Dark Matter is a Canadian produced space opera in its third year on the Space channel. We caught up with Melissa O’Neil (Two/Rebecca/Portia Lin) and Roger Cross (Six/Griffin Jones/Lt. Kal Varrick) when they were recently in town for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.
This is not the first time we’d interviewed Calgary born Melissa O’Neil – we had interviewed her years back about her win on 2005’s Canadian Idol and her performance at Stage West in 2010 as part of British Invasion. She was impressed we remembered that "Stage West?! Even Stage West was so long after Canadian Idol...I had to wear a horrible blond wig for that show."
Since that time, she’s been involved in several other musical theatre productions, so we did ask if she’s waiting for a musical episode to show up on Dark Matter. While Melissa said no, Roger piped up "We’re pushing for it." The problem Melissa stated was that she doesn’t believe the character Two should sing; however, she did give some wiggle room in that Portia (the original personality of Two) could: "Portia...I could see her singing a sexy song. Not Two – I think it’d be so out of character." She was aware that status could change in the season(s) to come, yet Melissa says Dark Matter is not a show to derail characters. "It’s a dark show."
When she got cast, she at first didn’t realize how grim the show would be – compared to the utopia world of Star Trek for example. Roger did: "That’s what is great...you have a great starting point. It causes controversy and conflict. Makes great stories, and without that drama you don’t have this character development, you don’t have to wrestle with anything. That would be kind of dull if we were happy all the time." He thinks this is a logical conclusion of where we are now as a society...yet the show asks some universal questions – nature versus nurture, can you be forgiven for past sins, can you forgive yourself, etc.
And because unlike Star Trek, the characters are in conflict with each other, it provides for more compelling viewing. Melissa said "That’s one of the things...I remember talking to Paul (creator/executive producer Paul Mullie) about it, because he felt that was more interesting and compelling – seeing what would happen when you put a powder keg of people into a confined environment. How do they react? How do they navigate their conflict?" The writers of Star Trek may have had an altruistic view of future society, but Paul and Joe (co-creator) think we will be eating at each other if we’re still around as the corporations control everything.
Dark Matter has proven to be successful enough to warrant a third season which is now airing on Space. You can also find more Dark Matter related information on Instagram, and Twitter.
Related Articles
Contributor Evan Kayne | Steve Polyak |
Locale Calgary |
Person Melissa O’Neil | Roger Cross |
Topic Calgary Expo | Celebrity Interview | Celebrity Video Interview | Comic Expo | Dark Matter |
