Ask Martin Gero - Spoilers for SGA (S1, S2)

[Erik Pasternak]

Hi Martin. Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

So far, Atlantis has built up a strong cast of reccuring characters. Besides Colonel Caldwell, will there be any new recurring characters in season two?

Also, who is the one actually responsible for Sheppard's promotion?

[Jeff O'Connor]

Hi, Martin! I tried to resist the urge to post, seeing as how reading through all of these questions, I almost feel as though you're the tragic victim of a current Wraith culling! (Nevermind my sense of humor; it's usually rather estranged.)

At any rate, I obviously fell from my high hopes of not giving into the madness but apparently I just wasn't strong enough, so here they are. I'll try to keep them as short and few as possible so as not to boggle you down even moreso than we rabid fans already have... but no promises, I can be known for my long-windedness!

1.) Sora was a great character in the first season. Her three episodes... I loved her role and I thought her acting was superb. Cowen, played by Colm Meaney which made things that much cooler, was awesome as well. Acastus Kolya is also a favorite of mine! I think these three Genii really define who and what the Genii are, and I'd love to see any of them back for the second year. I heard somewhere a while back that Sora doesn't have any further plans for now... is this true? And what of the others? Is there anything regarding reappearances you could hint at? I'd love to know... the Genii are great.


2.) I know this sounds like a pretty stupid, fanboyish question, but... will Ronan Dex be a lot like Teal'c? I've heard a few people here and there saying his character has been added 'because there was no one quite like Teal'c' thus far... though I'm sure it wasn't something as simplistic as that, I mean, the casts are two different casts, two different sets of characters. I guess what I'm trying to say here, is... are the two characters, by your definition, similar? From what I've heard, they do seem to be on the same track a tad.


3.) Last but not least, I wanted to say that 'The Eye' is definitely my favorite episode of the show thus far. I mean... it really packed a big punch for me. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. Writing like this... impresses the living hell out've me, whether I'm seventeen or not! Again, a rather bizarre question, but... do you... how should I say this... eh... do you have any episodes you're writing for the second year which... have the same... feel as this episode? Geez, I'm worse at being straightforward than even Daniel Jackson. All I'm asking is... because I really loved the feel of 'The Eye', are there any episodes coming up in the second season that you would say have the same general atmosphere of... whatever that special something was? And don't feel bad if you can't answer this at all... I know I'd be confused by my ramblings!


Thanks for your time, apologies for contributing to the constant stream of questions! I love your work, Martin, it aspires me to no end, in ways that only some of the other Stargate writers can hope to rival.

[Panther]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer our questions for us. I have a few questions.

Will be get more information on what authority the Atlantis expedition is operating under? Is it an international treaty set up by participating nations to establish command relationships and decision making structures? How are the military, scientific and other services organised? What legal options does Dr Weir have to exercise absolute authority over Atlantis command? Are there legal grounds for deposing her should a group of people find her unfit for command?

What is the strength of the military assets posted to Atlantis and what kind of force projection options does the command authority have?

[emily_reich]

first off, welcome to gateworld and thanks for coming and answering all these questions

i've just got one for now

1. in season 2, will we get to see a furthering for either sheppard or teyla (or both ) regarding abilities they have from their alien genes?? in other words, will sheppard and teyla be learning more about or developing new abilities because their ancient/wraith genes??

thanks

[shockwave]

Will Sora return, her not returning really seems like a plothole.

Any plans to tell how the wraith reproduce?

will caldwell stay beyond the five episodes?

Will the episode Human Error be picked up for the second season, after being too expensive for season 1?

what's the name of your sg1 episode? Is it Beach head or Collatoral Damage?

[White Knight]

Hi!
First, I'd like to welcome you to the board (again! You must be getting kinda sick of it).
To the questions...

1) Do any of the other stars, writers, directors or producers visit or post on the Gateworld forum? If so, can you tell us what username they use?

2) Will we be seeing more of the Genii in Season 2, especially Kolya? (Kudos to Robert Davi and yourself; he's one of my favourite bad guys from both Atlantis and SG1)

3) Can you tell us more about the Atlantis season 2 episodes that you've written or been involved in? (e.g. The Siege pt III)

4) This one is a few questions in one. Here goes: Can you tell us which countries sent personnel on the Atlantis expedition? Were there more than one different military group, or just the US Marine Corps and some specialists? Were there more scientists and such on the Deadalus?

5) This one's been bugging me: Was Ford part of the SGC before the Atlantis expedition? 'Cause it never says on the show, but he seems to know more about the Stargate and SGC missions than others (e.g. Sheppard).

6) What kind of episode ideas are getting thrown around the production studios (or whatever) at the moment?

7) What processes do you go through to make an episode, from the story conception until it screens on TV? PLease use an example (I'm sorry if that sounds like a silly question, but I'm interested in that kinda stuff)

Thankyou for your time.

Yours in desecration,
The White Knight

[neth_dugan]

Hi, first I just want to say that I love the show. I really do, and the relationships between the characters, especially the McKay/Sheppard stuff. Yes, gen guys I know they're friends and not having a torrid affair.

In anycase, the questions:

1. Carson wears a Scotish flag, yet Grodin wore a British flag. I know that some Scots are like that, "I'm Scotish not British" and all that. But does there exist an option for the Welsh and English (and even those from N. Ireland) to wear flags for their countries instead of Britain in general, like Carson does. Will we see any of that?

2. Do the different military groups, the US and Russian guys for example, live by their own rules and regs like they normally do? Or is there some kind of new over all rule bood? If so, which rules were taken from the US, or UK, or Russia ect and put in the overal one. And I'm sure the slashers would like to know the position on DADT in this case.

3. Do we get to see Radek in the promotional pics? I mean, Carson was in the promotional pics for S1 before he was made a regular after all, and Radek is in the show a lot.

4. Do we ever see more of Chaya? I don't mean as a romantic interest for John, the shippers and slasher wouldn't be to happy, but as a friend of Atlantis. Even if she can't offer protection to others, surely she could help out in other ways such as trade agreements for food and the like.

5. Is the fact that the Colonel in Siege (we weren't supposed to be big fans of him were we?) took control of the situation so harshly due, at least in part, to Kavanaugh's report to Jack in Letters?

6. In Rising, we see John flip a coin whilst sitting on some grass. Now, presumably he's in America there because he sure isn't anywehere near the Antartic. Surely if he was in America he'd already decided to go to Atlantis in the first place, so why was he flipping the coin? Was it just something to do, was he debating if he should contact his family (any left?) or what?

7. We've seen hints of how clever John is, especially with maths. Like the number of possible gate addresses in Rising, and the magic square in Brotherhood. That and the Mensa thing. Will we see anymore of that? How?


And that's it... well it's not but I wont ask too much. But thank you (and every one else over there at Stargate, the actors and TPTB alike) for giving us such a great show, with great characters, humour, action and.... everything else that makes Atlantis what it is. Thank You.

[Kliggins]

Hi Martin *waves*

This is so cool of you to do this.

I know I am supposed to ask a question, but I am totally clueless at this question-asking thing so:

1. Would you think of a question you would really like to be asked.
2. Consider that I asked it.
3. Tell us what the excellent question is I asked.
4. Please answer it.

I am so clueless that I did this to Joe too.

Thanks very much, Kliggins the clueless.

[TheWarrior]

Hi Martin

1: Will the Atlantis team return to Earth at some point this season?

2: Is there any plans for SG-1 and the Atlantis team to team up in the future for a joint mission especially with the new threat in Season 9 of SG-1.

Many Thanks

Mike

[Vespasianus]

Thank you for answering our questions, Martin!

My questions are:

That nanovirus, will it cause more problems elsewhere? Or we're just going to see its creators?
Oh, by the way. Are the creators humans?

And my final question: are there more female Wraith? It would be nice to see some of them.

Thanks.

PS.: Sorry for bad grammar, I'm a Hungarian.

[SaharaGate]

Hi Martin!

Great to see you at Gateworld taking some of the heat off poor Joe!

Are you running scared yet?

Just a quick question, which I originally aimed at Joe but you're probably the better person to clear it up for me:

What colour are the Wraith??

I swear they started off blue (a very attractive, flattering colour that sets off their lovely long locks of hair), but these days they seem to be a rather sickly looking shade of green.

Could this be diet related??

[TJuk]

Hi Martin,

What a treat to have you here to answer our questions, I'm sure we'll all be keeping you very very busy!

As no one else has asked about my favourite Doctor I was wondering if you could give us any hints, tease or maybe a little insight into what the season has in store for Dr Carson Beckett?

Will we be treated to a Carson-centric episode like Poisoning the Well? Will we be seeing the character develope outside of the standard doctor role such as his Puddle Jumper flying exploits now that Paul is a regular? And most importantly, is there a possiblity of a Rodney & Carson centric adventure episode? The two of them together on screen is always garenteed to be priceless and I would love to see what kind of trouble Beckett & McKay could cause/get into in their own episode!

Thanks for taking the time to be here!

Best Wishes,

TJ

[Wass]

Hi Martin thank you for answering our questions, my question is could please explain what the beam from the wraith ship is for in episode “Letters form Pegasus”.

The link below has the screencap of it.
http://www.stargatecaps.com/sga/s1/1...etters236.html

Kind regards

Wass

[prion]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for answering questions.

1) Am curious if we'll get any backstory on Sheppard this season? We know some interesting tidbits on McKay (well, he does love to talk) but I'd love to know about the major's background, family, etc.

2) One of the appeal of Atlantis is that they're on they're own out there in the Pegasus Galaxy. I'm hoping that they won't be too connected back to earth, or else we'll have McKay ordering out Big Bob's burgers! Will the Atlantis folk still have that 'own their own' feel from season one?

P.S. am glad to see Zelenka will be in so many episodes. Love that character!

Thanks.

[Gremalcon]

Hello Martin and thanks for spending your time here answering our questions. I read through each post, to make sure my questions had not already been asked and answered, so here goes.

I am sure that many people ask how to submit scripts for the show. What I would like to know, is whether or not the writers have an outline, within which scripts must fit. Is there a general consensus on the direction each episode must go in order to carry the overall flow in the desired direction of the show? Could a serious writer gain access to this "outline" and write a script? If so, would it be considered?

One thing that many fans absolutely hate is a show where writers fail to take into account things that have gone before, or they twist them from their original and/or seemingly obvious meaning, to fit what has been written later. Does the writing staff have a means to prevent that for SGA? Small things like on ST:TNG when in some episodes, people would hit their com badges and say "computer" and other episodes where they would just speak into the air. Things like SG-1 sometimes dialing 6 and most times dialing 7 chevrons to open the gate. Personally, I think 6 is much more logical because of the 38/39 glyph set up.

Although it may seem that I have strayed from my original point, I have not. I am very interested in writing at least one episode and continuity is something that I think is very important. That being said, I do not want to waste time writing a script, never to have it even considered, let alone submitted. My email address is arcamanthus at hotmail dot com. It would be nice to know if serious endeavors are worth the effort. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your reply.