depending on who’s in charge, they might wanna, instead of completely shedding themselves of it, take it as their own.

Ryan Begemann:
I view it as an evolution of the design while also a de-evolution of the design at the same time.

David Read:
This is legit. This is very cool. Please tell me you do something design-wise for your day job.

Ryan Begemann:
No, this is just a hobby for myself. My full-time job is, I run a construction company.

David Read:
I can still see the DNA from one to the other. I mean, I’m looking at some of these blueprints and I’m like, “I can see that.” That makes a lot of sense. And to be able to come home and do something radically different, this is a great escapism.

Ryan Begemann:
For me, obviously I’m a huge sci-fi fan. Ever since I was a little kid I was that kid that would have a big bucket of Lego and I’d build the Starship Enterprise out of the Lego. I didn’t care what the set was, I’d go build my own spaceship.

David Read:
I have three Enterprises in this very room. So, I hear you. Absolutely.

Ryan Begemann:
For me, the art is my way of expressing my love of sci-fi, my love of ships, but it’s also my way of connecting with my fellow fans in the different fandoms. As I said, Stargate fans are extremely passionate. They haven’t gone away over the years.

David Read:
No, not at all.

Ryan Begemann:
I love talking with them, I love sharing the designs with them, I love getting the feedback. Probably my favorite part is, back in our GateWorld days, there was one guy that was inspired by my work. He did some CGI work. And then later on, his daughter eventually got into the show and into CGI. And the reason that she got into it is because her dad was very influenced by me, and it’s very humbling that what you can do can really spur on this whole ‘nother generation of people passionate in the show, passionate in design, passionate in creating their own designs.

David Read:
Absolutely. You never know where your work is going to be seen and what it’s going to do to someone else’s creativity, what spark it’s going to give them. One of the reasons that I’ve been thinking about a Stargate-based or an Earth-based stargate design, and not because I have the design chops to pursue it but to invite other people to, is the fact that your work is so amazing. And I thank you so much for allowing me to share some of these pieces. You’re also pursuing a 3D approach now.

Ryan Begemann:
Yes.

David Read:
Am I correct about this?

Ryan Begemann:
Yes. I did the 322 Valkyrie Fighter. It’s a different experience, to create these models in software and see them on your screen, but to actually physically pick up the model, hold it, rotate it around in your hands, and actually play with it. I’ve also done one of the —

David Read:
Look at all the detail. It really popped out.

Ryan Begemann:
And that’s from a filament printer too. So, at some point I do wanna get one — a resin printer — and I’m sure I can get a little bit more detail out of them. But I was absolutely blown away by the amount of detail that you can get out of it. And going with those, I’ve also been expanding into the role-playing element. So, I’ve been coming up with little elements for– ‘Cause one of my ideas was, “OK, so Jack loves Star Trek.”

David Read:
A communicator.

Ryan Begemann:
Communicator for–

David Read:
It sure looks like it.

Ryan Begemann:
So, what would a Stargate-based communicator look like?

David Read:
We saw in “200.” That’s really cool. Very legit. What’s next? Is that where you’re gonna continue to go, or are you looking to create more designs? What’s your thought process moving forward?

Ryan Begemann:
I’ll always create more designs. I love Stargate. I love Stargate ships. I’m hoping at some point we will get another series, it’ll get the go-ahead, and we’ll get more ships and more ideas. And I do plan to expand into other franchises. I’m a big Babylon 5 fan, so I’ve actually done some original designs based in that universe. I’m a Star Trek fan as well. I have a friend down in the States, and we came up with a small Cardassian destroyer design and built a 3D model of that. And I’ve actually printed it, because I wanna paint it up and send it to him down in the States.

David Read:
I can see. Absolutely.

Ryan Begemann:
So, it’s been expanding — I love sci-fi. Stargate’s probably my biggest love. But building ships, and I’ll keep building ships, and if people enjoy them, I’ll keep sharing ’em with them, and that’s where I’m at.

David Read:
This is legit. Where can we see your work online? Where do you want us to point to first?

Ryan Begemann:
Probably the most active places I’m at, if people wanna interact more directly, would be things like Facebook and Twitter. And if they just wanna view my gallery, that would be up on DeviantArt.

David Read:
OK. I will definitely share those details as well. You can find those in the description below for the video. Anything else, sir?

Ryan Begemann:
No.

David Read:
I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.

Ryan Begemann:
Working on my next ideas. My main focus, I think, right now, is I’ve done a lot of big-big ships. So, I wanna do some smaller… I wanna do another fighter. I wanna do maybe a cargo ship, something non-military. And like I say, over time, I really wanna put this together in a format like you’ve seen with the Puddle Jumper, where it’s all laid out and the different stats and information. So, over time, I wanna build up on that and put that together for —

David Read:
Your thought process is laid out. I like it a lot.

Ryan Begemann:
So, that’s my goal over time, just to build up more of that content so that people can actually really enjoy the mechanics of the ships, understand how they function, what they’re about. And the other thing I wanna do is I wanna do tech breakdowns. I wanna look at … build a model of an Asgard beam weapon and do a cross-section of it and come up with my idea of how —

David Read:
The weapon itself.

Ryan Begemann:
Yeah. And think of how it might actually function and work. And same thing with drones. I’d love to do a cross-section and come up with an idea of how they actually function and bring that technical aspect to my fellow fans.

David Read:
This is cool, man. Thank you so much for sharing, and I’m glad that we get to spread more knowledge of your work. Thank you so much.

Ryan Begemann:
I certainly appreciate it, and I had a great time. As I make more, hopefully we’ll get to talk again in the future, ’cause you seem to love this as much as I do.

David Read:
I will not pretend to love it as much as you do, but I admire the craftsmanship and the work. And I love showing it off. Love Stargate as much, for sure. Thank you for coming on, Ryan.

Ryan Begemann:
That’s a definite and thank you for having me.

David Read:
Thank you. Thanks so much to Ryan for taking part in an episode of Dial the Gate. It was really a pleasure to have him on. I’ve been watching his art for years now and he’s just a massive talent. There are so many great fan artists out there in the different communities online who have continued to evolve Stargate in their own way, just from falling in love with the show and seeing the concepts that folks like James C.D. Robbins created for Stargate, and wanna take it a step further. So, we really appreciate him coming on. 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 offer T-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies for all ages, as well as cups and other accessories in a variety of sizes and colors at dialthegate.com. You can click on the Merchandise tab, click on a specific design to see what items are being offered. Checkout is fast and easy and you can use your credit card or PayPal. Visit dialthegate.com or dialthegate.com/merch, and thanks so much for your support. Bonnie Bartlett has recently turned 93, and she’s gonna be joining us in the next few minutes here to discuss her character of Linea. I am so excited about this. It’s a privilege to have her on, followed by Rainbow Sun Francks just a couple of hours after that. So, stay tuned. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, and I’ll see you on the other side.