Stargate Atlantis

If you’ll recall, some months ago, MGM asked fans to vote for their favorite Stargate Atlantis episodes for inclusion on this DVD. I don’t know if it was fate or more than a little nudging from a higher power but the two episodes that were chosen were the first and last of the series.

This Blu-ray disc includes the pilot episode, Rising and Enemy at the Gate and I imagine they look better than ever.  If you’d like to win this Stargate Atlantis: Fans’ Choice, simply leave a comment in on this post and it would be even better if you mention your favorite episode (but you don’t have to.)

Remember this is a BLU-RAY disc and will not play in regular DVD players.

Deadline to enter is August 9 at midnight PST. US residents only. Winner will be chosen at random and will have 1 week to respond to the notification email.

Don’t want to wait? You can order Stargate Atlantis: Fans’ Choice right now at Amazon.com.

Box art: Amazon.

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WAREHOUSE 13 — “Elements ” Episode 105 — Pictured: (l-r) Joanne Kelly as Myka Bering, Joe Flanigan as Jeffrey Weaver — Syfy Channel Photo: Philippe Bosse

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Brenda and her squad are temporarily deputized into the FBI when a missing person case turns into a full-blown murder investigation involving drug trafficking at gay dance parties. The case gives Brenda and Fritz the chance to work together again, but her investigative tactics don’t exactly fit FBI protocol.

Hewlett thoroughly enjoyed his time on the series, calling it (by way of Twitter) his best guest star experience ever. The actor is a frequent Tweeter, talking often about his young son, parenting and his life in the business.

Photo: Karen Neal / TNT

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* Michael Shanks’ signed, personal “SG-1″ scripts (with hand-written notations), plus scripts and call sheets from his appearances on the USA Network series “Burn Notice” and the Fox Network series “24″

* Stargate DVDs signed by the original movie’s stars, Kurt Russell, Mili Avatal, Erick Avari and Alexis Cruz.

* Photos, posters, DVDs and action figures signed by – among others – Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins (“Supernatural”), Jeffrey Donovan (“Burn Notice”),  Jamie Bamber and Katee Sackhoff (“Battlestar Galactica”), Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett and Paul McGillion (“Stargate: Atlantis”), Sean Astin (“The Lord Of The Rings”) and Gareth David Lloyd (“Torchwood”).

* “SG-1″ team and individual photos, DVDs, and more, signed by Michael Shanks, Claudia Black, Amanda Tapping, Beau Bridges, Ben Browder and Christopher Judge, among others.

The profits from this auction will be donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. The auction starts today and new items will be added daily for the next two to three weeks. You can go straight to the auction on ebay or visit Michael’s website for more detailed information.

The Cap

On offer here is a Stargate SG-1 tan cap, produced to celebrate the milestone of 200th episode. The cap is embroidered on the front with the Stargate SG-1 moniker, and on the back with the words “200th Episode”.

The cap has been signed by:

* Michael Shanks  – Daniel Jackson
* Erick Avari  – Kasuf
* Carmen Argenziano  – Sel’mak
* Steve Bacic – Camulus
* JR Bourne – Martouf
* Ben Browder – Cameron Mitchell
* Claudia Black – Vala Mal Doran
* Alexis Cruz – Skaara
* Colin Cunningham – Paul Davis
* Peter Deluise – Director extraordinaire!
* Bill Dow – Dr. Bill Lee
* Torri Higginson – Elizabeth Weir
* Tom McBeath – Harry Maybourne
* Corin Nemec – Jonas Quinn
* Davd Palffy – Anubis
* Cliff Simon – Ba’al
* Amanda Tapping – Samantha Carter
* Kavan Smith – Evan Lorne
* Alex Zahara – Michael

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Top of the list, Stargate Atlantis’ Joe Flanigan, Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica, and one of my personal faves, James Naughton who starred in the Planet of the Apes TV series, but is more commonly known for his role on Gossip Girl.

Warehouse 13 is the story of two Secret Service agents who are assigned to guard a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota which houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse’s caretaker Artie (Saul Rubinek) charges Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanna Kelly) with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the warehouse itself.

Guest Stars Include:

Ivan Sergei (Crossing Jordan, Charmed) is “Ross” an EMT from Unionville, New York. Ross and some of the other townspeople begin to display bizarre behavioral symptoms — involuntary (and potentially dangerous) expressions of their subconscious desires.

Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Burn Notice) stars as FBI Agent “Bonnie Belski” who clashes with Pete and Myka when they interfere with a case on her Chicago turf. But after the third inexplicable bank takeover, she finds herself willing to make use of their expertise.

Joe Flanigan (Stargate Atlantis, First Monday) portrays the handsome, wealthy “Jeff Weaver” whose charm captures Myka’s interest, but he finds himself under Pete and Myka’s scrutiny when a sculpture on which he bid, vanishes in an impossible heist.

James Naughton (Ally McBeal, Gossip Girl) is “Gilbert Radburn,” the well-tailored, Trump-esque high-profile entrepreneur. When a competitor threatens his intended acquisition, Radburn’s suspicious behavior brings him under Pete and Myka’s scrutiny.

Roger Rees (Cheers, The West Wing) is “MacPherson” one of Artie’s former Warehouse colleagues, who has gone rogue and is now competing with the team to gather dangerous and powerful objects for his own use.

Erica Cerra (Eureka, The L Word) and Niall Matter (Eureka, The Best Years) portray “Jillian and Gary Whitman,” small-time thieves on the Las Vegas strip, whose fortunes, twisted by the strange power of luck-inducing artifact, take a fantastic turn.

Joe Morton (Eureka, Terminator 2) stars as “John Hill” a charismatic prison inmate and an extremist religious leader in a Florida prison.

Mark Sheppard (24, Battlestar Galactica) is “Mr. Valda” the enigmatic representative of the Regents, the mysterious organization that controls Warehouse 13. He disapproves of Artie’s methods as the team leader of the Warehouse, and isn’t afraid to let him know it.

Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica, The L Word) portrays Myka’s father “Warren Bering,” who receives a dangerous object anonymously in the mail which puts his life in jeopardy.

Warehouse 13 will premiere Tuesday, July 7 with the 2-hour pilot from 9 – 11PM ET/PT.

SCI FI Channel Photo: Philippe Bosse

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– Richard Dean Anderson (Stargate SG1, Stargate Continuum, Stargate Atlantis) Anderson reprises his role as General O’Neil. O’Neil is the former leader of the elite military team SG-1.

– Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary, Stargate SG1, Stargate Continuum, Stargate Atlantis) Reprises her role as Samantha Carter, an astrophysicist and United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel.

– Michael Shanks (Stargate SG1, Stargate Continuum, Stargate Atlantis) Reprises his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson, Stargate’s archeologist and linguist.

– Gary Jones (Stargate SG1, Stargate Continuum, Stargate Atlantis) Reprises his role as Chief Mst Sgt. Walter Harriman, commander technician of the team.

– Christopher McDonald (Superhero Movie, Rumor Has It) Stars as Senator Alan Armstrong. The U.S. Senator and head of the International Oversight Committee that governs the Stargate program. He is the father to Chloe Armstrong.

– Janelle Monáe (Bad Boy/Atlantic Records) The Grammy® nominated artist plays herself in an upcoming episode. Janelle and her band will perform “Many Moons” and “Sincerely,” two songs featured from her latest album titled “Metropolis.”

– Carlo Rota (24, Saw V) Stars as Carl Strom, head of the International Oversight Advisory (IOA), the civilian oversight committee that heads up the Atlantis Expedition and all funding.

Now all we need is an appearance by John Shepard (Joe Flanigan) along with his faithful companion Major Lorne (Kavan Smith) and I’m good to go.

Richard Dean Anderson as Maj. Gen. Jonathan “Jack” O’Neill — SCI FI Channel Photo: Eike Schroter..

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He joined the show in 2005 after briefly playing a character with the same name (though not really the same guy) on Stargate SG-1. Four years later, he’s credited with being in a quarter of the series run and yet he’s never had a storyline to call his own! I object.

“The character seems to be developing a little bit, which is always nice for a secondary character,” says Kavan Smith. “It seems like Lorne, instead of just being Shepherd’s right hand man, his military career is progressing so it feels less like a subservient kind of role on Atlantis now and a bit more like, I won’t say an equal, but a somewhat authoritative role. So I’m kinda running my own show; which is a neat way for Lorne to go. More so this year than any others anyway, I feel like his career is sort of moving ahead.”

But when you think it through, becoming a team leader may not mean more face time on the series. With the cameras following the lead characters, Lorne and his team are often relegated to throw away lines in the script. ‘Don’t worry, I sent Lorne and his team out to investigate the other side of the planet. You know, the side where nothing happens.’

Hey! I liked it better when he was trailing after Sheppard on a weekly basis!

Supporting characters with their own solid fan base is a bit of a scifi phenomena and Atlantis is the poster child for this kind of fannish behavior. Carson Beckett began as a recurring character but was upped to regular due to fan support and when the character was later killed off, fans protested outside of the studio until the series relented and found a way to bring him back.

Though Kavan Smith appreciates the fan support for his supporting character, he’s a little confused by all the fuss.

“In all honesty, I’m absolutely perplexed. I’m absolutely shocked. That just goes to show the type of fans that follow this show. He’s a minor character. I’ve done a fair number of episodes and I try to do what I can with them, I’m not always given a ton of material to create a connection with the audience, but they’re really embracing the character as it is. I’m just like, man, imagine where I could go if they gave me some more stuff to work on.”

And maybe that stuff is coming (keep shouting folks, they’ll hear us!)

“The one I’m doing right now is called “The Infection” and without giving away too much; it’s not necessarily his own storyline but Joe (Flanigan) and I work together quite a bit in this one. At least two-thirds of the episode are basically Joe and I, so even though it’s not Lorne’s own storyline, it’s definitely a good one for the Lorne character. So fingers crossed that they might go another season and maybe throw a few more storylines in there for our boy.”

It wasn’t long ago that Kavan had his fingers crossed for another role, that of Flynn in the Fox remake of Irwin Allen’s Time Tunnel.

“That was the single best film experience I’ve had. From top to bottom, that show, for me, was so fulfilling and empowering and enjoyable. I’m by nature quite a shy, reclusive kinda guy. I spend most of my time reading, except now I have a son, so that part of my life doesn’t exist anymore. But I used to read all the time, that was it, I wasn’t very social and I don’t generally hang out with actors that much. But on that show I bonded with everybody immediately. We went out, the whole cast, for dinner every single night and we shot for about five or six weeks and we were so tight on that show. Todd Holland, the director and Rand Ravich, who wrote and produced, were such a joy to work with.”

Originally, Kavan was cast only as a guest star in the first episode but that changed quickly once he got on set.

“About half way through, Todd and all the producers from FOX called me into the trailer and I thought I was being canned. They sat me down and they were like, we just want you to know the show wouldn’t be nearly as good without you and if we get picked up you’re on it full-time. And that was so confidence boosting, it really boosted my morale, to get that kinda feedback was such a pleasure. Then, when we finished that project, we were almost assured by FOX that it was getting a pick-up.”

But it didn’t. The pilot was shelved to make room for a project by Joss Whedon — maybe you’ve heard of it? It was called Firefly?

“What I heard, the reasons why it didn’t get picked up in the end was that the Powers That Be at FOX thought it would fly over the heads of too many people. That and the budget was a tad on the high side. I think back then they were looking at 1.9 to 2 an episode and for not having any star power on the show they thought the budget was too high. So they tried to cut some things and by the time they came in with a decent budget, FOX had gotten behind Joss Whedon’s project and really gone full-blow with that, and they dropped Time Tunnel.”

Pilots that never see the light of day are common in the life of a working actor. To protect themselves from heartbreak after heartbreak, most adopt a “film it and forget it” attitude. Kavan slipped on Time Tunnel.

“Watching the show, there’s a scene where a bomber flies overhead and a war scene that we get transplanted into that was so fantastic, the quality was so great. . . when I saw that I was like, oh my god, if this gets picked up its going to be like this every week! I got a little ahead of myself. It’s the only time in my career that I’ve actually let myself get just a tad bit excited. I was really looking forward to that show going and then in the end it didn’t happen and I know better now. Maybe it would have found a place now, because of the things are more along that vein, but back then they decided to go in a different direction which to this day is one of my biggest let downs.”

But everything happens for a reason, and maybe if Time Tunnel had taken off, he wouldn’t have ended up having the time of his life on Stargate Atlantis.

“Yesterday, for example, my day consisted of maybe 15 lines of fairly straight-forward dialogue and I got to shoot a machine gun for about three hours. And you know for a kid, I guess even for a gal too, but stereotypically for a boy, that is playing; that is just playing. I would never shoot a real gun, it’s not my thing, but shooting these things is really enjoyable. It is the best way to get rid of stress. It’s really empowering in a bizarre and kinda twisted way. But it’s a lot of fun and to get together with these guys . . . every day when I come to this show it’s so familial, it’s so friendly and warm, I could have like three or four episodes off, come back and every single person on set is like ‘hey Kav, how ya doin’? How’s the kid? How’s so and so?’ And so I think some of that sense of fun and camaraderie translates to the screen.”

That sense of fun and camaraderie is also one of the reasons Stargate Atlantis is about to hit its 100th episode.

“When I got the invitation [for the 100th episode party] I was shocked. I’m like, ‘whoa!’ I guess it just sorta creeps up on you out of nowhere. 100 episodes. Maybe, maybe three percent of [TV shows] go that long. But it does seem like my first season was just yesterday.”

I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun even without a Time Tunnel.

Watch Kavan on Stargate Atlantis, Friday’s at 10:00 on SCI FI Channel.

If you’re interested in seeing Kavan on the Time Tunnel pilot, you can find it on The Time Tunnel: Volume Two, DVD (Disc Four).

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Come back next Tuesday when Kavan Smith answers my favorite random questions:

– What’s something that you’ve held onto since you were a kid?

– What’s something you have done that there is no way you’re ever going to do that again?

—Captain Kirk or Captain Jack Sparrow?

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STARGATE ATLANTIS — “Quarantine” Episode 413 — Pictured: (l-r) Kavan Smith as Major Lorne, Joe Flanigan as Lt. Col. John Sheppard — SCI FI Channel Photo: Eike Schroter

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The six million viewers that Jericho bowed out with March 25 wasn’t much to a network like CBS, but would be a huge boost to CW or Sci Fi. Sci-Fi has the most experience in this line of work, as they saved Sliders and Stargate when Fox and Showtime respectively gave up on them. Sliders never quite connected with its initial audience the same way. Stargate, however, went on to become the longest running sci-fi show in American history. It even yielded a successful spinoff in Stargate:Atlantis. (I can see my co-blogger Cynthia somewhere pumping her fists on that reference.)

The announcement that Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk are leaving Smallville likely puts that show on borrowed time. Jericho would fill the tremendous void Smallville will leave pretty nicely. I have a feeling things are about to get good, and you know SFUniverse is going to keep you posted.

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Dangerous Spoilers, Will Robinson

Another season of Stargate Atlantis is coming to a close.  There are only three more episodes left in the series before it’s adios Atlantians (at least for a few months as the fifth season is already in production).

It all starts with “The Kindred” Parts One and Two airing February 22 and 29.

A mystery illness wreaks havoc on humans across the Pegasus galaxy; Teyla’s vision about the father of her child prompts her to join Sheppard on a mission that yields an unexpected discovery. In Part Two  Beckett’s return surprises the Atlantis crew. Elsewhere, Teyla, now a prisoner, finds missing Athosians held captive at one of Michael’s secret facilities.

If that’s not a big enough one, two punch for you, just wait until you get a load of the season finale, “The Last Man” which airs March 7.

Sheppard returning to a derelict Atlantis amid a sea of sand dunes thousands of years after his last search for Teyla, but a hologram of an aged Dr. McKay has a plan to set things right.

Sounds like something really new and different for the season ender and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

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Stargate Atlantis

Rodney,

Even though I’m proficient in 46 different languages, I still cannot find the words to say how much I love you. Your tireless dedication to the betterment of mankind, your superior intellect, your sparkling wit — there isn’t another person alive or dead who could compare. You are my one and only, true soul mate. There is no one who understands me like you do.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Love,

Rodney McKay

Sarah Connor Chronicles

John Connor,

When you move into my field of vision the Kavorkian 900 generator inside my chest cavity revs up to maximum speed. At times, when you appear to be amused, my central control drive is unable to process all of the information available and I am– confused. At school, I observed two girls discussing your “hotness”, which I believe relates not to your actual temperature but to your physical appearance. I must agree with them. You are “hot” and I think I would like to “jump your bones”. Would this be amenable to you?

This is a Valentine’s Day card. I believe you should give me one, too.

Cameron

Supernatural

Jess,

I love you.

Pretty simple, huh? But I know I didn’t say it enough to you when you were alive. I didn’t tell you how much it meant to me to see your smile at the end of a long day. To hear you laugh at one of my lame jokes. Just the warmth of you next to me in bed was more than I ever imagined I could have in this world. You have no idea. Though Guitar Hero and Karaoke night, dollar movie night at the student union and coffee on the quad — you never knew about the horror that was my life before I met you. You reminded me that not every life was filled with blood and anguish and terror. You gave me the one thing I always wanted but was afraid to even dream of — a normal life, friendship, love.

I love you so much, even now, even more. I see people buying flowers and candy and big bouquets of heart-shaped balloons. And it reminds me of our last Valentine’s Day and I can’t. . . I can’t let it in because it’ll break me if I remember how soft your lips were against mine. How gorgeous you were when I made love to you. How much joy there was in two misshaped cupcakes with most of the pink frosting gone.

I love you, Jess. And I killed you as surely as if I’d put a gun to your head. I miss you. I miss you.

Please, let it be February 15th, already. Because I can’t take this anymore.

Sam

Add your scifi love letters in the comments section or let us know which pairings you’d like to see! We’ll highlight the best responses in a special post on Valentine’s Day.

Check out some of our other Valentine’s Day messages from the B5 Entertainment crew: Desperate Blog, Gossip Girl Report, Ugly Betty News.

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