Author: Alison

UK ratings update to 11th Jan 05

The official UK rating for “Prometheus Unbound,” “It’s Good To Be King” and “Full Alert” have been published.

Stargate ratings
05/10: 0.94m viewers, placed 3rd (New Order Part 1)
12/10: 1.19m viewers, placed 2nd (New Order Part 2)
19/10: 1.00m viewers, placed 2nd (Lockdown)
26/10: 1.03m viewers, placed 3rd (Zero Hour)
02/11: 0.92m viewers, placed 2nd (Icon)
09/11: 0.88m viewers, placed 5 th (Avatar)
16/11: 0.93m viewers, placed 4 th (Affinity)
23/11: 0.89m viewers, placed 4 th (Covenant)
30/11: 0.82m viewers, placed 5 th (Sacrifices)
07/12: 0.80m viewers, placed 8 th (End Game)
14/12: 0.80m viewers, placed 6th (Gemini)
21/12: 0.74m viewers, placed 3rd (Prometheus Unbound)
04/01: 0.68m viewers, placed 4th (It’s Good To Be King)
11/01: 0.79m viewers, placed 3rd (Full Alert)

Atlantis ratings
12/10: 1.28m viewers, placed 1st (Rising Part 1)
19/10: 0.99m viewers, placed 3rd (Rising Part 2)
26/10: 0.97m viewers, placed 4th (Hide and Seek)
02/11: 0.86m viewers, placed 4th (Thirty-Eight Minutes)
09/11: 0.76m viewers, placed 10th (Suspicion)
16/11: 0.86m viewers, placed 6th (Childhood’s End)
23/11: 0.73m viewers, placed 9th (Poisoning the Well)
30/11: less than 0.72m viewers, not in top 10 (Underground)
07/12: less than 0.78m viewers, not in top 10 (Home)
14/12: less than 0.76m viewers, not in top 10 (The Storm)
21/12: 0.71m viewers, placed 4th (The Eye)
04/01: 0.65m viewers, placed 5th (The Defiant One)
11/01: 0.72m viewers, placed 6th (Sanctuary)

SCI FI Friday ratings rocket

SCI FI OWNS FRIDAY NIGHT
SCI FI Channel #1 Cable Net for 2nd Consecutive Friday*

New York, NY (January 24, 2005) — The debut of ‘SCI FI Friday’ – the biggest night of sci-fi on television – led SCI FI Channel to its second consecutive week as the #1 network on cable among P18-49, P25-54, M25-54 and M18-49 in Prime (8-11pm). It also marked the highest-rated and most-watched Friday SCI FI has ever delivered in first quarter.

The Winter Premieres of SCI FI’s perennial viewer favorites ‘Stargate SG-1’ (8pm) and ‘Stargate Atlantis’ (9pm), combined with the critically-acclaimed ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (10pm), have made the Channel a viewer hotspot on Friday nights. For Friday Prime (8-11pm), SCI FI:

–Ranked in the Top 5 cable nets among P2+ (#3), P18-34s (#2), M18-34 (#2), F25-54 (#5) and F18-49 (#5), in addition to the #1 finishes reported above in P18-49s, P25-54s, M18-49s and M25-54s.

–Ranked in the Top 10 among F18-34 (#9)

–Claimed two of the Top 3 telecasts in cable among P25-54s and placed all three 8-11pm telecasts in the Top 5

–Claimed two of the Top 3 telecasts in cable among P18-49s, and placed all three 8-11pm telecasts in the Top 10

–Claimed three of the Top 4 telecasts in cable among M25-54 – including the #1 telecast of the day (‘Battlestar Galactica,’ 1,378,000 M25-54)

–Claimed the Top 2 telecasts in cable among M18-49 (‘Battlestar Galactica’, 1,254,000 M18-49; ‘Stargate Atlantis’ 983,000 M18-49)

–‘Battlestar Galactica’ at 10pm was the #2 program in cable among P18-34

SCI FI, along with sister network USA, led NBC Universal cable networks in dominating the night. With the combined strength of ‘Monk’ (USA), ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (SCI FI), ‘Stargate Atlantis’ (SCI FI) and ‘Stargate SG-1’ (SCI FI), the networks claimed four of the Top 5 shows among P25-54 for the night.

‘Battlestar Galactica’

With a 2.3 HH rating/2.9 million P2+, 2 million P25-54 and 1.8 million P18-49, ‘Battlestar’ faced and defeated its competition. Among M25-54, the series delivered 1.4 million viewers – more than 13 of the 20 programs that aired on the broadcast networks that night, including ‘Star Trek Enterprise’ on UPN and ‘Jonny Zero’ on Fox.

When compared against SCI FI’s 1Q04 time period average (10-11pm), ‘Battlestar’ was up:

+109% in HH ratings
+137% in P2+
+222% in P25-54
+256% in P18-49

‘Stargate SG-1’

With a 2.0 HH rating/2.5 million viewers P2+, Stargate SG-1’s Winter Premiere showed exceptional growth vs. the 1Q04 time period average (8-9pm):

+82% in HH ratings
+87% in total viewers P2+
+125% in P25-54
+127% in P18-49

‘Stargate Atlantis’

With its 2.1 HH rating/2.6 million viewers P2+, also blew away all SCI FI’s 1Q04 ratings for the time period average (9-10pm):

+24% in HH ratings
+18% in total viewers P2+
+44% in P25-54
+38% in P18-49

*8-11pm Prime among P18-49, P25-54, M25-54 and M18-49.

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

Season 9 spoilers to date

Main regular cast members for Season 9

Michael Shanks – returning as Dr. Daniel Jackson
Christopher Judge – returning as Teal’c
Ben Browder – joining the cast as Lt. Col “M.M”

Recurring cast members

Amanda Tapping – recurring as Lt. Col Samantha Carter for 15 episodes
Claudia Black – recurring as the alien Vala for a 5-episode story arc

Daniel and Teal’c

“Fans of both Daniel and Teal’c should be very happy with the back half of SG-1’s 8th season. Prometheus Unbound, Full Alert, Reckoning I and II, Threads, and Moebius I and II promise some major developments for both characters (and, incidentally, allow Michael to flex his comedic muscles more than a couple of times). DJ and Teal’c will have their hands full in the second half of season eight, and that’s a trend that will continue through season nine (and hopefully beyond) as the developments/revelations from the aforementioned episodes will see them front and center as we kick off a new year of SG-1. …We’ve got big plans for the boys.” –- Co-Executive Producer and Writer Joseph Mallozzi

Daniel and Vala

“[Next season] Claudia [Black] 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.” –- Stargate: Atlantis showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Brad Wright

“She’s [a] human from another planet. 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.” –- Stargate SG-1’s showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Robert Cooper.

Lt. Colonel “M.M”

“Ben is playing a military guy, a lieutenant colonel. And I can’t tell you his name yet. It hasn’t been legally cleared yet, so it could still change.” Browder’s character, who joins the show in the upcoming ninth season, has a past history with the Stargate program, Cooper said. “The audience just hasn’t met him yet,” he said. “He’s actually played a key role in some major events that went on … in the Stargate universe and was in fact very instrumental in helping SG-1 succeed in one of their more important missions. And as a result of that, he was given … his choice posting. And he ultimately chooses to join SG-1. So when he first appears on the show, SG-1 will already know who he is. And we’ll see some of those scenes and how he was basically woven into the tapestry of the show through flashbacks.” –- Stargate SG-1’s showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Robert Cooper.

Q: 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 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. –- Stargate: Atlantis showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Brad Wright

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.” — Ben Browder

Jack O’Neill

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. –- Stargate: Atlantis showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Brad Wright

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. 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.” -– Stargate SG-1’s showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Robert Cooper.

“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.” –- Richard Dean Anderson

Samantha Carter

“We are having to … deal with a brief absence of Carter, [played by] Amanda Tapping, who’s pregnant. 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.” -– Stargate SG-1’s showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Robert Cooper

“I know there are also a lot of questions about season nine of Stargate. I will be returning. I am slated to do 15 of the 20 episodes. I will return to the show in May. I will bringing the baby with me, (not through the gate of course..heehee) and we’ll see how it works out. I know I am not the first actress to do this and I sincerely hope I am up to the challenge. I am very excited! It’s going to be o¬ne heck of a year.” –- Amanda Tapping

Season 9 in general

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.” –- Stargate SG-1’s showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Robert Cooper.

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. –- Stargate: Atlantis showrunner Executive Producer and Writer Brad Wright

A Solutions source has revealed that Emmy and Golden Globe winner Beau Bridges has been cast as Stargate Command’s new general. Bridges will succeed Don S. Davis as Major General George Hammond and Richard Dean Anderson as Brigadier General Jack O’Neill.

Discuss the Season 9 spoilers on SG1Solutions Forum

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

It's Good To Be King photogallery

Last year, our photographer Cathy Holroyd was in Tynehead Park in Greater Vancouver to shoot the outdoor sets used for the episode “It’s Good to be King”. In return for kind permission from the relevant people, she agreed to hold her photos back until the episode had been broadcast. This is because the pictures contain a major SPOILER, both for this and future episodes.

Cathy has stunning and detailed shots of the locations Stargate and DHD, and two other things that were important parts of the episode. Whilst at Tynehead, she also photographed the bridge from Avenger 2.0 where Sam finds Felger ‘feeding the ducks’.

Tynehead Park will be known to some of you from Michael Shanks’s stories about how Daniel descended naked in a public dog-walking park! Yes, somewhere in this park, a dog got a very nice view 😉

We have provided screencap galleries for your reference, and a map which shows where the different Stargate locations are in the park in case any of you are lucky enough to be able to visit and follow in SG-1’s footsteps.

We hope you enjoy the gallery, please feel free to forward this message to anyone you think would be interested.

Sally

Tynehead Park: Avenger 2.0, Fallen and It’s Good To Be King Photogalleries
Discuss the galleries on the SG1Solutions forum

WIKI: episode transcribers needed

Stargate SG-1 Solutions.com exists in many ways to serve as a news and information resource for the core of fans who are pro-team, pro-Daniel, pro-Jack & Daniel friendship, and that in many ways makes us pretty unique in fandom. Like sister site Stargatefan, we strive to write episode guides, transcripts and articles which are fair and positive towards the contributions of all the team members.

What sets us apart from other sites is that our transcripts at Solutions are *SEARCHABLE*. Just think: every time you have a nagging question about who said what or who did that, you can type in that word or phrase and our wiki database will find the transcript for you.

The Solutions adminners have worked like trojans for 2 years on our transcripts project and we are closing in on the end of it but our little band of slaves is pretty wrung out from all the work so we’re putting out a plea for help in transcribing the following episodes:

6.09 Allegiance
6.10 Cure
6.11 Prometheus
6.12 Unnatural Selection
6.13 Sight Unseen
6.14 Smoke And Mirrors
6.18 Forsaken

If just 7 of our many visitors here can give us an afternoon or two of their time, that will get this part of the massive transcripts project done. You don’t need any whizzy technical skills, just a text or word processing program and access to the episode. We’re setting a deadline of the end of January for the transcript to be completed and frankly, we’re begging for your help. On me knees, here 🙂

Please, please help. Thank you. Very, very much.

If you can help with a transcript, drop us a line

WIKI: can you help?

Our intrepid little band of Solutions Adminners have been working their asses off for 2 years now to bring you the most comprehensive and in-depth Stargate SG-1 information and resources. Had we been content to write the brief summaries other sites are offering up, we’d have been done ten times over. Instead, we set out to be distinctively different, to support the information needs of committed fans and fanfiction writers, and to present all information to you in a completely accessible and searchable format.

This led to the creation of our Wiki knowledge base which is ever-growing and expanding. We are in desperate need of volunteers to write articles for the Wiki. Some articles are long, some are short, but all clearly explain the science or mythology or technology or history behind a key Stargate SG-1 place, person, theme or thing, and relate it to events from the episodes.

We are looking in particular for writers for any of these most wanted Wiki pages. Can you help? We desperately need you.

You don’t need to have any whizzy html skills, just a few afternoons or evenings of your time to review episodes for one of these key topics and write up your findings in a straight-forward, objective way. You’ll have all the help we can give 🙂

If you can contribute an article, just drop us a line. Please. Help us.

Our thanks.

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.