The sci-fi community may know her better as one of the Duras sisters, but in our corner of fandom the Stargate community will forever remember her as Kelmaa and Egeria. We are thrilled to sit down with Gwynyth Walsh for a pre-recorded audio interview to discuss both her career and this important character to the Stargate lexicon!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Opening Credits
00:26 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:52 – “Egeria”, Stargate and Scifi
05:21 – Gwynyth’s start in the industry
08:12 – Memorable role and experience
11:58 – Tom McBeath and Karin Konoval
13:50 – Familiarity with Stargate
16:04 – Queen Egeria
20:17 – Star Trek
30:53 – Virgin River and writer’s strike
33:06 – Wrapping up with Gwynyth
33:51 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
35:05 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, my name is David Read. Welcome to the Stargate Oral History Project. Gwynyth Walsh is joining us today, you probably know her as B’Etor of the Duras sisters. Don’t worry, so do I. We have her on today to discuss not only that, but more importantly, in our show’s context, Egeria, the mother of the Tok’ra. Kelmaa first and then Egeria in the episode Cure from season six of Stargate SG-1. Before we really get into the thick of that If you enjoy Stargate, and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, please click that like button. It really does make a difference with YouTube and will continue to help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you will new get my notifications of any last minute guest changes. Since this is a pre-recorded show the moderators who are working on this episode are not going to be taking questions for Gwyneth. We did a pre-recorded show for her, she chose to stay off screen. We’re going to go ahead and jump right into the interview with her. I apologize, it was a bit abrupt. When we started talking, we just started talking so I hope you enjoy our discussion with Queen Egeria, Gwyneth Walsh.

David Read
I really appreciate you taking the time. This character in Stargate is the mother of one of Earth’s greatest allies. I’m sure you you knew that when you got that script. She is so much a part of why the show went the way that it did. How much of that knowledge did you have in going into creating this character, starting off as one of her daughters ostensibly, and then taking on the queen herself?

Gwynyth Walsh
Well, I did watch the show. I like sci-fi and I appreciate science fiction’s ability to deal with current dilemmas in the guise of the future, and allowing us to perhaps illuminate arguments and theories and possibilities that we’re not ready to look at in the present. But if we look at them in the guise of this fictitious future, we are able to handle them. I did watch the show, it was so interesting but I don’t think I knew that much about it before I did it. I watched the episode again, thank you for sending the link and I don’t think I’d seen it since shortly after it had been released. It was amazing to me how prescient it is, in terms of all of our conversation about Biomedical Ethics and animal testing. Not that the goa’uld or Tok’ra were animals quote, unquote. But as per usual science fiction is ahead of the game in addressing these really relevant issues.

David Read
It’s wild. There is always something there to mine. You being a huge part of the Next Generation franchise with Generations and with Lursa and B’Etor, you’ve been exposed to a lot of that over the course of the years. The thing that I love about this genre is that you can come back to it decade after decade in your own life and not only find something about it that’s more relevant to the wider world, but also more relevant to yourself in so many respects.

Gwynyth Walsh
I agree completely. Because I hadn’t seen it for a while, I was struck by the people that “oh my gosh, I forgot they were involved with it.” I work with Andy Makita and Martin Wood regularly now because I’m on a non-science fiction show, the Netflix show Virgin River, and they’re both involved in that. A very different kettle of fish in terms of the type of show, but you realize, my gosh! This was 20 years ago and Teryl Rothery, who I did not have any scenes with in that episode. I doubt were even on set on the same day because her stuff would have been shot in a different location but Teryl and I have become very good friends through our work on Virgin River. There she was, little baby Teryl.

David Read
Teryl is one of the greatest people ever. She’s another one who really gets the science fiction, gets the message and everything else. I want to take Stargate and sci-fi aside for a moment and I want to ask you about when you first realized that this was what you wanted to do as a career. When you realized that you wanted to act and what was it that made you want to take this path for yourself? And perhaps who inspired you?

Gwynyth Walsh
Um well, I think I was always interested in it to a certain degree. When I was in grade 8, we had a fabulous drama teacher, who I’m happy to give a shout out to, his name is Christopher Terrell. He was barely older than us because he was a first year teacher, he had just graduated from from completing his degree. What were we 12 or 13, and he’s maybe 20, 22, so he’s like 10 years older than us. All of us still with unformed brains I would say now, from my perspective, even his, but he allowed us to write our own show, which we did. I don’t know how he managed it but he got a reviewer. I grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia and he managed to get the drama critic from, there were two papers in town, to come and review this show, I don’t quite know how. I am ashamed to admit that I can pretty well quote what he said about me. It’s mostly paragraphs about the show and what it’s about and rah rah for the students, but then he sort of says, “Watch Gwynyth Walsh with luck and not too many good reviews to spoil her. This is a young woman who could one day blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” I think that really put the seed in my head that, “oh, well, maybe I could do this.” My other chosen career would have been to be a veterinarian, but I just didn’t think I was good enough at science. I didn’t think my marks would have been quite good enough to get into that. I went away to drama school, my mother wanted me to have a degree to fall back on, just in case. I have my Bachelor of Fine Arts and I’ve been reasonably lucky. I spent a lot of time on stage at the beginning of my career and then I sort of stumbled into television and then stumbled into living down in L.A. Just a series of sort of divine accidents and here I am.

David Read
Is there a particular role that shaped you or changed you in a way that you didn’t expect or something that you got on the page and were like, “Okay, I can make something with this? Or it came to life in such a way that you that you didn’t expect; something that you look back on and say “this is a great memory” or “that’s why I got into this?”

Gwynyth Walsh
I think I was a very introspective kid. I was actually discussing this with a friend of mine the other day. I love rehearsal. I love the rehearsal process. When you’re working in theater, I kind of actually prefer rehearsal, to doing the play. Although I do enjoy getting up there and doing it in front of an audience and understanding that what you’ve been working on all this time and trying to create is working. But I’m always embarrassed at curtain call because I have to be myself again then. I think I’m one of those people who enjoys trying to pretend they’re somebody else. I don’t know whether that’s accurate, but I would say I’ve really always enjoyed it in terms of going into understanding humanity, understanding more about myself, understanding another human being. I’ve done a lot of stage work and I spent time at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. I started out doing the musicals there. I did a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan, but then I did some Shakespeare. There’s this sort of truism that you don’t really have to…of course you have to do the work, of course you have to know your lines, but that Shakespeare does a lot of the work for you. If you follow the text, you will discover that you are emotionally available to whatever the text presents to you. I would say that that’s not necessarily true for the female characters. I’ve done a bunch of female characters, but I had the great good fortune to play Prospero on stage. I truly understood what they meant; as long as I got on that train and followed it into the station, it just takes you there. I think for a lot of actors, and I continue to have this struggle all the time, there’s this constant battle between trusting that you have the emotional information inside you, the emotional wherewithal inside you, or making yourself push towards creating something, feeling that you have to do more. I think that’s something we all kind of work through throughout our career and especially at the beginning. I think you’re trying so hard because you love the idea of acting so much and you love what you’re doing. As you get older, I think the trick is to understand that you’ve lived a life; you’ve learned a lot of things and you’ve met a lot of people. So what you have to bring, which is probably why they cast you in the first place, is what you need to put on the table. That in itself can be scary because even if you are playing a character, it’s very personal. It’s very intimate being an actor, you’re showing yourself to the world and that’s a vulnerability. I just feel so lucky to have been able to do this as a career, I feel myself to have been very fortunate.

David Read
Tom McBeath is someone I consider a friend. He said to me once, are you familiar with Tom McBeath?

Gwynyth Walsh
Oh, very well.

David Read
He said to me once “the more something scares me, the more I’m intrigued by it.” I think all of us at some point suffer from impostor syndrome. Like you said, they pick you for a reason but that doesn’t mean that you have to get it but you have to you to be willing to find it.

Gwynyth Walsh
That doesn’t mean you know what it is. By the way, yes, I know Tom. We’ve worked together on a handful of projects and he’s a great guy. I also know his partner Karin Konoval, a wonderful, wonderful actor. Did you see her when they brought the X-Files back and she did that iteration where she was sort of multiple characters?

David Read
I have not seen the new one. Okay, I’ll go check it out.

Gwynyth Walsh
This was the one, they had one last season, I think. Am I getting senile? Didn’t they do one last season of the X-Files?

David Read
They returned but I’ve not seen it. I didn’t know that Karen was in it, that’s worth watching. I’ll go check it out.

Gwynyth Walsh
I’m not entirely clear. It was a couple of years ago that I saw it. Either she plays someone with multiple personalities or she is playing a bunch of different characters, I’m not sure what it is. But she’s phenomenal. So yes, I heartily recommend that you check it out. I’m sorry, now I’ve completely lost track of…

David Read
I was talking about finding yourself right for the part when other people have already found you right for the part and impostor syndrome.

Gwynyth Walsh
I would agree with that completely. I think actors are particularly prone to impostor syndrome, although I think all of us do. You know, it’s a complicated world out there, things are changing mighty fast.

David Read
Absolutely. Can you tell me how aware you were of Stargate before getting this part of Kelmaa and Egeria, what attracted you to it and how that all came about?

Gwynyth Walsh
Well, I think at that point in my life, I was dividing my time between Los Angeles and Vancouver, I was sort of back and forth. To tell you the truth, I can’t remember which city I auditioned in. It’s a fun show, it’s a great show and I think I just wanted to be on it. This was post my initial beginnings of Star Trek. I already was sort of familiar with the genre and I’d worked with Richard Dean Anderson on one episode of MacGyver. He’s a great guy, so easy to work with. I cannot remember whether I had auditioned for earlier episodes and not got the part, which was the case with Star Trek. I had auditioned a number of times and didn’t land the role before I got B’Etor. I think it was just “oh, here’s a great gig on a show in Vancouver. Sure.” I don’t think I had a complete understanding of my character within the scale of the story of Stargate. I know I would have seen the movie, I do remember seeing the movie with James Spader. I knew the original genesis of everything ut I think there were things that I didn’t know. I had forgotten until I watched it, thank you again for sending me the link, that of course, they did that weird effect on her voice, on myself and Peter Stebbings voice. I was going “why do I sound like…” the first time I thought “is that me?” And then I realized, “oh yes, of course, they did that to us.”

David Read
Yeah, that’s a big part of distinguishing the goa’uld and Tok’ra from everyone else. It’s just that little tweak and there’s a whole story reason for why that happened in the film. It’s one of those where we’re watching this as an audience and we’re like, “oh, they’ve got a queen captive, you know, blahdy blahdy blah.” So one angle of it is the genetic experiment, the experimentation on a species that really hates humanity so part of us is like, “oh dang, this creature is in jeopardy.” Then it switches around and we find out that this is the mother of every one of this species that we have ever held dear. Tell me about Egeria and finding that character who has been in a tank for God knows how many decades. Tell me about finding that space, finding that voice, if you will.

Gwynyth Walsh
I was glad that there was a benevolence to her and that there is a sense of, for lack of a better word, royalty, and regalness to her. “This is my final gift.” I really appreciated who she was and who she was trying to be. I think that’s just what I leaned in to.

David Read
There’s some aspect of turning the other cheek and some aspect of imparting grace that is…What’s the word that I want? Now I’m losing my words. That it’s so rewarding to see as a viewer. We’ve been working with this species that have been our allies, or this group, they’ve been our allies for four or five years at this point. Then we encounter the person, the being, who has set up the architecture for everything that they believe in. She has an opportunity, once she gets out of confinement, if she wanted to, to completely blow this species to hell. She could have burned everything to the ground. Instead, she reinforces everything that we believed in what the Tok’ra were. This is a person who chooses to give everyone, regardless of what they have done to her, and God knows over the years, a second chance. I think there’s something that I relate to as an audience member about that. It’s like, “yeah, you know, I am capable of giving people a second chance.”

Gwynyth Walsh
Well, I appreciate you using the phrase the “imparting of grace.” I think that’s wonderful, because yes, I think that’s exactly what she’s doing. Through the little genetic tweak that she was instilling in her offspring she was trying to stop what inevitably happened and she was unsuccessful at that. I have played heavies, you know, B’Etor is a heavy, but it was nice to play someone who was interested in grace, in a state of grace, as you put it.

David Read
Yeah. I love that episode. I love that you were in it. It was a great casting decision as far as I’m concerned, to bring you in there. You really imparted that in the five minutes that we have her. In the scheme of things you’re not with us for very long. It’s one of those things where it’s like, “I would have loved to have had her back, resurrector her or something, use the sarcophagus.” But they didn’t believe in it, it was something that they believed was corruptible. She was like, “this is my final gift and then you’re gonna let me go, you’re not gonna resurrect me. I won’t allow it.” That’s wild.

Gwynyth Walsh
Yes, she was very generous, wasn’t she? She’s what we would like our ruling bodies or founding parents to be. Frequently, sadly they are not. It’s aspirational I think, the writing of Egeria.

David Read
Absolutely. I just finished rewatching Next Generation and Generations about a week ago. I’m sure you are exhausted talking about B’Etor, maybe not, but Gwynyth, what role? Holy cow. You talked about Shakespeare, the Klingons were Star Trek’s embodiment of Shakespeare in some of those scenes. The humor, the humorous thread that you got to play through all those scenes and really being a great foil for Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn and then Malcolm McDowell, in the end there. As an audience member in the 90s, I wasn’t expecting the sisters to return and actually be the ones to bring the Enterprise to her knees and ultimately destroy the ship. What was it like getting to play that role?

Gwynyth Walsh
Well, I have to give a lot of credit to Barbara March, who played Lursa. who I’m sure you know is alas, no longer with us.

David Read
Yes.

Gwynyth Walsh
Barbara and I knew each other tangentially, I’d worked with her husband on a couple of projects and I’d met her but I didn’t know her well. You referenced Shakespeare, Barbara and I really thought of Lursa and B’Etor as sort of Goneril and Regan in space; always grasping after the throne. But the humor, I don’t quite know how that happened. I think that was just sort of an evolution of us and we became good friends. Doing that show, doing those roles together and commiserating over the extreme physical discomfort of being a Klingon. Those costumes, those teeth, I totally understand why Michael Dorn got to a point where he said “no, no teeth. I’m not doing that anymore.” I also do think Ronald Moore, who of course, has gone on to wonderful things. I never got on Battlestar Galactica. I was cast on one of the last episodes, but it was one of those situations where sometimes as an actor, you don’t work for a long period of time and then you get three jobs in a row and they inevitably conflict.

David Read
When it rains it pours.

Gwynyth Walsh
Yes and so it was pouring. Just in terms of the scheduling I had to let Battlestar Galactica go, which made me really sad. I can’t remember what the other two jobs were at this point in time. A lot of it was the writing and I think we just had fun. I think the fact that both Barbara and I had done a lot of stage, as you’re probably aware. I don’t know whether it was ever codified for the casting people but it was no accident that they used a lot of stage actors to play their aliens. Stage actors with their better understanding of text and how to enunciate and how to project were able to get past the weird makeup that you sometimes have to wear as a creature from another planet. I just think Barbara and I had a shorthand and we worked well off each other. And there you go.

David Read
Yeah, it’s wild. I can understand why they would seek out more theatrical people. Not necessarily in your case but in many cases you are presenting exposition that’s just gobbledygook technobabble without language and you have to be able to communicate the language. “Yes, their shield modulation is 357.4.” There’s a reasoning behind it.

Gwynyth Walsh
It’s so tough. It’s so tough. When I did Voyager, they kept re-writing that one all the time. There was one scene where we got pages of new dialog at about nine o’clock the night before we had to be on set. That was one of those days when they had the big cue cards. People needed them because they didn’t have enough time. Most people don’t have photographic memories so it’s a challenge to learn all that sort of stuff.

David Read
If you’re going to change at the last minute, you have to give something for the actors to deal with. Nimira, that was a one off episode but man! I think that episode is going to become more poignant as we move forward with technology getting more and more inside of us; punishing people for having a negative thought. If you look at social media or anything, we’re heading in that direction. That was a wild episode and a great character for you.

Gwynyth Walsh
I agree, yet again, science fiction giving us the opportunity to delve into subject matter that wasn’t really prevalent until decades after the fact. People are certainly getting canceled as we know, or something offhand that they say on social media and their life can be over. It was a passing thought and they probably might not feel the same thing the next day. But they pay price Yeah, it’s “go science fiction.”

David Read
Right. Exactly.

David Read
I do understand people who are not fond of it, but I think they’re making a mistake. I think there’s a lot going on in science fiction and a lot of very smart, insightful people writing it. It’s worth paying attention to. [ONE AND A HALF MINUTE BREAK IN AUDIO] We’re at such an inflection point with artificial intelligence, which will be incredibly beneficial in terms of medicine and many applications, but also has the possibility to be really dangerous if it’s used by nefarious individuals with bad intent.

David Read
It is a tool and how are you going to use it? How do you feel about the people that you disagree with? What are you willing to do to them? What are your cultural and ethical foibles that will stop you, if not government, from executing X, Y or Z?

Gwynyth Walsh
I agree with you 100% on that one, David. Yeah,

David Read
Your Star Trek work is so important to me. I’m always thrilled when I see you up on the screen. In finishing Next Gen, I couldn’t believe how few episodes those sisters were in. At the end of the day I remember, and I’ve seen the show over and over again throughout the years, I’ll just sit down and binge it, every few years I’ll go through it, I remember so much more airtime. The episodes that had the Duras sisters in them were so powerful and so important to the foundation of that franchise. I came down, like you said, to the writing, to Ron Moore and it came down to the delicious performances. So thank you for that.

Gwynyth Walsh
Oh, well, thank you. You’re very welcome. I think basically, they just wanted to reintroduce the characters because they knew we were going to be in the next movie. They wanted to re-familiarize the audience with us, I think it was more about that. In the first iterations of Star Trek 7, the movie we were in, the Duras sisters had more to do. They had two casts, they had the original Star Trek cast and they had the current Star Trek cast and they had to honor all of those individuals. We kind of got some of our stuff cut but that’s the way. As I say, that’s why I use the word honouring. Both Star Trek 1 [TOS] and 2 [TNG] were popular because of those actors and that cast and you have to pay them respect, so they did. That’s the way the industry works and I have no quarrel with that. Would I like to have had more to do? Of course. Oh, and we didn’t die originally either. I had a friend who was the roommate of one of the script writers, So there you go. Shoula woulda coulda.

David Read
Exactly, shoulda woulda coulda. If they were not to bring you back, because there was always a chance that they wouldn’t have, isn’t this the better way to go, out with a bang?

Gwynyth Walsh
Sure. Of course, it won’t happen, but I keep sort of harboring a faint hope that somehow I might end up turning up on the brand new one that’s shooting in Toronto, but they don’t seem to be doing that very much.

David Read
Science fiction has many portholes to open possibilities. Not only that, but there are also the soap opera directions as well, you could turn up as her daughter in the 32nd century on Discovery. The animated show as well, never say never.

Gwynyth Walsh
I have not watched the animated show yet. I’m a big fan of those actors on on the one in Toronto. They’ve got a great cast on that show.

David Read
Did you see Picard at all?

Gwynyth Walsh
I did. I didn’t watch the end of it. I was so fond of Patrick Stewart and hey, he’s a Brit with a theatrical background. He’s right up my alley in terms of my hero actors, wonderful to work with. I was very happy that they brought him back and brought the show back. That was great.

David Read
Season 3 Gwynyth, I cannot recommend it enough. It is season 8 of TNG. It is a love letter to the fans and I cannot recommend it enough. It was wonderful.

Gwynyth Walsh
Thank you. I will take a look.

David Read
Absolutely. You can watch it independently of the other two.

Gwynyth Walsh
Yeah. Good to know.

David Read
Where will we be seeing you? Are you continuing to do the show with Martin and Andy, Virgin River?

Gwynyth Walsh
Yes, well of course the writers strike is putting a hold on everything but season five will be out. Usually it starts in July. I don’t quite know why but Netflix is starting that run in, I believe it’s September of this year, September 23. We have been told that we are shooting season 6, but who knows when that’s going to happen because of the strike. I do not know any movers and shakers in this but the rumors I hear seem to indicate it’s gonna be a long one, it’s gonna be a long strike. Which is really unfortunate, because it’s going to hurt a lot of people financially.

David Read
Yeah, this is a big one. Especially with all the other elements that are at play. I mean, the economy wasn’t great in the 80s but woof, I think you’re right. I think we’re gonna just see how far down the plunge can go. Here’s hoping that they can come to some resolution sooner rather than later.

Gwynyth Walsh
Right. It’s interesting. So far, artificial intelligence is not capable of directing a film so I guess that’s why the Directors Guild was able to get the language that they got protecting them from artificial intelligence. Of course, that’s one of the key tentpoles of what the Writers Guild wants and it’s also what the Actors Guild wants. This will do away with VoiceOver, all animation and that, it’ll make those jobs disappear and that’s the livelihood of a lot of people. I would not be surprised if the Screen Actors Guild ends up going on strike too. I don’t know whether that will put more fire in the bellies of the producers to settle or whether they’ll go “oh, great, more ways to save money” because as we know they were hurting financially. I think it’s going to be really bad for a lot of people.

David Read
What a wild world we live in. Stargate as a heartbeat at Amazon, now acquiring MGM, we’re just waiting for word on exactly what it is that they want to do with it. Would you be down for a return in the new franchise, in the new series or whatever it is that they’re doing next?

Gwynyth Walsh
Of course I would. Of course I would. Yeah.

David Read
Awesome. I wish you all the best in everything that you work on. It has been a joy to watch you. I’m so glad you got this role, I think that it was an excellent casting choice. Thank you for exploring her character with me this hour.

Gwynyth Walsh
Thank you for the interview David. Stay safe, be well.

David Read
That was Gwynyth Walsh who played Egeria and Kelmaa in the Stargate SG-1 episode Cure. It was one of those things when I was watching the episode that I was so delighted and surprised to see this character. It was one of those that I really did not expect to meet, to be perfectly honest with you. I don’t think that they could have picked anyone better to play her. So kudos for Gwynyth Walsh and thanks so much to Gwynyth for coming on my show. DialtheGate is brought to you every week for free and we do appreciate you watching. If you want to support the show, get yourself a t-shirt, tank top, sweatshirt or a hoodie. We have cups and other accessories too and a variety of sizes and colors at dialthegate.com/merch. Checkout is fast and easy, you can use your credit card or PayPal. Thanks so much for your support. My thanks to my moderating team; Sommer, Tracy, Jeremy, Rhys and Anthony, I could not do the show without them. My Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb for keeping DialtheGate up to date. I appreciate you tuning in. My name is David Read and we’ll see you on the other side.