Primeval: New World to feature several Stargate alums

Earlier this spring, GateWorld was first to bring you the news that Martin Wood was helping executive produce the new Canadian version of a longtime British genre television favorite, Primeval: New World.  We also were first to scoop that more Stargate talent was attached behind-the-scenes including directing turns from Andy Mikita and Stargate franchise veteran actress Amanda Tapping (“Samantha Carter”).

With principal photography on the series — currently filming in Vancouver, British Columbia — winding down, we now have confirmation (thanks to a source within the production) on some of the Stargate alumni who you’ll see on-screen, along with some tidbits on what they’ll be up to during the fledgling series’ first season of thirteen episodes:

• Sandy Sidhu (“Dr. Mehta” in Stargate Universe Season One episodes “Air, Part Three” and “Life”) will have a role in New World‘s third episode as the co-pilot of a DC-3 aircraft that runs into trouble.
• Episode 4, entitled “Angry Birds”, features recurring SGU player Patrick Gilmore (“Dale Volker”) as a character named “Blake” who is described as a “local entrepreneur whose operation is invaded by a flock of Terror Birds.”
• Lexa Doig (Stargate SG-1‘s “Carolyn Lam”) plays another doctor in the two-part season finale as “Mara Fridkin,” a toxicologist who is “suddenly thrust out of her depth.”
• Dan Payne (who has enjoyed multiple roles on both SG-1 and Atlantis, playing everything from Wraiths to Kull Warriors) appears toward the end of the season as “Major Douglas,” a member of a Special Ops team.
• Eric Breker (SG-1’s “Colonel Reynolds”) also will appear in the tail end of the season as “Sergeant Macready,” another member of the Special Ops team.

In addition to those actors, it’s been confirmed that SGU actor Louis Ferriera (“Colonel Everett Young”) will also feature on the new series in its final three episodes of the season as “Colonel Henderson Hall.”  The character is described as “a complex man whose concern for the future of our world puts him into direct conflict with ‘Evan Cross’ (Eureka‘s Niall Matter).  And Hall is not a man who likes to lose.”

It looks as though our prediction this spring about plenty of Stargate talent also being on-board in front of the cameras for the new series has come to pass.  In addition to those names, recent news has leaked elsewhere confirming not only the return late in the season of original Primeval character “Connor Temple” (Andrew Lee-Potts) but also an appearance by Matter’s Eureka co-star and series lead Colin Ferguson.

With all these favorites attached from both Stargate and other Syfy series, it seems like it would be the perfect series to get acquainted with come late fall.  But while the Canadian channel SPACE and Watch in Britain are on-board (along with some other European channels), there is still no word on whether the series will get a distributor for viewing in the United States on Syfy — an odd scenario considering that many people involved with New World have plenty of face-recognition already with its viewers.  However, while there has been no arrangement made yet, it still could happen in the future — perhaps even after it has aired elsewhere — if the network sees the series as having a viable audience (much like it did with the BBC series Merlin).

Keep your browsers locked on GateWorld for more relevant Primeval news as it breaks!