Primeval To Return; Alexander Siddig To Star

Primeval is coming back, according to today’s announcement from ITV, and they’re bringing one of my favorite people in the whole world with them. Alexander Siddig has joined the cast for an unknown number of episodes, which means I’ll be watching an unknown number of episodes.

Alexander Siddig joins cast of ITV's Primeval

Our readers are probably not aware that Sid and I go way back. Seriously. I’ve run his official fansite since 1996. He’s an enormously talented actor who is also enormously humble (is that an oxymoron?) and forever surprising me with his projects. I actually watched Doomsday because he was in it. I laughed at inappropriate moments. Now I need to catch up on Primeval so I have a handle on what’s going on when his episodes arrive in early 2011. Or whenever they end up over here in the United States (the series returns on ITV1 in the UK sometime in early 2011), because downloading is illegal, kids.

Sid, as I call him, will play charismatic scientist Philip Burton, new part-owner of the ARC. I don’t know what the ARC is yet, but I do know that “charismatic” is Sid’s default state. Also, thanks to his years playing Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he has the art of technobabble down pat. Also also, if you haven’t seen him in Cairo Time opposite Patricia Clarkson yet, you must!

Additional new faces for the new series include Ciarán McMenamin (Silent Witness, Jericho) and Ruth Kearney (Gracie), who join series regulars Hannah Spearritt, Ben Miller, Andrew Lee-Potts and Ben Mansfield at an all-new ARC after the government loses faith in Lester’s (Miller) ability to run the operation on his own.

Ciaran plays zoologist and new field leader Matt, Ruth plays Jess, who runs operation from the ARC Control Centre. Get more information about Primeval from ITV’s site, or catch up in the U.S. with Syfy.