I wonder if that happens to Connor Trinneer [who plays Michael the Wraith] or someone like that.
[laughs] Yes, Connor, with his extra nostrils. You know, I watched "The Last Man" the other day and one of the standout things is -- Connor is, like, the nicest guy on the planet -- possibly the universe, I can't say -- but I'll tell you, he is just an evil bastard in the show! I don't know how he does it, he just goes from this sweet, jovial kind of guy to this complete monster in seconds.
He has an amazing presence. Whatever part he's playing, he takes over the screen immediately.
I'm glad I don't have to work with him much, because I don't want him to worry about me upstaging him all the time.
There's a more of Michael at the top of season 5, right?
Michael is going to be a thorn in our side for quite some time, I think. And that's a very good thing.
Atlantis has all these sci-fi connections, you have Connor from Enterprise, Robert Picardo [who plays Richard Woolsey] from Voyager --
Jewel from Firefly --
Right, very true. Now we were talking about your blog, and you mentioned there the "season 4 grump." Did season 4 make you grumpy, or did it make Rodney grumpy?
I think it's generally both. I've embraced my inner grumpiness. I'm practicing to be an old man, and I think by the time I get there I'm going to be very good at it.
But you realize, being grumpy makes the hair fall out faster.
Then I am going to be the most pleasant man you've ever seen.
You're shooting season 5 now.
We're at episode 2 of season 5 [“The Seed”]. We're making Jewel's life misery right now, which is a nice change for me. I'm noticing a theme to season 5, which is a lot of people strapped to beds. So there's a little teaser of season 5. Season 5: A Season in Bed.
I'm not sure that will bring people in in droves, people being strapped to beds.
[laughs] I think it will. But I should not be spoiling anything just now. No spoilers from Hewlett.
Well, I've heard bits and pieces. There's a new station commander [Woolsey], there's a new stargate team --
Yes.
And in addition to Michael the Wraith, we've also got Michael Shanks making an appearance [in a two-parter, 5x10 and 5x11].
Yes! We can both talk unintelligibly fast at one another. I never get to actually work with these guys. Chris Judge shows up -- I had to put Chris Judge in my movie [A Dog’s Breakfast (2007), a well-reviewed comedy which Hewlett wrote, directed, and starred in along with other Stargate castmates (compare prices)], that was the only way to actually work with him. When he does an episode of Atlantis or I did an episode of SG-1, he was always in a wormhole or stuck in a jumper, we never got an actual scene together. Of course, now that I think about it, I'm not sure what McKay would have to say to Teal'c anyway -- how well that would go down.
But I always figured Michael Shanks would be so sick of Stargate by now, because he's been doing it forever, that he'd be the one to just walk away.
Well, Stargate is this strange kind of family-like environment here. I think that once you're in the Stargate fold, it's all good -- and you'll never get out. It's kind of like some kind of sci-fi mafia, and just when you think you're getting out they drag you back into the galaxy somewhere.
If I ask you, "What else can you say about season 5?", will you say, "Nothing, I'm sorry, they'll kill me"?
[laughs] Well, what can I say about season 5. We get off to a pretty rocky start. All I can say is, we're going to be having a lot of fun with Woolsey. There's definitely going to be some interesting little fights for power there.
At least he's had the experience of fighting the enemy on Atlantis first-hand already, so he knows what it's really like [3x10-3x11, “The Return”].
It's definitely very complicated. No character integrates very well -- we're a team made up of very different characters, so we're going to see him dealing with that.
Brad Wright is writing a script coming up [5x06], which I'm looking forward to, it sounds really fun. There's a whole bunch of stuff going on. And there's that damn McGillion around a lot more than I'd like.
Yeah, I heard he's in five episodes in season 5?
I'm not sure how many episodes, because he doesn't like to tell me. I keep asking him how much he's earning, but he won't tell me.
Is this going to be a Wraith season, a replicator season, new threats, or what?
From the sounds of it, it sounds like there's going to be some interesting spins on some old enemies, and some new ones. So it's going to be fun mix-up. I think I'm about as much in the dark as the fans are, because I don't think I'm trusted with that kind of information, because I do have a blog.
And sometimes you update it.
About once a year, I think, is the average now.
You've done a million interviews like this, which is amazing to me, because I can only imagine what it's like to rehearse the same kinds of things over and over again. So: What is the one question that you never get asked, and I'll be the one to ask it.
How am I so beautiful.
