Conceptual History
Paul McGillion's first role in the Stargate franchise was playing the young Dr. Ernest Littlefield in the early Stargate SG-1 episode "The Torment of Tantalus" in 1997. The Scottish-born Canadian actor did not return to Stargate until Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper held auditions for the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis in 2003–2004. Carson Beckett was originally meant to be an international character, but McGillion decided during his audition to play Beckett as a Scottish character. McGillion was in Portugal when his agent informed him that he got the part of Carson Beckett.
According to writer-producer Martin Gero, Beckett was set to appear in only a handful of episodes after the Stargate Atlantis' pilot episode, "Rising", but the character had such a big connection to the fans that Gero labeled McGillion the "breakout star" in Stargate Atlantis. The producers decided to give Beckett a larger role and made him a recurring character with a total of fifteen episode appearances in the first season, followed by a regular in season two. Although McGillion was born in Scotland, he only put on a Scottish accent during filming. McGillion said in an interview with The Sci-Fi World, "We improv a lot after the scene's over, and sometimes they'll keep some of the material and sometimes they won't. I'll often throw in little things like 'Ya cheeky little bugger'."
When the episode "Duet" was conceived, the writers wanted to maximise the chemistry and friendship between Beckett and McKay. Martin Gero came up with the scene featuring a kiss between Beckett and McKay. Reportedly, Gero tricked McGillion into agreeing to play the kiss by lying that David Hewlett was asked first and had already agreed. McGillion was originally planned to play Scotty in a parody of Star Trek in the Stargate SG-1 episode "200", but producer-writer Brad Wright filled in for the part in the end. (McGillion would later also audition for the part of Scotty in the upcoming eleventh Star Trek movie, but the role was given to Simon Pegg and McGillion was cast for a small part in the movie.)
After the second season of Stargate Atlantis, cast and crew members hinted that McGillion might depart from the series. Reports in November 2006 confirmed that Beckett would "disappear" somewhere in the second half of the third season, and would only appear in several episodes in the fourth season. Jewel Staite was announced to play Dr. Keller, the new doctor of the Atlantis expedition. McGillion learned of the writers' exact plans for Beckett's departure in "Sunday" two months before the episode was filmed. He said that he cried when reading the episode's script. Producer Joseph Mallozzi regretted killing off Dr. Beckett after seeing the fans' reactions, and claimed there was a 'clue' in a late-season 3 episode that hinted at Beckett's re-introduction. After Beckett's reappearance in the fourth-season episode "The Kindred", Mallozzi confirmed that Beckett had not ascended upon his death, that McKay had only imagined Beckett at the end of "Sunday", and that the character in "The Kindred" was Beckett in the flesh instead of a version from an alternate universe or from the past. A press release for season 5 mentioned that Beckett would return for at least five episodes in the new season.
Read more about this topic: Carson Beckett
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