Holly Elissa Dignard
Holly was the Presidential Aide in two episodes of Stargate SG1 (Lost City and Inauguration) and played old Elizabeth Weir in the Atlantis episode Before I Sleep. She has also appeared in Fringe, Eureka, Collision Earth, Supernatural and Hellcats. IMDBTwitterOfficial Todd Masters
Todd is the President of the Effects House Masters FX who have worked on Stargate and dozens of other television and movie productions including Carnivale, Pathfinder, Legion, Six Feet Under, True Blood, Fringe, Elysium, Robocop and Almost Human. IMDBTwitterMastersFX
Tobin Bell
Tobin played the Tollan leader “Omoc” in the Stargate SG1 episode “Enigma”, he is perhaps best known for his role as “Jigsaw” in the Saw movies, his resume is far too long to recount here but it is certainly impressive. IMDBTwitter Melissa Scott
Melissa has written four Stargate Atlantis novels and a Stargate SG1 novel (an additional SG1 novel was co-written with Jo Graham). She has also written Star Trek novels and has a number of original creations such as the Astreiant and The Order of the Air series plus many standalone novels. ISFDBLivejournal Twitter Todd Brunson
Todd is a professional poker player and appeared as himself in the Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas and on Poker Superstars III and Poker Den. WikiIMDB
Aaron Pearl
Aaron played Lt. George Hammond in the excellent Stargate SG1 episode 1969 and then returned as Major Kearney in the episode Lockdown, he’s also been in Fringe, Smallville,
Battlestar Galactica, Arctic Air, Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Godzilla. IMDB Todd Hann
Todd played Sgt Gibson in the Stargate SG1 episode Prometheus and then was Bravo Leader in the Atlantis episode Conversion. He has also appeared on Stiffed, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Darkest Hour and Alien Agenda:Project Grey. IMDBTwitter Paul Batten
Paul appeared as the French Ambassador on the Stargate SG1 episode Disclosure, he has also guest starred on Supernatural, Motive, The Killing and The Net. IMDB Craig Fraser
Craig is a stunt performer and actor, he has worked on Arrow, Supernatural, Smallville and Godzilla. He has also acted on Arrow, Fringe, Smallville plus two episodes of Atlantis (Adrift and The Siege Part1) and an episode of Stargate Universe (Subversion). IMDB
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In memory of… Cory Monteith (May 11th 1982 – July 13th 2013)
Cory hit the bit time as Fin Hudson on Glee but before that he appeared on Stargate Atlantis as a Genii soldier and then Stargate SG1 as the young Cameron Mitchell.
In the Stargate Atlantis series finale Enemy At The Gate the consequences of the reality breaking signal as seen in the episode Vegas is felt as a Hive ship in “our” reality receives the information. This may not have been too bad but unfortunately an underling of Todd has secured a ZPM and created a Hive that is vastly more powerful than any before it. It is bigger and faster with every subsystem improved, the only upside is that only its sensors were good enough to pick up the signal and the Wraith commanding has no wish to share the location of this new feeding ground. John gates back to Earth to help defend the planet using the Ancient chair and Atlantis is forced to give chase thanks to Todd providing them with his stick pile of ZPM’s. The Hive gets to Earth very quickly and destroys Area 51 which by bad fortune houses the recently relocated Chair but thanks to one of these plot (rabbit out of the hat) points Zelenka gets the wormhole drive to work and Atlantis appears in orbit just in time to intervene, the battle is joined. John in a nuclear equipped 302 gains access to the Hive but is very surprised to find his team already there thanks to the quirk of having two gates in close proximity, together they attempt to fight there way out but time is running out as it and Atlantis trade blows above the Earth.
Enemy At The Gate is a good episode of Stargate Atlantis and for the most part is not a bad season finale however it is not a good series finale, the story was rushed and plot issues not really addressed, maybe if the TV movies had been made they would have taken the sting out of being left with that final scene but we’ll never know. That said the production value of the episode is excellent, there is some stunning visual effects and full use is made of the standing Hive sets which have never looked better but there were still stories to be told and that will forever colour opinion on this episode.
Many thanks to Thomas for joining us for the final episode of Atlantis, he’ll return for a few episodes of Stargate Universe. Thank to everyone that left the feedback for Vegas and other things, always appreciated. This weeks promo is for the Legends of S.H.I.E.L.D. podcast and next week we are going to be taking a look back at the final season of Atlantis in the wrap up show and announce the results of the listener poll.
The 17th episode of the final season of Stargate Atlantis is “Infection” and deals with some of the ramifications of the retrovirus in one of it’s many forms. A Hive ship is approaching Atlantis and a corrupted message is received from Todd, a jumper rendezvous with the Hive and they find all the Wraith in stasis but with no automate revival time set in the system. Rodney searches the ships database and discovers that the retrovirus/gene therapy had been given to the whole crew but after initial good results something went wrong, drastically wrong. Malfunctions are evident on the Hive and then a scream and a security guard is found dead, well half eaten it seems the Wraith can no longer feed by drawing life force but the infected have still got teeth.
They wake Todd who is not too happy given that they are no position to save his crew but as more of the infected get loose and the hive slowly loses integrity being affected by the virus itself they find themselves in a decaying orbit. Rodney is bullied by Todd to perform above and beyond and the Hive or what is left of it crash lands into the ocean where they few survivors are rescued. John who gave his work asks for permission to release Todd and he leaves hoping to find a cure for the virus in an old tradition of bonding with an Iratus Queen.
Infection is an episode that exists to tie together some plot points and to make the most of Todd (Christopher Heyerdahl) and to be fair it does a decent job with the atmospheric horror leaning story. The production side provides some great CGI visuals as the hive breaks apart and the standing set never looked better but money must have been tight when the crash was created, that looked bad. However you never get a bad episode when Todd is front and center and once again he shows why this character became a fan and production favourite.
We didn’t have a guest this week as it was a spur of the moment recording and well outside of the planned schedule but we had fun. This weeks promo is for Treks In Scifi and next week we are taking a look at the eighteenth episode of the final season “Identity” so hope you join us and let us know what you think.
In First Contact the mid-season finale of the final season of Stargate Atlantis the city is visited by Daniel Jackson. He is convinced that the ancient named Janus had a secret lab within the city, together he and Rodney discover it and it’s treasure trove of technology. One device begins to emit a signal which is picked up by a piece of ancient technology overseen by an unidentified alien species who then raid Atlantis stealing technology and kidnapping Daniel and Rodney. Meanwhile a diplomatic party onboard the Daedalus have met with a Todd and a small fleet of Wraith and discussions are ongoing to the use of the new retrovirus. The aliens holding the boys threaten their lives if they do not activate the ancient technology which Rodney has been able to identify as a means to negate hyperspace drives based on their specific energy signatures. Turning the systems on would mean the Wraith ships would be limited to sublight but a previous test over ten thousand years ago indicated a serious side effect which was probably responsible for the system not being deployed during the war. Rodney turns the machine on and two Wraith cruisers vaporise as they enter hyperspace, Todd recognises the technology being used and incapacitates the crew of the Deadalus and takes over the ship. It’s only later that Rodney discovers the side effect of the device, while it prevents the use of hyperspace it also causes a power build up in any Stargate attempting to access wormholes and Atlantis unaware of the threat begins to dial out. Radek sees the energy build up but can not prevent it so he wraps the gate in the cities shield but it can not dissipate the energy from the destroyed Stargate and a minimal amount breaches causing serious damage to the gate room and the tower.
First Contact is geared up to provide a cliffhanger for the break over the holidays and more importantly introduce a highly advanced species from within Pegasus, the existence of such has been referred to by a number of space faring races and like the Asurans before them remained in the shadows. Of course at this point the Atlanteans are unaware of who they are dealing with and the technology presented offers no clue apart from being able to sidestep much of Ancient technology from ten thousand years ago. Interesting to note the Wraith who have continued to develop their sciences have found solutions to many of the threats offered by the Ancients which indicates this new race have not kept pace, the question is why.
First Contact even judged as a single episode is excellent, we have Daniel making it back to Atlantis again and of course things go wrong, Rodney is all upset as he sees Daniel as a rival more so than many others and we get award winning CGI/VFX in the episode, the sequence in the gateroom as the stargate is destroyed was truly gorgeous. I think it’s safe to say we were all on tenterhooks awaiting the second half of this story and in 2016 that means recording our take on it the same night as this episode and releasing the finished podcast a week later. This weeks podcast promo is for the Scifi Movie Podcast and next week we are going to be discussing The Lost Tribe and Thomas will be with us once again.
Thanks to Mack and Levi for the feedback and feel free to let us know what you think of Stargate and our coverage of the episodes:)
The Queen is the focal point of a Wraith Hive, the grand alliance is still struggling to deal with the emergence of Atlantis but unlike before there are Wraith who deal directly with the humans who now control the great city. In this episode the team approach a hive on a diplomatic mission, they board and are greeted by Todd and around a table filled with food (Todd at the farmer earlier). They discuss the use of the latest version of the retrovirus which could eliminate the need for Wraith to feed on humans and take sustenance from ordinary food. Todd is sceptical but agrees that it could give his hive an advantage but without the consent of the Queen who dominates the alliance nothing can be done. The only way to approach the ruling Queen with the idea of the retrovirus would be through another Queen and as Teyla has Wraith DNA it is decided that she will undergo drastic procedures to turn her into a Wraith at least in the short term.
After much deliberation Teyla undergoes the surgery and is transformed into a Wraith Queen. Todd teaches her some of the basics she needs to know as well as making her understand that attitude and confidence is everything when dealing with Wraith let alone another Queen. They board the Queen’s hive which then jumps into hyperspace and after some uneasy introductions Teyla is invited to discuss her purpose for the visit but Todd seizes his chance and drives a knife into her throat and as the alarms sound he jams the knife into Teyla’s hand. As the Wraith and Drones rush in Teyla plays her part shouting down descent and proclaiming that any Queen who could die so easy was not worthy of leading the alliance and now she is the Queen of this ship. The Wraith commander is not happy but accepts the new dynamic but then messages arrives telling of an incursion of one of their feeding grounds by another hive, Teyla reluctantly agrees to leave their position (knowing John and Co will have more trouble finding them) but a Queen would not ignore this incursion. Upon arrival she immediately orders an attack against the trespasser and Todd is unable to stop the wholesale slaughter of Wraith pilots and crews but even as things turn bad she is saved when the puddle jumper arrives via the Stargate and puts six drones into the opposing hive. Alas they are then captured and Teyla tells them to bide their time but is overheard by the commander who attempts to kill her, she defends herself and Todd finishes him off. She now has total control of the hive which she leaves in the capable hands of Todd with the promise to the crew that she is still their Queen and will protect them, she takes her leave with a warning to Todd that if he does anything stupid she can return and take command once again.
I think you may glean that I quite liked The Queen, it’s an excellent story giving the Wraith a lot more depth and opens up their society a little more. It also makes good use of the long term narrative of some Athosians being “tainted” by Wraith DNA and even offers the possibility that the Wraith and the humans are not as different as was indicated from the pilot of Atlantis and subsequent Wraith specific episodes. The makeup and prosthetics were stellar, the transformation of Teyla was spectacular and Rachel’s performance as she wrapped the cloak of her Wraith Queen persona around her was a sight to behold. Christopher was as ever wonderful as the uber intelligent and manipulative Todd and lets not forget Kenny either 🙂
Many thanks to Ian for joining us on the sunday afternoon to record this episode, he will return later in the season and thanks for the feedback over on google+ as well as continued support on Twitter and Facebook. This weeks promo is for the SciFi Diner podcast and next week we are taking a look at Tracker.
Teyla is having dreams of the father of her child bidding her to come and rescue him and the rest of the Athosians who went missing months before, in the dream he gives her a necklace which he bought for her on an off world market, it’s a clue to their location. Teyla along with the team visit the world and discover a stall selling jewellry and trinkets and he reveals that a trader has been bringing him good quality goods for a few weeks and he is due back soon. Meanwhile Dr Keller is investigating a disease which is spreading quickly across a number of worlds, it seems a mystery but eventually they discover it’s a variant of the Hoffan drug and they take a trip to that world in search of some clues but there was nothing to be found after the Wraith wiped the population out yet it seems someone has been there since. Teyla along with Major Lorne and his team return to the trading world and capture the rogue trader, he agrees to take them to the burial site where he has been acquiring these “goods” but on arrival a Wraith dart arrives and scoops up Teyla, it seems it was a trap to capture her all along. Once again Todd uses the Wraith tracker to arrange a meeting with John and after some friendly accusations a mutually beneficial agreement is made, Todd needs to understand the Hoffan drug and develop a cure for his hive and the team need his resources to find Teyla. It pays off when Todd informs that they chatter between Wraith worshippers indicates a member of Atlantis is being held prisoner, the location is given and the team along with the Daedalus pay it a visit. In the complex a big fire fight takes place and in orbit a Wraith cruiser jumps in, it’s Michael’s ship and a captured bad guys indicates Michael is returning with his latest prize, John tells the Daedalus to capture the cruiser but it escapes but if Teyla was onboard why did the guards fight so hard to defend this prison? The break into the final cell and well a surprise is waiting for them, it was no lie that Michael was indeed holding a member of Atlantis prisoner just not the one they expected…
The Kindred is a two part story filmed a little earlier in the production cycle to allow Rachel to be fully involved before taking time off from the show to have her child, she is very pregnant and a lot of credit has to be given for the commitment she showed in what was an intensive episode for her character. The story itself makes full use of all the little things we know about the Wraith and Michael in particular so nothing feels out of place except perhaps for how resilient Michael is, the guy is a born survivor and no matter how hard you squish him he always springs back. I liked how Carter was very reluctant to believe Teyla and her dreams not having direct experience of the events that shaped Teyla into who she is now but surprised how on the fence her other friends were but she got what she wanted alas so did Michael. As for the surprise ending of the episode well the fact that kept that underwraps really paid off, it was a serious WTF moment and in the second part of the story it’s all going to get explained in a way that is most satisfying.
The Kindred Part 1 sets the scene as well as being a very good piece of Stargate storytelling and it’s good to seeing Rachel really getting to be center stage, more of the same next week in the second part so a lot to look forward too. This weeks promo is for the Saturday B Movie Reel and next week are going to watch The Kindred Part 2 and Brad will be joining me for that, we hope you can join us as well and let us know what you think of the episode and our show.
Holly Elissa Dignard
Holly was the Presidential Aide in two episodes of Stargate SG1 (Lost City and Inauguration) and played old Elizabeth Weir in the Atlantis episode Before I Sleep. She has also appeared in Fringe, Eureka, Collision Earth and Hellcats. IMDBTwitterOfficial Todd Masters
Todd is the President of the Effects House Masters FX who have worked on Stargate and dozens of other television and movie productions including Carnivale, Pathfinder, Legion, Six Feet Under, True Blood, Fringe and Almost Human. IMDBMastersFXTwitter
Tobin Bell
Tobin played the Tollan leader “Omoc” in the Stargate SG1 episode “Enigma”, he is perhaps best known for his role as “Jigsaw” in the Saw movies, a popular character actor. IMDBTwitterOfficial Melissa Scott
Melissa has written four Stargate Atlantis novels and a Stargate SG1 novel (an additional SG1 novel was co-written with Jo Graham). She has also written Star Trek novels and has a number of original creations many standalone but also in series form. ISFDBLiveJournalTwitter Todd Brunson
Todd is a professional poker player and appeared as himself in the Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas and on Poker Superstars III and Poker Den. IMDBWiki
Teyla and the group pay a visit to the world of the Vedeenans and a man known as Davos, he is reputed to be an oracle of some sort who can predict the future, his visions have allowed his people to remain untouched when the Wraith last visited their world. As they step through the Stargate they are greeted by Linara the daughter of Davos and she tells them they have been expected, an ideal reception when visiting a fortune teller, an alien one at that. Davos greets them and offers his hand to Rodney in an attempt to prove his bona-fides and Rodney is given a vision of a Wraith ambush, he seems to be convinced that Davos is worth taking back to Atlantis to receive treatment as he is close to death. Richard Woolsey is on a visit to Atlantis for an evaluation of Colonel Carter’s command of the expedition so it’s not an ideal time to get a round about message from “Todd” (not officially names as of yet but come one we all know him as Todd) asking for a meeting. It turns out that the vision was a foretelling of this encounter with Todd so expecting an ambush they go armed with big sticks but it turns out that it was a genuine meeting and the vision while accurate was not interrupted correctly, an ongoing issue when dealing with Davos and his ability. Todd when put into the brig offers them a deal, they are of course suspicious but he drops the bombshell that the replicators are slaughtering whole human worlds to deny the Wraith a food source and to stop them then the Wraith need access to Rodney and by providing the original base code hack first used ten millennia ago they believe it can be tweaked to shut down the replicators again, Carter is sceptical but agrees to the deal (with provisions) and the work commences. Meanwhile Davos offers Teyla an olive branch, her people are alive but he can not see where they are except it’s within a darkness and then he tells her he knows she is with child and his vision for Carter is of Atlantis being destroyed by Replicator starships and as he says, he has never been wrong. A second Wraith Hive ship approaches the planet and they cloak the city, their trust in Todd is rewarded when the two hives do battle and they are both destroyed and Todd acknowledges his slight twisting of the deal and provides the full basecode for Rodney to work on. Woolsey is a little ashamed of how he acted in trying to overrule Carter and returns to Earth with a positive report of her command and Davos who succumbed to his illness is taken back to his own world by his daughter, Atlantis is left to await the predicted attack by the Replicators…
The Seer has some merit in that in brings Todd (as he eventually known as) and while I have no issues with the performances from any of the guest stars or regular cast the episode feels a little flat. It’s rather a pity because thanks to some creative resource allocation the episode has some very nice look visual and practical effects but maybe the simple story of Davos and the Replicator basecode are not strong enough to really entertain. It’s true not every episode in a series can hit a home run so to speak and The Seer falls short but it’s not a bad episode, good production and some good scenes (Teyla all the time and Carter face to face with Todd) yet it fails to really catch the imagination.
This weeks podcast promo was for The Babylon Project and next week we are joined by Andrew for the excellent episode Miller’s Crossing and the return of Kate Hewlett to Stargate. Thanks to everyone that kept in touch and again a pretty good summer month for downloads, it may be we’ve hit the real core group of listeners who stick with us no matter what so a pat on the back and gold stars all around. Feel free to get in touch with us if you want to share any thoughts on Stargate or our podcast and if you fancy joining us for a show then check the schedule for the rest of this season or even ask about the next season, we would love to get more voices discussing an episode.
Aaron Pearl
Aaron played Lt. George Hammond in the excellent Stargate SG1 episode 1969 and then returned as Major Kearney in the episode Lockdown, he’s also been in Fringe, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Arctic Air and Godzilla. IMDB Todd Hann
Todd played Sgt Gibson in the Stargate SG1 episode Prometheus and then was Bravo Leader in the Atlantis episode Conversion. He has also appeared on Stiffed, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Darkest Hour and Alien Agenda:Project Grey. IMDB
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In memory of… Cory Monteith (May 11th 1982 – July 13 2013)
Cory made his mark on television in the role of Finn Hudson on the huge hit tv show Glee but also appeared as a young Mitchell in the SG1 episode 200 and a Genii soldier in the Atlantis episode The Storm. He also appeared on Kyle XY, Supernatural, Smallville, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep and Kyle XY. IMDB
The team are ambushed when following up on some information provided by a Genii contact and John is captured by Koyla who then calls Atlantis and offers to trade John for Ladon Radim the current leader of the Genii who he believes betrayed him. Koyla proceeds to torture John by allowing a capture Wraith to feed upon him but what he doesn’t expect is that the two prisoners will form a bond and when the opportunity appears together they fight their way to freedom. Meanwhile Ladon has been investigating the leak of the Atlantis codes and uncovered Koyla’s supporters in his military and provides the location of John and a rescue mission is launched which arrives just in time to reveal an unknown ability of the Wraith.
Common Ground is a very important episode in the third season as it once again brings back Koyla played by Robert Davi but also introduces us to a Wraith who will become a recurring character and a major player in shaping the Pegasus galaxy both with and against Atlantis, Christopher Heyerdahl returns to the franchise once again playing the new character “Todd” as the Wraith. There is a quite a bit of drama and suspense in this story, not knowing of the Wraith ability to give life energy has you wondering exactly where John’s torture will eventually lead and while death is not always a final thing in scifi neither is killing off main characters for both story and behind the scenes reasons. Ladon (Ryan Robbins) made a welcome return to the show and as we mentioned it was beginning to feel a little like a Sanctuary episode and no question that the casting department and producers went to town to make sure this episode had top notch guest stars which paid off.
We got plenty of tweets and retweets for this episodes and quite a few likes and plus ones but as always we would love to hear comments and feedback in a more direct fashion, emails and voicemails but we are always grateful for any support of the show and more importantly Stargate which despite the reservations of the studios continues to have huge fan support. This weeks promo is for Pulp Audio Weekly and next week we are going to be covering the Stargate SG1 episode Memento Mori so we hope you join us for that and if you do want to get in touch then click on any of the links on this site, we know each method has it’s appeal in this social media world.
Todd Masters
Todd is the President of the Effects House Masters FX who have worked on Stargate and dozens of other television and movie productions including Carnivale, Pathfinder, Legion, Six Feet Under, True Blood, Fringe and Almost Human. IMDBMastersFXTwitter Holly Elissa Dignard
Holly was the Presidential Aide in two episodes of Stargate SG1 (Lost City and Inauguration) and played old Elizabeth Weir in the Atlantis episode Before I Sleep. She has also appeared in Fringe, Eureka, Collision Earth and Hellcats. IMDBTwitter
Tobin Bell
Tobin played the Tollan “Omoc” in the Stargate SG1 episode “Enigma”, he is perhaps best known for being “Jigsaw” in the Saw movies and it would take far too long to recount the highlights of his resume which is certainly impressive. IMDBTwitterOfficial Site Todd Brunson
Todd is a professional poker player and appeared as himself in the Stargate Atlantis episode Vegas and on Poker Superstars III and Poker Den. WikiIMDB
Todd Masters
