Club Jade

Which will you choose?

• There’s a Fan’s Choice poll to choose the favorite Atlantis episodes to go onto a BluRay Fan Favorites compilation. (via)
• There’s a video of all the handsome guys at the wrap party held after the last episode was done.  (Which, by the way, scored great ratings.)
• Or if you prefer to go the SG1 route, there’s a very philosophical interview with Ben Browder about Stargate, Farscape and his general outlook on life.

Tonight (Friday) is the series finale for Stargate Atlantis.

Tributes are a bit sparse in official channels, but it promises to be a good one, not only because Picardo says so, but because it’s the 100th episode.  And those tend to be extra good in the Stargate franchise.

So thank you, Atlantis.  It’s been an adventure!  Those of us in Club Jade who are Gate Geeks will be mourning for a while.

Get out the anti-depressants, folks.  The end is nigh.

The Official Site has put up the teaser for Vegas.  (Their teasers are always so much better than SciFi’s!)  Remember to watch it as you’re recovering from your New Years revelry.

And Robert Picardo comforts us by assuring GateWorld that, in spite of the late notice, the writers have managed to wrap things up well for the series end while still leaving it open for the movie.

At least there’s that.  Now…where did I put that bottle….

During a press conference for her series Sanctuary (debuting tonight on SciFi), Amanda Tapping told reporters that both the SG1 and SGA movies will be filming at the same time next year.  Sounds like they’re shooting for late spring or early summer.

Just like a big ol’ family reunion!

In the meantime, Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Caldwell) is glad for his time on Atlantis and other series, but still gets frustrated that he’s still associated with X-Files after all this time.  You’ll always be the Colonel to the Gate Geeks, Mitch!

And finally, a big ol’ juicy set of spoilery SGA pictures and some fangirlish squee on io9.  I’m totally with you, Meredith!

What would have been in store for us if Stargate Atlantis had been renewed?  Producer Joe Mallozzi gives us the sometimes-humorous run-down of the likely and not-so-likely.

In semi-related Stargate news, Science Blog delves into the subject of dark energy.  Just don’t let McKay near it.  He’s already blown up a solar system.

Apparently a very good time was had by all at the Stargate Atlantis series wrap party. David Hewlett Twittered about his hangover. And, according to producer Joe Mallozzi, everyone was having way too much fun to even pay attention to the final speeches and tribute video (to be included on the Season 5 DVD set). But there are lots of fun pictures of most everyone and significant others.

Over in GateWorld land, they interview Gary Jones (aka Walter, SG1′s favorite gate technician) and Janina Gavankar, a newly-introduced female kick butt character.

It may have been a small protest in front of The Bridge Studios, but it had heart.  (Although figure it out, folks.  The current producers want to keep the show going.  You should be complaining to MGM and SciFi about this.)  In producer Joe Mallozzi’s blog, he commented on how spirited they were.

The protesters, however, are organizing a rally in Los Angeles in front of MGM.  There ya go….

In the same blog entry, Joe Mallozzi also confirmed that the promised SGA movie is already on track with a script to be finished by year’s end.  Yippee!

Over in GateWorld land, there are new interviews with Chuck “Chucknician” Campbell and David Nykl.

The anger over the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis continues with a rally planned in front of The Bridge Studios (where SGA is filmed) on Friday, September 12th.  They’re hoping to get enough media attention to shame MGM into realizing they’ve made a mistake.  In addition, it would show the cast and crew (on their last day of filming at the studios) how much they’re loved and appreciated.

If you’re up for some amusement and happen to be in Burnaby, drop on by!

In other missed Gate news while I was out and about in the world:

• The cast and crew are also bummed about the cancellation as evidenced by this article and this video.
• Congrats go out to Atlantis for picking up 4 Gemini nominations.

Okay. The grieving process continues in Stargate fandom. The Save Atlantis sites proliferate and are about to merge into one. There’s talk of lemons and monkeys. (Huh?)

We’re starting to get reaction on the cancellation from David Hewlett, David Nykl and Chuck “Chucknician” Campbell. But story ideas are already brewing for the impending movie. So there’s still things to look forward to.

And we continue to enjoy this season after last week’s amazing episode The Shrine. Director Andy Mikita gives the official site some background on the episode. Rachel Luttrell talks about incorporating her pregnancy into the show ahead of the upcoming premiere of Season 5 in Canada.

In the meantime, we have the official announcement and basic premise for the new series Stargate Universe which will arrive in the summer of 2009.

So a great hue and cry has gone up from the ranks of fans with much anger directed at both SciFi and MGM for cancelling Atlantis.  And there are the inevitable sites going up as the fans work through the grief process.  However, the producers are saying that it was a mutual decision in order to launch the Stargate Atlantis movies while the brand was still strong.

Joe Mallozzi shares that the cast and crew were told before word leaked out.  (A bit of a rarity, in this day and age.)  And he also shares that the 100th and last episode will not be a cliffhanger, as previously reported, but should leave us wanting more.

David Hewlett Twittered that he’s a bit bummed, but is philosophical about the actor’s life.  No official word, yet, from the other main actors.

On the happier side of Stargate news, although the producers aren’t yet acknowledging it, The Hollywood Reporter is saying that the new series Stargate Universe has been greenlighted.  (Although anytime someone in Hollywood says “younger vibe,” I get nervous.)  So…new series and movies from the prior ones!

And tonight’s episode, The Shrine, is getting huge buzz as being one of the most moving of the series.

It should be an interesting Dragon*Con next weekend!