Question: Just a couple of quick questions about Stargate: SG-1. Where the heck is Amanda Tapping in SG-1? She was on for two seconds in the first episode and we haven't seen her since. I miss Sam! Is this on purpose? Was it her choice or the show's? And why is O'Neill is gone? Finally, it seems like Teal'c is hardly on the show, either. Did he also make the choice to be on less? The only original we continually see is Daniel. While I like the new characters, it's starting to feel like a totally different show. Your thoughts?
Answer: I asked an expert, my colleague Ileane Rudolph (who was recently on set), for verification. Here's the deal: Amanda Tapping took a pregnancy leave, and it shouldn't be long before she rejoins the show. Richard Dean Anderson stepped away by choice, choosing family over the series grind after years in the trenches (like the rest of us, I imagine he had no idea it would go on this long). The Teal'c character will reemerge as the season progresses, in a major
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If the Stargate franchise is considering another sequel, I've got an idea: Stargate: Vala. There's gold in that thar Claudia Black. After eons of playing Farscape's ultra-serious Aeryn Sun, Black is positively bursting with mirth as SG-1's resident bad girl. But Vala's no ditz — when push comes to shove, the lady can play hardball, as evidenced during the budget conference. "Only an idiot would think you can defend this backwater planet with a few ships and a shield," she tells the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, throwing in a corny shot about his "shortcomings" for good measure. So why is Vala still at Stargate Command? Well, apart from her need to flirt with Daniel and pester him about credit cards, I'm guessing nobody was ready to let go of the Jaffa bracelets as a plot device. But as it led our heroes to the doorstep of Wallace Shawn's Arnus, I'm not complaining. Although I found the idea of Vala having "wonderful carnal times
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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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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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