Is he still comfortable and angry? We’re about to find out. Stargate mega-fan Pierre Bernard returns to Dial the Gate to give us his thoughts on the upcoming series and share his latest design work!

Share This Video ► https://youtube.com/live/DHa4arXklMI

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 Wormhole X-Tremists ► https://www.youtube.com/WormholeXTremists

Visit The Daily Gate ► https://www.youtube.com/@thedailygate

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

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

Timecodes
Coming Soon!

***
“Stargate,” “Stargate SG-1,” “Stargate Atlantis,” “Stargate Universe,” and all related materials are owned by Amazon MGM Studios.

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#turtletimeline
#wxtremists

TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

Conan O’Brien [clip]:
But I gotta mention this. Before we go any further, I have to say something. Let’s face it, folks, there’s a lot of anger in America today. Between the war and the uncertain economy, and this very divisive presidential election, tempers are really running high right now. And we have one person on our staff that’s particularly angry, one of our show’s graphic designers, Pierre Bernard. There he is right there. Pierre. That’s him in his living room. Anyway, Pierre says he knows how America feels and he’s ready to articulate our anger for all of us, and he thought he might as well be comfortable while he does it. So, here he is now in a little segment we like to call Pierre Bernard’s Recliner of Rage. Hey there, Pierre. It’s nice to see you. Are you comfortable and angry?

Pierre Bernard [clip]:
Comfortable and furious, Conan.

Conan O’Brien [clip]:
Then go ahead and speak for America, Pierre.

Pierre Bernard [clip]:
OK, here goes. There’s this show on the Sci-Fi Network called Stargate SG-1, probably the best sci-fi show since Star Trek. In every episode, the Stargate team, led by Colonel Jack O’Neill, goes through the Stargate on another adventure, killing Goa’ulds and saving the Earth from aliens. But there’s this one character that I find extremely annoying, Dr. Daniel Jackson, played by actor Michael Shanks. He always slows down the action by trying to understand the different alien cultures they encounter, even those aliens who are trying to kill them. In Season Five, I thought they finally fixed the show by killing off this guy. Without him, there was way more action and special effects. But then in Season Seven, they brought him back from the dead, like Spock. Since then, the action is OK, but when this guy gets on screen, once again it’s the usual talking and getting to know you nonsense. Bottom line, America, Stargate SG-1 is way better without Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Conan O’Brien [clip]:
OK. Thank you very much, Pierre. I think there are six people out there who know exactly what you’re talking about.

Pierre Bernard [clip]:
Damn straight, Conan, there are.

Conan O’Brien [clip]:
All right. Pierre Bernard, everybody.

Pierre Bernard [clip]:
Thank you.

Conan O’Brien [clip]:
We’ll take a break. When we come back, Brian Posehn’s here.

David Read:
Welcome to Episode 418 of Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. You know him. He’s here with me right now. Pierre Bernard. Pierre, are you comfortable and angry?

Pierre Bernard:
I’m comfortable and furious.

David Read:
Me too. I’m on day two of a three-day fast and it’s “Ogahgahgah, get me food!” How are you, my friend? Besides comfortable and furious.

Pierre Bernard:
I’m doing good. Comfortable and furious. But doing good.

David Read:
Where did the idea of this bit come from? And was this your recliner?

Pierre Bernard:
No. It wasn’t my recliner. It was NBC’s recliner, for one. And two, the bit came from the amazing writer, Brian Stack. The guy, I still remember how this played out. One day he gave me a call early in the morning, which was very unusual. He called me in the office, and we’re on the phone and we’re just talking, and I’m waiting for him to tell me what he needs. I’m assuming he’s ordering graphics. But he proceeds to go, “How was your weekend? What did you do this weekend?” And I’m talking and it came to mind that that particular weekend I happened to be trying to convert–I have a huge LP collection–to convert those LPs into MP3 files. So, I bought this device called an iMac or iMic or something. And I started to tell him how I was trying to convert but it wasn’t quite working, and all the issues going on with it. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, he goes, “All right, do me a favor. Can you write down everything you just told me …”

David Read:
This is a bit.

Pierre Bernard:
“… and any other details and send it to me? ‘Cause I gotta go.” And I’m thinking to myself, “That’s weird. We’re having a conversation, you want me to write this conversation down?” But I did it. I sent it to him, and then later in the day, I get a call from a stage manager. He says, “Come down. We wanna block you.” At that point in time, I’m thinking to myself, “All right. I’ve done random things on the show so they wanna block me.” No big deal. So I went down there, they blocked me, and then they sent me back up. There was no recliner at the time to even give me a hint where this was going. They just had me stand there at a spot and they did their camera work, and then they sent me back to the office. So, I’m waiting to get the script to find out what it is that they’re going to have me do. Nothing comes down. Then it gets closer into later afternoon. We’re taping. I think we taped around 4:00 or 4:30. About half an hour prior, I get the call, “Come down. We’re ready for you.” And I’m thinking, “Oh, God. They didn’t …”

David Read:
Ready for what?

Pierre Bernard:
“… send me a script. I really don’t know what I’m going to say, what I’m going to be doing.” So I get down there and Brian is there, and he pulled me aside and he says, “All right. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna have cue cards for you, so don’t worry. And you’re basically going to read what you sent me and we’re gonna have you sit in that chair.” And I’m thinking to myself, “What?” He said, “Don’t worry. If you screw up, it’s gonna be fine. Just read the cards and don’t worry about it.” So we did it. I read the cards. Some of the language was changed on the card. And I fumbled a bit, but the audience loved it. And Conan obviously …

David Read:
That’s the magic. They’re looking for sincerity.

Pierre Bernard:
… was laughing while we were doing it, so I knew I did something right. But I had no idea at the time that we had begun something huge because I guess people loved it to the point that we did it again, and then again, and then again, and it started to become a routine. At most, I would say, almost every two to three weeks, we did one. It was an amazing thing, and I never saw that coming.

David Read:
And Stargate was a good 15 bits into this segment, in that neighborhood?

Pierre Bernard:
Yeah, I would say at least 15 bits in because by the time I got that call from Vancouver, we had been doing the Recliner of Rage for a while. So, I think at least 15 segments had aired by that point in time. And the funny thing about that time as well, which I know is crazy, but I saved the phone call that I got from, I forgot her name. Tanya. I think her name was Tanya. She called me to tell me the date, the time, and flight information, and all that stuff. I saved that phone call. I still have it. I carry it around on my phone. I have it backed up on my computer. I’ve saved that phone call. Because for me, that was my Cinderella moment.

David Read:
There’s not a thing wrong with that. Can you tilt down your camera a little bit? We wanna see your uniform. There he is.

Pierre Bernard:
Yes, yes, yes.

David Read:
Master Sergeant O’Brien. That’s right.

Pierre Bernard:
I’m wearing the actual uniform …

David Read:
Screen used, folks.

Pierre Bernard:
… that we taped a bit with when I was in Vancouver.

David Read:
Wow. Bits. Two bits. You can tilt it up a little bit more, Pierre. Thank you.

Pierre Bernard:
I usually keep this suit inside of a bag, airtight, well-protected, so that’s why it looks so pristine and clean.

David Read:
Absolutely. We can continue this way if you’d like.

Pierre Bernard:
I thought I would share something with you. In that bag of clothes, I literally kept all the clothes that I wore that day. Literally.

David Read:
We’re talking for “Zero Hour.”

Pierre Bernard:
From socks to underclothes. Yes, for “Zero Hour.” And in the bag, while I was pulling the suit out, I discovered a couple of things that I totally forgot existed. For one, I guess the folks in Vancouver wanted to add an additional comedy bit in, and they were hoping it could be written in. We never used it, but I thought it was funny enough that I kept it: these boxers.

Pierre Bernard:
Now, I don’t know if you can see the Stargate emblem …

David Read:
We can see, Pierre.

Pierre Bernard:
… that’s on the boxers. It’s coming apart. It’s crumbling because, believe it or not, “Zero Hour” is 22 years ago.

David Read:
Man. Is it? It is.

Pierre Bernard:
I’m holding an underwear that I haven’t worn for 22 years.

David Read:
Hold on just a second.

Pierre Bernard:
It’s coming apart because–

David Read:
Underneath the jumpsuit, you were wearing those?

Pierre Bernard:
Yes.

David Read:
My God.

Pierre Bernard:
This gets even crazier, David.

David Read:
I’m not sure I can handle it.

Pierre Bernard:
On the day that Michael Shanks shot me, huh?

David Read:
Yes. Go ahead.

Pierre Bernard:
Sorry. The time delay is throwing me off a little.

David Read:
No, it’s all right.

Pierre Bernard:
I’m sorry.

David Read:
This is a little bit longer than it should be. I apologize.

Pierre Bernard:
On the day that Michael Shanks shot me, I was wearing those things they call squibs, I believe, and they’re pellets that are activated as the gun is shooting, they pop and the blood that’s within shoots out. So, on that particular day, I had my own boxers on underneath the uniform, and they gave me the black T-shirt, which I was wearing, and on top of the black T-shirt was the squibs. So, when those things went off, all that blood was flying out and it was flying in as well, so it got all over this shirt. The shirt was ruined.

David Read:
My gosh.

Pierre Bernard:
What I didn’t realize until I got undressed was that the blood got all over my boxers as well. Now, I’m looking in the bag that contains this outfit and I realize, I saved those boxers. I wish I had known this was gonna happen, I would have waited to do this on camera. But when I unfolded this, you could hear the crunchy sound of the blood …

David Read:
Oh my God.

Pierre Bernard:
… on the boxers. So, these were the boxers that I was wearing when Michael Shanks shot me. How crazy is that?

David Read:
There are very few people who can say that Daniel/Michael shot them in the show. It’s one of those beats. They went there and that was what was really cool about Stargate was that they were willing to do that. I am one of the few channels that have permission to show certain Stargate clips and I would like to show everyone an alternate clip that aired that wasn’t a part of the show. It had certain extended shots of you, and these were played all for comedy. Since the last time we met, Amazon and MGM have done a little bit of work with the channel and I’ve gotten permission to do this. So, I would like to show this to everybody here. So, give me a moment and I will bring this bit in.

Airman [clip]:
This SG-1’s identification code. Sergeant O’Brien transmitted a hold signal back through the gate and is awaiting your instruction.

Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O’Neill [clip]:
O’Brien?

Pierre Bernard as Sgt. O’Brien [clip]:
We have audio contact, sir. It’s Colonel Carter.

Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O’Neill [clip]:
Carter?

Amanda Tapping as Sam Carter [clip]:
We are under heavy fire, sir, open the iris.

Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O’Neill [clip]:
Open it. You’re clear.

Conan O’Brien [clip]:
You don’t look, you don’t n–

Pierre Bernard [clip]:
Can we roll that? Thanks.

Pierre Bernard as Sgt. O’Brien [clip]:
Dr. Jackson?

Pierre Bernard:
There I go.

David Read:
Executive producer, Robert C. Cooper. That was good stuff. I love that the production was willing to go there and lean fully into the comedy whenever they had a chance with 100, with “200,” with you again in “200.” They secretly said that it was a comedy, but that’s awesome.

Pierre Bernard:
As I get older and I’m watching people who are older lose their memory, and I’m thinking to myself, if I lose any of my memories, I hope I can retain these memories, particularly from Stargate, because I feel that was lightning. And that will not likely strike me again in this lifetime, and I want to hang onto those memories for as long as I can hang onto them, because they were the best. Watching those clips right now, I can remember how I felt, I can feel the air in Vancouver, I don’t know how to explain it, it’s vivid in my mind. I can almost say it’s happening right now, even though I know it’s not happening right now.

David Read:
It’s time travel.

Pierre Bernard:
It’s a trip.

David Read:
There’s a certain amount of time travel to it, especially when people who appreciate the project get together and say, “Hey, remember when?” And they have details about it. And also, the fact that Stargate is coming back.

Pierre Bernard:
Yes. It’s funny. Nowadays, when I watch YouTube, it’s so random how they have the algorithm working and how things come up. I don’t watch Dial the Gate enough. I should be watching a lot more. One day, while I was working, your interview came up, I forgot his name, and you guys were talking about the fact that Amazon is planning to do Stargate.

David Read:
Martin Gero.

Pierre Bernard:
And I’m watching this and I’m thinking to myself, “Wow, this is amazing. This is great.” And I’m going somewhere with this–

David Read:
You wanna talk about lightning in a bottle …

Pierre Bernard:
God, I lost my train of thought.

David Read:
… moments, that was mine when I logged into Zoom a few days before we recorded that to find out that the show was coming back and that Darren and I had been picked to introduce that to the world when we all know they could have shot that on the space station if they wanted to and NASA and everyone else would’ve said yes. They would’ve said yes.

Pierre Bernard:
I totally agree. The point I was going to make was that I suddenly realized there’s several episodes that I haven’t watched where you had actors and actresses from the show on, interviewed, and I started watching some of these back episodes, and it reignited why I love the show so much. It reignited that passion. And I’m hoping that whatever Amazon is gonna present us will be in keeping with the show. They won’t rewrite it to the point that we don’t recognize it, because a friend of mine recently sent me a link to a video where someone was talking about a Star Trek series that was created by the fans, and apparently the fans spent all their money, they built these sets, they brought in people, they were fortunate enough to get one or two of the original actors and actresses from Star Trek involved, and they filmed, I think, 10 or 12 episodes …

David Read:
Star Trek Continues with Vic Mignogna.

Pierre Bernard:
… only to have Paramount turn around and tell them, “You cannot air any of this stuff. You have to stop.” And this is one of the things I’ve always been a loud voice about, is that these shows do not exist without the fan. The moment you forget that, I think you no longer have a show. I don’t care what you think that property is worth, it’s worthless the moment you exclude the fans. The fans are very relevant. And yes, you can take claim to creating something, but once you let that animal loose and it’s in the hands of the fandom, the fandom is dictating the direction that they want to take …

David Read:
Where they wanna go.

Pierre Bernard:
… dictating the direction they wanna go with this ride. And if you, as a creator, are not paying attention, you can lose everything and all the goodwill that you’ve put into this, into your project. So I’m hoping with Stargate that everyone is paying attention to what the fans want and not what the studio wants. ‘Cause I know the studio owns the property. I get that. But the fans are relevant. The fans are what made the show relevant. And if we’re excluding the fans, then we don’t have a show anymore.

David Read:
It’s really interesting that you bring that up, because one of my favorite documentaries of all time, which you’ve probably seen, is called The People vs. George Lucas. Do you remember this?

Pierre Bernard:
Yeah, I saw it a while back. I don’t remember it in detail, but I remember it a while back.

David Read:
A lot of it’s relevant today. There are several quotes that stick with me from that program. And one of them was asking, “What does George Lucas owe to fans?” And it’s kind of a, I guess it’s probably a fairly pragmatic opinion, but someone who was also in the business and has their own IP basically said, “George Lucas’ responsibility to the fans is to take their money.” Yes, I agree with that. But the other one that really sticks with me, and it’s fallen out of the back of my head just now, but the driving thing that I’m trying to negotiate with in my own mind at the moment is, where does the ownership take over from the fandom to carry it forward? Because a lot of us back in the day when we were big Star Wars fans, when Episode Two, Episode Three were coming out, especially after Episode One, were seeing that it wasn’t– Not everyone was getting what they were expecting. And the other quote was, “Fans really love that thing that you did. They would like another one of those, please.” And the artist doesn’t always want to give that. At least in this situation, we are lucky enough to have a creative in the form of Martin Gero, whose written pages were in all three of those shows, and he’s now back in it again. But I don’t expect him to be the same writer that he was 20 years ago. But add another codicil onto this, I do expect it to have themes that echo what came before. Otherwise, it’s just a name. It’s just wearing what came before as a skin suit. And that’s not cool.

Pierre Bernard:
Exactly. You nailed it. I’m excited. I can’t wait. I’m hoping this is going to air in two years. I figured production time, they’re probably writing it right now. I figured next year they’re probably gonna shoot it, so I’m assuming maybe 2028, 2029 is when it’s gonna happen. God knows we’re gonna need it at that point in time.

David Read:
For sure. Everyone needs optimistic sci-fi, and get it to us soon please. But they’re starting to film in the fall. So, I’m hopeful for late–

Pierre Bernard:
Fall of this year?

David Read:
Starting to film in the fall, so I am hopeful early 2028.

Pierre Bernard:
Wow, that’s great. That’s great news. I can’t wait then. Maybe next year. It would be fantastic.

David Read:
It’s entirely possible that we could see a trailer or something by the end of next year, for sure.

Pierre Bernard:
That would be fantastic. Another thing that was running through my mind as well, because when I was watching that particular interview, you guys were talking about the upcoming show. And I think some of the people writing in were asking questions about what would the show be about and is Stargate going to be public or is it going to still be a secret organization? I’m thinking to myself, the world that Stargate existed in was very optimistic and very positive, and how do you incorporate– What does that show look like in our current world? I’m thinking how does that dynamic work? And one of the thoughts that crossed my mind is that we are a society of cellphones. We are a society of video. We literally tape everything we do round the clock. Are you telling me there’s a secret government organization that exists that’s traveling through wormholes to other planets, and you’re telling me that every soldier involved in that organization is not carrying a cellphone in their pocket that is capable of 4K video? Then not one of them walked into that room, that Gate room, and shot video of the Gate room in operation. You want me to believe that? And I’m thinking, “That’s a stretch.” I don’t know how that fits into today’s society where we literally have people taping things that you would think are so irrelevant, but it’s on film. People are shooting it. It reminds me of that thing. I heard a while back, Neil deGrasse Tyson was talking about aliens, and he brought up the fact that in this day and age, we don’t have as many sightings of aliens. And he brought up the fact that part of it is because everyone is walking around with cameras. If there’s an alien to be seen, someone is going to get that photo. So, it’s only a matter of time. And I’m thinking, “Well, how does that translate into secret organizations?” Do we really still have secret organizations on Earth? I would like to believe so, but there’s a part of me that says, if we do, all the members of that organization are not going to be on the same page, and you’re going to have a leak somewhere, and how do you address that leak? So, I’m thinking story-wise, how does Stargate exist in a world where it’s claiming to be a secret organization? It’s a hard, hard sell for me, and I’m hoping they could figure that out and write it in a way that will make sense. But I just keep thinking, all your military people are going to have cellphones on them. Unless you’re suddenly saying that people entering Cheyenne Mountain are no longer carrying phones, that’s the only way you keep that– But even then, verbally, these folks, how do– I don’t know. I just find it hard for me as a person to believe that keeping a secret is possible in this day and age. A secret this big.

David Read:
I think that there would be folks at the CIA who would have a response to that for sure. Especially after the Snowden leak, sooner or later there would be a reasonable shot of someone saying something. I would agree. But now that we’re in an era of AI where you can make anything appear on film and we are now in such a soup of noise, just this cacophony of images that we don’t even believe anymore, it would be really easy to slip a few things through, I think, and people would just be like, “Well, add that to the rest of the noise. That’s certainly not a thing. That’s not possible.” Martin Lloyd, the point of the Season Four episode with him, he’s going through, “And the lizard people and the Loch Ness Monster,” and General Hammond has to keep on fast forwarding the tape because he’s going through the list of all the conspiracies. It’s just he happens to be landing on the right one and is an alien under those circumstances. I genuinely think that when these folks go into these high-security areas, and if they do go off-world, they are far removed from their cellphone and they have to go up to level three or wherever it is in order to even get that thing back. That would be the only way that you could contain that information and swear them to secrecy. “Look, we know that you’re really attached to your children, it’d be a shame if something were to happen to them.” I don’t know if it would necessarily come to that, but you have to keep people in line, but also, you have to make sure that they believe in the mission. So there’s a lot there.

Pierre Bernard:
I hear what you’re saying, but then I think of– There was an episode, and forgive me for not remembering the exact …

David Read:
You’re okay.

Pierre Bernard:
… episode. But there was an episode where I recall… God, now I’m …

David Read:
Give me the information.

Pierre Bernard:
… shaming myself because …

David Read:
No, you’re OK.

Pierre Bernard:
… I don’t even remember the name.

David Read:
I just forgot one. You’re fine. Give me some information.

Pierre Bernard:
There was an episode where an entire building disappeared, and …

David Read:
“Ex Deus Machina.”

Pierre Bernard:
… they said the cover story was an earthquake, I believe.

David Read:
A gas leak, I think. Or something weird.

Pierre Bernard:
In this day and age, again, of cameras, where everyone on the street is walking around with a camera in their pocket and they’re shooting continuously, everything. A building just disappearing and you’re blaming it on an earthquake. Does that fly in today’s society? Can you really believe that? If you tell me a building is gone, there’s an open lot, nothing around it is damaged …

David Read:
No debris.

Pierre Bernard:
… and you tell me it’s an earthquake.

David Read:
Gas line explosion.

Pierre Bernard:
Are we buying that?

David Read:
That’s complete BS.

Pierre Bernard:
Exactly. Maybe my brain has gotten too logical for sci-fi, but I think the best sci-fi that I’ve seen is sci-fi that creates boundaries on how that world functions. It stays within that boundary. If AB happens because of C, then we don’t just suddenly introduce X. We stay within the world that we’ve created, and we make that science work, and to me, that’s good sci-fi. So, I think Stargate has established a world, a certain type of world, and I’m hoping that they’re able to write that world and continue that world in a way that will make sense; that we, as fans, longtime fans, will look at it and go, “Yeah, that makes sense.” And new fans will look at it and go, “Yeah, I like this.” This is enough to the point that I won’t feel the need to then go on the web and seek out Seedance to recreate my own scene. Because I feel like that’s where we are right now with these new AI models, is that fans have been asking for certain things, and the studios have been saying, “This is what we’re going to give you.” And now Seedance has suddenly appeared, and it’s created a field where if I’m not happy with the product you’re feeding me, guess what? I can go create my own product. And not only create my own product, but then distribute it to the point where I suddenly develop my own fan base that I’m siphoning from you to present my product. And that’s one of the things I worry about, is that if the content that we’re presented is subpar, then you open the door, or you leave a door open for fans to suddenly walk in and say, “Hey, I can do better.” I think one of the most obvious things I’ve seen is the Wolverine/Deadpool thing. For years, people wanted to see that fight. We saw it on the comic book cover, and everyone wanted to see that fight. And the studios decided in Deadpool, “We’ll give you a taste,” and they show you the claws, and you see The Hulk and the claws, and I guess the studio assumed, “Here you go. We gave it to you. Now we’re telling our story.” But guess what? Seedance comes along, the fans jump on it immediately, and what did I see? I saw the full-out fight between The Hulk and Wolverine. Stuff like that, I guess, the studios can start crying foul and copyright infringement, and they can do the dance. But in the long run, all of that is irrelevant, because this stuff is gonna get more sophisticated. It’s gonna get better, and at some point, it’s going to be out of the studio’s hands to control it. Regardless if they own the rights to the property or not, it’s going to be out of their hands. So, my thinking is, the way you curb that is to write material that is so good that it shames the fans who then turn around and think they can do better. Because at the moment, unfortunately, the fans can do better. This is where we are.

David Read:
In some cases.

Pierre Bernard:
There is a lack of love for what they’re putting out. The fans can do better. And it brings me back to that Star Trek thing I was talking about earlier. I think of my situation. When the Recliner of Rage started, I was not a member of AFTRA. We aired a couple of bits, and immediately AFTRA came along and said, “Hey, if he’s gonna be on air, he has to be a member.” And we resolved that, I became a member. And no problem, we continued to do it. And I’m thinking, with the Star Trek situation, when those fans created that project, Paramount’s move should not have been to exile those guys. If anything, I would have hired every single one of them. I would have created a contract where these folks were working for me now. I would have made them all become union members, created contracts that suddenly all the content that they’re creating is being shared and co-owned by me, Paramount, so that I would let them fly with it. Because guess what? These guys have just saved me the cost of creating a set. I know there’s going to be union members or stagehands who are going to complain and say, “You can’t do that.” But guess what? This is a property that had no life prior to what these fans are doing. I would make all these fans union members, start getting union dues from them, but all these sets are built, they took the time to build these sets in detail. Now, I own these sets, I co-own these sets. They’re writing their own stories. The stories, as long as they’re not vulgar stories or stories that are outrageous, they’re family-friendly stories, co-own these stories with these fans. They are saving you a lot of work by giving you a pre-packaged product. They’re basically doing all the cooking. All I have to do is eat at this point. They’ve stayed in the kitchen and they’ve cooked the meal. All I have to do is be in the room and eat at this point. My feeling is, they should have embraced these fans and supported what they’re doing, because it is obvious they’re doing something right, because they have a following, and that following is worth something. I would have just brought them in and really made them a part of the Star Trek experience, rather than pushing them aside. Because from what I’m hearing, and I could be wrong, because again, I’m hearing this through bits and pieces of internet stuff, and I don’t trust the internet to a large degree, but from what I’m hearing is that they were hiring people on the show who were vocally saying they want to work with other people who are not fans of Star Trek and they have no clue of what Star Trek is about. And I’m thinking, “How does that work?” Putting Gene Roddenberry’s politics aside, he wrote something in a certain way, he had a vision, he was an artist, he created a painting, and whether we all like the painting, for the most part, the majority of people did like the painting, and they like what they saw. My thinking then is, “How dare you come along and tell me you’re going to take your brush and start marking up that painting? Create your own painting if that’s the case. Create your own.”

David Read:
You’re hitting something there. There’s a few points that I want to address there. One of the things that Roddenberry did so well, if you look at some of the folks who created The Acolyte or some of the folks who created Rings of Power, Roddenberry did not have vitriol for his fan base. He welcomed everyone to sit in front of that painting and tell him what they saw in it. And I think that there is something to be said for that. I think if you start blaming your fandom right out of the gate for not getting the vision that you decided to put on a plate and serve to them, I don’t think you’re winning yourself any favors. And there is a certain degree of that that I think is valid, and at a certain point, it becomes malicious, and you’re not going to win anyone over by doing that. The other part about what you said is kind of interesting, because as both Trekkies talking to each other here, we have been looking forward to the Holodeck for years, and no one ever had a thought of, “Wow, when this thing shows up, it’s gonna potentially put a lot of people out of work.” No, we were like, “Bring on the Holodeck, bring on the Holodeck.” Holodeck 1.0 is here. It’s not going anywhere. And so many of the people, even some of the people in this chat, are terrified of it and would rather turn their back on it and pretend that it doesn’t exist with the anticipation that if we pretend that it doesn’t exist, like a one-year-old doing this, the rest of the world doesn’t exist, because I’ve closed my eyes. It’s not going away. And Amazon recognizes that it’s not going away. Amazon today is using AI tools to integrate into the content of their programming. We had John Gajdecki on, who was a visual effects supervisor on SG-1 and Atlantis. He used AI tools on House of David to augment the process, not take it over, and that’s where we’re going to go. The industry can’t pretend that torrents don’t exist. Torrents do exist. Now, since torrents exist, what are you going to do to rise up to meet it at a reasonable price that at least matches the quality of the torrents? Because you’re not gonna get them to go away. You can whack-a-mole Kazaa and Napster and– What was one or the other? I don’t even remember. I had them all. But as soon as iTunes came along, with a fair pricing mechanism, I was more than willing to put my money down and say, “Yes, I will absolutely pay for that because it’s at least of a matching quality.” There’s a lot of stuff that you brought up that’s valid across the board. But I think the last one that I want to leave you with before handing it back over to you is, I think that Martin Gero and company, the way that they’re really going to nail this, and it’s like you said, the existing fans say, “Yeah, I love that. That was really cool,” and the new fans can say, “Yeah, I love that too. I’m getting into this franchise,” is if it’s isolated enough from everything else that existed before, at least the first season of whatever this thing is. There’s a series called Paradise with Sterling K. Brown that I absolutely adore. And you can argue it’s sci-fi, you can argue it’s not sci-fi, and anyone within the sound of my voice, please go and watch it because Season Two is airing right now. It is brilliant television and it sets up rules for its universe, domed universe, spoilers, and once they’re set up, they have to exist within them and then that’s it. We all, as an audience, go along with the story because it’s like when you watch Inception, the rules have been established. Now we get to watch them dance inside of those rules and see how it works. And I think if they do that with Stargate 4, if they do it right in setting up SG4 to be whatever it’s gonna be, I think they have a winner.

Pierre Bernard:
I agree with you. I 100% agree with you. You mentioning franchises, I wanna state for the record, I am a fan of Stargate Universe now. I remember …

David Read:
I love it.

Pierre Bernard:
… a while back, a couple years back, I was not a fan. And the reason being, again, the same way I discovered Stargate, I happened to be working and had the TV on in the background, and I saw a bunch of kids in a club dancing and stuff, and they were talking about nonsense. And I was about to turn the channel, but then the announcer came on and said something about, “Stargate Universe will be right back,” or something along those lines. I was like, “What? Stargate U? What are we– What–” And I realized that was Stargate. That episode they were using–

David Read:
Janelle Monáe.

Pierre Bernard:
I forgot the name of the stones, and they were trading their bodies. But I didn’t know that. All I know was I saw a bunch of teens, like it was a WB show …

David Read:
It was Janelle Monáe–

Pierre Bernard:
… dancing in a club and talking about nonsense and I’m thinking, “This is Stargate? How dare you guys call this Stargate?” And I never gave it a chance. Once I saw that, I was like, “No way I’m watching that. I refuse. I absolutely refuse. I’m not gonna watch that.” So, during its entire run I never watched it, and it was only, I would say, about a year and a half ago, two years ago, it was on one of the streaming channels, and I thought, “I’m curious, what’s going on here?” So, I watched the first episode, and Richard Dean Anderson was in it. He played a part in it and he was a general and– Basically, you had a group of people that were leaving this planet because it was being bombarded or something, and they ran into the Stargate and the Stargate was connected to this ship. And somehow this ship, the hyperdrive or whatever, it suddenly took off. And before you knew it, they were no longer in our galaxy. And that episode hooked me. It literally hooked me. I was like, “I gotta see where this is going.” But in the back of my mind, I was still playing that episode with the teens and I’m thinking, “How does that fit in? How does this that I’m seeing in this first episode fit in with a bunch of kids dancing in a club?” It wasn’t until I watched the entire thing that I suddenly understood where that fit in and how that fit into the overall story. And I have to admit, I was wrong. This was a really well-written show. It was well-thought-out and it saddened me that it ended so prematurely because I am dying to know what happened to all these folks. They went into sleep. That kid remained awake. What happened?

David Read:
Certain fans didn’t give it a chance. And we just didn’t get to see the rest of it, partly in consequence.

Pierre Bernard:
Unfortunately I was one of them.

David Read:
The first season, I wasn’t crazy about it. And then by the second season, I was in love. And it became my favorite of the three, and I’ve taken my fair share of arrows for that to this day, but I will continue to stand up and speak my truth. I still love the other two, don’t get me wrong.

Pierre Bernard:
No, it’s an amazing show. It really is.

David Read:
But it’s something very amazing about it.

Pierre Bernard:
I’m hoping that somewhere in this new show, they make mention of those folks. We don’t just forget about them. We don’t ghost them. Because there’s a huge story to be told with what’s happening to them. It’s Lost in Space on steroids, basically. There’s a huge story there that I think needs a proper ending, or needs to be continued in some way, because I think that final episode of, I think that was the third season? It just didn’t do it justice.

David Read:
Season Two.

Pierre Bernard:
It left way too many things open.

David Read:
You can’t introduce, “We are pursuing a transmission that has been playing on the fabric of reality since the Big Bang,” and not leave people going, “What was going on with that? Where are we gonna go?” People aren’t gonna go, “Ah, give me the next one. Fabric of reality? Transmission? Who cares?” No. It’s like, tell me that story. And I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that we’ll get some kind of a resolution. It just depends on how well this new thing does. If it catches fire… I will maintain that, at this junction in time, we’re at Star Wars Episode VII excitement. Lucas has signed the paperwork with Disney and they’re creating this thing. They have one shot to really, truly nail it. And if they can stick that landing, I think that anything is possible.

Pierre Bernard:
I totally agree with you. I predict at least the first half of the first season is gonna do huge numbers. Because I believe the Stargate fandom is probably bigger than we imagine.

David Read:
I agree.

Pierre Bernard:
There’s a lot of people who remember this show, who are still watching this show, and I think this Stargate will more than– Again, this is me predicting. I could be totally off the wall because of my biases, but I believe Stargate is gonna be the biggest sci-fi franchise in the next five years. That’s my prediction. I think it’s going to out shadow Star Trek. It’s going to pass– I can’t even think of what would I even compare to Star Trek. Expanse.

David Read:
Doctor Who.

Pierre Bernard:
It’s just going to be huge. I think it has the potential to be huge if it’s done right. And I’m praying and hoping and I’m rooting for it to be done right. I want it to be done right. I want a lot of thought put into this show, and it’s not something that they’re putting together to please a studio and please different groups. I’m hoping that a lot of thought goes into that writing to the degree that the fandom will become so engaged that their next thought won’t be to, “Oh, you know what? I’ll just go on Seedance 10.5 to recreate the scene because I’m not happy with what was given to me.” I’m hoping that we will be presented something that is so amazing, jaw-dropping, that the fandom will just stick with it and the only reason to go to something like Seedance is for the shippers who wanna see certain people hook up.

David Read:
Jack and Sam, anybody?

Pierre Bernard:
That will be the reason to use AI. Other than that, you won’t have that segment that will feel– I’m sure we’ll still have that segment that feel, “I can do better,” but it won’t be as big and it won’t be as prominent, and it will be background noise compared to what Stargate will have presented us and what it will be. That’s my hope for it.

David Read:
There is so much anger clickbait on YouTube now and in a number of other places where manufactured negativity and genuine rage are currency. The fact of the matter is they get the highest number of clicks, and Google sells a lot of ads in order to pull that off because hatred feels good. And we know this because that’s just how our limbic brains are built. I am disappointed in the number of channels that I know love Stargate and haven’t been able to say a word about SG4 because they have nothing negative to say about it. They’re simply not going to talk about it because how dare they speak something good into the universe on their channel. And that is something that I simply refuse to entertain on this channel. I won’t do it. And I think that it’s important that, if you have something to say that is negative but that you believe is significant, I do think that you have a responsibility to bring that into the world, but that can’t be the only thing that you have. That can’t be the only reason that you’re here.

Pierre Bernard:
Exactly. We’ll see what comes out in a couple of years. Like I said, I’m gonna be ready. I’m gonna have my Trader Joe’s popcorn on hand and I’m gonna be ready. I’m gonna be sitting there. I’m gonna be ready.

David Read:
I’ve got a couple of questions for you. Marcia Middleton. Hello, Marcia. While you’re waiting for the new Stargate, …

Pierre Bernard:
Hey, Marcia.

David Read:
… what series and shows have you been watching and loving, or maybe not loving, Pierre?

Pierre Bernard:
What I’ve been watching as of late was Viking shows. I don’t remember how this came about on my feed, but somehow I was directed towards Netflix and I started watching Viking Valhalla. And I love that show. I was like, “Is there more to this?” ‘Cause I wasn’t happy with the ending. And then I discovered there was a pre-show called Vikings. So, I started watching that. I watched that, then I revisited something called The Seven Kings Must Die, I believe is the title. And now I’m back to watching Viking Valhalla again, and there’s a bunch of Viking shows that are on my menu that I wanna catch up on. But the show that I’m really dying to watch right now is Andor. And the reason why Andor is because when Andor was airing, I watched half of the first season, and then I stopped. And the reason I did that was because I’m now part of the generation that needs to be able to stream the entire show. I don’t like sitting around waiting for weekly releases. It drives me nuts. I can’t do it anymore. So, when Andor finished their first season, I was about to sit and watch it, but then I discovered the second season was coming and I said, “You know what? I’m going to wait. I can’t watch.” I don’t wanna sit on a cliffhanger having to wait two years to see where the story’s going, so I waited. And once the second season was done, I was already watching, I believe, what do you call it? I think it was The Expanse at the time the second season of Andor was done. So I wanted to finish through The Expanse before I started a new show, and somehow I got, like I said, redirected into watching Vikings. So, that’s what I’m watching at the moment, Vikings. Hopefully Andor will be next. There’s a couple of other series that I wanna catch up on that are escaping my mind at the moment, but there are a few more sci-fi shows that I wanna catch up on. I don’t know if I answered your question, Marcia.

David Read:
You did. You answered Marcia’s question. I’m the exact same way. I haven’t gotten into The Expanse or Andor or a couple of others because I wanted to wait until they were done and now I have no time. So, I guess that’s my own fault, but I can relate. Life’s too short to sit around and wait season to season. Lockwatcher wanted to know, would you be willing to r– Go ahead.

Pierre Bernard:
I was gonna say as a side note, sorry to interrupt you there. One of the things about the upcoming Stargate series that I worry about is the fact that my mind tells me they’re probably going to go for that weekly release. And I’m thinking, how am I going to deal with that knowing what I’ve established for myself for the last three years? It’s become part of my DNA to wait for complete seasons of shows before I start watching them. Am I going to be sitting now going on YouTube listening to people review episodes? And now because the review is there and I’m aware of the plot, wait a year or two till my mind forgets what I recall seeing so I can really enjoy the show. That means then if we’re fortunate to get this show next year, I may not be watching it till 2030. 2031. Because I don’t wanna spoil it and I don’t wanna wait weekly for releases. So, I don’t know.

David Read:
Here’s the thing, Pierre. You have to decide, do you want to– I did the same thing, except when Obi-Wan came out. I watched it weekly. So, I had to make a decision, am I gonna keep my rule constant for everything and have a solitary viewing experience? Or do I want to– It’s a hard and fast rule, but it’s a rule that’s within my purview to break and have a communal viewing experience for this one show? I did that with Obi-Wan, for instance. So, the same thing… that I did with Game of Thrones. There were a couple of shows that were the exception to the rule. And you will have a year and a half, two years, to make your decision about that for this one.

Pierre Bernard:
No, you’re right. You’re totally right. The whole idea of communal experience is a good point. Ever since COVID, I’ve lived in a bubble. And it’s been a very constrictive bubble. I can’t say I hate what the world around me has become, because I know I play a part in setting up the environment that I’m in. But at the same time, I’m aware it’s not the healthiest of spaces to be in, because I don’t know how to describe it, because I haven’t given it that much thought on how to describe what I’m thinking at the moment. But I know I live a certain life of isolation in a way that a lot of people who are part of my life are– I wouldn’t say exclude them, because that sounds harsh, but I keep them on the peripheral. I keep them far from me. I don’t know if it’s me protecting myself or– I don’t even know how to describe it, if what I’m even saying makes sense. Because now that I’m saying it out loud, it almost sounds like the ranting of a lunatic. But I just–

David Read:
Maybe a little bit of a column A and column B there, Pierre.

Pierre Bernard:
Going back to what you said, I think the whole communal experience is probably what I should seek out. Because that might help me in a lot of ways, aside from just watching the show and accepting the fact that it’s a weekly release. But it might help me get out of the space I’ve created. It didn’t help either, the fact that I left the country a couple years ago. I think you were aware at the time, because I was asking you about the Philippines. And once I went out there, my world view changed. I highly recommend to everyone, travel to a foreign country at least once in your lifetime. It’s going to change you in ways that you may not expect. In that short period of time I was out there, I came back and that bubble I was describing suddenly became harder to puncture. If anything, it feels like I reinforced that bubble because I suddenly realized, the world that I’m living in here does not match up to the world that’s existing out there. It’s different. And I don’t want to get into the politics and stuff. But it’s different to such a degree that I realize, this world that I’m in doesn’t suit me properly, and that’s why I’ve created this bubble. Because I feel there’s a lot of stuff going on around me that I genuinely don’t want exposure to and I don’t wanna deal with. And by creating this bubble and keeping people at a distance, I don’t have to hear this noise, and I can focus on the memory of what I saw when I escaped this, for that brief period of time, and I wanna get back. I keep thinking of that, again, another Star Trek reference, that movie episode where the character, was it Roddy McDowall’s character? He wanted to get back to something called the Nexus. He experienced it and he saw his family and stuff.

David Read:
Malcolm McDowell’s character, Tolian Soran.

Pierre Bernard:
Yes, Malcolm McDowell.

David Read:
It’s a place of joy. There is nothing like absolute culture shock for yourself when you live in a third-world country and it’s time for you to come home and you don’t want to. You have to be ripped away from it. And that was the experience that I had. I didn’t wanna come back. I didn’t wanna come back to the decadence, to the oversaturated commercialism, “Oh, so-and-so said something on Twitter and now the other person must apologize, otherwise we cancel them.” You go into the third world, and it is all bullshit. They don’t care about that. It doesn’t matter. It’s not real life.

Pierre Bernard:
I think back on my life. This is decades ago, there was someone I was dating, and at the time she convinced me to go to Santo Domingo. At the time, I remember, the internet was new. This was the year of the dial-up. I didn’t have a phone that had internet, but I had the laptop, the big bulky laptop that had internet. And my biggest concern was, will I have an internet connection out there? And she booked the trip, we went, and I remember the first day, I was stubborn. I stayed in the room. She went out to the beach, and she’s enjoying herself and stuff, and I was in the room, arms folded, head lying in the bed, because I couldn’t connect to the internet. And I was annoyed.

David Read:
Your umbilical was disconnected and you were uncomfortable.

Pierre Bernard:
But by the evening I had to come out to eat, and I started enjoying myself. By day two, I was outdoors and I forgot all about the internet. I forgot all about the laptop. Only thing that was on my mind was getting outside and enjoying myself in that sun. And the same thing happened when I went to the Philippines. I remember, believe it or not, I took a portable printer, I took a portable scanner. I had my laptop. I had several hard drives with me. I literally took enough stuff to be able to sit out there, never leave the hotel room, and do work. And at the time, when I was setting up that trip, it didn’t help that I had a friend, good person, she meant well, but her and her mom were sending me emails not to go, and they made a phone call where they stated reasons for my not traveling to the Philippines, and, “You’re gonna be kidnapped, your terrorists …” It was insane, the amount of stuff. To the point that when I landed out there, it suddenly dawned on me, I don’t speak the language, I don’t know anyone, and I’m looking around me and I saw the poverty, and I’m thinking, “Oh, God, did I make a mistake?” When I landed, the phone started working again, and I saw a message, a long message from my friend, and she described all the bad things that were going to happen to me. And I’m thinking to myself, “Oh, God, I gotta get back home. I gotta–” But unfortunately, the hotel room internet wasn’t working. I couldn’t connect. If I could’ve connected I would’ve called the airline, booked my flight to get out of there. But it wasn’t working. So, I told myself, “OK, calm down. In the morning, we’ll go get a breakfast.” Because I had the buffet breakfast included. I said, “I’ll get the breakfast, then I’ll go to the front desk, I’ll get the phone, and I will call the airline, I’ll get my plane ticket to leave.” So, in the morning, my routine was, I went to the gym, did my thing, went to breakfast, I’m sitting in the cafeteria, and long story short, I met this family that was from Texas. And we started talking. The wife went up to get food, the guy’s sitting there, and we started talking. I tell him I’m planning to leave, and I tell him why. And the family came back, they’re all sitting down, and he goes, “This guy’s from California, LA.” And they greeted me and stuff, and he goes, “You shouldn’t leave.” He said, “I tell you what, stay and have lunch with us later on, we’re meeting some friends across the street at, I think it’s called Ayala Mall, and come meet us, join us for lunch.” And I thought to myself, “OK, I paid for this stuff already. The room is prepaid; I’m not gonna get a refund on the room. And I haven’t booked a new flight yet.” So, I told him, “Yeah, OK. I’ll come across the street and join you guys for lunch. That’s two hours out.” So, I went across the street and joined them for lunch. And it was this huge family. To begin with, I didn’t even know there was a mall next to the hotel. But this mall is amazing. It was the most modern mall I’ve ever seen. It puts a lot of our malls here in America to shame. Going to this restaurant, this restaurant is modern and it’s huge, and people eating, and it did not fit the description of everything I was worried about. It was something totally different. But I sat with these folks, and we’re sitting and we’re talking and they’re laughing with me, and then the person from Texas told his friend that I’m new and would they be willing to chaperone me more or less and take me around and show me the Philippines. And the family said, “Yes, we will.” And in my mind I’m thinking, being an American and a New Yorker, I am always thinking paranoia. I’m thinking, “Am I gonna seriously go around anywhere in a country I don’t know with strangers I don’t know?” But after that meal was over, I was left with a feeling that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I shouldn’t say a very long time, but I haven’t felt since I’ve been around my immediate family, my mom, which was, “These people are OK.” I think it was two days, the weekend came, the wife of the Filipino wasn’t working and the entire family was together, and they told me they’re having a birthday party for their, I forgot how they referred to their mom. And they told me that they’re taking this cruise that’s going island hopping, and I’m welcome to join them. And I thought to myself, “Yeah, sure, why not?” It wasn’t until I got in their car. They came and picked me up at the hotel and we’re driving up and I suddenly see the ocean, and it dawned on me, “You’re going on a boat with a bunch of strangers. You don’t know these folks. You don’t know where they’re taking you.” And on that ride, I was getting ready to tell them, “I want to go back to the hotel.” But there was a part of me that said, “You know what? Let it be. Let’s go with this and see where this is going. If it turns out bad, so be it. It’s not what I want. God knows I don’t wanna harm myself, but these folks, nothing about them strikes me as people who will harm me.” Not to mention they have two young kids in the car with us. A three-year-old and a four-year-old. This is not a group of people, if they’re going to harm me, I would think would bring kids that young along for the ride. So we did the island hopping thing, and it turned out to be the greatest thing. I discovered lechon. I didn’t know I would love lechon.

David Read:
I never got to go.

Pierre Bernard:
After that trip, for the next week and a half, these folks took me around and they showed me places in Cebu that were amazing, that normal tourists wouldn’t see. By the time I was ready to leave, I kid you not, I was teary-eyed the night before. I was looking out the hotel window, looking at the folks at poolside down there, and I became teary-eyed. I did not wanna leave. At that point, I had not used any of the equipment I brought out there with me. I literally didn’t even remember how to use half of that stuff. I had to retrain myself. But when I boarded that flight, that was the most painful flight to board, because I knew I had to come home, but coming home, I don’t know how to explain it. It felt different. When I left, because of my collectibles, I had the place wired up with cameras everywhere. If a pin dropped in my place, I would have been aware of it. I had cameras everywhere in my place. But while I was out there, again, because the internet wasn’t working properly, I wasn’t able to access all those cameras, and once I started traveling and seeing the Philippines, I forgot about those cameras. I couldn’t care less if the stuff was here when I came back, because I divorced myself from everything about the life that I had collected here in America. I literally– I don’t know how to explain it, but I couldn’t care less. If someone had come in and taken this stuff, they would have done me a favor, quite frankly, because I would have gotten on the first flight possible to head right back to the Philippines. That was my mindset. When I came back, I didn’t even unpack. For three months, my suitcase lay fully packed in my living room, because in my head I was thinking, “I’m gonna figure out a way to leave.” I was looking at this, like, the Nexus. I wanted to go back, and-

David Read:
Back to the Nexus.

Pierre Bernard:
I wasn’t unpacking, because unpacking meant I was staying. But I unpacked and I stayed and I’m here, and I’ve re-assimilated myself. But I realized, once you leave the bubble that you’re in, the bubble that we live in and you go somewhere else and you see something else and you experience something else, it’s hard to come back and be satisfied with the status quo of your life. Suddenly, you’ve opened yourself up to the possibility of something that, I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s different. And I think that’s where I exist right now in this life, in a space where I experienced something that literally changed the way I think and see the world, and therefore it’s hard for me to sit and listen to the folks around me, even though they mean well, listen to what they’re bringing, contributing into my life, because what they’re contributing doesn’t fit in with what I’ve now experienced and where I’m at. And I don’t know if that’s making any sense. I think this is part of the reason why I’ve created this weird bubble world that I live in, where I’ve put everyone around me at a distance, because there’s a fear in me that if I don’t do that, I’m gonna forget and I’m gonna lose what I experienced a couple years ago. And that’s why, long story short, going back to what you mentioned a while ago about communal watching, I think I need that at the moment, because I’m in a place where I’m not ready to leave yet, but I need to learn how to be part of a community again and not lose what I experienced when I wasn’t part of it. Does that make sense?

David Read:
You answered the call to adventure when you chose to go with that family in the Philippines. There is something about the Pinoy culture that is certainly not unique to the Pinoys, but it is certainly a part of their society to welcome in the outsider and to embrace the outsider.

Pierre Bernard:
Yes.

David Read:
And what you did was you said, “This makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know what’s gonna happen to me. I might not come back from that boat trip, but I’m gonna do it because I need that soul nourishment, and I’m gonna answer the call to adventure.” And the experience that you and I both had in coming home, my team of people, we left the group of people that we were working with the time that we were out there, and we were sobbing. All the people that we left behind were at the doorstep waving and just crying. And we were all– I was there for six months, and I just remember turning to the others in the car and just tears were pouring down my face, and I just remember saying, “This really sucks.” And I always have a piece of that Pinoy spirit in me and I’ve been blessed to visit almost 40 countries and territories because, at this point in my life, I’ve recognized that I cannot ignore the call to adventure. And what you and I experienced is something that most Westerners never get to experience, a willingness to be in a place long enough to allow its culture to transform you. And it’s what the Nox said in that Season One episode, “Your way is not the only way.” And we got to experience that.

Pierre Bernard:
Exactly. I can only imagine. I only did two weeks. I can only imagine what happens to your head space in six months.

David Read:
Devastating.

Pierre Bernard:
I can only imagine. But that’s the thing. I definitely think I have to find that communal watching. I hope you guys on Dial the Gate will have watch groups. I’ll definitely become part of that, because I feel I need to find a way to reconnect with the folks around me that I feel comfortable and safe in making that reconnection. Because literally, right now, the world I live in is so isolated, it’s almost as if I’ve gone into a rocket ship and I’m flying out in space at times. To a certain degree, the way I keep myself preoccupied, and this is a weird way to lead into this, is I’ve been creating puzzle books. I’ve been doing that for the last three years. It started pre-Philippines, but once I came back, this has become the focus of what I’ve been doing with myself. I’ve been creating these puzzle books. I’ve always had a fascination with word search puzzles, and I decided to take it a step further since I noticed there’s a ton of word search puzzle books out there on the market. I wanted to do something creative, so I decided to do number search. I noticed number search aren’t as popular, so then I decided, why not do books with quotes in them? So, as you saw in that previous one, the pink book, Think Pink, that was for cancer patients, people who are suffering from cancer, I had positive quotes on every page spread to give someone something positive to think about while they’re sitting solving the puzzle. And these books got more and more complex. Once I came back from the Philippines, I wanted to do a Philippine book, and I did one where, in the corner, I created what’s called mini facts. And I tried to find as many little facts about the Philippines that I can throw on the page, nothing detailed, nothing heavy, but little facts, little thoughts, that I’m hoping someone reading it will go, “Is that true?” And they’ll take the time to go …

David Read:
It is the text capital of the world, for sure. They love to be in their phones.

Pierre Bernard:
“… and research that. So, I created a number of books like this. I created one on Jamaica, on Trinidad, on Haiti, on African American culture. I created one on Australia, on Canada, on Japan. I think in all I’ve created 75 books and counting. There are a ton of these books and each one I’ve taken the time to design so that they look very different from each other, because I want– If anyone purchases one or two of these books, I don’t want them to go, “Ah, this is the same book. Different images, but same book.” I made sure every puzzle experience is very, very unique.”

David Read:
Oh my God, look at this.

Pierre Bernard:
The Steampunk is my latest book. Creating this book was a labor of love, because for two years I’ve been thinking about this book, and I couldn’t figure out how to put it together. I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to put it on the page. And it suddenly dawned on me back in November. It started fleshing itself out and coming together, and this is the end result with the gears and stuff. And on the side panel there’s a quote, a positive quote that’s steampunk related, if you notice on the left-hand side along the side of the page. And once it was done, I felt very proud of this. This book shows the potential of what I can create when I really put myself at it, and it’s not easy. I dare someone to take a screen grab and try to solve one of these puzzles in an hour. It’s almost impossible. I created this, and I can tell you it’s taken me time at times. I need to keep the answer key page nearby, because at times I’m like, “How the hell did I design this? Who am I designing this for? This is hard.” I feel proud of these books, and I hope– In a world where people are talking about spending less screen time and finding other activities to do. I’m hoping this can become a part of their activity. They’ll look at this and go, “Wow, this is very different and a huge plus. I don’t even have to know English to do this. Because it’s using images and icons.” I’m hoping this is something that will take off, people will see the value of it. At least for me, I see the value of it because it keeps me sane. It gives me something to focus on so I don’t unravel to the point that I can’t find my path to return. Another thing that occurred in my life, I don’t wanna dwell too much on, but my mom passed away three years ago. When I traveled, I took that energy with me out there as well. There’s a lot of stuff going on around me. I’m not saying my world is bad, by no means. I feel like we started this thing, I said, “I feel comfortable and furious.” I feel I’m in a good place, but it can be better. It can definitely be better. And I definitely know, given what’s going on around me, there are questions I’m asking myself and the world that I know there’s no answer to, like for example, what happens after death? I will find out, but it has to happen in order for me to find out. I’m trying to understand, why do we exist? Why do we exist as we are? I’m thinking of evolution and what I’ve been told about how we’ve evolved and stuff, and I’m thinking, efficiency. If you’re telling me evolution has created me, why did evolution decide that I needed sleep, I needed rest? It’s obvious we’re creating computers that don’t need rest, that don’t need sleep. They can run round the clock. They do break down eventually, but they don’t need sleep. But unlike the computer, we need sleep. We need rest. What occurred in evolution that decided this was the path that we needed to go? I think of something as simple as going to the restroom. Why did evolution decide that we needed to create waste? If we came from stardust, and again, this is based on the science that I know, I don’t see the sun creating waste. I don’t see the universe creating waste. Unless you tell me the dark energy is waste. Maybe that’s what that is. I don’t know. But I’m trying to understand why did evolution decide what we are at the moment is the direction we had to evolve? These are things I am constantly wondering about these stages.

David Read:
You’re tapping into questions that philosophers have been trying to put the finger on for a very long time, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to tackle any of those in this episode, but the fact of the matter is that Stargate is a burgeoning community once again. And it’s a great place to be, and I don’t want to bury the overall point that it’s important to make a connection with people in the physical world as well. I have a neighbor two or three doors down from me that I just found out shoveling snow this winter is a Stargate fan, and he’s a priest who works at the Army base down the road from here in Fort Campbell, outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and he’s a Stargate fan. In fact, I need to call him today. You can make those connections with real people. And it’s important that we do that.

Pierre Bernard:
I totally agree. That’s what I’m hoping will come from Stargate, and this is why I believe it’s gonna become the biggest franchise out there, because I wanna believe it’s going to bring us together in a way that everything else in society has failed us. I think it’s going to bring people from different ways of thinking and unify us on this one topic and get us all talking and create a kumbaya environment that I think, without it, doesn’t exist.

David Read:
You don’t wanna set the bar too high for Martin, Pierre. Let’s have him do a decent 8, 10, 12 hours of television first, and we’ll worry about world peace second. God. Pierre, this has been great. It’s been a treat to really sit down with you again, especially post-Philippines, to have that conversation with you. Thank you for sharing your story. That means a lot to have that here as a part of the archive. And here’s to another cameo in the new show, because …

Pierre Bernard:
I’m hoping. I can only hope.

David Read:
… Chief Master Sergeant O’Brien’s gotta be out there somewhere.

Pierre Bernard:
I can only hope. And like I said, I’ve kept the suit pristine. I’m ready.

David Read:
Absolutely. Anywhere that we can go to check out your continued work?

Pierre Bernard:
Yes. The website for the puzzle book, pbartcreations.com. It’s my website. I’m selling the books directly. And for those who would like to use a different route, there is Amazon. They’re available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and another third site called lulubooks.com. But I again would prefer you go to me directly. Buy it off my website. This way you can leave me stories and tell me what you think of the books and give me some reviews, ’cause I would love feedback. Because like I said, sometimes I feel I’ve made these books so complex that I’m thinking, “My God, I don’t wanna make it too hard that people are afraid to try ’em out.” But I do want to make ’em so that they’re engaging, that you’re spending more than one hour on a puzzle. I really feel that I wanna work your mind. I want it to become a real mind workout, because again, talking about word search books, there are tons of ’em. And we, particularly with English, we know words, basic words. We know how they look. We know how they spell. And when you’re looking on a puzzle that has familiar icons, you know what you’re looking for. Whereas, when you’re looking for images, they’re random, and there’s no way for you to have a pre-association of the sequence. Therefore, it really forces you to look and take the time to look for a sequence of images that are very random, and try to pick topics that I think are interesting, like the donut one you showed before. I kid you not, my stomach was growling for days.

David Read:
I bet it was.

Pierre Bernard:
‘Cause I can’t eat a lot of sugar. And here I am looking at donuts.

David Read:
Pierre, I totally get that.

Pierre Bernard:
That was a killer book to make.

David Read:
We’ve added the link in the description below, folks, so you can go and check out Pierre’s website, pbartcreations.com. That’s really cool, man. Very well done. I’ve always loved your work.

Pierre Bernard:
Thank you.

David Read:
Thank you for sharing it. This has meant a lot to me to have you. Looking forward to getting your thoughts on the new show once it finally comes out here in the next hamster’s life or so. We will definitely have to be in touch with you.

Pierre Bernard:
Definitely. Thank you for having me.

David Read:
Absolutely, sir. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up on this side, but we will be in touch soon. Thank you.

Pierre Bernard:
Talk to you soon. Live long and prosper.

David Read:
Live long and prosper to you, Pierre. Pierre Bernard, O’Brien in Stargate SG-1’s “Zero Hour” and in “200” as well. My name is David Read. You’re watching The Stargate Oral History Project. If you enjoyed the episode and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, do click that Like button. If you have something to say about the content that you saw, please leave a comment. That actually makes a huge difference in moving the needle. And consider sharing the video with a Stargate friend. And if you want to get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe. And giving the Bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. We’ve got a couple more episodes heading your way pretty soon here. I am heading to LA Thursday morning so there will be a couple of pre-recorded shows that are going to launch while I’m gone. Please God let them launch. And we’ll go forward from there. But DialtheGate.com should have all of the current information. A couple of shows are going to sneak in there. We’re doing what we can with the list of programming coming out. But there’s a couple of pieces that are moving in and out right now that I’m just going to have to play basically musical chairs with, and then we’ll get them out to you when we can. So, I appreciate everyone’s patience on that, especially the folks in Vancouver, they’ve been waiting for some of these shows to come out now for a while and we’re doing what we can to get them out to you. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, I appreciate you tuning in. Thanks again to Pierre Bernard. Thanks so much to my moderating team, these guys, they pull this show off week in and week out. Thank you, Lockwatcher, Marcia, Antony, you guys are the best. We will see you tomorrow with Michael Greenburg and Dan Shea. I’ll see you on the other side.