How One Fandom’s FANFIC WRITERS Got Paid to Write Canon Novels [STARGATE SG-1]

[@Geonn_Cannon]

Hey, hi, hello! ::waves:: Thank you for saying my name right! You'd be amazed how many people just wing it. 😂 Anyway, since no one involved with the novels ever told me to scrub my fanfic from the internet, it's still up and around out there. And it should be pretty easy to find if you should go looking, since I was very uncreative with my author name (if you catch my drift). You'll also be happy to know I was NEVER a Sam/Jack shipper (they actually nudged me to include some subtext in the novels I wrote, because "it was close enough to canon" that it had to be mentioned, but I countered with "Okay but I'm going to make Tanis Reynard gay and give her a girfriend).

[@PugMugsly]

Hiiiii! I confess, I'm AWFUL at names, so I did look yours up beforehand to make sure I got it right, lol. Thank you for commenting! And for resisting the Sam/Jack suggested shipping subtext! 😆

[@Geonn_Cannon]

@PugMugsly It's very much appreciated! And I will say that things really did get screwy due to the merger, as you said, and the big 2020 thing that screwed up everything, but last I heard, the plan for everyone involved was to do more. So fingers crossed!

[@viniguez487]

NEW STARGATE CONTENT ON PUG MUGSLY! YES MAAM!

[@Soguwe]

Sally Malcolm is an absolute treasure and an incredible writer If Amazon ever moves on to actually do something with that valuable Stargate IP, they should get her on board as a writer

[@baldchinchilla]

It's wild that MGM even entertain the thought of fanfic writers working on official stories.

[@PugMugsly]

It's insane! I love it!

[@baldchinchilla]

@PugMugsly also please upload the three hour cut of this. I love listening to fans talk about their favorite series it's always entertaining.

[@ctaylorcaldwell]

The Shatner novels are hilarious they are set post Generations so Kirk is an old man but still gets all the girls and can beat up everyone (include Worf if I remember correctly). Amazing video as always. Thank you.

[@PugMugsly]

I would expect nothing less of William Shatner. (And thank you!)

[@varyar77]

Fandemonium was still sporadically active on social media until a few years ago, but they seem to have faded away during Covid, alas.

[@dua86]

Great vid, I love your fanfic deep-dives! Also I learned "tousle" and "tussle" are two completely different words with separate meanings and pronunciations even. I am shook.😮

[@PugMugsly]

Thank you! :)

[@densonandra]

I didn’t know fanfic as a concept existed to such a deep level until I started working at a “nerd college”. My students had to educate me how deep the fanfic rabbit hole goes….and how all my favorite fictional characters have been “shipped” at one point or another. One of the first they introduced me to was Stargate 😂

[@PugMugsly]

I would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. Especially if they starting googling things and bringing up AO3 and art manips and fanvids. It goes deep. Fanfiction is its own fascinating subculture - that’s evolved over the years. It’s got its own tropes and cliches and “rules” that are separate from published literature. It’s wild.

[@densonandra]

@@PugMugsly oh absolutely!! Learning that there are websites that are dedicated to just shipping fanfics and seeing how many views they get is both incredible but also…..scarring depending on what you land on. My students and I took a team trip to see Infinity War, and on the way back one of them recommends “Captain America/Bucky fan fiction”…..😭😭. But the fanfic fandom as a whole is amazing and especially when there is legit overlap with the original product.

[@PugMugsly]

@@densonandra I think the Supernatural fandom is probably the wildest one that I'm (vaguely) aware of. Wincest. Omegaverse. It makes Captain America/Bucky look tame, lol! (Also, your classes sound fun!)

[@densonandra]

@@PugMugsly haha I’m a big Charmed fan, so my students one year tried to get me into Supernatural because “Coach it’s the same thing except better”. This happened to be the last season of supernatural so they were all hoping their fanfic dreams would come true….i still laugh at their disappointment 😂. I’ve already sent this video and another of yours to a few of my students turned alumni that are big into both fanfic and stargate Also, thank you! Also also, didn’t end up thinking Supernatural was better than Charmed😂

[@belg4mit]

Yes, Sam + Jack was always incredibly awkward. Especially the alternate reality where Kawalski was alive, Jack had recently died and Sam was a mess. Daniel + Vala was never toyed with so much, but was not too bad e.g; slow time to avoid being hit bit the Ori weapon.

[@PugMugsly]

Omg, and then when Alternate Sam kissed Jack in front of Regular Sam. So awkward. Sooooo aaaaawkward.

[@that44rdv4rk]

great shirt. if I didn't feel weird wearing shirts or hats that say anything about myself, I'd totally rock that one.

[@PugMugsly]

Thank you! This shirt is one of my favs since it’s such a specific pun.

[@belg4mit]

@@PugMugsly I''m missing the pun? Unless there's supposed to be a swirl of cream in the mug?

[@PugMugsly]

@@belg4mit It says "Java, Kree" with a picture of a coffee mug. So it's a coffee shop pun on "Jaffa, Kree."

[@belg4mit]

@@PugMugsly Doh. I was focused on the Kree! Did not clock the Jaffa/Java thing.

[@somebuddyX]

4:05 That was the cutest moment! I have been on and off reading the Bill McCay Stargate books and they are quite something, although I do enjoy it. It's like the mirror universe to SG-1. The US military tries to take over Abydos. Ra's lieutenant attacks Earth and they weaponise the ISS, Mir, and the space shuttle fleet. The fourth book has the first travel to a non-film world, Ballas, and it's publicised like a moon landing mission. And you have the same dynamics from the film, so General West and Daniel dislike each other and Jack is still the Kurt Russell flat top wearing hardass O'Neil with barely a sense of humour, although he and Daniel have become good friends.

[@PugMugsly]

I’ve heard that the Bill McCay books were based off of Devlin and Emmerich’s notes for the movie and its potential sequels. (Even if they’ve later described their sequel concepts a little differently, lol.) So it’s likely that’s what we would have gotten if MGM went the movie route instead of the TV route. Which is wild.

[@romaldomadrid3819]

0:00 THIS IS A LONG ONE SO HERE GOES I have an IDEA A Netflix budget Stargate movie, called "Stargate Infinity", I'm ignoring the cartoon existence Basically buy the end of it, it has multiple possible pilot episode potentials The reason, Hollywood fired good and experience writers when it comes to older IPs. Modern movies, shows, books and video games have been corrupted. Stargate has yet to be corrupted. So here's my pitch Basically it's like battle against Anubis again but a bigger budget and more worlds THE PILOTS 1. Gundam/ Clone Wars- Think Matrix Revolution with mech suits but a cross between Gundam Wing and SW Clone Wars. 2. 90s Cyberpunk city- Basically what the 90s thought the the future would look like. Think RoboCop and Judge Dread kinda stuff. After finding alien tech/mechs they make a modern city but a "futuristic" version. "Anything" can happen here_ 3. Laura Croft- They send a helicopter frew the Stargate to get something important in a hurry, a female soldier out while being attacked coming back. She's miles away from the Stargate on a alien jungle planet and she must "Laura Croft" her back home. 4. Western desert- Basically a simple western style show on a desert planet where they got guns from SG-X and about a US soldier trying find his way home_ 5. Medieval style- The military meets middle earth? There is a anime simply called "Gate" Japanese military go frew a magical gate where elves, dragons, magic and bunny people exist, so try to make peace with the Roman Empire style culture there and bring back the civilians they took. And a movie called Dragonfyre about a ex-soldier with barn full modern weapons as a portal in a mountain cave open up. Literally Orks, a Dragon and a witch are in search for the elf princess who came frew. Masiela Lusha(Carmen) from George Lopez plays the elf princess in the movie. It's an excuse to make another G.o.T or Legend of the Seeker. The 100(CW) and Vikings(History channel) were said to be similar to G.o.T._ 6. Underwater city 7. City of Heroes- Long story short check out "City of Heroes" cinematic trailer on KZbin. Long story, I miss classic hero stories and this can be an excuse to write comic book heroes again. Like a show where they go to World/city with superheroes exist like in the arrowverse(DC) and the Defenders(Marvel) can be interesting. Or maybe they simply have abilities like in Heroes, Alphas, Smallville, "Powers" and The Gifted a (MARVEL X-Men show)._ 8. X-files- A secret organization used the Stargate to experiment on actual monsters and killers with powers. The Lab/building is abandoned with the subjects being loose for weeks. The "killers" can have a power like invisibility, shape shifting, stretching, pyro-kinesis, electro-kinesis, telekinesis, phasing frew solid objects or mind pushing. Crazy people could mistake them for being monsters, the mind pusher could want revenge on someone, alien parasite could try to control a city and the secret organization can try to cover it all up. I think theres at least 2 seasons worth of material here._ 9. Sliders- A group of people are trying to get back to earth but have trouble with earths address_

[@PugMugsly]

It’s definitely a franchise with a lot of opportunity. I like the idea of a Lara Croft Stargate movie or mini-series!

[@ethansloan]

Personally, I don't see the appeal of just writing more stuff for the main characters that you see every episode. When I think of stories in the Stargate verse that are yet to be told, none of them really involve SG-1. 1) Cassandra. What the hell ever happened to her? She wasn't present of even mentioned at Janet's funeral. They did so much set-up with Nirrti doing genetic modification stuff with her, and we know from "1969" that she'll be working (seemingly prominently) at the SGC in the future. 2) Jonas. Same general inquiry. What happened to him? Wasn't there some offhand mention that his planet was taken over by the Ori at some point, but nobody is like, "did Jonas make it out?" or anything? He's one of the characters I always thought it was weird didn't spin-off into Atlantis. Well, him and... 3) Jennifer Hailey. Remember that really smart, kind of anti-social cadet from Prodigy and Proving Ground? Again, why did they never bring her back? Make her a recurring, or send her to Atlantis (a show that was constantly trying out new characters). They gave her two very prominent spotlight episodes, and then nothing. 4) That teenage clone of O'Neill. Great episode (aside from the last 15 seconds when he randomly starts perving on teen girls even though he's really like 50; super out of character) that never had any follow up. I always thought they missed a perfect opportunity at the end of season 7/start of season 8. The kid O'Neill is introduced at the start of the season, and the season ends with Jack having to freeze himself because of the Ancient knowledge in his head. It would have been cool if they still needed something that only Jack knew, so they had to reactivate him. 5) Ra. He was supposedly the Supreme System Lord for thousands of years, whose power was so great that he kept all of the other Goa'uld in line. And yet there's seemingly no trace of him in the show. I get that they wanted to distance themselves from the movie and create their own thing, but given how much Ancient crap was left lying around, or general Goa'uld traps, or anything related to Machello, it's weird that they never stumbled upon, like, one of Ra's abandoned ships, or bases, or whatever. Any mention of his old soldiers? Planets he used to control? Nothing. But I guess none of that's as interesting as slash fic. I personally ship Walter/Siler.

[@PugMugsly]

It would probably would have made Fandemonium and their products more valuable if MGM had been more intentional with the partnership and helped/allowed them to really expand the universe. I figure that either MGM kind of just didn't care about the Stargate novels, the Fandemonium writers really only wanted to write about SG-1 (as a product of being fanfic writers more than sci-fi writers), SG-1 novels were the only ones that would sell, or the Stargate showrunners wanted to hold onto any open plot threads just in case they decided to use them at some later time. I do want to get my hands on some of the comics and see what those are like. Maybe Walter/Siler finally find the love they deserve.

[@frostshock13]

I would read that fanfic if you did it.. I didn't really get into fanfic, except the like scripted SGU final season, I needed some sort of closure and figured mgm was never gonna do it.

[@PugMugsly]

Now that you mention the end of SGU - that would have been the perfect opportunity for MGM to more actively collaborate with Fandemonium and either continue or more fully wrap up the series. I wonder if they ever considered it.

[@frostshock13]

@@PugMugsly Yeah it would have been. Thankfully, there is still and archieve of the ones Moroney did over on rodwerks for sgu season3. They are pretty good in script form lets you kinda visualize it all. Good read if you want some closure or just bored..

[@thebigdawgj]

Finding out the whole romantic thing was female-led by fanfic writers makes me honestly wonder if, had this not happened (the fanfic authors becoming actual show writers) the whole romantic tension thing ever would have existed.

[@vuhoang8265]

Another great video. You should write fan fiction. I’d read it. Also what does your t-shirt say?

[@PugMugsly]

Thank you! :) The shirt says "Java Kree" with a picture of a coffee mug. And then below the coffee mug, it says "Chulak" with a gate address. And then at the very bottom, "Experience the brew of the gods."

[@Olzme]

Do you have any recommendations for a story that is similar to Dune but instead of sci fi is a high fantasy? Kinda with a Runelords vibe. Thank you!

[@The_Retro_Futurist_76]

Mugsley, what would you prefer from Amazon if/when. They tackle a Stargate series? A total reboot and make it into a star wars trilogy series? A reboot TV series? Or just a continuation from the original series? I'm torn myself

[@PugMugsly]

I was pretty excited for the initial prospect of a continuation series developed by Brad Wright. One concept I heard was that it would deal with the consequences of the Stargate program going public - something I vaguely remember them wanting to make a sequel movie about after Continuum, but it never happened. But now if Amazon isn’t utilizing one of the original showrunners, I’d worry that whatever they’d decide to do wouldn’t fit with the tone of the original Stargate. If it’s not Brad Wright’s continuation, I think a limited series reboot would be interesting if they pick a specific story arc to adapt and plan it out ahead of time - but it would still need to hit the right tone for me to like it. When left to their own devices, Amazon tends to produce shows that are exceptionally beautiful… but badly written. Lol, sorry for the long answer. I have a lot of thoughts on this subject.

[@The_Retro_Futurist_76]

@@PugMugsly not a problem at all, I figured it'd be a long answer lol. Yeah,I'm concerned it would be a fresh series but absent the military aspect whichade the show novel to the other star series.

[@The_Retro_Futurist_76]

But yes, a fresh trilogy maybe neat if they keep the original show runners. That's kinda how I feel would be best idea moving forward

[@yeahsureimdownforthat1698]

Probably a good call on not giving away their online handles from back in the day... but gosh, never would have guessed Sally Malcom would have been a Jack/Sam shipper going off that first picture of her. If the SG-1 authoring gig didn't pan out she'd could have given being Amandas stunt double a shot. Plus, that would give her a second chance at the whole shipping thing by having her share a scene with Siler. Never been interested in picking up any of the books for franchises like this, but I'll admit, this did pique my curiosity. Might give that one with Vala in it a shot if I can find it easily enough. You realise your 'S Navy-1' fanfic idea already has a basic blueprint in place with the non time travel bits of Continuum right?

[@PugMugsly]

I do wonder if Sally already had that haircut before watching SG-1, or if it was Sam-inspired. (And no shade towards Sally intended -- I have often been very tempted to bring a photo of Sam's season 4 bob with the layers and long bangs to the hairdresser.) I picture my Stargate AU as something of a cross between Mobius and Continuum. ;)

[@yeahsureimdownforthat1698]

@@PugMugsly Hah; there's something fitting about a fanfic where the 'slash' couplings are mixed around, takes inspiration from an episode that lends with an literal _plenty more fish in the sea_ type gag. Well, 'pond', in Mobius's case.

[@1aler67]

It always seemed very forced to me that throughout the series they flirted with the idea of a romantic relationship between Jack and Sam and it never came to fruition. Puritan writers who did not go beyond a chaste kiss, although it seems that for SGU the supposed military regulations were eliminated :) Before any fanfic was written, the writers of the series had already created the idea of Sam/Jack... claims to them I think they are people married to their careers and very monoganous and faithful, they could have sex but not a long relationship with something more than their job.

[@PugMugsly]

I just felt like Jack and Sam didn’t vibe as a couple. (But obviously, many people did, lol!) They kept dropping hints that ~maybe~ even through season 10. And I think when Sam goes to Atlantis, there’s a shot that shows a photo of Jack in her things. Oh, SGU. They definitely tried to be different from the first two series, but sometimes I feel like they overcorrected. 😆