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

Title: SGA Season Two Official Companion Excerpt: Various Episodes
Publisher: Titan Books
Publishing Date: July 2006
Byline: Sharon Gosling
Source: Stargate: Atlantis--The Official Companion, Season Two


Instinct

“When I started to read it, before I had completed it, my gut instinct was, ‘No, no, no, no. Teyla would be the first to draw her weapon. Teyla would be the first to resist this,’” says Rachel Luttrell, of her initial reaction to the script for ‘Instinct’. But she goes on, “As I started to read it, it really did make sense to me, and my visceral response to the script was something that I actually put into the shooting [at] the beginning. Because in the beginning, she does draw her weapon and she is incredibly suspicious, but she allows herself to be open to it, and responsive.”

Indeed, as a theme that would later echo again in ‘Michael’, Teyla’s ability to show sympathy meant she exhibited one of the more measured reactions to their discovery of Ellia. “It was a very interesting shift,” agrees Luttrell. “She was very, very gentle with that little Wraith girl. She was the first person to embrace that whole situation, and it was very interesting who she is and her capacity to change and her capacity for growth.”

Conversion

“I was actually very excited about it,” recalls Rachel Luttrell of filming the kiss scene. “I thought it was going to be a very cool scene, and ultimately I think it turned out to be. I guess one of the initial edits of it, it did look a little bit more rough,” she laughs, “and I think he [Martin Gero] was very uncomfortable about that. He actually came and talked to me and said that he’d seen the edit and it looked like I was really being put upon. But the fact of the matter is, Teyla can handle herself! I think if she really didn’t want to share a kiss with Sheppard, she would have been okay. I liked the ambiguity of it. Did they both enjoy it? Obviously there is a shock for both of them, and you don’t really know what the undertow is, and I like that.”

“The scene also marked Luttrell’s first ever experience of filming an on-screen kiss, and events conspired to make it particularly memorable! “My parents were visiting,” laughs the actress. “It was the most bizarre thing, because I was trying to decide—do I invite them to the set? Because obviously they want to come and they want to support me, but it was that day: first of all the big fight—and when you’re dealing with choreography, that’s difficult enough—and then it ends with a kiss! But anyway, they came. So I think it was very difficult for Joe—he came up to me and whispered in my ear, “Did you have to bring the folks?’ But they were fantastic. I’ve got a good relationship with my parents, so it was fine. Every time we’d do a take I’d go back up and Dad would say ‘Good stuff, honey, and Joe looks like a hero! Go to it!’ But how hilarious that they were there [that day]. It was very bad timing! But it turned out fine, and I think it made me lighten up a little bit too because I was nervous.”

The Lost Boys

The episode also features some of the best fight scenes of the season, both between Ford and Ronon and also between teammates Ronon and Teyla. Actress Rachel Luttrell confesses that she was so into the fight she performed with Jason Momoa that they got a little too close…”’The Lost Boys’. Oh my goodness, that was a ball to do,” she says, laughing guiltily. “Jason will never let me live this down…We did that scene over and over again, and it was great and perfect each time. We both had a lot of fun with it, because obviously we’re both ramped up and it was a fun fighting scene. But the very last take of the day was where the fight starts off with me clipping him in the jaw. It was the very last take, and we'd done it so many times, and I knew that we needed another one. I pow-wowed him! I gave him a black eye! I felt so bad. It was so crazy, because I pride myself on being really determined and focused, because you have to be so careful. It goes so fast, and you really have to be deliberate in your movements, and I pride myself on that. And when I made contact…and you should have seen his face, he was so shocked!” The actress laughs again, “And that’s the take they kept, because he was so shocked. His eye was turning red, and he just looked at me in total disbelief. Apparently I’ve got a really good punch!”

“Yeah, little punk!” Momoa exclaims in mock indignation. “She just got a little too close and clipped me. My eye turned red and everything. The crew thought it was hilarious—‘Oooh, Jason got beat up by a girl!”

Critical Mass

One of the most striking aspects of ‘Critical Mass’ were the lyrics that Carl Binder worte for Rachel Luttrell to sing at Charin'’ funeral, which Joel Goldsmith in turn incorporated into the episode'’ score. Luttrell, a trained singer, had been eager to display her considerable vocal talent in some way on the show, and the executive producer picked this as the perfect opportunity to do so.

“Rachel has such a great voice, and she sand it with that beautiful voice. And I said, ‘It’s lovely, but it isn’t Teyla. Does Teyla sing that well? No! You have to go and do it again!’” Wright laughs. “It’s still quite beautiful—it’s just more Teyla. The song services the story quite well toward the climax. Carl did a great job. It’s a ‘pot-boiler’ story, things just get hotter and hotter.”

Michael

Another character who struggled in the wake of Michael’s transformation was Teyla Emmagan, who finds herself having to overcome her natural revulsion for the Wraith in order to convince him of the lie he is being told. As the story progresses, however, it becomes apparent that Teyla is undergoing something of a transformation herself. “’Michael’ is actually one of my favorite episodes of the season,” reveals Rachel Luttrell, “because of the whole moralistic question. Teyla was in a very odd place because she finds herself having sympathy towards this character. There is a kind of friendship that sparks from that, and I think she did actually develop in that show. She got to see a human side of the Wraith. The enemy is much more interesting if they are not totally evil, if they have different levels and shades.

“I like the whole notion of the fact that Teyla has Wraith DNA in herself,” the actress continues. “There were some scenes in ‘Michael’ that were interesting because he sensed something about her, which made her deal with the fact that maybe there is something of them in her.”

Inferno

It was less fun for actress Rachel Luttrell, who found herself filming whilst surrounded by air full of gray ‘ash’, pumped into the set before each take. “That was pretty awful, actually,” she says. “All of our crew were walking around with their masks on, and we weren’t able to do that. There were moments where Teyla was coughing because she’s been breathing ash that is falling out of the sky—and my coughing was real,” Luttrell laughs. “Peter DeLuise kept going, ‘The coughing is fabulous,’ and I was like, ‘It’s real!’ It was difficult to film in.”