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Patrick Bauchau: Xposé Special Pg. 3

Caring or self-serving? You're not sure about The Pretender's Sydney, as Patrick Bauchau tells David Richardson.

From Xposé Special no. 9 -- September 1999
by David Richardson (continued from Page 2)

Season three began with a bang for Sydney, after he planted a bomb intending to destroy the Centre. He survived and escaped blame, but there was a cost. Burned in the blast, the psychiatrist temporarily lost his eyesight. That storyline played out over the first few episodes and Bauchau ensured that he researched the behavior of a visually impaired person.

"I was working with someone who was writing a script about blind people," he says, "so the two things coincided at that time."

Asked to define how Sydney has developed over the past year, Bauchau admits it has been an interesting time.

"His dark side dominated the finale of last year," says Bauchau. "Then in this season he's been mostly a pretty loveable character until we get to the finale where suddenly doubts overtake us again. What is he up to? Is he really going to join up with a new program in the Centre that looks even murkier than the one before? Or is it all just a trick in which he is conniving with Jarod?"

That feature length episode, "Donoterase," proved to be an absolute gift for devoted fans of the series. It was revealed that The Centre has been developing a cloning program, and they have successfully grown a duplicate of Jarod.

"It's quite a striking episode," enthuses Bauchau. "It's the finale of finales."

No doubt about it, The Pretender just gets better and better. As the Xposé letters page proves there is a vast fan following for the show although, unlike other fantasy series like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files and Star Trek, the marketing potential remains untapped. There are no Pretender videos, books, toys or even conventions. But maybe that is a phenomenon just waiting to happen...

Asked to define why the series is so popular, Bauchau responds immediately. He's obviously received plenty of feedback from devoted fans.

"It's connected to the situation of Jarod being locked out of the Centre: having escaped, and yet having his roots in the Centre. That aspect is something that a lot of people can identify with -- sort of being on the cusp of a childhood situation, yet having torn oneself away from it.

"I think also the inter-relatedness between the past and the present through each episode, the simulations on disc, give us access to Jarod's past and how it determines some of the elements of the weekly situation he is dealing with. It creates a very exciting mix. The writers have found a very exciting way of presenting material, and they've found a combination where all the time you want to find out a little bit more. They have a way of stopping just having given you some clue, and it's only taken up much later in the season. It's always a tantalizing thing."

So where does The Pretender go from here? Van Sickle and Mitchell have the whole show mapped out in their heads for at least another two years and syndication rights were recently purchased by TNT. The demand for the series is there but in the world of television nothing is certain...

"The mysteries of the networks are probably as complex as the mysteries of the Centre," laughs Bauchau, "but I wouldn't be surprised if there was another couple of years in there."

Images: Sydney, keeping in touch with Jarod by phone. Jarod is haunted by his pursuers from The Centre: Mr. Lyle (Jamie Denton), Miss Parker (Andrea Parker) and the 'father figure' Sydney. Photos from Xposé © 1999. Click either image to see a larger version in a new window. Do not use without prior, written permission.