Picardo on 'Stargate: Atlantis'

Taking a character who is not a leader and turning him into one will be a challenge for Robert Picardo.

As reported by newsarama.com, Picardo's initial enthusiasm for his new job was tempered with a bit of caution due to how the character had already been established. "Frankly, when they hired me for the job, I went 'Oh God, that's interesting!'," said Picardo. "Of course I love working here. I love the company. I'm treated beautifully and I love coming to Vancouver. So all the outside things were like 'Yes, yes, of course I want to do it!' Then there was a little voice going 'Wait a minute! You've set this guy up as kind of an annoyance, a bit of a prig. I come in and evaluate you so you all better watch out and be on your best behavior! I'm going to find out who screwed up!' Now suddenly he's the guy in charge and he's a briefing room guy. He's a think tank personality. Woolsey is not a leader. He evaluates other leaders. He's got a terrific legal mind, he knows the military rule book, knows all the rules about protocol, eliminating collateral damage, and acceptable losses but he doesn't make decisions. Woolsey just comes in and tells you how you screwed up."

In addition, Woolsey is not the bravest of men. "I thought it was very interesting but we've also set up that he's not terribly courageous," said Picardo. "We had great comic mileage in the SG-1 episode 'The Swarm', where Woolsey is running away faster than anybody else. So we had set up certain precedents that I was a little concerned about because I didn't want to suddenly become a different character. But on the other hand, I thought if the writers are choosing to do this, it's for the exact reason to put someone in charge who's not a born leader, to see what happens, how he develops, and how he's accepted."

Picardo also spoke about the differences between working on Stargate: Atlantis and Star Trek: Voyager. "There's a kind of freewheeling humorous, we're winking a little at the genre thing, that they do on 'Stargate' very well," he said. "'Star Trek' tends to take itself a little too seriously. They were either very dramatic shows, or if we did a humorous show, it was always a little like 'Oh, we're doing humor on 'Star Trek',' especially on the original series. I shouldn't say this in print but it was always a little painful when they were funny on 'Star Trek'. My character on 'Voyager', because of the way he was presented, I could go either way. I could be a real buffoon, a windbag, be self-involved, and we could get a lot of comic mileage from him. However, the audience accepted me with gravity when I was in a dire situation so they would follow me in comic or dramatic stories. What I like about this show is they do both at the same time."

To read more, head to the article located here. Thanks to Trekweb for the story.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!