Thought of the Day for TPTB Daniel Jackson: the heart and soul of Stargate SG-1 or an anchor weighing down the team... Michael Shanks - Dec 2001 Live 365 Radio, December 2001 "It was the right time for me and the show needed a change as well and the two happened to correlate at the right time.  I think the show - it also was evolving into something that the character was no longer fitting easily and comfortably into.  And so it - it became more and more clear to me that it was time to just sort of - um - to just sort of  - uh - move on and it was probably gonna be...the character was becoming more of an anchor weighing down the team a little bit.  And in my own mind I wanted to stay active and tay busy and I found the character wasn't doing as much or being nearly as involved in the show either so... I think the two seemed to conjunct at the right time and SciFi Channel wanted a new - uh - They needed some sort of a new dynamic so they could sell the show as a different kind of season.  I think that was the right - uh...The right angle for them to take into a sixth season is a bit of a - uh - a bit of a cast shift and that's sort of - uh - what happened." Brad Wright - Feb 2002 'Star Fate' by Thomasina Gibson, extracts from SciFi Magazine, April 2002  Co-creator and executive producer Brad Wright caused a near-heart-stopping moment when he confirmed that one of the show’s main characters would depart before the end of the current season.  Attendees of the second annual Gatecon extravaganza in Vancouver were stunned to silence as Wright broke the news that Daniel Jackson, archaeologist, linguist and all-around heart and soul of the intrepid SG-1 team, was about to meet his maker.  His response to a direct question from a fan was “To be honest with you, I have to tell you that the SG-1 team will not go forward into the new season in its present form.  Daniel Jackson will no longer be a member of the team.”  In total accord with the feeling of most of the audience in Vancouver and around the world, Wright went on to say, “It’s not an easy thing to just say goodbye to a character that in many ways was the heart and soul of your series.  Rick (Dean Anderson} is the name above the title, but Michael Shanks’ character of Daniel carried the morality of Stargate, and that is something we will simply struggle to replace.  However, Daniel’s arc was over.  But make no mistake, the method by which he’s leaving completely leaves the door open, and if it works out – he will return.”  Dr. Jackson is set to leave the show during the episode entitled “Meridian,” when, in typical Daniel fashion, he chooses to save the world rather than his own life.  Thankfully, Mother Nature steps in to reward his selfless act, very much leaving a return path should the good Dr. Jackson need to be reunited with his friends.  As a writer as well as producer of the show, Brad Wright highlighted the more positive side of the conclusion on one cycle of the show and the start of another. “As someone who has written a lot of hours of Stargate SG-1, I’m looking forward to the newness that will come from having to create a new character and make that character work as part of the team.  Whether we’re successful enough or not – the fans will have to decide.  But I genuinely appreciate the challenge simply because it’s new.  Very few people in my position even stay on a show as long as I have, so I’m looking forward to the change.”  While not wishing to give away too many spoilers, Wright was eventually persuaded to reveal some details about the exciting new developments.  “The new character is introduced in the episode entitled ‘Meridian’,” he begins. “I thought it would be a nice symmetry if we met the new character in the same episode in which Daniel leaves.” Sadly, the actor’s name was embargoed at the time this article was written ( the ink wasn’t dry on his contract), but the executive producer did confess, “He is a big name.  People are going to recognize him straightaway.  He is very funny.  He is very good and I really like him.  The one thing he is going to bring to the screen is an enthusiasm and an ‘I’ve never seen this before and this is all new to me’ feel which I think is important for a lot of reasons.”  "First and foremost, Wright suggests. `The Sci Fi Channel is our new broadcaster, and we'll have a whole lot of new viewers, so our new guy is going to provide an enthusiasm and a newness to the team that the new viewers deserve.  Nobody wants to tune in to a show for the first time and see a bunch of characters going through the Stargate where every one of them is in `been there, seen that' mode.  I understand and respect our regular actors' decisions to act that way because it makes sense. This is their job and they have been doing it for five years.  However, the new guy will give a freshness. He will deliver a fresh approach to how we look at every situation.' "  Brad Wright interviewed by Thomasina Gibson  SciFi Channel - February 2002 9:00am ET, 11-February-02: SCI FI Clarifies SG-1 Casting  In response to rumors that it was responsible for the departure of Michael Shanks from Stargate SG-1, the SCI FI Channel issued a statement saying it never requested any cast changes to the show. "SCI FI Channel loves the series and has absolutely never requested that any cast changes be made," the network said. "We're very excited to add Stargate SG-1 to our original programming line-up, and although we regret the loss of Michael Shanks, we think that Corin Nemec will be a great new presence in the cast." Nemec (Parker Lewis Can't Lose) will join the cast when the series begins its sixth season on SCI FI in June. Shanks, who played Daniel Jackson, will leave the show at the end of the current season, which is running on Showtime. Stargate started out on Showtime, which will air original episodes through the end of season five. An all-new sixth season of the show will debut on SCI FI in June, and SCI FI will also rerun the first five seasons in order, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2002. Reruns of the series also air in various syndicated markets. Michael Shanks - Feb 2002 Daniel in the Lion's Den, Xpose #66 Mar 2002 Despite his attempts at diplomacy, it’s easy to see that Shanks is an angry young man. The fans’ reactions have been fueled in part by a frenzied ‘did he jump or he pushed’ debate that the actor isn’t particularly eager to avoid.  Although he’s again quick reiterate the fact that it was indeed his own decision to leave, he pinpoints his growing discontent with his role as reason for his choice, and adds that it’s a problem that coould have easily been resolved way that would have made him more willing to stay. Shanks explains his unhappiness with the writers’ treatment of the character, which to his mind had become more and more  two-dimensional as the seasons progressed.  “I think me leaving is a kind of indicator of how satisfied I was [with Season Five]. I found last two years of the show to be a winding down lack of the character's usefulness and the lack of desire of the producers to incorporate that character and use him properly was at times very frustrating for me. There were certainly moments when that came to the fore. It just seemed that there was a painting into a corner of the character which was done early in the Fourth Season. There was a gradual decline, in the sense that there wasn’t a big effort to include him in the big scene. "As an actor, that’s frustrating: when you are there all the time but you are not contributing in any way. I guess it’s like playing with a sports team where you are sitting on the bench. You know, you’re happy to be there but at the same time you also want to get your name in, and so it became frustrating. I wasn’t content with the way it was going. My early enthusiasm for the show may have propelled me through the rougher points, but then after such a long length of time doing a similar thing each week, that enthusiasm wore down to a point where it couldn’t even get me through the days any more.” Going on to outline what would have made him happy to continue portraying Daniel Jackson, Shanks describes how it would have made a difference if the writers had been more enthusiastic on behalf of the character. “It didn’t really seem to be important, if that character didn’t fit in [to a particular scene], to give him a reason to fit in, to make a point of saying that he has this conditional skill that is required, something like that. But again, the more I seemed to be vocal about it, the less I saw happening, and the more my frustration built up. So that led to the eventual decision.” Nevertheless, Shanks didn’t relent, a turn of events he again attributes to the lackadaisical attitude of the producers. “From the moment I said that I was going to go, there didn’t seem to be any sort of fight from the producers to try to keep me,” he says, the anger still evident in his voice despite the months since the events in question. “It almost seemed as if it were something that they were hoping I’d do,” he continues frankly, “so that they could have a fresh perspective for season six, which pissed me off. That angered me — and any second thoughts I had after that were quelled by the fact that it didn’t seem as if the door was even open for me to change my mind. If I changed my mind, that door wasn’t going to be open anyway, so it was almost as if the moment I said I was going to go, then that was the way it was going to be and live with it.” As far as Michael was concerned, the producers hadn’t even considered the possibility of taking him back if he decided to stay, “It didn’t even go on in their minds.” Michael Shanks interviewed by Sharon Gosling

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