Stargate Command’s nutty scientist is back! Bill Dow, who played Doctor Lee across all three Stargate series, returns to update us on his life and career, and explore our favorite topic — new Stargate!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome everyone to Episode 439 of Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. As I live and breathe, Bill Dow.

Bill Dow:
Hey there.

David Read:
Bill Lee, not Seymour as some of you believe from Zero Hour. That is Little Shop of Horrors. Do you have any idea how many years I had to swat that one away?

Bill Dow:
I bet.

David Read:
How are you, Bill?

Bill Dow:
I’m good. People need to watch more musicals, I guess, so that they get the reference, the pop culture references.

David Read:
It was my one high school musical. Exactly. How are things? What’s going on in your world? Have you heard the news that Stargate’s coming back?

Bill Dow:
I’ve heard the news. There’s a new series cooking, that’s new?

David Read:
That’s exactly right. Martin Gero is a creator and executive producer. Brad Wright and Joseph Mallozzi are creative contributors.

Bill Dow:
Fantastic.

David Read:
The only downside from the Vancouverites’ perspective is it’s filming primarily in the UK. It’s like, ugh. All of us were rooting for Vancouver, but at the same time it’s one of those double-edged, awesome on one hand and frowny face on the other. I just hope that there’s gonna be a lot of tickets booked between Vancouver and the UK starting around filming time this September or October, whenever they decide to get going there, because they’ve gotta bring a few people in. That’s my hope. But there’s no way to tell.

Bill Dow:
No way to tell. It’s great. I think it’s fantastic that the show’s coming back and I think, from what I hear, and I don’t know much about it, but a tribute to the fans that it’s coming back, that they demanded it. Good for the people for responding to that. I know there’s a big following in the UK. I tell you, whenever I was traveling there in the past, I would get recognized on the street in London, or in the airport, or whatever. People watch that show over there and I love it. It was great.

David Read:
It’s a big deal.

Bill Dow:
It was good. It was a lot of fun.

David Read:
The scope of this franchise is so global, but I don’t know what it is that’s in the water over there in the UK, but particularly France. Stargate is still played on primetime. What is it about this American paramilitary series that’s stuck in everyone’s throat over there? They can’t get enough of it. I’m going to France in three weeks for the raising of the SGC Stargate 1:1 scale replica that 150 mostly French and Swiss fans created from scratch over the past 10 years, and it is down to the imperfections in Richard Hudolin’s design, correct.

Bill Dow:
That’s fantastic.

David Read:
Madness.

Bill Dow:
That’s unreal. I didn’t know that. That’s great.

David Read:
It’s just ridiculous. What do you think it is? Is it seriously in our water, or does it just transcend the human experience, and the French and the Europeans are just more in touch with it?

Bill Dow:
Maybe. I don’t know. I remember talking with one of the writers, and I can’t remember who right now, but he used to write on serious cop shows that I love, like NYPD Blue and stuff like that. I said, “How’d you come over to sci-fi?” He said, “Well, I love it. This is where you get to address the big issues. “You can talk about the big questions, more scope, more weight.” Whereas he said, doing those shows, I love cop shows, but he said, “It’s like doing a soap, really.” He was really excited to come and do this and I guess that’s it. Also, there’s the frisson of the foreign, to go there. I went to a convention one time in Germany and there was a mother there and a little kid. I was so excited and he was about 10 years old or something and she brought him over and I started talking to him. Of course, I don’t know any German, but there was a translator and stuff. His face just fell and he kind of tugged his mom and away they went. She came back later and she said, “Well, you’ve got a different voice.”… because it’s dubbed into German over there. I had no idea what kind of a voice I had over there, but it wasn’t me. That kind of crushed him and that was too bad. I was fortunate enough. I didn’t do a lot of conventions, but I did a couple. I did a couple in the UK and one in France as well. It was so much fun and great, great fans all over.

David Read:
I don’t, to this day, know how people can take their precious vacation time and spend it with actors and other Stargate fans who are essentially, worshiping is not the right word, but you are transferring your energy into it, into this thing that we all collectively respond to, not to get into vibrations or anything. People are getting something out of it. I come home and there’s a high that you have to come down from. Something’s gone on, like a concert or a sporting event, or anything else. But this one is sustained; this one takes a few days to really wear off.

Bill Dow:
Interesting. Talking with people at various events like that, I’d ask the question, “Why do you come? What do you get out of here?” Part of it is that they probably met online in some fan forum or something and were in chat rooms with each other. It’s a time when they can come together and just hang out because oftentimes, they’re from different places. They’re kind of scattered and stuff. They really enjoy that and it’s great. It’s like going to any other kind of a conference or something with all the, I don’t know, water bottle salesmen or whatever. Everybody hangs out and does whatever.

David Read:
Dental implements.

Bill Dow:
There you go.

David Read:
Come get your teeth here. I would surmise there aren’t a ton of water bottle enthusiasts who would do that on their spare time. Not to put your approach to the side at all, there’s something that’s transcendent about this, that speaks to us. I think that what you said about the writer who had worked on the cop shows is the key. Sci-fi allows all of the ideas, whereas a procedural will allow a certain slice of those ideas. It’s not just one thing tonally; sci-fi really is all of it.

Bill Dow:
And to elevate them, to ask the bigger questions, big moral questions, right and wrong and the ethics of things and stuff. I think that’s part of it. The jeopardy that people get in that’s existential jeopardy in a lot of the episodes, something bad is gonna happen and how do people respond? I do think that’s it. I was really impressed when he told me that. I thought, “That makes a lot of sense to me.”

David Read:
That’s it. How was Stargate like to work with as a cast, as a crew, compared to a lot of the other work that goes on in Vancouver? Or is it all basically the same kind of professionalism? It’s so well-established as to contributing so much to the growth of that community up there over the course of 14, 15 years of television and 17 television Seasons. Vancouver changed, grew up around Stargate, that particular slice of industry up there.

Bill Dow:
Absolutely. It evolved too over the course of the time I was on it and right up into Universe. They developed a fantastic production machine. It was very efficient and the crews were great and they brought people up through the crews so that the camera operator becomes the DP, becomes the director and people started to know the system. You get to know each other and you get to know the team and it was great. They were also really good. They kept things, as much as possible, and were usually quite successful, to a 12-hour day. There were other shows that you’d shoot and you’d be there forever and you’d just go, “My God.”

David Read:
Oh, God.

Bill Dow:
These guys, they always ran a really great and tight ship. They recognized that people had lives and people have families and they wanna get home. So, it all worked together.

David Read:
I heard that they really made an effort to design the show to be as much a nine-to-five for personnel as possible. Very few night shifts, or night shoots. A lot of that and it would be often on stage if possible. Tell me about that. Is that accurate?

Bill Dow:
Yes, I would say so. If you’re on another show that’s like The Killing or something like that, they start early on Monday morning. By the time you get to Friday, your call’s gonna be afternoon and that means you’re gonna go well into Saturday morning by the time you do it. They call it Fraturdays.

David Read:
That sounds like someone’s personal idea of hell to me.

Bill Dow:
It’s not great and that’s why I really appreciated the producers and everybody on Stargate, were always really, really good about that.

David Read:
I went and checked the notes. You and I haven’t really talked about the language. What you were asked to do, and it is very similar to what was done on Star Trek, except the technobabble was not as high and refined to suggest that it’s from a few hundred years into the future. It’s much more common parlance, Twilight Bark and things like that, that you got to have fun with. It is still a language though and you’re conveying information about things that do not exist. From a person who doesn’t exist, to people who do not exist, into audiences who can only comprehend so much of what it is that you’re suggesting exists, but doesn’t. How do you navigate that Shakespeare in its own way? How far in advance would you personally want to get your hands on it to read it? Or could you deliver same day, cold?

Bill Dow:
You can and you get to that place. You get more practiced with it and it becomes easier as you do it. But obviously, the earlier, the better, in terms of some of that stuff. It’s interesting, what you hit on there, the whole nature of fiction and reality is of course one of the fascinating things about any dramatic form. How do you maintain these different levels of reality and hold each of them equally? I am actually sitting there or standing there talking to Amanda, that’s going on, but at the same time, I’m portraying somebody who has a whole different set of fictional realities to somebody who has a different set, so everything’s different. It’s really that calibration that I find exciting, I love that. That’s one of the things I love about anything like this, and Stargate, I think sci-fi takes it up a notch, just because it is even a farther reach into the future. It’s holding those different realities and letting them expand the potential for communication, which is great.

David Read:
You have to believe it on some level, or it doesn’t work.

Bill Dow:
Absolutely. You have to take it on, for sure.

David Read:
I think the word I’m looking for is you have to be sincere about the approach because audiences can tell when you’re BS’ing them. I’m curious, did you find that you would have to read, specifically speaking about the technical stuff, the dialogue aloud to really capture it? Or could you just read it and memorize that way? What’s your approach for dealing with a lot of that? Because, let’s be honest, the character was very often a very charming plot-forwarding mechanism to get things moving forward. You were brought back again and again because you delivered that well, with sincerity and humor.

Bill Dow:
I don’t think it was on this show. There was another show that one of the directors said, “Oh, get me that guy, Harry the explainer, get him.” That’s what I did. I guess it’s an evolutionary process. I think I start silently in my head, but at some point, I have to be able to say it out loud, so I can hear how the syllables go and the rhythm of it and things like that. Part of the trick is that beyond the words, in theory, if I was that person, I would know those words. What I’m trying to do is I’m trying to convey it to the other character; I’m trying to get them to understand what I’m saying. I’m trying to get an idea across. That’s more about it, it’s more about the intention. The words are there and they have to come out quickly and efficiently. But really, what I need to do is I need to get, for example, you, to understand what I’m talking about. I have to be watching to see if you get it and if you don’t, then I’ve gotta make the point again. That’s kind of the trick of it, I think.

David Read:
I never thought about it that way, but that’s really true. Not only are you playing another Bill who’s conveying the information, you’re playing someone who is conveying the information often to someone who is lay in terms of receiving it. You have to play fiction on more than one level. I never thought about it like that before. That’s interesting.

Bill Dow:
I think that’s it. As the character, you have to have an awareness that you’re talking in a language that’s not necessarily familiar to the other people. You have to step them through it. “I need you to get this, because what I’m saying is really important and you need to know this information.”

David Read:
And the audience, by extension.

Bill Dow:
Yes, exactly.

David Read:
‘Cause that’s who you’re really talking to.

Bill Dow:
Triangulate. Yes.

David Read:
That’s it. Folks, we’re live. If you are in the YouTube chat right now, we are taking questions for Bill. My moderators Antony and Lockwatcher are standing by s, go ahead and drop that in. We’re gonna get some now. I’ve already got a couple for you. Do you mind if I share one?

Bill Dow:
No, go ahead.

David Read:
Matt 4812, can you talk about the zero-gravity acting in Midway Station at the beginning of Season Four of Atlantis? Was it wire work? How was that pulled off? Were you on one of those stands that allow you to…?

Bill Dow:
It was like an arm. I had a harness on and then there was an arm. I don’t think there was any actual free-flowing wires. I’m just trying to remember. It was mostly like a long lever thing that you’re at the end of. Somebody’s at the other end over here steering you and getting you to do stuff. That was exciting. I got to do all sorts of crazy stuff on that show; it was a lot of fun.

David Read:
That sounds a little unnerving to be like a marionette at the other end of a seesaw.

Bill Dow:
Yes, exactly, with a pivot.

David Read:
Oh, God.

Bill Dow:
A seesaw with a pivot.

David Read:
Man, oh, man. How long could you be in something like that before they’d be, “OK, let’s let him down, let’s let him get on his feet for a little bit here?” Or can they leave you up there all day?

Bill Dow:
No, it was a little bit of a stressor on the old ribcage. But no, it’s like anything, they try to give you a break every once in a while, if they ever think about that. But mostly, they wanna get this guy. “He’ll be fine. No, no. Just one more. Just one more.”

David Read:
That’s it. Back to the dialogue: I remember being on set on SG-1. One of the actors, Brigitte Prochaska, Carole Appleby, one of them came over to me and they were like, “You can’t necessarily go and talk with this actor right now. They’re having a tough one, they’re having a tough day.” It was like, “Oh.” You saw everyone come around them emotionally, energy-wise, and the tone was lowered. It was also helping that it was pouring down rain. They brought in soup and everyone was really warm and everything. You could feel that they were rallying for this actor, because they weren’t getting the dialogue right. You’ve got 100 people waiting to get this thing to … That’s nerve-racking.

Bill Dow:
It is. That’s where experience comes in and that’s where you have to find a way to concentrate on what you do and let the other stuff go. Every once in a while, that just becomes really hard and it invades your life and you can’t get out of it. So, yes. But, working with a great team, everybody’s on your side and everybody wants to get it done. I think that feeling that you’re referring to, that’s part of the nature of Stargate, for sure.

David Read:
Were you ever surprised, or did it ever become rote recitation that, “Oh, I’m going back to Stargate now.” Or was it always a surprise when they brought you back? Because he was stationed at Stargate Command.

Bill Dow:
It was mostly always a surprise. I did the first one and then it was a couple of years later they called me up and they said, “Oh, yeah, you’re back.” I went, “What?” There I was. That was a surprise. Then they started sneaking me in more and more. I was always really grateful for it ’cause it was a show that I liked doing and it was a character that I really liked. As time went on, they let me stretch the humor of the character and stuff like that a little bit more. That was always fun. It was a great privilege and honor to be able to do that; to be able to stretch out a bit and have some fun.

David Read:
“Prodigy,” “Paradise Lost,” that’s not the same character temperamentally. I just assumed that something happened to him in his life where he gave himself a chance to get a life a little bit. The man who confronts Sam for not letting go of a situation in “Paradise Lost,” the loss of O’Neill, is not the same man who greets her when she comes back into our dimension with a loud noise and freaks out. I would imagine internally he had learned to lighten up a little bit. How much more of the character became you over time?

Bill Dow:
It did. That’s a credit to the writers, to be able to pick up on stuff and your personality traits and things that they like to do and they can see that you like to do it. They give you more leeway that way. I think at first, for those first things, when you’re talking about the evolution of the person, I think that was them trying to figure out what the best use would be for this guy. At first, I’m sure it was a one-off and they wanted a guy who could get some of this stuff out and be there. It was, as you said, a pretty functional, move-the-plot-along character. But then, when they came back, it was a different thing, but it was a stressful kind of situation. I don’t know exactly when, but I remember, I know that they started doing that and that they were looking for opportunities and they would say to me, “If we leave the camera running, you can finish this scene some other way and see what comes up.” I remember one time, I think it was around the last episode of one of the seasons and I had a motorcycle then. I was driving off the lot and I think it was Brad Wright, it might have been Joe, I can’t remember, but one of them came up to me and they said, “You drive a motorcycle?” I said, “Yeah.” They said, “Oh, man. Next season…” Now, it never turned up, but I was looking forward to that. I was looking forward to my great motorcycle chase scene.

David Read:
Sam rides as well. Conceivably, they could ride into work together. That’s so funny, that’s great. What did you ride?

Bill Dow:
At that time it was a Honda Hawk. It was a beautiful old bike.

David Read:
Do you still?

Bill Dow:
No. When my sons were born, there was a pretty strong whisper in my ear that said I shouldn’t do that anymore.

David Read:
I hear that so often. I have a Yamaha Super Tenere and it’s a darling. I’m looking at the timeline here and I remember Honduras with “Evolution I and II” and a lot of the one-on-one beats between you and Michael Shanks. There is humor in those scenes of looking for that [Ancient healing device]. I’m seeing it start to happen there. You come back in “Heroes Part I” where you’re, “Kevlar, does not protect against staff blasts.” It’s slowly working its way in and before you know it, you’ve gone from this to this. It’s more than just delivering information. The writers are creating a character at the same time who just happens to deliver information.

Bill Dow:
Absolutely. The Honduras, the “Evolution” ones, that was fun, it was fun to do. There was a little jeopardy here and there and stuff, but it was fun to do. Michael was great. We were out there in the woods and it was a really great time. I’ll tell you one little story. The big thing washed us out and then we came up. I don’t quite remember how it worked. What they had done was they sank a container, like a shipping container, down into the ground. They dug a hole and they put it into the ground and filled it with water and then they dressed the top of it to look like it was some underground slough or something. The shot was we were supposed to come out of there. They said, “OK, so Michael has to get out first and then we wanna worry about you, so don’t come out right away.” I’m going, “OK.” We both went underwater, we’re underwater and Shanks goes out and he pulls out and I’m sitting there going, “Uh.” [holding breath].

David Read:
No bubbles.

Bill Dow:
Eventually I pop out and I’m going, “Oh, ugh,” and I was definitely out of breath. I was going, “How much longer do I have to stay down here?”

David Read:
Was that one take?

Bill Dow:
No.

David Read:
Was there a handle to hold onto down there to keep you on the ground, down along under the bottom?

Bill Dow:
Yeah, there was stuff down there, but I had to hold my breath. I remember the first time, they said, “OK, you came out too fast. You gotta wait until the waves stop so you can’t see any disturbance.”

David Read:
“You guys are gonna cut to something else in post, come on.” Geez. That’s the thing. As you break that, the illusion is gone. Corin Nemec did 1 minute and 48 seconds, I think, holding his breath.

Bill Dow:
Really?

David Read:
He said that he had been more or less practicing all his life, something that he was very proud of, holding his breath. They cut the shot because one of the plexiglass gold crystals bounces. They’re like, “Well, we had to cut it there.” I’m like, “Guys, go back and watch the show on the Blu-ray. There are crystals bouncing left and right.” Just keep on running the tape. What was a day with Richard Dean Anderson like?

Bill Dow:
It was mostly a lotta fun, especially, what was the name of that episode?

David Read:
With the plants?

Bill Dow:
With the plants.

David Read:
So, that is “Zero Hour.”

Bill Dow:
“Zero Hour.” We had so much fun doing that, that was great. Especially when we got those goggles on and we couldn’t see each other and we just had a laugh. It was great fun. I don’t know. He and I always got along. I loved it. It was always really good.

David Read:
Williamarends, “In spite of all the disrespect that Dr. Lee was shown by the other characters, do you feel that you were lucky to not be turned into a Goa’uld?” I think that would’ve been fun to have an evil Dr. Lee coming in with all these evil SG-1 alternates in one episode, shake things up a little bit. You get the wrong kind of person behind Dr. Lee and had he had a different childhood, you would have a really dangerous character on your hands.

Bill Dow:
There you go. It makes me think of Princess Bride. It’s Wallace Shawn, “It’s inconceivable… ”

David Read:
That is so true.

Bill Dow:
“… that I think that you think…” He could become the evil Vincenzi or whatever that guy’s name was.

David Read:
Cyberhawk99: Dr. Lee played World of Warcraft. Has Bill Dow ever played World of Warcraft?

Bill Dow:
No. I had to get a quick Cole’s Notes on what I was talking about for that one. I didn’t know. They told me that a mage was pretty good, so I was good.

David Read:
No, it’s technically a class, not a race. I was kinda surprised that Martin missed that. The gamer vibe was definitely there. It’s a cute scene from the show. Lockwatcher wanted to know, do you still enjoy performing in live theater or even work behind the scenes directing?

Bill Dow:
Yeah, I still do. I just did a play a couple of months ago at a small theater here, which was a new play. It was the first time it’s ever been performed and I was curious about it because I haven’t been on stage for quite a while. It’s one of those things that you don’t know if you’re gonna be able to remember all the lines and do all that stuff, but it was great. I had a great time and it’s similar to this. Part of what you love is the camaraderie and hanging out with people and everybody putting their energy towards a common cause. That was great and I loved that feeling coming back. Then I did a pilot for a comedy show this past summer, like a sitcom. It was a dramatic comedy and then I did another show and it’s fun. It’s especially fun if you get to be part of a team and that was what was great about Stargate because after a while, you’re in and everybody knows you and you know them and then it’s just fun. It really feels good to be working towards something together.

David Read:
You are only one of a small handful of actors who not only have been in all three of the live-action TV series, but played the same character in all of them as well. I am curious as to how you feel about the franchise coming back in the same continuity, and if this first season of SG4, of whatever this thing is gonna be called, goes well, the sky’s the limit. They could expand it to anything and include more of the people from the past.

Bill Dow:
I would love that and particularly because I have been in all three. I was hoping I would get into a bit more of Universe, but I think it would be a missed opportunity for them not to bring me into the new world.

David Read:
Absolutely. The programs, the Atlantis Expedition, Icarus Expedition, Stargate Command, we’re not talking about a lot of people who know about this thing. It makes sense that a lot of this would be kept in the family for as long as it could be, from one successive administration to the next. It makes sense that we would potentially see him again, ’cause he wouldn’t be retired yet.

Bill Dow:
Yeah, it would make sense and I have no notion, no inkling of what the show will be, so I have no idea. I would love it if they could find a place to have some old guy in the corner working away.

David Read:
I’m thrilled that fans have finally gotten their wish and that it’s gonna be with people who are from the past. Before we wrap, is there a character from stage or from screen that you have performed in the past that left something with you? That you still have, that became a part of you and your story?

Bill Dow:
It’s interesting. I think there’s several. I think almost every time you do it, if it’s something you connect with – you don’t always connect with everything – there’s something that does stick from everything. Here’s one example: when I did Equus on stage, I played Dr. Martin Dysart, which is a great part. It was fun to do, but it was also getting into the questioning about mythology and religion and how we talk to each other and what we do. It’s one of the things that stuck with me. I never would have thought of this before, but when you bring up the question, it makes me think that it probably had something to do with me going back to school and doing my master’s and then my PhD and studying classical mythology. It might have been there that it started, I don’t know. It’s all part of it. What you were talking about earlier too, the levels of fiction and reality and truth and the different truths that are available in there, all of that stuff, every time I do it, I get stuck in that. I think, “What is this? What is this?”

David Read:
I have read Equus. I’ve never seen it. How do you crack an egg like Dysart?

Bill Dow:
I don’t know. You just gotta…

David Read:
One bite at a time?

Bill Dow:
Yeah, exactly. I mean, it’s a lot. The thing that I loved about that character is his admiration for the boy, who had access to some kind of deeply spiritual, ritualistic experience that the doctor, with his cerebral nature, didn’t have, and he admired that. He goes, “I don’t know. I don’t know how to get that.”

David Read:
This guy is self-destructing in front of him.

Bill Dow:
But it’s something that I want. I want that connection. It’s cool, it’s interesting. I think any time you’re questioning yourself as a character, I think those are the good characters. When writers hit that, I think that’s great stuff.

David Read:
Those are two-handers in that play. How much of your performance lives or dies by the performance being fed back to you? Especially when you have a young man who’s bleeding all over the stage, figuratively speaking, and just manic, absolutely manic in some cases. Those are intense nights.

Bill Dow:
Absolutely. It was great and it does, it always does. That’s again, one of the great things about Stargate too, is the performers that you’re working with. Everybody’s there and everybody’s present and everybody’s got stuff and they’re giving it back. They’ll go on a little journey with me if I start getting a little bit funny or something. They can calibrate themselves against that or alongside it, or they can be skeptical or whatever, so it’s fun. But it always is; it’s always about the partner, it’s always about the relationship, for sure.

David Read:
2ndHandMediaMan: What was your take on X-Files? What are your thoughts about the new one being green lit?

Bill Dow:
I don’t know anything about it. I loved doing the X-Files and David and Gillian, I had a great time with both of them. I was lucky enough, at that time, when they moved down to LA, I went down there and did some episodes down there, which was great. It also made me realize I didn’t wanna raise my kids down there, so I came back to Vancouver. So, that was a good thing to learn as well.

David Read:
I lived in LA, I get it. That was good, it’s over now. Man. Aw, this has been a treat to be reconnected with you again. Lee has always been one of my favorite characters and it’s so nice to watch the growth of a character over seasons going from a plot device to becoming someone that we loved to watch on the screen, while forwarding the story. I think that there is a difference.

Bill Dow:
David, I thank you for that and I agree. It was an equal joy for me to do that, to go on that journey. I’m so grateful for the writers, for the producers, everybody to allow that story to happen, and the fans. It was great. I imagine at the time, ’cause I don’t have access to that, but I think people are probably writing in however you can and saying, “Dr. Lee, let’s have more Dr. Lee.” That’s brilliant, because that’s very gratifying to me and I love that. I love to be part of that. If I can create a character that people love, there you go. You’re done. That’s it.

David Read:
Anything you wanna leave us with? Anything we need to be on the lookout for?

Bill Dow:
Not really. I’m working away. I did a short film just the other day. It was interesting because I was by far the most experienced person on the set. I’ve stepped into a few mentoring roles these days and I love doing that. I love, first of all, having got to a place where I have some experience and then being able to share it back. I’m really happy about all of that stuff. Going forward, I’m gonna be a grandfather soon.

David Read:
Oh my God. Congratulations. Aw.

Bill Dow:
Thank you.

David Read:
I’ve heard there is nothing like seeing your child’s face for the first time, until you see your grandchild’s face for the first time. It’s like you’ve unlocked level 11 from a maximum of ten levels. It’s like there is this well of pure joy that you didn’t know that you could have. It’s kind of wild.

Bill Dow:
No, it’s fantastic. It’s an incredible feeling and again, I feel so lucky, so fortunate in all things, so very grateful.

David Read:
Bill, thank you. This has been a treat.

Bill Dow:
Thank you, David. Thanks for calling.

David Read:
I’ll be in touch with you as we get more information as the show evolves. It’s been great to see you.

Bill Dow:
Great to see you, too. Thank you.

David Read:
You take care of yourself. I’ll wrap up the show on this side.

Bill Dow:
OK. Take care.

David Read:
Bye-bye.

Bill Dow:
Bye.

David Read:
That is Bill Dow, Dr. Lee in Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe. My name is David Read; you’re watching The Stargate Oral History Project. If you enjoy the show and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, do me a favor, click the Like button. It does make a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow. Please also consider sharing the video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, do me a favor and click Subscribe. I am so thankful to my Patreons, who have provided me an opportunity to continue to do the show moving forward and it makes all the difference to you guys. Really appreciate having you out there. We have a few other episodes heading your way this weekend and then I am gonna be taking three weeks off. Let me see if I can pull this up here while I’m working on this. Just a second, I want to give a brief plug. They are revealing to the public for the first time outside of Paris in Metz the one-to-one-scale Milky Way Stargate that has been in development by EMG, The Children of MacGyver, over in France and Switzerland, at Metz’Torii , 30th and 31st of May, 26. They’re gonna have photo ops in front of the Stargate and I have been invited to be a part of that, so Dial the Gate will have a presence there. It is a true replica of the gate. This is actually a digital asset, this is actually not the gate that you’re seeing here, but it’s one of the coolest things that you will ever see and if you are anywhere near France, Richard Dean Anderson will be at the same event. I highly recommend it as well. Trying to pull up this here. I wanted to show this off real quick. Here is a look at the actual Stargate, if I can get it. There it is. It’s extraordinary, the craftsmanship that these guys put into this thing, but it’s finally gonna be on display to the public for the first time and I hope if you’re anywhere near France that you get a chance to see it. My tremendous thanks to Lockwatcher and to Antony, you guys have done yeoman’s work for this episode, really appreciate your help. Again, to all my Patreons out there. Thank you for submitting your questions to, I wanted to call him Dr. Lee. Thank you for submitting your questions to Bill Dow and thanks to Bill Dow for joining us for this episode. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in and I will see you on the other side.