Let’s continue down memory lane in our Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) series as we cover Stargate SG-1 Season Four!

During this season, co-creator and executive producer Jonathan Glassner stepped down to creative consultant, while Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie joined Brad Wright and Robert Cooper as staff writers. Of the two new writers, Joseph Mallozzi had the most interaction with fans due to his online presence, so a new level of fan involvement with the show began and has continued to this day.

Two other events of note were the directorial debut of Michael Shanks for the episode ‘Double Jeopardy’ and the story contribution of Christopher Judge for ‘The Warrior,’ the screenplay and direction coming from fan favorite Peter DeLuise.

The production was given a fifth season on Showtime, so in Stargate tradition, the fourth season ended with a cliffhanger.

SG-1 Season Four

Brad Wright

From Creating the Gate” in TV Zone #123 (Feb. 2000):

“The difficult thing about Stargate is that as a television series it’s fairly massive in scope. It’s a big concept. I mean, the Stargate itself is 20 feet high. When we ‘visit’ another planet and want to put a Stargate there, which makes sense considering our heroes arrive through one, that means that the walls of our set have to be at least 30 feet high.

“Suddenly you’re building this huge set just to accommodate the Stargate. The solution to that is to go outdoors on location. Well, we can do that but there are only so many areas in and around Vancouver that don’t have trees. In some of our early episodes it was, ‘OK, here we are on this planet with trees,’ and then the following week it was, ‘Here’s another planet and, oh, look, it has trees.’ We had a hard time mixing the stories up enough (to show that) there are other worlds that have a totally different look and feel.

“Jonathan [Glassner] and I have been remarkably good at spinning yarns out of thin air while under duress. Whenever it seemed as if everything was falling apart, we could calmly sit down together and dream up an idea that ended up becoming a pretty good or, sometimes, great story. He’s a terrific guy and I’m going to miss having such a powerful writing machine across the hall.

“We can’t get stale. I don’t want to get to a point where the viewers are saying, ‘Isn’t this a variation on one they’ve already done?’ We have to make sure that we continue to come up with solid, entertaining stories. After all, that’s what us Science Fiction fans want.”

From “Perfect 10” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“We had just a little more money [in Season Four than we had in Season Three]. I hate to be crass about it, but we have this problem of trying to tell stories sometimes and then we realize we can’t afford to tell the stories that we want to tell. So you end up with shows that seem lacking, simply because we bit off more than we could chew. And we had a little bit more money and so we could do shows like ‘Small Victories,’ which involved going into a Russian submarine! That was pretty cool.

“But also, that was the year that Joe [Mallozzi] and Paul [Mullie] came aboard. That’s really when the core writing team started to come together. We had Rob [Cooper], myself and Paul and Joe writing. At first I had to re-write the material a bit, but eventually they got better and better.

“‘Window of Opportunity’ is a highlight for me. I really think that’s a funny episode. But my favorite Stargate SG-1 is ‘2010.’ That was great too, because it was Andy Mikita‘s first directing opportunity for us, and he hit it out of the park. It’s really well directed. A lot of things came together very nicely for that episode. So I guess I’d have to say that was my highlight.”

Joseph Mallozzi

From “Joseph Mallozzi’s Weblog” (Dec. 23, 2007):

“I got my start in animation. After querying dozens of animation studios, I was invited to forward some writing samples to one studio that was about to start production on a couple of animated shows. They liked my samples (a Seinfeld spec and a feature), sent me the show bible, and invited me to pitch. They bought one of my pitches and so began my professional writing career. I eventually worked my way up from simply writing for animation to story-editing and development. Then, using my background in animation (where I learned to hone my craft) and armed with those live-action specs, I moved into live-action with my writing partner Paul Mullie, working on a teen comedy called Student Bodies. After work on various shows, some good, some not so good, some not even not so good (Big Wolf on Campus, Lassie, Largo Winch, The Lost World) we were invited to pitch for Stargate SG-1 (after Robert Cooper had read our spec feature – Note how important it is to have a spec script or two if you’re looking to break into the business). We pitched, sold a pitch, and a did a good enough job on our first script (‘Scorched Earth’) to land us on staff.”

From “Q & A” hosted by sg1_hc Yahoo! List (Jan. 12, 2002):

“Prior to our joining the staff, we screened the first three seasons.

“Before we pitch a story, we always ask: ‘What’s in it for the character?’ Stories that hold an emotional stake (besides ‘I hope I don’t get killed’) are, in my opinion, the most interesting. ‘The Curse,’ for instance, was one of my fave episodes of Season 4 because it allowed us to explore a part of Daniel that hadn’t been touched upon, namely the life he left behind when he joined the Stargate Program.

“‘Upgrades’: One of my all-time favorite episodes. Robert Cooper did a huge rewrite on this one, one of the funniest episodes the show has done.

“‘Point of No Return’: Turned out exactly as we had imagined it.

“‘2010’: After reading the first draft, I had to pick up the phone and congratulate Brad. My fave script of the past two seasons (Seasons Four and Season Five).”

From “Joseph Mallozzi’s Weblog” (Dec. 8, 2007):

“To those who say ‘Hey, this is too much like this episode!’ or ‘This is too much like that episode!’ my counter would be ‘Name me an episode of science fiction that isn’t in some way like something that has come before.’ Alternate worlds, time travel, duplicates—they’re all standard science fiction jumping off points. It’s how they are used, what makes them unique within the body of a given story that really matters. I think back to ‘Window of Opportunity.’ When we first pitched out the story, it was very dark and very different from the finished episode. Robert Cooper gave us notes and steered us in another, lighter direction. ‘This is just like Groundhog Day,’ I realized, expecting that would kill the idea. ‘Exactly,’ was Rob’s surprising response. So we did the Stargate SG-1 version of Groundhog Day—and it became a fan favorite! Why? Because people who watched it were less hung up on the similarities of what had come before, and more interested in what made this particular situation unique to OUR characters.”

Richard Dean Anderson

From “Universal Soldier” in XPosé (Sept. 1999):

“It’s been like a runaway express train. The distribution side of things is tremendously successful and creatively we are constantly in a growing and explorative position. It’s like, ‘What can we do next?’ We are only limited by our imaginations.

“Our stories and the planets visited by SG-1 team reflect the fact that all the peoples we encounter are born of Earth’s history so in a way we already have an international flavor. We create our own languages but we tap into all cultures from Ancient Greek to Old Egypt to Christianity. I think we’re pretty diverse.”

From “TV Guide Online Chat” at AOL (Jun. 29, 2000):

“I’m one of the executive producers, but Brad Wright is the show runner, which means that he’s the executive producer and head writer. He has the reins of the control of the show. He and Robert Cooper are the brain trust of ideas and direction of the show.

“I have a fair amount of say in the directing and final product. And I have some say in character direction. I’ve been a bit of spoilsport in the romantic tension between O’Neill and Carter. It’s just too easy a direction to go. We do have some creative license with how we portray the characters within the military setting we have. I do have a fair amount of say, and I’m part of the team that comes up with the final product. But, I do give most of the credit to Brad Wright.

“I’m ecstatic about [the fan following]. I was very aware of the limitations of working with a cable audience. There is a massive differential between networks and cable. And I knew that there was going to be limited exposure. But, in regards to the fanship that we have developed, MGM and Showtime are very happy. And MGM is talking in terms of year twelve. I’m so happy about it, and I should make a blanket apology that I’m still a bit of a recluse. Most of the fans we’re aware of come through the computers and the online responses. And we’re one of the highest rated shows on Showtime, and that’s saying something.

“[J]ust as we speak, I’m finishing the polishes on a script [for ‘The Curse’] where I’m fishing. Not to give too much away, Teal’c and I do make it up to the lake. We find out that it’s not about catching the fish to O’Neill. It’s about being on a dock, with a pole in the water, and a cool beverage at his side. And Teal’c doesn’t quite get it. But, I’m not really a fishing fan. I do have two cabins up in northern Minnesota, in what is called the Iron Range. I go up there twice a year. One of the last things I consider is fishing. I float. I have some ATVs, and I go back into the woods. What fishing I have done is spear fishing, to make it fair. But, I haven’t done that in a while.

“Well, I’m the most irreverent. I may actually be the one who stands in the way of everyone being as professional as they can. It’s just kind of an uncontrollable trait that I have because I want the set to be as light and as fun as possible. So, that’s kind of my role… They’re all extremely professional. They’re wonderful individuals. Michael Shanks is probably the most serious… he did Shakespeare last year. Amanda gets all the techno-babble. I think she’s got the toughest job. And Chris Judge actually has the hardest job because in real life he has so much energy. He’s created a phenomenal character, very stoic and seemingly emotionless. We love to give him more to do, and sometimes it’s hard to find the emotional thread to carry a full storyline. But, he doesn’t work out enough… :)”

From “Family Man” in TV Zone (Aug. 2000):

“Of course, viewers don’t see half of what we do in front of the cameras, and thankfully so. Sometimes I think our rehearsals are what we should be taping. To some degree, I’d say Michael Shanks and I probably have the most fun in banter scenes. I think this is built partially out of a mutual respect of the theatre of the absurd and the fact that we have a ball working together. Michael’s also a very fine actor and one of the most tolerant people when it comes to my wacky behaviour. All the characters are starting to have more fun, though, and that’s good to see.

“It would be great if the writers could get everything into a script but it’s impossible. I’ll often think of things I want to do or say on the day of filming, but most of these little nuances are meant to grab the ears of those who are really listening. If you catch one of these ‘Jackisms’ that’s great, just as long as it doesn’t get in the way of telling the story.”

From “Gatecrashing” in SFX (Aug. 2000):

“The only thing I’ve ever demanded as an actor/producer is a sense of humour. If there’s not a sense of humour in the workplace, people resent having to come to work. Through all the years of MacGyver and everything else that I’ve done I’ve tried to infuse as much of my sense of humour as possible. People have to be able to laugh and loosen things up; laughter frees people a little bit and makes it worth coming to work.

“For nine months out of the year, some of these people get up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning; I get up at 5:30 so I have the luxury of an hour’s extra sleep. For them to come here and not be afforded the chance to smile or laugh along the way really seems like drudgery to me, so I try to make sure that people know that I’m serious about what my responsibilities are, but not to carry them out with a heavy hand; allow people, don’t make them. Everybody has their input, the best idea wins around here. We’re not saving lives, we’re not doing brain surgery; we’re making a product for people to be entertained by.”

Michael Shanks

From “Michael Shanks: Action Jackson” in TV Zone #134 (Jan. 2001):

“I love it when our writers take two characters with such opposing views, like Jack and Daniel, and pit them against each other. It not only makes for interesting drama but also a neat moral debate topic for the viewers.

“[‘The First Ones’ is] a terrific one just in terms of the sense of humour and irony that Brad Wright and Peter DeLuise brought out in my character. Daniel was in his element. He spent the entire episode trying to be compassionate and communicative towards this Unas [Dion Johnstone], which, I feel, is where my character’s strengths truly lie. It was a pleasure to work with my pal Dion, who I had performed with on stage in Hamlet. He is a consummate actor who worked hard to bring his character to life and, in doing so, made it easy for me to work off him.

“Peter DeLuise also directed that episode, which made the shoot all the more enjoyable. Peter is the ultimate peacemaker. He’s also an actor and understands what his fellow actors need to guide them through a scene… He’s an excellent actor’s director. Technically, he’s also a great storyteller. Peter isn’t afraid to get in there and get the job done. We have a lot of fun with him.

“Our writers, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, wrote this story [‘The Curse’] in eight days after being told that Richard was going to be away for most of the week’s shooting. I had a wonderful time working on this one. The director is friend of mine, Andy Mikita. We had fun going back to the show’s Egyptian mythology roots and delving into Daniel’s past.”

From “Problem Solved” in TV Zone Special #42 (Jul. 2001):

“[‘Absolute Power’] was a hoot on so many different levels. I remember the producers came to me and asked if I was worried about Daniel being painted as the bad guy. I said, ‘Are you kidding? It’s a great opportunity for me.’ First off, this is something that could happen to Daniel, so it was fascinating to explore that potential danger. From an acting standpoint it was a treat to twiddle the old ‘villainous moustache’ and do something totally different and off-the-wall.”

From “Michael Shanks: Action Jackson” in TV Zone #134 (Jan. 2001):

“I remember during the first read-through of the script [for ‘Double Jeopardy’], everyone said, ‘Oh, my God.’ Then the rookie director, me, looked at the script and thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ It was the luck of the draw or just the chips falling where they may, but I ended up with the biggest episode we’ve done since the series began. It was an overwhelming situation to be dropped into, to say the least.

“This episode had quite an ambitious storyline and a number of elements to it. It was probably our longest shoot in the history of the series. Usually we do seven-and-a-half days of principal photography, but in this case it took us ten days. We haven’t gone over time like that since our first year and, in particular, when we shot our pilot episode.

“I have to give kudos to the entire Stargate cast and crew. They were super. When I committed myself to this, I did so knowing that I was going to be supported. Everybody stepped up to the plate and was very tolerant and patient with me as I was feeling my way through the process. The questions come much faster to an experienced director and the demands made on him or her are a lot higher. With me, the crew was like, ‘Let’s just take a breath. We don’t have to put the heat on him because he’s going through enough already.’ The actors were the same, and that helped boost my confidence level.

“Our writers dream up some great ideas when it comes to writing Daniel stories, and I’ve had some excellent ones this year. I relish those episodes as they allow me to spread my wings as an actor. Unfortunately, in group situations they’re still not quite sure what to do with my character. I think that’s been a common theme since the series began. Daniel is a bit of a loner and a bit of an outsider and, to top it off, he’s not a soldier. So when the fighting starts what do we do with him? We have him crouch behind a rock and leave him out of the action or we don’t have him in the scene at all.

“I’m just saying that I think Daniel has been slightly limited in his actual interaction with the team. Again, stories where he has been the focus have been wonderful, but they sort of end up excluding the rest of SG-1. So if anything, my wish for next season would be for my character to be worked a little more into the group dynamic.”

Amanda Tapping

From Starsigns” in Dreamwatch (Feb. 2001):

“When we shot the pilot we knew we were picked up for two years, and I think through season one we knew we’d go four seasons… and now we’ve just found out that we were going for five.

“This is a role that requires a lot of stamina. I think that as an actor I’ve learned how to channel my energy in the right directions. I think the biggest challenge is keeping Carter fresh and keep her interesting—it’s easy to fall into autopilot doing any show, so I make sure that I don’t become complacent. I’m constantly trying to find what makes her tick, in any given scene or episode. We’re learning how to conserve energy. At the end of season one we were all sick as dogs; at the end of season two [we] were so exhausted we could barely speak; at the end of season three it wasn’t so bad and now, at the end of season four, we’re sorta, ‘Okay, we can do it!’ It’s a learning curve.

“This season has been about solidifying who [Carter] is, about solidifying relationships. The first part of the year had a lot about her feelings for Jack, and thankfully we’ve got over that! I think it’s far more compelling when it’s about two co-workers who have an obvious attraction to each other. I think as soon as you answer that questions [about the relationship] or bring it into the foreground, it becomes uninteresting.”

From “Amanda’s Q&A with Fans” (Dec. 5, 2001):

“In that [final] scene in ‘The Other Side,’ the most important objective for me was to convey that sense of ‘oh my God, what have we done?’ I feel very strongly as Sam and as Amanda that we don’t have the right to be judge, jury and executioner to any culture. While we may disagree with people’s politics we are not in the business of deciding what is right for the people of any planet we visit. Now, certainly genocide or the erradication of people simply because of the colour of their skin, is so obviously wrong. We all know that. We, in our own history, are still dealing with the evils of that. But, does SG-1 have the right to knowingly kill a man for this, as his way of life is being destroyed? Could we have not brought him to trial on his planet after the dust had settled? Or heard both sides of the story on the war and made an intelligent decision based on that? Also, what gives us the right to make that kind of decision? Long story short-ish, I wanted Carter to show disappointment in O’Neill and the fact that she questioned his judgement. While I disagreed with their war and why it was being fought, I still struggled with our final judgement of him.”

From “Gate Pride” in SFX (Feb. 2001):

“I disagree with [having a love relationship between O’Neill and Carter] entirely. I think that it’s enough that we know there’s an attraction, a magnetism, a certain chemistry between these two characters; I think that to push the envelope further is a big mistake, a) based on their military rank; b) based on this incredible dynamic of the team; c) I don’t wanna become ‘Jack’s girl’. I think Carter is so much more than that. I also feel that it’s really tired, to have the male and female lead of the show to fall in love. I just think that we have the potential to be so much more intelligent than that.

“When I first read [in ‘Window of Opportunity’ that O’Neill and Carter kiss], I went, ‘Oh, jeez!’, but then they put in a bunch of other stuff that he and Teal’c did that took away from that. Initially it was just that moment, but then they came up with the golf through the Stargate and the pottery and riding the bike through the SGC, so thankfully they took away from that being the only thing O’Neill would do.”

From “Gating Away” from Star Quest Online (2001):

“[The decimation of a sentient race such as the Goa’uld is] sort of a double edge sword, because on the one hand, this is an evil race—they are trying to destroy Earth so we do need to protect ourselves from it… By the same token, the character of Teal’c was one of them and has gone to the other side: he’s an incredibly warm character, loyal, dedicated and honourable. So I have this thing where I think: what if I’m killing another Teal’c? This guy has a wife and family… But you’re in a war situation, and war is war. You do whatever you need to protect yourself, your country or in this case, protect the planet. But there’s part of me that thinks there’s got to be… you know, sort of bad Karma with that, and I would love to show how they, and especially Carter—’cause I play her—deals with that when she puts her head down on her pillow at night. Does she think about that? I think that she would, there would be great feelings of guilt sometimes. You know, you talk to any soldier who’s been through a war and there’s this sort of shell shock: ‘Oh my God, what have I done? My comrade in arms beside me was killed, he has a wife and child and we shot that guy…’ You know there is an interconnection to the human race and we never really deal with that.

“Because it’s war, you’re in a situation; the Goa’ulds are coming over the hill and they’re gonna take over the base; you’ve got to stop them with whatever means possible. That’s the soldier mentality and you have to have that, otherwise what are you doing there? As a human being, there’s a sense of consequence, how do you deal with that consequence? I wish they would write a back story; how do you deal with this, what are the psychological implications? [But we’re] in a genre: it’s a sci-fi show, not a soap opera…”

Christopher Judge

From “Christopher Judge: Profile on Teal’c” Special Feature in Season Two DVD Set (2002):

“Well, a lot of the roles I’ve done have been very narrow in scope in that they are always the disenfranchised cop or the cop who came from a bad neighborhood and was angry about the way things were going in this particular environment that he was in and felt helpless to make a change. That’s not only frustrating as a person, it’s frustrating as an actor.

“This role, on the other hand, is—I can actively make changes in these different worlds that we go to, especially worlds that I have previously been on in another capacity, and I come back to these worlds in a different capacity and can affect the change and a change in my personal relationships with all these indigenous, and sometimes not indigenous, life forms. That’s just so exciting—just the many levels that I can play and what’s also challenging is that my character’s not used to being able to express his emotions and so the challenge for me—to try to make my emotions felt through not saying a lot of words but just letting things play across my face and body, I just think that’s such a challenge as an actor.”

From interview in Cult Times #54 (Mar. 2000):

“Every season I go back after hiatus and plead Teal’c’s case for hair but every year I get rejected. Now the original reason for being bald was that Teal’c was higher up the ladder in the Jaffa hierarchy and shaved his head as a mark of strength and power. Now that he is becoming more comfortable with the humans, I think it’s time he let his hair down.”

From “Walking Tall” in TV Zone (Aug. 2000):

“I just thought it [the soul patch] could be part of Teal’c’s ongoing assimilation process. Of course, then they started coming up with questions like, ‘How do we introduce it? How do we explain it? Why it is blond?’ That was the big one. There’s a quick reference to it in our fourth-season opener ‘Small Victories’ and that’s that. The writers definitely didn’t want to dwell on it!

“Teal’c has taken on a number of human characteristics and he’s definitely learnt how to better express himself emotionally. In an episode this season called ‘Crossroads’ we actually see him involved in a relationship with a woman from his past. He gets to experience a whole range of feelings and it was just so much fun doing that. If we’d done this story back in the first season it would have been completely different and, I think, personally, not as compelling. So I’m pleased with the way it turned out.

“Another change we’ve seen in Teal’ c is that he’s participating more by offering his input into what SG-1 does. I mean, he’s still the big strong guy who helps beat up the bad guys but now he’s suggesting ways of how to do it. Teal’c has become intertwined in these peoples’ lives and with what’s going on around him in the Stargate complex, giving him the impetus to contribute more vocally. I have to tell you, because I didn’t say a lot those first couple of seasons, which I was completely in favour of, my reaction to a situation was more honest. It wasn’t scripted, let’s put it that way. I find now that I’m speaking more I have to try a lot harder to listen, and I don’t always catch as much as I used to. So that in itself makes my performance different.”

From interview in Cult Times #54 (Mar. 2000):

“You know, people are always asking me why Teal’c is so reticent, why he never seems to say much or venture his opinions when it’s obvious to him that the humans are making a huge mistake. My take is that Teal’c feels that to learn something you have to experience it. His superior intelligence and experience tell him that it’s appropriate to keep quiet and let events unfold as they will in order to teach the humans valuable lessons. Obviously, he will do anything to prevent them getting hurt or killed but like a good parent, he sometimes just lets them get on with it. Plus, that O’Neill is way too irreverent for his own good.”

From interview in Cult Times #62 (Nov. 2000)

“I loved when O’Neill and Teal’c play golf [in ‘Window of Opportunity’]—we really are good at that. Our juggling was pretty good too.

“That was one of the considerations for the producers and writers this season—just trying to decide when the time was right to really open the character up to his other side. I mean, Teal’c is from human stock, right? It stands to reason he would revert back at some time or another. I think the producers’ timing was appropriate and now, even in situations that maybe aren’t so good, Teal’c shows that he has a dry sense of humour and gets to act on it, so I’m enjoying it thoroughly. I have to admit that I was getting a little tired of keeping a stony face.”

From “Walking Tall” in TV Zone (Aug. 2000):

“One of the great things about Teal’c is that he’s popular with children. I get a lot of requests for autographed pictures and I’m invited to appear at events designed to raise money to help kids. Both Stargate and my character allow me to become involved in causes that I don’t know if I’d be involved in otherwise. It’s certainly one of the most rewarding things about this job. After all, what’s more important than taking care of our children?”

Solutions

• Stargate SG-1 Main Page in the Solutions Stargate Wiki
• Season Four Highlights
• Season Four (Episode Guides and Transcripts)
• Solutions On-Site Forum
• Other Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) Articles

Season Three of Stargate SG-1: It’s classic and is often cited as the number-one favorite season for many long-time fans.

Join us as we continue with Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) by revisiting Season Three with Brad Wright, Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, and Christopher Judge as they tell us what it was like for them during this critical season in the show’s history…

SG-1 Season Three

DVDs or Hulu (US only), take your pick and sit down and enjoy Season Three with the rest of us. Then, make sure to vote in the poll:

Brad Wright

From “Perfect 10” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“I have to say, season three was difficult for me. We were still trying to continue the ‘Earth Culture of the Week’ thing that we had begun in season one—you know, where this is the lost culture of X and the god of whatever… and it was difficult to maintain that kind of structure. And it was also Jonathan Glassner’s last year. You could sense that he wanted to go home. So there was this kind of shift that took place during the course of that season.

“It’s actually not my favorite season in terms of the shows. Some of them are quite good, but some of them are not so good. There was not a sense, I don’t think, at least, of a unifying theme that went through the whole season. A lot of storylines ended—Jonathan ended the Daniel/Sha’re story [in “Forever in a Day”], and maybe it was a little early to end that. But it didn’t really matter, because we knew we were doing a fourth season. That was exciting.”

From “Gatecon 2000: Producers’ Panel” (Sept. 2000):

“It was a joy to have Dom DeLuise on the set. It was a joy to watch dailies every day where Peter’s going, ‘Uh, no, no, Dad! Uh, just say this line because it is in the script!’ I have never gone into the editing room with more film. Richard Dean Anderson said to me, ‘There’s footage in this thing that I don’t think was… I think Dom did it back at the hotel with Peter, because I don’t remember being there!’ I think when I was finished cutting that one, it was a minute and a half short! So we added another scene. You remember the scene where Samantha is walking, and pretending Urgo is there? With the Doctor and Hammond? That was added afterwards.

“Let me answer the appendicitis question seriously. I got a private phone call at 5:30 in the morning from John Smith, our producer, with the news that Michael [Shanks] had a ruptured appendix, and we were all very worried about him first. And then when we came into the office, the issue was, how do we finish the series? We were in the second to last episode, it was ‘Crystal Skull,’ and he was obviously the lead in that episode. And I came up with this crazy, half-baked alien thing that was happening to him, and Robert came into the office and I pitched him the story, and Robert said, ‘Why don’t we just say he had appendicitis?’ And I think that the scene that Jack and Daniel did [in ‘Nemesis’]… they ad libbed a lot of that.”

Richard Dean Anderson

From Gate Crasher in SFX (Oct. 1999):

“Without giving too much away, it’s safe to say that each member of the SG-1 team and their associates confronts a series of personal issues which allows us to look deeper into our characters and what makes them do the things they do.

“I’ve always tried to shy away from standing on any soap-box or doing any moral plays or anything of that ilk, although Jonathan and Brad might have their own ideas about that and may be working to some kind of future game plan. Certainly I’ve tried to make O’Neill as human and as fallible as the next guy.

“Mike [Greenburg] and I have been friends and partners for a long time. We worked together on my past three movies and on a series and wanted to work together again, so joining forces on this project just made sense.

“Having a relatively good idea of what the overview should look like and being generally comfortable with the editing and fine-tuning, I don’t find there’s much of a problem combining the acting and producing. I like working with actors in any capacity and find I can bridge the gap and be the liaison between what’s going on in one camp and helping out with the other. Plus I have too much creative/nervous energy to be restricted to just one function. On a daily basis, I have to be responsible to production. After all, the show has to be made. But on the other hand I want to make sure the actors are fine with the material they have to work with and enjoy what they are being asked to do.

“Mike and I work basically in an editorial capacity, with Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, our fellow executive producers leading the writers of the show. As scripts come in, we’ll get some notes on there and we’ll go with the best idea. If any difficulties emerge and it all gets quiet then we get together, they listen to our notes and we’ll work it out from there.

“I hate to sound like a living cliché but what we’re doing is not brain surgery. However I do want it to be as good as possible, and I think that requires me to be objective sometimes and make some decisions based on my knowledge of what a budget is all about and what my responsibilities are in terms of the overall project. Most decisions are pretty logical though. It’s not that difficult.”

From “Best of Both Worlds” in Dreamwatch (Apr. 2001):

“We dealt with [O’Neill’s loss of his son] so psychologically we could have some closure, a bit of mending for the character so he could move on. I still have that as a background, and it gives Jack a reference point with kids that he does come into contact with, because of that loss. I support going in that direction with O’Neill because I love working with kids. Sometimes kid actors can have an unfortunate reputation, but we’ve been very lucky in getting talented and level-headed children.”

From “TV Guide Online” at AOL (June 29, 2000):

“There can’t be a more obvious cliffhanger than the finale with the bug on the debris. Martin Wood, who directed the finale, ‘Nemesis,’ did a phenomenal job. You just don’t see that level of production value in a lot of TV sci-fi. You have to make a commitment to making it look good technically, or else it just looks cheesy. I think that’s why Stargate gets set apart from most sci-fi. We’re not dealing with conjecture about where things are going in this world now, but we’re dealing with forces from without. What we don’t have to do is guess how our Earth is going to be. We can use current events and how they would be affected by attacks from another world.

“‘Nemesis’—I had fun, because it was good story, and well produced.

“It became a joke to me [on how many rounds we used in the finale], because first of all, here we are fighting these high-tech Legos… But, the joke to me was that we were using semi-automatic rifles to knock them down. And it was so funny because it was such, pardon the pun, overkill. And with me as somewhat of a pacifist, now playing with some justification a military guy… It was a blast.”

Michael Shanks

From “Loss of Innocence” in TV Zone Special #38 (Aug. 2000):

“When I look at some of the stuff we did in the first season it’s hard to believe that it’s the same group of people, and that includes myself. It really hasn’t been all that long time-wise, yet so much ground has been covered in terms of a TV series. It’s amazing to see how much our characters have grown.

“As for Daniel Jackson, I think I’ve definitely made a break from James Spader’s interpretation of the role in the Stargate feature film. That was the initial niche that my character was put into. Rick was doing such a different rendition of Colonel Jack O’Neill than Kurt Russell did in the movie, and since James Spader’s portrayal of Daniel was successful, it was decided I would stick fairly close to what he did. This way, viewers wouldn’t have to get used to too many changes right from the start.

“Since then I’ve taken the character and made it more my own. I started off playing him with this childlike innocence and then as each season passed the writers and I have delved into darker aspects of his persona. Daniel has become somewhat less, I hate to say half, but I guess somewhat less innocent. However, he’s still very passionate about what he does.

“Some of Daniel’s innocence and naïveté was bound to wear off after a while. We can’t continue to play our roles the same way all the time. I think it’s a common theme in television that viewers become attached to a certain character on a show and it becomes so successful that no one wants to change it. Well, you have to remember Stargate SG-1 isn’t a film, it’s a TV series. As such, our characters experience new things every week that affect their lives and personalities in some way. After all, that’s what happens to people daily in real life, right? So I’m thrilled that Daniel and the others have evolved since day one.”

From “Out of Space” in XPose Special #11 (Apr. 2000):

“This show covers so many different routes, the dramatic stories, the comedic stories… it’s hard for me to say that I got to do everything because just when I thought I’d covered about everything, the writers would come up with something a little bit special. Generally, I think we’re still in the big ‘home run’ sort of stories where we take the ball and run with it, but I’m pretty happy with the way things have gone for Daniel, especially last year [in Season Three] with the lovely mix of drama and fun.

“I would have to say that ‘Legacy’ was the most challenging for me and also the most rewarding from an acting point of view.”

From “Walk Like an Egyptian” in Frontier (1999):

“You have to be prepared to expose yourself. That’s basically the job description. The willingness to go to those places always has to be there. The ability varies, depending on how tired your are, who you’re working with. There are levels of comfort, and the family of people you’re working with. You have to be able to make the scene work, no matter what.”

From “Passion Player” in Sci Fi TV Magazine #9 (Feb. 2000):

“[‘Forever in a Day’] was very difficult, personally and professionally, to go through in terms of establishing the stakes for both the character and the actor. It’s funny because many fans reacted to it in a negative way. Not because it wasn’t our typical fare. It doesn’t have a happy ending. It was very sad, very dark. It’s very lonely. It was a risk on the writer’s (Jonathan Glassner) part and it was done in a way that’s not completely cut and dry. You have to pay attention to almost every frame of that episode to really understand what’s going on. I really like the fact that they didn’t dumb it down for audiences. It bothered people for seemingly the right reasons. They weren’t even evaluating it (in terms) of television production, but more from a story point of view, and that to me is very gratifying.”

From “Out of Space” in XPose Special #11 (Apr. 2000):

“But the episode I enjoyed the most was ‘Urgo’ with Dom DeLuise. It was such a rare opportunity to get to work with someone who has such a prestigious background… someone that I grew up watching on television and who was so quick off the mark and so sharp. We really had to work hard to keep up with him. [He] is a consummate entertainer as well as a truly unique individual. The off-camera stuff was hilarious. Dom had everyone cracking up at his behavior. It was the most fun we’d had in the three years of the show. Fortunately, we have very good editors who eliminated all the scenes where we laughed out loud.”

From “Loss of Innocence” in TV Zone Special #38 (Aug. 2000):

“Daniel. for all intents [and] purposes, has been booted around the block. His parents died, his foster parents, well, we don’t really know what happened to them because they’re never spoken of, his wife is and the Harsesis child is gone. You think, ‘Jeez, the poor guy.’ Something positive had to happen in Daniel’s personal life, hence the discovery of that one last thread of family. Of course. getting him and granddad together wasn’t easy.

“‘Crystal Skull’ actually evolved from a script that [executive producer] Michael Greenburg wrote involving Jack O’Neill’s past. When Rick decided that he didn’t want to go down that road, Michael approached me about it. I had been asking the writers to do a story about the myth of the crystal skull for a while, so I suggested it to Michael. He and I worked together to incorporate that angle into his script, which he changed to focus on Daniel Jackson. I thought it worked out nicely and I had fun playing out the emotional aspects of the story.”

From “Passion Player” in Sci Fi TV Magazine #9 (Feb. 2000):

“There has been a maturing process going on.

“[Daniel] has certainly been put through the absolute wringer—with his parents dying and his foster parents being a mystery. Then there’s a storyline at the season’s end about his grandfather not really wanting him and his wife dying in season three. Well, it is difficult for me, given all that, as well as all the pure experience he has accumulated, to continue to play him with rosy colored eyes. There had to be a bit of an edge developing.

“He’s a bit more humorously sarcastic. Whether that can be attributing to my working with Richard Dean Anderson or Daniel working with Jack O’Neill, who knows? There’s also more realism and the understanding that not everything is going to work out the way it might.”

Amanda Tapping

From “What’s That Noise?” in XPose (Apr. 2000):

“I think any show needs time to find its feet and I think with us, probably our first six or seven episodes were not that great because we were still finding our feet as the characters, the writers were still trying to figure out what the best format to use was and [were] figuring out the relationships between the team members. So when you compare it to halfway through season two or season three, in a way it’s almost a totally different show. I think probably the critics were right in a sense, but ultimately I think our production values throughout have been outstanding; the special effects have been amazing.

“The relationships are stronger, the characters themselves are stronger. Because of the [series] bible, certain integral things have come up in the arc, and we now have so much more to draw from. The interconnectedness of it all, it takes a while to build that up. Because we have so many dangling threads, we have a wealth of stuff to draw on.

“You know what’s really amazing is even before the pilot, at the auditions, Michael [Shanks], Christopher Judge and myself had no idea who each other were, or who was going to end up getting the parts, but we sort of hung out together and had a really good time. All through the first season was really amazing, then in the middle of the second season we started sibling rivalries and I thought it was interesting because it was just like a family. Now we’ve just finished the third season and we’re back where we started, just really enjoying each other’s company. And even when things were sort of rocky, we laughed every single day.

“I think the first season was pretty much exploratory and as the characters have grown and as the relationships have grown, the easiness of the relationships between the characters is more apparent and out of that the humor is bred, and the ability to be silly with each other, just like you would with your co-workers. Our show is kind of irreverent at times, but that’s, I think, because we’re human beings. We’re not like some shows, where it’s a very distinct mission. We don’t know what we’re gonna come up against every time; we do tend to make a lot of mistakes when we go to these other planets. SG-1 has not always been the most diplomatic unit.”

From “Officer at Ease” in Sci Fi TV (Oct. 1999):

“[For the writers] to create a believable, intelligent woman who knows so much about astrophysics is amazing. But also they’ve allowed me some really nice emotional beats. I think probably the biggest challenge is actually being on a series, trying to keep this character fresh and interesting every day.

“They don’t allow characters to stagnate. They really want to keep drawing new stuff out of them. And they’re allowing our voices to be heard as actors, in terms of where we think they would go and what we think they would do.

“We’re confronted with the alternate reality Carter. What would have happened if she hadn’t gone into the military? Who would she have fallen in love with? It was a really interesting thing to flesh out, but it also made Sam aware of the possibilities as well. Everything that they give me opens her up more.

“I love that they’ve written this Jacob character, and I love playing it with [actor] Carmen Argenziano. That has only helped her open up, made her warmer.”

From “What’s That Noise?” in XPose (Apr. 2000):

“Y’know, O’Neill’s got a wife and a son who passed away, and Teal’c’s got a wife and son on another planet, and for years Daniel for years has been pining away for Sha’re. Carter just has her dad, and has no sort of love interest in her life, has never been married, doesn’t have children. So I’ve always thought I was the one unconnected to anything. I’ve mentioned that, and I think that’s why the writers introduced the character of my father. As an actor you kind of want to be able to do everything, and I have had enough action episodes and good fight sequences and good running through the woods with my gun stuff. It’s nice once in a while to have a really emotional story, just as an actor, to be able to spread yourself that way.

“Richard is actually quite adamant about not doing cliffhangers… so we did one anyway! Michael had an emergency appendectomy the day before we were to start shooting the final episode. And so we actually had to rewrite it. They wrote it into the script, and then we had to rewrite the rest of the episode. Basically, all they did to rewrite it was to give me Michael’s lines, so I sent him a card in the hospital saying [in a threatening voice], ‘Thanks a lot! Get better.’ … We were all bugging the executive producers and writers, saying ‘What’s gonna happen, what’s going on?’ They won’t tell us a thing. I think [it’s] because they realize that ultimately anyone could get the information out of us if they tried really hard: ‘since you asked so nicely, okay!'”

Christopher Judge

From “Christopher Judge: Profile on Teal’c” Special Feature in Season Two DVD Set (2002):

“My character is—he’s all those heroes throughout history that have bucked the system and that have wanted or have desires of making a change and have actively pursued it. When I read the pilot, I was so excited to play this part because Teal’c is a rebel in a society that doesn’t give room for rebels—it’s very regimented—you follow the orders of these Goa’ulds, and for him to take that step and veer off from the status quo, I just thought that that opened a world of possibilities.

“This brand [the forehead tattoo] is actually worn by the race that I am, known as the Jaffa, which signifies the imperial guard—the Imperial Serpent Guard—and we are in service to the Goa’uld—the gods, for a lack of a better term—and the gold in it symbolizes that I am the First Prime, which is the leader of all the Serpent Guards. And these are actually branded on us when we are young and as we go through the different ranks, they are different colors.

“When I defect, I mean I can discard all of my armaments—all the apparel that I’ve taken—but once I’ve decided to leave the Serpent Guard, this is the one aspect of that that I am left with and that I will carry for the rest of my life, even though I have broken away from the Serpent Guard.

“My character is a 97-year-old Jaffa, and I carry, once again, I carry the larval form of the gods and through my 97 years, I have traveled in between many worlds that we have placed these Stargates on. And I have seen many different life forms, different species of life. I interject my knowledge of life that I know about, along with the scientific knowledge of Carter and the historical knowledge of Daniel Jackson and just the kind of tongue-in-cheek knowledge of O’Neill, and that kind of makes up the whole complete team.

“Well, a lot of the times it can be a burden, because I can see where the human race is straying off the course and I can interject little tidbits here and there.

“I think that when you use situations on a parallel world that mirror situations on Earth, then maybe that’ll make people stop and think about the wars we fight and what they’re for and the way we treat people and what is the result of how we interact with people and the thoughts that we think of other races or other cultures or other religions.

“This show has such a great humor in it. Not only the humor that is interspersed just between the differences of our characters, but just seeing just some of the rituals and customs of other worlds that we go to that we think are strange or what have you. And just the rituals that we have that they think are strange and just the out-and-out hilarity in some of the situations and just the way we interact with each other.”

From “FACTS Q&A” (Oct. 17, 2009):

“[The most challenging scenes to do were] when Don DeLuise was there. ‘Cause Dom DeLuise made it his mission to make me laugh. And no matter who he was talking to, he would always direct whatever he was saying at me. And make a funny face, or, I was trying to say my lines, he would literally step off camera [and make funny faces] … it was just his mission. And that’s why I’m in that episode so little, is because I couldn’t keep a straight face. So I’m there very little. That was the hardest one.”

Solutions

• Stargate SG-1 Main Page in the Solutions Stargate Wiki
• Season Three Highlights
• Season Three (Episode Guides and Transcripts)
• Solutions On-Site Forum
• Other Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) Articles

Continuing in our Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) trip down memory lane, we arrive at Season Two. The producers and cast already knew that they had Season Two when they got the green light for Season One. As Brad Wright said, that was a rare thing. And then, Showtime gave them two more seasons after that!

SG-1 Season Two

Get out those DVDs or visit Hulu (US readers) to rewatch Season Two and then make your picks in this poll:

Brad Wright

From “Perfect 10” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Robert Cooper proved himself on season one and I got my hooks into him as deeply as possible! He’s one of those guys who puts up his hand and says, ‘Give me as much as you can.’ Some producers come in and it’s just a job. They’re not thinking of it as something they’re going to invest in for a number of years. It’s just their job for a year and they move on. Robert loved the idea, loved the franchise, [and] saw the potential. It was me, Rob and Jon who were at the center of that season, and again it was very difficult because we were still doing The Outer Limits. But there were very good episodes—Robert pitched a show called ‘In the Line of Duty.’ It was actually based on a notion that I had about what would happen if a good friend of O’Neill’s became a Goa’uld and Jack had to deal with that? Then Robert got an idea that was better, and it was what if it was Carter? This was after he had already written the first draft, and the remarkable and admirable thing about that was that he knew he was going to have to throw away his first script. But he also knew that the idea that had just come out of his mouth was a much better idea than the script he had written. So he did it again and ‘In the Line of Duty’ is one of the strongest episodes of season two.

“We introduced lots of creatures and beings that just don’t play. The reason the Tok’ra were so effective was that they were essentially a fifth column inside the Goa’uld, and what that gave us was an ally—someone that would share with us, to a certain degree, their power. You never know when a race you introduce is going to take off and become part of the canon for years to come. …

“I think my favorite season two stories are ‘Secrets’ and ‘Serpent’s Song.’ They’re just so full of heart—there is lots of character bonding. But I also quite enjoyed ‘1969’, because it was the first time that we actually succeeded in setting out for the entire episode to be funny instead of just instilling humor throughout a dramatic episode.”

Richard Dean Anderson

From “TV Gen Chat” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“We are in a position now where we have been extended to 88 episodes for Showtime. And of course, with the syndication package, who knows how long that will go on? Now that we have the liberty and freedom to delve into one of the earthbound elements of our earthbound character’s past, we can go home with him. What was established in the movie was the fact that Jack O’Neill had lost his son, so we had dealt with the emotional side of that, and how O’Neill confronted his own sense in a kind of science fiction manner. So obviously the door is open to us to do that for all our characters. And to address things like what happens to O’Neill when he goes home at night, when he disappears from Cheyenne Mountain, who is he with and where does he go. Those kinds of stories we’ll have the ability to explore from this point forward, which in my opinion will be a lot of fun, because of all of the special effects involved.

“What happened when Mike [Greenburg] and I signed on to be part of the project, we had a couple of important meetings with the brass at MGM. We were essentially being asked to be a part of the project. I had done my research, having seen the movie a couple of times, and realized in order to portray the character of Jack O’Neill, there was no way I was going to be able to replicate what Kurt Russell had done. First of all, my hair would not do that, he actually has a jaw, and the character as portrayed by him really didn’t have much of a sense of humor. So for me to be entering into a project that had a future of four years or so, I had to make sure that MGM was amenable to my bringing my sense of humor to the role because life is just too short to be serious for that long. And so, a lot of, some of, the written dialogue gets a little manipulated. I know the voice of the character better than anyone, and bless Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, Mike, and the other writers, for allowing me the freedom to bring some humor and a slant on the character that I need. Because it’s not easy to be around me sometimes when the process is taking place, basically, because I tend to try and find things as we are rehearsing.”

From “Meet the Universal Good Guy” in the Vancouver Sun (Oct. 17, 1998):

“I made it a lot easier for myself by bringing my quirky slant on life to the role. Life’s too short not to have a sense of humour about what you do for a living. With me, it manifests itself in a sarcastic sense of humour, which is a little inordinate for a military man. … You don’t see sarcasm a lot in the military.”

From “Stargate Trooper” in Sci-Fi TV (Oct. 1999):

“That show [Season One’s “Within the Serpent’s Grasp” and Season Two’s “The Serpent’s Lair”] incorporated all the elements of what Stargate is supposed to be about. We used the Stargate. We’re out in space. We have the bad guys all around us. You had the cliffhanger aspect that kept you wondering whether or not we would blow up Earth. I was very pleased with it.

“I had a ball [with the Asgard in “The Fifth Race”]. Even though my conversations with the aliens weren’t quite as deep as I would have liked, just the idea of talking to superior beings, the overseers of Thor’s people, was great. These people were telling O’Neill that human beings have the potential to be the Fifth Race, to survive and contribute to the universe. That was fun to do.”

Michael Shanks

From “Through The Looking Glass” in TV Zone #109 (Dec. 1998)

“In the movie Jackson is a bit of a loner and he establishes this dichotomy from the whole military way of doing things. In the show I think he’s become more of a team player. He picks and choose his battles now and is learning to work with a group of individuals that sometimes do things the way he does and sometimes don’t. So he’s become less of a loner and part of a group.

“There’s an episode called ‘Need’ that we did at the start of this season which I really enjoyed because it allowed me to take an emotional journey when Daniel is faced with an addiction. It was something totally opposite to what I’m usually asked to do so I appreciate that story for the stretch and the push it gave me as an actor.

“In another episode [“Holiday”] we did fairly recently I spent over six hours being transformed by all this prosthetic makeup into a completely new character, so I like that for the acting challenge as well.”

From “Removing the Chains of Gravity” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“There are other episodes, like ‘Secrets,’ where my girlfriend at the time was pregnant with our daughter, who played Sha’re in the show.”

From “Walk Like an Egyptian” in Frontier (1999):

“I think the stand-out element is the characters. The chemistry between Daniel, Jack O’Neill, Sam Carter and Teal’c. There is an interesting dichotomy between them, an interesting balance. Each character is different, unique. It’s a case of opposites attracting. Daniel’s an innocent, naive optimist whose curiosity often kills the cat and whose energy and excitement are contagious. He’s a little boy who’s opened the biggest Christmas present you could imagine, constantly excited and enthused.

“At the moment, I don’t know where they’re going to take him. I’m curious about what direction the character and the show are going to go in. I have no idea what the writers have in mind. We’re so busy here, working on the show we’ve just filmed, on the one we’re filming now, on the next one, there’s no time to think about it. It’s completely out of our control. I have a much larger dark side than Daniel. It would be fun to explore that in him a little, but not too much. And not regularly. Just a little. What I really like is Daniel’s genuine quality, his caring for people. His honesty and compassion. If they changed that about him then I wouldn’t want to play him any more.”

Amanda Tapping

From “Sense and Sensibility” in TV Zone (Jan. 1999):

“In the second season I enjoyed doing ‘In the Line of Duty.’ Something quite extraordinary happens to my character and she’s possessed by a Goa’uld, so we see how Sam deals with that.”

From “The Genius Club” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Episodes like ‘Secrets’ when I first meet Carmen [Argenziano] who played my dad … I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment I first met him, ever. There was just an amazing chemistry between us, I liked him instantly and he’s still a good friend.

“‘1969’ was such a road trip for us all and we had such a good time shooting it.”

From “Sense and Sensibility” in TV Zone (Jan. 1999):

“Sam is very strong, smart and singular character in that she’s very focused on what she does. She’s highly dedicated to her job and to the team, so, consequently, she has no life beyond Stargate, which is not dissimilar to me at times. I think the beauty of what has happened with the character over the last two seasons is that the writers have really opened her up and made her warmer and more accessible. I told them that it was important to me that she have a sense of humour and they’ve started to develop that side of her personality more.

“I also feel that my character has changed simply by virtue of the fact that the relationships among the show’s four major characters have grown. Because of this our [Stargate]team has become more cohesive and I think Sam’s a better person for it. I’m constantly striving to keep her interesting not only to the audience but to myself as well.

“I didn’t like my character that much in the first episode. I didn’t dislike her but I thought that her feminist diatribe was a little tiresome and I didn’t want her to be angry all the time. All I could see was this, ‘I’m out to prove myself,’ woman. I wanted her to be a well-rounded individual who is accessible and warm and someone who, especially young girls, could look up to and think, ‘Yes, I can relate to this person.’ Sam has become just that but she still has a ways to go. I think she needs to have a bit more of a personal life and maybe that will come in time, but right now she’s growing and becoming more fun.

“I got quite a bit of mail from women and little boys and the letters from women are pretty amazing because they tell me they’re thrilled to have such a strong female character like Sam on television and I think it’s terrific. I also receive many letters from Europe and British Isles and now I’m starting to hear more from men, which is neat. The fan reaction has been wonderful and for the most part it’s been very much about the pivotal role my character plays in the show and that makes me feel good about what I’m doing.”

Christopher Judge

From “IGN Interviews Christopher Judge” (July 11, 2006):

“[O]riginally, I’m not sure how heavily Teal’c was supposed to be involved from the beginning, but fortunately he was a very popular character just right out of the gate, and I think what has kept him around is his continued evolution and you kind of have to change from year to year, whereas most of the other characters, you know, they come from Earth, so their perspectives will always be an Earth perspective, and I play the only character who does have a perspective that is outside the Earth-based perspective.

“Well, I just don’t know how heavy a role he was originally intended to play. I really don’t know. I know that in the pilot I wasn’t as heavily written in, then I joined the team, so I didn’t know if it was originally intended that he would be a weekly member or if he was a fellow who would come and go, but fortunately for me he is someone who has stayed. (laughs)”

From “Judge not silent about ‘Stargate SG-1’” (Aug. 20, 2006):

“You’re always in a good position when you’re the alien on the sci-fi show. You’re going to have fans strictly from that.

“I think it’s because everyone’s pondering, ‘Is there life out there?’ Well, you are the incarnation of what people wonder about. So how you behave, how you move, everything is something people have debated forever. I think there is a natural attraction to the alien character because you are the visual personification of what they are still wondering about.”

From “TV Gen Chat” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“Actually, this year, I’m trying to… It’s not that Teal’c doesn’t have a sense of humor, it’s that he is very straightforward of purpose. And I think until his super objective of freeing his people and being reunited with his family is achieved, I don’t really think he finds all that much humorous. I don’t think that Teal’c is one to dabble in quips and smart-alecky sayings, because he has so much to achieve, which is the freeing of his world. But this season, as he is achieving his goals, I think you will see a bit of sense of humor appear. I don’t know, though, if you will ever see Teal’c guffaw!”

Solutions

• Stargate SG-1 Main Page in the Solutions Stargate Wiki
• Season Two Highlights
• Season Two (Episode Guides and Transcripts)
• Solutions On-Site Forum
• Other Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years Articles

[Many thanks to Joanna of Unofficially and Unequivocally Christopher Judge for help in finding quotes for Christopher Judge’s section of this article.]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We’ve got thirteen Fridays until Stargate Universe returns to Syfy on April 2, 2010, with episode 11, “Space”. Amazingly enough, this number also corresponds to thirteen years of Stargate since Stargate SG-1 made its debut in 1997!

So, to keep us a little occupied until new episodes grace our screens, let’s take a trip down memory lane and celebrate the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1, five seasons of Stargate Atlantis (three of those seasons ran concurrently with SG-1), and the first year of Stargate Universe.

SG-1 Season One

Sure, we could all rewatch the episodes—there’s more than enough time in a week to see the whole of the first season, which is available to our US readers on Hulu, by the way—but let’s take a look at the years through interviews and images. But just so we don’t leave the actual episodes out of the discussion, here’s the poll:

As always, hearing from you is greatly appreciated. We’re, after all, a fan site that’s built by fans for the fans! 🙂

Brad Wright

From “Perfect 10” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Jonathan [Glassner] and I approached MGM [separately], hoping to turn Stargate the film into a television series. We both had our own ideas about how to do that. When MGM made us partners, I thought, ‘Okay—I love working with Jon, it’ll be fun.’ But the problem was, MGM insisted we also executive produce The Outer Limits. So here we were, showrunners of our own series but employees on The Outer Limits. Our time was not our own. We had to steal and beg and borrow time to work on it together. We were in Los Angeles, working all day long with the other writers for season three of The Outer Limits. Everybody would go home and then Jon and I would continue working on Stargate SG-1.

“In the middle of the the pitch [for SG-1 to studio and television executives]—I get kind of excited when I pitch a story and a series idea—I’m animated and I’m telling the story and I’m talking about the structure… I remember saying the words, ‘Imagine teams like the astronauts of NASA going out for the first time through this ‘gate…’ and the fire alarm goes off! The president of Showtime was very annoyed, and turns to his assistant and says, ‘How much is the fine if we don’t leave?’ But his assistant insisted that we leave. So instead of standing there finishing my pitch, I’m standing in an underground parking lot with Jonathan, the president of Showtime, the president of MGM, and Pancho Mansfield, who is now the head of Spike TV—these were a big powerful people to me. I’m standing beside them, confused, hoping this will be over soon, and Pancho leans over and says, ‘Don’t worry. I think he’s already bought it.’ So the good news was that I went back to the second half of the pitch feeling much better about how it was going. At the end of that we knew we were doing 40 episodes of television, which is something that [not] very many television producers can ever say has happened in their life. It was wonderful.

“In terms of the storytelling, to be brutally honest, I thought we started poorly. I know a lot of people love the pilot and the beginning, but I honestly don’t think we found our feet until ‘Torment of Tantalus,’ and got into a nice run of episodes where we were actually writing for the team. Jonathan and I were able to focus more on Stargate SG-1 itself than The Outer Limits at that point. So I’d say that the second half of season one is quite good, but I think we started rather weakly. I’m not crazy about ‘Emancipation,’ ‘First Commandment’ or ‘Broca Divide’—I think they are weak episodes.

“When you’re not happy with the way something is going, you work your butt off to fix it. You can’t throw up your hands! We had MGM’s support, and I had Richard Dean Anderson’s support, eventually. I started getting comfortable, the show started to really improve. Shows like ‘Solitudes’ and ‘There But For The Grace of God’ are good stories. I think that’s where I started saying, ‘That’s Stargate SG-1.’ As soon as I identified what we all knew it should be, we started writing more of it.”

Richard Dean Anderson

From the Foreword of Stargate SG-1: The Ultimate Visual Guide (2006):

“When I was but a wee lad, contemplating a continued life of laziness and inactivity, I lit upon an old friend in the name of John Symes, who, by life’s design, was running the castle at MGM—he in turn introduced me to a couple of fellas, one of whom became a good friend in Brad Wright. I was presented with the pilot script for Stargate SG-1 and was asked to sign on for a two-year stint as Kurt Russell’s stand-in. With the promise of potentially rapid advancement in the company, and, times being what they were, I said no. Then I was told by all my new friends to actually read the script. This was a new concept for me, one normally reserved for kids these days who seem to be perpetually fondling the tendrils of modernity. But heck, I really wasn’t in the mood to cash it all in (it takes real energy to quit) and, times being what they were, I read. And thus the seed was sown.

“From the beginning there was always more to the concept than met the third eye. Once the series found its legs, and subsequently its creative rhythm, it became painfully obvious that we were to be pleasantly mired in the oddly flavored webs of longevity. Out of the gate I recall suspecting enormous potential for the show. Story lines examined foreign life forms, life styles, and forms of life; with particular attention paid to the philosophical, political and spiritual underpinnings of any number of cultures, foreign and domestic. Our heroes made friends, our heroes made enemies. They traveled a lot, garnering enough frequent flyer miles to skin a cat and back again. The ultimate goal then is to assist our viewers in recognizing the great and grand possibilities of a sweeping acceptance of ALL races…throughout the universe and the whole, wide world.”

From “A Multidimensional Actor Likes ‘Stargate’ Challenge” (Sept. 19, 1998):

“I liked the franchise; all the elements kind of fell into a good place. I said, why not give it a shot?

“You can’t fool an audience with smoke and mirrors. You can throw up all kinds of special effects and blow things up every few minutes, but the audience sees through that. I know I do. I get bored. If it’s a good story, you can paint. You’ve got the canvas—you just dab in the explosions here and there.”

From “TV Gen Chat with Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Greenburg” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“I am a little torn on this one, because my favorite one to do as an actor was ‘Brief Candle,’ when I got to age to 100 years old, and went through all the stages of makeup, etc. The episode itself was never fully realized in my opinion, because we had mistimed it, and basically it got edited down to the point where a lot of that process was not seen.” [According to Michael Greenburg in the same interview, “We had to cut out 16 minutes, which is a quarter of a 42-minute show.”]

“‘Cold Lazarus’ was kind of fun to do as an actor because there was a duality of role that I was able to play, and it also had an emotional story line to it in the discovery and confrontation with O’Neill’s lost son that was fun to play. It also had a motion control special effect that allowed me to talk to myself. We’ve done that a couple of times actually. We’ve also done a split screen, I forget the title of the episode, where I got to play two different O’Neills [‘Tin Man’]. That was fun to do.”

Michael Shanks

From “Removing the Chains of Gravity” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“I had just finished my second year at Stratford, in Ontario, and I was couch-surfing at various friends’ houses and my girlfriend’s place in Toronto, when this casting came up. I thought, ‘This is a great role, they’ll never give it to me.’ I watched the movie again, because I’d seen it originally when it came out, and then I auditioned. I thought that it was one of those things that would go a little while and give me some nice experience or whatever…

“One of my favorites is ‘The Torment of Tantalus.’ It’s been said by different people, but I really felt that when I was doing it, it was a neat show and a good episode. I watched it in its finished format and I said, ‘We’re singing here, this is where we really sit well.’ Our show is about mysteries unraveling and contemporary interaction intermingled with this enigmatic exterior of a world that we’re really exploring. It’s not about repeating some formula, or the Neanderthal of the week, or the big fight. It’s all about intellectual understanding of the nature of science fiction, which is about the ‘what ifs?’ We’re really about to probe into the nature of human existence, through these ‘what ifs?’ even if it’s completely projected and completely our own idea, people get really enraptured by that.

“The show is based on mythologies, mythologies that are unexplained, and we’re able to project our own comprehension of what those might be. That was the fascinating part about the movie, about the nature of Ancient Egypt, that maybe these pyramids were ancient lightning pedestals. It’s a pretty simple concept but then you take that and develop it because there are so many mythologies on this planet that we can take and just say, ‘Hey, what if it was this?'”

From “Guardian at the Gate” in Starlog #245 (Dec. 1997):

“Daniel is a dreamer, an idealist. He has a boyish curiosity and a love of humanity and life. He’s driven to search out the best in people, and he has a very romantic viewpoint when it comes to history, life, love and people. He’s a consummate optimist. He’s always looking for answers—for what made us who we are today, what we’ve learned, what we can learn from others around us. At the same time looking for a home he can call his own, a place where he can hang his hat.

“He’s surrounded by military people, so he looks like a pacifist. But I see it differently: In a given situation, he tries to understand people. Instead of just hitting them over the head with a hammer, he tries to figure out what makes them tick. He doesn’t take the confrontational approach right away. He’s the one who, when faced with a conflict, looks to find a mutual resolve as opposed to finding a way to simply conquer a given situation. He tries to work [cooperatively], with an eye toward mutual understanding.”

From “Through the Looking Glass” in TV Zone #109 (Dec. 1998):

“The relationship between O’Neill and Jackson was pretty much outlined in the movie. There still is and always will be, I think, that strong polar opposite relationship that existed from the beginning. They’re just two very different people, but because of these differences and their dependence on each other for things the other is incapable of doing there’s also a trust and a respect as well as friendship that’s developing.”

Amanda Tapping

From “The Genius Club” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Long story short, I had to wait and wait because I guess that everybody wanted me except for one executive. I was cast, finally, and I had two weeks to pack my bags and move to Vancouver and start filming, it was pretty crazy. And then, as the story goes, this particular executive phones shortly after the first week, I guess, and had seen all the dailies and said, ‘I have never been wrong in my career before, but I’m wrong now. You guys made a great choice.’

“Season one sticks out in my mind very vividly as so exciting. It was a season of discovery and enjoying each other and new friendships and moving to a new city. Everything was new. Season one was pretty magical and the shooting of the pilot episode was amazing.

“…but for me, ‘Singularlity’ was the first time that my character showed any emotional depth and I will always remember playing those scenes. Going on to the glacier and shooting up in Pemberton on this crazy glacier, those kind of moments are memorable. […] There are episodes I think were really great like ‘The Torment of Tantalus,’ which wasn’t a huge episode for my character, but it was an amazing episode.”

From “No Nookie on Stargate SG-1” (Dec. 2, 1997):

“When we first started the series, there was talk of starting up something between Jack and Sam, or Sam and Daniel, and we all [nixed] that. Richard and I right away said, ‘Never.’ A, it could never happen because he’s her superior officer, and B, we don’t want it to kill the show. I think the beauty of the relationship between the four of us on the team is this great friendship that we have, and this wonderful respect and admiration for each other. Adding anything into that mix would be silly, because I think right now it works as a team of really good friends.”

From “Doctoring the Gate” in Frontier (1998):

“[Sam Carter is] incredibly smart, determined, very loyal, and warm. She’s warming up. I wouldn’t have said that at the beginning. But I think her best trait is that she’s incredibly loyal. Very singular and very determined. I did research about the military, and the obvious research on astrophysics, which I didn’t delve too deeply into because I had this set piece to learn. I watched Stargate the film, and then I tried to find a warmth that wasn’t written. I tried to find an accessibility that wasn’t in the lines. I did the scene from the pilot where she first meets Jack O’Neill, and a scene with Daniel Jackson where we discover all the different stargate addresses. They were very straightforward scenes, so I had to find—especially in that first scene with O’Neill—the warmth, and that for me was the challenge in the audition. To go in and hopefully give them something completely different from what was written. What I tried to do was add a certain warmth and sense of humour to her and give her a different dimension. When I got the script I thought you could play this one way, this very singular military, almost bitchy determined woman, but she had to have some more layers than that. And once I got the part, the challenge for me has been finding those layers then talking to the writers about discovering some different layers of this character so that she is a proper representation. With an all male writing team, it can be a challenge.”

Christopher Judge

From “TV Gen Chat” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“As I understand it, they had pretty much seen all the actors in LA and New York and Canada, and I kind of heard about the audition through a friend, called my agent, and told him to get me in. So I actually came in on one of the last days of casting. I read, they put me on tape, and two weeks later I went in for my screen test, and pretty much found out at the screen test that I had got the part. It was obvious to me, because everyone else that had come in to screen test, they sent home. So I had a pretty good inclination that I was going to get the part.

“Honesty. I think that’s what I admire most. With him there is no gray area. With him, it is either it is or it isn’t. He has such an advantage over some of the other characters, because everything to him is either right or wrong, and there is no in between. So every question that he takes is clearly defined by those parameters.

“I think that’s one of the nice things that the writers have allowed me to do, is to bring what they refer to as ‘Teal’c-isms’ to any situation that might occur. Because they do give me the credit of having fleshed out Teal’c more than they have. So they give me a pretty wide berth when it comes to interpreting my lines. And also subtextually, they are always open to what Teal’c might be thinking underneath what he says, even if it’s exactly what they had in mind. So I’m very fortunate in that regard. I just hope that we are living up to what our viewers think the show should be, and could be. I hope that we continue to expand and grow, and flesh out everyone’s characters and personal developments, because this show has the unique opportunity of touching on the “what if”, but still being launched from reality, and I certainly hope we live up to that.”

From “Living Among the Gods” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Well, he started as a guy who was monosyllabic He was basically a child—here was a character whose first moments of free thought and free expression were episode one. Before that he didn’t have the ability to think for himself. He followed orders; he was a soldier and a slave on top of it. So you really saw his genesis as a free-thinking, free-willed person. As humans you start to develop as children, but for Teal’c [it started] when he was—how old? I think 97 [laughs].”

From interview at Sci Fi Weekly, excerpted at Christopher Judge Online (Aug. 20, 2007):

“When we started, [the producers] didn’t know what Teal’c was. In our screen tests, there were three Daniel Jacksons, three Sam Carters, three Gen. Hammonds, and there were 10 Teal’cs there. And they were all colors. They were not really sure what they wanted this character to be, so they allowed me a great deal of influence in the original shaping of the character. And it has continued through the arc of the show, from the way he talks and the pronunciation of ‘Ja-ffah’ as opposed to ‘Jaffa,’ and ‘Go-a-oould’ as opposed to ‘Goa’uld,’ and things like that. I mean, that was all stuff that when we originally did—and I would save certain words, you could see people go like that, and it actually sounds kind of cooler. It was nice to be involved that much in the building of the character, and [my involvement] continues to this day.

“A lot of science fiction has caught up with us, but in 1997, when we started, there was that new millennium looming over us and there was a lot of wonder, a lot of excitement; and, I think, there was a resurgence of science fiction at that point. We came along at a time where, not to be disparaging, but let’s face it: the Star Trek franchise was dying out, X-Files had peaked and was on its way down, and we happened to come along where there was a gap in programming. There was the right formula, there was a movie that had been successful and that could be expanded on, and you have MacGyver and then three other mooks. And then you have a guy like [longtime writer and executive producer] Brad Wright, who already had success with The Outer Limits [running things], and all the pieces fit; the timing was right and it just all worked. And we were lucky enough to grab a fan base.”

Solutions

• Stargate SG-1 Main Page in the Solutions Stargate Wiki
• Children of the Gods Highlights
• Season One Highlights
• Season One (Episode Guides and Transcripts)
• Solutions On-Site Forum
• Other Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) Articles