He only appeared in one episode of Stargate, but many fans suspect a great deal of Ancient technology can be attributed to Janus. He was portrayed with tremendous depth by Gildart Jackson, and now, Dial the Gate is delighted to have the actor on to discuss his role in the franchise, his career, and the magic of oral storytelling through his program, Fireside Reading.

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
0:15 – Opening Credits
0:45 – Welcome
0:55 – Guest Introduction
1:27 – Twenty Years Ago…
2:20 – Fireside Reading
8:19 – Prep Work Before Reading
11:02 – The Oldest Form of Storytelling
12:20 – A Program for the Background
13:43 – The Count of Monte Cristo — Too Much?
15:40 – Creative Stimulation and a Freed Mind
18:51 – Dial the Gate’s Similar Blessings
22:00 – Janus’s Briefcase
24:30 – Who was Janus to you?
28:38 – Moros and Melia
29:30 – The Ancients are the Key to the Franchise
32:38 – Gildart Personally Knows Stargate Fans
33:38 – Are We Disturbed?
34:15 – Jerry Hardin, Gildart’s Father-In-Law
37:20 – Janus’s Secret Lab / Franchise Background
40:00 – Torri Higginson
40:52 – Janus’s Accent
42:25 – One of Gildart’s Favorite Personal Performances
44:18 – Connecting with the Material
46:06 – Which Medium is More Rewarding?
47:26 – Charmed
48:12 – Stepping back into Janus’s Shoes
48:45 – Stargate Oblivion
49:16 – A Touch of Romance
51:12 – Looking back on Work
53:12 – Current Projects
54:26 – Thank You, Gildart!
57:00 – Post Interview Housekeeping
58:38 – End Credits

***

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

#Stargate
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TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 252 – phew! – of Dial the Gate – The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I really appreciate you being here for this one because this is a big episode for me. And I am ashamed to say, Gildert Jackson, Janus of Stargate Atlantis – one of my favorite characters, probably top five in all of the franchise.

Gildart Jackson:
Wow.

David Read:
And it has taken me this long to even invite you. And I apologize, sir, if you include all that context, but I am really excited to have you here. How are you?

Gildart Jackson:
I’m well. Thank you for having me. It was a long time ago that I did this episode.

David Read:
Did you have a chance to rewatch it?

Gildart Jackson:
I did. I did. And it just, so what year, was it 2005?

Gildart Jackson:
2004 this would have been filmed and it would have aired in 2005 because it was the back half I’m pretty sure.

Gildart Jackson:
Twenty years ago. It’s quite scary to watch yourself 20 years ago, but I don’t think I embarrassed myself so I was happy with that. It was… I remember making the episode, going to Vancouver – which is where it was shot – and thoroughly enjoying myself, getting all the costume on, and it felt like I was going to space. And so it was a lot of fun.

David Read:
I can’t wait to share a little bit more about it with you. But I must confess, I’ve been spending a lot of time with you recently.

Gildart Jackson:
What have I been doing?

David Read:
“There she blows!”

Gildart Jackson:
Ah! Excellent. Excellent.

David Read:
Fireside.tv and…

Gildart Jackson:
Fireside Reading…

David Read:
Excuse me, I apologize, FiresideReading.tv. I discovered it through YouTube and I’m showing a clip of you on Chapter 48 of Moby Dick right now on screen. It was like opening up a treasure trove to find this, and I must have – a quick backstory here – I’ve been trying to crack Herman Melville’s book for about two years now, and I’ve been struggling because it is an inaccessible work but everyone’s got to read Moby Dick. But I did not expect to spend 25 pages on him discussing things that are white that are not sperm whales. And then I come over… I mean, Melville was many things, but brevity was not one of them. And so I found this and I am… I spend about 50 to 60 hours a week on the road and I am loving it. Tell me about “Fireside Reading.”

Gildart Jackson:
“Fireside Reading.” So along came that terrible thing, COVID. So one of the things that I’ve done a lot of is narrate audio books. I found that, probably, roughly the same time as I did the episode of Stargate. I got hired by somebody to do an audio book. And I really liked it. I liked it in addition to doing proper acting work. I enjoyed the fact that I could just do it in my home. So I have narrated maybe 500 audio books.

David Read:
Five-hundred? Oh my gosh.

Gildart Jackson:
And I had an idea a while ago that it would be… I wondered whether there would be such a thing as a video book, whether just the simple thing of somebody sitting – my choice was to make it in front of the fire – and reading, would be like harkening back to the old days of people being read to when that was the primary form of entertainment. You either had somebody in the family who played the piano, or you had somebody who would read to you with some of these classic books. So along came COVID, and I thought to myself… I actually was imagining my mom, my poor old mom is now gone, but she would have been living in the little town I grew up in England, and locked away as everybody was locked away. And what would she have done for entertainment? She didn’t love the TV too much. She did like to read books; she wasn’t seeing so well, so I thought, “What if I just sit in front of the fire every day? It’ll give me something to do at five o’clock Pacific Time on Instagram and read, and anybody who wants to find it can find it.” And I started in April of 2020 and I really liked doing it. And it was just… it was also I didn’t like being locked up; nobody did. But it was just a thing to do, and people were very appreciative of it. And I’ve just kept on doing it. So still on Instagram, on Fireside Reading, @FiresideReading, every weekday now I sit and read for 20 minutes to a group of people who have grown up over the years that I’ve been doing it. And then I… so right now we’re reading the second Anne of Green Gables book, Anne of Avonlea, which is beautiful. And we’ve read Moby Dick. We’ve read David Copperfield. We’ve read Great Expectations. We’ve read The Count of Monte Cristo. Great, beautiful old books. In addition, one of the audio book people that I work for a lot, they like the idea and they commissioned me to make 15 audio books – everything is free on YouTube and Instagram – but we made 15 video books of the classic kids’ stories that are long, long form, like Winnie the Pooh. Peter Pan, which is one of the most glorious books ever written, Alice Through The Looking Glass, Black Beauty, Call Of The Wild. We did all of these classic children’s books. Now, these ones we sell on FiresideReading.com and they’re all over you can get them downloaded and all that sort of stuff on to Tubi, lots of different platforms, but It really… there’s something about being read to, and that’s why audio books are so successful. And it’s just people have said this is just a little other bit, you probably just listen to the audio when you’re driving around and doing your stuff on the YouTube channel. Some people like it one way, some people like it another way. But it’s the thing that I just very much enjoy doing.

David Read:
Well, yeah, I’ve listened to 95% of it and watched probably about 5% because it’s not safe to drive and watch.

Gildart Jackson:
Best not.

David Read:
But, I mean, the fact of the matter is that you’re not just reading. You are making eye contact and gesturing and doing the voices. And that is not an easy thing to do. Putting all those things together, especially when you’re reading fiction and you have a large cast of characters. What prep work goes in? Or do you do it blind every time and just watch what happens?

Gildart Jackson:
So the way it stayed interesting for me… initially I read Great Expectations, which is a lovely book and a book that I am quite familiar with. In short order, I thought, “Well, I’d like to read the books that I’ve not read” – the books that I feel like I should have read, like yours with Moby Dick. So what I do… the truth is; I think all people who do audio books are pretty good cold readers. I do read the chapter before I do the reading. You know, if I read for 20 minutes, I will have read the chapter – it takes less than 20 minutes to do that – but just beforehand. So I’ll roughly know what’s coming. And part of the fun is to not know too much what’s coming, because it’s fun to inhabit the book and experience it with everyone.

David Read:
Like in Moby Dick, when he shows up, it’s like, “Wow! We didn’t see that one coming. What’s going on there?”

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. And I love to try to… I obviously want to do as good a job as I can reading, but since I’m doing it really for myself and anybody else who wants to come along… I do indulge the part of me that is excited by what’s going to happen next. Whereas, when you’re doing an audiobook, you kind of need to know… you kind of need to do, you know… you don’t want to make too many mistakes or sometimes on Fireside I’ll start reading in the wrong character or something and I have to go back. I don’t think anybody really cares. It’s kind of like… as if it’s… it’s as if I was reading to you – that’s the idea. And we all make mistakes.

David Read:
You are.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. Yeah.

David Read:
There is something primordial about the fire.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah.

David Read:
And I mean, we as a species, you know, 150,000 years ago we were doing this.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, yeah.

David Read:
And I think that we all connect to it on that level. My audible account has has to have like 300 books in it now, and I’m always frustrated with the people who are like, “Yeah, but you listened to it, you didn’t actually read it.” I’m like, “Well, whatever you want to call it.” I mean, as an aural learner myself, this is how I got through college was my microcassette recorder. I can recall passages of dialogue. So if that’s not retention, then what is?

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, yeah. You know, I know that some people say that about audiobooks and people can say whatever they want. I mean, it’s really a form of entertainment. People only get upset, you know, about kind of classics which you don’t want to read because you should read – you want to read because they’re beautiful. And you want to access it in the way that you can access it. Many people want this [points to ear]. And one of the things about Fireside that I noticed – I have two daughters – they would like to do an art project, or something like that, and have something on in the background – not just audio – when I was a kid, you’d have the radio on the background – not just audio but also something visual as well, but backgroundy. And I thought that Fireside could achieve that too. And many people that have found the YouTube channel are people who are learning the language there and it’s easier for them to see my lips moving. A lot of foreigners enjoy it in India, especially interestingly.

David Read:
India!

Gildart Jackson:
Well, I did a book called The Passage to India and it’s one of the more popular books that I’ve done because it must be on some syllabus in India.

David Read:
OK!

Gildart Jackson:
And it’s hard. It’s difficult. It’s beautiful, but a very difficult book to read. And I think that, I don’t know why, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it in India.

David Read:
Is there a book that you’ve done that… I’m [not] sure this is a fair question… that not… that you regretted doing, but, “This was more work than I expected by the time I got to the end of it!”

Gildart Jackson:
Well. I think my very kind and sweet, loyal followers found The Count of Monte Cristo a little much. It is incredibly long. I know several of them really loved it, but the group that joins on Instagram; it’s kind of like a group of people who just get off work from different time zones and they’ve all made friends; they actually meet outside of Fireside..

David Read:
Oh! How wonderful!

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. It really is, it’s very sweet. And I think that several of them were like, “Oh my god when this was this book going to end?” I didn’t regret that because it’s an amazing book. I did kind of regret… and I did… so, Don Quixote…

David Read:
Ah! Yes!

Gildart Jackson:
…was quite hard going, and it’s also incredibly long. There’s book one, book two. I stopped at the end of book one. Maybe to return but I think the real problem was the translation. I needed to find a translation that was in the public domain. And apparently there are several translations now that are amazing, but I wouldn’t have been able to read them because they’re still [copyrighted].

David Read:
Exactly. Well, that’s interesting. I am thrilled that I have found it. And I think that you are accessing something that is, and delivering something that is, of great value because, like you said; with your daughters wanting to have something on in the background, there’s something about being stimulated externally when you’re being creative and working on a project that you’re working on. And also, there’s something about your mind being freed from whatever you’re dealing with in the day-to-day when you’re working about a problem and you set your mind aside on something else for a little while, and, “I got it!”

Gildart Jackson:
Right.

David Read:
Solutions arise, and you’re being entertained; your brain isn’t just stopping you know?

Gildart Jackson:
Right.

David Read:
It’s whittling constantly.

Gildart Jackson:
There’s something also… and that’s why I made the books for children… there’s something about when you get read to or you read: your mind is free to imagine. So you don’t see Snow White the way Snow White is always seen because that Disney did it that way and therefore that’s who we imagine, you see… if you read the book first or if you read Peter Pan first, you see it all in your mind’s eye – as described by Barry – but you see it, and you’re seeing it in a perfect world, I think, comes first. Then you can enjoy the movies, which are beautiful and wonderful, but having the experience in your imagination, having that be prompted, is a step that I don’t think we want to miss.

David Read:
And, you know, I fear as we move forward with more adaptations and more noise, if you will… for instance, the Disney films are wonderful, but they are adaptations. You look at Peter Pan, you know, he’s not a very good guy. Like he’s been portrayed in that film. And I think that it’s important to remember the source material.

Gildart Jackson:
Right, right.

David Read:
And see where all this stuff came from.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, especially something like that. I was just flabbergasted by how brilliant that book is. I mean, it’s so much of what we now sort of take for granted in storytelling was in that book; the way he actually constructed the book, the way we think about relationships – parents and children. It really is a very formative book, I think.

David Read:
And there are many reasons that it’s a classic.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah.

David Read:
Classics are not all classics for the same reasons.

Gildart Jackson:
But a lot of them are. The ones that I want to find to do on Fireside are the ones that have been around for a hundred years for a reason. There is something evergreen about them; the way it’s done or the subject.

David Read:
Dial the Gate Started because of CIVD as well.

Gildart Jackson:
Really? OK.

David Read:
Fifty percent because I was tired of climbing the walls, and 50% because actors had to be forced to learn a new technology. And so actors, many of whom are luddites, got plugged in and we’ve been taking advantage of it. So it’s interesting for you and I to come together three and a half years on for something that we did both for ourselves and for the community, and we’re still doing it because something’s working.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. Yeah. Now, so over the course of the years – the 252 episodes – you’ve had, I imagine, most everybody on. It’s each episode with a different actor or each episode…

David Read:
Most are with actors. I have been fortunate to make plenty of behind-the-scenes connections with [people]. I knew these people while the show was in production – around the time that you came in, actually, I was introduced to them – so I have been blessed with knowing a lot of the folks behind the scenes. And when you get certain people to buy into what it is that you’re trying to achieve, when they see what it is that you’re trying to do, they open the doors to a lot of other people, because… particularly the behind-the-scenes people, their stories have not been told, and they don’t want to be put on a pedestal in front of a camera – that’s not what they were doing. They were below-the-line people at a lot of times for a reason. And many of them have reached out to me and said, “You know what? I really appreciate what you’re doing…” No, I’m not interested. And it is what it is. But I’m so thankful to have the platform and that people are getting what it is. This isn’t just something that’s… right now this is an archive for everyone and for free.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, yeah.

David Read:
For all of us. For Stargate fans who haven’t even become fans yet.

Gildart Jackson:
Now, were you a Stargate fan from the beginning? From the movie?

David Read:
I never saw the movie until… I saw “Children of the Gods” first, the pilot for SG-1. And then NBC had Stargate as the movie of the week the next night. And so I got into it ass backwards.

Gildart Jackson:
OK.

David Read:
And then I started watching it. So they were already in Season Two of production on SG-1. So pretty early on.

Gildart Jackson:
But you remember watching the pilot and thinking, “This is my kind of deal”?

David Read:
Yes, it was replacing… I’m from a little town in southern Illinois. On Saturday nights, our local ABC affiliate would run syndicated programming that was actually all shot at Bridge Studios and MGM’s Showtime block that had aired on their premium channel 13 months earlier, and now it’s in syndication. And one night, Poltergeist or Outer Limits or one of those wasn’t on and Stargate was on instead. And I fell in love.

Gildart Jackson:
Oh, that’s great.

David Read:
That’s how it’s been ever since.

Gildart Jackson:
That is great.

David Read:
I have something of yours. Janus has always been a very important character to me. And I don’t know if you’ll recognize this.

Gildart Jackson:
So that was my suitcase… the briefcase that I left with. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

David Read:
And it still runs.

Gildart Jackson:
It’s still on!

David Read:
It’s still on.

Gildart Jackson:
Only another 3,000 years to go.

David Read:
I know. Right, exactly.

Gildart Jackson:
That’s great! Now, you bought that?

David Read:
I did. So I managed the Propworks Stargate auctions in 2009. Can you hear me OK?

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, yeah.

David Read:
…in 2009, and this little tootsie came down and it’s one of a kind. We had to determine, like, how much it was going to be worth and… all the little doodads and everything else. This thing is powered by D batteries. And I don’t know if you know about the Ancient [text], but this is font substitution. Do you know what that is?

Gildart Jackson:
I don’t know what it is, but I can imagine: if you substitute, you can read it.

David Read:
Right, exactly. And so I did that.

GJ
OK. What does it say?

David Read:
It says… so the front says “Janus.”

Gildart Jackson:
Oh, wow.

David Read:
And then the text… on the inside, the text says, “be this the accumulated knowledge of Janus. All men, by nature, desire to know.” And that’s what is written down on the inside.

Gildart Jackson:
What a great… so, who made those? The prop people?

David Read:
The prop people went ahead and built an Ancient font, and they went out of their way to not just put mumbo jumbo on there, but it’s a code. It’s a code that fans cracked. The ancient staircase in Atlantis is a poem welcoming off-worlders to their home. And that was just the magic of the show. So you went up to Vancouver and you filmed that episode.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah.

David Read:
Who was Janus to you when you look back on that individual episode?

Gildart Jackson:
The strange thing about being an actor is… and this might not be what you like to hear, but is that… I think it means a lot more to you guys.

David Read:
Oh, sure.

Gildart Jackson:
And when I watched the episode just yesterday. What I was taken with was how much… I had a great time and they… almost every episode in the sci-fi world of every show I’ve ever done, there’s always been talk about the character coming back. But it never ever does, which is always very sad.

David Read:
This one was one that surprised me as well.

Gildart Jackson:
And yet, the camaraderie, the fun of making that show and being in inhabiting that world for those actors week after week for the amount of seasons and episodes that they did, I got – in a nice way – a little jealous that they had… when I watched it, I was thinking, “God, they must have had a lot of fun making this thing that is so…” When I was a kid, I enjoyed Star Trek and I can definitely remember putting myself, as I was just daydreaming often, putting myself on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Or walking down those little corridors where the doors open. And having some adventure of my own making, but within the framework of that world. And I would like… you know, there are several things I still like to do as an actor, and one of them is; it would be so much fun to create, to be an integral part of a show where people do stuff, like: the prop guy makes the briefcase. He didn’t have to do that. He did that because he’s wonderful, you know, or she. They’re dedicated and they all bought into, “Oh, we’re making a new world. We’re making a new thing.” And that enthusiasm to do that and then to play a part in that – I hope that opportunity comes my way one day because I would love to do that. So, in answer to your question, who is Janus to me? I remember having… you know, you do kind of what you do as an actor, which is: how can I make this guy fun and interesting? He’s a lot more bouncy than I am. And he talks faster than I do. And he… I noticed I did this funny thing with my… three or four of the different scenes. I was doing this thing [Merkel-Raute], and… that he was just passionate about… I enjoyed watching myself, I thought, you know, “Good, good.” I was doing the work. He was a fun character to play, and I and I’m proud of myself that I had the fun of making up a few things that were my take on him.

David Read:
This guy’s a rebel. He bucks authority.

Gildart Jackson:
He bucks up against the system. And the man…

David Read:
Moros, yeah.

Gildart Jackson:
And I remember very much liking the girl who played that other part.

David Read:
Torri Higginson, Dr. Weir?

Gildart Jackson:
No, not her.

David Read:
Melia McClure? The other Ancient, Melia McClure?

Gildart Jackson:
Melia! That’s right. Yes. I liked everybody. They were all lovely. the ones that I met. I didn’t meet any of the other regulars.

David Read:
They were in the future.

Gildart Jackson:
They were in the future. Yeah. Although I do… for a while, I knocked around with Joe [Flanigan] a little bit because we had mutual friends, but that was after Stargate, I think. But why is Janus one of your top five Stargate characters? What is that about?

David Read:
The Ancients are the key to the franchise. They are the gate builders.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah.

David Read:
And we didn’t often come in contact with them – they were legend. And from a functional plot device perspective, they’re always leaving their stuff around for us to mess with and get in trouble with. So they are critical from that standpoint because they are the device, or the reason by which we get in and out of trouble, and have an opportunity to explore new facets of ourselves through the excuse that: there was a previous iteration of our form. So they are the example that we can go to – if we work hard enough and work together – we can actually evolve to heal people with our hands. They went on… when they returned to Earth, they gained a tremendous number of mental abilities. And Janus is an example of one of the characters who invented a lot of these things. You may not know this, but he is the reason why there is a major two-parter in the fifth season of the show. His lab is discovered at the basement level of one of the pylons of the city. And a huge collection of his research is there to be found. And as I’m watching the show, I’m like, “Sooner or later we’re gonna find this guy again.” You know, because the shuttle that he made, the time travel device that he made, was featured in SG-1 later on in the same year. It was clear that he had recreated the technology and it’s used to facilitate an adventure at the end of that season. And he’s used [it] to facilitate an adventure on Atlantis in Season Five, and the fan speculation has been going on since the character was introduced; that he was probably the father of a machine called Reese that gave birth to the Replicators, which were a huge problem on the Stargate SG-1 TV series. So my point is that he is a linchpin, more than likely, for a great deal of the stories that we have watched over the years. And he’s involved in a fair bit of fanfic as well, because he’s the reason why a lot of this… it would make sense that he would be the reason why a lot of this started.

Gildart Jackson:
Oh, that’s great. It’s great to know. It’s fun that a little bit that sort of lives on in other ways.

David Read:
It does.

Gildart Jackson:
I have a friend who is a huge Stargate fan – fellow parents at my kid’s school. And she’s always calling me Janus and teasing me about the episode.

David Read:
So she gets it!

Gildart Jackson:
She totally gets it. Oh, they love it. She and her husband; they love it. And it’s their show, you know. And I guess that is the way, with certain TV shows, they kind of just appeal. And especially in the science fiction world, it’s really… it’s beautiful. So you have all the kit.

David Read:
And I’m sure SGC would have loved to get their hands on this little tootsie, were it real. God knows what’s in this thing! But yes. I’m curious; do you find that a little disturbing that some of us go this hardcore into it? Or as a storyteller, like we’ve been discussing, do you get why some forms of modern entertainment just stick with people?

Gildart Jackson:
I think if you manage to do that you’ve done what your job is. I mean, if you can… those people who created Stargate, I mean, how wonderful for them to have created these – literally – universes that people enjoy, I think. So my father-in-law is an actor, and he had – he’s a wonderful actor. He’s now 90, maybe four…

David Read:
Jerry Hardin.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, Jerry Hardin. So he doesn’t do it anymore. But he was in three episodes of the original Star Trek. And then he played Mark Twain in Star Trek: The Next Generation. And,

David Read:
Whoop!

Gildart Jackson:
And he once went… so he developed a one-man show of Mark Twain – a bit like the Hal Holbrook show – and he would play it around. And one day somebody said to him, “Will you come to a convention and play your Twain show?” And I went with him to a convention to be his stage manager.

David Read:
A Star Trek convention or a different kind of convention?

Gildart Jackson:
Star Trek convention.

David Read:
OK. Based on his appearance in “Time Zero.” OK.

Gildart Jackson:
And based upon his several… and he was also on The X-Files, and a bunch of things. So we went… and I stage managed for him at several shows, but the best audience – bar none – was the Star Trek show audience. Not because Jerry was, you know, Twain in The Next Generation, but because they really got the material – his material was all Mark Twain’s writings and he was enacting them – they were super smart, attentive, interested, generous and it was a huge auditorium, and it was really a wonderful show. And I was… and people were dressed up as, you know, Captain Kirk and all this stuff, and it was my first experience. So I thought it was wonderful. I’ve never been… I’ve been on a few shows like this, but I’ve never been to a convention, you know, sort of like for me. But my experience of it, that time, was like; this is just wonderful. I mean, everybody was having so much fun. And I totally get it. Like I told you: in my brain, I walked around the Starship Enterprise when I was a kid.

David Read:
It’s a fantasy. That’s where our ideas begin.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

David Read:
That is so cool. I love his portrayal of the character in “Time Zero.” So to see him in person going through Samuel Clemens’ material – that would have been rich to behold.

Gildart Jackson:
It was. It really was. He was very good. Very good. And yeah, it was great.

David Read:
Wow. Yeah… the importance of that character, of Janus, cannot be understated to the mythology of the show. Were you aware of the story about his secret lab in Season Five?

Gildart Jackson:
[shakes head]

David Read:
OK. You’re going to have to go to your friends and say, “Why didn’t you tell me I had a secret lab?” Maybe they’re not there yet.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. So you also [mentioned]… so there was the movie.

David Read:
Yeah.

Gildart Jackson:
Then there was Stargate…

David Read:
SG-1.

Gildart Jackson:
SG-1. And there’s been a Stargate, something else?

David Read:
Atlantis, which you were on – you were on the spinoff.

Gildart Jackson:
Stargate Atlantis, that’s right! So, yeah, yeah, yeah, OK.

David Read:
And then Stargate Universe.

Gildart Jackson:
Oh, what happened with Stargate Universe?

David Read:
That’s that ship right there [points to model]. Her name is Destiny. And she was sent to the outer reaches, to the edge of the universe to discover a… the Ancients detected an organized signal – a highly organized structure in the background microwave radiation that makes up visible space, that makes up the universe. So they sent out Destiny a very long time ago to try and determine what it’s made of. And that show got canceled in Season Two [sighs].

Gildart Jackson:
Oh, no.

David Read:
Oh, yes! So her crew are in stasis pods just flying away at the end of that episode. Yeah. And Atlantis got technically canceled. Atlantis ended prematurely as well with Season Five. They had at least one DVD movie planned and had ideas for Season Six. So there are fans out there who are watching right now who… that’s one of the reasons they’ve continued to connect with the material is the hopes that Amazon, who now owns MGM, is going to revitalize the show in some way. But we’re all on pins and needles to see if they’re going to just start fresh or pick up where Brad [Wright] and Robert [C. Cooper] left off. So we’ll see.

Gildart Jackson:
Well, I bet, if it happens, I bet a show like yours will be an incentive for them to [inaudible] how many people still love it.

David Read:
It’s one of the advantages – that I continue to do it; is that we’re going to be resource material for new fans who are coming in because people connect with this evergreen material and want to learn more. And it’s because of wonderful people like you who are giving us the opportunity to archive these stories.

Gildart Jackson:
So, you have done an episode with Torri [Higginson], I imagine.

David Read:
I have actually only done a one-on-one with Torri in person and that interview has not yet been released. She and I have connected through the 100th episode of the show – we did a larger Atlantis reunion, and I’m trying to get her back, but at some point that one-on-one interview. Yes, but the fans haven’t seen it yet.

Gildart Jackson:
OK. Yeah, yeah. I remember… she’s Canadian, right?

David Read:
She is.

Gildart Jackson:
But she was living in LA. I remember she was really lovely and clearly very talented. And I wonder… you know, I’ll look her up on IMDb.

David Read:
Absolutely Elizabeth Weir’s story is an interesting one, too. A lot of twists and turns.

Gildart Jackson:
OK.

David Read:
Yeah. I have some fan questions for you.

Gildart Jackson:
Go on, then.

David Read:
Mark Huggins [says]; from a fellow Brit. Do you think the English accent benefited the character? Was there a conversation about whether they wanted to keep it or change it or was it never an issue?

Gildart Jackson:
I have since then worked as an American, but back then I was very… I hadn’t been an actor for long when I did this show. And I didn’t have confidence doing an American accent. So I would audition for everything as [I am]… And it seems in the future worlds that they were pretty indiscriminate. It didn’t really matter. I would imagine they thought it helped; it added a bit of something to it. I don’t remember whether the character was presented as being a British character; or whether just, you know, I just auditioned for it. I don’t remember the audition. But I don’t know whether they decided they wanted a Brit; maybe. Maybe they did. I don’t know.

David Read:
Yeah, there’s… I think going all the way back to Star Wars, there’s this idea that Brits are definitely in space, and not all of them are evil. The Empire is made up of Brits.

Gildart Jackson:
It kind of makes sense.

David Read:
For sure. Melissa Smith [asks], Gildart, what is one of your favorite performances from your career? And I often like to ask this question myself. A performance that you did that touched you in unexpected ways, that challenged you in ways that you weren’t anticipating. A role that has stuck with you. So thank you, Melissa, for bringing that up.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah.

David Read:
And not everyone has a good answer, but I always like to ask.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. I think that on film and TV, I don’t really feel like I have… you know, I’ve been a basically jobbing actor doing guest starring roles. And so I haven’t yet been able to really, you know, expand something. I did a TV show called “Whodunnit?,” which was [a] very strange animal. Where I was the host of a reality show. But it was definitely a character I was playing. That was quite fun. But I would have to go with one of the plays that I did. I did a play in LA called “Class.” And the character there was a chap called Elliot. It was a two-hander with another lovely actress. And the play was beautiful. And so something like that; where you really… I got to – for several months – I got to be inhabiting this character and trying to improve it, and trying to get them to be as good as I could do it. That I think probably is… there was more fun in that sort of experience than… from an acting point of view.

David Read:
As someone who hasn’t acted since college – two and three performances, and then it’s done – the idea for me of doing a piece of material hundreds of times, it seems like a sick time loop if to me, but if the material isn’t any good, but if the material is, you’re not living it again and again… well, you are living it again and again, but it’s never the same. Is it?

Gildart Jackson:
No, it’s not the same. And it’s also… it’s a fascinating challenge. Another thing that I very much want to do is to do a show on Broadway. And one of the reasons why I want to do that is I would like to do it every night for two years. If that opportunity could come my way, I’d love to do that. Just because of what you would learn. And it would only do that… you’d only get that opportunity if people were liking the show. So something about… I remember being a kid going to a play in London, and that sort of typical thing of the lights going down, and this world appearing in front of you on the stage and…

David Read:
Magic.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, and I remember thinking, “Oh, I want to get up there and somehow be a part of that,” and I didn’t do that for the first 30 years of my life, and then I had a change and decided that I wanted to give this a go.

David Read:
Wow. Hun de Tuam, I apologize if I butchered that; do you prefer stage acting or working in front of a camera? Which is more rewarding?

Gildart Jackson:
They’re both very rewarding. I like acting. I would like to be doing it all the time. It’s fun. It’s exciting. Luckily, I get to do audiobook narrating as much as I want, and that’s acting too. It’s a different form of acting, but I’m very happy being an actor. I like it. I’m lucky that I can do it. It’s always an adventure. Some show like this is literally an adventure, because I’m going on the adventure of Janus, but I’m also getting on an airplane, going to Vancouver, working for a couple of weeks, meeting all these new people.

David Read:
Experiencing a new city.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, having the thrill of that. It’s always great fun.

David Read:
Vernon wanted you to know; you were amazing in both this role and in “Charmed.” Thank you for the years of amazing television. I’ve not seen “Charmed.”

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, I played a guy on “Charmed” who was… I think Harry Potter had come out and they decided to make a wizard school for the, I think the sixth, maybe the seventh season, and so I was the headmaster of the wizard school.

David Read:
You were their Dumbledore!

Gildart Jackson:
I was their… yeah. And… I don’t quite know how many episodes of that I did, but there were a lot. And that was great fun, really fun. So thank you.

David Read:
Absolutely. Joey wanted to know – I should probably finish with this, but I’ll go ahead and ask it; it would be such a treat to see you reprise your role in a future Stargate adaptation, depending on what Amazon’s going to do next. Would you be willing to step back into Janus’ shoes and carry this briefcase again?

Gildart Jackson:
I would love to put that briefcase on my shoulder. I’m a little bit older now, so I don’t know whether time would allow that in the world of Stargate.

David Read:
It’s perfect for him because he was a time traveler. God knows what he was doing. I actually wrote a treatment – I wasn’t even going to bring this up – for a novel series called Stargate: Oblivion, and Janus was a big key to that puzzle because he had done a few things behind the council’s back that… he’s just ripe for story generation. You know, that’s what’s so interesting about the character. So I’ll leave it at that. Let me see here. Matthew Hall [says]; “Mr. Gildart’s acting was amazing. He added to the realism and sort of upbeat soul of the show, as well as intensity. Thank you.” I loved just the touch of romance between Elizabeth and Janus. It’s not a scientist inspecting someone under a microscope here. He is making contact with another human being. You get the impression that he’s been a little bit of a loner. And, you know, that in this short period of time, this is someone that he connected with. And she clearly, you know, she kisses him on the [cheek] – there’s a connection there. And I loved that, even though there was just a few scenes, you know, that people can still – across species or iterations of humanity – find a way to connect.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, I thought that was very good. I don’t remember quite how it was written. But… and I don’t remember who directed that episode. But the moment that was very good… I thought the kiss was very sort of sweet. It wasn’t fierce, but it was also… there was… there was a sense that they, in another world, there might have been something between them that was very, maybe not even sexual, but just…

David Read:
I think it’s gratitude.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, really. It was sweet. It was sweet. A really profound connection.

David Read:
Absolutely. Much deeper than just, you know, “Hey, what’s up? You’re 10,000 years my senior.” Andy Mikita directed that episode. Great guy.

Gildart Jackson:
OK.

David Read:
Raj Luthra [says], looking back on the performance as an actor, you know, 20 years hence, is there anything that you might have changed? Do you look back on work going, “I would have made a different choice now?”

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah. I was… you know, it’s a little bit scary when you look at yourself, “Oh, Jesus.” But I didn’t feel that. I felt, “OK. I did a good job.” I was… one of the things that surprised me about the show when I watched it was the pace. Clearly there was, like in those opening scenes with the regulars, they… it was like a horse running out of the gate. And I have, typically, a much slower delivery. But, clearly, somebody helped me speed up for those scenes that I was in. And I think it worked really nicely. I felt like the enthusiasm – there was a boyish enthusiasm to him, which was fun. And I didn’t remember that. I’ve played a lot of baddies, and this was very different. He was very much a good guy, a sort of boffin, but sweet. And so, no, I really was happy with what I did.

David Read:
Without him, there would have been no Atlantis Expedition. So it’s a feather in the character’s cap and in yours for portraying him. And it’s meant a lot to me that we’ve been able to sit down and spend time talking about him. What’s going on in your world? What’s on the horizon? More Fireside Reading, I’m guessing. Anything else in particular that you want me to shout out? All the links are in the description below, by the by, folks. So all you have to do is just click.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, not really, I mean I… Fireside is an ongoing thing and if anybody wants to, you know, take a look, please do. I’ve got a lot of audiobooks on the docket, and Hollywood’s been kind of quiet…

David Read:
Yeah.

Gildart Jackson:
Which has been a little bit, you know, upsetting.

David Read:
For sure.

Gildart Jackson:
And so my hope is that we’ll start, you know, there’ll be some stuff going on soon, and… it’s one of the drawbacks about being an actor – you just don’t know what’s going to be next, but it’s one of the great things too because you can suddenly find yourself getting the call that sends you up to be on Stargate for a couple of weeks.

David Read:
You never know the connections that you make where they will lead. Sometimes they are very unexpected.

Gildart Jackson:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Read:
This has been tremendous for me, Gildart. I really appreciate you taking the time and being so thoughtful – especially with a piece of material that’s 20 years old. So sometimes I just get people and they’re like, “Yeah. He was a jerk. That’s all I remember.”

Gildart Jackson:
Well, it was good to watch it. Another thing, interesting, is that I was very soft spoken.

David Read:
Yes.

Gildart Jackson:
So it was interesting to see those choices. But it’s been lovely to revisit a little bit of my past together. And I love the enthusiasm that you have for the show and all of the people who found you.

David Read:
You’ve made a sincere fan out of me, because out of, you know, my knowledge of you was him. And then seeing the Fireside Reading, I mean, just for a snap of a second, it was like, “Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah, that voice is perfect for this! There’s no question. I’m now going to be tuning in!” So I’m definitely going to be spending a lot more time with you.

Gildart Jackson:
Great. Great.

David Read:
I appreciate you coming on and talking about the show with us and your enthusiasm about this form of storytelling. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about as an audiobook lover, and I really appreciate you taking the time.

Gildart Jackson:
Oh, that’s great. And I am, you know, without people on the other side enjoying the work – if you are lucky enough to make something that people do enjoy – it really wouldn’t mean anything. So it’s great to meet you and to say hello to everyone. I’m happy to do it.

David Read:
We are lucky if we get to share a part of ourselves with people in a manner that makes us feel like we’ve given something and other people receive it so warmly. Absolutely.

Gildart Jackson:
A treat to meet you, David. Thank you.

David Read:
Treat to meet you, Gildart. I appreciate your time. And I’m going to go ahead and wrap up the show.

Gildart Jackson:
All right.

David Read:
Thank you, sir. Gildart Jackson, everyone. Janus in Stargate Atlantis. This character, I suspect if you really opened up the hood of the franchise, I think you would discover that this character was a linchpin for all kinds of things – and that’s certainly the impression that I’ve gone away with and that the novels have as well over at Fandemonium. You can go and check those out. Dial the Gate is brought to you every week for free, and we do appreciate you watching. But if you want to see the show continue to grow, please click that like button; it really makes a difference with YouTube and will continue to help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with the Stargate friend. And if you want to get notified about future episodes, click subscribe, and giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops, and you’ll also get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. I do not create this show in a vacuum; my moderating team, Sommer, Tracy, Antony. Jeremy, we’ve added a few; the people’s names are beginning to rattle differently in my head. Sommer, Tracy, Antony, Jeremy, Marcia – you guys are fantastic; you keep the back end going week in and week out. Big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb, who keeps DialTheGate.com up and running. And my tremendous thanks to EagleSG, Matt Wilson, who did Atlantis – it’s due – in the opening of this episode. So he’s been working a lot on that model. And I hope you guys enjoyed it. It was important that we debut with an episode like this with the character that helped it rise from the ocean. We have more episodes on the way at DialtheGate.com – some big ones that are going to be in your orbit this weekend so go to DialtheGate.com and check them out. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in, and I will see you on the other side.