Surprise! Stargate’s Felger and Coombs Are Reunited

When Stargate decided to do its own “Lower Decks”-style episode in the sixth season of Stargate SG-1, it turned to a pair of comedic actors to play those ordinary scientists that Colonel O’Neill and his team frequently have to babysit. But in this unique episode (titled “The Other Guys”) SG-1 is captured by the enemy, and Jay Felger drags along his colleague Simon Coombs for the most impromptu rescue mission ever.

The actors were Canadian comic legend Patrick McKenna (The Red Green Show) and Star Trek: Enterprise co-star John Billingsley (who plays Dr. Phlox on that show). In this conversation with “Dial the Gate” John is surprised when Patrick does an unannounced drop-in on the live show!

“It was hard not to laugh constantly,” McKenna said of their time filming the episode back in 2002. “We were just thrown together — we never knew each other, and then suddenly it was called ‘The Other Guys’ and there was this assumption of a team. And I just found it was magic that John was this incredible open energy — that we both just acknowledged that, and fell into these roles pretty easily. It seemed to really work well!”

Check out the surprise moment and the full exchange between these two legends in this clip:

The two reminisce about their time filming Stargate, trying to learn how to pronounce “Goa’uld” right, Felger’s return for Season Seven’s “Avenger 2.0” … and why Coombs didn’t come back.

“I’m all excited and I get the script,” McKenna said. “They said ‘You’re coming back.’ [I said] ‘Oh, great great great … where’s John?!’ John couldn’t get off work. ‘What? What am I doing here? I don’t know what to do without John!'”

Billingsley, for his part, had always thought that the show’s producers didn’t ask him back for “Avenger 2.0.”

“I’ve been telling people for years that they didn’t ask me back,” he said. “I don’t remember if it was a scheduling thing. … For a while [Star Trek] was being very generous and letting me double dip. So maybe they put the kibosh on that, or I was busy in an episode [of Enterprise]. But you know my memory of it was that I was just stunned later on to find out that they brought back Felger and they didn’t ask Coombs!”

Today you can find Billingsley in a recurring role on the Apple TV+ historical thriller Manhunt. Patrick McKenna has recently appeared on the Canadian comedy The Trades, which happens to co-star Stargate Universe‘s Jennifer Spence (“Lisa Park”).

Head over to “Dial the Gate” on YouTube to find the full interview with John Billingsley. While you’re there, subscribe to GateWorld’s YouTube channel for more Stargate.