“The idea that you can replace an existing character on the show is absurd,” actor Ben Browder told GateWorld. “You can’t replace Richard Dean Anderson. It’s impossible. And whatever the circumstances are that involve him being less involved, I think it’s advantageous from a production standpoint to have four members of a team going through a gate instead of three. And I think it facilitates the stories, as well. I think at a certain point you need that.”
“That’s how I view my job,” he said. “… I’m coming in to do a job. And what I hope is that it’s going to contribute to the process. You cannot come into a situation and try to remake, rearrange what exists and what works. You try to find a way to add, not change.”
Browder also told GateWorld that he’s been spending his time watching past episodes of Stargate SG-1 before heading to Vancouver — all of them. “Of the last two weeks I’ve watched 130 hours of Stargate,” he said. “[And] they didn’t ask [me to do] that. The idea of me actually watching them may have scared them. There are few things worse than an actor who has an idea! No, I just feel that in order to go on to a production which has go on that long, I want to know the story thus far.”
“I’ve watched the series and just think that I have a tremendous challenge in front of me. It’s kind of exciting and scary at the same time.”
Read GateWorld’s complete interview with Ben Browder here! In the interview, Browder also talks about how he’ll approach playing his still unnamed character, working former Farscape co-star Claudia Black again, and how he thinks the two shows are — and are not — alike.
Season Nine of SG-1 begins filming in March for a summer premiere on The SCI FI Channel. All-new Season Eight episodes begin this Friday, January 21, at a new time: 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.