Show Notes
Are you a SciFi fan or maybe a SYFY fan? Do you find yourself scrolling though the channels and upon seeing Stargate SG1, or Stargate Atlantis, or even Stargate Universe you have to stop and watch? Do you love Dark Matter and the Comics of Dark Matter? Then you have come to write episode. Joseph Mallozzi visited Spoiler Country and gave us a run down of all things Mallozzi. This is a good one folks!
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*Please be aware that this transcript was auto generated by using the Descript program. Errors, misspellings, and incorrect pronunciations are inherent. Please excuse any misgivings*
Kenric: [00:00:00] All right guys, thanks for covered back today. We're excited because if you're a Stargate fan, if you're a dark matter's fan, , and you know, you love comic books, you love all this stuff around these Saifai, , well, all this amazing scifi stuff on TV and, and in the books and everything, then you're gonna love today's interview because we have Joseph with us.
[00:00:23] Joseph, thanks for coming on.
[00:00:25] Joseph: [00:00:25] Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:00:28] Kenric: [00:00:28] Exciting times are kind of weird. We're all kind of huddled in our homes practicing social distancing.
[00:00:36] Joseph: [00:00:36] It is weird, but it gives us the opportunity to catch up on our reading Wednesday and, , and Thursday mornings are my comic book, , days where I basically just try to catch up on all the new releases. And, uh, and then I usually do a blog post on Thursday where I, I give her a run down of usually my top, my top reads of the week.
[00:00:54] So I want to try and get everything done by then.
[00:00:56] Kenric: [00:00:56] Yeah. Are you a more of a superhero guy [00:01:00] or do you get into the independence or.
[00:01:03] Joseph: [00:01:03] Um, a little of both. I mean, I grew up as a superhero guy. I mean, you know, this is not the way it always worked for me. Um, some around my life and I would read comics and that I could just kind of lose interest and I would not read for a couple of years and then I would just pick up everything. And I would, I would just kind of dropped the title as I, as I would lose interest.
[00:01:22] I mean, I'm always kind of drawn to the, to the superheroes because, you know, that's what I grew up with. But I like a lot of the non stupid superhero stuff, like, you know, and, you know, I'm just reading a couple of other things. Uh, uh, this book I just picked up this week called heartbeat, which is kind of weird and wonderful, and another one called bang by.
[00:01:41] Um, was it Matt? Matt Kindt who's a mad genius. And, uh, and uh, yeah. Interesting titles. I like it. I love them all. Oh, amazing.
[00:01:52] John : [00:01:52] Matt. It's good. Oh, yeah,
[00:01:53] Kenric: [00:01:53] Yeah, yeah. We've, yeah. Matt's coming on and we get, we get the gambit here, Joseph. We don't mess around.
[00:02:00] [00:02:00] Joseph: [00:02:00] but you tell him hi
[00:02:01] John : [00:02:01] we talked to him at open
[00:02:02] Kenric: [00:02:02] We will, you know who we had on just a little bit ago. We had Corin Nemec on.
[00:02:09] Joseph: [00:02:09] Oh yeah. I haven't seen corn in ages.
[00:02:12] Kenric: [00:02:12] we talked about Stargate. He's actually coming on in April and we're going to do a star gate only episode about his time on star gate, what he loves about star gate, and then he wants to, and then, I don't know if you saw, he's like saying he wants it to come back and I know that you had a huge thing and if people don't know, uh, Joseph was one of the main writers and creators of Stargate, the TV show from 2001 to when.
[00:02:39] Joseph: [00:02:39] Well, we finished 2000 was it 2010
[00:02:42] Kenric: [00:02:42] Yeah. You had a long run on there.
[00:02:45] Joseph: [00:02:45] Yeah. It was kind of crazy. My writing, my a former, sorry, what.
[00:02:50] Kenric: [00:02:50] Go ahead,
[00:02:51] John : [00:02:51] I started at intervals. What's went off the air in 2011
[00:02:54] Joseph: [00:02:54] Oh 2011. Yeah, there we go. So, yeah, I was there for 12 years with my former writing partner and, uh, [00:03:00] we joined in season four and it was with the understanding that the show would go till season five as most shows date and then be done. And then we made the move and, um, see for season six to Saifai, they picked us up.
[00:03:12] And, uh, and then we just kept on getting picked up. And every year we thought we were done. And every year we would. Okay. Pick up for another season until season 10, which was a year that I, for some reason, finally felt confident we would come back for season 11. And that was the year that we did not come back, sadly.
[00:03:28] Kenric: [00:03:28] We're coming back. Oh no, we're not.
[00:03:30] Joseph: [00:03:30] Yeah, exactly. We almost actually did come back. I had, you know, this was, um, at a time when they just before, like way before, uh, Apple got like, I guess really, really, really huge. And then into a. Into a television. Well, you know, they're in television now, but
[00:03:48] Kenric: [00:03:48] Pre
[00:03:48] Joseph: [00:03:48] wanted to save. Yeah. Stargate, they wanted to save Stargate and, uh, and have launched an excuse, be the, you know, the, the, uh, they weren't [00:04:00] broadcast or, but essentially the, in a way, sort of the.
[00:04:03] The, uh, yeah, the, the, the ones who saved a Stargate. And so there were in talks to save SG one and do a season 11. And, uh, unfortunately our, uh, contract with Saifai would not, uh, allow it. So sadly, it was, it was not to be,
[00:04:20] Kenric: [00:04:20] pesky scifi contracts there.
[00:04:23] Joseph: [00:04:23] Oh
[00:04:24] Kenric: [00:04:24] had James Rowland, the creator of blood drive on, and that's what's stopping him from doing a season two and he has it like two and three mapped out, but he can't do them because Saifai NBC universal won't release. They'll release it, but the, the amount of money they want is to absorb it.
[00:04:40] Joseph: [00:04:40] Mm. Mm. I, I empathize to a certain degree. Yeah. You know, it's, is not the same situation, but, uh, you know, dark matter is kind of the same thing. I had like a five year plan and, and, uh, you know. Unfortunately, uh, it was cut short.
[00:04:57] Kenric: [00:04:57] I love your YouTube videos [00:05:00] because you're like going and doing all the behind the scenes and doing the bloopers and then showing when you're doing them, when you're revealing to the actors who the mole is. For dark matters, and it was just hilarious. Their reaction because they are, didn't know. You know what I mean?
[00:05:14] And you never, you don't get that sense when you watch TV, when you have a big reveal like that, you don't realize that the actress actually don't know until they're shooting, you know? And you did a great
[00:05:24] Joseph: [00:05:24] really depends. I mean, they know when the script, uh, comes out and, uh, you know, usually you do your, your, uh, your table read at least like a week before production. But in this case, I just referred to the mole as the mole is revealed. So even in the, in the, uh, read through, they didn't know, and I, I made sure that, you know, it was one of the last, uh, scenes.
[00:05:46] Of the season. So essentially, we, you know, there was originally actually a scene that it was, it was shot, but it was actually never shown where we're essentially, um, to his shock and goes down [00:06:00] and, and, and we kind of pan up these, these booted legs and reveal. Uh, six is the mall, but in the end, you know, we just decided to do the reveal and I that final shot where they're all kind of, uh, um, carried out.
[00:06:13] And, uh, and he's, uh, you know, very much conscious and, and, and, and clearly knows what he's doing and walking out. And that was only kind of last, or, uh, you know, the way we, we, we like to, to, to reveal it on screen.
[00:06:29] Kenric: [00:06:29] Yeah. Well, yeah, that's brilliant though. I just loved your, because I don't know, it just seemed like the behind the scenes look, it just seems like you had like a family type atmosphere and you can see it come through and your in your YouTube channels.
[00:06:43] Joseph: [00:06:43] Yeah. It's something that actually I learned from Stargate. I mean, we, you know, Paul and I joined the franchise Estee ones that's sort of the fourth season, and Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, who are the coast show runners. I, they kind of worked out all the kinks. And one of the things that Brad always said to me was, [00:07:00] LTF.
[00:07:00] I tell it, yes, life's too short. So what I wanted to cast someone and he basically had heard that they were assholes, then we wouldn't cast them. So it was relatively asshole free set. And you know, TV is, is challenging enough as it is and you don't really need to put up with like garbage people. And so essentially that's.
[00:07:21] Um, kind of the philosophy that I, that I brought to, to, to dark matter as well. It was kind of an LTS and asshole free zone. And I was always heartened by the fact that whenever, you know, guest stars would come on the show, they would say, wow, you know, it's, it's really, you know, it's a really great on set atmosphere, which, which, you know, I, I was happy about.
[00:07:41] Kenric: [00:07:41] I got to ask you, when you go onto YouTube, and I, cause I always try to do more research with people when they, before they come on, you know, just to have more things and what's going on. There's another Joseph Mulatu on YouTube, unless it's you, and they have all these 1950s cars and garage, and they do [00:08:00] these videos with them showing off their hot rods.
[00:08:02] Joseph: [00:08:02] Definitely not me,
[00:08:05] Kenric: [00:08:05] That's pretty cool. You
[00:08:05] Joseph: [00:08:05] interesting. Sorry. That would have been, it would've been interesting, but alas.
[00:08:10] Kenric: [00:08:10] go to YouTube and put your name in and it comes right up.
[00:08:13] Joseph: [00:08:13] That's weird, huh?
[00:08:16] Kenric: [00:08:16] I was like, Oh my God, is this
[00:08:17] Joseph: [00:08:17] know there's.
[00:08:20] Kenric: [00:08:20] It's hilarious.
[00:08:21] Joseph: [00:08:21] to be seat a table. All your a vintage car questions. Sadly.
[00:08:25] John: [00:08:25] That was the whole interview. That was
[00:08:26] Joseph: [00:08:26] this will, this will greatly, this will greatly curtail this, uh, this interview.
[00:08:32] John: [00:08:32] That was nice talking to
[00:08:33] Kenric: [00:08:33] the, I was really nice talking to you. Thanks, Joe. Thanks Joseph.
[00:08:36] Joseph: [00:08:36] How disappointing. How disappointing.
[00:08:40] Kenric: [00:08:40] So Jeff is, uh, he, he's our, he, well, he's our publicist. And he gets out there and he gets all of our, most of our, well actually nowadays, all of our interviews and on some of the interviews, he requires us to allow him to be on. And so he's, and those are the ones that he's a super fan of. [00:09:00] And today he was like, I
[00:09:01] John: [00:09:01] Can you make us sound so mean? Like we're always telling them,
[00:09:03] Kenric: [00:09:03] Yeah, we do. We're always pushed, Jeff. I'm kidding. No, Jeff can do whatever he wants with around here. But he did. But, but the ones that he really wants to be on that he's, cause he's a super fan of your stuff and he has a lot of Stargate questions. So I'm going to let him, uh, take over.
[00:09:17] Joseph: [00:09:17] Oh, I am touched fire away, Jeff.
[00:09:21] John : [00:09:21] Turn your mic on,
[00:09:22] Kenric: [00:09:22] Yeah. Turn your mic on.
[00:09:25] Jeff : [00:09:25] Sorry, did, I just had that conversation earlier that I knew I talk to Mike off. Oh, there we go. This is my introduction to Joseph. All right. Sorry. Anyways, thank you very much, sir. Um, my first question is, uh, once again, someone, a lot of people like me love Stargate. It has a very strong following, sort of like star Trek and star Wars.
[00:09:45] So why do you think star gate has survived so long and with such fanfare and how do you, and why do you think it entered into the collective consciousness the way it has.
[00:09:54] Joseph: [00:09:54] Um, honestly, I mean, it's something I always say. You know? [00:10:00] In fact, I said it just today. I'm basically, I was interviewing for sure running position for this new, a scifi series that they're doing. And I just said, it's kind of like my philosophy. I learned very early on on Stargate that viewers will tune in for the hook, but they'll stay for the characters.
[00:10:16] And Saifai is just. If it's done right. Um, you know, it has a way of really resonating with, with, with the audience, with the scifi audience in particular reason that at the scifi audience is, I mean, very. Audience are incredibly passionate, and that can be like a, you know, a double edge sword. But I mean, ultimately it comes down to whether it's, um, you know, the crew of the enterprise or, or, or, you know, um, you know, going through the gate.
[00:10:52] Um, it's really about, almost like you're, you're checking in with a second family of sorts, and, you know. [00:11:00] It's something as a philosophy that I brought to dark matter when I first started dark matter. I, you know, I, the characteristics that she started off as distrustful of one another and then over the course of the, see the, the, the show, the come together as kind of family.
[00:11:12] And there's that family unit, I think at the heart of all really great Saifai and not, you know, um, the city, you know, um. Uh, uh, like blood family. But I'm talking about, you know, there's a camaraderie that'd be typified Stargate that I think a lot of the fans loved. And, you know, there's a lot of, you know, dark and gritty Saifai that, uh, um, you know, at the end of the day, they see it's, it's critically lauded.
[00:11:39] But, um, maybe it doesn't get as many viewers because I just don't think emotionally it resonates with fandom. But. Yeah, that's a, you know, unfortunately, I, I'm not the guy making the decision decision about what gets, uh, with it gets aired or what's good grief, what gets a green lit. So, uh, you know, I, I would, I would love to [00:12:00] see more of this type of, of, uh, of Saifai like star Trek.
[00:12:04] Um, and I haven't seen the Orville, but I think if it, you know, fall is kind of the same template.
[00:12:11] Kenric: [00:12:11] The Orville
[00:12:11] Jeff : [00:12:11] like a lot of the actress from Orville. That's good.
[00:12:14] Joseph: [00:12:14] Mmm. Well, check it out. I got the time now.
[00:12:18] Jeff : [00:12:18] Um, so I mean, what was best? I'll start get, like, as you said, it's the core group. The core four had such great chemistry with each other, and a lot of it has to come from the writing, such as what you did. So when you, you jumped on, on the fourth season, how did you find the voice for each character?
[00:12:37] Joseph: [00:12:37] Um, well, first of all, you know, we obviously researched the show. Um, uh, and, and really, I mean, I guess we, we just had, we, we, we. We got a good sense of the tone and we were able to capture the tone. Um, you know, I'd heard that by the, Brad and Robert had had trouble finding writers before we came along. And, you know, even [00:13:00] after we came along, we always had trouble finding writers because, uh, more often than not, it's not because a writer is talented or not, it's just their ability to get.
[00:13:08] A show, and, you know, there, there's certain shows that, you know, I would never be able to write for. Um, you know, but, but Stargate was one that I was able to write for, just because I guess I got it tonally. And, and really that's also comes from the characters as well. I mean, you know, they're all, four of them had a very distinguished, uh, distinct voices.
[00:13:29] Um, but. You know, Rick, as a, as, as O'Neil was really the, uh, the driving force. And if you got his voice, everything else kind of fell into place. And he would, he would let you know if I, if you hadn't gotten his voice, because, you know, he read all the scripts and he would always, you know, make notes, particularly with regard to his dialogue.
[00:13:48] And then, you know, I mean, half the time you would watch the dailies and he would, you know, change something and you would be either pleasantly surprised or horrified. But, uh, you know, I was worried with Rick and it was fun.
[00:14:00] [00:14:00] Jeff : [00:14:00] Now were all the actors very involved in, um, the writing of their characters, or mostly it was just, um, uh, mr Rick Dean.
[00:14:08] Joseph: [00:14:08] Yeah, no, Rick. Rick was just involved from the beginning as an executive producer. So I mean, he read all the scripts that he watched all the cuts, and he would, uh, weigh in. But I mean, that doesn't mean that the other actors weren't involved. I mean, Michael shanks was like very involved with his character and, and, you know, um, you know, would always come up and, and, and have requests or, you know, give suggestions and, you know, Amanda, to a lesser extent, but, but, you know, as well, and, and Chris was a little more easygoing about it, but I mean, you know, every actor has their own process.
[00:14:40] So, um, you know, it, it, it. It just differs by, by actress. I'm going on a, on Atlantis. Jason. Momo was like very involved and, and, uh, you know, his character and he, you know, pitched some ideas for, for, you know, wouldn't you want her to see and you know, wanted to see a dark side co Ronin so he's going to say Conan, [00:15:00] uh, Kona, a dark side, Ronan.
[00:15:02] So basically we, you know, we did a, you know, uh, reunion and broken ties, which were, you know, two episodes. I think. You know, he, uh, uh, he really, uh, you know, flexed his, uh, acts, acting muscles. But I mean, it really depends on the actors. I've worked with actors who, you know, wanted to be very involved and, and, and, and really were very vocal about what they wanted to see and other actors who just kind of trusted us and let us do our thing.
[00:15:28] So.
[00:15:29] Kenric: [00:15:29] Hey, Jeff, let me, let me interject real quick. I got a question for you, Joseph. Working with someone like J uh, Mamoa, what was it like to see somebody just. Launch into the stratosphere when it comes to a movie star of that type of caliber. Cause they don't, you know, th that doesn't come along very often.
[00:15:48] You know what I mean? Like you have your Arnold Schwarzenegger's, you have, you know, your Stallone's and that, and now Momo is this big action star and he's just like, he does a movie. It's guaranteed to be a huge hit just off of his name alone.
[00:16:00] [00:16:00] Joseph: [00:16:00] Well, I mean, even off set, he was always, you know, bigger than life. He was, he's a very gregarious person, very, uh, you know, very charming, a lot of fun. So people are kind of drawn to him. And I mean, when we cast him very clearly, you could see that, uh, and his onscreen performance. So, I mean. Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm surprised by the media ORIC rise.
[00:16:23] Uh, but on the other hand, I'm kind of not surprised just because I, you know, I always knew he had that in him. And, you know, it's one of the reasons we cast him because, I mean, he, he, he has that, that, uh, you know, that, that, uh, attraction that, uh, that, you know, obviously, you know, makes people want to watch him.
[00:16:44] Jeff : [00:16:44] No. I think w when interesting things with, um, Stargate that a lot of shows have never been able to survive is to change of cast. And during your time in Stargate, you had to, um, replace, um, Daniel's character with Corden Nemick and then you had to replace Richard Dean Anderson character with [00:17:00] Ben Browder.
[00:17:00] How did they, um, how easily was interested transition these characters into your writing and into the series?
[00:17:07] Joseph: [00:17:07] You know, transitioning the characters wasn't that difficult. It was basically saying goodbye to the other characters that that was difficult. Uh, I mean, in the case of Michael, um. You know, he left at the end of my first season. So I mean, you know, I wasn't re in fall in term in terms of, you know, his, you know, I'm seeing him off and then welcome him, new character.
[00:17:32] I mean, that was Brad and Robert who really took charge in that respect and bringing in, you know, I mean, . Yeah. Michael is a fantastic actor and, and, and, you know, I was glad he came back. But on the other hand, I really love working with Corrine and I still, you know, I like corn a lot. He's incredibly talented and he was really pleasant, you know, in the case of, um, uh, Rick, I mean, you know, he was the show.
[00:17:56] We always thought, Oh, when, when, when he, he's done [00:18:00] the show, we'll be done. But it was almost like, um. You know, rather than, you know, it was almost kind of a gradual, um, uh, goodbye with Rick because he kind of, uh, um, would spend less and less time in Vancouver. So we would kind of write them out more and more until the point we decided the eighth season would be his last, and we didn't know whether we would get picked up or not.
[00:18:23] And, um, you know, I was a huge Farscape fan, so I, I said, uh, you know, why don't you suggest. Ben Browder is a possible placement to PSI Phi because I know that, um, you know, obviously they had loved for escape or they had canceled the show. So I thought that, you know, maybe they felt maybe a little guilty as well, and we want to rectify that.
[00:18:45] And, uh, you know, they loved the idea and we brought Ben on and, you know, I love Ben as well. I mean, he's like, you just. They can read down to earth, you know, I'm big hearted guy. And, um, and, and we brought in and Claudia as well. And originally [00:19:00] Claudia was supposed to be a regular in season nine, but, uh, the network thought it would be too much like Farscape even though her character was like totally different.
[00:19:09] Um, from her character on, on Farscape. And so basically we just had her on for six episodes and after, I think the, like the third episode Saifai you know, called us up and said, let's make it a regular. And at that point, we'd already planned the season, you know, the season. So we said, well, too late, but we'll make him make an irregular for reason to a tenant.
[00:19:27] And she wasn't regular for season 10, and she was fantastic.
[00:19:31] Jeff : [00:19:31] Now, I think the best episode you guys ever had was a window of opportunity for, I think it was absolute genius of an episode. Um, how did that one come about? And also because of the nature of that episode, which was kind of Brown hot dog, a Groundhog day ish in a way did have, did you start thinking about like your own opportunities as well?
[00:19:48] So just whenever you wanna talk about that show, that was just a great episode.
[00:19:52] Joseph: [00:19:52] That was the second episode that we wrote for the show and the first one that was produced and the original pitch was actually very dark. It was about, um, [00:20:00] sun visiting a planet where this. Population was facing this world, uh, ending event. And they were rebooting a time in order to basically buy themselves more time to come up with solution.
[00:20:13] And we started to get notes and Rob Cooper was giving us notes, uh, who was co-executive producer at the time. He was saying, well, you know, make it more like this and let's do this and let's do that. And it reached the point where I was like, this is basically Groundhog day. And, and Rob was like, yeah, do that. And, uh, but to be honest, I was like, kind of dubious at first and then we went ahead and, you know, we just found that, um, you know, it happened a lot on OnStar, on, on Stargate. I mean, you always want to come over with like, obviously an original idea. And there was so many times when we'd be like, I'll start track Trek already did that.
[00:20:44] And so, you know, we, you know, try to, you know, struggle with that. But ultimately. Um, you realize that, uh, I think it was Hemingway that says, that said, I think every story is, uh, already been told. But really what makes it special is that it happens to your [00:21:00] characters. And in the case of window of opportunity, the fact that it happened to and O'Neill who are the two least grounded, unseen, you know, unsee and scientifically minded individuals, that was fun.
[00:21:14] And you know, Brad and Robert loved. The humor, and that's kind of another thing I, you know, I've often said that. Humor goes such a long way towards allowing character, uh, viewers to connect with characters. And Stargate always had kind of that sense of human. And that's another reason that I think it always resonated with audiences.
[00:21:32] Um, you know, the, they're all kind of funny. They're different ways. Um, uh, O'Neill certainly more, you know, obviously, but even T look in a subtle way. Um, Mackay on, on, on, on, uh, on Atlantis and, uh, Eli. I am universal lesser extent. I, I think the humor was always important.
[00:21:51] Jeff : [00:21:51] Now. Yeah. Christopher judgey plays too. I mean, did you guys know just how good of an actor he was? Cause a lot early on he played very much with a straight character. [00:22:00] But as the series goes on, you can kind of see that there is humor to the character and you can tell that's cause for judge delivering that.
[00:22:06] And I mean, did you guys know that you had that with them?
[00:22:09] Joseph: [00:22:09] Well to be honest with like, I mean, like I said, I joined in season four, so by that point they already had, uh, uh, you know, three seasons under their belt. And I think it was around the third season that they begin to realize, um, you know, that he had the potential for humidity, all have the potential for humor.
[00:22:26] Um. And so, you know, he was always kind of fun to write for it. I mean, one of the first episodes we wrote was also point of no return. And, and you know, you know, you, you have him on, you know, in a motel room checking out the was a thousand finger bed. Um, you know, it was know kind of a fish out of water.
[00:22:45] And those are, you know, girls characters are always a lot of fun to write for.
[00:22:50] Jeff : [00:22:50] Yeah, I mean that the cast that you, that was on that show was just so phenomenal. And I don't know if they ever got enough the credit that they deserved. I mean, you assume that every one of them should have been. [00:23:00] Um. Stars for a long time after. And if cause for judgment should've been, you know, there's, I'm so much more.
[00:23:06] Joseph: [00:23:06] Yeah, I mean, it, I think, you know, that's true for not just the cast, but, but for like, this is Brad and Robert who created the show. And I mean, you know, um, you know, uh, co-created Atlantis and, and, and, and universe. And then Kosho ran M a S G one. Um, but I mean, they, they, you know, the franchise. Uh, ran for like 17 seasons and made the studio so much money.
[00:23:34] I'm just, I'm amazed it didn't get like overall deals. And that's where the cast, it's true. Um. Try. It was one of those shows that was surprisingly always off the radar in North America. I know Rob, uh, you know, one of the kosher runners would go to LA and they'd be like, what do you, what do you, what do you work on?
[00:23:51] He'd be like, well, it's a, you know, a series called Stargate, and they're like, Oh, does that, does that air in America? And it was like, well, we've only done like 350 episodes. [00:24:00] Yes. On the other hand, whenever they would go to Europe, I mean, especially Paris, Chris said that he couldn't walk down the street without people like yelling, miss you too, miss you too.
[00:24:08] You can, chasing him down for autographs.
[00:24:11] Kenric: [00:24:11] That's awesome.
[00:24:12] Jeff : [00:24:12] Yeah. I mean, I'll admit, I didn't watch the show when I was on site by it. Waited until the reruns. I got caught up in it and like, I think it was on type. I just never thought about it was like, yeah, scifi. So it's like a CLS show, but when it's got into the room, they'd really start paying attention. I was like, this show is phenomenal.
[00:24:28] It's so smart.
[00:24:29] Kenric: [00:24:29] Dennis start on Showtime or
[00:24:31] Jeff : [00:24:31] HBO.
[00:24:32] Joseph: [00:24:32] Yep. Yeah. Tuesdays is, I show time that I moved to Saifai. Um, I think actually one of the knocks against it, and also the, one of the things that basically helped it, uh, uh, simultaneously was Richard Dean Anderson. I mean, you know, half the people would see his name and they'd be like, Oh, that's the show with MacGyver, and automatically dismiss it.
[00:24:53] Whereas other people would be like. Holy shit. That's a show with MacGyver. I got to check it out. And so, you know, kind of a blessing [00:25:00] and a curse.
[00:25:02] Jeff : [00:25:02] Yeah, I mean, I just thought the show that you did guys did such a good job. And like I said, all came down to the character interactions. And one thing I thought was really interesting was the relationship between O'Neill and Samantha Carter and see a lot of episodes those were spent, spent introducing the fact that they will have a relationship.
[00:25:19] This will happen. And it doesn't ever really become visual. It doesn't really come tangible on the show. And do you think it should have gone further or do you think it was good the way they, you guys kind of left it, you know, just implied.
[00:25:30] Joseph: [00:25:30] uh, there were differing a room. Um, I mean, personally, I think after he left the show, it would have been nice to have some sort of closure. And, and you know. At least, you know, suggested they were together. Um, so I would prefer to see that, but I mean, you know, I, it, you know, it was a, it was a constant struggle, not just on, on, on Atlanta, uh, on, on stye, but certainly on Atlantis, uh, you know, [00:26:00] the hookups and, and, and, you know, the pairings and, and, you know, the, the, the fans certainly were very passionate about what they wanted to see and what they didn't want to see.
[00:26:09] Jeff : [00:26:09] Now, um, as an executive producer and a writer, in your mind, are they a couple.
[00:26:16] Joseph: [00:26:16] Oh yeah, absolutely. There were a couple,
[00:26:18] Jeff : [00:26:18] So, like you said, you envisioned them, you know, they got married, they had their life and everything.
[00:26:23] Joseph: [00:26:23] I don't think they've necessarily gotten married. I don't know if we were free. If a O'Neal is a marrying type, but, uh, I think they're together. I mean, I, I, I would suspect he's retired and she's probably running, she's starting a command now. But you know what, who knows? Maybe we'll find out in the next a Stargate series.
[00:26:43] Jeff : [00:26:43] I w I really hope you guys bring it back. Can find a way to bring it back.
[00:26:47] Kenric: [00:26:47] Yeah. I'm curious, how did your campaign go for December 6th.
[00:26:51] Joseph: [00:26:51] Um, you know, it's, I think I know a little more that's going on behind the scenes and I can't really say, but I will say that [00:27:00] it has had a very positive. Uh, effect. And, uh, and, um, you know, I've always said that, that, you know, uh, the studio would bring back stargates sooner than later, because, I mean, it's, it's just.
[00:27:14] You know, to, to, uh, you know, to valuable a franchise to, to, to, you know, allow to life follow. Um, but their approach has to be, I mean, they have to be very careful in their approach. And essentially that was the, the, the intent of the campaign is obviously the let them know that the fandom is out there, but also to let them know that, you know, we don't want to read with it essentially wipes out, uh, the entire.
[00:27:39] You know, T V cannon obviously want to show that we'll allow view new viewers to hop on and not be confused. And you know, basically come in at step one, but at the end the other hand, you also want to show that rewards longtime viewers and, and, and there's a way to do it. And you know, Brad Wright, who was co-creator of all three [00:28:00] franchises, is the guy to get that done.
[00:28:02] So, you know, hopefully he does much sooner than later.
[00:28:05] Kenric: [00:28:05] Yeah. I the F. Oh, sorry, Jeff. One second. The. Fan base is fanatic. And I used to live with a guy that is the biggest Stargate fan, I think you could find on the planet. He has, he has, he's bought-in screen used. Uh. You know, bugs. He's got it on a thing. Oh yeah. Well, you start watching it. If it's on TV, if it's a, there's a rerun on, he's watching it, and then as you look over, you could see him literally mouthing all of the dialogue as it's coming up.
[00:28:39] And he knows every single episode frontwards, and he just loves it. And he's, but the thing is, he goes out in the real world. He doesn't like. He doesn't geek out all the time, but Stargate is his, that's his jam. And it's,
[00:28:52] Joseph: [00:28:52] Wow.
[00:28:53] Kenric: [00:28:53] know, yeah. I can't wait to actually forward this interview to him cause he's gonna trip out.
[00:29:01] [00:29:00] Jeff : [00:29:01] Now there. Now, if theoretically the show ever does come back. Are we talking a reboot or or a continuation? If it's a continuation, I'd be looking at Matt getting back from the original characters. I know it's just in talks, but can you give us some hope?
[00:29:14] Joseph: [00:29:14] Um, yeah, I mean, like I said, you know, nothing is, is, is for certain, but, um, in operating under the assumption of a best case scenario and, and you know, Brad is at the forefront of, of, uh, uh, developing and, uh, show running a new series. It would be a show, uh, that it would definitely not be a reboot. We'd be set in the same.
[00:29:38] Um, universe, if you will. Uh, I think you'd probably want to introduce a new team. Um, so the, so essentially new viewers could, could, um, uh, be introduced to the Stargate program along with these new characters. But you know. In support of these new characters, you would have, I think the old guard, like I, you know, you [00:30:00] mentioned Carter, you mentioned, uh, Dr.
[00:30:03] Jackson, maybe Mackay. Um, and you know, as you kind of expand the world over the course of the season, you introduce more elements from, from past shows, and you begin to tie up for some stories. Like, you know, what happened to destiny and, and you know, what happened to Atlantis. So, you know, very much a show.
[00:30:21] Like I said, that that is a great jump, like a not confusing jumping on point for new viewers, yet a show that we'll, we'll definitely reward, uh, longtime fans.
[00:30:32] Jeff : [00:30:32] It sounds a little bit like what you did when you first brought in Stargate Atlantis, which was, you know, you, you definitely introduced a new show, new team, but that first episode, you still get, um, Richard Dean Anderson on it. You still get Danny to, to show up, and it kind of, as a way to kind of hand it over like the Baton of say, Hey guys.
[00:30:49] You can watch the show too. It's there. One of us. So my question with that is, um, tell me about the creation of Stargate, Atlantis and, um, how, what, what was the plan to make it feel different but yet [00:31:00] connected to
[00:31:02] Joseph: [00:31:02] You know, ultimately, this would really be a better question asked of Brad. Right. And you should reach out to him because, uh, he is much more eloquent than I am, uh, because he and Rob are the co-creators of, uh, of Atlantis. Um, and, you know, they very much were aware of what made as you want a success. So they, you know, wanted to essentially.
[00:31:25] You know, capture, uh, you know, you know, uh, landing in a bottle a second time. And they did, I mean, um, different galaxy, uh, kind of different makeup rather than, you know, instead of being a military, um, you know, exploration unit, they were civilian, but they were backed by the military, um, different villains.
[00:31:47] And yet at the same time, tonally very much in the spirit of the original Stargate SG one.
[00:31:55] Jeff : [00:31:55] Um, one of my favorite shows. In the entire program was, um, reunion and Stargate, [00:32:00] Atlantis, uh, can give me a little bit of information where that came from.
[00:32:03] Joseph: [00:32:03] Um, that actually came from, you know, my discussions with Jason Momoa who said he, you know, um, wanting to explore more of, of, uh, Ronan's, uh, city and backstory. And so, you know, I, I, I, I wrote the script and I'm going to be reaching out to Mark the Costcos, who, um, you know, is, is just. Fantastic. The, uh, the chairman on, on, on iron chef and, and I think it was long in Ohio, a Hawaii Five-O and, and, uh, um, brotherhood, the Wolf way back, great movie.
[00:32:38] And, um, you know, just a super positive onscreen presence. And, and it's such a great time with that episode. And then we followed up with the kind of, the sequel called broken ties when again, Jason came in and he was like, I want to do an episode where, uh. Ruined and goes dark side and shaves his head. Uh, so basically we came up with the story and I had the head shaving scene.
[00:32:59] And so if [00:33:00] I was like, no, we are not using it, uh, losing his dreadlocks. And it was at a time where, where Jason, the dreadlocks were kind of really weighing on him, uh, you know, and there were just kind of a, I think, kind of fucking up his scalp and, and, and, uh, and so he wanted to lose them. And it would have been a great in story, a way to lose them.
[00:33:19] But you know, in the end he ended up, you know, losing the dreadlocks and, and we ended up having a week him for Saifai sake, which, you know, in the end, I guess is Ronan Ronan, without his dreadlocks, I would say yes, but the network beg to differ.
[00:33:37] Jeff : [00:33:37] Yeah. I mean, what was great about that reunion episode was that you had a, a moral quandary for just mammaw's character Ronan, on whether or not you stay with the Atlanta's team. Or go with, you know, his old family as it were. And I know you guys at the end of that show kind of made the choice easy for him by making the old family, um, kind of billing this, but if they hadn't been billing is, do you think [00:34:00] Mamoa was still one of his character, Ronan was still have chosen them or you think he would have gone back to Atlantis regardless?
[00:34:07] Joseph: [00:34:07] Yeah. Very good question. I think, I think given the type, given the character that Ronan was, I think it would have broken his heart, but I think he would have basically returned to his old crew who needed him. Uh. And, uh, you know, I think that's a decision, the hard decision you would've made, it would have made.
[00:34:29] And although it was kinda, I think the decision he was kind of leaning towards until obviously, like you said, we made things kind of easy for him. And, uh, you know, we're, we're at the, uh, the twist at the end.
[00:34:40] Jeff : [00:34:40] well, well the other thing I really like, cause once again the whole show is made on characters and later on you, you bring in Colonel Carter to the show. And I would love to know what brought that on. And did you find, um, that that made things difficult and how to write McKay's character? Because obviously he was the genius on Atlantic, but now Carter is [00:35:00] clearly smarter.
[00:35:00] It's sort of like the Superman versus, you know, the shazamm, you know, which of them is good, but if you're a man of Superman, how well it brought about her, her character, and, you know, did it make it difficult for me? Kay?
[00:35:09] Joseph: [00:35:09] Ah, you know? Yeah, yeah. That it, you know, it was very much a challenge just because, as you said there, they kind of cover the same territory and there was the fun of, you know, kind of the. Yeah. From, from, from my case standpoint, the unrequited love thing, which, uh, you know, it's news to, to what was news to Sam, of course.
[00:35:30] But, you know, that was always kind of fun to play is, is, you know, McKay had come such a long way. He was, he was such a. Annoying pain in the ass, a, an unlikable pain in the ass, um, you know, in, in his introduction in SG one, and then you kind of rebel, rehabilitate him and he becomes a likable pain in the ass in Atlanta.
[00:35:51] And, and it was just interesting, uh, kind of exploring that dynamic with him and Sam and, and, and, you know, even though he, he [00:36:00] is a jerk. You've, you know, it's very clear that he has much respect for Sam. And, you know, in terms of sort of bringing, uh, Amanda on board, I mean, you know, we love Amanda. Um, just, you know, one of the nicest people and one of the most talented actresses you could ever work with, an hour and an incredibly talented director.
[00:36:19] It was nice having Iran, you know, she was only on obviously for a season that you went off to do, uh, to do, um, sanctuary, which opened the door for Bob Picardo to come onboard. And, and I'm a huge Bob Acardo fan. So, you know, it was kind of interesting, uh, you know, seeing kind of the, the shift and, and the leadership dynamics from, from, from where to, to Carter, to, to, uh, to Woolsey.
[00:36:42] Jeff : [00:36:42] Yeah. I mean, let me make you seek a McCain Mackay. What's been really fun to write, I mean, of all the characters on Stargate, he was the one. That was the most or most clearly flawed character, and I think that just made him not made him spectral, made him very identifiable. And what was it like to draw his character.
[00:36:58] Joseph: [00:36:58] Yeah. Yeah. To be [00:37:00] honest with you, I think that kind of August, the writers love to write for the K for the reasons you said, but also because he was the funny guy and, and more than just, you know, funny on the page. Uh, David Hewlett. You know, w would take what was on the page. Just kind of make it a zone and, and just bring it to life in a way that, that always surpass your expectations.
[00:37:21] And you know, it's basically what I said about human going such a long way towards allowing viewers to, to connect with characters. He was like a character who you just really love to, who's a very endearing character, even though it was, I guess, at a pain in the ass. And he was flawed, but you couldn't help but love him.
[00:37:38] Jeff : [00:37:38] Yeah. And, and I think part of his redemption, I think was he's tried to create, it already started creating a relationship with this kind of character with Dr. Keller did. Um, what brought that around and, and I know that got some controversy as well. Do you think he deserved it?
[00:37:51] Joseph: [00:37:51] Um, I mean, yeah, I mean, I, I'm not the type of writer who will say, Hey, everything. You know, we wrote [00:38:00] a kid cannot be criticized. I mean, it's a show and you can go different ways. And, and you know, one of the things about, you know, scifi that I said is that audiences are incredibly passionate because, because of the characters, again, they get attached to the characters, what the character should do, what they shouldn't do.
[00:38:15] Um, you know, they, they, I don't know if maybe they just liked him alone. Maybe they just preferred Keller with. Ronan. Um, but, you know, I mean, at the end of the day, I, you know, I was happy with the way it turned out, but, but, you know, I always cognizant of, of, of, uh, you know, of, of audience response.
[00:38:38] Kenric: [00:38:38] Joel state came on and played Dr. Keller, correct? Yeah. And she, she came over from, uh, of course she's super famous from Firefly. And was she ever, I mean a lot of people that, that, that are on an iconic show, even though that show was only on for the one season, it's, it [00:39:00] has such a huge everlasting effect.
[00:39:02] People still cause play. People still, you know what I mean? They still want it to come back. There's the whole movement for four. Was she ever worried about being typecasted into that type of role and then going into from one scifi show to another scifi show, cause she seems like
[00:39:18] Joseph: [00:39:18] yeah. Not, not that I know of. I mean, essentially she, she did, she played a role, um, in Stargate. Atlanta. Suicide was, it, maybe it was the second season or the third season of a, a kind of a wreath hybrid named Ella. And I mean, she was in, you know, unrecognizable beneath the, the Wraith makeup. But she was such a pleasure to work with and she was so good that we're like, Oh, we got to find a way to bring her back.
[00:39:42] And, um, you know, after, um, the, the episode where we, you know, we lost, uh, Beckett, um, you know, we were thinking of, you know, well, we're going to bring in another doctor. And actually we, you know, we had planned to bring in an, an an, an another [00:40:00] doctor character, another actress. But there was kind of a weird situation where.
[00:40:06] I think her agent said she was unavailable, but turns out she had been available. But in any case, because we assumed, you know, we, the agent had told us we were unavailable. We're like, okay, we go down and look elsewhere. So we started to look and, and, and, I mean, you know, I, I'd watch Firefly and I'd love Firefly and, and, and, you know, I mean, scifi fans.
[00:40:24] Love that. Crosspollination the, the, you know, the, the, the, the, you know, you know, seeing kind of, uh, you know, actresses or actors, they love play playing other roles or, you know, guest starring on other shows. And the, the character of Jennifer Keller was so different from the character that jewel played on, on, on Firefly in much the same way that, that Claudia was so different from, you know, Aaron soon and, and on Farscape.
[00:40:49] So I think that was ever really an issue for her. But you know, that's the question you could ask her when you interview her.
[00:40:56] Kenric: [00:40:56] we'd love to, go ahead, Jeff.
[00:40:59] Jeff : [00:40:59] So tell [00:41:00] me about Stargate ex extinction. Um, what, what was it going to be and do you feel Stargate, Atlantis never was able to fully complete without it?
[00:41:08] Joseph: [00:41:08] Um, struggling extinction was, uh, you know, originally we had planned it to be the first two episodes, the opener for season, what was going to be season six. I mean, Rob Cooper came in and he was like, well, why don't you write a two hour. You know, a movie that can actually be the opening, uh, you know, uh, two part of season six.
[00:41:34] You can produce it at the end of, of season five. And basically we don't get that season six pickup. You can release it as a direct video feature. So we're like, great. And we signed the deal and then they. Uh, ultimately we, we didn't get to shoot it within, um, you know, the production schedule of season five where we still, you know, assume that we would be, um, you know, be producing it at some point.
[00:41:59] And then [00:42:00] the kind of the bottom fell out of the DVD market and MGM didn't want to proceed. Um. But I mean, basically the story was, um, Atlanta is, is returned to the Pegasus galaxy. I mean, the, the ending of, of, um, you know, that, that last scene in season five, when, when, you know, they're, they're back on earth looking at it at, uh, what's the golden gate bridge, I think?
[00:42:24] I think that's where they were. They, were they in San Francisco or New York? I think they were in San Francisco, Um, but I mean, all while it's a very nice. Uh, seam. It was never, you know, when we wrote it, it was never intended as, as a series Enders. We always intended them to go back to, to Pegasus and, and so, you know, you know, I do a daily blog where, I mean, I've been blogging for almost like 12 years straight without missing a day.
[00:42:51] And, um, you know, amongst the many things I covered on the blog, or, you know, as you say, a lot of behind the scenes videos and stories. And [00:43:00] one of the things is I gave a breakdown more or less of what, what happens in an extinction. And just recently at Comicon, um, because I had like the script MGM, uh, put together a panel and we, we did a little, um, panel read of the, uh, of the, uh, uh, you know, some of the scenes.
[00:43:18] It was kinda fun.
[00:43:22] Kenric: [00:43:22] Cool. Wow. That was a lot of Stargate. That's awesome. That was a lot of insight, Joseph. That was really cool. Thank you so much for doing that with the, with Jeff.
[00:43:35] Joseph: [00:43:35] you guys for having me. And again, I apologize for arriving
[00:43:39] Kenric: [00:43:39] no, I've got a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind, if you want to hang out a little bit. Cool. So what do you have going on today? Sands, uh, the, the Stargate push that you're doing that people should, should be aware of.
[00:43:54] Joseph: [00:43:54] Uh, be aware of, I don't know if you know, I mean, I'm really in development now and I'm [00:44:00] working on, honestly, I think I counted 11 different projects. Um, all of which, you know, because you, you have to juggle so many things in this business because you never know what's going to go. Um, one of the ones I'm, I'm, I'm really had my heart set on is, is a, uh, a kind of a scifi.
[00:44:15] A time-travel series, which is very much in the spirit of window of opportunity. And if you watch dark matter, I did, you know, the shows like, uh, episodes like, isn't that a paradox? And all the time in the world, uh, just a Saifai with a sense of humor. And that's in development. Um, I've just delivered the second script and I'm kind of hopeful for that.
[00:44:36] Uh, I am hopeful for a Stargate return. Uh, so hopeful for that. Um, and then, you know, there are a couple of other, I'm, I'm, I'm developing something for DC comics that has been going on for a while now.
[00:44:52] Kenric: [00:44:52] you if you had any return to comics going to happen
[00:44:54] Joseph: [00:44:54] Yeah. You know what, I w I would love for it to happen, but it's, you know, it's, it's been such a kind of a [00:45:00] slow process, uh, that I don't, I don't know what's, what's going to come over.
[00:45:03] Like I said, I mean, you know, you, you have to sort of juggle so many projects. Um, and then like, I got a couple of. Uh, book adaptations, and I've been fielding, I, you know, today I ended up, uh, doing an interview for a, um, um, a film, a scifi film franchise that, uh, they're looking to adapt to television and they're looking for a show runner.
[00:45:26] And so I ended up talking to them about that. And then I ended up, I, I'm, I'm, I talked to like four different places about. Potential showrunning opportunities. Um, but again, you never know, you know, whether the shows are actually going to go, whether basically they're, they're going to go with you or someone else, or if something else will come, come along and, you know, so, um, a lot of, lot of irons in the fire, but we'll see, Oh, of course this, this, this virus puts a damper on things.
[00:45:55] It may delay things. So, uh, you know, hopefully we'll be back getting it sooner than later.
[00:45:59] Kenric: [00:45:59] Is [00:46:00] there anything that you've . Like self creation. Right. But you've created that you would love to get out there in a TV or movie platform that people might not know about.
[00:46:12] Joseph: [00:46:12] Yeah. But it's basically the, the, the, this year, as I mentioned, time scape, it's the, uh, it's, it's kind of like a fun Saifai time travel series. And, you know, I, I've always been a big fan of. Obviously sci-fi, scifi with humor, but time travel, uh, alternate universes and, and, and just kind of the, the fun, um, you know, it's those kind of evergreen scifi concepts that you can kind of give a special twist, uh, and, and just kind of make it your own.
[00:46:42] And ultimately it's a story, again, like, like star Trek, like star Wars, like star gate about a family.
[00:46:49] Kenric: [00:46:49] Yeah. You gotta. You gotta. You really gotta watch Orville. Everything you just described is what Orville is.
[00:46:55] Joseph: [00:46:55] I definitely have. Well, I have the time now, so I definitely
[00:46:58] Kenric: [00:46:58] you go. [00:47:00] Well, Joseph, thank you so much for coming on. This was stupendous at a great
[00:47:05] Joseph: [00:47:05] you guys for having me anytime.
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