David-Paul Grove
David played the motel manager in the Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas and is currently playing “Doc” in Once Upon A Time. He has also guest starred on Andromeda, Supernatural, Down River, appeared in ELF and voiced Buck in Robocop AC. IMDBTwitterBehind The Voice Monica Huppert*
Monica was the make up artist on the Stargate SG1 episode Holiday, she has also worked on The Guard, Human Target, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Tomorrowland, Warm Bodies, Fantastic Four and The 4400. She was nominated for a Gemini for her work on Stargate. IMDB *No Photo
Beau Bridges
Beau played General Hank Landry in the ninth and tenth seasons of Stargate SG1 as well as appearing on Stargate Atlantis. He has also had recurring roles on My Name is Earl, Franklin & Bash, The Agency and is currently in The Millers and Masters of Sex. IMDBTwitter Reiko Aylesworth
Reiko played Sharon Walker in three episodes of Stargate Universe (Life, Pathogen & Sabotage) and before that she starred on 24 appearing in 64 episodes as Michelle Dessler and has had recurring guest roles on Hawaii Five-0, ER, Damages, Revolution and Lost. IMDB Sebastian Spence
Sebastian appeared on Stargate as the Tok’ra Delek in the SG1 episode Death Knell but was the star of First Wave and had a recurring role on Battlestar Galactica as well as guest spots on Smallville and Endgame, he starred as Cliff Harting in Cedar Cove. IMDBTwitterBehind The Voice George Touliatos
George had two guest spots on Stargate SG1 as Pyrus in Need and Shamda in Fallen as well as appearing in the movie This Means War and guest starring on Supernatural, John Doe and The Sentinel. IMDBBehind The Voice
Kevin McNulty
Kevin played both Chancellor Lycus in the Stargate Atlantis episode Inferno and Dr Warner on four episodes of Stargate SG1, he starred in Arctic Air as Mel Ivarson and has also appeared on Robson Arms, Supernatural, iZombie, The Man in the High Castle and Battlestar Galactica. IMDBTwitter Jarvis W. George
Jarvis was Volnek in two episodes of Stargate SG1 (Babylon & Arthur’s Mantle) and he has had guest roles on NCIS, The Shield, The Wire, Criminal Minds and Heroes. IMDBTwitter Doron Bell
Doron played Sgt Fuller in the Stargate Atlantis episode Miller’s Crossing as well as having guest spots on Fringe, Psych, Falling Skies, 2012 and voice work on Voltron Force, Cosmic Quantum Ray and Toddworld. IMDBTwitterBehind The VoiceOfficial Simon Ager
Simon is a digital artisit who worked on eleven episodes of Stargate SG1 and three episodes of Atlantis. He has also worked on Andromeda, Dead Like Me, Smallville, Dark Angel, The L Word, Tooth Fairy, The Twilight Saga and Aliens in the Attic. TwitterIMDBOfficial
Jennifer Calvert
Jennifer played Ren’al in three episodes of Stargate SG1 (Enemies, Summit and Last Stand), she’s also appeared on Brookside, Spatz, The Knock and has guest starred on Earthsea, Holby City, Merlin’s Apprentice and Mysterious Ways. IMDB Kirk Caouette
Kirk appeared on the Stargate SG1 episode Enemy Mine as Lt. Ritter as well as doing some stuntwork. He has also been a stunt performer on Blood Ties, Watchmen, Elektra, Fantastic Four, Catwoman, Fallen and Paycheck. IMDBTwitter
Torri Higginson
Torri played Elizabeth Weir in sixty three episodes of Stargate Atlantis and three episodes of SG1. She has also appeared on Tekwar, Stonehenge Apocalypse, NCIS, Dark Matter, This Life, Criminal Minds, The Cult and the stage production The List and will be in the upcoming scifi series Nobility. IMDBTwitter
Michael Jonsson
Michael was a F-302 Pilot, a Jaffa guard and a Juna Warrior in Stargate SG1 as well as having spots on Psych, Smallville, Backstorm and Supernatural. IMDB Vince Corazza
Vince played Worrel in the Stargate SG1 episode Off The Grid and has also appeared in Bones, JAG, Lie To Me, Entourage, 24 and provided the voices for animated features such as Sailor Moon. IMDBOfficialTwitter Mike Coleman
Mike was a med tech in the SG1 episode The Powers That Be and the “desk guy” in the Atlantis episode Brain Storm. He’s also been in Supernatural, Fringe, Smallville and plays Happy in Once Upon A Time. IMDBTwitterOfficial Ryan Kennedy
Ryan played Dr Williams in the Stargate Universe episode Earth and also had recurring roles on Hellcats, Caprica, Whistler and has guest starred on V, Psych, Smallville and Blade: The Series. IMDB Stefano DiMatteo
Stefano played the Athosian Toran on the Stargate Atlantis pilot Rising. He has also been on Cold Squad, True Crimes, Kevin Hill, Alphas, Rookie Blue and Killjoys. IMDB
The team are travelling towards a space gate in orbit around a world that has potential for a new alpha site despite the flying monkeys which seemed to have given the visit a bit of excitement. As they approach the jumper starts to malfunction with energy surges and all control is lost, the jumper collides with the gate and without power is entering a decaying orbit. It’s their lucky day though, power returns and they limp back to Atlantis but they can not find anything wrong. The city itself then begins to experience power surges and all power dies except for Rodney’s laptop which begins to communicate via text and reveals that an entity calling itself Elizabeth Weir is asking for help, you know a Ghost In The Machine.
It turns out that after the fall of the Asurans the last few remaining replicators were from the faction that were attempting to ascend, they found a technological solution which converted themselves into energy but unfortunately it only allowed them to remain in subspace devoid of real experience. Weir went in search of help and came across the puddle jumper and hitched a ride back to Atlantis. The Ancient technology used to create Fran is taken over by Weir and her consciousness is put into the Fran template and all seems well until the remaining Asurans arrive. Atlantis is forced to allow them to manifest and build bodies for themselves with some conditions. Of course the Asurans have their own agenda or at least one of them does and Weir is forced to choose sides and in a final farewell she leads the Asurans through the Stargate to a new world knowing it would be the end of her and her people.
Ghost in the Machine was used primarily to tie up some loose ends and it’s a pity Torri Higginson wasn’t able to return. Michelle once again did a mighty fine job probably more so than her first appearance on the show as Fran. We did get some good character stuff from Rodney and it has to be said most of the characters that had known Elizabeth were allowed some good interaction with this version and Woolsey gets another lesson into what command is all about and how honor and integrity can lead to sacrifice. Ghost In The Machine is yet another solid episode in the final season, drawing on the shows mythology and maybe be design putting a bow on those pesky loose threads and while Ghost In The Machine is certainly not an original plot it has it’s moments and overall works very well.
Many thanks to Miles, Mack, Dan and Levi for the feedback and emails, appreciated as was the five star itunes review from Melissa (host of the Upper Pylon 2 Podcast). Once again thanks to Brad for getting up early to join us for the recording of the show and as would have it a Ghost in the Machine caused the first recording session to be cancelled, we got this on the second try. This weeks promo is for the Dune Saga podcast, next week will be the first of this seasons bonus shows and I’ve not decided which so it’ll be a surprise, tune in and find out:)
Morgan David Jones
Morgan played Airman Evans in the Stargate Universe episode Alliances. He has also appeared on Supernatural, Arctic Air, Reign, All Saints and The Whispers. IMDBTwitter
Tony Todd
Tony appeared three times on Stargate SG1 playing Lord Haikon (Babylon, The Fourth Horseman & Arthur’s Mantle). Tony has also graced Voyager, Babylon 5, Chuck, Deep Space Nine, Smallville, Angel, TNG, Prelude to Axanar, Candy Man and The Flash with his talents. IMDBTwitter
Michael Boisvert
Michael was a Lieutenant in the Stargate Atlantis episode The Intruder and guest starred on XIII: The Series, Flashpoint and Hemlock Grove. IMDBOfficial Alejandro Rae
Alejandro (Alex) played Alebran in the Stargate SG1 episode Metamorphosis as well as appearing on The Guard, Smallville, Blackstone, Elysium and Hell On Wheels. IMDB Colleen Rennison
Colleen played both Cassandra (Rite of Passage) & Ally (Bane) on Stargate SG1, she is also an accomplished musician with the band No Sinner and appeared in the feature Down River and on tv in Da Vinci’s City Hall and Poltergeist: The Legacy. IMDBNo SinnerOfficial Meghan Black
Meghan played Marta on the Stargate Atlantis episode Hide and Seek as well as appearing on Dead Like Me, ELF, Class of the Titans (Voice), The Collector and R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour. IMDBBehind The Voice
Guy Fauchon
Guy played Pullman in the Stargate SG1 episode The Scourge, he as also guest starred on Psych, Andromeda, Cold Squad, Once Upon A Time, Supernatural and Motive. IMDBTwitter Janelle Monae
Janelle is a singer songwriter who played herself in the Stargate Universe episode Earth, she was also named Billboard’s Rising Star for 2013 along with her many other awards and nominations for her music and voiced characters on American Dad! and Rio 2 and has music in The Equalizer. She has a role in the upcoming movie Moonlight and is the “mini mogul” behind Wondaland Records. OfficialYoutubeTwitter Rebecca Lee
Rebecca was a makeup artist on Stargate Universe as well as working on Motive, Harper’s Island, Caprica, Tin Man, Watchmen, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and BSG Blood & Chrome. IMDBTwitter
Christopher John Fields
Christopher played Lt. Freeman in the Stargate movie and he’s also appeared on episodes of The Closer, Sleeper Cell, Ally McBeal, ER, Alien 3 and JAG. IMDB Diego Klattenhoff
Diego played the Team Leader of the bomb disposal squad in the Stargate SG1 episode Ex Deus Machina, he starred in Homeland and is currently starring as Agent Donald Ressler in The Blacklist. IMDBTwitter Trevor Carroll
Trevor played (Gaunlet, Alliances and Subversion). He has also appeared on Arctic Air, Fringe, Defying Gravity, Human Target, Blackstone and The Flash. Trevor also owns Reverie Arts a media arts company. IMDBOfficialTwitter
A starship appears in orbit above Atlantis, the early warning systems failed to detect its approach and to confuse matters they are getting the automated friend or for response indicating that the ship is the Daedalus, however they confirm that ship is days away from Earth on it’s return journey from Pegasus. The team take a jumper and they discover a carbon copy of the Daedalus however it shows signs of extensive battle damage and no one is onboard, well there are four bodies and they do look rather familiar.
A strange energy signature is detected and McKay discovers that the ship has an additional drive system, he realises it is intended to jump the ship between alternate realities and that this Daedalus is not from their universe. Alas the drive is in a loop and when it’s energy capacitors are fully charged it automatically jumps, who knows how long they “other” team were onboard or how far away from their home they were before conditions killed them. Each reality poses it’s own problems for the ship and the team including a sun eating it’s system, aliens hell bent on destroying another Atlantis and one where there is no live at all on the planet and not Atlantis either. McKay finally figures out that while he can not stop the ship from jumping he can reverse its course and if they survive the sun going nova and the aliens once again they can leave the ship when they reach their reality and let the ship do it’s thing, of course complications arise when the landing bay and jumpers are destroyed by those pesky aliens but not to worry they have a plan.
The Daedalus Variations is a well crafted episode which makes good use of story elements introduced on Atlantis earlier and certainly in the scifi genre as a whole. There is some excellent space combat sequences, really old school dog fighting in and around the Daedalus and again all the CGI done in house both for budgetary reasons as well as showing the talents of the Stargate artists. There is not a huge amount of pressure put on the actors in terms of what the story needs from the characters but we get some good humorous moments and some cheesy ones it has to be said but overall The Daedalus Variations is a solid episode early in the final season of the show.
Thank you very much to Thomas for joining us this week for The Daedalus Variations an episode he chose and he’ll be returning in 2016, this weeks promo is for Treks In Sci-Fi and next week we are back with Ghost In The Machine and the return of a character but in another guise. As always we’d love to hear what you think and don’t forget the Stargate SG1 top ten episodes poll is still open:)
Martin Cummins
Martin played Aden Corso in the Stargate SG1 episode “Forsaken” as well as appearing in DarkAngel, Smallville, Kyle XY, Eureka, V, Fringe, The Whispers and Shattered. IMDBOfficial Penelope Corrin
Penelope was Dr Lindsay in both Stargate SG1 ( Origin & Avalon ) and Atlantis (Coup D’etat) as well as starring on Royal Canadian Air Farce, Kingdom Hospital and guest starring on Masters of Horror, The L Word and The Collector. IMDB Sasha Piltsin
Sasha was one of the Russian drivers in the Stargate SG1 episode Desperate Measures and has guest starred on Chaos, Cold Squad, Seven Days and Life with an Accent. IMDB
