| At the peak of Germany's crazy heat wave Feli met up with Stargate journalist Robert Vogel in his home near Frankfurt. Amidst Babylon 5 memorabilia, Star Wars posters and MacGyver on TV they talked about Robert's visits to the set of Stargate SG-1, his life as a journalist and his love for all things sci-fi. PK: What is it that fascinates you especially about Stargate SG-1? Have you been a fan from the start? RV: On the one hand it's the mythology, the Egyptian background, reminiscent of Erich von Däniken stories; on the other hand it's the characters that make up the show. I was a fan from the beginning. Usually shows that are derived from successful movies have difficulties in finding their way but I never had that feeling with SG-1. Sure the first couple of episodes reminded me very much of the Away Teams of the Enterprise - instead of beaming down to a planet they used the stargate - but they soon found their own style. PK: How did you get into writing about Stargate, and was it difficult to establish a first contact? RV: Out of interest. I met Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge at a convention in London and interviewed them. I asked about the possibilities of visiting the set and Amanda gave me some tips. Luckily I got a call from Hans Gäbner, a RTL2 executive (PK: the station that carries Stargate SG-1 in Germany). He called and said: "Hey Robert, I hear you want to visit the Stargate set?" I asked: "How did you know?" He'd received a call from MGM asking him about me. I'd sent a letter to MGM, not really believing I'd receive an answer but they called Hans and asked if he knew me. What I also didn't know was that Twentieth Century Fox Homevideo - who until recently were responsible for Stargate in Germany ... there was an executive, who I happen to know as well, and she backed me up, too, without my knowledge. So you see, there's a lot of good luck involved. PK: Being a fan, how do you keep your professional distance? What would you do if the show took a direction you absolutely can't agree with - would you write about it or ignore it? RV: I'd announce it as my opinion. [..] I either write very neutrally or I state my opinion. I say 'this is my opinion, everyone has to make up their own mind about it' and this works very well for me. PK: So you don't have any problems - you're being treated as almost a friend on the set? RV: That's right, yes. I have to say that the Stargate troop is a very special group. I don't know if you've seen The Lowdown. That's the way they *are*. And that says it all. When you watch the special you might think this is a parody on such specials but those guys are really the way you see them in The Lowdown. PK Do you go to conventions as a journalist or as fan? RV: Principally I'm very schizophrenic, I go to conventions as a fan, as a journalist and I'm part of the program, holding my own panels. Basically I try to split myself up and mostly there's just not enough time to do it all. PK: You appeared briefly in the episode "Chain Reaction": how many hot dogs did you have to eat until the scene was finally shot? RV: Not a single one! They only had a cold hot dog there. The hot dog stand was real but it didn't even have power. I wasn't even allowed to take the hot dog prop with me. [..] PK: So you had to spend the entire day with a cold hot dog? RV: They shot the scene three times, then it was done. The publicist was pretty astonished that they let me do this, but I think the reason was because I'd chatted with Martin Wood for quite a while and he's a fun guy, so he let me do it. PK: You did get into trouble at the US customs recently over some souvenir from the set …? RV: In May last year I visited the set of Children of Dune. I said I wanted to go where they were shooting desert scenes and there was this huge old plane hangar and there they had 30 tons of sand. I was carried there by bus together with a group of Hallmark executives and I talked to this nice gentleman. When we were in the hangar I bent down and shovelled some of the sand into a box. The guy asked: "What are you doing?" and I said: "I want a souvenir and this being Children of Dune the sand is the most important prop." The guy clapped me on the shoulder and said: "Good idea." Later I found out that he was the senior vice president of Hallmark. I knew that Brad Wright and some of the other Stargate guys are huge sci-fi fans, and I'd also heard that the sand pit where they used to shoot the desert scenes was to be closed down, so I filled two of those yellow plastic eggs you get from Kinder Surprise with sand for them. On my way to Vancouver I had to pass security at the airport and had some difficulties explaining that I'm a journalist, that it was a souvenir for someone in Vancouver and that it was only sand. There was a young guy and an older woman and the woman was very fastidious and insisted on having the sand analyzed. I said: "Okay, I have five hours until my flight, analyze away." Meanwhile the guy studied the vest I was wearing with all the badges on it: Nasa, Moonbase Alpha, Stargate Command, Area51... . So I joked: "Yes, I once visited Area 51, in the one hall they keep the aliens and in the other they faked the moon landing." The guy nearly fell over laughing and told his colleague to pass on the analysis. It was a very amusing anecdote and when I gave the eggs to Brad Wright and PDL I told them how many troubles I had because of them. They laughed like crazy. PK: And now tell us a little bit about Teryl … RV: [..] She still owes me two dances. I'm hoping to cash those in this year! I even have it on tape, so I can prove to her that she promised to dance with me. PK: Would you mind taking my camcorder with you, so this extraordinary event can be filmed? RV: Oh I'm sure if it happens there'll be plenty of people around to tape it... PK: What is the most precious memory you carried with you from the set of Stargate? RV: There are loads. You spend a couple of hours on the set and what you write about is basically a summary of the highlights that happened. Becoming an extra in Chain Reaction was of course such a highlight. I didn't think they'd let me but I also thought that I had to ask or else I would certainly never get the chance. Another moment was arriving on the set for the 3rd of 4th time and having people there address you by name. People showing their obvious joy at seeing you again. Usually Amanda is the first one to greet me with a hug and that's a very special feeling. PK: The media don't tend to take sci-fi and fantasy very seriously and often mock the shows of this genre. What do you think is the reason for this? And do you see a change in this attitude any time soon? RV: It's gotten better than 10, 15 years ago. In Germany the main reason is probably because sci-fi isn't part of our culture, whereas in the USA and England sci-fi and fantasy have a long tradition. [..] Partly the media are at fault, too. I went to NexusCon, a StarTrek convention in Berlin a couple of years ago. A camera team of SAT1 was also there (PK: the channel that carries StarTrek in Germany) and they did the stereotypical thing: out of all the fans present they picked those few that went over the top with what they said and what they wore, thus giving you the impression that sci-fi fans are all crazy. [..] PK: Have you always wanted to become a journalist? RV: No, not really. I've been a part of this scene for 30 years now, started out at the age of 12. I used to write for fan magazines, especially about Babylon 5. Someone told me that there was this magazine called TV Highlights and that I would be perfect for writing about Babylon 5 for them. I replied that I wasn't a journalist but he convinced me to just give the mag a call and ask. They told me to submit a draft article and they accepted and consequently printed it. After the third article they then asked me to write for them on a regular basis. I was lucky though, normally it isn't that easy. The chief editor of TV Highlights, who is also a longtime sci-fi fan, knew me from way back when I wrote something for him in the early 70ies and he asked around in the scene about me, and it was confirmed that I was a fan and wrote a lot. But usually it's not that easy; without connections and lucky accidents nothing happens. [..] You have to be where you can meet people and you can be lucky and be in the right place at the right time or not. I've built up a network of connections over the last 20 years and now finally I'm getting to reap the benefits. After 20 years! And this is something people who want to be a journalist don't want to hear. PK: Do you have any advice for aspiring journalists? RV: From my experience: an university degree is not necessary. Connections are the most important aspect, you always have to be in the right place at the right time and make a good impression. I've often gotten work out of a chance meeting of people who months later remembered me, when they wanted an article on a certain subject. You also have to come across as natural and not calculating. If people realize that you only seek contact with them because they might further your career it won't work. PK: Back to our favourite show once again: Stargate-SG1 has just been confirmed for an 8th season. Looking back, what is the biggest development within the show since season 1? RV: Stargate is a healthy mix of episodes that are unrelated to others and episodes that further spin a specific storyline. I would prefer a continuous storyline like Babylon 5 but then semi-regular viewers would have a hard time following the show. An episode that's based on a previous episode is always fun to watch. Only single-standing episodes like Star Trek would make the show nothing special. PK: Are you happy with the direction the show is taking? RV: All in all yes. I didn't enjoy the episodes with a bit of an X-Files character that much. I know they were necessary because you can't have SG-1 exploring the galaxy in every episode and completely ignore the consequences this has for Earth. [..] The show's excellent the way it is. PK: What do you think of season 7 so far (up until Avenger 2.0 ) and what do you expect/hope for in season 8? RV: Season 6 finished a lot of open storylines and I think that seasons 7 and 8 are going to lead over to the spin-off. We'll have to see which impact the reduced presence of O'Neill is going to have because without him the show is unthinkable. I like that Sam Carter is taking over more and more responsibility but they'll have to be careful not to make her into SuperSam, spouting technobabble and shooting every Jaffa. It's good to see Teal'c loosen up. I'm glad that Michael Shanks is back but I wish that they had had some more episodes that deal with Jonas. But hopefully Jonas will be part of Stargate: Atlantis. [..] PK: Which question have you always wanted to be asked? RV: This is difficult to formulate. I sometimes wish that people would question things more often, like how I go about doing my job. Many people think that this is something that simply falls into your lap and that everyone could do it. It isn't that easy. People only see the final result but don't know about the work that went into it. And don't care. I know that there are a lot of folks who think 'I can do what he can'; they think it's so easy but it isn't. PK: But how can your readers question your work? RV: Now I know how to say it: a lot of people have the wrong perception about the TV business. I receive about 20, 25 emails a day with various requests and people are cross with me if I don't answer them within a week. I can only say I'm doing what I can but a day only has 24 hours. [..] People think I'm arrogant or already have too much distance to the regular fans but it just isn't possible time-wise. Or: "Could you give me the address of studio X?". I'm not allowed to do that. It's not like I'm saying "hey, I'm going to keep this information to myself". [..] Something else that happened to me: in the past I was asked to take fan mail with me when I visited the set, which I did. Later I was stunned to learn - via online forums or people telling me - that the senders of the fan mail complained about not receiving a reply from the addressee of their fan mail and said: "Robert didn't hand over the letter I gave him." I've stopped doing this now. It's like 'no good deed goes unpunished' you know? Those folks apparently thought that when I handed over their fan mail personally they were sure to receive a reply and when that didn't happen they blamed me for it. PK: So a lot of fans think that you lead kind of a jet set life, from one visit to the set to another? RV: That would be so great! But the reality is that I use up my vacation for this stuff. And I pay for the travels myself! Yes, I get paid for the articles but I'm doing this because I enjoy it, and most importantly I work as a freelance journalist because contrary to what most people think the magazines like TV Highlights don't have the necessary connections. You have to establish those yourself. I remember when I called my editor and told him I wanted to visit the set of Stargate SG-1 he laughed himself silly because he thought I was joking. Two or three months later I announced that I was flying to Vancouver. Ha! PK: You do know about fandom wars...? RV: ..oh yes, thank you for raising this issue. The first one I witnessed was Star Trek against Star Wars, later we had Next Generation against Star Trek Classics, then Babylon 5 against Deep Space Nine - and I keep out of all of this because I am so fed up with it! I don't care about it, it only costs time to get involved in it and as fans we should be above such things. Yes, some enjoy one aspect, others enjoy another aspect but we all should be respectful. [..] Unfortunately in the era of the internet the real idiots, of which there are small numbers everywhere, have ample opportunity with this medium to spout garbage. You normally don't meet these people at conventions though, they're desk jockeys who badmouth others. [..] PK: Do you receive hate mail? RV: That's an interesting issue. I've had a long but neutral discussion recently about the question of how to write a set report. You know when I write a film review then I do it as an outsider. When I'm on the set then I'm there, in the middle of it. I don't stand at the edge of the crowd, I talk and I joke with the people that are there. And this is what I write about later and I write as I find. And yes, I have received feedback the kind of 'do you think it necessary that your name appears in your reports 20 times?' ??[Ed. note: Robert's editor used to include Robert's name in most of the subtitles for the pictures from the set Robert provided him with.] I don't need this. [...] I'm happy that I get to visit the set and write reports about it but my ego isn't that big that I need to see my name everywhere in the articles. It's a pity when people misinterpret this but I imagine that many would like to be in my position. Envy can arise, I understand that and I'm not upset about it. PK: Oh yes, a lot of fans would like to be in your position. How many offers to carry your bags on your next set visit have you received already? RV: Oh, I could easily fill an entire bus. Baggage porters, masseuses, hairdressers, cooks, the list is endless. And you know if it was possible I'd really do it. "Hi folks, I've brought a few friends from Germany.." and I'd consider it a funny way to commit suicide. [...] Many thanks to Robert Vogel for taking the time to talk to us. (c) 2003, Pink Khaki Webzine |
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| is currently writing as a freelance journalist for German and international magazines like TV HIGHLIGHTS, MOVIESTAR, SOL, FANTASTISCH, STAR TREK MONTHLY MAGAZINE etc, and he is co-author of the ANDROMEDA special. He has also released his first solo-publication, "BEHIND THE SCENES OF STARGATE SG-1". Beside his enthusiasm for fantasy and astronomy / astronatics, Robert still finds the time for his other interests: he loves music from the 60ies and enjoys the company of nice people. His greatest weakness: PASTA! |
| ROBERT VOGEL |
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| "Behind the scenes of Stargate" |
| The interviewed interviewer - ROBERT VOGEL |
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| All photographs here are (c) by Robert Vogel, and may not be used without his permission. He also offers many of the photographs he took for sale through the shop on his website. If you want high-quality shots of your favourit actors and actresses at a fair prize, this is definitely the place to go. Robert's website is in German, but should be easy to navigate even if you don't speak the language. And if all fails - drop him a mail. |
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| Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, Corin Nemec, Robert Vogel and Amanda Tapping on the set of "Stargate SG-1" in Vancouver, Canada |
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| Amanda Tapping and Robert Vogel, plus a little bit of surreptitious advetising... |
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| Robert Vogel and director Peter DeLuise |