She may have introduced humanity to naquadah generator technology, but Jack O’Neill taught her people how to have fun and embrace youth. SG-1 Season Three’s “Learning Curve” is a quintessential Stargate episode in that it hits all the beats that make for perfect science fiction. The actress behind Merrin, Britt Irvin, joins Dial the Gate LIVE to discuss her life, her career, and her mark on the Stargate universe. Tune in and submit your questions!

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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:40 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:22 – Welcoming Britt
06:30 – “Learning the Curve,” Getting the Part
13:21 – Memories of the Cast: Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping
17:02 – Continuing “Learning Curve”
24:06 – A Role that Influenced Britt
33:02 – Smallville and Michael Shanks
37:28 – Realizing the Impact as an Actress, Future SG Role, the Sets and the Gate
42:41 – What’s next and wrapping up with Britt
45:36 – Post interview housekeeping
47:22 – End credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Welcome to Episode 125 of Dial the Gate, my name is David Read. Thank you so much for tuning in, we have a great guest today, Britt Irvin who played Merrin in season three’s Learning Curve of Stargate SG-1. A big episode in terms of mythology, they introduced the naquadah generator which basically powered pretty much everything for the next 300 episodes and gave us a wonderful moral tale to boot. But before we bring her in I just want to thank you for being with us and also invite you to like the show. Like meaning the thumb, the thumbs up button. Before we get started, if you like Stargate and want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal. Clicking that like button makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will help the show continue to grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. If you want to get notified about future episodes, click on 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 which have happened occasionally, but not too often. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on the GateWorld,net YouTube channel. As this is a live episode we have Britt on with us currently. If you are in the YouTube chat at youtube.com/dialthegate we have a moderating team there who will be available to take your questions. After I get through my questions in this episode we will turn over the conversation to you guys and I will submit questions to her that you have provided to me. So without further ado, Britt Irvin who played Merrin in Stargate SG-1, thank you so much for being here. This is such a trip for me Britt.

Britt Irvin
No worries. Thanks for having me.

David Read
How are you? How are things going? How is your life? You know, it’s been a little, you know, some kid to womanhood. Some time has passed. How have been the years since SG-1?

Britt Irvin
Yeah, I don’t know where to begin.

David Read
Right! Let’s start with high school. Your career, I’ve just been looking at your profile. Your career has just been going and going. This is, wow, what a life you have led on screen. Is it just remarkable?

Britt Irvin
Starting out as a kid, I was doing it for fun. I loved it and was lucky to be able to do it. I don’t think I was even thinking in the future that I could make a living doing it. When you’re 11 or 12 you’re not thinking about the fact that you’re working professionally and making money. Money’s not important at that age because you live with your parents and I would have done it for free. As I got older and realized “oh, I could maybe make this my career” and then also realizing that it doesn’t always work out that way. I feel like I’ve been really lucky to continue to do it and that’s all I’ve ever done.

David Read
Wow. You’ve recently gone back and watched the show. I know we talked a little bit about this before the show started, how long has it been since you’ve seen the episode? Have you ever watched the episode?

Britt Irvin
Also back when you’re a kid working my parents would want to see everything so we would get a copy and we’d all watch it as a family. As I’ve gotten older I tend to not watch very much of what I do because I find it like [cringe] and it’s hard to watch yourself. I haven’t seen it since probably when I did it, so yeah, 25 years ago.

David Read
Before we get into Learning Curve, what were the first inklings for you in your life that this was your passion, that this was something that you at least wanted to do for fun?

Britt Irvin
I was a pretty outgoing kid and the type of kid that would put on plays in the neighborhood and all that kind of stuff. I was a singer and a dancer and I kind of just was really into the arts and a family friend of ours who has definitely been on Stargate actually. Do you know Gary Chalk?

David Read
Yes, most definitely. He played Colonel Chekov.

Britt Irvin
He is a good friend of my dad’s. He asked him and was like, “oh, my daughter really wants to act” and he suggested an agent. I took a meeting and my parents were very much like, “we can do this but you’re going to school and you have to go to school so we’ll see if we can make it work” and then it did. So yeah, Gary Chalk.

David Read
Well, great guy, great guy. We’ve had him on the show before and he’s definitely one of the great’s. So Stargate was one of your first acting credits, I’m going back here and looking at some of these others.

Britt Irvin
Like I remember! Yeah, kind of. I don’t know.

David Read
In terms of IMDB, we know how trustworthy that is! The New Adventures of Madeline, Panic in the Skies, The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue, I’m sure these are bringing back memories, Sleepwalkers, Night Man and Stargate.

Britt Irvin
Stargate, there you go. Okay, cool.

David Read
Yeah. Vancouver is not the same town as it was 20, 25 years ago.

Britt Irvin
No.

David Read
It’s exploded in I think large part to a lot of these genre programs that have been made up there. Everything from the Arrow verse and Smallville to Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space recently, The Good Doctor, all these other programs at Bridge. Take me back to Stargate SG-1, take me back to Learning Curve and auditioning for this part. Did it come up like any other?

Britt Irvin
Yeah, it came up like any other audition. The thing about this specific one, which I will never forget, it was back in the day where you still got faxes. You have a fax machine in your house so your auditions would come through on that fax paper scroll. The phone would ring and it’d be the fax line and I’d be so excited because I knew that meant that I had an audition. I’d go running to the fax machine and sometimes it would come up like six pages or whatever. The scroll of pages just kept pouring out of the machine, it was never ending. I was picking it up and I was like, “what the hell is this?” Finally, all the pages came out and you cut them and you put them in order. There was so many pages and all of Merrin’s lines are all of this scientific sci-fi jargon and I didn’t know what anything was. I was like, “whoa, this is hard.” I just remember being like I had my work cut out for me before this audition. In some auditions you can memorize things quickly because it’s more conversational but this wasn’t like that at all. I had never auditioned for anything like that and I’ve never done anything like that before. It was a really challenging audition actually.

David Read
The the sci-fi kind of language is its own language but if you’re not steeped in it…it has a x plus y equals z kind of logic to it. But if you haven’t been raised on it or seen a lot of it, it’s like an equation. It’s like, “what is this? I know that it means something, but I don’t know what it means.”

Britt Irvin
Yeah. It was like reading it over and over trying to figure out what she was actually saying. You can’t just learn the lines, you do have to have some sort of an understanding. Auditions sometimes can be a little bit like weird mysteries. They’ll give you the breakdown of the character, who the character is and this and that and then they’ll give you a synopsis of the show and then a synopsis of the episode. I hadn’t seen Stargate before so I didn’t know who all the characters were so it was just trying to figure out what it was about and what she was actually trying to say throughout it. You only have 24 hours usually to do that, you will usually get an audition the day before and you’ll have to memorize 12 pages and then figure out who this person is and what the hell they’re talking about.

David Read
Did you just have the casting director to work off of?

Britt Irvin
I went straight to the producer session. The casting director reads with you, sometimes they have a reader and then the producers and director or whatever else are seated there as well.

David Read
Okay. I know I’m taking you way back, we’re talking 25 years, I understand. As you’re getting into this role, what began to be your understanding of what this person was, very different from us? Not only has she learned a vast amount of knowledge, starting about the age of one according to the script, their society is very different than ours and how they utilize their children based on their technology. What were your thoughts on this as a 14 year old person looking at this completely different world of a character?

Britt Irvin
I’m not sure if I even thought about it in that way. I think I was more trying to figure out how to make her different from how a normal child would speak. Obviously she’s saying things that a normal child wouldn’t be saying. When you’re a kid you’re naturally more expressive and more bubbly and I think that’s how I was naturally. So it was like how to hone that all in to make her different, not like an adult, but like a different… So it was more trying to keep my energy to a minimum, but still make her likable, not mean or cold. Once I kind of figured that little part out, the words became easier to say,

David Read
You’re shutting everything off. She has known nothing but her purpose and her purpose has been this field, this field only to exist for her people and that’s all and nothing else. No, I try to avoid fun, because fun is at the root of the issue, but there’s more to childhood than just fun. There’s the experiences of adolescence that this society just doesn’t have, at least in the last 50 years since they’ve been putting these little buggers in their brains.

Britt Irvin
Yeah. She’s not having emotional reactions to things which is hard because when you’re acting, when you’re in a place as an actor where you’re not sure where a scene is going, what you have is reacting to another person. Oh, an emergency alert is going off on my phone.

David Read
Uh oh, you want to handle that?

Britt Irvin
No, it’s like an Amber Alert.

David Read
Oh, no. So it’s citywide?

Britt Irvin
Yeah, I won’t be able to help I don’t think. Yeah, whoa, crazy. That’s never happened.

David Read
Yeah and an Amber Alert at that. I hope Jack O’Neill isn’t, okay, I’m not gonna go there. That’s not appropriate. Considering that we’re talking about an episode that has the theft of a child in it to be perfectly frank and you’ve got an Amber Alert. That’s very strange. That’s very weird. Man oh man. Tell me about this particular cast. You have Richard Dean Anderson who is completely unpredictable, this is an episode where he shines alongside you.

Britt Irvin
As a kid my mom knew who he was. She was like, “Oh, you’re gonna be working with him” and I was kind of like, “okay, cool.” I didn’t know. There’s a lot of actors obviously now that are based in Vancouver who have gone on to have amazing careers who I now know as an adult. He was just the nicest person, he was so giving with me and so patient with me. The scenes where he takes me to the school and the scenes when I’m back in our barn drawing on the wall. We were joking, he’s like, “I’m gonna try and make you laugh” and he was saying poop jokes and things like that to try and get me to laugh and it worked. I think they kind of cut those out. I was trying to see if I could hear them because I remember him describing, it’s so weird that I remember this. I remember him being like, “do you know what a dog is?” and he finished it by being like, “so I’m going to draw a little poop from the dog and put some corn in it” and I lost it, I thought it was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. So yeah, most of my memories are of him and how sweet he was.

David Read
Rick could always be counted on to give a headache to the director on set. Not only is he working to get the work done but they’re also going to have a heck of a good time while they do it. Here’s someone who has had her quote, brain sucked out, probably doesn’t even understand english and so you’re trying to deliver a performance just based on what you have at hand and he’s giving you poop jokes.

Britt Irvin
Giving me poop jokes, they never fail.

David Read
You spent a lot of time with Amanda Tapping in this episode, one of my favorite people on the Earth.

Britt Irvin
It’s funny. Watching it now too, she’s so amazing in the episode; all of her reactions, watching it as an adult was really cool. She’s just so good, like, really, really, really, really good. I’m sure she’s great in every episode but I was super impressed watching that.

David Read
You haven’t had a chance to be directed by her yet? Everyone says she’s amazing.

Britt Irvin
That’s what I hear too. It’s so nice when you get to work with female directors in general. I would love to work with her again.

David Read
Any memories with Andrew Airlie, co-star for this particular episode. He was the Orbanian leader, he was Kalan.

Britt Irvin
Not really, not that I can remember. I’d see him around and stuff and we’d say hi to each other and everything. We did have scenes together but I feel like Richard Dean Anderson overtook my memories.

David Read
These are good things.

Britt Irvin
Teryl actually is amazing. We’ve done a lot of Hallmark type stuff together and we’ve had to go to some L.A. event premiere stuff together. She’s always so nice to have around and kind of the best energy. And god, she looks such a babe.

David Read
Oh, she’s great. Yeah, absolutely. She’s my father’s favorite.

Britt Irvin
She’s a babe and a half.

David Read
This episode, as far as I’m concerned, is in the top 10, maybe 15, of 350 shows. It’s one of the best examples of good entertainment and good science fiction. It says, “here’s this civilization that does a thing a certain way to their children which we find to be morally reprehensible because it robs them of their entire lives, they just become vegetables.” It’s one of those where it makes you think. I think the best kind of entertainment forces us to look at a culture another way and find a way to make it work. In this case it has a beautiful quality to it because it just returns them to the state where they can learn, like the story says, the old fashioned way. They will and it has a happy ending to it whereas not all the episodes, especially in the later seasons, did that.

Britt Irvin
Cool. Yeah. I feel like, rewatching it, my understanding of it is a lot deeper than it was even when I was shooting it. I think I thought I understood all of the aspects of it while I was doing it but rewatching it, everything rang differently to me this time. Watching it as an adult and having a kid, it was just so heartbreaking. Richard Dean Anderson trying to like…

David Read
Fight for her.

Britt Irvin
Yeah and it;s really emotional. All of those kinds of elements I don’t remember realizing or feeling as deeply watching it when I was a kid.

David Read
Did you know that in the story his son had died?

Britt Irvin
No, I didn’t know that.

David Read
Yeah, so he is already…

Britt Irvin
So that’s a weird thing about auditions and stuff. They don’t tell you very much info because everything is top secret. You’re coming on to a show and trying to ask questions to figure out… but if the show hadn’t come out yet they’re very particular with what they’ll share with you.

David Read
In the film, not in the film but before the feature film, his son had shot himself with his own handgun.

Britt Irvin
Oh God. Accidentally?

David Read
Yeah, accidentally shot himself. So in Jack’s story, his story is very much of one of resentment for himself for allowing that as a military man allowing that to happen. The Jack character has always had a very special place for children. He himself is very childlike but if you don’t know that you can still watch the episode but knowing that information about the character informs his drive to protect the children he comes across based on his own experience with his son.

Britt Irvin
I did not know that.

David Read
It’s one of those situations where we as audience members are watching knowing that this is always going to be in the back of his mind, he can never forgive himself for it. Also he has that extra weight going into this situation with Merrin where he’s like, not like a shot at redemption, but like, “this happened to me before with my kid, this other kid is going to be lobotomized. If I have it within me to stop it, I’m going to stop it.” It plays out that way beautifully. He risks court martial, he risks going to prison in a place with probably no doors because it’s a secret organization. He’s never getting out. He inadvertently causes an entire civilization to understand what it’s like to have kids. I love this story.

Britt Irvin
Wow, I wish I had known that back then.

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. I want to show you something. In the episode you were showing Earth how to make this energy efficient technology.

Britt Irvin
Yeah.

David Read
Did you ever follow the show after?

Britt Irvin
A little bit. We would watch it but not in a way where I was watching it and would know all of the storylines and what happened. I do know that it became an incredibly important part of the whole show, that it wasn’t just a device that was in the episode and then…

David Read
Okay. So you know you had a contribution to the mythology?

Britt Irvin
Yeah and they did explain that to me when we were talking. I was like, “what is this thing actually?” I can’t remember who it was, maybe one of the producers, explained to me “oh, this thing is really important.”

David Read
To the mythology. Do you want to see what it is that it led to?

Britt Irvin
Yeah, yeah.

David Read
Just give me a second. This is Earth’s version of a naquadah reactor. There’s two sizes, there’s a larger one and a smaller one. This is a fan made replica but this is the technology that is the offspring of what the Orbanians taught us. So, for all intents and purposes, this is what your character gave us.

Britt Irvin
That’s amazing. Who made that?

David Read
There’s a huge Stargate community out there. Let me figure out just who made this in particular, let me see. I’ve got several people and I want to get the name…I’m sorry man, the name is escaping me right now.

Britt Irvin
He’s gonna message you.

David Read
He’s gonna message me and say “why didn’t you think of my name.” There’s several modelers that I work with and I do want to give him the proper credit. Sorry guys, this is so friggin embarrassing. Where is he? This one was developed by Martin McClean. Martin is in, I think he’s in Washington State. His craftsmanship is insane. This is a little battery door here and it’s the Earth symbol, he’s cool. The fans, they make so much cool stuff. The quality of the stuff that this community comes out with is absolutely outrageous. But yeah, thank you for that.

Britt Irvin
Yeah, you’re welcome. I am glad I could make that contribution to the Earth people.

David Read
Can you tell me a character that you have brought life to? Tell me about a character that you’ve brought life to that challenged you as an actress in ways that you didn’t expect or brought you to an understanding of something that you didn’t anticipate? A role that’s really been a gift to you.

Britt Irvin
Oh god, that’s a really hard question. Something I just finished, I wouldn’t say the world that I was involved in felt like a gift to me. It’s a new series coming out on FX and it’s called Under the Banner of Heaven. It’s about the Mormon community and this murder that happens in it and it’s based on a true story. I’m one of the wives in the family but I’ve been Mormon since I was younger. We ended up becoming fundamentalist Mormon which is very different from the main LDS. [Latter-day Saints]

David Read
That’s the one that has multiple partners, the fundamentalists?

Britt Irvin
Yeah. So in the name of God, this is why these murders happen. My character was incredibly devout and followed her husband into this fundamentalism seemingly wholeheartedly. I had to say some really horrible things, that community, at least in this, is incredibly racist. I had to say awful stuff. That, just because it was the most recent thing I’ve done, sticks in my head of getting into the mind of someone that’s so incredibly different from me and has such incredibly different morals and outlooks on life. It was really challenging and also really cool because it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to sort of be completely different from who I am.

David Read
Wow. I would think that being able to tackle something that really makes you uncomfortable, in some ways, has its own challenges, morally, ethically and everything else. To service the documents and what it is that you’re building on screen has to be interesting because you’re taken to places that you wouldn’t necessarily expect in your own life you would go?

Britt Irvin
100% yeah, exactly. It’s cool because you do learn so much while you’re working on something that’s so different. Like with sci fi also, you learn so much stuff that you didn’t know about before. Especially, like you said, growing up on sci-fi you know all of these things. Coming on to a show, even like The 100 when I did that, I’m coming on to a show that had been on for eight years or something. I was doing it and learning as much as I could as quickly as possible about all of the little storylines and what this actually means. You have to be on the show or a massive fan to come on to it and know all of the little details that shows like that have. It is cool because you come out in the end with all these new stories and things that you never would have known before.

David Read
If your kid chooses a career path like you in the vein that you have taken are you going to be supportive of that? Are you going to push away from that? What’s your plan once that time comes? Are you going to be actively pushing it?

Britt Irvin
I definitely wouldn’t actively push it. I wouldn’t push anything. Honestly, I’m hoping I can maintain my goal of just supporting her and whatever she wants to do. If she’s begging for it and she really wants to act we’ll start with classes or camps or whatever and she can give it a try. If she wants to dance, if she wants to play baseball, if she wants to become a rocket scientist like Merrin, I’ll support her in whatever she wants to do. I certainly would not be a stage parent, pushing her to do something. My parents didn’t do that with me. You see a lot of it and it’s super cringy. You see it at auditions as a kid, you’d be there with your little script and your mom. You could tell the ones that were there because the kid really wanted to do it and the parents kind of like were, they weren’t on their phone back then actually. They would just be sitting there and the kid would be studying their lines. Then there was the moms who are making their kid rehearse over and over and bribing them. I could hear things like, “just do it and I’ll buy you an ice cream after. Just go in and kill it and get an ice cream.” I’m just like, “oh my god.” It’s so much work and so much driving, I don’t know why you would want to force your kids into something and argue with them about it. It seems awful.

David Read
I would think that that would be a great way to kill the spirit of it.

Britt Irvin
It would be a wonderful way to kill the spirit of it. I would think most of those kids probably didn’t go on to be actors because they hated it. It’s not for everybody, you know.

David Read
Absolutely. That leads to the question that I was going to ask which is, being as young as you were when you got into this, if you could give advice to parents who are facing this dilemma; “should we put the resources into this? Should we move to so and so a place and give this a shot?” What would you say?

Britt Irvin
It is very much a family decision to. I had a brother and he was involved with all the decisions, especially when something was shooting out of town. He would have to be okay with having his life…upheaval. Organizing, if my mom was going with me and my dad was working, if my Nana could pick him up. There was times where I would book something really cool and we ended up having to turn it down because it just didn’t make sense for our family unit as a whole. I understood that to a point when I was that age but I was also angry and upset when things didn’t work out. I totally get it now as an adult. If your kid really, really, really wants to do it and you’re able to make that happen, do it. It’s tons of work; it’s auditions every day, sometimes it’s tons of memorizing, it’s a lot of waiting around, it’s a lot of rejection. It’s a lot of canceling birthday parties or whatever because all of a sudden you have an audition or all of a sudden you’re working. You have to really want it because as a kid, things like birthday parties and that sort of stuff, is important to, really important. I chose to do it but I missed out on lots of fun stuff I wanted to do as well.

David Read
In your experience, what is a good ratio? Letting you know that you are making this work. If you get one in one audition in 10, one in 20? What is it for you personally in your own experience?

Britt Irvin
I try not to even think about it like that. It’s such a weird thing. You’ll have literally like years where you’re working back to back and you’re like, “cool, I must be doing something right.” Then you’ll be doing the same thing and you’ll have months where you’re auditioning and not working. You’re like, “what am I doing wrong?” and you’re not doing anything differently. You’re auditioning for things and they’ve already offered it to somebody else, it’s just like a weird game. I try not to think of it. I’m just so used to it now that I audition for something even if I’m in love with it and think I’m right for it and stuff. I do it and I literally put it out of my mind.

David Read
Yeah, you got to otherwise it would just tear you apart. That’s no way to live as far as I am concerned.

Britt Irvin
Having this as a career has made me so incredibly tough and I’m really good at letting stuff go. I do not dwell, even in any other aspects of my life at all. I’m just like, I’m not a dweller. I experience something and let it go.

David Read
Absolutely. I have questions submitted by fans.

Britt Irvin
Okay, cool.

David Read
Raj Luthra wanted to know “what was your experience like on Smallville compared to SG-1 and working again with Michael shanks?”

Britt Irvin
We remembered each other, well he remembered me more. Michael Shanks and I didn’t really work together that much on Stargate, he was there and around. As a kid, you’re like, “oh there’s just a bunch of all these different adults around me 24/7.” It’s just different. He had made the connection and then I’d remembered. He’s also so lovely and his kids came to set, they were really big Stargirl fans. His wife came to set also, anyway, he’s lovely, that was really fun. It was fun too because I was much older then so it was cool working with someone that you worked with as a kid but in a completely different capacity.

David Read
A different chapter in your life.

Britt Irvin
Yeah, it was really cool. He’s amazing.

David Read
Lockwather, we already answered this question. “What was it like working with RDA?” Erpel Homo – is the way of learning that’s shown in the episode a good or a bad way of learning? If you like Elon Musk’s neural link and the direction that we’re going that way, I guess.

Britt Irvin
I feel like Elon Musk would really have loved to cultivate Merrin and her nanites actually. I feel like it maybe is an efficient way to learn something.

David Read
Just so foreign.

Britt Irvin
I’m not sure how I would feel about it. Did you ever read the book “The Giver?”

David Read
I’ve seen the film but I’ve not read the book.

Britt Irvin
The book is obviously better than the film but it is kind of like that. It’s a similar take on The Giver; one person learning all of the pain and all of the knowledge and then spreading it into the community.

David Read
And everyone has their place in society.

Britt Irvin
Yeah and that’s a little bit like Orban and what Merrin and the other Urons…

David Read
The One with the Many Zs – did you and the other kids paint the paintings in the school scenes entirely yourselves or were they prepared? I didn’t expect that fact.

Britt Irvin
I don’t know about the other kids but usually on things they’ll be somewhat prepared, the art department would have had prepared things. They were very specific about what they wanted me to paint except for the stick figure of course, I did that one all by myself.

David Read
Oh you did? This is a representation of me, or Major Carter in that case,

Britt Irvin
I got to do that myself. But everything else was you know, I would just paint over the little flower. Everything was perfectly planned by the art department.

David Read
In watching these episodes I’m always having an eye for continuity. If you start working the little flower in the corner, is it going to be there later, the outlines of you starting on it? And it is because, continuity. Marcia Middleton, hi Marcia. Marcia is a good friend. Is it [Rikey] on your shirt? Is that how you pronounce that, or [Rakey]?

Britt Irvin
[Rakey] Reiki.

David Read
Are you a Reiki practitioner?

Britt Irvin
I’m not. I’ve had Reiki done to me before but it’s a local woman and she just makes really cool t-shirts with cool prints and things on it.

David Read
Okay. Is Reiki like, is that like “jamaharon?” What is Reiki?

Britt Irvin
It’s like a form of healing where people can hone in energy and heal through their hands, they don’t actually touch you. When you get Reiki and they hold their hands above whatever, it gets really hot. It’s just a good way of honing your own energy into healing practices.

David Read
In so many ways we are so behind on Eastern medicine. It’s not even funny.

Britt Irvin
You should go get some Reiki.

David Read
Yeah, okay, I will consider doing that for sure. Peace Rider – Thanks Britt for making one of my favorite episodes so great. I lost my parents when I was a kid and episodes like this helped me when I missed them. I am a script writer, do you later realize the impact that you can have as an actress?

Britt Irvin
I think so, it depends on the project and stuff. On shows like Stargate, which again, was a really long time ago for me, I still get mail from people which is really cool. At that time in my life I was just doing it because it was fun and to still have people like you who say Merrin as a character touched them in some way is pretty amazing. I get really excited when I get mail from things that I did that long ago. You’re like, “wow.”

David Read
It’s continuing to make an impact.

Britt Irvin
It’s really, really cool.

David Read
Marcia also wanted to know about your voice work in My Little Pony. Does your daughter like the franchise and did they give you freebies?

Britt Irvin
My daughter just turned two. I tried to show her…that’s why there’s balloons in the background. I’ve tried to show her little bits but she doesn’t fully get it. She likes it but she doesn’t really get it. I certainly did not receive any freebies. If you’re watching I would like some.

David Read
Just a comment from TrevM12 – I recently watched this episode again, absolutely loved it. Merrin touched my heart, thank you Britt.

Britt Irvin
Oh that’s nice. Thank you.

David Read
Raj Luthra – If asked, would you make a return to a future Stargate series?

Britt Irvin
Oh my gosh, of course I would. That would be amazing. Yeah, that would be so much fun.

David Read
The acquisition by Amazon of MGM is now complete.

Britt Irvin
Oh is it? Cool.

David Read
MGM is its own shingle under Amazon so they’re going to continue to do business very much in many respects as per usual. But we’re all waiting with bated breath to see if another Stargate is going to be announced at some point here in the future.

Britt Irvin
Would they be using some of the same cast members or would would it be a whole new…?

David Read
That’s the big question. Are they going to reboot it like a lot of this other stuff or are they going to continue the franchise as it is? I waffle back and forth on a daily basis with this, the pros and cons in the back of my mind. “Oh, they’ve got to. Oh, no they have reasons…” We don’t know yet, bottom line.

Britt Irvin
Cool, I will keep myself posted.

David Read
Absolutely, yes, if Vancouver is the next home for whatever production is going to come next. It’s just a matter of time before something does come next because they have expressed an awareness of its importance.

Britt Irvin
Totally. They would be stupid not to do it.

David Read
I agree. Absolutely they will be stupid. Lockwatcher wanted to know, what did you think of the established Stargate sets? Would you say they were cool?

Britt Irvin
They were really cool. It was really cool because that was one of my first times being on a show that had real sets like that. They were awesome. It was cool too when they were doing computer stuff to make surges or the Stargate lighting up. There was a little bit of lighting happening on set. They’re explaining to me, especially because I’m new, what’s actually happening, when that’s happening, so reacting to kind of nothing. The sets were amazing and the props were amazing. The, what’s it called again?

David Read
The gate? The naquadah reactor?

Britt Irvin
Yeah. They showed me that and how it lights up. The props master was so excited about everything he was making and it was really cool. He taught me a little bit about how he built it and showed me all these different little elements, it was super impressive. It’s cool, I was blown away.

David Read
I can tell you, there were people on the show who waited for years and years to be able to do a puddle pass through the Stargate and in your episode, you did it twice.

Britt Irvin
Yeah. It was fun.

David Read
Dave – Is there anything specific you took from your experience of being on the show?

Britt Irvin
Honestly, I left the show being like, I had the best time and I left the show just getting so amped about knowing I was on the right path. It was honestly the best experience, I loved it. Everyone was so nice and warm and one of my favorite childhood memories was shooting that. It was amazing.

David Read
That’s great. What’s next for you? Are you going to juggle mom and acting? What’s your plan?

Britt Irvin
Yeah, I have been doing that, it’s been a lot of work out of town. She’s two now but before that she was traveling back and forth. Honestly, it was getting a little exhausting being up all night with her and then working 16 hour days. The series I was telling you about that I just finished, that was back and forth sometimes twice a week from Calgary because I didn’t want to leave her longer than a few days at a time. I would shoot two days and because of COVID you have to get there two days before to quarantine. I was just constantly on a plane back and forth so I’ve decided to take a little break to just be at home with her. I just started auditioning again but yeah, I took a few months where I’m like, “I don’t want to work.”

David Read
Is auditioning still happening over zoom?

Britt Irvin
Everything is over zoom or a self-tape.

David Read
Everything’s over zoom.

Britt Irvin
Yeah, so now my husband is my reader for all my auditions. He takes it so seriously. Sometimes we have to do another take because he doesn’t like his off-camera performance.

David Read
That’s funny.

Britt Irvin
Yeah, I’m still getting used to that.

David Read
Do you have an idea of where this..? Is it a series or is it a film?

Britt Irvin
It’s a miniseries?

David Read
Do you have an idea of where it’s gonna be broadcast?

Britt Irvin
It’s on FX. I think it’s on Disney+ in Canada and Hulu in the States. You can look it up, it’s called Under the Banner of Heaven. They just released a teaser.

David Read
They sure did. I’ll be checking it out. What’s your character’s name?

Britt Irvin
My character’s name is Sarah Lafferty.

David Read
Okay, very good.

Britt Irvin
I think I’m in five of the seven, or four [episodes]. I’m kind of throughout it, some episodes are bigger and then some I’m just kind of there.

David Read
Okay. Well, I will definitely be checking it out. It means so much to me that you took time out of your schedule to talk with us about this episode from many years ago. It’s such an important show in the mythology and it’s an excellent example of the franchise when it was working at its absolute best. It’s such a privilege and treat to be able to talk with you about it.

Britt Irvin
Cool. Well thank you. I’m glad I got to rewatch it and stuff. It’s awesome. Yeah, it was really cool.

David Read
Thank you for coming on and best of luck to your future endeavors and momhood and everything that comes to you next. You deserve it.

Britt Irvin
Thank you so much.

David Read
Thank you so much for coming on.

Britt Irvin
Cool, nice to meet you.

David Read
Good to meet you. You take care of yourself.

Britt Irvin
Bye everyone.

David Read
Bye bye. Britt Ervin, Stargate SG-1’s Merrin in season three’s Learning Curve. Thank you so much for tuning in. We have t-shirts and tank tops and hoodies for all ages in a variety of sizes and colors as well as cups and other accessories at dialthegate.com/merch. From the merchandise tab you can click on a specific design and see what items are being offered. Checkout is fast and easy, you can use a credit card or PayPal, just visit dialthegate.com or go straight to dialthegate.com/merch and thanks so much for your support. We have coming up in about an hour and fifteen minutes trivia, Stargate SG-1 trivia from seasons one to five featuring myself, Alan Gowen as moderator and my competition, Darren Sumner, from GateWorld.net. He’s going to go one on one with me and we’re going to see who is the supreme nerd at least in terms of classic SG-1. We’ve got that coming up in just a little bit here. My thanks to my Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey as well as my moderators Sommer, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys and Antony. Thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb, our web developer on Dial the Gate and Jeremy Heiner, our webmaster, who keeps the site up to date as well. I really appreciate their efforts and continuing to make this show possible for everyone. I appreciate you tuning in and my thanks once again to Britt Irvin for coming on the show. We’ll see you in just a little bit folks. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate and I’ll see you on the other side.