The Hotness of Shanks and Flanigan

[astrumporta]

Just home from the Creation Con in Burbank. I'll be writing a painfully complete report for Solutions (first bits of news already posted here), but I just had to squee a bit about the Shankster and The Flan in particular... both were so on form and so beautiful to behold.

Michael brought his 9-year-old daughter Tatiana along, and she is such a

Comments

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Thanks for the brief report (and the one on Solutions)! I look forward to more!

I'm trying hard not to be too jealous....

[aurora_novarum]

Joe gave an SCB shoutout?! Sweet! So glad you had such a nice time!

He has a habit of rubbing his leg or touching his neck. Which only makes me jealous of his hand. Heh.

You are incorrigible! :-D

They've kept Weir's departure so drawn out and mysterious, I think that's partly why the reaction wasn't strong. She's disappeared, but she could come back, and she might if people don't know the details of the contract and/or spec/spoilers otherwise. It's not like Carson with the no mistaking a @$##@$%$#%#$ exploding tumor. :-p

[nialla42]

I think that's cool Michael brought Tatiana along. She's probably old enough now to "get" her dad's work and the fans that go with it, at least a little

[astrumporta]

You're right, Joe truly does not give a rat's ass what the producers think. He seems ambivalent about doing Sci Fi in general. Maybe since MS was so much younger when he got the job (Joe is late 30s now I think, same as MS), he probably idolized/feared TPTB to some degree. Hard to say, but MS now seems to only make negative comments about how some episodes turned out. He doesn't criticize the process in any serious way. OTOH Joe F complained that the new practice of script read-throughs was dropped this year after a few eps. The producers said not enough actors were showing up. JF thought it was bull and said so, but the read-throughs ended anyway. He was philosophical about it.

Re Joe M's blog, someone mentioned something they read there, and JF said something like, oh yeah, Joe's blog. he spends so much time on that thing! We never see him on set, then he shows up with his camera and shoots stuff, and puts it on his blog... then he sort of trailed off. I'll explain it more precisely in my report once I consult my "notes". :)

[nialla42]

I've often gotten the impression that Joe's not all that thrilled to be doing sci fi. Which isn't all that unusual, as a lot of actors view it as silly, especially since they're the ones stuck dealing with reacting to things that aren't there and the like. I know both Shanks and Hewlett have professed to being sci fi fans long before they got the gig -- they're geeks. *g*

Age at the time could have played a factor, but not complaining in the way he used to might also be Michael's way of no longer giving a rat's ass. I've seen that sort of thing in the workplace before -- someone complains and nothing ever happens and they finally burn out on it and either quit or just show up, do their job, and go home.

I know Joe was probably joking about not seeing Mallozzi onset because he's spending time on his blog, but honestly, it does seem like he must be spending an inordinate amount of time writing for it versus doing the type of writing he's actually being paid for.

[tenaya]

Oooh, shots where they both have lovely necks and that damn microphone isn't blocking half of their faces. Well done. :)

[balikpulang]

Hi there! Thanks for the write-up and look forward to more on the Solutions Blog. I haven't been on top of all the spoilers/speculation lately, but am thoroughly loving SGA S4 -- and continue enjoy Joe's thoughtful, and increasingly outspoken comments.

In skimming through the comments, I'm curious about the whole Carson and Weir debacle though. I'd thought that both the characters suffered from poor writing - but at least Weir's "leaving" was executed much better, and left plenty of room for further story lines and character development. Is there a summary of what happened behind the scenes, esp. any attempt at separating fact vs. fiction?

[astrumporta]

Hey there. I guess by definition whenever fans try to find out what went on behind the scenes, knowing fact vs. fiction is pretty much impossible. I've heard rumors about the "whys" of both characters/actors removal but nothing that has been verified publicly. The PTB have never said why they wrote out Weir, and they insist it was not to make room for Carter. Paul McGillion has said in interviews he was told the PTB wanted to "shake things up" by writing out Carson. Again, no PTB has really explained the reasoning. So, not sure if you're calling it a debacle from the decision end or the fan reaction end... but I'm a founder of Save Carson Beckett, so naturally I'll defend our reactions. :)