Ryan Murphy has created so many television shows that it’s only a matter of time before two of them bump into each other. Such is the case with Doctor Odyssey, as the nautical medical drama will air a crossover episode tonight with another ABC series, 9-1-1. And fan-favorite character Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett) will hit the high seas, appearing as a guest aboard The Odyssey.
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To say Bassett is a high-profile guest star would be an understatement. After all, this is an Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee sharing the same ship. On top of that, she is one of the most veteran “Murphyverse” actresses out there, having been a pivotal role on 9-1-1 throughout its eight seasons (and two networks). So when Parade got the opportunity to talk with some of the stars of Doctor Odyssey, we had to ask: What’s the biggest piece of advice she gave them while on the set?
“Not a single word,” Don Johnson immediately joked. “Not a single word of advice. I’m gonna call her.”
The response was just a drop in a proverbial sea of sarcasm and comedy from Johnson, Joshua Jackson, and Sean Teale throughout the entire discussion. But, after one of many laughs by the trio (and yours truly), Jackson chimed in with a more sincere answer.
“Her advice is her presence,” the Dawson’s Creek star said. “How she is and who she is is a template for how to be.”
“Angela Bassett is a bucket list actress for me,” he went on to add. “And so just to have her around for those two weeks to shoot the show and just be in her presence and and enjoy having her around. And I think she enjoyed the change of pace from 9-1-1 to what we do here. And that was a particularly good episode. I, for one, had a phenomenal time.”
Related: Everything We Know So Far About Doctor Odyssey
Tonight’s episode, “Casino Week,” changes the decor of The Odyssey into a high-stakes gambling facility. Two guests aboard are living the spirit of the week by planning their own Ocean’s 11-esque heist, showing particular interest in the ship’s vault. Athena, who happens to be onboard, clocks the suspicious behavior, and partners up with Max (Jackson) to counter the plot.
“Really fun, beautiful heist episode,” Teale remarked. “where everything’s quite shiny and we film things in different ways to normal.”
To be fair, “normal” is a very relative term in the world of Doctor Odyssey. Despite the series only being in its first season, it’s been tackling big events and genres with the ferocity of a ship going headfirst into a big wave. For instance, the show came back from midseason hiatus with an intense two-parter involving a series of shark attacks. So, in addition to the high-stakes environment of performing on a medical procedural, now live animals are thrown in to quite literally chum the waters.
“Sharks are divas,” Jackson joked. “The amount of difficulty just getting them to show up and hit their marks is unbelievable. I don’t know where they’re training these sharks these days.”
“I asked myself how I was going to put my hands in those places,” Teale said about working with the sharks. “We are doing compromising, damaging, painful things that we have to do to people, don’t we? So it’s a pretty intense first episode back.”
But intensity seems to be the M.O. of the MDs aboard Doctor Odyssey, considering what Jackson laid out in terms of what the show has experienced so far.
“Let’s just review the tape, shall we?” he outlined. “We had an appendectomy in a hurricane, a broken penis. Projectile vomiting because of the shrimp. We did have a suicide, which was very heavy. Pustules and necrotic bowels. And just a quiet little threesome between three of the four main characters of the show. So sharks are audacious, and it does seem like it’s a big swing. But this has been a big swinging kind of show.”
With a crossover episode on its way tonight, we can’t wait to see what swings Doctor Odyssey takes in the rest of its first season–and hopefully beyond.
New episodes of Doctor Odyssey air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Related: Everything to Know About ‘9-1-1’ Season 8
