What worked about Stargate SG-1 for the first eight years still works. The idea of people going through a Stargate, getting into trouble on alien worlds, getting out of it and coming home all still works. The franchise is still alive. I don't think we're done for ideas. There were a lot of financial and logistical reasons why we were restricted in the stories that we were telling over the last two years. We are as much fans of the show as anyone. We don't just do this for the money, to get paid — we love the show, we really do. And, watching the first four or five episodes, we're really excited. We're as hopeful and excited about the first batch as we have ever been, so it's fun. It makes the writing fun again and it makes me want to see dailies every day and see what the cast is doing. It's very invigorating. It's the only way we can possibly do it for as long as we've done it.

Claudia [Black] is incredible, she's a fantastic person off-camera and she's wonderfuly dynamic on-camera. She brings so much to the character — the character just came alive in Prometheus Unbound. Every moment she's on screen just crackles, and the chemistry between her and Michael [Shanks] is wonderful. And Ben [Browder] is a star. It doesn't matter what he's doing — he could be reading the phonebook and you'll be wondering what's coming next!

Beau Bridges is Beau Bridges — he's cool! He's wonderful and he works so hard. He thinks about every last little detail about his performance. Then, out of the blue, Lexa [Doig] comes in and reads for Dr. Lam, and blows us away with her audition. She's great — she's really quite an exciting actress.

Of course, those are all the new comers, but Michael Shanks has never been better, and that is honestly no disrespect to his work in the past. He really hasn't. I think he's been excited by the chemistry of the cast and he's just had this added level that he's brought this year. And Chris [Judge] is great. Chris has come such a long way as an actor over the years, and when you think about the story that his character has gone through, from being this strong, silent sidekick to being the leader of a nation that he has freed. It's very cool.

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