Stargate SG-1 always dazzled with its array of colorful villains, from the gold-clad Apophis to Yu the Great, from the smarmy Baal to the cloaked Anubis. And surely one of the best was Nirrti, the disgraced System Lord played by Jacqueline Samuda.

Nirrti was part of the Goa’uld’s first envoy to Earth to negotiate a treaty mediated by the Asgard (“Fair Game”). But like any great villain she was out for her own interests, and stabbed her fellow System Lords in the back. From there she went rogue, using her scientific acumen and lack of morals in the pursuit of her ultimate goal: a super-powered human to be her next host.

We were thrilled to catch up with Jacqueline Samuda to talk Stargate at Gatecon: The Celebration in 2022. In this conversation she talks about Nirrti (and what she has in common with her character), becoming fast friends with her fellow System Lord actors, and how her own credited story contribution to the Season Six episode “Metamorphosis” came about.

GateWorld’s interview with Jacqueline Samuda runs for about 11 minutes. You can watch it in full below, or read the complete transcript. Audio listeners can also find the audio player above, and search for “GateWorld Interviews” wherever you get your podcasts.

GateWorld: Jacqueline Samuda, I’ve been looking forward to chatting with you for so very long, and it’s a pleasure to catch up with you here at Gatecon: The Celebration.

Jacqueline Samuda: Excellent. Thank you!

GW: How has your convention been, and what keeps bringing you back to events like this?

JS: It’s been great, and the truth is, the one thing that always brings me back, and that is consistent — it really doesn’t matter where the con is in the world – is the sense of family that you have with Stargate. With all of the series of Stargate, and all of the fans.

There’s a lot of Vancouver actors who are here. We’re in Vancouver for this one. But it doesn’t matter where I go in the world. We all connect. We remember. It’s as if 20 years ago was yesterday. It’s incredible. Yeah, so it’s been really fun.

GW: And you catch up with a lot of friends – a lot of your System Lord peeps.

JS: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean, we’re missing Suanne Braun [Hathor], but honestly, I’ve had repeated amazing experiences with Suanne, with Peter Williams (Apophis), and of course Cliff [Simon, Baal], who’s no longer with us, and we miss him dearly.

GW: Yeah, very much. I had a chance to interview Cliff probably 15, 17 years ago. Just a dear man, and he left nothing but light behind.

Jacqueline Samuda, Peter Williams, Cliff Simon, and Suanne Braun. (Credit: Suanne Braun / Instagram)

JS: Oh, absolutely. And he was so much fun for somebody who could look so incredibly terrifying. And who was just such an incredible athlete, and you know a former kind of Navy SEAL equivalent, basically, for South Africa. But he was so funny.

And the last time I did a convention with him, Suanne and Peter and I were all in England, and I was injured, so I was borrowing someone’s wheelchair just to get me around the con more easily. And it had to sit outside my hotel room. And there was one night where we ended up just horsing around in the hallway, having a blast. Peter somehow had gone to bed. I don’t know how we didn’t wake him up, though, because we were outside his room. And I went back into my room, and then I opened the door because I was going to sneak over to Cliff’s door and do like nicky nicky nine doors or something, and just do it prank on him. And as I was opening my door to sneak out, he was opening his door to sneak out!

And we just laughed and laughed. I laughed so hard. And, you know, and that’s just something that would happen consistently. We just had the best time.

GW: It’s great to hear stories of you guys having such fun together. And of course it’s great for fans to meet you in person and see that contrast between the actors and the characters. Was there any of you in Nirrti buried somewhere?

JS: Well, for one thing, I love science. And that’s one of the reasons why I created some of the story concept for “Metamorphosis,” because I was really, really interested in science, quantum physics, metaphysics. And so that side was definitely a commonality.

Nirrti arrives through the Stargate. From “Fair Game”

I’ve always loved Egypt. When I created a theater company when I was very young it was going to be called “Camel’s Eye,” and ultimately was called “Pyramid Productions.” So I’ve always related to ancient worlds. So that was very cool.

So there were all of these different things. The fact that she was a strong woman and had the subtext going on – I like to think that I’m not an on-the-surface kind of person, so that was another element. And also, she was just fun in her own way.

GW: Yeah, wickedly fun.

JS: Yeah. Wickedly fun.

GW: And very smart. “Fair Game” is one of my favorite episodes of the whole show. And this brought the System Lords to Earth, this introduced Nirrti in person. And then you mentioned “Metamorphosis,” which I want to talk about, because you contributed, as you said, some of the story elements to this. But that arc from “Fair Game” to “Metamorphosis” – how would you describe Nirrti over time? How did she grow? How did she change? Or did she at all? Was she just sort of laser-focused on her objective, and she just drove it into the ground until it finally caught up with her?

JS: Right, well in “Fair Game” she’s kind of introduced as a politician. And there’s a big power struggle. And so there’s all that negotiation, and it’s made clear that she doesn’t play fair and she doesn’t play by the rules. She’s not concerned about how her actions impact others. She’s just concerned about getting done what needs to be done. So that was something that was consistent and played all the way through.

Nirrti in custody after sneaking into Stargate Command. From “Rite of Passage”

And then I really did enjoy – oh my goodness, what was the name of the next episode after “Fair Game,” where I’m with Corin Nemec, and once again, I’m playing a game that it’s not obvious all the levels that are being played. So there were certain things that were always consistent. And then in “Metamorphosis” what was interesting is I had pitched that story. I’d actually been approached to pitch a story to a different show, and I had created this concept of this DNA kind of modification system for a different show. And I was sitting down with Brad [Wright], and I just started talking about this concept. And he was like, “You know, that’s kind of interesting. I want to bring that into the room and just see what happens with that.” And then he came back to me and he said, “Yeah, I think there’s a place for this.”

In my mind the interesting thing is I didn’t even connect it to Nirrti. I was pitching it just completely separately. So it was fascinating to me when the story came back and it’s like, oh, not only is this your part of the concept, but this is your character. And then, of course, I flipped through and realized I died! I was like, “Damn you!” But that was really, really fun.

GW: It seemed to fit just perfect when it came along, because in Season Six the show is exploring the Ancients more, and their interest in evolution, ascension. And it fit Nirrti so well because of her interest in creating a hok’taur – an advanced human host.

Nirrti holds Major Carter at the end of a zat. From “Metamorphosis”

JS: Yeah. And I really loved the way they demonstrated that machinery, with the special effects with the DNA helix going around. In my original pitch – which I will still do one day, so don’t anyone steal this! – the helix became like a stairway. And you actually climbed the stairs as you were learning about the different kind of aspects of the DNA.

GW: Cool. So that was your contribution to “Metamorphosis.” Clearly [it was] not your teleplay, or Nirrti would not have met the grisly end that she did!

JS: I know! I wish I could have written the whole script, but James [Tichenor] was – it was kind of his turn to have a script opportunity. And he was, of course, ready to do it and had been working on the show for so long. But yeah, I’m so pleased though that I got to contribute to a story for Stargate. I love it, and I still love the episode, even though I wish I came back to life. [Laughter]

GW: Well, she gets a great arc there from her name being whispered and mentioned in Season One to “Fair Game,” to “Rite of Passage” with the older Cassandra – “Rite of Passage,” that’s the one we were trying to remember – to “Metamorphosis.” She has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If she had lived to fight another day, what would you have liked to see her do?

JS: Well, I actually wanted to mess with RDA [Richard Dean Anderson, Jack O’Neill]. I wanted Jack to have to suffer a little bit at the hands of Nirrti. I could taste it! I was ready … I just really wanted that. But anyway, that was not meant to be.

The System Lords Yu (Vince Crestjo), Cronus (Ron Halder), Nirrti (Jacqueline Samuda) and more assemble before Baal From Stargate: Continuum

But then, of course, I did come back for Continuum. And with another spectacular wardrobe and fabulous hair in that one!

GW: All of the System Lords together in one place!

JS: That was really satisfying to come back, yeah.

GW: Well, what have you been working on lately? You told us a little bit before we started that you’re on Virgin River coming up.

JS: Yeah, actually, it was really cool. I’d been auditioning. Now it’s so interesting with COVID times now actors are doing their own self tapes at home. So sometimes you can have multiple, very large auditions. And so this was on a day where I had two separate auditions to record. They were both 10 pages each, tons of dialog. And the one for Virgin River was really word heavy. It was a tough attorney who was just really battering this poor witness, who’s just a lovely young woman who’s one of the regulars on the show.

And I don’t know that I should tell too much about the story, but I’ll suffice it to say, it was super satisfying. Martin Wood directed. I love working with Martin every chance I can get. And it was fun because we were block shooting, which means we were working in a big courtroom, and they had the lights set up, and there were three scenes, and they shot one half of the courtroom all in one order. And then they shot the other half of the courtroom all in one order. So you were basically shooting three scenes at the same time. So it meant that you were doing three times the amount of dialog and three times the amount of work.

Jacqueline Samuda plays a ruthless defense attorney on Virgin River.

And it almost felt like doing theater, because it’s very rare working on camera that you’ll do eight pages without stopping. Most of the time you’re doing half a page, or maybe a page, and there’s lots of breaks, and you’re just doing things in tiny little pieces the whole time. So this was very cool. It was like walking onto stage. And I haven’t done theater in some time, but it just kind of woke up those instincts, and I just loved it.

And then I continue to do voice work. I did a TV movie with Peter DeLuise – I think that was probably year and a half ago. And I’ve done a few things over the course of COVID, but I consistently do voice work as well, which I love.

GW: Martin is so great at optimizing his shots. I remember last time we were here at Gatecon, Martin was on stage, and he was sort of demonstrating the way that he sets up two cameras, and gets over the [shoulder] shots and turns. And he can get twice as much usable footage in the same amount of time.

JS: Yeah. He is a maestro. And actually he was supposed to be here at Gatecon, and he was so sad that he couldn’t come. We took a couple of pictures on set. He ended up being required to do some sound mixing or a post kind of thing on one of his shows, so he wasn’t able to come. But he really, really wanted to be here.

GW: Jacqueline, it’s a great pleasure to get a chance to talk to you. Thank you for coming out to Gatecon. Thank you for talking with GateWorld.

JS: Thank you! Cheers. Cheers to GateWorld.

Special thanks once again to Gatecon for hosting this event, and for Jacqueline for sharing some of her time with us.