A New Order
Robert Cooper and Andy Mikita
By Thomasina Gibson, Cult Times #106, Jul 04
“There’s so many great things happening with Stargate SG-1 it’s going to be an exciting year,” says [Executive Producer and Showrunner] Robert Cooper.
The big news is that lots of people get big step up the ladder career-wise. Cooper confirms, “Yeah, it’s promotions for every one, which is providing us with a whole new dynamic this year. We’re basing a lot of stories around the SGC, partly because of economics and also because SG-1 has become less of an exploratory unit and more of a defence-type unit and the pro¬motions are a necessary and logical step for some people who up ’til now were based at Cheyenne Mountain.”
The new order means we’ll be seeing less of a favourite familial face as General Hammond (Don S Davis) leaves the Stargate Command Centre in Colorado for a swanky new office in the Pentagon. Cooper reveals, “General Hammond is put in charge of all things related to the Stargate programme. Brigadier General O’Neill will still be in touch with him on a regular basis so we don’t lose Hammond’s presence completely. Then Carter [Amanda Tapping] gets her just desserts. It’s the first thing O’Neill does as a general.” Does she then get to boss everybody about? Sadly, Cooper shakes his head, “Ah, no! It’s not in Carter’s nature.”
Speaking of Carter, Cooper mentions that her boyfriend, Peter Shanahan (David DeLuise) is back on the scene: “Pete is definitely back in a couple of episodes, which will be a lot of fun. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff on the Internet about ‘Stalker Pete’ and it’s clear that some of these people have quite a few issues of their own that they have to deal with, but the whole discussion thing is fun.”
Teal’c will be sporting hair for Season Eight. Cooper explains, “Teal’c’s arc sees him living off the base for the first time and he’s be¬come a bit of an urban superhero. He has the Jaffa moral code which he doesn’t seem able to abandon, so if he sees something that is not right he will do what he thinks is the right thing and that might not always be the most discreet thing in the neighbourhood. He’s living off base with the USAF’s blessing, so long as he keeps undercover and quiet, and we’ll see that things don’t exactly work out that way.”
“Michael Shanks is going to have a couple of good episodes of his own,” shares Cooper, “and I guess the big thing that Daniel is going to do is to have a bit of a showdown with Anubis [David Palffy] towards the end of the season.”
Before then, Cooper is looking forward to the season opener, when Fifth (Patrick Currie) is going to come back and get revenge for the fact that SG-1 left him stranded and betrayed in Unnatural Selection. “Well, we have to remember that he is a replicator. He has this programming that ultimately, he won’t be able to overcome. In fact, there are going to be even better bad guys this year than last year. Some tables are going to be turned so we’re really going to have to be on our guard more than ever.”