Stargate fans are getting comfortable and taking this all the way to the end. Join us LIVE for an update on the #SaveStargate Campaign with James Kerfoot, GateWorld and Dial the Gate.

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Timecodes

0:00 – Splash Screen
1:00 – Opening Credits
1:45 – Welcome
2:26 – Guest Introduction
3:16 – SaveStargate New York Event
5:34 – Mobilizing the Fandom
6:42 – Feedback on Amazon & MGM Socials
10:22 – SaveStargate GoFundMe
13:28 – Stargate Fanbase is Activated
16:21 – James Kerfoot’s Stargate Story
19:25 – Moving from Watching Stargate to Participating in Fandom
20:39 – Upcoming SaveStargate Events
22:41 – EMG Stargate Replica
24:00 – Get Involved in SaveStargate Events
26:37 – James’ Expectations for SG4
30:20 – Which streamers would be a good Stargate home?
33:33 – The Importance of Listening to Fans
37:39 – Stargate is Still Coming Back in Some Way
40:53 – New Stargate Must Be About Hope and Humanity
45:34 – How to help James?
49:46 – Amazon Silence Can Be a Good Thing
53:27 – Organizing Efforts Worldwide
55:10 – Upcoming Cons
56:29 – International Stargate Community
59:31 – Feedback Loop with the Audience (Battlestar Galactica)
1:02:38 – Call to Action
1:04:05 – Gamification of SaveStargate Campaign
1:06:31 – Likes & Comments Increase Engagement
1:08:09 – Stargate Universe
1:09:01 – Stargate’s a Family
1:10:44 – Mario Azzopardi’s Message
1:13:50 – Thoughts on Amazon’s Decision
1:15:32 – Industry’s in Survival Mode
1:16:59 – Legacy IPs
1:18:15 – We Need Stories We Can Root For
1:19:55 – Thank You, James
1:20:51 – There’s Much More Stories to Tell
1:22:17 – Appealing to New Audiences
1:24:37 – Guest Outro
1:25:00 – GateWorld Updates
1:27:20 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:28:52 – End Credits

***
“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.

David Read:
Welcome everyone to Dial the Gate: the Stargate Oral History Project, and GateWorld.net, your complete guide to Stargate. We are doing another simulcast with Darren, and I’m trying to flip my switches in real time here, so I do apologize. Just getting everything ready. We really appreciate you guys joining us mid-week here. Un-Canceling. We’re trying to get this thing un-canceled. The SaveStargate campaign is in full swing, and I am with Darren Sumner of GateWorld and James Kerfoot of savestargate.com. Did you launch savestargate.com, James?

James Kerfoot:
I did not.

David Read:
You launched the campaign. You launched the GoFundMe.

James Kerfoot:
I did create the GoFundMe, yes. But this has been a community project. There’s so many people involved.

Darren Sumner:
It’s been amazing. Hellcat, one of GateWorld Discord’s moderators, launched savestargate.com, which became the hub for the campaign efforts. But James, you’ve been amazing leading the charge. Guys, James is the one who started the GoFundMe that raised money for the flyover of Amazon MGM Studios in Culver City, California, which was two weeks ago now.

James Kerfoot:
About. A little bit over.

David Read:
You’re moving so quickly. And you just came back from New York. I’m not gonna hesitate getting to that, what was that like, man?

Darren Sumner:
It was a lot. I’ve only ever been to New York once before, and it was intense. It was as much of a hurry as the LA event, but I felt like it was very humid there. It was exhausting. It was funny because the day before, the weather was so nice. The weather was perfect. And then the morning of, just had to be humid as it could be. And then it rained on us.

David Read:
Really? At Times Square?

James Kerfoot:
Yep. It rained a little over halfway through when we were planning to do this, so 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon. And we had to adjust the plans, but gotta do what you gotta do.

David Read:
How long did this image run at Times Square?

James Kerfoot:
It wasn’t just that one, it was actually two billboards.

David Read:
I’m just getting to this one first.

James Kerfoot:
Gotcha. They were both all day. Once every 15 minutes or so, four times an hour, and each for 15 seconds. I liked that.

David Read:
That was terrific. Try the paddles. Un-cancel Stargate. How many folks turned up?

Darren Sumner:
It was around– We had people show up late and we had people who had to leave early, so it looked like less than it was, but it was around 15 people total. Similar to the LA event. However, I do think it’s important to stress that America is not the epicenter of Stargate. It’s not as big here in America as it is overseas. Over in Australia, in Canada, in Europe, it’s much bigger. That doesn’t upset me that we only had 15 people at each location.

Darren Sumner:
We’re also really spread out here and when the campaign gives folks four or five days notice, “We’re gonna be in Times Square this hour, come find the banner,” it’s fantastic to get fans to turn out. And I’ve read stories online about people who traveled. People who got in their car and drove nine hours to be there.

James Kerfoot:
Yup. And America’s such a wide country, it makes sense that you’re gonna have trouble getting people activated this quickly and moving this quickly. It was great because there was a lot of them.

David Read:
Was there a concern about moving that fast for that very reason?

James Kerfoot:
A little bit.

David Read:
Did you wanna make sure that you mobilized enough and got everything that you needed?

James Kerfoot:
Yeah, a little bit. The LA event, I feel bad about that because I feel like I’ve rushed that. But that was just the start and the trajectory now is, I think we have to work with the schedule and fit everything along the lines with Comic-Con because that’s gonna be towards the end. That’s not the next event, but the event after that. We’re escalating things as we go. I think it had to fit with the schedule.

David Read:
I have to say, Darren, have you been looking at the Amazon MGM socials? The amount of feedback that I’ve been seeing from the Stargate fandom … let me pull this up here. I just pulled up now the Facebook page for Amazon MGM. “July is booked and busy,” 16 minutes ago. Gary Alexander, “Could we add a new Stargate series to the list? Hello, Amazon MGM, anyone listening?” Four hours ago — I’m going into this cold — “Emergency Bruiser delivery, #ElleOnPrime.” Timothy McElhenney …

Darren Sumner:
Another MGM property.

David Read:
… “We need you to deliver Martin Gero’s Stargate.” “Keeping it on the DL.”

Darren Sumner:
That was another legacy IP MGM property.

David Read:
“We want Martin Gero’s Stargate #SaveStargate.” I’m not cherry picking. Look at this. And I’ll show you guys X in a minute. X is even worse.

Darren Sumner:
It illustrates how activated Stargate’s fan base is over this cancellation news and the hope of un-canceling Stargate, but at the very least, letting MGM know that we’re not cool with what they’ve done. It’s really remarkable and it goes to show, James has been leading these activities on the ground, these events to get attention, to get eyeballs on the message that we want to save Stargate, we want Martin Gero’s Stargate show back. But for folks who can’t show up in Culver City or Times Square or San Diego Comic-Con later this month, they’re so energized online, all over social. And for a lot of Stargate fans, it’s paying attention to everything that Amazon MGM Studios is doing, and staying in their face, staying in their feed, and making sure that they know that Stargate fans are not going away.

David Read:
Oh my, there’s Vala. The gamification of this has been amazing, and I’ve really moved into a different headspace. I don’t know if you guys can feel the same, but I really feel like we’ve gotten out our lawn chairs and have just sat down because everyone’s getting cozy knowing that we’re not going anywhere. This is gonna be around for a while.

James Kerfoot:
We’re occupying their socials.

David Read:
It’s not malicious. It’s not mean-spirited. You are going to find the occasional asshole. But if you’re looking for those people, then fine. But that is not the broad spectrum of it. For crying out loud, look at that. This is just great stuff. Whoever designed this, this is just chef’s kiss. And we’re gonna be around for a while. We’re just getting started. If they think it’s interesting now, wait a few months, because we have nothing but time.

Darren Sumner:
We certainly have enough Stargate to watch.

David Read:
James, what is this like watching all this? Do you feel like you’ve been caught up in a whirlwind here?

James Kerfoot:
Yeah. I certainly didn’t expect any of this to happen to this extent. When I set up the GoFundMe, it felt like a real long shot. And I did not expect it to blow up like this. The initial target was $4,500 for the GoFundMe, and now we’re at almost $16,000. It’s been flying.

David Read:
I’ve been talking– Go ahead.

Darren Sumner:
It’s also been very inspiring to see. As soon as I got on the GateWorld Discord, everybody was engaged, everybody was excited. Looking at past campaigns like this– Not the campaigns but past fan reactions, it’s tended to only last about a week, and then the studio realizes, “Hey, the backlash is gonna die off after about a week.” That was not the case at all.

David Read:
They’re counting on it. I was genuinely thinking that was going to happen. Not hyperbole. That’s not what’s happening. So, James and I have been talking a little bit. There’s one particular thing that we want to do that I want to keep quiet because it’s gonna be wild to see the reaction to it. And it isn’t gonna cost a ton, but it is still gonna cost something. So I do want to make sure that everyone is aware of, if they have access to a couple of bucks, this GoFundMe website is still open. I just google “GoFundMe Stargate” and it pops up. All you have to do is go in here, and I’m gonna actually do it on the screen here so that everyone can see how easy it is.

Darren Sumner:
Just don’t dox yourself.

David Read:
Don’t dox myself? My email’s pretty public as it is, but it’d be–

Darren Sumner:
And we’ll include a link to the GoFundMe in the GateWorld video description as well so that folks can find it easily. This is the time … I have never in my life been the sort to ask Stargate fans to open their wallets and support a cause, but there is such organization here. There is so much strategic thinking that’s happening behind this. How do we get the studio’s attention? How do we rattle their cage? How do we make sure that they know that this fan base is active? This fan base is exactly– Now I’m frozen again. There we go.

David Read:
That’s weird. That happened to me as well. Go ahead. This fan base is exactly what now?

Darren Sumner:
The fan base is activated. The fan base not only is not going away and is gonna stay in the studio’s face, but this fan base is a resource for a new show. This fan base is an asset. Imagine if we took this organization and this global distribution and used it to promote a new Stargate series on Prime Video. Just imagine how effective we could be.

David Read:
Turning the positive energy in a different direction, actually toward a new show rather than to a void. It gives me so much comfort to see that this is the fandom that can truly come together. People on the right and on the left. And whatever your political persuasion, whatever your lifestyle, however you feel about science fiction in general, all these people who are here come around this particular show, and it has something for all of us. It has something to say about who we are as a people and where we are going into the future with our technology. Of course, we are turning out to be a reasonably behaved group as a result of all those ideas coming around together. Especially with the people who have been pushing this campaign forward, it isn’t about us. It’s about that. That means something to all of us, and it doesn’t have to mean the same thing. But we’ve been lucky with 354 hours of that thing, not including Infinity and Origins, but it’s something that has staying power. Darren, I was talking about Jenny the other day — and you’re probably up there with me in that — we’ve gone through four regimes at MGM. Four of them. We’re gonna be around for number five. Statistically speaking. I wish all these people well, I’m sure they’re going to be doing this for a long time. But this is our brand.

Darren Sumner:
Studio execs tend to not stay in their jobs for 30 years.

David Read:
It means more to us than it does to them. And that’s OK, but don’t expect us to walk, because we’re not. So, I’ve moved into a different headspace about it.

Darren Sumner:
I appreciate that. I’m happy to hear you say that. Hellcats is helping us out over on the GateWorld chat, saying, “If you’re looking for that GoFundMe, savestargate.com/donate.” That’ll take you straight to it.

David Read:
Savestargate.com/donate. Thank you very much for that. Perfect. James, how long have you been a Stargate fan? How’d you fall in love with this property? How old were you?

James Kerfoot:
That I don’t remember. I must have been around 13 or 14. I have been waiting for a new Stargate for a little over half of my life at this point. It’s important to me. 15 years I’ve been waiting for this thing, but I was not a very vocal Stargate fan. I gotta be honest, I don’t have a single … This is the only piece of memorabilia or any prop, anything I have, and I got this because of the …

David Read:
Isn’t that the QMx one?

James Kerfoot:
… [inaudible] event.

David Read:
Yeah, that’s the Quantum Mechanics version, isn’t it? Or is that–

James Kerfoot:
I don’t know.

David Read:
I think so.

Darren Sumner:
I don’t know. That looks like the Eaglemoss one.

James Kerfoot:
It’s Eaglemoss, yep.

Darren Sumner:
Are you sure? The QMX one …

Darren Sumner:
It looks like the one.

Darren Sumner:
That’s a good one to have. If you’re gonna have one model, the 302 is …

David Read:
Ah, there we go.

Darren Sumner:
… definitely one of my favorites.

David Read:
Awesome. No, it’s a beautiful piece.

James Kerfoot:
Prior to this, I didn’t have anything. I don’t have anything from any show that I like, but Stargate has always been my number one most favorite show. I wasn’t really willing to say it until now, until I realized how large this fan base was and how active. After 15 years, that’s another thing. That’s really amazing to me. We had 15 years to decay. Or not decay. Decay is not the right word but forget about Stargate, and we’re still this active. It’s amazing. Prior to this, I didn’t have anything, but my dad used to watch The Next Generation with me, and that’s how I got into sci-fi. And then after that I got into Atlantis. I saw an episode of Atlantis, and I was like, “Wow, this is amazing. I love this.” So I watched all of Atlantis, and then I got into Universe, and then once Universe was over, I was like, “Hey, wait, there’s this SG-1 thing.” I started watching that. But Atlantis is number one for me, that’s where my heart still lives, is with Stargate Atlantis.

David Read:
In the Pegasus Galaxy?

James Kerfoot:
Yep. But I was not someone who was willing to speak up about my love for Stargate. If somebody had asked me on the street or something, I would have said, “I love Psych,” or “I love Suits or White Collar.” I would not have said it until now. It’s always been my number one most favorite show, and I don’t know how to express how much I love Stargate, but it’s always been there in me.

Darren Sumner:
Let me ask you this …

David Read:
Yeah, go ahead, Darren.

Darren Sumner:
… how has it been? David, you and I have both had this experience of moving from being fans of the show when we were younger, then doing work on GateWorld and other Stargate projects, to then cross that line into participating in fandom and getting to know other fans who love the show and spend time with them and go to conventions with them and have dinner with them. James, how has this been for you over the last few weeks? Kind of crossing that threshold where now you’re getting to meet other Stargate fans face-to-face and kinda live into that world of fandom?

James Kerfoot:
I have never been to a con before. It’s funny that I’m in this position.

David Read:
You’re making your own, brother.

James Kerfoot:
Yeah, I guess so. The LA event was where I finally realized, “Hey, this is big enough that it’s worth going to a con,” so I’m gonna be there at Comic-Con. I don’t have a ticket unfortunately.

David Read:
You don’t need to. The grounds are outside, they’re where you’re gonna wanna be anyway. Look, I will be there, and if you wanna go in for an hour, you can have mine.

James Kerfoot:
OK. That would be great.

David Read:
Absolutely. We may have to talk about where you stand, because it’s insane. Are you gonna be there for the full week?

James Kerfoot:
I will not. That leads in to our events. We’ve done two events so far. We’ve done LA, the banner flyover, and we’ve done New York, the two digital billboards, and then our next event is in Europe. The details of that are still being worked out but it looks like we’re gonna have a few events. One in the UK. It’s just a general European rally to show how big and how supportive the European fan base is in comparison to us Americans, and it looks like we’re gonna have an event in the UK, France, and Germany. And then after that, we’re gonna have an event at ComiCon, Saturday and Sunday. That’s when I’m planning to be there, Saturday and Sunday. Then about two weeks after that, we’re gonna have a space-related event. It’s gonna be the culmination, so the idea is to step things up gradually each time. We started at the studio, then we bring the message to America, then we bring it to Europe, and then to the world, and then to space. It’s a gradual incline.

David Read:
You don’t have the European dates yet?

James Kerfoot:
Sorry?

David Read:
I apologize. You don’t have the European dates yet? Or you do?

James Kerfoot:
We had some plans for France initially. The plan was to do Paris, but that’s starting to… It’s got some issues we’ve gotta work through. For instance, you have to notify the authorities a month in advance, which we did, but they are not communicative, so it’s hard to work with. Our plan is to shift gears and do a more distributed event, where people don’t have to travel as far, so we should have a much greater turnout.

David Read:
I really, really would love … There’s a couple of pieces to this. God, especially if it was September, somewhere around there, I would really love to get the EMG 1/1-scale Stargate up at one of those events. The problem is it’s $15,000 to do that, and I don’t have the money. I can check the sofa cushions but — Darren, see if you can find anything — I would need a benefactor to pull that off, and then on top of that, I would need someone on the ground over there who could run that event because EMG is not interested in doing that, but they would be willing to bring it. And they’re based in Switzerland. That would be a huge monumental statement, and it would give fans a chance to get their picture taken with the replica, but I can only dream. But, hey, if anyone out there has a spare 15 grand that they’re willing to loan us to pull that off, that would be something extraordinary to do. Regardless, when would you like to do Europe? When is your target to do those different locations?

James Kerfoot:
So, the current target is July 11th.

David Read:
So, you’re doing it… Europe?

James Kerfoot:
Yes.

David Read:
OK, we’re not waiting at all. You’re doing this …

James Kerfoot:
No.

David Read:
… really quickly.

James Kerfoot:
Yeah. But it speaks to how large and engaged the European fan base is that you do have to go to Europe to find a full-scale, accurate replica of the Milky Way Gate and …

David Read:
And leave it to the Swiss, of course.

James Kerfoot:
… prove it.

David Read:
I don’t know about the second one, but you’re talking about the Atlantis gate?

James Kerfoot:
The German gate.

David Read:
There’s a German replica gate as well?

James Kerfoot:
It’s not a complete replica, but it’s the only thing they have in the US.

David Read:
Are you going to these European events?

James Kerfoot:
I haven’t decided yet. It’s still a long way off. But for anybody who does, and anybody who’s in Europe and wants to get involved with those now, please go to savestargate.com/rsvp. That’s super simple to remember. And then on Comic-Con, that event is, if you can’t physically be at Comic-Con, you can still engage online by going to savestargate.com/day, just D-A-Y. And then that is Save Stargate Day. So that’s kind of the culmination, and it happens to align with one of the anniversaries of Stargate. But the idea there is just to get out… This is the flood. We’re gonna make the most noise we possibly can on this day. Not only because we’re at Comic-Con and it’s gonna be a worldwide event, but we need to… Any platform you’re on, if you’re on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, it doesn’t matter. And then it’s also for creators. We’d love to have creators put out even a single video that day, just to get the message out, just to get the word out that we are strong and we’re still very active. We want our show back. That’s the– I’m not in love with that picture.

David Read:
I love it. Absolutely.

Darren Sumner:
It looks good.

David Read:
I was this close to making it the thumbnail.

Darren Sumner:
That’s cool.

James Kerfoot:
I’m glad you didn’t.

David Read:
You’ve never done a Stargate convention. This is completely outside your wheelhouse. Why are you doing this? What happened when you got that notification that the show was canceled?

James Kerfoot:
I actually lucked into… I had been checking maybe once a month. I would go on to my phone, go onto Google, and I’d look up Amazon Stargate and check the news, and see if there was any news. And I had been doing that for months, ever since I heard that Amazon bought the IP. And I was tuned in and I hadn’t looked at it in about a month, and I happened to look that up the day after the message went out in Variety. So I was in the right place at the right time, happened to see that, and it was shocking. I was very disappointed. But I think it was maybe a couple hours later, I was like, “Do we really have to take no for an answer?”

David Read:
Dude, the spirit moved you. That was like, “All right, that’s it.”

James Kerfoot:
“We gotta do something. We gotta show them somehow.” And especially when, again, I’ve been waiting more than half my life for a new Stargate.

Darren Sumner:
That’s phenomenal.

James Kerfoot:
I had to do something. But I think this is our opportunity to remind Amazon, not just that we’re here, but that we… I think they’ve forgotten. I think they’ve kind of lost their way, their roots a little bit. They used to be very engaged in… They used to do a lot of… I’m blanking on the term.

David Read:
Outreach. They’re involved with their fandoms. They nurtured those geese that laid the golden eggs.

James Kerfoot:
They would do focus groups. They would do pre-screenings. But they’ve kind of lost their way and dropped that in the last 15 years. And I feel like there’s an underlying message to this. Yes, we have our clear top-of-mind goals here of, “We want our show back with canon. We want it to respect the canon. We don’t want to lose that. That’s very important to us.” And then we want amazing writing. We’ve had such good writers and directors as part of the Stargate franchise for so long. That’s another reason it’s so easy to love the show is because the writing is amazing. We want that back. And we’ve had a pretty good indication that was gonna happen with Gero and Mallozzi. We had an amazing opportunity there to really have this hit out of the park. But we want our canon to be retained. We want amazing writing, and then we want really good actors. We want charismatic, funny actors. That was at the core of SG-1, I feel like. Those are the three core things we want back. But there is an underlying tone here of… we feel like the entertainment industry has kind of lost its way. This may not be a very popular opinion. But of all the studios I feel like could have picked this up, I’m honestly happy it’s Amazon. Because the other studios, we’ve seen failure after failure. Disney, Paramount, Netflix, they’ve all shown a track record of failure. Amazon hasn’t. They hit it out of the park with Project Hail Mary. They hit it out of the park …

David Read:
Yes, they did.

James Kerfoot:
… with the first season of Reacher. We could go on and on. They have the talent. They have amazing writers. They have the people with the skills to really do a good job here. And I know this is not a popular opinion, but this is the way I feel. If it were gonna be anybody, I’m glad it’s Amazon. And they can listen. I know they… Amazon is just a company full of smart, capable people. And anybody can be misled with data. Anybody. And then if they want data, if they’re using data, that’s great. But our underlying idea here is to communicate to them that you can’t just use internet data. There’s another set of data here. The internet data only tells you what people clicked on yesterday. It doesn’t tell you why they clicked on it. It doesn’t give you the underlying motivations, doesn’t clear up all the biases that are gonna focus and constrain your data. So, they can look at that all day. But there’s so much they miss in that. And there’s one other big piece of information, big piece of data that they’re ignoring, and that’s direct communication with the fan base. So that’s really, at the core of it, all we want is just a dialogue with Amazon. I’d be happy if they said anything at this point. But obviously, we want to hear, “Hey, it’s back on. Gero’s Stargate’s back on.” But I’d be happy to hear, “Hey, guys, we gave it the old college try, and we did run focus groups with Stargate fans and non-Stargate fans, and it just didn’t appeal to the non-Stargate fans.” I mean, that’s 101.

David Read:
Only that’s not what happened. I think that Apple has been extraordinary with its television.

James Kerfoot:
Yes. I agree.

David Read:
I have been blown away by its sci-fi. My two favorites right now …

Darren Sumner:
Good sci-fi, yes.

David Read:
… are Severance and Pluribus.

Darren Sumner:
Silo.

David Read:
Is Silo Apple as well?

Darren Sumner:
Yeah.

David Read:
Wow, there you go. But Project Hail Mary hit it out of the park. And not only does it show that original IPs, although it comes from a novel obviously, still have growth, but it also… I love this. I could weep over the feelings of a rock. It didn’t have to look like me. I loved that, personally. And the fact that the other two films that I have been blown away by this year are Backdoors and Obsession. Just original content. I saw Obsession twice the weekend that it came out, and I was like, “This is gonna be a hit.” And boy, it just keeps on going. If you’re not listening to what your fandoms are saying is good, and brand new fandoms as well, you’re gonna be left behind. At the very least, you’re gonna look like you have egg on your face. And we still believe–

James Kerfoot:
But that’s Communication 101. That’s why it seems so odd to me. That’s Communication 101. You listen, when you’re giving a speech, you listen to your audience. You look at the individuals, and you go person by person, and you incorporate their feelings into your speech. You update live as you’re going. It’s a feedback loop.

David Read:
But you don’t have to be held hostage by them. You don’t have to absolutely, “I must do what you say.” But you need to demonstrate that you listen. Especially in a franchise that’s, if you include the movie, over 30 years old.

Darren Sumner:
James makes a great point that Amazon seemed to be that studio. They were that studio for a while. And we know that the execs who were working with Martin to develop the show before they left earlier this year were on board. And these are studio execs who were willing to let him make the show that he wanted to make. Recognizing it’s gonna appeal to the existing fan base, but also has to be accessible to new people, because you gotta grow the fan base, you gotta grow the audience. That’s what they were doing. I’m with you, James. If they had come out and said, “OK, we know we greenlit this show, we did some more sort of focus groups and data analytics, and we determined that the audience is not there yet, it’s not time,” et cetera, et cetera, however that gets explained. OK, I can see that there is an argument to be made. There is some sort of data argument that could be made. But this is not that. This is a new executive comes in and goes by his gut and the metrics of other legacy IP that’s not doing so well right now.

David Read:
And what he likes and what he doesn’t like as well.

Darren Sumner:
What he likes and what he doesn’t like. And again, if it doesn’t go any deeper than the surface level of the data, if you look at Mandalorian and Grogu, for example, having a soft theatrical relative to Star Wars.

David Read:
Very soft.

Darren Sumner:
Star Wars film that doesn’t make a billion dollars or close to it. If you don’t go any deeper into the analytics than that, if you look at Starfleet Academy and you don’t go any deeper than, “OK, what were the numbers for Season One? Why did the studio cancel it?” you’re not gonna get the whole story. And that’s what this feels like. It feels like a cancellation decision that’s based on a gut instinct and a shallow glance at the nature of legacy IP without really understanding Stargate as a unique property, to say nothing of its fan base and how activated we are globally.

James Kerfoot:
And if they want broad appeal, if they wanna pull in a younger fan base, I’m a perfect example. I’m not extremely young, but I just turned 29, and I grew up with Atlantis at the tail end, I think, of when it was airing. And I loved it. And I still feel like every time I re-watch it, it’s still so engaging. It’s still amazing.

David Read:
It’s chicken soup, man. We’re willing to fight for our chicken soup. Darren, I’ve got 1,000 people on my channel willing to stare at our mug. What about you?

Darren Sumner:
GateWorld right now is 287, I’m looking at. People are gonna keep clicking on this because we are activated. We have boots on the ground doing stuff. But there are fans and interested parties all over the internet who are gonna keep checking out streams like this and seeing what’s going on. And I think that’s the bigger audience that Amazon is chasing and doesn’t really know how to reach right now.

James Kerfoot:
When I heard that Amazon had acquired MGM Studios, I was really opposed. So, I really do believe they’re bringing– This fan base is a little bit divided, I gotta be honest. We are not divided politically. We are very united politically. That’s not something that divides us. But we are a little divided in the belief that this is a good thing. I hear it all the time. People are saying, “Oh, well, I’m glad Amazon is canceling it, ’cause they would have messed it up.” First of all, they’re not canceling it. It’s not dead. It is coming back. It’s coming back no matter what. That’s a part everybody has to understand. Amazon acquired this IP. It’s an $800 million IP. Yes, Star Trek and Star Wars are in the billions.

David Read:
We’re not questioning its size.

James Kerfoot:
For them to drop this IP is beyond unreasonable. They know what they have, and they are gonna bring this back. But this campaign, this effort is about bringing it back in the right way. It’s not about bringing it back. It’s bringing it back in the right way. Maintaining canon, maintaining great writers, and that’s the whole idea.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Darren Sumner:
And if you are worried out there in the viewing audience, if you are worried that a major studio like Amazon is gonna mess up Stargate, James’ point is exactly right, you should be on the side of the campaign, because Martin Gero’s Stargate is miraculously the version that is not screwed up, that is not modernized, whatever baggage we wanna import into the language of a modern audience or a modern show. It’s what Amazon might do with it next. Cancel Martin’s show, go back to the drawing board, reboot it, get somebody involved who was not involved in the original series that has something brand new to do with the IP. That’s the kinda show that I’m worried about. Now we’re starting from square one, trying to figure out, “OK, if not Martin’s show, if not this fan base, if not this canon, what is Amazon gonna do?” And if you’re worried Amazon’s gonna screw up Stargate, that’s the version of the show you should be worried about.

David Read:
There is no guarantee moving forward. Let me park that idea for a second and bring another one to the fore. Let’s just say that, for the sake of argument, that no one from the previous productions is gonna be coming forward to helm the next one. OK, not ideal, but fine. That was basically the track that Darren and I were considering, we were moving down on …

Darren Sumner:
That’s where we were at for a long time.

David Read:
… before this whole thing happened. Is it my first preference? No. But does that mean that I will not watch it? No, it does not mean that I will not watch it. But it must be sincere in treating the original content with reverence. What we’re seeing right now with a lot of IP is people who are coming in and saying that, “All right, I am now in charge of this next iteration of whatever this title is. The people who came before were backward or were misaligned in their thinking in some way.

Darren Sumner:
Or just their time has passed.

David Read:
That’s right. “And we now have the right answers because we are correct in our thinking.” 50 years from now, we’re gonna be looking back on a pretty backward society. I can only hope that whoever comes next to helm the next thing can be smart enough to treat the IP with a certain amount of dignity and respect, and treat the fandom with a little bit of appreciation. And that’s basically the only thing that I can truly ask for at this point. And to make sure that someone who is coming in, that is gonna create this new science fiction, whenever they decide to do that, is gonna be a person who believes that humanity has potential, and is not gonna be a person who hates humanity. If you think that we deserve to be destroyed, you have no business doing this. And that’s my real fear. I’m seeing these movies come out with all these antiheroes who feel that… I watched a certain movie recently that I’m not gonna go into great detail on, a superhero film very recently, and I walked away thinking that they have no values. They have nothing that makes me turn to the kids that I go and see this movie with and say, “See? Be like that person.” I don’t want them to emulate them. That’s what we’re getting a lot of right now, and that’s my fear about whatever’s gonna come next, is that we’re gonna get something that is once again trying to deconstruct the way that we look at the world and show, “Well, you know what? Orcs have families too.” No, they don’t. They’re representations of evil. That doesn’t make sense. You are truly walking on the grave of the spirit of that idea. And it’s not right, man. So, they have every intention of moving forward with the property at some point. And you know what? Like Picard said in “The Measure of a Man,” “You wanted a chance to make a new show. Here it is. Make it a good one.”

James Kerfoot:
And Stargate is not a cynical show at all.

David Read:
Exactly right.

James Kerfoot:
It’s all about hope and co-operation, and Amazon has shown that they can do that with Reacher and with Project Hail Mary. Those were not cynical shows. Those were not cynical movies. That’s one of the big things we need to retain, and we need that. If we’ve needed that at any time, it’s now. We’ve needed to have hope about the future right now. This is the time for it.

David Read:
James, what do you need? You got 1,500 people watching. What do you need right now?

James Kerfoot:
I need everybody to engage in whatever way you can. We’ve got so many different avenues to send a message to Amazon. We’ve got Twitter. We’ve got TikTok. We’ve got Facebook. And specifically on Save Stargate Day, which, again, go to savestargate.com/day. It’s gonna be July 25th, and that’s the same day as the Comic-Con event. But there’s so many ways you can engage, and there’s this new cool thing that I just learned about today. Again, it just keeps hitting me how amazing this community is. Every couple of days, there’s something new that I’m like, “Wait. What? We did that too?” I can’t remember his name, but there’s a guy in the French community who created this tool where … Have you’ve ever heard of Reddit’s r/place, where everybody gets a little pixel and you can draw a community picture? He did that for Stargate. It’s called–

David Read:
Guys, can you fact-check James in the Dial the Gate chat here? I want that information.

James Kerfoot:
I think it’s savegerosstargate.com/pixelgate, but it’s connected to Twitter. So, if you connect it with your Twitter, the more you tweet, the more pixels you have to be able to add to this global art.

Darren Sumner:
It’ll pull it into that art. That’s cool. That’s amazing.

James Kerfoot:
And you just keep doing things like that. OK, one other thing. Get on the GateWorld Discord, because that’s where everybody’s at talking about this constantly. Get on there and join the community. This was not me a month ago, but now it is, and it can be you too. You can join in the fight too. I don’t want to call it a fight because we have a common goal with Amazon.

David Read:
100%.

James Kerfoot:
They want it to be huge. They want everybody to love Stargate.

David Read:
That’s true.

James Kerfoot:
We do too. We have a common goal. I want to see the Tauri Earth symbol on the backs of cars everywhere. That’s what I want to see. I see that with Star Wars. I want to see it with Stargate too, and I know Amazon does too.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Darren Sumner:
And I’m amazed by the organizers. If you’re on Twitter and you’re following the SaveStargate hashtag, you see all the activity going on, you see the photos of the Times Square event and what’s coming up, but the organizers behind the scenes are a machine. I’ve been super busy lately getting ready to move house, but I’ll pop into the GateWorld Discord every now and again, and look at both that public Save Stargate channel and also the coordination channel for kind of leaders in the campaign. And it’s every single day. It’s just strategy. It’s like a situation room. It’s like a war room. They are active. They are plugged in. They are strategizing. They’re planning what’s next. They’re sharing resources, and they’re setting aside their egos to do it. It’s so exciting. This is the other billboard. Let’s see that again. This was the other billboard in Times Square?

David Read:
Yep. These are screenshots of a video feed that you guys built. James, who did this?

James Kerfoot:
There were two artists. There’s been so much art that the community has come together and created on this. It was either Dazz on Discord or Art of J Kelley, I think. They created both of these billboard art pieces, and they were voted on by the community.

David Read:
Very nice. I have a hankering for donuts for some reason right now. I can’t imagine why, but anyway. No, this is really awesome, and thanks to you, thanks to them, thanks to Hellcats. This is turning into a something that I was not expecting. We’ve got a ways to go, and at this point, what I’m looking for is a response. Because it would acknowledge that we exist, and right now, we haven’t had any of that. And it’s like…

James Kerfoot:
Could be a good thing.

David Read:
… “Come on.”

James Kerfoot:
I see it as a good thing because …

David Read:
You think so?

James Kerfoot:
… they’re thinking. I should add, the LA flyover, we had this banner. I don’t know if you wanna go full screen. There are some signatures on it. By the way, we’re shipping this around the world. This’ll be at Comic-Con.

David Read:
This is wonderful.

James Kerfoot:
One of the locations in Europe, we’re gonna keep gathering signatures and plaster it. You can see some signatures over there, over here. You can see it’s got a QR code on it. When we put out a form — and it was in New York too — gained some more signatures from New York, so this has been moving around with the campaign as it’s been escalating and growing. I should add, though, that we’ve had some forms. That QR code takes you to a form, and on the statistics on that, there are some metrics when someone accesses that form, and typically, when we were doing RSVP forms, most of them were on mobile phones. We could tell that most people were accessing them from a mobile phone. But this one was accessed mostly from desktops. So, the idea is that we did have this banner directly below their main building facade. It’s glass. They can look down at us. They did look down at us. So, the implication is that somebody in Amazon took a picture of it and shared it internally. I don’t know whether they used Teams or what, but they shared it internally because that explains why it might have been accessed on desktop so often. Because what do you do when you see a QR code on a banner? You take a picture of it with your phone, and you access it on your phone. So if it was being accessed on desktop, they must have shared it internally. They hear us. They’re listening. I think this is a good thing that we haven’t heard a response for this long, because they’re taking this carefully, and they’re thoughtful about this. Amazon is full of smart, thoughtful people, and we know they have the talent to do good shows. So, we’re just waiting for a response.

Darren Sumner:
And they have people who are moved by the data. I’m with you. I would like a positive response at some point. I would like an acknowledgment at some point, but in these first few weeks, I kind of like that… The silence, to me, sounds like they’re nervous. They are paying attention.

David Read:
It is deafening.

Darren Sumner:
They’re generating data. All these tweet storms, all these events …

David Read:
This is true.

Darren Sumner:
… are generating data points that they’re gonna be looking at.

David Read:
If anyone is going to have access to that, it’s going to be those people who are also connected to AWS.

James Kerfoot:
Gonna be pressing on Amazon.

David Read:
Judith Remkis wants to know, “James, how well are the different organizers working together worldwide?” Has everything been pretty smooth? I know you did not represent all of them. I’m just saying that in this moment, we’re asking you to speak for them.

James Kerfoot:
For the most part, yeah. The difficulty is always getting across language barriers. And it’s also very hard to tell because the GateWorld Discord is in English for the most part. There are so many English speakers there, but I’m seeing tons of people from across the world. People from Norway, people from the UK, a lot of people from the UK, and people from France who are just speaking in English. So it’s really hard to tell unless you start talking with them, and you’re like, “You’re not in the US, are you?” So it’s almost like the communities have all quieted down a little bit in their groups and have coalesced around the GateWorld Discord. So I really can’t say, but we are working very closely, and when we– Just yesterday, I reached out to the German community, their Discord, and some people on Twitter who are also major German organizers, and they’re all like, “Yeah, let’s do some stuff.” So, I gotta say yes, globally. And that’s what we’ve got to communicate to Amazon: this is a global fan base just waiting for reactivation. That’s all you need.

David Read:
That’s it. We’re on the launchpad, and we’re fueled and ready to go. Laurie Steinley, “Any plans to be at Chicago Fan Expo in August?” Kurt Russell will be there. That might be a nice tie-in. I could go up… August, I’m gonna have to see when that is, because I could go up there and do that. Half my family’s in Chicago. “I’d be right back, guys.” That could be cool. That could be really cool if we could get him to even hold up a little thing.

James Kerfoot:
Dragon Con for sure, it really means–

Darren Sumner:
I’m seeing mentions of Dragon Con over in the GateWorld chat. That’s early September?

David Read:
It’s Labor Day weekend.

James Kerfoot:
But it all comes down to funds at some point. No, it doesn’t. I’m sorry. Our ability to do stuff …

David Read:
Take a breath.

James Kerfoot:
… like print these banners, and bring these banners, and bring flags, and do big flashy stuff like fly an aerial banner and buy billboards, that’s fund dependent. But really being at a Comic-Con, organizing something is not.

David Read:
That’s correct.

James Kerfoot:
It’s all communicating and getting together, and the best way you can do that is join the GateWorld Discord.

David Read:
That’s it.

Darren Sumner:
Internationally, Hellcats is reminding us, we do now have a French channel on GateWorld in the Discord, and we’re open to creating channels for other languages for those who are not strong English speakers or wanna coordinate locally. We’re just looking for mods to open new channels for other languages.

David Read:
That’s the real trick, isn’t it? I definitely, from the beginning when Gero first announced this to us, to Darren and myself, it was very much like, “OK, expand the tent, expand the tent. Do not make this English only. Expand this to every language that we can.” And the French-speaking audience is a huge group. I can speak to the fact that– If I can pull up an image here really quick.

Darren Sumner:
That announcement week, we live-streamed for three days.

David Read:
Oh my God. It was excellent. We knew how to party.

Darren Sumner:
The Dial the Gate team brought through fans and creators and friends from all over the world.

David Read:
That’s right. Now, the French community is so amazing and strong. I haven’t shown this, but this is me and Rick, if I can pull this up here, just a second. And of course, my computer is computing. But this is me and RDA at the convention in Metz. And the presence here of Stargate fans was absolutely enormous, because… I’ve mentioned this before, I don’t know what it is in the water over there, but that is a huge Stargate community. And the fact that they are mobilized with us and that we as a fandom globally are united in pursuing this thing is only reassuring me that more than ever, even since really Gero’s announcement of the new show, this fandom is not going anywhere, period. So I’m thrilled in so many ways. I feel like I’ve been knifed in the back. I do. But the fact of the matter is that we’re here to stay.

Darren Sumner:
And the message is not angry. As James said, the message is not negative. Some people are angry, and they’re gonna throw stuff.

David Read:
You’re gonna have the occasional butthole, for sure.

Darren Sumner:
And that’s OK.

David Read:
Get over it.

Darren Sumner:
But the overall message of the campaign is positive. It’s, “Look at what you have here. Don’t screw this up. It’s not too late to change this decision. Look at what you have here.”

James Kerfoot:
It’s our job as the existing fan base to help guide them in the right direction.

David Read:
At the very least, cheer for what it is that we want. We used to have shows that would have six or seven episodes airing, and then they were riding the back half. And they could go on and say, “Well, this is not really working that much. Let’s go ahead and tweak this later on this…” We don’t do that anymore. We’re so cut off from our audiences. We being the creators or something.

James Kerfoot:
I have a very visceral example of that. Right before this whole thing happened, right before this whole thing hit the fan, I was rewatching — I’d seen it years and years and years ago but forgot about it — the new Battlestar Galactica. And the first season was painful for me. But maybe that’s not a total experience.

David Read:
Ron Moore’s Galactica, the first season?

James Kerfoot:
The new… I don’t remember who it was, but the second–

David Read:
2004?

James Kerfoot:
Yeah.

David Read:
The new one. OK.

James Kerfoot:
Not Caprica, but …

David Read:
That’s OK.

James Kerfoot:
… the one that ran for four seasons. And it was hard to watch for me, because there were so many things that didn’t line up. Character consistency was a big problem to me. Adama would behave not like Adama sometimes. And I’m like, “Are you a leader? Have you learned from experience or not?” It’s very confusing. And, for example, the machinist who shot Valerii, the Raptor pilot, the Cylon. I’m like, “Where did that come from?” She has no motive. What happened there? And then it was very obvious at the beginning of Season Two, it just hit home, they started paying attention. They started listening because all the emotions came in and lined up. The actors started to behave, their characters started to behave consistently. Adama became Adama consistently. And it was very good afterwards. And if it was Ron Moore, I can’t remember the scene …

David Read:
Ron Moore.

Darren Sumner:
… but apparently, he has a strong history of communicating with his audience. He would go into forums and interact with them constantly. If that’s not a feedback loop of communication with your audience, I don’t know what is. So, that’s a very visceral example of how this works. How communicating with your fan base, your audience works. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do that. I’m not saying Amazon shouldn’t do that with non-Stargate fans, and try to bring them in. They really should. But they should communicate with us too. They could have both pieces of this pie.

Darren Sumner:
Both.

Darren Sumner:
They could have their cake and eat it too.

David Read:
You really can.

James Kerfoot:
It’s totally possible.

Darren Sumner:
And you can get some good PR out of it. You can get some good press from treating fans right. Hey, before we move on, Smoothie42 is saying, “Just joined the stream. Is there a list of actions for us to complete?” Go to savestargate.com and there’s lots of things you can do there. You can sign the petition. You can join the next tweet storm. You can chip in a few bucks at the GoFundMe. All at savestargate.com.

David Read:
Don’t go over your skis, folks. Be reasonable here. Don’t turn into myself and James, “Oh, now what, coach?” Hot damn. Go easy.

Darren Sumner:
But there are some cool things planned.

David Read:
But do what you can do.

Darren Sumner:
There are some cool things planned. David and I decided that we wanted to include the GoFundMe in this livestream, which is abnormal for us because we know that there are some cool things that are coming up that are gonna take a little bit of a spend on fandom’s part that we think are gonna have an impact one way or another.

David Read:
I am not used to going hat in hand to you guys [like] “I need you to consider giving me something for something that I’m not going to reveal to you yet.” That’s abnormal for us to do that. But there are a couple of things, we’ve got some feedback and, “Ooh, we need to do this and we’re gonna do it.” So, if you have the ability to give, we appreciate it. So, I don’t like being clandestine, but there are a couple that are a little bit more strategic. Questions. John Morganyer, “How do we keep momentum going? What can we do day-to-day or week-to-week to just keep Stargate in discussion?” Look, that hashtag is so key. Like I’ve been demonstrating on the B-roll here, there is a gamification aspect to this now. When they release something, to good naturedly parallel it, like the Thomas the Tank Engine for crying out loud. There was a teal coming down the tracks for Pete’s sake. That was funny. There’s so much that can be, like this one that I made earlier today, and I think someone else already beat me to it, but this was the one– Whoops guys, sorry about that. This was the one that I just did. This was on the news. So, things like this, being clever, finding whatever is in current events and saying, “Yes, see this? And, by the way, #savestargate.” That’s fun and that’s gamifying it and it’s making people laugh. And I’m sure there’s some people in Amazon going like, “Oh my God. Geez.” But come on, give us a smirk. Come on.

Darren Sumner:
Guess what Amazon MGM Studios is paying attention to right now? They’re paying attention to their new shows and movies that they’re launching right now. How are the analytics tracking on that? And what are people on social saying about that? So, the Vala thing for the launch of Elle, the new Legally Blonde series. I feel attached to Elle as a series launch because that was an MGM property, maybe not a whole lot of overlap with Stargate fans per se, but it was an MGM IP that the studio bought, they put into production, and now I don’t know how many months later, the first season of the show is done and it’s out. And the marketing push has ramped up. I feel like nine months earlier, and there’s Stargate. If Stargate had gotten a little bit further down the track and had shot some episodes, then they might have just gone ahead and let the first season go. Now we have Elle that is an MGM property. And so, the marketing push for Elle is in full force right now. That’s a great place to post positive Stargate messages.

David Read:
That’s a great point, Darren.

Darren Sumner:
And remember when you tweet, there’s the pixel art thing, and I’m not 100% sure about all the logistics, but I think for each tweet you get a pixel. So you can help it grow. It’s so cool. This was an idea a little over a week ago and I just didn’t hear anything about it. Then today, it just blindsided me. “Hey, wait, somebody built this. This is so cool.” I think his name is Jeremy in the French community who created this.

David Read:
Amazon is plugged into every single metric. YouTube, they do love likes. So, if you are behind this campaign with us, this is self-serving, but do please hit that like button. It does make a difference and will continue to help the channel grow its audience. But if you have something to say about this, say it in the comments below. The comments mean something greater than the likes do because they translate into engagement. There’s the word. I managed to pluck it from the sky. And if bringing this show back is important to you, every time that you do that makes a difference. So, if you have something to say in the GateWorld YouTube channel, or in the Dial the Gate YouTube channel in these videos, put them in the comments below while you’re watching us yap.

James Kerfoot:
And remember to make it clear how wholesome of an audience we are. How cooperative of a community we are.

David Read:
It’s a family show.

James Kerfoot:
That hits me real hard. It really hurt me that SGU… I couldn’t show that to my family. And we just need the next show for them to come back to their roots and maintain it as a family show. I do have a feeling that some of my family members have seen a little bit of SGU and dropped Stargate entirely because of it.

David Read:
You couldn’t, to be fair, watch the Showtime version with them either. If we’re talking the age that I think you’re talking. SG was a soapbox for me, so I’m gonna say agree to disagree. But I do understand where you’re coming from with the kids, for sure. James, this is awesome. I really appreciate you taking so much time as the representative of this go around for our simulcast to talk with us. I’m at 1,700 views, Darren, this is kind of absurd. I really, really appreciate everyone who is tuning in. Darren, do you have any other questions on your side?

Darren Sumner:
A lot of questions about people who are checking out the stream and want us to recap what’s going on. OceanStar’s asked for a link to the GoFundMe, and we’ve got a short, easy link for you to remember. If you’ve got a few bucks you wanna throw at the fan campaign, it’s savestargate.com/donate.

David Read:
That’s right. Those links are in the description below for the Dial the Gate video as well.

Darren Sumner:
But speaking of family, I grabbed this comment earlier at the beginning of our stream from JeanineWilson3508, who wrote, “Stargate means family to me. When my older kids were little, Stargate night was our date night. The world stopped for an hour, and we spent time together watching it when it was on. Happy memories.”

David Read:
That’s it.

Darren Sumner:
And that’s it. That’s the fandom. That’s why we love this franchise so much. That’s why it’s special to us. It unites us with each other, it helps us make new friends around the world, but it also has helped us connect with our families.

David Read:
That’s correct.

James Kerfoot:
And every series, it’s been a family too. SG-1, the team was a family. Atlantis’ team …

David Read:
Found family.

James Kerfoot:
… was a family. And SGU, towards the end, became a family. It’s really family focused.

David Read:
I want to read this into the record of the Oral History Project so that it’ll be in the transcripts. Middle of last month, Mario Azzopardi, Stargate, SG-1, Atlantis director, he directed “Children of the Gods,” emailed me. And he just shared a message with me, and I asked his permission to share it on social media, and so I did. And I haven’t actually mentioned it verbatim on the channel before, so if you guys wouldn’t mind, I’d like to share what Mario said since Darren was also sharing a comment or two he saw.

Darren Sumner:
Yeah, absolutely.

David Read:
And these are Azzopardi’s thoughts, these are his words. “Devastated, angry, saddened. I cannot fully explain what I feel today. This is wrong. It’s not merely disappointing. It is a profound mistake by a system increasingly cut off from the very people it claims to serve. What we are seeing is not creative courage. It is disrespect dressed up as reinvention. It is the arrogance of entitled executives who believe that they can take beloved source material, strip it of what made it matter, discard the lessons that built its audience, and replace them with distorted reinterpretation designed to serve agendas rather than story. This is not evolution. This is vandalism. Stargate earned its fans because it respected wonder, intelligence, courage, loyalty, sacrifice, humor, and the bond between characters and audience. You do not casually throw that away. You do not abandon the soul of something loved by millions and then act surprised when the people who loved it feel betrayed. We have seen this pattern before. Snow White, Odyssey, and other recent examples have shown what happens when decision-makers confuse ownership with understanding. They might control the rights, the budgets, and the boardrooms, but they do not own the meaning these stories have carried for generations of viewers. I directed the pilot. I know what Stargate meant at the beginning. I know what it was built on. And I know that what hurts most today is not simply that a show has been canceled, it is that the people entrusted with protecting its legacy appear to have forgotten why that legacy existed in the first place. To the fans, your anger is not misplaced. Your disappointment is not childish. Your grief is not nostalgia. It is the natural response of people who recognize when something they loved has been mishandled by those who should have known better. Stargate deserved respect, so did you.” Mario Azzopardi. What do I possibly say after that? Back at ya.

Darren Sumner:
Really beautiful. Back at ya.

David Read:
James, thank you.

James Kerfoot:
But you have to think that in Amazon’s case, it’s not active disrespect but just lack of understanding, that they didn’t–

David Read:
Darren, help me with this. It’s a result of being inconsiderate, that it was just, “Let’s let Variety or Hollywood Reporter tell the tale.” Rather than coming to the fandom that was brought in, this mug and that mug, to announce this thing, craft some kind of statement to them letting them know, “Look, we’re not gonna be able to move forward with this, but we do respect you.” I hate that word. Everyone’s obsessed with respect now. You’re not owed respect necessarily, you’re owed dignity.

Darren Sumner:
Martin got the shortest stick here?

David Read:
It didn’t have any dignity. They treated Martin with indignity.

Darren Sumner:
Given Martin is still one of their partners, he’s still under contract, and he’s gonna be part of other shows, so give a public statement that gives Martin a little due diligence, give him his due that says, “We’re excited to continue working with Martin on another project, et cetera, et cetera. Stargate’s gonna go back into development,” and whatever it is. Doctor Who has just been put out to tender for other creatives to come in and pitch for it. However you wanna express it with Stargate, or not at all, just say, “We’re going back into development.” Martin deserved that for sure. Fans deserve that.

David Read:
The Hollywood pipeline is disintegrating and dying. It’s a catastrophe. This show was not gonna be filmed in LA, it was not gonna be shot in Canada, it was gonna be filmed in Europe. They are in survival mode. We know they are in survival mode. We all know it. No one’s talking about it. That industry was sliced in half after COVID and after the protests. I am on record on this show saying that the protesters, they may get what they want, but as a result half of them are gonna be brought to the table and the other half are gonna go to the soup line, and within a couple of years, they’re gonna be in another industry. They are suffering. More suffering is to come. We all know that. You have a show with a loyal fan base around the world that is primed and positioned to bring something positive back into the universe, to make good ripples. Make a good decision. Doesn’t have to be everything that we want, but try. Acknowledge us. Give us the dignity of that. That’s my soapbox. Anything else, guys?

Darren Sumner:
I appreciate it. As I said in my open letter to Amazon a couple weeks ago on GateWorld.net …

David Read:
Pull that up.

Darren Sumner:
… this is in their best interests. It’s in the studio’s best interest to bring back Martin’s show and pay attention to fans, because, again, I feel like the way that this decision was made was to lump Stargate into the giant bucket of legacy IP, old existing franchises. And if you’re gonna be good at your job, you need to dig a little deeper, you need to treat each franchise, each IP that you’ve been entrusted with on its own terms. You need to do your due diligence, you need to understand the fandom, understand the old shows, why they worked, why they went off the air when they did, why they haven’t come back in the last 15 years, and not just lump Stargate into the giant bucket of, “Well, it’s legacy IP. Legacy IP isn’t doing well right now, so we’re gonna do something else.”

David Read:
It’s not doing well right now because it’s largely being worn as a skin suit.

Darren Sumner:
But it’s in the studio’s best interest to do this and to get it right.

David Read:
That’s right. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Look at Spider-Man for Pete’s sake. You bring passion and talent to a property, and you deliver something that they love, people will tune in and watch. The box office receipts are there to prove it. Every time I turn around, “Oh, we cracked the biggest number of dollar pre-sales for events.” Year over year, the theater-going audience is declining. They’re declining because they have nothing to root for, they have no one to root for. A bunch of anti-heroes. Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, they’re fun to watch. To quote Rob Cooper, “People love watching competence.” But we also love watching people we can aspire to be like. That wasn’t Kara Zor-El in this last film, and the ticket sales are proving it. But it is people like Ryland Grace and Rocky, and the ticket sales prove it. Amazon, give us people that we can root for. They can be broken. We can certainly go through those stories with you. But give us something that we can believe in together because we need that, especially now. James–

Darren Sumner:
Thank you, sir. Glad to see …

David Read:
You’re doing the Lord’s work, brother.

Darren Sumner:
… what you’ve been doing and really excited to see what happens next. And I’m really excited to see that there’s a whole summer planned and beyond. If Amazon doesn’t make things right, there are plans. Fans are not going anywhere.

James Kerfoot:
And if you wanna get involved, you wanna be active, even if it’s just online, go to savestargate.com. Get on the GateWorld Discord. That’s where everybody’s at. Everybody’s working together. It’s not all about Save Stargate. There are side conversations going on all the time over there. I didn’t know until just a few days ago that there were multiple books about– So here’s another thing. I hate to drag this on longer, but there’s–

David Read:
Please drag.

James Kerfoot:
OK. Then I’ll do it. If Amazon needs any indication that this universe that has been built through SG-1 and Atlantis and Universe has infinite stories still to tell, they can look at those books. I didn’t know about those until just a few days ago.

Darren Sumner:
The Fandemonium novels.

David Read:
Fandemonium novels?

James Kerfoot:
There are so many more stories to tell still. All you have to do is communicate with the fan base, communicate with the audience, establish a dialogue. And you can give them what they want. You can tailor it to new audiences. You can get the best of both worlds. And I truly believe we can bring the entertainment industry back. Maybe not Netflix. I haven’t had a Netflix account in five-plus years, because every time a new show starts, I get one season if I love it. Most of the time, I don’t love it. But it’s not worth the emotional investment, because it’s gonna be gone in a season.

David Read:
God, 1899. I totally hear you. They do love their guillotine over there.

James Kerfoot:
Just imagine what they could do if they didn’t do that. If they did use more than just internet data, and they began actually communicating with their audience, they could get so much more out of it.

David Read:
You have to cultivate your fandoms.

Darren Sumner:
Cultivate your fandom and trust your creators. A lot of what we’ve been talking around is the fact that the landscape of television is changing, and streamers are changing it because it’s not just your traditional content producers, like the old studio system or TV networks, that are in the streaming game right now. It’s data analytics companies. It’s Amazon and Netflix and Apple. Be like Apple, Amazon. Apple seems to be trusting their creators.

David Read:
That’s it.

Darren Sumner:
Hiring good people and then giving them rein to make stuff that’s interesting, that’s original, that connects with fan bases. Trust your creators and your fans.

James Kerfoot:
Another reason or another way they can appeal to the younger audience, I think it’s clear that the younger audience prefers honest stories, sincerity in their stories. And that was there all along in SG-1 and SGA. The writers did such an amazing job of communicating with us, breaking down the fourth wall, and being honest with their audience. And if you wanna capture the younger audience, that’s what I love. That’s another major thing I love about Stargate, is how honest it is, and how you feel a connection with the actors, because the story is just true. It’s just true to humanity.

David Read:
That’s why it’s evergreen. That’s why it doesn’t die, because the narratives perpetually reinvent themselves within our lives as we move forward. What was it that Rick said? Always trust your audience? What was it that he said? “Never underestimate your audience. They’re generally thoughtful, intelligent people who respond positively to the quality of entertainment.”

Darren Sumner:
Yeah, Mitchell and 200.

David Read:
He took Rick’s line. James, thank you so much, brother. I’m looking forward to meeting you in person here really soon.

James Kerfoot:
No problem.

David Read:
Don’t know when exactly that’s going to be. What state are you in?

James Kerfoot:
I just moved from Texas to Denver, Colorado.

David Read:
You’re in Colorado. OK, sweet. I’ll be in Estes Park in August. Running through Denver, I may have to say hello if we don’t meet sooner. Darren, you have anything else to add?

Darren Sumner:
No, for the GateWorld audience who’s looking for stuff and why I’ve been so quiet and where I’m going, I can finally let folks know that I have a new full-time job, and I’m moving house this summer.

David Read:
Whoop-whoop.

Darren Sumner:
Very excited in the GateWorld household, but it also means I’m gonna tear this desk down as soon as we’re done with this stream. And this is the last time you’re gonna see this background, unless I take a picture of it and do a green screen. This is the last time you’ll see this particular configuration of this background on GateWorld, ’cause I’m moving house this summer. It’s very exciting, and I’ll be back online as soon as they hook up the wires and tubes and connect me back to the interwebs. I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere.

David Read:
All right. Do you have anyone to thank before we let you go here?

Darren Sumner:
Yeah. Big thanks to all of GateWorld’s supporters, of course, channel members, hugely supportive. So important, both to David and I and our channels and what we’re able to pull off week by week, month by month to keep you all informed, and hopefully entertained along the way. We might be going back into the void between Stargate series, but we have some big plans for stuff that we wanna do moving into 2027. Thanks to the GateWorld Discord team. James has been plugging the Discord really well here. There’s a link to the Discord in the video description on GateWorld, or you can look for the little Discord link at the bottom of GateWorld.net. It’s there too. And then, of course, to all our mods who are here, everybody’s been popping in and out today. Jeff from Suns and Shadows was here earlier. Red Zion’s here now, Hellcats, Raj Luthra. I appreciate you all being here. I appreciate you being here with us live. I feel like this is not the most entertaining livestream, but it’s important, and this is …

David Read:
Wasn’t meant to be.

Darren Sumner:
… what it looks like when Stargate fandom pulls together and says, “OK, we got a mission. We have something to do here, and we wanna be involved in doing it.” So, that was the goal for this stream is to do an update, to get a chance to show off James face-to-face, and make sure everybody knows that people are still working on this.

David Read:
That’s correct. I cannot thank my captain and co-captains enough, Antony and Marcia. You guys really did yeoman’s work on this one to pull this off and bring everyone together. I’m so thankful as well for my Patreon members, who allow me to pull this thing off week in and week out. The livestreams are returning. We have a whole list of them that are now up on DialtheGate.com, and we’re not slowing down. I’m back in the saddle and we’re moving forward. If you enjoyed this episode, please do click that Like button. If you have a thought about this, even if it’s #savestargate, please put a comment in the description below. It is all collated data, and Amazon is paying attention. It’s in their face whether they like it or not. I am still standing firmly with this company. I think that they have the ability to make the right call, and I’m nice and cozy, and I know a lot of you guys are too. We’re not going anywhere, we’re gonna hang, but one way or another, we love this franchise and we’re here to stay. My name is David Read for Dial the Gates and for GateWorld.net. Thanks once again. Really, really do appreciate James for coming in and joining us, and we’ll see you on the other side. Bye, guys.