Joel Goldsmith said reading the script and consultations with series creators Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright helped him create an Emmy award-nominated theme for "Stargate Atlantis."

"I started off by reading the script because I wrote the theme long before they had shot the pilot episode," the veteran "Stargate" franchise composer told an interviewer at The Scifi World website. "I had some discussions with Brad and Robert, and we all agreed that I shouldnt try to 'reinvent the wheel' yet 'Atlantis' should have its own voice.

"So, after I wrote my initial theme I demoed it and sent it to the guys," Goldsmith said. "They gave me notes and I made changes and we went back and forth like this four times until we were all satisfied. Weve actually posted on the site all of the demo's I did showing the evolution of the theme from earliest demo to the final product."

It may have been nominated for a top television honor, but that didn't stop a TV exec from trying to kill the theme song, said Goldsmith.

"There was a certain MGM executive, who shall remain nameless, who just did not like the theme," he said. "Brad and Robert had to fight a long battle to get the theme approved. Later, after I had been nominated, my assistant told me that this executive was on the phone. I knew he was calling to congratulate me. So when I picked up the phone, before he could say a word, I said to him, 'I bet you dont hate this theme so much anymore, do you?' and as any good executive would respond, he said, 'I never hated the theme, I always loved it!.' Yeah right. Oddly enough, Im kind of fond of that guy."

It was Goldsmith, whose father was the late Oscar-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith, who came up with the idea to give "Stargate SG-1" a end theme song that is different from its opening theme.

"I simply asked Brad if I could write an End Title," he said. "Ive always liked it when a show had a different theme for the end credits. It always seemed like a bonus to me. So Brad agreed and I recorded it in Seattle when we recorded the Main Title."

New episodes of "Stargate Atlantis" will return to the SciFi Channel this July.

Credited sources: http://www.thescifiworld.net/interviews/joel_goldsmith_01.htm