It has been eleven years since Stargate Atlantis left the airwaves with the valiant Atlantis expedition returning to Earth. Now we take a look back on that momentous journey with a majority of the principal cast.

Join David Hewlett (Rodney McKay), Torri Higginson (Elizabeth Weir), Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan), Paul McGillion (Carson Beckett), Rainbow Sun Francks (Aiden Ford), David Nykl (Radek Zelenka) and Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey) in a discussion which may leave new fans wanting to discover the show, and old fans taking up the journey once again.

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Timecodes
0:00 – (New!) Opening Credits
0:25 – Welcome
0:39 – Call to Action
1:36 – Cast Welcome
2:19 – Current Projects: David Nykl
3:43 – Current Projects: Paul McGillion
4:49 – Current Projects: Torri Higginson
6:36 – Current Projects: David Hewlett
8:17 – Current Projects: Robert Picardo
10:27 – Current Projects: Rainbow Sun Francks
12:17 – Does it feel like it’s been 17 years since Season One?
20:12 – Did you think the show was going to work from the get-go?
25:18 – Sci-Fi Is Becoming Mainstream in North America
27:20 – How did the show affect your careers?
29:33 – Rachel Luttrell Arrives
31:12 – Robert Picardo on His Second Sci-Fi Franchise
34:27 – How Rachel was Naive About Stargate
35:59 – The Cast’s First Convention: San Diego Comic Con
39:07 – Paul McGillion Takes Cues From Teryl Rothery
40:44 – What was a facet of your character you loved?
41:58 – The Evolution of Radek Zelenka
46:55 – John Sheppard and His Team
47:58 – Imagining the Visual Effects
49:48 – Rewatching the Show
53:48 – Significant Character Scenes
56:25 – Laughing On Set
58:08 – Memorable Guest Stars
1:00:57 – Technobabble and Technology
1:04:04 – Romance in the Pegasus Galaxy
1:06:39 – Scenes Left on the Cutting-Room Floor
1:09:45 – Picardo’s Favorite Gag
1:10:28 – Season Six and What Could Have Been
1:14:38 – The Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game
1:16:45 – Characters Inspire Viewers
1:25:45 – Paul McGillion Gets Birthday Cake
1:28:38 – Returning for SG4
1:31:22 – Stargate Art
1:33:03 – End Credits

***

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

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#DialtheGate
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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, welcome to Dial the Gate. My name is David Read, I hope you’re having a great summer. Welcome to episode 100, The Stargate Atlantis cast reunion. I know many of you have been waiting for this and I’m not going to belabor the point for much longer. If you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal to me if you click that Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will really help the show continue to 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 guests changes, this is key if you plan on watching live. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next several days on the Dial the Gate and Gateworld.net YouTube channels. My thanks to the cast of Stargate Atlantis for joining us for this episode; David Hewlett, Torri. Higginson, Paul McGillion, Rainbow Sun Francks, David Nykl and Robert Picardo start us off. Rachel Luttrell comes in about 25 minutes. Enjoy, I hope you got 90 minutes for this because this is a wild ride. Welcome all of you to San Diego Comic Con At Home 2021, The Stargate Atlantis 2021 Cast reunion. How are you guys? You doing good?

David Hewlett
It’s just like being there.

David Nykl
Yeah, I’d say it’s about a 60% reunion going on right now.

David Hewlett
We’ve got a 60% chance of reunion with…Who else are we waiting for?

David Read
Maybe Flanigan may stop in, I’m not entirely sure. Rachel is definitely coming in.

David Hewlett
Flanigan will call in from his phone on his surfboard.

David Nykl
“I had no idea this was going on man.”

Paul McGillion
If he does it I’ll just play him.

David Hewlett
There you go. Perfect.

David Read
I wanted to go around the group and ask all of you how you’re doing, what projects you’re currently engaged in, what else is going on? David, you’re currently at my top left so I’d like to start with you, David Nykl.

David Nykl
Oh, me? Thanks for throwing that one on me. Well, you know, hey, lockdown, end of lockdown. That’s nice, looking forward to that so much. We’ve been pretty lucky here in BC. We got good first immunizations, I got one, we got to one more coming up, so that’s going to kind of mark the big end of everything. I only had about two gigs, it’s been miserable. I’ve been acting to a tripod and a tennis ball. Some really good people have been reading for me including my wife and my kids and everything like that. It’s been good. I miss the conventions, I miss my colleagues, all of you. It’s such a treat to see you all, let me start off by saying that most importantly. It’s just great to be getting out of this whole thing, that’s my general sort of state of mind. I’m looking forward to the summer, I’ve been doing a lot of construction projects outside of that, here at the house and elsewhere. I’m looking forward to getting to working again.

David Hewlett
I’m gonna call you for tips then, I got like a million things gone wrong in this house right now. We have a water feature in our living room right now whenever it rains.

David Nykl
Yeah, an inadvertent one, right?

David Hewlett
Yeah.

David Read
Paul McGillion.

Paul McGillion
Yes.

David Read
How you doing, sir? What’s been going on?

Paul McGillion
I’m good, thanks. I’m being a dad which is great. Little kids are eight and six now, Hugh and Rosie and everything’s good, busy. We’re moving next month, staying in Vancouver though, so staying inside Kitsilano which is great. Doing that and working on a bunch of different shows. I’m doing…the second season of Firefly Lane is coming up on Netflix.

David Read
Congratulations.

Paul McGillion
Thank you. So we’re looking forward to that starting up and everything else is great. Things are good here. It seems like restrictions are lifting, like David said, a little bit. So yeah, doing good, happy to see all you guys, even David.

David Read
There’s three here so you have to call us out. Torri Higginson, welcome to Dial the Gate.

Torri Higginson
Hi.

David Read
Hi, how are you?

Torri Higginson
Thanks for doing this. I’m doing great.

Paul McGillion
Do the dolphin.

Torri Higginson
What? Oh my god. Flashback. I remember it, I gotta be drunk for that. I did a paycheck for Spotlight or a bottle of tequila.

David Read
How’s your show going?

Torri Higginson
It’s good, it’s good. It’s a really lovely, easy, gentle show. It shoots in Montreal which has seemed to become my home the last six years. I’ve just worked there so much the last six years, it’s crazy. I love it, I love that city. I kind of have one foot in Quebec and one foot in California. I weirdly find them kind of similar, there’s a real similarity between these two. They’re both provinces and states that live outside of the rest of their country; they have a very different vibe than the rest of the country. They have a different language, they’re all chill, they don’t want to work, they want to be lazy, they want to go to parks, they want to hang out. It’s kind of a very healthy, nice balance. It’s been great. The show is called Transplant, we’re shooting our second season.

Paul McGillion
Habs. Go Habs go. [Ice Hockey team]

Torri Higginson
Are you Canadians now?

Paul McGillion
Yeah.

Torri Higginson
You both are? I guess there’s nobody good in Vancouver to root for?

David Nykl
No.

David Read
Which season are you working on?

Torri Higginson
We’re working on season two. Fingers crossed. I spent most of the COVID year in L.A. turning my garage into a guest house. I was doing the construction hammering too and that was fun. Lots of black nails, lots of bruising and cursing.

David Hewlett
Lots of “turn the water off quickly.”.

Torri Higginson
Right, “fast, fast.” But really so lovely to see all your faces, it’s really lovely. I was surprised at how much my heart went, .”Oh, oh.” Thank you David for organizing this, this is great.

David Read
Absolutely, happy to. Thank you for all for being here. David Hewlett, what’s going on my friend?

David Hewlett
I sometimes leave my basement, sometimes. That’s basically what I’ve been doing. I feel guilty that I’ve really enjoyed the lockdown. Baz and I have just got to geek out together. He got me doing some more streaming and I started doing my Tech Bandits club online because the kids weren’t allowed at school anymore. I’ve been having a blast. I was very nervous to go back to work and a job came up and I said to Jane, “look, I don’t think I can do this.” She’s like, “No, no, you can do it. Off you go. It’s been eight months of not working, you better go.” So I went off and did that, it was Departure and a bit of Clarice and some stuff. It’s been good, there’s been just enough work to keep me, I think, slightly more social. Jane basically forced us to get a dog because she was nervous that Baz and I never left the house. We now have a new dog called Huzzah so Huzzah and I do a couple of walks a day and that’s that gets us out.

David Nykl
You’re not following health orders, Dave. You’re not supposed to leave the house.

Rainbow Sun Francks
You’re allowed to walk. You’re allowed to walk pets.

Torri Higginson
People in Quebec are renting their dogs at nighttime. They’re renting their dogs out after the curfew so that people can go out. Drug dealers are renting people’s dogs.

David Nykl
A side gig for Ziggy?

Torri Higginson
I’ve been trying to, “earn your kibble dog, get out there.”

David Hewlett
That’s really good actually. I’ll just put a “for rent” sign on her.

David Read
Bob Picardo, I was kind of wondering which personality you would bring with you today, Bob.

Robert Picardo
Well, I am now a clothing influencer for Old Navy, as you can see. I applied for Armani and Zegna but Old Navy was the only one interested, so that’s part of it.

David Read
It’s better than the dollar store.

Robert Picardo
The dollar store’s next, believe me. During lockdown, with little to do and no one to act with, I decided “who’s an actor that I love working with?” Me. I decided to make videos with myself, I play multiple characters. I now have nearly 10,000 subscribers on YouTube so if I get another 38 today, from this, it’s going to be golden. I still do shows where they pay me occasionally just because I’m nostalgic about the US dollar. I’ve just finished work on the third season of a show on Apple TV called Dickinson. It’s ostensibly about Emily Dickinson but it’s the strangest kind of surreal mashup of Emily Dickinson with 21st century sensibilities. Haley Steinfeld plays Emily who’s just great and I play her father’s best friend and political consultant. That’s been fun wearing all those period clothes and the giant hats that you’re not going to able to see in this screen, they go up like that. I also have been playing a character for two seasons on the Black Entertainment Network, because when you look at me you think Black Entertainment Network. It’s called The Family Business and I play, of course, an Orthodox Jewish drug dealer. Life is eclectic and fun and when you wear a yarmulke, you at least get to cover part of the dome. So considering it’s a pandemic year I feel very blessed.

Paul McGillion
Can you play that piano behind you?

Robert Picardo
No, not at all. It’s completely pretend, it’s actually just the green screen. Here, look.

David Hewlett
It’s a Zoom background.

Robert Picardo
No, it’s my wife’s piano, but I’m proud of it.

David Hewlett
I’m proud of her for owning it.

Robert Picardo
You’re proud of her for owning it and knowing how to play it slightly.

David Read
Rainbow Sun, welcome my friend. How are you? What’s been going on?

Rainbow Sun Francks
Hey, everybody. What’s been going on? I’ve been in my apartment for a year or more, by myself, so I’m going whirly. My only reprieve, since work has been slow this year, I’ve been dealing and just renting people’s dogs.

David Hewlett
Good side hustle.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I’ve just been, literally, alone, so I’m going crazy. That’s no different than normal, but just a little more crazy. That’s what I’ve been doing. I haven’t really worked this year but I did work a lot last year and a bunch of stuff has come out. I got a little role in this movie called Trigger Point that came out about a month ago with Colm Feore and Barry Pepper, Laura Vandervoort and me, it’s kind of fun. An FX show called Nine Films About Technology, that just came out a month or so ago. I have a really fun Netflix thing coming out, but I can’t talk about it because it hasn’t been released yet. I’m excited for that as well. Other than that I’m waiting for the next job. Who knows? I’m doing 1000 tapes because, apparently, now my house is a casting room. Apparently. They don’t have to pay a lease on, the free casting room!

David Read
I was going to approach each of you with the question but I think I’d rather make it a free for all and just kind of see what happens here with the dynamic in the group.

David Hewlett
That seems like a bad idea David.

Paul McGillion
Great idea.

David Hewlett
And go…

David Read
17 years ago guys, 17 years ago this summer, Atlantis went on the air. Is that hard to believe? Is it hard to believe that the fans are still into it almost as fervently as when it was airing? A whole new generation has been born since then that are now watching it.

David Hewlett
People no longer say things like “you’re in that show.” They say “oh, you’re on that show my parents used to watch.”

Torri Higginson
Yeah. “My grandfather introduced me to this show.”

David Hewlett
Literally.

David Nykl
It’s a tough question to ask at the end of a pandemic year because literally, apart from seeing you guys here on video screens, I’ve done about two or three of these things where you see people on video screens. You kind of go “okay, there’s someone in Australia, there’s someone in England” but you don’t get a sense of connection with the fans as you would normally when you go to the events. It’s more sort of evidence online, particularly since there’s this story breaking that might be MGM being bought by those guys, the monopoly guy.

David Read
Amazonians.

David Hewlett
What? Is that true?

David Nykl
Amazon buying MGM. I’ll just finish my point. There’s this noise going on online that there’s Stargate coming back. There’s evidence of activity there but I haven’t personally seen anything other than on the screen because we haven’t been anywhere. The fandom thrives and survives though, I believe.

Torri Higginson
It is amazing how it thrives and survives. I think SG-1, that went for what, 11 years 10 years?

David Read
10.

Torri Higginson
That did a lot of the cementing of that franchise. To me though, it seems amazing that it’s 17. 17 years doesn’t…it feels longer to me. It feels like so much has happened. It feels forever ago, it feels another life ago.

David Nykl
Yeah. Feels like high school.

Torri Higginson
It kind of does. I look at pictures now and I go, I remember I felt old then, I look at pictures and go “I looked like I was 12 years old.”

David Hewlett
That’s so true. I felt like I was old then and I look back and go “I had no idea.”

Rainbow Sun Francks
I actually was 12.

Paul McGillion
Yeah, you were.

David Read
Rainbow, how old were you when you started on the show? Were you 22?

Rainbow Sun Francks
23, 22, 23.

Torri Higginson
Bambino.

David Read
David Hewlett, is it hard to believe that fans are still into it? Or is it like “it’s evergreen, it’s always going to be like this?”

David Hewlett
It’s funny, I’ve always said it’s one of those great things where it’s not all the time, it’s not everywhere you go. It’s just certain places, certain times, people will sort of make that connection and you sort of see them do it. As Jewel would say, “don’t make eye contact, don’t make eye contact.” I really like it because it’s always nice for the ego to have someone come up and say, “Oh hey, I grew up with your character” and stuff. Also, now working with the kids, it’s just kind of neat because you suddenly realize that people are doctors because of Beckett or they’re leaders in science because they saw Amanda Tapping in Stargate and stuff. It’s just kind of neat from that perspective, it’s almost never a negative thing for me. The weird thing for me is that when you have a kid there’s like a physical thing that grows.

David Nykl
Have you also noticed that there’s this kind of echo wave, sort of reaction, to it depending on where it goes. Sometimes you start getting fans from Germany and it’s like “oh, Stargate must be running in Germany now.”

David Hewlett
Right, they’re running it again.

David Nykl
They do that in Prague. I started getting a bunch of letters from Czech fans. Like you said, it’s the next generation. I’m kind of going, “what’s going on?” Some TV station has bought it up and they’re running it. So there’s those kind of reverberations of it, but it’s a show that’s 15, 20 years old now, it’s historical. We were around before the iPhone and before any of this was going.

David Hewlett
Robert, you’ve been through this before. How do you find all of this?

Robert Picardo
I’m a man of two allegiances because I spent seven years doing the Star Trek franchise before I was invited for a one episode heavy on the Stargate franchise. I just remember that qualitatively, working on the show was so much looser than Star Trek. Star Trek is very carefully controlled because it’s set in the future and they don’t want any hints of colloquial language, expressions. Stargate felt so loosey goosey that it felt like I got out of prison in a way. We could actually ad lib a line and the office didn’t visit the set.

David Nykl
Oh, they visited.

Torri Higginson
They visited.

Robert Picardo
I remember feeling kind of looser. The whole experience was such a gift because normally we audition for every job we get. To actually kind of come in the side door on Stargate and get asked to do a guest star and to play a very unpleasant and unlikable character. That night, I had dinner with two producers and they sort of decided that they liked me enough to want to have me back. They had to figure out how to take this incredibly one dimensional and unlikable character and sort of try to redeem him somewhat so that he could start coming back. For me, I was obviously a Johnny-come-lately to the experience. Everybody was so nice to be, but I never got to work with Rainbow for example. Rainbow and I had to become friends at a convention rather than on the set. I came in, just sort of on and off a few times, and then was there just for the last season. I don’t have all the shared experience that all of my wonderful co-stars have here. As I said, to me, it was just total fun. Not that I didn’t like my Star Trek years, I did very much, but it just seemed so much more relaxed. Because I was more relaxed, I was able to literally laugh at every other thing David Hewlett ever said on the set.

David Nykl
Every other thing.

Robert Picardo
50% of them are hilarious and the other 50%…

David Hewlett
You talk enough, something’s gonna be funny!

Robert Picardo
It was a great feeling to actually get cracked up all the time. I remember the fun more than anything.

Paul McGillion
We had a lot of fun. It was a ton of fun, it really was.

David Hewlett
It was hard to keep a straight face, at all times.

Paul McGillion
It was playing cops and robbers in space.

David Hewlett
The other thing, because it was of the time, as you say Robert, the techno stuff was all based on…it would be our reactions to it if it was happening in the real world now anyway.

David Nykl
I like to think that maybe that the producers realize that this is fairy tales. These are stories for adults so why don’t we at least have fun with it, right? Humor is a part of the DNA of what Stargate is. It’s kind of what set it apart from those kinds of more sort of soap operay, deliver a line, big feelings sort of sci-fi. To have sort of a sense of humor at the peril that we’re in is good.

David Read
When you guys came into Atlantis, for those of you who launched it, how did you feel about SG-1 which had ran seven seasons? Did you think that this was going to work from the get go, “We’re going to be doing this for five years?” What were your impressions early on?

Rainbow Sun Francks
I thought I was going to be doing it for five years. Wa wa wa, just joking. As soon as I saw the set I thought it was such a glorious set, that Atlantis set, it was beautiful. As soon as I saw it I was like, “Oh, they upgraded it from SG-1.” I made fun of all the guys for their set because they had no AC and it was all cramped. I was like, “look at this, look at our high ceilings. How beautiful is this?”

Paul McGillion
I remember Rainbow being there and you were like, “Oh, this is amazing. Let’s try and get a DJ up there and party.”

Rainbow Sun Francks
Yeah. I was breakdancing in front of the gate.

Paul McGillion
When you got there, you had the feeling, the distinct feeling, I think all of us did, that this is not going anywhere. They’re building stages like this for it to be one season. That was the exciting part, especially Robert Patrick being in the pilot. It just had a real big energy of “this is gonna go a while.” It had almost like an epic feel, certainly the two parter that we started with. So many people involved, so many moving parts, it just felt really special and was cool to be part of.

David Hewlett
I always assumed we were gonna get canceled every time, I just assumed every year. The only year I thought “well, there is no frickin way they’re not doing season six.” That was the only time I was ever wrong.

David Read
Torri, you had your feet in both worlds. You were shooting Rising and you were shooting New Order.

Torri Higginson
Yeah, it was fun. I think I’ve said this a lot in conventions; it was a really fun experience. The one set everyone is just relaxed and chill and partying and then our set, everyone was nervous and trying to get it right and frightened of being fired. It was these two completely different worlds.

David Hewlett
There was still partying though.

Torri Higginson
We’re still partying but we didn’t laugh about it. We did it quietly and tried to tighten our sphincter and hope nobody…

Robert Picardo
Blame it on the other actors.

David Hewlett
Yeah, that’s it.

Torri Higginson
For me, I didn’t really know SG-1. I had a snobby thing about sci-fi; I didn’t like sci-fi, I didn’t watch sci-fi. I didn’t recognize at the time that I actually had some movies in the past that I loved that were considered sci-fi. I had this very small minded approach to science fiction so, for me, I had no idea what it was all about. Filming the pilot of Atlantis and then doing the episode of SG-1 at the same time, I was going home and watching episodes of SG-1 just trying to understand this world. I don’t think I really got the world. I don’t think I really got the world until about halfway through and that I didn’t really understand. I think the conventions and the fans made me understand the value of it and made me look at it differently. I did have a little bit of a “I studied Shakespeare, what is this shit?” I didn’t really think like, “this isn’t theater, this isn’t real, this is a paycheck and what is…?” Then you start meeting these fans and you do meet people who say it changed their lives. You meet people and you have that relationship with the audience, the same way you have with theatre, and then that sort of makes it more needed again and you start understanding the value. I remember having this great conversation with somebody one night and the conclusion was, if Shakespeare was alive now, he’d be writing sci-fi. He’d be writing something that was populace, that was acceptable, that was going to be able to create a world that you could talk about politics and you could have a fart joke. He would be probably writing that format so that was a really cool learning curve for me. I just sort of looked at my own prejudices, my own sort of youthful arrogance.

Rainbow Sun Francks
He’d be putting together serial killer documentaries for Netflix.

David Hewlett
What were the films that were sci-fi that you didn’t realize were sci-fi, Torri?

Torri Higginson
Oh my gosh, I can’t even think of it now. I now have dementia so it’s really hard to recall.

David Read
I love you in Storm of the Century.

Torri Higginson
Yeah, is that considered sci-fi?

David Read
I think that…no, but I just loved you in it.

David Hewlett
That’s Stephen King.

Torri Higginson
I love that movie. I enjoyed doing it, I loved doing that, it was super fun. But that wasn’t one of the things I looked at. I’m trying to think of now. What was it? Oh my god, I can’t recall anything. Name a few classic sci-fi.

David Hewlett
2001 or Blade Runner.

David Read
You did TekWar.

Torri Higginson
Blade Runner I’d never watched but 2001, absolutely. That was one I watched.

David Hewlett
You never saw Blade Runner?

Torri Higginson
I never saw Blade Runner. Even we had that studio that was sort of shared, right? Didn’t we share Blade Runner with the studio?

Paul McGillion
That was Blade.

David Hewlett
No, that was Blade.

Torri Higginson
Okay.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Also sci-fi.

David Hewlett
Torri has become quite a nerd, I can tell.

Paul McGillion
Don’t ask me that, I have no idea.

David Hewlett
Sci-fi is one of those things that I think is seen as a sort of a legitimate genre in many other parts of the world but North America still struggles with it for some reason. I don’t know why but I think it’s just still seen as the wobbly planets and bad dialogue. I think it’s changing, it’s beginning to change now.

Torri Higginson
It feels like it changed, it feels like Battlestar changed it. I remember feeling, this is probably not a cool thing to share to be honest about it, but I remember thinking “this is not going to help my career”. I just moved to L.A. and I thought “doing a sci-fi series is not going to help my career” and I remember thinking “it’s not.” Then Battlestar came out and I think that really helped shift the overall North American perception.

Rainbow Sun Francks
That was also right around the time when San Diego Comic Con started to tip into just being mainstream. All of these conventions got upgraded to just being huge and mainstream. You started seeing a lot of companies starting to pour money into them and seeing how much money they could make out of it. I don’t think it was the perception, as much as the perception of the industry. They didn’t realize how much money they can make and once they did, everything sort of shifted.

David Hewlett
This is totally legit.

David Nykl
Now it’s gone to superheroes and that. The space stuff isn’t on that much anymore.

Rainbow Sun Francks
It’s all the same genre. It’s all “what can they capitalize on?”

David Read
Well, they find new ways to reinvent it. You look at Star Wars, George Lucas himself has said it is not science fiction, it is space fantasy. If you look at the Mandalorian, it is a Western.

Rainbow Sun Francks
It’s Lone Wolf and Cub, it’s actually Japanese, it’s Lone Wolf and Cub. As soon as I saw it, I was like, “oh, it’s Lone Wolf and Cub, cool.” Favreau’s a genius. It’s absolutely a splendid show to watch, it’s so well done, I love it.

David Hewlett
I love it.

David Read
Torri, you absolutely anticipated my question because I was curious to know, in terms of how you all feel about being remembered for this work. I’m interested in some of you other folks thoughts, how did this affect your careers and as actors and as people? Did it interfere with work later? Did it help it?

David Hewlett
It helped in some cases, hurt in others. My manager told me not to do it, when I got it. They said unequivocally not to do and I was like “well, you’re not a nerd.”

David Read
The series or 38 Minutes, the episode that you were in?

David Hewlett
No, the series, Atlantis. Signing on to Atlantis, they thought was a terrible idea. Honestly, it was the best thing for me. I mean, it worked out beautifully for me.

David Nykl
You’ve been getting good advice haven’t you David?

David Hewlett
Oh, this the funny thing I’ve discovered about the industry; nobody has a clue. It is lightning in a bottle. Things happen by accident, something’s take off, something’s don’t.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Even more now than before. You have no idea what’s gonna go viral because some of the shows that have become smash hits, I’m like “what?”

David Hewlett
And yet the industry is full of people who will tell you they know what they’re talking about. That’s the other thing that I’ve discovered.

David Nykl
I found the actual content of working on it to be an incredible technical education. In terms of hitting your mark and the way scenes needed to be done and the way you do eight pages in a day and how you actually get that done and what actually creativity is when you are on a schedule. So that sort of technical education as an actor, I took that into all the other projects I did since then, and still do.

David Hewlett
How to get two of those breakfast burritos in your mouth at the same time, quickly before that first scene.

David Nykl
How to get breakfast before makeup.

Torri Higginson
Yeah, important. The best studio because dogs are everywhere. I did point that out to the producers. It was crazy, our hair and makeup trailer had eight dogs in it sometimes.

David Nykl
You guys wouldn’t recognize it, I live about two kilometers away from the studio. It’s all parking lots and built up garages now, where the trailers used to be. They’ve put in extra studios, the Bridge has completely been transformed. Studio space is such a premium here in the city so they’ve tripled the capacity of that facility.

Rachel Luttrell
Hello.

David Hewlett
Hey, it’s Rachel.

Torri Higginson
Good to see you beauty.

David Hewlett
Oh my god, you don’t look different at all.

Torri Higginson
Not at all.

Paul McGillion
Stop talking about her guys, she’s here. Oh, hey Rachel.

Rachel Luttrell
Oh, hello. It’s so great to see your faces. Sorry to jump in. Anyway.

David Read
Welcome to the party. What are you talking about?

Rachel Luttrell
Ah, thank you.

David Read
Bob, I’m gonna come to you in just a second. I do have a question for you, and then Paul. Rachel, how is Ridley? How are the auditions going?

Rachel Luttrell
Oh, my little girl is blowing my mind. She’s currently working on her second feature of the year.

David Hewlett
Yeah!

Rachel Luttrell
She just wrapped a movie with John Malkovich a month and a half ago and now she’s working with Allison Janney. She’s higher in the class list than I’ve ever been, she’s number three on the call sheet. So yeah, so she’s doing great. I’m up here in support of my baby girl so it’s great. It’s really good.

David Read
I’m glad you could make it to the party.

Rachel Luttrell
Thank you.

Torri Higginson
Are you in Vancouver?

Rachel Luttrell
I am, I am in Vancouver.

Torri Higginson
Oh, that’s so great.

Rachel Luttrell
Yes, I’m gonna get to see Pauli and whoever else is up here.

Paul McGillion
Are you done with your quarantine now?

Torri Higginson
Yes, thank goodness. Yeah, we finished on Monday. It was hell. We’re all still alive.

David Read
Bob, did you know what you were getting into with this thing, coming in for the fifth and potentially a sixth season of another established sci-fi franchise? Was part of you like, “do I really want to be known for science fiction and only science fiction at this point, because that will really cement it?”

Robert Picardo
I think it’s good to have had a number of credits before you start in science fiction. I think it’s tougher on actors, and I’m not speaking about anyone here in particular, but if it’s your first major credit in your late teens or early 20s. I had already done China Beach and other kinds of regular dramatic.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I’m feeling attacked.

David Hewlett
The Howling.

Robert Picardo
Look at the bright side, you’re also 25 years younger now. I had some other credits and I think that that helps you from getting…Let’s face it, after seven years on Star Trek in my 40s, I was pegged as a science fiction guy. There’s no turning it around after that; you have a dedicated audience that really only knows you from that. I had no illusions about that. To me, the interesting thing was to see how the science science fiction fandom…because most Star Trek fans watch Stargate, and I think the other way around. I’m always surprised when I meet a Star Trek fan who’s never seen Stargate and vice versa because normally there’s a certain amount of crossover. They may have their preference and I meet plenty of fans that love Stargate and are kind of iffy on Star Trek. It certainly goes both ways. For me, the odd part was just playing a character who was introduced, was so unpleasant. When they said they wanted to turn me into a leader I thought, “everyone hates me, I have no personality, I’m a coward. I have no leadership skills and I’m a douchebag.”

David Read
It sounds perfect.

David Hewlett
It worked for me.

Torri Higginson
Perfect politician.

Robert Picardo
I wasn’t necessarily describing my personal characteristics, it was the character I’m speaking about. But thank you for that.

Rachel Luttrell
Thank you for the clarification.

David Nykl
We made that distinction.

Robert Picardo
The writers were very deft in giving me…Probably the moment when Rachel’s character handed me her baby and I didn’t know what to do with it was the moment the audience went, “Okay, this guy’s not that bad. He means well, he has a baby and now he’s going to learn a lesson here.” To me, to play a character that was basically going to reinvent himself in the later stages of his career was what made it fun. To start that job in my middle 50s and have to become a leader at that stage of life, I thought was a good analogy for what was happening after the financial meltdown in 2007. There were a lot of people, my age and older, who had to go back into the work workforce if they were already retired. I thought it was an interesting time to play a character like that, in his middle 50s trying to completely reinvent himself. At least that was the rationale I operated under.

David Read
Rachel, I was asking the others before before you jumped in. When you came into Atlantis, how did you feel about SG-1? It had ran for 7 seasons, you guys were coming in as the young upstarts, had something to prove. It was a little bit more itinerant, less fart jokes, like everyone is saying here. How did it feel to jump in to this whole thing? And with you, it’s an alien. She is human, but like you said once to me, “she is un-Earthly.”

Rachel Luttrell
Okay, I’m gonna completely embarrass myself and that’s all good. I do not care. The truth is I was not aware. I had seen the movie when I was much, much younger and had loved the movie. I did not know anything about the series, I didn’t. I really didn’t. I came in completely naive which I think was really, really good because I didn’t feel the pressure to take on this enterprise, this huge fandom et cetera. I didn’t know anything about it, yonestly. It took me, probably, until episode number five before I realized the impact of Stargate and I’m happy about that. Once I did, the pressure did kind of settle in but it took a minute. Then of course, I was thrilled to be a part of it. But no, I came in completely naive. I had no idea. I had absolutely nothing. I remember our very first convention, “Oh my Lord, have mercy.”

David Hewlett
Was that Comic Con?

Rainbow Sun Francks
That Comic Con, it was crazy.

David Read
4000 people.

Torri Higginson
The studio took us out and gave us all free liquor the night before so I remember we all had a hangover.

David Hewlett
We were in great moods.

Torri Higginson
I only knew actors with free liquor that budget would have.

David Hewlett
You could always tell season one.

Torri Higginson
I thought “no one’s gonna be at that convention because they’re all mad at us because they think we’re killing SG-1.” Then we walked out and it was like a football field of people and I was so hungover I couldn’t speak. I remember that so well.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I just found pictures from that day. We all look like we’re lost.

Torri Higginson
I remember being ashen-faced, wide eyed.

Rachel Luttrell
Oh my gosh, I remember being terrified. I remember sweating so much on stage because I was like, “This is gonna be kind of…” I was sweating so much that I remember I just had to keep my hands plaster, “don’t raise your hands.” It was so overwhelming, I had not a clue.

David Read
I hear this routinely about people who have events in ballroom 20 there and part of me is like, “why don’t they prepare these actors beforehand?” and then the other part of me is like, “they wouldn’t go out on stage.”

Rachel Luttrell
No. Listen, it’s very intimidating. It’s very intimidating.

David Nykl
The thing that you gotta get used to, or that we weren’t used to, my moment was at Heathrow because I didn’t go to this one. The one at Heathrow when you come out in front of 700 people, is you have to sort of develop a third person. It’s like you as your private self and then you’re playing a character, which is what you’re doing on on TV. But this is like you and like a hybrid version of you; you onstage, in front of 700 just talking about yourself, like sort the of stuff that we’re doing now. But when you first start doing it it’s like, “what am I going to talk to these people about?” What do they want to know?” It is really daunting. You’ve got to develop this sort of onstage convention personality, which is like a hybrid between your character and yourself.

Rachel Luttrell
Good for you David, I haven’t done that yet.

David Nykl
Thank you, Rachel. Thank you very much.

Rachel Luttrell
I was just always like terrified me. Every time it’s just like, “Okay, here we go. [deep breaths].

David Nykl
Nobody wants to see Bono come out on stage and go “okay guys,” just sort of “Hi, how are you?” [subdued]

David Read
They expect you to be on, do a trick.

Rainbow Sun Francks
You gotta develop a little bit of a routine for yourself, even if it’s loose. It takes a while.

David Read
It’s a little like stand up.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I do about 10 minutes of stand up before we get started usually.

David Nykl
But we had to learn that. Actors don’t get told you got to go out and do this sort of stuff. You sort of sink or swim and you realize the kind of questions that you’re getting. You realize, “oh, they want to know what the pranks were on set. What’s it like to do this..?” Then you get used to sort of the pattern that comes with that, but you have to develop that. It’s not an actor’s job, it’s a publicist’s job.

David Hewlett
Pauli you mastered that, Paulie got that down.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Then you develop long form answers for each of those questions.

Paul McGillion
I remember one of my first conventions in Germany and the show hadn’t aired yet. I was talking to Teryl Rothery who is a master at doing conventions and we’re waiting to go on. They’re introducing the actors as they on and I was last. Teryl’s talking to me, I was sweating, I’m so nervous. She’s like, “it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. Just go out there and just be yourself.” I’m like, “okay.” They announce her and all of a sudden she turns into like the Energizer Bunny. She jumped up, she starts tap dancing on the stage and stuff and people are going crazy. Then they introduced me and for some reason my legs would like…I walked out there, I’m like, “Hi,” and just like. They’re [slow clapping]. This German guy goes, “I have a question for Paul.” It’s after half an hour. I’m like, “Uh, yeah.” He goes “your character, I had a chance to see the pilot, is a very humorous character on Stargate Atlantis. Are you as a person, are you humorous?”

David Nykl
My god, I remember that one.

Paul McGillion
He just looked at me goes, “Yes.” I was like “oh my god, I’m dying.”

David Nykl
Some of those European conventions where they’re translating you on stage too are just priceless. You talk for 15 minutes and then the other person goes [smiles] and they do this five second rendition and doesn’t translate.

David Read
It’s like an interpretation of the answer. I’m so thankful to fans who wrote in and submitted questions for you guys. SarahJohnson – What was a facet of your character that you just loved or wished you could have explored further?

David Hewlett
Everything.

Paul McGillion
Shocking that you say that David.

Rachel Luttrell
Good answer. Good answer.

David Hewlett
What’s not to love?

Rachel Luttrell
I don’t know. It sounds cheesy but I loved, like David said, I loved all aspects of Teyla, I loved all aspects.

Paul McGillion
[inaudible]. That’s for sure.

Rachel Luttrell
What’s that? YouJerk! Just be quiet.

David Hewlett
Circles. Circles.

Rachel Luttrell
No one needs to hear what you’re saying right now. I did, I loved all aspects of her. I loved that they managed to craft a character who was strong, independent, intelligent, empathetic, and compassionate into a woman. In other words, a multi-tiered, multi-leveled diverse human being. She was a fleshed out human being and that was wonderful to play.

David Read
David Nykl, you started off as being kind of McKay’s counterpoint in terms of exposition.

David Nykl
Oh, really? Is that how I started off?

David Hewlett
It never really changed.

David Read
In my explanation as a viewer…come on guys.

David Nykl
Tori, Tori, can I follow you, wherever you’re going? Tori.

Torri Higginson
Come with me, David. My dogs have never seen you.

Paul McGillion
Hewlett, he didn’t get the black feather. Remember?

David Nykl
Here come the Hewlett questions, it’s minute 20.

David Read
Oh, come on. What I was getting to is that by the end of it, it was this multifaceted, relatable, hysterical character that every time you were on screen, it was like, “Oh, here he comes. What’s he going to say? What’s he going to be irritated about now? What’s he going to have figured out that’s going to throw someone else for a loop?” The character really grew over five seasons, pigeons and all.

David Nykl
Well, thank you very much for that David. I’m going to take the high road on this one. I think they developed Zelenka because they didn’t want Rodney to do all the tech talk by himself, in a monologue. They wanted a dialogue, a little Mutt and Jeff routine, and someone that was funnier and better looking than David. So they succeeded really well.

David Hewlett
Not hard to find.

David Nykl
How do you make the green square come back on you? There it is.

Paul McGillion
That was Beckett?

David Nykl
I really enjoyed working with David, it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of chemistry and that was what was really cool. I wasn’t in the pilot, I think my first episode was number three or number four, number two. It was called 38 minutes and my first scene was with Torri. It’s a real treat to see Torri because she’s someone I haven’t seen for a long, long time.

Torri Higginson
Ages. We don’t do much convention crossover, you and I.

David Nykl
No, no, I haven’t seen you for ages. That was one of the first scenes I did and it was the only scene where I had like a radio. They didn’t have the little things that I always took home with me and I have a little shoebox full of because I forgot them. I had like a radio and I was like, “please, please don’t talk to me.” That was the first ever seen I did and just like you described it, nervous. “I don’t know if I’ll get hired again.” I went to craft services and Brad Wright was there and I told him “I’m Czech. The character was written as a Czech, did you know that?” He said, “Oh yeah, we did know that.” I think they sort of were going with generic Eastern European, they found out I was Czech and they named the character Zelenka, which means green. They threw me in scenes with Hewlett and it was a pleasure. Then they put me in scenes with Torri and that was even more fun. Then with Robert Picardo and that was even more fun.

Torri Higginson
You gotta call all the bases. We are insecure actors, you can’t leave anybody out.

David Nykl
Love you all.

Rachel Luttrell
You didn’t say my name but that’s okay.

David Nykl
And Rachel.

Rachel Luttrell
Whatever.

David Nykl
Whatever.

David Hewlett
I think the banter though, they were good at banter; they loved their banter.

David Nykl
It was fun.

David Hewlett
I loved the scenes, whenever you got a couple of characters together, just bantering back and forth. That was the appeal to Game of Thrones for me as well, they ran out of time. Apparently they made the show’s too short so they had to go back and figure out…Obviously the Stargate guys had been doing it longer and they knew you can have some fun with that.

David Nykl
Character driven, right? You can go high concept in space and wormholes and all that, but it’s when you get behind the characters, when you start knowing their story, that’s what brings you to it.

David Hewlett
Yeah.

Paul McGillion
It’s all relatable too, right? Everyone can relate to certain characters in the show. With the fighting character, like with Ford and then with Teyla and then Jason when he was on the show top, that aspect of it. Then David, both David’s, people could find a character that they related to on the show and that’s why I think people were really drawn towards it; towards the characters.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I always wish that Ford would have reconciled with Ronan and they would have had some sort of love affair. I thought that would have been really interesting, if they had fallen in love.

David Nykl
About 10 years too early though.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Real missed opportunity.

Torri Higginson
I’m sure there’s fan fiction out there.

David Hewlett
Slash fiction.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I create my own. I do it the same way that Robert Picardo does his YouTube channel.

David Hewlett
Yeah, you’ve had a year, you should be doing fanfiction.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Yeah, you know it. Yeah.

David Read
I was always fond of Ford’s relationship with Sheppard. There was a mentor/mentee quality there that, even in that single scene in the beginning of season five where he’s dreaming under all that rubble. He dreams of himself with Teyla and then Ford just smashes into his mind and said, “Hey, I’m over here. You didn’t rescue me, you failed. You’re not as perfect as you might think.”

Rainbow Sun Francks
That was fun. That was Martin Gero who wrote that in. He was like, “Hey, are you in Vancouver still? Do you want to come in for one day?” I was like, “Yeah, I’ll take the paycheck. Let’s go. I would love it.” But let’s not overlook Ford’s relationship with Paul and Rachel. Those moments were really special to me.

Rachel Luttrell
We had actual chemistry.

Rainbow Sun Francks
We laughed so much.

Rachel Luttrell
It was bad that we almost couldn’t be together sometimes.

David Hewlett
The jumper, especially the jumper, jesus. Oh my god.

Paul McGillion
I know you guys can all see this. You know when they say, like DeLuise especially, “okay, the asteroid’s coming at you.” We’re like, “how big is it?” Or Mario Azzopardi, “okay chief, okay, this giant thing is coming, you guys jump.” Someone will jump two feet and another person like Joe would move over a little bit.

David Nykl
“That was so boring. Do it again but this time with talent.”

Robert Picardo
That’s one of the standard problems when you get your first job in science fiction, is relating to the off-screen visual effect that you’ll never see. The first time that happened to me on Star Trek when I was supposed to be battling some monster on the holodeck, I said, “what does it look like?” The visual effects guy, was a really sweet guy and very shy, he said, “well, it’s sort of like a giant pile of glowing linguini.” I thought about that and I said, “Okay, does the linguini have eyes or do I just look at the whole linguini?” Apparently I look at the entire plate of linguini. Everyone doesn’t want to look stupid by going [startled] at the reaction shot but it looks equally stupid if there’s this ridiculous, terrifying looking thing and you just look at it and kind of go [not bothered].

David Hewlett
You raise an eyebrow, yeah.

Torri Higginson
It is a journey of trust you have to have and that’s why the second season is so much easier. You watch it and you go “oh, those guys know they’re doing some good stuff so now I can really commit without that little bit of pride/ego getting in the way, going “do I look like an ass?” It’s an interesting journey you have to make; you have to have a leap of faith and a leap of trust.

David Read
Who among you have reexamined the show, have watched it since? How do you feel about the product itself and the quality of the show?

David Hewlett
I watched it with Baz. I think because of the Twitch streaming stuff, basically I think he wanted the Stargate audience for his Twitch channel.

Torri Higginson
Sounds like your son.

David Hewlett
Yeah, doesn’t it? I was so proud of him. We started watching it together and it’s so funny because he would get caught up in stuff that I was surprised at. He’s my son, he’s so jaded and he’s already watching stuff that I wouldn’t watch. Yet he would get caught up in these moments that I was quite sort of proud that he sort of reacted to, whether it was my character or other characters.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Who’s his favourite character?

David Hewlett
Not me. I don’t know who his favorite character is. It’s a good question, actually.

David Nykl
Ask him.

David Read
Yeah, I’d be really interested in knowing.

David Hewlett
I will. I will. I don’t know.

David Nykl
You’re not gonna like the answer.

David Hewlett
I know what he has to say.

Torri Higginson
Sedgewick.

David Hewlett
Oh Sedge, Sedge is the best. He will probably agree with you. He would agree with that. Oh my God, he’s a dog fan. But he critiques the visual effects, which drives me crazy. “It was 17 years ago.” He’s like, “yeah, it looks like…” and your like, “stop it.”

Paul McGillion
My kids won’t watch it because I feel like it’s gonna scare them. Especially the part with the Wraith, it’s really scary, right? Though maybe soon, they’ll start.

David Hewlett
How old are the kids now?

Paul McGillion
Eight and six.

David Read
Have they expressed interest in the material Pauli?

Paul McGillion
They have. Yeah, they have. I think this year I’ll get them to watch it. I have all of them so it will be cool for them to watch it. But you know, the Wraith is pretty scary, especially in the pilot I think.

Rachel Luttrell
My kids will not watch it. I have on occasion said “hey, you know Mommy was in this thing.” They’re like, “Uh huh.”

David Hewlett
“Whatever mum.”

Rachel Luttrell
On occasion it’ll come on and I’ll say, “hey, that’s…” They’ll watch 10 minutes and slowly walking out of the room.

Rainbow Sun Francks
That’s because she’s like, “Yeah, I gotta prep for John Malkovich. I can’t talk right now. You did a show? That’s nice mum.”

David Hewlett
Yeah, that’s basically Baz.

Rachel Luttrell
They’ll discover it in their 20s and be like, “oh, mum was…” They couldn’t care less right now.

David Read
But the fact that you guys created a show that your kids can enjoy and you’re like, “well, but when you’re 18.” No, they can enjoy it now as long as they’re ready for things like the fear factor for the Wraith and things like that. There are some frightening elements to it.

Paul McGillion
It’d be cool. I’m looking forward to it, I’ll see if they watch it. Like Rachel said, you never know what they’re going to do, right?

David Hewlett
Yeah, I try not to force it. If he doesn’t want to watch it we don’t do it.

Rachel Luttrell
That’s the problem, I try to force them. “Sit down, I got the popcorn.”

Paul McGillion
It’s Stargate night.

Rachel Luttrell
“Watch it, you’re going to like it.”

Paul McGillion
Mummy’s pulling out the fighting sticks. Let’s go

David Hewlett
Watch this part, son. Watch this part. I’m great here.

Rachel Luttrell
We didn’t make it past 10 minutes. That’s okay.

Robert Picardo
Can you show your son that you can speak just as quickly now as you could 17 years ago, David?

David Hewlett
Yeah. The point now is that he just ignores me, it’s amazing. I blow up, I do full McKay on him and he just laughs at me.

Robert Picardo
Well I did too.

David Read
Looking back at episodes like Sateda, which was just like a powerhouse for Jason Momoa.

Paul McGillion
Who?

David Read
Yeah, right. That one guy.

David Hewlett
Whatever happened to that guy?

Torri Higginson
Who knows?

David Read
I think he actually left Atlantis and then came back King.

David Hewlett
That’s right.

David Read
Or the scene of Rodney and Sheppard on the pier, that wonderful episode that Brad Wright wrote. It’s an impressive body of work. There are some scenes between Teyla and Weir that are just so tender. You could see the subtext here; these two were friends outside of just Weir’s office hours. These were people who had lives.

David Hewlett
They were drinking buddies.

David Read
I would suspect.

Torri Higginson
I’m glad you got that vibe. I didn’t know that that was… I remember we were always fighting for more. I always wanted Teyla to teach Weir how to fight so I’m really appreciative that as an audience, that you received that.

David Read
A lot of us did. When the military comes in to take over for the second or third time, the person that she goes to is Teyla. That was the only explanation for me; she wanted a peer who she respected. That’s why that scene plays as well as it does, where Weir can feel comfortable enough saying, “You know what Teyla, I may not be here next week. I don’t think that I can keep on doing this.” She felt like she could be in a position where there wasn’t any judgment from this person who was from another galaxy, as another leader, leader to leader, could get where she was coming from.

Rachel Luttrell
I think so much of that is because we just had the most terrific cast. Honestly, we got along with each other organically, easily, from the get go. I think that just translated; it just carried forth into what we brought on screen. We were very, very lucky. That doesn’t always happen.

Rainbow Sun Francks
It’s easier to care about people when you care about people.

Rachel Luttrell
Right. It just happened. I had a fantastic relationship with Torri and that just carried forth into our characters. I’m thrilled that, as you said, that as an audience you were able to see that. I really do think that that just came from the fact that we all genuinely enjoyed being around each other.

David Hewlett
Uh huh.

David Read
What memories do you have of each other that stick out after all this time?

David Hewlett
I keep going back to that damn puddle jumper; the running into the puddle jumper to see who’s gonna get what spot and then the jostling around over where the seats are. Or those damn scenes in the control…

Paul McGillion
Yeah, in Boardroom. Who’s going to [inaudible] first or who’s gonna fold their arms?

David Hewlett
Oh my god. Yeah.

Torri Higginson
The arm play off.

David Nykl
Who has the folded arm thing. Don’t forget the tables in the control room. Whenever there was an evacuation they have that freakin thing that stuck out the side of it that would get you right in the lower…

David Hewlett
I’m amazed that I had a child, the number of times I walked into that.

David Nykl
What the actual! You put the control room at the top of the tower where it’s gonna get bombed the most? I don’t know.

David Hewlett
What I loved about it was the cast all had a sense of humor about it. They took it seriously enough to do the job well, but at the same time, man, we laughed. Honestly, of all this stuff I remember, it’s just those belly laughs where you can’t stop. You’re feeling so fortunate for having such a great job and Vancouver was fairly new to me. It feels like a weird dream. Honestly, I think remembering the laughing was the best part.

David Read
Goran asked – the caliber of guest stars you had over the years was ridiculous, the people that you were able to get. I mean, from Robert Patrick all the way down. Were you surprised at that and who are you still proud to have worked with?

David Nykl
Richard Kind.

Torri Higginson
Richard Kind.

Paul McGillion
Bob Ricardo.

David Nykl
Bob Picardo? Was he on that show?

David Hewlett
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye. I mean, Jesus.

Torri Higginson
Wow, when did those guys come in? Season 5?

David Read
Robert Davi.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Robert Davi was…

David Hewlett
Horrible man.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I did not enjoy that.

Paul McGillion
I had the first scene with him and of course I don’t normally talk with a Scottish accent. I started acting, we’re in a prison cell, it was Richard Kind’s episode. He comes up and I started talking with the Scottish accent, he freezes, he’s like, “what are you doing? You speak like that? You’re Irish? Oh god.” He had no idea. I’m like “oh my god.”

David Hewlett
We hated each other from the moment we met. We never got along.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I didn’t enjoy him at all. I did like Colm Meaney.

David Hewlett
Oh my god, the loveliest, loveliest guy.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Yes. So lovely.

Rachel Luttrell
No ego whatsoever.

David Hewlett
David Ogden Stiers [Oberoth]. Oh man!

David Read
Emerson Winchester III. Your scenes with him Torri were dynamite. I just rewatched them a few days ago.

Torri Higginson
I was a bit starstruck. He was so lovely, so kind, so sweet, so grounded. That was fun.

David Read
He drove himself up from Seattle.

Torri Higginson
Did he really?

David Read
They were like “we’ll get you plane tickets” and he was like, “Nah, I’ll drive.” He drove himself.

Paul McGillion
David Read, I have a question for you. How many times have you watched Stargate?

David Read
The whole franchise from beginning to end in sequence or just an average of every episode?

David Hewlett
I think you’ve answered the question.

Torri Higginson
Both answers.

David Nykl
Both answers in order please.

David Read
I have watched it from beginning to end about three times, I’ve watched every episode on average around three or four.

Torri Higginson
Wow.

David Read
Yeah, not as many as you might think considering, you know, 20 years of this. But it’s a good show guys, you did well.

Torri Higginson
You’ve got a good memory because I can’t remember any details from the show.

David Read
Well, that’s the thing. When you watch something with the intent, at least for me, when you sit down and watch something with the intent of “okay, I want to recall this later.” My brain puts the information in just a different place. At least it does for me.

David Hewlett
Yeah, I could just never find that place. That’s the problem.

David Read
I don’t know, some of those lines of dialogue, holy crap. I would stand on set behind the scenes, Atlantis is floating through space and Sheppard is chewing you out over something. I’m like, “how does he do this, take after take after take? He has stored that information in a very special spot.” It’s like RAM in his computer, it will exit and then more information will come in for him to repeat again and again.

David Hewlett
I always liked Jason’s comment on that where he said “you think it’s hard to remember all those lines? Try listening to them.”

Torri Higginson
Over and over again.

David Nykl
I’m struck by how the tech was dated. I remember when they first told us that Atlantis is gonna be paperless and that we’re going to be carrying around these 25 pound laptops that are meant to look like iPads, screens, those heavy things. There was a review and we watched that and we were poking into those things just before…I remember when Joe Flanigan showed up with the first iPhone. He had this beer app on, a glass of beer and he goes drink. I’m like “what is that?” Carrying around 25 pound Hewlett Packard laptops?

David Read
So are you Hewlett because you insisted on no styluses. You said “no, we’re not going to do styluses, this is not going to be the thing in the future.”

David Hewlett
No, I said I wasn’t going to do the stylus. I’m just not that dexterous.

David Nykl
You don’t need that shit.

David Hewlett
Pulling the little pencil out. I was like “screw that, I’m just going to hit it with my finger.” Strangely, that was prescient in that that’s what the iPad became.

David Nykl
Yeah, we invented the iPad,

David Hewlett
We invented the iPad, that’s true.

David Read
Bob Picardo, he goes from pads and Tricorders to writing with a pen and paper. In every scene he’s got folders in front of him. He’s completely retro.

Robert Picardo
It was great. No, I loved it. I loved being back to to pen and paper. I was thinking the main difference, on Star Trek being the master of my sphere of knowledge, being the doctor on that show. I was the guy who had to spew the technobabble, right? The boss comes in, the Captain comes in and it’s like, “here’s your report” and I would get the page and a half of real science, but extrapolated.

David Read
Ladies and gentlemen, we have an actress present.

Rachel Luttrell
This is Ridley, we’re gonna have to say goodbye.

Robert Picardo
Hi Ridley.

Paul McGillion
Hi Ridley.

David Hewlett
Hi Ridley.

Rachel Luttrell
These are all mama’s old friends. Not old literally, but…

David Nykl
Old, very old.

David Read
Rachel, it’s been such a pleasure to have you.

Torri Higginson
So beautiful to see you.

Rachel Luttrell
It’s been so great to see all of you. I missed it, I missed you all. I think so highly of every single one of you and yeah it’s been a pleasure.

David Nykl
Good luck Rachel and Ridley.

Robert Picardo
Good luck. Great to see you.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Love you Rachel.

Robert Picardo
We’re never gonna get the dirt on John Malkovich now.

Torri Higginson
Yeah. Stories.

David Read
Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Ridley.

Rachel Luttrell
My pleasure. See you guys

David Hewlett
See you Rach.

David Read
Were you guys expecting any of your characters to hook up?

Rainbow Sun Francks
I said yes, me and Jason Momoa.

David Read
Still waiting! There’s a fair amount of subtext in a lot of these episodes. Torri, it was looking like with Flanigan for a while there, then with Rachel and Flanigan. Hewlett, you were engaged at one point and then that fell through.

David Hewlett
Yeah, they never explored that all, it was so weird.

Robert Picardo
Jason let me put his wig on, that was as intimate as we got.

Torri Higginson
Oh, that’s pretty intimate.

Robert Picardo
I recall, it was still warm, I remember.

David Nykl
Zelenka was pretty sexless. There was no indications of any sort of interests that way, anywhere, in the scripts.

David Read
I could have seen him having a pining for Sam.

Paul McGillion
Oh yeah, the elevator scene.

David Read
There’s a little bit of a sexual subtext there, just a small one, but it’s funny. It’s what adds humor to the scene.

David Nykl
Okay, so it was humor?

David Read
You gotta start somewhere.

Paul McGillion
The only person I got to kiss was David, the entire five years.

David Nykl
We call it first male on male kiss in sci-fi right? It was like a big deal.

David Hewlett
It wasn’t, was it?

David Read
It may have been.

David Hewlett
The world has changed.

David Nykl
I had front row seats to it, it certainly happened, several times over and over again.

David Read
It’s crazy. We think that they’re gonna go with one way and then they go with another. One of my favorite episodes had a lot of action, physical action, between…

David Hewlett
I wondering where you were going with that.

David Read
Weir and Sheppard called The Long Goodbye.

Torri Higginson
I love that one, that was fun.

David Read
That was so cool. You get taken over by other personalities that decide well, Atlantis is their last battlefield.

Torri Higginson
Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I always felt left out, right. You guys all got to go in the puddle jumper and have adventures and I was acting by myself in my room, “everybody, you got 30 minutes left.” I just felt so distant which was hard, right? You want to be a part of it. So that was fun for me because you sort of felt in the middle of it and had some action. I came from a kind of a respectful C-Movie action past. I’d done a lot of C-movies, not even B-movies, C action films, straight to video and that was a thing. I’m like “oh my god, it’s been a few years since I got to carry a gun.”

David Hewlett
Got to kick ass.

Torri Higginson
Got to kick ass.

David Read
You guys did a great job. Eva Lipenska – do you guys ever remember working so hard on a scene or a line of dialogue, only to find out later that it didn’t make it?

David Nykl
All the time.

David Hewlett
The ones that used to piss me off were the ones where you’d do these huge long dialogue scenes then when you watch the show you were an ant like a million miles away. They would do some big wide tracking shot and you’d be like “what? I could have frickin dubbed that later.”

Paul McGillion
You could have been reading it and the coverage is on everybody else but you.

David Hewlett
Yeah, well that happened with you Paul a lot, but that was a different thing.

Paul McGillion
You just like to hear my dulcet tones.

David Nykl
In Mario Azzopardi, Letters From Pegasus, he had me memorize the monologue in Czech and in English. I did both of them and when we did the setup we did one take in Czech only, forcing the hand of the editors so there was never an English version for them to use. We kept that in there. Stuff like that was done all the time.

David Read
Wow. Yeah. That was one of the running gags about the show; “what’s being said on the screen here that in the Czech Republic would be censored?”

David Nykl
Everything, everything, everything. I said the worst, it was great.

Paul McGillion
I remember the cut at one part when we did the episode with Richard Kind, the first one.

David Read
Irresistible. “He needs me [cries].”

Paul McGillion
Irresistible. I’m in puddle jumper and I’m handcuffed and Joe kidnaps me sort of. At the end of it he punches me and says “buckup Carson” or something. When we shot it, I had Joe, I go “would you mind?” and I made him take a Kleenex out of my pocket and blow my nose for me. But they cut it out and I was like, “it’s so funny.” But Joe, actually I made him do it, he did it actually.

David Read
One of my favorite Woolsey episodes is Remnants with Anna Galvin. He falls in love with, not really in love, but there’s an exchange between him and a probe that has been dormant beneath the ocean for how many eons.

David Nykl
I hate it when that happens.

Robert Picardo
Those are the only ones really attracted to me, are those dormant probes. You’ve heard “still waters run deep.”

David Read
They’re either taking you over because a nuclear warhead…

Robert Picardo
Yeah, exactly. We did the same plot on Star Trek except I was the probe on Star Trek. They were too cheap to hire a guest star. “Wait a minute, we’ve got this artificial intelligence who’s also a walking bomb. We were going to get a guest star but we just thought we’d make you do it.”

David Read
Oh, you ate that up. Don’t you lie.

Robert Picardo
No, it was a lot of yelling. There was a lot of angry screaming. Um, she was lovely. That was a lot of fun because Woolsey, even though he was a man of a certain age, it piqued his interest to have her flirting with him until he discovered, that of course, she was only an avatar really for an artificial intelligence. What are you going to do? It happens all the time, fellas. My favorite gag they did on the show, I couldn’t believe that I talked them into doing it but they seem to like it in the show, Vegas. We’re having a discussion, we’re looking for where can an alien hide in Las Vegas? I suggested they add line, “what about Star Trek the experience?” and then it cuts to me and I go, “No, it closed.” I was one of the two rides at Star Trek The Experience.

David Read
It was an attraction.

Robert Picardo
I was an attraction so I begged them to do that and then I thought, “well, it’ll get cut out.” But it didn’t and it’s in the show.

David Read
You just never know.

Robert Picardo
They didn’t get sued, apparently. I thought, “well, maybe paramount…” Nevermind. I was proud of them for keeping that gag in.

David Read
For those of you who were on board at the end of the series, were you surprised when it didn’t go for a six year? What would you have wanted to see in a season six? Inquiring minds want to know.

David Hewlett
I was surprised. As I said, it was the first year that I thought for sure we were gonna do another one. I really did. It just seemed like…

Torri Higginson
Why is that? Is that because Weir wasn’t in it?

David Hewlett
No, I don’t think it was that.

David Nykl
Torri!

David Hewlett
I guess, because they were talking about starting up another show, they were talking about…I assumed that they were just going to do what they did before; overlap. It just worked well before, I just assumed they were going to do that. I was truly, I was surprised.

Torri Higginson
You guys knew they were putting together Universe, that last season?

David Hewlett
I don’t know if, did we know about Universe? I don’t remember. I can’t remember now. I honestly don’t remember. I remember being pretty confident it was gonna go, which is weird because I don’t normally…

Robert Picardo
I was brought in specifically to kill the franchise.

David Nykl
How many times have you done that?

Robert Picardo
All the time, I can’t tell you how many times. They said “things are going really well with Torri but let’s bring Picardo in and he’ll kill the show” and I did.

David Hewlett
So you don’t jump the shark anymore, you jump Picardo?

Robert Picardo
I only listened to what others were saying. First, I remember Joe early on seemed like he didn’t think it would go on, then he was sure that it would go on or something. I heard people change over the course of the year, change their thoughts. I definitely got the feeling from some of the executives on the show that they thought it would go on another year, or that we’d at least make a movie or two to sort of wrap things up.

David Nykl
Actors are always the last to find out. I came to the set and Chuck told me. Remember Chuck? He was the stand-in man. “It’s over.”

David Hewlett
I heard on Twitter.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Was Twitter around back then?

David Read
A lot of people found out on Twitter. Yeah, that’s true.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Wow, that’s disrespectful.

David Read
How information moves these days, isn’t that weird?

Rainbow Sun Francks
Yeah, you think that they would call you?

David Hewlett
Yeah, it was a weird one though. I don’t know, is there a good way? It’s like there’s no good way to break up. I don’t think anybody…

David Nykl
Even the producers were caught off guard. I think Mallozzi and them, they were going to go with season six, right? That’s as far as I know.

David Read
They had plans, yeah. They were laying seeds in five, for six. The Asgard were gonna probably be back in some fashion. You had a whole laundry list of things to do.

Robert Picardo
Isn’t impossible that the guarantee, the two year guarantee for the new show, for Universe, may have had something to do with it.

David Hewlett
That’s what I heard, but I don’t know. Who knows? Everything’s hearsay from my perspective, I don’t know anything for sure. I’ll ask Brad, I’m talking to Brad on Monday, apparently.

David Nykl
What’s all the scuttlebutt about a new thing now that Amazon’s bought it?

David Read
So Brad is still in development of his show that he’s been working on for two years now. I’ve been calling it SG-4 because we all want it to be a continuation of the continuity. If Amazon is fast tracking it, or not? We don’t know what’s going on. I’m one of these people who have been telling everyone “let’s wait and see.” Brad and the folks that are involved, when it’s time for us to start pushing it, they’ll let us know, if there is anything. But I mean, with Amazon picking this thing up, there’s going to be something Stargate at some point in the next few years here. It’s just a matter of time.

David Hewlett
It just seems crazy not to have…it’s such am iconic franchise. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t relaunch it in some way, shape or form. You know what’s been really fun though? I played the RPG game. Rainbow have you tried that? It’s based on the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. It’s really fun because…

Rainbow Sun Francks
We’ve been doing it.

David Read
Rainbow was with you.

David Hewlett
Oh you did it as well? Okay. That’s right.

Rainbow Sun Francks
That thing is actually incredible.

David Hewlett
Honestly, of all the Stargate stuff to come out since Stargate, that’s the most exciting thing to me.

David Nykl
And what? You pick a character and then you play as that character?

David Read
Yep. The Stargate SG-1 role playing game, it’s coming out later this year and it’s…

David Hewlett
It’s designed in episodes.

Rainbow Sun Francks
It’s really fun. I had no preconceived notion of what it was. I had never played D&D but I had always wanted to and when we did it, I had the time of my life.

David Nykl
Did you play as yourself Rainbow?

David Hewlett
It’s season 6 SG-1.

David Read
You pick your own characters. It’s set on a fictitious, like outside of the beltway of content in season six of SG-1. It’s called Phoenix Site and you create a new character. David Nykl I tried to get you on, I think you would love it. Torri I think you would enjoy it too, and Paul and Bob.

Torri Higginson
I don’t play video games.

David Read
That’s not what it is.

David Hewlett
Torri it’s Dungeon and Dragons, it’s all imagination. It’s super fun.

David Read
You have a Game Master who takes you through the story.

Robert Picardo
You don’t need reaction time to play this game?

Rainbow Sun Francks
No.

Robert Picardo
Right, because I draw the line at that.

David Hewlett
Robert, you’d love it too. It’s kind of fun. It’s Dungeons and Dragons, it’s like “you enter a cavern, where do you…?” You hear voices and stuff?

David Nykl
Turn around and get out of the cavern.

David Hewlett
I didn’t realize you hadn’t played it before. We did the first…I couldn’t do the second one.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I did the second one as well.

David Read
We’ll have the third one later this year, the Butcher of Abydos Part Two, and it’s fantastic, yeah. They have great game actors.

David Nykl
The Butcher of Abydos.

David Read
We had Alexis Cruz in the scene, and Scara in the same scene, and was real trippy.

Rainbow Sun Francks
He had to talk to hiumself, it was interesting.

David Nykl
Pay attention.

David Read
I appreciate you guys joining us, this has been fantastic. My father and I, we are fairly different people and one of the few things that we’ve always had in common is science fiction. My family would get together, we would watch your show and we’d be teleported away one night a week. It helped improve us as people and as human beings. Can you tell us briefly an experience that you’ve had with a fan where it helped shape your life for the better. The show helped shape their lives for the better; your character, Atlantis, helped them push, give them a push, to what they needed to do or what they were called to do.

Torri Higginson
I still get lots of amazing letters from mostly young women. I remember being very jealous during Stargate because Rachel got all these wonderful letters from people going, “you’re so hot.” I was like, “I don’t get any ‘you’re so hot’ letters.” It took a few years before I got all these letters from these young women and it was so beautiful and very moving and very surprising. To me, I grew up sort of in the 70s so there’s a lot of strong women on television in the 70s. Then at this time, 20 years ago, kind of the strongest woman on television at that point was Lisa Simpson. There was this very sexualized thing going on with women and you didn’t have very many strong women who weren’t sexualized on television anymore. Once I made that leap, I felt really grateful for being that voice. I still get letters from women, a lot of gay women, that felt very empowered by having a woman who had power and was leading with her heart and not her sexuality or using that as access to power. That was really moving. I’ve also met so many young women who said, “I went to study political science because of Weir.” I feel very honored that I got to play Elizabeth Weir, I think she was a very cool character. I’m so grateful for those guys for writing her because she was necessary and she an honor to play. To this day, I’m still moved by the number of young women that are grateful for her and grateful for her giving them a sense of power and a voice.

David Nykl
I think one of the most amazing legacies, to echo what Torri is saying, I think what we brought to everyone and you see this as you go to different conventions all the world, is companionship. I think we were in people’s living rooms and we were in people’s bedrooms and people that didn’t have friends or a community, back sort of in the early days of the internet, the fandom really brought that together. That’s I think, the biggest legacy of that. People that come up to me and say just countless personal stories, health stories, related stories, but just how sort of the companionship of having these friends come into your house every week, sort of got them through tough times. Now it’s generational as David alluded to earlier. The kids come up and say “I was watching it with my dad” as you just said, David. That sort of stuff really is humbling. You kind of go and you do a scene and you come home and you wash the dishes, right? You don’t have really any kind of sense of where it’s landing when you’re doing it until you go to these conventions and you see that you’ve helped sort of provide companionship for people all over the world and that’s cool.

Torri Higginson
That’s very cool. I just want to jump in quickly and amend. I know Rachel also got lots of fan letters from young women saying “we love your power, your strength, your intellect.” She was not just a sexualized character, I just want to amend that.

David Read
Oh absolutely.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I never had anything that came off of my character so much. I will say that doing the conventions and being that all of us have sort of been, as opposed to other shows, were quite accessible. I find that we’re very accessible to the people that watch the show, the friends of the show. I certainly am. Because of the interactions and because of my openness; I deal with a heavy amount of depression in my life and I’ve always been quite open about it. I’ve been lucky enough to talk with a lot of fans, not so much the character, but the show has allowed me to have an open discussion with fans about what they’re going through. I’ve been able to help them and they’ve been able to really help me over the past, forever, to get through some really hard times. I’m really, really grateful for that from the show. So it wasn’t so much Ford, but Ford was definitely the catalyst and the conduit for that.

Robert Picardo
I appreciate what Rainbow said so much that mine is probably going to, my answer will sort of pale I guess by comparison. I have many more stories, obviously, from my years on Star Trek, I was there so much longer. As far as people being influenced to go either in the medical profession or even people that became EMTs, or nurses or whatever; some aspect of medicine, or were inspired to go into some aspect of space exploration. My experience on Stargate Atlantis was obviously shorter but because I began as just a recurring guest star who was a very unlikable person, very kind of combative and judgmental. Then once the producers, for whatever reason, decided to try to turn me into a leader, the nice comments that I have gotten from people was about that aspect of the character development. They all start by saying, “I hated your character”, or “I didn’t like your character at all. Then I was surprised to see how you became a leader” or “how you navigated those changes” or whatever. The writers were very clever in how they had the audience open their heart to this character because he really, really was, especially on Stargate SG-1, he really had nothing likable about him; not a shred of compassion, or humor or nothing. If I’ve gotten anything, it’s from people appreciating the fact that he was redeemed, so to speak, after being such an unredeemable human being. the first outing.

David Read
He was always a seeker of truth.

Robert Picardo
That was the one thing he had. The one thing he had was that he believed there had to be oversight of this secret military op. Yes, you’re right, he had that one positive quality. It was great to see everyone. Thanks. I’m very fond of all of you and I really wish that we had done this sooner.

David Read
Thanks so much my friend for stopping by.

David Hewlett
And congratulations.

Robert Picardo
Thank you very much.

David Hewlett
I’m so glad that’s happened for you.

Robert Picardo
Thank you. Love you all, I hope to see you again in the flesh.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Can’t wait.

David Hewlett
Be safe.

Robert Picardo
Enjoy the rest of your pandemic.

David Hewlett
There’s that.

David Read
Paul and Dave Hewlett?

David Hewlett
I think I’m very much of the Rainbow on this one. I’m very lucky that a lot of people do come up and say like, “I’m an astrophysicist” because of this or “I’m in NASA.” Those kind of things are wild. The thing that’s hit me the most is the accessibility; what I’ve been able to do because of Stargate, the people who I’ve met who I never would have met without Stargate. The Tech Bandits thing has been really interesting for me because basically what I’ve been able to do is take all those people who’ve gone on to do things, who are influenced in some way shape or form the Stargate stuff, and sort of mine them for information for the next generation. I love the access it’s given us. Especially I’ve been very lucky with McKay because of the science angle. I’ve been able to explore all this stuff that I I find fascinating and I never would have been able to do that without the show. It just wouldn’t exist. It is amazing, the number of people who still come up and say it’s affected them in some way, shape or form. But honestly, I think it’s probably affected me more than more than any of the people that…The change in my life since then has been extraordinary.

David Read
Lesson one.

David Hewlett
Yeah.

David Read
Paul McGillion, Carson so often reflected what the audience was feeling and I suspect you had to get that in response from fans.

Paul McGillion
Oh yeah, a lot. He was such a lovely character to play and I think he kind of wore his heart on his sleeve a lot. It was so sweet. Mine’s more of a little fan, I think I’ve told it before. We were in Ireland and I was in Dublin at a comic book signing at a place called Forbidden Planet. I love little kids and stuff and this little boy who was in line and he a little tucan. Every time I looked up he gave me a thumbs up. He finally got up to the table and he said, “Oh Mr. McGillion, I’m so happy to meet you. I just love Dr. Beckett and I want to be a doctor someday.” I said “oh that’s great. It’s so lovely to meet you, what can we get for you?” He goes, “Oh, nothing sir. I just got you a piece of my birthday cake, I just turned 11.” He gave me his cake on a napkin and he goes to walk away and I’m like “whoa whoa whoa, get over. Pick a picture for your birthday.” He goes, “oh, sir, we don’t have any money.” His mom was standing close by and you could just tell they didn’t have any lot of money. I said, “this is for your birthday, it’s a gift from me.” The little face on him, it broke my heart. He had to ask his mum if it’s okay. I said “is it okay if I give him a picture?” and she looked at me and she gave me a little nod and it was okay. He picked a picture and he just took it, as he walked away he was just holding it looking at it. It just said to me what an impact you can make, you don’t even realize it, on a little guy like that. He was so happy and that’s I think a testament…

David Hewlett
But how was the cake? I bet it was good.

Paul McGillion
It was just so sweet, you know. A little guy and make his day over a television show. I think that’s what Stargate does. All of you have mentioned different things but it does bring families together. As you have mentioned, you see all the different people that grow up with the show and that’s what makes it so special and special to be a part of.

David Nykl
And intimately, right? Intimately. We’re not in a movie, we’re in their living room every week and consistently too. That’s another thing, it happens every week and you get to develop relationships.

David Read
Do not underestimate your contributions to people’s lives. Like Rainbow, I have struggled with depression all my life. I am so blessed to have all of you in my life in one form or another. I love you guys, it’s been so good growing with you over these past years and continuing to share what was such an important chapter in science fiction and a quality show that made us think, made us wonder and let us ask those questions.

Torri Higginson
Thank you, David. Thank you. You’re always so supportive and you’re always bringing us together and you’re always creating. Thank you for this, this is lovely to see all these people.

David Hewlett
It really was.

David Nykl
This was a great thing to do.

David Read
All of you, thank you so much for making this happen and recognizing the important work that you that you guys did and continue to do as this thing gets reinvented again and again throughout the years. One quick question, yes or no. Cindy Hayward, justanotherday, riothunt, whiskeyBarbara, RZDUX and Phil…

David Hewlett
Hang in there Torri.

David Read
All wanted to know – would you be game for returning for SG-4.

Torri Higginson
Of course we would.

David Read
I know Rainbow, I know Ford is gonna own the Pegasus Galaxy by the next time we see him. He’s not dead, I don’t believe it.

Rainbow Sun Francks
Torri, you go first.

Torri Higginson
There’s my dog, I am going to go and pee. Yes, absolutely yes, we’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d do in a heartbeat. I just answered for all of us.

David Nykl
Thank you Torri. Go, go pee.

Torri Higginson
It was so good to see you guys.

David Read
Thank you. Bye bye.

Torri Higginson
Take care, bye.

David Read
Yeah, you guys would be down?

David Nykl
Yes.

David Hewlett
Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. We would be stupid not to frankly. Talking about one of the things you get out of this is that it takes so little to make someone’s day. You’re on the subway and someone says something and you say “hi” back or shake their hand or sign something for them. It’s just such a great pick me up, you know what I mean? I never thought 20 years later you’d still get that kind of little ego boost every couple of weeks or whatever. It’s lovely.

Paul McGillion
When you get out of your house, your little basement dwelling that you’re in.

David Hewlett
Yeah. When I look in the mirror and I say “you’re a really good actor.”

Rainbow Sun Francks
I’ve said this to you before, I’ve grown so much since then, I would love to be able to revisit Ford now with much more insight.

David Hewlett
it’s been great watching you Rainbow. Honestly, you just get better and better every time I see you. It’s just amazing to see what you got up to. Paul, you’ve just got worse but Rainbow, you really picked it up.

Paul McGillion
David you just never stop talking.

David Hewlett
I gotta get that 50% comedy in right? Something’s gotta be funny.

Paul McGillion
50?

David Read
Guys, this has been terrific. Thank you so much for taking so much time with us. We went a little bit over but it’s gonna be gold for the fans.

Rainbow Sun Francks
I’ve been in my apartment for a year. I have nothing but fucking time.

David Hewlett
None of us are like dashing off really, are we?

David Read
Well, conventions, they’re not gone for good. I think we’re really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel here and I can’t wait to see you all in person again.

Paul McGillion
Likewise.

David Read
My tremendous thanks to David Hewlett, Torri Higginson, Paul McGillion, Rachel Luttrell, Rainbow Sun Francks, David Nykl and Robert Picardo for joining us in this very special 100th episode. I have, trying to get back to the root of what the show has been about; the fans, Stargate art for you. This is one that I’ve been hanging on to a while, this is steampunk Atlantis by Lena. She describes it as archival photograph from the Atlantis expedition of 1907 for an AU prompt challenge using the main Stargate Atlantis team. My prompt was steampunk, as usual many references used, all the characters are referenced. I looked at vintage photos for ideas of the poses and some of the costumes. Notably Rodney’s pose and clothes are referenced from a vintage photo of H. Rider Haggard. This is an homage since I read and loved his books as a kid and he’s partly responsible for my love of the concept of steampunk. The Zeppelin is based on vintage photos of the Graf Zeppelin. My thanks to my team, as always, for continuing to make the show possible. Sommer, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys, Antony and Linda “GateGabber” Furey, my producer, and my production assistants, Jennifer Kirby. 100 episodes, man. It took us a little bit but not as long as I would have thought. I will be back this fall with season two and we will be going from there. We’re going to continue to pump out content over the summer, hope you’re enjoying that. That’s what we’ve got. Thanks so much for tuning into Dial the Gate, my name is David Read and I’ll see you on the other side.