Aaron Craven has portrayed three different characters in Stargate, From Captain Kyle Rogers and Matar in SG-1 to a Wraith Commander in Atlantis. We are pleased to welcome him to Dial the Gate to discuss his experiences in the show and share stories about his career!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
0:11 – Opening Credits
00:36 – Welcome
01:00 – Guest Introduction
01:13 – “Rules of Engagement” — Aaron’s First Professional TV Gig
04:37 – Mitch and Murray Productions
09:10 – Invited to Stargate Early
14:58 – “Line in the Sand”
20:10 – “Outsiders”
24:18 – Wraith Makeup
26:52 – Travelers
28:33 – Working with Brad Wright
30:07 – “The Infamous Tuna Torture”
31:03 – Production Frequency
37:32 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
38:50 – End Credits

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome all to Episode 296 of Dial the Gate. The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I appreciate you tuning in. Aaron Craven, who played a number of different roles in Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis, is joining us for this episode, and if you are live in YouTube feed, go ahead and submit questions over to my moderating team. Aaron, welcome to Dial the Gate, sir. How are you?

Aaron Craven:
I’m good David. Glad to be here.

David Read:
I really appreciate you taking the time. When you look back on your career, when did Stargate fall for you and what was going on in your life? And tell us about how got you involved in this industry.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah, Stargate holds a very special place in my heart. The first episode I did… I can’t remember… I think it was Season Three maybe… Where I played a guest star in Rules of Engagement. That was my first ever professional film/TV job.

David Read:
Really? You couldn’t tell.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. Well, thank you. I can tell when I look back at the footage. I had finished theater school, and really didn’t know a whole lot about film/TV at that point. I was pretty green. I went in and I guess my audition landed well with the producers. But they knew that I was pretty knew so they actually invited me out to set to watch the filming process of the episode before. Just to get me used to being on the set, and meet some of the cast, and get more comfortable before I showed up and start shooting my episode. So, I went out and immediately met Richard Dean Anderson. And, of course, I grew up watching MacGyver like everybody else so that was a big thing for me when I was that young. And I also met Peter DeLuise who was directing the previous episode, not knowing that years later Peter and I would become friends. And I would work with him on a subsequent episode of Stargate.

David Read:
Great guy.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah, and actually, it’s funny that we’re having this interview today… Because one of the actors that was on that episode, Jesse Moss, I just ran into him at a charity benefit last night. And he said, “What are you up to?” And I said, “Oh, actually, we did Stargate all those years ago [and] I’m doing this interview tomorrow with gate cast… Dial the Gate.”

David Read:
OK, yes! He was your lieutenant. That’s right. I’ll be darned, small world.

Aaron Craven:
Very small world. And then Dion Johnstone, who was also on the episode with me and went on to play many other roles on Stargate as well. He also became a very good friend of mine, and we keep in touch. So it is a small world, and it’s funny… It’s, like, that Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. You never that far from somebody else in the business.

David Read:
The business really grew around Stargate. Vancouver as a town did. When you look back over 17 seasons of television for those three shows, it was one thing in 1997, and when it left in 2011, Vancouver was a completely different city. Just absolutely wide open in terms of opportunity for different folks and everything else.

Aaron Craven:
I think Stargate…the late 90s Vancouver was becoming Hollywood North, as we call it. Stargate, along with X-Files, and a few other shows in that era really put Vancouver on the map as a filming location. It was an industry anchor here for many years. It was great gig for crew and actors who got to be on the show. It was fantastic. Brad Wright and the gang at Stargate, you know… Many of us went on to work with Brad in other productions. Stargate was a big thing in Vancouver for a long time.

David Read:
Before I dig into more of your Stargate experience, tell me more about Mitch and Murray Productions.

Aaron Craven:
Are you a Glengarry Glen Ross fan?

David Read:
I have been known to see a couple of the shows, yes. Absolutely.

Aaron Craven:
So that’s the theater company based in Vancouver. I founded it about 10-12 years ago. And I was always a David Mamet fan, and a huge fan of Glengarry Glen Ross. It’s one of my favorite plays.

David Read:
Intense, man.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. Mitch and Murray… In the play version, [and] in the film as well, you never see them. They’re just talked about. They’re these kind of mysterious guys who pulled the strings and hold everybody’s fate in their hands. So, I thought, “That’s kind of my vision for the theater,” as well. When you’re storytelling, you don’t really wanna see the puppet master, the people behind the scenes. You wanna just be watching what’s in front of you and not sort of see all the mechanics. So that kind of became the namesake of the company. We’re still running, and have a great audience following, and I love theater. It’s my first love.

David Read:
Do you do original productions? Do you do pieces that have been previously performed? What are your parameters?

Aaron Craven:
We do plays from all over the global stage. So, we’ve done a couple of David Mamet plays. We’ve done plays from Annie Baker, and a lot of the world’s great playwrights. We did do an original work a couple of years ago. I actually wrote a play, [and] we gave it its world premiere two years ago. It was called Instantaneous Blue, and it was a semi-autobiographical play based on my experience with dementia in my family. Both my parents went through dementia and Alzheimer’s. So, it was definitely a challenging piece, but [it] found an audience and a lot of people really related to it, and it did really well.

David Read:
Do you find… I’m curious because Brad Wright also had a similar experience in creating an episode of Atlantis called The Shrine.

Aaron Craven:
Oh, I didn’t know that.

David Read:
Did you find yourself plumbing a lot of your feelings while you were writing that?

Aaron Craven:
Oh yeah. This was during COVID when I wrote it. When we were all in kind of siloed, and away in our spaces. I, along with my wife, were raising the kid, and my mom was still alive at that point. And I would just take a couple of hours a day and go into my office and it was something where… It was a bit of cleansing experience because I took so much of what I was going through and I thought, “If I just tell the truth here, and artfully put the representation of what I went through on the stage, hopefully it can be a cathartic experience for other people.” It’s an incurable disease, and it’s awful on the families and the caregivers. But I feel like, something… A piece of art can just make you feel a little less alone with the experience.

David Read:
I’ve never shared this on the show before, but I am going through a similar experience with my family.

Aaron Craven:
I’m very sorry to hear that.

David Read:
I appreciate that and I may ask for the play, so I can read it.

Aaron Craven:
Of course. Absolutely.

David Read:
All the best to this production. This is great.

Aaron Craven:
Good luck with the journey, David.

David Read:
Absolutely. It’s gonna be a long one. But that’s the thing that I love about this format of expression, is that you can… Actually, you can do the same thing with painting, and with music, and with everything else. But there’s something specific to this form of expression because you can actually have the characters speak your thoughts, and aspects of your experience, and conflicting ideas that you have, and frustrations about, you know, not getting enough sleep, or “I’ve already said this,” and “We’ve already dealt with this.” I can only imagine the journey that you went on. Especially during COVID.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. That’s a longer conversation how that affected the whole experience with my mom being in a care home at the time. We can have a whole separate podcast just based on this staff.

David Read:
Have you been tested?

Aaron Craven:
I haven’t.

David Read:
I haven’t neither.

Aaron Craven:
I definitely have my insurance and paperwork all sort of put up together in that event. But I try not to… All you can do is try to stay healthy and not dwell on what the future might hold. Live in the moment.

David Read:
So, you were invited on the set the episode before. And it’s interesting that… I can see why they chose you because… Especially when you’re saying that this was your first bigger gig. Because this is obviously a character who is very green in his experience. This isn’t a human. He’s alien but a human who is unearthly who’s been plucked from his world and sent into this battle scenario where he’s been trained and trained by his Jaffa masters. They leave and now he’s stuck with these men. And you have Dion Johnstone as your opposite there. What was Rules of Engagement for you as an episode. I don’t know if you rewatched it. But this was one of my favorite shows. Can you tell me about any memories that you have from that shoot. And I think you’re the only person to yell at Richard Dean Anderson in the entire run of the series. So that’s a dubious honor for you. “Is that clear!?”

Aaron Craven:
That’s a surprise. You know what? I think… There’s a couple of memories that drawn to mind and they’re based in being such a new actor at the time. And it was how the cast embraced me as a newcomer. Chris Judge was fantastic to me, gave me some tips on, you know, how to kind of be cool on camera, and hold the gun and that kind of stuff. [He] invited me into… We both discovered we were NBA basketball fans. [Inaudible] fitness trailer between takes and watch highlights and whatnot. And I also remember really learning what a professional is from Amanda Tapping. I specifically remember [when] we were shooting one scene. It was late in the day, she was off camera, she had no lines, it was pouring rain, [and] she was sick. And rather than do what, you know, a lot of series regulars would do, would be just, like, “Oh, just use my stand-in for the eyeline, and I’m gonna take off.” She stayed. And she stayed and was present off camera. You don’t have to do that, particularly when you don’t have dialogue. You’re basically just an eyeline for the actors on the camera. But she stayed and she would say, “Hey Aaron, am I giving you enough…?” She was just… That edged in my mind. I don’t know if I’ve ever told her in the times I ran into here since, but she was my first demonstration of what it is to be a giving actor and a true pro.

David Read:
In the rain and feeling miserable. Wow.

Aaron Craven:
I seem to remember she also, in the episode, had a scar on her face that they painted on. Because her dog had jumped up on her and scratched her face and so they worked something like a scar into the episode because of that. She was wounded and sick and in the shivering cold, and she stuck around for us. I just thought to myself, “That’s the type of actor I wanna be.”

David Read:
What great role models. That whole cast and team. Did you have any sympathy for this character and what he was going through? Being sent back through the gate, there was a whole array of stuff that you had to play there.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. There was kind of a connection between that character, and the character I played years later, I think it was Season Seven. They both kind of living by this code. And I have a lot of empathy for people that live by sort of a narrative or a code that all of a sudden is sort of… They get the rug pulled out from under them, and all of a sudden, they live in a world they don’t understand. Characters that kind of a have blind spots that are then, you know… They’ve got a spotlight shone at them [and] they’re not ready for it. I’ve loved playing the vulnerability of characters. I think every actor likes to be macho and play a cool guy that blows everybody away. But actually, I’ve always liked characters that are more kind of vulnerable, and struggling.

David Read:
I love… My favorite scene in the episode is “Tuna torture.” Do you remember this?

Aaron Craven:
I do. I’ve got some buddies from High School that love to quote that line to me. Out of all the gigs I’ve done. Sometimes, I’ll just get a text randomly from somebody, and they’ll be like, “Hey, how’s tuna torture?”

David Read:
“This is poison.” “It’s hospital food. Of course it is.”

Aaron Craven:
I imagine that was probably Rick’s ad lib or a line that he invented. It sounds like something that he would have made up.

David Read:
Was he a force to be reckoned with on set or was he just there doing his job and sliding in a one liner every now and then? There is something about that presence.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. He just kind of has an ease about him. He’s one of those actors that just…He’s not too precious about things. Not too precious about the dialogue. He just kind of goes about his business.

David Read:
The episode is also the only episode in the entire franchise where they wear camouflage. There were a couple of unique things about that show, for sure, that stuck out in my mind. But going back and sharing the footage that… All these men… Their god doesn’t exist. Their God has fallen. What [an] episode, man. That was a great show, and, you know, I look back on that episode with a lot of fondness. I never miss it in a rewatch. It’s just a solid one. You came back I Season Ten’s Line In The Sand as Matar. This is seven seasons later. Was the cast… obviously there was a cast shake up… Was the experience exactly the same? Was there anything unique about it that you can recall? Because this is the guy that actually turns out to be a betrayer.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. But similar to the previous episode, he’s a guy whose world gets kind of turned upside down. I think I grew a beard for that. I knew that the fans would still be, like, “Oh, yeah, it’s [him].” I know that on long-running shows you can do whatever you want but if anybody even catches a glimmer, they’ll go, “I’ll remember that guy from an episode such and such.” I just did it for myself to kind of differentiate visually. That episode… My best memory was, I got to work with Peter DeLuise, and he’s one of the funniest people in the business. Some of the things he says off camera, just to keep things light, and keep people kind of entertained and energetic throughout the day. Hilarious. I remember he was directing some background performers. And they were supposed to be having the conversation. And they weren’t finding, you know… They weren’t improvising things to say so there wasn’t much going on I terms of conversation. He said, “Hey! Just say ‘murmur’ to each other. If you all just say, ‘murmur murmur murmur, the sound of all the ‘murmurs’ together sounds like a background noise.” And all these background performers [going] “murmur murmur murmur.”

David Read:
I didn’t know that background audio is captured on set.

Aaron Craven:
Sometimes when they’re just doing the shot particularly, they capture the live sound on set. They’ll still mix it in afterwards with what we call “walla” when they get people in the studio to talk. But yeah, sometimes they capture the sound on set.

David Read:
It makes you wonder… You are in that position, it’s, like, “What do you say, if you’ve never been in the shoes of this character before and there’s bunch of you back here. What are we supposed to be talking about here? You wanna go to Carl’s Jr. afterwards? Or Tim Hortons?” There’s only so many things you can say because it’s in an alien context.

Aaron Craven:
Exactly. You don’t wanna say things out of context, Like the guy wearing a wristwatch in “Braveheart” that apparently is [visible]. Somewhere on a battlefield you can see someone wearing a watch. Really interesting thing that Peter did as a director that I hadn’t experienced is… There’s a scene where my character kind of gets a little emotional. It’s when… I forget the actress’ name, but she’s sort of telling me “Drop the fight,” and she gives me this big monologue that I kind of react to emotionally. Anyway, I’ve got some tears flowing and usually what they’ll do is they play the takeout and say, “Cut!” And they’ll reset the camera and start shooting again. And Peter saw… Peter is, of course, an actor. And he saw that I was kind of… I had the taps flowing, my tears flowing, and he said, “Just go again. Just resize the camera right away.” “He’s spritzing,” is what he said. It’s slang for “He’s got the tears going, let’s not waste it.” He just resized the frame and shot another take while I had that emotion going. Very astute directorial thing to do to see, “Hey, an actor is really in the moment and feeling something genuine. I’m not gonna waste time by cutting, and making the sound stage noisy again, and breaking that actor’s concentration. I’m just gonna do another take right away.”

David Read:
That’s awesome. A perceptive director is looking for those details. And Aisha Hinds played Thilana in that episode. Powerful performance too.

Aaron Craven:
So great, yeah. All you had to do is look into her eyes and she gives you everything you need.

David Read:
And it’s complicated in a situation like that, especially looking from Matar’s point of view. His planet’s toast. And he has his own perspective, like, “We can’t trust these guys. They’re gonna disappear as soon as their mission’s over and then we get contend with these people in the sky. What are we supposed to do?” Powerful episode. That’s what I love about sci-fi. It’s giving you all kinds of layers. It’s, like, “Well, if you really think of it from his perspective, would I have done anything truly different if given the right motivation?”

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. I thought of that guy, you know… When you play sci-fi you try to ground it in something that’s based in real life. And I thought of him, like, “This is a guy who’s maybe a sort of religious zealot, or something, that has his vision broken.”

David Read:
He’s unmoored. What do you have to latch on to keep from sinking?

Aaron Craven:
That’s right.

David Read:
You came back in Atlantis as a Wraith. A bit of a radical transformation there. No one is gonna recognize you under all that. What was it like to play one of those guys? [A] lot of makeup.

Aaron Craven:
The first thing that happens is that they do a head mold to get the mask contours. It’s a good thing I scuba dived because getting all this stuff on your face… They just poke a couple of straws into your nasal passages and that’s basically… You can’t see anything. The material has kind of been molded onto your face. You’re encased in this stuff. You can’t see anything. You almost lose your sense of surroundings. Some people can get very claustrophobic doing that. Luckily, I scuba dived so it kind of keeps that sort of feeling at bay. Then you put the contacts in. And I never worn contact lenses, let alone these big black lenses that they shove in. The fingernails [are] pressed on so there’s details there when you’re on set, and [when] you have to go to the bathroom, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. It’s a bit of a process.

David Read:
I can imagine so. “You have a bathroom, buddy?”

Aaron Craven:
“I need a bathroom break. I’ll be back in 30 minutes.” All that aside, it’s really liberating, and fun as an actor to play a character buried in makeup when you’re unrecognizable. Kind of liberates you to… I remember I auditioned for that episode… When you’re auditioning, you’re of course just standing there in an audition studio in a T-shirt. And you’re saying all these dramatic things, and it feels a little silly because you feel kind of, you know, “I don’t have any music or any latex makeup to support this melodrama.” But then when you get all the stuff on, you just really do sink in into the character. It’s one of… I love those roles. And I don’t mind being in a makeup chair at 4 in the morning.

David Read:
So my understanding was [that] the process took at least an hour. By Season Five, I think, they have really gotten it down to a science but still took some time.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. It’s not just the mask and the makeup. It’s the nails, and…

David Read:
And the teeth. So, you had to do ADR for all your lines?

Aaron Craven:
I know that they did a little bit of voice modulation work in post. But honestly, I can’t remember if I did ADR or not.

David Read:
My frustration would be… And this would just be me, personally. Maybe you have people [so] that you don’t have to think about [it]. But the cat’s eyes turn after a period of time. Is that one of those things that, as an actor, [you think], “That’s not my job. I’m not…” I mean, clearly, you can’t even see. But those would be some of the things that would drive me nuts in terms of continuity. As an actor, you’re probably not even focused on that.

Aaron Craven:
No. When you have that many technical elements to consider and you’re just trying to speak freely through your teeth prosthetics, you let the script supervisors and other people worry about continuity. Actors vary in terms of their ability to remember continuity and be kind of on the ball when it comes to that. But those sort of details… If they get missed, I guess there’s are all the fans that will infamously point out the mistake, and then you’re part of the gaffe.

David Read:
There’s a Snickers bar in one of the alien space sets in Season Three of Atlantis. Little things like that, we follow up forever.

Aaron Craven:
There’s a famous… I think one of the famous gaffes of all time, is in the movie… At the end of A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s tie… When he’s wrestling [with, and] telling Tom Cruise he’s gonna piss in his skull, or whatever, his tie is straight, and then it’s to the side, and it’s straight. His tie is just all over the place if you watch that movie.

David Read:
Edits, man. But now with digital, they can fix a lot of that. That’s now arrived. I have a question about your experience with the makeup. You’re watching this stuff go on in the mirror, or are you allowed to kind of snooze, and rest, while this is going on?

Aaron Craven:
Kind of relaxing. I think I might have fallen asleep one time. But you can see it all in the mirror.

David Read:
Where is the character appearing for you? Does it have… What I’m asking is, is your perspective transformed by the makeup?

Aaron Craven:
Yeah.

David Read:
So, as it’s going on, you’re becoming this thing?

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. There’s something that actors who go to drama school usually do, something called mask work. And what mask work is, for anybody who doesn’t know, you put on these really grotesque and extreme sort of gargoyle masks and monsters and things like that. And then putting the mask on has this thing that… It kind of liberates you to physically drop into the character. The mask informs what you do with your body, and your demeanor. Just, like, an actor putting on a suit. If you put on a shirt and tie and a crisp collar, you’re gonna feel more kind of white collar.

David Read:
You poise changes

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. Your body [and] posture changes. The costume is everything. It’s part of what allows you to drop into the character.

David Read:
Any other memories from that particular shoot? Anything else from Stargate before we move on to some of your other stuff?

Aaron Craven:
I think Atlantis… From memory, I seem to remember, like, “Oh yeah, you’re gonna be a new Wraith,” and then it was canceled. I think that was one of the final episodes before the show got canceled. And that was, I believe… There was Stargate Universe after that.

David Read:
So, you would [have] heard down the grapevine about Season Six? And then Season Six didn’t come to pass.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah

David Read:
You know, I’ve heard actors tell me, you know… They say often times, “This could be recurring.” How often does that not just happen.

Aaron Craven:
My specialty is being on shows that are about to be canceled.

David Read:
I hear that all the time Aaron. It’s not just you.

Aaron Craven:
OK. Good to know I’m not special.

David Read:
I have a couple of fan questions for you. S V says, “You also did a few episodes of Brad Wright’s Travelers.” I loved the show. Just pure sci-fi. “What was that experience like? Were you disappointed you never got to play one of the Travelers?”

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. My character was, like, Patrick Gilmore’s boss. So, everything that was in the Travelers universe was sort of irrelevant to my character’s plotline. They would just keep writing me back into an episode here and there. Patrick’s a friend of mine, and we have enjoyed each other a lot as people, and have pretty good chemistry as actors. We had an absolute blast shooting that. Every time I would get a call “Oh you’re back on this episode,” I knew that there would just be a scene with Patrick again. We loved working together. We’d worked together on a show called True Calling many years before that and kept in touch. That’s my best memory of Travelers, working with Patrick, who’s another wonderful actor.

David Read:
He has this quality about him that’s kind of understated, a little bit more quiet. But there is a sensitivity to him. His performances in the Universe were just great. He was one of those that you didn’t see coming. And then it was, like, “Wow, this performance.” I can see why Brad just picked him up for Travelers, like, “Nope, you’re coming with me on the next one.”

Aaron Craven:
Yep. Fantastic actor.

David Read:
6MP Films says, “What was it like to work with Brad at the beginning of your career, and then to come back much later in other projects with Brad?” Is there any specific notes that are takeaways with Brad Wright that you can mention?

Aaron Craven:
The thing with Brad is, he’s just really supportive of the actors. He’s really personable. He cares about the shows that he does, and that’s evident in the ways he composes himself on set. It’s just nice to feel trusted by a producer, and to sort of be part of the gang, as it were. If you do one episode of a show, and then you’re brought back to do another, and then there’s another show that that producer brings you on. When the producer has a faith in you, and revisits using you in different roles, it’s just… Every actor needs that kind of confidence, and a little bit of validation to be honest.

David Read:
Absolutely, you’re not performing just for yourself. You’re performing for others. So, you wanna make sure you’re doing something that’s working.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah. And there’s such different shows. Stargate so, kind of, sci-fi, and the sets were very unique. And you’d always be wearing this kind of burlaps, like, industrial-type costume. And then Travelers is just living in the natural world with suit and tie, and Eric McCormack being quippy. So, two totally different experiences working on Stargate and Travelers. But both great shows.

David Read:
Peace Rider says, “​​Tuna Torture [is] one of my all-time favorite. Today l love vegan brand spelled TU-NAH. Every time I eat it, I think about that scene.””

Aaron Craven:
There’s vegan tuna?

David Read:
Evidently so. Spelled TU-NAH. [Peace Rider] “Any thoughts on how Kyle lived his life after he got home?” What do you think happened to that guy? Got a spouse and settled down, and gardening, and tilling the land?

Aaron Craven:
Yeah, I hope he got some therapy.

David Read:
Hope he remembered his gate address.

Aaron Craven:
I mean, after you worship a false God… I’m stumped. I didn’t give him a future story. It’s been so many years since I did that. I’d have to think on that one. Can I come back on another one?

David Read:
Absolutely. How often do you guys do productions over at Mitch and Murray. How often are they scheduled? I’ve already put the web address below so people can go and check you out. And what’s coming up for the future?

Aaron Craven:
I haven’t acted in one of our shows in a few years. I’m in the next one. It’s the Western Canadian premiere of a play called Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, who is actually a writer on the TV series Succession. And this play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama in 2020. It’s a really timely play, particularly given the American election. It’s about four very conservative Catholic intellectuals who reunite at the school they went to together… This very theologically based school where their former teacher is inducted as president. They’re very conservative, and very religious. And all the topics of the day, like Trump, and the polarization in American. All these things are part of their discussion as they meet in a backyard and start to drink, and you know… What’s really interesting about it is, I think sometimes in today’s polarized world, one side thinks of the other as a monolith, and the other side thinks of the other as a monolith, and we don’t see each other’s humanity. And we don’t see each other’s nuance. And this show really does a beautiful job in showing these people not as a monolith [but] as actually very conflicted, and very flawed, and very intra-ideolog[ical] argument happening. It’s an amazing piece of writing. [It can] be disturbing for some people to watch, particularly, mostly liberal audiences. Some of the conversations go into really provocative areas. Will Arbery himself went to a Catholic school. It’s based on a school that his parents teach at, so there’s authenticity.

David Read:
Wow. He’s doing some plumbing on his own.

Aaron Craven:
Absolutely. Whether the show is your cup of tea or not, the writing seems so authentic, and so lived, and it’s timely. These kinds of characters, I feel, are not represented on the stage in the theater, and given a sense of humanity. And that’s what’s so great about the show. It’s going up in late January at Studio 16 in Vancouver. So, if Stargate fans are on the West Coast, and wanna come see Kyle Rogers, and Matar do something completely different…

David Read:
So, you’re playing in February?

Aaron Craven:
We open January 31st. It’s a two-week run until February 9th at Studio 16 in Vancouver, and you can get all the details on our website, mitchandmurrayproductions.com.

David Read:
I’m trying to be up in Vancouver in February. I may have to come and see you.

Aaron Craven:
Yeah, let me know David.

David Read:
The hatred really feels good. And when you have art that disarms it, and makes people human again, all the more power to it.

Aaron Craven:
There’s too much hatred. I think as much as the online world and social media has given us things like this, and Zoom calls, where fans can see actors talk about shows. It’s a wonderful medium for that. At the same time, I have really conflicted feelings about what the digital world is doing to us as people. It’s putting us into these silos where it’s, like… Where are you getting your information from? Are you just maybe stuck into an echo chamber where you not kind of seeing outside of your own narrative? That’s like a political thing that we could a separate podcast on.

David Read:
Absolutely. I think in terms of [the] internet age, whether it is a net benefit, or net detriment to humanity. Some days, I really feel that the jury is still out.

Aaron Craven:
I agree.

David Read:
We have to hang on to each other, and ask, you know, “How are you doing? You good? You wanna talk?” And I think as long as we do that, as long as we try for that, I think we’re gonna be OK. But it’s really easy to just say, “You know what? I want nothing to do with you.” And come on! It’s Thanksgiving here in the U.S. Get together everybody!

Aaron Craven:
And it’s what’s great about things like fans clubs. Because for those that might not be religious and might not get a sense of community in a religious world, there is need for community, and a shared vision, or shared passion. It’s what so great about arts. It’s what so great about entertainment. It can draw people together like few other things can, whether it’s TV, film, or stage.

David Read:
That’s the brilliant thing about it for sure. Aaron, this has been a real treat. I recommend everyone to check out mitchandmurrayproductions.com. Especially if they’re in the Vancouver area, make a pilgrimage to see you, starting late January next year. I will do everything in my power to come and check it out.

Aaron Craven:
Whereabouts are you based David?

David Read:
I’m in Nashville.

Aaron Craven:
Oh, Nashville. OK. Another item on my bucket list.

David Read:
I’m close to my folks down here.

Aaron Craven:
I gotta get down to Music City at some point.

David Read:
Please, do. You have my email. And we’ll grab some dinner or something. It’s an exploding town. Every time I turn around… I went to a restaurant a few months ago, and just a few nights before, Elton John had dropped in to a guy’s surprise birthday party, sat down at the piano and started playing. You never know who’s gonna turn up here.

Aaron Craven:
Cool, yeah. Well, if I make it in, we’ll have to… I’m a Canadian [so] I’m a hockey fan, obviously. We’ll go to a Preds game.

David Read:
I have not gone to a Preds game. I heard they’re good. Alright Aaron. I appreciate your time, sir. Thank you so much for spending the afternoon, or the late morning, with us, over here on Dial the Gate, and sharing some stories about your career. It means a lot to have you.

Aaron Craven:
My pleasure David. Thank you.

David Read:
Thank you. Aaron Craven. Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis. I really appreciate you all for tuning in. My tremendous thanks to Antony Rawlings. He’s taking care of the back end here, on this Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Thank you so much Antony. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, please click the Like button. It does make a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. And if you wish, you can also share this video with a Stargate friend. If you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops, and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks, on both Dial the Gate and Gateworld.net YouTube channels. Blu Mankuma is joining us in a little over an hour from now, and I hope you’re gonna be able to make it back with us and spend some time getting to know him a little bit. The rest of the episodes that are planned for the season are all on dialthegate.com. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you all tuning in, and I will see you on the other side.