Stargate Universe season two premieres September 28 on Syfy.
Sanctuary returns September 28 with a 20 episode third season!
MS: You know what? Daniel is like a comfy sweater. It's never too difficult. As long as the writers can remember how to write for him, the voice comes really easily to me. It was odd with such a big break to step into that character, stepping into a different world, to not have the usual players from SG-1 there but to actually go to Atlantis after not playing the character for close to a year was a little bit odd. But fortunately, in regards to Daniel's fast talking, David Hewlett managed to warm me up relatively quickly.
MS: Thank you! Thank you for staying with us. Seeing that movie and being with fans of the franchise in that theatre. Seeing the reactions to it shows that there still is the love for those characters. That there still is a future for it. I think with "Ark of Truth" people went "Oh…okay…that's it. I guess we're done telling SG-1 stories now," and seeing this story that way. Seeing the reactions of people showed that we still very much have a future in this. And it's been a lovely ride. The fans are the reason we do it, and without them, we wouldn't be anything. So, thank you.
CJ: "When Rick (Richard Dean Anderson) slowed his schedule down in Season 7, when Lou Gossett was on, and Teal'c became an orator, I would look at this stuff - 'this one scene is more than Teal'c talked in three seasons!' (laughs).
It was weird, because that muscle had kind of atrophied, and it took me a while to restimulate it. It was tough for a while."
CJ: "Well the perception of Teal'c before SG-1 entered the scene was that he was a bad guy, but he had been talking to Bra'tac for years (about rebelling against the evil Goa'uld), but he had to keep the facade of the status quo in order to have these back room machinations going on - so in Continuum it was much the same thing - only Teal'c aligned himself with Ba'al, because Ba'al offered him a chance to free his people. So it's still the same endgame, just a different route to get there."
CJ: "I was kind of a cut-up the first five years, and I think I was having too good a time. Brad Wright and I were always very good friends and he knew that I always wanted to go more the writer/producer route and he said to me 'why don't you get serious and write something?' anything? well, come in with a couple of pitches and we'll see what you've got.
We'd always had pitches for shows about Amazons, but they always seemed a bit like Wonder Woman type of thing, so I came up with concept of these women under one particular God who so wanted warriors that he would kill off the children until he got a boy - which lead to one of their princesses spiriting their children away and so on.
The way a normal story is written - you pitch an idea, if the writers like it, then they all sit in a room and they break the story. Break the beats, break the acts, break everything. And then you basically write the dialogue. I asked Brad - 'would you mind if I didn't do that, because I would really like a real assessment if I have a future in this or not'. And he said 'sure'.
So I actually turned it in early. Then we went on summer hiatus and I didn't hear anything from Brad or Martin Wood, who I'd also given a copy to, and also to John Smith. And nothing. So I'm just sitting there thinking 'guess I'm an actor'...
Then on the Saturday before we were to go back to work, there were three messages on my phone. And they swear they didn't talk. Brad, Martin and John each saying how much they enjoyed it, blah blah blah. Structurally, Brad definitely fixed that, but for the most part, we pretty much shot what I wrote, which I learned is not the way it always happens. As a writer, especially as a TV writer or film writer, you can't be 'married' to the work or take it personally. The whole thing, I really owe to Brad Wright. Even Rage of Angels.
We were at Martin Wood's wedding, we had gone outside for a smoke - well I was smoking - and he said, 'if this show ever ends, what are you gonna do?'. And I said 'I'd really like to star in an hour drama, not a sitcom, and have it be viable'. And he said 'you know you're going to have to write it yourself - no network is out looking for that'.
And I said 'yeah, I kinda figured that'. So the week of the 200th episode, that's when we learned we were cancelled. Four days later I had written Rage of Angels."
Michael Shanks: "No, actually, this is I think my fourth. I've been to Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Hamburg...so I think this is my fourth German convention. Where are we now? In Bonn, yes, thank you."
MS: "I would say they're in general -- that they're a lot more passionate about their show than in America. I've never been to Asia, so I'm not really sure about that market. So I'd say they're very similar to the UK in their passion for their genre shows. So, I think that that differs from the American audience."
MS: "I hope to say I'm not getting used to it, but it's always great. Every time I do it it's always an interesting experience, because I never have the same reaction to an audience, they're always their own unique animal. I think this audience is very similar in that way. It's always great. It's flattering you know. What are you supposed to do, smile and nod and answer the questions the best you can."
MS: "Oh boy! Uhm, there's a lot...I mean, there's a lot. Ten years of doing anything. We shoot the show nine months a year. There's a lot of memories. I mean, you know, empires have risen and fallen in the decade that we've done the show.
You know, people had entire careers in the real world, and with us it's no different. Babies have been born -- somebody did a count, and there was like 40 something babies on the set of Stargate. There were numerous deaths, not only people who worked on the show, but of relatives and things like that.
Almost every episode that we we've done is marked by some occurrence where you can always say, 'Hey, I remember.' That's when 9/11 happened. We were filming that ("Menace"). Or that's when Rick's (Richard Dean Anderson) dad passed away ("Lifeboat"). Or that's when I had my appendix taken out ("Crystal Skull").
Everything is kind of marked in some way by some occurrence and you can always -- you know, little secrets -- this is where Rick was written light in this episode because his daughter was born ("Spirits"), or this is when Daniel was written light because my daughter was born ("A Matter of Time") during that time.
This is where I asked for time off because another child was born ("Line in the Sand"). So there's all sorts of "in" jokes in the history of the show that go along with the making of it for ten years. The memories are too bountiful to pick just a couple of them."
MS: "Oh boy. In about a week I start filming a movie called "The Last Treasure of the Grand Canyon" in my old home town of Kamloops (Canada), which is doubling as the Grand Canyon. After that, I do a couple of episodes of Stargate Atlantis. And then Christopher Judge and I are carrying on producing, or trying to get produced, the script's been sold, for our project "Rage of Angels," which is a fantasy story where angels have battled it out on Earth. Where Christopher will be playing the Arch Angel Gabriel and I will be playing Lucifer. So hopefully that will be on television hopefully, but now we're hearing that they want to turn it into a feature. So we'll have to wait and see."
MS: "As I was saying before, in about three weeks I start filming two guest spots on Stargate Atlantis. And I have no idea what they planned for the character in that. But if they kill him, for good, I'm going to be very angry."
