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December 11, 2008
23 years!
Carl Binder has been writing for television for 23 years. "Impossible!", you say? Well, I'll prove it to you. His first credit: Punky Brewster. So when I tell you he's been around a long time, I mean it. Don't let the youthful good looks fool you. And although Carl gets a lot of grief from the writing staff for his predilection for ghost stories and his grey hair, he just lets his writing do the talking for him. His latest episode, Identity, which you'll see this week, is another great story that Carl really enjoyed writing.
No spoilers this week. All I'm going to tell you is that this episode borrows technology established in SG-1 to deliver a mind-switching episode with both disturbing and sometimes funny consequences. I'm sure the Sci-fi promo will spell it all out, so I'll let your fingers do the typing if you want the spoilers. For now, I'll just give you some tidbits.
The beloved Dr. Beckett returns in this one, and we are introduced to a number of colorful guest stars. Once again we were faced with the daunting task of casting a female villain. The casting net stretched far and wide, and the producers chose Dawn Olivieri, an actress and model from LA. Among other credits, for a very brief time Dawn was one of the briefcase wielding beauties from "Deal or No Deal". She was chosen because this part requires not just beauty, but an "edge" as well.
For the character of Jannik, the producers cast an actor named Ronald Seymour. Ronald was mesmerizing on the casting tape, and proved to be a really interesting choice. In my opinion, if you want to be an actor, the best thing you can be is "interesting", because it's more likely you'll stand out. I think he did a great job. Also cast was Todd Thompson, a local theatre actor now focusing on television. He plays Jannik's side-kick Bordal.
There was a technical issue in this show because one scene required two actors to mirror each other. One was live and one was on videotape. Will Waring, who directing the episode, chose to shoot this on live feeds, which was a challenge for the actors.
Also, keep an eye out for a picture of Dr. Keller and her father at Keller's graduation. The father: none other than our very own Carl Binder. He's like Hitchcock, that guy!
And here's another fun piece of trivia: did you know that Will Waring puts a pineapple in every one of his episodes? Now don't be alarmed: it's not a real pineapple. Usually it's a pineapple drawing or something else hidden in the set dec or props. For example, the bookmark Dusty uses to mark her page while reading "The Martian General's Daughter" in the episode "Whispers" has a picture of a pineapple on it. So just for fun, see if you can spot the pineapple in this week's episode.
Carl told me he was a bit bummed about the cancellation of the show, but he's excited for the future of the franchise including Stargate Universe. For him, Season 5 has been bittersweet, because writing for Atlantis has been his longest gig in 23 years. But not to worry, I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more Stargate from Carl Binder in the future.
Enjoy!
Posted by Alex Levine at December 11, 2008 11:46 PM
