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| Sci Fi's Stargate Atlantis: Cast Interviews, Upcoming Season Preview |
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| Interviews - Actor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Jenna Bensoussan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 23 September 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As part of our four-part Sci Fi feature, we now take a closer look at Stargate Atlantis's upcoming season four with episode previews and cast interviews.  This year's new season will bring on Amanda Tapping as a new cast mate, and leader for Atlantis. This is an exciting development for Rachel Luttrell (Teyla) and David Hewlett (McKay), who talk a little about the upcoming season, along with some of the production crew. "I love working with Amanda," says Luttrell, "Amanda has been a wonderful support since we started doing Atlantis, at least for me, as a another woman in the industry, and certainly having been on the SG1 series for as long as she had. Being a part of this cast—it's great. I am always for more women in the cast," she laughs. "It was great for me because that is how I effectively started with SG1 and Amanda. Those scenes are the ones that sort of brought me into this whole franchise. It's fantastic to have her back both personally, and also as a character, because McKay has such a great repartee with the Tapping character. It has definitely changed the feel," says Hewlett, "There is more tension with the characters." This season will also introduce a larger arc for the character Teyla, with her finding herself pregnant (and ironically, Luttrell is pregnant in real life), during one of the most violent episodes this upcoming season. Luttrell says, "I am whirling sticks with a huge belly...NO...," Luttrell laughs, "The first part of the season actually was probably the most physical season for me." "This season is actually quite exciting for me in terms of character arc," explains Luttrell, "Obviously there is another layer that is being added to who she is as a woman. It seems to be organically unfolding that way in terms of discovering who she is, and so I don't think I am necessarily hungering to look into a particular aspect of who she is...I have always been very excited about portraying a woman who is strong and powerful, intelligent, and yet doesn't loose any of her femininity in that. This season is just another kind of unfolding of who she is and a broadening of that aspect of her." "It's actually kind of cool this year because there has been a lot more interaction between characters that wouldn't have interacted before," says Hewlett, "McKay has had scenes with Ronon that he wouldn't have had before and I think because of the changes it's allowed us to sort of explore the interactions between the characters, now that the characters have sort of been established, we can sort of break them down more. Already this season there's been a lot of interesting conversations that I don't think would have happened before without these sort of changes. I mean, the weird thing that happened on the show, is that the longer you do it, the more it sort of takes on a life itself. The changes could be quite traumatic, but the changes sort of mimic life. In that, things may happen you don't necessarily love, but they are part of the sort of organic life of the show. " Some fans have expressed and apprehension toward some of the changes being made behind the camera, characters, etc., but the show's producers maintain the "watch and see" methodology, with confidence most fans will be pleasantly surprised by the new changes in season four. That isn't to say some won't be happy—but I have seen two of the new season four episodes, "Adrift" and "Lifeline", and I can say THIS Atlantis fan was quite pleased! Another fun note to mention is Paul McGillion's character who will be making a comeback this season, but producers are tight-lipped about the how or why, saying again, fans will be pleasantly surprised. Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis have shared many plot points along the way from the inception of Atlantis. With SG1 retired, there has been some speculation that Atlantis will pick up some of SG1's previous storylines, i.e., the romantic interest McKay had for Carter in the SG1 series. Not surprisingly, this is actually picked up very early on in season four of Atlantis, with one episode in particular. After seeing the big grin on the producer's face, one can't help but imagine the humor that might be exuded with that! For those fans concerned that other major mythologies will be picked up from SG1 and carried over to Atlantis - that is not going to happen any time soon, if at all. At this point, Atlantis has its own struggles and agendas to follow, but that isn't to say there won't be cameos from former SG1 stars on the show from time to time if they can be worked in creatively. Later on in the season, the Atlantis crew meet up with some technological-savvy space scavengers known as "The Travelers". These guys are some of the few races in the Pegasus galaxy that have developed their technologies by ravaging other cultures, bouncing from planet to planet, and maintaining their force as space-nomads. Their ships and mannerisms are not clean-cut, but the label "friend or foe" remains to be revealed. Season four's opening episode, "Adrift", effectively ties in to the ending of the third, introducing some fabulous new plot twists, amazing scenery and welcome character additions as it leads into the second episode "Lifeline", a continuation of "Adrift". Some fans may be aware of David Hewlett's online presence with regards to the show. He talks about this a little further before we wrap up. "I do a lot of the internet myself. I am a full-on nerd on that stuff. I love it. I spend way too much time online. It's just the best way to talk to people. It's kind of safe, and I find it fascinating that you can talk with anybody, anywhere, at any time. I love it—I love the technology...I love finding new ways to—Twitter—that's another one I have just starting goofing around with." "Twitter is this neat little thing, using your phone, you can send little mini blogs to this site and people can sort of keep track of that, which is kind of neat. The internet actually led to one of my weirder fan experiences. I got a 'Dear John' letter from a fan, saying they were sorry, but there wasn't enough room in their life for adulation of two people, and that they'd decided to let me go, and they were now going to pursue John Cusak." "So...they were breaking up with me. The weird thing is, I actually thought about it for a while and I thought...I should e-mail her back. I should fight for this relationship that I didn't know I had. I actually did e-mail her back and said I thought she was making a very good choice, and that John Cusak's career was in a very good position right now and chances are he was probably a good person to pursue, and I am sorry it hadn't worked out with us." [Room laughter] Check out some exclusive photos from the press visit below.
                                           
3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |
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