Joseph Mallozzi's Blog! (SPOILERS For All SG Shows and Dark Matter)

[the dancer of spaz]

Well, I read through imdb's list of Powers' episodes, and I noticed that two out of my Top 3 Worst SG episodes every written were written by her. Except for the two Thor episodes (which were alright), I would rank her other episodes pretty low as well. And the Best/Worst episode tournaments on this forum showed that two of her few episodes ranked the worst. If the majority of fans think so on an episode to episode basis, why aren't TPTB aren't allowed to agree (if they in fact believe so)?

Also, I've heard several PTB (at least MW and Joe) admit recently that "Irresponsible" weren't their finest hours. It's not like they only put down Powers' work (and I've yet to come across a public statement of TPTB where they actually attack her and her skills - I've also never read a statement saying that they think females can't write). According to IMDB, Katharyn Powers also no longer writes for TV shows, so I think it would be a moot point to link her not being on SG-1 to TPTB disliking female writers.

I agree that Powers' work wasn't the strongest, by any stretch of the imagination (I won't get into the series of duds from other writers). And, like I said earlier, it's entirely possible that there simply weren't females there to hire... While I find it hard to believe that there are zero female sci-fi writers in Canada, I'm willing to accept that maybe there were just zero female writers who were (a) qualified or (b) interested.

Unfortunately, however, a 10-year-run with two successful series and hundreds of crew members of both genders doesn't exactly support that theory... But who knows?

[Pitry]

Funnily enough to this discussion, I actually do rate Katharyn Powers' and eatehr E Ash's episodes highly.
However...

Anywho, he was being nice there, but really, between his comments in the past and some of things RCC has said, I got the impression that they didn't really have a value for Kathryn Powers' work, or the work of the other female who was involved. This bothers me because the snide comments they've made about them seem to surpass any amount of gentle criticism they've made about their friends in public. I don't expect them to pinpoint all of their friends/colleagues' flaws, but sometimes they seem to fall all over themselves to protect the other from fans' ire, whereas they've had no problem openly criticizing Emancipation...

While I have no iea what these comments are, as this is the fist reference to KP's work I've seen by any of the other writers... Yes, they have no problem openly critisising Emancipation, like 95% of Stargate viewers. When they screw up, they usually know - the recent MW comment about Irresponsible "lacking the magic frmo the beginning", JM's aknoledgement that there are reasons why Avenger 2.0 and/ or Space Race usually get the negative response they do, or JF's comment about Epiphany not coming out remotely the way he and BW thought of it. Hell, reading JM's blog post when someone criticised Bounty, ti can definitely be itnerpreted as a "yeah, we know, it dind't come out right". I also recall them trying o pretend Hathor didn\'t exist, and that episode was written by a guy.
I woudl say when they disagree with fans, they woudl defend an episode. When they do....

[prion]

In addition to sgeureka's whole post, which I agree with wholeheartedly, one more point about this. Freelancers does not necessarily mean more original ideas. Good freelancers, much like good regular writers, might mean more original ideas. In SG1's 10 years, some of the most horrid episodes - ever - were written by freelancers - well, IMO , of course. There are those of us who actualy enjoy The Light .
The key is, much like with female writers, not to hire someone because they're new and fresh" or because they're female, but because they're good enough.

The trouble is that the producers on the show write some of hte WORST (at least to my eyes) episodes ever to grace the series. They've got experience and big paychecks. They should be capable of better, not just churn out dreck to get that check.

[Pitry]

The trouble is that the producers on the show write some of hte WORST (at least to my eyes) episodes ever to grace the series. They've got experience and big paychecks. They should be capable of better, not just churn out dreck to get that check.

I'm not saying otherwise - I agree that some of the worst episodes of the show came from JM's own hands, even the majority. But bringing in new writers is only worth it when the new writers are also god - IMO, they succeeded with Martin Gero, Carl Binder and Alan McCullough, all their new, and yes - male - acquisitions.
My point wasn't, however, about writing the episodes the,selves, but aboutt he identity of those writing them - I just don't think the lack of woman writers/ directors on the show comes from any mysogenist (sp?) agenda from TPTB's behalf, nor from their being MSPs, which seemed to me to be the underlining idea in some of the psots in the discussion. Their own writing skills, for the moment, have nothing to do with it.

[Night Spring]

My question is, how can a producer/writer who has written some of the arguably worst episodes for Atlantis be reasonably expected to recognize it when someone else writes a good episode for Atlantis? I mean, his judgement was flawed with regards to his own writing when it came to whether or not a story "fit" well with the Atlantis universe, so how can he have better judgement with regards to others' writing?

Stargate has a long history of not writing women characters well, and I think that's because the original producers never knew how to write women well, and therefore weren't able to find and retain other writers, regardless of gender, who did write women well, because they lack the ability to recognize that ability in others. The only way to correct this problem is to fire all TPTB and hire new ones who do know how to write women well -- but again, we run into the problem of who is doing the hiring -- network executives? Do *they* know a well written female character when they see one?

[Pitry]

My question is, how can a producer/writer who has written some of the arguably worst episodes for Atlantis be reasonably expected to recognize it when someone else writes a good episode for Atlantis? I mean, his judgement was flawed with regards to his own writing when it came to whether or not a story "fit" well with the Atlantis universe, so how can he have better judgement with regards to others' writing?

Do you honestly think you need talent in order to appreciate someone else's? Can someone who lacks musical tralent whatsoever still nto appreciate the greatness of others' musical genius? For that matter, JM watches television - does the fact he writes, let us say, dubiosly at best, means he can't enjoy from good/ great television? I don't think so.

And at the end of the day, taste is sucha diverse thing

[Night Spring]

Do you honestly think you need talent in order to appreciate someone else's? Can someone who lacks musical tralent whatsoever still nto appreciate the greatness of others' musical genius? For that matter, JM watches television - does the fact he writes, let us say, dubiosly at best, means he can't enjoy from good/ great television? I don't think so.

One certainly does not need to have the talent in order to appreciate it in others, but JM has demonstrated that his appareciation skills lack something by not being able to see and correct the flaws in his own writing. It's kind of like someone who is tone-deaf insisting he can sing. (Not that I think JM is as bad as *that* -- he's written a few SG-1 episodes I've enjoyed, but as far as writing women well, nope, can't think of a single episode where he did that well.)

[sgeureka]

My question is, how can a producer/writer who has written some of the arguably worst episodes for Atlantis be reasonably expected to recognize it when someone else writes a good episode for Atlantis?

I can't lay eggs, yet I can tell a good egg from a bad one. The question whether I should be hired to lay eggs or to do the examining is a completely different matter. (And I would sometimes have Joe rather write less episodes than more, to be honest here. )

I mean, his judgement was flawed with regards to his own writing when it came to whether or not a story "fit" well with the Atlantis universe, so how can he have better judgement with regards to others' writing?

1. Selecting episodes is a joint effort. From what I can tell from Joe's many blogs and posts, at the beginning of a new season, he has many stories in store, but only a couple actually get made. The other writers/producers are to choose which ones could/would fit in, and if they fail to do so, Joe isn't the only one to blame here.

2. As far as I can tell, TPTB mentioned in-production problems several times, like unavailable actors (Summit/Last Stand), unavailable sets (Irresponsible), unsuitable breaks (Ephinany) or incapable directors (Childhood's End). Since that kind of judgement can only come after an episode has been written (and usually also after is has been shot), you can't attribute that to the writers, because an episode with heavy production difficulties can actually turn out to be a fan favorite (like Upgrades). On the other hand, producers might learn a thing or two with every mistake. But that's after a mistake has been made.

Stargate has a long history of not writing women characters well, and I think that's because the original producers never knew how to write women well, and therefore weren't able to find and retain other writers, regardless of gender, who did write women well, because they lack the ability to recognize that ability in others. The only way to correct this problem is to fire all TPTB and hire new ones who do know how to write women well -- but again, we run into the problem of who is doing the hiring -- network executives? Do *they* know a well written female character when they see one?

While I might see and partly agree with your overall sentiment, what about:

- all the this-female-character-is-great threads in the C&R section with thousands and ten-of-thousands posts? I.e. some people think those females are written great.
- when there is nothing to recognize, why is it TPTB's fault for not recognizing? I.e. personally, I've seen no noticable difference in how female writers write female characters, compared to male writers. (Apart from Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino, who no other writer could copy - but GG's female characters were over the top any way. )
- if you want really realistically written women in science fiction (which Stargate undoubtely is), you'd have women doing grocery shopping and asking their husbands to fix the VCR (at least that's what I get from my mother's generation). But it's also the same for fictional men. Show me one scene/episode where the writers really got a woman wrong, and I'll show you a scene/episode where the writers (both male and female!) got a man wrong. But that's fiction for you!

To sum it (my opinion) up: This is not a male vs. female writer thing, even if some fans perceive it to be so. So why don't we continue to let the people decide who actually get paid to do the business decisions? The very fact that you're here (or still here after all those years of very little female writer input) proves that TPTB have been doing something right. Let's not start a conspiracy here that Joe would love so much.

[Night Spring]

To sum it (my opinion) up: This is not a male vs. female writer thing, even if some fans perceive it to be so. So why don't we continue to let the people decide who actually get paid to do the business decisions? The very fact that you're here (or still here after all those years of very little female writer input) proves that TPTB have been doing something right. Let's not start a conspiracy here that Joe would love so much.

I do agree that it's not necessarily a male writer vs female writer thing, especially not in SciFi. You just need to write good characters, then draw lots to decide which ones will be male or female afterwards. And you're right that producing a TV show is a group effort, and not all problems should be blamed on JM. But as far as why I'm here, it surely isn't because of great female characters. There are lots of things I enjoy about Stargate, but its always been consistently weak when it came to portraying women, and I don't expect that to change as long as the current TPTB are in charge.

[prion]

I do agree that it's not necessarily a male writer vs female writer thing, especially not in SciFi. You just need to write good characters, then draw lots to decide which ones will be male or female afterwards. And you're right that producing a TV show is a group effort, and not all problems should be blamed on JM. But as far as why I'm here, it surely isn't because of great female characters. There are lots of things I enjoy about Stargate, but its always been consistently weak when it came to portraying women, and I don't expect that to change as long as the current TPTB are in charge.

What SG needs are good writers, and they could be small and green with six tentacles, but I'd like quality writing. TV writing does tend to be a man's game - that's just the way it is. But as pointed out above, the writing of female characters has been weak. When the writers 'developed' Carter in SG1, how did they do that? They gave her a man! They needed to make Weir a better negotiator, but apparently none of the writers have done that so don't know how to write good negotiations (I read a very good LJ entry shredding Weir's negotiation skills - I mean, these writers should take a book out of the library or something and study up).

As for JM, he's written some good episodes, but he's also written some of the worst (in my opinion) episodes in both series.

[PG15]

Ok guys, you must head over to Joe's blog right now for what could possibly the funniest pics I've ever seen.

[sgeureka]

Ok guys, you must head over to Joe's blog right now for what could possibly the funniest pics I've ever seen.

Indeed! Who does Joe hire to take these?

February 18, 2007

Anonymous writes: “What do you and the other writers attribute the increased fan speculation that you guys were shooting for a younger demographic with less nuanced or adult handling of stories?”

Answer: In general, there are as many supporters of certain stories as there are detractors. Of course, there are episodes that are almost universally loved by the fans, as there are episodes that are almost universally panned. To be honest, I don’t see any discernible difference in the quality of the writing over the seasons. On the other hand, I definitely have seen a proliferation in online fandom over the years. Make of that what you will.

Anonymous also writes: “Do you feel there is a larger gap between what the writers are producing and what the fans want to see than there has been in the past? Could this perhaps partially account for the declining viewership?”

Answer: No. We haven’t been doing anything radically different. As for the reason for our decline in viewership, there are plenty of possible reasons: a lack of promotion, a shift away from the goa’uld storylines, little in the way of promotion, a shift toward the more ethereal Ancient/Ori storyline, a dearth in promotion, the introduction of new characters, promotion or lack thereof. Whose to say with any degree of certainty?

Shawna writes: “What is the craziest, most unlikely pairing that you think could actually work?”

Answer: I don’t know. Sheppard and his new wraith buddy? Oh - “that could actually work”. Let’s see… Ronon and Zelenka?

Anonymous #2 writes: “Do you think you might ever drop by at your Q&A threads at Gateworld or Solutions?”

Answer: I’m pretty swamped with questions here so it’s unlikely I’ll venture over to do a Q&A anytime soon. That said, I do check out Solutions every so often.

Arctic Goddess writes: “Do you have the season 4 second part of the episode completely written at the end of this season?”

Answer: Nope. That story gets broken along with the other early season four stories - usually in November once production has wrapped.
[...]
Nathaniel writes: “How do you go about picking guest stars, or is it an open audition for all roles. I was really happy to see Joshua Malina and Ron Canada in Bad Guys.”

Answer: In rare instances, we know exactly who we want for the role early enough (ie. Fred Willard for the part of Vala’s father in Family Ties) and go after them. If they say yes, the script can be written specifically for them. In other instances, we have an idea of who we want for the role after the script has been written and make them an offer. More often than not, however, we’ll simply cast out of Vancouver or L.A. In the case of Josh Malina, we went out to him with an offer and were delighted to hear he was interested. Ron Canada, on the other hand, was someone we had wanted to have him on the show for a while and the opportunity finally presented itself.

Jenniphr_77 writes: “ I LOVE Dr Zelenka! Is there any chance he will play a bigger role in season four and become a full cast member?”

Answer: We all love Dr. Zelenka. He’ll continue to play an active role on the series. Ole.

Jen Kirk writes: “ [...] 2) Will Chuck the Gate Tech be around in Season 4?”

Answer: [...] 2) He’ll be around along with many of the other unsung Atlantis background players.
[...]
Anonymous #3 writes: “Do you think there could be a mirror universe episode of Atlantis where the Atlantis team is evil and the wraith are the good guys?”

Answer: I suppose anything is possible.
[...]
Anonymous #4 writes: “Is there really no hope for SG-1 season 11, I mean after the two or a few films?”

Answer: I suppose anything is possible. Maybe in an alternate universe?

Anonymous #5 writes: “If the viewership drops off and ratings decline, how do you adapt or adjust what/how you write to bring back viewers/increase ratings...or do you?”

Answer: Unfortunately, by the time we premiere, we’re usually writing the last episode or two of the season so it’s impossible to make many changes at that point.

Anonymous #6: “ I'm guessing here but with O'neill not in the final and your "satisfaction for THAT fan contingent" comment you made last month that we will be seeing D/V not S/J in the final yes?”

Magic 8 Ball says: Better not tell you now.

Anonymous #7 writes: “So Talion is a good Teal'c episode, eh? A good Teal'c episode like Threshold or Changeling, or a good Teal'c episode like Stronghold or Ex Deus Machina?”

Answer: Er, how exactly were Stronghold or Ex Deus Machina ever classified as Teal’c episodes?

Ryu Gaia writes: “The definition of Stargate hyperspace that I have operated on is as follows: hyperspace is essentially a dimension in which the speed of light is faster, thereby allowing a multitude of things - including that ships can go faster in hyperspace, and will they be effected by gravitational pull from outside space while they are in fast enough motion. Is this correct?”

Answer: Sure, it’s multidimensional space in which faster than light travel is possible. But I have a question for you. What exactly do you mean by “the definition of Stargate hyperspace that I have operated on”?

February 19, 2007

[Nothing.]

February 20, 2007

[Like PG15 said, includes funny pictures of JM and Carl Binder in Joe's office. Also, this blog entry is entirely about Stargate, so head over there immediately. I only copy the Do-not-miss! newsworthy things here, excluding Joe's patented non-answers for the most part. Joe also discusses the Maureen Ryan interview from Chicago Tribune today.]

Well, we're finally in prep. Rob is up first - writing, directing, and producing Doppleganger. [...] Doppleganger shoots first but will air sometime after the opening Adrift-Lifeline-Reunion triumvirate. Once he's done, he'll be moving over to SG-1 and start prepping Ark of Truth which, incidentally, he'll again be writing/directing/producing. Show off. Brad, meanwhile, got the scenes written for the "location" shoot later in March. The rest of us started tossing around ideas for the mid-season two-parter. Big happenings in the Pegasus Galaxy ahead.
[...]
Answer: Provided Ivon Bartok is willing to organize the special feature, I have no objections to providing outtakes in a future DVD release.

Anonymous #1 writes: “Is there any chance that there'll be another Earth-based scenario simliar to what we saw with Return Part 1?”

Magic 8 Ball says: Signs point to yes.

ChaosIsBeauty writes: “Will the sets, secondary characters, and props from SG-1 still be available for the 4th season of Atlantis?”

Answer: For now, we’re keeping them. But that could change once the movies wrap.
[...]
Anonymous #3 writes: “Have there been any scripts in the air involving Ford?”

Magic 8 Ball says: Not as of yet.
[...]
Anonymous #4 writes: “Upon episodes you have written : which one you like the most ? The less ? Why?”

Answer: My favorite is probably Ripple Effect - a nice mix of humor, action, science, and back-references. My least favorite is Irresponsible - an episode where anything that could have gone wrong did.

[PG15]

Indeed! Who does Joe hire to take these?

February 18, 2007

Anonymous writes: “What do you and the other writers attribute the increased fan speculation that you guys were shooting for a younger demographic with less nuanced or adult handling of stories?”

Answer: In general, there are as many supporters of certain stories as there are detractors. Of course, there are episodes that are almost universally loved by the fans, as there are episodes that are almost universally panned. To be honest, I don’t see any discernible difference in the quality of the writing over the seasons. On the other hand, I definitely have seen a proliferation in online fandom over the years. Make of that what you will.

I just like to add to this; maybe the reason why SG1 seems more "juvenile" is because the viewers are getting older? Don't forget, "mature" stories seen 10 years ago when the viewer was 10 years younger (and less mature) would probably mean that the same kind of story done now would seem 10 years more juvenile.

You know what I mean?

[Like Prion said, includes funny pictures of JM and Carl Binder in Joe's office. Also, this blog entry is entirely about Stargate, so head over there immediately. I only copy the Do-not-miss! newsworthy things here, excluding Joe's patented non-answers for the most part. Joe also discusses the Maureen Ryan interview from Chicago Tribune today.]

That was me, actually, not prion.

[Night Spring]

I just like to add to this; maybe the reason why SG1 seems more "juvenile" is because the viewers are getting older? Don't forget, "mature" stories seen 10 years ago when the viewer was 10 years younger (and less mature) would probably mean that the same kind of story done now would seem 10 years more juvenile.

You know what I mean?

Hmmm. If the viewer was 10 when he/she first began watching Stargate, and is now 20, I can see that happening. Perhaps the decade from 20 to 30 would also bring a change in the level of one's maturity significant enough to affect one's impression of essentially the "same" show. If the viewer was already in their 30's or above, and is now in their 40's or above? I kinda doubt that a decade would change one's perceptions that radically.

[sgeureka]

You know what I mean?

That's been my opinion for years. But no-one listens to me, man.

That was me, actually, not prion.

Fixed. Because of the shortness of your names and the first letter P, I always confuse you, Pitry and Prion.