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!
I miss SGA.I still say they could have made 1 or 2 more seasons.Now Sgu is done.But we still have re runs(yey)
Posted by: Jackoneill | 03/29/2011 at 01:29 AM