Gate Geek – Universe Premiere and Other Tidbits

Gate Geek – I see interesting things

I really need to do these more often.  Lots of news flying, these days.

Prepare to be astounded.  Stargate Universe is going to feature an openly gay character for the first time; in addition to being “dark and edgy.”  (The cast does not appear to be as dark and edgy, though.  If you’re not already following them, cast members David Blue and Brian Jacob Smith have been Twittering up a storm and seem like a lot of fun.)

So this gay thing is not entirely new.  It has already been said that at least one of the Atlantis characters was gay, but they never put it on screen.  And there may be others.

Maybe they’ll do that in the “some day soon” version of the Atlantis movie?  (Joe Mallozzi has been working on the script.)  But apparently MGM is being a bit wishy-washy about the timing for this and the next SG1 project.

In spend-some-money news, there is a preview of the Teal’c animated maquette on i09 that is entirely too cute.  (Words rarely associated with Teal’c.)

You can also spend your money to have lunch with Richard Dean Anderson to benefit the Waterkeeper Alliance.

And in yet still unrelated news, big, um, congrats to the incredibly talented Christopher Hyerdahl for being cast in the next Twilight movie.  May you not be overrun by Twihards.

Gate Geek – Newsbits

Well, look who’s been a bit lazy!  So what’s been happening around the Gate, lately?

Gate Geek – Choose Your Own Adventure

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.

Gate Geek – Movies!

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!

Gate Geek – Fast-Talkin’ Showdown

Tonight!  Tonight is the long-awaited showdown between two of the fastest talkers in the business:  Michael Shanks and David Hewlett.  Yes, Daniel Jackson and Rodney McKay head out on what’s being described as a “heist movie” in tonight’s episode First Contact.  (The fact that it represents the mid-season break will not depress me in the least.)

  • Michael’s pretty excited about it and also about some other projects.
  • Writer Martin Gero is also pretty excited, but a little frustrated that he wrote 64 pages for those two (an obscene amount of pages for a TV show) and they still didn’t run over time.

Oh, just go watch “the best [and last] season ever.”

Gate Geek – That’s a wrap party!

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.

Gate Geek – Things to do while NOT at Comic-Con

In order to keep with the Comic-Con theme, I will actually start out with news from Comic-Con. Then I’ll go to stuff to entertain those of us not there, this week. (Not that I’m bitter, or anything.)

  • Stargate Continuum had its world premiere on Thursday. On the deck of a carrier. (How cool is that?)
  • Not to be outdone, Joe Mallozzi counterprograms with a guest appearance on his blog by VFX guru (and Emmy nominee) Mark Savela. Cool pictures and he brings clips!
  • GateWorld waits for Friday’s Stargate panels by posting an interview with the great Robert Picardo. A wee bit on the spoilery side, but Picardo’s just so much fun.
  • The official site posts a story about last week’s episode in which Jewel Staite talks about the joys of living in a latex cage for four days.
  • And, finally, Alex Levine gets Joe Mallozzi to share some of his excitement about tonight’s episode, Broken Ties. Jason Mamoa apparently gives a performance not to be missed.

Support a Canadian charity on Canada Day

A Happy Canada Day to all our Canadian members and friends.  There’s something you can do in celebration.

We’ve told you previously about Michael Shank‘s on-going auction to support the Canadian National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Looking over the list today, there are some cool items from Firefly (Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk) and SuperNatural (Jared Padelecki, Jenson Ackles) that aren’t getting much action.  This might be your chance to pick up some nice items from those fandoms and still support a good cause.