For twelve years he has been reviewing pop culture on his YouTube channel, from series like Game of Thrones to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now, midway through his first-watch Stargate experience, we’ve invited FailWhale34 to join us and make his assessment of the series with his fellow fans!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
0:27 – Opening Credits
0:53 – Welcome and Episode Outline
2:05 – Welcoming FailWhale34
3:29 – The Origin of “FailWhale34”
5:05 – Creating and Growing the Channel
7:18 – Why We Create YouTube Channels
9:22 – Discovering the Stargate franchise
11:28 – SG-1 Worked Early On
13:26 – Where is the Earth tech?
0:14:42 – What have you really enjoyed about SG-1?
0:18:06 – FailWhale’s Filming and Editing Process
0:19:34 – What episode really got to you and why?
0:22:02 – David’s Hardest Episode to Watch
0:24:57 – FailWhale Watched Farscape Alongside Stargate
0:25:54 – What is your recording schedule like?
0:27:54 – Is this your full-time gig?
0:28:42 – Chat Shout-Outs!
0:29:27 – When did you know Stargate was really worth your time?
0:30:44 – What if a series is not working out for you?
0:32:20 – Different Channels, Different Goals
0:34:24 – New Generations Are Finding Stargate
0:36:29 – Bumping into Rainbow Sun Francks
0:38:22 – Where there any episodes you wish ended differently?
0:39:06 – Stargate Episodes Rarely Have Tags
0:40:22 – Replicator Apophis
0:42:15 – Have you watched Andromeda?
0:43:06 – Least-Favorite Episodes
0:44:43 – Your Audience’s Expectations
0:49:12 – Watching the Mob Mentality Evolve
0:50:55 – How would Jeff Bezos bring Stargate back today?
0:54:34 – Missing In-Jokes or Cultural References
0:55:27 – Have you been accidentally spoiled on anything?
0:56:46 – Have you seen Brad Wright’s Travelers?
0:58:06 – Where in Atlantis are you right now?
0:58:43 – The one Atlantis moment where David’s jaw dropped
0:59:42 – When John Sheppard Goes Dark
1:02:58 – Stargate Has Great Villains
1:03:28 – Where FailWhale Hopes He Sees Next
1:05:29 – Real-World, and Fake, Pregnancies
1:07:07 – Jason Momoa’s Season Four Changes
1:09:06 – What shows are you tackling next?
1:13:03 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:15:50 – 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:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project, Episode 170. My name is David Read. Thank you so much for tuning in. We have FailWhale34, YouTuber extraordinaire, who is known for his rewatches. He is going to be joining us in just a moment. Before we get started, if you enjoy Stargate, and you wanna see more content like this continue to grow on YouTube, it would mean a great deal to me if you click the Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube and will help the show continue to grow. 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 livestream will be released over the course of the next few days on the Dial the Gate YouTube channel. As this is a livestream, I do have my guest live with me, so if you have any questions for him, get them over to the mods, and the mods will get the questions over to me for the second half of the show. But in the meantime, he is all mine. Michael, FailWhale34, welcome, sir. I think I’ve just made a new friend. How are you?

FailWhale34:
I’m doing well. How’s it going, David? Thanks for having me on, first and foremost. The intro to this episode was amazing. Super awesome.

David Read:
Thank you. Thank you for all of your content that you have been putting out here for the past decade or so now, and making Stargate the next thing that you’re working on. This is a big deal for this community because a lot of Stargate fans, we feel like we’re some of the blackest sheep in the sci-fi community, and it’s nice to see it get some love from other significant players in the YouTube space. So, thank you for agreeing to come on.

FailWhale34:
No, dude, of course, man. I saw your email and I looked at it. I said, “Hey, man, I’d love to…” I’m really scared of scam emails, but I could obviously tell right away you weren’t.

David Read:
Thank you.

FailWhale34:
And I was like, “Hey, why not?” I’m done SG-1 at this point now in my current watch-along. So, I was like, “Why not come on to one of the community podcasts that’s doing good for the space and chat?”

David Read:
I appreciate it.

FailWhale34:
Thank you for reaching out.

David Read:
Let me back up. What’s the story behind the name of your channel?

FailWhale34:
OK. So, the channel is called FailWhale34. I know it sounds really random and weird because it is. I don’t mean to date myself, but I actually came out the year SG-1 was released. I’m a ’97 lad myself. I think it might have been 2009, Twitter had just come out, and even though they have a lot of bird imagery for the website, when the page overloaded, they had the notorious fail whale page that would pop up. A whale would come up, and it would say, “Sorry, page can’t load,” whatever.

David Read:
No way.

FailWhale34:
Exactly. So, I’m like, “You know what? That is just the funniest thing.” 12-year-old me thought. So, I said, “You know, why don’t I just,” I’m making an Xbox Live gamer tag for the very first time, and I’m like, “Hey man, what should I name it?” And he’s like, “Why don’t you put the funny thing from the other day, Fail Whale?” I said, “Brilliant.” So, that’s how Fail Whale became my gamer tag online, anon name for a while, and Paul Pierce was my favorite basketball player at the time. So, FailWhale34… You could probably find my Roblox account. It’s probably still there.

David Read:
That’s funny. That’s what works, and it’s the things that stick with us. I have an old tag going from way back that I’m not even gonna bring up. But it’s not appropriate to Stargate. But whatever works for you and makes your presence unique is what makes it work. So, what has it been like growing this channel for the past 12 years now?

FailWhale34:
It’s been an interesting journey, honestly. I think I’ve had the account for 12 years, like I said. But I think I would say probably give or take around eight years I’ve been making videos since March 2015. It’s been a crazy journey, honestly, David. I started it off, my friend in grade 12, my best friend who’s also a YouTuber as well, he’s doing much better than me, his name’s TeamSamuraiX1, you guys can check him out, he’s a Yu-Gi-Oh! guy, he sat me down in the 12th grade. We were in the library, about to graduate, he’s like, “Hey, Michael, I’m doing this YouTube thing. I’ve got–” I think he had maybe 10,000 subscribers at the time. My mind was blown. I was like, “Oh my God, this is insane. You’ve been my best friend for the past two years and I thought you just played Yu-Gi-Oh! for fun. I didn’t know you were doing a thing with it.” And he’s like, “Hey, I think you’re really funny, you have charisma, you really like comic books.” At the time, I was really into Marvel Now, and generally that kind of stuff. And he’s like, “You’re passionate about it, like The Walking Dead, why don’t you talk about it on a channel?” So, I kinda naively was like, “Yo, you know what? Let’s do it.” And then from that point on, I was committed. I’m like, “All right, I’m gonna make YouTube videos.” So, I kinda did. I made my first review back in March, I think, 2015. It was terrible. Don’t watch it. It’s so bad.

David Read:
We all have to start somewhere. You should see episode one of this show. Half of it doesn’t work.

FailWhale34:
I’m gonna have to check it out. So, then I tried a comic book review. I’m like, “This is awkward and clunky,” and I’m like, “I don’t know if this is gonna work.” And then till the fall of that year, I was really, really passionate about The Walking Dead. So, I started doing episode reviews for the spinoff show called Fear the Walking Dead. No sci-fi, I guess, really, up until that point. And then reactions was totally not even the intent. That was sort of a thing. I had really big reactions when I watch a lot of stuff that I’m passionate about. So, Jessica Jones was coming out and I’m like, “Why don’t I watch this new Netflix show?” So, that was the very first reaction I think I’ve ever done and then from there it was kinda history.

David Read:
Wow. So many of us entertainment watchers would like to say to ourselves, “Wouldn’t it be nice to just sit around and shoot the crap and make a little pocket money off of this?” And there’s a handful of us who have been privileged to take our passions and share them with people who are kind enough to watch along with us and give us a click and tune in because they find that there is something that is worthwhile about the content that’s being produced. I myself have tried this out for the first time with another channel, Wormhole X-Tremists, that a couple of my friends and I are doing, where we’re actually doing full-length commentaries. And it’s gonna probably stay a small channel for a long time, because it’s just us. The privilege of doing something with Dial the Gate is to bring other people in who people are interested in watching, not watching me. But you’ve managed to make a career off people tuning in and watching your reactions to things because they like your take specifically, and that’s really cool.

FailWhale34:
Thank you. I know. It’s an interesting thing, honestly. Sometimes I’m like, it’s…

David Read:
Surreal?

FailWhale34:
I love it. It’s a surreal thing, for sure. Sometimes I think it’s really cool and I’m really fortunate and blessed that that thing that I started eight years ago is what I’m doing now, which is awesome. And I get to explore. I think one of the cool aspects of it too is exploring older shows such as Stargate, we’ll dive into it obviously, that I had absolutely not even an inkling of context to what this thing is. And sort of just diving in head-first, not knowing anything, and getting to explore that for the first time. And I think there’s a lot of fun in seeing something with a new set of eyes, maybe somebody a little bit younger, with a different set of experiences commenting on these things. So, that’s one of the things I think people might enjoy and I enjoy doing as well.

David Read:
You made the comment, you’re as old as SG-1 is. So, that’s a very interesting perspective where you’re actually going in now as an adult and seeing a lot of this stuff for the first time. Did someone mention Stargate to you as a suggestion? How did you discover the franchise? What order? Did you see any of this stuff for the first time? And why did you decide to bank a huge section of your channel on this property, live or die?

FailWhale34:
For sure. OK. Gun to head, I’m pretty sure it was Phoenix, shout out to Phoenix, the one true mod, from Whale Army. I’m pretty sure three years ago, give or take, I was looking for a new batch of shows, ’cause I have one of my good friends, Nick, shout out to Nick, Who’s Nick? He does a lot of sci-fi news content as well on YouTube, I’d recommend checking him out. I think it was Phoenix who recommended Stargate. I think Nick kinda looked into it and he’s like, “Yeah, this might be a good idea. No one’s really doing anything on this.”

David Read:
Nice.

FailWhale34:
And they gave their thumbs up and I said, “All right, why not? Let me just try it.” I’d done that similarly with shows like Doctor Who, which turned out really well, where I knew nothing about Doctor Who. Really, I knew there was a blue box, that was about it. And that became– I absolutely fell in love with that show.

David Read:
Blue box.

FailWhale34:
No, literally. It is what it is. And I sort of mitigate spoilers as best as possible. So, that’s how it worked for Doctor Who. So, I’m like, “OK, let me try sci-fi. Let me try stuff like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” I think I did a few shows at the time, and I’m really glad I did because I’m gonna be honest, the first couple episodes were rough. “Emancipation,” right?

David Read:
They are rough.

FailWhale34:
For sure. But even through that, I like to experience it for what it is and as you go through it, I think Stargate is such a unique series. From my limited experience, I absolutely loved it. And I’m sure if you guys have seen some of my reactions, you really fall in love with the characters, the overarching narrative. It’s such a unique sci-fi show, I think, in comparison to some of the other stuff I’ve seen. That’s kinda how I took a shot on it, I’d say.

David Read:
I am a Star Trek fan first and foremost. It is the first thing that I, other than public television like Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, remember watching and absorbing. Kirk and Spock and Picard and Riker. And if you take a look at a show like The Next Generation, for the first few episodes, those characters aren’t really working. I mean, they’re kind of working, but they’re not really on their feet yet for a little while. And for SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe, I will say, from the get-go, those characters are largely fully functioning. And I think it’s one of the reasons why I was drawn into it as quickly as I was, because there’s something happening there where it’s like, this is just magic that’s working on the screen. And I’m buying the world and the story that I’m being told. Because you have to buy a certain amount of it. We’ve all been there where it’s like, “Uh, this is a stretch.” But not with Stargate. Not so much. Do you feel similar?

FailWhale34:
Yeah, I would say, and also for context, David, I’ve completed SG-1 over on the Patreon channel. We are at Season Four. I think I’m gonna watch Episodes 12 and 13 today. So, anything above that, limited knowledge, don’t really– I’m not clocked in.

David Read:
You’re not gonna hear spoilers from me. I’m telling you, for Universe, it’s consistent in terms of the characterization.

FailWhale34:
For sure. I would say so, exactly. That’s something super unique about Stargate from my experience. It’s like, you start off, you don’t know any of these characters. Who’s this Jack guy? What’s his background like? He had a family, X, Y, and Z. Who’s this alien guy named Teal’c? What? But as it goes along and you get through Seasons Two, Three, Apophis has fallen down and there’s Replicators. And then there’s a black hole and then Daniel leaves, then he comes back. It’s like, you start to really build up this larger universe. And I think a common thing that I’ve loved and some of the jokes on this channel are like, “Where’s the technology?” It took them six seasons to really get things going. I was begging. I said, “Guys, where’s the firepower?” The Tok’ra, we’re depending on the Tok’ra. We’re like, “Where’s our defenses? We’re gonna get bodied by the Goa’uld.” And it was really fun again, I guess, to see that progression in the character building.

David Read:
It takes its time for sure, because the suits from Washington will come down and say, especially with the amazing performance of Ronny Cox as Kinsey, “Show me the money. We’re giving you all these assets and we’re getting nothing from it.” I mean, we’re making friends with some Bronze Age people. How nice is that? But billions of dollars have been spent on this program, and finally when we get into Season Six and we get spaceships, it’s like, “OK, I think we’ve now turned a corner.”

FailWhale34:
No, entirely, and I think what I loved about it is you fall in love with these characters, their story, their backstories, and when it gets to those bigger moments, it just feels that much more satisfying.

David Read:
Raj Luthra wanted to know, what have you really enjoyed about SG-1? The published material is now through Season Seven, I believe.

FailWhale34:
Correct.

David Read:
What has really taken your breath away? What has been the most satisfying watching it the first time through?

FailWhale34:
I think the most satisfying thing about watching SG-1, from my personal experience, and I’m talking for me is getting to experience again with all of you guys, the SG-34, the Patreon gang. We’ve got a tight unit of people every time an episode goes up for the past three years. They’re leaving very lengthy comments, commenting with each other, going back and forth, giving their feedback, making Reddit posts on the episodes of the reactions. I think that’s been really satisfying and just an awesome experience. And from the show perspective, I think it’s seeing the overlapping between these multiple series like Atlantis and the original series has been really awesome, which we’ll see on YouTube very soon. I think that’s been really cool. And just watching some of the best sci-fi things I think I’ve seen. The way that they take their time I don’t think nowadays you’ll see a show where it’s like the cast is 40 years old up, taking more mature storylines or taking their time. I don’t want to say that SG-1 is of the time, but there’s just something about some of the stories and the way they took their time with it, and spacing things out that I don’t really think studios would do today.

David Read:
Some of it is of a slower pace than would be permitted now by a lot of these networks. I mean, if I don’t know if you’ve seen The Ark that just came out with Jonathan Glassner, who co-created SG-1 with Brad Wright, but it is fast. It moves very quickly. There’s something to be said for a show with that speed. And it is– That’s what that is. But SG-1 is not. They had five years from the get-go guaranteed. That in itself is unheard of. And I think it’s important when you’re watching it to know that fact. Because it establishes a lot of the velocity that they’ve chosen to approach the show with in terms of not burning everything out so fast.

FailWhale34:
No, for sure. And you can sort of feel when they switch networks, or whenever there’s some big changes. One of my favorite things is hearing after the fact, after I’m done a season, “Oh, this season ended really abruptly.” I’m like, “Oh, this ended on such a big, full-circle moment.” And then I read a comment like, “Oh yeah, they thought this was the end.”

David Read:
Correct. Yeah, there were a number of instances where they’re like, “OK, next we’re gonna–” SG-1 was almost always guaranteed to continue in some way in terms of a feature or something, but they didn’t know what form it was gonna take. It was a question of, “When are we getting that movie?” Eventually a lot of those ideas came out in “Lost City,” which you haven’t gotten to in terms of publishing yet. One of the things that I was most surprised at when I got my first response from you is that you don’t record and then edit. Do you edit yourself?

FailWhale34:
Yes. I do sort of unedited videos and I do edited videos. When I watch the episode in full for the first time, I put that together and I put up on my Patreon. I cut up a little bit. Then I have an editor who does the YouTube version of that for me.

David Read:
OK, so you have a partnership in terms of someone who helps cut things for the–

FailWhale34:
Yeah.

David Read:
OK. But I was surprised that you were so far ahead in terms of what’s currently being published on YouTube. Was it always this way or have things fallen behind or did something else happen where you were several seasons ahead in Atlantis and we’re still seeing Season Seven of SG-1?

FailWhale34:
Yeah, there was always a little bit of a delay with certain shows, there’s four episodes ahead, or almost a season ahead of some of the shows that I’m watching on the Patreon page, make a little bit of a gap. And then over the past two years, I’ve had some struggles with being delayed and some scheduling whatnot. So, that gap naturally got a little bit bigger. But more recently I’ve been trying to get back on that now, and make it a bit more consistent for the upload schedules.

David Read:
OK.

FailWhale34:
We’re doubling it up here and there.

David Read:
That’s cool. Kirsty Green says, “SG-34 reporting for duty. A few episodes have made you really emotional over your watch. What episode overall really got to you and why?”

FailWhale34:
Man. That’s a great question. There’s been so many. There’s been so many great moments. One that comes off the top, and actually I think either comes out today or just came out, was “Heroes.” So maybe I won’t dive too much in it. Maybe, I guess it’s uncanny timing. There’s been a lot of uncanny timing with the releases. That’s probably been one that made me really emotional, because I think Fraiser was such a staple character for the older series, been there since the very beginning up until that episode. Janet– Sorry, the actor, her name escapes my mind.

David Read:
Teryl Rothery.

FailWhale34:
Teryl does– Her performances comes across so well, so authentic, so heartwarming, as Fraiser, as Janet. A character like that, in the manner that it happens, it is just a gut punch. So, that’s one that comes off the top of my head. There’s been a bunch of moments. ‘Cause I actually looked back when I started these videos. I’m like, “Holy smokes, it’s been three years, to this week, since the first SG-1 video went up on YouTube.”

David Read:
Were you spoiled about Fraiser’s death, or was that– Did you receive that as intended?

FailWhale34:
Received it as intended. They just keep that very tight to the chest. I’m not really searching up stuff on socials like that. The mods, they tell me, “Here’s kinda the schedule, what to check out.” So shout-out to SG-34. You guys have been really amazing about that. I think of some of the older seasons stuff too I really enjoyed. Some of the Daniel episodes, the addiction episode, that one really, really spoke to me. Michael Shanks is– I’m like the biggest Shanks guy. I love Shanks. I love Ben. We’ll talk about Ben after.

David Read:
Ben Browder?

FailWhale34:
That’s my guy.

David Read:
No, Shanks is–

FailWhale34:
That’s my dawg.

David Read:
Daniel’s the heart and soul of the show. There’s plenty who will argue with me, but I think so.

FailWhale34:
So, I’d say the addiction episode really shook me. I think that was a particular standout to me as well.

David Read:
“Need.”

FailWhale34:
How about you, David? I’d love to hear some stuff from SG-1.

David Read:
Absolutely. I saw the show in first run syndication, and then discovered the feature film the day after I saw the pilot. I knew what Stargate was but I didn’t ever watch it. And this first run syndication of “Children of the Gods” was what made me fall in love with it. And then I watched the movie, and then I subscribed to Showtime and watched Season One and Season Two concurrently. So, a lot of stuff was spoiled for me. And unfortunately, the death of Janet was spoiled in advance because I was on GateWorld at the time and doing a lot of work with Darren, making the site possible. And those things just come out, and it’s disappointing being that close to it because you don’t get the experience as intended, where you can pick up a relatively obscure SyFy series off the shelf and start watching it for your YouTube channel. This stuff isn’t populating in your newsfeed for the first time because it’s not brand new anymore. But when Daniel died, that episode hit me so hard. I didn’t watch a lot of Stargate with my family, but I watched that one with them, and I walked away from that episode feeling like I had lost a relative when he ascends with Oma and goes through that Gate. And it was like, “What’s the show going to look like?” I think we knew at that point that SyFy had picked up the series. But what’s gonna happen? That was a big deal. And “Heroes,” even knowing in advance what was happening with Janet, that was a big deal to watch as well.

FailWhale34:
The Daniel, like, oh my God, the reactions for that portion too, from my own experience, are so crazy, ’cause I’m like, “Daniel’s my dawg.” I love him too. And when he goes, it’s like, “OK, maybe this is fake.” I’m always like, “Maybe it’s a curve ball.” You never know. Maybe they mess around. But the way they commit to that radiation plot–

David Read:
At the very beginning of the episode, it’s a lethal dose.

FailWhale34:
They just say, “Oh, that’s what it is.” I love how it connects to a character like Jonas, his people, and how it’s him sacrificing himself, and he’s just sort of calm about it. There’s something so beautiful not knowing what happens after the fact, and this could be the end of Daniel Jackson. It’s super powerful. So, I totally see what you mean there.

David Read:
So, you were rewatching never knowing that Daniel was going to come back to the show?

FailWhale34:
No, I’m like, “Oh.” I’m like, “Well, here’s Jonas.” I’m like, “Oh, Dan–”

David Read:
In all of the artwork, and Ark of Truth, and Continuum, you managed to steer clear of that. That’s pretty extraordinary.

FailWhale34:
No, that’s what makes it so unique, and I guess I’ll tie back into this for the later stuff. I’m watching a jumble of shows. When I started back two years ago, maybe a little bit after Stargate, people were really petitioning for Farscape. I’m like, “OK, I’ll make the extra time. Let’s watch some Farscape.” So I fell in love with Farscape, completely isolated from Stargate while watching concurrently. So I’m watching Farscape, I’m watching Stargate, not knowing that two of these characters are gonna end up, towards the end of the run, in the same show that I’m watching as well. So when I watched Episode 200, that joke hits, it lands extra hard. And that’s something that I think is so unique and special about the hyper niche of the SG-34 gang and people who watch my content along with me, the Patreon fam. That’s such a unique experience when you start looking…

David Read:
I don’t know how you do it in terms of, ’cause I imagine your viewing is fairly regimented. Are you sitting down and watching a specific episode at a specific time? If you fall in love with a particular plot, do you allow yourself permission to go ahead and sit down and record the next one, and the next one, and the next one? Or are you like, “I have to stop right now, there’s production that is involved in this. I have to get to these other things that I have to do.” Because you are watching for entertainment, but it is a job at the same time. It has become that through the Patreon and everything else. How does that work?

FailWhale34:
So, scheduling is my demon. I’ve been struggling with that for sure. I try and keep an X amount of shows I watch in rotation. And sometimes I’ll do double-bubble, so if it’s a two-parter, a lot of the times I’ll watch the first half, but I’m like, “OK, we gotta watch the second one,” if I didn’t know in advance. But it is a job at the same time, and I have a threshold of how much content I can record in a day. So, today I’m watching, for example–

David Read:
God, he has a schedule.

FailWhale34:
I just finished Angel Season Four, 21 and 22, so I got that up over the past day or two, and I watched Buffy episode 7×20, so I got that up. And then today I’m probably gonna be watching Peacekeeper Wars Part Two, and then SGA 12 and 13.

David Read:
So you’re finishing Farscape?

FailWhale34:
Yeah, I’m on the last leg. I put the first half up of Peacekeeper Wars a couple of days ago. So, finishing that up.

David Read:
Man, that’s a lot to keep up. Do you mind me asking, is this your full-time gig? Do you have anything else on the side?

FailWhale34:
This is currently what I’ve been doing. I was in school at University of Toronto for journalism. Shortly after that story about talking to my friend in the library in 12th grade, I used to work at the Boys & Girls Club, helping youth for a couple of years. I was doing journalism school, I was doing YouTube, and I’m like, “I think I’ll stop doing this, the Boys & Girls Club stuff. It’s been a while, and I’ll put the extra three hours for bus fare and lunch into making more YouTube videos.” So I’ve kind of been doing that since, and since I graduated I’ve been doing this as well. I have other hobbies and interests as well that I’ve sort of been expanding on over the past couple of years. But yeah, YouTube’s my main job.

David Read:
That’s awesome, good for you. Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo asks–

FailWhale34:
Hi, Nicole.

David Read:
Nicole’s actually one of my Wormhole X-Tremeists.

FailWhale34:
Let’s go. I was gonna say shout out to– I’m looking at the chat right now, I have two screens. I wanna say shout out to Steph, that’s, I’m pretty sure, Steph from the Patreon fam. As well as Reese. I didn’t realize that Reese was one of your mods. That’s my homie.

David Read:
He’s in your loop as well. It’s a small fandom in some cases. Steph is new, so hello to Steph. I have not seen her before. I apologize if she’s been on before, but I don’t recognize that name. And a big welcome to FailWhale’s audience as well in joining us. Nicole wanted to know, “When was really the moment that you realized that Stargate was worth putting your time and energy into for the next several years in terms of one of the things that was going to move forward with your programming?” Do you recall the pivot moment where it was like, “This is great. This is worth investing in 350 hours of my time, minimum?”

FailWhale34:
To be honest, once we’re on board and we watch the first episode, I usually just start getting into it. And then I actually started to really like this show. And I had a bad habit back then, and I’ve gotten better at it now, where if I’m overcommitted, I’m learning, “OK, maybe I’ll stop or maybe I’ll try something new and stuff like that.” And at the time, honestly, I’m like, “I’m just gonna keep going with it.” It wasn’t getting that many views off the rip, I think. I think it took a season for it to really start to pick up, or that tight community. I think off the rip, I sort of kept doing it and really started to fall in love with those characters. Some of those earlier Jack episodes are really great. I don’t think there’s any moment where I’m like, “I’m gonna stop watching it,” partially because of how I operated, but also because I really enjoyed the show pretty quickly.

David Read:
I’m curious. Do you have any kind of ripcord or parachute protocol in place for your show, where if you’re getting into something and it falls off and it’s like, “I’m sorry, I’m not enjoying this program anymore; I’m gonna pull out of this.” Or do you commit yourself to finishing it regardless of its quality?

FailWhale34:
I commit to a fault because that’s something that I’ve done before. There’s definitely been times when, even from a YouTube perspective, from a business perspective it’s like, “OK, this gets no views. I’m dedicating this much time.”

David Read:
I see.

FailWhale34:
That was a struggle that I had because people are enjoying this content, they’re paying for it, and I committed to this, and I’m already pretty deep. That was a personal struggle I really had was, man, I could go really deep into it. I had so many points where I’m just like, “Ah.” I’m like, “I know what I should do.” It’s like, “I should probably cut one of these two shows, release my schedule a little bit, ease my mind a bit.” Yes, I’m gonna disappoint a couple people, but this is probably better for the whole and I never really, I think, did that too much, and just more recently I have. I think some of those YouTube shows, Angel, even Farscape, X-Files, those are shows that I was committing resources to editing and putting up, not to get the most views. Not that it’s all about views, but it kind of is, too. But it’s not– For my case …

David Read:
It goes hand-in-hand.

FailWhale34:
… it doesn’t really work like that. And then there’s a sense of, OK, virality and then growth. So, those are a lot of things to consider. And then also, bandwidth. It’s a weird balance of all those things to keep in mind.

David Read:
One of the things that I’ve really found– You and I have very different goals in terms of the channels that we make. I don’t have a Patreon. I personally am never going to– I have guests on, and I’m not going to charge fans to get access to the guests, largely because I don’t believe in that, and I have no problem with people who do, especially because it’s just, it’s you and you are the brand. Whereas with Dial the Gate, I’m only the facilitator of the people who come on and join me. And one of the mechanisms of that is getting this content to everyone globally and for free. And I’m often bringing people on who I want to interview, whereas a lot of the people who are watching just wanna see the actors. And I’m really interested in getting people on who have been involved in the nuts and bolts of the show, who you just may see over the end credits, but I’m doing it with the purpose that even though it’s not going to be something that a lot of people are going to watch immediately, this is legacy content that’s going to exist in this online space for the next several years and it will accumulate views as we move into the future.

FailWhale34:
100%. I was gonna say, I just wanna give you your flowers, because I think what you’re doing here is absolutely awesome for that specific reason. You’re providing sustenance to a community for this series that’s been over for 10+ years now. But they’re still building. These are still actors who are working, who have fond memories. Maybe things weren’t as documented that you can sort of reflect on with them and flesh out and people can go look at over the years and find something really cool. So, I think it’s awesome that you’re doing that and providing for the community.

David Read:
I appreciate that. And I think the fact of the matter is, you’re case in point, new generations of people are finding the show, not just necessarily people who weren’t alive then, but new generations of fans who are now coming along to this content and discovering it for the first time in streaming and these other platforms that didn’t know about it before. And I think that it’s important that people like you and I both create content that later on in the future people will discover that aren’t around to discover it yet or who haven’t found the show yet. And I think that that’s one of the cool things about YouTube. I don’t think YouTube is going to be the be-all and end-all forever. You probably have a similar strategy in mind where you’ve got your content on a hard drive somewhere so that when the next big thing’s along, you can transfer a lot of this stuff over to that.

FailWhale34:
Ah! It’s hard to find a hard drive.

David Read:
Please tell me you are doing a cloud backup as well. Please. Ugh.

FailWhale34:
I’ve got it. I’ve got a couple of things to keep things in order, for sure.

David Read:
OK, good. Because when it’s gone, oh man.

FailWhale34:
It could be better, though. That’s definitely something to keep in mind, for sure.

David Read:
Absolutely. And I think that that’s– We have to keep in mind those things for the future, but I think that both of our channels are … not to say that we’re a big deal or anything, but I think that we both play a part in continuing to keep the franchise going. And we’re clearly bringing people involved who are interested in the product into the circle to share more. So, I think that’s really cool.

FailWhale34:
No, totally. And something that I always thought about, ’cause I do have a journalism background and I guess I’ve been, not put into this mold, but I just kinda stick to the reaction videos and don’t venture off, and that’s a whole other commentary. But there’s another multiverse, I wanna say, where I would love to do more deep dives whenever I have the bandwidth for it, once SG-1 is over. I actually– I have a funny story for any of the SGA fans over here. I ran into Rainbow Sun Francks at a comedy bar eight months ago. We have each other on Instagram now.

David Read:
My bro.

FailWhale34:
We were there. Super nice guy. Awesome guy. And that’s a really funny experience. Let’s tell the story. We’re walking to this comedy bar and I’m like, “Bro…” I do a double take and I’m like, “I know this guy.” So, I go up to him, but to him, it’s like he hasn’t been on this show in 15-16 years. But to me, he’s the most relevant guy for the past six months. So, I went up to him. I said, “Hey, man.” I’m like, “It’s not gonna make any sense, but I love what you do and I loved your character.” And I didn’t even know at the time he got replaced by Jason Momoa. I didn’t know at that point. So, that’s such a unique experience there too… Sorry, I forgot the main point I was gonna say.

David Read:
We come across these people in opportunities that we don’t expect.

FailWhale34:
Interview, doing interviews and stuff like– Exactly. I’d love to do an interview with him. One time, we talked about maybe having him on to do a reaction or something. But I think his story was done at that point. We’re interviewing creators of the show in context of the videos. It’s like, “Hey, I just watched your entire show front to back for the past three years. I would love to have you on to speak with you candidly, similar to this.” Or even what we’re doing right now.

David Read:
Reese, my mod, wanted to know, were there any episodes that you can think of that you wish ended differently, that you weren’t personally satisfied with how it ended.

FailWhale34:
100%, 100%. There’s one episode in particular, I forgot the one. It’s where the Jaffa pull up and they’re on, not a desert planet, it’s more of an Alpha site, around Season Four to Six. And it was the war episode where they had the characters preparing for a fight or a battle sequence, and I think they got invaded by the Goa’uld. If anybody remembers in chat, it just ended abruptly. It just ended so abruptly. It was just like–

David Read:
Is this the one with Apophis’ image being placed in the sky at the end?

FailWhale34:
Yeah, it’s that episode. Exactly.

David Read:
“Rules of Engagement.”

FailWhale34:
“Rules of Engagement.”

David Read:
Season Three.

FailWhale34:
It was maybe Season Three. I’m like, “I’m vibing with this, blah, blah, blah.” And it just ends. A lot of the times–

David Read:
“This is Colonel O’Neill. He is much loved by Apophis.”

FailWhale34:
I’m just like, “What next? What are we gonna do? This could lead to something.” And it just ends.

David Read:
That’s the thing about the Stargate episodes that I will say, there are rarely what they call tags. The climax hits and then it’s over. I have one. I don’t wish it ended differently, but I wish there was more of it. It was in “Last Stand” …

FailWhale34:
For sure.

David Read:
… when Elliot is given the symbiote poison and we hear the Jaffa warriors marching toward him, and then it fades to black. And it’s like, “Seriously? That’s how it ends? I want more.” And “Summit” and “Last Stand” were my favorite two-parter for a long time, and it’s one of those where you have to go back and go– And you’ll see this in Season One of Stargate Universe. There is an episode where it’s like, “That’s it?” And it’s like, “Oh, I don’t need any more information. If I think about it, the story has been given to me, and I’m being invited, in my mind, to tell what happens next.” So, the writers trust their audience to follow them, and sometimes you want more and you’re not gonna get it.

FailWhale34:
No, totally. And I think a lot of the times the show does it really well. I think there’s very few times when I’m like, “Ooh,” I’m like, “I don’t know if I would have done that.” But again, who the fuck am I? Sorry to swear.

David Read:
No, you’re fine.

FailWhale34:
I think one, now that you mention it, is, this is more of a guilty pleasure, I find Apophis to be such a funny villain. I love the actor as well.

David Read:
Peter Williams.

FailWhale34:
His story where this guy’s kicking around as long as he can and he ends in the Replicator going into the moon. I think there was totally an opportunity, I say this on the channel, you can go back and watch the videos, there is a missed opportunity, and if they ever bring back Stargate, bring back a Replicator Apophis. Especially once they end up doing that later on, I think there was room. Maybe they had kicked him too many times at that point. But I think that could have been a perfect plot at some point.

David Read:
Did you see Ark of Truth and Continuum? Did you watch them?

FailWhale34:
Not Continuum. I’ve seen Ark of Truth.

David Read:
So, you’ve not seen Continuum yet? Are you planning on watching it?

FailWhale34:
No, not yet. We have a whole list of things.

David Read:
Your schedule?

FailWhale34:
I think I’m finishing Season Four of SGA, Season Five Episode One, and then it’s the film.

David Read:
You know what? That’s interesting because yes, that was retconned as being when Continuum takes place, so that’s perfect. So, I’m assuming someone told you …

FailWhale34:
Yeah.

David Read:
… to do that because–

FailWhale34:
Shout-out to Phoenix and shout-out to Shepherd in the SG-34. Those guys are absolutely amazing.

David Read:
It’s interesting in the story how that works, so I almost did it, but I stopped myself. It’s not vital–

FailWhale34:
Shout-out to Dark Soul, by the way. Shout-out to Smith. Stargate definitely respected the intelligent viewer. I think so too, I definitely would say that as well.

David Read:
Absolutely. And it’s fun to go back and watch it in the order in which the writers created it, ’cause it wasn’t originally intended that way, but it’s perfectly serviceable in that way, in terms of the timeline, and it works. Dan Ben, “Have you watched Andromeda, or heard of it? Several Stargate actors have been on it and vice versa.”

FailWhale34:
No, but I think I remember reading a comment of somebody recommending me that show, and I think, is Amanda Tapping in that? That sounds like she was in that. In fact, I remember that comment.

David Read:
I don’t know if Amanda is in it. Michael is in it, and Lexa, his wife, is in it as well, who played Carolyn Lam. Lexa is the AI for the ship. And that’s where they actually met, was Andromeda. I’ve not watched Andromeda. My Kevin Sorbo is Hercules, but I know there’s a lot of people who do love that show. The ship is a cool design. Let’s see here, Nicole also wanted to say, “Thank you so much for bringing more attention to Stargate as a new fan.” And Tech Shots says, “What is Michael’s least favorite episode that you’ve seen?”

FailWhale34:
Oh, man.

David Read:
What episode really grinded your gears? Or is there more than one? I certainly have them.

FailWhale34:
That’s a great question ’cause there’s so many now at this point. I’m trying to think of ones that have really bothered me. Anyone in SG-34 remember any of them that kind of irk me a lot? I don’t know.

David Read:
Did you like “The Tower” in Season Two on Atlantis? Did you like that episode?

FailWhale34:
We’re including Atlantis as well? I think Atlantis has a couple forgettable episodes here and there. “The Tower.” This is terrible etiquette–

David Read:
If you’re having trouble remembering it, that’s probably a sign.

FailWhale34:
This is when the comtrya man was on it. This one was actually–

David Read:
Yes, the comtrya man.

FailWhale34:
This one. I actually didn’t mind this episode, I think.

David Read:
Really? OK.

FailWhale34:
I think I found it whimsical if my memory’s correct.

David Read:
OK. That’s certainly fair. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on any episodes where it’s like, “You know what? I have no interest in ever having to rewatch that one.”

FailWhale34:
Maybe one of the Teal’c-centric episodes earlier on, I think I might’ve just been like, “Ah, I’m good.”

David Read:
“Bane” got me a little bit out of it where he turns into a cocoon. And that was hard for Chris actually, being in a diaper all day long. ‘Cause he wasn’t able to go to the bathroom. But yeah, there’s a couple in there for sure. One of the things that I have to wonder about you is that, when you’re watching an episode that you’re not getting into, but the fans are kind of expecting you to be excited about certain things, how do you play it?

FailWhale34:
If any of the gang’s here, I feel as if I’m pretty honest about my reactions to episodes. If I don’t like something, I’ll say, “I don’t like it.” Or I’ll be like, “It was OK,” or, “I think they coulda done this better.” Or you can even see it on my face, I’m sorta a little dull at moments. But I also do find a lot of enjoyment in seeing things– I feel like you have to watch things that are not great and you have to find things that are great to have a balanced understanding of what you like and what you don’t like. And I can also find a lot of joy in things that maybe aren’t the best, but I’ll still find one or two moments that I like, or I’ll find something absolutely hilarious in some bad episodes that make me like them.

David Read:
There you go.

FailWhale34:
I know that, and it kinda sounds like I’m trying to be like, “I think every episode’s great,” but I’ve definitely said, “I did not like this episode very much,” or, “It done didn’t,” or X, Y, and Z.

David Read:
When you have 350 hours, there’s going to be a couple of clunkers. They can’t all be home runs. And that’s one of the things that always irked me over at GateWorld. When the show was airing and we would have our poll launch after the episode, and it was one to ten, the tens would always outnumber everything else on every episode. And when you go back and you look at them all in total, they can’t all be tens. That’s not realistic. People aren’t gaming the poll, they’re just really excited about the show. But I was always very critical to be thoughtful about my poll assessments in terms of putting my own– And now we’re going in and saying, “How many chevrons would you give this episode?” now that we’re doing Wormhole X-Tremists and rewatching it. It’s one to seven and some people are like, “Well, it’s a 3.5.” It’s like, “No, no. It’s a solid, rounded number. You have to pick.” You don’t get to shmooze.

FailWhale34:
That’s a good point. And I get being excited for an episode, but if I don’t think it’s a great episode, I don’t think it’s a great episode. That’s just my opinion. You can think it’s great, but if I think it’s just mid, it’s mid, and I’ll say it. I have no problem. I think actually shout out to Ratchet. Ratchet’s one of the homies also, helping editing, and just longtime SG-34 member. For example, an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out. It was a musical episode. And again, I don’t have context if this is …

David Read:
“Once More With Feeling.”

FailWhale34:
… the pinnacle episode. “Once More With Feeling.”

David Read:
I’ve not seen Buffy, I’ve just heard of this episode, so please fill me in.

FailWhale34:
Exactly. So, this is apparently one of the most prestigious episodes in the show. And because I’m watching this isolated— I come into my room and I watch shows and I post them for my community, that’s how it works. I don’t know that this next episode is seen by the fandom as the biggest thing. So I don’t even have the context to be like, “Oh, I need to make sure that I say this episode’s great.” So I think I commented, “It’s a musical,” and I personally kinda cringe at musicals. Not for the fact that they’re a musical, it’s just not my thing.

David Read:
It doesn’t resonate with you.

FailWhale34:
For sure. But I can also appreciate the lyrics and if it’s talking about darker themes and depression and someone’s trying to off herself in this musical, fun, whimsical light, I acknowledge that and I comment on it after, but I’m like, “Ah,” I’m like, “I think this is pretty cool from a technical standpoint to make an episode about a musical. That’s really great.” But I thought it was a pretty good episode. But anyway I didn’t say it was a 10 out of 10 maybe a lot of the other fandom did. And I think when I put it on YouTube I got pretty flamed on it.

David Read:
‘Cause you weren’t as excited as everyone else was?

FailWhale34:
Kind of, yeah. I think that was the consensus. Then I clarified it and I think the next episode I said, “Hey guys, let me make it clear, I liked the episode, I just didn’t think it was the greatest thing.”

David Read:
Sliced bread.

FailWhale34:
I didn’t think it was– Sliced bread, yeah. Exactly. But then I can also appreciate something from a technical standpoint. To make a story entirely– Objectively I’d say that’s an amazing feat. So I can appreciate that. But just because of that, I’m not gonna say I think this is sliced bread.

David Read:
Right, exactly. Watching online communities evolve over the years, ’cause I’m gonna turn 40 this year, and I’ve been doing bulletin boards through GateWorld since 2000. Watching the mob mentality evolve, they really do like to– If you aren’t in lockstep on a certain number of things, particularly an episode that is revered by a lot of people, they’ll come after you. And it’s like, “This is just my opinion.”

FailWhale34:
I can’t, God forbid if I said “Window of Opportunity” was garbage. God forbid if I said that. Obviously, it was a great episode. I guess you could say, I looked at your prior stuff in the background and you’d probably try and give me Origin. They’d probably try and convert me to Origin.

David Read:
For instance, I don’t think the Ori were the best aspect of the show. But they’re certainly a component and I genuinely think that diversity of opinion is the spice of life and I’m not gonna come after anyone for saying otherwise. And to watch certain people who are like, “No, you must think like me,” it’s like, OK, come on, man. A, it’s a show. B, come on. But people are gonna like what they like. I’m gonna talk with you a little bit here about future Stargate, so what you would like to see. But a lot of them really only want what they’ve seen before and they are not interested in anything new because they’re afraid it’s gonna be tainted by X, Y, or Z, or it’s not gonna have A, B, or C in it, and it’s just wild.

FailWhale34:
David, I got a question for you, actually.

David Read:
Sure.

FailWhale34:
I know that MGM is sort of in the loop with Stargate, that’s the most that I know about a new show. I don’t know where things leave off or whatever, so maybe keep any comments to that to an extreme minimum. How do you think Stargate would work present day if they wanted to bring it back? Would you go for a reboot, a continuation, or X, Y & Z? What are your thoughts on that?

David Read:
What would I want to do or what do I think that MGM and Amazon are going to do?

FailWhale34:
Maybe what do you think they would do if Jeffy B says, “All right, here’s 100 Ms. Do what you want.” Bring either Brad or the gang.

David Read:
I don’t think they’re gonna go for Brad. I think they’re gonna reboot it. I think that everything that I’ve been seeing and everything that we’ve been watching in terms of the news coming down the pike is that they’re very interested in fresh artists for new titles. If you were going to try to do something like that with Star Wars or Star Trek, the fans would run you out of the room. And there are people who would be like, “Well, you can’t do that because these properties are revered in such a way that you can’t just press a refresh button on it without establishing, in the plot, a device to explain why.” Such as with JJ’s, it opens up with an alternate timeline excuse. I don’t think that Stargate is given that level of reverence, and I frankly don’t think that they’ll care. I think that they’re going to wipe it clean and start over.

FailWhale34:
Which is a shame, because I think …

David Read:
I think so.

FailWhale34:
… we both acknowledged that compared to all the Star shows. I’m not a Trekkie. I’ve never seen Star Trek. Maybe I’ll have to check it out, or Star Wars, but obviously those are, I think, objectively speaking, more culturally relevant, more exposure in sci-fi, I would say. You think that’s a fair thing to say?

David Read:
Yeah.

FailWhale34:
So, I can see why they feel like they wouldn’t need to do any of that stuff, maybe, if they would say the numbers aren’t there, which sucks because there’s such great lore, deep history connections, universe building of 20 years or whatever for Stargate and all these different spin-offs, that maybe they could do something really cool. But then I could also see another point, that maybe they wanna start something from ground zero and really redo a new story. But maybe there’s a path to do both of those things. I don’t know.

David Read:
I hope so. I think that Amazon is looking at the fan base of the Stargate franchise and they’re seeing how small it is, and frankly how probably irrelevant it is to the larger discussion of what’s gonna be, whenever they decide to move on it, a multi-million dollar project. And I think that they’re gonna wanna free up their hands and do something fresh. Will I watch it? Absolutely. Would I prefer Brad Wright to be involved? Absolutely. Is he gonna be involved? Every day I think it’s less and less likely.

FailWhale34:
I don’t know any of those guys personally or even haven’t gone and done a deep dive. I think one of them is from Toronto, either Joseph or Brad or both?

David Read:
Mallozzi is in Toronto. Brad, I don’t know where Brad is right now. He’s somewhere–

FailWhale34:
He’s MIA, guys. He’s…

David Read:
No, he is, but I don’t know where he is, so I haven’t spoken with him in a while.

FailWhale34:
Now that you mention it, I’m in Toronto, so maybe when I’m all set and done, I’ll be like, “Hey, Joe–”

David Read:
You should hook up with Joe. I bet he’ll have lunch with you. He’s a good guy. For sure. He’s been known to do that from time to time.

FailWhale34:
Maybe.

David Read:
Absolutely. GateGabber wanted to know, do you sometimes feel like you’re missing in-jokes or references because you’re watching so long after the shows originally aired? Are certain cultural references falling through? Do you research the time period the shows aired or just watch cold and see if the stories hold up?

FailWhale34:
Yeah. Honestly, it’s pretty much the cold, Shout out to the Patreon fam, SG-34. Some of the tidbits of, did you know Chris Judge had this thought on this episode? Or, for example, I think when 9/11 happened, that’s the reason why Chris Judge was missing for that one episode. I get some of these tidbits that might be on forum boards through people commenting on them, and I read those comments. That’s why I kinda know a bit of those information bits.

David Read:
I see.

FailWhale34:
In terms of movie references, a lot of them are probably over my head. Some of Jack’s references, maybe here and there.

David Read:
I’m curious. Is there anything from Stargate that you’ve been accidentally spoiled on at all?

FailWhale34:
None that come off the top of my head. Honestly, no. They’ve been pretty great, honestly.

David Read:
Wow, that is awesome. Wow. That’s crazy to me. I’m watching Better Call Saul. I’m finally getting into the fifth season. And I’m scrolling through my feed on my phone, and a picture comes up of certain characters that are in color and certain characters that are in black and white. And underneath it, it says, “These people are dead now.” And it’s like, OK.

FailWhale34:
That’s the thing with a lot of the online fandoms nowadays. I don’t know, I’m not really on socials for— You can see my— I didn’t tweet for two years. I used to have a lot of anxiety about that kinda stuff as well. And rather not bother. But then, when it comes to marketing, being more plugged in and stuff, there’s things you can mitigate.

David Read:
Exposure of your channel.

FailWhale34:
For sure. And I guess I’ve done that maybe to a detriment at points, and I’m obviously trying to pivot and get into a new gear.

David Read:
OK. Lockwatcher wanted to know, have you seen Brad Wright’s Travelers series at all? Are you aware of Travelers?

FailWhale34:
No, I don’t think I have. No, I’m not familiar. Is that a newer sci-fi show by Brad?

David Read:
Yes. It’s one that he did after Stargate and it ran for three seasons. It’s lower key in terms of visual effects and everything else. I think it was produced on a lower budget, but it is great science fiction. And I would definitely add to your list of considerations because unfortunately, it got canceled, so the story didn’t get to wrap. But it’s almost like an act one of a three-act play. It’s a very self-contained act one, so there is some self-contained stuff there, even though it ended too early. But it’s a good show.

FailWhale34:
For sure. I wonder if there’d be ways, ’cause there’s obviously so much great sci-fi that could be made, but again, a lot of it’s depending on studio giving you the money and all this stuff. If they could just self-raise ways to get shows done, it would be so awesome.

David Read:
Absolutely. I am really interested to see what you think about the ending for Atlantis. So, you’re in the second half of Season Four of Atlantis now?

FailWhale34:
I just finished— The last episode I saw was actually one of the biggest space battles in the entire show. It’s the one where the– It’s a two-parter.

David Read:
“Be All My Sins Remembered.”

FailWhale34:
Dude. Atlantis really is in such a great pocket that we’re in right now on the Patreon path. It’s like, Rodney’s on his A game, his sister is getting involved. We’ve got the Wraith …

David Read:
His real sister.

FailWhale34:
… working together along– Again, that’s such a great little tidbit. Right now the shows, I think, are in a great sprint.

David Read:
There is one moment in all of Atlantis where my jaw genuinely dropped. And it only dropped because I was always exposed to a lot of these spoilers in advance. But it was at the end of “Be All My Sins Remembered.” The secret character reveal at the end of that, and I was with a group of fans at the time who were working on the Stargate Worlds video game. We were in production of that, and I had them all over because our commercial was being shown in that premiere episode. It had been after a break that the show had come back, and when that character is revealed at the end of that episode, everyone was freaking out. And it was so cool. It’s like, “Oh, now I get. This is what it’s like to be genuinely surprised.”

FailWhale34:
No, totally, man. That’s honestly one of the best parts, doing these reactions. Whenever those moments do come, it’s like, “Holy smokes.” Stargate’s definitely had a lot of those moments. I think now that you mention it, dude, I love when Sheppard just goes into his– I call it dark Sheppard. When he goes straight psycho, or just cold Sheppard. I think one of those moments was when, in the first season of SGA, he kills 50 people when the base is under siege using the Gate. That was gruesome.

David Read:
He thinks Weir is dead and he’s gone off the deep end. He’s gone bye-bye.

FailWhale34:
For sure. And another one happened recently in Season Four where it’s maybe two or three episodes ago in the hospital episode, where he has to basically get that billionaire to– He convinces him to almost off himself. And he’s talking about it. That was chilling.

David Read:
“Miller’s Crossing.” That was intense. And the episode “Doppelganger,” where he’s in the nightmares of everybody. It’s like, “Oh, please, God, let him have actually seen this one. Please, this is not a spoiler yet.” Keeping all the episodes in order.

FailWhale34:
No, you’re good. You’re totally good.

David Read:
Robert Cooper, the writer, thought about the stories that really gave him nightmares and terrified him. And I think it’s one of the best hours of Atlantis. And we kill Doctor Heightmeyer in that episode. We lose her, so–

FailWhale34:
I think that was a highlight that I saw recently, because what could have just been a story that we’ve seen before, they added a lot of, I think, visual and directing elements to make it feel a little bit more ominous, thriller-esque, to make it stand on its own. They also included that gravitas of killing a supporting character.

David Read:
Pretty consistent supporting character.

FailWhale34:
So, I think that episode was definitely a standout. And Sheppard, the actor, his name is Joe Flanigan …

David Read:
Joe Flanigan.

FailWhale34:
… I believe. He is just– How to describe it? I wish he played more of a bad guy because he can seep into those roles so seamlessly.

David Read:
Yes. He’s a versatile actor.

FailWhale34:
We talked about it on the page too. For sure. We talked about it on the channel too. I think out of the three SG-esque leads, Cam Mitch, Jack O’Neill, and John Sheppard, he’s probably the one that we could see be bad and excel at it. Cam’s a sweetheart.

David Read:
That’s true.

FailWhale34:
He’s not a bad guy. Jack has had his days. John is sort of like that– How would you describe John? He’s sort of like–

David Read:
He is a bad boy.

FailWhale34:
He’s a bad boy. He’s a bad man.

David Read:
Got sent to Antarctica for disobeying orders. I can see where you’re coming from. If he were pushed in a certain direction, if, for instance, Teyla or Ronon were killed, I think that a lot of his Air Force foibles would fall to the side for him to go after anyone who had harmed people that he loved, for sure. And I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s worked so successfully when Robert Davi’s character, Kolya, tells him over the walkie that Weir is dead, and it’s one of Sheppard’s best moments where he just goes, “I’m going to kill you.” And he means it. He’s gonna kill the guy.

FailWhale34:
He looks straight up, no hesitation. Kolya is one of my favorite side characters. I think he is absolutely amazing. He is–

David Read:
Terrific.

FailWhale34:
The gravitas that that dude brings to the screen is almost unmatched, I think, in all of SG-1. He’s so great.

David Read:
Stargate has some great villains to varying degrees. Some of them are comic booky. Some of them are much more real. SGU certainly takes up the realism. I’m interested to hear what you think about Universe. But it’s got a lot of those elements to it. Where are you hoping that the franchise goes in terms of episodes that you’re anticipating watching? What would you like to see in terms of the stuff that you’re going to watch that already exists as created content? What are you hoping comes next? As someone who hasn’t seen Season Five of Atlantis and hasn’t seen Universe, what are you hoping for?

FailWhale34:
Honestly, where I’m at right now, Teyla’s got a kid with some guy. The way that they’re going about that pregnancy arc is so obscure.

David Read:
It is obscure.

FailWhale34:
They’re casually saying, “Oh, by the way, this guy that I’ve never mentioned before, I’ve been gossiping about.” So, the whole time I’m like, “Is it Sheppard that she’s secretly been with? Is it secretly Ronon? Great, it’s neither of them. Then who is this guy? And you’re pregnant all of a sudden.” So, I’m interested to see where that’s gonna lead to, and where the SG-1 story goes because I know it continues. But I know that they’re still out and about wherever they are, but they don’t have their own series. So, I’m looking forward to seeing what conclusion we get because as of now, Jack has sort of been MIA. I know RDA at the time was busy, living his life with his kids. Totally respectable, I understand that. But Jack, we don’t have a Jack conclusion yet. And that’s up in the air for me. So, I wanna see how that ends up going and where Teyla is specifically in Atlantis, ’cause I’m like, “Bro, what do we do in here?” And also the Replicators too, ’cause we just wrapped them up with the Wraith. So, if that’s done, what now? So, that’s exactly my thoughts.

David Read:
Interesting. OK, very good. I hope that you’re satisfied… There was something I was gonna say to that. I can’t–

FailWhale34:
David, you have to be very careful here. You have to be very careful here.

David Read:
No, I’m not interested in spoiling you. It’s real world. Rachel was pregnant in that season with Caden. So, that’s where that came from. It’s one of those circumstances where we’re watching and your reaction is like, “Where did this come from?” And it’s happened because real life has caught up and we have to solve that baby bump. Sometimes they’re gonna solve it by hitting the nail on the head, and other times, we’re gonna be like, “We’re dealing with it,” but the answer isn’t always the best. It just is. It’s interesting, and that’s not the only time that that happens in this franchise. So, there’s other ways that that has to be dealt with. And you just deal with it as it– It’s like when, in Season Nine, Vala came back and she was pregnant. Claudia was–

FailWhale34:
Claudia Black?

David Read:
Yeah. She was pregnant with Odin. So they have to solve those real world– it’s not an issue, but in terms of screen it is an issue. So, that’s how it works.

FailWhale34:
All right, let me–

David Read:
And that resulted in Adria.

FailWhale34:
An unforeseen hiccup, film-wise, not for her as an individual, but–

David Read:
Right, but in that case, for Season 10, it resulted in the Ori Messiah. So, there are certain ways that the show manifests real life, in this case people being born, into different stories that are getting serviced. So, in one way or the other, the show must go on.

FailWhale34:
For sure. It must go on, and I think in Atlantis Season Four, there’s a perfect moment of that where I commented, I was like, “Oh, Jason Momoa’s back.” I’m like, “Oh, his hair looks lighter. Oh.” Because I think at that point he cut off his dreads ’cause it was like, “Dude, his head looks freaking heavy.”

David Read:
He was starting to have neck problems.

FailWhale34:
And then I’m like, “Oh, he got a tattoo. That’s new.”

David Read:
They worked that into the–

FailWhale34:
That was–

David Read:
Exactly.

FailWhale34:
Exactly. He pulled up to set, “Oh, by the way, guys, like, did I have to tell you about this?” I think that’s awesome.

David Read:
The things that they have to do to incorporate elements like that into the show so that they don’t have to keep on, for instance, applying makeup to his arm for the rest of the show or never getting him wet, it’s fun how that works.

FailWhale34:
Show business, baby.

David Read:
Exactly. That’s how it is. Michael, this has been really cool. Rarely do I get to talk with someone who is midstream of the show. I’ve had the privilege of having actors come on who have then turned around for the first time and re-watched the show that they were in.

FailWhale34:
That’s amazing.

David Read:
So, we just had Alaina Huffman, who did Stargate Universe as T.J., and she’s never really watched her show from beginning to end, and she’s starting. And Sara O’Neill in Season One of SG-1 from the “Cold Lazarus” episode, Harley Jane Kozak, she’s watching the show now. And Reetou Charlie, the little bald-headed boy with the Reetou aliens who goes off with the Tok’ra, he’s watching Stargate now too. So it’s cool to sit back and create this content, bring these people on, and then have them go off and learn about the thing that we fell in love with them for to begin with.

FailWhale34:
No, that’s so awesome to hear.

David Read:
Absolutely. Anything you wanted to wrap up with, promoting or sharing with my audience before we wrap you up? We’ve got your channel obviously linked. I’ve got the patreon.com/failwhale34 now linked. If you guys are looking …

FailWhale34:
It’s completely fine.

David Read:
… in the description, it’s all there. So, anything else that we can expect for– What shows are you thinking of tackling next? What’s coming down your pipeline?

FailWhale34:
That’s a great question. At the moment I’m actually in the middle of wrapping up Farscape and Buffy as soon as possible, but a little bit delayed, but gonna be picking up a new wheelhouse of shows soon. So, gonna be having some polls up on that over on the Patreon page. So, looking to fill in that sci-fi gap, I’m thinking of BSG. I think that’s what it’s maybe leaning towards. We’ve talked about Babylon 5, maybe Star Trek, but I don’t know if I wanna do too much of a commitment.

David Read:
That’s 1,000 episodes.

FailWhale34:
I know. That’s what I’m saying, man.

David Read:
My friend, watch Battlestar. It’s a 75-episode story.

FailWhale34:
I think that’s most likely what’s gonna happen, but we’re obviously gonna put up polls too.

David Read:
Good.

FailWhale34:
So, I’d say check out the YouTube channel if you guys are interested in watching me check out some shows from the past. I’ve done things like Doctor Who. I’ve done shows like X-Files, which has been really fun. Now that’s a Patreon exclusive. Farscape similarly, and there might be some new shows coming, and films actually too. We’re gonna be doing movie reactions this year. And we’re gonna be doing some sci-fi films that I’ve never seen, some cult classics. A lot are missing. So, some content’s coming. So, check out the page, that’s it.

David Read:
That’s legit. The more I hear from you, the more similar I think that we are in terms of our content. We both are journalism degrees.

FailWhale34:
Nice.

David Read:
And your pin, can you show your pin for me?

FailWhale34:
My pin?

David Read:
Your pin that you’ve been twiddling around in your fingers. Can you …

FailWhale34:
Oh, it’s a pen.

David Read:
… pull that up to the screen more center?

FailWhale34:
No way, dude. There’s no way, dude. Let’s go.

David Read:
The gel pen is the way. This is the only pen that I use. That’s too funny.

FailWhale34:
Guys, need I say more? Also, check out the Dial the Gate, man. David, I wanna say thank you so much. This has been so much fun. I love what you’re doing. Thank you for reaching out.

David Read:
I appreciate you.

FailWhale34:
Also, the Dial the Gate audience, I appreciate your support, guys. And go Stargate.

David Read:
I’m going to add one show to your consideration.

FailWhale34:
For sure, please.

David Read:
Which is my favorite series of all time, Lost.

FailWhale34:
Lost.

David Read:
It is a 112-hour episode of The Twilight Zone. It is one story, and it is my favorite story told. So I recommend you add it to your list and see how well it pulls. Because it’s solid. And Michael, this has been a real treat to have you on, man. Thank you so much for joining us. This has been really cool.

FailWhale34:
No worries, David. Thank you so much again for the opportunity.

David Read:
Absolutely, sir. All right. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap this up, and I will be in touch, all right? Take care of yourself, man. Chevron seven.

FailWhale34:
Chevron seven. I’ll tell you off camera the story– actually, you know what? Sorry. I’m so sorry.

David Read:
Let’s do it.

FailWhale34:
Gary Jones sent me a video. One of the Patreon fam got him to do one of those Cameo sites?

David Read:
Cameos.

FailWhale34:
Walter is my favorite character in the show. I’m sorry to say it, but it’s my absolute favorite character.

David Read:
Don’t be sorry. That’s a great choice. Absolutely.

FailWhale34:
I love the guy, and somebody sent me a Cameo of him talking, and it was the most heartwarming thing. Chevron seven encoded.

David Read:
Absolutely. He’s great. You take care of yourself. Best of luck to your channel and your Patreon.

FailWhale34:
Take care.

David Read:
Be well. Bye-bye.

FailWhale34:
You too.

David Read:
FailWhale34. You can check out his YouTube channel and his Patreon. Both of those details are on the description underneath the episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to Dial the Gate. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time today. Appreciate my moderators, Jeremy, Reese, Antony, Tracy, Sommer, my producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, and my web developer, Frederick Marcoux, over at Concepts Web. These people make the show continually possible. We were going to have Anna Galvin in the next 45 minutes, but we have to reschedule with her. In terms of what’s coming up next here, John de Lancie is joining us this Wednesday, February the 15th for a midweek episode at 11:00 AM Pacific Time. He’s gonna talk about Frank Simmons on Stargate SG-1. We’ll also be talking about Q and his time on Breaking Bad, his production with Alien Voices with Leonard Nimoy. And then we have, this says Wednesday but it’s supposed to be Friday. Friday, February the 17th, at 12:00 noon Pacific Time– Man, I need a copy editor. Fan-made Lego Stargate sets. That’s going to be premiering at 12:00 noon Pacific Time. We invited a few of the people who have made Lego Stargate sets on. Bonnie Bartlett is going to be joining us Saturday the 18th of February at 10:00 AM to discuss her book, Middle of the Rainbow. You can click on it there and get yourself a copy. And she’s gonna be sharing some more stories with us for her time in SG-1 and her episode, “Prisoners” as Linea. Tor Alexander Valenza, writer and senior story editor for Stargate SG-1, joining us Wednesday, February the 22nd at 12:00 noon Pacific Time. He wrote episodes such as “Urgo,” so it’s gonna be a lot of fun to have him. And Glynis Davies, who played Catherine Langford in “1969” and Eli’s mother in Stargate Universe is going to be joining us Saturday, February the 25th at 12:00 noon Pacific Time. Tomorrow, we’re bringing you “Politics” and “Within the Serpent’s Grasp” for Stargate’s Wormhole X-Tremists re-watch. And then next Wednesday, February the 15th, just after we have John de Lancie, a mid-week movie, we’re gonna be doing Alien. We have John at 11:00 AM Pacific Time. I’m actually gonna be moving this to 1:00 Pacific Time for Alien, and then February the 19th, “The Serpent’s Lair.” And you can continue to read from there. That’s what we’ve got. Thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate everyone who’s joined us and continuing to make the show and the channel what it is. And thanks again so much to FailWhale34 for making this episode possible. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. Thanks so much for your time, and I’ll see you on the other side.