Commentary "The Ties That Bind" 9x04
Hey!
This is a (quite rough) transcript of the commentary for TTTB.
1) It's extremely hard to tell Martin Gero and William Warring apart, so there might be some inaccuracies to who actually said what. And sometimes I simply couldn't understand what was said.
2) The 'h' on my keyboard is a bit wonky. I apologize for any resulting spelling mistakes, as well for all "normal" mistakes.
3) Corrections and additions welcome.
Enjoy!
Thanks very much to Formerhost who sent some corrections.
With William Warring, Joseph Mallozzi and Martin Gero.
WW: Hi, my name is William Warring and I’m the director of “The Ties That Bind”. And sitting beside me are…
JM: Hi, I’m Joseph Mallozzi and I’m the executive producer and the writer of “The Ties That Bind”.
MG: My name is Martin Gero. I’m also working on Atlantis. I’m a creative consultant on SG-1 and had very little to do with this episode. But I’m here along for the ride.
Someone woo-hoos but can’t tell who.
MG: They brought me in to punch up the commentary.
JM: All right, now TTTB actually…at the beginning of last year, I was actually planning to write a script called “Deus Ex Machina”, when Rob [Robert C. Cooper] came in and pitched another story. Or just very basic elements of TTTB. He basically pitched it out and said: “I need you guys to write this episode first.” So Martin, Carl [Binder] and I went into the writers’ room and we spun it out and we broke the story over, I guess, an afternoon. The original title was, I believe, “Treasure, Treasure, Treasure”.
MG: It was. Yeah.
JM: And ah..
MG: Which I was disappointed that we didn’t keep, by the way.
JM: It was pretty good. It was pretty clever. But I suggested “Ties That Bind” and I…
MG: I thought…
JM: Rob wasn’t a big fan of it, really.
MG: No, he never liked “Ties That Bind”.
JM: Yeah.
MG: The title. The script, of course, he loved because it’s perfect, but um...I think it also… This is one of the first scripts to… I mean, Rob wrote the first, the three-parter. None of us had really read that, when we started working on this. And something kinda interesting…this was kinda the first episode that we had really as a group attempted to write minus the Richard Dean Anderson character, Jack O’Neill.
JM: Right.
MG: And I remember in the initial breaking, when you and I and Carl sat down to actually come up with the beats, we’d actually really diminished Colonel Mitchell’s role. Just because we’re so used to, you know, making sure O’Neill only had… Richard Dean Anderson would only work a certain amount of days so, you know, in the last couple of seasons he’d been kind of slowly pushed to almost kind of a background role in the show. And so…
JM: We’d always have to look for tricks to explain why he wasn’t there.
GM: Yeah, exactly. He’s injured. You know, he…
JM: He’s stuck in traffic. And then after Rob read the outline, he said: ”By the way, we contracted him [Ben Browder] for 20 episodes. We can use him full-time now. We can…”
MG: “Really, put Ben Browder in as much as you want.” And we were like: “ Alright! He can be on stuff.
JM: That was great because it was actually… I mean, in the original outline it was really more sort of a Daniel/Vala dynamic. And by putting Mitchell in you also sorta got to play the Daniel/Mitchell dynamic, which is actually something both actors really enjoyed playing.
MG: Now the beard originally… This was lost later in the season. But when Ben Browder came on board everyone kinda joked like: “Oh, those two look so much alike. Ha, ha, ha.” And we’re like: “Yea-ah, not really, though.” And then, I’ll never forget when they met. Actually, Ben was in the writers’ room and Michael came in to say hello. And they were standing next to each other and there was just kinda of a silence and we’re all like: “Oh dear, they do look very, very similar.
JM: Now I thought that maybe Rob or someone had asked Michael to grow the beard. But actually that was Michael’s decision.
WW: To differentiate himself?
JM: Yeah, as a way to differentiate himself.
WW: But don’t… Still, towards the end of the season they still have… one’s in green, the other’s in blue. And if one’s in black than the other’s in green…
JM: Yeah.
WW: They will never wear the same.
JM: I mean, my argument is… The fans of the show who’ve been watching for, you know…
MG: Ten years now.
JM: Yeah, ten years. So presumably they will be able to tell the difference between Daniel and not Daniel.
WW: Anyone asked to do… like a Face/Off version? Where the two get to play each other?
JM: Are you pitching us a story?
WW: Maybe.
JM: Well…..
MG: Well, that would be fun. Right here live on commentary.
WW: Um… no.
JM: It’s a great idea, but um…… *they all laugh*…… It’s great idea.
One of the things I really liked about this episode are the guest stars.
MG: Yes!
JM: Malcolm Scott, Michael P. Northey and, of course, Bruce Gray. And Wallace Shawn.
MG: And Wallace Shawn. How can you forget Wallace Shawn.
JM: It’s funny actually, when they came in to audition, we were in the room, and they came in to audition the different characters. Malcolm Scott auditioned for Inago, the pirate. And we thought: “Well, he is… We like him a lot but why don’t we have him try for Caius. And the guy, Michael P. Northey, got Inago. I believe he actually auditioned for Arlos.
MG: Michael Northey and Malcolm Scott, by the way, are both very good friends of Paul McGillion who plays Beckett.
JM: Oh really? I recognized Malcolm Scott from this Chubby Chicken commercial he does which is hilarious. Just based on that I said “We gotta have him on the show.”
That’s an ad-lib by the way, of Michael Shanks… the “scraping the bottom of the barrel”. Poor Dr. Lee.
MG: Now this was shot third, although it aired fourth. So this was still very much at the beginning of… You know, Michael and Claudia had such a good relationship, even after “Prometheus Unbound”. And they have, you know, some people just have great chemistry together. And um…You know, although… Not that “Avalon” pt. 1 and 2 was a barrel of laughs, you know, it definitely had moments of humor. But those were quite serious episodes. And this was… This is really a chance for…
JM: This is more of a romp.
MG: …these two guys to get back to kind of that dynamic they had in “Prometheus Unbound”.
WW: What happened to the relationship between Dr. Lam and Mitchell?
JM: Ok, see that’s a very interesting…
GM: That’s a great question.
JM: You’ll notice, you’ll notice kinda subtle, very, very subtle hints.
WW: Like when he came out of the…
JM: When he comes out of the elevator, he’s buttoning up the shirt. And you’re wondering what’s going on.
WW: Just a little hint.
MG: They… It was a big part of “Avalon” pt. 1 and 2, originally. Well, not a big part but it was definitely a sub plot. This was of course before we found out that, you know, she was Landry’s daughter. And um…and so… But “Avalon” pt. 1 and 2, you know, combined was about 30 minutes over. So they had to cut a lot of stuff and some of the fun character stuff got cut. Same with this. This episode was…
JM: Yeah, there were whole scenes.
MG: …a little over. Whole scenes that needed to get cut.
JM: Brilliantly written.
WW: Brilliantly written and executed.
JM: Oh yes, they were. It’s just kinda unfortunate that Sci-Fi on their website last year was putting up the deleted footage. But for some reason this year… Sorry, two years ago they were putting up deleted footage.
MG: Oh, really?
JM: But for some reason last year they didn’t. I posted at least on of the missing scenes online. But for fans who are holding out to see, you might have to… Maybe direct all correspondence to Sci-Fi in New York.
MG: Wallace Shawn, a super swell guy. I mean, he’s you know..
WW: He was a lot of fun.
JM: It’s funny actually. When we did… we deal with a casting director in L.A. and I was talking to the assistant there. And there are a number of times when you hear: “Oh, we contacted the actor and, you know, he loves the show. He‘s a big fan of the show.” And we heard this about Wallace Shawn and thought: “Amazing.” It just amazes you sometimes who is a fan of the show.
MG: Who watches the show.
JM: And so, you know, he came in that day for the costume fitting. And we went down, you know, and I said: “So, are you familiar with the show?” And he said: “No, I don’t even own a TV.”
*they all laugh*
JM: But I’m sure that after his experiences here, he’ll be watching the show all the time.
WW: Oh, I’m sure.
JM: Now, I’m sure a lot of fans’ skin crawls at this point where he… where we have the Arlos character launch into a sort of explanation of, you know, the carnal evenings they would share together.
MG: This idea with the hands… (Arlos illustrates his story about Vala and him with some nice gestures)
WW: This was Wallace’s idea. He just came up with it.
MG: This is a great, great idea.
WW: It’s priceless.
MG: Cause it kind of almost… it makes… it forces you to think about it visually.
WW: Yeah, it’s creepy.
JM: Now, in the original version, you know it was just this and the audience was left to assume what they would. Um, later we got a note from Claudia who, I think, was kinda concerned about sort of that her character was, you know, kinda the two dimensional whorelette. And she, you know, wanted to make it clear that, you know, Arlos may have assumed that, you know, whatever happened happened. But in fact, you know,… she…Actually we wrote a line for her where basically she explains to Daniel and Mitchell that, you know, he had fallen asleep. So basically he could have assumed whatever… whatever, assume what she would have told him. But I think that may have been lost.
WW: No, I think that line’s still in there.
MG: That’s still there, absolutely.
This is a (quite rough) transcript of the commentary for TTTB.
1) It's extremely hard to tell Martin Gero and William Warring apart, so there might be some inaccuracies to who actually said what. And sometimes I simply couldn't understand what was said.
2) The 'h' on my keyboard is a bit wonky. I apologize for any resulting spelling mistakes, as well for all "normal" mistakes.
3) Corrections and additions welcome.
Enjoy!
Thanks very much to Formerhost who sent some corrections.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary “The Ties That Bind”
Commentary “The Ties That Bind”
With William Warring, Joseph Mallozzi and Martin Gero.
WW: Hi, my name is William Warring and I’m the director of “The Ties That Bind”. And sitting beside me are…
JM: Hi, I’m Joseph Mallozzi and I’m the executive producer and the writer of “The Ties That Bind”.
MG: My name is Martin Gero. I’m also working on Atlantis. I’m a creative consultant on SG-1 and had very little to do with this episode. But I’m here along for the ride.
Someone woo-hoos but can’t tell who.
MG: They brought me in to punch up the commentary.
JM: All right, now TTTB actually…at the beginning of last year, I was actually planning to write a script called “Deus Ex Machina”, when Rob [Robert C. Cooper] came in and pitched another story. Or just very basic elements of TTTB. He basically pitched it out and said: “I need you guys to write this episode first.” So Martin, Carl [Binder] and I went into the writers’ room and we spun it out and we broke the story over, I guess, an afternoon. The original title was, I believe, “Treasure, Treasure, Treasure”.
MG: It was. Yeah.
JM: And ah..
MG: Which I was disappointed that we didn’t keep, by the way.
JM: It was pretty good. It was pretty clever. But I suggested “Ties That Bind” and I…
MG: I thought…
JM: Rob wasn’t a big fan of it, really.
MG: No, he never liked “Ties That Bind”.
JM: Yeah.
MG: The title. The script, of course, he loved because it’s perfect, but um...I think it also… This is one of the first scripts to… I mean, Rob wrote the first, the three-parter. None of us had really read that, when we started working on this. And something kinda interesting…this was kinda the first episode that we had really as a group attempted to write minus the Richard Dean Anderson character, Jack O’Neill.
JM: Right.
MG: And I remember in the initial breaking, when you and I and Carl sat down to actually come up with the beats, we’d actually really diminished Colonel Mitchell’s role. Just because we’re so used to, you know, making sure O’Neill only had… Richard Dean Anderson would only work a certain amount of days so, you know, in the last couple of seasons he’d been kind of slowly pushed to almost kind of a background role in the show. And so…
JM: We’d always have to look for tricks to explain why he wasn’t there.
GM: Yeah, exactly. He’s injured. You know, he…
JM: He’s stuck in traffic. And then after Rob read the outline, he said: ”By the way, we contracted him [Ben Browder] for 20 episodes. We can use him full-time now. We can…”
MG: “Really, put Ben Browder in as much as you want.” And we were like: “ Alright! He can be on stuff.
JM: That was great because it was actually… I mean, in the original outline it was really more sort of a Daniel/Vala dynamic. And by putting Mitchell in you also sorta got to play the Daniel/Mitchell dynamic, which is actually something both actors really enjoyed playing.
MG: Now the beard originally… This was lost later in the season. But when Ben Browder came on board everyone kinda joked like: “Oh, those two look so much alike. Ha, ha, ha.” And we’re like: “Yea-ah, not really, though.” And then, I’ll never forget when they met. Actually, Ben was in the writers’ room and Michael came in to say hello. And they were standing next to each other and there was just kinda of a silence and we’re all like: “Oh dear, they do look very, very similar.
JM: Now I thought that maybe Rob or someone had asked Michael to grow the beard. But actually that was Michael’s decision.
WW: To differentiate himself?
JM: Yeah, as a way to differentiate himself.
WW: But don’t… Still, towards the end of the season they still have… one’s in green, the other’s in blue. And if one’s in black than the other’s in green…
JM: Yeah.
WW: They will never wear the same.
JM: I mean, my argument is… The fans of the show who’ve been watching for, you know…
MG: Ten years now.
JM: Yeah, ten years. So presumably they will be able to tell the difference between Daniel and not Daniel.
WW: Anyone asked to do… like a Face/Off version? Where the two get to play each other?
JM: Are you pitching us a story?
WW: Maybe.
JM: Well…..
MG: Well, that would be fun. Right here live on commentary.
WW: Um… no.
JM: It’s a great idea, but um…… *they all laugh*…… It’s great idea.
One of the things I really liked about this episode are the guest stars.
MG: Yes!
JM: Malcolm Scott, Michael P. Northey and, of course, Bruce Gray. And Wallace Shawn.
MG: And Wallace Shawn. How can you forget Wallace Shawn.
JM: It’s funny actually, when they came in to audition, we were in the room, and they came in to audition the different characters. Malcolm Scott auditioned for Inago, the pirate. And we thought: “Well, he is… We like him a lot but why don’t we have him try for Caius. And the guy, Michael P. Northey, got Inago. I believe he actually auditioned for Arlos.
MG: Michael Northey and Malcolm Scott, by the way, are both very good friends of Paul McGillion who plays Beckett.
JM: Oh really? I recognized Malcolm Scott from this Chubby Chicken commercial he does which is hilarious. Just based on that I said “We gotta have him on the show.”
That’s an ad-lib by the way, of Michael Shanks… the “scraping the bottom of the barrel”. Poor Dr. Lee.
MG: Now this was shot third, although it aired fourth. So this was still very much at the beginning of… You know, Michael and Claudia had such a good relationship, even after “Prometheus Unbound”. And they have, you know, some people just have great chemistry together. And um…You know, although… Not that “Avalon” pt. 1 and 2 was a barrel of laughs, you know, it definitely had moments of humor. But those were quite serious episodes. And this was… This is really a chance for…
JM: This is more of a romp.
MG: …these two guys to get back to kind of that dynamic they had in “Prometheus Unbound”.
WW: What happened to the relationship between Dr. Lam and Mitchell?
JM: Ok, see that’s a very interesting…
GM: That’s a great question.
JM: You’ll notice, you’ll notice kinda subtle, very, very subtle hints.
WW: Like when he came out of the…
JM: When he comes out of the elevator, he’s buttoning up the shirt. And you’re wondering what’s going on.
WW: Just a little hint.
MG: They… It was a big part of “Avalon” pt. 1 and 2, originally. Well, not a big part but it was definitely a sub plot. This was of course before we found out that, you know, she was Landry’s daughter. And um…and so… But “Avalon” pt. 1 and 2, you know, combined was about 30 minutes over. So they had to cut a lot of stuff and some of the fun character stuff got cut. Same with this. This episode was…
JM: Yeah, there were whole scenes.
MG: …a little over. Whole scenes that needed to get cut.
JM: Brilliantly written.
WW: Brilliantly written and executed.
JM: Oh yes, they were. It’s just kinda unfortunate that Sci-Fi on their website last year was putting up the deleted footage. But for some reason this year… Sorry, two years ago they were putting up deleted footage.
MG: Oh, really?
JM: But for some reason last year they didn’t. I posted at least on of the missing scenes online. But for fans who are holding out to see, you might have to… Maybe direct all correspondence to Sci-Fi in New York.
MG: Wallace Shawn, a super swell guy. I mean, he’s you know..
WW: He was a lot of fun.
JM: It’s funny actually. When we did… we deal with a casting director in L.A. and I was talking to the assistant there. And there are a number of times when you hear: “Oh, we contacted the actor and, you know, he loves the show. He‘s a big fan of the show.” And we heard this about Wallace Shawn and thought: “Amazing.” It just amazes you sometimes who is a fan of the show.
MG: Who watches the show.
JM: And so, you know, he came in that day for the costume fitting. And we went down, you know, and I said: “So, are you familiar with the show?” And he said: “No, I don’t even own a TV.”
*they all laugh*
JM: But I’m sure that after his experiences here, he’ll be watching the show all the time.
WW: Oh, I’m sure.
JM: Now, I’m sure a lot of fans’ skin crawls at this point where he… where we have the Arlos character launch into a sort of explanation of, you know, the carnal evenings they would share together.
MG: This idea with the hands… (Arlos illustrates his story about Vala and him with some nice gestures)
WW: This was Wallace’s idea. He just came up with it.
MG: This is a great, great idea.
WW: It’s priceless.
MG: Cause it kind of almost… it makes… it forces you to think about it visually.
WW: Yeah, it’s creepy.
JM: Now, in the original version, you know it was just this and the audience was left to assume what they would. Um, later we got a note from Claudia who, I think, was kinda concerned about sort of that her character was, you know, kinda the two dimensional whorelette. And she, you know, wanted to make it clear that, you know, Arlos may have assumed that, you know, whatever happened happened. But in fact, you know,… she…Actually we wrote a line for her where basically she explains to Daniel and Mitchell that, you know, he had fallen asleep. So basically he could have assumed whatever… whatever, assume what she would have told him. But I think that may have been lost.
WW: No, I think that line’s still in there.
MG: That’s still there, absolutely.
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