What l wanna show you right now is a little bit about how
the prep process goes for a director.
This is my office. Here's what happens first.
We get preliminary sketches. These are drawings
deciding where things are gonna be, how the sets are gonna be put together.
The production designer, Bridget McGuire, puts these together.
These are her rough sketches which she'll bring to me.
There's a concept picture of the grate that O'Neill will be lying against.
A full-colour rendition of the windows that are gonna be in Baal's torture chamber.
And of course this is the gloss picture
showing us what, actually, the torture chamber will look like.
- Who are you? - You go first.
Part of the problem when you're prepping a show like this
is that the set isn't built until often the day before you go in.
So you can't spend a lot of time on the set
figuring out where to put people, cameras, things like that,
as you can with the normal standing sets on the base.
So they will build us a maquette or model of the rooms we're gonna be using.
Here's an example of the maquette of the torture chamber itself.
A little O'Neill hanging up over there. A little Baal sitting underneath here.
A couple of things this allows me to do.
One is l can see perspective, l can see how big the people are
compared to the set itself.
lt also allows me to do this.
l have to figure out what's gonna happen when we actually shoot O'Neill on this set,
because we're gonna see it like this.
We're going to be shooting O'Neill from here.
The truth is rewarded.
l don't know anything else.
There may be much more of this Kanan still in your memory than even you know.
lt'll come to you...
in time.
The other set, of course,
is the corridor set that ends in the cell.
ln theory, using the maquette as a model,
l should be able to bring guards from here around the corner.
And we should be able to see this kind of manoeuvre,
where we see O'Neill standing at the back of the chamber, on the floor.
Now, this is really what's gonna sell the antigravity. Again, this is all in theory.
(juddering sound)
This becomes a very complicated shot, the one l've just done with this camera,
because, in order to bring somebody from here to here,
of course O'Neill can't be standing on the floor back there, that's not gonna work.
So the way we're gonna do it is, we actually take
a gimballed set right here,
which is actually gonna be vertical, like this.
lt's a second set like the one we built there, and you shoot from up above.
l think we probably lose the perspective on how far from the wall we are.
And l think this might be a little easier, cos l certainly cover this.
And hopefully l'll have this camera
and be able to show you somewhere in this ''behind the scenes'' how that works.
That's the shot. You've got the shot right there.
ls it you?
Hi, Jack.
Daniel.
l leave, and look at the mess you get yourself into.
- Let's talk about the ascended Daniel. - Let's!
- l'm energy now. - How's that workin' out for you?
- Good, actually. Very... - Good.
Very good.
lt's not so much... The important part we're gonna see about
is not so much what has happened to him
as how he comes back, in whatever form he comes back to the show,
and l think we're still early days
on working out all the kinks and trying to figure out exactly what it is.
lt's a shame you're a delusion.
No, l'm here. l'm really here.
Sure you are.
lt's important that the character be no different,
the character be no omnipotent, angelic person,
that he's still the pathos-ridden fool that he always was, and...
we're just seeing an old friend come back and talk to a friend and try and be helpful.
The only difference is, no one else seems to be able to see him.
- What if you did a little scouting for me? - No.
Not knocking down walls, just a recon.
- You can't fight your way out. - Help me.
- Not that way. - (unlocking)
They can see you, right?
- A distraction. That's all l need. - l promise.
Something like that.
We got a problem here.
OK, uh, guys?
l just wanna work on the acting a bit.
We were, actually, until you interrupted.
- They were running lines. - Hey, director boy, just bugger off, eh?
There's a reason you people are behind the camera.
(laughter)
The goal of the entire episode was to come up with a solid reason
for the character to return, because once Daniel ascended,
we didn't want him to just be Clarence the angel that comes and says ''Hi, guys!''
and helps us out with a problem we may have.
l told you l'd come back.
lf the Daniel Jackson l knew is really here...
- l am. - Then do something.
Listen to me.
l don't wanna go through that again.
- l'd have busted you out. Blown this sh... - (bleep)
You can't say that on DVD.
There's a certain legal practice of these people
about how they can interact with other beings, and there are certain rules,
and he cannot betray those rules.
But in this particular circumstance, he's found - as Daniel always seems to -
a little bit of a way to use their own...
to find a loophole in their own rules, Daniel being a diplomat and a lawyer.
So l think that's what, at the ending there, that beat... that's the subtext behind that.
And... action!
But you, in the place you're at now, you don't have any other choices.
- Except that outfit. Line? - ''We're not just talking...''
We're not just talking about your life... Oh, l'm into it. We're talking about your soul!
This is it. What l'm offering you is your only way out.
You're wrong about that, too.
- ..kill me again, and you're... - Don't, don't, don't...
- You can put an end to it. - Don't, don't....
Plane.
They lock Rick and l in a room to act and don't give us any damn props.
l think it was on purpose. Or furniture. Nothing to hide behind, grab, play with.
Show me how Daniel Jackson disappears in this scene.
What is that over there?
(laughter)
lt's like some kind of weird TV magic.
You should see the card tricks you could do. Amazing.
l wanna have him walk down the wall on this one.
- Why don't we just keep going? - OK.
- lf you don't mind? - l can't wait to see you walk down it.
OK?
You just bend over, and we'll lift you up. OK?
l don't wanna play this any more! l got the job!
- One guy... - Oh, damn! Oh!
OK. And walk.
That's risky. That's a Greek reverse.
l think to come back in is great at this particular point.
lt's early in the season, everybody's still fresh and happy and bubbly and cheerful.
And to come back here is like a homecoming of sorts.
lt's just different. lt's definitely a strange dynamic.
lt'll be a lot stranger when l leave again.
But it's always... lt's a home l love to come back to, and to see the same faces.
Everyone's been great. lt was wonderful. That's the best way l could put that.