As we prepare to emerge from the 14-year void between galaxies, let’s welcome back industry veteran Jenny Stiven to take a well-earned victory lap at the end of a journey well undertaken.

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
0:36 – Opening Credits
1:10 – Welcome
1:29 – Guest Introduction
2:30 – Stargate Is Back Celebrations
3:20 – Jenny’s Feelings About Stargate Coming Back
5:58 – Fans Had Helped Make It Happen
7:47 – The Road to SG4
20:00 – Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich Involvement
22:15 – Timeline of SG4 Production
30:33 – It All Sounds Very Exciting
33:04 – SG4 Has Been In Works For 18 Months
39:13 – Amazon As a New Home for Stargate
42:57 – Will There Be a Theatrical Stargate Movie in the Future?
45:00 – Stitching the Movie and Shows Together
51:36 – Why Amazon Bought MGM?
53:57 – Can the New Show Tie Up Loose Ends?
58:35 – New Story vs. Tying Up Loose Ends
1:02:03 – SG4 Should Be For New and International Audience
1:09:21 – The Value of the Existing Audience
1:13:10 – Joe Mallozzi and Brad Wright Involvement
1:16:50 – Hello, S.G. Blaise (sgblaise.com)
1:18:07 – Jenny Stiven and S.G. Blaise Collaboration
1:20:03 – The Last Lumenian Series by S.G. Blaise
1:28:05 – Jenny’s and S.G.’s Upcoming Animated Short
1:29:45 – Thank You, S.G.
1:30:48 – Joy Is What Keeps Jenny Going
1:33:05 – Difference Between Producers and a Showrunner
1:36:06 – What Do Consulting Producers Do?
1:38:06 – Is Stargate Too Big To Be Canceled?
1:42:40 – Should We Subscribe to Amazon Prime Now?
1:46:24 – International Distribution and Licensing Agreements
1:49:06 – Jenny’s Stargate Command Swag
1:50:57 – Fans Should Check Their Sources Regarding SG4 News
1:53:30 – We’re in The New Reality
1:57:02 – Thank You, Jenny and Darren
1:57:57 – Jenny’s Dog (Kenan)
1:58:43 – Post-Discussion Housekeeping
2:01:42 – End Credits

***

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

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#TurtleTimeline

TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
Welcome everyone to Episode 376 of Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I appreciate you being here with me because this should be our final State of the Gate. Appropriately enough, Jenny Stiven, industry specialist in marketing, is back, along with Darren Sumner. Hello, guys. How are you?

Jenny Stiven:
Doing amazing, obviously, for so many good reasons.

David Read:
Absolutely. I think it’s time to celebrate.

Darren Sumner:
It’s not gonna let me talk.

David Read:
Go ahead, Darren. What’d you say?

Darren Sumner:
Now I’m getting the audio coming through. I gotta mute YouTube.

David Read:
Why?

Darren Sumner:
I thought you were saying something and it’s the YouTube. I gotta mute it.

David Read:
Jenny, you need a hat.

Jenny Stiven:
I need a hat?

David Read:
You do.

Jenny Stiven:
Why?

Darren Sumner:
I can’t see you, David. Are you on somewhere?

David Read:
I’m on. We’re broadcasting. Hang on a second here. There we go.

Darren Sumner:
Your camera’s turned off.

David Read:
There.

Darren Sumner:
There we go.

David Read:
I had to reboot the thing. Sorry. No wonder I need a hat. So, now you see?

Jenny Stiven:
That’s awesome. I should have done that.

David Read:
There we go. Darren’s got one. Jenny.

Darren Sumner:
I couldn’t see a hat, but I can find this [party blower].

David Read:
Jenny.

Jenny Stiven:
What?

David Read:
Ask your husband. Maybe he has one.

Jenny Stiven:
TJ, I need something like bells. Bells. Bells.

Darren Sumner:
We did it.

David Read:
Thank you, Tim.

Jenny Stiven:
Thanks, babes.

David Read:
We did it. Not alone, but we helped. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate you.

Tim Stiven:
You bet.

Darren Sumner:
By “we did it,” I mean we survived.

David Read:
Yes, we did indeed. Why isn’t this doing this thing here? That’s better. Why is that doing that? There you go. You’re all the way up. You bet. Perfect, guys. We are celebrating today. Jenny, this is your victory lap. You have been on this since Season Two, I think. So, what, about 2021, we’ve been having these conversations in some form, before we even had the name “State of the Gate.” I’ve gotta say thank you; you giving us a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path, through the void between two galaxies. Now we’re coming out of it. The information that you gave us was really invaluable because it showed us that things aren’t as simple as they seem to be. When we watch the news and things like that, there’s a lot of plumbing that has to work out for something like this, a new series, to be brought off the ground. Especially with moving MGM from where it was to where it is now and the time that that took and everything else. How do you feel today? How did you feel when you found out? What’s your mood like?

Jenny Stiven:
Giddy. Just so giddy. It’s not just about what you and I have done with Darren on Dial the Gate and done State of the Gate. You and I have been together since 2006 with Darren and I’ve been working on it since 2002. Anybody who was with Stargate Command or all those years where I was doing the tours where I would say, “Hey, it’s gonna come to you.” The thing, I gotta be honest, that I’m most excited about, is 240 countries. That’s the part that actually makes me…

Darren Sumner:
We gotta talk about that today.

David Read:
Everyone gets it at once.

Jenny Stiven:
I got so tired of saying, “It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming.” I was saying that before Stargate Command. When we were on old-school VHS and DVDs, we weren’t even being able to localize for all territories. I gotta be honest, as the international person, that is one of the number-one things I’m excited about. The number-two thing I’m excited about is, oh my God, our Stargate family. This is so amazing. This Stargate family, the Stargate fans, the Brad, Joe, Martin of it all. All of the people that we are involved with and have been involved with across cast, crew. David, obviously with your archival, we now have such a deep dive. That was something you wanted to do going back to 2015. Probably before then, but we talked about it. I found notes ’cause I went back and I looked. I meant to have all my pictures ready for this, but weekend. I went back and I looked at all our notes. 2015, in my handwritten notes in a notebook, I had written up a proposal to give to Michael Brown at MGM that said, “We need to do an audio archival of how we got here.” That’s 2015, 10 years ago. How’s that for reminiscing?

David Read:
How’s that for determination?

Jenny Stiven:
It makes me so happy because you made that happen. Darren, talk about keeping the flame alive. Irena Strobach, so many people around the world who pounded the drum nonstop. I know you guys have done this. I know Martin did this call-out. I feel particularly happy about that, that the Stargate family of fans was heard, which really honestly is all we wanted, was to be heard, and to be heard by one of the people that we trust the most, Martin, who has worked his ass off in this particular industry and worked it very much in a creative standpoint for sci-fi. I think that’s amazing. You can’t top it.

Darren Sumner:
It’s been so wonderful to see fans come from all corners, north and south and east and west, online to celebrate this news. The explosion, the outpouring, the tidal wave has been amazing to watch. As a fan who’s been around for 25 years, thank you. Thank you for the hopium when I needed that dose of hopium.

Jenny Stiven:
Are you kidding? As a fan, first of all, not a problem. I’ve always been there. People that know me know I’m on the podcast just walked by our window.

David Read:
She’s streaming.

Jenny Stiven:
They’re waving to me. The fact of being a fan, and David and Darren, you know this better than anybody, that I got asked to work on Stargate way back when nobody gave a you know what, hoot, about it except for MGM. When I was working with Fox and MGM, nobody cared. It was me and Michael Brown and one other internal person over there.

David Read:
You guys were tooling along.

Jenny Stiven:
We loved it and to be a fan and get asked to work on a show that you’re already a fan of, that’s crazy. So, dream come true, dream come true, dream come true. Then in 2015, for all of its faults, Stargate Command was an absolute joy to work on. Getting to do Dialing Home with David, Darren, getting to do interviews with you, getting to do some of the really cool stuff we did at Gatecons, being in Europe. It was crazy and it was a blast and that keeps happening. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, not sarcastically. I mean that genuinely with joy. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

Darren Sumner:
It’s not over yet.

Jenny Stiven:
No. That’s the whole point. I love it.

Darren Sumner:
Can we take a beat here at the top of the show and recap the news? ‘Cause I’m actually seeing comments already this morning from people who didn’t hear last week.

Jenny Stiven:
Yep.

Darren Sumner:
I posted Dial the Gate’s clip of Craig Veroni and somebody posted that they, through the Craig Veroni clip, discovered that Stargate’s coming back. People are gonna continue to come into this for months, I think, and discover this news later.

Jenny Stiven:
I have Amazon friends who’ve left who didn’t know till I posted. It’s fantastic, I think it’s amazing. I think for Stargate family, it’s amazing. We’re in that honeymoon period right now. Let’s keep that joy. Let’s keep that joy going. Let’s keep expectations very, very even.

David Read:
That’s why you’re here.

Jenny Stiven:
I wanna make sure that everybody knows that, first of all, Martin Gero is a producer, writer, showrunner. I don’t know if everybody knows, that means he’s in control. While Amazon might be the big money engine, somebody that he has worked with before, Safe House Pictures, is the production company behind it. That means control is with him. To be a showrunner, a writer and a producer, it happens more often now, but that didn’t used to happen a lot at all. In fact, Brad and Joe are some of the first ones that ever got a chance to do that. It means that we can trust Martin to write the way we love Stargate, have the stories be what we love and not in any manner, shape, or form disparage or revisit history in a way that we don’t want. I think that is the biggest thing I wanna do, is manage expectations on that level. Amazon Prime Video, from what I’m hearing, talking over the weekend to friends that are still working there, their goal is not to do anything but hand the keys to Martin. Dean and Roland are also executive producers, so there’s really a great balance here of the entire universe. Their Stargate movie was with Lionsgate. To have everybody come together like this – to have Dean and Roland and Brad and Joe and Martin – it’s crazy making. This is unheard of, that you have a movie crew, the TV universe crew, the new studio that bought you crew all on the same page. I really wanna do a shout-out to Nick Pepper, who I know we’ve talked about before on this show. He is one of those quiet, unsung heroes that I don’t think gets enough credit at Amazon TV and SVOD. He is someone who genuinely champions, internally, IP franchises like Stargate. He takes his time; he does his research. He pays attention to the fan base. It’s very hard to take me seriously when I’ve got this on my head.

Darren Sumner:
We’ll take it off.

Jenny Stiven:
No, no, no, no. I like it. I like the juxtaposition.

Darren Sumner:
You have the classic one.

Jenny Stiven:
As I was looking up at my picture, I’m like, “Ooh, I look like the Coneheads.” I have to say I didn’t give him enough credit. I gotta cop to that. Because, based on what I’m hearing, 18 months ago when they were having these meetings, and we actually had a “State of the Gate,” I went back and I looked, so it was right after or before this. We talked about the fact that we had heard that there was a rumor that The Expanse team and several other teams had come in and pitched. Amazon had sent out the call for production companies. That’s when Martin went in with Safe House Pictures, from what I’ve heard. I wanna give so much credit to Nick Pepper for being careful, for taking their time, for paying attention, for going and getting Dean and Roland. That’s what’s taken all this time, is to line everything up correctly. Again, I gotta say that is unheard of: A, that he was given that amount of time during, by the way, a regime change internally at Amazon twice since he’s been hired, maybe two and a half, three times if we count some of them. He stuck it out, got the team, did his research, got the fandom, listened to Martin and Brad and Joe when they recommended going to you guys to make the announcement. This is not what’s been happening.

Darren Sumner:
That was unbelievable to us.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s totally believable. Darren, I don’t think you guys ever give yourself enough credit, both of you. You both are very humble. I know you’re very proud of the impact you both have had on Stargate.

David Read:
We’re proud of what we do but we’re just a couple of guys. We’re doing what we do and what we happen to do is something that people happen to enjoy when we’re not screwing it up.

Jenny Stiven:
See, this is what I’m saying, both of you. Darren, I mean, both of you are the epitome of understatement. David, you and I can definitely do overstatement.

David Read:
There’s a time and place.

Jenny Stiven:
I think both of you don’t give yourselves enough credit.

David Read:
Darren, you and I, we’re awesome. We’ve done a good job?

Darren Sumner:
More or less.

David Read:
That’s fine. Can we move on from us?

Darren Sumner:
That’s for you, Jenny.

David Read:
We are awesome, Jenny.

Darren Sumner:
Let me follow up with Jenny with something that you said, which is the Nick Pepper of it all. He’s quoted in the press release, so he’s now on record talking about the new show that they’re doing. He’s head of streaming video U.S. TV inside Amazon. You also mentioned Safe House Pictures, which is those two other producers who were named in the press release that Stargate folks may not have heard of before, they’re Safe House Pictures. Your understanding of the way the timeline works is that Martin had a connection with Safe House and they went to Amazon?

Jenny Stiven:
This is my understanding.

Darren Sumner:
I was googling Safe House this week and I know they also had a deal set up. Safe House had their own Amazon deal.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s a three-year deal, which would’ve expired this year.

Darren Sumner:
As of last year, I think.

Jenny Stiven:
It would’ve expired this year.

Darren Sumner:
A year ago.

Jenny Stiven:
I think it’s interesting. I don’t know what’s happening with that because I did try to do a deep dive to find whether or not that had been extended. Martin can correct me if this is not the right timeline for sure. This is my understanding from cobbling together different sources, is that in that call-out to different production companies, Safe House was either one of them or they weren’t particularly happy with what was being put on the table. We do know that The Expanse guys got through at least one or two rounds of conversations. Either during that same timeframe or right after, my understanding is somebody internally that we know went to Martin and said, “Hey, this isn’t working and we need to figure something out.” I don’t know how much of that is true because there’s so much rumor circulating right now. I wouldn’t be surprised, because this person that we know at Amazon who survived from MGM knew Martin and had developed a relationship with Brad and Martin both, and Joe. I wouldn’t be shocked if that’s how it happened and basically, they went and said, “Do you have anything for us? Are you even interested?” It’s all very murky, but what I’ve heard so far is that 18 months ago, we do know for sure there was the call-out. Expanse and two others, I think JJ Abrams sent in. I know for a fact JJ Abrams sent in a concept deck. What either happened was Safe House went ahead and pitched as well, or somebody went to Martin and he brought in Safe House to do the pitch as well. What I love about Safe House Pictures is they’ve got amazing writers. They’ve got amazing experience in this space. Whether or not you liked Obi-Wan or not, there is some great writing and there is some great character development in the pictures that they’ve had. They did Novocaine. I think that there is an interesting combination here of Martin being the showrunner and the executive producer and writer, and bringing in Safe House Pictures as your production company. He looked for the right partner. You gotta find the right partner. It could have been that he went to one of Amazon’s go-tos, and he didn’t. It’s a much smaller production house, but actors and writers love them. It is a very creative, happy space to be in. The two owners are a husband-and-wife team. They are extremely supportive of creators; they have a great relationship in this industry.

Darren Sumner:
That’s great.

Jenny Stiven:
Again, under the radar. People, you don’t see a lot about them. They don’t have a regular website. It’s very cool that this is a group who does the work because they love it, end of story. That’s who’s partnered up and I think that’s amazing. Whoever internally, and again, I think it’s this person who we worked with who went and got Dean and Roland and all of these people. I do know that some of the people that we worked with at MGM during Stargate Command were consulted about how to move forward. Do we go talk to Dean? Do we go talk to Roland? That was brilliant. It was brilliant.

Darren Sumner:
Should we unpack Dean and Roland being involved in this show? I feel we could spend an hour on that.

David Read:
I’m really curious if you think this is done to say, “OK, this is a big deal,” or “we’re the divorced mom and dad getting back together.” Or is this on a creative level significant? You’ll see producers left and right. What do they do? They contributed financially or someone wanted their name on it. These are two heavy hitters who are responsible for this whole thing to begin with.

Jenny Stiven:
I don’t think they’d be mentioned unless they were gonna be consulted, because it’d be very easy to say, Dean Devlin’s production company, Electric Entertainment, will be distributing it or Roland was consulted. Instead, they’re listed as executive producers. I seriously doubt that it’s a money thing. I would bet dollars to donuts that there was a politics to this, which there should be. You want to make sure that you are including the people that are in the entire universe, not just one part of it. Just as much as we all would have been really pissed if it had just been Dean and Roland’s vision, it shouldn’t just be Brad and Joe and Paul and Robert Cooper’s vision. It needs to be a combination of “this is the entire universe; this is everything that’s happened.”

David Read:
And Origins according to Martin.

Jenny Stiven:
We all know the rumors. I read Roland’s script, it was a great script from 2017, it was a great script. My gut is, and certainly what I’m hearing, is that they are not going to be involved in a detail-oriented way. It’s going to be in a “we made sure that they’re involved. We make sure that if there are references to the universe that we pull in, that those are correct.” It’s quite possible, since they’re executive producers, that there is gonna be a stitching together of the universes. I don’t know that at all, but they’re executive producers. They’re not consulting.

David Read:
Wow. We’ve got some questions for you here and I think before we start burying them, I think we should start getting to some of them so we can weave these in and out through the conversation. Does that sound good?

Jenny Stiven:
Sure.

David Read:
SGUDistantHope for Jenny, “do you think this is something that they’re gonna fast-track? Do you estimate a trailer sometime this coming year for a ’27 release? What realistically is the timeframe? We’re not wanting to rush it per se, we wanna establish expectations. What can we do on our end to…” I’m assuming the more clicks the better. It’s like, “There is something here. Look at all these millions of views.”

Jenny Stiven:
Usually, you don’t make this kind of announcement unless you’re far enough along in pre-production that you have something coming within three to six months, whether it’s a teaser, a trailer, a concept art, something. From a marketing standpoint, it makes no sense to make this kind of a big announcement to a fan base that is active at 300,000, is reach at 1.2 million, unless you know that you’ve got something following up within the next year. I would say most productions at this level for sci-fi, even for streaming, take anywhere from 16 months to 3 years to get from concept to streaming. That’s if everything goes right. If they’ve spent the past 18 months working, and let’s be honest, at least 6 to 10 months of that was just political maneuvering and getting everybody lined up.

David Read:
“Salke!” I’m sorry. I’ve had some Saltines. I need some Saltines, please. Thank you. Just one.

Jenny Stiven:
We know.

David Read:
With some peanut butter.

Jenny Stiven:
We know.

Darren Sumner:
It took me a beat to figure that one out.

Jenny Stiven:
We know for a fact that at least a certain amount of time was spent on that. Let’s say best-case scenario, Martin’s been spending the past six months in pre-production. Then I would say best-case scenario, Q1, Q2, most likely San Diego Comic-Con.

David Read:
For a teaser.

Darren Sumner:
For a trailer or a teaser?

Jenny Stiven:
Or maybe a bigger announcement, cast announcements. Usually how this would go in a new marketing, this is not traditional anymore. This is streaming, digital, different way that people are doing cast and production announcements. You make this kind of an announcement and you start making cast announcements usually fairly quickly after. In addition to that, you start releasing either, especially for sci-fi, concept art or interviews with the writers. You wanna start releasing that kind of content that gives the fan base, that’s an existing fan base, something to hang their hat on. You also start releasing things that are new that talk about the story that will bring in new fans. There’ll be a two-pronged marketing approach here. Then you’ve got international. I think there’s no way you make an announcement like this unless you’ve got that marketing plan in place, period. They have to.

Darren Sumner:
Let me say Martin has said as much to us. He said they’re not gonna disappear. Now that the announcement’s made, we’re not gonna go a year without hearing from him. He told us he’s got a stack of concept art that he’s excited to get out there for fans to start to take a look at. I imagine concept art starts to come with a few plot details maybe. Who’s in the world, where we are in the galaxy. But he’s said as much; he wants to keep the lines of communication open with the fans and continue to share stuff with us as they go through that process.

Jenny Stiven:
Let’s also be super, super transparent about the fact that who’s he got on his team, who we know for a fact is daily talking to Stargate fans, is Joe Mallozzi. Joe’s gonna be obviously involved. They’re not idiots. They have to know that you have to feed Joe good information. He’s gonna have his own work that he’s doing that he can contribute and get out there and start to get the plot, all kinds of storyline conversations, or let’s say world-building. Just that.

David Read:
He’s always been the party wagon in terms of he’s the one with the chocolate parties. He’s the one, the “Come on over, let’s …” He’s the one who’s expanding the tent and that’s what he does best, socially. It makes sense to give him that task.

Jenny Stiven:
He will, like we will, hit existing fan bases. What I’m gonna be fascinated to see is, how do they go after a new fan base? So, where, for instance, are you gonna start to see paid media? I would assume, I would hope, that they would do it on something like Fandom, where you start doing paid media in sci-fi, fantasy, adventure wikis. Or fast channels like Roku or DirecTV sci-fi channels; that you would start to see dedicated paid media that reaches new fan bases. Gaming, comics, there’s so much out there to go after, obviously YouTube. You’ve also got some new distribution channels out there like Fable. You’ve got very interesting conversational interview distribution channels. Amazon’s becoming very quickly an expert in this area, of really knowing how to do international marketing across multiple avenues as opposed to, quote-unquote, the old standards and traditional. So, I’ll be really interested. Honestly, Safe House Pictures has done a great job at that too. If you look at Novocaine’s marketing, I loved the movie. It didn’t get as much play as it should’ve, but their marketing was brilliant. They did a great job of tying into certain fan bases who followed the stars, things like that. I think one of the biggest announcements is gonna be the cast announcements. World-building and concept art is gonna be important to us. New fans, sure, they’ll be interested, but what’s gonna catch their attention to dedicate time to this is, what’s the story? Who’s in it? That’s what I’ll be very interested to see what their timing is for that. The obvious, would be San Diego Comic-Con, but I would imagine they do cast announcements prior to that.

David Read:
I would hope that one of the two of them would be there. By the next San Diego Comic-Con in ’27, I would expect the first episode of this thing would be out by then.

Jenny Stiven:
To go back, Darren and David, to your question, we talked about pre-production, production announcements, marketing. In terms of actual production, Amazon’s pretty good at once you make this announcement, it’s usually within 12 months to 14 months.

Darren Sumner:
The ball’s really rolling. There’s a spectrum. I know that a lot of fans watching are used to some of the bigger tentpole shows like Rings of Power and Fallout having long production cycles. We get 8 to 10 episodes every 2 years if we’re lucky.

David Read:
Two and a half.

Darren Sumner:
Then on the other end of that spectrum, I was telling David last week about Beacon 23, which was an MGM+ show with Lena Headey. They announced that thing and it was on in four months.

David Read:
Wow.

Darren Sumner:
They produced two seasons within about 18 months.

David Read:
How complex is it? Does it have a lot of visuals and things like that? Is it of the caliber of…

Jenny Stiven:
It’s very character-driven.

David Read:
In terms of visually and in terms of post-production work, does it make sense that something like that could happen in four months? Or was that, “That was really fast for what I got on the screen there for that.”

Darren Sumner:
It’s a little more scaled back. It’s characters on a sort of distant space station; only two people on the space station. Visitors occasionally come on, but there’s no big, epic, sprawling battle of Asuras.

Jenny Stiven:
Especially based on how giddy Brad was about the budget for VFX…

David Read:
Giddy is the word.

Jenny Stiven:
It was so cute.

David Read:
He was a kid in a candy store.

Jenny Stiven:
I loved seeing that because, again, you’re talking about people who have been in this business for 30 years and they’re still excited. That’s what you want. You want people who are excited. The fact that Martin Gero, who honestly right now had his choice of projects, coming off Quantum Leap, coming off Blindspot, coming off, shoot, what was the other one? Breathe. He had his choice, from what my understanding is, of different projects, and he wanted to do this. That’s right there, that’s amazing. That means he believes in what he’s been told of how this is gonna get to air, of how this is gonna work, of how he trusts the process. He’s very notoriously careful about who he hitches his wagon to, to distribute.

David Read:
He’s not an idiot.

Jenny Stiven:
No.

David Read:
He knows what he’s doing.

Jenny Stiven:
He is a creative director, a creatives writer, a creatives producer, someone who nurtures those relationships and keeps everybody very happy on set. If there’s gonna be a really good combination, which please, I hope that’s what this is, of the found family, sci-fi, fun, adventure, we have humor, but we have exploring some really interesting themes; this group is the one that’s gonna do it. I trust it. I keep getting excited.

Darren Sumner:
I was very encouraged to see Martin so excited. Excited about the show, excited about coming back, but also confident about working with Amazon. Folks have their opinions about Amazon and their other shows. I keep coming around to people who are worried about the location that the show is gonna be, and saying, “It’s not really so much about the streamer or the network, it’s about the creatives who are in charge. If you don’t like a show, look at who’s running it. Look at who’s writing it. This is Martin and Martin Gero knows Stargate, loves Stargate, is, as you say, ‘at the top of his game.'” I have so much confidence because he has confidence in going and pitching this show to Prime Video.

Jenny Stiven:
Let’s be super, super honest about Amazon. It is a business. It is more of a business than any of the other, quote-unquote, studio/streamers/distribution channels in the entertainment industry right now. Yet, to be honest, it is much more supportive of creatives than Netflix is. It is much more supportive of story-driven lines than Netflix and others.

David Read:
That sounds like such a non-sequitur. Why do you think that is? Is it because they’re not bogged down by all the historical baggage of going through project after project? Are they like Apple in that regard where it’s like, look we have three years of stuff behind us. Let’s try something else.

Jenny Stiven:
That’s part of it. That’s absolutely part of it. You’ve got a Creative Studios that separated itself right before COVID. So, the internal machinations of the management aside, in 2017, 2018, Amazon Creative Studios became, in essence, an independent profit and loss within Amazon. The minute that happened, and that by Jen Salke, et cetera, that became a much more independent decision-making entity internally. As long as it is, at the end of the day, making enough money that it doesn’t freak everybody out on the board of directors, then they leave it alone. There are certainly some people in Amazon who are more bottom-line-driven and then there are others who are much more creative. Steve Stark’s still over there. There are a lot of people over there who are very creative. What encourages me, I keep coming back to Nick Pepper did not lose his job through two rounds of changes, and I think that speaks very highly of him. That speaks very highly of their trust in him. The fact that Martin trusts Nick says a lot. I think that we need to remember that Amazon is much more willing to stick out a show that is not necessarily a success right out of the gate than almost any other distributor or studio right now. That’s unusual.

Darren Sumner:
I’m still waiting for Season Two of The Peripheral. Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy’s show, was renewed and then canceled.

Jenny Stiven:
I know.

David Read:
Frustrated by two, two and a half, three years between seasons. What realistically is the likelihood that if this thing is as big a success out of the gate, pardon the pun, as we hope it is, what is the likelihood that a Season Two could be expected 12 to 14 months after Season One premiered? Or is that not a thing anymore?

Jenny Stiven:
I think it’s very high. I don’t think that this group would’ve signed on if it wasn’t possible.

David Read:
So, those kinds of shows do exist now that have the kind of budgets that this one could hopefully have?

Jenny Stiven:
The lower the budget, the faster the turnaround. If you’ve got an incredibly high budget, like Rings of Power, that also has eyeballs on it, that also has levels of Tolkien Estate. You’ve got way too many fingers in the pie on that one.

David Read:
Lots of red pens that have to sign off on it.

Jenny Stiven:
This is why, again, I have so much faith in this right now. Knock on wood, I hope I am not proven wrong. They have Dean and Roland, they’ve got Brad, Joe, Martin. They’ve set this up for success because the people who they would have run afoul of are on board. They came to you guys to make the announcement so they do not run afoul of the fan base. They’re not stupid. They’re handling this very, very carefully. The fact that he kept this secret for 18 months, and I went back and I scraped everything I could find. I’m sorry. There was one rumor.

David Read:
Really?

Jenny Stiven:
It was an in-passing, “we heard Martin was meeting with them. They reached out.” It was a “reached-out-to-him” rumor.

David Read:
That only makes sense.

Jenny Stiven:
It meant nothing. We already knew that they were talking to Brad.

David Read:
Why not?

Jenny Stiven:
Why not? The fact that they’ve done that and they took 18 months to get here means that they’re very aware of the pitfalls. They are very aware. I don’t know if you guys caught it, but in one of the quotes, they said they are prepared for multiple seasons.

David Read:
Yes.

Jenny Stiven:
That means they’ve already prepped multiple story arcs. That means they’ve got this ready to go. There is no way that Brad and Joe would have signed on to something that they thought, especially having been through what they’ve been through with Travelers and Dark Matter and everything that they’ve been through, if they didn’t think that this was going to be continued. Secondly, Martin’s got work to do. Safe House Pictures has work to do. They’re not gonna waste time doing a two and a half, three years in between each season. They don’t have the money nor the time to do that. Go back, Darren, to your point. Look at the creative team. Look at the 18 months preparation that they’ve talked about. These guys have this as buttoned up as you possibly can be buttoned up for something like this.

David Read:
What do you think is really going on here beneath the surface? Do you have a feeling that what has premiered in terms of a show that’s going to be coming our way is one piece in a satellite or system of live action or perhaps animated or pieces of content? Or do you think that this is the only thing that they are planning at this stage and not really interested in anything else? If you were to read tea leaves here.

Jenny Stiven:
Amazon doesn’t think linearly. They think multi-channel. I don’t know. I will say I’m a bit surprised based on some of the rumors that were circulating, based on meetings internally, but I mean, there’s always meetings. Like we’ve talked about before, there’s always meetings. You can’t bank anything on an internal marketing, production meeting. Those happen all the time.

David Read:
You get noise if you try.

Jenny Stiven:
They’re literally internal pitch meetings. During Jen Salke, and she’s gone, a real focus on doing a movie and then a series for a very long time. I don’t know if Martin was part of those conversations, it is quite possible that that hasn’t gone away. They’re starting with the series and they’ll look at a movie. Amazon is very much the anti-Netflix when it comes to they wanna get stuff into theaters. They are very aware, and this came out in an end-of-year, I think it was, Parrot Analytics report, that when it goes into theaters, it increases your streaming watch views and actual purchases by anywhere from 20 to 38%.

David Read:
Is it because more eyeballs are on it? Is that why something like that occurs? Uh-oh. We lost her.

Darren Sumner:
Looking frozen.

David Read:
But she looks good, so there’s that.

Darren Sumner:
There are worse frames to get frozen on.

David Read:
There is.

Darren Sumner:
Jenny.

David Read:
Jenny.

Darren Sumner:
Jenny. Hey. Hey, wake up.

David Read:
Your dog’s adorable.

Darren Sumner:
OK, we’ll get her back.

David Read:
How’s it going, buddy?

Darren Sumner:
We’ll get her back.

David Read:
Yes, indeed.

Darren Sumner:
She’s saying if you take a movie and put it in theaters first, then the analytics are saying, overall big picture when it comes to streaming on the whole, it does better. You get that percentage more return on your investment if it’s had a theatrical window.

David Read:
It’s probably had more eyeballs on it. Move your chair over for a minute until she comes back. I’m not gonna realign the shot. There you go.

Darren Sumner:
Don’t you have it full screen on yourself?

David Read:
Yes, I can do that. Pete’s sake.

Darren Sumner:
Toggle back and forth.

David Read:
To what?

Darren Sumner:
You and me full screen.

David Read:
I don’t have you full screen. I have to reconfigure.

Darren Sumner:
You don’t have me on full screen?

David Read:
No, I do not. This is me talking out loud here because she can’t. I’m wondering if the possibility that they’re executive producers on this one, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, because they may actually be doing a movie as well, and those guys are doing that.

Darren Sumner:
They wanna do something else. Wouldn’t that be brilliant? We know Roland has wanted to do a movie for a long time.

David Read:
They could roll them together as a multiverse or as something else.

Darren Sumner:
They could do something. Whether that movie is from the TV universe that Martin is now telling his story in or if they really do some kind of multiverse thing, which would blow my mind if they found some way to take those universes and pull them together. Here she comes.

David Read:
Here she is. Hey, girl.

Jenny Stiven:
Sorry about that.

David Read:
Can you rotate?

Jenny Stiven:
Sorry. Oops. Hello. Why is it not helping me?

David Read:
Is your landscape locked?

Jenny Stiven:
Yeah, probably. Hold on. Sorry, we lost all internet connection.

David Read:
You’re kidding.

Darren Sumner:
Internet dropped out?

Jenny Stiven:
Yep.

Darren Sumner:
David will fix this up.

David Read:
I’ll fix this up.

Darren Sumner:
We were talking about the success. You were telling us when you give a project a theatrical window it tends to have a better overall return. We were then speculating on Dean and Roland. Maybe those guys are being brought in with an eye toward some sort of theatrical Stargate in the future that is connected to the TV universe that’s building out.

David Read:
Or maybe the movie universe.

Darren Sumner:
Or maybe they’re looking to do some kind of combination of the movie universe and the TV universe so that they live together, if that’s a multiverse or however they tell the story, so that it feels organic when then someone like a Roland Emmerich goes and makes a Stargate movie for Amazon.

David Read:
Before you respond, Jenny, Dan Ben asks for us to clarify: What do you mean by stitching universes together? I think that this applies to that. Everyone assumes that the TV universe followed from the movie, which was how “Children of the Gods” was designed. You could make an argument that Jack O’Neill with two Ls really couldn’t get his hair to stand up like that. So, what’s going on there?

Jenny Stiven:
So, two things that I was trying to go for with that is that the stitching together is allowing both of these universes to exist in whatever the new storyline is. What I would hope they would be doing, and that’s where I was going, Darren and David, to your point, is that theatrically always boosts, ironically, streaming. Netflix saw that with K-Pop Demon Hunters and Amazon saw it a long time ago, especially when they won some awards. Wow, I’m super close up.

David Read:
If you could put the camera back where it was.

Jenny Stiven:
Sorry. I’m trying to get it to some place where I can actually… Here, hold on. I’m gonna talk for a second.

David Read:
Go ahead and talk to us.

Darren Sumner:
Did K-Pop Demon Hunters have a theatrical window?

Jenny Stiven:
It did not.

Darren Sumner:
It did not?

Jenny Stiven:
It did not. What they did was they released it as a sing-along musical and ended up making 20 somewhat million or more in that release. All of a sudden, Ted Sarandos is like, “I get it. Maybe there is something to this. Let’s release things theatrically.” Amazon already knew that because Amazon has released theatrically, it has won awards theatrically, been nominated for Oscars, the whole bit. I think what ends up happening here is that there’s no way that Amazon isn’t thinking about a multi-channel, multi-distribution package. They always do. Then on top of that, the fact that they have Dean and Roland coming in is really interesting to me. It could be something as simple as “we wanted to make sure they were involved, we wanted to make sure they knew about it, we wanted to make sure that we were talking with them because they are the originators, and so we wanna do the right thing.” It could be that simple. I believe that there’s probably going to be, this is a guess, something that ties together, even if it’s like “Moebius.” Whatever it is that they do that they tie together. I read that original script that Roland wrote in 2017; it tied to the TV universe.

David Read:
How? Through “Moebius?”

Jenny Stiven:
Through Daniel.

David Read:
How through Daniel?

Jenny Stiven:
Through Daniel.

David Read:
Quantum mirroring or…?

Darren Sumner:
Multiverse kind of thing.

Jenny Stiven:
I can’t talk about it.

David Read:
That’s fair.

Jenny Stiven:
What it did was it allowed for both universes to exist.

David Read:
Interesting. And clarified that they were separate.

Jenny Stiven:
There were bridges, story bridges. What I think that that is indicative of is that there’s a possibility that somewhere down the line, Amazon would like this to be a franchise that grows beyond just streaming. Amazon is currently leveraging MGM and its library to do exactly that across multiple franchises. Legally Blonde, obviously. Poltergeist is in pre-production development. They’re looking to expand these franchises to be multi-channel franchises. So, that means licensing and merchandising, that means streaming and theatrical. It means meeting the fans where they are at events. I think that the world is their oyster, literally. I would not say that I don’t know anything. These are educated guesses based on the fact that they’ve got the OG crowd together and the fact that Nick Pepper spent 18 months developing this very carefully. That speaks a lot to a plan, a broader plan.

Darren Sumner:
That’s exactly what I wanna hear. I want my franchise back, to be honest.

David Read:
But I also don’t want it on 52 weeks a year.

Darren Sumner:
You don’t want it diluted.

David Read:
No.

Darren Sumner:
You wanna obviously keep the quality up and not burn out the audience.

David Read:
Exactly right. I don’t want five Stargate shows on at the same time, but something definitely every year.

Darren Sumner:
David, I remember you and I were sitting in Rob Cooper’s office, I think after an interview had ended, or maybe it was during the interview, and there was this sort of jubilance about getting Stargate Worlds, the MMORPG, up and off the ground. This was the point in 2007 or ’08 where they were moving SG-1 to direct-to-video movies. They were looking at wrapping Atlantis and moving it to regular ongoing DVD movies. They were getting ready to launch SGU. This was 2008 or 2009. They were consulting and Stargate Worlds’ story was gonna be canon to the Stargate universe. Brad and Rob talked about that as four pillars of the stool that kept the Stargate franchise steady and stable. As much as folks have spent the last 15-plus years saying, “Man, I really lament losing Stargate Atlantis. I really lament losing Stargate Universe and not getting the end of that story,” what I felt deepest in the inner parts of me is losing the franchise. I was hopeful for that window that some version of Stargate was gonna be with us for 30 years.

Jenny Stiven:
That’s right. I will give massive credit to Michael Brown for having vision at MGM to try to bring it back in 2015. It was unfortunately a failed effort on all of our parts, but it wasn’t for lack of trying to get together this exact crowd. It was definitely trying to keep the franchise alive. Honestly, that was the internal meeting. It was, “What can we do to keep this franchise alive?” MGM was smart enough to know that, they didn’t have the wherewithal to support it. Now they have the wherewithal to support it with Amazon. MGM hangs its own sign within Amazon. It’s still its own little mini-independent studio. Think of Fox Searchlight when it was part of Fox, or Focus Features that’s part of Universal. Jordan Peele’s company, he’s got a deal with Universal, but he’s got his own production company. This is the same concept. MGM exists within Amazon Creative Studios as its own machine. It’s got its own profit and loss; it’s its own silo. What it is focused on is what it was bought for. Not to go down this rabbit hole, but ultimately that’s why, unfortunately, Barbara and her team sold Bond to Amazon. Literally the entire reason was to get the library and build upon those franchises, because that was not something Amazon had. They knew that MGM was a jewel in the crown, they knew that. It’s not Warner Brothers, it’s not Universal, we get it, but MGM is literally, and is described as this, as “the little engine that could.” It’s got this library, regardless of what it got sold in the ’80s. It still has this library that is amazing and franchises that have, right now, existing fan bases. That was what was most important to Amazon. These are existing fan bases that they can capitalize upon that have pockets that will be willing to spend.

Darren Sumner:
Wow.

Jenny Stiven:
That’s what it comes down to.

David Read:
Ugly Pig: “When Martin’s new show is a huge success,” when, not if, Ugly Pig says, “do you think…”

Jenny Stiven:
I love that

David Read:
“How likely is it that Amazon might be open to projects that tie up loose SGU ends?” What is the likelihood that those satellite ideas would eventually find their way back around to addressing some things that happened in the in-betweens of the years between the last active franchise and this one?

Jenny Stiven:
That’s the question of the hour. I think that there are two options. Guys, I know that you want this to happen. I know that everybody would love to have all of these loose ends tied up, but I think that one of the big issues is that we’ve got Martin trying to serve many masters, basically. The easiest way to do that is to… Sorry. Hold on one second. TJ. Tim. Coyote in the front yard.

David Read:
Uh-oh. He’s probably looking for that roadrunner

Jenny Stiven:
He’s looking for our dog.

David Read:
Keenan’s outside. Go get him.

Jenny Stiven:
No. I don’t… Ooh. OK. So, I think what Martin needs to do potentially is a whole brand-new story, because the problem is that if he’s only doing… and I don’t mean this as a derogatory term, but if they’re only doing fan service, you’re not paying attention to the story. That is not to say that those aren’t good stories. I wanna be super careful. As someone who does this for a living, my title is fandom development and business development. I am hardcore about the fans. I do not see anything wrong with fan service if it serves the story. The problem is if you’re doing a fan service end to something or to tie up a loose end to help the fans, that’s problematic if you haven’t deeply rooted it in the story. I think that if we go back to the second point, what we were talking about earlier, that they’re looking at the full franchise. I think there are opportunities to finish those stories in other ways. It could be something as simple, I can’t remember, one of you guys mentioned this the other day on the show. It could be something as simple as an off-camera, “We ran into Eli and he got home safe.” I’m being very flip. There are many ways to resolve these stories that would not necessarily make us thrilled, but at least it would tie it up in a way that serves the current story. He’s very clear this is not a reboot and the word they’ve kept using, even Nick used it, was continuation. I do believe that leaves it open. I do believe it leaves the door open. I don’t think any of us should speculate about anything when it comes to that and have any expectations one way or another. I know that’s really hard.

David Read:
I wanted to air those feelings so that they don’t continue to fester under moist sheets.

Jenny Stiven:
No, no, no. Definitely we should talk about it. I wanna make sure that we’re mitigating our expectations about it. You know me, I’m always gonna wanna be transparent about what are the issues that the fans are most concerned about. I think that there’s a legion of things that fans have questions about: Where are all these characters now? What’s gonna be considered canon? Are we gonna acknowledge Carter’s promotions? All of those things are very important questions. I keep going back to Martin spent 18 months putting this package together, putting this team together. There’s no way that he brought Brad and Joe on, outside of Rob, the architects of all three shows, if it wasn’t to ensure that the storyline and the world building he’s creating ties nicely and correctly in canon. It may answer canon questions we’ve had, which would be amazing.

David Read:
That’s what we think will eventually happen.

Jenny Stiven:
That would be really cool, I would love that. I think we keep hope up. Unfortunately, I think we are cynical enough as a fan base to know that there are things that we will not see, whatever those are. I don’t know what those are. I’m saying we know that that’s gonna happen; we’re not gonna make everybody happy.

David Read:
Here’s the thing. Before you continue, Darren.

Darren Sumner:
Go for it.

David Read:
I asked a poll in the live chat, and it was, “At the end of the day, what’s more important to you, a new story or tying up loose ends?” Jenny, what do you think the majority was?

Jenny Stiven:
I hope it was new story.

David Read:
61% currently.

Jenny Stiven:
Good.

David Read:
In my opinion, it is because we already have the knowledge in place that it’s within the same… I don’t wanna say universe. We have to be very particular about our wording. What’s in the past is in the past and happened. What happened, happened. Having said that, 64% is a new story. When the rubber meets the road, that is the most important thing to the majority of them. While the other one still is as well, they’re willing to let Martin take their hand and try something new. I feel like we’re talking about a new handicap device that we’re gonna be using for the rest of our lives. It’s a TV show. We have to put this thing into its proper perspective.

Jenny Stiven:
Pretend it was 2011, guys, and Martin takes over as executive producer and writer and this is the next franchise series. That’s where we are. If it was 2011 and that’s what was happening, and the direct-to-video Redemption Atlantis movie happened, and we’re moving on. We are within canon. Sorry, Darren, I know you wanted to say something. We’re within canon and I think we stick with that. We trust Martin. I have to be honest, having been in this business for a long time, I don’t trust the process. I think that is a stupid-ass phrase, because the process is constantly changing and the process depends very deeply on who is part of that process, who are the movers, the shakers, the writers. I trust this team, that’s the bottom line.

Darren Sumner:
That’s a great point. What I was gonna say was I’m so glad that you went there in terms of bringing up this dynamic between having a reboot and having a continuation. I’m actually making my video this week on this exact topic, ’cause I think it’s neither. A continuation only in the sense that we’re returning to the same universe. We have the same characters in it. Hopefully we’re gonna get a General Carter, hopefully we’re gonna get Dr. McKay. Maybe a reference to “we were working on this project with Eli Wallace last month.” That’s all. That’s the hint that Eli’s alive.

David Read:
Which implies that he’s OK.

Darren Sumner:
But it’s Martin’s story. It’s a new story. There’s a chance, so you’re saying there’s a chance, that if the franchise has room to grow, then there’s space, especially with Brad and Joe on board as well. There’s space for maybe, maybe, that story gets told another way another time. SGU is Brad’s story, Brad and Rob’s story. Maybe that gets told in live action or animation or some other format, in another place, in another time. This helps to make that possible, but Martin’s show is not that.

David Read:
If I am, to be impartial, thinking of that, I am not as important to this franchise as the eight-year-old who’s going to watch Martin’s show. I am not. I have the same value as a human being, that’s not what I’m talking about. In terms of the life expectancy and the capacity for future ambulatory movement of this franchise, you gotta consider the eight-year-old little girl, the eight-year-old little boy who’s watching this. They are more important than we are and we’re looking at that with, “I want. It’s me, me, me.” We know. We are here. We have 309 people here right now who are here because they’ve been affected by the stories that have come before. Those kids deserve those stories.

Jenny Stiven:
What we talked about early on, and you two have talked about this as well, there are 300,000 active fans right now digitally in this world. 300,000. That’s a lot. That’s more than some shows get right now. There are 1.2 to 1.3 million reached, meaning they’re not active, but they’re there. They would come back.

David Read:
Isn’t that estimate a few years old too?

Jenny Stiven:
No. That’s actually of six months ago.

Darren Sumner:
Prime Video’s premier video is up over a million now when you combine the first three instances of it.

David Read:
Much more than.

Jenny Stiven:
The reason those numbers are accurate – in fact, there were some estimates at 1.9 million; I would not go there – is because of the repeats and where it’s being played. Amazon, and this is something we should talk about, Amazon knew 18 months ago that this was possible. MGM, when it was purchased, had up to five- to seven-year contracts that they had to fulfill worldwide with its content. Not just Stargate, but with all content. That’s up now. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Stargate is in a lot of places. It’s not just on one distribution channel; it’s on Fast channels, it’s on Comet, it’s on Pluto. There’s a lot of places and I think that was a very deliberate play. Remember, these guys think very long term. The president of distribution is Chris Ottinger, who was president of MGM. So, you think about the very long-term planning that’s going on here of, “OK. We know there’s this fan base, but it’s plateaued. Let’s get Stargate back out there. Let’s get it on as many platforms.” It’s also playing internationally in places it never did. What they did was they renegotiated international contracts and got it out there. That’s very long-term thinking. This was probably starting in ’23, ’24, ’cause I think most of those were up in ’24, ’23 and ’24, the existing contracts. So, they knew that this was coming down the pipe. Now you’ve got it out there and you’re getting new fans, as well as re-energizing existing fans. I will guarantee you that while they didn’t come to you guys six months ago, they were talking about you six months ago. “This is who we need to go to. This is the marketing plan. This is who we need to court.” Great. Now, that’s your core. Nobody talks about marketing quadrants anymore, but when you’re talking about your marketing concentric circles, you have your core audience, which is us; the original audience. Then you have that next concentric circle out, which is my kid’s generation, because I showed it to them and they’re engaged. Then you have that next concentric circle out, which is, they just discovered it via Fast channels, via Comet, Pluto, whatever it was. Then there’s that farthest one out, which is brand-new fans who don’t know Stargate from a hole in the wall and that’s who Amazon wants to go after.

David Read:
As they should.

Jenny Stiven:
That’s an 18 to 34 demographic. As much as you and I would love for it to be the eight-year-old girl, ’cause trust me, I would love to have that eight-year-old girl watching this, the demographic they’re going after is 18 to 34. Male and female, they are gonna hardcore press for that, which means you’re gonna see advertising and paid media for that. They may go 25 to 44, because that’s got deeper pockets in an economy that is pushing it right now. My son is 23. He does not have luxury money to spend on a subscription for Prime Video. Their internal research and data analysts are top of the game in this industry. We go to Amazon to get their numbers. When they’re looking at who’s gonna spend the money for a Prime Video subscription, I’m gonna be very interested to see what kind of packages they offer with Stargate. I’m guessing that they’re gonna say, “Get the first ba-ba-ba-ba with this. Not just the seven-day free trial, but we’ll give you this,” or they might come to existing fan base and say that. I wanna watch and see what are they doing to engage that existing core base differently from engaging the new 25 to 44 audience that they wanna go after. I’m gonna be fascinated to see how are they marketing differently, what are they doing. Then you’ve got 240 territories, countries.

Darren Sumner:
We see on the YouTube backend; we get demographics on who’s watching these videos. All the new stuff that’s hitting last week, I’m noticing in GateWorld’s demographics that it’s no surprise, it’s the existing fans. A lot of us who have been around the block a few times…

David Read:
We’re the ones who’ve got our ears on the ground. The rest of us are finding out now.

Darren Sumner:
Age 35 to 64 is the largest chunk of the audience that’s watched those videos so far. It makes complete sense, of course, that they need a new audience that’s bigger. They’re gonna go after that audience. They’re gonna market to 25- to 34-year-olds differently, 18- to 34-year-olds differently. It’s gotta happen. I think Stargate fans who are excited about getting some of those questions answered, seeing some familiar faces again, we gotta realize the new audience is it; the new audience is the whole ballgame. I love fan service. I loved Picard Season Three. I also thought it was a great story that was very well told, but I’m in for the fan service. But you know what? If we get a show from Martin that is fan service, that’s wall to wall for us…

David Read:
It’s gonna die.

Jenny Stiven:
It’ll die.

Darren Sumner:
That’s what that is. That’s a canceled show.

David Read:
You can’t expect people to go and watch 354 stories. You can’t. But if this thing is successful, SGUDistantHope, Jenny, would it increase the likelihood of something like a proper digital restoration of Stargate SG-1?

Darren Sumner:
That’d be a great question.

David Read:
I know a lot of it was shot in Super 16 and such like that. Some parts of that up-res, in some sections it’s a mess.

Jenny Stiven:
You and I went through that. We went through the trenches on that, because we were working with them on that at the time when all of that happened. I was at Fox when we did the original up-res. I was at MGM when we did the second round. So, couple of things. I think that that would make a huge difference for existing fans. I think it would make a huge difference for distribution channels that require a certain amount of quality. Especially when you’re looking at Asia. Stargate had an enormous audience in Japan and South Korea and Brazil, in Latin America when I was doing international for it.

David Read:
I lived in Asia. I never met one Stargate fan, but I’ll take your word for it.

Jenny Stiven:
It was hilarious because it dropped like a rock. We had probably a 1.3, something like that, rating in Japan and South Korea, which is huge.

David Read:
That’s good for Japan

Jenny Stiven:
Combined. So, we’re talking Japan, South Korea, Philippines, that include everything. That’s pretty huge for Asia. The minute that SGU happened, boop, it was gone. It wasn’t going to appeal at the time to that audience. Latin America held on for quite a while. Brazil held on. Mexico held on. I think in Asia, particularly, unless we’re creating and providing a quality value, literally in the technology, I think it’s a hard sell. I do know it’s distributing in Japan right now and it’s definitely distributing in Brazil and Mexico. I’m not sure that that does anything for new fans particularly. I think honestly, if I had my druthers, what I would love to see is for them to be doing supplemental material to appeal to 18- to 45-year-olds. Do supplemental material that gives the backstory, that gets it out there so you don’t have to watch 300 and some odd episodes. As much as I love doing it, we’re not gonna get these guys to do it. When you look at the rise, and we can all debate micro dramas, whether they’re good or not. But when you look at the rise in Asia of micro dramas and in Mexico of micro dramas, do a recap that’s a micro drama. 70 minutes total. It’s in the three to six months leading up to Stargate and you’ve captured in 4K on mobile. You’ve captured an audience who knew nothing about you. I think that’s how we’re gonna get that audience. The existing fan base, we need to do better by this existing fan base. It is obvious that they know that because they came to you guys first. They kept this secret; they didn’t talk to anybody new. They didn’t even go to some of the super high-end geek outlets that are on YouTube. They went to you guys, which means they know the value of the existing audience. They know the value of the existing fan base. Nothing happens. You have to leverage this fan base. Nothing happens next. You can’t even get to a new fan base if we’re not out there evangelizing.

David Read:
It’s true. Ilurvemv, “Since we’re on the subject, Jenny, how involved do you think Brad and Joe will be as consulting producers?” Do you think there’s a likelihood of any actual writing?

Jenny Stiven:
I think Joe will be very involved. I don’t know, and if I did, I couldn’t talk about it. I think Joe will be very involved. I think Brad will be a creative consultant. I think what’s gonna happen is the same as what was being pitched in 2021-22, which is that Brad would be brought in as a creative consultant to make sure that the canon is accurate, to make sure that the storylines. Again, these two trust Martin, so that’s the other thing. The super cool thing I keep looping back to here is this is a guy who knows the canon inside out and backwards. He literally started as a script supervisor. This is amazing. This is a guy who grew up doing this on Stargate.

David Read:
He did.

Jenny Stiven:
When I first met him. This makes me feel old.

David Read:
We were all kids.

Jenny Stiven:
He was a baby. The thing is that he grew up in this canon, so Brad and Joe fully, 100% trust him. I think Brad would be a creative consultant. He may contribute story ideas. Who knows? Brad’s extraordinarily prolific. It may be that he had story ideas that were banked and waiting to go. I would bet dollars to donuts that Joe will be involved in a writer’s room. I don’t think you bring on Joe unless you’re gonna actually use that brain of his. It’s not worth it. Why would you bring him on to be a creative consultant for writing? I don’t know what that would be. I have no idea. This is an educated guess. Basically, my entire interaction so far has been to say, “Oh my God, I’m so excited,” and them saying, “Yay.” I don’t know anything. I would say that if they were smart, they would leverage Joe for sure. Remember, Joe and Brad were Martin’s mentors, literally. I would guess, like I would love to bring on some of my mentors in a big project that I get handed, that I would bet that they have not day-to-day involvement, but story development maybe or canon development. Marketing, for sure. I could see Joe with marketing ideas definitely. But how they’re involved on a day-to-day basis, I doubt it a lot, because they’ve got their own projects that are ongoing and they are listed as consultants.

Darren Sumner:
I could see them potentially in a writer’s room. I know that in some of the later seasons of Stargate’s production, Brad, for example, did not write a ton of scripts, but he was in the writer’s room and he was an important part of those guys spinning stories on the table and figuring out, “OK, you’re gonna go run with this one.”

Jenny Stiven:
One of the things that we talked about a lot, you guys, during Stargate Command is really sharing with fans about what happened behind the scenes for production. That was one of the most fun things I think we did; really talking with fans about how does production work, breaking stories, how does that writer’s room. Joe was a huge part of that. He really pulled back the curtain to show how are these stories done. One of the places I could see the two of them really contributing is story development, breaking stories in a writer’s room. They’re not writing the scripts, but they’re helping to make sure that the story development is in canon.

David Read:
There you go. I wanna take a pause from Stargate for a second. Jenny, I would like to bring in somebody. Let me go ahead.

Jenny Stiven:
One of my favorite people

David Read:
I let her know but then I realized that I don’t have her cell phone number. We may be falling right into her here.

Jenny Stiven:
Shoot. You want me to text her?

David Read:
No, I see her on the screen. SG.

S.G. Blaise:
Hello, hi.

David Read:
Hello.

S.G. Blaise:
How are you? How’s everyone doing?

David Read:
Very good. Darren, have you met SG?

Darren Sumner:
No.

Jenny Stiven:
Wait, you haven’t?

S.G. Blaise:
Nice to meet you.

Jenny Stiven:
I thought you guys met. Sorry.

David Read:
Probably not.

Jenny Stiven:
My bad.

Darren Sumner:
Introduce her. Who am I looking at here?

Jenny Stiven:
Darren, please meet my amazing author and client and sci-fi fantasy franchise guru for me, S.G. Blaise. SG, please meet Darren Sumner, who is the founder of GateWorld; the leading Stargate fan network in the world. I thought for sure I’d introduce you guys. Darren, SG. SG, Darren.

S.G. Blaise:
Pleasure to meet you, Darren.

Darren Sumner:
Very nice to meet you.

S.G. Blaise:
Thank you, David, for having me.

David Read:
Absolutely. Jenny, you’ve been a part of this project for so long now, you’ve been a part of Stargate. This is what your main bread and butter is right now, working with SG. I wanted, before we left, to give everyone a chance to know what it is that you guys are working on right now. Tonally, it’s exactly the same as Stargate. I’d also like SG to talk about this. It happens to be like one house over in the fantasy space. Can we talk a little bit about Last Lumenian and that whole franchise that you guys are building together before we go back to Stargate?

Jenny Stiven:
Thank you so much for all of this. The reason I joined with SG is that, as most of this audience knows because I talk about this all the time, in my business, being a huge geek and being in the sci-fi space, I have always wanted to build an IP from scratch. Always, always, always. I was absolutely privileged to be introduced to SG two years ago. Two years! SG, two years. It was instant love. Her writing, the franchise, and she will get more into that, is everything I love about Stargate. Not just that, but SG is everything I love about this business: she cares about the fan base, number one. Number two, she cares about the creative process. She cares about the story. The story, the story. What’s our story? I get to be business development and marketing for a new IP to grow this whole franchise. Oh my God, I pinch myself every morning.

David Read:
Wow. I want everyone to know a little bit about this franchise. SG, you are a Stargate fan as well. Can you tell us where these two overlap in terms of tone and where Stargate fans can see themselves in these characters? I’m gonna pull up some of those details while we’re talking about it.

S.G. Blaise:
David, what I love about Stargate is the found family, the rebellion against oppression, protecting the innocents. These values are reflecting in my own writing and in my own stories. I’ve been inspired by Stargate so much and it’s such a pleasure to take that excitement, take that fun with me and put it into my books so that my readers can experience it. It truly is a pleasure.

David Read:
I gotta talk about this real quick. My video screen is all over the place, guys. This is what comes from me being a person who has to do it manually. You have been working on this thing now for seven years since the first book came out? How long has it been going on for you?

S.G. Blaise:
So, the original time, I started in 2013. What’s visible for the fans is since 2020, so about five, six years now. The books are out and it is a magical journey. Every time I think I reach the point when it’s the ending, it’s always a new beginning, which ties back to Stargate. Just as you think you defeated the last bad one, there is always someone bigger on the horizon.

David Read:
You’ve kicked – who is it in the bar in The Simpsons? Who’s always there? = Barney out and he’s right behind you. You can’t get rid of the guy. So, who is your heroine, SG, in this series? Who is The Last Lumenian?

S.G. Blaise:
The Last Lumenian is a 19-year-old rebel princess who is sassy. She doesn’t quite fit in this whole place and she’s looking to find where she belongs and what is her true goal. As she does this, of course there is a war between two gods and she must choose a side and build her allies to fight this undefeatable god. Throughout all these stories, she meets amazing people. She’s building her own family with these friends, who become more than just generals in this brutal war.

David Read:
I cannot help but think of Vala when I read about Lilla. I think that she’s a little bit more noble than Vala is. In reading the characters and bringing them to life – and I apologize, Stargate fans, but I really want you guys to hear about this – it’s like the script was copied and pasted out of conversations between Daniel and Vala. It’s that energy of, “Ugh, I hate you, but I need you, so I can’t get rid of you.” “OK, I really don’t hate you after all, but you know what? You still drive me nuts.” It’s this nipping at heels in these characters that makes it so much fun to read. The truth of the matter is they really do love each other an awful lot, but gosh, like any family: “You know what? You’re too much for me sometimes.” They’re great reads.

S.G. Blaise:
Thank you.

Jenny Stiven:
Wait till you read the sixth book coming out, because the sixth book has a lot of that. Guys, the thing that is, I think, amazing about this whole series is that it’s not just the books; we have comics and animation and there’s a universe. There’s a world building. You all know I’m a world-building freak. The ridiculous amount of art I don’t even have out, of concept art and things that David and I looked at from James and all those guys. SG has put together a world that is conceptually, genuinely a subgenre of sci-fi fantasy. It is not 100% military sci-fi; it is not high fantasy; it is genuinely right up the middle. It’s got action, adventure and the whole bit. What’s really cool about it is there’s all these things for whoever you are. There’s been this arc over the past six books and into the animation where it’s watching her grow, but it’s watching all of the people and her friends and found family that she’s pulled together grow as well.

David Read:
They’re leveling up with her.

Jenny Stiven:
SG, you don’t give yourself enough credit. She’s really funny and that’s the part that I love, is that there’s the humor. How many times have we been asked in polls, “What is it about Stargate that probably made it stand out so much against other shows?” It was being able to have the found family and humor.

David Read:
But it’s not campy and this isn’t campy. This finds itself straddling exactly that line, which is why it’s so related to Stargate in that way, because tonally they’re mirror images of each other. One leans a little bit more into fantasy than the other, military fantasy. It’s right up that alley, guys.

Jenny Stiven:
There’s magic. If you like magic, there’s magic.

David Read:
SG, how many books do you have planned? So, number six comes out in March.

S.G. Blaise:
That’s correct.

David Read:
How far are you going with the book series? I know you’re planning on exploring in different mediums, but how many books really are there gonna be?

S.G. Blaise:
Hundreds. If it’s up to me, David, I will write on my deathbed and not stop until I tell every single story. The Last Lumenian series right now is 13 books and I started working on book seven, which is very exciting. I can’t wait to share it with you and there’s gonna be other book series following it up. In fact, I’m structuring this whole world, the Seven Galaxies Chronicles, into multiple collections. Right now we’re in the collection of the Age of the Arch Gods and that has all the comic books, the animations and all these substories that allows the readers to dive into it and explore. But that’s not all, I’m also setting up the Easter eggs and little clues for the next one, which I’m not allowed to reveal. They will kill me if I do. I know. Zip it. There’s gonna be a lot to explore. I definitely took that from Stargate; that there are so many worlds and universes and opponents out there that you’re scratching the surface. That is such an exciting feeling and truly takes you away from real life that can be brutal sometimes.

David Read:
You have to be able to escape. SG, I really appreciate you coming on and talking about Lilla and your Seven Galaxies franchise. Jenny is very important to us and any way that we can support her and whatever endeavors she is embarking on next, I really wanted to give her an opportunity, regardless of whether it was associated in any way with Stargate or not, for her to have a chance and let people know what it is that she’s up to next. We have all leaned on her so much for everything that has come over these past five years on this channel. I, personally, far, far further back than that. Jenny, you have a huge audience here who is gonna follow you, a huge percentage of these people, will follow you wherever you go. I can’t wait to see where you and SG go together with this thing.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s gonna be so much fun. Wait, I have one announcement. We have an animated short coming out connected to the universe and it’s gonna come out in March.

David Read:
Really?

Jenny Stiven:
Yeah. Chris Judge is one of our voiceovers. Just an absolute doll. He’s met SG. SG, who’s this huge Stargate fan, gets to direct Chris Judge on a voiceover. I got a great picture. I’ll share the picture with you guys. It is amazing.

Darren Sumner:
Congratulations.

David Read:
That’s really cool.

Jenny Stiven:
Thank you. We love him and he’s an amazing, amazing man, as you guys know. As a family friend, he’s such an amazing person. On a lark, I said, “Hey, I’m working with this new IP.” He read it and he loved it. That was it.

David Read:
What a coup for you, SG. You’ve got Teal’c and Kratos.

S.G. Blaise:
I can’t believe it. It’s a dream I didn’t know I had. I tried to dream big. I like to say space is the limit, but there are things you can’t even imagine, because when they happen, they’re so special and organic that you better hold on tight and see where it takes you.

David Read:
Did you meet him in person?

S.G. Blaise:
Virtually. In person.

Jenny Stiven:
Virtually.

S.G. Blaise:
Virtually.

David Read:
When you meet him in person, you’ll realize how much he cannot be ignored because he is a whirlwind of nature and of joy. The fact that he’s on board in any way in this series, that’s really cool, guys. That’s great.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s really cool.

David Read:
SG, thank you so much for stopping by. We really appreciate having you. You’ve come on once before, but I really wanted to give everyone a chance to see who Jenny is partnered up with because this series, the State of the Gate series, it’s not mine, it’s hers.

Jenny Stiven:
Please.

David Read:
She means so much to all of us in fandom. Please take good care of her because we are gonna want her back soon for something else. Not necessarily this. Jenny, you will have work to do in Stargate fandom.

Jenny Stiven:
She wants me till I’m 120, so I don’t know.

David Read:
There we go.

Jenny Stiven:
I’ve already talked about; I have to be 120.

S.G. Blaise:
That’s the goal. We’re not stopping, David. We have so many IPs to develop. We all need her.

David Read:
There you go. I need her to cry into my Cheerios. Thank you, SG.

S.G. Blaise:
Thank you, David.

David Read:
We really appreciate you stopping by. You be well.

Jenny Stiven:
Bye, David.

S.G. Blaise:
Thank you.

Jenny Stiven:
Bye.

David Read:
Jenny, it is so cool, all the stuff that you’re working on.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s really amazing. Honestly, I do genuinely pinch myself that I am part of something that I’ve always dreamed about doing, which is to build an IP from scratch.

David Read:
That’s right. I know how much you’ve been wanting to do this. That’s why I had to have her on, especially on this last one here. I knew how much she means to both of us. She means a lot to both of us.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s amazing. She means a lot.

David Read:
She’s a wonderful human being.

Jenny Stiven:
Let alone having that happen once in your life, and I have had that happen in my life, working on Stargate, working on Buffy. To have something like this happen at this stage of my career where I could be consulting and having fun doing that, to have something like this, honestly, it is a joy. She’s a joy to work with and that comes through in the content. You and Darren have asked me this. I thought about this a lot over the weekend, thinking about talking about Stargate, that what keeps us going is the joy that it brings.

David Read:
That’s it. Christopher would be the first person to say that that’s the key as well.

Jenny Stiven:
That’s the key and it is very hard in this world to find joy and it is very hard to find joy in your job. That I get to do that is amazing and I count my blessings absolutely for this. I do not take it for granted. A huge part of that is you guys, and I don’t mean the fan base. I mean you, David, you, Darren, everybody here that I know that’s out there in the audience, everybody that I meet every time. The joy that Stargate brings every single time that I do anything about Stargate, it is an unbelievable gift, and that is 100% due to, hopefully, this exact team that’s bringing the next round. We hope.

David Read:
How much more time do you have?

Jenny Stiven:
Me?

David Read:
Yeah.

Jenny Stiven:
What time is it?

David Read:
It is 10:37.

Jenny Stiven:
I got 20 minutes.

David Read:
Perfect. Can you differentiate for us here, MrNBridger, “What power does an executive producer have over a showrunner, over showrunner?” So showrunner is head honcho, their CEO? Yes?

Jenny Stiven:
Yeah.

David Read:
But executive producer is like a step and a half down?

Jenny Stiven:
No. Executive producer is usually money. TV is very different. In any film, an executive producer is usually the money or the person who put the team together; the person who got the production, the director, the writer, OK? Your producer is also the person who went and got additional financing. The producer is the person who is really doing the day-to-day work of getting the production team, doing location management, hires everybody that goes and does all that work. If you have multiple executive producers, they are usually money. In this case, however, and in television, streaming, a lot of times it’s someone who has gotten control of that particular franchise storytelling. A perfect example is Diego Luna is an executive producer of Andor. The reason he is, is that he was given executive producer credit because he was contributing to the storyline, contributing to the story development. So, an executive producer is a bit amorphous. It can be the person who’s giving money. In streaming, it can be a person who is now contributing to the direction of the arc of the franchise. Your producer is your boots-on-the-ground people; the producers are the people. You might have 10 producers, but every single one of them is doing something that is tied to money, tied to management, tied to getting it out the door, tied to getting it post-production. Producers are your boots-on-the-ground workers. Showrunners literally tie all of that together. When Martin has writer, producer, and showrunner credit, that means as a producer, he’s making decisions. He gets to make decisions about this show. Sometimes you’re a showrunner and what you’re doing is you are running the show. You are getting your scripts out, you’re making sure everybody’s on time, you’re making sure that it follows the story development. But you don’t necessarily make decisions when it comes to higher up. When you’re a producer and a showrunner, you’re making the decisions as well. That’s why when I say “Martin has control,” this is control that you don’t often see. As the writer, the producer and then the showrunner, that’s really encouraging. He’s behind the scenes writing and actually running this series. He will be there every single day. A showrunner has to be there on set, a showrunner has to make sure that every single department and division is working seamlessly and if they aren’t, then they go to the producer, which in this case is himself, to problem solve.

David Read:
And Araxxos4362, “What is consulting producer then? Would they have any decision-making power or just give advice on what works for the..?”

Jenny Stiven:
They give advice. What they’re doing is a consulting producer, a consulting writer, a consulting executive producer is there. Let’s use Brad as the perfect example. He’s there to make sure that everything stays in canon. He’s there to make sure that there aren’t these wild hair theories that don’t connect back to the universe we know. Same with Dean and Roland. If there’s any reference, which is again why I think that there might be, they’re there to make sure that it stays in canon to what they’re doing. Joe’s different, but in Brad’s case, they may be making recommendations and consulting on the effects. They might be making recommendations on the prop building, the ships, the concept art, because he was there from the very beginning. Martin knows it, but if he brought in Brad as a consulting executive producer, then he wants to have somebody there to bounce this off of to make sure that he’s in the right house, in the right space.

David Read:
Got it.

Darren Sumner:
So, they become resources to Martin and the production team where they can write, maybe they get a new visual effect in, and he can send it to Brad and say, “Hey, does this Ha’tak look right to you?”

Jenny Stiven:
Yes, exactly.

David Read:
“That Ha’tak looks funny, man. I don’t know. It’s a little too pointy.”

Darren Sumner:
I wanna say Jonathan Glassner was a consulting producer on part of Season Four after he left the show.

David Read:
Yes, he was.

Jenny Stiven:
He was. A lot of that is exactly what he did. I find this incredibly encouraging because it means that what they’re having as their board of advisors is to keep watch and make sure that these things stay in-canon, stay within the universe, makes sense. Honestly, they’re there to make sure it makes sense.

David Read:
Sokarthedevil666.

Jenny Stiven:
That’s a great handle.

David Read:
Joyous and friendly. I apologize, Sokarthedevil, you are the devil, though. “SGU could be continued in some point in the future?” He was asking if it could be. Of course it could be.

Jenny Stiven:
Yeah.

David Read:
Yes. Andrew Charles-Illustration, “One big thing I’m worried about is that we get one or two seasons of this thing and then it gets cut and we have another unfinished story to deal with.” At this stage, do you think it’s more likely, and I wanna be careful how we word this, because I don’t want anyone to get too cozy, that Stargate is probably too big to be canceled right now, considering the momentum that we’ve seen so far? Or is it just as likely to be on the chopping block as anything else is?

Jenny Stiven:
No, I wish I could say that, but we saw a whole slew of cancellations come through for existing IP and franchises that you didn’t think were gonna be canceled at all. I think that I gotta go back to the fact that if this was a six-month or just this year plan, I’d be concerned. A completely separate conversation, and we should talk about this in a separate one, is the state of the entertainment industry is in massive flux right now. Every single solitary traditional, at this end of the spectrum, studio streamer, and of course, Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook would all like to pretend that they’re still the rebels. They’re not. They’re traditional now.

David Read:
That’s true.

Jenny Stiven:
They’re not really controlling the narrative. What’s really controlling the narrative is the content creators that are you guys, but it’s a whole slew of people. It’s Dude Perfect building $100 million studio in Texas. It’s Robert Rodriguez and Matthew McConaughey, Gen X-ers, old school, building a brand-new digital studio for Gen Z-ers to come in and create new content and storylines to distribute. It’s Crunchyroll working with Webtoons. There’s a lot going on right now in this space, in the industry, that makes those traditional, risk-averse. The fact that Amazon, and I know this is gonna sound counterintuitive, but the fact that Amazon spent 18 months on this and took that time, indicates to me that they are not risk-averse when it comes to Stargate. That’s the encouraging part. I’m hoping that they look for alternative distribution channels, like I said, that they look for supplemental ways to support this franchise; not just via Amazon Prime. There is unfortunately, in this industry, no way that there’s a guarantee. You could have a guarantee for three seasons and still be canceled. You could have a guarantee for two seasons and be canceled. Now, if we were on Netflix, I’d be worried; they are notorious for two-and-out. Amazon’s not. Amazon, for all of its problems, for all of its creative challenges in this industry, it does stick to something if they feel that there is an audience there that wants it. They will give it another try, they’ll take a break for three months, they’ll have internal conversations. I have always said this. You guys know this ’cause you were there with me. I wish MGM had been more transparent about the conversations that were happening internally, because I think fans would understand why things went the way they did.

David Read:
That’s right.

Jenny Stiven:
I wish that Nick Pepper and those guys would have more transparency about those conversations they’re having, because we know they’re having these conversations. They are incredibly smart people. Nick Pepper is someone who supports creatives; he supports the stories. I don’t think that this is something that is going to be taken lightly, that’s the encouraging part. There are no guarantees because of the nature of the industry right now and I think of everybody, Amazon is the one that probably has the most solidified base, financially is what I’m talking about, and management. They’re happy with who they have in charge now of creative studios. When we’re looking at other studios that will not be named, who are in a massive state of flux, I think that they’re probably the best bet. If we were gonna go with anybody, I’m very happy it’s with them.

David Read:
OK. Last question for you. Lockwatcher, “if we’re not subscribed to Amazon Prime now, would it be a good idea that we were?”

Jenny Stiven:
Yes and no. If you subscribe, then watch the hell out of whenever Stargate is on Prime Video. Chances are that they will start bringing back everything all the time, as opposed to what they’ve been doing recently, is weird windowing releases in territories across the world.

David Read:
Why is that?

Jenny Stiven:
That all goes back to international contracts that they’ve had to fulfill. They had to fulfill licensing contracts for international. That’s the way it is.

David Read:
It’s a TV series, not a yo-yo.

Jenny Stiven:
I don’t want people to spend their money on something. We are all in a tight economy right now. I would say if it’s too tight, then the best thing you can do is show your support and literally go online and social. I know I’ve said this all the time, but please believe me when I tell you, of all of the major studios, Amazon pays the most attention to social. The rest of them, honestly, Disney does, but that’s more about their own control issues than because they care. Amazon pays attention and Amazon Creative Studios has an entire division that pays attention to this.

David Read:
Wow.

Jenny Stiven:
I would say if you can’t afford it right now, go online and say, “I support Stargate. I can’t afford a subscription right now, but oh my God, I’m here for it when it comes out. Let me know what I can do.” Tag them over and over and over again because it really is always important. I know that this was a marathon and not the sprint we had hoped it would be, but guys, the only reason this is happening, genuinely, the only reason this is happening is because this 300,000-base kept this alive online. Period. There’s no reason for this to come back. The conversations that I was part of when Amazon was buying MGM, there was a lot of skepticism internally at Amazon if Stargate was really gonna have a fan base. They were focused on Legally Blonde and Poltergeist and RoboCop and all of this. It came up a lot, but it was because of people like Chris Ottinger and Michael Wright who kept saying, “I think you’re ignoring an amazing jewel in our crown here.” Amazon 180-degree turned from skepticism to commitment. That means they paid attention to everybody that was online talking about this all the time and rewatching. Even if you’re not watching it on Prime Video, if you’re watching it on Comet, on Pluto, remember, those licensing monies still go back to Amazon. If you have to watch it on free ad-supported television, a FAST channel, do it. That’s what you’re gonna do because they watch those numbers. If we increase watching these numbers going into this and then we bang it out of the park that first season…I’m gonna say something that’s horrible. Even if we hate it, if we bang those numbers out of the park, it makes a huge difference. We all know that the pilot, the first couple of episodes, are not necessarily always perfect for what we’re looking for. We’re not worried about that. We’re worried about the bigger picture. We really wanna look at the bigger picture.

David Read:
That’s it. We’re looking at the gate.

Jenny Stiven:
I didn’t even know what I was doing. Looking at the gate.

David Read:
There we go.

Darren Sumner:
The bigger circle.

David Read:
That’s it.

Jenny Stiven:
Bigger circle. Bigger universe.

Darren Sumner:
You might not have an answer to this, but I’ll put it out there in case you have some insight. We know that in the UK, for example, Stargate fans, if they have Prime Video, have access to Stargate that’s locked behind the extra MGM+ £5 a month add-on. Do you have any insight as to whether this show, when it goes to 240 territories, if in some places it might be behind the extra $5 add-on?

Jenny Stiven:
I know there’s discussions about that. Thank you for bringing that up. It’s really important to talk about that. I know there are discussions about that. Distribution is an incredibly knotty issue. It is unfortunately complicated by these licensing agreements. If I’m remembering correctly, I think one of the reasons that the timing is right for 2027-28 is because almost all of those agreements have either been renegotiated or opened, which means we would hope that they would not be behind an additional paywall. I know that everybody’s having discussions internally about the best way to do it. Make your voices known and say, “I’m willing to pay this. I cannot do this. I can watch it on fast channel. I’m willing to wait the 48 hours to watch it on free ad-supported. I can watch it on Prime Video when it comes out because I can pay for one year, but I can’t do additional paywalls.” Make sure that these are conversations that we’re having and explain. Give context. Guys, the one thing that does get absolutely 100% thrown out is your gotcha comments. Nobody gives a crap about those. Don’t try to do any gotchas. Give context to why you feel the way you feel, explain it and be honest. We’re asking them to be transparent. Be transparent.

David Read:
Sarcasm’s not gonna do Stargate any favors. If you really love it, then treat it like you would treat a friend.

Jenny Stiven:
If you honestly feel a certain way, then explain it. Let’s say you really feel strongly that you don’t want Stargate Universe story continued because it wasn’t your thing. OK. Then say, “Hey, guys, I loved Atlantis, I loved SG-1. Universe wasn’t my thing. I’d really rather prefer that that’s not the road we go.” Don’t be hateful about it. Everybody, 100%, gets to have their opinion in this fan base. They don’t get to be hateful about it. You don’t get to gatekeep.

Darren Sumner:
Be positive, folks.

David Read:
Exactly. Last question. WhitneyNolanVFX, “Jenny, where did you get that shirt? Love it.”

Jenny Stiven:
Unfortunately, this was an old Stargate Command one. I forgot to tell you guys before we started. I am not allowed, for obvious reasons, to sell anything that I had left over for swag from Stargate Command. I just moved. I have a shit ton of swag that I can give away and I wanna give it to you guys to give away to fans. I’ve got T-shirts like this. Not that everybody loves Stargate Origins, but it’s a cool T-shirt.

David Read:
They’re cool T-shirts.

Jenny Stiven:
I’ve got stickers, I’ve got T-shirts, I’ve got a signed script. I’ve got stuff. I’ll send the list to you guys. I wanna give it to GateWorld. I want you guys to give this stuff away to get people excited, get them involved. It’s sitting in a huge bin in storage right now. Let’s do it. Let’s give it to fans.

David Read:
We appreciate you.

Jenny Stiven:
It’d be fun. Let’s do it.

David Read:
Thank you so much.

Darren Sumner:
Here’s my T-shirt. I don’t think my T-shirt is officially licensed. Sorry.

Jenny Stiven:
Let me see. Which one is yours?

David Read:
“There’s no place like home.”

Jenny Stiven:
I thought that was licensed?

Darren Sumner?
Is it licensed? I don’t think so.

Jenny Stiven:
That was such a great quote.

David Read:
I thought he was gonna say, “There is no war in Ba Sing Se.” I was like, “What?”

Jenny Stiven:
I know. I’m very interested to see what Amazon does. Wouldn’t it be cool if they came out with licensing and merchandising first to get everybody excited and offered it, obviously, for extremely cheap. It’d be cool because then it gets you talking. What if they offered concept art or a comic? I think the opportunity is endless. We’re in that amazing period of time where we get to have fun speculating about all the really cool stuff that’s gonna happen or may happen.

David Read:
Do you think that fans who have created content like that Pegasus Project VR out there, do you think there’s any chance in hell that Amazon might be interested in folding it in and licensing it to fans? Is that their MO at all?

Jenny Stiven:
It is. They did it somewhat with Wheel of Time and Rings of Power. Wheel of Time? No. Shoot, one of the other ones. Expanse. They did it with Expanse when they did the…

David Read:
So, it’s not unheard of to adopt a piece from fans?

Jenny Stiven:
It’s not unheard of. You’ve heard me have this conversation before. There is a weird gray line to walk here. If you reach out to them, you’ve now made them aware of what you’re doing. There comes with that, literally, sometimes a price where they ask you to pay. However, the upside is if they want to work with you to create things, because what you’ve done is so amazing. I promise you, they are aware of our French friends, they’re aware of Pegasus, they’re aware of the Steam engine game that’s out there. They’re aware of every single thing that’s out there.

David Read:
The Stargate?

Jenny Stiven:
Yeah.

David Read:
The 1:1 scale Stargate in Switzerland?

Jenny Stiven:
Yeah. They’re aware of all of it and I know they are because they asked me about that one. The thing is that I would be very careful right now to wait, be patient. Guys, Darren and David are gonna be able to have news and inside stories from Martin and from these guys so that they’ll know what’s going on. Definitely pay attention to what the source is. You need to make sure that it’s coming from the mouths of the people who are working on this directly. I saw something in Deadline that was completely wrong. It wasn’t a bad thing. They don’t know Stargate.

David Read:
But it’s incorrect?

Jenny Stiven:
They don’t know Stargate. They retracted it. It was about what, where, how it was based and what the storyline was. It’s not their fault. This is a franchise that their writers don’t know. They know, “Oh, yeah, it was that movie and it was that show.” They don’t know all the details. So, for all the fans out there, make sure you’re checking your sources, double-checking everything and get your news directly from Martin and Joe and Brad. Otherwise, it’s all rumor.

David Read:
Thank you, Jenny.

Jenny Stiven:
Thank you so much for having me.

David Read:
Thank you.

Jenny Stiven:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is the most exciting way to end this year. Someone posted this, an early Christmas present.

David Read:
Something to be thankful for.

Darren Sumner:
It feels great coming up this time of year.

Jenny Stiven:
Exactly. Let’s be thankful for this and let’s think about all of the fan things that can happen. I’m putting together an OG Stargate Command meetup, because why not? It’s all of the really cool things that we can go do and be together again and celebrate this. Thank you so much, you guys, for including me. I love to talk about it, obviously. I love to talk about the industry and thank you for always including me. It’s been an amazing friendship and now we’re on this whole new chapter.

Darren Sumner:
It’s a new journey. We had a conversation. David and I were getting ready for the rollout last week and said, “Hey, we wanna have at least one live stream where we’re bringing fans through on a round table and talk, getting their reactions.” One of the first things we said was, “Jenny needs her own show.”

Jenny Stiven:
Oh my God.

Darren Sumner:
We could fill an hour with State of the Gate. Guys, I honestly hope that this is not the last State of the Gate, because so much of your expertise is in marketing and pitching a show. So, how about we come back in six months and say, “The state of the gate is there’s a new show that’s premiering. We know the date now. We know the cast now.”

David Read:
I’m getting my Sharpie now to mark up this is not the last show. Very good.

Darren Sumner:
Fix that.

Jenny Stiven:
Look, guys, I would love to talk about this some more.

Darren Sumner:
We’ve crossed through the gap between galaxies and Destiny is coming up the other side.

David Read:
Now we need some coordinates for the first gate. Is that what we’re saying? All right.

Jenny Stiven:
I will say this. As you would imagine, David knows this, I’m reaching out to every single source I have in this industry and I’m talking to everybody I can find. I’m in L.A. now once a month. Obviously, if there’s any time you guys wanna talk about it, I will bring you guys what I know. Let’s have a conversation about where it is, what’s going on. It doesn’t have to be State of the Gate. It can be, “Holy crap, can you believe that this just happened? Did you see who they cast?”

Darren Sumner:
Finally, the State of the Gate is strong.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s fun. I don’t wanna force that, but I would love to come back and talk with you guys about how this progresses over the next 18 months and how the marketing… Oh my God, I’m so excited to see, and curious as hell, to see how they market this.

Darren Sumner:
How they market it and, as you said, how they market it to different demographics.

Jenny Stiven:
I can’t wait.

Darren Sumner:
And the territories.

David Read:
I think you’re sitting with a couple of people who will, at least, have a toe in that in some way, shape, or form in terms of who they wanna tap to get some information out. All options are on the table. I am so excited; we landed in the most favorable version of this reality as far as I’m concerned. We threaded the eye of a needle in a hurricane to get Martin Gero to do this. It’s awesome.

Jenny Stiven:
It’s amazing. I’m so, so proud of you guys. I’m so happy for you guys. When we talk about joy, this is joy.

David Read:
Exactly. We could use a little joy.

Jenny Stiven:
Thank you.

David Read:
Jenny, thank you.

Jenny Stiven:
Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. I love you guys.

David Read:
Thanks, love you.

Jenny Stiven:
I love everybody out there. I can’t wait to see you at the next Stargate convention, whichever one it is. We all gotta get together.

David Read:
We’re talking. We’ve been talking, haven’t we, Jenny?

Jenny Stiven:
We all gotta party. Yes, we have. So, we gotta party, for sure.

Darren Sumner:
Do it. Let’s go.

Jenny Stiven:
Let’s go. Love you guys.

David Read:
Love you guys. Thank you, Darren.

Jenny Stiven:
Bye.

Darren Sumner:
Bye.

David Read:
Bye-bye. That is Jenny Stiven of Clio Consulting and Darren Sumner of Gateworld.net. My name is David Read. You’re watching the Stargate Oral History Project. This is the sixth day in a row that I have been producing content for Stargate fans and I need a break. So, I’m gonna take one, because this week is Thanksgiving in the United States. My gosh, there is dog. I’m so sorry, but dog comes first, guys.

Darren Sumner:
You can’t resist.

David Read:
It’s Keenan. It’s my buddy. Hi, Keenan.

Jenny Stiven:
I heard your voice. Look.

David Read:
Keenan.

Jenny Stiven:
I know it’s David. I know it’s David. Where’s David?

David Read:
Where are you, Keenan? I’m here in the computer. Hiya, buddy.

Jenny Stiven:
My boy.

Darren Sumner:
He’s at the door. He’s looking out the window.

David Read:
I miss my Keenan. That’s right.

Jenny Stiven:
He’s been looking for you. Look at that. Where is he? Is he here?

David Read:
It’s Keenan. Keenan. Where’s Timmy? Where’s Timmy?

Jenny Stiven:
Stop it.

David Read:
Go get him.

Jenny Stiven:
Stop it!

David Read:
Go get him.

Jenny Stiven:
God. OK. All right. Thanks so much for that.

David Read:
You’re so welcome.

Darren Sumner:
I’m gonna go walkies.

Jenny Stiven:
Love you guys.

Darren Sumner:
I’m gonna go walkies. Geez.

Jenny Stiven:
You can go walkies.

David Read:
All right, guys.

Jenny Stiven:
Love you.

David Read:
My tremendous thanks to my moderators; Antony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marcia, Raj and Jakub. I’m sorry. Life’s better with a dog. Dogs are best people, even purple dogs. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, it does mean a difference if you click that Like button. It helps spread the show to grow its audience. Please also consider sharing the video with a Stargate friend. If you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe. If you hit the Bell icon, we’ll notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. Let’s see here. My tremendous thanks to my producers, Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, Sommer Roy and Brice Ors. Matt “Eagle SG” Wilson for his amazing opening sequences. He’s got something special planned for you later on this week. Actually, while I’m at it, let me pull this up here while I can. Do I have it? Please. Please, do I have it? I was gonna show this to you guys. Yes. I wanna stick something in your head. This is my hallway. I’m in the room right now, but this is what’s outside of my hallway. This was made by a fan by the name of Chris Distler over at DeviantArt. It’s easily my favorite piece of Stargate art, period. Thanks to Matt, we’re gonna be doing something very special with it this Thursday. If any of you guys know how I can get in touch with that guy, please let him know, because his eyes are about to fall out of his face. We have a very special project coming for you on Thursday that a Stargate cast member has helped me with. It’s something that I’ve been working for a really long time to publish in some way, shape, or form, and I finally have the right combination of ingredients to pull it off. Keep an eye on dialthegate.com. Check out that schedule for all of the upcoming episodes. There’s a lot that’s gonna be happening very quickly here. We’re gonna be bringing on my first interview from the camera department, Ryan Purcell, camera operator for Atlantis and Universe. He’s coming on. I wanna talk images and how he captures them. That’s gonna be a great show. He’s gonna be coming on this Saturday. Mods, by the way, this Saturday, the 29th of November, and a lot more is heading your way. I’m gonna let you guys go now. I know you guys gotta get going here, it’s been over two hours. Thank you so much for making this a hell of a six-day stretch. I don’t know how we’re all still functioning, but I mean, at this point, it’s for the love of this franchise. It truly is. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in and I will see you on the other side.