Starlog
#331

Claudia Black is in London, where she is on an extended visit after finishing "Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars." Having spent the better part of half a decade working on the series, Black is keen to move on to something a little different, but that by no means minimizes her commitment to "Farscape." "A large chunk of my life has been involved with the "Farscape" family," she notes, "and I would never say anything negative about it. A lot of me is in that show, and a lot of that show is still in me now. I don’t regret it, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but on a practical level, it’s difficult to re-enter the system under those specific circumstances. Being part of a science fiction show that’s a cult hit but hasn’t hit the mainstream or gone into syndication yet places you in an interesting position in the TV job market 'interesting' being a euphemism."

After finishing Peacekeeper Wars, Black left Australia to work on several other projects, including the British psychological thriller "Naked In London" and playing the lead role in "One", which is being advertised with the intriguing tagline: "A new kind of warrior."

She also appears in the upcoming 'Prometheus Unbound' episode of "Stargate SG-1", in which she plays Vala, who steals the spaceship Prometheus with Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) still aboard.

"It was such a lovely situation to go into "Staragte" with the experience I have as a skilled technician, if not a performer," Black says. "I was able to test my wares and have people who know my work say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve watched the show,’ and then talk about it."

"It was funny discussing with the "Stargate" cast what it’s like to be an actor on a science fiction show, and how it’s quite a specific environment to work in, which comes with a very specific bag of tricks. When I was working on "Farscape" and saw "Galaxy Quest", I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. There are so few people in Australia who understand what it’s like to work on a sci-fi show. Many people saw that film and thought it was funny, but they did not understand how observant it is. For me, the film is about the experience of actors working in science fiction: why there’s always a spinning fan, and the SF convention of people without a last name getting killed first. I related more to the storytelling of "Galaxy Quest" -those cliches that I find so amusing."


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