The creator of the upcoming fourth Stargate television series, Martin Gero, joins Dial the Gate and GateWorld for his first interview since the announcement! Tune in and ask a question for free!

Our Season Finale.

Share This Video ► https://youtube.com/live/sZZaAgn0YWM

Visit DialtheGate ► https://www.dialthegate.com
on Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/dialthegate
on Instagram ► https://instagram.com/dialthegateshow
on Twitter ► https://twitter.com/dial_the_gate
Visit Kevan’s IMDb ► https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0645187
Visit Wormhole X-Tremists ► https://www.youtube.com/WormholeXTremists

MERCHANDISE!
https://www.dialthegate.com/merch

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

Timecodes
Coming Soon!

***

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

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#turtletimeline
#wxtremists

TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
We’re going through the portal after all. It might help if I actually switch over to my webcam mode here. All right, guys. Welcome to Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net. My name is David Read. Darren, whoa. How you doing, man?

Darren Sumner:
I’m doing great. I’ve been excited for this stream for… really before the announcement of a new Stargate series came out.

David Read:
I know.

Darren Sumner:
‘Cause you and I knew for a few days, and I was like, “I wanna talk to Martin. I wanna get Martin on livestream. Let’s talk to Martin.”

David Read:
Really hard to get through this. But the man himself that we have to thank for that privilege is with us now. Hello, sir. How are you?

Martin Gero:
Hello! I’m great. It’s really great to be here with you guys.

David Read:
It’s good to see you again, man. I think we have to know right off the top all about this sh… No, I’m kidding. Darren–

Martin Gero:
Full disclaimer. There will not be an enormous amount of new information. But I’m thrilled to talk with y’all.

David Read:
We appreciate you being here. Darren, when did you first meet Martin? Was it the year before I did? Did you meet him during “Childhood’s End?”

Darren Sumner:
My first visit to Bridge Studios was 2004 when Atlantis was filming episode two, I think.

Martin Gero:
Oh, wow.

Darren Sumner:
They were filming “Hide and Seek,” and you were brand new to the show. Obviously, that’s where you got your big start. But, this is funny– I was invited by MGM to come to the show and interview the Atlantis cast and do some promo. And I was sitting in… This is what I remember, Martin. Maybe you remember this differently. I was sitting in Joe Mallozzi’s office, with my back to the window. My wife and I were talking with him, and you came and stood in the doorway like you were about to go get some lunch. And Joe introduced you, as I think he tends to do, as, what was it? “Our new Swiss wunderkind writer.”

Martin Gero:
Oh, boy.

Darren Sumner:
And I thought… I swear I thought, for probably the first half of the day, that maybe Martin didn’t speak a lot of English. Or Joe was pulling my leg. I looked it up recently, and you actually were born in Geneva.

Martin Gero:
I was born in Geneva. Yeah.

Darren Sumner:
According to IMDb.

Martin Gero:
I spent some time there until I was two years old, and then we moved back between 10 and 14. So, yeah. But I speak relatively good English.

Darren Sumner:
Pretty good. It’s pretty good. So, here I was for the first couple hours of the day thinking, “Wow, they hired this new guy to write Atlantis. And, I mean, he must be really good if he’s writing scripts in German and they’re translating them.”

Martin Gero:
That’s really funny. My goodness.

David Read:
When… I think it was about a year later when I got into the office there. And we all just sat down together. It was like, “Oh, yeah. This guy’s cool.”

Darren Sumner:
I have vivid memories of…

David Read:
“I’m gonna hang out here with all the Smurfs.” Wasn’t that you with the Smurfs? Or was someone else? Did someone else have the Smurfs?

Martin Gero:
Smurfs… I don’t think there were Smurfs.

David Read:
You had toys or something.

Martin Gero:
I had Muppets.

David Read:
Muppets.

Martin Gero:
I had a lot of Muppets stuff, and then I was the guy that bought all the Stargate toys. As they slowly came out over the years and put them in there. But yeah. No, it was… I have such fond memories of you guys coming, it felt like twice a year. Was it only once a year?

David Read:
Once.

Martin Gero:
And just… Wow. That’s great. And then we would– ’cause we would read you guys into the whole season so that you would have the stuff that you needed to– I feel like– but I could be wrong. I don’t know. I’d have to go back and listen to like our GateWorld interviews. But you guys were such great champions of the show even back then. And it was, again, this was before social media, right? I think Facebook had just come online. There was Myspace, I guess, but that– The GateWorld message board was such a resource for us. Because it was– It felt crazy that we could go to GateWorld and see the fans talk about the show in real time. And it was so novel, especially as a young, pretty insecure writer. It was great to get that instant feedback of what they thought was working and what they thought wasn’t working. So, yeah, it was incredible. Such a great time in my life.

David Read:
You were so good to us because, I mean, you had your ongoing Q&A. I forget how long that was, and I just remember pages and pages of “asked and answered, asked and answered.” You went through every single question that everyone asked you in that forum. And you brought Rainbow to our second GateWorld dinner back in the day at Earl’s. One of my favorite restaurants there. Thank God there were a few of them. But you were a champion of connecting with the fandom and–

Martin Gero:
I didn’t feel disconnected from the fandom. I was 25. I hadn’t been a fan of Stargate, full disclosure. It was off my radar when I got hired, but I still know what it’s like to be really excited about something. So, absolutely, any chance you could engage with people, you would take that opportunity. People used to just sit down on lawn chairs and come in front of Bridge Studios just to watch the comings and goings. And we would always try to go down and say “unfortunately, we’re just the writers. It’s not as exciting as the stars,” but we’d always try to go, someone would always try to go say, “What’s up?” And talk to them a little bit so that they wouldn’t leave without having met nobody, you know?

David Read:
That’s pretty awesome.

Darren Sumner:
That’s cool.

David Read:
What has the response been like to this thing that you’re going to spend the next section of your life with? Has it gone off without a hitch? Is there something that’s like, “Well, I could have done that better?” What has the communication…

Martin Gero:
It’s still early days– So, there’s time for me to do lots better.

David Read:
I mean, the initial reaction.

Martin Gero:
The initial reaction?

David Read:
That’s what I meant. Sorry.

Martin Gero:
It’s been really overwhelming. I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t done a deep dive. Amazon is very kind. They do these aggregates of what sentiment is, and it seems to be very positive, which is wonderful. It’s great that– we feel so fortunate that y’all were willing to host that thing and that we could go directly to the fans. That felt novel and important. It’s been really wonderful. Mostly I’m just glad that I don’t have to whisper in a restaurant when I’m talking to people about what I’m doing. It’s been such a closely guarded secret for the couple of years that I’ve been working on it. It feels very freeing to not have to lie to people about what am I doing right now.

Darren Sumner:
You know I love my polls. So, I posted polls on GateWorld, “How do you feel about the new announcement?” And I was expecting a big outpouring of positive affection because fans have been kind of on a knife’s edge for a while. What’s Amazon going to do with the property? Are they gonna reboot it from scratch? Are they gonna continue the mythology? And I, for one, breathed a sigh of relief when we found out that you and Brad and Joe and others are making this, that it’s not a reboot. But the poll that I posted, “How do you feel about the new series announcement?” 64% say, “Awesome, can’t wait.” 28% are “Cautiously optimistic.” That is 92% of respondents, I would say…

Martin Gero:
Wow, that’s crazy.

Darren Sumner:
… are positive towards this.

Martin Gero:
Great. Great.

Darren Sumner:
And the other 8% are mostly, “I’ll give it a shot.”

Martin Gero:
OK. Also, it’s OK to, you know, we’re not– We have to earn every view. We’re gonna try to earn every view, be it longtime fans or brand-new people. I so appreciate the people that are all in right now. That’s awesome. I’m certainly all in. The “cautiously optimistic,” I also share that. I mean, we gotta make a great show. These are hard shows to make. And I hope that we can win over any sort of detractor. I feel like, give us a watch and I think we’ll try to get there. And there’s also, the reality– I will say, one of the things even from the early GateWorld forums in the early 2000s or the mid-2000’s– I think as creative people, you have to realize it’s impossible to catch everyone. There are gonna be people that– For instance, there was a small contingent of the Atlantis viewers that hated McKay, right? And so, I wrote a lot of McKay episodes, and they were like, “This guy sucks.” And you’re like, “Totally fair. Totally fair. I write a character that you hate. That is my bad.” You know? So, it’s like…

Darren Sumner:
I forgot about those days.

Martin Gero:
Pardon me?

Darren Sumner:
I forgot about those days. It took a while for Rodney to grow on people as a regular.

David Read:
For some it did, yeah.

Martin Gero:
Well, he was… Especially if you were an SG-1 fan, he was such a jerk on SG-1. And so, the conversion to, “Oh, I’m supposed to cheer for this guy now who was so awful to Sam?” You know, it just– There was some inertia to it that got around it. But thankfully, you know, David Hewlett is despicably charming.

David Read:
That’s the word, exactly. So, we got the impression that you’ve been working on this, trying to get this made for a couple years now, but it goes back further than that, doesn’t it? The kernel of this idea…

Martin Gero:
It goes back so long.

Darren Sumner:
What’s the origin story here?

Martin Gero:
So, we… I believe my first meeting about something new on Stargate was 2016, maybe 2017. I had done this show called Blindspot, which was a modest hit here in the States. And so, it kind of opened up a lot of conversations about people who were like, “OK, well, what are you doing next?” Which most of the answer was like, “Oh, Blindspot for many more years, I hope.” But MGM, you know, we were– We had kind of a general and we were just talking, and I made a case for what I thought the show should be back then. And I think at the time, they were kind of exploring stuff. I don’t know whether the features were still– It was tied up basically, and it was gonna be complicated because I had a deal at Warner Brothers and they were MGM, and they didn’t really wanna cross-pollinate all of that or give up any ownership. So, we had had some initial talks very, very early, but it just felt like it wasn’t gonna work. And then I was like, “Oh, OK.” And then I heard Brad was working on something and I was stoked that Brad was working on something. He was working on something for Peacock at the time. And then I moved my deal over from Warner Brothers to Universal, who is the parent company of Peacock. And so, they started talking to me about, you know, “Hey, we’re potentially doing Stargate. Is this something you wanna talk about?” And so, I got to read Brad’s incredible script, and we started talking about it. Even then we had started talking about an early iteration of what this would eventually be. And Brad, you know, we had these great conversations, and I pulled in Joe because at that time, I wasn’t sure– It was just a confusing time. We were trying to figure out– It wasn’t sure that Brad’s script was gonna get traction because of the people that had commissioned it had left. And so, there was an idea of maybe we do something new, all three of us together. And I was over at Universal for some very specific things that ended up not going. But there was some concern at Universal about– well, they didn’t really want me to run it. And so, it was sort of like, well, “maybe the three of us will do this together,” and we started talking about ideas. But looming over…so that was 2020, 2021 maybe?… But looming over us was the fact that Amazon was probably about to buy MGM. And so, as those discussions creatively progressed, and they started to talk about what the business side would look like between Universal and MGM, it all came crashing down because Amazon bought MGM, and that was gonna be that. They were gonna keep those properties inside of MGM. And I was like, “Oh, well. Bummer. It was a dope idea,” and then, you know, sure enough, when my deal at Universal was up, I kind of was just going around seeing what was available. And Amazon essentially was like, “Hey, you know, we know you have a history with the franchise. Is this something you’d be interested in? Have you thought about it?” And I was like, “I’ve actually thought about it so much. I would love to talk about this.” And so, I had a lunch with Matt King and Nick Pepper over at Amazon, and kind of didn’t even really lay out my vision so much as my enthusiasm and why I thought it was so important, and baffling to me, that this show it wasn’t already on. And to their credit, I mean, Amazon immediately had identified Stargate as a prime candidate for a TV show. They’re just a very secretive company. They’re a tech company. Right? So, the fact that you didn’t hear anything isn’t about their enthusiasm. It was about them trying to internally figure out what to get right. And so, we talked, and that was probably end of 2023. And then it took a while to make a deal. And so, yeah, and then I started working on it June 2024, pretty actively. And then when that was closed, I called Brad and Joe and said, “Hey, let’s get the band back together.” They had so generously invited me when it was their thing. I just really felt like it would be crazy to do it without them, to a certain extent, because of our earlier conversations. And then yeah, and they said yes, which was incredible. It was crazy because I was actually in London for another… I was helping out on another Amazon thing in London, and I texted Brad, and he’s like, “Well, I can’t talk about this now. I’m in London.” And I was like, “I’m in London.” And he was like, “Oh, where are you?” And our hotels were right next to each other. Crazy coincidence. And he came over and we just gabbed it up, and I was like, “I think this is what I’m thinking.” And he got really excited. And you know Brad, I mean, Brad is such a great collaborator. He was like, “And this, and this, and this” And then–

Darren Sumner:
He just starts spinning it right there, right?

Martin Gero:
Yeah, yeah. And so, I was like, “Oh, OK, awesome.” And then I really just went and wrote. I just wanted to– Because the tone of the show is so, so specific, I was just like, “Let me just try, even if we have to throw this draft out, I would just like to– let me try to communicate the fullest version of what I’m thinking.” So, I wrote a draft, and gave it to Brad and Joe, and then shared it with our partners at Safe House and the Amazon team. And that’s when the enthusiasm started to really cook, and then, you know, it goes from there. Was that too much detail?

Darren Sumner:
That’s wonderful. I have 10 more questions, but how close is the idea that went onto that page that you’re working on now, how close is that to what was generated in 2017?

Martin Gero:
The 2017 was very different. Let’s not even get into that. And then the 2020-2021 version wasn’t incredibly developed, but my way in is the same. And my initial creative take was the same. And then you know, it’s gone through many pitches and notes processes. And again, Matt and Nick and Torrey and Joby at Safe House have been so incredible. No, it’s wonderful.

Darren Sumner:
Is that typical for your creative process to– you gotta take a couple swings at something before you make contact?

Martin Gero:
Yeah, I mean, that’s the fun of TV in general, right? it’s not a solo– Writing can be very solitary, and in television it’s great that you’re getting that constant feedback. And what’s incredible too, about Amazon is they have a real sense of what works on their platform and what doesn’t work, and what has worked in the past and what hasn’t worked. And they’ve been incredible at guiding the take. And I think in a really positive way, and it’s so nice. Honestly, it’s been so charmed, I just didn’t believe that it was real. Because also, coming out of Warner Brothers and Universal, I had been working on 10 shows a year because your job is to produce things for those studios but also to sell everywhere. Whereas Amazon, I’m just worried about making shows for Amazon, and all they were worried about was just Stargate, so this is really all I’ve been doing for 18 months which feels crazy. It’s like– But creatively it’s so fulfilling. And so, there was a worry that I was like, “What if they don’t do this? Then it would be so bad.” I would have burned… I literally would have to start from scratch on something new really quickly. But again, I have taken them at their word the entire time and they’ve backed it up. They’ve been really, really– They know how important this franchise is and they know how important this show is. I mean, I can’t ask for better partners.

David Read:
Wow. How did your choice to announce the way you did come about with Amazon, including us– How did that approach happen? I’ve been wanting to ask you this since I first saw your face on that Zoom. It’s like, “Hey!”

Martin Gero:
I just wanted to be very thoughtful about it. Secretly, guys, I have been watching Dial the Gate and GateWorld for the past two years because I just wanna stay up with– where is fandom? And David, you’ve been such an incredible resource honestly because I have quite honestly forgotten a lot of stuff. And then Darren, truly, some really thought-provoking essays on what the future of the franchise should be and some really interesting takes. So, it was good to know that– It was a way for me to be like, “Am I way off here?” I don’t think I’m way, way off. I mean, definitely it’s not a total overlap, but it was just nice to hear fans discuss the show online. For me, it was a no-brainer. If we’re gonna announce it, it had to be on GateWorld and Dial the Gate.

Darren Sumner:
Well, that’s really gratifying because it feels… particularly when it… We hit, you know, a year after the Amazon deal had closed. We hit two years; we hit three years. It started to get to the point where it felt a little like shouting into the void. So, it’s really gratifying to know that, that you are out there reading and listening and thinking along with us.

Martin Gero:
And so, is Amazon. It’s like, they’re a data-driven company, and so they– Again, it’s taken this long because we wanted to be purposeful and thoughtful and it’s– We’re only gonna get one chance at this. And I’ve said at the beginning, it’s not… I’m not thinking of, “Here’s the 11 shows I wanna do.” It’s really about, I need to make a great season of television, and if that season of television is a success, then we can figure out what the rest looks like. There’s obviously– This is a show that has proven it can support multiple shows. But right now, the focus is uniformly on let’s make an incredible season of television and then let– hopefully, the success of that dictate the roadmap in the future.

David Read:
So, let’s get down to brass tacks. How long does a production like this take? Can you set expectations for us? I mean, if we’re being real here.

Martin Gero:
Yeah. I mean, in a general sense, I think we’re starting the writer’s room on the other side of the year, and it’s gonna– These things take about two years. Give or take. Might be a little shorter, might be a little longer. Hopefully it’s not longer. But yeah. So, that’s– Just to set everybody’s expectations. We’re in for– It’s gonna be a minute. We wanted to announce early because we didn’t want it to leak. We wanted to have it be controlled and be able to have– ‘Cause it had been like 20 — Excuse me. Livestream — 20 or 30 people inside the company that had known about it and to make a show you have to hire like 400 people. And so, that circle was gonna start opening up, as it did in the last few weeks, pretty broadly. And we wanted the fans to hear it from us and not from a leak.

Darren Sumner:
That’s great.

David Read:
It makes a lot of sense. That’s, that’s gonna– I imagine that most of that is post-production. I would think at least a big chunk of that-

Martin Gero:
Yeah, it’s pretty even… It’s pretty even between how long it takes to shoot and then– I think Brad alluded to in that video; we have resources that we haven’t had before. And so, we’re talking to some of the biggest visual effects houses in the world. Historically amazing. But that work takes time. It’s not– It’s a gift to not have to turn around a shot in three weeks, to have, in some cases, a year to build out a sequence.

Darren Sumner:
That’s more or less what you guys were working with on the original shows, right? You had RainMaker and other external vendors, and then you had Mark Savela building the internal team for visual effects.

Martin Gero:
Incredible internal team.

Darren Sumner:
But you guys were rolling through, when you’re doing 20 episodes a year, you’re rolling through. You got to…

Martin Gero:
40.

Darren Sumner:
… decide… 40 for three years. But you gotta decide, “OK, how many shots can we afford? How many shots can I fit in my episode? How long can they be?” And then work with those guys to turn them around on this constantly rolling basis where you’re– what’s the latest you ever delivered an episode to the network?

Martin Gero:
Oh, I mean, hours before. I mean, a day before.

David Read:
Oh, really?

Martin Gero:
It is– And also something that is different with all of these major platforms is the show goes live day and date across the world. And they need a certain amount of time also to do what’s called localizing, which is that they, you know, I think they translate into 30-plus languages, which is incredible for all of those audiences. But that takes a certain amount of time. So, once we’re finished the show, before it can air, they have to go through this localizing so that all of the countries in, you know– What do they say, 240 countries and territories?

Darren Sumner:
240 countries and territories.

Martin Gero:
Yeah, at the same time. So, you know, just the back end of that is really, really impressive.

David Read:
One of the things about modern television that is frustrating for me, Martin, and you may be able to speak to this, you may not, is that two and three years between seasons. Is there a snowball’s chance in hell that if the first season is successful early on while it’s airing, that you could– Is there any chance that we’ll get a– if it’s really successful, another season about a year later? Or is it two, three years now and that’s just the way it is?

Martin Gero:
No, that’s very pos… I mean, I don’t wanna– Listen, again, if we are so lucky, I think that is a– You’re not the only one that feels that way. I think everyone in the entertainment industry from the top down wants to squeeze the time between seasons because, just as a viewer, we’re all viewers. We love television, that’s why we make television. And so, everyone has that ache and pain. I mean, we’ll certainly endeavor to do everything we can to get those times between seasons down. But again, I’m just focused on making one great season now. Obviously, it’s not a limited series. We want it to be a bunch, but my main concern right now is making 10 episodes that everyone’s gonna want a second season for.

David Read:
OK. Darren?

Darren Sumner:
I lost my notes.

David Read:
Darren– Martin, yes or no? Do you have the opening image for your show in mind? Do you know it?

Martin Gero:
Yeah.

David Read:
Do you know what it looks like? That’s awesome! That’s cool.

Martin Gero:
It may change, as things do.

David Read:
Sure.

Martin Gero:
But there’s a cool motif that goes through the opening episode of the show that I think is pretty fun.

David Read:
Cool.

Darren Sumner:
OK, I got it.

David Read:
Thank you.

Darren Sumner:
Martin, you’ve been away from this world for so long. We wanna talk about your Stargate career, we wanna talk about the stuff that you did after Stargate.

Martin Gero:
Sure.

Darren Sumner:
But the question is, “having this gap since the last time you wrote a Stargate episode, was a fresh idea more elusive than creating something from scratch?” David, this is your question. It’s worded awkwardly.

David Read:
I apologize. You had time to look at it.

Martin Gero:
You know what? I get what you’re saying. It was just so fun to return to the tone of the show. And it’s one that, obviously, if you’ve seen anything I’ve done, has followed me a little bit. Obviously, I love high stakes, big shows, but there’s always a sense of humor and fun that I think I innately have, but I definitely refined on Stargate. It is a great place to learn how to make TV. The volume alone is baffling to me, to be a part of 150-plus episodes of television before you’re 30 is– what a gift. It’s ingrained in me pretty strong. And when I came back to it, it was great because I hope that I’ve grown as a person and I’ve grown as a storyteller and I’ve grown as a showrunner, and the ambition of this show is twofold. It’s a bigger, grander story, certainly, than we’ve been able to do, but also emotionally is a bigger thing. I don’t know. I can’t talk about it. I can’t really– Even just as I was forming sentences, I was like, “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”

Darren Sumner:
It’s also a fun piece of the story is that you came up as a– you said you started when you were 25 years old– you came up working in somebody else’s world. Working in somebody else’s universe. And now, not only do you get to take the reins of that universe, but you’ve got Brad and Joe along for the ride. So, can you speak further to that dynamic of sort of– now you’re the grownup and they’re living in your basement.

Martin Gero:
They’re definitely not living in my basement. They have very nice houses. They’re both very successful television writers.

Darren Sumner:
Metaphorically.

Martin Gero:
But no, I don’t even really see it that way. You are right, Darren, is that I think part of the concern with me is, how do I make this my own? How do I make this show that is– But I think, again, what I was excited about was how much the overlap between Stargate and me was. But I think to have Brad there, Brad specifically– Joe technically was my boss, but I do feel like we were contemporaries at a certain point. And…

Darren Sumner:
Or the older brother.

Martin Gero:
Yeah, exactly. Whereas Brad is a huge mentor of mine. And so, just in the developing of the show, I think there was a moment where we were done, press ‘send’, off for approval, and Brad just sent me the simplest text, which is just, “Well, they wanted a new Stargate, and you gave them a new Stargate. Great work. This is fantastic.” And I just got choked. I got really– It meant so much that I had not let him down, that I had been able to do something that felt new and exciting, but that he was also proud of, and excited to be a part of if we were so lucky to make this thing. And so, now, the fact that we all get to do this again is such a rare honor. And we’re all very grateful for this chance.

David Read:
No one goes it alone.

Martin Gero:
No, never, especially in TV. TV is truly– a couple thousand people are gonna work on this season. Everybody puts– a lot of hands go on it before it makes it to you, and they always make it better. They very rarely make it worse.

David Read:
When you look back on your Stargate work, I’m curious if there’s a particular episode that, if someone said, “Martin, I want you to show me your favorite episode from Atlantis that you did.” Which one would you pop into the DVD player, or…

Martin Gero:
It’s probably “McKay and Mrs. Miller.” For a couple reasons. One, it’s a really banging episode of TV, I think. But two, it’s also, the eyes-in character isn’t aware of the Stargate program. So, if you’ve never seen Stargate, it’s a great way to get into the show because they have to explain to Jeannie Miller “Well this is what a– this is the Stargate program. This is what we do.” And the whole awe that you get to see her experience, seeing an Asgard and being on the Daedalus and all of this stuff is just so fun. And then it was written at a time where my brother and I weren’t as close as I wanted us to be, and I was a young kid and didn’t know how to say some of those things. It was resonant to me and then obviously, David and his sister, my friend Brendan Gaul is in the show as well, who’s remained a close friend and collaborator. One of the great privileges of making TV is it sometimes just immerses your life in amber for a moment. And that’s not something I was aware of when I was younger, but now that I am 25…20 years older, I’m so grateful to have these things that you can go back to. They become home movies. You don’t really remember– When I watch shows now, I don’t really remember– It’s cool to see the show, but I have vivid memories of the making of those shows. So, they become these strange time capsules, if that makes sense.

David Read:
And they’re inextricably part of you. I mean, you said that some of the things that you and Shane talked about were some of the things that Rodney and Jeannie spoke about in “McKay and Mrs. Miller,” This is really– where did you–

Martin Gero:
David just casually knowing the name of my brother, that’s what I’m talking– David.

Darren Sumner:
Deep cuts.

Martin Gero:
You’re the store of all knowledge.

David Read:
I just keep these things in my brain. I’ve been stalking you for years. No, I’m kidding.

Martin Gero:
It’s very impressive.

Darren Sumner:
David and I were talking before the show about what specific episodes we wanted to bring up if we were gonna talk about Atlantis episodes that were not the big whiz-bang explosion finales.
I picked “McKay and Mrs. Miller” ’cause this episode, I love it so much. It touches me so much. It’s directed beautifully. The opening shots…

Martin Gero:
Incredible.

Darren Sumner:
… with the train, with the finger paint. It’s got so many of those touching moments. I really– I love the fact that this is you and your soul and your relationships out there on the page. But you’ve got the POV character of Jeannie. You’ve got the cool sci-fi stuff with the alternate Rodney and the bridge. But then you’ve got those beautiful moments, like Rodney at the end trying to figure it out. He’s in Jeannie’s quarters, he’s trying to figure out the relationship. He doesn’t know how to do this. He’s willing to admit that he doesn’t know how to do this. And he just embraces her and says, “How are you? How have you been?”

David Read:
“You happy?” He’s repeating her words.

Darren Sumner:
Those get me still every time I watch the episode.

Martin Gero:
No, I just got emotional just thinking about it. And in classic Martin Gero form, that episode had so many more visual effects than we initially intended. All of those split screens became so much more complicated, and Mark Savela and their team– the team that we had just did– ’cause even the over-the-shoulder shots are split screen shots because you could tell that the double wasn’t David. Martin Wood did such an amazing job with all of those. I watched it, I think, last year, and some of the hand-off twin stuff is just incredible. It’s really great.

David Read:
I’m really excited to see what they can do with that now, today, just with the advent of so much of our technology since then. You and I– my connection with you really, I guess, centers around a film called Elephant. And the episode that was…

Martin Gero:
Oh, shit.

David Read:
… born from that.

Martin Gero:
We’re going to talk about “Sunday?” Well, there goes all the goodwill. There it goes.

Darren Sumner:
Don’t you wanna do “Duet” first?

David Read:
We just did a, we just-

Martin Gero:
No, let’s do it. Let’s talk about “Sunday.” Let’s talk about it.

David Read:
We did a– No, we did that one. Darren got to share his favorite, and “Sunday” is mine, dammit.

Darren Sumner:
OK. “Sunday” is your favorite.

David Read:
It is.

Darren Sumner:
What’s happening?

David Read:
Well, It is. I mean, there is no– I would challenge anyone to come up with a greater ending than that pan back on Atlantis away from David. I love that episode for what it was, but I also love it because we talked about that thing for a year before you shot it. You were trying to– you were like, “I have this idea for a day off episode, but nothing happens on a day off. What do you do?”

Darren Sumner:
I remember this. We were in your office, and you said, “I wanna do an episode basically about nothing. Just a day off.” “What’s the action be?” “There isn’t one.” They wouldn’t go for it.

David Read:
But the structure…

Martin Gero:
Probably rightfully didn’t go for it. But that was the joy. I mean, again, the privilege of 40 episodes a year is, on a show that had already done 100 and whatever, is that they weren’t– there was no cookie cutter. There was a cookie-cutter type of episode, but Rob, Brad, Joe and Paul were trying to figure out, “how do we… what’s a new thing that we couldn’t do? What’s a new story that we haven’t told?” The ability to take these big swings, almost like dare-based episodes, where I was like, “I don’t know. Can I write an episode that’s just McKay? How do I do a whole episode that’s just McKay?” And you realize, “oh, you can’t really,” but we got close…

Darren Sumner:
In the smallest set possible.

Martin Gero:
In the smallest set that we have, what’s the– You’re right, “Sunday” was me just being–The one thing that was similar with every episode is, every episode was like, “Whoa, we’re all gonna die.” And then it was like, “Oh no, we’re fine.” And so, I was like, “oh, they’re so–” One of my favorite moments, just to go back to “McKay and Mrs. Miller” is just the look that the team gives each other, ’cause they clearly love Rod, right? Rod is so great. And McKay is so jealous of how tight he’s gotten with everyone. So, when Rod has gone back and Jeannie’s gone back, McKay goes up to the table, again, where they’re all kind of having snacks or meals or whatever, and they’re like, “Oh, thank God Rod’s outta here. We–that guy was annoying; we hated that guy.” And he’s so relieved, and they just give each other the littlest look of just, like, “I can’t believe he bought that, but whatever.”

Darren Sumner:
Making our friends feel good.

Martin Gero:
Exactly.

Martin Gero:
Those little moments that were reserved for the beginning and endings of episodes sometimes, I just wanted to live in more. I wanted to, even at that point– was trying to live in the character stuff in a less pressurized way. So, that’s–Sorry, I keep interrupting you guys.

David Read:
No, but that’s where I think that was the instinct for the day off episode, where that’s where character comes in, where you have the smaller beats. No one is better at putting two people in a room together and just making fireworks and dialogue than Brad Wright. He’s such a playwright, and that’s the DNA of what you were raised out of. It only makes sense.

Martin Gero:
100%.

David Read:
Darren, do you have questions in your livestream? Because I’ve got them in mine.

Darren Sumner:
Let me ask a question from one of the folks watching us live over on GateWorld and YouTube. TonkaU_R3G wants to know, “Is the new show gonna be on DVD Blu-ray? I think it was a big reason Stargate was able to survive, because people could show their kids, get the DVDs from the library. It’s another way for the show to continue to live on.”

Martin Gero:
That’s a great question. I actually don’t know the answer to that. It’s a great question, though.

David Read:
Folks, just to establish, in the event that you’re joining us late, Martin’s not gonna really be able to talk a lot about the new series. I may ask questions just to keep you guys from sending pitchforks my way later. The big one that I have to ask about the new show– Surtvalheim must know, “Will any survivors from the explosion of the Furling’s planet be featured in this show?”

Martin Gero:
Not to give it all away, that is what the show is about. Absolutely. We were like, “Let’s just do a full Furling show. The Jim Henson Company is coming in…

David Read:
There we go.

Martin Gero:
… it’s gonna be really great.” No, I’m, of course, kidding. Just importantly to say.

Darren Sumner:
Stop that internet rumor right now.

Martin Gero:
Exactly.

David Read:
Oh, God.

Martin Gero:
No, the Furlings don’t feature in– I can’t say the Furlings don’t feature into the show at the moment.

David Read:
You’re only working on Season One, so– Darren?

Darren Sumner:
Are we ready to go back a little farther? I wanna know when you knew you wanted to be in entertainment. What brought that kid to Bridge Studios in 2004?

Martin Gero:
Oh, geez. I’ve wanted to do this since I’ve had memories, truly. I mean, I’ve had very supportive and nervous parents who, rightfully, were like, “He’s got an aptitude for this, but I don’t, we don’t know anyone in showbiz. I don’t know how we go from Ottawa, Canada to making a living.” But they were so supportive, and I’ve been making little movies with my Star Wars toys since I was a kid. We had a janky-ass video camera and trying to figure out how to make those shots look cinematic with my eight, 1:18 scale Star Wars figures. I come by it honestly and actually have now, and not in this room, but I’ve finally collected all of the Star Wars figures. Because those, to me, were my first cast. They were my first collaborators. And so, it’s just nice to see them where I am now. I’m like, “Oh, yeah, guys, look how far we’ve come.” But I wanted to do this–

Darren Sumner:
Now you can get an Aquaman figure and say, “I used to order you around for real.”

Martin Gero:
Exactly.

David Read:
That’s right.

Martin Gero:
No one orders Jason around. You gently ask. But it was something I’ve always wanted to do, and that’s what I went to school for, both high school and college. And then after college was kind of eking out a living, working at Starbucks and doing some freelance work. And then the call came in that they were hiring. They were doing another Stargate show, so they needed to hire one more writer, which is crazy, that they were essentially doubling the amount of episodes that they were gonna do, and they were like, “We at least need one more person.”

Darren Sumner:
I was shocked that they didn’t staff up a whole show and did 40 the way that you guys did.

Martin Gero:
But thank goodness they didn’t, for me, personally. Back in those days, the way to get on staff was through freelance scripts, and I pitched them three. I think I read the Pilot. Is that possible? I must have, and then I pitched them three ideas. One of which was a very early idea for “Childhood’s End” that they liked, and they said, you know, “Go ahead, write an outline.” And I was like, “Holy S–” I was just like– At that point I was like, “That’s gonna pay for my year of living.” I think it was $8,000. It was so much money, and I was like, “OK.” So, I wrote it and then they sent it in. And they said, “Hey,” they called and they were like, “Hey, I think we’ve gone in a different direction,” and I was like, “Oh, man, well.” and they were like, “So, could you come to Vancouver and we’ll re-break it together? We feel bad. Our bad.” And I was like, “Oh my gosh, yes, of course.” So, I flew to Vancouver and worked with them. I think I was only there a day. I could be wrong, but maybe it was two days, but I think it was a day. I think we re-broke “Childhood’s End” in a day. I still remember Paul being very protective of the characters. And I was like, “Relax, it’s a TV show.” I was an idiot. I was an idiot child. But we did it, and it was interesting because… not to turn a long story already long, but it was funny because they all– I basically just went and was like, “I’m gonna try to be funny and fun to be around because that’s, I think, the most important– I can’t tell anybody here how to write a Stargate better. I’m gonna put in my two cents. I’m gonna have to write a draft at some point.” But I was trying to be affable and amenable, and one by one they took me aside and they were like, “Look, you’re good and I think there’s a shot here for you to be on staff, but you have to write the board. Write the board. Don’t go off and write a totally different idea. If you get into trouble, let us know.” And I was like, “Oh, OK, great.” And one by one they would take me aside, and I was like, “Oh, this is nice.” And then finally, Brad just took me aside and was like, “Can I give you some advice? Go write the board.” And I was like, “Oh, OK, great.” And I was like, “I’m very worried about the dialogue just because I don’t … the character voices …” And he was like, “Don’t worry about it. I’m gonna rewrite all of that.” He’s like, “Just get in and out of scenes right.” And I was like, “Got it, for sure, get in and out of scenes right.” I had no idea what… It took me truly 10 years to figure out what that meant. So, then I wrote “Childhood’s End” and it was good enough, I guess. And I think I sent that in on a Thursday and they called me Friday and said, “Could you be here Monday?” And I was off. And I kept my apartment in Toronto for the full first season because I was pretty sure I was gonna get fired. I was like, “There’s no way this can be real.” Because the thing I tried to do was…because I didn’t know what the voice of the show was yet, I just wrote what my best version of Stargate would be, if that makes sense. Because I also was worried, “if they don’t like that, then I won’t do well on this show.” But thankfully, they liked it, and yeah, I was there for five years.

David Read:
It’s a tone thing. If you can’t capture your own tone that fits into theirs, or replicate the tone that already exists, it can be an amazing piece of work, but it doesn’t fit here. That’s the thing.

Martin Gero:
Yeah. It’s like casting. I tell actors always to be the most themselves, honestly, because we’re looking for such a specific thing and we’ll know it when we see it, and there’s no way to guess it. So, be the most you, and if it’s you, it’s gonna be you.

David Read:
That way you don’t have to fake it if you get hired. You’re gonna have to be that thing for… Exactly. So, here’s the thing. IrinaSG, she wants to know “If you can talk at all about Dean and Roland’s involvement.” Are they gonna be joining you guys in the writer’s room? What’s their…

Martin Gero:
They won’t be in the writer’s room. They’re involved and…

David Read:
OK. Perfect. Darren?

Martin Gero:
I’m gonna meet with Dean, I think, next week.

Darren Sumner:
I’m trying to restrain myself. Trying to be good.

David Read:
Marcia Middleton-

Martin Gero:
You can ask away. I just can’t…

David Read:
We’re trying to be fair.

Darren Sumner:
I don’t wanna keep putting you on the spot over and over again.

Martin Gero:
And to everyone that’s asking a bunch of questions about the new show: totally fair. I’m so excited about it. Thank you for your questions. And know that you don’t have to wait until the show’s gonna come out. We will be doing some more of these. We’re planning to try to do some sort of quarterly update. We’re gonna stay in contact. And little bits will slowly come out. But today is very nascent. We don’t even have all the writers hired yet. I don’t wanna spoil anything. But I also don’t wanna say something that could also shift because the show is in a fluid space.

David Read:
Then let me..

Darren Sumner:
That’s very fair.

David Read:
Because you mentioned something earlier and I want to clarify here. You said 10 episodes. Is that fixed or is that potential? You don’t know for sure right now?

Martin Gero:
Did I say 10 episodes?

David Read:
Yes.

Martin Gero:
Yes.

Darren Sumner:
Everyone noticed.

David Read:
Well, I just wanted– So, it may not be fixed at this point because you have– There’s a lot going on there.

Martin Gero:
I think we can talk more about that at a later date, for sure.

David Read:
OK. All right. For sure.

Darren Sumner:
David, you put in the notes a question about one of my favorite characters from the behind-the-scenes Stargate SG-1.

David Read:
I’m switching over to another document without my…

Darren Sumner:
Stargate Atlantis.

David Read:
Are we talking about…

Darren Sumner:
There’s a certain character that our guest helped to develop, along with some help from Paul McGillion, for the show.

Martin Gero:
Danger Beckett?

Darren Sumner:
Is there a chance that we might see Danger Beckett return?

Martin Gero:
The whole show is built around Danger Beckett. That’s why I’m back. Finally, Danger Beckett will get the spotlight he so richly deserved.

Darren Sumner:
It’s called Danger and the Furlings.

Martin Gero:
Danger. It’s called Danger.

David Read:
No, seriously, if there is not a cameo of Danger Beckett, I will riot.

Martin Gero:
I think you’re the only one who will riot. So, it’ll be a small protest. No, that’s very funny. It was so fun. Some of that I look back on and cringe a little bit. I think we were putting out– I loved that piece, but I’d be like, we were putting out so much content. Because the DVDs at that point were such a huge part of the show. And you needed to have a special feature. Ivan Bartok did such an incredible Sisyphean task of attaching a special feature to every single piece of the show. And certainly, as an older person now looking back on some of that stuff, some of it’s very funny, that the Road to a Dream is, I think…

David Read:
Road to a Dream with Martin Gero.

Martin Gero:
Really fun.

David Read:
That’s it.

Martin Gero:
But there’s other stuff where I’m like, “Oh my God. What were we thinking? What were we doing?”

David Read:
You’re trying stuff out.

Martin Gero:
Yeah, I know.

Darren Sumner:
You were goofing off and having fun.

David Read:
The industry term is VAM, value added material. Some of it is more valuable than others.

Darren Sumner:
If nothing else, you made Paul McGillion look good.

David Read:
That’s it.

Martin Gero:
Paul McGillion doesn’t need any help looking good. Not only a good-looking man, but what a great actor.

David Read:
That’s it.

Darren Sumner:
My favorite beat in that, I rewatched it, my favorite beat is you struggling with the accent and then Paul turns and looks at the camera, just dead eye.

Martin Gero:
He’s great. Everyone was so good in that. Everyone on the show is so funny. And we showed it off to a certain extent on the show. But behind the scenes, it was nice to be able to capture some of that.

David Read:
I’ve gotta ask Darren’s question now since he basically did mine.

Darren Sumner:
Do it.

David Read:
Where did the Bill Nye reference in Blindspot start?

Darren Sumner:
Let’s talk about Blindspot. I am a big Blindspot fan. I love the show.

Martin Gero:
Oh, fantastic! Thank you. I love Bill. Bill was obviously on the show, on Stargate, in my last episode, right? The last episode that I wrote and directed.

David Read:
It’s pretty close, yeah.

Darren Sumner:
“Brainstorm.”

Martin Gero:
Then we became friends. Obviously, I’d grown up with him, and we became friends, maintained a correspondence. And then, there’s a genius character on Blindspot named Patterson, and we were like, “Wouldn’t it be so funny if Bill Nye was her actual dad?” And everyone thought that was great. What a lot of people don’t know, if they’ve only seen the first season of Blindspot, the show got very strange. It got increasingly zany, I think, is the right word. It became almost a straight comedy by the last season in some cases. So, we were like, “Oh my god.” So, I text Bill and I was like, “Bill, would you do this?” And he said, “Yes, absolutely.” It ended up being, I think, four or five episodes that he was in as Patterson’s dad. I had to namecheck Rodney McKay in there. Had to. Had to unite the worlds. So, it’s all one universe.

Darren Sumner:
That’s the follow-up: Is Blindspot canonically starting…

Martin Gero:
Blindspot now has to be canonically [inaudible]. Yeah, absolutely.

David Read:
Claire Brownlow, “How key is it that you wanna make the next show a family-friendly show that everyone can sit down and watch it together?”

Martin Gero:
That’s a great question. That’s a conversation that is ongoing, quite honestly. I don’t have a great response to that right now. It’s a special thing about the franchise, certainly. And I have a three-year-old, and who I would love to watch it one day. It’s a question. We’re trying to figure out when she can watch it.

David Read:
Sure.

Martin Gero:
That’s part of the conversation we’re having now.

David Read:
Yviecahill, “Having worked on Quantum Leap and Kung Goo?” Really, Kung Goo, Is that the title? Kung Goo?

Martin Gero:
Kung Fu.

David Read:
Guys, spellcheck for me.

Darren Sumner:
Typo.

David Read:
It really does say G. You’ve seen what works over the years. You’ve seen what doesn’t work. In moving into this next chapter of your life, in terms of a project, how much keener of a sense do you have of what works and what doesn’t? Or, as you go from project to project, do you become more aware of certain holes to avoid in your path when you’re moving your vehicle through? Has your process refined?

Martin Gero:
I think, and again, I can’t get specific, but there are definitely– Nothing I’ve ever made– this is going to be shocking to some– nothing I’ve ever made is perfect, y’all. We’ve definitely made mistakes, and the great thing about having a long career is that you can learn from some of those mistakes. So, there are some pitfalls, I think, in rebooting those two shows that were definitely helpful to make those mistakes there before and try to avoid making the same ones here.

David Read:
Sure.

Martin Gero:
Without getting specific, unfortunately.

David Read:
Of course.

Darren Sumner:
Well then, tell me, creatively, my impression, looking at Quantum Leap from the outside, was that that show was up and running a bit and then you were brought in as a showrunner.

Martin Gero:
That is correct.

Darren Sumner:
Is that right? And how was that experience for you creatively to step into somebody else’s show?

Martin Gero:
It was really rough, if I’m being honest. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, both just emotionally and because, you know, I was obviously an executive producer on the show. I had–much like I’d been on Kung Fu. On Kung Fu, Christina Kim created it, and then she went on to run it spectacularly for three years, with an incredible staff. And I assumed that that would be the case on Quantum Leap. And then it’s, to no one’s detriment, a really hard show to get right. It was a really important show for NBC, but I had no intention or real– any desire, to be totally honest, to step in. But it was headed in a bad direction. And so, I came in. I don’t wanna speak ill.

David Read:
Yeah, don’t worry about it.

Martin Gero:
But I came in and there was a lot to be done. Let me put it that way. But there unfortunately had been some flags planted that we had to figure out how to–there were things that we were pregnant with, that we had to figure out how to land a plane that was on fire, honestly. That cast is incredible. The writers that stayed were phenomenal. But it was truly trying to keep the nose of the plane up for as long as we could for that first season, certainly. And then there was no break. Just because of the strikes and everything, there was no downtime between seasons. We started filming the second season immediately. So, it was really hard. It was really hard. I learned a lot. I think some of what we did on that show is really, really strong. But again, it was a weird thing to not be the creative visionary behind a show and having to come in and figure out, “Oh geez, OK, how do I retcon some of this to make a season of television without getting…”

David Read:
Darren and I were curious to know if you have a question for us after 20 years of…

Darren Sumner:
Being interviewed.

David Read:
Yeah.

Martin Gero:
My first question is…

Darren Sumner:
By these upstarts.

…Is that a real ZPM?

David Read:
No. This is made by a buddy of mine in Australia, and isn’t it something?

Martin Gero:
So, cool. I would love to buy one of those, in that case.

David Read:
I’ll get you one.

Martin Gero:
No, no, no. Give me his name. I would love to… What is a good question for y’all? Darren, I know, again, from watching your videos, I’m speaking like we’re intimates. But I know that you were having a moment where you were, “Maybe this is it. Maybe it’s time to fold up shop.”

David Read:
I remember that day.

Martin Gero:
What has kept the fires going for you for so long? Why– You both have been so important to the survival of the show, and I would love to know what was the gas in the tank for those lean years? What got you through it?

Darren Sumner:
There were a few years in the lean years where there wasn’t a lot of gas in the tank. GateWorld has always given me the benefit of being able to work on it when I have the energy. If you go back and look at the archives, there are weeks, sometimes months at a stretch where there’s nothing posted on the website. And that’s either because I got busy with my day job or my family, or I just ran out of gas and couldn’t do it anymore. But then something comes along and you get a new spark. You get a new bit of energy. And I guess, not knowing…I’m pushing 50 now… and not knowing if I was gonna see another Stargate show in my lifetime was getting emotionally draining on me. But you know what, the other thing that has kept me going is, I watched Stargate with my family. Over the course of several years, we watched SG-1 and Atlantis. We haven’t watched SGU yet because my youngest is not quite there, age-wise.

Martin Gero:
How old’s your youngest, just out of curiosity?

Darren Sumner:
What’s that?

Martin Gero:
How old is your youngest?

Darren Sumner:
He’s 13 now. When we were watching this show he was nine or 10. Going through and watching all of the movie and SG-1 and Atlantis with them, having them actually like it and become fans of it. My oldest is 20 now. He’s gonna go to Vancouver with us.

David Read:
Yeah. This is a big deal for us. We’re making him a part of the process of filming the next round of shooting that we’re going to be doing up there. This was going to take place regardless of whether or not there was another show coming.

Martin Gero:
What are you doing up in Vancouver?

David Read:
We’re gonna film some roundtables with the cast and crew, letting them just talk. And we’re gonna give them some talking points.

Martin Gero:
That’s so cool.

David Read:
And a couple of other special things along the way. But yeah. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, because there’s always something to mine with it, because it always changes. It evolves with us, and you can go back and watch it, and it means something different to you at a different point in your life, because you’re different and because society’s different. And because what it really is, is just a mirror that you hold up against society and your world. So, they can always be watched. It’s like the Twilight Zone. There will always be Twilight Zone marathons on Syfy Channel until the heat death of the universe. That’s just how it is.

Martin Gero:
My wife watches every time there’s a Syfy marathon. What is it with the marathon that we get up– Though all of those shows are available for streaming, but there’s something special about– They’re like, “Oh, it’s the marathon. It’s a New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day marathon of the Twilight Zone.” My wife is just glued to the TV.

David Read:
I think there’s comfort in there. There’s…It’s the same reason that three-year-olds like to watch the same thing again and again, you know. There’s familiarity, and it’s like…

Martin Gero:
I don’t know what you mean.

David Read:
No, totally. This has been tremendous, sir. I really appreciate… we really appreciate you taking the time. Marcia Middleton, “How do you cultivate such a beard?”

Darren Sumner:
Oh, you asked my beard question. I was gonna end on that.

David Read:
It’s sitting here.

Darren Sumner:
How do I get my beard to do that?

Martin Gero:
This is a very nice question, I think, and it… I don’t know. It grew out of a depression 15 years ago, not wanting to shave, and then I was like, “Oh, I like it.” And so, now it’s– My wife has never seen me without a beard, so you’ll never see me without a beard. Now it’s locked into my persona and…

Darren Sumner:
Is it genetics? Do I need special lotions or what?

Martin Gero:
No, this is..

David Read:
There’s butter stuff that you can apply to it.

Martin Gero:
I don’t think it’s even that great. You just gotta let it… It’s gotta go through a bad phase first where it’s just crazy and then you can… It’s like a topiary, you can slowly shape away at it and then [inaudible].

Darren Sumner:
Yeah, I had a COVID bad phase.

David Read:
[Inaudible]

Martin Gero:
Well, again, thank you so much for making the time, and I’ll keep saying it, but in those lean years, thank you for keeping the flames lit at home. And I’m so excited to continue this discussion over the next couple of years as we make the show, and again, I apologize that the lack of substance to a lot of these…

David Read:
Don’t.

Martin Gero:
…these questions, but hopefully as time goes by, we can get into more and more exciting stuff.

Darren Sumner:
Gives us a lot to look forward to, for sure.

David Read:
This has been great.

Martin Gero:
All right.

David Read:
Really appreciate you, man.

Martin Gero:
Thank you very much. I will log off. Is that the right thing to do? I don’t…

David Read:
That’s it.

Martin Gero:
OK. Great.

David Read:
He and I are gonna keep on talking so, you have a good holiday.

Darren Sumner:
Thank you, Martin.

Martin Gero:
Bye, everyone. Happy holidays. Thank you so much. Bye.

Darren Sumner:
We’ll see you again.

David Read:
Bye-bye, man.

Darren Sumner:
Bye.

David Read:
All right. Let me go ahead and switch this over here. I think I did it right. Give me just a second. All right, there we go. Oh, boy, we need to switch things around here real quick. I am you and you are me. One second, bro. All right. That was great.

Darren Sumner:
[muted]

David Read:
Got more than I expected.

Darren Sumner:
[muted]

David Read:
I am thrilled that he even took my email. Just one second here. Thank you. One moment. Thank you, everybody. OK, very good. I’m sorry. Darren, could you please repeat? I apologize.

Darren Sumner:
What did I just say? Martin came in…

David Read:
We’re surprised how much information we got.

Darren Sumner:
Martin came in and we candidly did not expect him to be able to talk much about the new show, to give us many details. And there’s a lot about the new show that obviously is still in the future. We don’t know the title, we don’t know the characters who are coming back, or any of those details that we’re excited for. But he talked about the new show for a good long time. I was really, really pleased that he was willing to spend that much time on it.

David Read:
There’s only so much that we can really get from this stage. And I was fully prepared for him to just tell us outright. And I was going to be the one to say, as I originally suggested, “Let’s not even approach with those questions at all, because I don’t want to put him in the position of having to say no.” But you were the one who said, “Let’s ask anyway. Let’s send him an email and see, feel him out.” And you were right.

Darren Sumner:
Give him a chance to go as far as he wanted to go.

David Read:
Exactly.

Darren Sumner:
And that’s exactly what he did. He’s the show creator, he’s the executive producer, he knows where the lines are. But it’s really significant, I think, for people to realize how early we found out about this show. Typically, with a show like this, you won’t know until maybe the writer’s room is convened, maybe they’re getting ready to do some hiring. And as he said, once you start to hire a crew then suddenly 400 people know about it. We knew about this really early, and the show basically only exists in Martin’s mind right now. He’s got a pilot…

David Read:
Kind of wild.

Darren Sumner:
… he’s got a show bible; he knows where he wants to go. He’s pitched it all to Amazon, but you gotta get the writers in the room, break the first season, figure out where the story’s going. And that’s a creative process, and the creative process is give and take. It’s, “Hey, somebody got a really good idea and brought it to the room. So, let’s change this, let’s tweak this, let’s take this character in this direction.” An example would be when Atlantis was spooling up and they were hiring for the Atlantis cast. Rodney McKay was not on Stargate Atlantis. They had a different character that they wrote, and as they went through casting and were kind of struggling to find the right performer to fill that role, David Hewlett told this story on Dial the Gate, he read for that part. And they thought that was interesting and I think it was Rob Cooper got the idea in his head, “Why don’t we just make the character McKay instead?” And they hired David.

David Read:
One of the best choices, and also one of the most gutsy choices to take. Had “Redemption” not aired with Rodney, that would not have worked. Imagine only seeing Rodney in “48 Hours” and then having this guy come over into–

Darren Sumner:
And then to “Rising.”

David Read:
He would be easily the villain in that series. It was, “there’s no way that anyone is going to…” But the other way to have done it would have been to make it so that “Rising” was his story then. Like Tom Paris’ story is Caretaker, that’s the character in Caretaker for Voyager, the pilot, that has a beginning, middle and end. They could have done the same thing. “Rising” would have had a whole new meaning. “Rising from the depths of horrible person” to, “Eh, he’s all right” because he got himself…

Darren Sumner:
Yeah, he needed that OK from Sam, ’cause we love Sam so much.

David Read:
Exactly. He needed the OK from Sam.

Darren Sumner:
We needed that, the ending of “Redemption” when Sam says, “You’re not so bad,” kisses him on the cheek…

David Read:
“I was more attracted to you when I hated you”

Darren Sumner:
We needed that in order for Rodney to work as a regular. And that’s an example of the fact of how shows change and evolve through the creative process. So, I think it’s one of the reasons Martin doesn’t want to put everything on the table right now. Not only because the show is potentially two years away, but also a lot’s gonna change.

David Read:
That’s the thing…

Darren Sumner:
It hasn’t been written, it hasn’t been cast.

David Read:
Accept the fact that– I can hear myself. Now, I can’t. Thank you. Just the fact that we’re so far out, why say something that could be different? He can’t say that there is gonna be 10 episodes for sure. He doesn’t know. He has a pilot written. They haven’t even started breaking into the writer’s room yet, until January. So, all kinds of things could change. And then if some piece of information is already out there that’s inconsistent, you have to backtrack. And it’s like, “OK” then there’s gonna be a why. Fans are, “OK, so why was that done? OK, well then…No, it’s fewer episodes? Well, then they’ve had to get rid of some episodes because those episodes weren’t really too good.” Or, “It’s gonna be more than 10 episodes? Well, there wasn’t enough exposition in those stories becau–” And people spool and spool and spool, and that’s what we do now online in little pockets and in some bigger ones. So, it only makes sense to keep those things close to the chest. If, for no other reason, than the fact that we’re two years away, and at least we have a proper expectation now. I was personally hoping that it was going to line up with the 30th anniversary of SG-1, but it looks like it’s potentially gonna be a hamster’s lifetime.

Darren Sumner:
July 2027 is the 30th. Might be a little bit later than that, we’ll see. We’ll see how production moves on. I did appreciate that Martin expressed similar frustration. They’re viewers of television as well. They don’t like it when shows are gone for two to three years. And sometimes, it’s for production reasons. It’s not practical to kick out a show every 12 to 18 months with the way that they’re doing it. But it’s at least on his radar. It’s a frustration that he shares.

David Read:
It’s one of those things that– I will accept Martin’s answer, but I also have a really hard time processing it because, look, shows ran seasonally at the same time of year, every year. And then we go into this streaming model and that is just no longer fixed. I mean, the first real one was what? House of Cards and then Orange Is the New Black. And then at some point, the expectation just became, it’s gonna take two or three years and there’s not gonna be a fixed point. And there’s no way to un-ring that bell, unfortunately. I just don’t understand why– I mean, I don’t know about you, but I mean, the visual effects are getting more sophisticated, but I just went from a computer that was six years old rendering a 1080p file in half an hour to rendering a good 4K file in 20 minutes. I don’t understand how the post-production timeline can be so much longer in 2025 than it was in 2005. I just don’t get it. And there’s…

Darren Sumner:
What I’ve heard so far is it’s more shots, more elaborate shots. So, there’s just more going on. But I hear you, for sure.

David Read:
OK. And maybe it’s his specific vision of what it is that he wants too, that could… ‘Cause you can fast track anything if you throw enough money at it. It’s the good, cheap…good, cheap and fast, you know? You can have two of the three.

Darren Sumner:
Pick two. Good, cheap or fast.

David Read:
That’s it.

Darren Sumner:
I mean take a show like Foundation. I enjoy Apple’s Foundation, but with 10 episodes every other year, I can’t remember the story. So, I have to go back every two years and re-watch the last season again. So, that’s maybe a blessing, maybe there’s a silver lining there. I get 20 episodes at a time ’cause I forgot the last 10.

David Read:
It also suggests that the show is not that dynamite if you forget what really happened. You know, there were some seasons of Stargate that are just emblazoned in my brain and others that aren’t. Of course, we also watched them once every seven days, whereas now you binge. And when you do, they don’t get placed in the same part of your memory as other shows do. So, there’s that.

Darren Sumner:
Your brain takes it indifferently. Right? When you’re going through a 10-episode season in about three days.

David Read:
Yeah. And part of me thinks that that’s a shame, too.

Darren Sumner:
I would love more episodes with worse effects made more cheaply, but that’s not the model that Amazon is working with. They’re not chasing weekly ad dollars. It’s a different model to try and get people to subscribe and then fight the churn of them unsubscribing.

David Read:
I also don’t want five Stargate shows on at the same time under any circumstances. I don’t necessarily think that Stargate would benefit from a year-round release cycle. Star Trek has that. I’m not impressed with a lot of the storytelling. And I think that that just may be Paramount’s, whoever’s running it now, intent just to have a Star Trek show on the majority of the year, or a little more than has been in the past. But I think that even with such a broad canvas as Trek, I don’t think you’re really doing the franchise a whole ton of favors by cranking these things out like cookies left and right. I think that having sat in the place where we have for the past 14 years with next to nothing, I think I’ve gained an appreciation for the fact that there is… There’s appreciation in the waiting and there’s appreciation in, “OK, now this thing has come and it’s mine and this was created for me and new people like me, and now I’m going to enjoy it because it’s finite.” If it’s no longer finite, it loses a part of its intrinsic value. Just like the fact that we’re mortal, that’s one of the reasons why life is so precious to us. If it’s not, we are far more inclined to throw it away and misuse it.

Darren Sumner:
We’re gonna have to talk about this more in the next year. ‘Cause that’s a big topic. Do you have a few minutes? I’ve got some questions for you and for us in my chat. Want me to hit you with questions here?

David Read:
Sure.

Darren Sumner:
Let’s see.

David Read:
That’s only fair.

Darren Sumner:
What are you guys posting over in GateWorld? “That round table you talked about, when is that supposed to air or be published?”

David Read:
OK. So, we have… Let me pull up my Vancouver… One of these years when I visit Vancouver, I will actually visit Vancouver instead of pulling it…

Darren Sumner:
And see the town?

… chock full of Stargate stuff, but mostly it’s in a taxi. I can’t find it right now, anyway, and I can’t see.

Darren Sumner:
Well, just generally, we’re gonna go up and shoot a bunch of stuff in December, and then that stuff is gonna be presumably part of Dial the Gate Season Six?

David Read:
That’s correct. So, Dial the Gate is moving into a different phase at this point. Part of it was I wanted to do something a little bit different. I am not front-facing. I’m not camera-facing. I was never intended to be. I just had the institutional knowledge, and so, it was easier than you know, post someone in chat, “OK, now ask this question.” So, I’m gonna be doing more producing. And thank God for your oldest and a couple of others who are going to help with that because, the other part of it is, we have a new show now, and there’s a reinvigorated effort. Originally, I was gonna go up and see my buddy and meet his new son in Seattle, but it was like, “Well, Vancouver is close, so let’s shoot some of this stuff.” And I was gonna go up to Vancouver with you for a couple of days, and then this announcement came down, and I was like, “Let’s do more.”

Darren Sumner:
We were planning this before the announcement.

David Read:
So, we’re gonna shoot about five or six pieces of content with actors and with crew from the franchise’s past, and we’re going to have them sit down and basically interview and converse with each other. If you’ve seen these actors-on-actors videos that are on YouTube, that’s really what we’re going to be doing.

Darren Sumner:
That’s kind of the idea, is to take you and I as interviewers out of the equation a little bit. And maybe do a multi-camera setup and let them talk to each other about their craft.

David Read:
Let them talk to each other about their craft. Have Stargate be at the center but really be more tangential. We want you to get to know them a little bit better. I’m not gonna reveal anyone specific because the fact of the matter is that people can pull out. When we’re going up there is the last week of filming for Vancouver, so people can get jobs at the last minute. That’s entirely possible. But we have right now between 10 and 12 folks who we’re going to be sitting down with and creating little pods with, of stories to do 90 minutes to two hours of content. And a few special features along the way that are gonna be pretty exciting as well. And I’m excited because we have relationships with these people that go back decades, and it’s an opportunity for us to get to see them in a little bit of a different light. I recognize every time I turn around that we’re losing folks left and right. Cary, we just lost Turghan from “Emancipation,” and every time that happens for me, it’s like, “OK, there is an interview that I will never be able to get. There is a Stargate story that I will never be able to share, or that fandom will not necessarily have.” And a couple of these folks are getting up there, and it was just an idea with you. It’s like, “What can we do to solve this?” And have something that everyone is going to be able to look back on and say, “Wow, I’m glad that this exists of them to move forward in time.” Something a little extra that’s more of them and more off the top of their head.

Darren Sumner:
It’s gonna be really fun. It’s gonna be different kind of content than either of us have done. It’s not gonna be one-on-one interview-driven content like our trips to Vancouver over the years have largely focused on. There’re some really creative ideas, some places that we’ve never stood that I’m excited for.

David Read:
It may crash and burn. It may be of interest to us and a couple of people who are really interested in, you know, Stargate history. But I really wanna focus more on the folks who did the show and their craft in particular, and what they brought to their characters and to their roles in production. And that’s really not necessarily so much their characters and what they did on production. Though there may be some of that depending on the person, because that’s just the approach for this one. So, it’s cool.

Darren Sumner:
Hellcats wants to know, “What one character would you like to see return?”

David Read:
You know my answer to this one.

Darren Sumner:
If the new season had one and only one cameo, who would it be?

David Read:
You know mine. Sarah Gardner.

Darren Sumner:
I have guesses. I was gonna say Anna-Louise Plowman…

David Read:
Anna Louise Plowman.

Darren Sumner:
… probably is your top pick.

David Read:
One interview I’ve never been able to get.

Darren Sumner:
But we have to have a good reason for Sarah Gardner. She… her story kinda ended.

David Read:
You don’t need a good reason for Sarah Gardner. Anna-Louise is Anna-Louise. But yeah. No, that’s a really good point. I think, if I’m to think strategically, who I really enjoy who makes sense to return… Should I really say that? I don’t want to impose my thoughts on what it is that he’s doing. But OK, fine. What makes the most sense to me is Alec Colson.

Darren Sumner:
You’re just as a fan. Alec Colson.

David Read:
I think Alec Colson makes the most sense because we now have these larger-than-life figures whom we are aware of much, much more than we were when the shows were airing. And that is a guy who doesn’t just disappear. That’s a guy who doesn’t just stop thinking and contributing to whatever world he’s in, and you would want someone with that level of brainpower at your side. I was convinced he was on Destiny for a while, or at Icarus, or… He’s not on a pleasure planet. He’s doing something that makes sense, and I think to have a wild card like that to stand in for a Steve Jobs or an Elon Musk or a Tony Stark, I think that would add a really interesting flavor, someone who’s in a gray area, who has his own interests. If you haven’t seen our interview with…

Darren Sumner:
Charles Shaughnessy.

David Read:
…Charles Shaughnessy. It’s great because he specifically talks about the fact that he’s interested in the truth at all costs, no matter what stands in his way. But really, he’s interested in what he perceives as the truth, and that’s…

Darren Sumner:
Interesting.

David Read:
… an important distinction. Go check out our Charles Shaughnessy interview. It’s brand new.

Darren Sumner:
For me, it’s just Sam. Put her in a uniform.

David Read:
Just Sam?

Darren Sumner:
Yeah. Just let me see her one time. Call her General, General Carter. I’ll be happy.

David Read:
Calling from the cabin, right?

Darren Sumner:
Calling from the cabin.

Darren Sumner:
Mark wants to know, “Will you guys cover spoilers and leaks as you did in the old days?”

David Read:
I’m not.

Darren Sumner:
That gets more of a GateWorld thing.

David Read:
But seriously, what is your… We haven’t discussed this. What is your policy gonna be? Now that we’re talking…

Darren Sumner:
That’s interesting. I haven’t had to…

David Read:
… with 800 of our closest friends.

Darren Sumner:
I haven’t had to think about a GateWorld spoiler policy in 15 years. Obviously, we’re approaching the new show as fans who are gonna wanna watch it and enjoy it and not spoil it. The challenge is to report on it in a way that is provocative and continues to drum up interest but doesn’t ruin it for anybody. I feel spoilers probably won’t be much of an issue because most of our spoilers are episode-specific spoilers. Back in the day, it used to come from casting sides that would be… they’d go out to casting agents and they would go up on casting websites and be publicly accessible, at least if you had a subscription. And it doesn’t work that way, by and large, especially with an Amazon Original that’s much more secretive. Those ways of getting information about scripts are much harder to come by, so I don’t expect to be able to get any access to any of that in advance. So, I guess, if we even have access to any spoilers, we’ll deal with it as it comes, but the goal is enjoying the show.

David Read:
That’s the thing, I can’t see it…

Darren Sumner:
Not spoiling the show for anybody.

David Read:
…I can’t see it doing it, largely because you’re… We’re not trying to get people to see that we’re there anymore. A part of that was, you had to do that because everyone else was as well, and you didn’t want us to be left out of the loop, because if this is gonna come out anyway, we’d better be reporting on it. But I think that you and I are at a different point. You’re almost 50, for crying out loud. We’re at a different point in our lives where it’s… What do we really need here and what, address… What services the greater good of Stargate fandom? And let some of the younger ones play around with something that may be true, may not be true.

Darren Sumner:
And for the record, I’m happy the casting sides are not widely available anymore. With a 10-episode season of a show that I absolutely love, I don’t want that stuff on the internet.

David Read:
It was a tightrope walk for you and Stargate Productions.

Darren Sumner:
And for some franchises, it comes out through, I don’t know, what the leakers are on different franchises or TV shows, if it’s production crew or it’s somebody who works at the studio. I try, as much as possible, to stay way far away from that for Star Wars and Star Trek and other shows that I watch. But here’s an interesting question from Jeff at Suns and Shadows.

David Read:
Hey, man.

Darren Sumner:
Amazon premieres… I have a meeting coming up in a half an hour. I got an alert.

Darren Sumner:
Amazon Premieres… Typically, Amazon will drop two or three episodes as a big premiere event, and then they’ll do the rest of the season weekly. So, what’s the strategy for covering a show that is… We’re gonna be for the first time in years back to the time when there’s one new episode a week, and it hits Amazon, hits Prime Video, and it’s available globally at the same time. Have you thought about that yet?

David Read:
Define covering. So, here’s the thing. The podcast that we did back in the day on GateWorld, I was so frustrated with the fact that you and I tonally were so similar that I wanted to make something that was entertaining that you could tune into. And I exaggerated some things that I didn’t necessarily think were always 100%. I didn’t lie, but…

Darren Sumner:
You wanted some more contrast between them, so you were..

David Read:
Like Kirk says to Spock, “You could exaggerate.”

Darren Sumner:
Throwing some things out there and seeing what stuck.

David Read:
I would get emails from production saying, “Come on, man.” And I was like, “Ugh.” So, if it comes out, and there are some things about it that I’m not thrilled with, I think part of me is gonna keep them to myself because…

Darren Sumner:
You can play the role of a host.

David Read:
That’s right.

Darren Sumner:
Whether it’s Wormhole X-Tremists or whether it’s guests on Dial the Gate. You can play the moderator.

David Read:
You have the delicious problem of looking forward, and I can look back. I’m taking information in on Dial the Gate with a great deal of– People come on and say things on my show, and there’s a lot of things that they say that I don’t agree with. And it’s not my job to say one way or another. And people will attribute things…

Darren Sumner:
And it’s also not your job to push back on an interviewee in the moment.

David Read:
We are not the New York Times, as a wise person once emailed us. And that’s true. And the fact of the matter is that this is entertainment journalism if it is anything, and my job is to entertain folks at this point, and I’m not looking to be as critical about a show as it is my goal to continue to foster an open conversation about the brand, because the brand is more than just SG4. It’s SG1, SG2, SG3. It’s SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe. It’s all of these things. It will continue to be things after this. Let’s just say that Martin creates a dud. It’ll be down for a few years.

Darren Sumner:
Let’s not say that.

David Read:
I’m putting it out there in the universe. I’m expelling my demons. Let’s just say that he did. It would be done for a few years…

Darren Sumner:
What would happen to the franchise?

David Read:
… but it wouldn’t be done forever. Someone else will eventually come… How many Spider-Men have we had now? How many Batmans have we had now? It’s an evergreen thing. This ring doesn’t become useless because one of the jaunts through the orifice landed on its face. There are certainly episodes of SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe that don’t work, and that’s part of the other problem now, is each of these shows, each of these seasons are far more one idea in terms of modern storytelling than they weren’t before, and if you don’t care for that idea, you’re kinda outta luck until the next train comes along for the next season, if that’s how he intends to tell it. Or maybe he’ll be completely episodic, but I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s the impression I’m getting. Are you?

Darren Sumner:
Episodic? I think we don’t know enough, but I would assume not. I would assume that it’s serialized, but enough that each individual episode has a beginning, middle, and an end.

David Read:
I would think like SGU, in terms of that. There’s an ongoing story, but every episode is definitely an episode in and of itself. I think I may be revealing too much too early on here, but I think my plan is to sit back and watch, and my commentary for how I feel about the episodes will be far later, not because… I’ve lost count of the number of emails that we got where we were accused of being shills, but I don’t find it necessary to share my opinion about a work of art when it’s really fresh. A few years later maybe I will, but that’s not my role.

Darren Sumner:
It’s not Dial the Gate’s mission.

David Read:
That’s right.

Darren Sumner:
One of GateWorld’s missions is to give voice to different fans, and one of the things that I’ve lamented over the last several years is that GateWorld has been largely my voice for a long time, especially when the shows were quiet, when there was nothing in production, when interest was low. I was in maintenance mode, and doing stuff that I was interested in. Making videos that I’m interested in. But with things coming back and getting more involved, and in the last five years being on Dial the Gate and having you and other people to talk to, I’m really excited that we are now recruiting more fans to be involved in what we’re doing. Whether it’s in front of the camera or behind the scenes, whether they’re writing or showing up on a live stream or a podcast or an interview, I would like more voices. I would like more faces to be on GateWorld, so I would love to be in a position where when the show premieres, we have sort of a cadre of Stargate fans who call GateWorld home, and we can pick two or three of them and stick them on a live stream to talk about the new episode, and maybe none of them are you or me.

David Read:
So, I’ve had this idea that I wanted to run by you, and maybe we should do it offline, but part of me is, let me not have you say yes or no now, but float it to you now and see if you’ve got the brass balls to do it. I really think that…Oh. Are you still there? Is that on purpose? Jerk. I really think that you– One of the most brilliant things that was done in media in the last few years was the Wachowskis, when they put out The Matrix on DVD they had two running commentaries on each of the movies, and one was philosophers who loved the films and critics who hated them. And they got heat for doing this, but Warner Brothers went along with it anyway. And you can sit down and listen to commentaries of philosophers who watched and enjoyed the series of movies, and another set that really didn’t, on the DVDs themselves.

Darren Sumner:
Interesting.

David Read:
And look, you and I both know that at this point there are a ton of rage bait YouTube channels. There are a number of them that I’ve followed for a while, and then they just went too dark, and they are in the Stargate genre. They’ve watched this stuff, and our announcement came out. They’ve said nothing. They’ve said nothing because they have nothing negative to say. And if they don’t have anything negative to say, they’re not going to share it with their audience because negative is their tone. But when it starts falling on its face, you’ll start or if it were to…sorry…who knows what’s gonna happen? They’ll start talking about it, and that’s just the shtick. I think what you should do, in all honesty, is create two shows for Stargate fans and get a moderator for each one, and start training them up a little bit earlier, and start having those conversations with them in advance, and exercise which combinations of people… Find a Harrison Ford out there and then find your Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, but Harrison will always still be there to talk, to interview or to audition the other cast members for this next thing that you’re doing, like George Lucas did with Star Wars. And have a group of people who are extremely enthusiastic on one ongoing GateWorld channel, and on the other, have a set that love Stargate, but they just don’t know at this point. So, have two groups that really occupy those two different political columns, if you will, in our genre space as you would in an electoral space. And have them carry through on the season of the show with the strict instructions to not go overboard and say, “Well, I hated it.” Or maybe you could and have those two independent voices. If that’s the thing that you are truly interested in and concerned with, and lament the fact that it’s only your voice, give two groups of fans the opportunity to jump ship and, “Oh, I really loved it. I’m gonna go over here now. No, no, no, no,” and keep them…

Darren Sumner:
Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s interesting because…

David Read:
Have an audience. Have a show for everyone.

Darren Sumner:
I look at Star Trek fandom, I look at Star Wars fandom, and there are obviously camps. There are obviously people who like different shows, who actively dislike other shows. Those are valid opinions. I know that as we get more and more Stargate content there’s gonna be more people who love the new thing. Maybe this Martin show is gonna be the first Stargate they ever watch, and others who it’s not gonna be for them. So, how do we make space for our fandom to all enjoy the franchise together, even if we don’t all love every piece of it? That’s a giant challenge for GateWorld. We’ve had real challenges in years past. With SGU we had real challenges when it came to effectively platforming people who were not just sharing why they dislike the show, but just actively campaigning against it.

David Read:
And that’s not what I’m talking about here.

Darren Sumner:
And that was a real challenge. So, that’s part of what needs to be navigated in what you’re describing, but I take the suggestion. That’s interesting in a really challenging way.

David Read:
White Castle PT wanted to know, “Will either of you participate in the creation of the new series in any way?” I think we are. But I think they’re asking if Martin were to call and say, “Do you wanna participate in another fashion?” I don’t wanna say consult, but I personally would not be opposed to that, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen.

Darren Sumner:
I think Martin’s paying attention to fans. Martin’s watching, Martin is listening to what people are excited about. He’s not gonna craft a show around what fans want per se. He’s gonna tell his story. He’s got an idea, and I think from everything that we’ve heard, fans are gonna love it because it’s gonna be classic Stargate.

David Read:
It’s gonna feel…

Darren Sumner:
But I think that’s as far as it goes.

David Read:
…Like Stargate.

Darren Sumner:
It’s gonna feel like Stargate. I think that’s as far as it goes, though, is he’s watching us and he’s listening to us. But in terms of participating in the show, I just… If we get to go out and visit when they’re filming, I would love to put on a uniform and walk through the background once. That would be great.

David Read:
Dude, I’ve lost 100 pounds. Make me a soldier. There’s little things like… We have the institutional knowledge, so if there was an opportunity to cover the content in, “Well, there’s this thing that’s happened in this episode over here, so the Stargate can’t really do this. But what it has established is that it can do this.” And offer alternatives like that. But other than that, I can’t really think of any space other than to continue to document and record and preserve, so yeah.

Darren Sumner:
I gotta get outta here but let me do three things. I’ve got three things on my wrap-up to-do list. The first thing is I wanna congratulate David and the whole Dial the Gate team for Season Five of this incredible show, which GateWorld viewers, you are lucky enough to see co-streamed today on GateWorld. But this is the season finale of Dial the Gate’s fifth season. And the break’s gonna be shorter this year. Dial the Gate’s gonna be back in the new year. But congratulations, and if you guys are interested in hearing David talk more about his craft, about what he and his team do to put this show together, I’m gonna have David on our GateWorld livestream hangout Friday, December the 19th starting, I think, at 2:00 PM in the afternoon Pacific time. David’s gonna be my special guest and we’ll hang out. We’ll interact with chat and we’ll talk about Dial the Gate and celebrate the end of Season Five.

David Read:
I’m seeing my godson that day, but I’m gonna make at least an hour for you. Happy for that…

Darren Sumner:
We’ll take it.

David Read:
… because I’m so thrilled to have been able to do this thing for five years now and have the number of people who are participating. I mean, the fact of the matter is there’s 377 people in my side of this simulcast listening to us just “Yak, yak, yak,” as Emmett Bregman would say, and I’m thrilled. So, thank you.

Darren Sumner:
That’s also gonna be our final livestream for the year for 2025 unless you come back to me and say, “Carmen Argenziano’s risen from the dead and he wants to livestream. Can you get on on Tuesday?” then maybe we’ll do one more.

David Read:
It goes against the laws of thermodynamics, but yes. That’s totally possible.

Darren Sumner:
That’s true.

David Read:
There is actually someone who has reached out to me, interested, so we may actually have another season finale. I’m just saying. But this is the proper one.

Darren Sumner:
OK. As far as what’s going on elsewhere on GateWorld then, we’re gonna livestream with David on December the 19th. That’s a Friday afternoon. Also, busy bees, bees and beavers. “Busy beavers? Busy bees.” Those are both expressions, aren’t they?

David Read:
Busy Canucks.

Darren Sumner:
The beavers and the bees are working behind the scenes on GateWorld Forum, which believe it or not is still around. Those of us who were posting on GateWorld Forum 20-plus years ago, a lot of folks have been coming back to visit the forum to get their password reset, to unlock their old accounts.

David Read:
Why am I not surprised?

Darren Sumner:
So, Greg and I are in the process of getting the forum software upgraded. We’re gonna do a soft relaunch and have that be a space for people who like old-school forums, that’s gonna be a space in 2026. But also, we’re announcing today, GateWorld is launching GateWorld Discord. So, if you are a Discord person, if you are one of the younger kids these days, like my 13-year-old son is on Discord, we’re launching a GateWorld Discord server. So, check the link in either in the GateWorld chat or in the GateWorld video description for this livestream. We’ll continue to publicize it. We’ll put it on social media here in the coming days. But we’re doing soft launch first, right here, get some folks over who like hanging out in Discord and chat Stargate.

David Read:
We had one four years ago, and I wasn’t crazy about the idea. I don’t… Especially not now because you’re gonna have one. If there’s a Dial the Gate subsection that you can put in there, I’d much rather…

Darren Sumner:
Let’s do that.

David Read:
…it be under your wing than on my own because so much of that’s gonna be redundant anyway. So, congratulations. That’s great.

Darren Sumner:
We can do a Dial the Gate channel for people who wanna talk about your content. There is already a place on there to subscribe to updates from Dial the Gate.

David Read:
Awesome.

Darren Sumner:
And the bot will pull… Every time you post a new video, the bot will pull it in and people can get alerts for Dial the Gate and for GateWorld. A huge thanks to Hellcats, who was one of our new GateWorld moderators. He set all that up at Discord and got us up and running.

David Read:
Wow. Very nice. Go Hellcats. That’s great. No, that’s a terrific tool, and I’m finding myself using it more and more. So, especially for gamers, it’s really fantastic. You can pop on and share audio and video lickety-split. So, it’s really great. Consider me signed up.

Darren Sumner:
Cool. That’s all I got. Congratulations.

David Read:
Thank you. Thank you, sir. It’s been a hell of a season and there’s… I couldn’t have asked for a better holiday present than SG4. And we’ve got a long road ahead of us. I think a little bit longer now perhaps than we were expecting, but at least we know. And there is an opportunity here to continue to grow the fandom and look back, and I’m sure there are gonna be things that are going to be obvious to us six months from now that, “Why weren’t they doing this then? This is a great feature. We can do this in advance of this thing,” that haven’t occurred to us yet. And the fact of the matter is, you are building your operation with people, I am building mine. If you wanna participate, and I haven’t communicated with you yet, reach out to me at [email protected]. You, [email protected]. Am I right?

Darren Sumner:
Yep.

David Read:
Let’s make something cool together. There’s so many people from so many different disciplines who are coming together because they love this franchise and they love… they only want the best for whatever’s going to come next. And they couldn’t have picked anyone better than Martin Gero as far as I’m concerned. Not only was he great then, but he’s only proven since that he’s an excellent choice for this. And bottom line, I wanna go on whatever journey he has planned.

Darren Sumner:
Big thanks before we wrap. Big thanks to GateWorld’s moderators. Moderating over in GateWorld right now, Suns and Shadows, Hellcats, Raj Luthra is here, Red Zeon, I think I saw you a minute ago. I gotta learn how to pronounce some of these usernames.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Darren Sumner:
And thanks to everybody who’s given Super Chats over in GateWorld. Really appreciate it.

David Read:
I wanna give a tremendous thanks to… no glasses, my team. You think I would have these memorized by now. I have to give thanks to Antony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marcia, Raj, Jakub, Enigma, Stephen, my production team, my producers Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, Summer Roy, Brice Ors, William Murphy. Antony has been going to town on the backend getting these chapter headings for our YouTube episodes in place. He’s been truly doing some amazing work and getting next to no credit for it. Thanks, man. You have been with us nearly from the start, and you’ve made a huge difference. So, many of these folks are friends now that I consider myself very close to, and they make all the difference. And tremendous thanks to Matt “EagleSG” Wilson for his amazing Asgard mothership flyby that opened up our episode. And Frederick Marcoux reconfigured my entire computer ecosystem, three PCs and a NAS server, in a day and a half to get me ready for this thing. Flew out from Quebec. So, thanks, buddy. Really appreciate it. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. I’m just saying.

Darren Sumner:
We benefit from people’s love of Stargate, let’s be honest.

David Read:
True. Completely true. But you’ve got a thing, and I haven’t eaten since 5:00 this morning, so I’m gonna go and place myself in front of a microwave.

Darren Sumner:
All right.

David Read:
I’m looking forward to seeing you.

Darren Sumner:
I will see you in 10 days’ time.

David Read:
Yes.

Darren Sumner:
Right here in GateWorld.

David Read:
We’ll be posting on social as stuff comes along and we film stuff, so we really appreciate you guys. Thanks so much for tuning in, everybody.

Darren Sumner:
Thanks, everybody.

David Read:
See you on the other side, next year.