Stargate Atlantis WI: "Dr. McKay" was played by a Black Actor?

Pesigalam

Banned
I had difficulty thinking of a proper title, so I hope this one makes sense. Anyway, here goes:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WhatCouldHaveBeen/LiveActionTV
The original press information for Stargate Atlantis included a scientist called Dr. Benjamin Ingram, African Canadian. They brought back Dr. Rodney McKay from SG-1 instead.
So my question is how would the show's popularity and profitability be impacted if they went with the original idea & had a black academic-genius "Dr. Benjamin Ingram" as part of the main cast? Would it have any impact on the stereotypes of black people in the media? Would other shows follow suit? Given the rarity of interracial parings in fanfiction, would this casting choice greatly diminish the amount of John/"Rodney" slash fanfiction the OTL fandom is full of?

What if they went a step further, and made Dr. McKay's character a Canadian Native American? Which actor would have been best for that role?
 
i dont know about going native , black sure but i really loved mckay in atlantis.

Maybe they had trouble finding a black actor for the role ? mckay was almost entirely dead on as a harashed scientist genius type and i think that might have been the trouble for the producers or something like that ? Or the studio thought of reusing characters from original series abit.

Also the stargate series was abit overly white overall if you think about it.
 
They also had Aiden Ford in Season 1 who was definitely human. Also, I think Ronon was human (or as close as and Pegasus Galaxy inhabitant can be).
 
The show would probably be even more unpopular with SG1 fans I'd imagine.
McKay was a nice and well loved link with the original show. One of the best parts of it amidst the...silliness.
I don't see the race of a replacement character as being too important at all except for perhaps a few articles in African American media speaking about how great it is.
 
The show would probably be even more unpopular with SG1 fans I'd imagine.
McKay was a nice and well loved link with the original show. One of the best parts of it amidst the...silliness.
I don't see the race of a replacement character as being too important at all except for perhaps a few articles in African American media speaking about how great it is.


Agreed.

I really like the Mckay-Ford interactions, and thought getting rid of him was a big mistake.
 
Creating a new character was unnecessary. What might have been better was casting a black actor as McKay (in "SG-1") to begin with. (I'd have hated Hewlitt not getting it, since he was perfect for it.) It wasn't as if his race really mattered.
 
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