Browder: Bring on Season Ten!

In a recent trip to Los Angeles, GateWorld got the chance to catch up with Ben Browder, Stargate SG-1’s Colonel Cameron Mitchell and team leader since the beginning of Season Nine. With half of the year having aired in the United States, many viewers have had mixed opinions on the character and the show’s new direction.

At the time of the interview confirmation of Season Ten had just reached the ears of fans. Whether some fans are for or against SG-1 going on to a record-breaking tenth year, it’s coming their way. Browder certainly is prepared as well.

“I’m game for Season Ten,” he tells us. “I’m very happy that there is [going to be] a Season Ten. Obviously it was a concern coming in on Season Nine, ‘Would this be the last year? Would this work?’ To the degree that it has worked and people have tuned in, it’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to come back and do more.”

SG-1 has held a steady 2.0 rating for the ninth year’s first ten episodes, down slightly from the previous year. But with ten episodes to go there is no telling how Season Nine will finish in the ratings.

At the time of this interview, news of Michael Shanks’s possible exit from the show had also surfaced. Browder weighs in: “Daniel Jackson is a critical character to the story,” he tells GateWorld. “Critical. His absence and how you handle it is a tricky balance.” Fortunately, the odds are good that Shanks will return for the new year.

“Camelot,” the Season Nine cliffhanger finale, is sure to make most viewers thankful that a tenth year is coming. Browder will be showing off his muscles once again — but in eight inches of mud. Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi has alluded to GateWorld readers how horrible it would have been, in terms of unresolved threads, if the show had ended for good with that episode.

“I’m still waiting to find out whether I’m alive or not!” Browder admits.

How long can fans expect to be watching Ben Browder on SG-1? “As long as I’m enjoying doing it and as long as they continue to be able to pay me to do it, [and] as long as Rob Cooper and Brad Wright want to do it and the stories are engaging,” he says. Ben did admit that the constant flights back to Los Angeles to be with his spouse and two children are stressful, but worth it.

But in terms of the number of years, “That’s an impossible question to answer,” he says. “You can’t sit down and say ‘Yes, I’m going to play baseball until I’m 90.’ You don’t know. You get to the end of a year and figure it out.”

GateWorld’s exclusive video interview with Ben Browder will be gating your way soon! In it, he enlightens us about possibly writing for SG-1, Mitchell’s childhood memories of Farrah Fawcett, “Ben Browder Is God” key chains, and Stargate Donut Day.