BEYOND THE STARGATE

...At work and at play, the cast of _Stargate SG-1_ have plenty in common...

Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge obviously abide by the theory that the cast that plays together, stays together. Despite working 15-hour days together on the set of _Stargate SG-1_, come the weekend they'll hit the ski fields or golf courses of Vancouver, where the science fiction hit is based.

Interviewing the pair in an upmarket Vancouver hotel is like gate crashing someone else's private party, so keen are they on discussing the following day's proposed ski trip to Whistler, a few hours' drive away.

"Sorry about that," apologises Judge, a Los Angeles native with a string of films and series to his credit, including _Bird On A Wire_, _Macgyver_, _21 Jump Street_ and _Wiseguy_. "We're trying to get some skiing in before we go back into production."

The fact that Judge and Shank, who respectively play alien escapee Teal'c and scientist Dr Daniel Jackson on the series, hang out together during their break shows how close they have become. As 31-year-old Judge explains, Shanks, 27, has become a best friend and a younger brother to him since they started working together last year.

"I've worked on a lot of shows where I've done the job and gone home and not spoken to the other people until I've gone back to work," says the tall, well-built actor, dressed for Canadian winter in a black leather jacket, grey shirt, jeans and boots. "But here it's like a big love-in."

The admiration is not only shared by the cast of _Stargate SG-1_, which also features Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping as a group of renegades who roam the universe via a cosmic wormhole, the stargate of the title.

A quick glance at any number of fan-driven websites on the internet reveals a devotion to the series and the cast which borders on obsessive.

"Science fiction fans are the most intelligent and perceptive and loyal fans you can have," says Shanks, a Vancouver-born former business student who fell into acting when he took theatre classes to build up his credit points at university.

"The intricacy and the detail we need to have in our scripts to keep the fans interested is so amazing. They are discerning viewers. They spend so much of their lives waiting with bated breath for each episode to air and then they want to talk about it afterwards. You can't let them down."

Judge, who only got internet access last Christmas, is equally surprised by the dedication to the series.

"It's exciting that people care," he says, noting that websites were filled with pages of discussion when producers used a slightly different stargate in one episode. "But that is the thing about the science fiction genre. It seems like they are the most passionate fans there are. Along with us letting our imaginations run wild, so do they. They have the chance to live vacariously through these characters."

Fans go as far as to submit story ideas on the internet sites, driven by the mind-boggling potential of a series which visits a strange new world each week.

"This show is unique," says Shanks, unshaven and wearing the casual jeans and parka look. "We're not tied to a city or a hospital or a police station. The possibilities are limitless for something like this. It just depends on your imagination and your budgets."

_Stargate SG-1_, based on the 1994 Roland Emmerich film and with a budget of $2 million an episode, is the most expensive science fiction show yet made. The pilot, a ratings winner across Australia when it aired last year, cost $7.5 million alone.

Oddly, neither is a huge fan of the science fiction genre. Shanks even admits to finding the _Stargate_ feature film "a little disappointing".

"Well, when I was a kid I loved _Space 1999_, _Battlestar Galactica_ and _Star Wars_," he offers. "They were so different from things like _Starksy & Hutch_. But I got over it as I got older."

But they are both overwhelmed by the reaction to _Stargate SG-1_ and hope its success continues as they enter their second series of 22 episodes.

"I'm looking forward to doing my first nude scene this year," says Judge mischievously. "Or, at least, a love scene because everyone else has done them except me."

Love-in, indeed.

- Rachel Brown

>[article appeared with picture of Judge in costume, caption "UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: Christopher Judge as Teal'c"]

[TV Now magazine p.9 June 7, 1998 Sun Herald]