Richard Dean Anderson returns in ‘200’

Richard Dean Anderson needs no introduction to Stargate SG-1 audiences: He led the SG-1 team and served as an executive producer for eight years on the hit series, helping to make it the record-breaking franchise that it is today. Now, the “Jack O’Neill” actor is officially on board for return appearances in the show’s tenth season.

Anderson will appear first in the episode titled “200,” which not coincidentally will air this summer as the show’s 200th episode. “200” will allow the cast and crew to break outside the mold of the traditional Stargate episode while revisiting a comical storyline from the past — precisely 100 episodes ago, in fact.

The show’s former leading man will also guest star on Stargate Atlantis in Season Three, and will appear in additional episodes of SG-1‘s tenth year. Anderson told his official Web site that he will appear in a total of five episodes this year. He was asked to appear in the 200th episode, and during negotiations offered to do a few more if the writers wanted to use his character to tie up any loose ends.

Beware of minor spoilers for “200” below!

“We’ll see Willie Garson [Martin Lloyd],” executive producer Brad Wright told GateWorld exclusively. “He’s coming back. It’s sort of a full circle thing.”“Wormhole X-Treme!” premiered on September 8, 2001, as the 100th episode of SG-1. In the episode, Martin Lloyd (a human from another world who was hiding out on Earth after deserting a war … but didn’t remember it) started a TV series based on his subconscious knowledge of the Stargate program, to which he was introduced in “Point of No Return.”

“200” is co-written by nearly the entire Stargate writing staff, with each “vignette” segment being woven together within the framework of SG-1’s suggestions for the “Wormhole X-Treme!” movie, as they serve as Air Force consultants on the project.

Jack O’Neill (Anderson) visits the set of “Wormhole X-Treme!,” based on the real Stargate program, with Martin Lloyd (Garson) in the Season Five episode.

“It’s out there … in a good way!” Wright said. “It’s fun. Hopefully it’s funny. Hopefully it’s very funny — if not, it’s at least fun.”

Wright also said that while Anderson’s decision to leave the show wasn’t up to the producers (the actor had steadily reduced his time commitments to the show over three years, in order to spend more time with his young daughter at home in California), bringing him back was.

“We’ve asked him, and he’s going to come back. Certainly not for the whole time, but he’s going to come and play with us again. That door was left open, and he’s going to come back and step through it.”

The show’s producers also told GateWorld that Anderson’s appearance in the episode will be substantial, and not a brief cameo as he did in Season Nine’s “Avalon, Part 1” and “Origin.”

“The essence of his idea is that we’ll all write it,” Wright told GateWorld. “And that’s a lot of fun. And we each took sections — and my section is possibly the most outrageous. Fans are either going to love it, or they’re going to hate it. But I thought it was fun. And I figure every hundred episodes you should be allowed to go outside the box a little bit.”

“200” will go before cameras in Vancouver on April 5, and will air in late August on The SCI FI Channel in the U.S. Stay tuned to GateWorld for more details!