Stargate Archives

In this podcast I was looking for something Stargate related I could watch by myself (not as much fun on your own but you make do) and I remembered the Legend television show I bought on DVD last year but never got around to watching. Legend was a short lived show starring Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie about the adventures of Ernest Pratt a novelist and a scientist providing futuristic tech required to fight crime in the wild west. The show premiered in 1995 on UPN with the feature length “Birth of a Legend” in which Ernest has to travel to Colorado to figure out which his creation “Nicodemus Legend” was being credited with saving some settlers and had a warrant for his arrest for pretty much the same reason. Upon arrival he is recognised as “Legend” but soon discovers that he has been manipulated by Professor Janos Bartok (John de Lancie) who through technology moved the course of a river to make sure the local farms survived and that Vera Slaughter (Stephanie Beacham) could not control the town and its surroundings for her own nefarious purposes.

Ernest despite all his self preservations instincts find himself more often than not helping the locals and becoming more like his creation Legend and with some of the fancy technology provided by the professor takes on the bad guys through investigation and action. Naturally a lot of luck and the help of the locals make all the difference but Ernest finds the best of himself outside of his dime store novels and together a new dynamic duo is formed, desperados beware.

The premiere episode of Legend was a lot of fun, surprisingly not that dated or at least I didn’t find it difficult to watch, yes some dialogue is cringe worthy but overall a fun introduction to the mashup of the western narrative along with the action and I suppose you could call it a dab of science fact if you stretched your imagination a little. RDA was everything you can expect if you are familiar with MacGyver and Stargate and I suppose as a big fan of the latter I have to be thankful that Legend only had a short run. RDA along with Michael Greenburg via Gekko Productions quickly moved on to pitching and securing the Stargate tv show via MGM and Showtime and the rest is history.

A little trivia as John de Lancie had also guest starred on MacGyver and letter went on to guest star on Stargate SG1. In many ways John never really made the “A” time but his resume is huge and eclectic and within the scifi genre and voice acting worlds he has made a name for himself which will least generations.

I hope you enjoyed this look at Legend and I am sure I will be watching the rest of the season in due course. The next show will probably be back to Stargate proper, I have a few feelers out for guest but always looking for more so if you want to join me and talk about a favoured episode from the franchise please get in touch, would love to hear from you.

IMDB WIKI

A Daedalus-class battlecruiser (BC-304) appears above the planet which is the current home of Atlantis and is identified as the actual Daedalus even though it is believed to be in the middle of the jaunt between Pegasus and the Milky Way. The team travel to the ship in a jumper and detect and energy signature and signs of some battle scarring on the hull, they enter and find all the fighters are missing but one jumper sits alone. Confirmation is received that “their” Daedalus in nearing Earth with no problems reported and after some minor differences are observed in the ship they reach the conclusion this is a Daedalus from somewhere else, they discovery of a teams dead bodies ramps the spookiness up ten fold.

McKay identifies the source of the energy reading and believes that it is a drive system designed to move the ship between universes/realities perhaps an offshoot of experiments into zero point energy or the more exotic goals as seen in the episode Trinity. However the system is running on automatic and when power storage reaches a specific level the drive is initiated and the ship jumps. They cross paths with an alien starship engaged in battle with Atlantis, the star as a red giant and a debris field perhaps the building blocks of the planet itself. Faced with limited resources McKay believes reversing course and letting the ship jumps “backwards” will eventually get them back to their universe but time is short and the dangers faced already will have to be dealt with again.

The Daedalus Variations is an excellent episode of Atlantis and a great scifi story, the concept is nothing new with the franchise but this is done is a very slick manner with some stellar CGI and good use of existing sets with a few tweaks. A few bones were thrown hinting at threats beyond the known or maybe just what ifs either way the alien threat matched anything the Borg offered (at their best) but perhaps the natural threats were more compelling. The episode wasn’t demanding on the actors although McKay dealing with the baby was pretty priceless but the ass kissing by John on John went a little too long. Overall a very good and atmospheric episode, highly recommended.

My thanks to Brad for picking the episode and joining me via Skype to chat about it, always a pleasure to have him on the podcast and hopefully he will be back. As always would love to get reviews and ratings and open offer to join me on the podcast, get in touch with your choice of episode and we can arrange a time to record (headset and skype required).

IMDB WIKI

T. Fox Dunham

This week on the Stargate Archives I was joined by author T. Fox Dunham (aka Fox) who had his short story “Hermiod’s Last Mission” included in the Points of Origin anthology published by Fandemonium. His other work tends to focus in the Horror and Supernatural genre as seen by his prolific output in anthologies but he has also written three novels covering very different subjects. We talk in the interview about Mercy, The Street Martyr and Hermiod’s Last Mission (all three I have read and reviewed elsewhere) as well as Destroying the Tangible Illusion of Reality; or, Searching for Andy Kaufman. We also chat about his outlook on life having to deal with the demands of making a living by writing and dealing with major health issues.

It's no surprise that I can highly recommend picking up the Points Of Origin anthology which is a superb collection of Stargate related short stories and Hermiod’s Last Mission is a beautiful piece set in the Atlantis storyline but has strong ties to the SG1 episode The Fifth Race.

If you have an interest in Horror then Mercy is wonderfully dark as it deals with a supernatural element emerging in a hospital while The Street Martyr has a strong crime slant and deals with the base elements that infect humanity with no need for outside influence. I enjoyed both novels and my chat with Fox flew by and hopefully you will enjoy the discussion as much as I did.

Check out Fox’s published work over on Amazon and don’t forget to leave a review, the promotion of an author’s work is key to their income after all and just like podcasters we like to know someone appreciates our work be it for a living or as in my case a hobby.

Fox is also a host on the What Are You Afraid Of Podcast which features stories and interviews.

The next episode from the Archives will be a look at The Daedalus Variations with my guest Brad and should be out this month. I also have to schedule some more recordings so if you are interested in chatting about your favourite episodes of Stargate then get in touch as we can arrange something.

Links:

• Twitter

• Amazon

• Official Website

• Blog

• Hermiod’s Last Mission Wiki Fandemonium

• What Are You Afraid Of Podcast

Daniel discovers very old and interesting text on some data returned by a probe, it matches one of the languages discovered on the world that was home to Ernest Littlefield and indicated that at least four alien races were allied. General Hammond authorises a mission and Jack is pretty much bored silly until he looks into an alien device which then grabs him, strobes lights into his eyes and then when released he collapses. Upon return medically he checks out but he starts to draw some interesting things and then substitutes alien language for specific English words. Dr Fraiser discovers some worrying things about Jack’s brain which precludes him from joining Sam and Teal’c on a mission which goes off the rails very quickly.

Jack who is quickly losing his ability to communicate never the less creates the solution to the Stargate problem which is preventing Sam and her team from returning to Earth. He returns once more to constructing a mysterious piece of kit which he then connects to the power systems of the mountain which directly feed the gate. As the system copes with the power the dialling computer accepts an eighth symbol and Jack is allowed to step into the unknown without a GDO….

The Fifth Race is my favourite episode of Stargate SG1 due to the combination of world building/mythology, great chemistry between the characters and a good dose of drama and humour to bind everything together. It is truly a wonderful scene as Jack meets the Asgard and they without question help him and give him just a little bit of information to makes a few things make sense. Oh, the music is fantastic as well.

Thanks to Ian for joining me this week, he’s been very busy but we got the recording done before christmas and as with my more relax release schedule two months here we are. As usual reviews/ratings are most welcome and feel free to get in touch especially if you fancy coming on the show and talking about your favourite episode from SG1, Atlantis or Universe.

IMDB WIKI

The comments and observations of an unnamed member of Stargate Command after the reactivation of the base under General Hammond.

The team exit a space gate and arrive in orbit around the world of Doranda to find huge amounts of Wraith Hive ship wreckage, closer inspection of the planet finds only devastation apart from one structure noticeably more advanced than the surrounding construction. They venture down and find an Ancient outpost relatively unnotched by the battle that had obviously been waged ten thousand years ago. McKay discovers that this was the focus of experiments into power generation from a subspace realm within out own universe unlike the ZPM which generate smaller scale output from a sterile pocket universe. Despite the bodies and the failure of the experiment (well apart from powering a weapon which wiped out the Wraith) McKay is convinced he can get it to work. Weir is obviously concerned but bows to the pressure from Colonel Caldwell and Shepherds own flag waving for McKay.

It isn’t going to be any surprise that things go spectacularly wrong (this is McKay we are talking about) and well the technology and a good chunk of the solar system are lost. Meanwhile Ronon and Teyla have been off world (Belkan) seeking trade deals and Ronon meets some fellow survivors from Sateda including his former military taskmaster (in a good way) Kel who it turns out betrayed his oath and sacrificed his men to aid hos own escape when the Wraith attacked. Ronon being well Ronon takes steps…

Trinity was chosen by Thomas and he picked a mighty fine episode of Atlantis. We get good character growth from McKay, Teyla and especially Ronon whose back story needed filling out as well as a very entertaining main story allowing McKay and John to take center stage and to see how they react when things go badly wrong. A learning experience for everyone involved you could say,.

My thanks to Thomas for joining me on the podcast to take Stargate Atlantis Trinity and hopefully he will be back at some future time to talk about another favoured episode. If anyone wants to come on the show and chat about their favourite Stargate episode then get in touch and we will arrange something. Check us out over on Facebook, Tumblr, G+ and of course Twitter as well as Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, a review/rating would be most welcome.

Trinity - IMDB WIKI

Commentary

Welcome to this call back to the Gatecast era when we would take a step away from the pure Stargate discussions and cherry pick shows/movies that featured the cast and/or crew from the franchise. As it turned out this year Alan was on call and wanted something to pass the time so we got together over skype and watched and chatted about Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark which starred Christopher Judge.

In Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark Christopher plays Jack Turner who along with Rosie (Elisabeth Röhm ) have developed a shark submersible which leads to a full military contract to provide a much larger vehicle. The smaller vessel also includes an advanced AI but when a Megalodon escapes from an iceberg and begins to run amok in the south pacific only the as yet untested “mechashark” can save the day.

The movie was produced by The Asylum who are well known for their straight to DVD or Pay TV offerings at the lower budget range, they often produce highly entertaining movies as long as you don’t hold them up against production with tens times the budget. Yes Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark was never going to win awards (in any category) but it was fun and had some real laugh out loud moments.

IMDB

On this episode of the Stargate Archives I am joined by Evy via twitter who has been following us for a while and commented on a previous episode (Malice). I asked her if she was interested in chatting about another of her favourite Stargate episodes and she said yes and chose the excellent Universe episode “Hope”.

In the aftermath of the Lucian Alliance assault on Earth the failure of the communications stones has left Destiny all alone. The loss of Ginn and Amanda has hurt Eli and Rush respectively but the crew are extremely worried over friends and family at Homeworld Command and given the resources of the Alliance maybe even Earth itself. Round the clock use of the stones continues and Dr Volker seems to be slightly the worse for wear, it turns out he has had an existing condition which without medication had led to a kidney issue, the only solution is a transplant. Greer is a match but even with the Ancient tech accessible there is little to help TJ who has never had the training for this sort of procedure but Young pretty much paints a black and white picture, try or he dies. Meanwhile Chloe while on stone duty is overwritten by the consciousness of Ginn who is not aware of anything happening, she is shocked to say the least to find out she was murdered and Amanda while linked also died. The brain trust go to work trying to understand what is happening and conclude the mind is energy and remains just not in the same form and like Franklin perhaps the Destiny computer can provide a safe harbour for Ginn and later Amanda while preserving Chole body and soul.

Hope is an excellent episode of Stargate Universe, great drama and they played the humour to the max to offset the dire circumstances. Greer really shone while TJ handled the pressure well and the other plot elements allowed Rush and Eli to work together and interact where their significant others to a degree only science fiction allows for. The crew as a whole learnt that their home was safe and certain members certainly were given new opportunities and not forgetting the “family” dynamic a few of the characters offered, yeah who would have thought Greer would turn out to be such a decent human being.

My thanks to Evy for joining me and chatting about one of her favorite episodes of Stargate, if you want to guest on the podcast then get in touch and we can sort something out. If you fancy giving a rating or review then would be well received but for now glad you enjoyed the podcast, keep watching Stargate and lets hope 2019 sees some movement from MGM for it’s return to television.

IMDB WIKI

Lesser Evil

This is being posted on the 15th of December which is the birthday of Michael Shanks and I thought it was worth releasing our Gatecast bonus episode look at Burn Notice onto the Archives feed.

Alan and myself watched and discussed the Burn Notice season two finale “Lesser Evil” which has Michael Shanks as a guest star playing Michael Westen’s nemesis Victor, the episode also features Tricia Helfer. In this episode the season arc concludes as Michael goes on the offensive against the Management and their operatives in an attempt to win his freedom.

Michael Shanks only appeared in four episodes of Burn Notice playing the former spy Victor who is now the operative of the Management tasked by his handler Carla (Tricia Helfer) to corral Michael and convince him to play ball. Of course in Burn Notice the plot is full of twists and turns and it was Victor who was often pivotal in setting events in motion by appearing in the right place at maybe the wrong time. The finale of the second season finally gives us plenty of interaction between Victor and Michael which is full of good dialogue and acting from both performers and provides both drama and tension with lots of action. Carla was a recurring character in the second season and Tricia is always a delight to watch perform on screen, she was able to play the "bitch" with flare and style putting Michael in his place time and time again with a ruthlessness few could match and between Tricia and Shanks we got two very good guest stars this year. As always Gabrielle (Fiona), Bruce (Sam) and Sharon (Madeline) provide the strong support a complex spy/action drama requires, each of them brings something to the story which allows Jeffrey (Michael) to remain center stage and work his magic.

We can highly recommend Burn Notice thanks to its humour and drama with a spirit that in a small way echoes some of the 80's serials as the "heroes" struggle against overwhelming odds making the most of everyday items to fight off drug dealers, spies and bad dudes.

The next batch of episodes released should all be new content as I have pleased to have a number of guests on the show who are picking their favourite episodes of Stargate to chat about. If you want to join then please get in touch, would love to get some of the old guests back on and as many new voices as possible.

IMDB

Official Site

The comments and observations of an unnamed member of Stargate Command after the reactivation of the base under General Hammond.