Comic-Con ‘08: Stargate Atlantis Panel

The panel for Stargate: Atlantis was lighthearted and fun to watch.  The actors in the panel were Joe Flanigan, Jewel Staite, Robert Picardo and show scribe Brad Wright and Chris Sanagustin, the VP of Original Programming from the Sci-Fi Channel.

The crowd was pretty animated with the introductions and when Jewel Staite was introduced the energy of the crowd easily tripled.  The Firefly demographic was well represented.

From the question and answer session I picked up the following snippets:

Atlantis will be hitting it’s 100th episode this, their fifth season.

Joe Flanigan is the only castmember on the panel that has been on the show for the full five seasons.

Robert Picardo’s humorous observation on the change of Atlantis commanders, to go from the nice-to-look-at Col. Carter (Amanda Tapping) to the bald, middle-aged male demographic alternative.

Jewel quietly grumbled about always being kidnapped in the woods.  The message being sent is that she’d rather be kidnapped where there are more public amenities I guess.

Robert Picardo noted that he likes the fact his character is called Richard Woolsey and not Dick.  He made the observation that his character is a little bit of a dick and he said his career plans involved being like another dick and be the spokesman for priceline.com.  (This is not the first time I’ve heard William Shatner get slammed in a panel.  Is it open season on Shatner this year?)

Brad Wright touched on Stargate Universe being real close to happening, and there’s a new Stargate movie in development…

The Sheppard / Teyla relationship will see some screen time but it’s more of a special relationship with a lot of gray area.

Jewel was asked what’s it like playing a medical nerd vs. mechanical nerd.  She said there was more shiny stuff in Firefly and it was easier to be a mechanic than learning medical jargon.  The audience erupted into a frenzy of applause with the Firefly reference.  I almost went deaf it got so loud.

Jewel will have a little bit more control over where her character develops.

When Jewel was asked how this show compares to other sci fi shows… she replied, “This one doesn’t get canceled!”

We were given some insight into Jason Momoa (Ronon) and his decorating tastes.  Jewel tossed out for some reason that I can’t remember how Jason’s dressing room / trailer “looks like a pirate ship meets Clan of the Cave Bear” and keeps trying to “help out” with her interior decorating in her trailer.

There are no plans on the horizon for Ben Browder to make any guest appearances on Stargate Atlantis.  (As Ben observed in another panel, he’s one of the few SG cast members to not pass through Atlantis.)

We’ve been told that cut scenes will be added to the season 4 boxed set.

At the end, they showed a preview clip of Amanda Tapping’s Sanctuary and it didn’t really get my attention even though I’ve been looking forward to it.  It didn’t come across with a lot of energy and did not get me excited about it.  We initially touched on Sancutary in January here on Screen Rant.

We’ll see how this web-to-TV show does after it falls into the time slot Stargate Atlantis will vacate when their latest season ends.