

Lexa Doig as Sonya Valentine in Continuum. Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.

Throughout her acting career, Lexa Doig has often had one foot in the present and one in the future, having been, for example, a series regular on the outer space TV Sci-Fi drama Andromeda as well as played a recurring role on the Earth-based Sci-Fi show Stargate SG-1. Currently, the beautiful and talented actress is walking a fine line between the two, playing Sonya Valentine, a convicted terrorist who along with her associates and a lone CPS (City Protective Services) officer, Kiera Cameron, are transported back in time from 2077 to 2012 in the new hit Canadian-made Sci-Fi/Police Drama Continuum.

Doig initially read for the Kiera role, and a short time later her agent received a phone call from the show’s producers, who were interested in her playing Soyna. Another audition followed, and before she knew it, the actress was in front of the camera shooting Continuum’s first season opener, A Stitch in Time.

“Our first day on-set – what a ton of fun that was,” recalls Doig during a lunch break on Continuum's Vancouver set. “I was working with a number of amazing people, including [director] Jon Cassar, who is pretty special. He’s an excellent director who really knows what he’s doing. What’s great about Jon is that he runs a tight ship and yet is an extremely amenable and approachable guy. Not only does he know everything about what’s going on in the story, but he’s also aware of any concerns that the actors might have. You can tell that Jon has already thought about all that.



Doig and her fellow "terrorist" castmates being directed by Jon Cassar in the series opener "A Stitch in Time." Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.

“Something else that impressed me right off the bat was how big everything was, and I don’t mean size-wise, but just that the actual scope of which we were going to be filming was pretty cool. Also for me, having been on Andromeda and Stargate, which were mainly studio-shot shows, at least where I was concerned, it was a joy to be out and about filming. I must admit, though, that it was colder inside the hanger that we were shooting in than it was outside,” says the actress with a laugh. “There were various explosions and things that went, ‘boom,’ which we were kind of grateful for because they heated things up a little bit,” she jokes.

In A Stitch in Time, Edouard Kagame (Tony Amendola), the leader of a revolutionary group called Liberate, and his fellow terrorists, including Sonya Valentine, are arrested for conspiring against the corporations that are in charge of running the world in 2077. They are sentenced to death, but moments before their execution, a device smuggled into the execution chamber transports them – and Kiera Cameron – to Vancouver 2012. The terrorists are determined to alter the past in order to prevent big business from gaining control of human society in the future, and together they are truly a force to be reckoned with.

“Kagame is like our spiritual leader,” explains Doig. “He’s sort of our Gandhi, and I loath to make that comparison because Gandhi was such a pacifist, and Kagame is not. In many ways we’re all like his disciples, and I really see my character Sonya as being a true believer in his ideals and mission. Travis [Roger Cross] is her lover and the love of her life. I hope I’m not giving too much away by saying this, but on a number of levels he’s the reason why Sonya is there in the first place. Travis also has his own issues, though, which, unfortunately, I can’t get into.



Sonya (Lexa Doig) in Vancouver 2012. Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.

“As for the other members of our ‘team,’ for lack of a better term, there’s Omari Newton, who plays Lucas, our resident techie/geek, who I think Sonya uses as a necessary and helpful component. There’s also Garza, played by Luvia Peterson, who is awesome. Everyone on our show is awesome, but I just love Luvia. There’s a bit of a kinship there because her character is the only other female ‘terrorist’, and she’s not a girly-girl, either. Garza is this strong, capable warrior, and it’s nice to have strong characters that people can bond with and be surrounded by.”

At one time, Sonya was a “corporate girl” and a research scientist who was working on a project for the corporate military. When, however, her research began to turn down a darker path and conflict with her own morals, Sonya made the difficult choice to reject all that she had come to believe in and join the rebellion against the corporation. Doig’s character starts out on Continuum as a rather closed book, but the actress is looking forward to leafing through those pages together with the viewers and revealing more about Sonya as the series goes on.

“The biggest [acting] challenge with Sonya in the beginning was that I didn’t really know her,” she says. “She didn’t do or say much in the series opener and is a sort of mysterious character. I mean, I had some of the blanks filled in by [series creator/executive producer] Simon Barry, who I keep referring to as the Great Kazoo [the little green Martian from the 60s Flintstone cartoon TV series], because he’s all-seeing, all-knowing, although Simon doesn’t act condescending and jerky the way Kazoo sometimes did. Simon is lovely, and he took each of us aside and gave us some back story on our respective characters, which, again, I can’t really go into detail about just yet.



Gallery shot of Lexa Doig as Sonya Valentine. Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.

“From what I can gather from my fellow actors who are also playing the so-called bad guys - although we’re calling ourselves freedom fighters - is that Simon has given our characters a very compelling reason to be doing what they’re doing. It is true that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and, yes, the actions of Sonya and the others are very extreme and incredibly unpalatable, but considering where they come from, those actions are somewhat understandable. So it’s really fascinating to play a character this complex and whose beliefs I can get onboard with, but whose actions I can’t. That’s another challenge with Sonya and one I’m thoroughly enjoying.

“One of the fascinating things about this show is that it’s so nonlinear in the sense that nobody really knows what’s going on, except for Simon. He knows everything and is kind of eking out information as is necessary. We’re all on a need-to-know basis, which is totally cool as well as fun. It’s definitely one of those situations where you’re going along trying to figure out or waiting to discover what’s going to happen next. Continuum is a very smart show and the type of show that I would totally watch and get sucked into. Everyone involved wants to tell good stories and their heads are in the right place, so it’s a really enjoyable as well as comfortable and collaborative work environment to be a part of,” enthuses the actress.

Prior to Continuum, Doig was delighted to be cast in the recurring role of Petra Hossa in the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) TV drama series Arctic Air, about a maverick airline and the unconventional family that runs it.



Lexa Doig as Sonya Valentine. Photo copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media.

“I don’t do a lot of work the CBC and I don’t really know why because I love what they do,” notes the actress. “I had auditioned for them a few times in the past, but nothing ever came of it, so I was thrilled to be cast on a CBC show because I’m Canadian and that’s big for me in the sense that growing up you would watch the CBC.

“So it was really fun on Arctic Air to play a character that was a small town mom, who wore cotton and was a rather normal person as opposed to a butt-kicking terrorist/android working in a secret field-type of character. I really liked that and enjoyed playing the vulnerability of that in a couple of high-stake circumstances that were going on as well as the human drama.”

Having had roles in a number of Sci-Fi/Fantasy related feature films and TV series, including now Continuum, what does the actress enjoy most about working in this particular genre?

“My kind of go-to answer, which is still relevant and even more so with this show, is that there’s this lovely allegorical capacity with Science Fiction where you can tell stories that hopefully make people think about something current, without specifically making it about something current,” muses Doig. “I’ve heard some people say that this [Continuum] is sort of a cautionary tale about what could happen, but yet it still stays within the realm of Science Fiction, obviously, because we’re talking about time travel. So we aren’t hammering any points home, you know? We’re asking questions but not providing any answers per say, so again, hopefully we’ll not only get people to tune in, but also think at the same time.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, all photos copyright of Showcase/Shaw Media, so please no unauthorizied copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!