Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell and the Sword in the Stone
When Stargate SG-1 opens its ninth season with a three-part opener (“Avalon Part 1”, “Avalon Part 2”, and “Origin”), the newly-formed SG-1 plunge themselves into another Ancient legacy: Avalon. Arthurian legend wouldn’t be complete without King Arthur, Merlin, Excalibur, and knights, and
Also rising to the challenge of bringing these stories to life were Stargate SG-1‘s new cast member Ben Browder and show fight coordinator James “BamBam” Bamford. The two men worked several hours in coordinating and executing a sword fight between Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell and a knight after Mitchell pulls the legendary sword from the stone. (The props department displayed this sword at a recent convention and labeled it “Excalibur”.) What is impressive about the sword fight is that Ben Browder performed the stunt himself.
Bamford had this to say about the casts of both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (for which Bamford is stunt coordinator) in his Q&A thread on the GateWorld Forum: “The cast on SGA and on SG1 are both fantastic. Every actor is an individual. Some prefer to do everything themselves…others don’t. It is my job to ensure that the action sequences look their best while at the same time keeping the actors safe and sound. All of our actors enjoy the rush of doing their own stunts as much as I do, but sometimes it is not safe enough to risk the well being of any actor.”
Concerning the broadsword fight in which Mitchell finds himself in “Avalon”, Bamford stated, “Ben has had some prior sword training so he was a natural. I had about 6 hours of rehearsal time in total with Ben, before the shoot date. We always rehearse just before we roll the camera, a couple of times, to jog the brain on the moves. That scene took 1 full 12 [-hour] day to shoot and about 3 hours on second unit shooting to finish. I think you will be impressed with Mr. B!!”
