Talking With Robert Picardo of "Stargate: Atlantis"

"Stargate: Atlantis," a spinoff of the venerable old Stargate brand, has achieved the lofty goal of developing a rich enough mythology (and sufficiently dedicated fanbase) to stand on its own merits, rather than being mentioned as an afterthought to the superior original. This Friday, July 12th, the show returns for its fifth season,still going strong.

Replacing veteran Stargate actress Amanda Tapping as the head of SG:A is Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey. No stranger to scifi, Picardo is perhaps best known for his role as the holographic doctor on another spinoff, "Star Trek: Voyager." Voyager may have been less successful than Atlantis in carving its own niche, but Picardo emerged as a much-beloved actor.

In preparation for the series premiere, Picardo, along with SG-1 and Atlantis writer Joseph Mallozzi, sat down with journalists to discuss what's coming next for the show and for the character. As Robert Picardo puts it, he didn't set out to spend 10 years in a jumpsuit, but it's worked out pretty well for him. Check out the highlights from the interview, after the jump.

About his sci-fi laden career:
Robert Picardo: Working on 'Star Trek' for -- there I said it -- for seven years, I really came to appreciate what it was about that kind of storytelling that developed such a loyal fan base - that the regular viewer of science fiction has the interest and the capacity to really imagine the future, to dream of a better one and I think even to project themselves into the future in a certain way, that that’s part of their psyche and personal passion.

That’s why they watch this kind of program. And once I appreciated what it was about the storytelling that made it special and that made the fans so loyal, I really began to enjoy it and I think to flourish in it as an actor.

I really used my own imagination a lot and made a number of suggestions during my tenure on Star Trek. And because the fan base is so loyal, they like seeing an actor that they know from one show take on another role in another of their favorite shows. So it does work both ways. I can’t honestly say that I set out at the beginning of my career to spend, you know, ten years in a jumpsuit.

About his character’s new command:
I’m looking forward to seeing how the dedicated fans of the show accept the new leader who is not nearly as cute as the previous two, (laughs).

I think they have a tradition of using actors from the other franchise, the name of which I dare not speak, as some casting. Many of my colleagues from the different Star Trek shows have been guest stars. And I think that they either last from one to four episodes. In fact, I think around the fourth time they asked me back, I was flipping to the end of the script to see if I was killed yet.

But I managed to outlast them all and it’s been a lot of fun working with both casts, and with the Writer/Producers. They’ve really built the character from his initial impression of being kind of a hard-nosed, you know, a vicious blame-layer. I call the characters that are coming to find out who has screwed up and whose head is going to roll in his initial appearance. And in Heroes: Part 2, they really fleshed him out.

And although he still has kind of insufficient people skills perhaps to be a leader, he’s developing them now that he’s assumed command. I think there’s something inherently interesting in the Monday morning quarterback, the guy who, you know, sits in the - at one end of the briefing room and tells everyone, you know, what they should’ve done and how they’ve screwed up.

Now that he’s suddenly making the decisions himself, it’s a very interesting dynamic that has its own kind of built in dramatic tension. He’s not used to - you know, he’s used to evaluating others but not to having that responsibility rest solely on his own shoulders.

And in fact, we have an upcoming episode where his own new command will be evaluated by someone who’s taken over his old position. So there’s a lot of, I think, fun layers to explore this year.

About Woolsey’s reintroduction to the show:
Robert Picardo: Woolsey appears briefly at the end of the season opener, “Search and Rescue,” which is a very exciting, action-oriented episode. He comes in and rather abruptly relieves Carter of command with his characteristic gruffness and lack, I think, of interpersonal skills.

So that’s your first experience of him. In the very next episode, which is called “The Seed,” he faces the first major crisis at his new command. It’s a very dramatic outing for the character. There’s not really much humor in that first one. And he learns the lesson that he can’t simply follow the rule book and do this job. By his own estimation, he’s broken protocol about five times in his first crisis.

And that puts him -- at the end of the show -- in a personal crisis because he’s always sort of defined himself as someone who knows the rule book, evaluates others ability to live by it and now in his first series of crisis command decisions he’s broken his own commitment to protocol in order to save a beloved member of the crew...

The very next episode of “Broken Ties,” although there’s plenty of adventure in the A story, there’s also kind of a B story of Woolsey getting used to the technology of the base.

He’s the kind of guy who will end a briefing room meeting and tell everybody what to do. And then because they are - he’s a little late following everyone out the door, it’s because he’s collecting his notes. Then he doesn’t know how to get out - he doesn’t know how to open the door. I mean, he’s running the base but he doesn’t know how to use the technology yet and literally can’t get out the door.

And there are two or three quite humorous moments, I think, throughout that episode. What was gratifying for me as the performer is that I shows right off the bat that the character has the gravity in the dramatic situations but they can also use, you know, his settling in and his own character foibles to get some comic moments as well.

About replacing Amanda Tapping:
Robert Picardo: In the same way that when I got my role on Voyager as the artificial intelligence character in that cast, I was concerned that I would be measured against Brent Spiner’s character because he’d been the android on the Next Generation and now I was the hologram on Voyager.

But nonetheless, we were going to mime some of the same issues and story lines. And I thought he had done that so successfully and was so popular that I would inevitably be measured against him. Fortunately in that case, I was defined by the writers and as much as I could by my own work as differently as I could be from him, and it turned out to be a non-issue, I think.

I not only am a fan of Amanda as a character on the show -- I think her work is wonderful -- I’m a huge fan of her personally. She is one of the loveliest people you will ever meet and work with. So there’s a lot - both as an actor and as a character, there’s a lot - it’s a loaded situation to walk into. Fortunately, the rest of the cast has been very welcoming to me and also Amanda left, of course, for a spectacularly successful reason and that is to star in and produce her own new series for the Sci-Fi Channel.

About the upcoming horror episode:
Joseph Mallozzi: I’ve always been a big fan of horror and one of the great things about Stargate is that we can do, you know, such a variety of different types of stories. I mean, we do our funny episodes. We do our serious episodes, the off-world episodes, the, you know, ship-based episodes. And, you know, I just realized that we’ve never really done a horror episode.

We’ve done monster movies but never really kind of a scare fest. So I pitched stuff to the guys and they really liked the idea. And I spoke to Will about it and he’s like yeah - Will Waring, who is our Director who directed the episode and he’s also a big fan of horror movies.

So, you know, we actually did a little mini-horror movie for the episode, “Whispers.” What we did, you know, Joe Flannigan and Paul McGillion -- two of our regulars -- joined a team of - an all female team on an off-world adventure...

As a fan of horror personally I always find that what’s scarier is what you don’t see as opposed to what you do see. And so that’s kind of what we were, you know, playing with - kind of the hidden...

You know, something jumps out at you and I think there are like a good dozen of those instances in this particular episode and Will Waring, our director, does a terrific job. From what I’ve seen of the director’s cut, it’s going to be a lot of fun. And I think horror fans actually will enjoy it as well.

About what’s coming up:
Joseph Mallozzi: We are introducing a couple of new races. We’re suggesting that with the Wraith weakened in the Pegasus Galaxy, there are a number of civilizations that are basically standing up and assuming power.

In a big picture way that’s what we’re doing. In another big picture way we have a new commander on the Atlantis expedition with Carter leaving... And that will be a big change and frankly, it’s been a great change. We’ve been big Bob Picardo fans for years and what started off as a couple of episodes in Heroes and through a recurring role which eventually when the opportunity presented itself, I mean, there was no hesitation. We said, you know, if Bob can do it, you know, we would love to have him on the show and Bob was kind enough to, you know, make time for us I guess.

About the new races that will appear in season five:
Joseph Mallozzi: [One of them will] be coming in a big way in the midseason two-parter. Again, I don’t want to give too much away, but what happens is Daniel Jackson comes to Atlantis because he is basically he’s following a lead and he needs McKay’s assistance. Basically the two of them put their heads together and they make a discovery. And by making this discovery, they alert an alien race that also happens to be looking or has been in the midst of seeking out this device that they end up discovering. This alien race ends up coming to Atlantis and it’s not a, I guess, a friendly house call you would say.

I don’t want to give too much away about the race but they’re kind of an interesting player that we introduce in the midseason two-parter. We introduce kind of another new look alien this season in Episode 4, an episode called “Daedalus Variations.” Actually, I love the look of this race and we only used them in Episode 4, but they are a race that I would love to bring back. And in fact, we’re - you know, we’re already discussing the possibility of bringing them back as well.

So I mean, two new looks and then other than that, it’s really more sort of a dynamic shift with regard to the status quo in the Pegasus Galaxy. In an episode called “Inquisition,” the various civilizations that have been depressed by the race for so many years has finally come together to create almost a, I guess, a United Nation of the Pegasus Galaxy.

About Don Davis, who passed away shortly before this interview:
With Don, he had a bigger heart, was even nicer than the Hammond character that he played. He was one of the first actors to warmly welcome me to the set way back in season four. We became friends; over the course of my nine years of working on the show, I’d say that I’ve enjoyed working with a lot of prime people but in all honesty, there are only three that I would be bold enough to call my friends at this point. One was Chris Judge. The second is the guy who’s on the conference call with me today, Bob Picardo, and the third was Don.

I guess one of the best memories I have of him is from the occasional con that I attended. I’d see kind of the fans approach him with a certain amount of trepidation. Some fans were somewhat reticent to come across as, you know, I guess fans and really impose on him. But I mean, he was always incredibly welcoming and always very charmed, and charming to the fans. And whenever fans would approach him, they would approach him as sort of being - in a sense that he was - they were approaching General Hammond.

But once they got know him, they got to know the real Don Davis who would be a very warm-hearted, incredibly self-deprecating man who will be incredibly missed by not just the fans but any and all who ever worked with him.

Bonus for anyone who stuck with us through the whole interview: Robert mentioned that in an upcoming episode, a very good friend of his will be making an appearance. So be on the lookout for none other than Bill Nye The Science Guy.

Comments

[Morjana]

Thank you so much for the Robert Picardo interview!

Morjana