We’re back to walking down only one path in our Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) series since Stargate Atlantis went it alone starting in Season Four after the mother show Stargate SG-1 ended its ten-year run.
But Atlantis had more than a solo act to be concerned with this year; another change in the regular cast was in store as Torri Higginson and Paul McGillion were removed (but both had guest appearances this season) and Amanda Tapping was added. Also, Firefly star Jewel Staite began a major character arc during this season as the new Chief of Medicine on Atlantis Base, Dr. Jennifer Keller. (Staite was added to the regular cast in Season Five.)
Not only were there these major changes in front of the cameras, but behind them as well. Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper handed the showrunning duties off to writing and production partners Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, who had joined the writing staff during SG-1‘s Season Four. Cooper and Wright were very busy putting together the two direct-to-video SG-1 movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum, but the two still were able to write, and in Cooper’s case direct, episodes for Atlantis.
Of special note to fans of SG-1 were the two guest appearances made by Christopher Judge this season. Teal’c was there to say goodbye to Carter in “Reunion” and he was invited by her to Atlantis to help Ronon Dex gain approval from Earth’s bureaucratic IOA in “Midway.”
Atlantis Season Four
Please cast your votes in our poll for your favorite episodes:
Joe Flanigan
From “The Fourth Protocol” in Starburst #354 (Sept. 2007):
“I will have to admit that I had an unfounded initial fear of having Amanda on the show, which was Atlantis losing its distinction from SG-1. I didn’t want to become ‘SG-2’, and, again, that fear was unfounded. To Amanda’s credit she’s such a pleasure to work with and able to tackle all that incredibly crappy exposition that I want to avoid. Jewel [Staite] is very good at that as well, and I think she and Amanda both have a fan base that will hopefully widen the circle of our fan base. I have to say, too, that I miss Paul McGillion, you know? It’s not a case of either or. If it were up to me I’d love to have everyone on the show.
“[‘Adrift’ and ‘Lifeline’] were fun to do, and there are some big surprises in store for our viewers. I love the idea of the city having to leave home and be marooned in space. I actually wanted us to be out there for seven or eight episodes. That would have been cool. I’m not sure why we didn’t do that, but there must have been a good reason. Then, of course, we eventually had to land the city. When we did that, I hoped we would end up on a planet that was distinctly different from the last one, so that it perhaps felt like we were in an inhospitable place that would make survival a bit more challenging. However, we landed on a planet similar to the previous one and looks not unlike various areas surrounding Vancouver. [smiles]
“So I enjoyed Atlantis taking off and then our characters having to figure out what to do next. As for what happens in ‘Lifeline,’ well, we go to the Replicator city. That’s a tough episode to talk about because there are things I can’t reveal. I will tell you that there are some heavier emotional scenes in this episode which are nice, and I think turned out well. They add a layer to the overall body of episodes this season that I believe is going to make the fans appreciate the show a bit more.
“As an actor I had evil twin syndrome with [‘Doppelganger’], which was a challenge from a stunt perspective because I had to fight myself, and then turn around and fight myself all over again. You’re not only doing a lot more stunts than normal, but you’re also doing twice as many as you think because you have to do them a second time.
“So the work was pretty exhausting, but still interesting and a lot of fun to come back to at the start of the season. It was the first time I’d done twinning to that degree. It seems like a common Sci-Fi theme but it was new territory for me. It’s really important that there’s a distinction between your character and its twin, but in this case it was tricky because for the first two-thirds of ‘Doppelganger’ you can’t tell which Sheppard is which. It had to be a gradual distinction between the real one and his twin until the latter evolves into complete evil. It was a little complicated, though, because we didn’t quite have all the scenes written in order to qualify that transition. So it was a fairly abrupt evolution from subtle differences to glaring differences. I’ve yet to watch the cut of the episode, so we’ll see how it turned out, but the actual [creative] process was very rewarding.”
From interview with Rotten Tomatoes (Sept. 2, 2008):
“‘Outcast’ came from an original idea that I had that Ronon and Sheppard had to go back to Earth because Replicators had gotten on world and were being insidious, but it was basically us running around on Earth in familiar areas and blowing things up. They liked that idea and wove some backstory in it about my father passing away. It really took it to the next level, and we got to see a lot more about Sheppard and who he is.
“A lot of [Sheppard’s inner strength] is survival. He wants to live! A lot of those situations he’s in, he’s about to die! That never give up thing, that whole loyalty thing is something that always plays well with audiences, it’s a quality I admire.”
From “No Ordinary Joe” in TV Zone Special #82, excerpted at Visimag (2008):
“’The Last Man’ was an interesting story to work on and kind of cool, too. I was a little worried when I first read the script, mainly because there was a ton of exposition where David Hewlett’s [McKay] character explains everything that has happened over the past 40,000 years or whatever it was, but I think the episode turned out well. Believe it or not, I actually haven’t seen a final cut of it yet but, as season cliffhangers go, it was a good one.
“As for the sandstorm, I enjoy that kind of stuff. There were these little tiny wood chips that didn’t all get chopped up and some of them hit me, which kind of hurt a bit, but that also lent a greater realism to the situation. I like when our characters go through intense physical adversity because those types of things just read well on screen. It’s also what makes me watch a TV show because I’m always fascinated how someone could physically survive an ordeal like that. And I always think that that’s a smart way to go with our series in general because Sci-Fi plots can sometimes be a bit esoteric, so to show what the physical price is for something is more fun acting-wise than it is to explain something like, for example, the implosion of a planet.
“This job is funny because it’s unlike a lot of others in TV. By that I mean in Atlantis we get to do a variety of things. Because there are no real [creative] boundaries, we can do an episode that’s funny, another that’s dramatic, one that’s scary, etc. In many ways we’re the freest form of TV out there, which you sometimes have to remind yourself of and remember not to take for granted.
“I’ll sometimes read certain parts of our scripts and wonder, ‘How are we going to pull this off?’ However, these guys always manage to somehow do that. Between the art department guys, visual effect people and all the other people who work on this programme, we figure out together how to do what has to be done. From there, it’s just a matter of committing to what’s on the written page and going forth…”
From interview with Rotten Tomatoes (Sept. 2, 2008):
“I think the show works because of the chemistry of the characters, and because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. You can maybe get away with a $150 million movie, you can be serious. If you’re doing a 44-minute Sci Fi show for $3 million you can’t come off being pretentious and too serious.
“Even all the dark characters, the edgy shows that some very well-known show runners have put up—the characters are just not likeable, and that’s why they haven’t worked as well.
“I think that we’re lucky—our characters are likeable, and we enjoy ourselves, and it shows . And to know when the adventure is urgent and when it is funny is key. Comedy and humour are probably the saving grace for us.”
David Hewlett
From interview with UGO, archived at David-Hewlett.co.uk (Sept. 2007):
“It feels like, Stargate, we’re the kid brother or sister of Stargate, and when that started, it was almost 11 years ago now, I feel like TV has changed. I think Atlantis is a product of that. The audiences are much more savvy, and I think the content that we’re seeing on television is darker, so there’s definitely more of a bite to Atlantis than perhaps there was to start off with. I think it’s a good thing, though.
“I think the successes of the whole Stargate universe are these wonderful characters that they’ve written. The science fiction is just a fantastic back drop for these normal everyday people who are struggling to cope with the extraordinary circumstances. That, to me, makes for the best kind of sci-fi, because there’s this great kind of escapist sci-fi, because you can identify with these people and go, ‘I’m kind of like McKay. In a situation like that, I’m probably not going to respond in the best way. I tend to snap at people when I’m being attacked by aliens.’
“I think that the edgy stuff is sort of a product of its time, in a way. We’re not as dark as Battlestar, which I love. Jane and I watch that religiously now, but we’re not Battlestar. We’re a very different show than that. We’re definitely more. I think we’re more sci-fi for the non-sci-fi people, if that makes sense. You want to be careful with a show like this that it doesn’t become too cheerful, otherwise you lose that peril. I think the edgier stuff they’ve been playing with this year will help remind people that we are all at risk.
“Obviously, the biggest [change that makes Atlantis darker] is [the] change of characters. We lost a couple of our leads, effectively, and added a few more, too. Again, from an entirely selfish standpoint, I got Amanda Tapping and Jewel Staite to work with. I’ve got two female icons of sci-fi that I get to play with on a daily basis. It’s fantastic. But, by knocking off these characters, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. I mean, they’re talking about the cliff-hanger for Season Four, and I’m like, ‘I hope it’s not me.'”
From “Interview: David Hewlett” with About.com (Mar. 2008):
“You know, I watched ‘The Last Man’ the other day and one of the standout things is—Connor [Trinneer] is, like, the nicest guy on the planet—possibly the universe, I can’t say—but I’ll tell you, he is just an evil bastard in the show! I don’t know how he does it, he just goes from this sweet, jovial kind of guy to this complete monster in seconds.”
From “Exclusive Interview: David Hewlett” at Cinema Spy (May 2008):
“It was funny, someone came up to me and said, ‘Wow, the makeup’s amazing and the way they gave you a little pot belly and stuff.’ And I was like, ‘I just let my belly out a bit.’ Getting up the stairs, frankly, by the end of the season, I was just so creaky and sore anyways. Generally it’s the best thing to play at the end of a season because you’re so tired by episode 20 that you look like a thousand years old anyway. Basically I just allowed myself to move slower and complain more.
“That was another funny Lorne one, because Lorne and me—Kavan [Smith] and me—as old men, we’re just the crabbiest suckers on set anyways, so the two of us as old men it was like shooting Grumpy Old Men in Space. It was just kind of fun, because all those—as you get older all those little aches and pains you get to play that stuff up. I think I was born to be old. Some people were born to live free, die young. I was born to die old. I quite like the excuse for being a little grumpy and a little slower in getting up the stairs and all the doddering things I kind of enjoy doing.
“That and also, what was funny was that my kid was born the day after we finished shooting. The whole time I kept thinking, ‘If my wife goes into labour now, I’ve got four hours of prosthetics that are going to drive across the border with me. Will Nexus [an automated border crossing kiosk] work? Will my Fast Pass card work at the border if I’m a thousand years old?’ How do you explain that one in the secondary check? ‘Sir, are you wearing a disguise?’ What was neat about that is that I was so beautifully distracted throughout that entire episode that I think—again, that adds to the—the things that are the least enjoyable to shoot are often the most fun to watch. You can’t help it, you pick up that uncomfortable—that’s why I find a lot of the big big budget films sometimes they lack that wonderful edge you get from the, ‘Oh, my god, we’ve got one shot at this! Go!’ I think ‘The Last Man’ was one of those where there was a lot of dialogue to shoot in a short period of time, and so much going on. For other people. I just talked. I talked and became invisible when sand went through me. I think the circumstances for that one really helped to get you into the old age thing. The problem now is actually getting out of the old age thing. Season 5, I’m walking around like I’m a thousand years old. Still. But I hold my belly in a little better.”
From “Interview: David Hewlett” with About.com (Mar. 2008):
“I’m still pleasantly surprised by [Rodney’s journey so far]. Because originally when I took this job, my vision of where it was going—and think their vision to some extent—was that it was going to be basically me standing beside a computer yelling out things at people every so often. Rodney was a surprise to them, because he suddenly became part of the team. Originally the idea of Rodney going on missions, everybody would have laughed at it. The idea would have shocked him. Rodney was incredibly unhappy about having to go on these missions in general—where some people see adventure, he sees a potential health hazard.
“So for me, it’s all a pleasant surprise, because I really honestly thought I was going to be sitting behind a computer terminal, bored out of my cranium, and it’s just turned into so much more than that. I think what’s neat about what they’ve done with him is that they’ve really managed to flesh out what is a very nasty, difficult character. So I’m far more than satisfied with what they’ve done. And it’s always a pleasant surprise to see what new, fresh hell they’ve come up with for us. I’m hearing about freezing-cold lakes coming up, so that sounds promising.”
Amanda Tapping
From interview with Moviehole (May 2009):
“I made a conscious choice off the top to make [Carter] out of her comfort zone, to be a leader that was about listening to her team and throwing it out to them more often than making the decisions for herself. I tried to make her as respectful in this new situation as possible and I think in doing so watered her down a bit and then I think that we didn’t have the opportunity to flesh her out as a leader as much as we would have liked. And it was weird to watch teams going through the gate and to be staying behind, it was really hard at first. I was like ‘well, I should be on that mission, I might be able to help out’ but what Cater was trying to do was make sure that the team felt respected, that their positions were all safe and they felt respected and that was Carter’s MO as a leader and I think in some ways she could have shown a bit more strength. When she was able to show backbone she showed it but I think we could have fleshed her out a bit more.”
From interview in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine #27, excerpted at Slice of SciFi (Apr./May 2009):
“Doing the episode ‘Trio’ with David Hewlett and Jewel Staite [will be a memory I’ll take with me]. I don’t know what the fans thought of the episode, and it¹s probably best that I don’t know, because it was just so much fun! I haven’t laughed so hard in such a long time; the whole cast of Stargate: Atlantis are really talented, really nice people. Being able to hang out just the three of us and go through those shared experiences was amazing; me conquering my fear of heights not really, but trying to; being thrown around on a gimble, and writing Stargate: Atlantis: The Musical. Those kinds of memories are priceless. That for me was a huge highlight.”
From Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, excerpted at AmandaTapping.com (Jun. 2008):
“I just want to address this right off. It was a very difficult decision, not to say that I walked away from Stargate: Atlantis, because I haven’t. I still want to be a part of the show. They offered me a very nice contract with the caveat being that I had to make Stargate: Atlantis my first priority, and I totally understood why in terms of timing and scheduling, but I couldn’t do it because I knew there was a good possibility that Sanctuary would get worldwide television broadcast. Had I said ‘Yes’ to what the folks at Stargate: Atlantis wanted, I would’ve essentially shut down Stage 3 Media and Sanctuary. So, as much as we tried to make it work, and executive producer Joe Mallozzi and I were on the phone a lot trying to work things out, we just decided at the end of the day that the timing just was not going to happen. He was very cool. They were wonderful.
“The last time I got off phone with Joe I was just bawling. I hung up and started crying and my husband said, ‘What? What?’ And I said, ‘Oh, my God. 11 years. This is huge.’ It’s been my life, my home, my family—literally—for well over a decade. But the beauty of it is I haven’t walked away from it completely. It’s not like I turned my back on Stargate: Atlantis. I said, ‘Let’s see what we can do to make this work.’ I will make myself available.
“I had this whole thought that, ‘Oh, my God, the fans are going to hate me,’ When I went on to Stargate: Atlantis, in a lot of people’s minds I took over for another character, which is an unfair assessment because that’s not exactly how it came down. That my going to Stargate: Atlantis precipitated other people leaving is a popular misconception. And now I’m walking away. And I worry they’ll think, ‘Who the hell is she to do that?’ Maybe I concern myself too much with what the fans are saying because I take it so personally, and I’ve always believed that the fans are the heart of the show—and that’s not lip service. I truly believe that. I played out the worse case scenario in my head. As soon as this announcement is made, there are going to be people who are going to slag me off, ‘You abandoned this.’
“I think at the end of the day it’s a perfect compromise. I’m moving on to my own series. It’s a whole new role for me. It’s exciting, and it’s an interesting show, and I think the fans will love it. I’m not turning my back on Stargate. I’m certainly still a part of the franchise. Sam Carter is still very much a part of me. I think my Polyanna view of things that’s the perfect-case scenario. And I just hope a lot of the fans will eventually see it that way, too.”
From interview in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine #27, excerpted at Slice of SciFi (Apr./May 2009):
“I’ve always said that the fans have always been paramount to me, and they’ve been amazing. I want to say thank you to the people who have supported, and continue to support me, no matter what I do. They went over and checked out Sanctuary when it was on the web to be supportive of me, and I appreciate that. Whether they stick with the show or not is entirely up to them, but the fact that they gave it a try is hugely important. The fact that they gave me a chance going over to Stargate: Atlantis is just as big. You remember the bad things, but I really try to remember the good things that people have said, and there have been so many.”
Rachel Luttrell
From “One on One with Rachel Luttrell” at Hobo Trashcan (Apr. 2007):
“The new season in particular has new characters. We’ve lost a couple of characters and there’s some shifts going on there, which changes the tone of the show. But the actors and characters who we’ve added I think will be embraced by the audience. Amanda Tapping is joining us and Jewel Staite, who I think sci-fi fans will know from the series Firefly, and then Serenity the movie. Right now, I’ve only read the first four scripts and we do 20 in the season. But I think that the tone of Teyla, my character, is going to shift ever so slightly and we’re going to start to see, even though she’s very strong, I think what we’re going to start to see is perhaps even more strength and a little bit of an edge, a little bit more of a darkness that will hopefully be tempered by depth. And we’re going to also get to see, thankfully, a little bit more of her people and how they influence who she is. That is something I’ve been hoping to explore for quite a while.”
From “Stargate Atlantis – Rachel Luttrell Interview” at UGO (Sept. 2007):
“I’m sad that we’ve lost Paul [McGillion] and that we’ve lost Torri [Higginson], but hopefully we haven’t lost them for good. But yes, absolutely, Paul does come back, as does Torri. They both have a presence in Season Four, and their departure, their characters, where they are left, is also kind of open-ended. We definitely haven’t seen the last them.”
From “Exclusive Interview: Rachel Luttrell” at Cinema Spy (Aug. 4, 2008):
“I spoke to the writers prior to beginning Season 4—a good month before we started—and they had in mind, as they always do, how the story arcs were going to play out for that season and what they wanted to encompass in Teyla’s journey. And I came to them and dropped the bomb [that I was pregnant]. But they ran with it and they did a wonderful job and they were able to blend portions of what they wanted for the season and encompass the journey that I was going through. And I think it made for a stronger, colourful character for me to portray that.
“[The] thing is they started encompassing my pregnancy from the get-go in Season 4, so there was never a point where I felt like I had to hide that. If anything, it was something I kept in the back of my head because I knew that Teyla was going through it even though she hadn’t made it aware to the rest of her team. So it was something that I was aware of as well on the same note, even though I hadn’t announced it to my castmates and the crew. The writers, producers, and myself all knew that that was something that was going to be a part of her journey. No, I never felt that I had to downplay that or play something else. It was always part of what I was holding in my mind.”
From “Stargate Atlantis – Rachel Luttrell Interview” at UGO (Sept. 2007):
“Once the crew and the cast knew—I actually didn’t tell anyone except for our producers until I was three months along—everyone was so incredibly accommodating. They got me my own reclining cast chair, which was fantastic, which the rest of the cast were fighting for, but sadly, didn’t get. It was actually really good. This season, as it turns out, ended up being one of the most physical seasons that I’ve had to do thus far, which is kind of funny considering I was pregnant. … certainly during the first part of the season while I was still capable and while it probably wouldn’t be offensive for the audience to see. I wasn’t showing, and so I did a lot of very physical things. I did a couple of fights that were the biggest that I’ve done to date, so there you have it. But looking back, I really enjoyed it and pretty much my entire pregnancy has been documented now on Stargate.
“Even though [Teyla] was embracing motherhood on one hand, there were many things that were going on in her life that also brought out a little bit more of a darker side for her and a more edgy quality. But I don’t think we’ve completely lost the lightness that I believe audiences have come to expect from the Stargate franchise. But yeah, it was a weightier season. There were a lot of deep things being discussed.
“Well, we don’t really hear about the season to come until after a few episodes of the season we have just finished shooting have aired. Season Four premieres next Friday the 28th at 10 pm, and so we’re going to wait and see. Everybody is hoping that people are tuning in on that night, because now with the technology, TiVo, and all that stuff—which I absolutely adore—it’s hard to tell how many people are actually watching the show. No one knows how many people are actually recording it, so it’s just a matter of when are you tuning in and are you tuning in at that point. I think that the network is going to pay close attention to that, and I think we’ll just see. But, people are enthusiastic about the potential that there’s going to be another season, but it is the entertainment business, so you never know.”
Jason Momoa
From “Jason Momoa: Dex appeal” at Total Sci-Fi Online (May 20, 2008):
“It doesn’t feel like a different show or anything like that, but there are new energies in it. Not having Paul McGillion here, who is a good buddy, it is just a little different. But the new members of the team are great. I mean, Jewel Staite is a sweetheart and I have a lot of stuff with her this year. It is just different because your friends aren’t there but as far as character-wise, I don’t like anyone anyway so it just works out!” [laughs]
From video interview with Extra TV‘s Jerry Penacoli, found at MGM’s Official Stargate Site and at YouTube (Jan. 2008):
“I get stuck in a room with a woman, Dr. Keller, on an episode coming up. You know, I talk about—cos my wife died about seven years ago—but you know, seven years ago. I guess that’s his whole insecurities, he’s a little rough. I don’t know what they’re going to do with that whole relationship. Hopefully, he gets some soon, you know? I think that’ll take all of that aggression off of him. That’s why I’m such a good warrior…”
From “Exclusive Interview: Jason Momoa” at Cinema Spy (Aug. 11, 2008):
“It’s interesting, because someone asked me earlier about the ring. [He points to a gold ring in his dreadlocks.] I put this on me because my wife died in front of me on Sateda. One thing about Ronon is he holds a grudge. He’s very loyal, he’s got a lot of honour. Even though—I was thinking about this as an actor—would Ronon really have a love relationship? To me, no. Yes, a guy needs to get laid, but I don’t think it needs to be in the show.”
From video interview with Extra TV‘s Jerry Penacoli, found at MGM’s Official Stargate Site and at YouTube (Jan. 2008):
“Since I started here, I’ve been kind of compared to Chris Judge on the other show, being we’re both dark-skinned and fight…and aliens, and I get to meet up with him, finally. I don’t like him and we have to be stuck together and defend Earth. It’s a lot of fun. We’re shooting that right now. We’re bruised and battered—huge fight scene—probably one of the biggest fight scenes we’ve rehearsed for. We spent three days rehearsing for it and a lot of blood. … I mean, the whole thing’s lots of fights and today—like, last night was all gun fire. I forgot to put my ear plugs in—sightly deaf in this ear today. I know, dumb, dumb!
“Yeah, you do get hit. I’ve been hit and I’ve hit people and knocked someone out….You don’t want those things to happen, but you train and train so it doesn’t, but once things start going really fast it’s—if you lean in a little bit or be off just like a little, then BOOM!
“I just had this [tattoo] done in Hawaii. My cousins have this and it’s an ‘aumakua, which is like your guardian. Like any other tribe, they use like an animal for whatever their warrior tribe is, so this is the shark. … I did it kind of without permission for the show. But, my guy’s got tattoos on his neck and stuff and I said, ‘Well, it looks spacey,’ you know? We wrote it into the show, which is great. They actually did the tapping—in an episode I meet up with all my people who I think were dead on my home planet and it’s funny, they are tapping it on in the episode and I decide to smack the guy. He sunk it too deep and I just went [SLAP].”
From “Exclusive Interview: Jason Momoa” at Cinema Spy (Aug. 11, 2008):
“I just find myself a little bit more nostalgically tragic [than an action hero]. Just more of a—I didn’t want to play an action star because it’s just such a gimme. I’m not that way, I don’t want to be that way. I dreaded my hair because I don’t want to be the pretty boy and the hunk. I didn’t want it to be all about my face; it originally started from that and I hated that. Because I’m just not that. From that spawned the dreads. I just wanted different roles. Now that I have this role, it’s great, because Joe’s the number one. And you don’t find someone like me—big, tall—next to someone that’s the leading man on the show. Normally the sidekick’s going to be someone like David. It’s going to be someone funny. I play right next to Joe and it’s awesome. I’ve worked on shows when guys aren’t that cool with it. …It’s interesting that Joe—he’s a Harrison Ford type of guy, super confident and with his own style and we work well together. I’d love to work with Flanigan for the rest of my life. He’s great.”
Stargate legend Richard Dean Anderson made three appearances this season. He had a pivotal role in the mid-season two-parter “The Return,” teaming up with Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey for most of his scenes. The two needed Sheppard’s team to rescue them from the 
“One of the interesting things is that there are parameters for a hero—to be a pillar of morality and strength and to come through at all times. That is what the audience wants, and it’s funny, when you watch the show sometimes [as an actor] that’s what you want too. But as a performer, the richest material is in problems and weaknesses. And so I find myself not able to explore problems and weaknesses that maybe other characters can explore. You can’t lead and be indecisive or have problems. And those problems are what’s interesting from a creative standpoint. So you actually have to exist within pretty tight parameters, that a heroic character has to exist in lest he become less heroic. At some point, his heroic properties will be diminished if he continues to explore weaknesses and bad decisions.
“[Working on ‘Common Ground’] was a great time from beginning to end. Will Waring is one of my favourite directors on the show, it was a strong script and Sheppard got to go toe-to-toe with a Wraith. It’s what I said before about us having more individual stories this year and more character development, the latter of which really comes out in this episode. ‘Common Ground’ was mainly Sheppard and a Wraith and we had some neat scenes that are both funny and dramatic. Even if the episode hadn’t turned out as good as it did, I still would have said it was a positive experience and I’m thankful to the writers for putting it together. Luckily, the final cut was great, and hopefully they’ll decide to do more of these mano-e-mano type stories. The only thing I didn’t like, though, were the prosthetics. They take forever and I can’t stand them. I’m just praying I look a heck of a lot better than Sheppard did when I get older!
“Robert Davi is a superb actor, and so he knows exactly what to do, which is cause tension in a scene, and he’s good at it! He took something small and sucked the life out if it. He did it for, what, seven episodes or something like that. And they killed him off and they didn’t even need to. He could have gone on and on. He was a formidable opponent, and it was hard to find a formidable opponent, and when you do you need to keep them coming. Colm Meaney was another guy that was very good. Those guys were good. They’d just lay it into you and it just comes through, and it’s hard to find guys like that.”
“I just love working with Connor [Trinneer]. He’s a talented actor and a great guy. As for this story itself, I made a point of going up to Brad Wright’s office earlier today, as well as phoning writer Carl Binder yesterday and told them what a good episode I think ‘Vengeance’ is going to turn out to be. Sometimes we [actors] will call the producers with notes about things we feel might be wrong about a script, so they were probably surprised to hear that in this case I thought all the elements came together. I’m a pretty tough critic when it comes to my work and the series, and I like this episode a lot because it enters into the psychological arena. It becomes very much an X-Files-ish sort of thriller, and, honestly, if, like our characters, you’re exploring space and running into weird and spooky creatures, then things are going to turn deeply psychological, do you know what I mean? This is a direction that I’ve been trying to get Atlantis to go in for a while, but for one reason or another it just hasn’t been possible. Then this script came along. I’m a big fan of Carl Binder. He’s a very strong writer and the dialogue in ‘Vengeance’ is wonderful. It was a fun episode to work on, but the actual location wasn’t so hot. We shot in the hollowed out tunnels underneath an abandoned mental institution, which were dark, dank and had this ‘stuff’ on the walls. After a week, most people’s eyes were red and I got sick, so as cool as the story looks, hopefully now audiences will know that there were ‘sacrifices’ involved in making it look that way!”
“I like the big action episodes, and I’m always pushing for more. I actually like being out and about. I prefer to be outside more than I do being inside. All I can do is say to myself is, ‘Is this a show I would want to watch?’ I’m not a big TV watcher, but I will watch certain things, and that’s the only measure I have. So I try to push for that. One of the things that I watch for in a show like this is a lot of action. I’m probably less interested in the interpersonal relationships, although I’m happy that it goes on in our show. I think that’s always tied in with the action, although I think revealing character moments happen during the action. Simply exploring relationships is not what I’m interested in. I’m just a simple guy, what can I say? I’m just a two-dimensional man. I like action and great looking girls!”
“It’s kind of difficult for McKay to evolve, because once you know people like the character, you can’t change him that much. He goes through stuff, but the reality is, people don’t want too much of a dramatic change. The advantages that I have with McKay are that the situations he gets put in change him temporarily. Every single time something goes wrong it’s an absolute disaster for McKay. I get so much range within my episodes—which I think is a fine line to walk. I remember when we first started; the original concern was that you have this sarcastic bastard, who came in for a couple of episodes of SG-1. How does that become part of a show without turning it into Lost in Space’s Dr Smith? Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but that’s not where they are going with this.
“I’ve got to say that one of the characters who I hadn’t had a chance to really play with up until this season was Ronon. We got to do a number of scenes stuck in a cocoon. Ronon and I are from different worlds. Our characters, and in fact in life as well are absolute opposites—what he does for cool, tall and good-looking I do for the nerds of the world. We’re like Romeo and Juliet. So being stuck in a cocoon with him was fun, because his reaction to being trapped is very different to McKay’s, who gives up before they’ve actually finished building the cocoon. So there’s a lot of fun there. We actually got to shoot that a couple of times because they had a change in design halfway through, and they decided to re-shoot stuff. We’ve been doing lots of exciting things. They’re really concentrating on the characters this year, on bonding all of the characters together. I don’t know how that works for McKay! I’m not supposed to get along with anybody. Its fun making that work—the anti-bond.
“‘Sateda’ is a season unto itself—people might get hurt watching it! They witness McKay getting hit in the ass by an arrow. I am struck by an arrow in the gluteus maximus in one of the first scenes and spend a large portion of the show on my front on morphine. It was interesting—one forgets that one has an arrow in one’s ass after a while, and then the jokes eventually just get tiring, because every single person on the crew has to mention something ass related or arrow related, I suppose. Those were definitely some of my funniest scenes to do. [Robert] Cooper, I believe has no other life. He sits just coming up with awkward, possibly embarrassing situations for McKay to be in, and then he smiles about it! He comes in like he’s done you some big favour. ‘I wrote you some great stuff!’ And it’s like, ‘Well, no you didn’t, you wrote me some embarrassing stuff that my parents will disown me for!’
“When we did ‘Hot Zone,’ where [McKay] confesses he has a sister it had originally been written as a brother. And I said, ‘Look, just on the off chance, I’ve got a lot of sisters and one of them happens to be an actress. I’m not saying you have to cast her, but on the off chance, can I say ‘sister’?’ And they said ‘Oh that’s a good idea. That’s fine.’ I’ve just worked with Kate, because we just did this film together in January. And she’s fantastic. And that’s me saying it—I’m usually tougher than anybody on that kind of stuff. And one of the producers actually saw a couple of things she did recently as well, and said she’s good.”
“In McKay’s mind, he’s done the legwork and really committed his entire life to his profession. As such he’s become part of Atlantis. His sister, however, just happens to speak the language of mathematics and has this innate flair for it. One day she’s playing at home with her children and out of the blue solves a scientific conundrum that she sees no practical use for but it is, in actuality, and interesting theorem that bridges parallel universes. For laughs, Jeanie posts it on the Internet and it attracts the attention of Stargate Command. So my character’s job is to persuade her to sign a nondisclosure agreement and give us a hand implementing her theorem. Sadly I can’t reveal the precise repercussions of all this, but suffice to say we discover that the parallel universe has a few more things running around in it than we expected.
“Funnily enough, this is a very scientific episode in that it deals with an awful lot of the Science Fiction elements of the show, but it’s also one of the most character-driven stories we’ve done yet. There’s this incredible family dynamic between McKay and the rest of the team and then his sister comes along and they’re like ‘She’s quite nice. Why can’t we have her around all the time?’ It’s a pretty neat story, and Kate is fantastic in it. She’s almost as good as me. Seriously, it’s a pleasure to work with Kate, especially as I was personally responsible for trying to stop her from acting. When she first said ‘I want to go to theatre school,’ I was like ‘Are you nuts? Get a real job and forget this acting stuff.’ I did everything I could to dissuade her from acting, but, quite wisely, she ignored me, and things could not be going better for her.”
“Filming that last scene [in ‘Sunday’] with Paul was quite subdued. We’d goof around all the time, no matter how serious the scenes were. Even in ‘Sunday’ where we lost Paul’s character, he goofed around to the end; that’s Paul. However, prior to us shooting that little tag scene at the conclusion of ‘Sunday,’ everyone was laughing and saying ‘Oh David and Paul on the blue-screen. Like that’s not going to be goofy,’ and it actually ended up being kind of morose and really quite depressing. That said, it seemed like a suitable send off for Paul and his character, and it was heartfelt.”
“It’s so odd because I think as the years go by, the more you do a show, the more like life it becomes. You begin to react to it in the same sort of way. Like in life, you have these horrible, horrible things happen; there’s no rhyme or reason, and you sort of begin to take that on with the show as well. It was quite a shock. We lost a very popular guy—both on set and off set—we lost a very popular character. He’s got that great sort of Scotty-like quality. He’s just a fun character to play with and we had a lot of fun bouncing our various grating personalities off each other. It was an odd episode. In fact, it was over before I think we even really figured it out. That last scene was really quite… I was amazed at how sort of choked up I got. I was like, ‘What the hell? The guy’s not dead! Just his character died.’ They can always bring people back. It was a tough episode to do. I certainly had my doubts when I heard about the exploding tumors.”
“I think it’s interesting that the writers chose to put a woman in charge on Atlantis, because Stargate has always been very military oriented, so putting a woman who isn’t military in charge in very interesting. I think it puts out great challenges for the writers and the actors, because how do you write a person in authority who is not military; commanding military people. We’re always going back and forth of which choices empower her, and which choices lessen her power. Also being a woman, men are really not wanting to listen to what women say, just ask my ex-boyfriend! [Laughs]
“Jason Momoa had an amazing episode [‘Sateda’] this year, which I think our entire year’s budget went to this one episode. It was filmed like a feature film, I think they shot it for 20 days, and our usual shooting time is 6 days. So my episode this year [‘The Real World’] was just me alone in padded cell. [Laughs] But I liked that more, because I come from a theatre background and SCI FI is new for me, so the less money they have for special effects usually the happier I am. It’s about acting then, and goes back to the stories and characters.”
“I think we [Weir and I] are similar. I think it is compassion, I think we both have a lot of faith in human nature; I believe that most people are good, I always say it is just unfortunate the bad people are louder. But most people are good and I think she believes that too, and that was her battle with military all the time because the military attitude is beyond the defensive, it is most people you don’t trust. And she was for trust first until they tell you not to trust. So I think we are very similar. She has a lot to teach me as far as discipline and ambition [are concerned], she’s much more disciplined and ambitious than I am.”
“I think all the spaces in between is everything I brought and I think that I did. Something I get moved by when I get letters of people [who] make that comment too, [who] say ‘you didn’t have much to do in this scene, but the pauses in between…’ Because I was trying to fill her, because I was frustrated with how she was written a lot of the time when I just went, ‘She’s not being active. She’s being quite passive,’ and I thought, ‘How can you be a leader and be passive?’ There has to be—so I had to find what I would do in that situation in order to find her strength. So I think I brought a bit of myself that way. But she’s much more patient than I am, she’s much more measured than I am, and she’s definitely much brighter than I am.
“In season three we get to see a lot more of the light-hearted side of who Teyla is. We’ve got a lot more humour injected into the season—in fact, two of the episodes are purely comedic. For me, I play a character who doesn’t really get to laugh all that much, so that was fun for me. We also get to see a little more of who she is when she isn’t on duty, a lot of her interests. There’s an angle that has been touched on right now, which is love interests. It’s always been toyed with for a couple of seasons… I think we’re going to get right into something, which is intriguing and fun for me to play, cos it’s a totally different aspect of who Teyla is.
“To be truthful, we really haven’t had a chance to bite into anything … I haven’t had a chance to bite into anything that I feel really progresses Teyla in the eyes of the audience. I mean I have my ideas about who she is, but this season thus far we really haven’t had an opportunity to show that to the fans so … so yes, that’s how I feel. So we’ll see if we’ve got a few more to do, the season is not over yet but we shall see.
“It’s wonderful to bring [Teyla] to life. I mean, she’s feminine, but she’s also tough. She doesn’t lose any of her womanliness by being a kick-ass girl, and I love that about her…that’s something that the fans really enjoy as well. I’ve met a lot of young, cute girls who are inspired to take action and to learn martial arts and to just be empowered just by watching Teyla, so to me, that’s a thrill.
From “The Warrior Within” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine #13 (Dec./Jan. 2007):
“Robert was fantastic to work with. I hadn’t talked too much with him before that. He’s a very quiet guy and I never go up to the office unless there is a serious problem. I came with my ideas and when I first met him, they were having a little meeting so I went in and gave him the hugest hug. I had to prove to him that I could act. He was there every scene, if I needed the set to be quiet, he would make sure they were. He gave me my time. Not to float his boat but he is definitely one of the top directors I’ve worked with on the show, let alone my career.”
“I love being Sheppard’s ‘sidekick’, because the way Joe plays his character, he’s like the unsung hero. And it’s nice, because Ronon was one of the top [military] guys on his planet, and when he came in, he had no trust for anyone else. Sheppard is the one he does trust, and throughout ‘Runner’ he trusts him more and more. I think it’s just a level of respect that we both have [for each other]. It’s really nice. Whether they call it a sidekick or his partner, it’s great and we’re a perfect match. I think it’s good for Joe because he’s got someone to go, ‘Ronon, kill!'”
“Sheppard is Ronon’s commander but to me, he and Teyla are the only ones I can trust. I go to Teyla for everything because Sheppard isn’t big on the emotional things. If I had a problem, I would go to Teyla since we are both aliens. She’s like my sister. Shep is like my best friend through the whole thing. Weir is just my boss. I don’t know too much about her but at the same time, I respect her. Rodney is the brains and I’m the brawn and it will always be like that between us. I can kick his ass but he’ll outwit me. Beckett saved my life numerous times and in these episodes, you’ll see he’s probably saved me more than anybody. He is someone I trust and Beckett is like a good buddy now.
“Season 3 has certainly been an eventful one for Carson Beckett. Stand-out episodes for me include : ‘Misbegotten’ – the retrovirus story is very interesting and I believe it’ll be developed further. ‘Irresistible’ – working with Richard Kind was a real pleasure and Beckett crying with Sheppard in a puddle jumper is always something to behold. ‘Phantoms’ – I thought it was such an interesting script that Carl Binder wrote. Seeing all the main characters encountering moral dilemmas made for a really exciting episode of Atlantis. And finally ‘Sunday’ – well, when you watch it you’ll know what I mean!
“‘Misbegotten’ for Beckett was interesting. The whole Michael/retrovirus aspect of the storyline is really developed heavily in that episode. The great thing about Beckett is they wrote him with such humanity, and he stands up for his cause. As much a cowardly lion as he is, when push comes to shove, Beckett is very brave which I really like about the character.
“…I loved ‘Phantoms.’ It was great because every character was stepping outside their normal beats and insecurities surfaced. It was a cleverly written episode by Carl Binder and i enjoyed the opportunity Beckett had in it. As an actor, it really let your muscles stretch.
“I initially found out about Beckett’s demise right after I filmed the episode ‘Phantoms,’ which Martin Wood directed and Carl Binder wrote. Shortly after we finished that, I was back on set and John Smith, Brad Wright, and Robert Cooper asked to have a chat with me and brought me up to the office. To be quite honest, I thought they were going to say ‘Really good work on ‘Phantoms.” To say the least, I didn’t see it coming. They said ‘We want to shake the show up a little bit, we don’t know if Stargate SG-1 is going to go for another season, and in doing that, sometimes you have to kill a character off that will make a big impact. Unfortunately, it is your character we are going to kill off.’ They told me their reasons for it and what their thoughts were. I was a little shocked and at the same time, disappointed. On the other hand, it has been such a great opportunity. I’ve done almost 60 episodes of the show and went from a recurring character to a main cast member, so I have nothing but good things to say about those guys.
“Initially, that scene [at the end with McKay] wasn’t in the script. They added it in later which I thought was a nice move. It was really difficult. David Hewlett and I are such good friends and have really grown close over the years we’ve been on the show together. McKay and Beckett had a terrific energy together and David and I certainly do. I think the fans would agree on that one. We didn’t rehearse a whole lot and I think it was difficult for David. He was amazing and supportive throughout the whole process. That is the goodbye scene and you could hear a pin drop on the set.
Up until Momoa’s reveal, Rainbow Sun Francks appeared in the opening credits, but afterwards, he was noticeably absent. His character Lt. Aiden Ford left Atlantis after he underwent a life-altering ordeal at the hand of a Wraith. Discussing this change, the actor confided in an audio interview for the 
“Well, first and foremost you can’t possibly give enough credit to Stargate SG-1 [for Stargate Atlantis‘ success]. It paved a very comfortable place for a spin-off, so there’s no doubt we have an edge on a lot of shows in that regard. We’re probably going to get a greater audience flow than a new science fiction show would, so that helps quite a bit.
“I once had a bug attached to my neck for the entire episode. That was very uncomfortable. This season I had to turn into a bug, which was challenging. There were a lot of prosthetics and that was interesting. I wouldn’t want to be under prosthetics for too long, but the guys who do ours are such artists and it’s nice to watch them work. As an actor it’s fun to morph physically into something else.
“I tend to be more in the Harrison Ford vein [motions to taking out a gun and makes a shooting sound]. That’s pretty much where my skills come in. I have a sloppier, more improvisational approach to winning battles. They’re not well choreographed. It’s funny because James Bamford, our stunt coordinator, and I talked about that. In the beginning of the show, he was like, ‘Oh, you know this guy is going to be like, ‘Waaa Waaa” [Mock karate sounds]. I thought, ‘I don’t think this is actually the character. I think the character is a more regular guy in extraordinary circumstances who just feels like he is flying by the seat of his pants, and will be lucky if he pulls this thing off, as opposed to ‘Waaaaa….” It’s fun to have those characters on the show, but I just thought my character is not going to be that. Chances are, on his off-time, he won’t be sparring… He’ll be drinking beer or playing golf.”
“I pitched Brad Wright a number of different ideas, some of which had already been done, because they’ve done five million episodes of SG-1. The ones that I came to him with had been done in one form or another. I had another idea and he liked the basic concept and he had some other ideas with it, so we just collaborated. I came up with the storyline and he wrote the script. … I had an idea that there was a void that I walked into and got stuck in. I didn’t think of doing it as a different time dimension. Robert came up with that idea and it was a good one, so we ran with it [in ‘Epiphany’].
“Fortunately, the more you see of McKay the more you realize, yes, he’s incredibly arrogant, but he’s also incredibly daring, and there are other facets to the guy as well. Last year my character was put in situations where he got to be a hero, a villain, a Space explorer, etc., and that’s something we’ll be doing more of this [second] season. From a character arc standpoint it’s a dream come true for me. McKay has gone from being a bookworm to a full-fledged member of the Atlantis team. Throughout it all, though, we haven’t lost the fact that McKay doesn’t play nice with others. Not that he doesn’t want to. It’s just that sometimes he forgets to try because he’s far too busy in his own little world.
“It’s like the monkey’s paw…If you make a suggestion, all of a sudden it shows up in a script and it’s just not what you planned. Last episode [‘Runner’] they had me hanging upside down in a hazmat suit, hanging from one leg, in the middle of a forest at night, while it’s pouring with rain. Which was fine—until they started spinning me. And then it sort of fell apart for me. That’s when McKay leaves and David just fights nausea! I’ll just say something like ‘Could it possibly be more miserable that shooting ‘The Storm’?’ And then Robert Cooper will step up to the plate and go…’Sure! It can be! You can be wet, dead and upside down!’ So that’s the monkey paw aspect of it. Useful comments that I make are very few and far between!
“[‘Grace Under Pressure’] has some great banter between Carter and McKay which began for me and my character back on Stargate SG-1. It was, of course, a total pleasure to work again with Amanda. I couldn’t believe how full of energy she was considering all she had to do work-wise plus taking care of her new baby. To top it off Amanda was filming both SG-1 and Atlantis at that point. Even with all that on her plate she still came to the table with so many ideas.
“The reality of it, however, is that I’ve been given so much great material to sink my teeth into with this role. If I’d written this I couldn’t have written myself a better part. I keep saying this and it sounds so cheesy, but there are always a couple of scenes in every episode where I get to cackle to myself while rubbing my hands together and thinking ‘Ooh, I can’t wait to do this.’ There’s a fantastic scene in this season’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ where our two leaders Dr Weir and Colonel Sheppard have gone ballistic and are shooting at each other because they’re possessed by alien beings. Meanwhile, me, Mitch Pileggi [Colonel Steven Caldwell] and Paul McGillion are up in the Atlantis control room and, in this particular scene, are yelling at each other and going ‘OK, I’m in charge now! No way, I am! Shut up, you’re like so not in charge!’ To me that dynamic was just so hysterical and we had a ball shooting that scene. It was one of the best days I’ve had on Atlantis.
“I sound like such a suck when I say I really don’t have a favourite episode. Off the top of my head, in no particular order: ‘Duet,’ ‘Grace Under Pressure,’ ‘Runner, ‘The Long Goodbye.’ There are some that are my favourite action shows, and others that are my favourite acting shows, and then there are some that just ended up being my favourite episodes to shoot.”
“I’d like to be out there doing the exciting stuff.
“I always thought it would be interesting to have the episode where you see all of the characters at 3 in the morning, right? Lying awake in bed and worrying about the decisions that they made that day or regretting choices that they didn’t make and I always thought that would be very interesting. Because I think Doctor Weir made some very tough choices and she was in a world that she didn’t know existed a year before she was put there. You know a year before it’s like somebody says to one of us, ‘You know, you’re going to work on another planet,’ and you’re like, ‘What?!? You’re crazy, that doesn’t exist!’ So she went from that to all of a sudden living that and I think she made some bad mistakes too. You know, in order to learn you make mistakes and I think she is a very compassionate person and I think that was hard for her to deal with the guilt of having made certain mistakes and hurt some people because of those mistakes.”
“I will say this about bringing Teyla to life, she presents so many challenges, but one of the biggest ones to me is that she is meant to be human, but is meant to be other worldy from a different galaxy. So there has to be something about her that sets her apart, though she is human. That was a particularly interesting challenge for me when I started to portray her to make sure there was always that balance, the fact that she was human, but she’s different. And then the second largest challenge, to me, was learning the martial arts and starting to incorporate that into who Teyla is. The physicality of that was also challenging. But both of those have added to my enjoyment of portraying her. They were two things that I had to surmount, but I’m still finessing them but when it comes to the physical element.
“I’ll share this funny (story), or I think it’s funny, the day we shot the kiss [in ‘Conversion’], it was a day when my parents happened to be up visiting me from Los Angeles. They had come up for a few days and they wanted to be on set. (So) they were there front and center, and even though I love them and they are so supportive, it was very very nerve-wracking, and it was a particularly challenging scene to shoot because it was a fight sequence that ended up in a kiss, and my parents were right there watching every moment, so that that was a unique situation…They thought it was great, they were champions of it, they thought it went wonderfully well. They thought Joe looked great. They’re big fans. They were happy, they were pleased.
“I [was the one who came up with the idea for me to sing], because I love to sing, and it was always something that I thought we would be able to use in terms of a link [to] her people, to Teyla’s people. It would be very interesting, kind of a historic look into who her people are, and their beliefs. I went and I talked to Brad Wright about it, and how I thought song and dance have been historically used for funerals and grief, and spiritual purposes, in various different cultures. I thought it would be an interesting way to incorporate it, and also to get to know a little bit more about the assertions. Which I’m always anxious to learn more about, Teyla’s history and their people. (Brad) was game, and incorporated it [into ‘Critical Mass’]. Something that I brought forth.
“They flew me to Los Angeles twice. I had a few conversations with [composer Joel Goldsmith] over the phone about the feel of the piece, what I had envisioned, what he had envisioned, and we came to a common ground. I had a lot of fun working with him. It was really exciting, because we built the song from the ground up, put various instrumentation to it, and discussed how we wanted the song to feel. It was really, really good. The funny thing is, I flew to Los Angeles and recorded the song with him, then immediately flew back to continue shooting in Vancouver. Then one of my producers, John Smith, came up to me on the set, and said, ‘Rachel, we’re going to have to fly you back to Los Angeles to re-record the song because it sounds too good.’ So they then sent me back to Los Angeles to rerecord it and to not to make it sound quite as polished. That’s what we ended up with. It was a very interesting experience working in a sound booth, and working beside the composer, the musicians and what have you. There is a lot that goes into recording a song, but I really did enjoy working with him.”
From interview at 
“I think in the first season I had more fight sequences, and in the second season they had to establish Jason’s character, Ronon, as being kind of a go-getter, scrapper, fighter—will throw himself into the fray at any given second. So yeah, that has definitely changed the dynamic a little bit. It’s also a good thing for Teyla from the perspective of character that she now has somebody onboard the team who shares her references, and being that he has grown up with a similar background, and that has been a good thing for her. Ultimately, it will be a good thing for the show. I think he definitely has changed the dynamic for the best.”
From interview with Gilles Nuytens at 
“I went to high school in Iowa before moving to Hawaii where I worked on the shows Baywatch Hawaii and North Shore. … I auditioned for the role of Ronon, but I had met the casting director, Paul Weber, about a year before on something completely unrelated. So he thought of me for the part of Ronon Dex when it came up and I was immediately attracted to the whole package. I had never done any action based roles before and Ronon is my complete opposite—I’ve never shot a gun in my life! So this has been a totally different mindset for me.
“I’m actually the opposite to Ronon Dex. We’re the same height and have the same hair, but other than that, we have nothing in common! So where Ronon’s intimidating and gruff, I’m kind of a softie and a goof ball! He’s more comfortable with a gun or a sword in his hand and I’m happiest doing my art or writing. We both like action though…I just prefer to be out in nature rock climbing or something, and Ronon prefers to be fighting someone!
“When I first showed up on set, I was grabbing Ronon’s gun and spinning it. If you feel a real gun, it weighs three or four pounds. I came up with this idea right on the set, to just spin it, do these shots, and they loved it. I just made it a part of my thing, that he was to be flash in some ways, and it’s just like watching old Samurai movies and getting into that, ‘I’m an action hero.’ It’s great, man. I’m never going to play a cowboy. I will probably play the Indian, or the bad guy in some way, but I’m not going to play John Wayne. I’m not going to play that, so it’s fun to play a gunslinger and be able to do all this kind of stuff And with it being a laser gun, I can do all kinds of stupid stuff that no one would do with a 9mm gun. I’m not going to play SWAT team but it’s going to have that flash. With swords, I’m not going to play a Samurai either but we have a great action adventure show where we do stuff very fast like, bam, bam, bam. Something that should take a couple days to shoot, or should be at least eight hours, we get in two to three hours sometimes. We cram it in.”
“Dr. Carson Beckett is a very interesting and complex character who wears his heart on his sleeve. He is passionate about his work and has a very moralistic backbone. The character has developed greatly since the pilot—thanks to his interactions with all of the other characters and great story lines from great writers. From comedy to drama—Carson has seen it all and will hopefully continue to get bigger and broader with every encounter and challenge.
“I love my cast mates, they have become really great friends. Again not to sound cliché but it is like a family in a lot of ways and I really learn to respect all their individual talents as well as their friendship. David Hewlett is one of my closest friends now and I wouldn’t have met him if it wasn’t for Stargate.
