Triad Pictures

The Saga Part 9: Nic vs. Nathan from Nate Atkinson on Vimeo.

Nic fights the now truly evil Nathan in a battle that will end this madness.

This was actually the first Saga episode we ever filmed. I had just gotten a digital camera as a graduation gift and the Atkinson's and I just goofed around with it the next morning. The episode was filmed in June of 2004. After we got back from Europe we decided to make a series, with this episode being number 3. Then as more characters came about and more storyline was given, it continually got pushed back to number 9.

Their lines are clearly taken from Star Wars.

Nic flying away was totally spur-of-the-moment. At the time, Nic was just playing a regular person, and so flying away surprised Nathan, "Oh my goodness." This created a problem though, since we showed them flying a lot in the first couple of episodes. So we knew we had to do something to Nic's character to make it seem like a big deal when he flew in this episode. We gave him the sweat disease.

When we originally filmed this episode, we stopped as Nic got in the car (Nathan actually shot Nic in the head). All the scenes after (and including) the scene where Nic steps on the gas were filmed in April, a full 10 months later. Nic had even gotten rid of the shoes he was wearing when we filmed the first part.

We got a chance to do another montage: Remembering the good times.

I knew the episode would have to end in such a way totally different than the outcome of the battle would suggest, so I thought I would try and make it even more extreme by having Nic's flashbacks of Josh followed by the abrupt ending.