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Rodney's
Dangerous Field
by
Steven Eramo
Since joining the Atlantis mission, Dr Rodney McKay has had more adventures
than he ever dreamed possible – including some he never wanted. David
Hewlett tells us what’s next for the not-so-intrepid explorer
In Stargate Atlantis no one loves to hear himself talk more than Dr Rodney
McKay. A brilliant astrophysicist and leading expert on
Stargate technology,
he joined the group led by Dr Elizabeth Weir to explore the Pegasus galaxy
and the city of Atlantis. As the team’s
chief scientific advisor, McKay is
often spouting off facts, figures and equations, usually in an egotistical
and arrogant fashion. However, during Season One of Atlantis he
became more than just the sum of his words, something that David Hewlett,
who plays McKay, could not be more
grateful for.
“I scored big time last year, and believe me, I know it,” says the actor.
“In the Atlantis pilot [Rising] I didn’t have much to do, and
the character’s voice felt rather strange because it was originally written
as a different person. He was, in fact, supposed to be an African-American
astrophysicist named Ingram. But it was decided, for all the wrong reasons,
I’m sure – like my good looks and charm –
to bring McKay
back and use him. From then on the character has blossomed, and I have the
show’s producers and writers to thank for that. There are various aspects of
all of them in McKay, and without meaning to I think I’ve actually been just
impersonating the entire producing/writing team,” jokes Hewlett.
“So throughout the first season, not only did we find [the voice] of McKay,
but we also got to see, oh my God, he can go off-world and
do this and that.
For example, it was a big surprise for me in one of the early episodes to be
standing there as my character and
holding a gun. I really thought McKay was
just going to be the computer jockey who’d mouth off while giving you all
the technobabble,
and I was curious to see how they would make that work.
When McKay first appears in Stargate SG-1 he’s an obnoxious
character,
but it’s far
easier to behave like that when you’re a guest star as opposed to a series
regular.
“Fortunately, the more you see of McKay the more you realize, yes, he’s
incredibly arrogant, but he’s also incredibly daring, and there
are other
facets to the guy as well. Last year my character was put in situations
where he got to be a hero, a villain, a Space explorer,
etc, and that’s
something we’ll be doing more of this [second] season. From a character arc
standpoint it’s a dream come true for me. McKay has gone from being a
bookworm to a full-fledged member of the Atlantis team. Throughout it all,
though, we haven’t lost the
fact that McKay doesn’t play nice with others.
Not that he doesn’t want to. It’s just that sometimes he forgets to try
because he’s far too busy in his own little world.”
In Atlantis’s Season One cliffhanger ending, The Siege 2, the
city is attacked by the Wraith, a vampire-like species which feeds on the
Human life force. They plan to use the city’s Stargate to travel to Earth in
order to establish a new feeding ground, and even McKay
can’t think of a way
to stop them. Luckily, the space battle cruiser Daedalus arrives from Earth
in the year two opener, The Siege 3. Its commander, Colonel Steven
Caldwell (Mitch Pileggi) provides Atlantis with a ZPM (zero point module) to
power the city’s shields. McKay manages to hook up the ZPM in the nick of
time and later uses its power to trick the Wraith into thinking the city has
been destroyed. Having the Daedalus around proves to be a double-edged sword
for Dr Weir (Torri Higginson) and her team, and McKay hopes to use that to
his advantage.
“We start off the second season of Atlantis with a shuffle of power
and control of Atlantis,” explains Hewlett. “In the blink of an eye,
our
characters have gone from their little ledges on a precipice to just
flailing about because they don’t know what’s going to happen.
The military
is involved now, and Atlantis has become a ship’s port of sorts between the
Pegasus Galaxy and Earth. As such, there are sure to be more repercussions
on a political scale to what Weir and her people do, and I think the person
who’s most comfortable with that is McKay. He’s not afraid to play the
military off the science, but he’s not trying to be a jerk about it. It’s
just that my character truly feels what he’s doing is right. If McKay can’t
get the answer he wants from Weir then he’ll go to Caldwell and say ‘Look,
the military is going to want this [weapon or other piece of technology], so
you should let me go after it’.
“What a great dynamic, and it’s allowed the producers to bring in Mitch,
who’s just wonderful as Caldwell. It’s so neat to watch his character and
Torri’s butt heads. Not to make it sound trite, but here’s poor Dr Weir,
who’s doing her best to have everyone get along
and also trying to move
Humanity away from its whole warrior type mentality. Meanwhile Caldwell is
like ‘I’ve got the biggest warship
ever and I get to fly it back and forth
blowing up stuff’. Of course that plays right into McKay’s quest for power,
not politically but in a
physical sense. He’s always looking for ZPMs or
something else relating to power, and is only allowed to do that because he
plays
the military off the civilian. However, we’re going to see him hit his
limits this season.”
That’s happens to the character in the year two Atlantis episode
Trinity, in which McKays overconfidence results in, among other things,
the death of an Atlantis scientist. “There are limits to just how far
intuition will take even the most brilliant of minds, including McKay’s,”
notes the actor. “In this story we find a piece of technology that the
Ancients screwed up and with fatal results. It’s something that will
literally change the way we would live our lives, not only on Atlantis but
also on Earth, and McKay is so close to unlocking its secret. He’s convinced
he can do it, but ends up being wrong.
“This episode was amazing for me because it gave me the opportunity to do so
many things with my character. You see McKay
conniving, wheedling and doing
everything else possible to get a crack at this device. At the same time
everyone is trying to talk him
out of it. However McKay is like ‘Look, when
am I ever wrong? No one understands this the way I do.’ So they let him at
it and that’s
when you really get to see how McKay’s mind works. When he’s
convinced he’s right there’s nothing you can say to discourage him
and even
when he knows he might be wrong, his response is always the same unabashed
arrogance and single mindedness.
“In this case, that’s sends him and all the other characters in different
directions. Suddenly their trust in McKay and his
‘don’t-worry-I’ll-figure-it-out’ attitude is gone. It was getting to the
point where Major Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) was literally saying ‘McKay has a
plan;
lets just go with it’ type of thing. Now the Major looks at him and
says ‘Shut up’. McKay even pushes his boundaries with Weir and
she has to
sort of come down on him and once again remind him who’s in charge.”
Prior to working on Trinity, the actor got the chance to further hone
his comedic skills while filming the episode Duet. In it, a technical
glitch during their rescue from a Wraith dart forces McKay to share his mind
with the consciousness of a new security team member
Lt Laura Cadman (Jamie
Ray Newman). “So you’re basically dealing with a man and a woman trapped in
a man’s body, and an unimpressive man’s body at that, which Lt Cadman points
out many times,” laughs Hewlett. “I have to tell you that Jamie was so
incredibly accommodating and helpful during the shoot. She’d run lines with
me so that I could get a sense of how she would say
things. Jamie was an
absolute pleasure to work with and I’m hoping they bring back her character.
Peter DeLuise directed Duet and
he did a terrific job with balancing
the comedy and drama of the piece. I think the comedy comes out of the
desperation to get ones body back. I can think of nothing worse than having
to share my inner space, especially with someone you don’t get along with,
and McKay doesn’t get along with anyone,” smiles the actor. “Admittedly
though, the big shocker for me in this episode was my characters
on-screen
kiss with Paul McGillion (Dr Carson Beckett). Cadman has a crush on Beckett
and at one point while in McKays body she plants one on him. I thought
hanging upside down by my legs in the forest or being hosed down with
gallons of water was perilous,
but you should try having to make out with
Paul McGillion and look like you care,” chuckles Hewlett. "Seriously, Paul
and I are very good friends and he was such a great sport when we did that
scene. We think the fans will get a big kick out of it.”
At that moment, Hewlett is called to the Atlantis set to film a scene
with Paul McGillion for an episode called Instinct. It’s been a long
day and the
actor still has a few hours of work ahead of him. He’s not complaining
though. “I got into this business because of Sci-Fi. I love watching it and
now I get to play at it everyday,” enthuses Hewlett. “I’m the luckiest man
alive.”
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