Making-of, Behind the scenes, Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Trivia: This Mortal Coil (Episode 4.10) I can’t recall a time I was more…
Stargate Trivia: This Mortal Coil (Episode 4.10)
I can’t recall a time I was more frustrating writing (and rewriting and re-rewriting) a script than this one. On the surface, it seems like a straightforward enough story: our characters get into trouble but it turns out they’re not our characters, however they enlist the help of our characters who end up getting killed at episode’s end. Except, it turns out, they’re not our characters. It was one of those episodes that required a lot of explaining – which is something I’m averse to doing because I feel it slows things down. I prefer to assume the audience is smart enough to piece it together. According to my former writing partner, however, I tend to expect way too much of viewers and, as a result, I kept receiving notes to “explain this” and “clarify that”. The challenge, of course, was not in explaining and clarifying but in doing so in a way that was entertaining and never felt expository. How successful I was in the end is questionable since I tend to be my own worst critic and the frustration I experienced working on this script lingers. Still, the episode has its highlights, among them some very nice character moments.
It was great having Torri return as Weir(ish) – although this, sadly, would mark her final appearance on the show. Even though the assumption is that Elizabeth was killed by Oberoth (this was done to extinguish any hope for a successful rescue op since it's something that would have weighed on Sheppard moving forward), I never imagined she was actually dead. In my mind, Oberoth respected Elizabeth too much – and found her far too useful – to simply kill her. The plan was to have the team uncover the real Elizabeth, in stasis somewhere, in a future episode – something we never got the chance to do (I've uploaded the pages I wrote for this scene below).
One of my favorite moments comes at the end of the episode – or, more accurately, after the episode has ended. McKay finally succeeds in tracking every Aurora class replicator vessel in the galaxy. As he and Sheppard look on, we see the ships flash up on the star map. BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. Six in all. “That’s not so bad,”says McKay. “I guess the wraith have really taken a toll.” Suddenly, another eight BEEPS and the corresponding ships appear onscreen. Then, another fifteen leaves McKay and Sheppard staring, aghast. I was very specific that I wanted to fade out on an ominous sting, wait a beat, and then hear another eleven BEEPS punctuated by Rodney’s “Oh, crap.” While Teal’c ending up at a reading of the Vagina Monologues was my favorite SG-1 ending, this was my favorite Atlantis ending.
P.S. Check out this wild BTS sequence -
Posted on X by Joseph Mallozzi on 28 June 2024: see the post
