SciFiAndTvTalk

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Victoria Pratt (Mutant X)

Victoria Pratt as Mutant X's Shalimar Fox. Photo copyright of Tribune Entertainment.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, the beautiful and talented Victoria Pratt talks about her first season playing Shalimar Fox on Mutant X.

Mutant X’s Shalimar Fox opens the door to the Safehouse and walks inside. “We’re ready to go,” she says, closing the door behind her. The feral beauty then sits on the railing of the walkway and listens as Adam Kane, the group’s leader, and teammate Jesse Kilmartin talk with Charlotte, a new mutant whose mere touch can change one’s moral compass. Because of an incident from the past involving Adam and her father, Charlotte feels she is entitled to a place on the team.

“I’m sorry, Charlotte, but you’re not joining Mutant X,” says Adam.

“Fine. If that’s the way you want it, then that’s the way it has to be,” she answers, getting up from her seat. The young woman brushes Jesse’s hand as she walks by him and heads towards the steps leading to the walkway.

Without warning, Jesse begins to hyperventilate. He looks at Adam and says angrily, “Where does it say that you get to make decisions for everyone?”

“Jesse, what’s wrong?” asks Shalimar. She starts to walk down the steps and passes Charlotte, who brushes against her shoulder.

“Was I talking to you?” he asks. Adam tries to speak but Jesse interrupts him. “I’ve had it!”

A wave of dizziness briefly overcomes Shalimar, who blurts out, “And I’ve about had it with your attitude!”

“Stop it both of you!” orders Adam, but he is ignored. A smug Charlotte watches as Jesse whirls around and Shalimar prepares to leap over the railing to attack him.

“That was great!” says Mutant X director Drew Potter. The scene being rehearsed is for an upcoming episode of the series, Altered Ego. As the actors move off the set, the lighting crew comes in to do their work. Since she will not be needed for a while, actress Victoria Pratt, who portrays Shalimar Fox, suggests finding a spot in the “Sanctuary set” for a chat. A year ago, she was fighting to save humankind as the formidable Sarge in the futuristic Science Fiction series Cleopatra 2525. Nowadays the actress is still battling it out with the bad guys on Mutant X and in a role she absolutely adores. However, according to Pratt it was not love at first sight when it came to Shalimar Fox.

“When I read the first script I thought, ‘You know what, maybe this isn’t the right part for me after all.’ The character of Shalimar as originally written was a completely different person,” explains Pratt. “She was very aggressive, mean-spirited and not well-liked. In fact, she was a lot like Sarge only with animal DNA. As much fun as I had playing Sarge you can’t play that same type of character forever. It was only after I met with the writers and they saw that I was a flirt and loved to goof around and laugh that they began to think, ‘Maybe we can take this character in another direction.’

“For example, originally when Shalimar and Emma [Lauren Lee Smith] first meet they immediately dislike each other. All I could think was, ‘That’s so stereotypical. I don’t want to play someone that catty,’ so they changed it. Now the two women have a special relationship as well as a deep connection and I’m pleased about that. I think it’s important for the good guys to get along because there are enough bad guys to dislike,” she jokes. “After all, this isn’t Melrose Place. It’s not a soap opera where we need that sort of internal conflict to make it interesting to watch. So once I’d heard they were re-tooling certain aspects of the program I became interested again, and I’m so glad I did. I love my character now and I’m thrilled to be a part of this show.”

Shalimar Fox’s mentor and Mutant X’s enigmatic founder Adam (John Shea) was once a biogeneticist at the biotech firm Genomex. He resigned after learning that his research was being used to cause genetic mutations in unwitting human beings. The experiments endowed each test subject or “Child of Genomex” with superhuman abilities. Adam has pledged to help these “new mutants” learn how to use their powers and protect them from being exploited or even killed by such ruthless individuals as Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus), Genomex’s security chief. Shalimar was the first recruit to join Adam’s cause.

“I think we’ve got the viewers curious about Shalimar’s relationship with Adam,” notes Pratt. “Because she was the first member of Mutant X, they have a certain closeness. Shalimar is Adam’s confidant and vice versa. They share a lot of information that they don’t necessarily pass on to the rest of the group. There’s actually been some buzz on the Internet as to whether or not they’re lovers or even if Adam is her father. He feels this tremendous guilt over what happened to Shalimar and the other Children of Genomex, and I don’t think the show’s writers are quite sure where to go with that yet, which is neat. Mutant X has been picked up for 44 episodes, so we can take [that relationship] wherever we want. John and I enjoy doing scenes together and we have a good on-screen chemistry. It’ll be fun to see what happens with our two characters as time goes on.

“Some viewers are also wondering if there’s anything going on between Shalimar and Jesse [Forbes March],” she continues. “In the first episode [The Shock of the New] Adam explains to Emma how possessive and territorial Shalimar can be and how protective she is of those she loves, and that includes Jesse. So that got people thinking, ‘Ooh, maybe it’s her and Jesse.’ From the start, though, I think the writers have tried really hard to make it more of a brother/sister bond with Jesse and Shalimar. However, when you get a bunch of young people together in a beautiful spot you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen,” jokes the actress. “As for Shalimar’s relationship with Brennan Mulwray [Victor Webster], it’s pretty much as it seems. He’s the new guy on the team and my character is happy to have him as a friend and colleague.”

The actress makes a dramatic entrance in the opening teaser of Mutant X’s premiere episode The Shock of the New. Shalimar and Jesse move in to help new mutant Emma deLauro, who is being chased by a group of Genomex’s hired hands. Pratt’s feral alter ego descends from a nearby rooftop and lands on top of an SUV ready to do battle with the enemy. It’s a moment she will remember for a long time to come.

“I’m a very athletic person and I think that’s probably one of the reasons why I get to do a lot of my own stunts,” says Pratt. “However, I’ve never done a decelerator fall before. A decelerator is a huge truck with these massive cables. The producers asked me, ‘Are you interested in doing [this stunt]?’ I said, ‘Yes. It’s my character’s introduction. I definitely want it to be me.’ What can I say, I’m weird that way,” she laughs. “Because this machinery is so expensive to rent I wasn’t able to practice beforehand. They did do a trial run with my stunt double, bless her heart. I watched her as she did it and figured, ‘OK, not a problem.’

“We shot the scene at night. I walked onto the set dressed in a tight leather outfit with high heels and a long coat. The stunt guys strapped me into this special harness and these cables pulled me off the ground and four stories up into the air. I looked down and saw this itty-bitty dot, which was the SUV that I was supposed to land on. I asked myself, ‘What were you thinking?’ My parents live only a couple of hours away and they happened to come up to visit me that day, so they were down below watching. All I kept thinking was, ‘Please don’t let me die.’ Luckily, we have what’s probably the best stunt team in Canada, so I knew they’d take good care of me.

“Believe it or not, the landing was as soft as jumping from the sidewalk onto the street.  When I landed the first thing I did was take inventory. ‘OK, I’m alive,’ I thought. ‘Oh, wait a sec, I’m not done. I’ve got to kick some ass.’ By the third take I was confident that I wasn’t going to die and could therefore carry on with the remainder of the action. I’ll never forget, though, the feeling of hanging up there with my heart racing, then falling and just hoping fear wasn’t written all over my face.”

Fighting crime and super-villainy doesn’t leave a gal much time for a life, let alone a boyfriend. However, Shalimar does find Mr. Right in the first-season episode Fool for Love. The man in question, Richard Saunders, a researcher at Genomex and, surprisingly enough, also a feral, was played by Canadian actor Yannick Bisson.

“Shalimar not only falls in love in this episode but she must also decide whether or not she would like to give up her special powers in order to stay with this man forever,” says Pratt. “The story is very emotional. It has everything in it that I’ve always wanted to do as an actress but up to now hadn’t been given the vehicle in which to do it. I thought Yannick Bisson was terrific. He has a martial arts background and there’s a fight scene we do that’s like ballet except that it’s incredibly sexy. Because our characters are both ferals it’s as if they’re playing with each other rather than trying to actually hurt one another. The episode was such a blast to do and I’m proud of how it turned out. It’s definitely my favourite so far this season.”

There were some critics that panned Mutant X when it first came out. However, the series has proven to be a favourite with Science Fiction fans, who have also responded favorably to Pratt’s portrayal of Shalimar Fox. “I think about the TV shows that influenced me when I was younger,” says the actress. “I used to always watch The Bionic Woman. I loved to pretend that I was bionic. These days, I get letters from little girls telling me, ‘Shalimar is so neat. When I grow up I want to be just like her.’ That makes me feel good,” says Pratt with a smile.

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 - A.J. Buckley (CSI: NY)

Actor A.J. Buckley.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, we come back down to Earth to talk with actor A.J. Buckley about his role of Adam Ross on CSI: NY.

It’s not every job where you show up at the office and have to, among other things, analyze a shark tooth and stomach contents, use trigonometry to determine the launch point of a corpse that was catapulted from a tall building, and identify a weird substance on a dead person’s lips as, in fact, fish food. All those things and more are all in a day’s work for CSI: NY lab tech Adam Ross. Although dealing with bizarre and extraordinary situations has become second nature for the young man, there is one aspect of his job that actor A.J. Buckley, who plays Ross, still has difficulty with even after all his time on the show.

“It’s the technobabble, and the size of the words,” says Buckley. “I don’t know how I get through it some days. Just recently I had to say a word that was so huge that I thought for sure different muscles in my brain were going to seize up,” jokes the actor. “I even looked the word up on the Internet to get the proper pronunciation and I couldn’t find it. It was so big and so odd that my computer didn’t even want to attempt it. Everyone has a good laugh whenever I get a word wrong. The moment I walk on-set to do the scene, they’re like, ‘Oh, boy, here we go,’ and I say, ‘Alright, then, I hope there’s plenty of film in the camera.’ So it’s all good.”

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Buckley was six years old when he and his family immigrated to British Columbia, Canada. However, it was while still in Dublin that he first set his sights on what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. “I remember the day quite clearly,” notes the actor. “I was five, and my Mom took me to see a play. Afterwards I said to her, ‘That’s [acting] what I want to do.’ It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do, and even more so now that I’m older and have branched out into writing, producing and directing. I love everything about this industry, from the deal making, to going after a story that moved me, to writing a script, to director, acting, etc. To me, it’s the greatest business in the world and I feel very fortunate to be earning a living at it.”

Since making his debut when he was 14 in an episode of the Canadian fantasy series The Odyssey, the actor has guest-starred in dozens of TV shows including NYPD Blue, Without A Trace and Bones as well as several made-for-TV movies. He has also appeared in such feature films as The In Crowd, Blue Car and Disturbing Behavior.

Loyal watchers of TV’s Supernatural are sure to remember Buckley’s performance as Ed Zeddmore, the hothead in a pair of geeky wannabe ghost hunters in the first season story Hell House. Ten years before filming that, the actor guest-starred in not one but two other Vancouver-based series, The X-Files and Millennium.

“The X-Files was really cool,” says the actor. “The first episode I did was in the second season, and I played Agent Scully’s [Gillian Anderson] brother Bill Jr. in a flashback. Then I came back the following year to play a character called ‘Dude’ [in War of the Coprophages]. That was my first time working with prosthetics as well as cockroaches. Back then, The X-Files was one of the most popular shows in the world and I was thrilled just to get on it.

“In the Millennium episode I did [Weeds], my character was kidnapped and tortured in a basement where he was forced to drink blood and all sorts of other nasty stuff happened to him.”

It was an audition for a guest-role on CSI: Miami that ultimately led to Buckley being cast as Adam Ross in CSI: NY. “I didn’t know it at the time, but when I read for CSI: Miami, my name was also on a list to play one of the lab techs that the people at CSI: NY wanted to try out over the course of a season,” recalls Buckley. “The thing, though, with CSI is that you can only do one show a season, so my agent asked, ‘Are you interested in trying A.J. out [as a lab tech] or should we just go ahead with the offer on CSI: Miami?’ They said, ‘No, we’ll write him into this [CSI: NY] episode. It’s only three lines, but we’ll try to come up with something else later and hopefully he’ll return. We can’t guarantee anything, but let’s see how it goes.’

“Those three lines [in the second season episode Bad Beat] turned into a couple of more lines in another episode, and as a result we’ve kind of found a rhythm and banter to Adam Ross pretty quickly,” continues the actor. “And audiences seemed to respond positively to the character. For me, I think the biggest challenge going into CSI: NY was the fact that there was the potential for it to turn into something more. That can always be difficult on you because you’re putting pressure on yourself and not be as free within the role as you might otherwise be.

“So that was definitely in my head starting out, and on top of that, it was only three or four lines. That’s it. There was no real character description. It was like, you’re a lab tech, let’s see what you’ve got. So I kind of threw a bunch of things at the wall all at once and waited to see what stuck. I remember, though, sitting in my trailer and being terribly nervous, and I thought, ‘Use this. Make the character nervous and truthful to what you’re feeling right now.’ And it worked. Again, people responded to that and were able to relate to Adam’s overachieving and wanting to be on the team. Now I think just in the evolution of my character and learning a bit more about his past and with everything that he experienced in last year’s finale, that he’s grown more confident. People are listening to Adam more, and he’s starting to grow a little hair on his chest so to speak.”

One particular CSI: NY episode that showcases a multitude of the actor’s talents is the aforementioned third season finale Snow Day. In it, Adam is left to finish up at a crime scene after a successful warehouse raid, when he along with two uniformed police officers are taken hostage by Irish mobsters looking to recover their drugs. Detective Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) later arrives at the warehouse to assist Adam, and is taken captive as well. The two must work together in order to find a way out of their predicament.

“When I first read the script I thought, ‘Hey, this is great. I get a chance to break out of what my character typically does and really delve into the acting side of it,’” enthuses Buckley. “And by no means am I implying that what I do is boring. I thoroughly enjoy being in the lab as Adam. However, when I saw the emotional side of this story, the actor in me went, ‘Wow, OK, I can show up on-set today and go to a fun place and change things up a bit.’ Prior to this, I don’t believe the writers or producers had seen me in that light as far as the emotional level of my character.

“Those scenes, though, wouldn’t have been anything without Danny being in them with me, and the two of us just going for it and getting something out of it. So I had a blast on those couple of days where Adam was getting beat up. Again, it was different. I’ve grown accustomed to doing those weightier scenes in the various characters I’ve played over the course of my career, and it was a treat to revisit that type of acting.”

Having worked on 20 episodes during seasons two and three of CSI: NY, Buckley was made a series regular at the start of season four. His character was also given a romantic interest, namely Adam’s fellow lab tech, Kendall Novak (Bess Wohl). “The opening scene in that episode [Can You Hear Me Now?] has my character on the floor and a half-naked Kendall on the couch, and I was like, ‘Alright, this is a cool place to kick off the season,’” jokes the actor. “Beth is absolutely fantastic and we have terrific on-screen chemistry. Again, it breaks up the regular sort of scientific thing and shows that Adam has some game with the ladies, but he’s still a klutz and nervous. I mean, there’s a reason why Adam was on the floor and Kendall was on the couch,” he laughs.

“I think the writers enjoy writing for my character because he’s kind of the lightness of the show. You’re watching all this murder and mayhem, and then you cut to Adam for a minute or two to have a laugh and take a breather before going back to the action, and I enjoy that.”

Behind the scenes, Buckley enjoys a good rapport with his CSI: NY costars, and he hopes that translates on-screen. “I love my scenes with Gary Sinise [Detective Mac Taylor],” says the actor. “The energy between the two of us always brings out some moments that aren’t necessarily on the page. In real life, Gary is someone I look up to, and I’ve tried to show that in Adam, too, with regard to Mac, and that deep down he kind of wants to be someone with Mac’s leadership skills and a little bit of Danny’s toughness.

“With Detective Stella Bonasera [Melina Kanakaredes], she’s a motherly figure who my character feels comfortable around and definitely respects. I think the HIV storyline with her and Adam resulted in a connection between them, and I liked that Stella would confide in Adam and lean on him for his expertise.

“As for Carmen Giovinazzo, I think he’s a big part of me being here. I knew him prior to working on this show, and he’s gone out of his way to create some cool beats with our two characters and show that, yes, there is chemistry between Danny and Adam.”

As much as Buckley loves acting, there was a time when he considered giving it up. “It was right before CSI,” he says. “I was down to $32, and thought, ‘Do I go back to Canada and try to get a 9 to 5 job while I figure out what’s next, or do I stick it out a little longer.’ Thank God I’ve got great friends as well as family, and, of course, my health, and I was like, ‘Just hang on a bit longer,’ and I’m so glad I did.”

Steve Eramo

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Eureka)

Actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield. Photo copyright of Syfy.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield talks about her character of Dr. Allison Blake's involvement in season two of Syfy's Eureka.

Hey, love is in the air today, and that’s a good thing, right? Well, no, not always. If, for example, you happen to reside in a certain little Pacific Northwest town, love can also be a rather complicated and, in fact, dangerous thing, especially when scientists start experimenting with it. Actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield, who plays Dr. Allison Blake on the Sci Fi Channel series Eureka explains.

“In the episode we’re shooting at the moment [Maneater], Sheriff Carter [Colin Ferguson] somehow gets this pheromone on him and becomes irresistible to every woman in town. He actually has to be kept separate from them. In order for us to even speak with Carter, we have to do it on a monitor from a different room because the sexual attraction is so intense that we would be clawing at him and he’d end up dead.

“So Carter has to be ushered through the town with Fargo [Neil Grayston] holding the women at bay. It’s really quite hilarious. Of course, he doesn’t realize what’s happening until all of a sudden these women are kissing him. Everyone is asking, ‘What’s up with that?’ and Carter is like, ‘I don’t know. I thought maybe I just looked cute today.’ Even Allison is fighting over him, and it’s not until the two are separated that she’s able to ask herself, ‘Oh, my God, what did I just do?’ Again, it’s a very amusing episode, and our characters have to figure out how to fix this before the entire town is affected by these pheromones and people start tearing each other apart.

“It’s always interesting to see what they [the show’s writers] are going to come up with next,” says the actress, “and their ideas are always I think somewhat based in reality. It’s something that either could be or could happen or maybe somewhere is being discovered and worked on, only we don’t know about it. So it’s always great fun. It’s a terrific group of people here and nothing they’ve come up with so far has left us thinking, ‘This is completely ridiculous.’”

When Allison Blake was first introduced to viewers last year on Eureka she was a U.S. Department of Defense agent working as a liaison between the town as well as its local think tank, Global Dynamics, and the government. In the first season finale, Once in a Lifetime, the head of Global, and Allison’s estranged husband, Dr. Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn), conducts an experiment with the top-secret Artifact, which almost ends up destroying the town. As a result, at the start of season two, Stark is fired from Global and replaced by Allison. That has opened up a brand new door of acting opportunities on the show for Richardson-Whitfield.

“I think this year my character has much more of a story arc than the first season,” she notes. “We were still getting to know all these characters last year, so I don’t feel I saw as much growth in Allison back then as I do this time around. Some of her arc actually happened during season one, but she’s not even aware of it because it took place in an alternate reality [the episode Once in a Lifetime]. That would have been a big deal for her, but by the end of the episode she has no idea of this major turnaround she made in her love for Carter and her family, so that was kind of lost on Allison.

“This year, however, there’s a real arc for my character. She takes on a new job and is the head of a company now. How does that change you? Allison isn’t really reporting to people any longer, but instead is making the same tough choices that Nathan had to make. What type of person is she when she has that type of power? Those are all issues for her to deal with, and Allison gets her hands a little dirty, which I find more interesting to play then just being one-sided where you know she’s good all the time. Now suddenly you’re kind of looking at Allison a little bit strange, too, and wondering what she might be up to. There are a lot of different ups and downs for her this season, and I like that.”

Besides being the head of Global, Allison is also a single parent to her young son Kevin (Meshach Peters). Like in the real world, she has a lot of irons in the fire as a working mom, and balancing her personal and professional sides is sometimes tricky to deal with for both Allison and the actress playing her.

“Maybe it’s just me as a person, but I have a sort of edge to me,” says Richardson-Whitfield, “and the note I always get [from the directors and/or producers] is, ‘Can you be a little softer.’ So I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my God, you’ve made my character the head of one of the most powerful companies in the world. How do I find a way to be obviously a very strong woman who’s in charge over all these men, but also find a softness.’

“That’s been my challenge, and the thing is you don’t always have to be hard to run a company and get what you need from others. Women, especially, have different ways of dealing with people to get the job done. So I’ve had to really think about that and find those different ways, you know? When they [the writers] told me that they were making this change with Allison I was so excited. Besides being an actress and knowing it would be a joy to play just as a woman, I love that they’re taking a chance and allowing my character to run things. I think it works, and, again, gives me so much more to do instead of always saying, ‘I’m going to call the Department of Defense.’ Now Allison is the one making the decisions and they have to listen to her.”

“It’s funny, poor Ed Quinn said to me [jokingly], ‘Yeah, my character gets fired and yours gets a new set,’ because Allison has this fabulous office now. It’s all so much cooler. When I came back to work for the first time this year and saw the new [Global Dynamics] set I was like, ‘Ooh, we might just be here for a while,’ because it’s truly amazing. The set is big, but then when they shoot it on camera it looks enormous. It really gives you the feeling that Global is an important company.”

Not surprisingly, Allison’s new job assignment has an effect on her relationship with Nathan Stark, not to mention Carter. “You definitely see Allison gravitate towards Nathan because now he’s not just this cold guy who’s head of a company,” says Richardson-Whitfield. “He’s back to being a scientist, and the man who she originally met and fell in love with. Allison still has an attraction to Carter and is dealing with that, but she can’t deny her past with Nathan and the feelings she still has for him.

“She and Nathan are also dealing more with Allison’s son Kevin and what’s going on with him, which is bringing them closer together as a family. I don’t want to say too much about Kevin, but he’s definitely brought further into the show’s mythology, and Meshach is doing a great job in the role. I have to say, too, that I enjoy the relationship between Allison and her son, especially as it helps me show that softer side I was talking about earlier. So you not only see her at work, but as a mother as well and having to care for this very special son that she has. It just makes her more of a whole character, a whole person, and I really appreciate that.”

To the delight of the Sci Fi Channel, Eureka turned out to be a hit with audiences last year, and so far this season it’s proving to be just as successful. Richardson’s previous comment about the series being around for a while may just come to past.

“The pressure is on. We have our fingers crossed for this season and hope we do right by our audience,” enthuses the actress. “The work is hard, but the hard work is showing, and you can’t ask for more than that.”

During the hiatus between seasons one and two of Eureka, Richardson-Whitfield had the chance to work on the feature film I Am Legend, starring Will Smith as Robert Neville, the last man alive on Earth who fights a nightly battle with the rest of humanity, all of whom have been transformed into vampires.

“I’ve done movies before, but it’s a very different experience when you’re in a multi-million dollar film and shooting scenes with 1,500 extras, a helicopter flying over your head and, of course, Will Smith,” recalls Richardson. “He’s what every big movie star should be, which is a true gentleman. This is a man who doesn’t tolerate or allow bad behaviour from himself or anyone else he’s working with, and that translated to a very happy atmosphere on-set.

“As for the film itself, I think it’s going to be really cool. Audiences are going to get that whole Sci-Fi vibe they’re looking for, and wonderful drama and great acting as well. I play Will’s wife [Ginny], who’s a stay-at-home mom and a softer character, which meant I had the opportunity to do a lot more emotional work, so that was a great deal of fun.”

Steve Eramo

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

Fringe Renewed For a Fifth (and Final) Season (Fox TV)

FOX has picked up Fringe for a fifth and final 13-episode season, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President of Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company.

“Fringe is a remarkably creative series that has set the bar as one of television’s most imaginative dramas. Bringing it back for a final 13 allows us to provide the climactic conclusion that its passionate and loyal fans deserve,” said Reilly “The amazing work the producers, writers and the incredibly talented cast and crew have delivered the last four seasons has literally been out of this world. Although the end is bittersweet, it’s going to be a very exciting final chapter.”

Fringe co-creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams added, “We are thrilled and beyond grateful that Fox – and our fans – have made the impossible possible: Fringe will continue into a fifth season that will allow the series to conclude in a wild and thrilling way. All of us at Bad Robot are forever indebted to our viewers and the amazingly supportive FOX network for allowing the adventures of Fringe Division to not only continue, but to resolve in a way that perfectly fits the show.”

“This pickup means the world (both of them) to us, because we love sharing these stories with our enthusiastic fans,” added Fringe showrunners and executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. “On behalf of the cast and crew, we applaud our fans and FOX for allowing us to imagine the impossibilities together for so long. Season Five is going to be a conclusive thrill ride for all of us.”

Fringe’s compelling fourth season concludes with three all-new Fringe Friday episodes in a row, counting down to the two-part season finale on Friday, May 4th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST and Friday, May 11th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST. In Worlds Apart, airing Friday, April 27th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST, team members on both sides, including Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Joshua Jackson), continue to fight for a common cause, and there are shocking developments tied to the Cortexiphan children.

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Brian Krause (Charmed)

Actor Brian Krause

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From the Past, actor Brian Krause looks back at his work on the long-running WB supernatural TV series Charmed and playing Leo Wyatt.

It was back in April that filming on the hit supernatural series Charmedcame to its natural conclusion after eight years, but for actor Brian Krause, who played Leo Wyatt, his involvement in the series isn’t quite over yet. He spent this Monday morning in late August in a studio recording commentary for the eighth season Charmed DVD release, in particular his character’s penultimate episode, Vaya Con Leos.

“Me, Brad Kern [executive producer] and Cameron Litvak, the writer of that episode, have provided background commentary for the 45 minutes of that story,” explains Krause. “It’s basically the three of us recapping the show’s eight years on the air as well as talking about Vaya Con Leos, the birth of the episode, what it was about, the emotions that went along with making it, and how it could have been the last time we saw Leo. It was wonderful to see Brad and Cameron again and be able to share our thoughts about the whole experience.”

Charmed made its TV debut in the autumn of 1998 and introduced audiences to the Halliwell sisters, Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), who also happened to be witches, but the good variety. Their destiny was to vanquish demons and protect innocents, but even the powerful Charmed Ones needed a little help every so often. Enter Leo Wyatt. Initially masquerading as a handyman, he was really a Whitelighter sent by the Elders to watch over the sisters. Leo first knocked on the Halliwell Manor’s front door in the season one episode Thank You For Not Morphing.

“What probably sticks out most in my mind about my first time stepping onto the Charmed set was the nervous energy I had of being around Shannen, Alyssa and Holly in a professional venue,” recalls Krause. “I’d known them for a couple of years, but we had never worked together. So I just remember being very nervous because they knew me as their friend Brian, but had never seen me act in person. There I was now having to kind of step up to the plate and wanting to impress them and yet get the job done and not have to worry so much about what the girls might think.

“I’ll never forget that day, though, and the look in Shannen’s eyes of, ‘Now don’t mess up.’ That’s what I remember most; how professional she was about it all and how good she wanted the series to be. She put the ‘pressure’ on to make it a success because she took a great deal of pride in Charmed and the work. Shannen just had a different way of going about things than Alyssa and Holly. It was a positive one, though, and it stuck with me for the whole run of the series, so I give kudos to Shannen for her professionalism.

“When it came to playing Leo in those early episodes, I guess one of the first things I had to get used to was working in the Sci-Fi realm. I mean, I’d done [the feature film] Sleepwalkers a few years before, but that was the extent of my experience in that genre. Also, I had the challenge of playing a real guy who was not quite a real guy. On top of that there was the great unknown. Was Leo going to stick around, or was he just a fleeting love interest for one of the girls? So the trick was to try to be likable enough for the audience to want me to stay and also be a good enough actor for the show’s leads to want to keep me around.

“The dynamic that I especially liked early on was that my character had this secret that no one really knew about. As the story went on, Leo was magical and then he wasn’t for a while. At one point, I wasn’t even sure if he was good or bad. If you were bad on Charmed you got killed, but if you were good that was a good sign. In the beginning, though, no one really knew what Leo was, so for me the question was do I play him as dark, light or slightly ambivalent? In the end we went for ambivalent, and that seemed to work,” he chuckles.

After three years of Charmed, Shannen Doherty decided to leave the series. Her character of Prue was killed off, and in season four, the Halliwell’s half-sister/half-Whitelighter Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) was welcomed into the Charmed One’s fold. “The show’s dynamic changed quite a bit in year four,” says Krause. “I’ve talked with a lot of fans about it, some of whom stopped watching, while others started watching for the first time.

“Shannen’s character was a straightforward, demon butt-kicker and she and her sisters were hardcore witches in the first three seasons. When Rose joined the show, everything kind of lightened up a bit. The Paige character was very quirky and fun-loving, and I think by virtue of bringing her in to replace Prue, it did change Holly’s and Alyssa’s characters and dialed up their emotional levels on the show. So we went from being this purely demon butt-kicking show to one where it allowed us to show a more personal side of these girls’ lives.

“As far as Leo was concerned, he didn’t interact much with Prue, but he did with Paige, especially at the beginning. Being that she was part Whitelighter, my character sort of showed her the ropes. I was pleased about that because it involved me more in the storyline as well as brought out more of Leo’s big brother attitude with the girls.”

Piper and Phoebe both had a bit of a crush on Leo when they first met him, but it was the eldest sister that eventually captured the Whitelighter’s heart. Leo’s romance with Piper was forbidden by the Elders, but the couple eventually earned the right to marry and raise a family.

“Overall I was happy with how the Leo/Piper relationship was written, but I also think it developed somewhat quickly,” says Krause. “They were dating and then all of a sudden they were married and before you knew it they had two kids. In real life I suppose that eight years is long enough for all that to happen, but in the TV world it seemed like there was some stuff we missed. Events happened off-screen and not in front of the audience, and we would have to explain what people missed in the way of dialogue in the episodes.

“As an actor I always wanted to show more of Leo and Piper together with their family, but after all it was a series about the girls. I was just pleased to have the part I had in the program.”

At the end of season five of Charmed, Leo made the difficult choice to sacrifice his life with Piper and their son Wyatt and became an Elder in order to better help humankind. A couple of years later another omnipotent group called the Avatars showed Leo that they had a better way to change the world into the ultimate utopia, so he joined their ranks. Unfortunately, their plan had one major flaw and it took the The Charmed Ones to set things right. For a while, Leo was able to hide his association with the Avatars, but the Elders eventually found out and he was stripped of his magical powers. How did Krause have to alter his performance to keep up with all these changes in his character’s life?

“There were different emotions I had to play based on Leo’s situation,” notes the actor. “As an Elder, he was like, ‘OK, I’m a pure being. Everything is great. I love life and am in control.’ When Leo went to the other side as an Avatar, it was out of the same core belief, which was his desire for wanting the best for his family and the world. Then when he was made mortal, Leo was bitter at first, but then felt he had finally been set free. So the through-line for my character never changed, but how he reacted was based on his been wronged or righted by the Elders, Avatars, demons, witches, etc.”

When the eighth and final year of Charmed finally rolled around, the WB Network cut back on the show’s budget, which meant that Krause’s work on the series would be limited to half the season. “That was a big shock and it changed my attitude a little bit as well as my passion for the series,” he admits. “However, when I began work on season eight I realized that negativity wasn’t good for me, the audience or the show. So I quickly got over that and decided, ‘Hey, I need to do my best work, whether I’m here for one episode or 22.’

“Season eight was a very emotional one for Leo. There was the ongoing adjustment to being mortal, dealing with his new role as Mr. Mom, and not being able to help out Piper and her sisters as much. Leo felt all those things and perhaps I felt them, too, based on my reduced involvement in the making of the show. So it was all right there and easy for me to play. That was all due to Brad Kern, who was very in-tune with me and the rest of the cast and wrote for our personal emotional levels and how they fit into the show.

“Brad always kept a close eye on all of us and was a big brother or father figure. He never asked us to do anything on the show if he didn’t feel we couldn’t emotionally handle it at certain periods in our lives. Brad made the right call each time and I thank him for every opportunity he afforded me in season eight to be as natural and believable as possible when playing Leo.”

Thanks to some clever cost-cutting moves on Brad Kern’s part, he was able to bring the Leo character back for the Charmed finale Forever Charmed. “Eight years of a series is a long time and there was a lot of reflection going on and plenty of emotions, especially on the final day of shooting when the Halliwell Manor was blown up,” says Krause. “I think everyone took a moment to stare at the burnt rubble and just couldn’t believe it. It was hard to swallow. The cast and crew really banded together and supported one another in order to get the work done without totally breaking down.”

Krause has no idea what the future holds for him either personally or professionally, but wherever life takes him next, he’ll be bringing with him a part of Charmed. “There are so many things that I learnt from many different people on that show,” he says. “I grew both as a person and an actor and I’ll always be grateful for that. We’ll see where I’m at eight years from now. Hopefully I’ll take away some positive elements from that span of time, too.”

Steve Eramo

Face Off Season Three Sneak Peek (Syfy US)

Face Off fans won’t have to wait much longer as Season Three is set to premiere Summer 2012. Twenty-six new contestants will test their skills and face new challenges, all for a chance at being crowned the new winner. Enjoy the Season Three trailer, which premiered at last night’s Syfy Upfront gathering, and do not forget to tune into all new episodes of Face Off this Summer!

Lost Girl Sneak Peek - "Scream A Little Dream" (Syfy US)

In next week's Lost Girl, Bo (Anna Silk) begins suffering from dangerous nightmares while investigating a building where humans are going mad. Check out the sneak peek below and make sure to tune into Scream A Little Dream next Monday, April 30th @ 10:00 p.m EST/PST on Syfy.

 

Eureka Sneak Peek - "Force Quit" (Syfy US)

While continuing to search for his missing friends, Sheriff Carter (Colin Ferguson) gains an unexpected ally in Force Quit, next week's all-new episode of Syfy's Eureka. Check out the sneak peek below and make sure to watch the entire episode, Monday, April 30th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy.

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Michelle Forbes (Battlestar Galactica)

Battlestar Galactica's Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes). Photo copyright of Syfy.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, actress Michelle Forbes talks about her various roles, including her unforgettable performance as Admiral Helena Cain in Battlestar Galactica.

There are certain people in the Battlestar Galactica universe that you dare not cross, one of whom is Admiral Helena Cain. Introduced in the season two mid-year cliffhanger, Pegasus, the officer is not so much a wolf in sheep’s clothing as she is a woman determined to do things her way, regardless of the cost. Bringing just the right blend of strength, femininity and cunning to the role, Michelle Forbes is the perfect fit as the icy, steely-eyed Cain. It’s hard to picture anyone else playing the part, but that could have easily been the case as the actress nearly let the job slip through her fingers.

“I passed twice, actually,” says Forbes. “It’s just that I tend to play a lot of authoritative, severe women, and as an actor you want as much variation in your career as possible, so initially this simply wasn’t something I wanted to do. God bless them, though, for being so pursuant of me. The Galactica producers sent me a set of DVDs, because I had never seen the show, either, which I watched. At one point, my manager called me to say, ‘I’ll let them know you’ve decided to pass,’ and I said, ‘No, hang on a second.’

“I’d been sitting there watching one of the episodes, and although I didn’t know exactly what was going on because the storytelling is so labyrinthine, I still felt emotionally connected to the series and the heart that is this particular group of characters. This show is amazingly good, and it’s very smart and well-written. I shudder to think I almost lost out on working with those wonderful people and on such a powerful story.”

Born in Austin, Texas, Forbes was just a child when she saw her sister training to be a ballerina and wanted to do the same. However, she eventually realized her interests laid elsewhere and decided instead to become an actor. “I was 16 when I moved to New York to start my career,” recalls Forbes. “My first paying job was on a soap opera [The Guiding Light] playing, are you ready, a schizophrenic psychologist from Venezuela. I know, don’t ask,” she chuckles. “I distinctly remember being thrilled about getting the job, but at the same time felt frustrated working within the confines of the soap opera medium. Having said that, I have an enormous amount of respect for actors who make their living doing daytime drama because the pace is so fast.”

On the big screen Forbes has appeared in such films as Love Bites, Kalifornia, Escape from L.A. and Dandelion. Along with various made-for-TV movies and miniseries, she was a regular on two shows, Homicide: Life on the Street and Wonderland, and had recurring roles on Messiah, 24 and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The actress has also guest-starred on a number of series including Seinfeld, Strong Medicine and Alias.

In the Battlestar Galactica episode Pegasus, Admiral Cain and her crew of the Battlestar Pegasus make a surprise rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica. Initially, the admiral tells Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) that she has no intention of interfering with how he’s been running things. However, Cain soon reneges on her promise, and it’s around this same time that members of Galactica’s crew discover that she supposedly shot one of her command staff for disobeying a direct order. Is the admiral crazy or, again, just fiercely determined? What does Forbes think?

“It’s rather tricky because Cain is such a complex individual and her story is such a complicated one within the bigger complex Galactica story,” notes the actress. “What struck me, though, about my character is that her situation is so similar to what’s happening in the real world today insofar as issues of torture during wartime and a person doing what he or she believes is right even though they’ve become misguided.

“My feeling about Cain is that she’s lost perspective. People ask, ‘Is she insane? Is she psychotic?’ I hope that’s not how she came across because that was never the intention. I think some individuals can appear to be that way, but this is a woman who did what she had to do in order to survive during very brutal conflicts. Along the way, Cain lost her sense of judgment as well as her sense of reason and rationale. That was all very interesting for me to play. Usually in TV you’re given one characteristic and you dare not stray from that, so it was neat to have such a difficult, fascinating woman to portray.”

Cain and Adama agree to set aside their differences in order to take on the more immediate issue of destroying a Cylon “Resurrection” ship in the aptly titled two-part story Resurrection Ship. It’s during this episode that the admiral and her crew reveal their true colours. “This story is far darker than the previous one, although Pegasus was certainly fueled by its own ominous storytelling,” says Forbes. “In Resurrection Ship it really comes to light the path of sadism that these people have gone down and we’re fully able to see exactly what happened to this group aboard the Pegasus. There were some pretty difficult choices they had to make, too, in regard to the Cylon prisoner Gina [Tricia Helfer] and that whole dynamic.

“It’s a really solid story all the way around. I don’t know if audiences are aware of this, but they expanded it to two parts, which it definitely deserved. It’s a fine example of sophisticated storytelling and I was thoroughly impressed when I watched my copy of the episode."

At the time of this interview (late November), Forbes was preparing to fly to Chicago to start work on the new hit Fox crime drama Prison Break. Having returned home for the holidays, she is now back in the Windy City and will be there through February to finish filming her episodes. “There are two separate parts of the show, the actual prison break story and then the conspiracy that sort of spirals off out of that,” explains the actress. “The character I play is involved in the conspiratorial political thriller arc. It’s a lot like 24 in the sense that you don’t really know what’s coming up, so you just have to trust the show. Some of the actors on 24 used to be rather nervous because they didn’t know what was happening, and I’d be like, ‘This is liberating. Have fun with it. You can’t be wrong in your acting choices.’”

When playing the hearing-impaired Susan Metcalfe on Messiah, Forbes also took on the challenge of speaking sign language. “I had six days to learn it before we began filming the first episode,” she recalls, “and that was in-between jet-lag, costume fittings, production meetings, etc. When you first take on such a challenge you tell yourself, ‘Right, I’m going to climb that mountain,’ and then halfway up you think, ‘I’m not going to make it.’

“At one point I was panicking and thought. ‘I’m not going to be able to pull this off.’ On top of that, you also have a responsibility to the deaf community and if you mess up that would be very bad. I’m not sure I ever got it right, but I absolutely loved the process of learning sign language, particularly British sign language, which is so different from the American version. It’s a fascinating way to communicate, especially as an actor, and especially doing it with someone like Ken Stott [Red Metcalfe]. He has such a powerful voice and to have to tune that out and work on a completely different level was really amazing.

“Messiah is a job that has changed my life in the sense that my family is from the UK, and I’ve built up quite a life there since I first began going back there five years ago to shoot the show. In fact, I couldn’t do the most recent one [Messiah 4: The Harrowing] due to scheduling conflicts, and was very disappointed to have missed seeing my family and friends.”

While she only did a handful of episodes, Forbes is nonetheless fondly remembered for her portrayal of Ensign Ro Laren on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The actress was offered a chance to reprise her role as a regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but declined to do so.

“There were all sorts of rumours about why I didn’t take DS9 and that I was quite arrogant about the whole thing. It wasn’t that at all,” says Forbes. “It was, again, about wanting variety in my career. If I’d gone on to do DS9 I might not have had the variety I’ve been very lucky to have had in my career.

“That’s not to say I wasn’t grateful for the opportunity; I genuinely was. However, I had to make a choice that felt right for me, which was a difficult one, especially as a young actor being offered quite a bit of money and a steady job.”

While 2006 will likely bring with it many more challenging job offers for Forbes, it’s doubtful that she will be reprising her character of Cain on Galactica. “As much as I love the series and its cast and crew as well as the producers, I enjoy my freedom, too,” she says. “I tend to do arcs on shows and then go on to the next project. In a different time and world, yes, it would be lovely to be able to work on Galactica every day, but that’s not to be the case here. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was an absolute joy to work with all those people.”

Steve Eramo

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

Defying Gravity's Eyal Podell Guest-Stars This Week on Touch (Fox)

Eyal Podell as Dr. Evram Mintz in Defying Gravity.

Actor Eyal Podell, who fans of the Canadian-made Sci-Fi TV series Defying Gravity remember as Dr. Evram Mintz, guest-stars this week in Noosphere Rising, a new episode of Fox Television’s Touch airing Thursday, April 26th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST. The series stars Kiefer Sutherland as Martin Bohm, the father of a gifted young mute boy, Jake (David Mazouz), whose obsession with numbers allows him to see past, present and future events. Helping Martin make sense of his son’s unusual skills are a social worker, Clea Hopkins (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and Professor Arthur Teller (Danny Glover).

This episode of Touch marks Podell’s second time working opposite Sutherland, having previously played the recurring role of Ryan Burnett on the long-running Fox TV drama 24. Last week, the actor happily took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about his Touch character as well as other projects he has recently been involved in.

“On Touch I play Dr. Logan Kotweiler, a mathematician with a link to Dr. Teller,” says Podell. “When Martin winds up with a trail to follow due to more numbers he gets from his son, we work together to help out both of our causes, mine being restoring the love of a woman who has  given up on me.

“Working with Kiefer again was a lot of fun,” continues the actor. “He's still the consummate professional he was on 24, and for someone as successful as he has been, you’d think he would ‘phone’ it [his performance] in, but Kiefer is a true pro. The Touch crew was half composed of the crew of Heroes and the crew of 24 - many of whom remembered me from my four-episode arc on 24. So it was kind of like going back and hanging out with old friends.

“I think Touch has a lot of promise, and from what I heard on-set, the entire direction of the show will soon take an interesting turn. So stay tuned...

“Other than that, I'm appearing in a Hallmark TV movie in May called Lake Effects alongside Jane Seymour, Jeff Fahey (Lost), Ben Savage, Scottie Thompson (Skyline), Richard Moll (Night Court) and Madeline Zima (Californication). I'm also developing a Sci-Fi feature, and there will be more to come on that as I have news to share.”

Steve Eramo