A R T I C L E S   &   I N T E R V I E W S

Title: The Gift (Excerpt from Stargate Atlantis: The Official Companion, Season One)
Publisher: Titan Books
Publishing Date: July 2005
Byline: Sharon Gosling
Source: Stargate Atlantis: The Official Companion, Season One


"The great thing about this was that it finally dealt with Teyla," says director Peter DeLuise. "And that was a long time coming, because all we knew about her was that she had some special powers that were kind of ambiguous. We didn't know what they were. She could kind of sense the Wraith, but why, we didn't know, and she could fight real good, which was one of the reasons for her being one of the leaders of her community."

Having spent a year working alongside Rachel Luttrell in the guise of Teyla, DeLuise was glad to have the opportunity to help the actress explore her character further. "Rachel is a wonderful actress, but she didn't have a whole lot to do," he explains. "She would carry a gun and kick people's asses, and the fact that she wasn't raising her eyebrow and saying 'Indeed' a lot was the only thing that seperated her from Teal'c! It can actually be a very tedious thing to be an alien on the show, because you don't always have a lot to do. And Rachel is so professional and so wonderful--she never complains and she always knows her lines. It finally came time for us to learn a little bit more about her character, and Rovert Cooper wrote a wonderful episode about Teyla's background. It was very cool working with Rachel. She's such a great actress and she really got to show that off."

For the actress herself, the episode represented an opportunity for her to explore more about her enigmatic alter-ego, who had hitherto only shown her strongest side to the viewer. "It helped broaden the audience's understanding of Teyla, " says Luttrell. "'The Gift' dove into why she had these physical capabilities and we got to see some of her people and her confidant among her people, this wonderful wise old woman."

The episode also saw Teyla learning something new about the human experience, when she is introduced to Dr. Heightmeyer by Major Sheppard. Luttrelll explains that the scenes in which Teyla underwent psychoanalysis at the hands of a doctor from Earth were some of the most difficult to film of the episode: "It's so difficult for Teyla to open up and show her frailty. She is slowly developing something similar to that with some of the other characters, but to open up to this complete stranger--that was a difficult thing for me to gauge. How much would Teyla want to reveal, and how comfortable would she be with emotions? And even though I was addressing incredibly personal aspects of who she was, I didn't want to [over play it]. Teyla wouldn't break down and cry, for instance. She would always show some kind of strength, whereas you or I, in the same situation, would maybe be a little more frail. That whole situation for her was completel new and bizarre. And the only reason she found herselfthere was because she felt she had no other choice."

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The episode also saw another first for the character of Teyla, as she loses a training bout to Major Sheppard. "well, you know what," says Luttrell with a laugh, "they say that it takes a really good singer to sing badly--not to say that I'm a fantastic fighter, because God knows I'm still learning a hell of a lot, but I think it was similar! It was hard because I'm used to Teyla being really strong and having the upper hand, but in a way I enjoyed that just as much as I did some of her stronger scenes, because it was great to show that weaker side of her. But in the same way that she was quite physically weak, she was still mentally strong, in that she wanted to continue the fight. Even though she was getting beaten, she kept getting back on her feet and saying, 'Let's go, let's do it again,' until finally Sheppard was unwilling to push it."