Joseph Mallozzi, Writer and Executive Producer, Stargate

David Read: Welcome, everyone, back to Dial the Gate: the Stargate Oral History Project. I’m David Read, and I am privileged once again to welcome back Mr. Joseph Mallozzi, executive producer, writer, Stargate. Sir, it’s been a hot minute.

Joseph Mallozzi: It has been a while. I was thinking back, and I’m thinking, “I’m on David’s show all the time.” And then when I thought about it…

David Read: It’s been a long time.

Joseph Mallozzi: … it’s been almost a year …

David Read: I know.

Joseph Mallozzi: … since the last time I was on. And the last time I was on, at the time I didn’t even know that they were gonna make the announcement about the show. I think–

David Read: September 21st. You didn’t know by then.

Joseph Mallozzi: I don’t know. I think things were working towards the announcement. When was the announcement? I forget now.

David Read: November 19th was the public announcement. I’ll never forget that.

Joseph Mallozzi: So, maybe I had an inkling back then.

David Read: So, you knew it existed, but you didn’t know when…

Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah.

David Read: OK.

Joseph Mallozzi: So, Martin dialed me in as Brad kindly did when he was developing his version of the new Stargate. He dialed me in and allowed me to read and offer notes, my take with Brad’s script, with Martin’s script. And Martin was developing that show for a good two years till they got it right, until they got it perfect.

David Read: Of course.

Joseph Mallozzi: And then, based on that, he got the green light.

David Read: All right. So, how– Or OK, that actually answered my question. So, I’ve got a number of questions already coming in from folks here. This is a live stream, everybody, so anyone who has a question for Joe, you can go ahead and submit it to the mods. Do me a favor. To help it stand out, put a question mark in front of it so that they can see it a little bit better. We also sometimes use a piece of software, which is actually not running right now, but I’d like to go ahead and keep the trend in place so that if you do have a question for Joe, go ahead and stick the question mark in the front. It’ll help the mods see it, because we have a few more than normal, as everyone might imagine because, hashtag reasons. But bottom line this for me. How are you? How are you doing?

Joseph Mallozzi: I am great. Obviously, I was very disappointed. Perhaps not quite as disappointed as Martin Gero, who had, as I said, worked two years developing that series, was very excited. And frankly, creative aside, did everything right in terms of first reaching out to the cast and crew. You’re well aware one of the first things he did was he sent out an email, reached out to all the cast, major cast members, the major crew members, the directors, and told them, “Look, this is what’s happening. The show is green-lit.” And reaching out to them to let them know so they weren’t ambushed by the news. And the idea being that, as I said from the very beginning, even before Martin got his show picked up, was that we needed to create a show that would be a perfect jumping-on point for fans who had never watched an episode of Stargate, wouldn’t know the difference between a Zat and a Death Glider. And ultimately create that show for new fans, and yet at the same time be respectful to canon, be respectful to the fandom, and leave the door open for an exploration of familiar characters, familiar stories. So, in that respect, again, also Martin was really great. He reached out to, as I said, the former cast and crew, and then he got in touch with you guys, you and Darren, and decided to go through you and reach out to the fans and let the fans know what was in store. And he did everything right.

David Read: As could be done, for sure. Absolutely.

Joseph Mallozzi: I think…

David Read: Guys, I apologize for the echo, but the fact of the matter is that I have a Bluetooth dongle that has suddenly stopped working. So, whatever. Joe comes in…

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s OK…

David Read: … and tests all the equipment. Every time that he comes on, something goes wrong.

Joseph Mallozzi: Listen, don’t…

David Read: So, now I’m gonna have to manually dial this up and down. So, if he’s talking, I have to stop talking now because I have to lower my sound. So, I apologize, everyone.

Joseph Mallozzi: … do not pin your defective dongle on me, my friend.

David Read: God.

Joseph Mallozzi: But otherwise, great. The dust has settled. I’ve had to redirect focus to my other pilots. To be honest with you, when Martin reached out and told me that the show had been green-lit, I was like, “Great.” I was very excited for him. And then he invited me into the room. I was like, “Holy smokes, I’m gonna be so busy.” The room was in Los Angeles. And, David, you came up and you visited the room. And visited with Akemi, my wife, and Sharky, my dog, who are big fans of David Read, by the way. And it was a fantastic three months. The room was great. The way Martin ran the room was terrific. The show creative was great. The scripts were great. The way he ran the room was very interesting. All the writers obviously had voices in the room, but we had support staff, assistants or script supervisors. And they were just as involved and their voices were just as heard as anyone. That was a great thing about Martin’s room. If anyone had an idea, didn’t matter who you were, he would basically call on you. And it was a very comfortable room. And it’s a damn shame. I will say, I had a great three months, and then we came back to Toronto, and then I had an extra two months Zooming. The way it kinda went down, we kinda discussed. Akemi and I were out for lunch with Sharky, as we always bring him along. And I got a call from Martin to say, “Hey, make some adjustments.” I was working on an outline for my first script. And then an hour later he calls and lets me know that the show had been fucking pulled. And he was like, “I’m so sorry.” I was like, “Why are you apologizing to me? You have nothing to apologize for.”

David Read: Did the same thing to me.

Joseph Mallozzi: He reached out. He included me and Brad and invited me into the room. I had a wonderful time in LA. I had a wonderful time in the room. And 95% of it had to do with him, his creative and the way he worked as a showrunner. [inaudible] The fact that he was apologizing to me… Looking back, I have to say it was a very positive experience for the time that we got to work on the show and I got to work with Martin again.

David Read: You kinda already answered this– Guys, I’ve managed to get the Bluetooth fixed, so I apologize. Let me know if my audio’s or either of our audio’s are too low. What impressed you about… Obviously you did bring up the fact that everyone was invited to contribute. The number of people who were in this space, the support staff and everything, were… It was mesmerizing. I think one of the things that disappoints me the most is that I’m never gonna be able to share with fandom that group of people that you and I got to spend time with in that space, because they were all so talented and cool. What was it like in that particular space? And how much of it was… And I asked you about this previously when we were on our walk. How much of it was feeling like a Stargate room again?

Joseph Mallozzi: Very much felt like a Stargate room, obviously with Martin at the helm. It was an interesting mix of writers. There were one, two, three… I’m trying to do the math in my head. Four, five, six, seven of us. And then the three support staff who, as I said, were just as welcome to chime in, with varying degrees of understanding of the show. This is one of those other… I will not name the other IP shows, but they bring in a showrunner who doesn’t really know the IP, and they hire writers who have never watched the show or are not familiar with the IP. And that’s how they make the show. This was not that. There were certainly writers who were not familiar with the franchise as a whole, but Martin had that covered. I had that covered. And several of the writers actually were very familiar with the series. There were a few that weren’t, but they were an asset in that because we were trying to fashion a show that would appeal to essentially Stargate neophytes, we needed those voices in the room, someone to speak up and say, “I don’t get that” or “That doesn’t make sense to me,” or “Can we find a better way to explain this?” or “This feels overly complicated.” So, the room was a great balance. It’s a shame. I eventually wanted to profile all the writers on my blog and hoped I would have gotten the chance. And it’s unfortunate that it all went away. Which, honestly, this is a first for me. I’ve heard of terrible things happening in the industry, but this was a first for me for a green-lit show. In a writers’ room.

David Read: If it was gonna happen to any of them, I am not surprised. I’ve gotten to that point where… And I’m not exactly known for being Eeyore. “Oh no.” But it’s, eh. Considering the track record is, damn. Ugh. Gosh, yes. No. I have some questions from fans. I have all levels of approach to this. So, I’m gonna go ahead and ask them regardless of how much a particular viewer has thought this through. I do wanna get a lot of this out as if we’re doing an FAQ from the top so that we can handle a lot of these common questions.

Joseph Mallozzi: This is fine for me. Two things. One, I welcome this because I get a lot of questions online, repeated questions that I respond to, and no matter how many times I respond to half a dozen people, another half a dozen people will come up with the same question. So, hopefully I can answer this once and for all. The other thing I wanna say is I signed an NDA, so there’s only so much I can reveal about specific creatives. But I can talk in general about my experience in the room and my opinion on the industry in general.

David Read: With those caveats out of the way, let me go ahead and go down the dashboard here because that’s why a lot of these folks are here. So, there may be some in the audience and in the YouTube chat, be kind everybody, who is like, “OK, this has already been asked a million times. How does this person not know this question?” I’m gonna go down this list, and we’re gonna hash this out together. Because if there’s anyone else that I would, it would be you. Raj Luthra wanted to know, “What can you tell us about the future of the Stargate franchise? Is there any good news about Martin’s series?”

Joseph Mallozzi: The good news is that it was great, and that I think fans would’ve loved it. It would’ve been a great jumping-on point for new fans who would’ve discovered the show, and it would’ve been a show that would’ve ultimately rewarded longtime viewers. Now, I have no idea. It’s hard to comment beyond that. And people keep on asking me, “What’s the latest? What’s the update?” I’m the last guy to ask. Amazon is not gonna tell me anything. Do they make announcements anymore? I don’t know. Check Variety, I guess.

David Read: Exactly.

Joseph Mallozzi: Maybe they’ll go up and, you know. I don’t know.

David Read: MorrisQPR, “Do you think it’s possible for Martin, Brad, or yourself to pitch a new Stargate show to Amazon?” I’ve been seeing this a lot lately online too. We’ll just go ahead and pitch another one.

Joseph Mallozzi: Honestly– OK. The short answer is no. So, as people pointed out, Martin developed over those two years with a team of executives at Amazon who were very supportive of his vision. And then, as often happens in business, people get replaced and new people come in. And that vision was no longer the vision that lined up with what Amazon wanted to do. So, having said that, so long as the current administration is in place, I don’t believe there’s any room for Martin or me or Brad or any vision of Stargate that in any way connects to the existing franchise or fandom.

David Read: OK.

Joseph Mallozzi: Sadly.

David Read: I think that’s where we’re at.

Joseph Mallozzi: But crazier things have happened. Who knows? Scandal… I don’t know, I can’t think of anything else beyond Scandal.

David Read: AdrianMayers, “I hear Amazon are now looking for new writers. Thoughts on this?”

Joseph Mallozzi: They said that from the very beginning. It’s a very valuable franchise, a very valuable IP, so they were gonna do it sooner or later. And in fact, I think I’ve been saying it since Stargate went off the air back in, was it 2015? That Stargate would be back sooner than later. And over the years, it’s clearly been more later than sooner. So, Amazon is eventually gonna exploit that IP. I have no idea how. It could very well be… this is just my guess, I have no idea. Maybe they’ll get someone like JJ Abrams or… What’s Alex Kurtzman doing now? He’s free.

David Read: After Star Trek? He sure is.

Joseph Mallozzi: He’s free. Or with Bad Robot. Is that JJ Abrams?

David Read: That’s JJ. Alex Kurtzman is Fuzzy Door or Backdoor or something? I think it’s Backdoor.

Joseph Mallozzi: I have a feeling they’re gonna look for a big name and try to sort of do a big splashy thing. Maybe a movie, maybe a series. I don’t know. Like I said, I really don’t know. But given the way a lot of the streamers operate, name cachet is what they kinda strive for. So, that’s my vision, and if you ask me what I think they were probably gonna do based on nothing.

David Read: Big name. Big arsonists perhaps.

Joseph Mallozzi: That would be my opinion. And then in terms of the creative, I have no idea. I think it would probably be a total reboot. I think the gate would probably still be round, but there’s no guarantee of that.

David Read: The gate would still be round. It started off as a triangle.

Joseph Mallozzi: Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe it’s kids are away at summer camp and they find this square gate in a pond, and it takes them to a magical dimension in the past, and they have to fight Nazis, and ride unicorns or something. Anything’s possible at this point.

David Read: That’s brilliant.

Joseph Mallozzi: Anything’s possible.

David Read: God.

Joseph Mallozzi: But we’re gonna look back at this flying unicorn, battling Nazi, gag pitch someday and be like, “Holy shit, he was right.”

David Read: Are you familiar with Rebel Moon?

Joseph Mallozzi: I’m familiar with it.

David Read: Do you know what it is?

Joseph Mallozzi: Yes, I know what it is.

David Read: Do you know what it came from?

Joseph Mallozzi: Wasn’t it the director’s imagination?

David Read: I would assume so. Disney rejected it as a Star Wars script, and it became Rebel Moon. Maryed_Simon wants to know, “Any chance you could still bring the scripts to fruition through different sources? We don’t need the Stargate name necessarily slapped all over it, but would trust anything the three of you would make.” So, transform it like Rebel Moon was transformed is what I’m going for.

Joseph Mallozzi: Much appreciated, but no. First and foremost because–

David Read: This was Stargate specific.

Joseph Mallozzi: Not only was it Stargate specific, but Amazon paid for the script and the creative, so they own everything.

David Read: I see.

Joseph Mallozzi: So, it’s unlikely that they would let anything go. And then it is very specifically Stargate. You go through a portal that allows you instantaneous travel anywhere in the galaxy and beyond. So, that’s very Stargate. It’s hard to sort of make adjustments to the script or, frankly, the entire series premise in a way that makes it decidedly un-Stargate.

David Read: JenBlood-lg9eo, “Does Amazon’s silence bother you more than getting a straight answer about what their issue with the story or script actually was?” You got your answer internally…

Joseph Mallozzi: No, I wanted to actually give a shout-out to JenBlood-lg9eo for her amazing meme work. Jen, thank you. Sorry, yes, does it frustrate me? Absolutely. It does frustrate me. The fact that there was no official announcement was surprising. But you deal with networks all the time. I think back to Dark Matter. This is not Amazon related, but I think back to Dark Matter and that there was not even the slightest modicum of respect for our production after they canceled us. We sent them an email to say, “Hey, could we do a wrap-up episode or movie for the fans?” And they didn’t even respond.

David Read: SyFy?

Joseph Mallozzi: This was SyFy. And then I lost it and went full…

David Read: Super Sentai.

Joseph Mallozzi: … yes. And then it was funny because I went whole hog, as they say. And I remember writing that post, I don’t know if you saw it. It was the 13 most insidiously evil organizations. There was A.I.M. and HYDRA and Intergang and Hammer Industries and Kobra. And then at the very end the last one was SyFy. And each organization, what’s their deal? What’s the twist? And the twist was, I think for SyFy, the program chief is a monkey picking random chits out of a top hat or something. And I posted that, and then a week later, my former writing partner on Stargate, longtime writing partner, Paul Mullie, actually had a meeting with the guy who had canceled Dark Matter. And as Paul sat down, as he told me, the guy looked at him and was like, “So, your writing partner likes to tweet, huh?” So, needless to say…

David Read: It made an impact.

Joseph Mallozzi: …It made an impact.

David Read: You were over the target, Joe.

Joseph Mallozzi: I am unlikely to frequent that guy’s office, although I don’t even think he has an office anymore. I think he…

David Read: Probably not.

Joseph Mallozzi: … was shuttled off, as they say. Or SyFy for that matter, but do they still do science fiction? I don’t know.

David Read: The Ark is the last thing really. That’s airing through middle of next month, but I don’t really know what else there is in terms of a flagship kind of show. TheOldestGamerFL1 wants to know, “Did the 20-week writer’s room mean it was gonna be a 20-episode season?”

Joseph Mallozzi: How old is TheOldestGamerFL1, I’m wondering?

David Read: Not that old.

Joseph Mallozzi: Again, I can’t reveal how much I can say about the specifics. However, if you look at it logically, how many Amazon big productions go 20 episodes? Probably not that many. What is the number for Amazon episodes in an Amazon season?

David Read: Exactly. goranandonovski1987, I get this one a lot as well. I’m glad we’re hitting these out. “Is there any chance Amazon could change their mind about Martin’s show at this stage?”

Joseph Mallozzi: At this stage, I think it’s highly unlikely. What can I liken it to? Essentially, they made their choice. I don’t know anyone who works at Amazon, I think they were probably surprised by the fan blowback. I think when they move forward, when this new show comes up, they’ve seriously underestimated the fandom. I think they assume that the fandom is a small group of people. And when you consider the entirety of the…

David Read: In the scheme of franchises.

Joseph Mallozzi: … of the potential audiences. Which, possibly true. However, fandoms have shown themselves to be a very passionate bunch, and capable of using social media in support, which would have been great, which was what Martin was aiming for, or against something. And I guess if you don’t respect them, they’re not gonna respect you. And they’re grudge holders. There’s more than a few Italians among the bunch. So, it’s surprising because I think back to what it takes to make a show a success on streaming, right? It’s all about the algorithms. So, in order to be successful, a show really has to capture an audience. And they track all those metrics. Do you finish the pilot episodes? How many episodes of the season do you finish? If you finish the entire series, holy smokes, that is huge. Because that is major audience retention. And so in order to make the show a hit, you need that audience. And it doesn’t behoove you to get the fans on board so that they’re essentially a second voice out there trumpeting the show, bringing in new viewers, making sure people are watching, and ultimately completing that season. On the other hand, you live or you die by the algorithm. This is something that I don’t think they even consider, but the fans talk about things like using the algorithm, as you would say, against certain shows. People who hate-watch a show actually help the production.

David Read: It’s engagement.

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s engagement. But you’re also watching all the way through, right, in order to review. Unless you’re watching it on a pirated site, in which case those views don’t count.

David Read: But they’re still aware of them. They still keep track of those data points.

Joseph Mallozzi: OK, interesting. But they also keep track of the other way. If, let’s say, the worst possible thing you can do is tune in a show, watch it for two minutes, because I think two or three minutes is a cutoff to consider an actual investment, and then you stop watching. And that happens enough times, that will sink a show. It’s crazy. Fandoms have the power to make or break a show. In order to make a show, they have to put in the effort and watch a show. In order to break a show, they don’t have to make any effort at all. They have to tune it in for two or three minutes and then tune off.

David Read: Unless there’s major money behind it. Rings of Power Season One infamously had a Season One completion rate of about 32% of the audience that started it finished it. But at that point, you had golden handcuffs pressing down on that particular scale. So, this is great. I wanna keep this going here. TeleEditing, “Would SG4 have been closer in tone to SG-1, SGA, or SGU in your opinion?”

Joseph Mallozzi: Hard to say. It definitely would not have been as dark as Universe. It would not have been as way out, in terms of location — distant as Atlantis. And I guess it would not have been quite as irreverent as SG-1. Although I guess it was probably closer to SG-1 in my mind because it was very grounded in the here and now, contemporary Earth. And it had a sense of humor. And that’s something that can’t be helped with a Martin Gero production. He loves to sort of create these colorful characters that come live through their humor. So, it would have been, in my mind, closer to SG-1, but with, I guess, a visual style close to Universe in terms of the visual effects. That’s another thing. It’s actually really too bad because we had gone down the road and we had concept art that was just mind-blowing. I’d never seen anything like it before. And everything from ships to our aliens. It was incredible.

David Read: VenturePictures, “Hey, Joe, any details on what the Argo looked like?” Now, keep in mind, guys, he signed an NDA.

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s an NDA, but…

David Read: But I’m asking the questions because you’ve been kind enough to ask them.

Joseph Mallozzi: … I can’t really give details. And the concept art was really great. But you can imagine it was very much a ship design in the world of the Earth ships that appear in the later seasons of SG-1.

David Read: Because it’s a BC-307, imagine that lineage continuing.

Joseph Mallozzi: But I think a much cooler version.

David Read: There we go. Absolutely. GatetravelersNLBE, “Did you expect us to have such a huge fandom worldwide, especially when you look at the autographs collected with Save Stargate.” All those signatures, 124,000 now?

Joseph Mallozzi: Not really, because I’ve kept engaged with fandoms since day one on Stargate, so I know they’re out there. There are a lot… It’s always a way, right? People assume that the audience is relatively small and that there’s always a vocal minority online, and that’s true up to a certain point. But Stargate was a show, and people keep on telling me this all the time, a show that was enjoyed by the family. So, grandparents introduced this to their grandkids, or parents introduced it to their kids, or the elder brother or elder sister would introduce it to their sibling. And it’s a show that they would watch. And this love of the show, they ended up passing on. And over the years I’ve heard so many stories about fans who were introduced to the show via their older relatives who introduced the show to their kids and they continued to watch. So, I think there’s a much bigger audience out there than many assume. Certainly more than I think Amazon assumes.

David Read: Absolutely. I’ve lost the number of casual Stargate fans that I meet in everyday life. More than just say, “Oh, the one with MacGyver.” It’s like, “Oh, yeah, I remember Teal’c.” So, they are there. They watched it. That Sci-Fi Friday, SG-1, Atlantis, Galactica, that ruled for years. For years I ran into people afterward who remembered that lineup.

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s wild. We had the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto a couple weeks ago, and my friend, who’s an actor, said, “You gotta come down and meet this guy. He’s a producer.” He was a producer on a movie called Being Heumann with…

David Read: Sam Witwer.

Joseph Mallozzi: … what’s his name? Beta Hulk. What’s his name?

David Read: I’m not sure. I just know Sam.

Joseph Mallozzi: No. Is it Erik Bana? No, Mark Ruffalo.

David Read: Mark Ruffalo. OK.

Joseph Mallozzi: He’s in the movie and everything. He’s like, “You gotta meet this guy, and he’s really…” The guy has done so much. He was an agent and he was involved in comic books. And I was like, “Sure.” So, I went to meet him, and my brother’s like, “He’s a huge Stargate fan, and a Dark Matter fan.” So, I went to meet him, and this has happened to me before where someone’s like, “I’m a huge Stargate fan. I’ve watched all the episodes.” I’m like, “Who’s your favorite character?” “The guy with the glasses.” That type of thing. So, I sat down with him. Incredibly nice guy, incredibly grounded. We’re talking, and he’s like, “I’m a huge Stargate fan.” And he knew his Stargate lore. He and his wife watch it all the time. And he’s like, “I watch Dark Matter.” I’m like, “Are you sure? Was it the Apple show or the Syfy show?”

David Read: Which one are you talking about?

Joseph Mallozzi: I asked him about Dark Matter. And he knew the show. This guy is a legit, legit sci-fi fan, so it was great meeting him. We discussed maybe working on something. He’s sending me some material to look over. And some pretty wild stuff. But a really great guy. And his movie, Being Heumann, comes out, I think probably an Oscar contender. It’s actually directed by the woman who directed CODA.

David Read: Very good. Mark Ruffalo’s in, Dylan O’Brien…

Joseph Mallozzi: Kevin Leary is his name, the producer’s name.

David Read: Kevin Cleary.

Joseph Mallozzi: Sorry, Kevin Cleary.

David Read: Being Heumann, H-E-U-M-A-N-N. I can pull this up for everyone. Why don’t I go ahead and do that? There we go.

Joseph Mallozzi: That’s fantastic. It’s always great to meet an adult sci-fi fan. Can I just say.

David Read: So, on that, Richard Madden, who played Robb Stark, is on record saying he has seen every episode of Stargate.

Joseph Mallozzi: Wow. That would’ve been amazing.

David Read: That would’ve been a great get. Absolutely. This is an interesting question here. I lost it. There it is. “If Amazon came back saying, “Sorry, we want to go forward not with Gero but with you, Joe,” what would you say at that point?”

Joseph Mallozzi: I don’t know. At that point it would be very difficult, to be honest with you.

David Read: Absolutely. Here’s a question I’m gonna pose. PhilippeCanat asks, “Now that some time has passed, how do you analyze Amazon’s decision retrospectively? Do you feel that despite your best intentions, you fell into a fan service trap?” Before you answer, Joe, there is a group of Stargate fans who think that Amazon canceled it because it was too much like the original series, or the franchise that already exists. And the more that I learn, the more I’m convinced that had nothing to do with it because it was very far removed from that. Am I wrong?

Joseph Mallozzi: So, you are not wrong. I can’t speak to why they made the decision. I don’t know if anybody can. They never stated why. Like I said, Variety printed the rumor, which I assume is true. Nobody’s called me to resume work on the room. So, I assume it has been canceled. But no, as I said, the show was a fresh starting point. If you want it to be any more removed, then I think you’re not doing Stargate anymore. OK? Maybe the Stargates are weapons that you can fire holes in people or something. But the show that we set out to create, that Martin created, was its own thing. Very much its own thing. It had its roots obviously in the preexisting canon. How the gate works, the mechanics of things. And ultimately kept the door open to potentially connect with those old elements from the past, the characters and such. Like I said, I don’t know how much more far removed we could have been.

David Read: Jerem-SaveStargate, wanted to know, “Was the ship so exciting to design with the BC-307 we heard about?” That was Nathan Crowley. He was designing that, wasn’t he?

Joseph Mallozzi: Yes.

David Read: Oh man. The dude designed the frigging modern Batmobile. For crying out loud. The one from Christopher Nolan. The Tumbler.

Joseph Mallozzi: That would be a question for Martin. And hopefully you get him on at some point because…

David Read: One of these days.

Joseph Mallozzi: … by the time he presented the Argo to us, it was already concept art. He had already worked with Nathan, and they had created this version. It’s too bad. It would’ve been great to, at the very least, release those images and give the fans a taste of what could have been.

David Read: A taste. Exactly right.

Joseph Mallozzi: Say that first taste. First taste is free.

David Read: Free smells. I don’t know where I saw that. I was walking by somewhere a few weeks ago and I saw on the side of the building, “Free smells.” I thought that was cute.

Joseph Mallozzi: That sounds disconcerting.

David Read: Sadists. Where was it? SGAgatebuilder, “Joe, would you consider writing your own Stargate novels?”

Joseph Mallozzi: No. Absolutely zero. First of all, novel writing is not for me. Prose is really not for me. I do not have the patience for it. I have immense respect for a writer who could sit down and bang out hundreds of thousands of words. I can’t do it. It’s not for me. I don’t have the patience. And if I was ever gonna do it, I would do something original. I would have no interest in doing a tie-in, to be honest with you. To be brutally honest.

David Read: No, that’s perfectly fair. I get it. It’s a completely different form of writing, it’s far more lyrical, whereas you are writing the scaffolding of a house. You are writing notes on a page, and then you have the designers and the artists and the actors come in and fill that scaffolding. SGAgatebuilder also wanted to know, “Do you have any interest in writing for Trek?” He says, “Goodness knows they need you.”

Joseph Mallozzi: I would say kind of quantified, yes. I grew up with the original series. I could never get into Next Generation. I keep on pointing it out because of those ill-fitting uniforms in Season One. Then I heard good things about Deep Space Nine, and it looks so cool, and the episodes I have seen I really enjoyed. But I really only watched Voyager, and that’s how I got to know Bob Picardo through his performance. And then we were looking to cast on Stargate, I pitched him, and now he’s a good friend, which is fantastic. And then I couldn’t really get into Enterprise, A, because of the theme song, and B, because I was working at the time. And then, this is me, but the new Trek that came out after Enterprise is not for me. It looks great though.

David Read: Yeah, the money is on screen.

Joseph Mallozzi: Creatively, the Star Trek world really interests me. I’ve been doing a fun online project. We’ve been doing this Amalgaverse, which is a choose-your-own-adventure for sci-fi fans. And over the past, I’m thinking over a year, we’ve assembled a crew from various sci-fi TV shows. We’ve got a captain, a first officer, chief medical officer, chief engineer. We went through the whole thing. We put together unlikely allies, a resident alien, the ship AI, a couple of wild cards. And last week we launched, and by launch I mean we started this adventure. The basic premise is that all these disparate characters from various realities suddenly find themselves in this universe that is an amalgam universe of these various, like Trek and Farscape and all of the sci-fi TV realms. And they don’t know why they ended up here, so in order to find out, a new Enterprise-D is commissioned, and these 19 crew members are set off on a mission to find out what’s going on. And it’s 19 crew members and you, the fan, the follower, in that you have ended up in this universe as well. And unlike the rest of them, you have an intimate knowledge of everyone, because in your reality, these people and their adventures exist as fiction, as TV shows, whereas in their realities, they’re very much real. So, you have an encyclopedic knowledge of all of them and their adventures. So, you’re invited along, and that’s the basic premise. We kicked off, and the fans were presented with four potential missions to pursue off the bat: investigate a ghost ship; investigate a space station that has gone dark, like a space colony; transport a seemingly lovable rogue on the request of the Federation; and pull off a heist. Everyone got to vote. They voted for the ghost ship. And every step, every stage of the adventure at 12:01 PM every day Eastern Time, I lay out this is the step. So, they got to choose: do we beam aboard the ship, do we take the Puddle Jumper, do we perform an EVA, and their pros and cons. They decided to fly the Puddle Jumper in.

David Read: They sure did. I’m showing all of this while you talk, by the way.

Joseph Mallozzi: So, then the bay doors wouldn’t close. We have to decide what are we gonna do. We’re gonna get Rommie, the android, to manually shut the door. Are we gonna send her out, or are we gonna try to use the Jumper’s power to power the door shut, or follow O’Neill’s pitch and decide to don our EV suits and hoof it? And so that’s what we’ve decided to do. And today we’re presented with another question: what are we gonna do? Rommie says we should head to the bridge, get control of all systems, make sure everything… find out what’s going on first. Daniel’s picking up a faint life sign and is like, “There’s a life at stake. Someone’s out there.” And McKay counters with, “Someone or something,” and he’s more interested in the fact that he’s picking up an ebbing power reading that could fail if they don’t act fast enough. But it’s on the way anyway, So, this is the choice that the fans have to choose. I’ve built every adventure like an episode of television. So, it’s five acts, five beats per act, with hopefully twists, turns, shocks, and surprises for the fans. And I’ve structured it like a season of television. So, I’ve got my first 10 episodes. Each episode should play out over the course of three, four weeks. So, we’re good till I think next June or so.

David Read: Wow, OK. And this is something that you participate in and it evolves.

Joseph Mallozzi: And I’ve no idea how it’s gonna go. I’ve included visuals, and fans are like, “Why don’t you put a poll feature, like yes or no, so they can track what’s ahead?” And unfortunately on X you have a choice. You can either do the poll feature or you can use a visual, and I prefer to include a visual. And so I’m going with visuals, and also I like to hear why the fans are choosing, or what they’re choosing, and sometimes it gives me ideas as well on, OK, this is something that I can layer in for later or pay off later. So, it’s been fun. It’s an experiment for me. It’s taken time, it’s taken me a commitment that I really should be spending — I’ve got three scripts that are going out, pilots that I should be going out and pitching. But they’re not far-future sci-fi spaceship adventures, and that really is my jam. So, I’m having a blast writing these Amalgaverse adventures.

David Read: And you’re interacting with fandom in real time. You can do those other things too, but this way you’re whetting your whistle and you’re getting the creative stimulation on the daily, just like what you had with your…

Joseph Mallozzi: And it’s fun. So, if anybody is tuning in and they don’t know, check out the Amalgaverse hashtag. I will usually post, like I said, at 12:01 PM Eastern Time every new stage. And then at 2:00, I pin the post. It usually includes a little dropdown with a “previously on” that summarizes where we are in the adventure so far. And it’s always a quote tweet, so if you wanna familiarize yourself with every step of the adventure, you can click through the quote tweet and it will take you through. And then of course, once the adventure ends, we’re onto the next mission. I don’t know if we’re gonna rest at all. I think it’s gonna be go, go, go.

David Read: Just keep going.

Joseph Mallozzi: You always have choices. So, many choices.

David Read: CristinaGraziella-d4b, “Amalgaverse is great. If you love Stargate, you’re gonna love Amalgaverse. How did the initial concept for it come to you?” What can you speak on about that? ‘Cause I’m really curious.

Joseph Mallozzi: I’ve always been a general fan of sci-fi television. And much respect to the new sci-fi. It looks great, but it’s always so bleak, and it takes so long for things to get going. I don’t have the patience for it, OK? A lot of sci-fi is very clear who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. But there’s a level of messaging in contemporary television in general that, as a writer, I find so annoying…

David Read: We’ve reached the end of one moment moving forward.

Joseph Mallozzi: … I know. I can’t do it. Where does this all take us anyways?

David Read: It’s all over.

Joseph Mallozzi: And it’s not fun. And that’s why essentially I look back at shows like Babylon 5. I don’t know if you would describe it as fun, but in certain aspects it was fun. It was very smart, very character-driven sci-fi, which I really love. And Deep Space Nine, like I said, is a show that I really want to watch. Farscape I look back at, crazy, lunatic, but so much fun. And the old Stargates. So, I really wanted to… I realize that those shows are not coming back for now. Everything is really big-budget, more grounded sci-fi. If you’re gonna get the bigger sci-fi ideas, that’s very much in the Star Wars world. Rarely is anything else done in that kind of venue. And when it is, it’s very big-budget, slow roll, very, as they say, Surf Dracula. You’re familiar with the Surf Dracula meme?

David Read: It’s the first time I’m hearing of this.

Joseph Mallozzi: No? I don’t know who coined the term Surf Dracula, but they pointed out that in the past, if you saw a series called Surf Dracula advertised and you would tune in, Surf Dracula would be surfing from the get-go. Every episode would be him surfing, getting into his various shenanigans.

David Read: On a surfboard?

Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah. Surfing. Surf Dracula.

David Read: Oh, literally surf…

Joseph Mallozzi: But in today’s streaming world, Surf Dracula, the first season is, it’s called Surf Dracula. You tune in and it’s a flashback of how he got his surfboard, maybe how he learned to surf, maybe him getting the surfboard. And then at the last episode he heads out to surf, and then “continued next season.” So, that’s where programming is now. Basically everything’s a slow roll. Everything’s a slow burn. So, as I said, I wanted to get back to the world of 1990s TV where stuff happens every episode. Action, adventure, humor. Essentially it was my love of sci-fi that really got me doing these polls to assemble this ultimate crew. And at the beginning I didn’t even know what I was doing or why I was doing it. It was fun…

David Read: You’re poking around.

Joseph Mallozzi: … picking up the ultimate captain, the ultimate first officer. But then as it was going I was like, “What is the aim of all of this? What is the goal?” And I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do some sort of adventure?” And then I thought, “That would require me to actually create these adventures, and I don’t know if I wanna invest the time.” And so I thought about doing maybe one. And then I did one, and then I did another one, and then I did another one. And like I said, it’s very much like breaking an episode of television, and it’s fun being able to go back and do exactly what I used to do back in the day on Stargate.

David Read: So, is this the crew?

Joseph Mallozzi: No.

David Read: Or these are these are some of the crew?

Joseph Mallozzi: In this instance, every mission you choose your away team. So, in this case you have a choice: team A, team B, team C or team D. Since basically we’re flying in the Puddle Jumper, you need a pilot, so it’s either Sheppard or O’Neill. And then after that all bets are off. Who knows who’s gonna end up on the away team. The fans will decide. And so I think it came down to A, C and D. B was not popular for some reason. But D pulled ahead in the end.

David Read: Interesting.

Joseph Mallozzi: And so right now it’s O’Neill, Daniel, Rommie from Andromeda, and McKay on board the ghost ship making their way through.

David Read: All right. Is there any particular way that we can navigate this, or do we use Amalgaverse the hashtag in order to navigate this?

Joseph Mallozzi: You can use Amalgaverse the hashtag. What I’m gonna do right now is… At 12 I post it, and then at 2 I pin it. So, what I’m gonna do right now is pin this to my profile so then the latest one gets pinned.

David Read: OK. So, let me know when you’ve done that.

Joseph Mallozzi: But essentially if you go up to the pin. OK. So, scroll down. Go to the, or maybe refresh.

David Read: OK. Let me refresh.

Joseph Mallozzi: And I wanna make sure you got the latest one, there we go. And so you go down and then click on the quote tweet. The one below it. There. So, that’s the previous step in the adventure. And then you can scroll down and then click on that.

David Read: I see. So, that’s how you go back.

Joseph Mallozzi: That’s how you scroll back through it. But as I said, each adventure will have a drop-down that will tell you sort of where you are, what the situation is, the briefest of summaries.

David Read: Sounds like you’re gonna eventually need a website where these can be tracked. The story can be tracked.

Joseph Mallozzi: Like I said, I don’t know.

David Read: I’ve got people who can help you with that.

Joseph Mallozzi: Right now I’m just doing this for fun.

David Read: But eventually this is gonna be an amalgam of something rather large, pardon the pun.

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s very possible that along the way we will pick up interesting characters, aliens, other sort of rogues that we may invite on board the ship. And maybe there will come a time somewhere down the line where our characters do end up finding their way back to their realities, and maybe this disparate assembly of leftovers, aliens, and rogues that we invited aboard will carry on the adventures. I don’t know. We’ll see.

David Read: What you’re doing here is something that fans are already beginning to tinker with. I can’t think of his name right now, but when I do, I’ll put it in the link below. There’s someone who may fact-check me and put their name in the chat right now. But there’s a Star Trek fan who set up a TNG episode basically using AI, letting all the TNG cast know that they’re on television in our reality. And he actually sent himself. He put himself in there.

Joseph Mallozzi: Brilliant.

David Read: Let’s set aside for a moment all of the controversy, because God knows there’s always gonna be a controversy. This is Holodeck 1.0. We’re here. And so these characters are being brought to life. The amount of attention that Mace Windu got shot out of a window or whatever it is, the hip-hop song that was released this past week from online somewhere, and it’s got Hayden Christensen singing, and it’s got Natalie Portman, and the detail is extraordinary. You’re using these tools to explore and giving fans a chance to play around. Sooner or later, there will be a licensed piece of software with everyone getting the residuals that they are owed where you can put all of these characters into a space and have them run amok and have them tell a story. And you are actively doing that with your audience right now, and that’s, as far as I’m concerned, that’s cool.

Joseph Mallozzi: I guess yes and no. I won’t use AI to animate actually existing characters.

David Read: You’re staying away from that. That’s crystal clear. But you’re using the ideas of the characters to tell that story.

Joseph Mallozzi: There will come a time, and we can get into this kind of AI conversation, but AI is not going away. And there are so many ways you can use it. Like it or not, it’s gonna get used. If we can find a way to use it responsibly and ensure that the people, the artists get paid. Like I said, I wouldn’t animate any actors or anything because that’s very much their likeness and everything.

David Read: It’s yet to be worked out. But they’ll eventually have a system for that, just like iTunes did with artists.

Joseph Mallozzi: Hopefully at some point.

David Read: I suspect sooner rather than later. But for me it’s very much similar to, OK, do you want… There are a lot of responsible people who are calling this out. Do you want them with their hands off the wheel, or do you want them with their hands also on the wheel? Do you want them participating in this process moving forward or do you want them all ignoring it? Because if you do, you’re gonna find out that those decisions have been made for you because the technology is not going away.

Joseph Mallozzi: I agree. There’s also a pushback from people, and to a certain extent I understand it, where they feel like studios are gonna exploit artists by using AI.

David Read: What, studios exploiting artists? That’s never happened before.

Joseph Mallozzi: No, but in my mind, the long game is AI will give creatives the tool to circumvent the middleman, the fat in a production, and the fat are the studios and the decision-makers who will basically green light a show, cancel a show, choose some crap project over a good one. These are the people basically who have the power in Hollywood right now. And AI will put that power in the hands of creators ultimately. And they will be able to…

David Read: I think you’re totally right thing by not using their faces. You can do enough with tools like Rock Imagine to set this space, like you would doing a D&D. With sound effects and ambiance. You’re creating the ambiance, and the people who are in the room are playing it. So, this is fun.

Joseph Mallozzi: But like you said, it feels as though it’s gonna be the near-future version of fan fiction, where instead of writing the stories, you’re gonna be able to create the stories and hopefully, you’ll be able to license the likeness of…

David Read: You will.

Joseph Mallozzi: … the platform will license the likeness of these characters and allow you to build the stories within this world.

David Read: John Rhys-Davies, I forget who else is it. The software that’s being used, where you can already use their voices to read to you on the web, and you pay x amount of money. The unions, like SAG-AFTRA, their Canadian variants as well, they have to get caught up to this. But the technology is already in place to detect who is being created, and all we have to do is add a few wires to make sure that those people are getting the pennies of residuals that eventually add up to larger sums of cash when a lot of these bigger clips go viral, and that’s what’s gonna happen. The architecture. will follow that direction.

Joseph Mallozzi: I agree.

David Read: It’s a matter of watching everyone else find a way to catch up. So, because a couple of years ago… you’ve seen the video of Will Smith eating spaghetti, and how that’s evolved over time.

Joseph Mallozzi: A long way.

David Read: He’s only getting better at eating the spaghetti. That’s the only thing that’s happened here.

Joseph Mallozzi: Good for him.

David Read: Geez. We went over 1:08. I apologize.

Joseph Mallozzi: No, please, go on.

David Read: Are you good?

Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah.

David Read: OK, I wanna spend a little bit more time on this. I wanted to know, are you above killing anyone off?

Joseph Mallozzi: Nothing is guaranteed. So, no life is guaranteed. If you guys make the wrong choice, there will be repercussions. You have one ship, one puddle jumper, one F302, and one of each crew member.

David Read: What are you using? Are you using anything on your end as a dungeon master? Do you have a die roll? What mechanics are you using? Or are you just doing this the way you want to?

Joseph Mallozzi: No, I have a script. Essentially, I’ve written out every adventure and the different variations where they could go. So, far I’ve predicted pretty well, which is great because they had a choice between ghost ship, investigating the colony, delivering this character for Starfleet, or pulling off the heist, and I had a feeling it was gonna be ghost ship. So, I prepared the visuals for ghost ship. I prepared the visuals for probably going in with the jumper. So, far so good, but I’m sure the fans will throw me a curveball at some point. I’ve got most of it down, the skeleton of the story, but I don’t know… For instance, I didn’t know who the fans would choose to be on the adventure. So, a lot of the fun is, I’ll actually occasionally include a bit of dialogue, and I was able to write a bit of O’Neill, a bit of Daniel, recognizing Rommie but not really being able to sort of place her. There’s a bit of McKay there.

David Read: I know we haven’t met. That I would remember. This is good. I’m thrilled for you, man. This is exciting stuff. It’s nice to have something positive that’s playing with the social space, because there’s so much negative out there in the social space, and to have some positive fun in there, there’s nothing wrong with that. So, SGCITGuy, “You’re using Grok for the visuals?”

Joseph Mallozzi: Some Grok, some, was it Google? I tried, was it Kling? I was not happy with the results. I find Grok overall does the best job. I find, what is it called? Google Flow. It’s all about prompts, and you have to use an AI to sort of fashion the perfect prompt for you, and then use that to fashion the perfect visual, and even that is no guarantee. Some of the stuff, I mean, so frustrating. Make sure the doors stay open, and then of course the doors close, and there’s no statement…

David Read: Of course they do.

Joseph Mallozzi: … saying they stay open, and then they close like a garage door. My God.

David Read: This is early days.

Joseph Mallozzi: Yes, it’s fraught with frustration. But so far so good.

David Read: mamanoxerika6268 wants to know, “I’ve waited so long now. When are we gonna see the four-legged star of this show?”

Joseph Mallozzi: Where’s Sharky? Akemi’s off to get him. I don’t know. He might be busy. He might be on his own Zoom or on a call or something like that. Let me see. He keeps a very…

David Read: So, long as he’s not sleeping.

Joseph Mallozzi: … a very busy schedule. He probably is…

David Read: He’s taking a sleep break. I don’t wanna wake him up.

Joseph Mallozzi: … in his taxi. We call it his taxi. He has a little Sherpa bag that he likes to sleep in. He’s coming around. He’s coming around. Hang on.

David Read: Hi, Akemi. Hi, Sharky.

Joseph Mallozzi: Hello, hello. Sharky.

David Read: Has he been a good boy?

Joseph Mallozzi: He has been a great boy. So, we’re in Montreal. So, the decor is very different. He’s off. My mother’s in a nursing home, so we go visit her every day. And he is so popular. This boy is like the toast of the…

David Read: The toast of the town?

Joseph Mallozzi: … Of the town. Whenever we go in, he’s very easygoing. OK. Here we go.

David Read: It’s Sharky vision.

Joseph Mallozzi: Yes. Big yawn. Yes. Don’t touch the screen. I have to tell my mother whenever we’re calling someone, “Please don’t touch the screen.”

David Read: How is your mother? Are you willing to speak a little bit about that on the podcast?

Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah. No, she’s fine. She’s 94. At that advanced age. My grandmother on my father’s side lived to the age of 112. So, we’ll see how things go. I think we got some good genes in our family.

David Read: Man.

Joseph Mallozzi: We’re gonna go have a snack.

David Read: Look at those ears.

Joseph Mallozzi: We’re here for a couple of weeks while we had suffered some water damage from a leaky dishwasher at our condo in Toronto, and so we’ve been waiting as of end of June it’s almost been wet. Over three months waiting for it to be repaired, and it’s gonna be repaired, so hopefully I’m gonna give him…

David Read: Look at you listening for her.

Joseph Mallozzi: Yes. He is a total mama’s boy. He loves women. I told you this. We don’t know what his story is. We adopted him a couple years ago. He’d had his second eye removed, so he has no eyes because of an infection. He’s great with everyone. He doesn’t love other dogs because he finds them intrusive. But he loves women, and so whenever we’re on a walk, he’ll always stop to talk to women. And then there’s a mall, an outdoor mall near our place, and he loves to park himself outside of Sephora because he can smell the perfume, so that’s a big thing. It’s right under the speakers. He will always park himself under the speaker to listen to music, and then there’s a lot of foot traffic, women going in and leaving Sephora. So, he’ll get all the attention. He lies down and waits for the women to come to him.

David Read: He knows where he is. That’s adorable. Thank you, Kemi, for sharing him. That’s great.

Joseph Mallozzi: Thank you.

David Read: Tenkayou-r3g wants to know, “Have you seen Project Hail Mary and have you seen Iron Lung?”

Joseph Mallozzi: I have not. I have not seen either. I was so busy with Stargate for a while, and I guess I should see Project Hail Mary. I’ve heard very good things.

David Read: I would love to watch that with you. I would love to Zoom and watch that with you. Get your initial reaction. I would pay to do that.

Joseph Mallozzi: There are so many things. I read an insane amount of crime books last year. This year, not so much. I’m reading a few sci-fi books that have been OK so far. I’ve been focusing on my script since we got back. I would like to get back into the crime realm. There are a couple of shows that I like that I wanna continue watching. And then I was thinking of doing, maybe I should, I always like to do these marathon quests, like we’re heading into Halloween. I wanna do a 31 days of 1970s Halloween horror where I pick the top 31 horror movies from the ’70s and watch them. But again, it sounds like a lot of fun in the beginning when you’re putting together the list, but then when you have to actually take the time to watch a movie a day, it can be a bit daunting.

David Read: It can, They add up. My big thing, because we’re both horror fans. I, more and more, year after year, have become a huge fan of From. Have you seen it?

Joseph Mallozzi: So, I have not seen it. Like I said, I don’t watch a lot of, to be honest with you, the genre. I like the crime realm.

David Read: I’m very pleased with it.

Joseph Mallozzi: Maybe, maybe not, but I get a Lost vibe from it.

David Read: Very much so. It’s got several of the people who made it.

Joseph Mallozzi: What I mean by Lost vibe is that I’m not convinced that the creators have the solution in mind. I’m concerned that they’re dropping clues to an answer they don’t know yet, and this is based on little bits and pieces of stuff and what people tell me. I could be wrong, but I don’t wanna get invested in that type of show where the heart of it is a mystery and they don’t know where they’re going. So, that may be fair, may not be fair, maybe you suggest otherwise.

David Read: That was the problem with Lost, especially that first season, ’cause they were throwing things against the wall just to see what would stick, and then by Season Three they decided on what they were going to really move forward with. I can tell you, I watched the whole thing in July, all four of the five seasons that are out now. I’d never seen it before, and I watched them all at once. The level of detail that’s in place, they definitely had the complete outline.

Joseph Mallozzi: Great to hear. Then maybe I will check it out.

David Read: There are so many individual little scenes where it’s like, what does that mean? Like 106, and then 405 comes along and there’s a little thing in the background that nods to that scene from 106, and it’s not even really that significant, and it’s like, wow. This is completely worked out.

Joseph Mallozzi: Maybe I should check that out.

David Read: I’m very pleased with it because it is Lost in terms of the structure of it and the layering of mythology. They know what they’re doing. I’m convinced.

Joseph Mallozzi: I’m maybe able to take a look at it. One of the things I really enjoyed was last year I did a best-of spaces on X where I had the fans choose their top 32 sci-fi TV shows and then choose the best episode from each of those shows. And then I watched it, and I watched, I think, three at a time, and then would invite someone in, like a co-host, and we would discuss. And A, I was surprised by how many sci-fi shows I have not watched, and in some cases it made me wanna watch. In other cases, I had no desire to ever watch another episode of said shows.

David Read: This is what you were on about, about DS9. You were really impressed.

Joseph Mallozzi: Yes, that was one of the ones where I was like, God, this is a show I should watch. And that would be a fun thing if there were any podcasters that were doing a Deep Space Nine re-watch. As someone who’s never watched it before, I’d be willing to come on board and watch it for the first time. Although I think I’d probably have to watch…

David Read: Delta Flyers, the Voyager guys are doing DS9 now.

Joseph Mallozzi: Oh, okay. Maybe I’m too late for that. But anyways. I guess I would have to watch Next Gen before doing Deep Space Nine.

David Read: You don’t have to. You know about the Battle of Wolf 359 and the conflict with the Borg and everything else. That’s really the linchpin that starts that off. Folks, I am so thrilled, so thankful for the number of questions that we’ve got.

Joseph Mallozzi: Anything else? What else we got?

David Read: CristinaGraziella-d4b, “Is Sharky a Don Juan?” I don’t know what that means.

Joseph Mallozzi: He is not. Don Juan, a ladies’ man. Yes. In some ways. Certainly not dogs, people. He’s more a human female magnet.

David Read: There we go. Raj Luthra, “Were there any plans to put Sharkey in Stargate?”

Joseph Mallozzi: No plans, despite the fact that Akemi pitched hard. Yes. She’s like, “Maybe there’s a dog, there’s a puggle at Stargate Command,” and one of the technicians brings him in every once in a while.

David Read: I know for a fact that there was an outdoor scene in the pilot. He would have been perfect there.

Joseph Mallozzi: He would have been. Hey, if I was show running, absolutely.

David Read: There you go. Absolutely. brendo_1222, “Any hope for the future of Dark Matter?” I know we get this a lot, but I wanted to bring it up.

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s dispiriting, the fact that it doesn’t have an ending. It ends on a cliffhanger. And even though I’ve released the digital, shall we say, or virtual episodes, the first two episodes that tie up the climax, I have an idea for a miniseries, but it’s still very much a long shot. The miniseries would take place, I think, like 10 years after the events of the final episodes of Season Three. So, all hope is not lost. I still keep in touch with the cast members, all of them, and all of them would say they would be willing to come back and do the miniseries if we ever had the opportunity. So, I don’t know. Hopefully.

David Read: Never impossible.

Joseph Mallozzi: Maybe someday. Never impossible.

David Read: And as technology continues to move forward I mean, who knows? I really do think that AI can be used with actual voice performances from actors to bring a lot of these people back. James Earl Jones proved that it can be done. Disney paid him handsomely for his voice, and they were able to use AI to make his voice in the different eras of his. As long as the artist is being paid I think that there’s a way that we’re gonna make it work, and I think that that’s gonna happen. It’s just the technology has to catch up to the infrastructure that can exist, and the willingness of society to accept that if we’re gonna have a version of this, because it’s not going away, have it be a version that works with us rather than against us. The terms of all of that are being sorted out now. So, we’ll have to see how it goes.

Joseph Mallozzi: I agree.

David Read: Joe, thank you.

Joseph Mallozzi: No, thank you. This was a blast. I can’t believe it’s been a year.

David Read: I know.

Joseph Mallozzi: Hopefully it won’t be another year before…

David Read: And beneath your feet right now, is there a legitimate copy of Latin for the Novice?

Joseph Mallozzi: It was at my mother’s place, and I said to Akemi, “I’m gonna bring this back to Toronto so that the next time I see David, I’m gonna give it to him.”

David Read: What?

Joseph Mallozzi: It’s in Toronto awaiting you.

David Read: Oh my God!

Joseph Mallozzi: The Canadian winters are so cold. We had such a great time in Los Angeles that we discussed going back, even for a month. Not even to work, to get away from the winter. So, I don’t know if you’ve ever…

David Read: I am coming up. I have…

Joseph Mallozzi: We’ll find a way.

David Read: … business in Toronto anyway. I will swing by absolutely.

Joseph Mallozzi: The book has been set aside for you. For your collection, your vast collection. I’m at my sister’s place in Montreal, and this collection is far less impressive, but.

David Read: Poteramus. Potteret. Pram. This is a bad idea. That’s all it is. I’d love to see you again. More importantly, I’d love to see the four-legged and Akemi. you are so critical to the work that we’ve done on Dial the Gate. I’m so thankful for the infrastructure that you’ve helped me build over the years here, because now Shanks and I are gonna be doing the same thing with his project.

Joseph Mallozzi: Oh yes, I really look forward to that.

David Read: Can’t wait.

Joseph Mallozzi: Michael has his opinions, which I love.

David Read: He’s very passionate. So, we’re gonna see that. And can’t wait to have you on that. We’re still figuring everyone out.

Joseph Mallozzi: So, you’re going to be going through the entire Stargate run.

David Read: But we’re gonna have you far sooner than us getting to Season Four. We’re gonna definitely make that happen. And I couldn’t have gotten this far without your help, so thank you so much.

Joseph Mallozzi: Thank you. Thanks for having me on. It’s always a delight.

David Read: Absolutely, sir. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap this.

Joseph Mallozzi: And thanks for the fans, as always.

David Read: Thank you all for your questions. I’m gonna wrap the show. Give us kisses to the puppy, please.

Joseph Mallozzi: I will. I will.

David Read: We’ll speak soon, sir.

Joseph Mallozzi: All right. Take it easy.

David Read: Thank you. Joseph Mallozzi, writer, executive producer of Stargate. My name is David Read. You’re watching the Stargate Oral History Project. Sorry about those audio problems at the beginning. But what is it, Murphy’s Law? Yeah, that’s a thing. I’m so thankful to all of you who have helped us get the show this far. Not just the episode today, but in general, I’m so thankful for the infrastructure we’ve had… that we continue to have. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this, do click that like button. It does help the show and will continue to promote the show. If you have something to say, the engagement is where it’s at. So, leaving a comment really does help the show the most. And if you have a friend out there who enjoys Stargate, send them a copy of this. Especially anyone who had questions about the new series coming out that’s not gonna be out now. But this would be the episode to share those specific thoughts. My tremendous thanks to my patrons. I reached a point earlier this year where I wasn’t able to continue the work that I was doing before, and so it was either going to be find a way to monetize Dial the Gate and any of the podcasts that’s involved in, or close down Dial the Gate and find another career. And I’m so thankful to everyone on this list who has made it possible for me to continue to share the show. And I’ve given you guys an opportunity to help lift me up, and I finally got it through my head that this was the only way forward. So, I’m very thankful to each and every one of you for helping me to pull this off on a continuing basis. Thanks to my producers, Antony Rawling, Brice, my amazing visual effects people, Eagle SG and Venture Pictures. They make gorgeous animated sequences for this show. Sergey Mukhorin for his amazing custom software. I have tools now custom-built for Dial the Gate, and that’s being built for A Full Circle as well, which goes live on October the 17th. My moderating team, you guys were in rare form today. Antony, Lockwatcher, Marsha, Raj, Jacob, Enigma, Steven, Lord Thoth, cannot do the show without you guys. And Frederick Marcoux over at ConceptsWeb, who keeps dialthegate.com up and running. So, thankful for each and every one of you. And we’ve got a number of great shows heading your way. I can confirm Grace Park is gonna be doing the show in October. We’re gonna have her on. It’s probably gonna be live. Jonathan Glassner is gonna be back. We’re gonna have him on to talk with him about The Ark, which is rounding out Season Three right now, and a couple of other exciting ones. I am hoping… No, I’m gonna save the name. I’m not gonna jinx it. I’m gonna exit right now while I’m ahead. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate y’all tuning in, and I will see you on the other side.