Craig Fairbrass Finds a New Gig in 'StarGate'
Exiled from Walford, Dan Goes Sci-Fi
By Kent Gibbons
Craig Fairbrass, ever the charming rogue. On EastEnders, of course, his Dan Sullivan was a bad guy who could charm the pants off women who should have known better, such as Carol Jackson and her daughter Bianca, with disastrous results.
Starting in June 1999, he appeared in 113 episodes, according to imdb.com lastly in August 2001, an episode that ran on WLIW-21 earlier this year. (At this writing, WLIW is airing January 2002 episodes.)
Since then, according to imdb, he's been in a couple horror movies (The Messiah and White Noise 2: The Light this year), appeared in one episode of Sky TV's Footballers Wives rip-off series Dream Team (seen in the U.S. on Fox Soccer Channel) – and played an excellent bad guy in one of the final episodes of Sci Fi Channel's Stargate SG-1. It aired 1 June on Sci Fi and is available for purchase via download on iTunes or Amazon.com.
In this Stargate episode, Fairbrass plays an eloquent, persuasive villain—the worst kind. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. But he has a good-guy enemy who knows better: Teal'c, an alien member of the SG-1 team that travels from a U.S. Air Force base in Colorado through the interstellar transport device called a Stargate.
Teal'c, played by Chris Judge, and Arkad (Fairbrass) are both aliens called Jaffa. In the show, the Jaffa are humanoids who had been enslaved by another alien group, called the Goa'uld, to be warriors that in turn enslaved and killed others in pursuit of power.
The back story on Arkad is that Teal'c, while in service to a Goa'uld called Apophis, attacked Arkad's home planet and killed his parents and his sister. Arkad later had a measure of revenge, sending an emissary to slit Teal'c's mother's throat.
In this episode, called 'Talion', Arkad is behind a terrorist bombing that takes place during a Jaffa summit. Teal'c is there and narrowly escapes death. He finds out that Arkad was behind the deed and sets out to kill him.
Fairbrass is very Dan Sullivan in his portrayal, albeit with a gold slave brand on his forehead and a penchant for wearing plate armoured suits.
He contacts the Stargate administrators, seeking asylum on Earth. His arguments always sound reasonable.
"By now you have undoubtedly learned of a plot to brazenly strike at your planet in a most cowardly manner," he tells Air Force Gen. Hank Landry (Beau Bridges).
"I want to offer my assistance as I believe I am uniquely capable of stopping this most dishonorable attack."
All this, of course, with his London accent that makes him seem all the more polite, cunning and alien.
Teal'c's mentor, Bra'tac (Tony Amendola), who trained Arkad as a Jaffa warrior but never trusted him, knows he is lying. "He no doubt fed you the information about the attack so he could then claim to be the one who can prevent it," Bra'tac warns. "He is a serpent. You must not trust him."
Of course, they're right. Arkad plans to destroy Earth—but only after killing Teal'c in the kind of up-close and personal way that James Bond's enemies always mistakenly attempt. Arkad's warriors overcome Teal'c, and the climactic scene is set.
A weakened Teal'c wakes up and is challenged to hand-to-hand combat using fighting sticks. Arkad quickly gains the advantage, and begins taunting Teal'c, the way Dan Sullivan taunted Phil Mitchell while Phil was chained to a radiator in Fairbrass's last EastEnders episode.
"You've gotten old, and slow. Get up!" Bash!
"I remember when you were a true warrior, the pride of Apophis, feared by all those who opposed you. Do you remember, Teal'c, how powerful you were then? Do you remember [my home planet]? You had us on the run. You bombarded the planet from space and you left no survivors. I lost my parents that day, my sister. Yet I still admired you. One day I thought, I thought I would be so brave. I would have the courage to bring my enemies to their knees, like the great Jaffa warrior Teal'c. Fight!" Bonk!
"Look at you now. A legend!" Club!
And more of the same, as Teal'c is gradually beaten to a pulp. Then, of course, the final "reveal" before the death blow.
"Before you die, I want you to know the truth. I had revenge for the day you attacked [my planet] and you slaughtered my family. I killed your mother."
He stabs Teal'c with a sword. But Teal'c kicks him back toward the wall, onto a sharp spike sticking out from it. Arkad cowers in abject fear as Teal'c approaches with the sword, then kills him, thrusting the blade through his heart and other important organs. "Arkad got what he deserved," Teal'c later tells mentor Bra'tac.
As for the title, according to fan site Gateworld.net, it's taken from the Latin lex taliionis, meaning "law of retribution," a punishment that is equal to the offence—derived from Genesis 9:6 ("Whoever sheds a man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed") and the ancient law of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
So, if you miss Dan Sullivan and want to see him suffer the painful death (I believe) he escapes on EastEnders, watch this episode, the 17th out of 20 in Stargate SG-1's 10th and final season on the air. Episodes from the ninth season are currently on air in syndication.
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