After a decade’s worth of episodes, Stargate SG-1 concluded its televised run while it was still at the top of its creative game. The series had morphed over the years from a cable TV vehicle for actor Richard Dean Anderson to a standard bearer for science fiction.
The show may have concluded its 10th season this summer, but the series won’t be gone completely: Next year, two direct-to-DVD movies are due out — Stargate: The Ark of Truth (now scheduled for spring 2008) and Stargate: Continuum (fall 2008) — with more movies a strong possibility.
On set, in the shadow of the Stargate itself, original cast members Michael Shanks (archaeologist Daniel Jackson), Christopher Judge (Jaffa warrior Teal’c) and Amanda Tapping (Lt. Col. Samantha Carter) gathered one more time to take a moment and reflect on the series’ past, present and future.
Be sure and catch this exciting Melissa Perenson interview with these three television superstars at SCI FI Weekly.
Here is just a small taste:
Amanda Tapping, 10 years of SG-1, two movies and now taking command of Stargate Atlantis (in season four): Would it be fair to say you still love Stargate?
Tapping: If it weren’t fun then I wouldn’t still be here. It’s an amazing gig. It’s kind of an embarrassment of riches for me at the moment. There’s the joke that I’m sort of the Kelsey Grammer of sci-fi, but it feels completely different this year for me playing her, so …
How has the chemistry among the titular tight-knit elite unit known as SG-1 helped maintain interest in the series?
Shanks: The characters are very different people from very different backgrounds that seem to find some sort of cohesion and friendship within a very odd mix of people. I think people really enjoyed the camaraderie and the friendship aspects that we managed to find, away from the page. And I think that is a big component of the success of the show. We still have a lot of fun off-camera. That translates on-camera, on-screen as well. That we are good friends and mock the hell out of each other and still get along after 10 years.
Christopher Judge, Stargate SG-1, as a movie versus a television series: Could you tell the difference as an actor?
Judge: The biggest adjustment is the much slower pace. Because when you get used to working at a certain pace, working slow affects everything. It’s much harder to not eat, it’s much harder to … In TV, you have enough time to shoot a master, some coverage, either you get it or you don’t get it, and you move on. In this format, you can stay there till you get it. Especially for some of our stuff, when we had emotional stuff to do, to have to do it that many more times is very difficult. And that’s all due to the lessening of the time constraints, the lessening of the money constraints.
The great thing about switching to a different format is that it’s so different from the day-to-day grind of doing the series. And we’ve all had different time off, and it’s not the rush-rush-rush series pace. Let’s face it, we’ve been doing this for… this is our 11th year; none of us are spring chickens anymore. In fact, I don’t think any of us were spring chickens when we started.
