Author: Alison

Richard Dean Anderson update

Anderson’s Commitment
Dreamwatch #126, February 2005

The addition of Ben Browder to the Stargate SG-1 cast reflects the smaller role set to be played by Richard Dean Anderson. “His character [Jack O’Neill] is going to remain very much alive in the Stargate universe,” says Robert Cooper [Executive Producer]. “He is going to be integral in commanding what goes on at the SGC.”

Reports have suggested that Anderson may return for just four episodes in Season 9, but negotiations are ongoing.

“We are very hopeful that Rick is going to agree to participate in a number of episodes,” reports Cooper. “But I have no idea as to how many or when that will be resolved.”

Farscape producers wish Ben Browder well

Rockne S. O’Bannon, Farscape creator/executive producer

“That’s great news for Stargate. When I heard about it, my first question to Ben was: ‘Exactly how many fan conventions do you think you can do in a year, anyway?’ For the record, though, the first time Ben’s character uses the word ‘Frell,’ my lawyers are going to be all over his ass!”

David Kemper, Farscape executive producer

“When Ben told me about his new role, three things sprang simultaneously to mind, all being mutually compatible. One: the wonderful folks at Stargate are getting one hell of a talented actor. Two: Ben is joining an exceptional show that should afford him plenty of chances to spread his wings and captivate everyone who watches. Three: the fans win all around.”

“I am, however, troubled that he insists on gaining 100lbs to play the part. I keep thinking that when they said he’d be a ‘military heavyweight’ in the show, they had something else in mind…Maybe I’m wrong. Either way, I’ll be watching.”

Richard Manning, Farscape co-executive producer

“I’m delighted – Ben’s got steady work. This is always something to celebrate: doubly so for someone as talented as Ben… It’s a shame any time he’s not working.”

David Bassom, Dreamwatch #126, February 2005

Prometheus Unbound ratings

SCI FI Friday (Jan. 28 @ 8-11pm)– the biggest night of sci-fi on television — continues to build.

SCI FI Channel took the #1 spot in cable for the 3rd consecutive Friday prime time (8-11pm) among P25-54 and M25-54, and came in #2 among P18-49. SCI FI also had the Top 3 programs of the day in cable for M25-54: Battlestar Galactica (1.5 million), Stargate Atlantis (1.3 million) and Stargate SG-1 (1.1 million).

Here’s a breakdown of the night.

8pm STARGATE SG-1
Boosted by the appearance of special guest star Claudia Black (Farscape), SG-1 beat Star Trek Enterprise in head-to-head competition, with more overall viewers. SG-1 delivered:

2.1 HH rating
2.5 million P2+
1.7 million P25-54
1.3 million P18-49

Versus last week, SG-1 is up +6% in HH ratings, +3% in P2+, +10% in P25-54 and +2% in P18-49.

9pm STARGATE ATLANTIS

2.4 HH rating
2.9 million P2+
1.9 million P25-54
1.4 million P18-49

Versus last week, Atlantis is up +12% in HH ratings and +10% in P25-54.

10pm BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

2.5 HH rating
3.0 million P2+
2.1 million P25-54
1.7 million P18-49

Versus last week, Battlestar is up +8% in HH ratings, +6% in P2+ and +2% in P25-54.

Claudia Black on Shanks, Vala & S9

Welcome Black!
Cult Times #113, Feb 2005
Extract from an interview with Claudia Black by Thomasina Gibson

Asked how much fun it was to slap Michael Shanks around on the set of “Prometheus Unbound,” Claudia Black hoots with laughter and says, “You know what? He [Michael Shanks] was such a good sport. He really was and he came out with a lot of those original little beats and ad libs that made the whole thing such fun. Michael went in and blocked a lot of those scenes to his character’s detriment and he really was so generous with the scenes. He was really trying to find the best way to interpret each scene and we both trying to make the most of the scrupt because they wrote such a beautiful script and such a wonderful character for me. So Michael put in his own inclination to be playful. He was such a great sport about it [playing it for the gag]. It was fantastic.”

“One of the nicest things is that Vala just has a lot of potential. She is just a very interesting material character. I’ve never played anyone that unpredictable before. Vala is very like Chiana from Farscape in that she is amoral, and that is a really interesting arena in which to play.”

And what was her experience of filming? “They are an extremely happy crew on Stargate, so a lot of that first day tension recedes immediately when you’re welcomed by everyone as I was by them. I had had a very quick chat with Andy Mikita on the phone beforehand and loved him straight away. It was the same with Michael.”

Claudia Black has been invited back to fulfil a five-episode arc in Stargate’s staggering ninth season. Even better news if the fact that Ben Browder will also be joining the team. “I’m delighted for him,” announces his friend. “Delighted. I really don’t think they realise what a gem they have with him. He’s amazing. I am so delighted that they appreciate him enough to invite him on to the show because he gives his all.”

Is Black going to be working with her former Farscape co-star? “I think it would be too much of a delicious opportunity to ignore. I haven’t spoken to the producers about it since Ben officially came on board, althought I did see something online where Robert Cooper said something about if there was an opportunity to put us both together on screen they would take it. I would love it if it happened.”

“I think I’m only coming in for a short time and I really want to work with all the other directors because you learn so much working with different people but I really want to work with Andy again because he was just so gorgeous.” Black is looking forward to working with all the Stargate stalwarts, including Peter DeLuise – she’s a huge fan of 21 Jump Street – and that noted sweetheart Christopher Judge, whom she socialises with.

“Sadly,” says Black, “Although I have met Amanda Tapping, I don’t think I’m going to work with her because I think my function is to be there whilst she is attending to a very significant event in her life.” Tapping’s baby is due just as Season 9 goes into production.

You can buy Cult Times #113 online and read much, much more of this fantastic interview!

SG1Solutions forum promo winner

We’re happy to announce that the winner of January’s TRADING POSTS promo on our SG1Solutions fan forum is: DeeKayP with 120 posts 🙂 Debi chose as her prize the Stargate SG-1 Season 5 DVD box set (pictured.)

And congratulations to our runner up posters on the SG1Solutions forum this month:

Prince 3030 with 100 posts
DreamSteph with 94 posts
JayB111 with 73 posts

FEBRUARY 2005 TRADING POSTS

February’s most prolific poster gets one of the following goodies delivered direct to their door 🙂

An autographed photo signed by any member of the main cast – from the official Stargate SG-1 charity autographs site.

Stargate SG-1 ‘Dr. Daniel Jackson’ T-shirt – from Creation, sizes S, M, L or XL

Stargate SG-1 Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 DVD Box Set – choose any one season from 1-6 (PAL or NTSC, Region 1 or 2)

MacGyver Season 1 DVD Box Set – (released Jan 25th, NTSC,requires Region 1 or region-free DVD player)

You can join us on our SG1Solutions fan forum: all are welcome 🙂

Shanks on recording Local Custom audiobook

“Local Custom” by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

The first of the seven books set in the Liaden Universe tells a rich and sweeping story of warring families and star-crossed lovers in a fantastic, other-world galaxy.

Master trader Er Thom knows the local custom of Liaden is to be matched with a proper bride, and provide his prominent clan Korval with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk his honor and reputation. But when he discovers that their brief encounter years before has resulted in the birth of a child, even more is at stake than anyone imagined. Now, an interstellar scandal has erupted, a bitter war between two families-galaxies apart-has begun, and the only hope for Er Thom and Anne is a sacrifice neither is prepared to make…

Shanks For The Memories
Dreamwatch #126, February 2005
Brief extract from the interview by Ian Spelling

Michael Shanks is about to record an audiobook adaptation of the SF novel “Local Custom”, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. “It’s interesting,” Shanks notes. “I’m not a huge reader anymore. My wife [Andromeda actress Lexa Doig] is the reader of the family. I’m not into SF novels or anything like that. It was just the notion of, ‘Oh. I’d like to read an audiobook,’ and then once I started reading the book I realised what it was exactly that I’d signed up for.”

“It’s one of those books that has words with all the apostrophes in strange places and because it’s SF you know you can’t even draw on your experience of how to say Lithuania properly. It’ll actualyl say, ‘She’s from the planet Alph’ha’hey,’ and you’re thinking, ‘What? Is somebody around to tell me how I’m supposed to sat this?’ So I think it’s going to be tricky, to say the least, about narrating a SF audiobook, but it’s an experience I wanted to have.”

“I appreciate the notion of audiobooks for the visually impaired or, quite frankly, for those people who would rather listen than read. If anybody is going to buy this audiobook just to listen to me for three hours, well, God bless them.”

Narrated by Michael Shanks, “Local Custom” will be available as an unabridged 8-CD set from Buzzy Multimedia in May 2005. The usual cost for audiobooks is $47.95. Fans of Stargate SG-1’s newest cast member Ben Browder may be interested in his narration of “Interlopers” by Alan Dean Foster, also from Buzzy Multimedia.

Audiobooks from Buzzy Multimedia
Read an extract from “Local Custom”
Buy the “Local Custom” novel from Amazon.co.uk

Michael Shanks welcomes Ben Browder

Shanks For The Memories
Dreamwatch #126, February 2005
Brief extract from the interview by Ian Spelling

In all his time in the sci-fi universe, Michael Shanks reports that he and Ben Browder have only crossed paths twice in the past.

“Claudia Black was on Stargate and she and I had many conversations about Ben,” he says. “The first time I met Ben and talked to him we’d run into each other at the airport. I do know that he’s got a great [drama] training background. We seem to have a common thought process about how you can squeeze artistic notions inside a sci-fi television show, and you could see that he was working towards that on his show [Farscape] before there was even a twinkle of him being on our show. I think he’ll bring great sensibilities.”

“I don’t know much about his work but I’ve heard it’s excellent. So I’ll look forward to that. He seems to be a team player in that regard as well. I’m looking forward to a really positive, artistic and cohesive team atmosphere.”

Buy Dreamwatch issue #126 from the UK

EXCLUSIVE! Incredible new direction for S9

“Season 9 will have a new beginning with a new enemy,” Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis Executive Producer and writer Brad Wright told Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune. “I think once you’ve seen the end of Season 8 you’ll understand why we’re doing that.”

Meanwhile, Stargate SG-1 Executive Producer and writer Robert C. Cooper told SCI FI Wire, the news website of broadcasters Sci Fi Channel, that 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.”

Now Stargate SG-1 Solutions is hearing from its sources that the writers will be incorporating classic – and eternally popular – Arthurian legend into Stargate’s rich mythology. As well as introducing new enemies, Season 9 will explore the fascinating myths of Camelot, Avalon and Excalibur within Stargate’s distinctive universe.

The key to this incredible new direction for the show?

Merlin was an Ancient!

And the questions Stargate SG-1’s resourceful, mythology-hungry fans are sure to be asking themselves? Merlin’s magical powers rooted in Ancient technology? Arthur being able to draw the sword from the stone because he possessed the Ancient gene? Excalibur a powerful Ancient weapon? Camelot and Avalon worlds SG-1 will journey to? Oma Desala as the Lady Of The Lake? Daniel and the team embarked on a Grail quest?

Let the speculation begin…

Discuss the incredible new mythological direction of the show at SG1Solutions Forum

Merlin biography
Arthurian resources
Voice of the Shuttle: Arthurian studies
King Arthur
The Camelot Project

Chicago Tribune reviews Prometheus Unbound

Cast chemistry keeps `Stargate’ appealing
By Maureen Ryan
Tribune staff reporter

Some older TV shows — and we’re too kind to name names here — settle into a state of suspended mediocrity, puttering along and recycling old stories as they wait for someone to cancel them.

“Stargate SG-1,” which is in the middle of its eighth season, is not one of those. The episode airing at 7 p.m. Friday on Sci Fi is a treat, and it should be as much fun for “Farscape” lovers as for “SG-1” fans.

Claudia Black, the steely Aeryn Sun of Sci Fi’s canceled cult series “Farscape,” guests as Vala, a wily woman who manages to hijack a spaceship that belongs to Earth’s secret Stargate program, which battles various baddies across the universe. When not shooting at him or otherwise trying to take him down, Vala also attempts, with some success, to seduce “Stargate” scientist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks, at his bemused best).

Given the chemistry between Black and Shanks, things should get mighty interesting next season, when Black is set to appear in at least five episodes of “SG-1.” Not only will the delightfully devious Vala return, but Ben Browder, Black’s love interest on “Farscape,” joins the cast of “SG-1” next season as well. Is it any wonder that some sci-fi mavens have jokingly begun to refer to “SG-1” as “Fargate”?

The truth is, “Stargate SG-1” has always had a good measure of what made “Farscape” such fun: an irreverent attitude, a sprinkling of pop-culture references (watch for an amusing Han Solo mention) and a cast whose chemistry is almost palpable. And though the long-running program may not often show the wild inventiveness of “Farscape” at its best, clearly the “SG-1” producers know when to mix things up — heck, even the desk-bound Gen. Hammond (Don S. Davis) has some commando-style adventures on Friday’s episode.

Read the review at Chicago Tribune online
Discuss Prometheus Unbound at SG1Solutions Forum

EXCLUSIVE! Beau Bridges cast as SG-1's new general

A Solutions source has revealed that a new candidate has been given the role of the SGC’s commanding general for Season 9 of Stargate SG-1: Beau Bridges.

A Hollywood Walk Of Fame alumnus (2003, with his star next to those of father Lloyd and brother Jeff Bridges), the 63 year-old actor, director and producer Beau Bridges has had a long and critically acclaimed career in film and television. In film, he is best known for “The Fabulous Baker Boys” with brother Jeff and Michelle Pfeiffer, while sci-fi fans will recall his leading role in the two-hour “Outer Limits” episode ‘Sandkings’.

Bridges’ prestigious awards include an Emmy and a Golden Globe award for the 1992 TV movie “Without Warning: The James Brady Story;” an Emmy and a Golden Globe for 1993’s “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom;” an Emmy for the 1997 miniseries “The Second Civil War” and a National Society of Film Critics Award in 1989 for “The Fabulous Baker Boys.” He has been the recipient of countless other award nominations.

President of the environmental group “Ventura CoastKeeper” in his native California, recently Bridges has been working alongside Daniel Day-Lewis on the film “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” which opens in March. He joins established stars Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge and Amanda Tapping, plus newcomers Ben Browder and Claudia Black for Stargate’s pivotal 9th season. As Stargate Command’s new general, Bridges will follow in the footsteps of fan favourite Don S. Davis who played General George Hammond in Seasons 1-7, and star Richard Dean Anderson, Brigadier General Jack O’Neill in Season 8. It’s not yet known if Bridges will be part of the regular cast or a recurring guest star.

Beau Bridges at IMDB
Beau Bridges at TV Tome
Discuss this article at SG1Solutions Forum
Vote in the SG1Solutions Poll: how do you feel about the casting of Beau Bridges?