Stargate SG-1 star Michael Shanks told SCI FI Wire that he was pleased to hear that Farscape’s Ben Browder would be joining the cast of the SCI FI Channel series when it kicks off its ninth season next year. “I’m a big fan of stirring the pot,” Shanks said in an interview. “Not that we’ve become complacent, but I’m a big fan of introducing new elements.”
Browder joins the cast as a new character, a seasoned lieutenant colonel who becomes the latest member of SG-1. “We’ve worked on the show for many years, and we’ve worked with the same three other actors,” Shanks said, referring to co-stars Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Richard Dean Anderson. “If it’s just those four people on the screen, yeah, we could have a great rapport, but when you introduce a new element you always have that inhale of breath. It’s like, ‘Ooh, what’s this going to do?’ That’s what guest stars are for. You get complacent when you sit on your butt too long and you work with the same group of people. You get used to the dynamic, and you get spoiled and lazy. I think introducing a new element tests you, and it also shakes it up a little bit. And I think, without taking anything too much away, the introduction of a new person is going to up the stakes and sort of have everybody doing a tapdance to figure out where this is all going to fit.”
SCI FI no doubt hopes that Browder’s presence will both attract new viewers to the show and keep SG-1 fans—particularly those who’ve bemoaned the decreased presence of Anderson—in the fold.
But Shanks insisted that that end of the equation was not his concern. “Whether Ben brings a SF cachet to the table, … I don’t care,” he said. “That’s not my business to worry about whether or not he’s going to bring in viewers. My job is to find out how we can work together and how it’s going to be positive and what kinds of good stories we can tell. If his reputation in that regard is spot-on, that’s all I care about, and it sounds like he’s got a positive reputation.”