DEVLIN AND EMMERICH DESPISED IT, BUT STARGATE SG-1 HAS NOW SECURED ITSELF AS ONE OF THE TOP SF TV SERIES OF THE’ 90S. JIM SWALLOW TALKS DOORS WITH CO-PRODUCER BRAD WRIGHT AND CAST.

Prompting legendary ‘90s SF schlockmeisters Dean Deviln and Roland Emmerich to dub your TV spin on their cinematic concept "shit" and "like watching somebody murder your children" isn't really the sort of PR executive producer and writer Brad Wright would want of his and co-producer Jonathan Glassner's Stargate SG-1. But then the Godzilla and ID4 supremos, who first hit the Hollywood big time with their SF actioner Stargate, haven't seen the show's ratings. Stargate SG-1 has been a staggering success worldwide.

Currently midway through its second season on satellite here in the UK and on the Showtime cable network in the US, the series is gaining a brand new audience as it launches into syndication across the main American TV networks. And with a four-season commitment from parent company MCM, it's looking in good shape, despite the face-changing necessitated by its new TV-honed home.

Richard Dean Anderson has replaced Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O'Neill andJames Spader’s nerdy scientist Daniel Jackson is now portrayed by Michael Shanks. Adding televisual flourish to the mix arc newcomers Teal'c (Christopher Judge), a turncoat warrior from the enemy side, and Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), an Air Force astrophysicist.

"When Jonathan and I saw the Stargate movie, we knew it would make an excellent TV series," enthuses Wright, "and knowing that it was in MGM's library, we approached them about writing the pilot episode. What I think is fabulous about the concept is that there are 39 symbols on the Stargate, and that means that there are millions of possible combinations and Stargate locations across the galaxy. The idea of a network of them carne to us immediately."

Wright, who also worked on the revamped The Outer Limits as well as vampire cop saga Forever Knight, notes similarities with the former on his latest project.

"I ended the world a lot on OuterLimits, but we could because it was an episodic show! I always saw its theme as a series of cautionary tales, whereas with Stargate SG-1 we're about embracing the unknown, the adventure and the awe of the Stargate. We have a lot of humour a well - I don't think we had one joke in four years of The Outer Limits!"

Indeed, the producer compares Stargate SG-1's action-adventure blend to that other success story: the original Star Trek.

"They embraced humour in that show, as we do. We're so fortunate to have a cast like this. I've worked on a lot of shows and I realise how lucky we are to have a cast who are not only good actors but wonderful people at the same time, and they constantly challenge us to write to their strengths. As an ensemble, they just come together so well."

But the first season bad its problems - notably exterior shots filmed in British Colombia looking like yet another Canadian forest... Wright says they've learned some tough lessons. "We've done a lot more in studio for season two, which gives us more range than we ever had." He points out episodes like "Cold Lazarus," shot on location at a sulphur works among alien-looking yellow dunes, and "Message In A Bottle," which opens on an airless lunar surface. "But a lot of our stories take place on Earth-like planets, and those have to have trees! We did a script where a local girl is showing Daniel Jackson around and she says, 'Look - we call these trees...' and Daniel says, 'Yeah, so do we...'"

Another helpful factor is the idea that all these ancient Earth cultures have been transplanted to distant worlds via the Stargates:it gives the writers more creative freedom.

"The licence that we have is that these cultures were transplanted thousands of years ago, so we can presume a degree of evolution iv that time. We just did a story featuring a West coast Native American culture, and we could have gone completely by the book in terms of our art direction, but we have to presume there would be changes, so we started at that point and extrapolated. We've done that a few times, plus we have the influence of the bad guys, the Goa'ulds, to consider. The cultural elements are never the whole story."

The success of Stargate SG-1 to date has so convinced the Showtime network of its commercial viability that the company has already committed to a full four years of 88-episodes. With such a long lead-time, Wright and Glassner are eager to construct far-reaching arc plotlines.

"We can take them a long way," says Wright. "You're going to see stories grow over the year and you'll see some of them resolving. But we're not that structured. We're very aware of the stories that need to be arced, but we're also going to bring back other elements as well." As an example, he cites "Tin Man," a show that ended with robot duplicates of the SG-1 team stranded on a distant planet. "We're going to go back there. Continuity is something that science fiction fans love, and so do I!"

Leading the SG-1 team and the struggle against the evil alien Goa'ulds is actor Richard Dean Anderson as Colonel Jack O'Neill (played by Kurt Russell in the movie). Michael Greenberg, co-executive producer on the series and partner with Anderson in his Gekko Film production company, answers the oft-asked question when the two actors are compared: "I think Richard's O'Neill is more like Indiana Jones and Han Solo than Kurt's."

Anderson himself adds that his take on the character is a lot less serious than Russell's, with the lion's share of cynical quips coming from his mouth.

"I'm having an absolute ball playing him. Probably more than I should," he laughs. "I was very up front with MGM at the beginning, stating that I could not replicate Kurt's portrayal of the character. He was more stoic than I want O'Neill to be. But I feel that we have freedom to find new and different aspects of this character than we saw in the movie. O'Neill has feelings that were created and left over from the end of the movie. The series starts after he's had time to ponder his life. He was affected greatly by the events that transpired on Abydos, so a new attitude was born. His inquisitiveness is also piqued by the idea that you can travel to other planets through the Stargate."

While O'Neill's attraction to the Stargate comes from a desire to "go boldly," the actor's reasons for taking the role also come from an opportunity to try something new.

"There are a few elements that attracted me to the show. I'd worked with John Stymies (MGM TV's president) when he was at Paramount for MacGyver and he asked me to become involved with the project. I watched the movie a few times and decided that it was the perfect vehicle for a series - the concept alone allowed for expansion into a weekly series. Second, I'd never been a fan of the science fiction genre, hut I've always said that I will try anything once... It would've been hypocritical of me not to consider it."

Working on Stargate SG-1 has helped the actor shrug off the typecasting mantle of MacGyver. "I've a lot of affection for that show - it's still very popular in Europe - but it's good to progress."

Indeed, even in Stargate SG-1's pilot episode "Children of The Gods," there's a sly nod to Anderson's previous role when Captain Carter suggests she might he able to "MacGyver" the damaged Stargate controls...

As the head honcho of the SG-1 team, Colonel O'Neill also seems to he in the frontline for most of the series' unpleasant special effects: he's regressed into a Neanderthal ("The Broca Divide"), been replicated by an alien crystal ("Cold Lazarus"), prematurely aged almost to death ("Brief Candle") and been trapped in a glacier ("Solitude's") - and that's just during the first season! Anderson sighs manfully at his character's constant confrontation with effects-laden danger.

"Acting with effects is just part of the job. It's not the same thing as performing in theatre or doing Shakespeare in the Park, but it's part of the tools that are available to you as an actor. It enables you to create a reality or a fantasy."

Well into the next millennium, Stargate SG-1's missions across the galaxy look set to be an established fixture on the SF TV landscape.

Executive producer and co-writer Jonathan Glassner puts it best: "We're not bound by reality and imagination is limitless."

By Jim Swallow

(c) 1999, SFX.  All rights recognised.  No copyright infringement intended.

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