SciFiAndTvTalk

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Vincent Ventresca (The Invisible Man)

 
Vincent Ventresca as Darien Fawkes in The Invisible Man. Photo copyright of The Syfy Channel.

Now you see him, now you don't! In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Vincent Ventresca talks about his work as Darien Fawkes (a.k.a. The Invisible Man)  on the Syfy Channel series The Invisible Man.

“Basically, when you accept a job on a TV series it’s a lot like going on a blind date,” says the actor. “You kind of know what the girl looks like but you’re not really sure if you’re going to fall in love. Well, let me just say that it’s nice to have a job like The Invisible Man that you can fall in love with. I’ve been acting for thirteen years and in this line of work you can get your heart broken because things don’t always turn out the way you want them to, especially with TV.

“I did a Sci-Fi show called Prey which I thought had a lot of possibilities. William Schmidt executive produced the series and it was more or less my entry into the sometimes-nasty world of TV. I remember the day he called me up and told me, ‘Congratulations, you got the job.’ I said, ‘Great, I can’t wait to work with you.’ Then he went on to say, ‘Unfortunately. I’ve just been fired.’ So this person who I thought was going to be a part of Prey’s collaborative process was now gone.

Something similar happened on The Invisible Man,” he continues. “Matt Greenberg created the show and was the executive producer for the first three episodes. Then his mother became very ill and he had to go home to take care of her. Sadly, she passed away recently and I don’t know if Matt is coming back but I totally understood his decision. Sometimes in real life things happen and you’re pulled out of this make-believe world of acting. Fortunately for us, David Levinson has been appointed executive producer.  He’s an old veteran at this and has brought a great deal of wisdom and experience to the table

“We’re also very lucky in that the world Matt created for the show is one of great depth and richness,” adds Ventresca. “Every character is such an integral part of the pie. It’s almost misleading that the series is called The Invisible Man because it’s really about the world [of the Department of Fish and Game] that The Official [Eddie Jones] has set up. Darien Fawkes has simply become part of it. As the series progresses, viewers will discover this world has existed for a long time. I don’t want to give too much away, but future stories involve Darien’s and The Official’s family history. Apparently, both those paths crossed 50 years ago and have led up to the world that we’re seeing now.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of The Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Tony Todd (Star Trek: Voyager)

 
Tony Todd in his Alpha-Hirogen garb with Robert Picardo (as The Doctor) in the Star Trek: Voyager epuisode "Prey." Photo copyright of UPN.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Tony Todd talks about the costume and make-up  used to transform him into an Alpha-Hirogen when he guest-starred in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Prey.

Because they often track their prey under the most adverse of conditions the Hirogen wear protective armor-plated suits with a helmet and breathing apparatus fitted over their mouths. Todd not only had to slip into such a costume on a daily basis but also had to sit through a lengthy makeup process to transform him into the lizard-like alien.

"Boy, was that suit uncomfortable,” he recalls. “It was a complete latex outfit that weighed at least one-hundred-and-twenty pounds. I had heard that an actor before me had had difficulty breathing and, granted, he was three-hundred pounds, but the costume was cumbersome and you literally could not sit down in it. They had a board propped up for me to lie on and a hose built into the back of the costume that allowed them to inject concentrated studio air up my back. They did that twice and it was really something else,” laughs Todd.

“The makeup process took about six hours but the gentleman who did it, Scott, is cool so the time flew by and it wasn’t as arduous as it could have been. Again, you sit there as this metamorphosis slowly takes place and it certainly helps you get into the alien mode.

“Fortunately, part of my theatrical training was with masks so I’m never intimidated when I have to wear heavy makeup or prosthetics. Some people will say, ‘Oh, no one will recognize me,’ when, in actuality, if you’ve worked with masks you understand how freeing they are. It’s like wearing a word processor on your face with full edit functions. All the extraneous human ticks and behaviour are taken out and you’re left with the meat and potatoes in which to help create your character. I hope that makes sense. It’s all part of the process for me.”

One of the attributes of a good hunter is stealth but, according to Todd, his character was anything but graceful. “Usually after make-up I’d go back to my trailer and wait there until they called me for a scene. They would then literally have to send two PAs [personal assistants] to get me. Now, I have wide shoulders anyway but on top of that my costume had all this padding. It took us until the fourth day of filming to figure out the best way to get me out the door. Before that the poor PAs looked like Laurel and Hardy trying to catch a piano going downhill,” he laughs.

“There’s a scene that takes place twenty minutes before the end of the episode in which Tuvok [Tim Russ] shoots the Hirogen with a phaser. The gravity is not working on this particular deck so my character is supposed to float after being hit. They hung the camera by bungee cords to achieve that weightless look but, as for me, they laid me down on a pair of truck inner tubes to give me that bouncy quality. This was the very first thing we shot for the episode, so it was a rather amusing way to start off,” says Todd.

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of UPN, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1)

 
Michael Shanks as Stargate SG-1's Dr. Daniel Jackson. Photo copyright of MGM.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Stargate SG-1's Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson) talks about working on the first two seasons of the show.

In its travels to different worlds through the Stargate, the SG-1 team discover living crystals that duplicate O’Neill (Cold Lazarus), meet the ancient Viking god Thor (Thor’s Hammer) and help Teal’c save his son before the boy is implanted with a Goa’uld larva (Bloodlines).

"There’s an episode called Need that we did at the start of this season which I really enjoyed because it allowed me to take an emotional journey when Daniel is faced with an addiction. It was something totally opposite to what I’m usually asked to do so I appreciate that story for the stretch and the push it gave me as an actor,” says Shanks. “In another episode we did fairly recently [Holiday] I spent over six hours being transformed by all this prosthetic makeup into a completely new character, so I like that for the acting challenge as well.

“My favourite story as it stands so far is one called The Torment of Tantalus, which we did in the first season. It is one of the first episodes that really allows my character to carry the ball, but beyond that I think everything that’s good about this series is represented in that episode. All the elements fit perfectly into place in terms of problem solving, ensemble work and a great story [by Robert C. Cooper] that keeps you hooked right up to the end.”

While Colonel Jack O’Neill’s (Richard Dean Anderson) people and the other Stargate teams never know what awaits them on the other side of the portal, some of the biggest surprises often take place when the cameras are not rolling. “Christopher Judge [Teal'c] has this fear of bears,” explains Shanks. “He’s from Los Angeles and we’re up here in the wilds of British Columbia where I’m from and where bears live. He’s a big guy and the old adage, ‘Bears are more afraid of you than you are of them,’ is very true, so he really doesn’t have anything to be afraid of.

“On one episode there was a grip working in the forest. He was dressed completely in black and throughout the day I kept saying to Christopher, ‘Did you hear something? Did you see that?’ He’d give me a punch or whatever and say, ‘Quit messing with me.’ Finally there was a point where this grip was bent down in a ditch and I said to Christopher again, ‘Did you see that?’ Of course, I had him looking in the right direction so when this grip in his black outfit stood up Christopher jumped probably three feet in the air. He was ready to run for his trailer until he figured out at the last second it was just a grip,” laughs the actor.

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of MGM, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Star Trek)

 
Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Nurse Christine Chapel in the classic Star Trek TV series. Photo copyright of NBC and Paramount Studios.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, the first lady of Star Trek, the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry, talks about her involvement in the legendary Sci-Fi series, beginning with her role of Number One opposite Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike in "The Cage," the first pilot for the classic Star Trek TV series.

“Jeff was an incredible person who wasn’t filled with ego,” recalls Roddenberry. “He didn’t quite understand what was going on in this big spaceship; none of us did. We were all kind of floundering but we all had fun. Again, you’re talking about a bunch of professionals, so for us it was just another day at the office. Jeff was a remarkable human being and I wish he were still around.”

Unfortunately for Number One, NBC studio executives were more comfortable having the pointy-eared Mister Spock, and not a woman, as second-in-command of the U.S.S. Enterprise. So when her husband’s [Gene Roddenberry] idea was given the green light for a weekly Star Trek series, Roddenberry took on the role of Nurse Christine Chapel.

“I so enjoyed working with DeForest Kelley [Doctor Leonard McCoy],” she recalls. “He is such a genuine person that it is impossible not to like him. Jimmy [Doohan, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott] and his wife at the time, Anita, were a lot of fun. They would come over to our house and play pool but that was the only social relationship we really had on Trek. We all just came to work and did our jobs. At that time we weren’t making something for posterity. We were just going to work for another day and praying to God that maybe next year we would get a pickup for another season. We struggled with that for three years before they finally cancelled us.”

In 1973 Roddenberry supplied the voice for Nurse Christine Chapel as well as for the feline Lieutenant M’Ress in the animated Star Trek series. In 1979 her character was promoted to doctor and appeared on the big screen in Star Trek - The Motion Picture. She went on to provide the voice of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D’s computer for the television show Star Trek:The Next Generation. During the first year of the series she also made her debut as Counselor Deanna Troi’s (Marina Sirtis) mother, the effervescent, ebullient, irrepressible Lwaxana Troi, in the episode Haven. The character proved to be a hit with the viewers as well as the actress playing her.

“She is the mother from hell,” laughs Roddenberry. “When Gene first told me about her he said, ‘Majel, I’ve got a great part for you and you don’t have to act.’ He went on to explain that she was actually the Auntie Mame of the galaxy, so that was my handle. I figured, ‘Well, I’m going to pull out all the stops and the director will bring me down.’ I kept on pulling out more and more stops but nobody said, ‘Come back,’ so she became wilder and more fancy-free. I just love that woman, I do. She really is the epitomy of everything I hoped that I would become one day. Again, she is another role model for women over fifty and I love her. One day a woman screamed at me from across a parking lot, ‘You’ve done more for women over fifty than any movement in America,’ and I was very grateful for that comment.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of NBC and Paramount Studios, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Syfy Cancels Stargate Universe

ACCORDING to other on-line sources, The Syfy Channel announced earlier today via Twitter that it would not be picking up Stargate Universe for a third season. The first half of season two recently finished airing on Syfy, and the latter 10 episodes will be shown beginning in the New Year. I will pass on any official press release details once I receive them. In the meantime, I want to thank the cast and crew of Stargate Universe for welcoming me onto their set over the past two years. I had the privilege of witnessing firsthand all the hard work and effort that went into making two seasons of the show. I still have a few interviews left from my set visit back in July, which I will be posting here at SciFiAndTVTalk. It was a pleasure getting to know the new cast, and I want to wish all the actors as well as the behind-the-scenes team the best of luck and success in all their future ventures.

Steve Eramo 

This Week On Law & Order: UK - 12 - 17 - 10

 
Law & Order: UK's Senior Crown Prosecutor James Steel (Ben Daniels). Photo copyright of Kudos, Wolf Films and NBC Universal.

SPOILER ALERT!! -DS Ronnie Brooks (Bradley Walsh) and DS Matt Devlin (Jamie Bamber) are called to the death of a teenager. Can Crown Prosecutors James Steel (Ben Daniels) and Alesha Phillips (Freema Agyeman) keep their promise to bring the person responsible for the teenager’s death to justice? Episode 12 airs Friday, December 17th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on BBC America.

As noted above, photo copyright of Kudos, Wolf Films and NBC Universal, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

BBC America Annouces All-New Supernatural Saturdays Slate For 2011

BBC America has long showcased the best of British Sci-Fi with such hit series as Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Being Human. It further demonstrates its commitment to the genre with the announcement of a refreshed primetime Sci-Fi slate for Supernatural Saturdays. In this slot, the channel will roll out three all new co-productions, Primeval, Outcasts, and Bedlam. It will also be home for new seasons of previous co-productions Doctor Who and Being Human. And as previously announced, BBC America will premiere the highly anticipated Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol on Christmas Day, the same day as its UK broadcast.

Perry Simon, General Manager, Channels says: “BBC America has been setting a bench-mark for quality supernatural and Sci-Fi shows like Torchwood and Doctor Who, attracting millions of fans to the channel. Throughout 2011 our viewers will see the return of old friends like Doctor Who and Primeval, which we helped save from extinction, as well as some great new additions to our schedule like Outcasts and Bedlam. Our fans told us they wanted these shows, and we are delighted to give them what they want.”

Following Matt Smith’s recent appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, the new Doctor Who Christmas Special, A Christmas Carol premieres for the first time on Christmas Day in the U.S. The festive Dickens-inspired adventure is penned by award-winning lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat (Sherlock, Coupling). Along with newlyweds Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), Harry Potter’s Michael Gambon and Opera diva Katherine Jenkins join The Doctor for what might be his most Christmassy adventure yet. Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol premieres Saturday, December 25th @ 9:00 pm EST/PST.

Supernatural Saturdays starts off the New Year with a roar with the return of the beloved series Primeval. Returning to screens thanks to a unique international collaboration with BBC America as a co-producer, the fourth season opens the franchise to new audiences with ambitious new adventures. When rips in time called anomalies started opening across the UK, dangerous creatures from the past and future began appearing in the most unexpected places, endangering lives and putting the whole of humanity at risk. A crack team of specialists was appointed by the government to deal with these “creature incursions.” This job has proven deadly for multiple team members and threats continue to escalate. From the creators of Walking With Dinosaurs and Survivors, the new season of Primeval sees a new headquarters, the arrival of new faces and the surprise return of some notable guest stars from earlier seasons. Primeval premieres Saturday, January 1st @ 9:00pm EST/PST.

Hot on the heels on the Primeval finale and from the makers of award-winning and international hit series Life on Mars and Spooks (a.k.a MI-5 in the States) comes the frontier drama Outcasts in early 2011. The series takes viewers into a new world as it explores survival, sex, politics and the drive for power in a new post-Earth era.  Shot in South Africa and created by Ben Richards (MI-5), Outcasts stars Eric Mabius (Ugly Betty, The L Word), Liam Cunningham (Clash Of The Titans) and Hermione Norris (MI-5, Wire In The Blood). With Earth no longer habitable, a group of courageous pioneers have traveled to another planet to begin again. They’ve built the town of Forthaven on Carpathia and have the unique opportunity of creating a new and better future on another planet.  Led by President Tate (Cunningham) and his core team of Stella (Norris), Cass (Daniel Mays, The Bank Job, Atonement) and Fleur (Amy Manson, Being Human), they’re determined to run a democracy, but human nature and some tough decisions from the past come back to haunt them. Outcasts premieres early 2011 on Saturdays @ 9:00pm EST/PST.

Supernatural Saturdays in Spring 2011 will see the return of two of BBC America’s top rated programs, Doctor Who and Being Human. Doctor Who will open with a spectacular two-parter set in the U.S. and penned by ‘Who supremo’ Steven Moffat. In the special two-parter co-produced with BBC America, key scenes have been filmed in Utah for a story set in the late ‘60s in which the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves on a secret summons that takes them on an adventure from the desert - right to the Oval Office itself. The new season will be split into two blocks, with the first block airing in spring 2011 and the second airing in fall 2011. By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the fall to find out what happens.

BBC America co-production, Being Human is also back with an all new third season. Russell Tovey, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner return as George, Annie and Mitchell, the three twenty-somethings trying to live as normally as possible despite being a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. This season will see the housemates relocate from their current home in Bristol to Wales – a move triggered by events in the dramatic climax of the second series – while encountering some new faces and battling their biggest threat yet.

Future Supernatural Saturdays in 2011 will debut the haunting all new six-part series, Bedlam. The sexy, contemporary paranormal program stars singer and actor Will Young (Pop Idol winner, Skins), Charlotte Salt (The Tudors), Theo James (A Passionate Woman), Joanna Page (Gavin & Stacey), and Ashley Madekwe (Secret Diary of a Call Girl). Set in Bedlam Heights – an apartment building converted from a pre-Victorian lunatic asylum – the inhabitants experience the darker side of the building’s history when former asylum spirits come back to claim what they believe to be theirs and seek revenge on those who have wronged them. The terrifying hauntings that follow reveal that sometimes when you scratch away the surface, things aren’t always what they seem.

Complementing its primetime commitment to supernatural drama, BBC America is also introducing a sci-fi block during the daytime schedule comprising episodes of fan favorites like Doctor Who and Torchwood. The weekday block will see The Doctor have a new American companion – Sci-Fi touchstone, The X-Files. Like Doctor Who, The X-Files has long been hailed as one of the defining series of its time. Created by Chris Carter, the Emmy award winning program, launched the careers of David Duchovny (Californication) and Gillian Anderson (The Last King of Scotland, Masterpiece Theatre) who starred as FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, investigating the existence of alien races and other paranormal activity. The X-Files premieres Monday, January 3th @ 11:00a.m. EST/PST after Doctor Who airings at 10:00a.m. EST/PST.

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Glenn Quinn (Angel)

 
Glenn Quinn as Doyle in Angel. Photo copyright of The WB Network.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, the late Irish-born actor Glenn Quinn talks about his character of Doyle's first meeting with Angel (David Boreanaz) in the WB series Angel.

In Angel’s pilot episode City Of, Angel barely has time to settle into his new digs when Doyle unexpectedly arrives on the scene. “I show up in Angel’s apartment and he’s like, ‘Who the hell are you?’ and I tell him, ‘I’m Doyle, man, I’m here to help you. We have a mission.’ I basically bring him up to speed on what’s happening and explain to him that he has got to get in there with humans and mix it up in order to learn how to truly care about them,” explains Quinn.

“They spend a lot of time walking and talking through the first episode but then Doyle comes up with the name of some girl who’s in trouble and Angel goes off to rescue her. Doyle, in turn, helps him but at the same time he really doesn’t want to get in the middle of any violence. He’s just the messenger and, in truth, a little chicken, but when it comes right down to it Angel knows he can rely on him. So the two guys get pretty tight and Doyle works hard to bring Angel out of his shell. Viewers are going to see a terrific sense of humour coming from Angel thanks to my character, who can occasionally be a goof.

“Shooting City Of was certainly an eye-opener for me as an actor,” he continues.  “When I opened the script the first thing I saw was a ten-and-a-half page monologue that my character had to recite.  It was quite a challenge to get that all down, but I did it.  This was also my first time working under prosthetics.  In this story, Doyle morphs into this demon-like creature with red eyes and spikes all over his face.  It took a hell of a long time in the make-up chair but I ended up looking pretty cool.

“We do a tremendous amount of location filming, too, especially at night, and sometimes it’s so hard to unwind, man.  There are times that I’ll come home exhausted but I can’t go to sleep right away because I’m still pumped up from the work.  So it can be a demanding schedule but at the same time we have a ton of fun.  David and I are constantly in fits of laughter and I think that helps loosen us up so that our characters don’t come across as freakin’ robots.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of The WB Network, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Bones' Emily Deschanel

 
Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan in the Bones episode "The Doctor in the Photo." Photo by Adam Taylor and copyright of Fox Television.

IN the Bones episode The Doctor in the Photo(which aired last week on Fox), Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) gets a glimpse into her own life when the body of a brilliant and career-driven surgeon is found in a rough neighborhood with multiple fractures in her skull and no indication as to how or why she was there. While the team investigates the case objectively, Brennan struggles to separate her own life from the victim’s as she perceives many parallels between them the more she learns about the victim’s past. Meanwhile, evidence found at the crime scene brings the team closer to solving the case, but it’s Brennan’s unique perspective that propels her to retrace the final events of the victim’s life. With the reassurance of a new friend and Jeffersonian security guard, Micah Leggat (guest star Enrico Colantoni), Brennan makes a discovery about herself and learns a lesson about taking chances.

A few days prior to the airing of this episode, Bones leading lady Emily Deschanel spoke with myself as well as other journalists about this episode and the series in general. Rather than removing a number of spoiler-related paragraphs from our conversation, I decided to wait until after the episode aired to run this piece. I hope you enjoy the following edited version of the Q & A we did with Emily.

In this particular episode, Brennan feels a strong connection to the victim of the case.  How was it to play Brennan in such a vulnerable light?

EMILY DESCHANEL - It’s hard because you have to go through all the emotions that she’s going through. At the same time, it’s refreshing because it’s a very different episode than most episodes of the show. It was one of my favorite scripts, and I haven’t seen the final cut yet, but hopefully, it’ll be one of my favorite episodes, too.

Again, it’s just very unique. It’s very personal to Brennan. She's facing her own mortality and also looking at her life and seeing what she would be leaving behind when she dies.  You don’t see that side of Brennan very often. She becomes very vulnerable trying to solve this case where a woman is killed. When they start listing the different qualities of this person, whether physical or personal qualities, they sound very familiar to Brennan. Then, even looking at the photograph of the person who died, it looks like Brennan when she looks at it. It’s from Brennan’s perspective, this episode.

So it’s very interesting for Brennan, but at the same time kind of terrifying and confusing as well. She’s visited by a night watchman, who we’re not even sure if he exists or not in real life. Enrico Colantoni, who I’ve always loved as an actor, played that part, so it was a lot of fun to work with him.

Speaking of Brennan as a whole, does it ever get exhausting playing her, because she’s so serious and factual? You, yourself always come across as so lively. Is it hard to be in that state of mind a lot?

ED - Yes and no. I think that Brennan has become a lot more open over the years and you get to see her kind of dorky, quirky side at times, which is fun. I hang on to those moments and try to incorporate things like that into every episode. My favorite thing about people in general is that they have contradictions. Brennan is no exception to that rule. I love exploring the contradictions of her character and all of that.

Playing a character who’s very different from myself is one of the best things to happen to me, especially in a television series. So many times people are hired to play something very close to who they are in real life. It’s a wonderful opportunity to play a character who is very different. I can’t say that I don’t possess some qualities that are similar or that sometimes I don’t remind myself of her when I behave like a real, I don’t know, nerd—I say that in the most affectionate way—but I’m very different. 

Sometimes, though, especially when you’re doing certain episodes, you take a little bit of your character home with you. I have tried to make boundaries for myself where I leave work at work. If there’s any work that needs to be done before the next day, I do it at work. I don’t leave work until I’ve finished that. I don’t like to take work home with me. If that means staying late even after working 15 hours, then I’ll stay late an hour or two just to make sure I get everything done right. I try to set those boundaries so I don’t take things home, but that said, it does occasionally leak into your personal life.

In this episode, you do a fantastic scene with David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth) in the car when you’re talking to him. It’s a really somber moment. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like filming that emotionally charged scene? It actually had me crying, too.

ED - I shouldn’t say, “That’s nice.  I’m glad you cried,” but I guess we always want to affect people emotionally. It was one of those scenes that you know is coming up and you prepare for it acting-wise. It’s also one of those scenes that [in the script] says you’re supposed to cry and you’re like, “It’s okay, though, if I don’t cry. I don’t have to cry,” but then everyone is expecting you to cry. So there’s a lot of pressure in that way.

As an actor you kind of dread those types of scenes in a way, because you’d rather it [the crying] not be written in and, instead, just see whether or not your emotions go to that place. At the same time, it’s good to have those markers as an actor in order to know where your breaking points are for the character, and where in the story is the low point. Basically in this scene, Brennan has to face her own life because this woman has died and she didn’t have much of a personal life. The only people who listed her as missing are the people she worked with. She didn’t have any friends. She had some kind of romance with a guy, but nothing ever came of that. No one really missed her. Isn’t that almost every human’s worst fears, dying and no one misses you or notices. So this affects Brennan greatly. She starts relating to the character, believing that it’s her. She starts seeing her own life and seeing that she made a mistake when she said no to Booth last year. She goes out on a limb and says to Booth, “I’m here.”

This whole experience forces Brennan into a place where she is bold and kind of aware of her feelings in a way that she hasn’t been before, which is very strange for her.  [Executive producer] Hart Hansen, the creator of the show, and I have always talked about how Brennan may have these feelings for Booth, but in a way she’s the last person to realize that. It takes a very odd experience for her to face her feelings and to see them.

This episode goes to a really somber place, but do you feel that it sort of ends on a more positive note?  That’s sort of the vibe that I got from watching it.

ED - Yes, I think so. I think that Brennan realizes that she isn’t that woman. She has friends, she has people who love her and who she loves. She’s not as extreme as this person, but it’s always good to have those reminders in life in order to ask yourself, "Who am I? What am I doing with my life? Am I working my whole life away? Am I not spending time with people that are important? Am I not taking a chance on something that I’m going to regret on my deathbed?  If I die tomorrow, would I be happy with my life as it is right now?"

One thing that I’ll say about doing this show and, as Brennan, being around death all the time, is that it makes you aware of your own mortality. You can’t help thinking about that. As a result, I think you have to become more bold in your life and take chances. That’s what Brennan is doing, and it’s not a bad thing. I think that’s a wonderful thing to make the most of our lives while we have the chance. We’re not here for that long. Brennan took that chance, and whether it worked out or not doesn’t matter as long as she did take that chance. So I think that it is a happy ending in that way, even if it is hard and sad, but then life is hard and sad at times. The whole point is we get through those times. Again, I think Brennan has all those friends and people in her life who care about her, and that’s what really matters.

Do you think we’ll be left with any lasting change for Temperance after this episode, or is she kind of like, “That’s that,” after she makes that pitch to Booth?

ED - I think you’ll see both. Honestly, Brennan is the kind of person that the closer she gets to opening up her feelings, the more closed off she becomes. After that, I think she becomes even more closed off in a way. So there is a reaction, but it may not be the reaction people want from Brennan. She's rarely predictable in that way. I think you’ll see Brennan becoming more protected than she's ever been. Then at times, she’s open. I think this affects her, but I think it affects her in many different kinds of opposing ways and you’ll see this in episodes to come.

Is the dynamic between Hannah Burley (Katheryn Winnick) and Booth going to continue and, if so, might things get more serious as it goes on?

ED - Yes, it actually does get more serious, and that creates a whole situation for all of them. One of the things I love about this dynamic between Hannah and Booth and Brennan is that Hannah is not a bad person. So many times on a TV show you'll see a character come in as part of a love triangle, and although viewers might want to see the two leads get together, I think you have to like the love interest. That’s not an order, but in this case I feel like Hannah is a nice person, and Brennan certainly likes and respects her. 

I think there’s a lot of internal conflicts rather than external ones. There are internal conflicts with Brennan because she loves Booth. She wants to be with him. She’s realizing this, but because she loves and cares about Booth, she wants him to be happy. Booth is happy with Hannah now and that’s really hard for her to see. But then she also sees that Hannah is a wonderful, smart, tough, cool, beautiful woman. You can’t really blame Booth for falling in love with her. There are all these conflicting emotions just within one character alone. I just love that.

I always think it’s great to have conflict between characters where no one has bad intentions. I’ve seen this happen in life so many times, where there are feelings for people and they don’t feel the same way, but then you can’t blame them. I think it’s a wonderful kind of push and pull and dance, if you will, between the characters. I really like that dynamic, and, yes, it does get more serious with Hannah.

Is the history between Booth and Brennan going to complicate the Brennan and Hannah friendship going forward?

ED - Yes, it will. It’s going to be revealed in some way to Hannah about the situation with Brennan and Booth, and my character revealing her feelings. It definitely creates a situation involving Hannah's and Brennan's friendship. It’s an interesting dynamic between these two that you don’t see very often, and it definitely does create some issues and conflict.

Are we going to see Booth start to have some doubts about his decision to turn Brennan down at all?  Or, is he going to be steadfast, and, “Nope, I made the right decision.  Hannah is it.”

ED -That’s hard for me to say. Let’s just say, so far I haven’t seen that yet, but I can’t say it won’t come. I mean, production-wise we’re only a few episodes ahead of this one. I don’t want to speak for another character in a way, too, as far as what he’s feeling while he’s doing scenes, but in terms of the actual script, I have not seen that yet.

I wanted to ask about the show’s run.  I mean, six years is a really good run. Why do you think the show is doing so well?

ED - Wow, it’s hard for me to say what the success is, and it’s hard for me to be objective about something that I’m in the middle of working on right now. But when people who are fans of the show come up to me, a lot of them say, “It’s the only show that I can watch with my husband,” or, “It’s the only show I can watch with my family, or my wife.” Everyone likes different things about it. I think that's one quality of our show that may at times have been a detriment and may have not made us a huge hit right away, is the fact that Bones is so many different things.

I mean, we have science, we have forensics, we are solving crimes, but we also have humor. We have character relationships, which kind of are the backbone of the whole show. Then you have episodes that are more poignant and more serious and some that are more action filled. You never quite know what you’re going to get, but, again, there are so many elements that different people are drawn to for different reasons.

How long do you want to go with this show?  Do you feel like you’re peaking?

ED - That’s such a good question. It’s so hard to know. I wish I had that perspective. It’s something that I don’t really have control over. At this point, I have a contract for eight seasons, so I can’t say, “I’m done now.” I’d rather not say, “We’re peaking, I’m done,” because I’d be in trouble for breaking my contract. I’d rather just think that we’re going for at least eight seasons. You look at certain shows that last for ten years and that's just incredible. I just can’t believe we’ve been here for six seasons. Not because I don’t believe in the show and I don’t love it and don’t think it deserves a huge audience. It’s just that there are so many wonderful shows that get cancelled in the first season, or that don’t get picked up in the first place. I know I’m so fortunate to be doing a show that I love and playing a character that I have such affection for. I’m just incredibly lucky.

When I started on Bones I thought, “Three seasons. That’s the most. That’s such a long time. I’ll be exhausted by then. I'll be done and then I can move on to other things.”  Then it keeps going, but I’ve never thought, “Oh, darn it, we got picked up for another season. I wish that hadn’t happened.” I’ve always been excited when we’ve been picked up for another season. I’m still enjoying myself and loving it, and just counting my lucky stars.

I was wondering will the case in this particular episode affect how Brennan feels about her career at all or how much time she dedicates to her work? She was disillusioned before; does that come up again?

ED - Yes, it does come up a bit, but not as much as before. I think Brennan realized when she was away from it how much she missed it. I think that’s a small factor, but not a big one. I think she realizes that she’s good at this [type of work] and enjoys it. She loves solving crimes and loves doing it with the team. She loves seeing the results of her work immediately; well, not always immediately, but you know what I mean.

You can actually affect the world when you're solving crimes as opposed to identifying ancient remains. Sure, it can impact science in such a huge way, but right now you’re solving a crime. You’re putting people behind bars. You’re stopping new crimes from happening. You are bringing some tiny bit of peace to family members. I think she likes being that person and recognized that when she was away from it.

I know that you said earlier that you’re only a few episodes ahead in terms of the production, but, are there teasers that you can give us about any of the cases that are coming up?

ED - Sure. We have an episode about daredevil BMX bikers. We have an episode about people who are polygamists – one polygamist who has many wives, which seems to be very popular right now with different reality shows. We have one with a gravedigger, which is action packed. David directed an episode about a sniper loose in D.C., which is great fun. I just love that one. We also have a script coming up involving a wedding planning, which I'm really looking forward to reading.

As noted above, photo by Adam Taylor and copyright of Fox Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

SciFiAndTvTalk Reaches Another Milestone

As of today, Wednesday, December 15th, 2010, SciFiAndTVTalk has surpassed 400,000 visitors since its launch back in April 2009. I want to express my deepest thanks to everyone who has taken the time to check out my site and, even more importantly, have continued to come back time and time again. I have many, many more exciting plans in the works for 2011 - including a Blog Talk Radio show - so please continue to check back in. Thanks again for your continued support. Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year!

Steve Eramo