Is he on our side? Is he not? For a while there it was touch and go, but we loved Maybourne all the same. Tom McBeath joins us for another special hour to reminisce about Stargate and answer fan questions LIVE.

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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:44 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:14 – Welcoming Tom
04:47 – A Christmas Carol
14:42 – Missed Opportunities, Jumanji
20:08 – Current Auditions and Roles
27:54 – Creating Maybourne, and Episode Memories
43:25 – Playing Characters like Scrooge and Maybourne
46:14 – “Foothold”
47:31 – Fan Questions
52:07 – Wrapping up with Tom
54:46 – Post interview housekeeping
58:03 – End credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, welcome back to Dial the Gate, episode 115. My name is David Read, thank you so much for joining. We have Tom McBeath, Colonel Maybourne — Dammit Harry! — returning for the second episode today, so we’re going to be bringing him in in just one moment here. But before we really get going with this show, if you like Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it’d mean a great deal to me if you click that Like button. It will make a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will continue to help 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 that Subscribe icon. And 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. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on the GateWorld.net YouTube channels, and later on on the Dial the Gate channel when we are in our off-season. As this is a live episode, if you are tuned in to youtube.com/dialthegate, our moderating team, led by Sommer and Tracy and my producer, Linda, and I believe we have Rhys as well in there today. They are all standing by to take your questions and get them turned over to me so that I can invite them to Tom. Not every submission is guaranteed to ask to the guest but we do our best. And without further ado, Mr. Tom McBeath, Harry Maybourne. Thank you for returning once again, sir. It’s good to see you.

Tom McBeath
Glad to be here. All right, there’s somebody warming up their motorcycle outside, so I hope it doesn’t interrupt you.

David Read
I can’t hear him.

Tom McBeath
Oh, good.

David Read
It is all good. Are you guys… is it chilly up there right now? You guys having a warmer winter? What’s going on in the great white north?

David Read
Well, ours is the great white south, in Canada. We’re the south coast.

David Read
Ah, I didn’t even think of it that way. So you… yeah, okay.

Tom McBeath
So, we’re just above Seattle, so we’ve been doing what Seattle has been doing. We had some snow, and some cold, and we’re only two hours from Seattle. Or not even that, if you drive fast. We did have… we actually had people making their own skating rinks in their backyards, which is something they do in the prairies and I’m sure they do it in the States as well during the winter, and you can get out practice your hockey in the backyard. So we’ve had that, but we’re back to sort of normal stuff, except we’re coming up to this thing, that we’re getting this warm thing coming up from the south, from Hawaii, sweeping in, but it’s at quite a high ridge. And there’s enough cool air coming in beneath it from our mountains and stuff coming in from the north, that it’s going to sit on top of the cold stuff and the cold stuff will then turn into fog, so we’ll have 300 feet of fog. We’ll have sun on top of it, they think for a couple of weeks, coming up. It’s a really sad time, it happens every few years and all you have to do is drive up on the North Shore and get above the clouds and you see the top of skyscrapers and stuff and apartment buildings in this sea of clouds. And you’re up there in the beautiful warm sun. It’s very odd.

David Read
That sounds just gorgeous to me. As an amateur photographer, it’s like, “Oh, I want to get me some of that in my lens.”

Tom McBeath
But we’re down here in the dark and the damp.

David Read
Oh, that’s true.

Tom McBeath
And it’s only 300 feet up. If you’re in a high rise, you’re fine.

David Read
So it sits in… because a fog is just cloud that lacks the will to fly.

Tom McBeath
Yes. So that’s what we’re looking forward to in the next couple of weeks, they say.

David Read
Did you play Ebenezer this past year or did you take a break this year?

Tom McBeath
No, no. The last two years, no.

David Read
The year before in 2020 you did an online version, I believe.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, we did a reading version of it, yes.

David Read
How was that different from the version that you performed live? Was it just pieces of it? How was that different? How was preparing for it different? What were the challenges involved in bringing that version of A Christmas Carol to online?

David Read
Is it one of those where it’s like, “This was satisfactory for this time? I’d be willing to do this again.” Or was it detached enough from the material where it was like, “I’d rather not do that in this format again.” How did you feel after that?

Tom McBeath
Well, of course, we didn’t do much rehearsal, I think we did sort of a get together the day before. There was a couple of people that couldn’t make it so other actors were involved. So we had the new ghosts, an actor from Toronto that I’ve worked with for many years, on and off — or many years ago, I guess — John Jarvis, so he was lots of fun. And it was getting to reconnect with people, but we didn’t… although the lines are in the background, we’re doing it off the script, so that’s different that way. So you still try and grab into where you thought you were, but still trying to stay immediate and listening to the faces that you see on the screen. So it was just a different way of going about it. But it was really nice to get back in touch with it. So yeah.

Tom McBeath
Well, I think I had a sense, before we even started, I thought, “Wow, this is going to be fun,” because I hadn’t seen a lot of this cast for a long time. A lot of them live over in Victoria. And it’s always nice to get back in touch with them, but it’s not something I want to do weekly. And I don’t get involved in… I haven’t been involved in any of the theater stuff that’s been going on here in town. I’ve not watched any of it on Zoom or whatever. I just go, “Well, it’s not theater.”

David Read
Theater’s participatory. You have an audience reaction, even if it’s just transfixed silence.

Tom McBeath
Well, even when you’re sitting in the audience, you’re a part of… you’re also reacting to the audience around you, as well as what you’re seeing in front of you. It’s just a different experience and I like that one better.

David Read
I think that there is no… Ebenezer is perhaps, I would argue, the most important literary character in all of fiction. And I love talking to him, talking with you about him, because you’ve sunk so much of yourself into that role when you do the performance and you’ve had the chance to evolve it over a decade. I wanted to ask you, what were the pivot points, for you, that defined for Ebenezer, when you’re portraying that character? When he truly looked back on his life, and realized he almost completely wasted it?

Tom McBeath
I’m not quite sure what you’re asking.

David Read
Is it just a course of through the entire play that it’s bit by bit by bit by bit he’s seeing the perspective on my life has been wrong, or are there specific moments in that story where he gets hit by a truck, basically, and asked to reassess and assess?

Tom McBeath
Well, I think right from the beginning, like the first time he leaves the bedroom with the ghost and off, they fly, and they end up first at the school, at least in the play, in the version that we do, he ends up at his old school. And he’s hit immediately how difficult it was for him, but then he fights it all back. He just goes “No, no, I can’t deal with that. That’s emotional stuff. I can’t deal with that. Get out, get out.” And he keeps try… And as he journeys through, the things come at him and they hit him, but he pushes them all away, saying “No, this is not me, this is a bad road to go on. If I let myself embrace all this, I’m in big trouble.” I think, ultimately, the one that really cracks him is the death of Tiny Tim…

David Read
In the future.

Tom McBeath
That happens, yeah, in the future. And then his own death, realizing that if that happens… I think that’s what pushes him to say, “No, no, I think I’m ready to go back, I think I’m ready to face all this stuff, to accept it.” And then the fact that he realizes that he is still alive, he immediately starts to work on stuff, so getting the turkey off to the Cratchit’s to try and stop the future from happening, or to change the future. So I think it is the death of Tiny Tim in the future, and then his own death when he’s supposed to go and open the coffin, when the ghost wants him to open the coffin and he can’t, because he knows it’s him. So it’s in there that all the things he’s experienced over the evening — which he thinks is much longer than an evening — all of those things he’s willing to accept now. He’s willing to accept the poorness of the Cratchit’s, he’s willing to accept the terrible mistake he made with the woman in his life, seeing how happy she is with her family, and children and all these things that he’s missed. I mean, he has such a great time when he goes back to the place where he worked — come on, Tom, you can grab this — oh, it doesn’t matter.

David Read
Fezziwig’s.

Tom McBeath
Fezziwig’s. How much fun he had there, how much joy he had there, where he met this woman, and then how he just pushed it all aside and just said, “No, this is…” the remembrance of how wonderful Fezziwig was, how open and helpful and positive, which he had somehow… he’d lost it. He experiences that at the time, but then he’s got to push it away and go, “No, no, I can’t do this. I can’t deal with that. This is not my life, my life is this, it’s got to do with money, it’s got to getting…” the future is piling up those shackles as fast as you can.

David Read
It’s interesting, because you see the darkness that that character was surrounded by, especially being left at school for years and years, his dad mistreating him. And then as an adult, he had an opportunity to find joy, but his goals were simply different, despite the fact that he was surrounded by the best people that he could be surrounded by, given the circumstances of that time and everything else — Fezziwig — with Belle. He had it made but his goals were still… he wasn’t seeing what was right in front of him. And it takes an encounter in old age with a metaphysical presence to clock him upside the head and say, “You’ve got one last chance here. You gonna go for it? Or are you going to let this poor child and this family and God knows who else out there suffer and sacrifice, when you could have done something about it?” I think it’s a great redemptive story.

Tom McBeath
Well, it’s really interesting because wherever the dreams come, wherever the ghosts come from, they’re somewhere in his own head and the little flame has been lit, the little candlelight has been lit in the office before he leaves with Cratchit, before he tells Cratchit, “You be here, yeah, okay, come in, but be here. You can take the morning off. But get in here…”

David Read
“All the earlier.” yeah.

Tom McBeath
Where he’s really being ugly to Cratchit, but somewhere in there, if the ghosts are real, that’s one thing, but if they’re all in his head, all that stuff is there and he experiences it all, but that might have been the little spark that starts his guilt about being a shit to Cratchit.

David Read
This is true. I wanted to have you share a story that was a part of the interview that we did for Dialing Home that got cancelled in that season two along with all the other interviews that we did for Stargate Command. We were talking about missed opportunities and how you… not everything works out the way that you think that it’s going to and sometimes these things just don’t materialize. And you had mentioned Jumanji. And this, I thought, was a fascinating example of where you think you’ve got this thing and then all of a sudden, plans change! Can you share that story if you don’t mind?

Tom McBeath
Well, the script that I went in and auditioned with was…

David Read
And this is the Robin Williams version, just so everybody knows. This is a while ago.

Tom McBeath
Yeah. And I was the guy that — I think I was a plumber — and I was coming in to fix something and we ended up in the attic, looking at whatever was going on there with the two little kids and he tells them a story and scares the living daylights out of them. And I really do like storytelling, and the script was really good, I don’t know if it was in the book or what it was. Anyways, I actually had gone out to one of the used work places that sell stuff on Kingsway here in Vancouver, that sells old tools and I got myself a pair of overalls, used overalls, so I wore the overalls for the audition and I ended up getting the part. So, at the same time, my buddy, we go way back, both getting out of theater school — him from UBC, me from the Vancouver Playhouse — him as a director. We sort of did our… well, it wasn’t exactly our first shows together, but it was very close to being our first shows together, and I’ve worked with John Cooper many times since, he’s one of my favorite directors — stage director — and he had asked me to do this play in Edmonton and it conflicted with this part, this Jumanji one-day part, but a great, great, great scene. And the year before he had asked me to do a piece and I had said no, because I had booked some TV stuff. And so this time I thought “Oh, I can’t say no to him again, I can’t, I can’t. We go back too far.” And it was a really interesting part that in the small little tiny play called… oh gosh, what was it called? It doesn’t matter. And it was a little three person play in Edmonton, it was really quite delightful — dark as hell — French Canadian piece that had been translated, beautiful translation. So I went and did that and then somebody else got cast, and of course, when the movie came out, it had been totally rewritten and the little story didn’t take place at all, and the character didn’t scare the shit out of the kids. He came in and he did a little bit of business and then he left. Now I don’t know whether they had filmed the scene and then cut it to bring it into time, however they do that kind of stuff, editing and stuff, but it was just basically a nothing part. So it worked out just fine. So, I don’t know. Is that the same story?

David Read
Yes, it is. Exactly.

Tom McBeath
So I had a great time at Edmonton and I always thought “Oh my God, I should have done that. I should have done that.” Maybe it would have changed my career, who knows, but the result that came out on screen was nothing to talk about.

David Read
Yeah, a shadow of what it is that had been on the page. How often do you find that to be the case, when you’ve worked on film and television, where things that are just delicious on the page get cut for whatever reason. Is this the biggest example of that?

Tom McBeath
Well, things change all the time, but by the time you get to shoot you’ve been through eight rewrites, eight different colored pages, sets of pages from salmon to lemon, to whatever, blue sky, dark blue. And then sometimes, I think there might be twelve colors and then they start them over again, so it’s lemon yellow two. So, lots of things change as you go along and it just becomes part of it and I don’t think I put a lot of value on what gets changed. Maybe I did early on, but I don’t, I haven’t… Well, I don’t do enough work anymore to actually worry about that stuff.

David Read
Do you have… have you been auditioning? Or are you hunkering down still?

Tom McBeath
No, I have one, I have a neat little one coming up, I have to have it in by Tuesday, here at home, it’s all self auditions. It’s for… what’s it called? Reginald The Vampire, and it’s a neat little character and you could probably go 1000 different ways for it, so I’ll pick my way and go from there. You don’t get a chance to talk to a director and say, “Could you do it? Could you change? Could you?” Not unless they are interested and then they have you back with notes, and you send in another one and then they can do a Zoom with you and a few others they are interested in.

David Read
Okay, so under those circumstances, then those doors open?

Tom McBeath
Now, through the COVID thing we’ve done a lot of at home stuff here, I can now set it up and take it down in… I can have everything set up in five minutes, and take it down in five minutes. And then it’s compressing it so that you can send it through and all that kind of stuff that takes all the time. But we got that down pretty well as well. So both Karen and I, we’re in the biz, so we do a lot of it here. No, it was… I also have this very semi reoccurring part on Riverdale, Smithers, and so last spring I think I did three episodes, but each of them were one day and it was like two lines each day, maybe only one line. But, you know, it’s a nice contract, but at that time, with all the COVID tests you had, and because we work up here in Vancouver on our kind of contracts, we get what you call a buyout. So we get our amount of our little nut, and they buy it out. They buy us for five years, and they don’t have to pay any royalties on it, but they pay you another 110% or 115% for those five years. So that sort of doubles your nut. But you also had to have two COVID tests before you went and at that time they were paying you a day’s wage to go get a COVID test. So you were getting four days pay for one day’s work and sometimes it was two lines. You just shake your head about, “Oh, what’s going to happen?”

David Read
They’re covering their bases.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, while they’re covering their bases, all of a sudden, there’s money coming in where I never thought there would be any and I don’t really care if any comes in or much comes in, either, because it’s… I have to take money out of my RRSP’s or what do you guys call them? Your K, whatever. Betterment stuff.

David Read
Exactly, yeah, Social Security.

Tom McBeath
So yeah, so there’s enough money coming in from there. I had a good run in this business and fortunately, never touched any of the RRSP money. But as well as that, I auditioned for a little movie that was a Netflix thing that they shot over in Victoria called Rescued by Ruby, and I just had a great time over there with a really neat little character. So there was 10 days work over there and then I did an episode of Family Law as well, with an old director friend of mine and Stargate fella, Andy Mikita.

David Read
Ah, good old Andy.

Tom McBeath
Who’s a producer for Family Law, and he also directed this episode, so my springtime was just… I was just loaded with work and the movie and the Family Law thing came from auditions. And so we’re still doing auditions.

David Read
Rescued by Ruby, it is… looks like… is she an adoptee? I think? She’s a pup?

Tom McBeath
Well, she’s a seasoned dog that they’ve had in the SPCA, that people have taken out because it’s such a wonderful dog but then it’s just a terrible dog when it gets home, it just ruins the house. The star of the piece, Grant Gustin…

David Read
Yes, Dan.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, who plays Flash, he was just absolutely wonderful. And he wants to be on the canine team for the police. And he’s already a policeman, but he wants to work his way into the dog team, and the guy that runs the dog team says, “No, no, no, no, no.” But he brings his own, so then he brings his own dog and it’s a story about how the dog disappoints them and how he disappoints the dog and all this kind of stuff, it’s quite wonderful. And it’s based on a true story. Directed by Katt Shea. Yeah, and she was wonderful to work with as well. She was lots of fun.

David Read
Stargate Atlantis alum, Sharon Taylor, is in this too.

Tom McBeath
Yeah. Anyways, the dog — based on a true story — two years into this dog actually being accepted on the canine unit with Dan, the dog wins the best canine in America. Based on a true story, so… oh, maybe I shouldn’t be saying all this to all these people.

David Read
Well, I mean, you know, if it’s a true story, they can find that information out, certainly. And yeah, expected this year. So it’s a Netflix?

Tom McBeath
Yeah, they think February or March sometime, I think.

David Read
Okay, well, we’re gonna have to keep an eye out for that, that’s really cool.

Tom McBeath
You know, there’s lots of… Vancouver has been busier since COVID than any time before. Everything is booked up, every space, every… it’s amazing.

David Read
Yeah, it’s been quite extraordinary trying to book interviews for this show. I really should have started earlier, frankly, because everyone’s been crazy. Amanda Tapping, busier than ever. And on one hand, it’s like, “I really want to have her on,” and on the other hand, it’s like, “I can’t fault her.” You know, it’s terrific. “Go Amanda!” This is good stuff indeed and you got to be thankful for the work and thankful that you can get involved in light stories that make you feel good, you know? There’s not just a bunch of Debbie Downer content that’s always being — even though there is — there’s stories like these that lift your heart and give you strength of spirit. And it’s like, “You know what, I can go on another day.”

Tom McBeath
Well, I know Hallmark Christmas, Hallmark does that for a lot of people, but it does just the opposite for me.

David Read
Really? I have some questions here, from fans, and I wanted to also ask you about working with the team on Stargate to create that character over the years that you did, with Brad Wright, with Rob Cooper, just watching him evolve from this megalomaniacal mastermind, who was trying to save the planet on his own ends, to becoming king of a small population of people who truly loved this man. What a journey over eight years, and it’s gotta be a privilege to have played him.

Tom McBeath
It was a great learning curve for me, you know? The only credit I can take for the development of the character was to try and take what the episode that was in front of me and try and make sense of it, because each one, I went, “No, this isn’t the character. This isn’t the last character I played.” but I jumped in there and then the next time it would be “Well, golly, this is… what do I do with this guy now?” So he just became more dimensional as they wrote him, so it’s the writers who put that together. The only credit I can take for where the character developed, was I guess I managed to satisfy each sort of growth episode for the character. And it would, I think I’ve said this before, for me, he was always a bit problematic, for me, as a military man, because I’ve never thought of myself as the straight-shoulder sort of stick-in-the-mud kind of guy. And so once I was able to lose the military costume, the character really started to change a lot. I think that’s where I started to get really comfortable.

David Read
He was no longer “supposedly” bound by those rules and regulations, you didn’t really know where he was coming from, you didn’t know if he was going to stab you in the back, or if he was going to save your life. And I think that there is a… there’s just an aspect of that, that is absolutely delicious to watch on screen, because it’s like, “Where’s he gonna go? We don’t know. We’re gonna have to watch and find out.” You can’t peg him, and they’re… Frankly, in Stargate, there’s a lot of defined parameters. There’s good, there is evil, but not with Maybourne. I think that’s one of the reasons that fans find him so delicious.

Tom McBeath
Well, I certainly, I really enjoyed him. And it was — I don’t know the episode numbers or anything — but when they found him frozen…

David Read
Watergate, yes.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, Watergate. And when I came out of that, and was in prison, and when he was sentenced to hang, when he comes to get the information from me, that’s when, I remember, that’s when we actually started to play. You know, it became play then. I didn’t have to stick with what I thought I should do as a military guy. There was a sort of a personal point to it, rather than a professional point.

David Read
Was there a relaxation with Rick on set — not that, relaxed like the work wasn’t getting done. Obviously, the work was getting done and it was great — but was there a more…? What kind of a set? Because he was a producer as well as just an actor, he was an executive producer of the show. What kind of a set did he engender?

Tom McBeath
It was always great coming there. That whole cast was really quite lovely and — quite lovely — they were lovely. They just, from day one, they welcomed me like I was part of the family. And whenever I came back they seem to be really excited and, like, open arms, “Oh golly, you’re back, yay, great.” So… now RDA is not quite that effusive, but he was great to be on set with because he was always, at the same time, entertaining himself. He was always enjoying himself until, then I found out that maybe, well, as things progressed over the years, maybe he wasn’t enjoying himself as much. But he was always respectful, he was always a little on the challenging side. They’d say, “Rolling!” and he’d still be goofing off like hell, and then suddenly, you were there, and you were shooting the scene. And it sort of forced one to relax, and just go, “Well, what it’s going to be, it’s going to be.” You can’t… well, you work your ass off on your own on these parts, and then you get there, and of course, you don’t know where the cameras going to be, you don’t know how they’re going to block it, so you have a little fast little thing going on, and then away they go and they shoot it. And often, it’s nothing the way you imagined it, or the alternatives you were thinking about, and then you get stuff coming from Richard Dean that is absolutely unexpected.

David Read
Not on the page at all.

Tom McBeath
Well, it can be on the page as well, but it’s coming at you in a way that you never expected and I think that’s… See, he might have been teaching me, like, “Come on, get that plug out of your ass and let’s just play!” I’m not sure, he never said anything like that, but it really did, over the years, that did teach me how to relax when you get on set. Now, it’s really tough if you haven’t been on a set for a while, the first two days, you’re just nervous as hell, because you don’t want to make a mistake. I think I’m getting old enough now that I can make a mistake and laugh about it and hopefully everybody else will laugh, as well. But you’re always frightened that someone’s going to scream at you, because that has been known to happen.

David Read
Time is money.

Tom McBeath
It’s not necessarily screamed at me, but I’ve been on sets where there’s been some screaming.

David Read
I think the thing with Richard Dean is that you can expect from — and this is just, I’m just delineating what everyone has said about him — you can expect professionalism, you can expect the work to get done. You can also expect a heck of a lot of spontaneity that makes the work not only enjoyable on the set, but also enjoyable to watch and we as fans are sitting there going, “Was that an ad lib? That feels like that was not meant to be there.” And then your reaction to that is kind of like [looks confused], like you’re reacting, almost like he’s saying something, going “What do you think of that? Let’s see ya tap dance to that!”

Tom McBeath
Yeah, I think he did, when he would ad lib, it was “Take that, what are you going to do now?”

David Read
For sure.

Tom McBeath
And I think he loved the look on my face when I “What do I do?”

David Read
That’s also Maybourne, you know, he’s assessing the situation. You never know how he’s gonna handle it. I have some questions from fans.

Tom McBeath
Sure.

David Read
Tom, looking back, what was perhaps a favorite moment that you had from production, with Richard, with Amanda, with this cast — most of your work was with Rick — what was really a favorite scene to make? Elizabeth Lee wants to know.

Tom McBeath
My favorite one with Rick was when we were… gosh, whatever the name of the episode was where we’re eating the grass stuff and we turn into crazy people and start shooting each other. There was the scene where he’s down fishing.

David Read
Yes.

Tom McBeath
And I come down and ask how he’s doing. And he says, “Well, he’s got a nibble, but hasn’t caught anything.” And I reach into my pocket and pull out some plastic explosive and just throw it into the water. It explodes and all these fish float to the top.

David Read
That’s just wrong on so many levels.

Tom McBeath
It was all scripted. And then I’m supposed to go in and get the fish and start to bring them back. And my favorite, because it was me getting a chance to do something he wasn’t expecting, was I got out there, and by this time I’m feeling quite comfortable on set with Richard, so I get out there to get the fish and I’m walking, I guess I’m… I think I’m about waist deep in these floating fish and I just start to throw the fish at him. Picking them up and gathering them and bringing them back, him ducking. But one of my favorites — and it was the same episode, or the one following Watergate — where it’s Bobby Cox-House playing… he’s playing the Senator?

David Read
Yes, Ronny Cox.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, Ronny Cox, yes. It’s the end of that scene where he’s gotten me out of jail to help him do this thing, and then somehow I’ve disappeared and he gets a phone call. And it’s from me, and you can hear me on the other end of the phone and we’ve taken English Bay down here and they’ve put up some fake palm trees and they’ve hired all these extras, all the dark, black extras they can find and they asked them to dress in sort of a Jamaican kind of way and they’ve got a Jamaican Drum Band down on the beach playing. And I’m on a phone up at the top of the hill above the beach. And I’m talking to him and saying, “Thank you. We’ll see ya, everything’s fine.” And I’m wearing a big straw hat, I’ve got Bermuda shorts on with socks, the high white socks and the sandals and a Hawaiian shirt, and I hang up and I walk down the beach and I’m just supposed to walk down to the… I think the last shot of the episode he’s supposed to walk down to the beach towards the drumset. And I get about 20 feet down from the camera, and this girl crosses my path, so I just grab her and start to dance with her. And we dance all the way down to the drum band, to the Steel Drum band and when they — no one said “Cut!” — so we just kept going and going and going. And finally they said “Cut!” and everybody just went a little crazy. They thought it was just quite lovely. So, it’s one of those things where you say, “Well, God, I never planned anything like that.” I was brave enough to do it and it wasn’t scripted. And it worked.

David Read
It’s the spirit of the character in that moment, though. I mean, he’s been snatched from the jaws of death and, you know, he’s happy!

Tom McBeath
So, they’re little sort of hallmarks for me about my growth as an actor in this business. And that freedom to do that kind of stuff that is still part of the script, and acceptable, and it’s actually some of the stuff that they kind of look for, off the scripted page.

David Read
There is a scene with you and Rick, and you had mentioned this once, a long time ago — O’Neill always thought that he had Maybourne’s number, that he had him under his thumb — and there is a scene where O’Neill goes to Maybourne and says, “Simmons says you’re…” — his ex, his former partner in the NID — “Simmons says you’re the traitor.” And you whirl on him and you come right back to him and says, “Do you believe that?” and it brings… O’Neill just… O’Neill’s stunned! He’s like, “I’m not used to getting this response from this character, or this person. He must really mean this. There’s some conviction in what I just said to him to make him respond to me the way he is now.”

Tom McBeath
Well, the scene starts with him, with me appearing from nowhere, at the gas station. He comes out of the store, and he’s pissed off at me and he starts chasing me…

David Read
Around the truck!

Tom McBeath
Around the truck, and I’m afraid of him, you know, I’m trying to stay away from him. And then we sort of get into the quiet, the conversation part of it, and then I walk away. And he says that to me, and it’s when I come back straight at him, which is, the tables are turned now. Like, “I’m actually not afraid of you. And what I’ve said to you so far, I mean it, it’s the truth, and I do have a sense of kinship with you somewhere within me.” So, yeah, that was a nice one, too, yeah.

David Read
What is it about playing redemptive characters that’s so rewarding? From Scrooge to Maybourne.

Tom McBeath
Well, it’s, I don’t think… let’s see.

David Read
Is it a hope for humanity?

Tom McBeath
Well, no. For me, when you get involved in characters like that, and especially in the theater, I’ve played a lot of really heavy dudes. And I guess I suppose I have on TV, too, but it’s trying to get people to understand what’s going on in his head — in the character’s head — that makes them think, “Oh my God, I’ve thought that. Oooh, I’m bad, I’m a bad person too, maybe.” So, I think when I started with the character, I tried to say “He does have a point of view in the world and it’s a good one. Now, they’re sort of making me one dimensional here.” But then as it progressed, just to find that his levels of desperateness, his levels of commitment. Like, off the bat, he was very… off the bat he was very rude to all of them. But even before he left the service, he could be in the same room with them. There wasn’t a lot of respect for him, but he could be in the room with them. And he could say something, and he could take something back from him, from them, and consider it. So even then he was starting to… he was starting to shift.

David Read
Soften a little.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, now that was the writers also doing it, but was also letting the audience somewhere into his head, that what you saw earlier wasn’t the whole man and you’re starting to see inside of his head now. So, like you have been somewhere yourself, and you’ve been hard-edged and straight at somebody, people now have that vision of you and then you when you run into them again, you realize, “Oh, I should show another side of me here if we’re going to have to work together.” I don’t know if that’s just…

David Read
That sounds right to me.

Tom McBeath
It’s more that kind of stuff, than finding redemptive qualities, it’s to find the human quality.

David Read
Yes, there is an episode in season three called Foothold, and Carter has come to you because there’s no one else. And it’s one of those situations where it’s like, “When we’re at rock bottom, can we trust someone that, under normal circumstances, we don’t trust. We know there’s some kind of operation going on, and he’s a part of it. And you know what? When all the chips are down, he can set his interests aside.” And it’s one of my favorite Maybourne episodes, is Foothold, where he sets his interests aside, and he saves Stargate command, along with Carter, and some… And there was that one scene that got cut where there was a glimmer of hope between Maybourne and Carter and I think it all fueled that, I think it all fueled where the character went.

Tom McBeath
That could very well have been, yeah. I really… in that episode it was “God, I think she likes me. I kind of like her too. But you can’t let that go because you’re in a uniform.”

David Read
Martin Mollitt asked “Tom, would you have…” and I know there was an Atlantis character that you had auditioned for that you hadn’t gotten, but “Would you have liked to have tried your take on another character on SG-1? And was there an existing character that you would ever thought “You know what I would have loved to have tried my hand at that.” Such as General Hammond, for instance?”

Tom McBeath
No, it’s never been part… I’ve never entertained any of that. I mean, I do know when I did audition for the next iteration they said, “No, you’re too recognizable as Maybourne, so we can’t have you.” Now, you know, given another two seasons, and going back and auditioning for something, that might have been a whole different thing. You know, for X Files we used to, you know, I’ve played three different characters on X Files, and they just used us actors, because we were actors. And with all the confidence in the world that the audience would accept that.

David Read
Well, you know, and that’s also a show that ran for what, nine seasons or something like that, something outrageous. Jenn Colin; “What do you think King Arkhan is up to now?” Do you think he has… I suspect there’s probably some children.

Tom McBeath
Yeah, I would imagine. I have no idea. I’m sure he’s still happy, I’m sure he’s well looked after.

David Read
That’s true.

Tom McBeath
It was, well, I actually knew that, “Oh, well, this is the end of Maybourne for this series.” But it was delightful, absolutely delightful. So, I think… gosh, maybe I should talk to some of the old writers to say, “If we went back there 20 years later, what would he be up to?”

David Read
I would love, if Brad Wright were to do a fourth series, I would love to, at the very least have a reference to what happened to him, you know? Someone checked in on him and I have no doubt that that civilization is prospering in more ways than one. Ray Wood: “Does it seem that when Maybourne grew a beard he was a better person?” It does seem that when Maybourne grew a beard he became a better person than when he was clean shaven. Did they ask you to grow the beard in?

Tom McBeath
No, I think I had it for something else, some stage thing, when the thing came up. And then it was “Do we keep it or don’t we?” Or maybe I’d grown it for a stage thing, and then just decided to keep it. But also it worked because the character was on the lam.

David Read
Correct.

Tom McBeath
So, I don’t know, that was as important for the character, that he’s on the lam, he’s not the old guy, he’s not the guy he was, he’s a different guy now. He seems to be getting a little bit of respect, here and there. So, I don’t know. I had a new Facebook friend the other day from Hungary, I think it was from Hungary, who was saying he really liked me with a beard, I should have a beard again.

David Read
I liked the beard, you know?

Tom McBeath
Well, I would grow one again but as you get older, your skin does different things. And they just, for me, it gets too flaky. And I don’t mean flaky looking, it gets too flaky and if I’m wearing dark colors, it’s like dandruff and no matter how much Head & Shoulders I use… They need a new brand called Cheeks & Chins, or something. So I haven’t had one for many years now.

David Read
Tom, I have had the privilege of having so many of you on to discuss Stargate, from GateWorld to Dialing Home to Dial the Gate over the years and there are a handful of them, of all of you, that I consider to be family and friends and you are absolutely one of them. It has been a privilege to continue to know you and I’m looking forward to catching up with you at GateCon later this year.

Tom McBeath
Well, thanks, David. And likewise back, it’s always great to get your cheerfulness and your positiveness. You always seem to, I don’t know, maybe you’re not all that positive in life, but you certainly get money in your front of the camera or on the phone you are, so that’s good!

David Read
Yeah, we’ve all had our ups and downs, especially over the last couple of years and we have to find the things that give us joy, and continue to mine that and if possible to share that with everyone else and you taking your time to come on and continue to share memories is so rewarding. And I’m looking forward to Rescued by Ruby, I’m going to keep my eyes open for that, because that sounds like another another good excuse to enjoy a couple of hours and be uplifted.

Tom McBeath
Well, I think it’ll be really nice, it will not be time wasted to watch it. Grant’s excellent in it, as a number of others, and I went in and did some ADR and it looks, it was filmed fantastically, just beautiful. So, I’m looking forward to seeing it. And I’m sure there’s stuff in it that I’ll be surprised by, because even though you read the script, you forget what’s the whole story, so I’m looking forward to it a lot.

David Read
Isn’t that the great thing about about movie and television, though, to be teleported away into a place unexpected that you didn’t anticipate? You know, when it surprises you?

Tom McBeath
Yeah.

David Read
Absolutely. Tom, I appreciate your time and we’ll be catching up in person.

Tom McBeath
Great. I’m looking forward to that. Yeah.

David Read
Thank you so much for coming on and we’ll be in touch with you, okay? [blows kiss]

Tom McBeath
You’re so welcome. Thanks for having me. And [blows kiss] to everyone out there.

David Read
Be well, sir.

Tom McBeath
Okay, thank you.

David Read
Take care.

Tom McBeath
Okay, yeah, bye bye.

David Read
Tom McBeath. Thank you. Tom McBeath, everyone. Colonel Maybourne from Stargate. [inaudible] Dial the Gate is brought to you every week for free and we do appreciate you watching but if you want to support the show further, buy yourself some of our themed swag. We’re now offering t-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies for all ages, as well as cups and other accessories in a variety of sizes and colors at dialthegate.com. From the merchandise tab, click on a specific design to see what items are being offered. Checkout is fast and is easy. You can just use your credit card or PayPal, just visit dialthegate.com or straight to dialthegate.com/merch and thanks so much for your support. We know that your time is precious. Richard Dean Anderson is going to be joining Brad Wright on the Companion, so we’re going to step out of the way and give you guys a chance to go over there. The Companion is doing an exclusive between Brad Wright and Rick that was recorded previously, but is now going to be available today, so I hope everyone enjoys that. It’s gonna be great to see Rick and see his perspective on what he’s been doing, his perspective on the character over the past 20 to 25 years — O’Neill I mean — and go from there. We’ve got a couple characters — characters? Actors! — who are in the works right now. I’m really, really excited about them, but I can’t announce them just yet, who have agreed to come on the show. Next week, Joseph Mallozzi is going to be back to share stories of season four of Stargate SG-1 — excuse me, of Stargate Atlantis — with us. He’s going to be with us at 12pm Pacific Time on the 29th of January for episode 116. We’re going to dive deep into Atlantis season four. That’s going to be live, he’s going to be here to answer your questions and we’ll go from there. I appreciate you tuning in. Thanks so much to my Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, as well as my moderators Sommer, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys, Antony. A big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at Concepts Web, he’s our web developer for Dial the Gate. Also a big thank you to Jeremy Heiner, keeping our website up to date each and every week. My name is David Read. I really appreciate you tuning in and watching the show. If you want to continue to see more content like this, please share an episode that you enjoyed with a fellow Stargate fan. Thanks so much everyone. We’ll see you on the other side.