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Geek Unique
By Sally Reeve
For fans of the
Stargate SG1 universe there’s no drearier time of the year than those
long months before the new season of their
favourite show begins. But
they’re not the only ones counting the days. According to David Hewlett, the
cast and crew of Stargate Atlantis are just as impatient to return to
work. “It’s fantastic to be back!” Hewlett enthuses, taking a break from
shooting the early season two episode Duet. “Everyone’s just so happy
to be on set again. It’s amazing, everyone’s just like ‘Ah, thank God we’re
back from that
horrible time of not working!’”
And after
leaving us all on edge of our seats with the double episode finale, The
Siege 1 & 2, they’re hitting the ground running. “We’re coming back with
Siege 3,” explains Hewlett, “and it’s just non-stop. One of the big
things is contact with the earth – that’s the big
thing for us, the
Daedalus. And the Stargate becomes very, very important because
if the Wraith get to Earth then it’s…” He breaks off
and chuckles. “Well, then its SG-1’s problem! Carter, you’re on your own.
Bury the Gate. I’ll just enjoy the seaside existence in Atlantis!”
But Hewlett is
being modest on behalf of his character, because it looks like McKay saves
the day. “We discover that we’ve got the wrong approach. We can’t just sit
there and take it,” says Hewlett. “That’s what happened with the ancients
and that’s why they aren’t around anymore. We have to be more aggressive,
and in doing so I come up with – well I don’t come up with it,
unfortunately, the writers do. But I’ll take credit for it! – McKay comes up
with this great plan to throw them off the scent.”
Growing more
serious, Hewlett adds, “Something I love about both shows is that it’s not
about force. Force is always the first thing that everyone resorts to, and
it makes some great television, but the solution always comes through more
thought. And in this case we can’t compete with the kind of firepower that
the Wraith have, so we’re forced to be a little bit more conniving in our
approach. And McKay is a big part in using the defences to that end.”
Double Act
Atlantis may be
safe from the Wraith for the time being, but season two holds other perils
for Dr McKay. Duet for example, sees him
forced to get up close and personal with another member of the Atlantis
team. “An unfortunate Wraith beam accident has landed me
with the lovely and talented Cadman [Jamie Ray Newman] stuck in my head with
me!”
Slated to be
the show’s comic episode of the season, Duet plays up to McKay’s
idiosyncrasies. “My life becomes sort of disrupted,” Hewlett explains. “I’ve
got these two people fighting for control of my body. Every time I fall
asleep she keeps wandering off and going
for runs and things – with my body!
And she’s trying to give me tips on dating and how one should act with a
woman.” He chuckles. “I’m kissing everybody in this show. There’s nobody I
don’t kiss. I don’t know what happened but Martin Gero [writer] has fallen
in love and started writing lots of kissy episodes. It’s a non-stop
cavalcade of kisses!”
While it sounds like romance is blossoming for Atlantis’s resident geek
Hewlett is cautious about taking it too far. “I love the idea of
McKay trying to date,” he confesses, “because there’s something very, very
funny to me about how woefully inadequate he is – but that might just be
based on my own inadequacy! I’ve heaped all my inadequacies onto McKay now!”
He laughs. “But its one of those things with romance, the fun of the show is
the stuff leading up to it, and I think that it’s something these guys are
smart enough to handle. They’ve kept it at bay in Stargate SG-1 for years
and it’s great! That’s the kind of tension that really helps.”
But it’s the
humour of Duet that Hewlett really relishes. “What I like about it is
that it’s actually less written funny than it is about the ludicrous
situation. As always with Stargate SG-1, it’s more about how people, like
you and me, would react to this ridiculous science fiction situation. What
are the politics of having two people vying for control of a body?” Wryly,
he adds, “and of course, it being McKay’s body, who’d want it anyway?”
Plenty of fans would disagree with him, but Hewlett laughs self consciously
at the suggestion. “Well, they may be seeing more of it in this episode! God
help them all, I say. That’s why I’m having fruit for desert today!”
Laughing is something Hewlett does a great deal, and along with
self-deprecating sense of humour, it marks him as very different from his
on-screen persona. So what does he make of the huge popularity of Dr Rodney
McKay? “It’s very flattering,” he admits. “I think it’s a character you love
to hate. People come up to me and say ‘I hate you! Sign this’” Turning more
serious he adds, “People were, I think,
very shocked that of all the great characters over the years that have
reoccurred on Stargate SG-1 this jerk would be the one to do the mission.
But at the same time I think that’s part of it. If he was just a
strait-laced scientist it would just be a lot of techno babble and I
think you lose people very quickly.”
Every Man for Himself
McKay may not
be the most heroic of characters but according to Hewlett that could be the
root of his appeal. “It’s that Everyman thing. What ruins sci-fi is when
there’s no humanity to it. And the strength of the whole Stargate SG-1
universe is the fact that you’ve got these characters who react in a very
realistic, day-to-day way with the most extraordinary incidents.” But that
doesn’t mean that Hewlett would enjoy spending his free time with his alter
ego. “I don’t love him as a person by any stretch of the imagination! I love
him as a character.” He pauses for a moment to reconsider. “I shouldn’t say
I don’t like him; there are definitely aspects of McKay that appeal. He
always has an answer for everything. Whether it’s right or not is beside the
point. He just jumps in with something. And he says, I think, what people
want to say. Things like ‘You’re an idiot! Let me have that!’”
But all great
characters, especially those with a comic bent, have darkness beneath the
surface that gives them a richness and depth. According to Hewlett, much of
McKay’s personality comes from a profound sense of loneliness. Interestingly
Richard Dean Anderson
has said the same of the acerbic General Jack O’Neill.
“When he was introduced in Stargate SG-1, McKay was incredibly unlikable and
disliked as a person,” says Hewlett, “and very lonely. I think a big part of
McKay comes from that. I think he’s incredibly lonely, and he lashes out
before anyone else gets a chance to do the same to him. I don’t want to get
too depressing about it, but…The guy has a cat! The only thing he had to say
goodbye to was a cat.”
Dark humour,
evolving from a characters disappointment in life, is something Hewlett
traces back to the British comedy shows of his youth. “It’s a John Cleese
thing,” he explains. “All of his humour stemmed from that fantastic sense of
malaise. These characters have thrown up their hands at life, given up on
trying to be nice. And I think that’s McKay to a T. He’s Basil Fawlty! ‘My
life is hell. And it’s all your fault!’ I loved those characters. I’m a
Canadian but I was born in England and I was raised on all those Brit-coms,
so definitely there’s a sense of that in McKay.”
But Hewlett
ultimately refuses to accept the credit for McKay’s success. “People are
very flattering about the McKay role, and what I’m, quote ‘doing with it’,
but the reality is that I’m just doing what they’ve written. It’s all there.
It’s evident that he admires the writers enormously. “These guys know their
stuff so well,” he enthuses. “They’ve just so got McKay’s voice.” So good is
the writing, Hewlett insists, that he rarely adlibs or changes any of his
dialogue. “It’s sort of a point of pride for me. I really like to get the
lines right. I would rather play with the way I’m going to say it, to get
the line to be what they’ve written, than change it. I’ve been given such
great scripts to work with that I really don’t need to do anything. I’d love
to take credit for stuff, but nine time out of
ten – nine and a half times – it’s theirs.”
As for penning
an episode himself, as Joe Flanigan [Shepherd] is doing in season two,
Hewlett is unsure. “I’ve talked to them about a couple of ideas, and they’re
always very open to suggestions. But they’ve done everything, they’ve gone
everywhere, and so it’s very
hard to find stuff that hasn’t been done before. I hope it happens
eventually, I’m sure it will. If we go for any period of time it’s something
that I’d love to do. But I’d be amazed – flattered – if I thought I could
come up with something they hadn’t already done. I’ve got a lot more
Stargate SG-1 episodes to watch!”
If not yet
ready to write and episode himself, has Hewlett made any suggestions to the
writers regarding his character? “No!” he laughs. “It’s like the monkeys
paw…If you make a suggestion, all of a sudden it shows up in a script and
it’s just not what you planned. Last episode [The Runner] they had me
hanging upside down in a hazmat suit, hanging from one leg, in the middle of
a forest at night, while it’s pouring with rain. Which was fine – until they
started spinning me. And then it sort of fell apart for me. That’s when
McKay leaves and David just fights nausea!” he laughs again. “I’ll just say
something like ‘Could it possibly be more miserable that shooting The
Storm?’ And then Robert Cooper will step up to the plate and go…’Sure! It
can be! You can be wet, dead and upside down!’ So that’s the monkey paw
aspect of it. Useful comments that I make are very few and far between!”
With filming
now well underway, Stargate Atlantis looks like it’s sailing into
another fantastic season and Hewlett confesses himself unsurprised by the
scale of the show’s success. “We’re standing on the shoulders of giants,” he
says. “Stargate SG-1 established
such a fantastic, loyal fan base and my only fear was that Stargate Atlantis
would sink the franchise! That was my biggest fear.” He
laughs again. “Having said that, I’ve never experienced this kind of success
before. So having experienced it as a success, I found that – I
still find it – amazing. It’s amazing to me that anyone can recognise me
when I’m buying frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving! That always amazes me, and
it’s always a nice treat.”
And if
Stargate Atlantis emulates its sister show and runs for nine – or more –
years, will David Hewlett still be happy to be playing
McKay? His answer is a heart-felt “Oh yeah! I’m having so much fun doing
this. Sci-fi is my genre. Some people resign themselves to
that, I embrace it entirely. It’s perfect for me, it’s what I grew up on,
it’s what I watch in my spare time. Most people would be running
away from the stuff; I’m watching old Dr Who episodes just to see
what works and what doesn’t.”
In fact, he
harbours a secret ambition. “By the time Stargate Atlantis is over – touch
wood, they could be working on a way to get rid of
me right now! – I’m
hoping that I’ll be old enough to play the older, crotchety Doctor. Like the
first one, William Hartnell. He was crotchety. He was very McKay!”
No doubt
Hewlett would be a hit in Doctor Who’s TARDIS, but how does he envision
McKay in nine years time? He gives a typical self-effacing laugh. “In nine
years? Bald, I think. Very bald.”
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