Horizon Q & A

[Lt. Colonel Ryu Gaia]

So Nirrti is real! I knew it.

[SierraGulf1]

She's the staff wench. Genetically enhances us, as well as making us sandwiches.

[Elite Anubis Guard]

Hmm...sandwiches..do they have Catherdral cheese in em?

[SierraGulf1]

Nope, tasty bits of Goa'uld, a la "Summit" and "Last Stand."

[Lt. Colonel Ryu Gaia]

You know, those were actually just really fuzzed-up tacos. They knew that Daniel was on board and wanted to show off. But... our good friend Danny made sure to puke in the tank when they weren't looking, so they were eating fuzzed-up tacos with digested stuff on them.
So yeah... might want to check the date those sandwiches were made...

[Futura]

I have a question for the Horizon crew (if this is the wrong spot please disregard)

Have you ever imported your characteristics into any of the character characterisitcs on Stargate Horizon?
- Like does any of you like football and thought, hey we'll include that into the series by saying it's John's fave thing? or anything similar? -

(Sorry if the question has been asked before hand)

[Alex Rubit]

I have a question for the Horizon crew (if this is the wrong spot please disregard)

Have you ever imported your characteristics into any of the character characterisitcs on Stargate Horizon?
- Like does any of you like football and thought, hey we'll include that into the series by saying it's John's fave thing? or anything similar? -

(Sorry if the question has been asked before hand)

Of course I can only speak for myself, but in some cases I do like to inclulde little things like that. Not so much characteristics, but little things like Lenori loving say apple pie (like myself ) or both Grant and Lenori drinking their coffee black (I do that too). Apple pies and coffee have popped up in more than one episode. One interesting thing is Grant actually grew up in Houston, which is where I'm living now (but not where I grew up). And interestingly the birthplaces of most human main characters are the same as those of the actors in the virtual cast.

But in general I don't tend to - at least not consciously - include too much of myself into characters, but I think it happens sometimes. I also think you can find something in a lot of the characters that people can identify with. I do think that I can see certain aspects of myself in some of the characters actually, which I've become aware of. I think that's the case with a lot people, because as I said, I think that these are characters people can identify with. So it's not as much a matter of consciously including certain aspects of any of us, but much more a matter of making them all realistic, three-dimensional, and compelling characters. Sometimes you might include something from your own experiences, other times it might be completely unrelated.

By the way, it's great to see this thread at least a little active again. I don't think everyone realizes you can ask ANY question you like, and you will definitely be getting an answer (even if in some cases it might be a classic maybe answer, others might be rather elaborate like the one above). You can ask little detailed things like will we ever see Enoly # 2 from episode 1.17 again? Or will we ever revisit the guys from episode XXX? Or here's an interesting one... whatever happened to De'van Callen's wife? He's got a son, so there'd have to be a mother.

Anyway, I'm just saying you can ask any kinds of questions (unless you already somehow have the answers to all of them). We can't force you to do it, but that's what this thread is for. Just making everyone aware of that again.

[Futura]

Are there plans for anymore 'Valiant' based episodes?

[Alex Rubit]

Are there plans for anymore 'Valiant' based episodes?

More questions. Nice.

The Valiant will be featured in several episodes (some more than others), but there aren't any plans for another Valiant based episode like "Valiant" was. But that just means no plans... for this season. We'll need 24 new episodes for Season Three, and I wouldn't rule out another Valiant based episode if the right story comes along.

[Futura]

What made you decide to use Keifer Sutherland (spelling?) as your main virtual character?

[Joe Hodkiss]

What made you decide to use Keifer Sutherland (spelling?) as your main virtual character?

I can't speak for Alex, so maybe he can give you a more insightful answer.

But we all know of the writing staff that he's a huge fan of 24, which just so happens to star Kiefer Sutherland.

[Alex Rubit]

What made you decide to use Keifer Sutherland (spelling?) as your main virtual character?

Yeah, 24 does actually have something to do with that. I had just started watching 24 while I was trying to figure out what kind of actor would fit this role (this was some time before I even thought of ever releasing any of this, around fall of 2003). I had just gotten the first season of 24 on DVD. And while I was watching it, it just occurred to me that Kiefer might be ideal for this. And voila. Same goes Carlos Bernard, who's of course also from 24.

To answer the question of what exactly made me decide on these specific actors, in all the cases I just found that each of them in a way would bring some great qualities to each of these characters. So interestingly - even though it's only virtual - I did put a lot of thought into the "casting" of each of the characters, deciding that this is what I'd want these characters to look and sound like.

[Futura]

Cool, interesting.

Any background behind the name Valiant? or did you just say, wow that sounds like a wicked name lets go with that?

[Alex Rubit]

Cool, interesting.

Any background behind the name Valiant? or did you just say, wow that sounds like a wicked name lets go with that?

To underline that this was going to be a completely different type of ship class than the ones we had seen before, which were all battle cruisers, I had decided not to go with a name that was in any way related to Greek mythology or to any kind of mythology for that matter. Other than when it comes to some new battle cruisers that will be making their appearance in an upcoming episodes - they follow the tradition of having mythology based names.

And back during some very, very, very early concepts of the show the ship was actually called the "Explorer", because it was the prototype of a deep space exploration class vessel (that never changed). But I realized that calling the ship "Explorer" just wouldn't have really worked, mainly because it doesn't always just explore. So after a while I didn't really like the idea too much anymore.

So, while looking for a new name, I decided to base the name on a ship that's mentioned in the second pilot to the original Star Trek, and that ship was the Valiant. The name was later used again on Star Trek as the sister ship of the Defiant on Deep Space Nine. I thought that was a great name, and it still underlined the exploratory nature of the ship. And after some consideration the desicion was made.

[Futura]

Cool. I read ealier in the series that you werent going to originaly call it Stargate Horizon, (i may be mistaken). What was it originaly called?