Cliff Simon, 53 Los Angeles, California Citizen of the world, life experience is my education. Loren Stephens Los Angeles, California Undergraduate: BA Cornell University; Master in International Affairs, Columbia University, NYC
Tell us about your career as a writer. Cliff: This chapter and my memoir is my first as an …
Source: Wordsmith Interview – Cliff Simon and Loren Stephens – Crack the Spine
Stargate System Lords Peter Williams and Cliff Simon meet Nerdzilla
I'm just saying,,,,,,, pic.twitter.com/jGMcZFpGH7
— Cliff Simon (@cliffmsimon) May 19, 2015
So since I am watching television during the day it means yes I am off work this week so I went to the NAS and watched an episode of NCIS New Orleans, still not sold on the show but I’m giving it a go and well it doesn’t hurt when Cliff Simon is guest starring. The episode in question is the third in the premiere season entitled “Breaking Brig” and he plays the escaped prisoner Dmitry Babakov who is chased across Alabama by the team with a little help from Gibbs 🙂 This is the second major network show Cliff has appeared in this new television season and as he says having a reputation as a reliable professional actor will get you work and once the ball gets rolling there are opportunities.
An alien ship is detected approaching Earth and once in the atmosphere an F-16 is sent from Peterson to intercept, with no communications the ship is fired upon and is brought down close to the SGC and it’s lone pilot is revealed. It’s not every day a system lord visits the planet especially unarmed and with a proposal to server the best interests of the Milky Way galaxy but as the interrogation goes on it’s obvious that little old Ba’al even with all the good intentions is still working an angle but perhaps his immediate help is too tempting when faced with the threat of the ORI. So the SGC agree to make use of the tracking information he supplies to capture his clones with the belief that when done Ba’al will actively support the search for the Sangraal the weapon created by Merlin to fight the ORI and by extension any ascended being. Agent Barrett is on base representing the NID and in a strange turn of events “aids” in the escape of Ba’al who with his clones go on a rampage and finally manipulate Carter into providing the database of gates in the galaxy and with this information is master plan for the SGC is complete and he and his clones are beamed on a ship in orbit and escape.
You know you can’t trust him
Insiders is an epic production making use of all the tricks of the trade to emulate multiple versions of the same character on screen at the same time, at times it’s obvious the simple body double is being used but they keep that at a distance so it works very well with the more technical solutions making the episode shine. I don’t think it was any surprise the Atlantis team did a similar thing with multiple McKay’s and maybe with just two versions the look of their show just edges out the SG1 episode although truth be told SG1 has always been a little grittier than the more polished SGA. Cliff Simon has always been an interesting and menacing system lord and with the clone story it at the very least means we get to see a lot of him and his character fits into a post Jaffa rebellion galaxy and while he can certainly aid in the ORI war effort he does nothing unless it ultimately serves his own purpose so can never be trusted. Insiders is also a good episode for Vala allowing her to make use of some her knowledge and experience, she smiles a lot and really lights up the scene and it’s clear she is having a lot of fun but Claudia was uncomfortable with the one on one with her character and Ba’al, there was a hint of menace which was well conveyed.
The Sangraal story arc continues at a pace although the writers will have to make a tweak in the future to explain how the SGC play catch up since Ba’al seems to be well ahead in understanding and finding the device Merlin has created and hid somewhere in the galaxy but that’s for another episode which we will get to eventually and who knows our first time guest this week Misa may well return for more Ba’al episodes, she is a bit of a fan of Cliff Simon after all:) This weeks promo is for the audio drama with a pulp twist Flash Pulp and next week we return to Atlantis for the episode Sateda a very Ronon centric tale, almost an origin story so please join us for that and let us know what you think of the seasons and show so far, we would love to hear from you and if you have a minute a rating/review on itunes and/or Stitcher would be most appreciated.
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Always a pleasure to see a former Stargate actor appear on television, in this case Cliff Simon has a small role with dialogue in this weeks episode of NCIS called “Revenge” which I have just finished watching.
