In response to fan concerns about his absence from recent SciFi Channel promos for Stargate: SG-1, Michael Shanks has confirmed through his publicist that he will be in Season 9, and that he was simply unable to participate in filming for the promos. Read the story here:
Category: News
Hathor takes over Basildon
Suanne Braun, who played Hathor, will be at the Basildon Sci-fi, Movie, Trading Card and Collectors Fair in Basildon, England on Sunday 30th January. Suanne has recently been filming a new tv show called “Star Hyke” with Claudia Christian.
If you would like to go along and meet Suanne, you can find the details here.
Claudia Black talks Stargate with the BBC
Claudia Black recently gave an interview to BBC Online for its Farscape website. In the interview, she was asked several questions about her experiences filming Stargate and her character, the feisty, manipulative alien Vala.
BBC:What was it like playing Vala on Stargate?
CB: I found it interesting. I only did my scenes with Michael Shanks, I didn’t really meet any of the other actors, but I found that he was, professionally, very similar to Ben.
They were very open-minded on the set about the banter between me and Michael and what we could improvise if required, but it was a very well-written episode.
BBC:And there’s a possibility you might reprise the character?
CB: It was funny because the crew said to me at the time, “Your character doesn’t die in this episode, so you might come back,” and they’re very consistent in Stargate, they do bring a lot of guest characters back.
So there’s definitely the scope for Vala, and I’ll be interested to see what they come up with. And I’ll be very interested to see Ben and Michael Shanks working together.
BBC:If both you and Ben end up working on Stargate, there’ll be a campaign to have you acting opposite each other within moments.
CB: Oh god! That’s a really frightening prospect.
Won’t 50 per cent of the shippers want the dynamic to be exactly what they know and love from Farscape? I don’t know, maybe 100% will be hoping it’s the same dymanic, and I don’t know how I feel about that. What an interesting propect!
I would work with Ben in an absolute heartbeat. What I would like to do is test my range and his range, which I know goes way beyond the scope of what we were doing. Farscape gave us a lot of scope and a lot of opportunity to try many different things – the blind episode, the crazy episode. But I’d love to test our respective ranges.
For me, as an actor, I really want to get into a realm where I’m taking huge risks, and I know that I can do that with no one more so than with Ben, so if the opportunity arose for me to go back, work on Stargate, and work closely with Ben, I’d really want to mix it up a bit and have a play.
BBC: Do you think science fiction is challenging for actors?
CB: I still think sci fi actors are underestimated by audiences who may not know what’s requried of them. They work even faster on Stargate than we did on Farscape, but Stargate often get their scripts on time. [giggles] There’s a reason why Patrick Stewart was hired to do the job that he did, even though he came from a Shakespearian background. You have to understand how to play the stakes for heightened drama, and you learn that or die in theatre. While it’s a little bit safer on television or on a film set to call cut and go again, you don’t have the time, so a disciplined actor is really going to save the producer time and money if they can be a one-take wonder.
So it takes someone with high intelligence and dedication and a lot of discipline.
Read the full interview with Claudia Black at the BBC Online website
TV Guide: Farscape vet jumps to Stargate
From America’s national institution and biggest-selling magazine, TV Guide
Farscape vet jumps into Stargate
By Ileane Rudolph
It’s a sci-fi scenario straight out of internet fan fiction: studly Farscape pilot John Crichton gets sucked into a wormhole and wakes up on Stargate SG-1. Well, it’s real — or at least it’s kind of real.
Ben Browder, who played the marooned astronaut on Sci Fi Channel’s late, lamented Farscape (and last fall’s miniseries The Peacekeeper Wars), has been recruited to join the intergalactic soldiers of the network’s Stargate. His character — all producers would reveal is that his initials are M.M. — will be introduced when the series begins its ninth season this summer.
While this news will have Farscape fans buzzing, hardcore Stargazers might be disappointed to learn that Richard Dean Anderson, who plays Stargate Command chief Jack O’Neill, will no longer be a full-time cast member. “My decision to leave the show is purely a personal one, based first and foremost on my desire to spend as much time as possible with my 6-year-old daughter in Los Angeles,” Anderson says. (Stargate is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.) At press time the former MacGyver star was in negotiations to appear in a handful of episodes.
To ease the transition, viewers will learn that Browder’s character “has been involved in a very key way in some of [the Stargate crew’s] major events,” excutive producer Robert C. Cooper says. Flashbacks will link M.M. to past adventures.
As if the news doesn’t give Farscape fans enough to celebrate, Cooper hints of a possible reunion between Browder and his former co-star Claudia Black. Black is guest-starring on Stargate’s January 28 episode as an alien, and “we’d love to have her back and meet up with Ben in some capacity,” Cooper says. “That would be too much fun to resist.”
Browder hopes his new, higher-profile series will help the cause of another Farscape project. “It’s not only a good career move for me, but it could be good for the whole Farscape cast.” — Ileane Rudolph
Tapping confirms 15 episodes in Season 9
Amanda Tapping has posted to her official website that she will be appearing in 15 of the 20 Stargate SG-1 episodes for Season 9. After having her baby in mid-March, she will return to the show in May. Read the full story here:
Amanda Tapping’s New Year’s Message
It is not clear whether Claudia Black will film all five of her episodes before Amanda returns, or whether there will be overlap for the two actors.
Gossett and Keach front-runners as Stargate’s new general
A Solutions source has revealed that two actors have emerged as front-runners for the role of Stargate SG-1’s new commanding general: Oscar and Emmy award winner Louis Gossett Jr. and Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach. Stargate Command’s new general will succeed Don S. Davis as Major General George Hammond and Richard Dean Anderson as Brigadier General Jack O’Neill.
African-American actor Louis Gossett Jr. is best known for his film roles in “Enemy Mine,” “An Officer And A Gentleman,” and “Iron Eagle.” As Sgt. Emil Foley, he won the Oscar as “Best Actor In A Supporting Role” for “An Officer And A Gentleman,” the iconic movie starring Richard Gere. Gossett played the alien Jeriba ‘Jerry’ Shigan in the scifi movie “Enemy Mine,” starring opposite Dennis Quaid. His character and the dynamic relationship the alien developed with its human counterpoint inspired Peter DeLuise in writing the Unas Chaka and “The First Ones” in Season Four. With a career spanning five decades, an Oscar win plus eleven other awards and numerous nominations for both his extensive TV and feature film roles, Gossett is a fine character actor recognised around the world.
Stacy Keach is perhaps best known for his TV role as the detective Mike Hammer. His career began on TV in 1953 and continues to the present with innumerable guest appearances as well as leading roles, and he is the winner of a Golden Globe award for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV” for “Hemingway.” His best known film roles include “American History X,” “The Ninth Configuration,” and “Butterfly.”
Louis Gossett Jr IMDB
Stacy Keach official website
Stacy Keach IMDB
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VOTE: which actor would you like to see cast as Stargate’s new general?
Black & Browder reunite in SG-1
Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that Farscape star Claudia Black will reunite with her co-star Ben Browder in several episodes of SG-1’s upcoming ninth season. Black will play Vala, a human character who will be introduced in the 12th episode of season eight, “Prometheus Unbound,” which airs early next year when SG-1 resumes original episodes.
“It will air in January [28],” Cooper said in an interview. “It’ll be the second episode back in our run on SCI FI. And we thought she was absolutely wonderful. The character really worked out. She had wonderful chemistry with Michael Shanks. She plays opposite [Shanks’] Daniel Jackson in the episode.”
Black will return to SG-1 in five season nine episodes, which begin shooting in March. “We are having to … deal with a brief absence of Carter, [played by] Amanda Tapping, who’s pregnant,” Cooper said. “And we had already discussed a storyline that involved the return of Vala, … the character played by Claudia. And so we thought it worked perfectly to have that sort of miniarc play out maybe while Amanda was less available to us.”
Cooper added that Black will play several scenes with Browder. “She’s [a] human from another planet,” he said. “And she’s a bit of … an enigma. You’re not quite sure what her true story is in the episode ‘Prometheus Unbound.’ She’s a bit of a rogue who tells a long story about her planet and her people and her past, and then in the end you’re not really quite sure whether it’s true or not. So she’s a bit of a wild card. She’s a very … sexy character, who isn’t afraid to take whatever … she wants in any given situation.
“And we had a lot of fun writing the role, and I know she had a lot of fun playing it, and we’re going to try very hard to maintain the integrity of that character and still have her sort of join up with the team, but still sort of keep the essence of that wonderful friction that went on between her and Daniel, and I’m sure it’ll continue to sort of play out with the rest of the characters as well.”
Sci Fi Wire article
Discuss this article at SG1Solutions Forum
Brad Wright talks Browder and S9
Maureen Ryan
Chicago Tribune
BACK TO THE FUTURE: Ben Browder of “Farscape” fame is joining the cast of “Stargate SG-1” in the show’s upcoming ninth season, and executive producers Brad Wright and Robert Cooper have already decided that Browder’s character will be a military guy, part of a Stargate team viewers haven’t seen yet on the Sci Fi show.
“Specifically, he’s the [pilot] that led the squadron that fought [an enemy named] Anubis in Antarctica,” Wright wrote in an e-mail. “He was badly injured when his fighter crashed, nearly killed but was promised a place on SG-1 if he made it back to fighting form.”
Here’s my e-mail exchange with Brad:
Q: How did Ben’s name come up in connection with SG-1? Was there a desire to add a character to the ninth season, and the names of various actors came up? Or was Ben the only actor that was under consideration?
A: Actually, we asked casting to generate a list as we usually do, but we’ve been interested in working with Ben for some time. Meeting him for the first time in San Diego at Comicon last year reinforced that interest.
Q: Did Sci Fi Channel execs or anyone at MGM suggest Ben, or was it an idea cooked up by you and Robert Cooper? Or did Ben just show up at your house and demand a part?
A: We already knew that the execs at Sci Fi were fans of Ben because of Farscape, so we were on the same page. Ben was the only actor we made an offer to.
Q: Do you have strong ideas about the character that Ben will be playing, or is his character still being developed?
A: Rob and I had talked at length about the character and he came up with a very interesting backstory. You should actually ask Rob about that, since he’s writing the script introducing his character. [Ed note: I plan on doing just that.]
Q: Related to the question above, if Ben’s character has already been somewhat defined — will his character be a member of the military? A Stargate SG-1 team member? An alien? Can you talk at all about what kind of man Ben will be playing?
A: Rob will tell you this, but yes, he’s a military man. Specifically, he’s the F-302 pilot (our Earth-designed space fighter) that led the squadron that fought Anubis in Antarctica. He was badly injured when his fighter crashed, nearly killed but was was promised a place on SG-1 if he made it back to fighting form.
I’m not concerned with Crichton comparisons that may arise. SG-1 is a unit of the U.S. Air Force and so he should be an officer, but it’s a very different show.
Q: When does filming begin for Season 9 (are you already in production for Season 9, or are you still filming Season 8)? And is Ben committed to be in the entire season, or only in a certain number of episodes? Is he committed beyond Season 9?
A: We’ll start shooting Season 9 at the beginning of March. (I can’t believe I just said that)
Ben will be with us for the entire season and if we keep going, he’ll keep going. (I’m not so sure if I’ll keep going 😉
Q: Everyone’s been commenting on how similar Ben and Michael Shanks look — is there any possibility that their characters will be related?
A: No, they won’t be related but once we’ve shaved Ben’s head it will be far easier to tell them apart 😉 We’ll come up with something. I’m not worried about it.
Q: Is Richard Dean Anderson coming back at all for Season 9? There was some talk of 4 appearances for Season 9, but has anything been confirmed? If he does not come back for Season 9, what happens to him at the end of Season 8?
A: O’Neill will continue to be a part of the SG-1 universe. Whether we actually SEE him is up to Rick, but the character will continue to exist on or off screen. He may appear in one or two or more episodes. But let me add this: I handed over the reins of the SG-1 to Robert in season seven because I needed a rest and wanted to spend more time with my family.
That’s all Rick wants to do, and I don’t blame him. I came back. The door is open for Rick to do the same.
[Next season] Claudia is going to appear in a five-episode arc in the role of Vala. She’s great. You’ll get to see just why we wanted to bring her back in “Prometheus Unbound,” which has yet to air.
Q: Can you confirm that Claudia Black will come back during Season 9? Would having Claudia and Ben on the same episode(s) of SG-1 be a great opportunity to get Farscape fans to check out SG-1, in your mind?
A: I think Claudia and Ben should bring a few “Farscape” fans aboard, but that’s not why we’re doing this. They’re great actors. Claudia has already proven herself on our show.
Q: Have you heard/read any feedback on Ben’s casting from SG-1 fans? From “Stargate” fans? Are both camps generally happy with the news? What’s the general feeling you’ve been getting from people?
A: As to whether or not the “camps” will be happy — I honestly don’t worry about that. We do read what is posted on the ‘net but then we make our shows the way we think they should be made. We’ll see.
Q: In Season 9, is there a desire to do more off-world, mythology stories? Or will they be more Earth-set?
A: Forgive me, but this question drives me nuts.
Despite the fact that I think the Earth-based stories are important to the series, it is not entirely a creative decision. Since the beginning we’ve done Earth-based stories to offset the costs of offworld stories. We don’t have unlimited resources. It is a fact that Earth-based shows are — generally speaking — less expensive to produce. (Antarctica doesn’t count).
Off-world stories require visual effects, matte paintings, otherworldly sets, remote locations, costumes, props and set [decoration] that all has to be constructed to our standards. I know that fans hate that answer but that’s the way it is. It is NOT our inability to come up with stories that take place on other planets.
Q: Regarding Season 9, can you talk a bit about the general direction or theme of the season? Will there be any crossovers to Atlantis?
A: Season 9 will have a new beginning with a new enemy. I think once you’ve seen the end of Season 8 you’ll understand why we’re doing that. Yes, I hope there will be cross over between the two series. I have an idea but I’m still working it out.
Q: Is Don S. Davis coming back in Season 9?
A: Possibly. Nothing has been set.
Q: What do you think Ben will bring to SG-1 — what are you personally most excited about, regarding his coming to the show?
A: I think it’s going to be fun to have him around.
Posted with permission of the author: our grateful thanks to Maureen Ryan
Shanks welcomes Browder to SG-1
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.”
O’Neill character remains part of SG-1
O’Neill Remains Part Of SG-1
Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the character of Brig. Gen. Jack O’Neill will remain a part of the show in the upcoming ninth season, whether or not Richard Dean Anderson returns as a regular cast member.
“His character is going to remain very much alive in the Stargate [SG-1] universe,” Cooper said in an interview. “He … is going to be integral in commanding what goes on at the SGC. As to the appearance of Richard Dean Anderson in the series, that’s really still undetermined. We are very hopeful that Rick is going to agree to participate in a number of episodes, but I have no idea as to how many or when that will be resolved.”
At press time, Anderson was still in talks about his status on the show.
Meanwhile, Cooper said the ninth season would introduce new villains and take the show in a new direction. “While we say new direction, … the concept of the series is very much pulled from the mythology of SG-1, and I think fans are going to be very excited about the direction we’re going. … One of the things we’re going to be exploring in season nine is the origin of the Ancients and the Gatebuilders. And it’s something I know fans have been sort of very curious about, and have sort of asked to see. And that is … one of the things we’re really going to be delving into: … Who the Ancients really are, and where they came from, and we may even get a chance to go there.”