Join friends and loved ones of Don S. Davis LIVE as we remember this pillar of our Stargate community, his enduring legacy as an artist and man, and his everlasting role as the father figure of Sierra Gulf One.

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TRANSCRIPT
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Don S. Davis [clip]:
Years ago, before I decided I wanted to be cremated, somebody asked me, “What do you want on your tombstone?” And I said, “I want the statement, ‘He was good with his hands.'” Because that’s the way I identify myself. I’m a builder and a sculptor and a painter. I’ve always been able to put things together. I’m not supposed to be seen on TV or in movies. Never intended to be, and I came to it late in life, that somebody would wanna pay money for my autograph. Hell, people that don’t see me on TV sometimes won’t take a check until I produce three pieces of ID.

Garwin Sanford [clip]:
I come home and I check answering machines and it says, “Don? Your breakfast meeting with Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, and Dustin Hoffman is on for tomorrow morning.” It put me in my place pretty quickly. So, when Don comes home that day, I say, “Don, Don, check your messages.” I try to be really casual about it, and I sit back to watch his reaction. He pushes it on, it runs, “Uh-huh.” And he goes over and writes it down in his book, and I just looked at him, going, “What? Did you hear who that was?” And he goes, “Yes.” And he walks over to push the erase button. I said, “Stop! Do you realize how long you can come home with people for months. I would never erase it.” Pressed it, “Just trying to check my messages.” And he just laughed and pushed erase. It’s who he was, he was a very humble, wonderful, giving man, and I feel honored to have known him. And we have a very special guest today, we have his wife, Ruby Fleming-Davis here.

Allan Gowen [clip]:
And Ruby came out on stage, and she received a standing ovation on behalf of Don, and the standing ovation lasted almost five minutes. It was huge. Don meant so much to so many people.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Thank you so much, I’m here today on behalf of my husband, Don, and I wanna thank all of you so much for your support, and the emails in his passing. We had over 100,000 emails coming in, and I can’t answer all of them, so I wanted to come here today and thank you all. And I also know Don would not believe that he had so many people that loved him because he was a humble man, and he always used to say, “I’m just an old country boy that just fell into this, and I have all these people that love me.” And he loved you back, I know that. He was so grateful for all your support over the years, and all your love. And I would like to share something with you. We celebrated his life on his birthday when we scattered his ashes in Gibsons on the water. And after the ashes were scattered, we threw a bottle of Crown Royal out because that’s what he liked to drink. And then also his favorite hat, along with flowers, and as the ashes were on the top of the water, all of a sudden, this seal comes out of nowhere that went down and went right through his ashes and way up, and back down, and then disappeared. So, that was Don saying, “I’m okay. It’s fine, honey.” But he’s with me all the time and I can feel him around me. So, again, I would love to thank you all for all your support, and what you did for my husband over the years. It’s hard for me to talk because I’m not used to talking in public. But he was my friend and my partner, and I’m missing him terribly, as I’m sure you do as well. Thank you very much.

Allan Gowen [clip]:
We got quite close to Don. Don was one of our very first guests as well. I think he was the second to sign up after Teryl Rothery to the 2000 convention. And Don was a big part of Gatecon and Don was a big part of everyone’s Stargate lives. He was the master storyteller. He’d have everyone absolutely enthralled. You could have a room of 400 noisy people and Don would walk on stage and start talking and everyone just goes silent and listens to his stories. He was a magic man.

David Read:
When you want it to work, it never does. My name is David Read. Welcome to Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. We’ve got a really special show planned for you today. I appreciate everyone who is here to remember Don S. Davis. I have… Oh, for heaven’s sake, come on. I have some wonderful people with me and I’m gonna get to them in just a second here. Darren Sumner of GateWorld.net, Allan Gowen of Ausgate and Gatecon. I have Welles Davis of 3 Fries Short. Welles, you’re new, I’ll get used to it in terms of the rotation of reading things off in my head. And I have Garwin Sanford, one of the coolest actors I’ve had the pleasure of knowing personally. Thank you for all being here to remember Don and share some stories. I’m gonna be back to you in a second here. I wanna thank Neal Acree, the last living composer of all three Stargate television series, for that amazing bugle call of the show’s theme that he performed just for Don before the USS Hammond flew away. We’ve got some really special things for you today. Almost five years ago, and 350 episodes, I started this channel. We gathered a few stories since then, and for the first time, we’re gonna truly put their worth to the test in repurposing them. I’m just telling you now, I’m gonna screw things up so please show me mercy. There’s a lot of history here, I’ve only had a few hours to assemble all the clips we’re going to see, and please forgive the video quality, it will be all over this place. This show will be featuring some of Don’s art. As of this time, none is available online for viewing or purchase. If that changes in the future, keep an eye on the description below this livestream. We are remembering Don S. Davis here, so this will remain an updated resource for links. For any of Don’s work that becomes available, as long as I’m around, please bookmark this stream if you want for that purpose. Big thanks to my friend Matt Wilson, EagleSG, for making the Hammond fly again, and my friend Samuel Caulkins, he’s cooked up something very special for the Hammond, and a long-lost sister, shall we say, at the end credits of the show today, so stick around. Note to live guests who are appearing in the Zoom, we’re gonna be showing a lot of images and content of Don, so some may be displayed while you talk. There’s a chance of that, so please don’t be alarmed, we can still hear your voiceover. Let’s get to work here. I’m joined by my Stargate brother of 25 years, and the founder, sorry buddy, of GateWorld.net, Darren Sumner. How are you, sir?

Darren Sumner:
I’m doing great. It’s so wonderful what you’ve put together here in such a short time. We decided to share Don’s interview from 2006 at least a year ago, it was sort of on the docket to go into the Dial the Gate archive. And then you contacted me last week and said, “Hey, it’s time, I wanna do this. Let’s record an Envelope for it.” Which we did, and that went up yesterday. And between Friday and right now, you’ve assembled this whole thing. So, I’m along for the ride and I’m so blessed to be able to share in celebrating Don, and his life, and his career, and the wonderful character that he gave us on Stargate with not only my fellow Stargate fans, but with a lot of folks who knew Don personally, and, of course, loved him deeply.

David Read:
Absolutely. And my dear friend, Allan Gowen, co-founder of Gatecon. I must, on the record, say, Gatecon, his team, they produce the best Stargate conventions ever. There, I said it. I’ll go to the mattresses with anyone on that. How are you, sir?

Allan Gowen:
I’m good. Thank you, David. And thank you for the kind comments. I’m looking forward to today. Don was a very special person both to me and to Gatecon. He was the very first guest on stage at the very first Gatecon. And we just grew from there and there’s guests that you feel comfortable with and Don was one of those. One of the very few, actually, that really wanted to be fully involved and wanted to support us, which is a fantastic feeling.

David Read:
It couldn’t go to a greater man, a kinder man, to have that experience ever. Absolutely. Welles Davis of 3 Fries Short.

Welles Davis:
Hi.

David Read:
How are you?

Welles Davis:
I am great. Surprised to be here, but I’m excited.

David Read:
Welles jumped on the moving train. And I was organizing all of these files and I realized, I think for the first time in my 42 years, that I needed some help. So, they were very kind enough to jump on and help me out. We were trying to get Amanda Tapping involved, Amanda’s busy, so we’ve gotten some clips anyway. Love you, Amanda. Welles, how are things going? Anything you wanna say to kick us off before we move on to this stud, from our perspective, your right?

Welles Davis:
Sure. Thank you again for having me. This is a surprise. Wasn’t planning on doing this three hours ago, I think. But the first two times I remember seeing Don S. Davis on screen, I had no idea who he was. The first was in A League of Their Own and I think the second was as Scully’s father in the X-Files. And then, sadly, I didn’t really get involved in the Stargate fandom to this extent until after he died. So, I never got to meet him in person. I never got to go to a con where he was. I’ve heard amazing stories from people behind the camera, in front of the camera, in front of the television, the whole community. So, I’m very excited that we’re all here today to be able to do this. On 3 Fries Short, General Hammond has always been one of the people that we love to explore. I do, when we do our dramatic readings, a very bad version of Hammond’s accent. I will not be demonstrating that for you today.

David Read:
Garwin Sanford, a longtime friend of Don Davis. How are you?

Garwin Sanford:
I’m good. Really, thank you for reaching out to have me involved in this.

David Read:
Thank you.

Garwin Sanford:
For most of the people on here, Don was General Hammond. But for me, it started. I guest starred in a MacGyver and he was Dana Elcar’s stunt double. And he hadn’t acted at that point, and that’s when I first met him. And we actually hit it off on set then. And he became my friend from that day. And General Hammond was way down the road.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Garwin Sanford:
But it was interesting to watch. He was an academic. And someone had said something about getting into the film industry, “You look like Dana, you could be his stunt double.” And he went and did it. That’s how he started in the business, and then he got smaller roles and the next thing you know, of course, because of his personality and his talent, he took off.

David Read:
Man. And I bet you weren’t a bit surprised.

Garwin Sanford:
No. The man was a multi-talented, multifaceted human being. Surprising.

David Read:
I’m really looking forward to coming back around to you and discussing particularly his art in detail. You are both fine artists. And I want to get your perspective and I want you to use words that you speak art and there’s a chance that maybe a couple of us do, but we’re gonna get to that side of him first because in our interview with him on GateWorld, he specifically said that he defined himself as a wood carver. And I assume you’ve seen most of the stuff that he did over the years in one form or another. And I’d love to talk about that in a little bit. Let me see here. OK. Darren, I’m going through my notes, so I apologize. Darren’s already talked about the fact that this is all his fault. We got this started Friday night, and I went to bed and I was like, “You know what? We should–”
Darren Sumner:
I don’t know why it’s my fault.

David Read:
Because you started it off, because you gave me the interview to put in GateWorld.

Darren Sumner:
Yes.

David Read:
And then Friday night I was like, “When is Don’s birthday? I don’t remember.” And I looked at my phone and I was like, “Oh shit, it’s August the 4th. It’s Monday.” And I was like, “Let’s throw a party for the guy.” And by Saturday morning, and we’ll explain later, that was off and kicking. Allan has dug through his archives to provide so much footage of Don you’ve probably only heard about from the people who attended Gatecon. But we’re gonna see that in a little bit. And we’ve pulled together new contributions and old contributions on Dial the Gate of Don to share. And you’re gonna be hearing from the man himself. You’re gonna probably be hearing a little too much from the man himself, but it was all worth listening to. And, like someone said earlier, when the man talked, the room shut up and listened, because they respected him and because they knew that they were about to hear something cool. And you will hear a few cool things today. Thanks to everyone who contributed today. We’ve seen people on shows say how Stargate’s like a family. We all know most of these shows are full of crap, but the contributions you’re going to see, you will see that Stargate SG-1 was a true family, Bridge Studios. That MacGyver team that followed all the way through. So, thank you to the fan base for submitting as well. And I reserved editorial rights to shorten your content, what you sent in. So, keep your pitchforks in the barn. All right, Darren, I’m gonna go around the circle here and ask you all to share a memory of Don. And Darren, you’re at my top left, buddy. So, guess what?

Darren Sumner:
And before we get started, do you want to invite the chat to submit questions for later in the show?

David Read:
No, they’re irrelevant.

Darren Sumner:
They’re irrelevant?

David Read:
No, I’m kidding.

Darren Sumner:
Interesting.

David Read:
If you’re in the chat, if you’re in the live stream, I do want you to have the opportunity to submit a story of maybe how Don impacted your life or a favorite General Hammond moment that you had. Darren sent me a whole set of images of Don as Hammond over the years, and that’s one of the things that didn’t make it today. There was not enough time, but you are as important out there in the audience watching as any of us up here in terms of our memories for this man. So, go ahead and get those over to us and we’ll make a few pop in later on. And Allan, so Darren’s gonna be keeping an eye on those and reading those, and thanks to my mods in the chat for pulling that off, and Allan is gonna read the messages that were sent over to me. I requested through social media a few days ago for people to submit some things, and a few did, and it’s actually perfect. I think that’s what we’ve got going on. Darren, what do you remember about Don? We had the privilege of interviewing him at Characters Talent and that was your chance to see him.

Darren Sumner:
That was, as I said on our stream yesterday, my one and only chance to meet Don in person. Of course, I had watched him for years, loved him. Saw him on The X-Files. He was in Best in Show. He’s the dog show judge at the end of Best in Show, for you Christopher Guest fans, and he’s one of those guys who lives and breathes his characters so well. So, seeing him every week as Hammond, that makes it a special treat when suddenly General Hammond shows up, judging a dog show or talking to his daughter, Dana Scully, or whatever the show or the film was. You had set up an opportunity for us to interview Don at The Characters, his talent agency, along with a couple other cast members, and that time with him is seared into my memory, at least we also have the benefit of having the interview recorded, which folks can watch now. You have lovingly remastered it to the best of what the 2006 technology will permit.

David Read:
Varying degrees of success.

Darren Sumner:
He just filled the room. He saunters in and sits down on the couch and is, like I said yesterday, every bit what you would expect him to be. Absolutely genuine, absolutely put us at ease. We’re a couple of kids in our 20’s who are trying to figure out how to do some good quality fan content. It was a blast hanging out with him, hearing his stories. He’s such a straight shooter. And then I loved Don from afar, from watching all of his convention participation. We saw some of the photos and some of the other footage that Allan’s gonna share with us today. Don wearing the Hathor wig, I think it was up for auction, and he was modeling it for the auction?

David Read:
Yeah. He was a living mannequin.

Darren Sumner:
The story behind the Hathor wig. That was wonderful, and unfortunately, I didn’t get super involved in attending conventions until Don had passed. But I was grateful for the opportunity that you created to meet him in person and to have that conversation with him, and that memory will always be with me. If you want me to take another 30 seconds, I’ll share my favorite General Hammond story.

David Read:
That’s a great idea.

Darren Sumner:
I’d love to hear what other people think. Because we lived with this character week in and week out in our homes for so many weeks, so many years. Don was a regular on the show for seven seasons. In addition to doing additional guest spots, he was on Atlantis. He was in Stargate: Continuum. My favorite Hammond moment, I think, speaks to Hammond’s character, and I suspect it speaks to Don’s character as well, based on what I know about him and how he shaped the character of General Hammond. It’s not “yeehaw,” which you were guessing the other day, in the Season Three opener. My favorite Hammond moment is in… OK, let me tell you this. It’s in “48 Hours” in Season Five. Now can you guess what it is?

David Read:
Are you talking to me, buddy?

Darren Sumner:
Talking to you.

David Read:
“48 Hours.” No. I’ve had 10 hours of sleep in 3 days. What’s your favorite Hammond memory?

Darren Sumner:
So, Teal’c is stuck in the Stargate and General Hammond has been ordered by the President to resume normal operations ’cause they’re convinced they can’t get him out, and Carter says, “You give that order, you’re murdering Teal’c.” Hammond says, “All I can do is resign. And if I resign, I have no control over who’s in charge of this facility an hour from now. Enough time?” And it’s this perfect little beat, this perfect little character beat, because suddenly you realize: Sam is punched in the face and the audience is punched in the face by the fact that Hammond will do that if that’s what it takes, if that’s enough. Hammond will resign. He’ll give up his career if that’s what it takes.

David Read:
That’s right. Allan, a memory of Don and your favorite General Hammond moment.

Allan Gowen:
My best memory of Don, I can’t remember if it was 2002 or 2003. Don invited us around to his house, the other Gatecon owners, and we spent the evening and hung out with Don. We drank the beer out of his fridge. We played with his dog.

David Read:
Dogs are the best people.

Allan Gowen:
We sat down with Don and Ruby and… This is before the convention, and we previewed our opening videos just to get Don’s seal of approval. He loved it. He took us up to his art studio, showed us all of his latest paintings. It was a great chill night. We sat around having a couple of beers, having a chat. Don playing with his dog. Don used to do a tug of war with his dog and he had a huge German Shepherd, I think it was. And he had a little pull rope, and the dog would grab it and Don would grab it and they’d have a bit of a tug of war. That’s when I realized that Don’s arms were about the size of tree trunks. They were absolutely huge. And it was the best night, and nothing really happened. It was us hanging out, chilling, not talking about conventions or anything. We were having a great time. And that’s probably my most special moment of Don, and it’s actually away from Gatecon. My favorite Hammond moment… It is literally just a moment, and it’s a Hammond-strong episode, but there’s not a lot of Don in it. And it’s actually from 1969, and it’s the little scene at the very beginning where General Hammond notices that Sam has the cut on her hand. And there’s something in that moment… And then when he gives her the note that… It brought out Don as the great actor that he was, and there was something really special in that moment between him and Amanda. That’s my Don moment, my Hammond moment.

David Read:
Thank you for that. Welles?

Welles Davis:
So, like I said before, I don’t have a… I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet Don or to see him at a convention or anything, so I’ll do this a little differently. But on 3 Fries Short, when we talk about an episode, we refer to him affectionately as “Hammy” or “Daddy Hammond” sometimes, which may sound a bit racy but for me, it’s actually the opposite. I’m a Southerner with roots in the country myself. I may not sound like it, but I’m from the South. Seeing Hammond on screen always felt really paternal for me. I actually lost my own dad in 2001. And he was also a woodworker, interestingly, so there’s some connections there. So, by the time I really dove into Stargate, having Hammond as that steady, fatherly presence, especially when everything else in an episode feels really chaotic, that really meant something for me. And then fast forward to FedCon this year, for example. I was there with a whole bunch of members of The Companion. We had a little home base set up. It was somewhere where folks could regroup and come back after going to panels and everything, and missions. And they started… I held the base down for everybody, so they started referring to me as General. And I thought it was fun and funny, but it also really made me reflect on what it meant to be that presence that people would return to in these episodes, the General that was there when they would return. And Don’s portrayal just modeled that for so many of us. I guess that’s Hammond in a nutshell, maybe Don as I knew Don through the screen instead of in person. I’ll give a very opposite Hammond moment to what I just said… which is even more of a tiny moment, which is in “Window of Opportunity” when Sam and Jack kiss. His look in the background is one of the more hysterical things I’ve ever seen in my life.

David Read:
Solid. Absolutely. Welles, I appreciate you bringing up his Southern drawl. I was born and raised around 300 miles from where he was born and raised, and I don’t know if this was a nationally syndicated commercial or if it was regional to us, but “I’m Tom Bodett from Motel 6 and we’ll leave the light on for you.”

Welles Davis:
I know that one.

David Read:
And that was the Ozark kind of drawl that I associated with Don, and that’s what Don did. That’s what Hammond did. He left the light on for them, and that’s a memory I haven’t had in a while. So, thank you for that. Garwin, good luck in picking one. Can you narrow it down?

Garwin Sanford:
Focusing on him as an artist as well, an artist as an actor, an artist in pen and ink and painting and carving, it always blew me away. I knew him for a couple of years before I knew he did any art. Don never ever would toot his own horn. So, I was at his house up on the Sunshine Coast near Gibsons, and I lived up there as well, so we were neighbors basically. I went over to visit him one day and I was walking into his new house, past Sechelt, or between Gibsons and Sechelt, up on the hill. And I was walking around the house ’cause it was a new house, checking it out, and I see some art framed on the wall and I say, “Wow, that’s a really nice piece. Whose is that?” And he goes, “I did that.” And I said, “What?” and he goes, “Yeah.” And I said, “I didn’t know you…” and he said, “I dabble.”

David Read:
Dabble!

Garwin Sanford:
But then as I wander around, there’s piece after piece framed on the wall. They’re beautiful pen and inks and painting stuff, and it took me by surprise. And then, as I’m wandering around, there’s a carved duck, for example, a really nicely rendered duck in beautiful wood, and I make a comment and he said, “Yeah, I whipped that up last week.” So, my jaw kept dropping on the floor because every time I turned around, I’m going, “What can’t you do?” Basically.

David Read:
Whose house are you in?

Garwin Sanford:
Yeah, exactly.

David Read:
This is gonna turn out to be, like… “Are you with the CIA? You have some brain technology that allows you to capture other people’s artistry?” He did every medium.

Garwin Sanford:
Exactly. It just blew me away. I had always been drawing with pencil, I did pencil work and some charcoal and stuff, and he said, “Have you ever tried pen and ink?” And I said, “Nope.” And he goes, “Well, here, just a second,” and he comes back, and he gives me a set of Rapidograph pens. He goes, “I don’t use these anymore. You can give them a try.” Anyway, it sent me on a whole different journey with my artwork, with pen and ink I had never used before, and he challenges you by going, “Here. Try this.” And you would go off and do it. Anyway, that’s what my association with him always was, on some level, opening up doors for other people besides himself. It’s a big memory for me and for him.

David Read:
Do you have a General Hammond favorite moment?

Garwin Sanford:
Actually, the 48-hour thing. I agree with you when he says he’s gonna give up his career.

David Read:
He’d do it.

Garwin Sanford:
That was a good moment. That was a really good moment.

David Read:
Welles, can you do me a favor and mute your video?

Welles Davis:
I can.

David Read:
Because I’m gonna let a late arrival into the group here. I appreciate…

Welles Davis:
I will gladly relinquish my spot.

David Read:
Thank you. I appreciate you making the quadrants whole and it’s great to have you. Mr. Martin Wood. Director and producer. Surprise, everybody. Martin, thank you for being here, it means the world to have you as part of this. You were so critical in the development of the franchise that we love so much, and you watched Don just refine and refine this character, which didn’t actually take that long. It actually happened pretty quickly after the pilot, but–

Martin Wood:
There was very little refining for him. I think he came in with Hammond and would always ask. He’d always say, “You want me to do something else?” And I’m like, “What else would you do?” And he goes, “No. Is there anything you want me to do?” And I’m like, “Don. You’re Hammond. You tell me what you wanna do with him.” He goes, “I mean, this time I get a gun, right?” Anytime he got to dress for the field was his favorite time. That was his absolute favorite time, when he got to dress for the field and, “I get a sidearm, right?” “Yeah. No, you get an actual real… you get a P90.” “I get a P90.” OK, that was… for him, that was what he wanted to do more than anything else. He was tired of sitting at the desk. He came in… I remember standing in the boardroom on the first episode, ’cause I was having to do some second unit for the first episode, and I remember Mario Azzopardi was talking to him, and I didn’t know him at all, and I know that Mario was talking to him. And Don came over to me and goes, “That guy’s scary.” He said Mario was scary. I said, “Not really.” I’d worked with Mario before, and Mario had this gruff way of talking about things, but he really appreciated the ability for actors to act and really let actors act, and Don was one of those people that so nailed Hammond in the pilot that… it was very early on, I don’t know if it was the pilot, I think he really nailed him very quickly, and that was who Hammond was for all the years that he was there.

David Read:
Mine… I think the part of it where it really started hitting me strong that something was really clicking was an episode called “Cor-ai” and he and… I’m just gonna give my favorite moment from Don now, because it kind of fits into what Martin is saying. And he and Rick, as O’Neill, are going around round and round each other about Teal’c’s war crimes. And Don, Hammond says, “We don’t stop pursuing war criminals because they have a change of heart.” And O’Neill, and Rick, goes, “War criminals?” And Don goes, “Yes, Colonel, he is. Like it or not, what Teal’c and the Jaffa have done to this planet and thousands of others is a crime.” And I was like, “Man, he’s good.” He was great, for me, from that point forward. I was like, “OK, what’s he gonna do next?” Because he’s confined to the SGC. That’s his role. He can’t turn around and take off every five minutes, it’s not appropriate. He has to mind the store. You guys often created opportunities there for him to have an awesome go of it with weapons and everything else, like the alternate Hammond in “There But for the Grace of God” and then the other alternate Hammond in “Point of View.” He really got to play that up. He died at least once or twice on screen, so… Don had a great time as an action man. Those stunt skills did not go to waste.

Martin Wood:
He did. I think when I did “Politics” in the first season, the way that he went after Ronnie was one of my–

David Read:
Ronny Cox.

Martin Wood:
Ronny Cox. That’s it. That was, for me, watching him bristle, and I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting,” ’cause the two of them had been sitting and talking about banjos and playing music and this kind of stuff, and then suddenly we’re on and Don turned on him, and I think it even scared Ronnie a little bit.

David Read:
Awesome.

Martin Wood:
And I was like, “Oh. Oh, Don has that in him.” And that was, again, where, when he needed to, he could bring that out. But I think the thing that a lot of people miss, and I know, Garwin, you probably know this very well, that Don had such a great sense of humor. He laughed at everything. And he was one of those guys that when he broke, everybody else broke, because of the way he laughed. It was just fun to watch him. And, I mean, you’re talking about how he and O’Neill, when they go together… There was a… if I can take a second here…

David Read:
Be my guest, my friend.

Martin Wood:
I don’t have a lot of time, so I’d love to give this… this is one of my favorite times watching Don. And the audience would never have seen this because we had to stop every time he did this. But in “Red Sky” there’s a moment… there’s a time when Carter comes through the gate and he’s standing there and he’s talking about the heavy material that’s gotta go into the rocket that they’re sending and there’s some deal about whether they’re gonna be able to procure it or not. And he points to the door and in comes Dr. MacLarium. What was his name? MacLaren.

David Read:
MacLaren.

Martin Wood:
McLaren. Because it was gonna be called Maclarium. Anyway, Carter says, “Maclarium,” and behind her, Don goes, “Hammondium.” And Amanda turns around and goes, “What?” He goes, “We’re calling it Hammondium. Hammondia. Hammondium. Hammondium.” And she just breaks up, and Don’s straight-faced about it. And nobody else in the room knew what he was doing, ’cause that wasn’t obviously in the script. And from that point on, whenever Maclarium was mentioned, somebody would say, “Hammondium. Hammondium. We call it Hammondium.” And there was a scene where… I hope I remember this right. We’re in Carter’s lab…

David Read:
It’s okay. We’re here to help.

Martin Wood:
OK, we’re in Carter’s lab, and Rick and Don are sitting there talking to Amanda and she’s gotta draw what’s gonna happen with this rocket and how it’s gonna hit the sun. And Rick says, “Well, how does…” This guy. He asks about the other Stargate, how it doesn’t get to the other Stargate, and he’s right about it. And the thing that Rick does is very subtle. He goes like this. He goes, “I was right.” And Don goes, “That’s not possible.” And Rick turns around and goes, “What?” He goes, “It’s impossible. You can’t be, or your character dies.” We’re all cracking up because Don was very straight-faced about it, and it’s like, “Does he just change the script or…?” He goes, “No, your character dies, Rick.” And he calls him Rick, so it’s like, “Oh, OK, he’s just joking.” But Rick breaks up, and so what you actually get to see when you’re watching it is Rick was… he was supposed to be… O’Neill was supposed to be very pleased with himself, but what was happening to Rick was he was corpsing over the fact that Don had said this, ’cause Don wasn’t the guy who made the jokes. But when he did, everybody cracked up. And it was so much fun. That was one I really remember in that, ’cause he didn’t have a lot to do with “Red Sky” but when we were at the studio and… Rick, again, in that scene again, somebody said, “Hammondium.” And Amanda lost it every time he said, “Hammondium,” and that was one of the things that he had created was Hammondium.

Darren Sumner:
That’s too good.

David Read:
How is it possible, Major Wood, that Darren and me and you…

Martin Wood:
I was in that when that was…

David Read:
… have been… yes, as Major, interviewing you for years. After 20 years, Darren? Something like that? And we’ve never heard this story? That’s great.

Martin Wood:
If you think about the number of episodes and how many we’ve done, we’ve talked about eight. Usually if we sort of go through the episodes and I sit there and watch them back, I can remember things that happen on them, but they’re not close at hand anymore in my brain.

David Read:
Now I know how to get you to access them. You’re about to have a new best friend. All right. Raise your hand if you’ve seen Twin Peaks. Who didn’t raise their hand? Raise your hand. OK, you won’t do it. There it is. OK, very good. I just saw it for the first time, not this past spring, but the spring before. And I will describe it as… David Lynch is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I never understood him, but I think I’m beginning to get the insanity now. And I knew that Don was in this show called Twin Peaks, and I knew that it had been good, and I knew that Rolling Stone had in the 2010s voted it the number one scariest show ever on television. I was like, “What is this thing?” And I watched Don in this performance as the Major over the course of…

Darren Sumner:
He was scary enough.

David Read:
… about a month and a half. Yes, he was. And then in Season Three, the way that they bring him back hearkens back to what Beau Bridges did in “200” as the Wizard of Oz, and let Darren chew on that one for a little bit. With his performance in this, I don’t know if you guys will remember the scene with his son in the diner, where he sits down and talks about the dream that he had about his future, and how when they come back to the show 15 years later, his son has basically become that. It was an extraordinary series. If you have not watched Twin Peaks, go and do so. I felt like I had gone back to the home of my childhood. Everything was still there. It was Christmas, the tree was up, and an unwrapped and unopened present was behind the water dish for the tree. And it was such a great experience to see Don, much younger than he was… Not much, but enough younger than he was when he was Hammond. It’s a great show. And yes, my favorite Hammond moment is probably… No, you know what? I get “Cor-ai.” I withdraw. I don’t have a lot of Don. I have things that were made for him. The one thing that I do have is this. Don and I shared a university. We both went to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. And he went to study theater in the late ’60s, and around the same time that I went to SIU, I had my Stargate convention, my first experience at Gatecon, and that issue in front of you there had just come out. So, I went down to school, and I got a bunch of the extras, and I brought one for Don to sign, and he signed it for me, and I went off. And I was out in the bushes talking with some folks, and the actors were over there taking a smoke break, and I hear this voice. And I turn around, and it’s Don Davis going… I’m like, “OK.” And I run up. He says, “Go get the magazine.” I’m like, “OK.” And he showed it to everybody. He’s like, “Look at me.” I was like, “Yeah, dude. You’re awesome.” And he was always asking me how schooling was. The other thing that I have of him… This is ironic, Garwin. Hammond’s wedding ring. We learn in an episode called “Tin Man” that his wife died of cancer. But he wears the ring to remember her. And I stole it. No, I’m kidding. When I was at Propworx, selling off the Stargate assets for 18 months, there were two of them, and I wasn’t going to take it. But when it sold and I saw what it went for, we were allowed to purchase at the equal value that something else went for, and boy, did I run to the bank. And he’s always a part of the set. He has been from the very beginning. You don’t usually see it, but it’s in here. So, I’ve got a little bit of Don locked away. I want to share some convention moments, most of which involve Don, and we’re going to go through some of those memories. But first and foremost, to add to the memories that we never expected we’d hear from people, I’m gonna bring in a note from Peter DeLuise. He said, “The first time I worked with Don, I was directing him on an episode of 21 Jump Street. I asked him to crunch a lollipop in his mouth, and at one point in the scene, as an homage to Telly Savalas in Kojak, after several failed attempts, Don finally admitted to me that he had no molars in the back of his mouth to do the crunching. The solution was for him to fake it and for me to perform a wild track lollipop crunch sound for him. When I met him again years later on the set of Stargate SG-1, he welcomed me with a big toothy grin and asked me how much I weighed. After I told him I was 220 pounds, he proceeded to bench press me, Peter DeLuise, on the back of the SGC control room. He lay down as I stood on his hands and held the banister of the stairs for balance. He got three reps out of me. The man was all muscle.” Darren talked about the stories that we never expected to hear. And, buddy, if we ever do make that Stargate book of quotes that you and I have been talking about, that’s going in.

Darren Sumner:
The more that we talk to these folks and talk to folks like Martin, who were calling the shots behind the camera, we hear, “I’ve heard so many stories over the years,” and there’s a mountain of stories that we’ve never heard because those guys had so much fun together.

David Read:
Spent so much time together.

Darren Sumner:
And they worked hard. There were some stressful nights, I know. But that story doesn’t surprise me at all.

David Read:
Martin, how did you… out of all of us, you were the one who was there the most. How did you all never… Obviously, it’s gonna be a family. You’re gonna have good days, you’re gonna have bad days. But how is it, in 17 seasons of television, y’all didn’t kill each other? Seriously, what was the alchemy in there?

Martin Wood:
I think 22 episodes helped, because we were together for so much of the time that you’re on set with these people, they become your family. And you move off into these little cliques of your own and you come back and there’s not a lot of crew members that interact with every element the way the directors do necessarily. So, we sort of are a little bit more ubiquitous in it, but the actors together spent so much of their lives together that when they came to set, when they were waiting on set, when they were waiting for something to happen, nobody ever sort of came and went. Nobody ever walked out of their trailer, did their part, and walked away. Some guest stars did occasionally but for the most part people would come on set and then… What I remember the most is the beginning and the end of every season. A lot of the time I was shooting either the beginning or the end of the season, or sometimes both. What you realized after spending that much time is everybody comes back from whatever holiday they had, and for the first little while everybody’s hugging and saying how great it is to be back. And at the end, everybody’s crying and hugging and saying how terrible it is that we’re not going to be back. For the first few years, we all knew that we were coming back ’cause we’d been picked up for, like, five years. We knew we’d be back and it was how many episodes I was gonna do or what our run was gonna be. But I think that it’s like having a family, there would be spats, but everybody knew that they were living together for the next nine months. So, it was not hard to get along with everybody.

David Read:
There you go. I have another surprise for everybody here. I’m moving a little slower than I expected and I do apologize, so I’m not going to make the true guest of honor wait any further except Garwin, could you please tee this one up like you did all those years ago at Gatecon for me?

Garwin Sanford:
You want me to tell the story?

David Read:
No. What does this person mean to you?

Garwin Sanford:
You’re gonna make me get teary. I met Ruby because of Don. Obviously, Don married Ruby and she became very quickly a very close friend. We hit it off and she has such a great heart. She is so open and… I don’t know, full of heart is the only word I can think of. So, if I’m introducing her, hello, my dear. It’s so good to see you.

David Read:
I’m about to bring her on right now. Martin, can you mute for me please? Let’s bring her in here. I’m bringing in Don’s widow, Ruby Fleming-Davis, and she’s possibly having computer problems because I just added her. We double checked this a day or so ago. Let me see here what she’s doing. There she is.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Hi, Garwin.

Garwin Sanford:
Hello, my sweet.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
How are you?

Garwin Sanford:
I’m very fine now. Look at you.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Getting gray just like you.

Garwin Sanford:
Yes, that happens.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I know.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
This is happening.

Garwin Sanford:
You just turned 108. Good to see you, my dear.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Good to see you, too.

David Read:
Ruby, thank you. Darren Sumner of GateWorld, meet Ruby Fleming-Davis.

Darren Sumner:
Hi, Ruby. It’s such a joy. Thank you for being with us here today.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I actually was watching you the other day.

Darren Sumner:
Were you?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Yeah.

Darren Sumner:
The new piece that Dave and I did with the interview?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
With Don? Yes.

David Read:
The new piece of the old piece?

Darren Sumner:
The new version of the old interview.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Yeah.

David Read:
We saw it extensively.

Darren Sumner:
That was my chance to beat Tom in the face.

David Read:
I thank you so much for being here, Ruby. So, I’m gonna really quickly say what happened. I emailed Ruby Friday night. I was like, “I’d like to do a little reunion of folks for Don on his birthday.” We could do the interview, but we could also do a little get-together. And I sent you an email, Ruby, a while ago and you never responded. I wasn’t sure what condition you were in or anything else. 5:00, 6:00 in the morning, I get an email from you saying, “Yes, absolutely. And by the way, I’m in.” And it was like, “Oh my God. I know what I’m gonna be doing for the next few days.” It was like a firetruck out of the firehouse to make this happen. And it means so much to me, and I assure you so much to so many of us, to have the opportunity to meet you in person for the first time, the love of Don’s life. So, I appreciate you being here.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
You’re welcome.

David Read:
If you go to the interview, you’ll see Don talking about the moment where he found out that Ruby felt the way about him that she did because, according to Don and according to Teryl, he’s a little dense. The story that he told… You went back and re-watched the interview. How true is that?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Pretty much.

David Read:
What can you tell us about him? The man that you knew from day-to-day.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
First, I wanted to say, the first time I ever spoke to Don Davis was when Garwin and Shelley were staying with him in Los Angeles, and I called to leave a message with you, Garwin. I thought he was the rudest person I had ever talked to in my entire life. I said, “What a jerk.” But then I met him later on and I was absolutely wrong.

Garwin Sanford:
Don wasn’t much for being on the phone.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
That was always funny.

Garwin Sanford:
He wasn’t much for being on the phone.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
He hated to talk on the phone, period. That’s the first time I met Don Davis.

David Read:
When did you know that he was the one? You told me before, you’d never really fallen in love before.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
No, not like that. It was when he had written the script, Blues in the Rain. Bloom and Kumar, our mutual friend, was the one that told me about him and the script. And I was casting for Outer Limits. I had just gotten back from LA. At the time, I worked in casting and found out about Don. So, I met him and he gave me the script, and I read it and I gave it to a friend of mine, a producer for Outer Limits. He loved it. He took it to LA, they loved it. But Don had written that for his friends, so there was no way in heaven or hell that he was gonna let that go to anybody else. So, I tried to find backing for it here.

David Read:
In Canada?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Yeah. The first time I met him with my friend, after we were done with the interview, I said to my friend, “If I ever marry again, that’s the man I’m gonna marry.” And that was it. But it took quite a few years before I let him know. At least two years after that.

David Read:
What was the turning point for you? Where was it, “I’m pretty positive, but that’s him.” Big neon signs. Do you remember that moment?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Yeah, I knew right away. Absolutely right away. But I had been a widow for 10 years when I met Don, and I really didn’t want to ever get married again. We became really good friends. I found out that he had divorced Sandi, but it took me two years after his divorce before I told him how I felt about him. I wanted to give him time. But I knew it was gonna happen and then we went out to dinner and that was it…with Teryl and her husband and when he found out, we were never separated after that.

David Read:
Was it smooth sailing all the way through? Was it just a honeymoon all the way or did you guys have your good days and bad days like everyone else did?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Obviously, you’ve never been married.

David Read:
I have not. Absolutely. Get your head out of the fairytales. They ain’t real.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
There are good days and there are… But you always work it out.

David Read:
There you go. Thank you.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
He was actually really, really wonderful. But he had his moments, like everybody else. I had my moments. But you work it out. It wasn’t smooth sailing, far from. I don’t think any marriage is smooth sailing totally. But it’s the best time that I’ve ever had in my life. And it’s ended too fast.

David Read:
We’re gonna explore a little bit more with you in a moment. Allan, can you do me a favor and mute your video? And Martin Wood, the only Martin in the room, can you please unmute?

Martin Wood:
Sure. Hi Ruby.

David Read:
There he is.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Hey.

Martin Wood:
How you doing?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Good.

Martin Wood:
Good. I wanted to stick around for this for a second, ’cause I wanted to show you something that I don’t know if you’ve ever seen before. Earlier we were talking about Don’s sense of humor and when he laughed how he made everybody else laugh, and I don’t think I’ve ever said this story before. When we were doing the “200” episode, Don and Gary had to be in the control room, and what I did before I shot the marionettes was I shot live action with Don and Gary and had to do all the stuff that I did with them in the control room, and all the actors came in and everybody was dressed in their civilian clothes, except Don. Don came in in uniform. And when he came in, he was saying, “So these are marionettes.” And I said, “Yeah.” And he put his hands out like this. And I said, “What are you doing?” And he goes, “We walk like this.” And then he showed me how he walked, and I said, “That’s how they’re gonna walk, but I need you to walk normally.” And he goes, “I wanted ’em to get my walk right.”” We shot him doing that. We didn’t keep it, but we shot him doing that because that was what he wanted me to do. He said, once he gets the walk right, he says, “There’s a swagger to it.” And again, half the time, nobody knew Don was really kidding until he broke. He did this thing where he’s swinging his arms, and I’d never seen him walk like that before. And he said, “That’s how I want my puppet to walk.” And I just wanted to show you this. That’s the puppeteer that actually was his puppeteer on that. When we did all this stuff, this is him on set. This is the puppet on set. I don’t know if you guys have seen these pictures before.

Allan Gowen:
No.

Martin Wood:
‘Cause I think I gave some of them up. But there are all these pictures of directing on set, and directing, and how you direct puppets and things like that. And I kept saying there’s a way to talk to puppets. You’re supposed to talk to the puppeteers, who are way up there. But you always talked directly to the puppets. And I kept saying, “You’re getting the walk wrong. I showed you the film. You’re supposed to do this.” And they’re like, “But we can’t drop our hands down like that, ’cause we have to lift them up.” They kept trying to get it right. I wanted one of them that I could show Don, and I tried. But we never got the walk right, and I think he was really disappointed when he saw the “200.”

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Oh, no. He never said.

David Read:
That’s so cool.

Martin Wood:
He wouldn’t. He would never say something like that. But that’s what I remember of the “200,” was doing the puppets with him. And how he had this very specific thing he wanted a marionette to do.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Being an artist, you know how it is. Because that was the first love of his life, was the art.

Martin Wood:
My dad, when he first met Don, they connected in such a huge way because of art. And my dad talked about Don for years and years.

David Read:
Your dad was a huge fan of the show.

Martin Wood:
He was. He knew it by heart. Amanda was his favorite character, but Don was easily his runner-up on that.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
He would put his body and heart into the character. I know that. He loved doing it.

Martin Wood:
It was very special for all of us. And he is sorely missed to this day, obviously. I’m apologizing, I have to leave right away. But it was so good to see you guys again.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Good to see you.

Garwin Sanford:
Good to see your face, Martin.

Martin Wood:
You too, buddy. And so wonderful that you guys put this together. I love the fact that we can keep Don’s memory alive in this way, where we can all share these stories about him and stuff like that.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I talk to him every day.

Martin Wood:
Say hi for me, will you?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I will.

David Read:
Martin, thank you.

Martin Wood:
Bye-bye. Take care.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Bye.

Darren Sumner:
Thank you.

David Read:
Be well.

Martin Wood:
Take care. Bye-bye.
Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I talk to him every day. Sometimes I forget he’s gone, and there’s something happening, and I said, “I gotta tell Don.” Then I realize he’s not here.

David Read:
I’m trying to figure out how I wanna phrase it. What I’m trying to basically say is, Garwin, take over for me. Let me start with it this way, and then Garwin, you and she can talk for a few minutes. I’m not gonna keep you forever, Ruby. Did you notice a change in Don’s personality, Garwin, when he realized that he found love again?

Garwin Sanford:
Yeah. I spent a lot of time with Don. You had said you called down in Los Angeles when we were roommates, and he was doing Twin Peaks at the time. He was happy to be working. But that’s all he was doing. He did some of his art, but in the apartment down there, it was very limited. So he went to work, and he came back, and he did his daily existence. He always had a sense of humor. But there wasn’t a complete spark. There were times he was in the doldrums. And Ruby, after he met you, and how it all came together, that spark was there. He walked with a lighter step. I didn’t see him having those doldrums like he had before. You made a huge difference in his life.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
We had a wonderful time together. We really did. And he made me very happy. He was a very special man.

Garwin Sanford:
Yep, without a doubt.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
And kind, he had a heart of gold.

Garwin Sanford:
This is one of the things that strikes me, he’s literally one of the kindest, most generous men I’ve ever met in my entire life.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I agree.

Garwin Sanford:
He would give you the shirt off his back. And in fact, I actually have General Hammond’s shirt.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
You do?

Garwin Sanford:
I have it from back to another Gatecon. What happened was, it was being auctioned off–and the person who bought it came up to me at the end of the auction and said, “I want you to take this and re-auction it whenever you’re in one of the Gatecons or whenever the… I was figuring that what we’d have to do is set it up so there’d be a little card that goes with it, so each person who bought it…Same thing. You’d have to give it back. But I haven’t been to a convention since, so that was… I might have to try and figure out how to get that. I had forgotten all about that until I said, “shirt off your back.”

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
That’s true. I know. It was a huge loss to the world. And it was a huge loss to me.

Garwin Sanford:
I remember the phone call.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
After that happened, for years and years, I became very quiet. I wanted to be left alone, because I felt like half of me was gone. You learn to live with that, and it still feels like half of me is gone. And I think it always will be until we meet again. It was a huge loss.

David Read:
Who did you hear from?

Garwin Sanford:
It was always a shock.

David Read:
Go ahead, Garwin.

Garwin Sanford:
I’m a big fan of West Wing, and I’ve watched the whole series all the way through probably six or seven times. But I hadn’t seen it for years, and I watched it after Don had passed, and he came on as the minister.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
One episode.

Garwin Sanford:
And I had to turn it off.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I cannot watch anything with him in. It makes my eyes just still too raw for me. But I remember all the good times.

Garwin Sanford:
And you had lots of those.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Tons, ’cause I would travel with him when he went to conventions. So, I would take time off what I was doing and then travel with him, and that was wonderful. We got to spend all our time together.

David Read:
Ruby, what did his fans mean to him? We opened up this video. People who don’t see me on TV won’t often take one of my checks.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
He absolutely loved his fans. There was no doubt about that. And when you went to the convention too, he was so good with his fans. To him, they were like family, and he always thought about it that way. And he would say, “I can’t understand,” he said, “that all these people love me.” And he was a very humble man, actually.

David Read:
I am thrilled that you wrote me back, and I’m thrilled that you are well.

Garwin Sanford:
‘Cause you look great.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I might be 80 years old, but I feel like I’m 40.

David Read:
What is your secret?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I don’t know.

David Read:
You’re Yorkie?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
That, and keeping busy. I do a lot of work, like raising money for the hospital here in Gibsons and other things like that, trying to get money into the community. I’ve been busy with that, because I belong to a hospital auxiliary, and we do more than just hospital. We help the youth so they can play sport. We help battered women shelters. We help the food bank, so that keeps you busy.

Garwin Sanford:
Keep giving back to the community. It can be something, woman.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
And it feels great.

Garwin Sanford:
Of course.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
And then feed the elderly, as I am, but I don’t think of myself that way, every Friday at the elder center.

David Read:
So, Ruby and I were talking, I’m getting ready to let you go, ma’am, and we’re gonna have you back to talk about casting later this year.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Yes.

David Read:
Because we’ve never had the opportunity on the show to talk with someone in the casting department, and the stories that you have and the process that you go through and everything that has to occur in order to ingest the right people into the right roles, and it’s so complicated, and I’m really looking forward to opening up the top of your brain there and finding this wealth of information about years in the industry that you can share. I’m really looking forward to getting to know you better on the show.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I was lucky to get into casting. I worked with a wonderful casting director, Ronnie Yeskel in LA. And that’s how that started… Actually, you came and auditioned for us. Remember that Garwin?

Garwin Sanford:
Yes, I do.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I think it was Jade, the movie Jade that we were doing. Casting for that. Saw your picture and I said to Ronnie, “Gotta bring him in.”

David Read:
There you go.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
I enjoyed that a lot.

David Read:
At the beginning of the show, we showed Garwin talking about an answering machine story. If you haven’t put it together, what film was that Garwin?

Garwin Sanford:
Hook.

David Read:
There you go. Great film. Darren, do you have a question for Ruby before we let her go?

Darren Sumner:
Ruby, I’m so grateful again that you’ve given us some of your time. The question that I’m curious about, knowing that you got together with Don sort of at the tail end of his Stargate years. He had been a regular on the show for many years. He did seven full seasons. I’m curious, what was Stargate in your life and in your marriage? Did he bring Hammond home? Were you at cast parties and celebrating milestones with Stargate?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
We went to, was it 100? It was a big party that they had, and we went to that. Not so much, ’cause I was working a lot. I was a continuity for costumes in film and television. So, I worked a lot. But I traveled with him to Australia and England and South Africa when he did conventions.

David Read:
So, you guys got to see the world.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Yeah. I hate to say that, but I am not a huge sci-fi person.

David Read:
It’s OK.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Of course, I knew all about it through Don. I know I can’t watch anything that he’s in, and this breaks my heart. But I’m very proud of him, and I’m very proud of his role and Stargate and how much he really loved it. He was going to work happy every day when he was working.

Garwin Sanford:
It’s amazing because here it is 27 years later from the beginning of that series, and people are still doing this.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
That amazes me.

Garwin Sanford:
Joe has left a cultural mark.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
No, it really amazes me that it’s still going so strong. You know, Seth watched it. My nephew in Norway was crazy about it.

David Read:
Ruby, it is so good to be with you again. So good to hear your stories. We’re never promised tomorrow, and we have to check in on one another as often as we can. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Thank you very much. Great to see Garwin again.

Garwin Sanford:
Great to see you, my dear.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Talk to everybody. That’s wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for loving my husband.

Garwin Sanford:
It wasn’t difficult.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
No, it wasn’t.

David Read:
He was a gift to us. There is no question about which side got spoiled. It was definitely us because we get to enjoy a piece of him in General Hammond forever.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
Continuously. That’s one thing when you happen to be an actor and being on a show, you will always be there. Your legacy and everything. I’m very glad that Don is able to still [inaudible]. He would love that.

David Read:
All right. Thank you so much for taking the time and all the best to you. Please take care of your Yorkshire terrier.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
He’s asleep.

David Read:
He’s taking care of himself. All right. Very good. Hopefully in a warm spot.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
He’s 13 years old so he sleeps now.

David Read:
We’re gonna be in touch with you, OK?

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
OK. Sounds great.

David Read:
Thank you so much for your time.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
OK. Thank you for having me.

David Read:
All right. You take care. Bye-bye.

Ruby Fleming-Davis:
OK. Goodbye.

David Read:
Bye-bye.

Garwin Sanford:
Bye, sweetheart.

David Read:
Ruby? Welles, you still with us?

Welles Davis:
I am.

David Read:
There you are.

Darren Sumner:
What a treat. What a treat. Thank you, David.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Welles Davis:
It was lovely.

David Read:
I’m gonna be honest with you here. I’ve got about 38 minutes of footage to go through. I’m not going to make anyone stick around who doesn’t want to because you’re not going to hear it. So, you let me know if you need to take off now. I understand. But I have been building this library of moments for two days and I’m not getting out of this chair until we’ve gone through them. So, Garwin, do you need to go?

Garwin Sanford:
No, what I’m gonna do is go watch it on YouTube.

David Read:
You know what? That sounds like a good idea. Maybe I’ll join you.

Garwin Sanford:
Then I’ll get to see it. But thank you, thank you so much for having me and good to see you all. Good to meet the people I haven’t met before.

Welles Davis:
Nice to meet you.

Garwin Sanford:
Good to see you again, Allan. It was great. This has been a real treat. And I really appreciate you including me in this. It’s been very special, so thank you very much.

David Read:
There’s no way we would not have. Absolutely. Please stay well, and you’re gonna be…

Garwin Sanford:
Thank you, David.

David Read:
… in our thoughts and thank you again for everything.

Garwin Sanford:
You, too. Take care.

David Read:
Thank you. Bye-bye.

Garwin Sanford:
Bye-bye.

David Read:
All righty, guys. What say you all, as Aragorn says to those wispy people? What’s your thought process? You hanging in with me?

Welles Davis:
I’m good.

Darren Sumner:
I’m still here. You promised me a whole bunch of footage that I haven’t seen… that Allan was cooking up.

Welles Davis:
Same.

Darren Sumner:
I wanna see what’s racked and ready to go.

David Read:
Do you guys have the ability to watch it on a separate device so that you can actually hear it?

Welles Davis:
Yep.

David Read:
Allan, are you good?

Allan Gowen:
Absolutely. I’m good. I might have to duck off for a couple of minutes and then I’ll be straight back.

David Read:
Absolutely. You’re in the future. You do what you gotta do. Give us the lottery ticket numbers for today.

Allan Gowen:
I wish it worked that way.

David Read:
All right. I’m gonna go ahead and proceed here. Martin Wood, we had. The next one I’ve got, I wanna make sure… Actually, Allan?

Allan Gowen:
Yeah.

David Read:
Can you do me a favor and pull up the fan comments that were submitted?

Allan Gowen:
I sure can.

David Read:
We’re gonna go ahead and go around to you. Eventually we were going to play ping pong and go back and forth and then I realized that that is the quickest way to a coronary. We’re gonna go ahead and allow the fans who wrote me, there’s a couple of them, to have their stories read. And there were some pictures thrown in as well on Facebook and I’m gonna go ahead and let a couple of those play first, while Allan reads those submissions. So, who are we hearing from first, Allan?

Allan Gowen:
We’re gonna hear from Laurie… Now, please, excuse me if I mispronounce names. It’s either Laurie Steinel or Laurie Steinley. Would you like me to begin?

David Read:
Yeah, go ahead and read it.

Allan Gowen:
OK. Laurie says, “In August of ’04, I was excited to meet the cast, and Don was one of the first ones I met at an informal con party. He was so nice, and the same held true the next day when we were in the autograph line. Convention people had stopped personalization in an effort to speed up the lines, but Don kept personalizing and moving at his own pace, taking the time to talk to everyone. I remember asking him what it was like to work on the X-Files. He looked up at me and said in a fond remembrance, ‘Gillian Anderson was an angel.'”

David Read:
The next is one of our moderators, Marcia Middleton.

Allan Gowen:
Marcia Middleton, “As a director for the new Stargate: Off-World track at Dragon Con, I hosted Don among our first guests. We surprised him with a huge thank you banner secretly signed during the convention by fans, and he was excited to plan for his return appearance. He passed away weeks before the convention. We held a memorial gathering and a charity auction. At the memorial, guests and fans shared so much love for Don. Our auction raised more than the rest of the convention combined. When there was nothing left to auction, fans still gave. They wanted to be part of it all. Truly magical moments.” Marcia. Now, that’s nice. It was also similar for our convention in 2008. I think we were only a week or two after Dragon Con that year. Very special. Nice picture.

David Read:
He was always up for giving because he really believed that he received so much. And I think that there aren’t enough of those people in the world. There is something, you’ll hear me say in a little while, pretty magical about him. There it goes. I was like, “I knew I had that file somewhere.” And Allan, what was the last one?

Allan Gowen:
OK. The last one is from Peace Rider. “At Gatecon 2002, Teryl and Don were hosting the live auction, and after some exciting bidding, I won a DB set signed by all the actors. I went to pick it up at the stage. Don said, ‘You did really well at bidding. I’m glad you won.’ After the auction, I was waiting at the door when suddenly he took me into an affectionate bear hug at my eye level, so fast. I didn’t know who it was when I heard a deep, bear voice in my ear, ‘Did you enjoy the evening?'” As Don pulled back, arm on my shoulders, smiling at me, I answered surprised, ‘It was amazing.’ He wished me good night, and I left with a wave.”

David Read:
Absolutely. Thank you to everyone who’s submitted here. We’re going to take you down memory lane and we’re going to explore some of the convention appearances than Don made over the years. A lot of this footage I had never seen before the last few days. This is going to be a real treat for everyone. I hope you enjoy.

Don S. Davis [clip]:
If you can see through here and see this, you see that on this door is C4. And C4 stands for the core four. They took the seed of an idea and planted it, and out grew Gatecon, and now they’ve got clout.

Allan Gowen:
We are muted, aren’t we now, from the live? Excellent.

Welles Davis:
It just made me watch an ad before I could wa–

Don S. Davis [Clip]:
Actually, I’m loud enough that it would hurt your ears if I did this with a mic on it. I could project back there. I spent 20 years doing theater, and you have to speak to the back row of the house. Stargate’s a wonderful experience for me, because it’s like old home week. Years ago, one of the shows that gave me my start in the film business was MacGyver. And I was fortunate enough to work as an extra and as a photo double for a wonderful man named Dana Elcar, who played Rick’s boss, Pete Thornton, and then I became his stunt double. And when they began to trust me, which really, they shouldn’t have, they wound up giving me a guest star role. And when the other shows in town saw that role, I began to get guest star shows all over town and it built from there. I’m one of those people that wandered into this, at least into the film business, in my early 40s, and was fortunate enough, be lucky enough to meet some very fine people who’ve carried me ever since. And it’s a business that costs a lot of money to make a film or a television show, so it’s a business in which people have to trust that you’re not going to slow down the process. And you wind up developing ever-enlarging networks of producers and directors that you’ve worked for before, and they know somebody, so when they talk about a role, they mention you to them and that’s how you get the work here. I’ve been very lucky, and this is a crowning little thing in my career. I think I’m getting the hook.

Convention Guest 1 [clip]:
I want to thank you personally for coming over to the gate with Amanda on Wednesday as our tour bus got there. That was wonderful.

Don S. Davis [Clip]:
It was good to see you guys.

Convention Guest 1 [clip]:
We didn’t expect you to climb the fence like Dan Shea did.

Don S. Davis [clip]:
Dan’s a wild man.

Colin Cunningham [clip]:
Absolute best thing for me, with regards to being on Stargate, is Don Davis and Amanda Tapping. I just adore those two people. That’s why I like to show up.

JR Bourne [clip]:
I would definitely, without a doubt, agree with that. Most definitely. Just meeting those people. They really are.

Colin Cunningham [clip]:
They’re awesome.

JR Bourne [clip]:
Don has such a great, amazing energy. And Amanda, obviously.

Don S. Davis [Clip]:
On Thursday, Amanda and I had to do a very emotional scene, and she is so pure as an actress that… Hammond is supposed to be a fairly… he’s a general, and he’s tough. But when those tears started coming out of her eyes, I couldn’t keep them out of mine, and that wasn’t really appropriate for the scene. That’s part of the reason I get called “43 Take Davis.”

Amanda Tapping [clip]:
It was a very emotional scene. Don Davis saved my ass in that scene. Even off camera, Don wept, sat beside the camera and wept for me, and he’s amazing. I can’t tell you what the scene was about, but it’s one of those actor moments where you go, “Oh my God, this is what it’s about,” and that was great.

Allan Gowen:
So, that video there, David, was a very special moment for us all at Gatecon. They’d just wrapped filming the episode “Meridian” where Daniel ascends. The scene they’re talking about, we didn’t find out till five months later… when “Meridian” aired on TV. It was the scene where Amanda was so conflicted, because Daniel has ascended, he’s essentially died, but he wasn’t dead, and the emotion of all of that from Amanda, it was almost reality then. It was a scene with Don and with the multiple takes they do, Don was off camera and it wrecked them both. I’m so glad they shared that moment and that memory… It wasn’t a memory for them. It was recent history. It was only a few days before, and it was a really special moment. It was really special, and I’m so glad they shared it with us.

David Read:
Darren, any thoughts?

Darren Sumner:
I’m trying to remember the timeline for when we as fans found out that Michael was leaving the show.

David Read:
I thought Brad mentioned it at this Gatecon.

Darren Sumner:
I thought it was Brad from stage at Gatecon, so we didn’t know anything about the episode.
We didn’t know that Daniel was being killed off. But these actors were in the midst of that. They had come from set where they were shooting these scenes that we would not see, as Allan said, for months. And that’s really raw because when you’re a family on set and you lose one of your own, it’s painful. And we see it in Amanda’s performance in “Meridian” and in the next episode, “Revelations.”

David Read:
And Christopher.

Darren Sumner:
How Sam is coping with it. How Chris and Teal’c are coping with it. But it feels like it’s one of those moments in the show, one of those occasions where the reality of their love for one another bleeds through into their characters, and that we’re seeing absolutely, genuinely how they felt. And I think a lot of the actors have told us as much, that in this scene or that scene or that line or that beat, you’re not seeing Carter’s tears so much as you’re seeing Amanda’s tears.

David Read:
Wells, do you have any input on “Meridian?”

Welles Davis:
I more have input on the fact that at Gatecon, as I’ve said multiple times already, I wasn’t involved and wasn’t going to, especially Stargate-related conventions back then. So, the idea of it, they’re literally talking about something, or maybe, I guess, hinting at something, but they can’t give something away. There are actual spoiler alerts. We joke on The Fries all the time, spoiler alert for a 30-year-old TV show. But actually, that was what was happening at Gatecon, which is really exciting for me to be able to watch that and to see it from that perspective and to see it back then. It’s great to be able to see.

David Read:
All right, here we go.

Allan Gowen:
We’ve been lucky enough to have a good few spoiler moments at Gatecon. It’s been very special.

David Read:
You guys previewed the Kull Warrior, didn’t you?

Allan Gowen:
We did. We had the Kull Warrior…

Welles Davis:
That’s awesome.

Allan Gowen:
It was a week before it was shown.

David Read:
“Evolution 1.”

Allan Gowen:
We were almost allowed to show the premiere of Stargate Atlantis the day before it aired, but they didn’t allow us to do that in the end. And, also, similar to the “Meridian” moment, there’s footage you asked me for, David, that I haven’t been able to dig out yet. I think it’s all still on tape somewhere, of Don and Teryl talking about shooting “Heroes.” Which was probably between “Meridian” and “Heroes” probably the two most emotional episodes out of all of them. I will try and dig that out at some stage.

David Read:
Because my footage of it… is absolute utter crap. The room was full of mixed emotions. This is Gatecon 2003, and GateWorld had spilled the beans on what happens with Janet, and I think I’m remembering that correctly, Darren. Didn’t you spoil it in a report?

Darren Sumner:
That Janet was being killed off?

David Read:
Yeah.

Darren Sumner:
I don’t think so.

David Read:
You didn’t?

Darren Sumner:
I’d have to go back and look.

David Read:
OK. Interesting.

Darren Sumner:
‘Cause our policy at the time was that we weren’t gonna spoil the final act of any episode. When we got our hands on casting sides, we weren’t gonna spoil the end of any episodes. We weren’t gonna spoil any twists, and that sure was one.

David Read:
You and I knew, and everyone else knew, and if they didn’t know through us, who did they know it through?

Darren Sumner:
I don’t recall if another outlet published it or if we said something about a casting change.

David Read:
It was very crystal clear long before that episode aired that that was precisely what was going to happen.

Darren Sumner:
I do remember this. I remember going into “Heroes” when it premiered on Syfy that I knew what was going to happen, and I did not tell my wife. She was sitting next to me on the couch like, “Who is this?”

David Read:
Like breaking some marital vow or something–

Darren Sumner:
Her reaction was absolutely genuine and absolutely raw in the moment, and I had to respond to her like the cat who swallowed the proverbial canary and unpack the episode when it was over.

David Read:
Televisual fidelity. I’ll share everything with you, everything, but a TV series? That’s a bridge too far.

Darren Sumner:
It’s because it’s the story. That’s the difficult thing about reporting.

David Read:
“That’s what he said, Judge. That’s what he said.”

Darren Sumner:
Reporting on spoilers. Hey, stay out of my marriage. The funny thing about reporting on spoilers is, at the end of the day, it’s still somebody else’s story. So, we tried to walk a really fine line. It was Rob Cooper and it was the cast and everybody else who was involved in the production of that show. In the course of my reporting duties as the runner of a fan site, I was exposed to that information. I was exposed to a lot of other information. I did know that Daniel was being killed off before “Meridian” but my wife was loving the show and I wanted her to experience the show as it was intended to be. She didn’t have to go through the hazards of spoilers like I did. ‘Cause it changes the way you watch the show, right?

David Read:
Changes everything. Going to the set changes the show. You can’t press Control Z after that. We can both speak to that. Absolutely. Let’s go ahead and go back for a couple more and then we’ll move on to something else.

Don S. Davis [Clip]:
What a painter does, what an artist and sculptor does, is they look at life and life in the main, though at times it’s exciting and at times it’s frightening and at times it’s hilarious… there’s a kind of sameness to it. Most of us spend our days going to the same job, talking to the same people, commenting on the latest movie we saw or television show or an item in the news or something. There’s a true sameness about life. The artist is always in rebellion against that sameness. And he sees a beautiful sky and he thinks, “That’s wonderful, but think of what it would be if there was a touch of blue or red or green or something over here that there’s not. Or think of what it would be if the whole thing had a foggy mist over it.” And that’s what the artist does. But an actor does the same thing. An actor is given a script, and he’s given a rough outline of what this character is and what he does. And the good actors do research or they create a life. And they say, “OK, he’s gonna say this, this and this, and he’s supposedly her father or his father or he works for so-and-so.” But who is he? What’s his favorite color? What’s his favorite food? What kind of car would he drive if he could drive anything he wanted? If he could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would he want to go? What kind of clothing does he like to wear? Does he like something that is quiet and conservative or is he a loud, brash kind of guy? Does he like something that is starched and stiff or does he like something that’s soft? When you discover all of this… What’s his political beliefs? What’s his religion if he has one? What’s his educational training? What’s his hobby? If you can… Or she, whatever, it’s all of those. If you can discover those things, you can color that person no matter what the writer has written to make him reflective of what you wish you could do in real life.

David Read:
These are frames of some of Don’s art that were made into prints, so these were prints that were available for a while. These were published on a website called donsdaviesart.ca. I would really love to get my hands on them and according to Ruby, that may be happening fairly soon here. And we’ll show these off in some greater detail at that point because frankly, these were extremely low res and I’m very surprised that they look as good as they do. That’s photo realistic. It’s absolutely exceptional. This is General Hammond we’re talking… Hello. This is General Hammond we’re talking about here. Damn.

Welles Davis:
They’re stunning.

David Read:
It looks like a person! Right! What do you think, Welles?

Welles Davis:
Technically it’s one thing, you said photo realistic, but there’s so much more to them than that, too. There’s movement in it, there’s the colors and the… there’s everything to all of these, it’s really incredible. The water wheel with the light.

David Read:
The light and shadow.

Welles Davis:
The light play and the shadow. Incredible stuff.

David Read:
Darren, what do you think?

Darren Sumner:
You’re telling me all of these are illustrations? ‘Cause you started with the two birds, I thought, “He was a photographer too? Cool.”

David Read:
No.

Darren Sumner:
Those are illustrations?

David Read:
They are illustrations.

Darren Sumner:
I’m blown away. I have perused some of his art on his website, which folks can still track down on the Wayback Machine. That’s stunning.

David Read:
Pretty remarkable.

Darren Sumner:
Startling talent.

David Read:
This is in my school magazine, the quarterly magazine. Whoops, sorry. This is a section from the same issue that I started with, SIU alumni. “Several original etchings done by Davis while he studied both art and theater at SIU are owned by Patricia Airey ’84 of Carbondale, a longtime friend. She and Darwyn Payne, ’53 MFA ’55, who was Davis’ mentor, admire his work and Payne keeps up with Davis and his career, staying in touch by phone.” The work is absolutely extraordinary. I wish that I could have… We let Garwin go too soon. We rattled on too long, but we’re gonna have to have him back to talk about art, ’cause I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t speak art. Hopefully, Garwin can translate for us because… That is extraordinary, what I just saw. It’s utterly extraordinary. And the fact that he could do that. I’m sure there was some skill involved, but I can’t do that. I can put the pen to paper and make a thousand of those. But sooner or later, you have to realize, “I’m not gonna get it, so maybe I can enjoy doing it poorly.” What an artist.

Welles Davis:
Technically amazing, but I’ve seen plenty of photorealistic artists. There’s something more to it too. There’s heart and soul in those that you don’t see all the time with your random run-of-the-mill art that I see even around town here. He was bold in some of those choices in that art too, which is incredible.

David Read:
You’re seeing the art, but you’re also feeling it. That’s something that you have to feel your way through. The falls, like you were saying, and one of the earlier ones, you could sense the motion. You feel it. It’s exquisite. I have some tributes here that have been submitted. I have been fortunate to communicate very recently with Stargate SG-1 Executive Producer Michael Greenburg. We’ve not had him on the show before, and he and I had about a half-hour conversation a couple of days ago, and I thought that it was perfect that Don Davis was the one to bridge this gap. So, I’m gonna go ahead and bring him in now. [clip] Don and you go way back before SG-1. If you could confirm something for me, I was told that no one else was considered for Hammond. Can you confirm that?

Michael Greenburg [clip]:
Yeah, I think it was always gonna be Don. Always. It might have come from the MacGyver days, because he fit the bill so perfectly. And I guess the first day we knew he was it, because he’s a one-take guy, like I said. He’s brilliant. He’s a great person to be around. His energy was contagious. Everyone loved him. And he delivered every time, perfection. Each take. We never had to do a second take with Don. It was always someone else.

David Read [clip]:
Watching Don tweak this guy piece by piece, just like he was carving a block of wood, from military cutout figure, General West was here, insert General Hammond here, to the father figure that we all hold in such high esteem today.

Michael Greenburg [clip]:
The word that keeps coming to mind is solid. You’ve said it, he’s solid. It’s almost like Michelangelo or da Vinci carved him. He’s a solid character, and he knew the character inside and out. And I can tell you honestly, we never worried about Hammond in a scene. I never gave it any thought whatsoever, because I knew Don would deliver it. And I knew it from MacGyver, because he delivered everything, day in and day out, on a stunt double effort. He was there. I think you said it, he’s solid. He’s solid as a rock, so I never worried about his character, his character arc, ’cause he always had it. He always had it down. And that’s what made him gold for us, platinum. He was amazing. And as great an actor, he was the greatest guy.

David Read:
I swear I’m not wearing lipstick. I have a Kool-Aid addiction right now. Michael Greenburg, everyone, Executive Producer of Stargate SG-1. He has agreed to come back and talk more, so hopefully we are at the beginning of a really cool conversation that’ll take place here fairly soon, but I have some more contributions from different members of the cast. Trigger warning, the next 20 or 25 minutes are gonna be hard. Let’s start off with a fun one, and we’re gonna go through this together. I appreciate you being here.

Gary Jones [clip]:
Teryl was a really, really close friend of Don’s. Don S. Davis, and I understand you’re wearing a commemoration.

Colleen Kelly Burks [clip]:
You saw that.

Gary Jones [clip]:
Tell us about that.

Colleen Kelly Burks [clip]:
That was… When Don passed away, I think it was the May before the Comic-Con in 2008, and we had our table upstairs, and I felt for Comic-Con, I wanted to do something special, and being raised Catholic, when you have people pass away, they had these memorial cards that they would pass out at the funerals. I thought, “I’m gonna do this” because that was also the year they were having the Continuum airing on the USS Midway Museum, and I thought, “This is perfect.” So, I created the badge and I made 18 of them and I handed them out on Thursday. And everybody loved them so much that I had to go home after working the con for 10 hours, and I made another four dozen of these badges, only I added a little tribute on the back that basically was, “His light may have gone out in our world, but his star shall forever shine in our hearts.” And a few other things like, “Donate to the Heart Association.” And one of my friends, Dean, ran into some of the people doing the Stargate Worlds booth downstairs, and they loved the badges. And they asked for some and they gave us tickets to the premiere of Continuum on the ship that all the actors appeared. And Dean, again, goes, “Do you have any more badges?” And I’m like, “I’m out.” I gave out 40 more, so we all took our own badges off and gave them to Dean, and Dean gave them to all the actors down below. And the next day, they were wearing them at the panels. So, you can imagine how it felt–

Gary Jones [clip]:
That is the best advertising ever.

Colleen Kelly Burks [clip]:
I was thrilled to see that they thought so much of this fan-made badge. And that they cared for Don so much that they would wear ’em on stage.

Gary Jones [clip]:
I think it really speaks to Don’s legacy and how much that guy was beloved by people. Oh my God. He’s the best.

Colleen Kelly Burks [clip]:
He got married, I think it was in 2003. He married his best friend, he called her.

Gary Jones [clip]:
Ruby.

Colleen Kelly Burks [clip]:
He was at Comic Con again that year, and I got to go into the green room and I got to talk to him. You don’t wanna be the typical fan, “Oh, I love you. Oh, you’re wonderful,” thing, and I said, “I heard you got married. How do you feel being married?” And he just glowed with happiness and joy. And he was smiling as he talked about her and how lucky he was to marry his best friend. So, I’ve had many contacts throughout the years of this, but that one I think about every time I see the badge or when I think of him, that’s how I remember him, so happy to be married to this wonderful woman.

Gary Jones [clip]:
We’re gonna wrap it up right now, but I will say that my first encounter with Don when I got introduced to him, I’ll never forget what he said to me. It was so Don. They said, “Don, this is Gary. Gary, this is Don.” I said, “Hi, Don.” And I put my hand out to shake his hand, and it was like putting my hand in some kind of pneumatic machine that fused all the knuckles in my hand. He literally crushed my hand. And he said to me, “Hi there, I’m Don S. Davis. I’m 235 pounds of romping, stomping Missouri bullshit.” And that was what Don said to me. Those were his first words to me. I was like, “Oh, this guy’s gonna be awesome.” This guy, as soon as I get my hand worked on and I get out of the hospital, he’s gonna be fantastic to work with.

David Read [clip]:
What about Don sticks with you? Humble man.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
Humble, grateful. He loved doing that show. To a fault, he always thought that somebody was gonna walk in and fire him any day. He was always overprepared; he was always a little bit hypertense because he was making sure he was doing his job. Teryl and I were at a convention in France. We were asked this same question, and I told this story that I adore, the moment when Don had this nervous tic, which you never saw. But when he was afraid he was gonna flub a line, Don would talk like this and he would say this thing, and then he would say… And then all of a sudden, he’d start going, “Hurr, hurr” He was like a car that was stalling, and he’d go, “Daniel Jackson, you should hurr, hurr”

David Read [clip]:
He’s thinking.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
He’s losing his breath, he’s so nervous because he’s spiraling. It happens with every actor when you make a mistake, and of course it was DeLuise who keeps the camera rolling at all times. So, when you’re in the middle of a giggle or you’re spiraling outta control with not knowing your lines or it’s a shitshow, he’s documenting the whole damn thing. And you’re gonna have three minutes of this. And Don would do this, but of course, here we are, usually in the boardroom, we’re off camera and we’re trying to keep our composure because the more that we break, the more that it’s gonna upset Don because he’s trying to keep his shit together. It was fantastic to watch that happen. It only happened like two or three times. You’d rarely see Richard crack up, but that was one of the times. Usually, Rick was making everybody else crack up, but at that particular time–

David Read [clip]:
Don would tickle him.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
With tears in their eyes, because there was stoic Don going, “Hurr, Hurr. And Colonel O’Neill, you should have hurr, hurr.” That was fantastic. Don was a good friend. He was a big supporter of me. He wanted to produce a … we had a script, and we were gonna produce a movie together that he wanted me to star in. It never quite got off the ground. He wanted to find some vehicle for me to do something. He wanted to produce. He wanted to branch off and produce, and this was in the early years.

David Read [clip]:
Just the invitation though. “I wanna work with you. I see you.”

Michael Shanks [clip]:
The funny thing was I don’t even know if Don remembered it. One of my first ever jobs, I was doing a TV movie for ABC. I think it’s on HBO streaming now or something. And I was playing a frat kid with… God, who was in it? Stephen Collins and…

David Read [clip]:
Oh, good actor.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
… Faye Dunaway. I was playing one of these frat kids that’s involved in a terrible incident, based on a true story. This is before Lifetime would come up with all the torn-from-the-headlines things. And Don played the detective that came in and was laying down the law to all of us frat boys that were in there. And I sat back watching him do his thing. I don’t even think he remembered. I think I brought it up with him once. Again, Don focused on doing his job and stuff like that. But what a gentleman. Hilarious. Sometimes inadvertently. The way he would tell a story, that usually something happened to him that he’s not laughing ’cause it’s a true story, but goddamn, it’s side-splitting funny because … Especially with that Ozark accent. Lordy B., he could make us laugh. The one that Teryl told, I’d never heard before, about Don getting stuck in the tub.

David Read [clip]:
What? OK. Please. Please transcribe this for us.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
I’ll do it. I couldn’t do it justice ’cause it’s Teryl’s story. ‘Cause I don’t recall this one, but the tubs in Europe are a little bit narrower than…

David Read [clip]:
That’s true.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
… they are in North America… he was in a hotel. He comes out to meet us somewhere in the lobby or something like that, and he’s like, “I was gonna come out here a little bit earlier, but I got stuck in the tub. ‘Cause I got a 52-inch chest, and it doesn’t fit easy.” We still don’t know, ’cause he called the hotel ’cause he needed help to get out of the tub. He called somebody. We still don’t know how he managed to get out of the tub or reach … Was there a phone near the tub? I don’t even know what the fuck coulda happened. But my God, stuff like that, that actually you can totally picture happening to Don and the way he would weave that story … He wasn’t doing standup. He was just telling a story

David Read [clip]:
As it was.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
We would be crying ourselves silly ’cause he just had a way. He had a way and a charm, and we miss him. I miss him terribly. He was one of those guys that you always say that there’s good guys in this business, and he was one of the good ones. Gone too soon. Gone too soon.

David Read [clip]:
Absolutely. He told us the story, me and Darren, when GateWorld was interviewing him, of how he fell in love with oysters and how he tried one and he kind of chewed it. And then he just pulled the whole plate over to himself and began to enjoy everyone’s oysters.

Michael Shanks [clip]:
I can see that. I can see that.

John G. Lenic [clip]:
Don Davis. Absolutely. He was a pleasure. He was awesome. Every time, “John.” He’d come in and he’d sit down.

David Read [clip]:
Talk about a voice.

John G. Lenic [clip]:
He’d shoot the shit with you. He was a real salt-of-the-earth person. He cared and he was amazing. When he died, it was just… It was tragic. And I remember… There’s very few people you remember the place and where you were and all that kind of thing, and he’s one of them. He was such an amazing human.

David Read [clip]:
That Ozark bass voice. Whoever had the idea to name the ship after him, he would have been so thrilled. That was a great, great nod. And he’s one of those people that those of us who had the privilege of knowing him and being able to watch his work and see his artistry and carving and painting and everything else, we were all made fuller by his presence.

Welles Davis:
For the last two years, on The Companion, we’ve been working with Amanda Tapping on this mental health project. And as we put calls out for stories for the book that we’re doing, one of the question prompts that we had Amanda talk about was, “Tell us a funny story.” I think it’s very appropriate that who she immediately started talking about was Don S. Davis. So, this is that clip from her talking about telling a funny story.

Amanda Tapping [clip]:
I’m gonna tell a story of Don Davis, when we were all traveling together, and we were sitting in the airport and we had a long layover, and Don started to tell this story. And if you know Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant… Is it Arlo or Woody? It was Arlo that did Alice’s Restaurant, I think. It’s this rambling story but coming back to the same point. But it’s this beautiful, hilarious, rambling story. And Don did a story that was like listening to a recording of Alice’s Restaurant but with Don’s story in there. I literally almost peed my pants in this airport lounge where we were all sitting. We were laughing, so we all had tears streaming down our face. We were grabbing each other. Teryl and I were falling all over each other. We laughed so hard that day, and Don just kept telling this story. I default to laughter or comedy all the time. I think it’s something how we as humans can process trauma… is with laughter. I think laughter is a tonic. And I think…we know hugs are tonic. We know that they release things that… And it’s super important, and I think laughter does the same thing.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
We were backstage yakking away, and hugging, and saying hi to all of you, until we heard the applause, and we were like, “Is that us?”

Don S. Davis [clip]:
Actually, I got a grope in, and I didn’t even have to spend 300 dollars.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
So, how are you all? Let your own imaginations take it to where I would have ’em. Now you start it.

Don S. Davis [clip]:
I was trying to think of what I would do with Patrick.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
Stick to sheep, Don.

Don S. Davis [clip]:
She says that, but rattling is really very good for the skin.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
Lower. Next question.

David Read [clip]:
So, you and Don always did the Gatecon conventions together. It was one of the coolest things, ’cause he would get up there, and he would preach. You could get him going on a topic, or the audience going on a topic. Or the audience would get him going on something, and you would sit back there, and you would rock your legs, and you would let him go. And Chris was telling me how he wouldn’t wanna do conventions without you. The man was magic. Are there any particular, specific memories with Don that you hold particularly dear to your heart? ‘Cause a lot of that was with fans. You, like you said, were the mother and father of that group of people.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
I have so many memories of him. And everything you saw of Donnie on camera was what he was inside. He was the most loving, generous, kind human being. He had a heart that sadly couldn’t keep him with us, because I think that heart was so big. It encompassed everyone he met, everyone. He just touched everybody. He was also one of the funniest men I ever had the pleasure of meeting. He was like my dad. He used to call me his daughter. We lived really close to each other because we were very close. We traveled together.

Christopher Judge [clip]:
Sorry.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
We lost a really great talent and a really great man when he passed. I’m sorry.

David Read [clip]:
I got to see the two of you at that first Gatecon convention that I got to go to. And I found out later that he and I went to the same college.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
Is that right?

David Read [clip]:
Every time I met him afterwards, he knew exactly who I was. He said, “How’s SIU doing?” with the sports and everything else. He always knew, no matter how many people he met around the world. I don’t know how the man did it…

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
He remembered them.

David Read [clip]:
But he remembered everybody.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
He remembered them.

David Read [clip]:
He was always so blown away by the fact that, “I’m just… I’m a woodworker, and I’m a painter, and I fell into this.”

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
He loved it. He just loved it.

David Read [clip]:
He loved his art, and he fell into this … He thought, “This is not what I planned.” He will be remembered, and the work that you all did together will be remembered for generations…

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
Absolutely.

David Read [clip]:
…Because it was so genuine. And it connected with so many people. I wanna thank you and you for taking the time to remember him. Obviously, it was Don S. Davis.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
He was an amazing… innocence. Do you remember, we would have read-throughs at lunch, and he would have his lunch. He’d bring his lunch in, and I remember it was, was it Musetta?

Christopher Judge [clip]:
Yes, yes.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
He came in, he was like, “Oh, hell everybody, I’m so sorry I’m late. My God, you’re a beautiful woman.” There’d be no breath in between, he would spiel and then that’s what he would say. Then, I have another story. It’s really bizarre and twisted, but it’s Don. I had this puppy that grew up on set, Bodhi, who’s no longer with us, who loved Don. Don just loved Bodhi. So, we were having lunch in his trailer and we’re sitting in there and something happened, I don’t know what she ate but she was on the floor. She did her thing. I swear to God, now this is so gross, I’m sorry I have to say this though. Vomit came out, but it was tubular or something. And Donny, in his innocence goes, “Oh God, hon. She just shit out her mouth.” You had to be there. Another time we were on a … Donny, I miss you. We were on the freeway, we were driving from our hotel with Tony Amendola from … and we were in Paris. We’re sitting there and we’re in the back seat, he’s like, “Oh my God. We’re gonna have to get this thing to turn around. We gotta go back.” And I said, “Why, Don?” “Well, I forgot my Viagra in my drawer.” He wasn’t married. I said, “What the hell do you need Viagra for?” “Well, you never know, hon. I’m in Europe.”

David Read [clip]:
He was larger than life.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
Imagine. I don’t know where we were, it was this freeway, “I gotta go back.”

David Read [clip]:
Did you turn around? And just dealt with it?

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
We said, “Donny, we’ll get you another prescription.” Dear God, we could go on with our stories. Oh, Don.

David Read [clip]:
I would like to bring in one of your stories. If you don’t mind?

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
Which one?

David Read [clip]:
Londyn? Would you come over for a minute? So, we asked if you wanna sit with your mom?

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
You wanna sit with Chris or mommy?

Londyn Rothery [clip]:
I just wanna sit here.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
This is the best–

David Read [clip]:
Is she in frame?

Christopher Judge [clip]:
You gotta get out of the shot.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
You need to come over here.

Christopher Judge [clip]:
Come right here, honey.

David Read [clip]:
So, this is someone that I had always heard about. And all I can think of is Cassandra. The dark black hair. Another gift that Carol’s been given.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
This is the best role of my life, and that is to play a mom. Yes. This is my beautiful daughter, Londyn, who just turned nine and is truly the joy of my life. What else? What else do you want me to tell you?

Londyn Rothery [clip]:
I’m awesome.

David Read [clip]:
She is awesome.

Teryl Rothery [clip]:
The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Jay Brazeau [clip]:
First time I met Don, he was a stand-in for what’s his name?

David Read [clip]:
Dana Elcar?

Jay Brazeau [clip]:
Dana. He was his stand-in.

David Read [clip]:
MacGyver.

Jay Brazeau [clip]:
Back then, he would complain about, “Jay, my wife is killing me. She made me buy her a new car.” That was Don. We were offered the same roles. “Jay Brazeau, you’re gonna get this, Jay. I can’t act myself out of a paper bag.” Finally, we got to do a movie together, it was great. It was fantastic seeing him. He was the most gentle, kindest man in the world. What an actor. Real. What a real great student of the world. He was a beautiful guy. It was really hard for him when he left Stargate, but he still kept on doing stuff, and I saw him about, I think, four days. He told me, he said, “Jay, I just went to the doctor, I’m doing fine.” Because he’d had a heart attack awhile back. “I’m doing fine, got a clean bill of health.” And he met somebody, a new woman, “A new woman in my life.” He finally divorced, and he was so happy.

David Read [clip]:
Ruby.

Jay Brazeau [clip]:
Happiest guy in the world, radiant. And then before I knew, it was three or four days later, and I feel that he had been ripped away from us. Really ripped away from us, and it was really hard because it’s the good people when you lose them. But we are so lucky ’cause he’s still alive. We can turn on our TV anywhere and…

David Read [clip]:
There he is.

Jay Brazeau [clip]:
… that’s Don.

David Read:
That guy did not have nearly enough appearances in Stargate. Jay Brazeau was a genius. He’s so good. I wanna thank you guys for joining me for this episode. This has been really extraordinary. Remembering this man and all the stories, a lifetime of so much. The adventures that he went on, and the stuff that he was able to do with his hands and do with his heart and with his voice. Thank you all for being part of it. Thank you, Welles, for jumping in on such short notice. Thank you, Allan…

Welles Davis:
Pleasure.

David Read:
…For all of your convention anecdotes and stories. And thank you, Darren. I don’t know anything about you, man. I’m gonna…Thanks.

Darren Sumner:
I was here, too.

David Read:
I was here. Can you tell me what some of the folks in the chat have had to say over the…Oh, two hours, 15 minutes?

Darren Sumner:
Has it been that long?

David Read:
Get suited up and ready to go, yes.

Darren Sumner:
There’s so many memories that have been shared here.

David Read:
It’s been a good time.

Darren Sumner:
The time’s flown. Big thanks to everybody who has been here the whole time or if you’ve popped in, popped out. Folks have been sharing their memories of Don, some of their favorite moments. A lot of us had a chance to meet him in person at a convention or elsewhere. And the Dial the Gate mod team has collected some of these. Let me read a few of ‘em for us to share. Sally Whitesides says, “My mom would attend cons with me when I was too young to go alone. She didn’t watch Stargate. She would sit in the back and read, but she listened to Don speak on stage.” She said, “She could tell he loved life.” Jed Ted says, “I met Don at the first Stargate convention, from Creation Entertainment, and he was so kind. I attended the late-night show where Gary Jones did standup comedy, followed by Don reading poetry. Boy, I hope somebody videoed that. I would love to see that.” Thorny Rocket shares this. “My wife and I discovered the Stargate shows just a few months ago and have binged SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe nonstop. Just finished last night. Don S. Davis was our SG-1 MVP.” And that’s amazing. Folks who are still discovering the shows and are still impressed with Don’s performance and his character. CG shares this, “My favorite moments of Don’s as Hammond were his softer moments, like when he was worried about the team or with Daniel and Doc Fraser’s death or when he goes to meet and support Teal’c on Chulak.” That’s another one of my favorite Hammond moments, is in the Season Three premiere, “Into the Fire” when Hammond pulls back his robe. Everybody’s dispersing. Teal’c hasn’t won over very many people on Chulak and pulls back the robe and Hammond is there. Hammond is there to support him.

David Read:
Of Texas.

Darren Sumner:
On GateWorld, every time we do anything remotely related to Hammond, the Hammond of Texas comments come out of the woodwork. One more here from chat. Tariq Elchaunti says this, “I remember meeting Don S. Davis at the Stargate SG-1 Chicago convention in 2005. And he was about to leave, and I was like, ‘Don, I missed the autograph session. Is it possible to sign an autograph for me?’ And he was like, ‘Absolutely.’ After he signed it, he was like, ‘Thank you for being a fan of the show.’ Then he gave me a hug. I miss him a lot. Such a kind and loving human being. Rest in peace, Don.” Wow. Thank you everyone who submitted today. Sally Whitesides, I owe you an apology. I have been running with my head cut off to try and make this something special for everyone. And I have two emails. I have my personal email, and I have my Dial the Gate email. And I set up a bucket so that I could drop the Don emails from fans into a special folder so that I could go back and find them later. I gave everyone, naturally, the show email. And I set the bucket up, of course, on my personal email. So, I’ve been searching and searching trying to find every Don message that’s been shared with me. And Sally, I missed yours. So, I’m gonna go ahead and read your other story as well, with the photo that you sent me. Sally says, “I was 13, and I was walking down the hall at a con and Don passed by me. I asked him for a picture, but my camera had run out of battery. I was shaking and I was nervous, and I was afraid that he was gonna leave. But he stood there, and he told stories, and he patiently waited for me to change the batteries in my camera. And then we took a sweet picture together. He was always the sweetest.” We should be so lucky to be remembered this way. I’ve never gotten over his death. And I barely knew him, to be perfectly honest. I don’t know if that’s just obsession or ’cause I certainly don’t feel like it. It’s very similar with Joel. I think about Joel just about as much. I don’t think about Carmen as much. A little bit. But there’s something about this Ozark man who never thought that he was good enough for the people who loved him. I mean, I’m sure he thought he was… his self-worth was fine, but that just couldn’t compute for him. But no one deserved it more. And I really appreciate everyone who has tuned in to watch and to share memories. The fact that we can turn this around in three days–this is a good fandom. It’s one of the best, if not the best. Welles, tell us about 3 Fries Short.

Welles Davis:
3 Fries Short is my podcast, you can find it on YouTube at 3, the number three, Fries Short. We are mostly a re-watch recap, with dramatic readings of scripts sometimes. So, if you wanna hear my Hammond, my Hammie if you will, you can go over and check out our episodes. But we have been fortunate to have some lovely guests as well, so there’s a whole section for that. We’re also doing this mental health book that I was telling you about, that’s more with The Companion. But I did want to say that I was struck specifically by how often Don and Hammond were brought up in the submissions for that book. And just to really quickly sum it up, somebody in it said that Hammond was the heart and soul of the SGC. And I feel like that’s wonderfully Don, from what I have gathered and been lucky to gather in hearing all of these amazing stories. It’s a pleasure to be here, thank you so much. Come laugh on 3 Fries Short with us.

David Read:
Absolutely. So, what I’m gonna be doing is, once this is over, I have a five-hour drive to Indianapolis for my godson’s snare drum competition, but Don was more important. But afterwards, I will be putting links for all these events in the description below, and you can go and check out the great work that Amanda and Welles and their team are doing to respond to an immediate need in the way that they want to. And this was ours. So, Welles, thank you so much. I wish you all the best. Allan, you said to me once, and I’ve never forgotten it, and I feel the same way and I’m just gonna say it back to you in front of a crowd full of people: I love you to death, and you embraced me when I was a pup, when I was a little GateWorld reporter who had only done a couple of news stories, and you took me under your wing and helped me become a reporter and a journalist. Oh, I have a degree in journalism and ethics, yes I do. But no, I’m a reporter, and we share these stories, and we got to share the life of a great man today. So, thank you, my friend. I would not have wanted to do this without you. I know how much you loved him and I can only imagine how much he loved you.

Allan Gowen:
Thank you David. It’s been a pleasure. With you, it was 24 years ago when we first met. I just saw something straight away. I think one of our first main collaborations was the intro for, it must have been Gatecon 2002 or ’03. When we did the–

David Read:
I think it was ’03.

Allan Gowen:
’03.

David Read:
And Bruce Woloshyn assisted that.

Allan Gowen:
Where we did the intro of me arriving in the–

David Read:
The cargo ship.

Allan Gowen:
In the cargo ship. And that was hilarious. It was hilariously bad. But it was hilarious and it was great, and I’m so glad we caught up with each other and continued working together. I think the following year I got you to handle all of the guest interviews, the backstage interviews, and you’ve been an absolute treasure. And then, our still-to-be-seen documentary that you can’t release yet, where you interviewed–

David Read:
Saw a piece of it.

Allan Gowen:
Saw a piece of it. You interviewed me, I think it must have been about 1:00 AM. It was after the wrap party. I’d had a few drinks. There was definitely a couple of bourbons in me.

David Read:
You were lit, come on. Tell the truth and shame the devil.

Allan Gowen:
I didn’t realize that someone had grabbed a Sharpie and actually drew things on my ears and things, so it was a bit embarrassing watching it afterwards. But it was so much fun. Thank you very much.

David Read:
I’ll never forget that week. And staying up with you–

Allan Gowen:
… it was great.

David Read:
… night after night. The intercourse was fantastic. I am, of course, referring to verbal intercourse.

Allan Gowen:
That’s the wrong point.

David Read:
It was a lot of verbal intercourse. We talked for hours about everything.

Allan Gowen:
Thousands.

David Read:
We didn’t get any sleep, ’cause we were up until 4:00 or 5:00 of the morning going at it, going at it on everything. On every potential thing that you could think of in that space, the space of science, and artistry, and everything that Stargate SG-1 meant to us. If you’re thinking of anything else, there’s just something wrong with you, and that’s really how I felt, and that’s what we did together. So, thank you for being here. Darren, I’m only here because of you, and I mean that with all my heart. Dial the Gate would not be here if it hadn’t been for you answering an email from me in 2001, and saying, “OK, let’s go do a thing together.” And this is your fault, man. I hope that you’re proud of it.

Darren Sumner:
I’m proud of it.

David Read:
I love you like a brother. We’ve had years of quiet, but you’re always… I’m glad you’re here.

Darren Sumner:
This is how much I love you. I put a tie on.

Allan Gowen:
Absolutely.

Darren Sumner:
Only you could’ve made me do this for the first time in how many years. Maybe Amanda. If Amanda asked me to wear a tie, I would wear a tie. We’ve been through such an adventure together, and it’s fun to get to keep coming back and sharing these memories and making new ones. My life and my fandom would not be the same without you. You dragged me out so many times. You said, “Hey, I called Don Davis’ agent, and we’re gonna get in the cab in Vancouver and go down to the Characters and spend two hours there talking to all these people.” I’ve had so many wonderful adventures and so many wonderful experiences that you made happen or at least helped to make happen. Thank you. Thank you for what you’ve done for me. I’m so proud of the career that you built from what we started. I’m so grateful. If I can speak for the chat right now, I’m so grateful for what you do on Dial the Gate, that this project continues now five years later, rolling on to document all of this history. It’s such a rich archive that we’re enjoying every time a new interview gets posted. But it’s gonna be such a rich archive for generations of Stargate fans to come. We don’t even know who’s gonna be finding the shows 10, 20, 30, 50 years from now. In whatever devices beam into their fron. You’ve done such yeoman’s work in documenting it all and getting these folks’ stories on the record. From the Stargate fans, David, thank you.

Allan Gowen:
This is historically important, isn’t it, Darren?

Darren Sumner:
Yeah.

Allan Gowen:
For what David’s doing, absolutely. It’s what he’s doing to document the Stargate Oral History Project. I was talking to my son about it only two days ago. He doesn’t watch Stargate, and he just said how important it is to document everything like this for historical reasons. And like you say, you never know who’s gonna be watching it in the future.

David Read:
That’s it. I can only hope that people continue to be willing to come on and share their stories about an amazing group of people. I’m gonna actually wrap up with the last one. Thank you all. Thank you all for joining me.

Allan Gowen:
You’re welcome.

David Read:
Welles, what a fluke. I saw you online, “she may be able to get something from Amanda.” This couldn’t have turned out cooler. So, thank you for dropping your entire evening to sit down and share some stories with some fellow Stargate fans about an amazing guy. It shows you didn’t have to have known him to be so affected by him.

Welles Davis:
Not at all.

David Read:
He was the heart and soul of that show, so thank you. All right, guys, I’ll talk to you soon. The other thing–

Allan Gowen:
Thank you, David.

David Read:
Thank you. The other thing that has been alluded to, we eat around the edges of it here, is how… Let me put it this way. Mark Davidson, set decorator, was a longtime friend of Don, and he’s a below-the-line employee. You have above-the-line employees. You got the guys over the masthead like Richard Dean Anderson. You got above-the-line employees like Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper, the folks out there making it work, the talent. Then you have below-the-line employees. You have the people who are behind the camera, and these people are the ones who make the show possible week in and week out. And everything comes to a grinding halt if a handful of them are missing. They don’t get the just desserts that they deserve. And one of them, in particular, is Mark Davidson. And when I was with Propworx and we went to Vancouver between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2009 to pull apart the Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis sets, Mark Davidson was one of the few who were involved. And he’s such a humble man that he wouldn’t… He was very specific about how he wanted to contribute to this. I’m including his words here because he’s given me the privilege of doing so. He said, “Somewhere at the beginning of Stargate, Christopher Judge and Don came to me and said, ‘Hey, Mark, let’s go golfing’ which was going to be during a workday.” Now, keep in mind, below-the-line employee. “I wasn’t crazy about missing work, but I ended up being convinced. I had a game, as Don put it. And as it would turn out, I shot better that day than his whole game on the front nine. I truly miss his sense of humor. But I felt quite guilty for playing, missing work, and so I asked the guys I was with to be quiet about it. The next day, Michael Greenburg joined me at craft service and said, ‘I hear you had a pretty good game of golf yesterday.’ I’m not sure why we ended up in Brad’s office afterward, but long story short, I was then invited on what became many wonderful golf trips. I can’t be positive who spilled the beans, but if I had to guess, it was Don. He had a generous heart. He was such a kind soul. I have fond memories of Don, as does most everyone who knew him.” Thank you, Mark. God, two hours 33 minutes and you couldn’t wait two more? If you enjoy Stargate…I can’t read without my glasses. Click the fricking like button. I’m not gonna read the script. It does make a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. God, I miss him. My moderators, Antony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marcia. Come on man, come on, you got this. Come on. It’s OK. Raj and Jakub, I can’t do this show without you, and Don would’ve really appreciated it today. This is really hard. Thanks to my producers, Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, and Summer. And Matt “Eagle SG” for making a beautiful opening sequence. That ship flew again. We lost it far too soon. I don’t know why these shows get lost and the people who are affected by their cancellation. These guys have lives and they’d like to work. But Matt, you made her fly again, and that was cool. And the star constellation was really awesome. I’m gonna give it to Samuel next. He’s gonna fly her out one more time. It’s OK. Do it. It’s fine. Stupid idiot. “Don S. Davis, author, actor.” Author wasn’t even on there. Sorry, Don. “Don S. Davis, actor, artist, scholar, teacher, veteran, and a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.” I hope you could read it, ’cause I can’t, clearly. This is the Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. We love you, Don. Now fly on outta here.

Don S. Davis as General Hammond [clip]:
Yee-haw!