The actor behind “Shifu” in SG-1’s “Absolute Power” returned to Dial the Gate to surprise Michael Shanks… and ended up getting his own second episode with all of us!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Good day everyone. Welcome to Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. I’m waiting to hear back from Michael. I’m not sure what’s going on, this is the first time that he’s done this. We’ve got such a large crowd of 250 people so I decided to bring a few guests in to hang with us. How are you guys doing?

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
You said Dial the Gate …

Yvie Cahill:
Doing good.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
… which it is, but this is technically on another spot this week, which is interesting.

David Read:
That’s exactly right. Thank you Wormhole X-Tremists, for letting me borrow…

Yvie Cahill:
Commandeer.

David Read:
Commandeer, that’s good.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Commandeer this channel.

Yvie Cahill:
This is also yours.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
You are very welcome.

Yvie Cahill:
That’s it. Exactly, this is a shared space.

David Read:
It is indeed.

Yvie Cahill:
We have a shared vision of sharing Stargate. It was a fine platform for Michael.

David Read:
I hope that he’s okay. He’s always extremely prompt. Any time I reach out to him, he’s on it. I hope everything is all right. We’re gonna hang around so that I can provide an update, so that we can reschedule it. I do have someone else who’s special, who was here to surprise Michael. He’s gonna be joining us in a second here. Darren, how are you doing?

Darren Sumner:
It’s not me, and it’s not me.

David Read:
That’s it.

Darren Sumner:
I’m here.

Yvie Cahill:
Darren’s here.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
You’re a special guest of another kind.

Darren Sumner:
I tried to get to sleep last night after the big announcement and three days of live streaming on Dial the Gate and Gate World and you said, “Hey, how about we do it again?”

David Read:
I know.

Darren Sumner:
‘Cause it’s so much fun.

David Read:
I don’t know about you, but I slept better than I have this whole week, last night. I was gone. You?

Darren Sumner:
It’s been a blast but it’s squeezed all the juice out of me.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Tired.

David Read:
It’s like a convention weekend.

Darren Sumner:
It is, exactly. It feels like a convention.

David Read:
It’s that same level of energy in terms of the amount of brain power that’s being used. I feel wiped.

Darren Sumner:
Hanging out with fans, talking about something new, seeing some guests.

Yvie Cahill:
Nicole and I haven’t had the same schedule as you guys, but I have been up quite early. I think this is my third day this week so it has been taking its toll a little bit.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Remind everyone what time it is for you, Evie. What time is it?

Yvie Cahill:
2:30 in the morning.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Exactly.

Yvie Cahill:
This is the third time this week …

Darren Sumner:
Bless you.

Yvie Cahill:
… that I’ve been up this early.

David Read:
We appreciate it.

Yvie Cahill:
It’s fine and I have my Stargate mug of coffee.

David Read:
There you go. Look at that thing.

Yvie Cahill:
See how I go sleeping after this.

David Read:
For sure. It’ll be like watching Peter the Great devour Sweden.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Awesome.

David Read:
All right. I wanted to let everyone know what it is that we have here. While we’re waiting on Michael, this is the Wormhole X-Tremists re-watch channel. This is Dial the Gate’s …

Yvie Cahill:
It is.

David Read:
… little sister channel. Nicole, myself, Evie, we all get on this thing every Sunday, generally speaking, and cover two hours of Stargate in airing order. So, tomorrow, what are we covering Evie?

Yvie Cahill:
We are watching “Endgame” and we are also watching, what is the other one?

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
“The Storm?”

Yvie Cahill:
“The Storm.”

David Read:
“The Storm.” So, Evie, you are magic with the memes. What did you use for this week’s Wormhole X-Tremists meme?

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
This was funny.

Yvie Cahill:
So good.

David Read:
This was really fun. The synchronicity here …

Yvie Cahill:
The one per day?

David Read:
… is very bizarre.

Yvie Cahill:
A little backstory. I was typing out my notes for “Endgame” and the very start of that episode is Walter and the other technician, I can’t remember his name, and they’ve decided to take a break from their 2:00 AM shift watching over the Stargate to sneak some coffee. That’s when the gate is beamed away. There’s the offline banner sort of flashing all around the gate room and I thought, “Oh my God, it just feels very relevant to what was happening with the Dial the Gate channel being sort of inaccessible at the moment while …

David Read:
For the live stream.

Yvie Cahill:
… things get sorted out in the background.” I thought that would be perfect to use. That’s what we used as a meme to encapsulate this whole three and a half…

David Read:
I appreciate having you guys. Evie, could you duck for a minute? I’m gonna bring in our special guest. Is that OK?

Yvie Cahill:
Absolutely.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Am I ducking too?

David Read:
No, not you.

Yvie Cahill:
Just turn off my video?

David Read:
Yes. Thank you.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Why am I staying?

David Read:
Because I love your reactions.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Gosh.

Yvie Cahill:
They are classic.

Darren Sumner:
You’re more animated than me.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Christ.

David Read:
That’s it.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
God. I’m actually shaking. It’s fine. I’ve already met him twice.

Yvie Cahill:
Stop. It’s fine.

David Read:
It’s just a dude.

Darren Sumner:
I don’t know who this dude is.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
“It’s just a dude.”

David Read:
It’s a working dude on top of that.

Darren Sumner:
It’s this dude. Yay.

David Read:
Are you seeing him? ‘Cause I’m not seeing him.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I’m seeing an empty space that’s now unmuted and muted again with no visuals.

Darren Sumner:
And see a name plate.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
No.

David Read:
Hey, there he is! My God.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
What? A special guest coming around …

Darren Sumner:
Unmute yourself.

David Read:
You keep your lightning in your pants, or your robes. Mr. Harcesis child, how you doing? Don’t throw any bolts at us.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
This is mental.

Darren Sumner:
Unmute yourself, Lane.

David Read:
Lane, I can’t hear you. I think you’re on mute, buddy.

Lane Gates:
Can you hear me now?

David Read:
Hey.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
This is mental

Lane Gates:
OK. Still figuring out this whole technology thing.

David Read:
I can’t bring you Michael at the moment, we’re waiting to hear back from him. I hope he’s OK. Lane agreed to come on and surprise Michael. Buddy, it’s so good to see you. How you doing?

Lane Gates:
I’ve been doing pretty good. It’s starting to get a little chilly out here in Alberta, Canada, but doing pretty good.

David Read:
The Sunshine Coast, is that what you guys call it where you’re at?

Lane Gates:
No, I’m in Calgary, Alberta at the moment.

David Read:
OK, got it. Apologies.

Lane Gates:
Yeah. Usually I’m in Kelowna, enjoying the beach and everything, but not today. Today, I’m in Calgary.

David Read:
OK, cool. Darren, meet Lane.

Darren Sumner:
Lane, it’s so great to meet you.

Lane Gates:
Nice to meet you, too.

Darren Sumner:
I’ve appreciated your work, obviously on Stargate.

Lane Gates:
Thank you.

David Read:
“Absolute Power” is one of my favorite episodes and it is a warning. It’s one of the ones that I’ve been really saving in my back pocket so that we could have Michael on. I was hoping that Lane would be able to come in at some point here. Michael is usually very prompt so we’re waiting and partly wanna know that he’s OK. I’m gonna hang out here and hopefully provide that information with you guys. I emailed Lexa. I don’t have her number, but I emailed her and we’re waiting to get some more information. Nicole, meet Lane.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Hi Lane. I don’t do well with meeting the actors from Stargate because I just get a little bit shy, which is so funny ’cause I’m so loud and annoying. It’s like, “Wah.”

Darren Sumner:
Funny for the rest of us to watch.

David Read:
Exactly right.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I’m super uncomfortable right now.

David Read:
Why are you uncomfortable?

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I’m fine. It’s fine. It’s fine.

David Read:
Mods, if you’ve got any questions in the chat for Lane, if you wanna put them at the top of the dog pile here, I’m gonna create a space. If there’s anyone in the chat who has something to ask him. We’re gonna hang out with him for a little bit here and salvage the show as much as we can. I really appreciate everyone who’s come over to Wormhole X-Tremists to have this conversation with us. Dude!

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Our sister show.

David Read:
The show is back. The franchise is coming back. It’s been 14 years. You were on it, what do you think?

Lane Gates:
I am so, so excited for it. I’m really happy that they’re bringing it back.

David Read:
You’re a fan?

Lane Gates:
Absolutely.

David Read:
Awesome.

Lane Gates:
Some of my greatest memories are as a child working on that show and meeting everybody. I’d be really interested to see where the story goes from here.

David Read:
Exactly. Always wild to see what’s going on with all of you guys out there and then to have you come back in and be able to share with you the fact that this franchise is no longer inert. Something’s gonna happen. Darren, do you have anything for Lane?

Darren Sumner:
What’s your relationship with Michael these days? Have you had any contact with him since the filming of “Absolute Power” all those years ago? Or is this “Surprise, I was that little kid you worked with?”

Lane Gates:
No, this is “Surprise, I was the little kid that you worked with.”

Darren Sumner:
Awesome.

David Read:
He has good memories of that episode.

Darren Sumner:
Yeah, it was a very important episode for Daniel, right? Not just because of Shifu’s connection with Sha’re, but that sort of realization that “Absolute Power” gave us, which is that even if we could get access to all the knowledge of the Goa’uld that is in Shifu’s head, we shouldn’t.

Lane Gates:
You can’t have it.

Darren Sumner:
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lane Gates:
Absolutely. One of the biggest things was he’s got all that information stuck in his head. Everybody wants it and he showed him a little bit of a glimpse of, “Be careful what you wish for.”

David Read:
Be careful.

Lane Gates:
That’s the premise. It was really cool being that character. With the fast aging and everything, I wonder where would he be now?

David Read:
They said he was programmed genetically to age to the point where we saw you, so now he will age normally which means they could do anything with him in the future.

Lane Gates:
That’s right.

David Read:
I’ve got a couple of questions for you here. Kathiescall3899, did you ever find it challenging to act opposite certain actors? Would some treat you like a kid? Would others treat you like a peer? How did that work as a dynamic with a child actor? Was it individual or was it like, “This is a child actor, we’re gonna treat him just like any other actor?” Or was it different for every actor you were sharing a scene with?

Lane Gates:
I think it was a little different for every actor. For the most part everybody treated me as an actor and a character.

David Read:
To be fair, it’s been a while since you’ve been acting, so this is not what you do anymore. He’s doing me a favor just by showing up. Thanks, buddy.

Lane Gates:
No, I haven’t been acting. Stargate was one of the last things that I did as an actor. It was a little over 20 years ago now that I did “Absolute Power.” It was really great; everybody treated me as another actor on set. Of course it was intimidating with some actors, depending on the scenes that we were doing. I remember working with Daniel quite a bit and that was awesome watching someone act. I remember thinking, “Man, I am not as good as these guys are.”

David Read:
Gotta start from somewhere.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Also, don’t be so hard on yourself.

Darren Sumner:
You were 12?

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Especially as a child.

Lane Gates:
For sure.

Darren Sumner:
Remind us who directed that? Who directed your episode?

Lane Gates:
Peter, I believe.

Darren Sumner:
DeLuise.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
It was DeLuise.

Lane Gates:
Peter DeLuise.

Darren Sumner:
It was a Peter DeLuise special, good.

Lane Gates:
He was awesome. He was a whole lot of fun to work with.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I have a follow-up question.

Lane Gates:
Go on.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
In general to what David said earlier; which is that you’re a fan of the show. What are things that you’re a big fan of? I have loads of hobbies and I love finding out what other people are big fans of, and hobbies, because they’re our passions. What’s something you’re a big fan of that isn’t Stargate necessarily?

Lane Gates:
I really loved, even as a kid, the whole idea of a Stargate. It was pretty cool.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
That’s great. OK.

Lane Gates:
The whole wormholes and the aspect of that was really cool. How would an ancient civilization travel around? How would they move things and things like that and the whole concept of wormholes and things like that. That was a really cool concept for me. I kept that passion even up till now. It’s a really cool concept to keep on science and learning some of the things that they’re learning; that wormholes are potentially possible now and who knows.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Black holes are real. We’ve got photos.

Lane Gates:
You spend a little bit too much time around them and the whole idea of time slips away. That whole concept is really cool and I really like that.

David Read:
For everyone who’s joining us right now, I haven’t heard from Michael this morning. I hope that everything’s all right. At this point I’m hanging on so that I can give you guys all the news. I’m sure everything’s fine. Anytime I text him he’s usually first to respond whether or not we have something happening. So, kind of hanging around the …

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
This is very out of character.

David Read:
… the porch here with the light on, looking down the road and waiting for some pair of headlights at this point. Lane, I have a question for you that’s really esoteric and I really appreciate you coming here to pinch hit for him, which is what this has turned out to be. I’m gonna keep this. This is great. You re-watched the episode when you came on. It’s a dream, but I think it is him in there because he’s sharing this with Daniel. I think there is a piece of him that’s in there. When you guys advance forward and you’re eating the bowl of cereal…

Lane Gates:
It’s the Froot Loops.

David Read:
Which is a staple in our show for sure. Shifu’s sitting at the breakfast table with Daniel and he has the line, he says, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and Daniel asks him, “Did Oma teach you that?” What does he say?

Lane Gates:
Television.

David Read:
That’s right and he has a smile on his face, which is not something that Shifu really did until we saw him at the end. Did you get that impression when you were watching that back, that your idea was that he’s acclimated to Earth a little bi? He’s still wearing the garb, but he’s left, personality wise, a piece of the monk behind?

Lane Gates:
Absolutely.

David Read:
So that is what’s happened?

Lane Gates:
Absolutely. He’s basically putting some of that Oma and his past behind him and now he’s watching TV and learning all this new stuff from Earth as it is.

David Read:
Boy, he’s discovered sugar.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Yeah.

David Read:
We have a problem.

Lane Gates:
He’s discovered all the great things. Oh man, “Oma teaches, but she didn’t teach me any of this stuff.” He’s excited by it as well.

David Read:
That’s funny.

Lane Gates:
I think he’s dived right in to Earth and all the things that it has to offer. Froot Loops, I’m still a fan of Froot Loops to this day, but I ate more than I ever did as a child.

David Read:
Because you didn’t have it.

Lane Gates:
Yeah.

David Read:
That’s what you had said earlier. One doesn’t really follow the other in that case, because if that was the case with his personality now, I would have expected him to be in some normal clothes. They also weren’t clear about it because it was Michael’s story. It was Daniel’s story and it was a dream and it wasn’t that this was a new reality where time had moved on. It made sense for you to stay in the same outfit, but at the same time, you could interject a little bit more of your own personality or what his personality would have been had he been raised on Earth with Daniel and Sha’re like Daniel wanted to.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I would have liked to see some nerdy T-shirts, some kids’ nerdy T-shirts of maybe some wormholes or something.

David Read:
Or Korn.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Something fun.

David Read:
Or Led Zeppelin.

Lane Gates:
For sure. I think for him that was what he feels comfortable in. To be fair, those robes are pretty comfortable.

David Read:
Give me my slippers.

Lane Gates:
“Why would I want to put on this shirt and tight pants and everything? I got this robe that’s extremely comfortable.” You definitely wouldn’t want to leave all of yourself behind.

David Read:
Absolutely. Darren?

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I’m gonna have to dip, guys, if that’s OK.

David Read:
Thank you.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
I’ve got dinner to do. But Lane, it was lovely to meet you.

Lane Gates:
All right. Thank you.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
There’s somebody else in the wings that I gotta meet, so really appreciative of David always looking after us and people coming over to the channel to say hi.

David Read:
Thanks Nicole.

Nicole Rodrigues-Galdo:
Love you guys.

David Read:
Love you. Talk to you soon.

Lane Gates:
Thank you.

David Read:
Diana, can you join us please?

Lane Gates:
Later, Nicole.

David Read:
Darren, do you have another question for Lane?

Darren Sumner:
I’m following up. I think it’s such a brilliant take on the episode that there’s a part of Shifu in the dream. He’s almost sort of getting the chance to experience Daniel and how Daniel sees the world through Daniel’s dream. It makes sense because at the end the line is, “Thank you for teaching me and my mother.”

David Read:
That’s why he came.

Darren Sumner:
He’s got more contact with Daniel than that first scene when he dips his forehead.

Lane Gates:
I think that it’s not just a one-way, I’m not just showing you something too; I’m getting a little something from you as well. It’s that shared connection for while he’s in his dream state or whatever.

Darren Sumner:
Dreams teach and it goes two ways there.

Lane Gates:
That’s right.

Darren Sumner:
That’s brilliant.

Lane Gates:
Oma teaches in dreams too.

David Read:
Yeah, they’re ethereal. They can be whatever they want. Lane, I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine. This is Diana Dru Botsford.

Lane Gates:
Hi.

David Read:
She is a producer and writer in Hollywood. She also is responsible for two Stargate SG-1 books. They’re very key to Daniel, The Drift and Four Dragons. Diana, surprise! You didn’t expect when you’d woke up today that you’d meet a lightning-throwing energy being.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Lane, it’s really great to meet you. Your performance was an inspiration for my second of my books, The Drift, in which Skaara comes back utilizing a lot of the talents or techniques that you used as Shifu in “Absolute Power.” This is kinda cool to meet you.

Lane Gates:
That’s awesome. Nice to meet you too.

Diana Dru Botsford:
I loved your work. It was great.

Lane Gates:
Thank you.

David Read:
Do you have anything you might want to ask Lane given the context of the show and Daniel’s journey and everything that he brought about?

Diana Dru Botsford:
I think that what’s interesting is that there were times in the relationship with the characters on the screen that there had to be a little bit of one-way animosity coming from Daniel. As a child, how old were you? I’m sorry. How old were you at the time?

Lane Gates:
I was 12, I believe.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Was this predominantly you yourself, or did DeLuise work with you to get you to understand, “don’t take this personally, this is just the characters in action?”

Lane Gates:
Oh, yeah. He definitely coached me a little bit as to what to expect from the other actors and where their head space was, as is in the characters. Just to prepare me for, “hey, it’s just acting, just so you know. This is gonna be a little stand-offish, but don’t take it personally. It’s what we’re trying to do.” I’d done quite a few acting jobs before that so I was kind of aware as to it was just everything on screen, especially because as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, we were all laughing and joking around with each other. It was a really fun environment actually.

Diana Dru Botsford:
DeLuise is great so I’m not surprised to hear that.

Lane Gates:
Yeah. He’s a big jokester for sure.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Was there ever a discussion about you coming back to reprise your role?

Lane Gates:
No, not really, because I’d stepped away from acting pretty much when the show ended. I’d stopped working with my agent and was kind of being a kid and a teenager until I was 16. I didn’t really do anything with film again and I kind of stepped away from it from that point. It would be cool for sure, but I’d stepped away from acting so that wasn’t really on the cards I don’t think.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Yeah, the writer’s wheels are turning right now imagining you.

David Read:
Darren, can you minimize for a second? I want to bring in Evie. Are you there, Evie? There she is.

Yvie Cahill:
Hello!

David Read:
Say hi to Lane. Lane, this is my other co-host, Evie.

Lane Gates:
Hi.

Yvie Cahill:
Hi, Lane. I’ve been lurking in the background.

David Read:
Do you have any questions for Lane?

Yvie Cahill:
I have some that are in the questions here.

David Read:
Do you yourself have questions for Lane?

Yvie Cahill:
Goodness.

David Read:
If not, you can pretend that someone… No, if you could ask, yeah.

Yvie Cahill:
Steal somebody else’s question. The most common question that we have in the chat is, it was probably covered in your Dial the Gate interview, I think, Lane, but …

David Read:
Let’s do it.

Yvie Cahill:
If you wouldn’t mind just revisiting it for those who are in the chat presently. They’ve just asked how you got into acting. You said that you were 12. Is that when you started acting or had you started acting prior to that?

Lane Gates:
No. I think my first film was a TV movie called Major Crimes and I believe I was about six years old when I started that.

Yvie Cahill:
Wow.

David Read:
Wow.

Lane Gates:
Yeah. I’d done quite a few things up till that point. I believe I was on Outer Limits as well. I think I was in the first Crow movie. Major Crimes was a big movie. Went to Toronto, I was 6 years old with my mom. She started me off in modeling as a kid. One of my first things I did was in Hollywood where I had to be Simba or one of the lions and skip down this runway. I didn’t know how to skip, I just hopped down this runway.

Yvie Cahill:
Aww, too cute.

Lane Gates:
Sweating profusely because I didn’t know how to skip at the time and my brain just would not put two and two together, how to do it, no matter how much anyone showed me.

Yvie Cahill:
That would’ve been adorable though. Did your mom get any footage of that?

Lane Gates:
No, unfortunately. It’s seared into my memory for sure.

Yvie Cahill:
You said you’d walked away from acting as a craft. What are you currently doing?

Lane Gates:
I run heavy equipment in the oil fields of Alberta, Canada.

Yvie Cahill:
That’s a big change from acting. You don’t get the acting itch? You don’t want to do stage or anything like that? You’ve completely retired from acting?

Lane Gates:
Yeah, for the most part. In the oil fields you don’t really have much time for anything else. I’ve got three kids and a wife; it’s a busy life for sure. We work 12-hour days, 20 days at a time, then we get about 10 days off.

Yvie Cahill:
We call that fly in/fly out.

Lane Gates:
That’s right.

Yvie Cahill:
The mining FIFO work.

Lane Gates:
We drive to site, unfortunately. There’s no fly-in job. I drove five hours yesterday to get to Calgary and another six back on Monday.

David Read:
A lot of audiobooks?

Lane Gates:
Absolutely.

Yvie Cahill:
Audiobooks, or David, we’re Wormhole X-Tremists.

David Read:
We’re Wormhole X-Tremists, absolutely. We’re not that good of an audiobook if you’re not gonna be able to watch it. I don’t recommend you watch …

Yvie Cahill:
No, not really.

David Read:
Sorry, listen to us and drive at the same time.

Yvie Cahill:
No, please don’t do that.

David Read:
That’s a lot of focus pulled away from the road. Thank you to Lockwatcher and RickCosta for those questions. Just make sure you read those off Evie, as well, the names.

Yvie Cahill:
Do you want me to ask some more of Lane?

David Read:
Yeah, go ahead. Actually, can we slip one aside for Diana real quick here?

Yvie Cahill:
Yeah.

David Read:
Go down to kappa1611, yes.

Yvie Cahill:
There was actually one for Diana. Diana, Kapa1611 has asked, “As a writer, what do you think of the trend towards more serialized shows? How does it affect the writing and storytelling?”

Diana Dru Botsford:
It’s a challenge. There’s actually a group in networks that are preferring to go back to episodic as well. There’s a push-me, pull-me going on and I can tell you, developing my own television material, that the best of both worlds is really the only way to go. You have the A plot is self-contained to that episode, it’s resolved at the end of the episode, but the B plot is serialized. Like Stargate was, SG-1. They did that too which is why I love that show.

David Read:
That’s very true.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Deep Space Nine also, once it got over being so terrified of what they had set up, they got into that as well, where your A plot, you’re satisfied at the end of the episode, but B is building and building and building and building, typically with a mid-season and then things will settle down. The end of the season, things come back to face themselves. Apple doesn’t need to do that. Apple doesn’t really care about numbers, so they can do things like Pluribus.

David Read:
Really niche entertainment.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Ted Lasso. Even Ted Lasso Season Three was more serialized than the first two seasons. What’s Scrubs gonna be like, conversely? ‘Cause that’s ABC. I can’t wait personally.

Yvie Cahill:
That’s true.

Diana Dru Botsford:
I think Bill Lawrence is a genius.

Yvie Cahill:
I really enjoyed Scrubs as well; I’m looking forward to that too. Do you think it’s a lot harder now with these really condensed seasons? You only get 9 episodes rather than the 22 that we used to get?

Diana Dru Botsford:
Yes. This is my concern for the new Stargate series to be perfectly honest. It means you don’t get to stumble. The only way to push boundaries and to try new things is to allow yourself to stumble.

David Read:
Exactly.

Diana Dru Botsford:
If you think about that very first season of SG-1, those first few episodes are a little rough.

Yvie Cahill:
Terrible.

Diana Dru Botsford:
“Let me go get my box of crackers.”

Yvie Cahill:
I think at that stage, they already had a few seasons sort of in the bag, didn’t they? They’d already signed on for the first couple of seasons. They had room to play with the story and build the characters and the worlds.

Diana Dru Botsford:
But then you get to that, even that fifth or sixth episode, you’re like, “Oh, this is going places and this is taking chances.” I think Martin and Brad and Joe and their fellow staff writers really have a challenge if they’re only going to do 8 to 10 episodes. The Diplomat, huge fan of The Diplomat, for instance. Every one of those episodes is like watching The West Wing meets James Bond. It’s amazing, the quality. I know for a fact how exhausting it is for the writers and the production team and the millions upon millions of dollars being pumped in. They only do eight episodes every year and a half.

David Read:
They’d better be solid as rocks.

Diana Dru Botsford:
They are.

Yvie Cahill:
Absolutely.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Have you watched The Diplomat? It’s incredible. It really is like James Bond meets The West Wing.

David Read:
I’ve heard it’s great.

Diana Dru Botsford:
It’s unbelievable. OK, I understand I can’t have 22 episodes, but could I have 16 maybe? I’d be OK with 16.

David Read:
Lane, what do you think? Where do you find yourself drawn to entertainment right now? Where’s the happy medium for you? What do you think is the sweet spot these days, with our attention span the way it is and everything else?

Lane Gates:
I’m a binge-watcher, so I love watching …

Yvie Cahill:
Me too.

Lane Gates:
… a whole season of a show at once, especially nowadays. If you have to wait for a week for a new episode, it can be a little frustrating at times ’cause you just get real into it. I’ve been watching Landman as of recently. That’s been a fun show.

David Read:
My parents love it.

Lane Gates:
I had a question though, actually. How has AI affected writing in Hollywood?

Diana Dru Botsford:
It’s awful.

Lane Gates:
Is it?

Diana Dru Botsford:
It’s awful. You got a lot of development people who are like, “We don’t really need you anymore.”

Lane Gates:
I think that happens.

Diana Dru Botsford:
“We’ll sit with the AI and come up with a story and then we’ll hire you to do the rewrite instead of come up with the original idea.”

Lane Gates:
I’ve heard that one.

Diana Dru Botsford:
The Writer’s Guild, of course, is trying to keep that from happening, but it’s happening, let’s be frank. There are lawsuits going on left and right, but it’s not stopping. There’s no true legislation in place, and in fact, this big bill that just passed, part of it was to prevent any legislation on AI for the next 10 years.

Yvie Cahill:
Wow. I didn’t know that. That’s tough.

Diana Dru Botsford:
The good thing that’s happening is that you have that kind of AI, but you also have AI that is helping with automation, for instance. It is making it more possible for the small indie productions. You can literally shoot a movie on an iPhone now; you can shoot a movie. You’re having that happen and you’re having a return to the indie production. When I started in the industry was with New Line Cinema and Miramax, way back in the beginning with From Dusk Till Dawn and A Nightmare on Elm Street and all that. That’s coming back now with the little indies; they don’t need the big studio anymore. They can do things legitimately. They can take those chances we were talking about and truly be artistic. There’s good and bad going on.

Lane Gates:
Do you think that it’s a good writing partner; that you’re still able to flesh out your ideas but maybe they’ll be able to help connect the dots that you struggle with?

Diana Dru Botsford:
I see it as a fourth-dimensional search engine and I use it that way.

David Read:
Wow.

Diana Dru Botsford:
I have a Claude account. I do a lot of alternate history, science fiction-type writing and I will do it for that. I have this novel that I’m working on that takes place on a generational ship and I need to know how many light-years is it to this particular planet and what speed of light. I’ll ask all those questions and time dilation…I’m not gonna figure that out, I’m not a physicist.

David Read:
Lane, can you hear me?

Yvie Cahill:
Oh, no.

Diana Dru Botsford:
We lost him.

Yvie Cahill:
Lane’s dropped out.

David Read:
We blanked out. He was having difficulty with his video so I’m gonna have him reset it. So, Michael is okay. He is running late. We’re gonna be having him in seven or eight minutes here. I’m setting everything up here.

Yvie Cahill:
OK. Hang on everyone. Michael’s on his way.

David Read:
OK. All right. Darren, are you there? Mr. Sumner, Earth to Mr. Sumner. There we go. Perfect.

Darren Sumner:
Sorry, I’m dipping into David Hewlett’s livestream to see what he’s talking about.

David Read:
What’s he talking about?

Darren Sumner:
I don’t know. You didn’t let me listen long enough.

Diana Dru Botsford:
Ooh.

David Read:
Alrighty. So, Michael is going to be joining us in just a moment here.

Darren Sumner:
That’s great.

David Read:
Actually, I’m not gonna touch the stream. I’m gonna let it go, but I am gonna put us into test pattern mode so that I can get us ready and cut this together for the actual episode that’s gonna end up in a minute here. I appreciate everyone hanging out. We’ve got almost 500 people in Wormhole X-Tremists, so it’s a red-letter day for us.

Yvie Cahill:
Excellent.

David Read:
Let’s see how long Michael can stick around, let’s see what his availability is. We’re gonna get to your questions. Lane… He can’t hear me. He’s cool, he’s good on time. We’re gonna continue to hang, OK?

Diana Dru Botsford:
Sounds good.

Yvie Cahill:
Sounds good.

David Read:
We will see you guys in a minute and hang tight.