Pileggi enjoying Atlantis captain’s chair

New Stargate Atlantis actor Mitch Pileggi is enjoying his new role, he told GateWorld. The veteran genre actor plays Colonel Steven Caldwell, commander of Earth’s new battle cruiser the Daedalus, in the show’s upcoming second season.

“It’s a great group of people to come onto the show and be working with,” Pileggi told GateWorld. “They were very receptive from the get-go. David Hewlett [“Rodney McKay”] walked up to me one day after the first couple of episodes and said, ‘You know, it feels like you’ve always been here.’ And it’s like — what a sweet thing to say! And you know what? I feel like I’ve been here for a long time. And I just immediately was comfortable and very pleased to see a group of people that were working so well together.”

Hewlett echoed that same sentiment in an interview with GateWorld. “I think the ultimate compliment I can say for Mitch is that it’s like Mitch has never not been here,” he said. “He just fits in so well. We’re teasing him already — I think he goes back and cries. But he’s learning to get a thick skin. And it’s great having him here. He’s just a great actor and a great personality to have around the set, and he just fits in so well.”

Pileggi is no stranger to science fiction, having portrayed The X-Files‘s FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner for nine years. Commanding a starship is certainly a very different role.

“It’s really daunting, because you have to memorize all this stuff over all these pages,” Pileggi said. “There’s lights flashing and smoke is coming out, and we’re getting hit and shooting stuff. And I’m getting to throw out these commands, ‘Fire forward rail guns at will!’ The battle sequences are really cool.

“But, then again, the more intimate scenes between myself and other characters — the writing is so good that it’s really fun to play those scenes, too. They get some great, meaty stuff to go after. And it’s fun. And these guys are great. I’m having a lot of fun working with them. It’s a great group of kids. I call ’em kids, the old man that I am!”

Pileggi will make his Stargate debut in the season premiere, “The Siege, Part 3,” and will appear in at least five early season episodes, including “Intruder,” “Runner,” and “Trinity.”

“I just want to bring my own truth to this character and to the show,” he said. “But I do have to admit, though: When I’m sitting in that chair it’s like, ‘Man, I’m Captain Kirk!'”