SciFiAndTvTalk

This Week On Merlin - 04 - 01 - 11

 
Could it be that Morgana (Katie McGrath) has finally succeeded in becoming the new Queen of Camelot? Photo copyright of the BBC.

SPOILER ALERT!! - A new head wears the crown in Camelot when Morgana and Morgause overthrow King Uther – with the help of an immortal army – in the first half of the Merlin season finale entitled The Coming of Arthur, Part 1. In the episode, Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Arthur (Bradley James) are sent on a dangerous mission to capture the Cup of Life, a powerful magical artifact that carries the gift of immortality. But just as they’ve retrieved the Cup, they are captured by the unscrupulous slave trader, Jarl (Ralph Ineson). Gwaine (Eoin Macken) comes to the rescue and they escape, but with Jarl’s help the cup falls into Morgause's (Emilia Fox) hands. With an immortal army at their disposal, Morgause and Morgana (Katie McGrath) topple Uther (Anthony Head) – and Morgana is crowned queen. The battle lines are drawn, the obstacles are many, and it’ll take the world’s most powerful magic for Merlin and Arthur to prevail.

The Coming of Arthur, Part 1 is the culmination of a season-long progression of Morgana’s evil rebirth. According to her co-stars, Katie McGrath has relished every villainous moment as Morgana.

 
Gwaine (Eoin Macken) returns to give our heroes a hand. Photo copyright of the BBC.

“She’s enjoyed it enormously,” says Anthony Head. “It’s lovely when you have a character that doesn’t undergo a sudden transition, but rather it’s been a long while brewing. I love all that backstory they’ve given Morgana, and Katie has really put a nice edge on it. There’s been several wonderful scenes done not just as evil for evil sake, but to really support the mythology. Ultimately, Morgana sees she’s got the only one avenue open to her, and that is down that dark side.”

“It’s always fun playing evil characters, and I think Katie’s truly loving it,” says Angel Coulby (Gwen). “Playing a villain, you get to be so far removed from yourself, from being the usual generous, kind ladies. Katie’s quite good at it, and she’s definitely got the evil smile down.”

 
Much to his chagrin, magic might be Uther's (Anthony Head) only hope to win back his throne. Photo copyright of the BBC.

McGrath says the ability to stretch her acting muscles has been one of the things she appreciates most about this role. Morgana’s character has shifted so dramatically, it’s as though the actress is playing a second role. “She’s been a completely different character this season – her whole view of herself, her view of the world, her relationships, it’s as though she’s an entirely different character,” relates McGrath. “But the best part of playing her is that there is still some of the old character there, so I get to keep my toes in both sides of the water. I think it’s much more engaging to watch that way – you haven’t lost the character you love, and you’re getting something new at the same time.”

McGrath particularly enjoys her scenes opposite Colin Morgan as Merlin, especially as the characters have gone from a near-sibling relationship to being opposing forces in the magical side of Camelot. “There’s an interesting line in season three where the Great Dragon [voice of John Hurt] says to Merlin that Morgana is the darkness to his light, and that really says it all about how things have changed and where the story has gone in this season,” McGrath explains. “Merlin is the hero, and every hero needs a great villain. What makes that dynamic even more interesting is that they cared about each other so much. There’s a war going on between them – they truly are each other’s foils – and that’s intriguing to watch.” The Coming of Arthur, Part I airs Friday, April 1st @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy. Part 2 will air next Friday, April 8th at the same time on Syfy.

As noted above, photos copyright of the BBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Destination Truth's Josh Gates

 
Destination Truth's Josh Gates. Photo copyright of Syfy.

This past St. Patrick's Day, season 4.5 of Syfy's hit adventure reality series Destination Truth premiered with its first-ever LIVE case in Ireland where host Josh Gates  and his team  investigated the ruins of Duckett's Grove Castle in search of the truth behind the legend of the banshee. This four-hour event kicked off six new episodes featuring treks to locales such as Namibia, Cyprus, Panama and Argentina as well as Antarctica, where strange phenomena has manifested itself around abandoned science research stations. Destination Truth airs Tuesdays @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST.

Prior to the Ireland investigation, Josh spoke with myself along with other journalists about the live event as well as this season's new episodes. The following is an edited version of our Q & A. Enjoy!

What has been your favorite place out of all the different episodes and locales that you’ve ever visited.

JOSH GATES - That’s a tough question. I have a sort of standing bucket list of places that I’d like to go to, and actually one of our new episodes that’s coming up is in Antarctica, which I’ve wanted to go to for a very long time. We were really fortunate to be able to bring the show there and it’s an incredible episode.

There are these amazing ghost stories about these abandoned whaling stations and science facilities down at the bottom of the world, and we actually sailed from the bottom of South America. It’s a one-hour special where we visit Antarctica and investigate these locations, and for me, it exceeded all expectations. It’s this absolutely stunning place that is just sort of hidden from the rest of the world.

So we’re thrilled about the episode. It’s a really exciting and, in some cases, funny one, and you get to see what it takes to try to bring a crew of people across the Drake Passage and over to Antarctica.

What are some interesting things you discovered in researching banshee before you headed over to Ireland?

JG - We experienced some of the same surprises that we experienced when we were investigation the leprechaun story last year, which is that, you know, there’s this really intense connection in Ireland to their folklore. You meet a lot of people who really are invested in these paranormal reports. They believe that these ghosts are there, including the banshee, and they claim to have had these first person experiences that are truly compelling when you listen to them. So, I think that the real challenge for us is to be as respectful as possible of these beliefs. These are stories and legends that really define Irish culture.

So we’re excited to go over there and take these great stories - some of which you’ll be seeing on the night of the live show - from these eyewitnesses, to investigating their claims and seeing if we can put a face to what they’re seeing, hearing and experiencing.

How is Antarctica different from other isolated places you’ve investigated?

JG - One of the things that makes it so impressive is how pristine it is. It's a place that really has benefited from being removed from human contact. You think of Antarctica as being sort of barren, but when you get there you realize that it’s actually this flourishing ecosystem with an unbelievable amount of actual wildlife.

And it’s a desert essentially, as well, a snow covered desert, but it’s just a really unique environment. And I think for me, as a traveler, the other thing that is so impressive about it is the amount of fortitude and bravery that it has taken people to go and explore that place. When you go to these old explorers’ huts and whaling huts, there’s this unbelievable legacy of intrepidity. I mean, these people who risked, and many times, lost their lives trying to explore this extremely hostile environment.

When you’re in a foreign land investigating ghosts, why do you ask questions in English and expect to get a response back in English?

JG - Well, we don’t always expect a response back in English. When we do these investigations we bring along a lot of different recording equipment. We set up both audio recorders and video recorders throughout the place where the sightings have been purported. We then take all that data back and look for anything that sounds like speech or sounds like it might be an EVP.

So there’s not an expectation on our part that the responses are going to be in English, and there have actually been a few instances where we’ve tried to speak in the native language as well. But I think for us, it’s about validating eyewitness claims, so if eyewitnesses are claiming to see and hear what sounds like speech, we’re just seeing if we can see and hear what it is that they’re seeing and hearing.

What goes through your mind when you do one of these live investigations? I mean, is there like a fear that maybe nothing at all is going to happen?

JG - One of the things that we’re really intent on doing with this live show is making it about the investigation. And when we go to investigate these locations we have to boil that down to a very small amount of what actually happened. So for us to be able to show audiences in real time what happens out there is, I think, going to be really interesting. Our investigations are typically exciting and from time-to-time typically funny, too, so it’s going to be an unexpected night, and I think that this is a place that has a pretty interesting reputation for a lot of strange activity. So we’re very hopeful that we’ll be able to showcase some of that.

I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about, I guess, the investigation or the setup you do. When you go to a place, does the team spend some time coming up with possible theories that could debunk these sightings? I mean, I assume you probably look at, for example, wildlife in the area and things like that, or do you just kind of go into it and wait to see what happens?

JG - I think what we’ll be doing during the live investigation is talking about the specific reports in and around Duckett’s Grove, which is this sprawling parcel of land with this imposing ruined estate on it, and asking the questions, “Well, could it be this, could it be that?”

Certainly I think that the simplest explanation for peoples' experiences is often the right one, and so we’ll be looking for ways to debunk these claims. But, you know a lot of these claims are very dramatic. They are things that you wouldn’t expect people to mistake for something in the natural environment. We’re also on the lookout for, you know, will these things happen for us? Will we be able to see these things that so many people claim happen there?

Is there actually a visual element to it [the banshee], or is it mostly auditory that you guys are going to be searching for?

JG - The sort of auditory element of the banshee is what’s she’s famous for, right? She has this piercing wail that really defines the banshee. And the sound of the banshee is something that if you walk down the street in Ireland and polled 100 people and asked them about the banshee’s wail, you’d be amazed at how many people will have something to say about it.

There are a number of people who claim that just before a death they have heard this wailing, but there is also a visual element to this ghost. She is reported as sometimes being a young woman, sometimes an old woman, but always with a cloak and sort of long flowing hair. And there have been a lot of visual encounters, specifically at Duckett’s Grove, the place where we’re going. So there are a lot of different reports, both visual and auditory, for us to follow-up on.

What originally inspired you to sort of get into this investigative line of work?

JG - I’m in it for the women and the money. No, that’s not true. I’m a travel nut. My father worked overseas when I was a kid. He was a commercial diver and is retired now. My mom’s British so we would go over to England once a year, and from a really early age I just had this intense desire to go and see what was outside those airplane windows.

So I’ve always wanted to work in travel television in particular, and to be able to go to places and bring stories back for viewers. I came to Destination Truth in sort of a roundabout way. They were looking for someone to helm a show like this and I met with them [The Powers That Be], and I think what they liked is that I am a travel enthusiast and not ,you know, a Big Foot aficionado, right? I don’t rubberstamp the stories, I’m just as apt to say that I think something doesn’t exists, as to say that it does.

They really wanted someone who could stand in place of the viewer and go out there and ask the questions that they might ask, like, “Well, wait a minute, could it be this? Could it be that?” And really try to bring back these cultures, or at least a little sliver of these cultures for our viewers to take in and to learn about some of these places that are not often exposed on TV. Again, I have a real passion for travel and in the eyes of the channel, that made me a good fit for the show.

Obviously your work takes you all around the globe, and with the world changing quite a bit over the past several years, has it affected how you do your job?

JG - You know, in a lot of ways it hasn’t. There are obviously political hotspots around the world that sometimes become off limits for us to film in for obvious reasons. There are some dangerous spots here and there. But I will say that I think one of the things that’s always amazing to me is how no matter what the particular political conflict in the world is, people everywhere we go are almost universally unbelievably hospitable and welcoming. They want to share their stories. They want to work with us. They want to have their history and their culture featured and celebrated.

That’s kind of our secret mission on the show - to get people excited about travel, going to far away exotic places, and soaking in other peoples' culture. I’ve been really amazed that as much as the world has changed, for the most part you go to towns and villages around the world and it hasn’t, right? People are still pretty great everywhere you go.

You guys get to go to these really cool exotic places, and when you talk to the locals, they tell you that the creatures are seen during daytime, but a lot of the time your investigations take place at night. I was wondering why you mostly focus on night expeditions if in some cases the creatures may actually be daytime creatures?

JG - That's a good question. In the instances where the creatures tend to be seen during the day, we do go out during the day and investigate. You have to also remember, though, that what makes it to the screen is not usually the full complement of what we’ve done out there.

Probably part of the answer to your question is that the night investigations are more compelling. I mean, without beating around the bush, it’s certainly more interesting to go look for things at night rather than during the day. A lot of these creatures are purported to come out at night, you know? Most of the eyewitness sightings for these types of creatures and phenomena happen at night, and there are a variety of reasons for that. It could be that the things that people are seeing are nocturnal. It could also be that things are harder to see at night and people mistake things more. But for the most part, if there are a preponderance of daytime sightings we’ll go out and investigate during the day. It’s especially true of our water creatures, where a lot of people see stuff during the day on the water, so we try to do a number of day dives in the area where people have seen things.

Is it sometimes easier trying to collect evidence during the day than at night?

JG - Sure, and, again, in instances where people claim to see things during the day we do investigate during the day. One of the great challenges of this show is trying to boil down these big expeditions to an hour, and the times when we’re able to spend one hour on one topic, we’re able to feature a bit more of that daytime journey. But if we spend a night in a location and investigate there, the day before we set up or the day after, we’ll typically go and sweep the whole area again and look around during daylight.

You’ve done so many investigations, is there one that has la special place in your heart or a little bit more meaning than some of the other ones?

JG - There have been a number of them. I look back very fondly on our investigation of King Tut’s tomb, as well as our trip to Chernobyl. Even though that was a very difficult place to investigate, I'm just so amazed that we were able to achieve our goals of going to those places, you know, negotiating the permissions to spend time there, and actually filming and bringing those experiences back.

There are a few episodes from this coming season that I’m really proud of as well. We were able to visit Namibia in Southwestern Africa, which is a country that is hardly featured on television at all. It’s an amazing place, incredible dunes and deserts. It’s a really barren landscape. And we have a couple of great stories there; a really interesting creature sighting in the northern part of the country, and a very cool paranormal story as well. So for me, I think the more difficult and exotic places always kind of stand out.

Is there any investigations you’ve done that you didn’t feel were completely answered or that you weren’t satisfied with the answer and would like to revisit?

JG - There are a lot of places that we’d like to revisit and we talk about that from time to time. We’ve never revisited an episode yet in the show, having done it for four years, so I think there’s a lot of opportunities for us to go back. There are plenty of episodes that have unanswered questions, you know?

I think a lot of the time we’re able to make determinations at the end of the show that Creature X, you know, or paranormal, you know, Entity X doesn’t exist, because we can explain it away with alternate explanations, or natural things that are happening in the environment. But there are plenty of places where we’re not able to make that determination and we’re left feeling like either we weren’t able to fully realize what the eyewitnesses had seen, or we had seen things ourselves that we weren’t able to fully explain. And I think that’s also part of the fun of the show is that you’re not going to throw a net over these animals at the end of every hour. You’re going to be left sometimes with more questions than you came in with, and that invites us to go back and maybe take a look at some of those stories again.

How do you pick new team members for Destination Truth?

JG - We pick them very carefully. We obviously ask the question of why we have to swap out team members sometimes, and it’s not a very exciting answer. It’s just that the nature of the way we film is that we come home for wide stretches in between the times that we go out, and our crew are people that are in demand on all sorts of projects. So, we have a rotating group of people that come on and off the show. We also try to bring people in who are tailored to each of the expeditions that we’re doing, people who speak different languages and have different regional expertise. But it’s a difficult thing to do because you’re not only hiring someone who you want to be a good investigator, you want them to be good on TV and all those sort of things as well.

You also want them to be someone who you’re going to be able to live in close quarters with for two or three months at a time, and who is going to have a lot of enthusiasm for working in really difficult environments. So we meet people that are recommended to us or that we’re, you know, sort of referred to us and we screen them really carefully. It’s a little family out there and we want everyone who’s in that family to really fit in well and enjoy the experience as much as we do. The type of people who work on DT have this wonderlust and they really want to do these sorts of things and get out in the world in order to turn over some rocks and look in some dark corners. So those are the kind of folks that we’re after.

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

The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar Tweets Live Tonight - 03 - 31 - 11

Join Kunal Nayyar (Raj) as he tweets live during the East Coast airing of The Big Bang Theory tonight, March 31st @ 8:00 p.m. EST/5:00 p.m. PST on CBS. Get all the dish from the show as well as what happened during the episode. Join in at Follow @KunalNayyar.

Click on the following link for a sneak peek at tonight's episode The Zarnecki Incursion: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/video/?pid=4aOEbAqIQ09vM4jqX04TDJLsQ3OIJpBC&nrd=1

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

 
Alexander Siddig as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Dr. Julian Bashir. Photo copyright of Paramount Pictures.

In today's Sci-fi Blast From The Past, actor Alexander Siddig talks about his first few seasons playing Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

His name is Bashir, Julian Bashir.  As a doctor of medicine Bashir's first responsibility is to administer aid to the sick and infirm, but, as an officer serving with the United Federation of Planets, he also has taken an oath to uphold all Starfleet regulations, very often risking life and limb in both causes.  Occasionally, his medical and Starfleet loyalties collide, forcing Bashir to chose between the two.  This is all in a day's work for the young doctor, played with a mixture of integrity, strength and a tempered dash of innocence by actor Alexander Siddig on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

"It's a terrifying thing because the show is relatively new in England," says Siddig.  "The character started off as being kind of a genuine pain in the ass, which was really an intentional sort of experiment on behalf of the producers and myself.  In doing this he was able to be this young, bumbling, quite brilliant physician who had somewhere to go and develop.  He was just all heart, very impulsive, a little arrogant and easily hurt by the likes of Dax [Terry Farrell] and any other woman, really, who rejected him, which happened quite regularly because he's so bumbling," he laughs.

"Julian really flourished over the course of the first and second seasons," the actor explains.  "He developed this type of worldly armour to protect himself and he became a little bit more staid and relaxed in more difficult situations, especially through interaction with the characters of Garak, played by Andrew Robinson and Chief O'Brien, played by Colm Meaney, who have added what they can of themselves to Bashir.  In a sense he's really just a sponge.  He's learning every day and developing all the time.  I love that."

Born in Khartoum, Sudan in northeast Africa, Siddigadmits that he had no ambitions to be an actor while growing up.  "I kind of just fell into it," he says.  "I had an English teacher at school who was inspiring insofar as acting was concerned, but I found university so incredibly boring that I had to go somewhere else as soon as possible.  So, I enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

"My family was very comfortable with my decision," says Siddig.  "They're all from that business in one way or another, so, they were happy and weren't worried about it at all. They were, however, terrified that I'd pretty much sentenced myself to a life of extraordinary poverty but that was OK by the end of the day."

Siddig's first professional appearance at the Manchester Library Theatre was a baptism of fire for the young actor, who remembers the experience with great clarity.  "I had one very long speech in this extraordinarily long play, which also happened to be very anti-Semitic.  It was very odd because it all looked so incredibly positive until it went on.  We opened, said the words and realized, 'God, this is so appalling!'

"It was especially bad coming from an Arab. The play was not very welcome, particularly since Manchester has the biggest Jewish community in England. We had people coming just to leave. They would arrive and then get up and walk out to demonstrate about the whole thing."

Luckily for the actor his work in front of the camera proved to be much more advantageous for his career.  His performance as Jordanian King Faisal in the film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia,which was broadcast in 1991 on America's Public Broadcasting System (PBS), caught the attention of Rick Berman, the then executive producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He immediately contacted Siddig and offered him the role of Doctor Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

"Most of the characters on Deep Space Nine already had something down on paper about them," explains Siddig.  "In some ways they were already standard television characters.  Of course, all the actors arrived and turned them completely on their heads, but mine didn't have much to it.  Julian Bashir was just an open character or blank page with nothing preconceived about him and I kind of loved that."

The actor found himself in a temporary state of nirvana when he flew to Los Angeles and reported to Paramount Studios to begin work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's two-hour pilot episode Emissary. The character of Dax still had not been cast, and because his one and only scene in the episode involved her, Siddig had to wait patiently on the sidelines.

"That was one of the weirdest things about the pilot.  Another odd thing was that I only have two lines in the whole thing.  I didn't really need to be in the episode but appeared in kind of a token way.  It was all very exciting and I was anxious to see what was going to happen.

"The series has definitely changed over the past four years," continues the actor.  "It found its identity, really, last season and then this [fourth] season.  I think the introduction of Ira Steven Behr, who came on as the new executive producer a year-and-a-half or so ago, is one of the most influential reasons for that.

"Most television shows are built upon a huge star, someone who's already been there and thoroughly expects to get a next job.  Our show has never been built on a star.  We're all just people who are extremely grateful that anybody noticed that we were around, which is always a big thing where acting is concerned.  So, that's a great thing and it's created a really nice atmosphere on the set.

"I'm getting so many letters now that say, 'I wasn't really sure about DS9 in the beginning but, suddenly, it's taken off for me and I see what's so wonderful about the show.'  When we started we really were flying around trying to find our own place.  It was a fine show those first two years but it's just recently found its footing and that's great.  I love the serendipity of the show.  Not being on a spaceship, something which was always difficult at the start, has now turned into an advantage, I think, in that we have drastically different stories each week."

The same growth and development the actor has witnessed for the past four seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are also present in his character of Bashir and his increased involvement in the series.  Several episodes have dropped him into a variety of difficult and dangerous dilemmas with only his wits and medical knowledge for survival tools.

"I'd only been on the set a couple of weeks before we started filming The Passenger. That episode was my nemesis and a total nightmare that I had to pull out of a hat.  I literally got the script twenty-four hours before we started and then received a phone call from the producers twelve hours later saying, 'Sid, we'd like you to portray a different character for this possessed guy you're going to play.  We think the best way to portray a different character is to drop your voice an octave.  Can you do that?'

"I don't think they understood how incredibly difficult that would be. They must have read somewhere that Laurence Olivier had dropped his voice an octave for Macbeth," he laughs, "and thought all actors can do that.  I couldn't, of course, and by the time we actually started shooting I ended up growling like some sort of desperate tramp.  We ended up having to reloop [dub] the whole thing in postproduction.

"I quite liked The Storyteller. That was great fun. The thing I remember most about that episode is that one of the young actors who was in it was the first American method actor I'd ever met.  It was kind of fascinating for me to watch him," explains Siddig, "because he would chant a lot and hit the wall and stuff before we did a scene."

In the second season episode Melora, Bashir becomes involved with a wheelchair-bound researcher visiting the station.  Siddig likens the doctor's relationship with Melora to a brief Hollywood engagement.  "That was tremendous fun.  I think it is probably the first television show in which I actually have a love interest, which made for a kind of nervous time for me. I really enjoyed flying around on those wires with Daphne [Ashbrook, who played Melora]."

One fellow officer who took Bashir time to get to know is the station's Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien. In the beginning O'Brien regarded the doctor as a pesky insect who needed to be brushed away every now and then, while Bashir became frustrated by the chief's sometimes curt treatment of him.  The turning point in their relationship comes in the episode Armageddon Game, the first of many Bashir and O'Brien adventures in which both characters must work together for survival.

"I love that story," he enthuses. "Just working with Colm is great fun. We have a wonderful rapport with each other. Whenever we get together on the set we have a laugh and, hopefully, that shows in the episodes we do.  We just have a great time."

One of Siddig's most challenging moments on the program comes in the episode Distant Voicesin which Bashir's mind is invaded by an alien and he begins to age rapidly.  "It was a total gift to have a go at something like that, especially with all that incredible prosthetic makeup that I could hide behind.  It was one of the most exhausting and enjoyable things I've ever done."

First it was Sean Connery, then George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and...Alexander Siddig.  The character of James Bond, or at least how Julian Bashir envisions him, is played out by the doctor on the holodeck in Siddig's favourite episode Our Man Bashir.

"I'm basically a kid at heart," he confesses, "and what kid wouldn't want to play Bond?  When I used to go to the movies I would sit there and say, 'I wish I could be Bond,' and I guess getting to thirty years old and finally having the chance to do it, if only on film, is unbelievable.  Only five other guys so far have had the chance to do that.  It was a fantastic experience and I finally understand what fun it is for those actors to do it.  I loved playing with all the little gadgets and gizmos and kissing every woman I met."

This episode also features Garak and Dax, two characters who have played an important part in helping to develop a foundation upon which Siddig could build his character. "Bashir's relationship with Garak has been through so many metamorphoses; I mean, people thought that they were gay.  They thought Garak was definitely gay and it turned out that he was just a curious lizard or whatever he is," laughs the actor.

"Garak seems to arrive every time I need extraordinary help, either psychologically or philosophically.  For me that's the most important thing about his character.  He's a mentor and the one who develops Bashir in terms of psychology.  Of course, his character is now very important in its own right because of his other affiliations on the station, so, he and Bashir don't need each other in the same way, but we still get together for our regular lunches and chew the fat or whatever they serve us to eat on the station," he chuckles.

"As for Dax, I think she's really a good mirror for Bashir.  Everything that he's gone through in his life has had some effect on his relationship with her," muses Siddig.  "Although it started out with the possibility of Dax and Bashir having this wild, passionate affair, or at least a wild, passionate chase of an affair, it ended up not working out because of the very nature of my character.  Again, this was probably due to the way I played him.  I think they thought, 'Wait a minute.  We can't make Dax fall in love with him.  That will ruin her credibility,' so, in the end, they just backed us off from each other and we became very close friends.

"Since this has happened Bashir has grown immensely as a person and Dax almost shows twinges of jealousy whenever Julian gets involved with other women.  I've got a sneaky suspicion that at some point payoffs are going to come and we'll fall unexpectedly into each other's arms.  It won't be for a while, though, because I think Bashir still has to go slay his dragon."

Another change for Bashir, a personal one for the actor who plays him, can be seen by in the Deep Space Nine fourth season opening credits where, for stage purposes only, the actor has changed his name from Siddig El Fadil to Alexander Siddig.  "Before I was even born my mother had preferred that I have a half-European, half-Arabic name, something which is symbolic of me as a person, so, I was kind of keen on doing that.

"Another reason was that the name Siddig El Fadil is extraordinarily hard for people to remember or get used to saying.  Most of the time people introduced me so tentatively that it made my heart break.  They would go, 'And this is um,...um, Siddig?  Siddig?'  That was always a nightmare for me.

"The third reason is for business. Producers and casting directors, especially in England, oddly enough, are very preoccupied with what kind of name you have.  If they see Siddig El Fadil they'll give me only Arabic parts.  So, that's pretty much the all-around reason.  It's not been an incredibly popular move because it's not been very nice to get rid of such a lovely name."

Upon completing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's fourth season filming, the actor is looking forward to returning home to London to spend two months with his family and friends.  Beyond that, the affable Siddig is eagerly anticipating returning to work this summer for the show's fifth season as well as to unlocking new doors of opportunity in the years to come.  "The great thing about acting is that you can do so many different things.  I'd like to do all of them - stage, film, television, directing - and make the most of the job and the freedom of it.  I'm sure they'll stop me doing some of it because I'll be just too embarrassing to everybody," he laughs, "but I'd love to have a crack at it all."

Steve Eramo

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

Vinessa Antoine Joins Haven For Its Second Season

 
Vinessa Antoine in Being Erica. Photo copyright of the CBC.

Syfy and Entertainment (eOne) Television announced that Vinessa Antoine (Being Erica, Soul Food) has signed on for the recurring role of Evidence “Evi” Ryan in the second season of Haven.  A former con-artist and lover of Duke’s (played by Eric Balfour), “Evi” Ryan is as beautiful as she is calculating and clever.

As previously announced, Jason Priestley (who stars in, directs and produces the eOne Television international hit dark comedy Call Me Fitz) will also join Haven this season to direct one episode and guest star in a four-episode story arc.  Antoine and Priestley will join Emily Rose, who plays Audrey Parker, a former FBI agent with a knack for investigating the supernatural; Lucas Bryant, who plays Nathan Wuornos, a handsome local cop with his own supernatural affliction; and Eric Balfour, who plays Duke Crocker, a local smuggler and reluctant aide in solving Haven's troubles.

Haven is based on The Colorado Kid from renowned author Stephen King and will commence production on 13 episodes for Season Two in Nova Scotia on April 1, 2011 with an eye towards a Summer 2011 North American premiere.

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

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Marco Sanchez (seaQuest DSV)

 
Actor Marco Sanchez.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Marco Sanchez talks about his tour of duty as Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz onboard seaQuest DSV.

Mention the name Steven Spielberg and people immediately conjure up images from such blockbuster motion pictures as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.  This award-winning writer, director and producer has also brought his movie magic to the small screen as the executive producer of several imaginative programs including NBC’s seaQuest DSV.  Set in the early twenty-first century the series follows the underwater adventures of the seaQuest Deep Submergence Vehicle and its crew of scientists and naval personnel.  As Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz actor Marco Sanchez spent two seasons battling a variety of human and alien antagonists beneath the Earth’s oceans.  This role marked Sanchez’s first time as a regular on a television series.

“I didn’t know any of the buzz behind the show when I was auditioning for it,” recalls Sanchez.  “I had no idea it was a Steven Spielberg project or that they were casting Roy Scheider in the role of Captain Bridger.  Of course, it began to dawn on me when I pulled into the parking lot at Amblin [Spielberg’s production company],” he chuckles.  “I first read for director Irvin Kershner and that audition was put on tape.  They called me back for a second read-through and next came the network session at NBC, which was by far the most gruelling.  That’s actually where I met Ted Raimi [Lieutenant (j.g.) Tim O’Neill] for the first time.  He was in the audition room cracking jokes with everyone.  I did my piece and later that day I found out I got the job.”

Miguel Ortiz is an inquisitive individual with an aptitude for mathematics and a knack for solving problems.  Like most young cadets he is initially shy and hesitant about offering his opinion, but as he continues to gain more experience Ortiz develops a greater confidence in himself and his abilities.

“In the first season the show was still trying to find itself and the same could be said of my character.  Initially, I portrayed Ortiz as the competent rookie and he was used primarily as a tool for getting out exposition and technobabble so that the audience would understand what was happening.

“By the time the second season rolled around there was a bit more character development and we began to see more of his personality, especially his dry sense of humour, which I have.  The audience also got to see that I had legs,” jokes Sanchez.  “In that first year we were basically just talking heads, but during his second tour of duty Ortiz was allowed to come out from behind his console.  So I had much more to do during our second year.”

In the show’s pilot episode To Be Or Not To Be, Captain Bridger and his crew respond to a distress call from an underwater colony, only to be attacked by a renegade submarine whose captain wants to destroy seaQuest.  Sanchez recalls feeling a bit intimidated by the whole production process.  “When I found out who was involved with the programI felt a little out of my element.  I was terrified,” says the actor.  “My first scene was with Roy Scheider; I can’t tell you how nervous I was because I’ve always been a big admirer of his.  I was twenty-two and had just graduated from the UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles] School of Theater, Film and Television, so this was a big deal.  The one thing that made me feel more comfortable was the cast that they had assembled.  Ted Raimi and I have been best friends ever since and the same is true of Don Franklin [Commander Jonathan Ford] and me.  So the tension of that first day was alleviated by joking around behind the scenes with Ted and Don and everyone else.

“I think one of the most difficult things about working on seaQuestwas the fact that we all had to move to Orlando [Florida].  My whole life is in Los Angeles, everybody I know and love is out here, so that was hard.  The kind of show that it was, too, was a bit frustrating at times because it was very confining.  Wearing a uniform every day and being behind those consoles sometimes made it feel as if we were working in a cave,” notes Sanchez.  “It was always the most tense, though, when we had to shoot in the actual sub set.  It was a complicated set to maneuver in because it had a ceiling, so we always knew that it would be a very long and slow-moving day when we had scenes in there.”

With such a large cast it was often a challenge for the show’s writers to evenly distribute the dialogue.  There were one or two episodes, however, that Sanchez feels gave his character the chance to shine.  “I really liked the episode we did with one of our first season writers David Kemper called Bad Water.  It’s about a French sightseeing sub that gets stuck in a sinkhole with all these children aboard.  We go in to rescue them but then we’re stranded above water where there’s a hurricane brewing.  I think it’s a very well constructed story in terms of how it builds conflict upon conflict.  I really had a great time filming that one.

“There’s another episode where we go to Brazil, The Good Death.  I had fun doing that one because it gave us the opportunity to get out of the submarine and run around.  I’m working undercover and trying to rescue our people, so I got to ditch the uniform and use my legs,” he laughs.  “I also have a lot to do in a second season episode called Watergate.  Unfortunately, it’s one of the weirder stories we did in which seaQuest meets Poseidon, otherwise knows as Neptune, the god of the sea.  I vividly remember this particular story but for all the wrong reasons,” chuckles the actor.

Besides seaQuest DSV’s talented regular cast including Roy Scheider, Ted Raimi, Don Franklin, Stephanie Beacham (Doctor Kristin Westphalen) and brothers Peter and Michael DeLuise (Dagwood and Tony Piccolo, respectively), Sanchez also worked with several other well-known actors who guest-starred on the series.  In the episode Abalon, Charlton Heston plays a scientist who creates a community of water-breathing humans which Commander Ford stumbles upon.

“What impressed me the most about Charlton Heston was the fact that he walked on to the set and said hello to everyone.  It’s easy for some actors to lose perspective and to think too much of themselves.  If anyone has a right to do that it’s Charlton Heston but he was a consummate professional throughout the shoot and I’ll never forget the example that he set.”

In the episode Hide & Seek, William Shatner (Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk) plays a dictator who needs seaQuest’s advanced technology to treat his autistic son.  Although he never had the chance to speak with Shatner, Sanchez did enjoy at least being on the set with him.  “He was very reserved and just came in and did his thing.  I’m a big fan of his as well and I wish I could have had the chance to chat with him, but there was always a crowd of people around him so I thought it best to leave him alone.  He was extremely polite and we enjoyed having him.  I remember once while they were setting up a shot Ted Raimi and I looked at each other and said, ‘We’re on the bridge with William Shatner!  This is fantastic!’  So we got to vicariously live out some sort of Star Trek fantasy.”

One famous figure connected with the series that the actor never met is Steven Spielberg.  When filming began on seaQuest DSV the director was away in Poland working on Schindler’s List and also doing final edits on Jurassic Park via satellite to America.  “I’ve heard him [Spielberg] say in interviews that he wishes he had started seaQuest a year later when he would have had time to be more hands-on.  I regret that I didn’t have a chance to meet him and get to know him because I’ve enjoyed so many of his films.  I can only assume that he saw the audition tapes and that he approved me,” Sanchez laughs.

The second season of seaQuest DSV ends with a cliffhanger adventure entitled Splashdown in which seaQuest is captured by aliens and transported to Hyperion, a planet covered completely by water.  Once there the crew is drawn into a civil war between the Hyperions and the KrayTaks.  The submarine suffers heavy damage and some of its crew is lost.  When the series returned for its third and final year it had been renamed seaQuest 2032.  Ten years had passed and seaQuest mysteriously reappears on Earth but minus some of its personnel, including Ortiz.

“As I said before the show was trying to find itself from the very beginning.  Consequently, we went through more than one or two producers and every time somebody new came in they would want to revamp the series.  So there would be this camp fighting for this and this camp fighting for that.  We honestly didn’t know what was going to happen at the end of the second season, that’s why we had that open-ended finale where everything blows up.

“There were all kinds of discussions as to what we’d be doing in the third season but, of course, we saw the outcome.  I had a feeling that Miguel had met his end, though.  I don’t want to say anything bad about the series but I have to admit that after this it took me a while to regain my enthusiasm for acting and that’s only happened within the last two years.

“I have fond memories, for the most part, of seaQuest and absolutely no regrets,” continues Sanchez.  “I learned a lot from watching Roy, especially the economics of how he does things.  It was also interesting to see the mechanics of a big-budget television show and what it takes for something to actually find its way to the screen.  I think the best thing, though, that I came away with from the show is the group of friends I met there.  I see Michael, Peter, Don Ted, Ed Kerr [Lieutenant James Brody] almost on a daily basis.  So when I talk about what I learned from working on the show it has to do more with the personal and business end of things than it does with the actual craft of acting.”

Steve Eramo

Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Danny Strong - Lonely Among Us

 
Danny Strong. Photo copyright of HBO.

I recently discovered several interviews I did a number of years ago that, for one reason or another, were never published. Rather than have them continue to gather "dust" in my computer, I thought I would share them with you. In this interview, actor/writer/producer Danny Strong talks about playing Jonathan Levinson on the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

When you’re in high school your peers usually see you as being a jock, one of the popular crowd, or a nerdy loner. Initially, Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Jonathan Levinson seemed to be the latter. His fellow students never paid much attention to him, but as time passed all that changed. People began to take more notice of Jonathan when, among other things, he attempted suicide, helped Buffy defeat a demon, and decided to see what it was like to be the bad guy. Without a doubt, he has become a much more colourful character for Danny Strong to play. However, like Jonathan’s evolution, it took a while for the actor to land the role.

“My first audition for Buffy was for the part of Xander in the show’s pilot presentation,” explains Strong. “I worked on the material, went in, did my thing, and nothing came of it. I didn’t even get a callback. I must have really wowed them, huh?” he jokes. “A couple of months later, the program’s casting director had me back in to meet with Joss Whedon [series creator and executive producer]. I tried out for some of the smaller parts and was hired for a one-line role in the pilot. During the show’s first season I read for a couple of guest-star parts but didn’t get them. Then, about a year-and-a-half later, out of the blue they offered me the role of Jonathan. It was a nice surprise because I figured they’d forgotten about me. Boy, was I wrong.”

 Strong’s debut in the second season Buffy episode Inca Mummy Girlcould have easily turned into his character’s swan song. In it, Jonathan meets a South African foreign exchange student, Ampata (Ara Celi), who just happens to be a 500-year-old Inca mummy that survives by consuming the life forces of others. “Here’s this lonely guy that had the chance to kiss a girl and ends up not wanting to. Luckily for Jonathan, he sensed that something wasn’t quite right with this chick,” says the actor.  “Too bad, though, because the actress who played her was so beautiful and a real sweetheart. I liked her a lot.

“I really enjoyed shooting the episode. I only had a couple of scenes and after my first day of work, people like Nick Brendon [Xander] came up to me and said, ‘You’re doing a fantastic job. We’re trying to convince the producers not to kill off your character.’ Everyone was so nice and they made it sound as if there might be a future for Jonathan. Much to my surprise, he survived and since then I’ve been a part of the show.”

The actor reprised his role of Jonathan in a handful of second season Buffy episodes and was asked back a number of times the following year. A big turning point for his character came in the gripping third season story Earshot in which Jonathan tries to commit suicide. “That was the first episode that really gave me some scenery to crew on,” notes Strong. “Up to that point I’d kind of been the snappy one-liner guy, and I wanted to do more with Jonathan. Funnily enough, it was also around this time that I was becoming more established as an actor. For instance, my role on Clueless was turning into one of that show’s biggest recurring characters. I was worried that if I kept doing one-liners on Buffy I might actually end up limiting myself when it came to future jobs.

“Of course, I didn’t know how to explain this to the Buffy producers. What ended up happening was that when they asked me to do the next episode I said I wasn’t available. Afterwards, I just figured Jonathan’s time on the series was over and I completely accepted that. However, Joss and his team of writers must have read between the lines because not long after I received a phone call asking if I’d like to do Earshot. When they told me about the story I was totally blown away. Naturally, I said, ‘Yes.’ The episode was so well-written and it had such an intensity to it. I was thrilled that I had the chance to do it.”

Fortunately, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) intervenes during the climax of Earshot and stops Jonathan from killing himself. In an effort to deal with his emotional problems he decides to enter group therapy. However, in the fourth season episode Superstar, Jonathan tries taking a shortcut to happiness by casting an augmentation spell. As a result, he turns Sunnydale into an alternate reality where everyone perceives him as the ideal person. Unknown to him, Jonathan’s spell also creates an evil monster that terrorizes the town and it’s up to him and Buffy to stop it.

“Imagine how flattered I was with Earshot and multiply that by a million. That’s how I felt when I got to do Superstar,” enthuses Strong. “After all, how many TV shows do you know of where a small recurring character gets an entire story written about him or her. I even got to be in the show’s opening credits. Not only was the episode a fantasy of mine as an actor but also of Jonathan’s. I especially loved when Jonathan sang, and it wasn’t even my voice you heard because I can’t sing,” jokes the actor. “It was, in fact, Brad Kane, who’s the voice of Aladdin in the Aladdin movies. Still, I had fun standing in front of the cameras and pretending to croon like Frank Sinatra. It was a pretty good lip-sync job even if I do say so myself.”

In the sixth season Buffy episode Flooded, Jonathan joined forces with fellow nerds Warren (Adam Busch) and Andrew (Tom Lenk) and together the trio became Buffy’s newest nemesis, The Troika. At first, they were more of a tease than a threat, especially as one of their goals was to hypnotize Buffy and turn the Slayer into their love slave. However, as the season unfolded, they proved to be much more of a danger to her and the rest of the Scooby gang.

“Flooded was the start of what turned into a great friendship between myself, Adam and Tom,” says Strong. “We immediately clicked and I’ll always remember working with those guys. The three of us were at the same point in our careers, so we wanted to do a really good job but at the same time we managed to have some fun. We were pretty much isolated from the rest of the cast until the season finale, so we formed a tight bond. It was a unique situation.

“As for Jonathan’s relationship with the guys, he was probably annoyed with Andrew because of his incompetence. With Warren, he was intimidated by him, and at the same time in conflict with him. Warren’s agenda was one of real violence, and I think Jonathan originally joined The Troika just to impress girls. However, when things began turning ugly he probably thought, ‘Wait a sec, this isn’t what I signed up for,’ but he was afraid to challenge Warren’s authority.”

One of Strong’s favourite Troika episodes is Dead Things. In it, the nerds try to turn Warren’s ex-girlfriend Katrina (Amelinda Emery) into their willing slave but their plan backfires and she is accidentally killed. They decide to cast a spell to trick Buffy into believing she is responsible.

“In the stories prior to this one the show’s writers had strayed into high comedy territory with these guys and it felt like there was nowhere else to go with them,” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, in Dead Things they went from being The Three Stooges to murderers. We were all excited to do something so dark. I found it a challenge to shoot the scenes in which the trio killed Katrina and I remember how satisfied I was with my work at the end of the day.”

Not long after Dead Things, Jonathan begins to have second thoughts about what The Troika have been up to. In the episode Seeing Red he goes behind Warren’s back and betrays him to Buffy. “Everyone always thought that Jonathan had a crush on Buffy,” says Strong. “Not me. I’d always felt that she was so far out of his league that he never thought about actually being in love with her. Jonathan does, however, love her like a sister. So much so that he helped save her from Warren. No one, either on the series or off-screen, has ever truly acknowledged that in Seeing Red he whispered in Buffy’s ear and told her how to defeat Warren. That was a major turning point in their relationship.”

At the end of Buffy’s sixth year, The Troika incurred Willow’s (Alyson Hannigan) wrath after they murdered her girlfriend Tara (Amber Benson). Warren suffered an agonizing death at her hands, but with some help from Buffy and her friends, Jonathan and Andrew escaped to Mexico. They returned to Sunnydale this (seventh) season, and in the episode Conversations With Dead People Jonathan was killed. However, in true Buffy tradition no one ever truly “dies.”

“Joss Whedon had already told me that I was coming back to do more episodes,” recalls Strong. “So with Conversations I didn’t get this sense of, ‘Oh, no, this is my last time on Buffy.’ When it came time to do the scene where my character is stabbed to death it was really late and everyone wanted to go home. So it was less about, ‘Jeez, we’re killing Jonathan,’ and more, ‘Let’s get this done so we can leave.’ Trust me, if it was my character’s swan song on the series I would have been far more sentimental.”

Born and raised in Manhattan Beach, California, Strong was a freshman when he began performing in high school plays. Upon graduating, he went on to study theatre arts at the University of Southern California. During his four years there, the actor appeared onstage in several productions, and in his sophomore year he performed with the USC Rep Company at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As a junior, he won the USC’s James Pendleton Award for Acting. Strong’s first paying job after graduating was a TV commercial for Doritos tortilla chips.

“I did the ad with Dean Cain [former star of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman],” says the actor. “I remember being on the set that first day and feeling completely at home.’ People said to me, ‘You’ve done this before, right?’ and I told them, ‘Nope, this is my first time.’ They went on to say, ‘Well, you fit right in.’ That helped reaffirm in my mind that I had made the right career choice.”

Strong continued doing commercials while also booking guest spots on such popular TV shows as 3rd Rock From The Sun and Seinfeld. Besides the aforementioned Clueless, he also had recurring roles on two other series, Saved By The Bell: The New Class and Over the Top. His feature film credits include Lasting Silents, Pleasantville and Perpetrators of the Crime. This April, he can be seen in the independent feature New Suit. “It’s a film about development executives in Hollywood and I play a real sleaze-bag,” chuckles the actor. “It was a lot of fun getting to do that.”

Looking back over his body of work on Buffy, Strong could not be happier with the evolution of his character. “Jonathan has grown quite a bit. He started out as a shy, lonely nebbish who desperately wanted to be accepted and have friends. Throughout the course of his villainy last season, I think he realized that there are no quick answers. I love the speech he made right before he died in Conversations With Dead People. Jonathan came to understand that life is all about being yourself and trying to do what’s right. Makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Strong's recent credits include guest-spots on Leverage and How I Met Your Mother as well as a recurring role on Mad Men. He has also written and co-produced the 2011 made-for-TV movie Game Change.

Steve Eramo

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

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Lisa Ryder (Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda)

 
Lisa Ryder as Beka Valentine in Andromeda. Photo copyright of Tribune Entertainment.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, actress Lisa Ryder talks about her various roles, including Beka Valentine in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.

Becoming a police officer, lawyer, model and, of course, one of Charlie’s Angels were just some of the dreams Lisa Ryder had as a child.  She also had a passion for dancing and performing, but it wasn’t until college that the acting bug bit her.  “That’s when I discovered my love of theatre,” says Ryder.  “Since then, there hasn’t been anything I’ve wanted to do more than act.”

Currently, she is busy helping to bring peace to a war-torn universe as Beka Valentine on the syndicated sci-fi series Andromeda.  However, this is not the first TV show from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry on which the actress has appeared.  In 1997, Ryder guest-starred on Earth:Final Conflict.

“I played Kevin Kilner’s [William Boone] wife,” she says.  “I only did two episodes of Earth [Decision and Truth] and, in fact, my character was murdered at the end of the first one.  Boone had an alien brain implant that allowed him to experience memories quite vividly.  So although he lost his wife, the two of them were still able to be together in his dreams.  My role was supposed to be a recurring one, but that never happened.  I guess the producers decided not to pursue that part of the storyline, so poor Kate Boone was no more.”

The director of both episodes Ryder appeared in was Allan Eastman, who, coincidentally, went on to become an executive producer on Andromeda.  While she still had to audition for her role of Beka Valentine, it certainly did not hurt that Eastman knew her.  “It’s always helpful if someone who’s involved in casting a TV series has worked with you before,” explains the actress.  “It at least gives them a frame of reference.  Majel Barrett Roddenberry [executive producer] also knew of my work, as did some of the representatives from Tribune Entertainment, who distributes the program.

“Allan introduced me to Robert Hewitt Wolfe [co-executive producer] prior to my audition in Toronto, which I actually thought I blew.  Much to my surprise, I was called down to Los Angeles to read again.  There were five of us up for the part of Beka and that’s when we met Kevin Sorbo [Captain Dylan Hunt] and some of the Tribune executives.  Honestly, I had no clue who most of them were because I was so nervous,” she laughs.  “After that, I did one more audition, for which I had to dye my hair blonde, and then I finally got the job.”

In Andromeda’s two-part series opener Under the Night and An Affirming Flame, Captain Beka Valentine of the salvage vessel Eureka Maru and her crew rescue the Andromeda Ascendant, which had been frozen in the event horizon of a black hole for three centuries.  They plan to make a fortune selling Andromeda to their employer, Gerentex (John Tench), but its captain, Dylan Hunt, would rather destroy his ship than let that happen.  When Gerentex double-crosses them, Beka and her people, along with a Nietzschean mercenary, Tyr Anasazi (Keith Hamilton Cobb), help Dylan defeat him.  Dylan offers the colourful band of misfits a chance to join him in rebuilding the now fallen Commonwealth.  They accept, but initially find it tough getting used to this new way of life.

“Beka and I have a lot in common,” notes Ryder.  “When she arrives on Andromeda with her merry band, she’s a newcomer to the ship and how things work.  She’s also new to the whole idea of being a first officer, not captain, and having to work under a new commander, Dylan Hunt.  In a way, it’s like me.  I walked onto this set knowing some of the people, but I was still an outsider.  However, over the past year, I think Beka and I have found our ‘space legs’ if you will.  We’ve come to feel a bit more confident and a little more comfortable in our respective positions, you know?

“As far as Beka and Dylan, they’ve developed a friendship but it’s not without its problems and tensions.  There are always these little flare-ups between them and I like that.  I want to keep some kind of edge there.  In fact, I’d like to see Beka challenge Dylan a bit more.  Yes, she believes that restoring the Commonwealth is a noble and worthwhile pursuit, but at the same time feels it’s an absolutely ridiculous and unfounded one.  How can Dylan think that the seven of them can go down to a planet, introduce themselves and say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re starting up the Commonwealth again, want to join?’  As Dylan’s first officer, though, Beka would be better off not to fight him on this, but instead be his reality cheque.

“I also feel that this crew needs to become a great deal trickier and, in certain instances, be more treacherous and mercenary in order to achieve their goals,” adds the actress.  “Their captain is Dylan the Good, right?  Whenever you have someone standing up for a noble cause, there’s usually a fleet of individuals backing him or her up.  Sometimes they do things that are a little shady, but won’t hurt anyone.  With only seven of them trying to do the work of thousands, it more or less makes sense that they’d have to go in that direction every so often.  I’d like to see Beka doing more of that.  She’s the get-it-done-gal for Dylan, but he doesn’t always agree with her methods, which is fine.  Again, that gives us that occasional confrontation I like so much.”

In her travels aboard Andromeda, Beka meets up with a few old enemies as well as some next of kin, including her Uncle Sid (John de Lancie) in the episode The Pearls That Were His Eyes, and her brother Rafe in The Ties That Bind.  “I had a really good time working on The Ties That Bind,” recalls Ryder.  “It was such a solid, well-written story.  Beka and Rafe had a chance to explore their relationship with each other and this provided the audience with some marvelous background information on my character.  Cameron Daddo [Rafe] is a terrific guy and great to work with.  He came in and basically charmed the entire set.  All the women wanted to date him.  He’s a lovely human being and a very giving actor.  

“Another episode I especially enjoyed filming was It Makes A Lovely Light.  In it, Beka experiments with Flash, which is the mind-altering drug that her father overdosed on.  I’ve seen a cut of the show without the special effects and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.  It gave me a chance to further develop Beka.  If you watch the series regularly you know that she can be so straight-on most of the time.  However, having her on Flash gave me a wonderful opportunity to let loose and be a little wackier.  I was able to expose Beka’s angry and arrogant sides – both of which she tries to keep a lid on most of the time – and we got to see her sense of humour, too.  There were some long shooting days on this episode but the end product was worth it.”

A graduate of the University of Toronto, Ryder has starred in more than twenty-five stage plays.  Her feature film work includes roles in City of Dark, Stolen Heart and, most recently, Jason X.  On the small screen, she has guest-starred on such shows as Wind At My Back, Total Recall 2070, Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal and Kung Fu – The Legend Continues, which was Ryder’s first time working in front of the camera.

“Oh, my God, I was awful,” she chuckles.  “My character was supposed to be hypnotized by a magician inside a cave.  I had to walk over these rocks to get to him, all the time not looking down.  That’s not easy to do when you’re wearing high heels.  To top it off, the actor playing the magician stood next to the camera, so every time we did a take I’d look at the camera and not him.  I was just drawn to it!   Talk about being a loser, but it takes time to master all these skills.”

The actress also had a recurring role on the Canadian drama series The Newsroomas well as co-starred as Detective Tracy Vetter in the fourth season of Forever Knight.

“Forever Knight was a bittersweet experience for me,” muses Ryder.  “It was early on in my career and I was learning a tremendous amount at the time.  I have to tell you that stepping into a well-established series with a very strong fan base was a hard thing to do. There were a lot of people who were big fans of the character I was replacing, and I took quite a bit of flack for that.

“That said, the show was an excellent forum for learning my craft.  The cast and crew were lovely people.  I have to say, though, that with Andromeda, the whole experience of being cast from the beginning, knowing everyone and getting to voice my opinion has made a big difference.  I’m having a blast, and I think it’s because the seven of us are an ensemble.  Kevin is definitely the star, but he doesn’t make a big deal out of it.  There’s a tremendous amount of respect among all of us and we treat each other as equals.  You can’t ask for much more than that.”

Steve Eramo

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

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Alan Ritchson (Smallville)

 
Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry/Aquaman in Smallville. Photo copyright of The CW Network.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Alan Ritchson talks about his role as the underwater superhero Arthur Curry a.k.a. Aquaman on Smallville.

If you grew up reading DC Comics then more than likely you’re familiar with Aquaman. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, this ocean-dwelling superhero made his debut in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941) and has since been battling evildoers beneath the sea as well as on dry land. Aquaman a.k.a. Arthur Curry possesses superhuman strength, speed and stamina along with the ability to telepathically communicate with all types of marine life.

Over the years, the character has made the transition from comics to TV cartoons and even the occasional live-action appearance, including the series pilot Mercy Reeffor the now-defunct WB Network. In 2005, Aquaman took centre stage in the fifth season Smallville episode Aqua, and was played by the hunky and talented Alan Ritchson. For the young actor it was an unexpected yet welcome job.

“I’d only been out here [Los Angeles] for a couple of months and was working on a feature film called The Butcherwhen I met my current manager,” recalls Ritchson. “She sent me on some general auditions, including one at the WB. Someone I met there said, ‘You’d be perfect for this Aquaman project that we’re casting.’ Over a period of two weeks and six or seven auditions later I finally booked the part. It was one of the more intense audition processes I’ve been through to date. I think the show’s producers were looking ahead to a pilot, though, and possible series, so they wanted to find the right person from the very start.

“One of the things they may have liked about me as opposed to the other people who read for the role is that I tried to bring a sense of realism to it. I didn’t have a special stance, voice or other superhero ‘gimmick,’ do you know what I mean? Coincidentally, after I got the job, one of the Smallville producers commented that they loved the fact I didn’t give Arthur some quirky feature. The character just seemed very real to me and that’s how I decided to play him.”

In Aqua, Arthur Curry rescues Lois Lane (Erica Durance) after she’s accidentally knocked out while diving into Crater Lake. Clark Kent (Tom Welling) later follows Arthur back to a secret underwater base where the two fight before Clark is thrown out of the lake after being hit by a water ball generated by Arthur. The mysterious teenager is, in fact, trying to destroy ‘Leviathan,’ a weapon being developed for sale to the military by Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and that’s responsible for killing local marine life. Lex manages to capture Arthur, but Clark sets him free and together they go after the weapon. Ritchson describes his first day on the Smallville set in one word.

“Overwhelming,” chuckles the actor. “It was a whirlwind. I got off the plane in Vancouver that first day and was rushed to the studio where I was immediately introduced to some of the show’s executive producers. Afterwards, I was taken to wardrobe, hair and make-up where I was ‘made up’ as Arthur Curry. Then I was brought to the set to meet all the people I’d be working with, including the episode’s director, Bradford May, and Erica Durance, who showed me around. Before I knew it I was doing my first scene with Erica. It was a very intense one that, sadly, was deleted from the final cut of the episode. As we shot it, there was an army of people waiting behind the camera to tell me what I needed to do next.

“My head was still spinning when I got back to my hotel room that night,” continues Ritchson. “Initially it was a lot to take in, especially as it was my first big TV role. I felt much more at ease when I returned to the set the next morning and everyone there was like, ‘OK, this new guy seems to know his way around now.’ For the next three weeks I spent a great deal of time in the water. We shot a number of scenes at a Canadian glacial lake where the water was something like 52 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was pretty chilly. I was diving in and around tunnels that had been formed in the mountainside. The work was physically challenging, but I fed off that and enjoyed that aspect of my character.

“We also filmed several scenes in a pool of water at a large research facility. I had to take some scuba lessons so that I could stay underwater while we were shooting. I’d breathe in some oxygen from a tube, swim in front of the camera, do my scene, and then someone in scuba gear would swim over to me and give me more oxygen. The whole thing was quite an experience and one I won’t soon forget.”

Although the Smallville producers were very pleased with the actor’s performance in Aqua, they ultimately decided to recast the Arthur Curry role for the aforementioned Mercy Reef pilot. Unfortunately, the pilot never aired on TV, but it was shown on iTunes. As for Ritchson, he was invited back not too long ago to guest-star yet again as Arthur Curry in the sixth season Smallville episode Justice. In it, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Justin Hartley, who starred in Mercy Reef) asks Clark as well as Arthur Curry, Bart Allen/The Flash (Kyle Gallner) and Victor Stone/Cyborg (Lee Thompson Young) for help to take down LuthorCorp’s secret lab. When Bart and then Clark are taken prisoner by Lex, their friends mobilize to rescue them.

“That episode was so much fun to do,” enthuses Ritchson. “I especially liked filming the ‘team’ scenes where Arthur and the rest of the super-guys were together because they got along so well, and so did us actors. That was apropos in that Justiceis about this sort of brotherhood that forms among our heroes and that was definitely true both on and off-screen. It wasn’t like acting at all. We just had a blast. To be honest, working on this second episode was doubly enjoyable for me because there was no pressure. I’m the guy playing Aquaman on Smallville and I don’t have anything to prove. For that reason alone I think I was able to embody the character even more so in Justice and was really pleased about that.”

Steve Eramo

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

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis)

 
Stargate Atlantis' Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion). Photo copyright of Syfy.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Paul McGillion chats on the Stargate Atlantis set about his first year playing Dr. Carson Beckett.

Paul McGillion smiles when talking about the first time he worked in front of a camera. “It was a music video for David Wilcox, a Canadian singer, and the song was called Layin’ Pipe. I was working with this model who was supposed to be my love interest in the video, and she had to chase me around a car. She was probably 6’4” and I’m 5’10”, and that’s on a good day, so that whole scenario was pretty funny. At one point, the director tried to match us up height-wise and asked me to stand on top of an apple box on the other side of the car. Happily, things have gotten better over the years, and I haven’t been asked to stand on top of a box ever since,” chuckles the actor.

Born in Paisley, Scotland, McGillion and his family came to Canada when he was just two years old. After graduating from college with a degree in theatre and education, he taught drama in Toronto for a year before moving west to Vancouver to pursue acting work. Since the early nineties, McGillion has played numerous roles in feature films as well as on TV and the stage. Currently, he can be seen as Dr. Carson Beckett on Stargate Atlantis. The good doctor is part of a scientific and military team who travelled through the Earth’s Stargate to the Pegasus galaxy. It’s there that they hope to unlock the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis, once home to the Ancients, the builders of the Stargate.

In the Atlantis pilot Rising, it’s revealed that Beckett is one of the few humans who have the rare gene that allows him to operate Ancients technology. This along with his medical and scientific skills has made him an invaluable part of the Atlantis team. As the show’s first season has continued to unfold, viewers have learnt more about Beckett, both personally and professionally.

“My character has come such a long way since the pilot,” says McGillion. “In Rising, Beckett is used as a bit of comic relief, but then in the fourth episode, Thirty Eight Minutes, you see him back at home base and speaking as a voice of authority. Then there’s Poisoning the Well, which I just think is a great vehicle for Beckett as it shows his humourous as well as emotional side. He finds himself in the middle of a huge moralistic dilemma and has to deal with that. To complicate matters, Beckett also develops a crush of sorts on a colleague named Perna [Allison Hossack], who ends up dying in his arms.

“As an actor, to get a script like that so early on in the first season of a TV show is such a blessing. I thought Damian Kindler did an amazing job of writing it, not to mention Brad Turner, who directed the episode. I’ve had the pleasure of working with him before. Brad is a terrific guy and he has a real understanding of storytelling and script analysis. I think that’s evident in the way he talks to you about your character and helps you tweak your performance to make it the best it can be. I worked really hard on this episode and was grateful to the producers for the opportunity to further flesh out Beckett.

“I also especially like the mid-season two-parter, The Storm and The Eye. In these two episodes, Beckett is hooked up with Lt. Ford [Rainbow Sun Francks] and Teyla [Rachel Luttrell] and they get a chance to bond. Ford tries to pull rank on the doctor, but Beckett won’t have any of that because he’s not part of the military. Still, Ford forces him into situations he doesn’t want to be in and it becomes quite comical at times. That’s when Beckett looks to Teyla to be the voice of reason and, of course, for protection. What can I say, deep down there’s a little Cowardly Lion in Beckett,” laughs the actor.

McGillion is enjoying how his other onscreen Atlantis relationships are developing as well. “There’s a wonderful mutual respect that continues to grow between Beckett and Dr. Weir [Torri Higginson],” notes the actor. “They share some charming moments in the story where Dr. Weir grows old [Before I Sleep]. Theirs is a brother/sister relationship to some extent, and she feels comfortable calling my character by his first name. Dr. Weir is a rather calming influence on Beckett, whose behaviour can on occasion be slightly eccentric.

“Things between Major Sheppard [Joe Flanigan] and Beckett are good, although the major sometimes makes fun of him and that hurts my character’s feelings,” jokes McGillion. “Seriously, as with Dr. Weir, the doctor respects the major and trusts in his leadership skills. There’s a funny scene in one of the stories [Sanctuary] where Sheppard hits it off with this beautiful female alien and sort of rubs it in Beckett’s and Dr. McKay’s [David Hewlett] noses.

“Speaking of McKay, he and Beckett go at each other all the time, but it’s very much a good-natured rivalry. Off-camera, David Hewlett and I have become close friends. We laugh a lot onset and we often say that we’d love to have more scenes together. However, because both our characters tend to have a fair bit of the technobabble in most of the episodes, the writers try to mix things up and usually only have one of us in a scene.”

At the time of this interview (early October 2004), the cast and crew of Atlantis were busy filming the show’s first season finale, The Siege, along with its penultimate episode, The Gift. “I think audiences are really going to enjoy The Gift, which Peter DeLuise is directing,” says McGillion. “As for The Siege, I have a number of interesting scenes in that one. David Hewlett and I even have a fair amount to do together in it. I don’t want to give anything away, but in many ways The Siege pays homage to our pilot episode. Beckett is once again put in certain situations that he wants no part of. You’ll have to tune in, though, to see how the poor guy copes,” teases the actor.

Steve Eramo

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