Farscape Hunk's Stargate Gig

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. "My decision to leave the show is purely a personal one, based first and foremost on my desire to spend as much time as possible with my 6-year-old daughter in Los Angeles," Anderson says. (Stargate is filmed in Vancouver, B.C.) The former MacGyver star is currently in negotiations with Sci Fi to appear in a handful of episodes.

To ease the transition, viewers will learn that Browder's character "has been involved in a very key way in some of [the Stargate crew's] major events," executive producer Robert C. Cooper says. Flashbacks will link M.M. to past adventures.

As if this news doesn't give Farscape fans enough to celebrate, Cooper hints at a possible reunion between Browder and former costar Claudia Black. Black is guest-starring on Stargate's Jan. 28 episode as an alien, and "we'd love to have her back and meet up with Ben in some capacity," Cooper says. "That would be too much fun to resist."

Browder hopes his new, higher-profile series will help the cause of another Farscape project. "It's not only a good career move for me, but it could be good for the whole Farscape cast."