The Destiny team was one with many scientists, and one of the most memorable by far was Dr. Lisa Park, played by Jennifer Spence! We are excited to welcome her to Dial the Gate for a LIVE discussion of her life, career and memories from being stranded on the other end of the universe.

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:33 – Opening Credits
00:59 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:41 – Welcoming Jennifer, discussing the writer’s strike
05:02 – Volker, Brody, and Park character development
07:53 – Jennifer discusses her beginning interest with acting
11:10 – Playing Grace in Travelers
16:41 – ChatGPT
19:04 – Getting the role of Lisa Park on SGU
21:23 – Preparing to play Lisa Park
26:54 – Connecting With the Cast
28:35 – The Sets and Effects
30:38 – Jennifer talks about “Epilogue”
33:51 – Lisa Park Goes Blind
36:39 – “Malice”
40:07 – What SGU has meant to Jennifer
42:00 – Stargate Universe’s Cancellation
44:26 – Fan Questions: First day on set memories
47:09 – How Jennifer prepared to play the role as as a blind person
48:59 – A dream role
50:38 – Who would Park have settled down with?
54:17 – Future Stargate
54:48 – Shooting with the Kinos
58:11 – Future Projects
1:00:14 – Wrapping up with Jennifer
1:01:15 – Post-interview housekeeping
1:05:44 – End Credits

***

“Stargate” and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television.

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TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read
Maybe it would help me if I actually turned my mic on. I apologize, folks. Okay, let me go back to this. Every once in a while when I’m in a different configuration, as you can see I’m in a different place, and in a different headspace, so let me let me go back to square one. Thanks for joining me on DialtheGate. My name is David Read. This is episode 186. I’m with Jennifer Spence in this episode. This is the Stargate Oral History Project. Before we bring Jennifer in, if you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click that like button. It makes a difference with YouTube and helps the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guest changes. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the DialtheGate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. As this is a live episode, we have Jennifer with us right now, so if you are in the YouTube Live Chat, we have Tracy and I believe Jeremy in there with us so they can take your questions for Jen. Those will be asked to her at the second half of the episode. In the meantime, she’s going to be with me, Jennifer Spence, Dr. Lisa Park in Stargate Universe. Welcome to my show. How are you?

Jennifer Spence
I’m good. Thank you, David.

David Read
So how are things going? How have you been? What’s going on in the in the world of Jen Spence?

Jennifer Spence
Well, I’m sure you’ve heard but right now there’s a writers strike happening. Rightfully so, it’s completely understandable what writers are asking for. So that’s kind of put everything on a pause right now for for the industry. It’s a good time to be working on other projects and my husband and I have something in the works. We have a pilot that we’ve written and we’re in the process of, or we were in the process of, pitching that. So yeah, so good to develop that a bit more to.

David Read
Just for people who are curious, anything that has already been written, people are okay to continue to try and pitch for things that are already written? Just anyone who’s in the guild, they’re not doing any writing right now. Is that correct?

Jennifer Spence
Kind of. It’s more like, we’re not even pitching right now, actually. We’re taking a pause on that even. My understanding at least is that that’s still considered working. There were a lot of productions that are still, you know, in production, because they have the scripts already written, but even those are starting to get paused as well, just because, you know…

David Read
No rewrites.

Jennifer Spence
Exactly, no rewrites. You’ve got to have a writer on set, right, like a showrunner is usually a writer. Things change all the time so if something changes on the day, what do you do if you don’t have a writer there? Right.

David Read
Eventually, things just get really quiet until they resolve the strike.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, let’s hope they get given what they’re asking for because it is fair.

David Read
So are they picketing in Vancouver as well as in LA? Are they all in LA?

Jennifer Spence
I haven’t seen them in Vancouver but it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. I think my understanding is, LA, New York, it’s quite extensive.

David Read
Lisa Park is one of my favorites from SGU. That triad of scientists, as I understand it, that occurred organically as the writers watched the three of you. Is that correct? Or am I wrong about that? Or was that written in first?

Jennifer Spence
With like Volker and…

David Read
and Brody

Jennifer Spence
Brody Jesus! I’m losing my mind.,

David Read
You’re good. You got one.

Jennifer Spence
I’m having a senior’s moment. It did happen, from my understanding at least, is that it did happen from watching us. It was written to begin with that we worked closely together and in a group and we’re familiar with each other. Peter DeLuise, the director, who I’m sure you’ve probably chatted with yourself, and are extremely familiar with. He took a bunch of us actors aside early on when we started shooting. He said “make sure that you know what your character’s point of view is, you know what you want to do as this character, who you like and who you don’t like. Who do you have a crush on?” And all those kinds of things. “Be specific, in what you want, don’t just wait for the writers to write it for you. Right?” We made those choices ourselves. I know Patrick Gilmore made the choice that Volker really liked Park. Sure enough, the writers did start writing more of that in so it’s just a great lesson in the power of collaboration and bringing the most that you can bring, so that the writers can then bring everything that they can bring as well. It’s a good lesson.

David Read
Nothing is truly created in a vacuum. I suppose, like paintings are and comic strips, but this is such a collaborative art form. The more open that everyone is to taking other people’s points of view and opinions the better, the smoother it’s going to flow. Not every choice is the right one. Sometimes it’s like, “well, I think we need to go this way.”

Jennifer Spence
Yeah. That’s the beauty too of editing later, right? They don’t have to use it. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to use it right? Or if they just don’t agree. the writers or the creators don’t agree, then they don’t have to go there. But just good to try something right? Luckily, we were in an environment where the writers and the creators did want that, were open to that and collaboration and having our opinions and a true mecca for artists, right? It’s not necessarily always like that either.

David Read
Take me back to when you first knew that you wanted to be in this industry. How old were you? What were you doing? Did someone say “you know, she can perform?” Or was it something that you discovered far later in life? How did it play out for you?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, it’s a really corny story, actually. I was doing, it was like a summer camp, an arts and crafts camp, but there was like a drama element to it. We were putting on Little Orphan Annie, just a skit, one skit from it. I was just one of the orphans cleaning. The night we did it, so corny. The night we did it I was scrubbing the stage or whatever, pretending to be cleaning the floor with this cloth. I turned the cloth over to use that side to clean more, because I pretended the other side was getting too dirty. In that moment, I was just like, “oh, yeah, that’s what you would do in real life.” and my grandma bless her, after the show, was like, “you were the only one that did that.”

David Read
“I was actually cleaning, grandma! That stage was spotless!”

Jennifer Spence
That’s like what kind of did it and I just really liked it a lot. Through high school, I started doing community theater. At that time, I was feeling this is what I want to do, even if I’m broke doing it. Everyone was telling me….of course people are concerned when people choose to go into the arts as their livelihood, it is very, very hard, risky business, right? But when it’s rewarding, it’s rewarding, right? So I was just “Yeah, I don’t care if I’m broke. I just want to do this.” Thankfully, my parents were supportive.

David Read
Yeah, that’s so important to have folks who are like “yeah, we encourage you to go this route, we see some natural talent there.” It’s one of those things where you have to recognize that it’s feast or famine. So rare is it that the tap is always on. Isn’t that 10% of talent are working at any given time? Is it less?

Jennifer Spence
It might even be less than that actually. I don’t know the exact number. I feel like it’s even less than that. I know that SAG which is the Screen Actors Guild in the States, they release numbers like that and I think it was actually less than that. Of who are actually making a living at any given [time]. There’s a reason people say “do not go into it, unless you absolutely have to” you know?

David Read
or absolutely 100% going to give it everything that you have, because you can’t half ass something like that. People will see, casting directors they’ll see right through you.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, there’s just no time for it. Just through exhaustion, you won’t keep going if you’re half assing and not getting results, you know?

David Read
Tell me about a role that pushed you in ways that you didn’t expect or one that caught your spirits attention. However you want to put it, one that sticks with you and helps, perhaps transform you.

Jennifer Spence
Ah, well, I do have to say, and this is in keeping with Stargate, actually, because it was Brad Wright, who wrote Travelers, who created Travelers. So I’d say that probably.

David Read
Grace

Jennifer Spence
Grace, yeah. It’s one that will always stick with me. What a gift to be able to not have a filter, and just treat people like everyone is subpar to you. Like you’re on this high horse and superior to everyone else. It was just such a joy, Again, speaking of writers, just being able to give that dialogue and say the things we all want to say. I always talk about Ashley Park, she was one of the writers. The way she wrote Grace’s dialogue, she just got it; she just got Grace. I remember in a script, I’m sure you you’ve probably…..

David Read
I’ve see seen the whole show.

Jennifer Spence
You’ve probably read a number of scripts yourself so you [are] familiar with formatting and all that. But often, for people who don’t know, in scripts, you have the the lines of dialogue. Inetween those lines, sometimes they’ll just, for lack of a better word, stage directions. It will just say perhaps what the character is thinking or what the character then does, physically. It’s not just dialogue. What she had written in one of the episodes, where Grace is talking to the Director through the computers, through all the dying people on the computer screens in the church. I can’t remember what episode that was, but first season I think. The director says “thank you for saving me Grace, before the host body passes away. In the script, Ashley had written “and that was probably the nicest thing anyone ever said to her.” So that’s not said out loud but it was written in the script. It’s just so beautiful, right? It’s what that gives you as an actor to know those stakes, right? Instead of like, “maybe you would have figured that out on your own, maybe” I don’t know if I would have actually. So just to have read that…

David Read
It allows you to have an idea of what to register here.

Jennifer Spence
Absolutely. Absolutely.

David Read
I want to invite everyone who has not seen Travelers to watch it. If you’re watching this show it means that you enjoy at least a few aspects of Stargate Universe, if not, think of it as the greatest thing since sliced bread, which I tend to. With Travelers, which is also a Brad Wright show, this is I in my opinion, perhaps, the most fascinating character on it. We’re leaving a lot of lot out here. You started off as a school psychologist or a school counselor who’s very reserved, kind of meek, very, like in touch with, you know, “tell me what you’re feeling”, you know, “how’s it going?” who then gets transformed by an intelligence from the future who takes her body over at the moment of her death. That’s the person we’re talking about now; the person who doesn’t give a crap what you think about them. It was a complete 180 degree transformation for you as an actor. To sink your teeth into that had to have been awesome. To deal with two different personalities of two different people in the same body. One suddenly dies and the other one takes over and she’s a completely different person literally and figuratively.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, it’s like an actor’s wet dream, right? What you want to do as an actor is to build and be challenged and do things that you’re not even sure if you can do. Just to have to track so many different things and ideally be firing on all cylinders. Oh my god, what a gift.

David Read
The Director is an artificial intelligence from the future who’s guiding humanity. She, basically, is in love with this being I would say, or do you disagree?

Jennifer Spence
Um, I guess a form of it. I didn’t actually think of it that way. But I guess in a way that is.

David Read
There’s an attraction there. She talks about it all the time and is wanting to talk to her. It doesn’t always talk to her and she takes it personally when it doesn’t. She knows it, if I recall correctly, I think she knows it better than anyone in terms of code or in terms of some aspect.

Jennifer Spence
She was one of the original programmers. A good way to put it in what you’re saying is that it’s like it’s the love she knows, right? She doesn’t know a whole lot of like human love or doesn’t stand it. Until Trevor, but doesn’t understand it. But what she does understand is her love for the Director, her love for programming, her love for certainty, for lack of a better word.

David Read
Have you played with ChatGPT at all?

Jennifer Spence
I haven’t. I didn’t even know what it was until I saw one of the signs that one of the writers, the WGA members, was carrying a sign, and it said, Chat, is it GPT, “ChatGPT doesn’t have childhood trauma.” I saw their sign and I was like, “oh, okay, wow.” Once I found out what it was I’m like, “wow” you know? I’m terrified. Have you?

David Read
I have played with it and I’ve used it to help me work. I’ve explained to it in poor language an issue that I’m having with a with a computational problem. I just describe it to it and it says, “I see what’s going on, you’re trying to do this, here’s your answer.” I’ve used it to help me iterate similar answers moving forward in work that I do. It’s free. Google ChatGPT and have a conversation with this predictive text system. You’ll think you’re talking in some respects to the Director. It doesn’t know the future, but it can actively help you with with problems. We’re entering a period where we have to be really careful to not let the tools supplant the humanity. People are killing themselves based on talking to this thing saying, “ell, you know, it’d probably be better for the environment if you didn’t exist” and people are going off and doing it. I’m not so worried about the technology, as I am worried about the people who are gleaning things from the technology much like Grace did with the director. It’s wild how quickly that is coming to life.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, art reflects life and all that. It’s the age old thing of the” machines taking over” and all that but more so now that it could be a reality.

David Read
It’s all what we let it do and how much we let it get in here. If you didn’t have it responding immediately you would think you were talking with a well educated person who knows how to type really well. It’s wild.

Jennifer Spence
And you’re actually verbally saying it, you’re not just typing it out?

David Read
No I’m typing, but pretty soon, verbal will be a component. I suspect in the next couple of years. It’s wild. So tell me about getting Lisa Park.

Jennifer Spence
About getting Lisa Park?

David Read
Getting the role.

Jennifer Spence
Of getting the role. When I originally auditioned the character was a man. I was really pleased to see that Brad and the team made her a woman. I think her, his name was Miles Henry, I think, to begin with. I hadn’t auditioned for Miles, I’d auditioned for a couple of other roles on the show. Brad and the team had sort of fit me into it and said “why don’t we do…” and given me this role which was originally male. Sci-fi has always been on the forefront of women and strong women and all sorts of different ethnicities. It’s been a very inclusive culture for a long time, way before many other genres.

David Read
Genres, for sure.

Jennifer Spence
That’s sort of how that came to be. Once Patrick and Peter, who played Brody and Volker, and I could all talk about things as well and try to contribute from our side. So much of it came down to just the chemistry of the cast as well, just overall, the cast really genuinely liked each other.

David Read
That’s a big deal. We all just assumed that happens all the time. It doesn’t.

Jennifer Spence
No, it doesn’t. I’ve been really lucky because that’s happened on most shows I’ve been a part of. I think it’s safe to say any Brad Wright show, that happens, because he really does. I think he’s talked about it openly. He has a “no asshole” policy.

David Read
No, life’s too short, LTS.

Jennifer Spence
Exactly. If you’re on one of his shows, you can probably be pretty guaranteed to have a great time with people. We were lucky that everyone liked each other. There was just always open discussion between actors and writers and creators of questions, because we had lots of questions. I don’t know about science. Collaboratively, we figured out the dynamic and in turn our characters.

David Read
Wow. I’m assuming the night before when you would get a script that’s when you would run lines? Or would you get the two of them together with you to run lines when the opportunity presented itself? Or would you do it yoursel in private?

Jennifer Spence
Usually do it myself in private? Generally speaking, usually get the script about a week ahead of when we were shooting, so thank God. Can you imagine like, oh my God, just the night before! You sually get it about a week ahead before the first day of shooting, and then you from there sort of strategize, depending on what day you’re shooting was, what you learn first. Usually I would run the lines by myself, or, super handy, my husband is also in the industry so he understands and I would run with him. If I ran it with Patrick or Peter or anyone else it would be on set. It would be maybe between scenes or something. Actually I remember this one time. Louis Ferreira, we had a scene together. You know, he’s just crazy wacky, so much fun. He had two dogs at the time and we were shooting at…again, seniors moment, I can’t remember the name of the studio…Bridge Studios. A number of stages on the studio just like in Hollywood movies, you see people driving around in golf carts and stuff to get from one stage to another. Louis had commandeered this golf cart and we were sitting on the golf cart and just doing laps of the whole lot with his dogs running behind and running our lines. Yeah, very fond memories.

David Read
He’s giving them exercise.

Jennifer Spence
And we’re learning lines. It’s multitasking.

David Read
Oh, that’s so funny. It too bad there aren’t any cars in the outer regions of the universe because you could actually play a scene that way. It’s like, “you know what? Let’s grab a golf cart and let’s go because we’ve got one of these,,,,” One of the things that I always wished the budget allowed for is some kind of a vehicle that could be used to go farther afield from the Gate. That could be stored like a garage near the gate room. Maybe if the show comes back in the next iteration, we’ll get that, I always thought that they should have something like that. What was it like to learn that language because it is a language. Being able to speak that and being able to speak it in a way that someone else will go “Yeah, I get that. I don’t know what it means but I understand where it’s going.”

Jennifer Spence
Absolutely. It’s repetition, right? Repetition. Googling the terms, asking Brad half the time. Like you’re saying, you can kind of see where things might be going but you don’t understand all the minutiae of what is this and what equals that and all that kind of thing. You can kind of get a sense but yeah, it’s a lot of repetition, a lot of repetition. One time there was a monologue. I don’t know if you remember, but there was an episode where we were all doing monologues into the…

David Read
the Kino?

Jennifer Spence
Yes, the Kino. Thank you. Oh, my God. Thank God for you. I forget every single thing.

David Read
Yeah, they use it like a diary almost.

Jennifer Spence
That’s right. It was like a diary for all these characters. See into what each of these characters was going through and [there} tended to be quite a bit of text just for that character for that moment. That was a monologue that I had and it was supposed to shoot on another day and then it got pushed up. I can’t remember why but it got pushed up. I’m pretty sure it was the same day where I just got a call and I was like, “Yeah, we need to do this today.” “I haven’t even started learning this, right?” because I thought it was days away. So I showed up to set and I’m just like, “Oh, my God”, and Patrick was there and he gave me his voice recorder thing so I recorded it and just listened to it over and over and over and over. It was like just trying everything to try to get it in as quickly as possible. So yeah, good challenge.

David Read
You learn the same way I do. That’s how I got through school, was a tape recorder? Once I hear it a couple of times, it’s in there. If I write it, not necessarily, I have to hear it. That’s really cool.

Jennifer Spence
Well, people have different sorts of learning styles, like auditory versus visual versus [inaudible]. I actually don’t usually do it that way. I actually do just do it through reading and repetition. But yeah, in that case, that was really helpful. So maybe I should go back to that.

David Read
Whatever works, you know. I’ve had this conversation with a number of you. When something comes up like that, you have to be ready to pivot. You can’t just say, “Oh, I can’t do that.”

Jennifer Spence
Of course not. You have to be prepared.

David Read
Right? Exactly. You don’t want to be in a situation where…it happened one or two times in Stargate where they had to use cue cards with a guest. I’m not gonna go “you’re not going to do that.” You have got to be ready for it.

Jennifer Spence
I wouldn’t want to do that. I guess if you’re desperate and there’s really just nothing else you can do. Like, you just can’t learn the lines, then I guess. Maybe if you’re older or something then you just got to do what you got to do. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Udeally you want to you want to be memorized?

David Read
Who would you connect with the most among the cast? Who was special to you?

Jennifer Spence
I guess like our core like science team, just because we spent the most time together. I guess I did really genuinely like everybody in the cast. Probably Patrick and Peter and Louie, because Louie really was like the..he even referred to himself as Papa Smurf. He’s very protective of everyone. A Papa, you know, you always knew you could go to him if you were struggling or needed talk or needed help or something, you know. I mean, again, that was true of everybody. Everyone was really open and people usually had their trailer doors open all the time so people could just walk in and out of everyone’s trailers. It was a very familial setting.

David Read
Wow. Just the tone that is set by Brad and Rob, which was also facilitated by Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Greenburg, for the first eight seasons of that show, was very much like, “this is going to be a place where we are going to work hard, but we are going to have just as much fun as we can. Otherwise, why do it? Why why are we going to bother, you know, creating this product? If we’re ripping our hair out every moment of every day? It’s just not worth it.” By the time SGU comes along, that’s really facilitated.

Jennifer Spence
Absolutely, yeah. well oiled machine.

David Read
Absolutely. What blew your mind the most about production? The visual effects? The sets? The the controls? I own one of them. Every button works, the little dial on the left that turns in two different ways. James Robbins was brilliant.

Jennifer Spence
Oh, he really was.

David Read
Man. You guys built that set with steel. It was built for five years. What really blew your mind about that?

Jennifer Spence
I think exactly what you said. I think mostly the set like the and the effects for sure.Once you see the actual effects and how real they looked like when you look at something older right? You’re just like “oh my god like the effects we used to have in like the 80s and stuff”, you know, it didn’t even really look real and now it’s just so far advanced. The sets, just being able to walk around the ship and just the detail in every panel. Like you’re saying, the actual props like the controls and every single thing was just so well thought out and functional. You pair that with the atmospheric sort of, what do you call it, the dry ice, you know, that would be sort of coming through the panels and stuff. It’s quite eerie. It really does feel like this abandoned ship.

David Read
The thing with Destiny was you walk into that set, and it’s like you’re walking into Jules Verne. It’s so dark and so enclosed and it’s like I’m in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It’s a wild experience and it can’t be really hard to get into character I would suspect.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, exactly. It so helps you right? Like “you’re not in Kansas anymore”. You’re not like walking in the middle of a coffee shop. It’s so specific to your environment is as an actor. It’s so helpful.

David Read
Tell me about aging. In Epilogue and Common Descent, my favorite story arc from Universe where we actually kind of get an ending for the characters. What was that process going all the way with a character and in this case, with Jamil having a family? Tell me about that. Carl Binder was brilliant.

Jennifer Spence
We were eating lunch, I think one day and we’re all an old old person. except for Carl. But we’re all eating lunch together and Carl was just feeling a bit nervous about it. Not doubtful, but just a bit nervous about it because he was saying it’s like the most ambitious episode we’ve ever done.

David Read
He wanted to make sure he had it right.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, exactly. And it’s like, “Oh, dude, you don’t worry. You nailed it.” We’re all sitting around in old person makeup. And I mean, just like…

Jennifer Spence
lunch at the nursing home!

Jennifer Spence
Totally right. I remember Jamil went off for a bit. I can’t remember, I think we had a big break in the day until he and I were on again. He went to the liquor store on his break, and it was a Friday, so he went to the liquor store in his full makeup and he was telling them to card him and stuff like “yeah ask for my ID”. That’s some of the stuff that moves me the most I’ve learned. Especially as I get older, in art and television and film and all that, is when there’s a passage of time, like the movie “Boyhood”, for instance. Oh my God, so amazing, right? Or any film that doesn’t even have to be real like that. Just projecting what happens to these characters or what happens in an alternate universe. What could you have been in another life, it just always gets me right. I remember talking to someone who did a day on that episode. They were they just came in for the day, an actor, to shoot, and he was saying at the time that the favorite thing he’d ever done and he was just coming in for the day.

David Read
I wonder if he was Eli’s grandchild in front of the school?

Jennifer Spence
I think that is who it was. I think it was Lane Edwards.

David Read
There are only so many guest stars in that episode.

Jennifer Spence
He played the grand the grandson I think.

David Read
Let me see here. Lane Edwards, yep, played Matthew Wallace. That’s him.

Jennifer Spence
When you’re going into that kind of humanity and love, generations; it’s one of my favorite sort of concepts to explore in film and TV.

David Read
I remember watching it and knowing when it was airing that, that this was it. We have one or two more, and then it’s over. Tell me about, you know, I’m not gonna go there yet. Something significant happened to the character pretty quickly after that in the penultimate episode. Tell me about when you found out that you were going to go blind.

Jennifer Spence
What was so cool, and again, doesn’t happen all the time at all when you’re working on a show. Just always getting surprised by things. Finding out for instance, I think it was the second season, there’s going to be a bomb attached to my back and we’re going into the desert.

David Read
Right? Bisti Badlands, been there? Let’s talk about that in a moment. Go ahead.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, just finding out these things where I’d never would have seen it coming. To the blindness. I would never have seen that coming. They were just always kicking it up a notch right, raising the bar and not being afraid to go there, which I really admired. It takes balls as a creator, as creatives, to keep pushing that. I was all over, I thought it was a great choice. We want to see what happens when somebody is challenged in a new way, to keep thriving and contributing. I thought it was a great opportunity that they did that.

David Read
That was such a dramatic scene when you’re in the spacesuit, you go under the water and the dome explodes. Again, so it’s broken again. You’re one on one with this. I forget the type of star that it is., and you’re being tortured by this light. It is just an extraordinary moment. We were there with her in that moment, while flailing by a cable andher corneas are being destroyed. That was that was intense Jannifer.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah pretty intense. I remember shooting the water scene, putting my head under the water in a helmet. Oh my God!

David Read
That’s not airtight. It’s a motorcycle helmet.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah. The water is coming in and it was just gonna get the shot of me opening my eyes. Oh God, just from a claustrophobic point of view, putting your head in the water in a helmet is not my idea of a good time.

David Read
We have the shot? Do we have the shot?. Okay, good.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah. Meanwhile, they’re dropping all these dry ice bombs into the water and I’m like, “is it okay to open my eyes?”

David Read
That’s crazy. Malice. If we take a step back a few episodes. What a show. The Bisti Badlands in New Mexico is the second location that the show went to. The first one was White Sands in the pilot and episode 3 and then you guys returned in Malice to Bisti which is one of the most remarkable landscapes in the United States in my opinion. I’ve been there. It feels [like] you are no longer on Earth.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, yeah, it really does.

David Read
Tell us about filming there.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, oh God. What a joy. To travel for work is doesn’t get any better than that. Right? I’d never been to New Mexico. It was just beautiful. I discovered that I have a very, very specific feeling comes over me when I’m in that area. There’s something about the Southwest that really resonates with me and I would never have known that had I not gone there. There’s this sort of stillness that comes over you, or me at least. Itt was just incredible to get to go out there and get to go out there and do those types of things. To have those crazy explosions and be working with a whole new crew, basically. It was just glorious. After shooting, I stayed a few days later and I went I traveled a bit to Santa Fe and it was just like, “Oh my God, come on. Is this real life?”

David Read
No, it’s a wild area. Absolutely. You have a scene with Carlyle. Simeon has run off and has attached an explosive to your back and you are about to detonate. He doesn’t think that he has the equipment to disarm it until he realizes he has a straight pen or something. This moment comes over you of, I think you know the one I’m talking about, of resignation, and she says “it’s okay”. That was wild. You got to take that character to a spot where she’s resigned to the fact that she’s about to be no more. What were the emotions that came through that?

Jennifer Spence
It’s funny that you bring that up, because looking back now, I’m sure you hear this… You’ve heard this before from actors, but “I could have done better or I wish I’d done this. Oh, now I understand what it’s about.” That moment, specifically that you’re talking about, I was really helped by Rob Cooper who was directing the episode. I was doing some things and I don’t think it was quite right. I don’t think I’m being that hard on myself. I didn’t really feel like it was where it had to be. He did come over in between takes and he said, “this is the moment where if you’re gonna go there, go there. This is sort of the last moment that you can have these feelings.” Once he said that, it opened without more. I was able to understand it more so that was a really helpful direction.

David Read
What has this show meant to you, to be a part of?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, it’s meant a lot. I think that’s a really nice way to put it as what does it meant to you. It means a lot to me this show because it’s given me so many things. To be a part of a show that, you want to ideally, as an actor, or as an artist, be a part of things that make a difference for people that contributes in some way, that affects people, that gives people joy, or whatever it is, right. I feel like this show really does that. To be a part of it is the goal as an artist. In turn, that’s given me so much to feel like it’s made a difference for other people. Also the great experience we have making it because again, that doesn’t happen all the time.

David Read
Were you on the Carl Vinson with some of the cast when the announcement came out of the cancellation? Did you go on the ship for the tour?

Jennifer Spence
I’m trying to remember where I was when we found out. I can’t remember. But I do remember Patrick, good old Patrick, finding that the best way to put something. He’s like, “I feel like I’m in the stages of grief, of denial, bargaining all these things.” He was right. We were all just not wanting to let go.

Jennifer Spence
Boy! He was given a steak with Travelers. Holy cow. What a great role for him.

Jennifer Spence
Oh yeah totally. Just like the comic relief, right. My understanding is he already had the role, Brad had already written it with him in mind, but he still audition[ed], but didn’t know that.

David Read
Brad was talking about being on the Carl Vinson at the time, signing with a lot of the cast. He was with Martin Wood, they were signing autographs, when one of the officers, because they’re at sea, came to him and said, “Mr. Wright, I think your show has been cancelled.” It was just the worst way to find out. I think it was Twitter, someone on Twitter. Brad is taking this in and he starts writing on the on the autographs, “my show has been cancelled” and Martin was like, “stop that, it sucks. It’s okay.” It’s just one of those things where it’s like, “wow, thanks a lot for for not calling me folks.” MGM was upside down at that point, Syfy had no one to call to even discuss renewal. It is wild to lose that show.I remember, I’m assuming you’ve watched it, the finale, when they go into those tubes, and Joel’s music is playing. It’s one of the harder twenty, thirty minutes of a show that I’ve ever had to watch. It’s hard to sit through that knowing that a…we were presented with a promise with this show of finding out some piece of understanding about the cosmos. Now we’re not, at least for a while, going to get that. That was a wild experience.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah. Having to deal with disappointment. Right.

David Read
Exactly. And you guys, you know, it’s like, “well, back to the soup line.” I’m thankful that it went for for the two seasons and that we were we were given some of the best science fiction with it. What a team of creative people.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah. It was amazing. I shouldn’t probably say this. I’ve said it before, really shouldn’t keep saying it but sci-fi is not my usual go-to genre as a viewer. But when I do enjoy it, it’s because it’s character driven and because it’s really about humanity, ultimately. Stargate Universe, Travelers, they do that in spades.

David Read
Absolutely. I have some fan questions for you before we let you go. Lockwatcher wanted to know, “what do you recall about your first day on set of SGU?”

Jennifer Spence
Oh, yeah, that’s a great question. I remember I was really obviously super psyched. Especially knowing Robert Carlyle was a part of it because I had watched him a lot growing up with my parents. My dad’s English and my mom is Japanese Canadian, but she loves English shows so I was always watching English shows with my parents growing up. So I’d seen him in Hamish and all these other…Train Spotting of course, and just a huge fan of the guy. It was a total thrill. I was just trying not to be the nerd I am around him. I was just trying to be like, “nice to meet you.” It was exciting. It was the first day for everybody and a big group scene, it was just wild. Everyone’s trying to figure stuff out and Andy Mikita was directing it. He’s great. you’ve met him, I’m sure, he’s such a great guy. He put everyone at ease and really set the tone for “oh, we’re having fun, too”. A lot of moving parts, a lot of moving parts, a lot of cast, a lot of, set things and trying to figure things out. So it was exciting. It was exciting and nerve wracking.

David Read
This is a pretty expensive show that Syfy has commissioned. They’re pulling out all the stops for this thing. In pretty much any case there is probably performance anxiety in terms of getting it. If you don’t, you’re costing a lot of money. “I want to show up with my A game, I want to want to be on level with all of these performers and just hit every one of them out of the park as best as I can” pardon the pun. Sometimes it takes a little while to figure things out.

Jennifer Spence
This was a new show to. It was part of an old franchise, but it’s still a new part of it. So it was setting that tone. God see! This is why I would never want to direct TV. It’s the responsibility you have, Oh my God, that’s on you. Obviously, you’re supported. But still, oh my God, that’s a lot.

David Read
150 people waiting for everything to line right up. It’s wild. Jeremy Heiner – what are the mechanics of being blind on set? How did you prepare? Did you bump into things? What was that like for you?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, that’s a good question, too. My husband gave me a great tip because he’d heard that Al Pacino did this in Scent of a Woman. You have to have your eyes open, it’s not like I’m walking around with my eyes shut all the time. So he said “try having your eyes open but looking at the periphery only.” That really helped.

David Read
What you’re paying attention to.

Jennifer Spence
Exactly. They’re open, but all you’re looking at is the sides. That helps. Then just trying to be familiar with with what that feels like. Part of what gave me comfort is just like, Park doesn’t know either what she’s doing. This is all so new. It’s like, “it’s okay if you don’t know what you’re doing.” Right? It was a good challenge to have. One of the things I remember thinking is one of the costume gals was saying is “oh, well, we’ll take away your watch. You don’t need your watch anymore.” And then “I’m no, I want to have my watch.” I don’t know why, I just made this decision that Park would want the watch to still have the beap going off every hour to know when the hour had passed. But then how are you going to keep track of [inaudible] anyway? For some reason, in my mind, I wanted the watch.

David Read
If nothing else, it’s a piece of jewelry that she still has on her wrist.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, that’s some way to track time.

David Read
Exactly. Wow, that’s wild. Teresa MC – Jennifer, do you have a dream role that you would love to fulfill one of these days that you haven’t yet?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, absolutely. I love courtroom dramas like [inaudible]. Thankfully, I have had the opportunity to play a lawyer on TV recently with Family Law with Jewel Staite. I’m sure you know about that show and her. I’ve been grateful to get to do that, because I’ve always wanted to do that play lawyer. I guess in terms of dream role, it would be something like that. A higher status character who doesn’t necessarily need to be a lawyer, maybe in politics or something, that’s really complicated and messed up and flawed.

David Read
Nobody’s perfect right?

Jennifer Spence
That’s what I love about television, especially right now, is it’s another golden age of television. I know everyone says that, but there’s a reason right? We don’t just have these likable characters anymore. We have characters that are extremely flawed and extremely complex and sometimes not super likable. I think that’s a great direction to go. Ultimately, you want to, or hopefully you do like them because you relate to what they’re going through. There isn’t this focus anymore on making everything squeaky clean?

David Read
No, because that’s not real. We’re flawed, we’re nuanced and more complicated. Northern Lights – could you have seen, aside from the Epilogue story, could you have seen Park settling down with anyone?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, a few more wild oats to sow there I think.

David Read
Just a bit.

Jennifer Spence
With the episode we did, where we all aged, it was nice to see one direction it could have gone. Where she actually does end up with Jamil, she does end up with Ronald. That’s nice to see. I think ultimately, she did. The fact that she was then presented with the challenge of being sightless, or having very minimal vision, maybe that would cause her to calm down a little bit in terms of her libidinous ways.

David Read
Just settle a little bit more.

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, just like what’s really important.

Jennifer Spence
That was one of the things that surprised me about season one. It was an interesting choice for the writers. You are self contained, you have 100 people on board this thing; only so many potential mates. When you hurt someone, by having spent a night with them and then are now going with someone else. You’re going to see those people every day for as long as you’re on this ship together. I always wondered about Park if she recognized that consequence and just didn’t mind it. What was going through her mind when she was sleeping with different people for want of a better word? It’s not like there are a lot of fish in this particular see. If they’re stuck on this thing for the long haul you’re gonna have to see people every day whose feelings you have hurt.

Jennifer Spence
Not the greatest place to be burning bridges.

David Read
Exactly. What were your thoughts on that?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, it’s a great question. I personally think Park just wasn’t thinking it through that far ahead. Like, “Oh, got this scratched to itch..Oh, well, I’m not working that closely with this person.” It would be different if it was Volker or Brody.

David Read
Yeah, exactly. I think it was like security. That’s an interesting…

Jennifer Spence
They’re mostly military guys.

David Read
That’s right.

Jennifer Spence
So yeah, just completely outside her sort of working circle. But you are still gonna have to see these people. I guess just for Park the ability to separate again. I tend to play a lot of science people who are not that great with social skills. I understand science. I don’t understand people.

David Read
That’s fair. That’s that’s a fair point. She’s not necessarily…I have some engineering friends. They aren’t good at talking to me, but they’re good at working with machines and drinking. Not everyone is going to think things through all the same way. People are young, too. She was young.

Jennifer Spence
You have got to make those mistakes and learn the hard way sometimes.

David Read
Arnold G – have you by any chance been approached by Amazon for more Stargate? There’s something in development and we’re just waiting for that kernel to pop?

Jennifer Spence
I haven’t personally been approached by..I have heard about. Hopefully, there will be a kernel to pop and I don’t know what that will look like. Or if there would even be the original cast, I don’t know anything about it. I think it’s great that they have something in the works.

David Read
Something’s gonna happen. Dan Ben – what was your opinion on shooting with the Kinos? Both as as a prop, they use them in all different ways. They’re physically there, they’re applied on Plexiglas in the middle, they were digitally inserted, they were on sticks and also talking with the camera intimately. What was that process like? TheYouTube era was just beginning.

Jennifer Spence
Totally right. It was quite ahead of its time when you think about it that way. I loved the idea that the concept of us talking into it like a diary, I love that idea that of as a plot point. A part of the story that these characters had someplace to sort of give their hearts to and open up to. I thought it was great that way. In terms of working with it, in general, when it had to move around the room, for instance, obviously, a Kino wasn’t moving around the room when we were shooting it. One of the AD’s would have to have a Kino on a long stick and just kind of run with the stick across the room. We’d all be looking at the Kino. It’s just kind of funny, right? You have to suspend that disbelief or whatever, right? Is it suspend belief or suspend disbelief? Never understand, anyway.

David Read
Double Negative, right? No, I totally get it.

Jennifer Spence
You had to believe that the Kino was doing that, watched it right. That was always a challenge because it was just kind of funny.

David Read
Now, I’m stuck on trying to figure that puzzle out. No, I totally get what you’re saying. The things that are involved in making something like that come to life. The first several seasons that they that they did SG-1 they had no real puddle to react to. By the time they were with you guys, the set was dark enough that they had managed to rear screen project an accurate puddle. It’s just so much easier to buy something that’s actually there. Now they’re using the volume technology, have you had a chance to use the volume yet? With the giant monitors?

Jennifer Spence
I don’t even know what that is.

David Read
Disney’s using that now for the Mandalorian. They’re creating set extensions to the horizon. 1899 on Netflix just did it to make the ocean. It’s wild technology, completely immersive. In that last one, like the ocean, people were getting seasick. It;s just wild? It’s just a 100 by 100 monitor.

Jennifer Spence
So it’s like a green screen, except it has an image.

David Read
It has an image. Reflections are real and everything else. It’s just wild technology.

Jennifer Spence
Oh, I haven’t. I’m excited to now though. If it’s that realistic.

David Read
Like the set with the observation lounge, you guys need to imagine everything that’s there. So much of that now is just…it gives the actor something real to interact with. Like in the Gate Room, the Gate’s really active, what is there for you guys at least.

Jennifer Spence
It makes such a huge difference because in your mind you gotta be specific. If in your mind, you’re just like, “oh, just act scared that you’re seeing this object.” It’s hard, it’s really hard as an actor. Anything that can help us is great.

David Read
It’s just wild stuff. What’s in your future? Is there anything that you can share? You said that you and your husband are working on something? Is there anything that you can talk about?

Jennifer Spence
I can say it’s a half hour comedy. We’ve been pitching that to some Canadian broadcasters. I can’t really talk that much about it. Iur comedy is a lot of fun, and incorporates both our backgrounds, both myself and my husband’s backgrounds into it. It’s really personal. We’ve been, we’ve been sort of turning it over for a few years now. This process that I have, because it’s all new to me, the creating process and the writing process. Understanding now, talking to writers, just how long it takes to do this stuff. It’s a lot of labor and time in developing something.

David Read
A lot like giving birth accept in so often the case, it’s not going to materialize, At least, if not, then the lessons that you learn from it, the skills that you take away from that, you still have those as well. Things can be in development hell for a long time.

Jennifer Spence
Oh yeah depending what it is. Sometimes the timing has to be right. What we do feel about this is that it’s a timely show and would have a lot to contribute. We’re happy about it that way. And it’s also me learning about the development model, me learning about how these things work, and is it for streamers? Is it for network television? Just understanding all the specifics of it.

David Read
You are keeping your options open in terms of that?

Jennifer Spence
Yeah, right now we feel like it’s more of a streamer, like cable than network television. We could adapt it, but sort of where our hearts are is cable.

David Read
Absolutely. I understand. Jen, this has been great.

Jennifer Spence
It’s been really good talking to you.

David Read
Absolutely. I wish you all the best. I would really love to have to be perfectly frank an SGU reunion at some point in the future. I did one for Atlantis for my 100th episode. Would you be willing to entertain the possibility of coming back on with a bigger group of SGU folks if I were to arrange it?

Jennifer Spence
Absolutely. Yeah, I would love that.

David Read
All right. Well, we’ll have you back at some point. One way or another I’m going to do one, it’s just a question of when because you are all so busy…which is a good thing.

Jennifer Spence
But there’s the writers strike. So actually, now’s a good time.

David Read
Thank you so much for coming on to discuss the show with me and all the best to you.

Jennifer Spence
You too, you too, and travel back safe when you go back.

David Read
Thank you. I’m gonna wrap things up on this end so you take care of yourself.

Jennifer Spence
Thank you so much.

David Read
Bye bye.

Jennifer Spence
Bye

David Read
Jennifer Spence, Lisa Park in Stargate Universe. I would love sincerely to get more of the SGU folks on but it’s a tricky group; what they went through with the fan base and the cancellation. I don’t blame a lot of them for moving on. I’m so thankful to so many of them, like Jen Spence who have come on to share their story. My thanks so much to Tracy and to Jeremy for moderating this episode. Thanks to all of you for submitting questions to Jen. Thanks to my producer, Linda “GateGabber” Furey as well. Wormhole X-Tremists, we’re putting that on hold while I’m out in Los Angeles working on a project. I’m in LA now. Obviously this is a different location. It’s not Stargate related but it is industry related. We’re not sure how long that’s going to take so I’m going to put Wormhole X-Tremists on hold starting with the midweek movie of Aliens. When I’m back in Nashville we’ll resume that as well. Let’s go ahead and poke at the Dial the Gate episodes that are scheduled before I let you go here. Edward Gross is going to be joining us in about 52 minutes to discuss Chevron’s Locked: The Unauthorized Oral History of Stargate SG-1. It’s an unofficial book. Several of us already have copies in our hands but I think Amazon updated it on 17th of May, I’m not sure why, but we’re going to find out about that. Tiffany Lyndall-Knight is going to be joining us Thursday, May the 11th at 4:30pm Pacific time. She had a couple of roles and Stargate SG-1a nd you’ll also recognize her as the Cylon Hybrid in Battlestar Galactica. Tor Valenza, writer and senior Story Editor of Stargate SG-1, is going to be joining us Sunday May the 14th at 12pm Pacific time. He has uncovered journal entries from his time on Stargate SG-1. He’s going to have some some story beats that went into a number of his episodes that he’s going to share with us. Jeremy – I’ve noticed The Companion is getting some big Stargate names like Amanda Tapping and RDA. Any chance we can work with them to co-host a big name for a combined interview? That’s a good question. I’ve spoken with the companion about doing such a thing. We tried something similar with someone specific and they weren’t really interested. The Companion is a very different model than my show. A lot of lot of The Companion is facilitated with Brad Wright. Brad actually makes those calls to the cast and they communicates with him. He’s bringing a lot of those people onboard on that side. That’s really what’s happening over there. I’m going to continue to work with The Companion on my editorial series, and we’ll see where it goes. Folks like Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, it’s just a question of time. I suspect they’ll eventually do…Christopher I know. We’ve been actively discussing with him. He’s just been so busy with God of War. He’s definitely going to be onm it’s just a question of time. That’s the nice thing about this show, we can flick it on and flick it back off as we as we get guests and move in and out of breaks and everything else. Thanks to Linda “GateGabber” Furey, my producer. Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb continuing to help keep DialtheGate.com up to date. DialtheGate.com is going to be where everything is current in terms of scheduling so keep going over there. I need to go ahead and update Wormhole. X-Tremists on that side. That’s all we’ve got for you here. I really appreciate you all tuning in. My thanks again to my moderating team Tracy and Jeremy, you guys are great. Edward Gross is going to be joining us in about 50 minutes to discuss his unauthorized book on Stargate SG-1, Chevron’s Locked and you can get that on Amazon. I’m David Read for Dial the Gate and I’ll see you on the other side. Bye Bye, everybody.