Stargate SG-1 - SciFi Weekly Interviews Judge, Shanks, Tapping

From SciFi Weekly:

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw16718.html

(Please follow the link for the complete interviews.)

INTERVIEWS

August 20, 2007

Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge look back on 10 thrilling years of Stargate SG-1

By Melissa Perenson


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.

**snippage**

Did you think the timing was right to end Stargate SG-1?

Tapping: That's a hard question. In some ways, yes, I do, 'cause 10 years is a long time and I think the fact that it didn't end succinctly, that we've got these movies to carry on ... The first movie is a definite wrap-up of season 10 and all of the Ori storylines, so we sort of finish that storyline out. And now the movies can be stand-alone. It was weird for us, because every year we thought we were going to be canceled, and then they kept bringing us back. So this year I had another year on my contract, so I was like, "Oh, well, for sure it's coming back for another season," and then we all individually got called into Rob Cooper's office, where he said, "The show has been canceled." Like we all knew we'd hear those words one day; you have to, it's inevitable. We'd had a decade-long run, but suddenly to hear those words, it was like, "What? Canceled, SG-1 in the same sentence? Impossible." But now that we're just doing the movies, it does make sense. We're having a lot of fun doing them, and I think, yeah, in some ways [the series] ran its course. Ten years is a good run.

**snippage**


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.


**snippage**

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.

**snippage**