The Writers of SGA
Aug. 4th, 2008 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotI've been thinking of writing this up for a while; right now, I'm avoiding cleaning and packing ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
naye mentioned wanting to see it, so I thought it was a good time! Just for her of course <3
In the last yeargnine and I have gotten into watching for and discussing the writers of various shows. SGA's are especially fun to observe because there's a pretty small stable, and they're all very distinctive in their characterizations and quirks, strengths and weaknesses, as much as any fanfic authors. (I haven't really looked at this enough to know if it's true of most shows, though SG-1 is the first place I started to notice the writers - it had strikingly different characterizations from ep to ep; "screenwriter schizophrenia," when characters change personality between episodes. I did notice certain writers in SPN and SV, not closely enough to pick up on all their styles, but enough that I can usually call a Kripke SPN ep by the clunkiness of the dialogue, and Caroline Dries on Smallville is almost singlehandedly responsible for the Lex-nalysis.)
But with SGA we've been paying attention. I get a kick out of analyzing styles withgnine, and I can to an extent predict how I'm going to enjoy an ep based on the writer. So here's our observations on the main screenwriter stable - who's responsible for what eps, and what I see as their strengths and weaknesses. (Writers from Wikipedia and double-checked on IMDB, so if you notice an error let me know; I especially might've missed some of the co-writing credits (the scary part is? I could do most of them from memory, only was mistaken about half a dozen eps). Everything else is subjective opinion, so feel free to disagree. I love SGA even as I acknowledge it's not the greatest thing on TV; I find it terrific fun for all its flaws, and tend to be more complimentary than not. I especially love eps with a team focus and a McShep focus; also, Rodney McKay is one of my favorite chars of all time, so I am liable to be tuning in for Stargate: McKay & Friends more often than not.)
Spoilers up through 5x04; however, there are no spoilers for any unaired eps (and I'd prefer my comments to remain spoiler-free; don't even mention upcoming episode titles without spoiler tags, please.)
Robert C. Cooper
One of the show's creators, though not a current show-runner; he's a major writer from SG-1 (one of my very favorites), and the creator of the character of Rodney McKay, having penned SG-1's "48 Minutes," as well as the creator of Ronon in SGA's 2nd season.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Rising, Hide and Seek, The Gift (story with Martin Gero)
Season 2: Runner, Conversion (story, with Gero; teleplay by Gero)
Season 3: Irresistible (story with Wright, teleplay by Binder), Sateda
Season 4: Doppelganger
Cooper doesn't write much SGA, which is tragic because he likes friendship and hurt/comfort and angst and all that good stuff. As Ronon's creator, he's developed Ronon's backstory beyond the rough warrior appearance. His characterizations are slightly off-kilter - his McKay especially tends to be a bit closer to his original SG-1 incarnation, to my mind. This impression might be partly because Cooper, after writing TV for so long, has gotten bored with regular stories - he directed both "Sateda" and "Doppelganger" as well as writing them, and gave both episodes a surreal quality accentuated by and appropriate to the flashbacks and dreams of the respective plots.
Brad Wright
The other creator, as well as the co-creator of SG-1, Wright (according to Gero's DVD commentaries) floats around the writers' offices, tossing out random ideas and giving the other writers great lines for their scripts.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Thirty-Eight Minutes
Season 2: Aurora (story; teleplay by Binder), Epiphany (story supposedly by Joe Flanigan, though he denounces it as having anything to do with his original idea), Critical Mass (with Binder)
Season 3: Irresistible (story with Cooper, teleplay by Binder)
Season 4: This Mortal Coil (story with Mallozzi, teleplay by Mallozzi)
With so few eps it's hard to analyze his writing, but Wright loves physical h/c (the c as much as h) and friendship/smarm/homg is he really a slasher in disguise? (in SG-1 he wrote "Fire & Water," "Serpent's Lair," and "Abyss," among others.) I have high hopes for his season 5 ep. ...Actually high might be understating the matter. I want his ep. Badly.
Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
Joined SG-1 as co-producers in season 4, and were producers on SGA from the beginning; they're now the show-runners.
Mallozzi & Mullie pose a difficulty - they are always co-credited (thanks to screenwriter guild rules, I imagine) but no longer co-write and haven't since before SGA began, though they still work together closely. As such, I don't know who actually wrote what episodes of seasons 1-3. For seasons 4-5, Mallozzi has made it clear on his blog who's responsible for what - does anyone know about the previous seasons?
SGA episodes
Season 1: Suspicion, Home, The Siege 2
Season 2: The Intruder, The Tower (by Mullie, thanks,tringasolitaria!)
Season 3: Misbegotten, Irresponsible (by Mallozzi, I believe, from mentions he's made on his blog?)
Season 4: Mallozzi: Reunion, This Mortal Coil, The Kindred pt. 1; Mullie: Travelers, The Last Man
Season 5: Mullie: The Seed; Mallozzi: Broken Ties
Ironically, since they're show-runners, Mallozzi and Mullie are my least favorite of the main writers, and the least favorites of many fans.
Mallozzi's heart seems in the right place (judging by what I've read of his blog, while he can be something of a jerk, he's very fond of the show and chars) but he doesn't have much skill as a writer. He's terrible at exposition, writing some of the clunkiest and most boring on the show (see This Mortal Coil) and he doesn't seem that gifted at handling plot pacing; and his characterizations often come across as shallow if not downright unlikable. Oddly enough, Mallozzi's poor characterizations might be suffering more from his pacing problems than anything else, because he's actually quite capable of small but lovely character moments (see Rodney & Zelenka at the end of This Mortal Coil). And the deleted scenes on the s4 DVDs have several scenes from Reunion that give more depth to Ronon's character (and also made John less of an asshole, if made Rodney more of an idiot, in regards to Sam.) Mallozzi likes writing Ronon; he also likes writing the team together, both working and more casual byplay. But sometimes he seems to let the plot take precedence over those moments, cutting the down in favor of (boring) exposition. In "Broken Ties" he focused more on character, and the result was a wonderfully fun episode (one of my favorites, really, and that's all the more significant given that Rodney's not a major character) - I'm hoping he'll keep that up.
Mullie is an odd case. His episodes are best described as frustrating - he's got a decent mind for scifi concepts (see the Travellers, or the Wraith ship creation in The Seed) and moreover he comes up with scenarios that should be interesting to see the characters deal with. But he's weirdly emotionally tone-deaf - he presents the situations, but there's no actual emotional follow-through, save what's brought to it by the actors and directors. In Travelers, Sheppard's mysteriously abducted, but while the rest of the team professes to be worried about him you don't really feel it and their actions don't reflect it. Mullie also tends to write Sheppard as the hero saving the day at the expense of everyone else (in Travelers he rescues himself; in The Seed he saves Keller) which leaves me cold. At least when it comes to The Seed, I liked it okay upon original watching, but elements of it annoyed me more the more I considered it. (I did love The Last Man, but I believe it was playing to Mullie's strengths - cool scifi concepts; and the strange emotional distance of the characters made perfect sense given the situation, with the acting it coming across as emotional damage rather than a problem with the writing.) Mullie also seems to like romance, which is not something I care to see in SGA in nearly any form, so I'm biased against him.
I kind of wonder if it's a mistake that they stopped writing together, since their weaknesses balance out - Mullie might be able to stabilize Mallozzi's flailing to establish the plot, while Mallozzi could inject some genuine feeling into Mullie's frozen scenarios. And I do worry that they're running the show now (especially since they're both 'shippers'.) But I loved a lot of season 4, and so far season 5 has been fantastic, so I've got my fingers crossed.
Martin Gero
Wrote a couple SG-1 eps ("Powers That Be" and the hysterically silly "Bad Guys") in the last two seasons and served as a "story consultant"; on SGA he started out as a story editor, now is executive producer, and one of the major influences on the show.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Childhood's End, The Storm (story with Jill Blotevogel), The Eye, Hot Zone, The Brotherhood, The Siege 1
Season 2: The Siege 3, Duet, Conversion (story with Cooper), The Lost Boys, Grace Under Pressure, Coup d'Etat, Allies
Season 3: No Man's Land, McKay and Mrs. Miller, The Return 1 & 2, Sunday, First Strike
Season 4: Adrift, Miller's Crossing, Be All My Sins Remember'd, Harmony, Trio
Season 5: Search and Rescue
In a lot of ways, Gero is one of my favorite writers. Rodney McKay is clearly his favorite character (Gero's also good friends with David Hewlett and likes writing for him) and he's responsible for a lot of the Rodney-focused episodes, as well as inventing Jeannie. Gero's more interested in character than plot, both in comedy and drama, and often tries for smaller, character-driven episodes, more about people than explosions. Oddly, he also handles a lot of the finale/premieres and mid-season two-parters, with varying success - sometimes his character moments can outweigh the epic impact of an episode (such as in "The Return" - which I love, but they're bizarre episodes from the universe's standpoint; the return of living Ancients to Atlantis should be a tremendous event, but we only really see it insofar as it affects the personal lives of our heroes.) I'm divided as to whether I consider this a weakness in his writing, however, as I watch SGA nearly entirely for the characters; the storyline comes in a very distant second. So Gero's biases mesh nicely with my own.
Gero likes montages and Die Hard (referenced outright in "Bad Guys" and obviously homaged/ripped off in "The Storm/The Eye".) He also likes quirky character traits - "Mensa Sheppard" is entirely a Gero creation, started in "The Brotherhood" and referenced again in M&MM. At thirty-one Gero's the youngest of the major writing staff, and has something of a, hmm, fanboy attitude. I get the feeling he enjoys watching as well as making the show; he's likely to mention elements from previous episodes (not just his own, such as the callback to "Trinity" in BAMSR) and in commentaries he's given to character analysis - he likes to analyze their motivations and psychology (it shows in McKay; he's responsible for the most insecure Rodney, but also pushes him the furthest when it comes to development.) He's also aware of McShep (he's explaining it to director William Waring at the end of the "Harmony" commentary) and possibly makes an occasional wink to it (that's pure supposition on my part, but in the commentary for "The Lost Boys" he does admit to really liking the Sheppard-McKay friendship dynamic.)
Gero's biggest weakness is the other half of the cast. He seems to be one of those writers who finds it difficult to get outside of his own headspace; he does a good job with Rodney and Sheppard because they're North American white fanboy types like himself. But I've got issues with some of his portrayals of female characters (Duet especially) and he has difficulty writing Ronon, and Teyla especially; they usually are reduced to supporting chars in his episodes, and he has a few eps in which they don't appear at all (GuP, Harmony). Gero also seems to be the founder of the Rodney/Keller pairing (Mallozzi's implied as much on his blog), which irks me personally; on the other hand his Keller is the most appealing by far (he writes her as uncertain in some areas, but as more socially adjusted than most of the rest of Atlantis in "Trio", and very competently medically in "Adrift"; and she's also funny when he's writing her lines.)
Despite my reservations, Gero has penned some of my favorite episodes, and some of my favorite scenes; that he's the writer of "Miller's Crossing" alone is enough to skew my opinion of him wildly toward the positive, as the last 8 minutes of that are probably the scenes of the show I've rewatched the most, and that he created Jeannie seals the deal for me.
Carl Binder
Started out on SG-1 as a "creative consultant" in season 9-10, but only wrote one ep (the forgettable season 3 "Demons" much prior); he wrote a couple eps of season 1 SGA, and by now is another executive producer.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Before I Sleep, Letters from Pegasus
Season 2: Condemned (teleplay; story by Sean Carley), Aurora (teleplay; story by Brad Wright), The Hive, Critical Mass (story with Wright), Michael, Inferno
Season 3: Irresistible (teleplay; story by Cooper & Wright), Progeny, The Real World, Phantoms, Echoes (story with Wright), The Game (teleplay; story by Holly Henderson & Don Whitehead), Vengeance
Season 4: Lifeline, Missing, Quarantine, Midway
Binder's got some duds, but a lot of his eps are sleeper hits for me - shows I mildly enjoyed on first watching without loving, but that I find myself coming back to and rewatching more than many others. He's one of the better-balanced writers: he tends to give the whole team something to do, not forgetting that Teyla and Ronon exist, and he writes interactions between all the characters in different combinations.
Binder tends to write cute, sweet character and team moments - "Echoes" perhaps showcases this the best, with John & Rodney running around with the whales, while Teyla & Ronon show a strong bond of friendship and teasing. He also isn't as shy about writing the female chars as some other writers seem to be; he wrote a fair bit of Elizabeth-focused episodes as well as Teyla-focused episodes, and put a lot of time into Keller as well (though I don't always care for his characterization of Keller; she comes across as so young and unsure of herself that she's unconvincing as head of medicine on Atlantis.) He doesn't explore the characters in that much depth, but he writes them as engaging, likable people.
Binder also seems to like the emotion of putting characters in jeopardy, focusing not only on the jeopardy but on the rest of the team worrying about them (this is an element in almost all his eps, from Rodney worried about John in Aurora and worried about the rest of the team in Inferno, to everyone trying to save Elizabeth in The Real World, to Teyla dealing with John and everyone else in Phantoms, to the boys out to rescue Teyla in Missing, to Rodney & John going after Ronon in Midway and then Rodney thinking he's killed John, to absolutely everyone worrying about everyone else in The Hive...) Such jeopardy scenarios are a huge, huge button for me (this sort of emotional caring is the reason I am so into h/c) so I am very biased toward Binder's eps.
Binder's biggest weakness is in plot, to whit, he doesn't seem to be able to really come up with them. Half his episodes, he did the teleplay from a story idea by someone else (often a third party, I'm not quite sure how the screenwriting works, that they buy ideas off people?) A lot of his eps have less a cohesive storyline and more a conflux of interesting events - his basic "plot" is "Stuff Happens, Chars Struggle to Survive It" without many twists or startling revelations. But since as mentioned I'm not watching SGA for plot, plus I've got a kink for disaster stories, I rarely mind. (Also Binder really likes the Sheppard-McKay byplay, and has written a lot of their sweetest casual friendship moments, e.g. Echoes, The Game, Missing - of all the writers he maybe writes them the most plainly as best friends who like to hang out together, all the way back to their ongoing banter in Before I Sleep.)
I look forward to Binder's episodes, because I'm almost guaranteed to get at least a couple scenes I really like, even if the entire ep is only so-so.
Alan McCullough
Story editor and writer for the last two seasons of SG-1, when that ended he moved to SGA as writer and producer (after hanging around as "creative consultant" since season 2.)
SGA episodes
Season 4: Tabula Rasa, The Seer, Spoils of War, Outcast (story with Joe Flanigan - the Replicator-on-Earth storyline, I believe?), The Kindred 2
Season 5: The Daedalus Variations
The newest writer, McCullough so far has proven himself to be one of the strongest, adept at both plot and character. He handles scifi concepts well, and has delved into the characters quite a bit. His favorite character might be Teyla; at any rate he writes her better than anyone else, not only giving her stuff to do but making her a crucial member of the team, and he's expanded on her apparent technological knowledge (Binder wrote a tech-aware Teyla in Aurora and Phantoms) to make her a capable assistant to Rodney in Tabula Rasa and The Daedalus Variations. McCullough seems most in line with Binder in all his characterizations, distributing storylines and character interactions throughout the team. (Daedalus Variations had every possible combination of the team paired off at one point or another!) He writes a brilliant, sarcastic Rodney and an intelligent, insightful Ronon...and a sometimes dorky (and on occasion totally stoned, see Tabula Rasa) John who I'm quite partial to. And he writes John & Rodney as having a close and supportive, if not especially demonstrative, friendship.
McCullough doesn't have any major weaknesses, though he's yet to write an episode I call a favorite - I enjoy his eps, but don't find them as rewatchable as some. That might just be a matter of time, however, as he's definitely capable of the really nice, cute character moments that I tend to latch onto - I wonder how he'd do with a lighter episode, as all of his so far have been more dramatic/action-oriented.
Those are the major writers - there's also some honorable mentions from seasons past, no longer writing for the show:
Damian Kindler
Kindler's an old SG-1 writer who dropped in on occasion to pen four SGA eps over seasons 1-3: "Poisoning the Well", "Trinity", "The Long Goodbye", and "Tao of Rodney".
If you think Gero is the McKay fanboy, you haven't been paying attention to the credits - as the writer behind Trinity and Tao, Kindler's Rodney fanboy title is all but undisputed. And he wrote "Tao of Rodney," which is hands-down my favorite episode of the entire show (though I have hopes it will be displaced by a certain upcoming ep...) I'd love for him to come back in any capacity. Please?
Ken Cuperus
Cuperus was a story editor briefly promoted to full writer for three season 3 eps: "Common Ground", "The Ark", and "Submersion"; he's no longer with the show.
He apparently didn't work out, which is a shame because he seemed to like the team running around doing stuff, and I'm all about that. But McCullough does about the same and better, so I guess they made the right call. If nothing else, Cuperus did write Todd's first appearance (probably creating his char, since I don't think they originally intended to bring Sheppard's Wraith buddy back? But so glad they did!)
Peter DeLuise
Another old SG-1 hand, he only wrote two eps of SGA, season 1's "Underground" and "The Defiant One," though he directed several more eps before leaving at the end of season 2.
In addition to the directing (and some of the funniest episode commentaries on DVD - Duet's commentary is quite a bit more entertaining than the ep itself - and there's also the set tour special he and Martin Wood did on the season 1 DVD set which is...special...is the only word for it) DeLuise also needs to be noted as the writer of some of the original McShep banter. I miss his presence on the show.
The handful of other eps were written by one-shot writers who never returned to the show (considering they were responsible for the likes of "Sanctuary" and "Instinct," no one is missing them much.)
Obviously there's far more to a show than the writers - acting, directing, editing and more all play a crucial role in making or breaking an episode. And to list the stories separately like this is somewhat misleading, because the writers do work in conjunction more often than not - while teleplay and story credits at times get divided, from what I know the original plots tend to be hashed out by everyone, and everyone contributes to every script to some extent (especially the finales). But there are definite trends particular to individual writers, and it's fascinating to observe them - it also gives me a different angle on reviewing episodes, because I'll have certain expectations (or won't have certain expectations) depending on the writer. (It's also worth noting the commonalities between all the writers - such as that save for a couple of the one-shot writers, SGA's writing staff is entirely white North American men, and their privilege shows...)
As well, I find that looking at the different writers gives me a perspective on fanfic - for all I care about canon, there's a flexibility among the writers of the show, and the characterizations in some fic that seem OOC to me might instead be drawing on the characterization of a screenwriter I personally prefer less. Much of TV-fanning is picking and choosing what you like from what appeals less; writer preference is an aspect of that. And finally, it's to give credit where it's due - the actors are the ones we see, the faces and voices of the chars we love; but the writers are their minds, for good or for ill.
naye mentioned wanting to see it, so I thought it was a good time! Just for her of course <3In the last year
gnine and I have gotten into watching for and discussing the writers of various shows. SGA's are especially fun to observe because there's a pretty small stable, and they're all very distinctive in their characterizations and quirks, strengths and weaknesses, as much as any fanfic authors. (I haven't really looked at this enough to know if it's true of most shows, though SG-1 is the first place I started to notice the writers - it had strikingly different characterizations from ep to ep; "screenwriter schizophrenia," when characters change personality between episodes. I did notice certain writers in SPN and SV, not closely enough to pick up on all their styles, but enough that I can usually call a Kripke SPN ep by the clunkiness of the dialogue, and Caroline Dries on Smallville is almost singlehandedly responsible for the Lex-nalysis.)But with SGA we've been paying attention. I get a kick out of analyzing styles with
gnine, and I can to an extent predict how I'm going to enjoy an ep based on the writer. So here's our observations on the main screenwriter stable - who's responsible for what eps, and what I see as their strengths and weaknesses. (Writers from Wikipedia and double-checked on IMDB, so if you notice an error let me know; I especially might've missed some of the co-writing credits (the scary part is? I could do most of them from memory, only was mistaken about half a dozen eps). Everything else is subjective opinion, so feel free to disagree. I love SGA even as I acknowledge it's not the greatest thing on TV; I find it terrific fun for all its flaws, and tend to be more complimentary than not. I especially love eps with a team focus and a McShep focus; also, Rodney McKay is one of my favorite chars of all time, so I am liable to be tuning in for Stargate: McKay & Friends more often than not.)Spoilers up through 5x04; however, there are no spoilers for any unaired eps (and I'd prefer my comments to remain spoiler-free; don't even mention upcoming episode titles without spoiler tags, please.)
Robert C. Cooper
One of the show's creators, though not a current show-runner; he's a major writer from SG-1 (one of my very favorites), and the creator of the character of Rodney McKay, having penned SG-1's "48 Minutes," as well as the creator of Ronon in SGA's 2nd season.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Rising, Hide and Seek, The Gift (story with Martin Gero)
Season 2: Runner, Conversion (story, with Gero; teleplay by Gero)
Season 3: Irresistible (story with Wright, teleplay by Binder), Sateda
Season 4: Doppelganger
Cooper doesn't write much SGA, which is tragic because he likes friendship and hurt/comfort and angst and all that good stuff. As Ronon's creator, he's developed Ronon's backstory beyond the rough warrior appearance. His characterizations are slightly off-kilter - his McKay especially tends to be a bit closer to his original SG-1 incarnation, to my mind. This impression might be partly because Cooper, after writing TV for so long, has gotten bored with regular stories - he directed both "Sateda" and "Doppelganger" as well as writing them, and gave both episodes a surreal quality accentuated by and appropriate to the flashbacks and dreams of the respective plots.
Brad Wright
The other creator, as well as the co-creator of SG-1, Wright (according to Gero's DVD commentaries) floats around the writers' offices, tossing out random ideas and giving the other writers great lines for their scripts.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Thirty-Eight Minutes
Season 2: Aurora (story; teleplay by Binder), Epiphany (story supposedly by Joe Flanigan, though he denounces it as having anything to do with his original idea), Critical Mass (with Binder)
Season 3: Irresistible (story with Cooper, teleplay by Binder)
Season 4: This Mortal Coil (story with Mallozzi, teleplay by Mallozzi)
With so few eps it's hard to analyze his writing, but Wright loves physical h/c (the c as much as h) and friendship/smarm/homg is he really a slasher in disguise? (in SG-1 he wrote "Fire & Water," "Serpent's Lair," and "Abyss," among others.) I have high hopes for his season 5 ep. ...Actually high might be understating the matter. I want his ep. Badly.
Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
Joined SG-1 as co-producers in season 4, and were producers on SGA from the beginning; they're now the show-runners.
Mallozzi & Mullie pose a difficulty - they are always co-credited (thanks to screenwriter guild rules, I imagine) but no longer co-write and haven't since before SGA began, though they still work together closely. As such, I don't know who actually wrote what episodes of seasons 1-3. For seasons 4-5, Mallozzi has made it clear on his blog who's responsible for what - does anyone know about the previous seasons?
SGA episodes
Season 1: Suspicion, Home, The Siege 2
Season 2: The Intruder, The Tower (by Mullie, thanks,
tringasolitaria!)Season 3: Misbegotten, Irresponsible (by Mallozzi, I believe, from mentions he's made on his blog?)
Season 4: Mallozzi: Reunion, This Mortal Coil, The Kindred pt. 1; Mullie: Travelers, The Last Man
Season 5: Mullie: The Seed; Mallozzi: Broken Ties
Ironically, since they're show-runners, Mallozzi and Mullie are my least favorite of the main writers, and the least favorites of many fans.
Mallozzi's heart seems in the right place (judging by what I've read of his blog, while he can be something of a jerk, he's very fond of the show and chars) but he doesn't have much skill as a writer. He's terrible at exposition, writing some of the clunkiest and most boring on the show (see This Mortal Coil) and he doesn't seem that gifted at handling plot pacing; and his characterizations often come across as shallow if not downright unlikable. Oddly enough, Mallozzi's poor characterizations might be suffering more from his pacing problems than anything else, because he's actually quite capable of small but lovely character moments (see Rodney & Zelenka at the end of This Mortal Coil). And the deleted scenes on the s4 DVDs have several scenes from Reunion that give more depth to Ronon's character (and also made John less of an asshole, if made Rodney more of an idiot, in regards to Sam.) Mallozzi likes writing Ronon; he also likes writing the team together, both working and more casual byplay. But sometimes he seems to let the plot take precedence over those moments, cutting the down in favor of (boring) exposition. In "Broken Ties" he focused more on character, and the result was a wonderfully fun episode (one of my favorites, really, and that's all the more significant given that Rodney's not a major character) - I'm hoping he'll keep that up.
Mullie is an odd case. His episodes are best described as frustrating - he's got a decent mind for scifi concepts (see the Travellers, or the Wraith ship creation in The Seed) and moreover he comes up with scenarios that should be interesting to see the characters deal with. But he's weirdly emotionally tone-deaf - he presents the situations, but there's no actual emotional follow-through, save what's brought to it by the actors and directors. In Travelers, Sheppard's mysteriously abducted, but while the rest of the team professes to be worried about him you don't really feel it and their actions don't reflect it. Mullie also tends to write Sheppard as the hero saving the day at the expense of everyone else (in Travelers he rescues himself; in The Seed he saves Keller) which leaves me cold. At least when it comes to The Seed, I liked it okay upon original watching, but elements of it annoyed me more the more I considered it. (I did love The Last Man, but I believe it was playing to Mullie's strengths - cool scifi concepts; and the strange emotional distance of the characters made perfect sense given the situation, with the acting it coming across as emotional damage rather than a problem with the writing.) Mullie also seems to like romance, which is not something I care to see in SGA in nearly any form, so I'm biased against him.
I kind of wonder if it's a mistake that they stopped writing together, since their weaknesses balance out - Mullie might be able to stabilize Mallozzi's flailing to establish the plot, while Mallozzi could inject some genuine feeling into Mullie's frozen scenarios. And I do worry that they're running the show now (especially since they're both 'shippers'.) But I loved a lot of season 4, and so far season 5 has been fantastic, so I've got my fingers crossed.
Martin Gero
Wrote a couple SG-1 eps ("Powers That Be" and the hysterically silly "Bad Guys") in the last two seasons and served as a "story consultant"; on SGA he started out as a story editor, now is executive producer, and one of the major influences on the show.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Childhood's End, The Storm (story with Jill Blotevogel), The Eye, Hot Zone, The Brotherhood, The Siege 1
Season 2: The Siege 3, Duet, Conversion (story with Cooper), The Lost Boys, Grace Under Pressure, Coup d'Etat, Allies
Season 3: No Man's Land, McKay and Mrs. Miller, The Return 1 & 2, Sunday, First Strike
Season 4: Adrift, Miller's Crossing, Be All My Sins Remember'd, Harmony, Trio
Season 5: Search and Rescue
In a lot of ways, Gero is one of my favorite writers. Rodney McKay is clearly his favorite character (Gero's also good friends with David Hewlett and likes writing for him) and he's responsible for a lot of the Rodney-focused episodes, as well as inventing Jeannie. Gero's more interested in character than plot, both in comedy and drama, and often tries for smaller, character-driven episodes, more about people than explosions. Oddly, he also handles a lot of the finale/premieres and mid-season two-parters, with varying success - sometimes his character moments can outweigh the epic impact of an episode (such as in "The Return" - which I love, but they're bizarre episodes from the universe's standpoint; the return of living Ancients to Atlantis should be a tremendous event, but we only really see it insofar as it affects the personal lives of our heroes.) I'm divided as to whether I consider this a weakness in his writing, however, as I watch SGA nearly entirely for the characters; the storyline comes in a very distant second. So Gero's biases mesh nicely with my own.
Gero likes montages and Die Hard (referenced outright in "Bad Guys" and obviously homaged/ripped off in "The Storm/The Eye".) He also likes quirky character traits - "Mensa Sheppard" is entirely a Gero creation, started in "The Brotherhood" and referenced again in M&MM. At thirty-one Gero's the youngest of the major writing staff, and has something of a, hmm, fanboy attitude. I get the feeling he enjoys watching as well as making the show; he's likely to mention elements from previous episodes (not just his own, such as the callback to "Trinity" in BAMSR) and in commentaries he's given to character analysis - he likes to analyze their motivations and psychology (it shows in McKay; he's responsible for the most insecure Rodney, but also pushes him the furthest when it comes to development.) He's also aware of McShep (he's explaining it to director William Waring at the end of the "Harmony" commentary) and possibly makes an occasional wink to it (that's pure supposition on my part, but in the commentary for "The Lost Boys" he does admit to really liking the Sheppard-McKay friendship dynamic.)
Gero's biggest weakness is the other half of the cast. He seems to be one of those writers who finds it difficult to get outside of his own headspace; he does a good job with Rodney and Sheppard because they're North American white fanboy types like himself. But I've got issues with some of his portrayals of female characters (Duet especially) and he has difficulty writing Ronon, and Teyla especially; they usually are reduced to supporting chars in his episodes, and he has a few eps in which they don't appear at all (GuP, Harmony). Gero also seems to be the founder of the Rodney/Keller pairing (Mallozzi's implied as much on his blog), which irks me personally; on the other hand his Keller is the most appealing by far (he writes her as uncertain in some areas, but as more socially adjusted than most of the rest of Atlantis in "Trio", and very competently medically in "Adrift"; and she's also funny when he's writing her lines.)
Despite my reservations, Gero has penned some of my favorite episodes, and some of my favorite scenes; that he's the writer of "Miller's Crossing" alone is enough to skew my opinion of him wildly toward the positive, as the last 8 minutes of that are probably the scenes of the show I've rewatched the most, and that he created Jeannie seals the deal for me.
Carl Binder
Started out on SG-1 as a "creative consultant" in season 9-10, but only wrote one ep (the forgettable season 3 "Demons" much prior); he wrote a couple eps of season 1 SGA, and by now is another executive producer.
SGA episodes
Season 1: Before I Sleep, Letters from Pegasus
Season 2: Condemned (teleplay; story by Sean Carley), Aurora (teleplay; story by Brad Wright), The Hive, Critical Mass (story with Wright), Michael, Inferno
Season 3: Irresistible (teleplay; story by Cooper & Wright), Progeny, The Real World, Phantoms, Echoes (story with Wright), The Game (teleplay; story by Holly Henderson & Don Whitehead), Vengeance
Season 4: Lifeline, Missing, Quarantine, Midway
Binder's got some duds, but a lot of his eps are sleeper hits for me - shows I mildly enjoyed on first watching without loving, but that I find myself coming back to and rewatching more than many others. He's one of the better-balanced writers: he tends to give the whole team something to do, not forgetting that Teyla and Ronon exist, and he writes interactions between all the characters in different combinations.
Binder tends to write cute, sweet character and team moments - "Echoes" perhaps showcases this the best, with John & Rodney running around with the whales, while Teyla & Ronon show a strong bond of friendship and teasing. He also isn't as shy about writing the female chars as some other writers seem to be; he wrote a fair bit of Elizabeth-focused episodes as well as Teyla-focused episodes, and put a lot of time into Keller as well (though I don't always care for his characterization of Keller; she comes across as so young and unsure of herself that she's unconvincing as head of medicine on Atlantis.) He doesn't explore the characters in that much depth, but he writes them as engaging, likable people.
Binder also seems to like the emotion of putting characters in jeopardy, focusing not only on the jeopardy but on the rest of the team worrying about them (this is an element in almost all his eps, from Rodney worried about John in Aurora and worried about the rest of the team in Inferno, to everyone trying to save Elizabeth in The Real World, to Teyla dealing with John and everyone else in Phantoms, to the boys out to rescue Teyla in Missing, to Rodney & John going after Ronon in Midway and then Rodney thinking he's killed John, to absolutely everyone worrying about everyone else in The Hive...) Such jeopardy scenarios are a huge, huge button for me (this sort of emotional caring is the reason I am so into h/c) so I am very biased toward Binder's eps.
Binder's biggest weakness is in plot, to whit, he doesn't seem to be able to really come up with them. Half his episodes, he did the teleplay from a story idea by someone else (often a third party, I'm not quite sure how the screenwriting works, that they buy ideas off people?) A lot of his eps have less a cohesive storyline and more a conflux of interesting events - his basic "plot" is "Stuff Happens, Chars Struggle to Survive It" without many twists or startling revelations. But since as mentioned I'm not watching SGA for plot, plus I've got a kink for disaster stories, I rarely mind. (Also Binder really likes the Sheppard-McKay byplay, and has written a lot of their sweetest casual friendship moments, e.g. Echoes, The Game, Missing - of all the writers he maybe writes them the most plainly as best friends who like to hang out together, all the way back to their ongoing banter in Before I Sleep.)
I look forward to Binder's episodes, because I'm almost guaranteed to get at least a couple scenes I really like, even if the entire ep is only so-so.
Alan McCullough
Story editor and writer for the last two seasons of SG-1, when that ended he moved to SGA as writer and producer (after hanging around as "creative consultant" since season 2.)
SGA episodes
Season 4: Tabula Rasa, The Seer, Spoils of War, Outcast (story with Joe Flanigan - the Replicator-on-Earth storyline, I believe?), The Kindred 2
Season 5: The Daedalus Variations
The newest writer, McCullough so far has proven himself to be one of the strongest, adept at both plot and character. He handles scifi concepts well, and has delved into the characters quite a bit. His favorite character might be Teyla; at any rate he writes her better than anyone else, not only giving her stuff to do but making her a crucial member of the team, and he's expanded on her apparent technological knowledge (Binder wrote a tech-aware Teyla in Aurora and Phantoms) to make her a capable assistant to Rodney in Tabula Rasa and The Daedalus Variations. McCullough seems most in line with Binder in all his characterizations, distributing storylines and character interactions throughout the team. (Daedalus Variations had every possible combination of the team paired off at one point or another!) He writes a brilliant, sarcastic Rodney and an intelligent, insightful Ronon...and a sometimes dorky (and on occasion totally stoned, see Tabula Rasa) John who I'm quite partial to. And he writes John & Rodney as having a close and supportive, if not especially demonstrative, friendship.
McCullough doesn't have any major weaknesses, though he's yet to write an episode I call a favorite - I enjoy his eps, but don't find them as rewatchable as some. That might just be a matter of time, however, as he's definitely capable of the really nice, cute character moments that I tend to latch onto - I wonder how he'd do with a lighter episode, as all of his so far have been more dramatic/action-oriented.
Those are the major writers - there's also some honorable mentions from seasons past, no longer writing for the show:
Damian Kindler
Kindler's an old SG-1 writer who dropped in on occasion to pen four SGA eps over seasons 1-3: "Poisoning the Well", "Trinity", "The Long Goodbye", and "Tao of Rodney".
If you think Gero is the McKay fanboy, you haven't been paying attention to the credits - as the writer behind Trinity and Tao, Kindler's Rodney fanboy title is all but undisputed. And he wrote "Tao of Rodney," which is hands-down my favorite episode of the entire show (though I have hopes it will be displaced by a certain upcoming ep...) I'd love for him to come back in any capacity. Please?
Ken Cuperus
Cuperus was a story editor briefly promoted to full writer for three season 3 eps: "Common Ground", "The Ark", and "Submersion"; he's no longer with the show.
He apparently didn't work out, which is a shame because he seemed to like the team running around doing stuff, and I'm all about that. But McCullough does about the same and better, so I guess they made the right call. If nothing else, Cuperus did write Todd's first appearance (probably creating his char, since I don't think they originally intended to bring Sheppard's Wraith buddy back? But so glad they did!)
Peter DeLuise
Another old SG-1 hand, he only wrote two eps of SGA, season 1's "Underground" and "The Defiant One," though he directed several more eps before leaving at the end of season 2.
In addition to the directing (and some of the funniest episode commentaries on DVD - Duet's commentary is quite a bit more entertaining than the ep itself - and there's also the set tour special he and Martin Wood did on the season 1 DVD set which is...special...is the only word for it) DeLuise also needs to be noted as the writer of some of the original McShep banter. I miss his presence on the show.
The handful of other eps were written by one-shot writers who never returned to the show (considering they were responsible for the likes of "Sanctuary" and "Instinct," no one is missing them much.)
Obviously there's far more to a show than the writers - acting, directing, editing and more all play a crucial role in making or breaking an episode. And to list the stories separately like this is somewhat misleading, because the writers do work in conjunction more often than not - while teleplay and story credits at times get divided, from what I know the original plots tend to be hashed out by everyone, and everyone contributes to every script to some extent (especially the finales). But there are definite trends particular to individual writers, and it's fascinating to observe them - it also gives me a different angle on reviewing episodes, because I'll have certain expectations (or won't have certain expectations) depending on the writer. (It's also worth noting the commonalities between all the writers - such as that save for a couple of the one-shot writers, SGA's writing staff is entirely white North American men, and their privilege shows...)
As well, I find that looking at the different writers gives me a perspective on fanfic - for all I care about canon, there's a flexibility among the writers of the show, and the characterizations in some fic that seem OOC to me might instead be drawing on the characterization of a screenwriter I personally prefer less. Much of TV-fanning is picking and choosing what you like from what appeals less; writer preference is an aspect of that. And finally, it's to give credit where it's due - the actors are the ones we see, the faces and voices of the chars we love; but the writers are their minds, for good or for ill.
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Date: 2008-08-04 11:23 am (UTC)I've become fascinated by the writing side of SGA more than in any other fandom I've been involved in, which I think in part is due to JM's blog which I have bit of a love/hate relationship with.
Overall, I think I have to say Gero is my favourite, due mostly to 'Miller's Crossing' and 'McKay and Mrs Miller' but I also really like episodes like 'First Strike,' 'Adrift' and 'Search and Rescue.' This is also despite the fact that when all is said and done, I am more of a Sheppard girl, and 'Sunday' which I have issues with. (Not so much that he killed Carson, but they way it was done).
I would also like to join the long, long queue that is insanely looking forward to Brad Wright's ep. Seriously. It can't come soon enough.
*wanders away to think about this all some more*
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Date: 2008-08-04 01:23 pm (UTC)Gero is most popular for his McKay, but I think he does justice to Sheppard, too (what with Mensa!Sheppard and such). I love both the boys and I do love Gero's Sheppard (mmmm, Miller's Crossing Sheppard!!) And Sunday...heh, yeah (I didn't have so much problems with that ep itself - okay, so it was a bit WTF plotwise, but ehh! My problem was more with the following eps, that there was zero aftermath to losing Carson; if John or Rodney ever died *makes signs warding against evil* I'd hope chars would notice they're missing in subsequent eps...!)
Ahhhh I need it to be 3 weeks from now right now! I need Wright's ep like burning!