Dreaming the cast

As I said before, most of my writing takes place in my head, when I'm driving in the car or waiting to fall asleep at night. In order to properly visualize the idea, I spend a lot of time casting my characters. The idea for The Guardian was formulated about 25 years ago. I was a student of Anthropology, dreaming of becoming an Archaeologist at the time. One of my favourite shows was Stingray, a show about a James Bondsy character that went around doing good deeds for the price of a return favour. Starring in the show was local boy Nick Mancuso. I became a fan of Nick's several years earlier when I first saw him in a movie called Ticket to Heaven, and sort of followed his career. In one of the Stingray episodes, Nick's character was called in to save an Indian burial ground that had been desecrated (at least that's how I remember it). I saw obvious ties to Archaeology and invented a female Archaeologist and her partner who were involved in a dig. The rest of the story evolved over the next twenty or so years.


I took a number of specialty English courses at university, mainly because I liked the exuberant teaching style of the professor that taught the courses. One of the courses was in Science Fiction English in which I was introduced to many classic and contemporary Sci-fi works. We were given a choice as to what we could do for the culminating activity project, and I chose to write a Sci-fi story. I wrote about Archaeologists once more. Obviously influenced by Simon and Simon, another of my favourites on the air at that time, I cast Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker as a pair of rival Archaeologists/Anthropologists who have to come together in order to solve a mystery. I got an A+.


Gerald McRaney, an actor that I love (and, based on Internet research, seems like an admirable and genuine person), was later cast in a similar character as Clinton Johns, Palmer Richardson's ex-friend and rival.


For years, I had cast Chris Noth as Gabriel Sykes and later re-cast the part with Joe Flannigan because I liked him as Sheppard in Stargate: Atlantis (I still love Chris Noth, by the way). I liked his boyish strength. I have seen him since, playing the nice boyfriend type. Though I would like to see him play a villian, I have once more cast him as the nice boyfriend type.


Michael Ironside is cast as Detective Constable Michael Crestwood, Palmer's policeman friend and department contact, because I like that he comes off as a bad ass, but can also play the nice guy, which describes Crestwood to a T. His gruff exterior is all for show. He is really a good guy at heart.


Guys are easy to cast. I'm still searching for the perfect actress to play Meagan, Molly's T.A.