Stargate SG-1
Question: I must hand it to Sci Fi; it looks like they got something very right. In a single move they have placated the Farscape contingent and reenergized Stargate SG-1. It appears that Ben Browder hasn't just joined the show, but now is the show. And I, for one, could not be happier — especially with all the inside jokes between him and Claudia Black (e.g. the pregnancy wink). The more they make SG-1 like Farscape while keeping the existing mythology and atmosphere, the better and more interesting the show will be, I think. But any way you look at it, it looks pretty freakin' smart.
Answer: Well, it certainly got me and a handful of other critics I know into the tent. I don't pretend to understand everything that goes on in the Stargate franchise, but all I ask is to be entertained, and bringing Ben Browder aboard surely helps. I ran into Browder recently at a lunch during the still-ongoing TCA press tour. He seems to be having a great time, and he was thrilled to be reunited with
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Question: I know you like Battlestar Galactica pretty much, but I just don't feel the same. Sure, the show has its moments, but they are few and far between. It's definitely not something I'd want my child to watch because of its sexual content. If it is such a good show, why is it still the last of the three-show block on Friday night? I think it's because both Stargates are far superior in every way. Now, with the addition of Ben Browder as lead and Claudia Black in six episodes SG-1 will be better than ever. Just goes to show how smart the powers that be behind SG-1 are. They will pick up fans from the best sci-fi show ever to hit the airwaves, Farscape. I still miss that show.
Answer: No argument on Farscape. Bringing Ben Browder and, in a recurring role, Claudia Black aboard on SG-1 has made the show lots of fun as a new season begins tonight. (I don't really understand any of it, but who cares.) But Battlestar Galactica airs at the end of Sci Fi's Friday night lineup not because
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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.
As first reported by TV Guide Online, Ben Browder, who played the marooned astronaut on Sci Fi Channel's late, lamented Farscape (and last fall's miniseries Farscape: 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 fanatics buzzing, hard-core 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.
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Finally! Farscape fans who mourned Sci Fi Channel's canceled cult hit will see their fave space-opera stars reunited this weekend. John Crichton and fiancée Aeryn Sun have a baby on the way and intergalactic turmoil on their hands in Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, a four-hour miniseries starting Sunday at 9 pm/ET. Here, Ben Browder — who plays the astronaut-turned-action hero — tells TV Guide Online all about his visit from the space stork!
TV Guide Online: Once again, your real-life wife, Francesca Buller, plays someone who wants to kill you.Ben Browder: [Cracking up] It was just the show's writing reflecting my natural existence. She wants to kill [me]. It didn't require any acting.
TVGO: Crichton, of course, does his requisite suffering in the miniseries.Browder: Poor John Crichton. He's the most hunted man in the universe.
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In his role as John Crichton, the astronaut-turned-action hero of Sci Fi Channel's cult hit, Farscape, Ben Browder frequently struggled to keep his emotions in check. In real life, the actor doesn't always feel the need to hold back. In fact, he was downright verklempt when he arrived on the set of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, a four-hour miniseries that will air in October — and pick up where the prematurely canceled show left off!
"I got tears in my eyes walking back onto the set," Browder tells TV Guide Online. "To walk back onto Moya [the living leviathin which housed Crichton and his band of interstellar fugitives] was like seeing an old friend you never thought you'd see again. There were minor differences [in the set], but for the most part, it was like a time warp. A year and a half had passed since they had dismantled it, and there it was again.
"It actually leads you to believe
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Like every Farscape cast member, Claudia Black spent the first three seasons of Sci Fi Channel's cult hit convinced it could be yanked off the air at any moment. "The fourth year was the first time I actually believed we'd be back," says the actress, who played steely Peacekeeper warrior Aeryn Sun. "We were shooting the last scene of the final episode, and I said to Ben Browder [aka Crichton], 'We'll be back. We always come back. It's the boomerang show!' And he said, 'No, I don't think so.'"
Unfortunately, Browder was right... until now, anyway. Against the odds, Farscape is returning to Sci Fi this October in a four-hour miniseries called Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. As happy as Black was to be back onboard Moya, the project came at an awkward time. "It was filmed just before Christmas," she says. "We had all scattered to the four winds and getting everybody back was really difficult.
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What a difference a year makes. When the Farscape crew assembled in San Diego for the 2003 Comic-Con, it was a decidedly mournful affair. The show had aired its last episode only four months earlier and with no network reprieve in sight, angry fans were experiencing a serious case of withdrawal. Little did anyone suspect, however, that behind the scenes, plans were already in the works to resurrect Farscape and give the cult series a proper send-off!
Flash-forward to the 2004 Con, where fans' dreams became a reality. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, reunited members from the cast and crew (including series stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black) took the stage to present the trailer for Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, a four-hour miniseries that will air on the Sci Fi Channel on Oct. 17 and 18 at 9pm/ET.
To say the teaser got a positive reaction would be an understatement; the minute Farscape's familiar theme song started play
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