Even fictional ‘Peggers have hometown pride

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This article was published 30/04/2020 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fun fact: Riverside, Iowa, bills itself as “Where the Trek Begins” because it is the fictional birthplace of Star Trek’s hero James T. Kirk who, according to Trek canon, will be born there 200-plus years from now.

When you’re from a small town or a small city, you tend to take your hometown pride where you can.

In that spirit, note that one of the heroes of the SyFy TV series Vagrant Queen is not only from Winnipeg, he named his spacecraft “The Winnipeg” because, obviously, that’s just the kind of thing a Winnipegger might do.

And like a true curmudgeonly Winnipegger, he has little patience with people who can’t pronounce the name of the ship… or doubt that the place is even real.

Actor Tim Rozon plays the role of Isaac, a rogue space pilot/former Winnipegger who joins forces with the heroine, Elida (Adriyan Rae), a woman of royal blood who escaped a revolt as a child and now lives under the radar of the tyrannical galactic government out to end the royal line.

Rozon’s own experience of the real Winnipeg is limited to his visit in April 2005 for the Juno Awards.

“I was on a show called Instant Star,” Rozon says via Zoom from his abode north of Montreal, near where he was born. “I was invited by the Juno Awards, so I went up there just for the week. But my co-star from that show (actor Kristopher Turner) was from Winnipeg and he kind of gave me the lay of the town.”

Rozon has kept busy between then and now. These days, he may be best known as Mutt Schitt, the improbably sexy offspring of Chris Elliott’s small-town mayor Roland Schitt on the CBC series Schitt’s Creek, which wrapped up its sixth and final season last month. In more cultish circles, he also plays Doc Holliday on the sci-fi/western hybrid Wynonna Earp.

As the father of a new baby boy, he admits he is handling the interruption of isolation better than most of his peers.

“I was on Wynonna Earp when this happened,” he says of the pandemic. “We were about halfway through the season over in Alberta. In December I had a son, and I wasn’t getting to spend any time with him.

“So I came home and… I think I’m the only guy not complaining,” he says. “I got to be with my boy now and every day is great.”

Between Wynonna Earp and Vagrant Queen, Rozon finds himself steeped in a certain kind of fandom, as both TV series began life as comic books. And he is happy to be there, both as a creator and a fan.

“My favourite time of year is the San Diego Comic-Con,” he says. “I went there for the first time three years ago and that was it, that’s the pinnacle. I could die happy.”

He’s visited Comic-Con not only as a fan, but as a panellist, signing a Wynonna Earp comic book he co-wrote that features the character he plays on the cover.

“I’m done. I’m good,” he says of achieving that life goal. 

He is also happy to be departing in his roles from the roguish Han Solo-like precedent in space operas, the guy who divides his time between blasting bad guys and romancing the heroines. In Vagrant Queen, for example, in the early episodes, the sexual sparks fly not between Isaac and Alida, but beween Alida and Amae (Alex McGregor), a charming female engineer.

Rozon doesn’t have a problem with that. After all, Han Solo is dead.

“RIP, Han,” he says, acknowledging both series have struck a chord with the LGBTTQ+ community. 

“One of the most beloved LGBT stories going in television today is Wynonna Earp,” he says. “There is a love story between myself and Wynonna in there, but I would say the more famous of the love stories is two girls.

“For me it’s not new,” he says. “It’s my honour to be support for the strong female characters and women in general. It’s been pretty much like that my whole career.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing