 
GW: When you take a look at the franchise from its early development which started -- I think -- back in 1996 through the last 13 years, is the Stargate franchise, or brand, in a stronger position now than it was when it first started?
MS: Oh, yeah! Obviously. The franchise itself … there was no franchise. We were just a fledgling show and we didn't know what we wanted to be when we were starting out.
GW: A spin-off of a big blockbuster summer film ...
MS: Which as you know has a great track record. [When you're] spinning off of films, the success rate is very high ...
Absolutely. There is a franchise now. There is a brand name. The fact that there's so many incarnations of the same thing that are happening. Whether it be the failing video game or ... [Laughter] I'm sorry! I had to flag that in there. The video game or the merchandising. The various shows and the movies and whatever. There is a real entity out there.
" I'm curious to obviously see what kind of story we're going to come up with [for the third film], but I obviously trust Brad and Carl to come up with something brilliant."
| |
Obviously it still doesn't rival something like Star Trek or Star Wars in terms of its size and scope. But the fact that it's found its niche and it's part of pop culture now. We never saw that coming! So it's quite amazing to see the development of it. I'm very curious to see the new show, because I definitely believed that going darker and more serious with the tone was called for. It was necessary. To keep doing the same thing without taking a risk, I think, ran the risk of running it into the ground.
I think you have to try something. Of course, that's risky itself as well. I'm curious to see it as much as anybody. We'll just have to see what happens!
GW: You got the opportunity to reprise the role of Jackson for a couple of the audiobooks that were produced on CD for Big Finish Productions. How did that all come about?
MS: I kind of got called up out of the blue. They said some people in England were doing these audiobooks and "would I be willing to do it?" After I was done doing a convention or something like that there. And my first thought was, "Wow! Why didn't somebody think of doing this before?"
GW: It's a neat idea.
MS: Yeah! Especially with the show winding down at that particular point. And so much back-story that was still left unfulfilled. To actually take some of the actors and tell some original stories. Because it's a way to keep it alive, and keep it real in the minds of the audience, was a great idea. That was my first reaction to it! "What a great idea. Why hasn't somebody done this before? It's ten years later!"
GW: Was it your first foray into voice work?
MS: I had done an audiobook before. This was a bit different. It was a bit more "acty" than the audiobook I did. I tried to keep the acting to a minimum but it just came out. I don't know why! There was another actor involved in the process. It was a bit more radio play-ish at times.
GW: Between the two, you did one solo and then one with Claudia [Black].
MS: And that was odd, just because Claudia wasn't there. I was doing the secondary voice on it. So that was a little bit odd. I'm obviously not a terribly experienced voice-alone actor. Claudia actually is. But the best part was knowing Claudia and knowing her rhythms, I was able to figure out where it was going to fit. I still haven't heard it. But I heard it turned out well! They were good stories, though. I appreciated it.
GW: Last month [March] marked what we can assume will be your final appearance on Burn Notice. [Laughter]
[David Read] I did not know that!
MS: "What makes you assume that? The fact he's lying in a pool of his own blood?"
GW: I heard him talking about that with Amanda. I thought, "Maybe I should keep my mouth shut. Maybe I wasn't supposed to hear that, Mike!"
| 
Shanks's character of Victor took in his final breath in Burn Notice's second season finale. |
MS: [Laughter] Yeah!
GW: Aside from the flashback possibility...
MS: Yeah, of course...
GW: Were you happy with Victor's overall character arc over the course of the episodes you did?
MS: I talked about it ... I did an audio commentary for the [season] finale for the DVD release with Matt Nix and Bruce Campbell. I really enjoy their company. I've become somewhat friends with Matt. He's smart and funny and professional and very talented as the head of that show. We talked about it at the time we shot it, and we talked about it at the finale, too. When we taped the finale commentary.
And it was very true. He said "You have no idea how many people have been sort of saying ‘Why did you kill off Victor? Why did you kill off Victor?" And he said "But you know what?" And we talked about it before. Having an episode like that for the finale ... having a story like that ... is worth ten or twenty of the little bits you get when you're sort of a recurring character.
Victor could just constantly reappear, it would get somewhat annoying after awhile. Victor popping in would be a little bit redundant and repetitive if he kept sort of doing what he was doing. Bothering Michael or whatever.
But to get an episode where you can really dig into it that way and get that back-story and get that stuff...that's worth ten or fifteen of those. It's a nice way to go out. I like the character, and I really enjoyed the company of the people on the show. I would have loved to have been in it more, but to go out that way -- with that kind of flash and pop --was a nice way to go out. And it was nice that we'll continue to have an ongoing relationship beyond the show. I had a great time on that show.
|
|
|
