The final commander of Prometheus, Barclay Hope, sits down with us to reminisce about the long-lost ship, his time as the leader of her crew, and his career.

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome everyone, to Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I appreciate you being here. Barclay Hope portrayed Colonel Lionel Pendergast in two or three seasons, three seasons I believe, of Stargate SG-1, and her final commanding officer. I am privileged to have him join us for this episode to get to know him a little bit, his backstory, and his overall career and his Stargate career in particular. If you are watching live, you can submit questions to my team of moderators — it might help if I actually pull that document up — in the YouTube chat right now, and we can get those over to Barclay. Mr. Hope, sir, it is a privilege to have you. How you doing?

Barclay Hope:
Thank you, David. Privilege to be here. Thanks for–

David Read:
You should really go with the glasses. Nice to meet you.

Barclay Hope:
I think so.

David Read:
I think that these work. I think that’s fine. If you can see better, that’s all good. I gave up years ago not trying to get this specific glare out. It is what it is.

Barclay Hope:
If I really cared, I could have gotten non-glare glasses, because they’re available, the reason [inaudible] the time.

David Read:
For sure. It’s a privilege to have you. I was waffling on which angle to approach this. Should I dive right in and ask about that immediate moment, one of the most climactic moments of the show. And I think I’m gonna bury it for a little bit. I wanna get to know you first. How old were you when you knew that acting was what you wanted to make your career or a part of your career for your life? How far does that really go back?

Barclay Hope:
Interesting. I went to a school in high school called Lakefield College, and my brother had gone there before me. I was born in Montreal. We were living in the town of Mont-Royal, which is a very nice area of Montreal. My brother was kind of leaning towards thugdom.
So, my parents decided that since we had a history of family members going to this school, it’s a very privileged school. And he came back six months later, three months later after being there, and he was a changed person. He used to call me by my last name in front of his friends, “Hey, Hope, come here.” But he came back a different person, and my parents noticed it, and I noticed it. And so, I think that’s where the writing on the wall happened, that I would go to Lakefield, and their theater program was huge. They put on terrific shows for high school. We entered theater festivals. We won a bunch of them. OK, so the very first play I ever did was at Lakefield, and it was a play called Arsenic and Old Lace.

David Read:
I’ve seen the movie. Good movie.

Barclay Hope:
Have you?

David Read:
It’s funny.

Barclay Hope:
Yeah, it’s wonderful.

Barclay Hope:
My brother–

David Read:
Women are crazy.

Barclay Hope:
Yeah, it’s wonderful. Mind you, this was an all-boys school, alright? So, we had boys playing girls.

David Read:
OK. Like Shakespeare used to do it.

Barclay Hope:
That’s right. My brother is three years older than me, so he had already been in the school for a while. He was playing Teddy Roosevelt. Which is a– I don’t know if anybody knows the play, but he’s a crazy person. And the two ladies are poisoning people, lonely old men, and then burying them in the basement. And Teddy Roosevelt lives upstairs, and Teddy’s a bit crazy, so they tell him that they’re doing this because of the war and all this stuff. Anyway…

David Read:
And they’re going about it like it’s perfectly normal. You wouldn’t suspect these people are up to anything. And they just care about it like it’s normal business.

Barclay Hope:
Was that Cary Grant who’s in that?

David Read:
I think so.

Barclay Hope:
I can’t remember. So, at the end of the first act, the set goes dark, with, “Oh, what’s happened?” And the lights go off, and Teddy comes roaring down the stairs, reaches in the window seat, and takes a body out of the window seat and carries it off stage. So, you can barely see it, but you see he does take the body out of the window seat. I was the body in the window seat. So, when I first got there, I was just 14 years old, and I just– My brother was so into this acting thing that I decided to sit in on rehearsals, and as I was sitting there, I remember Andy Harris, who was the director, he said, “Barclay, you wanna get in the window box? We have a body to cast.” I said, “OK, great.”

David Read:
“You useless lump. Come be a useless lump.”

Barclay Hope:
Yes, yes, that’s right.

David Read:
Fantastic.

Barclay Hope:
But, I mean, you need a body, right? And who’s gonna be stupid enough to do that? So, before the show would start, in the dark, I would go in and get in the body box, and I would sit there in the window seat, and I would sit there for the entire first act listening to the dialogue and all that stuff until my brother would come over and carry me out. And that was my very first play.

David Read:
That is a great memory. That’s terrific. There are no small parts.

Barclay Hope:
No, you had to have a body. But anyway, it got me into the whole — I’m just learning at that level — we didn’t even know what we were doing, but we were doing it. It gives you the actual adrenaline rush. Even if you’re just performing in front of parents and whatever, it gives you that adrenaline rush. And they actually– We did Oliver!. I played Fagin in Oliver!, which is a big part and a big piece. We had all the kids from the lower school, all the boys, the worker’s boys. So, that’s where I got– And then when I got out of school, out of high school, I went and worked in a factory for a year, making tires. And I decided to audition for Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto. And I got in, and then three years of theater school, and that’s a whole ‘nother– I remember when we were in theater school, the big movie back then, one of the big movies was Fame. I don’t know if you remember that movie.

David Read:
Not seen it, but I know what you’re talking about.

Barclay Hope:
Fame. It’s all about kids in theater school, musical theater school. And they were encouraging, “Go and see that. Go and see that movie, because this is what you’re in for.” And it was, in my case, three years of very immersive dance classes, speech classes, all sorts of stuff. Theater school then launched you into the career.

David Read:
Wow. It’s amazing to me how much– I haven’t done a lot of theater. I haven’t done it since college, and it’s one of my regrets, but it’s amazing how much in finding another person, you find yourself. Because we’re all meat popsicles and we’re all tied together, I think, much more than we think that we are, so that when we read a text, we can infer a great deal. Sometimes we infer it incorrectly. But it’s really an exploration of self.

Barclay Hope:
Right, it’s a lot like a lot of other things. If you are playing at a high level on a sports team, it’s about the community of the people you’re playing with. It’s about the community of the people putting on this play or this film or this– And it can be dysfunctional or it can be functional, but you’re gonna learn something no matter what. I can tell you, by having done a lot of set work, I can tell you that I can step on a set, and I can tell you almost instantly whether it’s a functional set or a dysfunctional set.

David Read:
You get a vibe.

Barclay Hope:
Absolutely. And I think that’s probably the biggest draw to anyone who goes into the theater of any sort, is that rush of feeding off each other and making something, taking various pieces and making a whole out of it.

David Read:
Is there a role that you’ve had in your career that took you places that you didn’t expect? Is there a role that fulfilled you in a depth that you didn’t realize was there before?

Barclay Hope:
That’s a tough one. I’m gonna have to say I did a show called Unreal. And I played Shiri Appleby’s father. Now, Shiri Appleby’s father is bipolar, and in, I think, a couple of episodes towards the end of their last season, my daughter took me off my meds ’cause she figured it would be better for me. And the entire show was up, up, up, up, up, down, down, down, down, down, down, up, up, up, up, up, down, down, down, down. And I think that was one where I had to go places where– It’s tough, man. I’ve been in the business 40 years. I can’t even remember half of the things that I’ve done. I can remember standing on the set of a show called–

David Read:
It’s OK.

Barclay Hope:
Anyway.

David Read:
It’ll come to you.

Barclay Hope:
It was in Toronto in the 80s, and Christopher Plummer was one of the leads in it. And I can remember standing on set next to Christopher Plummer, and there was this thing that went on for my entire childhood. Every time his name would come up in a conversation, my father would say, “That bastard still owes me 100 bucks.” And so, we would have to go through, “OK, Dad. Tell us the story.” And evidently, in the 40s, I had an aunt who used to throw these great parties for artists and all sorts of people, bohemian parties. And Christopher Plummer showed up at one of these parties that my father was at shortly after he had been released from the army, and he was a poor actor, and supposedly he sat down at the piano and he sang and entertained them. And my dad says, “I gave him 100 bucks to get a taxi home and live for a week or whatever.” Anyway, I’m standing beside Christopher Plummer 35 years later. And I tell him this story, and he’s– What a guy. He looks at me and he goes, “Hope, huh? Follow me.” We were shooting in this, the old nuthouse in Toronto. It’s a huge, dilapidated series of buildings that they can use as production houses, and also location shoots and so on. We were in this building, and he said, “Follow me,” and we go outside. We walk all the way outside, down the stairs, in the snow, and he takes me to his trailer, and we go in his trailer, and he takes out a pen and a piece of paper, and he writes down this note, pulls two $50 bills out of his pocket, and hands it to me. And the note said, “Dear Frank, so sorry that I haven’t…” He didn’t have any recollection of this whole thing. Well, he made my dad’s life. When I gave that to my dad, he was over the moon, and I have to say, Christopher Plummer, come on.

David Read:
It’s little gestures especially when you have the means after having not had the means so long ’cause he could have taken that any way. He could have believed you…

Barclay Hope:
Could have said “I don’t know.”

David Read:
…and just been like, “Yep, that sounded like me.”

Barclay Hope:
Yes, absolutely right, and I think the fact that I was playing his nerdy nephew in the show. He was chuckling at me the whole time we were having the scene. He obviously took a shine to me in some way, but I also– you work with some, you work with others. I also did a film with Jim Garner, and we spent about six weeks outside sitting in this field out in Toronto. And he just– There was a whole bunch of us, and we’d go, “So, Jim, tell us about Sofia.” “Ah, let me tell me about Sofia, alright.” And life experiences. The whole thing about doing stuff that you would never do in your life. I did a series called PSI Factor for four years. I got to do so much stupid stuff in that show. Snorkeling, scuba diving, and rappelling down air shafts on these skyscrapers, and weird stuff that you’d never– How can you beat that?

David Read:
We are so often afforded opportunities that don’t seem like opportunities at the time because we’ve got such a plan for our lives so frequently. It’s like, “I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do this, and then I’ll be happy.” It’s a continuum. Do you wanna do this? Some of us may be like, “I need the money, so I’ll do it.” Others may be like, for instance, for me particularly, very much in my life, it’s like, “I didn’t see this one coming, and I’m going to be uncomfortable, but there may lead to a story after it, and I may have a better time than I expected.” And it’s a philosophy that I’ve always carried for a huge part of my life. And you come up with stories later that you can share that’s– and not only that, but life experience. You’ve allowed life to take you certain places that you didn’t necessarily anticipate before. PSI Factor would be an excellent example. I’m curious with Christopher Plummer, how much time had you spent with him before you broke that story to him? I’m guessing it wasn’t day one.

Barclay Hope:
I just remember… No, it was the only… I only had one scene with him. We had done a take.

David Read:
I see.

Barclay Hope:
We were standing around waiting for another setup.

David Read:
OK, so this wasn’t stage.

Barclay Hope:
No, no, no, this was a show called Counterstrike. That’s what it was called, Counterstrike. That was back in the 80s when Toronto was absolutely booming with television and movies, and it was insane. Money was flying around.

David Read:
That allows still, these little moments with people who have inspired us. That’s pretty extraordinary.

Barclay Hope:
What’s really funny is that Amanda Tapping and I were with the same agency in Toronto. We were friends. We played on this baseball team together. And she got news of her getting Stargate, if not the same week, it might’ve even been the same day that I got news of doing PSI Factor. Isn’t that weird? With the same agent. She said, “Oh, I got this job. I’m moving to Vancouver.” I’m like, “Oh, wow, I got a job too.” Mind you, I think her job was probably a little more successful than my job.

David Read:
You don’t know. You’ve always gotta try.

Barclay Hope:
No, you don’t know. But I mean, the budget was bigger, and the expectations were bigger. It was following a hit movie. PSI Factor was… Anyway.

David Read:
Amanda is one of those rare ones who, that I’ve found, having the privilege of meeting so many of you, both in front of and behind the camera, who is so completely genuine and authentic and the real deal. And I think it’s the primary addition to, in addition to her talent, and her hard work ethic, I think it’s the primary contributor to her success.

Barclay Hope:
And you know what I think? It’s funny having worked for many years, I’ve been in this more than 40 years, I’ve worked with the likes of Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino and Jim Garner and Plummer and all those guys. I’ve worked with some really bad ones too. Ones that you just– It’s really interesting because it taints all of the work you see of them after.

David Read:
Never meet your heroes. How are you successful? How?

Barclay Hope:
I know. And gee whiz, man. You’ve got some of that, and then you just abused it, and it’s terrible. It’s terrible. I think the most important thing from an actor’s standpoint of view, no matter where you are, is respect for everyone around you. The worst thing, the thing I’m worst at is remembering names. And that is something I’ve really worked on over the years. When you say hi to the 3rd AD for the first time, you remember their goddamn name. It’s not difficult. If you have to go in your trailer and write it down, it’s not difficult. But it takes effort, and it’s worth every second.

David Read:
It’s so important, especially the below-the-line people, to remind yourself that what I’m trying to do is not possible without an enormous team behind me all working in unison to pull off a product. Is it about me? No, it’s not.

Barclay Hope:
It’s definitely not.

David Read:
But do I have to remember them? It sure doesn’t–

Barclay Hope:
It’s definitely not about me.

David Read:
It’s such a human-to-human connection, ’cause you’re gonna be spending a long time together in many cases. And maybe even if you’re not, still.

Barclay Hope:
And that goes for on stage or in front of a camera, for sure. I was at Stratford for a year and we were doing Death of a Salesman. And the guy who was playing Bernard is a guy named Stephen Ouimette, who is truly one of Canada’s treasures, stage actors, and such a nice man. I got a phone call, we had a matinee on a Wednesday or a Saturday or whatever, and I got a phone call an hour before the show saying, “You’re going on for Stephen. He has twisted his ankle.” Well, I was partying with Stephen the night before and he didn’t twist his ankle. No. No. He just said, “No, no, Barclay’s going on today,” ’cause I was his understudy.

David Read:
OK, I was about to say, had you understudied? OK, so you thought you were ready to do it.

Barclay Hope:
I was his understudy. And, very, very interesting experience because I remember virtually nothing of it. I spit out my lines, but when I walked off stage, hands pulling shirts off, pulling– and they’re just going, “Just stand there.” Where would you be without that?

David Read:
Was Colonel Pendergast the first Stargate role you had auditioned for? Do you recall any prior to that? It’s okay after 30 years if you haven’t but I always want to ask in case something sticks out.

Barclay Hope:
What year was the last episode? “Ethon,” it was?

David Read:
“Ethon” was Season Nine. Season Five was shot in 2001, so six, seven, eight, nine. So, that was 2005.

Barclay Hope:
Five. OK.

David Read:
Everything centers on me around September 11th for whatever reason, and that was the end of Season Five. So, Season Nine would’ve been the second half of 2005.

Barclay Hope:
That makes sense. I don’t even know. I bet you I did. I bet you I did two or three times. I don’t even know. But I’ll tell you that Rob Cooper and Damian Kindler were both writers on PSI Factor. So, I knew them from Toronto in the early ’90s. I don’t even know, but maybe.

David Read:
Who was this guy to you?

Barclay Hope:
OK. So, I have to admit that I’m not a sci-fi guy. I don’t watch sci-fi. I am able to do sci-fi because my brain works that way. I think there’s a lot of technobabble, could be an as-yet unspecified geophysical phenomenon that sub-atomically accelerates all forms of living matter or a rare and mutated vortex that absorbs and concentrates life form energy– That’s a monologue I can remember back from PSI Factor in the ’90s, early ’90s. I’m able to do that. However, to be honest with you, I can’t follow the stories. I come in for a day shoot and all these actors know what’s going on, the Christopher Judges and Shanks and all those guys. They all know what’s going on. I don’t know who they are or what the hell’s going on. I look at the script, I go, “What is demanded of me at this moment?” And that’s what I’ve gotta do. And the only thing that I think I could possibly bring to that is some kind of– I guess, the character demanded experience. And the character demanded unflappable under pressure. And finding the dividing line between who’s making orders on this ship. Is it me or is it those guys? And where that works into it. I liked him because he was always– The character was always, “Oh my God!” “Under pressure!” “Fire!” “Shields! My God!” “Quarter nine!”

David Read:
It’s funny you talk about complicated lines. One of yours has remained in my head since I heard it. “Open a channel, broadcast on all frequencies and translate into Goa’uld.”

Barclay Hope:
Did I say that?

David Read:
It’s one of your first lines in the series.

Barclay Hope:
Oh my God. And you sent me all the episodes and stuff. I watched all of “Ethon.” But I didn’t watch all of the other ones. I fast-forwarded until I got to my scene and sort of went, “OK, what’s going on?” Because I don’t watch that stuff anyway.

David Read:
Is that the first time you’ve seen it?

Barclay Hope:
All the way through “Ethon.” Yeah, all the way through. The interesting thing and the reason I asked when that was is because all of my stuff in “Ethon” was shot in one day.

David Read:
All of it?

Barclay Hope:
Everything in that episode was shot in one day. So, I was in Toronto at the time shooting a miniseries. It was about 9/11 and it was a monster budget, one of the most fascinating jobs I’ve ever done. And I got the call to do this job, and I was shooting Wednesday in Toronto. I had to jump on the red-eye and started shooting, 8 o’clock on Thursday here in Vancouver. And then it was an all-day thing. First shot, last shot, and every shot in between, which was a bit of a killer, but we got through it. Who directed that? Was it Ken Girotti or was it–

David Read:
Let’s see who directed “Ethon.”

Barclay Hope:
Was that–

David Read:
It was Ken. Good for you.

Barclay Hope:
It was Ken. Ken and Peter. I’ve worked with Peter so many times.

David Read:
He’s great.

Barclay Hope:
He’s fun.

David Read:
He’s a friend.

Barclay Hope:
He’s a good.

David Read:
And the stuff that he can come up with. And Chelah Horsdal, we had her on last season.

Barclay Hope:
She came in.

David Read:
She’s a gem.

Barclay Hope:
She was just a young little thing when she first became my pilot or whatever she was.

David Read:
That’s right. She’s your pilot.

Barclay Hope:
She was doing commercials and background and stuff like that. And look at her go.

David Read:
We had some long conversations, and so thoughtful. So, you rewatched “Ethon.” In mythology, I believe it’s a bird that torments Prometheus, so this was perfect. And I didn’t see this coming. We had a ship that launched three years before, had several, two or three different commanders, and then here we are. It’s a benign mission. We don’t see any of this coming. It’s one of the big surprises of the–

Barclay Hope:
Any of what coming?

David Read:
The destruction…

Barclay Hope:
The destruction. We were about–

David Read:
… that’s about to befall us. It’s one of the big surprises of the show.

Barclay Hope:
Because let me ask you. The Prometheus was on the show before but with different commanders? What was it?

David Read:
Yes. So, John Novak was her first commander in Season Six and Season Seven.

Barclay Hope:
John Novak? My God.

David Read:
Yup. And you may have been the second or the third. The chat will let me know.

Barclay Hope:
But it was always the Prometheus.

David Read:
Always. She was our first space battle cruiser that could deploy fighters. And we had never had a ship like that before. We were building toward trying to get that kind of technology throughout the first half of the show. She launches in Season Six. It breaks up the daily or weekly off-world episodes by adding some space elements to it. We were no longer isolated in the galaxy anymore because she could come and get us.

Barclay Hope:
What was the new technology that the Prometheus had?

David Read:
Interstellar travel.

Barclay Hope:
I see. It didn’t have that the first couple of seasons?

David Read:
Yeah. For the first five and a half seasons of the show, all we had was gate travel. And we had some advanced allies that we could lean on and say, “Hey, we’ve got someone stuck out here. Their Stargate melted under a meteor. Can you please go and get us?” So, we were very isolated in the galaxy. Then this ship came along, and the hyperdrive didn’t work for the first year and a half. So, that was a crutch that they leaned into. But by the time you came along, that was a fully ready-to-go ship. You were there when her back broke and when she fell. Tell me about that day. That had to have been a whirlwind. One day.

Barclay Hope:
One day. Kinda hard. You’ve gotta go from DEFCON level one to DEFCON level five, or whatever.

David Read:
The other way.

Barclay Hope:
Within the show. Or five to one or whatever. So, that’s hard for me because I’m not the one who’s directing. I don’t know what the other stuff is happening off camera between the scenes. So, a lot of that has to do with the director. And I think maybe that was another episode, but a scene that demanded more. Peter just said, “OK, you’re in a foxhole in Vietnam and then the bombs are falling. Just, ‘Whaa,’ let it all hang out.” That was more of a daunting day because I knew it was gonna be a lot of work in one day. My head was– This other miniseries that I was doing, we shot it all over the world. Stargate just seemed like, “Oh, God.” It was a bit of a surprise ’cause my head was in 9/11 and terrorists and all that stuff.

David Read:
So, when Stargate would pop up, it would pop up for you?

Barclay Hope:
Just the final episode.

David Read:
“Ethon” specifically.

Barclay Hope:
Yeah. Any of the episodes. I don’t get the other scripts, so I don’t know, and I’m not watching. So, I get word from my agent that they’re asking you to be in this next episode. Great, send me the script. Let me see what’s in it. Normally it’s maybe a day. Day or two maybe if there’s a little bit more stuff. This one, I remember reading the script or going through the script and going, “Oh. Oh, it’s gone.”

David Read:
It’s gone.

Barclay Hope:
It’s just gone. My character’s gone. My ship is gone. Everything’s gone. It was a bit of a shock, I gotta say. That was a long day. I worked hard that day, as I remember.

David Read:
Is it a choice of yours or was it a note from Ken? When you see that final blast coming, you close your eyes.

Barclay Hope:
No, that was totally my choice. I looked at that and I went, “Mm.” I think I could have shown a little more strength back then, a little more, “Yep, this is what I signed up for and here it comes.” But that’s OK.

David Read:
I liked the choice.

Barclay Hope:
Did you?

David Read:
I thought he was saying goodbye to someone. Or giving in to his fate. This is it. The crew’s OK and that’s the important thing. Because you can see that register with him the entire time. “We got them out.”

Barclay Hope:
It’s the old–

David Read:
He goes down the ship.

Barclay Hope:
He goes down with the ship, exactly. That’s the old adage. I don’t even know if I made a choice at that point or just put myself in the spot of, “This is the end of everything you know. This is the end of your life. This is the end of…” And you had to know this was coming. And I’d done my job. I’d done my job.

David Read:
You do at a certain point, and I don’t know if you’ve had that opportunity with a character before to have a few moments of, “Here it comes.” You have a chance to assess certain things, and this character is in a situation where he has a beat to prepare himself or assess his circumstances. Some people have no time at all. Some people have a minute. Some people have years.

Barclay Hope:
That’s interesting, ’cause I’ve died a bunch on camera, but I’m trying to remember if there was a moment where I saw it coming and I went, “OK, this is it.” And I can’t really come up with one, but– ’cause I’ve been shot a bunch of times. That’s interesting that you bring that up, though.

David Read:
There are only so many moments like this in the franchise, I can tell you, where this type of thing has happened. They wanted to make it impactful. A little backstory for you. This is a threat unlike anything we’ve ever faced. The Goa’uld were, they were a serious problem, but they were a little mustache twirly.

Barclay Hope:
And they had been dealt with.

David Read:
These guys meant business.

Barclay Hope:
They had been dealt with in a couple of episodes, right?

David Read:
Correct. That was resolved. This was a whole new thing and they really wanted to up the stakes. And your number came up, and you played it well, sir, I must say.

Barclay Hope:
Thank you. Thank you. How long did they go after that episode? How many more episodes did they go after that? What season was that?

David Read:
That was Season Nine. That was in the back half.

Barclay Hope:
Out of?

David Read:
In rapid succession, it was like whack-a-mole. Prometheus goes, and the Odyssey is introduced in the very next episode. They’re just hammering these things out like cookies on an assembly line. So, there was a little bit of, “We don’t have a ton of time to grieve.” But then the Russians get the Korolev at the end of Season Nine, and they blow it up too.

Barclay Hope:
Of course they do.

David Read:
They blow it up. And it’s the same race going against us, take it out. And all of a sudden, by the end of that season, in just a few weeks after your episode, it’s like, “We’re in serious trouble.”

Barclay Hope:
I see.

David Read:
The writers just ratcheted it up, and then there was one more season after that, and then a DVD movie to wrap it up, and that was it. So, they really tightened it near the end there by saying, “No one is safe.”

Barclay Hope:
That happens, it happens so often when the string pullers up above say, “Right, OK, that’s enough. Wrap it up.” You gotta do it.

David Read:
Above, above. Yes.

Barclay Hope:
I’ve been in that situation so many times.

David Read:
“We can’t leave it here. You’re gonna leave us here? You’re gonna leave the audience here?”

Barclay Hope:
I was doing a show called Upload before the pandemic, there were three seasons, and then the pandemic hit, and the word was we were gonna do Season Four and Five. But then the pandemic hit and then the strikes hit, and by the time Greg Daniels went back to the studios to say, “Right, what about Season Four and Five?” They said, “You get four episodes.” Instead of–

David Read:
I’ve only seen Season One. What happened? Not story wise, but in terms of episodes, what did you guys do?

Barclay Hope:
We did four episodes.

David Read:
For a fourth season?

Barclay Hope:
Pretty much.

David Read:
I’ll be darned. He got a chance to wrap up a couple of things.

Barclay Hope:
He did the best he could. I think corners went, instead of going this way, he’d be going, “Oh, we’re gonna go this way,” or, “We’re gonna go that way.” Tough, man. Tough. So, much fun, but shit happens. And…

David Read:
C’est la vie.

Barclay Hope:
…you look at Damian and Rob and those guys, it’s not them deciding to do that. Very obviously. It’s the big guys down in LA. And they’re directing them. They’re going, “Go.” I did Riverdale. The first season, I was one of the big bad guys. Season Two went a little sideways, and by the time they got to Three, Four, Five, it’s not even recognizable. They’re trying to…

David Read:
Not gonna happen.

Barclay Hope:
…they’re trying to patch things up before– It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. Stargate had a good run. And then Atlantis came after that, right?

David Read:
That’s it. That’s correct. And then Universe. They had five seasons almost immediately out of the gate, pardon the pun. And then every…

Barclay Hope:
Atlantis?

David Read:
… season after that — SG-1 — and then every season after that was a bonus. So, they were–

Barclay Hope:
Good.

David Read:
They signed the– The cast signed year contracts until Season 10 when they did two-year contracts, and then, of course…

Barclay Hope:
Oh, is that right?

David Read:
… they only did one season. Apple was about to pick up for an 11th “final final” season and the Syfy Channel exercised a clause in their contract preventing Apple from taking it. So, we got Ark of Truth, and we definitely got all the resolution in the world. But it’s gotta be satisfying as a performer to play a repeat character, even if you’re coming in every now and then and helping to functionally move the story along, to have an end, to have a definitive end. And not only have it be an end, but have it be an end of honor. And that’s what that was.

Barclay Hope:
Yes. I think one of the most difficult things of all as an actor is being a day player on a film set. I was doing this show that a woman by the name of Sharry Flett, who was a huge actress in Stratford, stage actress. And the poor thing, she was in front of a table full of people who all knew each other, knew the crew, knew everybody, and she was all by herself. And she was stuttering, babbling, and it’s so unfortunate. Because it’s so hard to do your best work. But like you say, if you keep coming back as the same character, you not only get to know your fellow characters, but you get to know the crew a little bit more, you’ve met the director before, you’re gonna see him again. It becomes a little bit easier. You can take maybe a few more chances about who you are on camera. I don’t know. The one thing I learned about shooting every day on PSI Factor for four years is that I would come home, my wife would say, “So, did you do good work today?” And I’d go, “You know what? I don’t have a clue.”

David Read:
You blocked it out.

Barclay Hope:
Early in your career, you come off set and you spend the next day or two running everything through your mind, “I could have done that better, I could have done this. Ooh, why did I do that? That was a good moment.” All this stuff. And you just don’t have time for that when you’re shooting every day. “Did you do good work?” “I don’t know, I was present,” and that’s the most you can ask.

David Read:
That’s right.

Barclay Hope:
When I was there, I wasn’t back here watching myself. I was right up front.

David Read:
But there’s a part of you that takes over, because there’s a repetition to it that’s– I did radio for five years.

Barclay Hope:
Oh, nice.

David Read:
When I was a teenager. And I would come home every night, and mom would be like, “What’s the weather forecast for tomorrow?” “I don’t know.” “You don’t know? You read it all night long.” It’s like, it went in here. It did the thing, it left. You have to find a place in it. “Is this information relevant to my immediate life? Yes. Did I bother to remember it? No.” So, I think that that’s the difference.

Barclay Hope:
It’s not really relevant, is it?

David Read:
But you have to protect– You have to box yourself in to– We’re all running scripts every day in our lives, our routines. And you have to find a place where you’re comfortable to be able to continually, in your case, execute a new character, a new persona every once in a while, or every other day. You find a peace with that because you want to be able to create something new.

Barclay Hope:
You try to. So, many times I had two auditions the other day. One of them was for an old man who was buying a stool, and the other one was for a very high-powered lawyer in the Bankman-Fried case.

David Read:
They’re doing it.

Barclay Hope:
They’re doing it. It’s not like I was on set, but I had to do the audition. You do what you can. You don’t have a lot of time because they give the auditions two days before. You don’t have time to explore who this person is, you’re just trying to make sense of the script. You’re trying to take these monologues that are gobbledygook in terms of financial gobbledygook instead of sci-fi gobbledygook and you’re trying to make sense of them, and that’s the best you can do, really. Because when an actor auditions for a role, at least when I do, I’m looking at the script and I’m seeing what they wanna see. That’s to get the job. That doesn’t mean that that’s what they’re gonna get on set. I’m obviously not gonna be…

David Read:
No.

Barclay Hope:
…five foot ten on audition and six foot five on– I’m talking about–

David Read:
It’s an example. You’re presenting an example.

Barclay Hope:
You’re giving them the choices they wanna see.

David Read:
That’s right.

Barclay Hope:
When you get on set, then you can start pushing the boundaries, and if the director says, “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute,” then you gotta go with that. But as far as an audition goes, it’s just a– They don’t do in-room auditions with other actors where you can sit and read with another actor. They just don’t do that. They do that in Hollywood, but they don’t do it here.

David Read:
That’s a shame.

Barclay Hope:
They do it for big feature films, but they don’t do it for television.

David Read:
They just don’t have time.

Barclay Hope:
Nope. They just take you off a little screen and go, “He looks the part, he seems to understand the words.”

David Read:
Let’s pray that they all connect.

Barclay Hope:
“We can work with him.” And that’s the other thing, can they work with you? You’ve gotta be flexible in that way, but then again, auditions, I’m just a terrible auditioner. I’m terrible at auditioning. But when I get on set, I feel like I can just open it up and let it go.

David Read:
Maybe it’s because your sense of place comes into play in terms of the character, because when you’re auditioning, you don’t have the environment with you or your other players.

Barclay Hope:
This is true.

David Read:
You’re a piece of this person in the audition, and then it flushes itself out once you get your bearings of space.

Barclay Hope:
But it certainly makes sense that if you’re sitting in the chair on the Prometheus, it’s going to help with all the gadgets and the people around you, obviously. And yes, of course.

David Read:
That’s your ship. That is your living room.

Barclay Hope:
That’s right. Yes, of course, that’s gonna help. But the whole thing about actually being on set as opposed to auditioning is that you can’t really take chances in an audition. You know that if you start taking chances in an audition, they’re gonna go, “This guy’s acting too much,” or, “That’s not the character we were envisioning,” or whatever. So, I really think you’ve got to take what’s on the page and go, “This is the starting point. We start with this and then we go from there.”

David Read:
Is there an advantage to only having it for two days, so that you don’t get steeped in overthinking something?

Barclay Hope:
I don’t think so. You talk to any known actor who really understands their craft, and I’ve seen this a million times on Instagram, TikTok, whatever. The way to get into the script is to know it. And the way to know it is by over and over repetition, repetition.

David Read:
That’s true.

Barclay Hope:
I was listening to Bill Nighy just talking about how he says, “I don’t step into one rehearsal for a play unless I know all the words for the entire play.” And to do that, you start with the first line, and you say that, say that, say that, say that. Then you move onto the second line, until you can do the whole thing without even thinking about it, and then you release yourself. ‘Cause you know it’s there and you don’t have to go, “What’s my next line?” After you’ve said a line, you don’t have to go, “What’s my next line?” It’s a very freeing thing and it’s called homework.

David Read:
Prep.

Barclay Hope:
It’s called work.

David Read:
For sure.

Barclay Hope:
Unfortunately, I’m not sure if some of the younger actors who are hitting it big understand that yet. I think of someone like, I don’t know, Justin Bieber? Who had it all happen so quickly, and now he’s going, “Wow, this is hard work.” And if you don’t wanna do the work, you’re not gonna– Chelah, she does her work, man. She knows her stuff.

David Read:
But you also have to count on the people around you giving you the right advice.

Barclay Hope:
Yep. And I mean it–

David Read:
And there’s a fear of changing out the people around you for other– When you’re that– Bieber’s an interesting case, but when you’re that, in terms of his profile, when you’re that major, how can you tell the difference between someone who wants the best for you and someone who wants theirs? So, then that comes into effect, that level of paranoia. Some cases not justified, and in some cases it’s very, “You better make sure to protect yourself.” It’s complicated.

Barclay Hope:
I also think it has a lot to do with experience. Because I was on set last year sometime, and they had this guy who had been hired to play this part because of what he looked like. And it’s after you’re experienced that you know that you don’t have to pay attention to the cameras, you know where your marks are, all that stuff, you can just do it. And a lot of actors who are uncomfortable or are just starting out, they don’t use their voice. And I see that as a big problem. I see people whispering and not– Voice is something you learn about on stage. You learn how to use your voice and in theater school and so on and so forth. And I feel like–

David Read:
Are you talking about projecting?

Barclay Hope:
No, being able to when you want to, but also being able to use your voice in a quiet moment, but use your voice, connect with your energy down here.

David Read:
I see.

Barclay Hope:
And don’t just be putting it on. You’ve gotta connect with your emotions in your core. And that has to go all the way through and connect with your vocal cords and your movement in your body and the whole thing. And I almost think the technology is getting to be so precise now that people don’t have to– They don’t have to learn that anymore. But then again, there are others who do. Anora, my God, that woman’s performance was amazing. And she’s just a young thing. So, who knows? There was a reason, there must’ve been a reason they changed pilots and commanders on that ship.

David Read:
Sometimes, yes. A lot of it is–

Barclay Hope:
I know that I was on that ship with another pilot.

David Read:
That’s true.

Barclay Hope:
And then Chelah was brought in, right?

David Read:
Chelah was brought in with you from “New Order, Part 2” all the way to the end. There may have been substitutions, though. I think part of it is scheduling and availability. John may not have been available.

Barclay Hope:
Probably.

David Read:
It may have been as simple as that. But also, to simulate a ship or a base, people come and go. People get transferred all the time. So, I see it both ways. It works both ways. I’ve got some fan questions for you. Jakub wants to know, looking back on your whole career, what do you remember most about your time on PSI Factor?

Barclay Hope:
PSI Factor.

David Read:
That narrows it down.

Barclay Hope:
I had so much fun on that show doing all kinds of crazy stuff. It was just fun to work every day. I loved the people I worked with. I still stay in touch with some of them. It was a low-budget show, so we did get a little frustrated at times. But as the show progressed, they would listen to their actors a little more and implement some of the stuff we would suggest. I can pick one episode where I think I had more fun than anywhere else, and it was one called “Once Upon a Time in the Wild West.” And my character, Peter Axon, was going to the bank. And when I went into the bank, I was trying to cash a check and something went “who,” and we went back to these characters busting the bank from the old west. And they had six shooters and all that stuff. Everybody goes down to the vault and gets trapped down in the vault, and they call on the one guy who made the time transporter that brought these guys here, and who do you know? It’s me from the future. So, then I got this four effing hours of makeup, and it made me look like a cross between Kenny Rogers and I don’t know. I had to play myself opposite myself, so that was a lot of fun. Hey, look at you.

David Read:
This is what I do.

Barclay Hope:
Good, man.

David Read:
Very nice. What a job, though. You are unrecognizable.

Barclay Hope:
I know. And then there was the voice thing, you had to change your voice and stuff. And I was trying to figure out how to do that. That was probably the most fun I had. But I tell you, I did episodes that I won’t even remember.

David Read:
Of course. You did them when you needed to. And then they’re gone.

Barclay Hope:
I did one comedy episode that I loved doing ’cause we never did comedy on that show. Good question though, that’s taking me back a ways.

David Read:
Lockwatcher wants to know, your wife, Lindsay Collins, who played Dr. Biro in Atlantis, she made appearances in Stargate Atlantis. Yes, I just said that. Have you ever had a chance to work together in a production?

Barclay Hope:
Yes, on PSI Factor.

David Read:
Maybe that’s why it says PSI Factor in parentheses after that. I guess one of the mods added that for me. OK.

Barclay Hope:
We worked together on PSI Factor. I think it was maybe second year, and she was a scientist of some kind, I don’t know. We had fun though. The first day we worked together, they gave us our own trailer for Lindsay and I to be in. That’s very nice of them.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Barclay Hope:
We were shooting in a [lima field] or something. Just that once. That’s the only time. And I think she even did a couple of episodes, but I never worked with her in those episodes, just the first one. That was a while.

David Read:
Hundetuem, “What do you prefer, stage or movie picture acting?” If you had one last project.

Barclay Hope:
I’d have to go with film only because I’m 67 years old and I don’t know if I could really do eight shows a week. Physically, I don’t– I had a couple of very bad accidents last year where I shattered my ankle, and I was in a motorcycle accident. And I broke my back and broke my tailbone and busted my knees up and–

David Read:
Oh my God, I am so sorry. I ride as well.

Barclay Hope:
Do you?

David Read:
I bet you’re done. Are you done?

Barclay Hope:
I don’t have a bike anymore. And I think I’ll start riding again if I move somewhere other than Vancouver because the people just don’t– It’s really unfortunate. They don’t look, they don’t–

David Read:
Was it you or was it a collision with another–

Barclay Hope:
No, a woman pulled right in front of me.

Barclay Hope:
I T-boned her doing about 65.

David Read:
Did you go over the car?

Barclay Hope:
I went 20, 30 yards over the car. So, for anyone who does drive a bike…

David Read:
You’re lucky to be here.

Barclay Hope:
… I implore you to be extra cautious and to be careful.

David Read:
They’re not looking for us.

Barclay Hope:
No. She was 100% responsible, I was 100% in the clear. And she changed my life. I spent months in bed last year. So, now I’m trying to gain my strength back in my legs and my back, and it makes it difficult because now, when I’m doing an audition– Not so much now, but in the last little while, when my agent would call me with an audition we’d have to put a [caveat] in there saying “Barclay’s having trouble going up and down stairs.” I was doing this show called Fire Country last year. I was a character that had been established, I was a priest, and they had the last episode of Season Two, I was to go and marry this couple. So, I broke my ankle in January, I was hobbling around on crutches. They said, “That’s fine. We’ll sit you down, and then when you’re marrying all you have to do is stand there.” I was going, “OK, that’s good.” So, I go and do that, and then that season ends. Season Three starts in two months or whatever. In that time in between the two, I was in the motorcycle accident. The scene never ended at the end of Season Two, it was a cliffhanger, and it was supposed to end at the beginning of Season Three.

David Read:
So, you have to rebuild that moment.

Barclay Hope:
Yes. I’ve already been standing in front of them, “Do you take this man and wife?” So, they can’t– At that point, I was about a month after my motorcycle accident, and I had to lie down every half hour. So, somehow the show got permission from my union for me to do the show, and we shot it in a church obviously. And I don’t know if you can think of anywhere comfortable to lie down in a church, but there’s not.

David Read:
Yeah, pews, but, that’s not comfortable to lie down at all.

Barclay Hope:
No, it took me a half an hour to get into one and then another half hour to get out of one. That was a tough, tough day. So, that was one of five days that I worked last year.

David Read:
Wow. And on top of that, you have to simulate the happiest day of your life.

Barclay Hope:
Yes, of course. So, I’m in a bit of a funny place right now, because now I’m sort of trying to get back into it. And I wanna be able to get on set without my agent having to say, “Oh, by the way–” I’ve been practicing getting in and out of cars, for instance, because I don’t want to look like a cripple getting in and out of cars.

David Read:
You have to relearn everything.

Barclay Hope:
Yes.

David Read:
Especially when you’re going to be on camera.

Barclay Hope:
Yes. If you are riding, please, every person on a motorcycle I get to talk to now, I tell them, “Please, please.” It was my– it was a bike that I had wanted for so long. And then–

David Read:
What was it?

Barclay Hope:
It was a Honda Magna 750 V4.

David Read:
What year?

Barclay Hope:
1997. And it was one of the quickest bikes on the road. This was a V4 engine. Ducatis have V4 engines.

David Read:
It’s a nice bike.

Barclay Hope:
This went like piss. This kid had it on Bowen Island, and he must have been 18. And I bought it off him, and it’s like he had kept it in a plastic bag the whole time he’d had it. It was mint. That’s totally off topic, but there you go.

David Read:
No, I wanted to know. Mine’s a 2014 Yamaha.

Barclay Hope:
That’s what my life has been like last year. What are you riding?

David Read:
2014 Yamaha Super Ténéré.

Barclay Hope:
Super Ténéré?

David Read:
Haven’t been out– It’s an upright.

Barclay Hope:
Oh, is it?

David Read:
It’s a cruiser.

David Read:
‘Cause I’m 6’2,” so it’s comfortable. Your life passes before your eyes in that moment. And they’re not looking for you, and they’re all saying in the chat, “Wear helmets.” Yes, absolutely.

Barclay Hope:
Wear helmets. Wear helmets, Jesus. I had full leathers on, man. My foot nearly got cut off my leg. There’s no– I swear to God that I looked up and she was right in front of me and all I could do was “Fuck.” That’s all that went through my head. When I woke up, there was paramedics over me and people standing all around, and I could have sworn that I had just landed. So, I had blacked out for however long that was. And I looked at him, I said, “How did you get here so fast?” He said, “We’re only five minutes down the road.” But I could have sworn that I just went bonk and looked up.

David Read:
You were out.

Barclay Hope:
I was out. Very luckily, if she had gone two feet further, I would have hit the window frame right here. And I probably wouldn’t have been.

David Read:
So, you went over the hood?

Barclay Hope:
Yes. I probably would have been dead or a paraplegic or something. So, I feel very fortunate. At the same time, I see BC No-Fault. You keep that in mind. ‘Cause they’ve given me nothing.

David Read:
We are never promised tomorrow.

Barclay Hope:
No.

David Read:
Every day is a gift.

Barclay Hope:
Yep. It’s more of a gift now than it was last May 22nd.

David Read:
I bet it was.

Barclay Hope:
I’m just happy to be alive.

David Read:
Urius Tosh wants to know, “Would you be willing to come back to Stargate?” Not necessarily as the evil clone of…

Barclay Hope:
Urius Tosh, how is it that I recognize that name? Who are you?

David Read:
Urius Tosh?

Barclay Hope:
Well, when I come back as what?

David Read:
He’s one of our regular viewers.

Barclay Hope:
I’m dead.

David Read:
Yeah, but you can come back as someone else. And it’s sci-fi, so it’s never–

Barclay Hope:
Sure, bring it on. Bring it on. If you got an idea, Urius, bring it on.

David Read:
There we go.

Barclay Hope:
I don’t think that anybody– Who would you contact about Stargate, other than you? Nobody else is working on Stargate these days.

David Read:
It’s all in Amazon and MGM’s hands. So, we’ll see what they’re going to do. So, just pray to the church of Bezos.

Barclay Hope:
You mean it’s out there and people want it to come back and stuff?

David Read:
People want it to come back, but it’s a matter of time before Amazon turns their eye at the top of the tower toward that IP, because it is one of the bigger ones on the list.

Barclay Hope:
I think you might have to consider the fact that the people who worked on Stargate don’t want to work on it anymore.

David Read:
A lot of them don’t, for sure.

Barclay Hope:
Once you’ve done that, it’s like, “OK, moving on now.”

David Read:
It’s very likely they’re going to reboot it. Which would make returning as someone else even easier.

Barclay Hope:
Yeah, I was in Battlestar Galactica. I was a pilot.

David Read:
That’s right. You sure– Oh, that’s right!

Barclay Hope:
I had a gas on that show.

David Read:
One of the best moments in the miniseries.

David Read:
Handing the piece of paper to Mary McDonnell. Great scene, Barclay.

Barclay Hope:
We had so much fun. Mary and I had so much fun.

David Read:
She’s great.

Barclay Hope:
There was a line that was, “Where’d our escort go?” And I kept on saying, just to make her laugh, I’d go, “Where’s our escargot?” I would keep doing it, and she’d piss herself laughing every time.

David Read:
Stewardess, escargot, now.

Barclay Hope:
“Great. Where’s our escargot?”

David Read:
It’s the little things, right?

Barclay Hope:
We had some laughs on that one. I liked that joke.

David Read:
I always assumed you were in the front driving the president around. I assumed so. We just never saw the cockpit again.

Barclay Hope:
I know, and I couldn’t figure out, “Come on guys, I’m alive.”

David Read:
You’re in the ship. You’re in the cone of the ship.

Barclay Hope:
I know how to fly ships. I’m gonna fucking fly or something.

David Read:
That’s right. Barclay, this has been great. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself. Thank you for telling me that…

Barclay Hope:
Thanks, thank you.

David Read:
…story about last year. It’s always great to have reminders of the blessing that it is to be here. And I don’t think that we get those stories near enough.

Barclay Hope:
No.

David Read:
And I think we get caught in the daily trappings of this problem, this problem, this problem, this problem. You’re here to face these problems. Not everyone gets to be.

Barclay Hope:
Very good.

David Read:
Thank you for…

Barclay Hope:
Thank you.

David Read:
… sharing your time on the show.

Barclay Hope:
Thank you. Thank you, David. I really appreciate it and thank you so much for contacting me. This has been fun.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Barclay Hope:
Really impressed.

David Read:
I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up the show on this end, sir.

Barclay Hope:
Great.

David Read:
Means a lot to have you.

Barclay Hope:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Talk to you soon.

David Read:
Thank you. Barclay Hope, everyone, Colonel Lionel Pendergast in Stargate SG-1. My name is David Read and you’re watching Dial the Gate, the Stargate Oral History Project. We have more episodes coming down the pike. Go and check out dialthegate.com for the complete listings. Wormhole X-Tremists is gonna be coming up in half an hour. We’re gonna be covering “Inauguration” and “Resurrection.” And then next week “Lost City,” and our midweek movie will be Galaxy Quest. I appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, please click the like button. It does help with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. And if you wanna see notifications about future episodes, click subscribe. And clips from this livestream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and gateworld.net YouTube channels. My profound thanks to my moderator team. They make every episode possible. Antony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marcia, Raj, and Jakub. You guys are the best. My producers, Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, Linda “GateGabber” Furey, and my webmaster over at dialthegate.com, Frederick Marcoux. Thank you all for everything that you do, and I appreciate everyone for tuning in and for spending some time with us today. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, and I will see you on the other side.