Always a Badger

| Thursday, April 1
 I was watching the most recent episode of Chuck and noticed that the one and only Mark Sheppard had appeared as the director of the evil syndicate known as "The Ring." It is not the first time that the great sci-fi character actor has graced the small screen in my living room in recent years. Though it is not the role for which I will always remember him.

That honor will go to the sleaze-ball fence, Badger, from the "Serenity" and "Shindig" episodes of Firefly. Now, he was only in two episodes, playing a minor character, but for some reason, that is how I have chosen to remember him. He always gave Mal and his crew such a hard time for their dangerous work, yet, as shady as he was, I never disliked him.

So, you can only imagine my surprise, when I started watching Battlestar Galactica and saw him show up as the slick lawyer, Romo Lampkin. My initial thought was, "Who else but Badger would represent a weasel like Gaius Baltar?" Unfortunately, I could never quite get past the fact that he was Badger, and kept projecting those traits onto Lampkin. And strangely enough, I never ended up liking Lampkin that much. This is how most of my friends remember him, though, and when I bring up Badger, they seem to question my sanity.

Then, as BSG started to wind down, I started seeing him everywhere. What do I mean by everywhere? EVERYWHERE! He had a small recurring role on Dollhouse. Looked like good ol' Joss Whedon called in a favor from an old friend?

I've been told he was on 24, which I do not watch. Then he was cast on multiple cable shows that I actually love, so imagine my surprise when I start seeing my favorite genre character actor every time I turn on the television: Burn Notice, White Collar, Warehouse 13, Leverage, and finally (and most recently) Chuck.

Though his roles have been minor and short-lived in most of those shows, it makes me happy every time I see his smug face pop up. I always expect the cockney accent and bowler, but he's cleaned up a lot since then. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more of him for the foreseeable future. He's gotta be coming back in the Fall on Leverage as Sterling, I'm sure of it. And I'm waiting on a guest appearance on Castle, too.



I just hope he doesn't get cast on an episode of Caprica. You can't do that. No crossing canons. It isn't right.

3 comments:

Catherine said...

LOL. I can totally see him representing Gaius the Weasel! He was also on Leverage...he gets around!

Harley said...

I am 100% with you on this one. Badger is Badger is Badger. When I saw him on BSG I just kept waiting for him to be a total skeaze with no moral compass but a charming quality that still made me love him nontheless...

Just like Badger!

Eleni said...

I still think of him as Badger, even though his role on BSG was more extensive. I liked Lampkin, though like everyone else in BSG he had his issues. Man, even became president (briefly)!

I remember him on White Collar and Dollhouse, too. I need to catch up with Chuck (I've fallen behind this season, sadly).

There have been a couple people from BSG who have shown up in Caprica. Kind of bothers me, but maybe they're just the look-alike mothers of the BSG people ;)

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