Sci Fi Tracker: The New Stargate-Atlantis Season, And What Happens With Woolsey In Command?

By Julia Diddy
Fancast.com

Recently Robert Picardo and executive producer Joseph Mallozzi expounded upon what the new season of Stargate Atlantis will bring, particularly as Picardo’s character - the deeply bureaucratic Woolsey - assumes command. In an action-packed and in-depth Q&A ranging from the new season to Amanda Tapping’s departure to what’s in store for the 100th episode, the two gentlemen explore why the Stargate franchise continues to draw fans from all corners of the universe:

What’s coming up story-wise and for the teams this new season, and how it’s going to be different from previous seasons?

Joseph Mallozzi: In previous seasons…………season one was set up, and season two was telling. Season three, I think we’re stepping out and exploring more, sort of a variety of stories.

Throughout those first three seasons, though, we were always securing resources with SG-1 - be it a series or the movies and as a result I guess ……….because of the time constriction, we weren’t able to really sit back and plan out the season quite as concisely as we could have, which is what we did in season four.

We realized there was an imbalance in some of the stories being told. I mean, there were a lot of McKay stories, but one of the things we set out to do in season four that we did in season five as well was give each character a story and a spotlight and really focus on them, and give them a chance to really step up. We did that once again in season five. Where in season four we wanted to deal with some of our standing villains. We kicked off the Wraith/Replicator war. We got rid of the Replicators. We weakened the Wraith and now season five is kind of a step forward in a couple of ways. One, in a big picture way, 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.

So 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. What we said in season four was, with the threats that Atlantis is facing — especially with regard to Wraith — the military essentially flexed their muscles and wanted to exert some influence over the Atlantis expedition.

So Carter was appointed as a compromised candidate. In season five, with the Wraith back on their heels, the IOA in turn flexed its muscles, and they appoint Richard Woolsey as the new interim leader of the Atlantis expedition. 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 if Bob can do it, we would love to have him on the show, and Bob was kind enough to make time for us I guess.

A question for Robert: How did you get mixed up with these guys on this level? Was it as simple as them asking, and you saying yes?

Robert Picardo: Yes, 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 hardnosed, you know………a vicious blame layer.

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 sits in the - at one end of the briefing room and tells everyone 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. 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.

I have a question - I’m anticipating this hotly discussed script, Whispers. It’s got a horror tinge and I was wondering if you could elaborate?

Joseph Mallozzi: Okay. You know, I’ve always been a big fan of horror and one of the great things about Stargate is that we can do 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 ship-based episodes. And 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 we actually did a little mini horror movie for the episode, Whispers. Joe Flannigan and Paul McGillion — two of our regulars — joined an all female team on an off world adventure.

So I thought it was important to add this all female team for two reasons. One, with Amanda leaving, I thought there was kind of a gender imbalance in the show that I kind of wanted to address by bringing in, or at least introducing, some potentially recurring female characters. And two, have the audience invest in characters that, you know…….you don’t really know whether they’re going to survive or not. It was just really a fun episode. I went by a couple of days ago and Mark Savelo - our VFX Supervisor - he was just showing me some of the temps on the visual effects and I hope it’s not one of these episodes that angry parents write the network about.

Hopefully it’ll be an atypical episode and I’m hoping that people will enjoy it - especially fans of the horror genre.

Robert, are you drawn to Sci-Fi? Is there something about the genre that pulls you in, or is this almost also sort of like all of the people that make Sci-Fi, they watch Sci-Fi and that puts you on their radar, and they know to reach out to you? Is it - or is it some combination of both?

Robert Picardo: I think it’s a combination of both. I’ve - 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, you know, the regular viewer of science fiction has the interest and the capacity to really imagine the future, to dream of a better one and to even 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 - but also, 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 was.

I can’t honestly say that I set out at the beginning of my career to spend, you know, ten years in a jumpsuit. But that’s - you know, it does keep you in the gym regularly as well.

One of the challenges that you had in Star Trek was making a holograph real to people, but ……….isn’t that the challenge that you always face, more or less, with any character you do, just like right now?

Robert Picardo: Of course. Especially in series television where the - where he really is the part. The audience never thinks of another actor playing that role. If they accept you in the role, then they can’t separate the actor from the character.

But we always have to devote a lot of attention and imagination to what the character’s backstory is, where he comes from, what his education is, previous work experiences and his personal life, and all of that stuff that’s off camera that will help inform the part that’s on camera. With Woolsey, his backstory was sort of slowly revealed through various guest appearances. It’s not like when I set out at Star Trek, I made all the decisions and just - and set on my journey with what I understood the writers wanted from that character.

And of course, it was different from any other character I played because when you’re playing a new technology that’s basically booted up in the first episode, you have no backstory. So that was the challenge of that role because there was not - there was really nothing to depend on. It was starting with a clean slate and building the character piece by piece.

I have to tell you though, after seven years as a hologram, I’m happy to be back playing human beings. I was afraid of getting out of practice. So I’m glad to be flesh and blood again, and to have the ability to change and even to age. I’ve talked to Brent Spiner about this. You don’t want to play a character indefinitely who’s not supposed to age.

Going back to Woolsey - what adjustments will we see as Woolsey takes over as the new leader of the Atlantis expedition versus previous appearances where he was a little indecisive or trying to take control, et cetera? What adjustments will we see?

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. It’s - there’s not really much humor in that first one. And he learns the lesson that he can’t simply follow the rulebook and do this job. I mean, 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 rulebook, 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 and - in order to save a beloved member of the crew. So he learns, and in so doing - and so having that conflict, I think he earns the respect or the beginning respect from Colonel Sheppard, because he demonstrates a capacity that he hasn’t shown thus far.

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. And he’s the kind of guy who will end a briefing room meeting and tell everybody what to do. And then because 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. So that - and 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 his settling in and his own character foibles to get some comic moments as well.

Joseph Mallozzi: One thing I want to add with regard to those three comic beats - well the last one I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a last scene were we find Woolsey in his quarters. It was actually pitched out by Bob at the beginning of the season and he said, “You know what I think would be great for the character? I would love to do this….” and, you know, we thought about it. I pitched it out in the room. I said, Bob pitched this and everybody loved it, and we worked it into Broken Ties.

Robert, are you worried at all about the shoes that you have to fill with Amanda being such a beloved part of Stargate?

Robert Picardo: Of course. 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 mine some of the same issues and storylines. 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.

And I am - 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 both as an actor and as a character, 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. So although it’s daunting to replace such a popular character, I like to think that I’m not replacing her, that I’m simply - you know, that she’s moved on.

There’s always the hope that she’ll come back and make guest appearances on the show and that the audience will not only enjoy watching me in the role and develop it - to see a character who’s not really cut out to be a leader try to build himself into one.

So, when you watch that moment just keep in mind that that was Bob’s idea.

Robert, with SG-1, obviously it was very successful. It was on the air for ten years. Now with Atlantis, you guys are going to mark your 100th episode this season. To what do you attribute the success of the Stargate universe?

Robert Picardo: It’s hard for me to separate my feelings from - I’m a guy who came from seven years on the competing franchise, so when I look at what Stargate does well in comparison to where I’ve been before………I think Star Trek does some things very well. It’s very philosophical and cerebral. But its formula is very different from the success formula that Atlantis does. Atlantis has - I think, does action adventure extremely well but most importantly, to me, it has this sort of breezy humor, this ability to wink at the genre that Star Trek cannot have. Star Trek just has to take itself very seriously. That’s the mold. And Stargate Atlantis and certainly Stargate SG-1, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Richard Dean Anderson was the first Stargate star on television, and his characteristic humor. It has the ability to really let the audience in on the good humor, the joke of the fact that we know we’re going to save the world every week and that, you know, we can wink at that a little bit and have that kind of fun with it. So to me, the offhand humor of the show is what I’m enjoying the most and what I find most exciting, having come from sort of a more rigid formula background.

Not to take anything away from my former employer and what it does - what it did well and continues to do well, but I think that that combination of action adventure and humor that, you know, that’s very much in the - sort of the Indiana Jones style, is what I find the most fun.

And Joseph, with Stargate, obviously there’s so much backstory, there’s so much really good mythology………..I’m wondering about attracting new fans. What is it about the series that would make it attractive to someone who’s never seen it, who wants to start picking it up in season five?

Joseph Mallozzi: Well one of the nice things about the show is that despite the fact that it does have a significant amount of mythology, it’s not really serialized. There’s an overall season to season arc but once - it’s a very easy show to get into, just because we do so many stand-alone episodes like, for instance, Whispers that we were referring to or - last year - Harmony.

I mean, you’ll always have a little connection to the past, you know, past episodes. But it’s not really a show - you know, a serialized show where basically you really have to have watched the previous seasons or even the previous couple of episodes to know what’s going on.

You know, like I said, one of the great things about the show is the variety of the types of stories we tell. You know, serialized versus standalone is one, you know, example of that.

Bob, I was wondering how do you reinvent yourself as an actor after such notable roles?

Robert Picardo: I think that that’s what attracted me to become an actor is exactly that challenge, that every time out you’re creating someone different. So it’s not so much how. I’m chomping at the bit to do that all the time. What’s wonderful is when you get the opportunity to do it. That is the fun part. So that’s never a chore.

Can you talk about Sensored coming out?

Robert Picardo: Sensored is a pretty creepy horror movie which I play the principle role in. My character seems to be your neighbor down the block who dresses like Mister Rogers in little sweater vest and keeps to himself. But, you know, upon further examination, he is torturing one or more people in the basement and may be a CIA special……….special coercive techniques expert…………. or he might just think that he is. So it’s a very interesting, layered and slightly crazy guy I’m playing and you’ll be seeing it hopefully - I’d hoped the movie would be completed in time for this Halloween, but the post production schedule is taking a little longer. So you’ll hopefully see it early next year.

Joe, writing-wise, what do you think has been toughest episode so far for you to write this season, would you say?

Joseph Mallozzi: Right now, the one I’m working on now, Remnants… which really is three different stories. I mean, there’s a story involving Sheppard on the mainland. There’s a story involving Woolsey and a potential love interest, you know, in the midst of this probationary review that he’s undergoing that looks like it’s not going to go very well. And then there’s a third story involving McKay and Zelenka that kind of explores a bit of their friendship or, you know, some would say non-existent friendship. But I mean, there’s still that mutual respect between the two. It’s a script that jumps kind of back and forth between the three stories. As things progress, they inevitably come together, and you realize that the three seemingly unrelated stories are in fact connected in a very big way.

I don’t want to give too much away…………. I don’t even know what’s going to make it to screen. But it’s very dark with regard to the Sheppard story, and there are a couple of instances that a couple of the writers - my fellow writers - balked at, but a couple of other writers loved as well.

Every script is a challenge but I think this one in particular has been particularly challenging.

With Amanda Tapping departing the show, when actually did you guys know that that was happening? I mean, how far were you in planning or maybe even breaking stories for the fifth season? Did you know that, or was there always kind of a plan to maybe move away from having the Samantha Carter character in the fifth season?

Joseph Mallozzi: No, no. There wasn’t really a plan to move away. We were at the point where we’re breaking stories I believe, but we were certainly spinning them when Amanda gave us the call. And there was talk of maybe her bouncing back and forth between the two productions, and thought it was just, at the end of the day, totally unfeasible.

We said look, we love your character, but you have to make the call, and she made the call. I know it was a hard decision for Amanda and we were sorry to see her go.

What is the future possibility of ever seeing Tori Higginson back as Dr. Weir again?

Joseph Mallozzi: To be honest, I think it’s highly unlikely. I kind of outlined sort of the situation where last season she came in and did a couple of guest spots for us, and she was terrific, and she seemed very excited about the prospect of coming back. We pitched out the idea of the possibility of her coming back in and continuing the Replicator storyline which she seemed very excited about.

Carl went off and wrote the script, and ultimately we contacted her about doing it. Initially she was a little reluctant and, perhaps maybe thinking about her fans, she was wondering if maybe there was a way to sort of create some sort of closure for her character. Although we kind of wanted to keep the character alive, if basically she wanted closure, then we would be willing to give her closure. We told her, and then she was still reluctant, so we ended up sending her a script to review, and ultimately she passed. I mean, it’s too bad. We would’ve loved to have her come back and, you know, and see her on the show but I think at this point kind of she’s moved beyond this show and is looking elsewhere. So we wish her the best of luck.

Can you tell us what you have in store for the epic 100th episode of Atlantis?

Joseph Mallozzi: I’ll be totally honest. We all wrote our different segments in 200, but the overall idea for 200 came from Robert C. Cooper. When he pitched it out in the room, I thought he was joking. And then I thought it was crazy. But as it turned out, it was an episode that really worked out well, and the fans loved it.

In the case of Atlantis, though, the 100th episode falls in the 20 slot and, you know, as much as the temptation is there to make it kind of an off-the-wall, weird, fun episode, we really feel that because it is the season finale and hopefully not a series finale — but you never know — we want to go big and we want to go a little more serious.

So, not so funny but something that the fans will, I’m sure, really enjoy.