Stargate: SG-1 Memories: Origin, The Ties That Bind, The Powers That Be

ORIGIN (903)

With Jack O’Neill transferred to Washington, the SGC found itself under the command of General Hank Landry played by veteran actor Beau Bridges. Beau reminded me a lot of Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey) – both were very successful, incredibly experienced, and always made it a point to come by our offices to run prospective dialogue changes by us rather than simply surprising us in the dailies. Like Bob, Beau would always make the time to come up and see us to request even the tiniest of changes. Both of them were class acts and I have nothing but terrific memories of working with them.

THE TIES THAT BIND (904)

This episode, originally titled “Treasure! Treasure! Treasure!”, ran long and, as a result, I had to cut one of my favorite exchanges, part of the scene where an undercover Mitchell encounters alien mercenaries Tenat and Jup:

Tenat eyes Mitchell.

TENAT: Your name?

MITCHELL: Cam Mitchell, bounty hunter.

TENAT: Never heard of you.

MITCHELL: I try to keep a low profile, let my work speak for itself. Don’t like to brag, but I’ve captured some of the most dangerous criminals around.

TENAT: Such as?

MITCHELL: Well … Grabthar the Hammer.

TENAT: Never heard of him.

MITCHELL: The Olsen Twins of Omega 3? Moesha the Vile?

TENAT: No.

MITCHELL: Trebek the Destroyer?

Jup pipes up –

JUP: Him I’ve heard of.

This was one of my favorite scripts of my 11+ year Stargate run. I loved the opportunity to write an all-out comic episode – and greatly appreciated the fact that I was supported by actors who could deliver the funny. From our series regulars to this episode’s guest stars, all did a terrific job on The Ties That Bind.

Another scene that I had to cut at the script stage sought to answer the question many curious fans had been asking for years: “What happens if you need to go to the bathroom on a cargo ship?”. In the scene, Jup is at the ship’s controls when the door behind him slides open and Tenat enters, pulling up his pants. Tenat “flushes” by initiating the rings that transport away whatever he just left behind in the back. Question answered. And then my fellow producers made me cut it.😦

One of the many amusing memories of this episode concerns guest star Wallace Shawn (Vizzini in The Princess Bride. Inconceivable!). Prior to his arrival, I was told he was very excited to be working on the show because he was, in fact, a huge fan of SG-1. So, on the day of his costume fitting, I went downstairs to say hello and welcome him to Stargate. “So, you’re familiar with the show,”I said. “Oh, no, I’ve never seen it,”he informed me. “I don’t even own a t.v.”.

THE POWERS THAT BE (905)

Martin Gero’s first script for Stargate: SG-1 offers a peek at Vala’s dark past, her potentially bright future, and her very colorful present. This episode was actually made up of two different pitches: one about Vala returning to scam a world she once ruled as Qetesh, another involving the healing device and the dilemma it presented. The latter was a notion I’d pitched out but was going nowhere until we started talking about the first story and realized it made sense to marry the two. As with most every episode, that’s the way it worked on Stargate. Despite the onscreen credit, everyone in the writers’ room participated in the creation of each story – discussing the initial pitch, spinning some ideas, beating out the story, structuring the narrative, and providing notes on the outline(s) and various drafts. If we were going to be precious about our individual ideas and demanded a shared credit, then longtime Executive Producer Robert Cooper (the master spinner) could have easily laid a co-story credit claim to fully 90% of all episodes produced.