Feature: Stargate SG-1

A Colonel of Truth

With many stories roaming the Internet about the future of Stargate SG-1, we thought we’d track down a woman who’d know what’s what: Amanda Tapping

So: the announcement is made that US TV’s longest-running Sci-Fi show, Stargate SG-1, has been cancelled. What’s the editor of the UK’s premier TV listings magazine only covering Sci-Fi and Fantasy to do? That’s right: e-mail a publicist and arrange a phone call to Carter herself, Amanda Tapping, to get her thoughts on the final few days and what’s to come.

This is odd, I’ve always interviewed you face to face before.
I’m pretending that you’re directly in front of me.

How’s that working for you?
You look good!

Thank you. You’ve never looked better.
Oh, bless your heart. I feel good.

So how much longer is there left to film?
Well, October 4th is the end of SG-1, so that’s two weeks Wednesday.

Where do things stand on the show? Will you or other characters move to Atlantis?
Well, I don’t know. There’s always been talk of crossover for any number of us but it hasn’t really happened to any great extent and none of us has really heard anything concrete. Whether or not there’s gonna be any crossover or not still remains to be seen. We’re hearing tons of rumours and I think we have to wait for the official announcement. But it seems that it’s not dead yet.

Ten years. It’s been fantastic. In a lot of ways it feels like the right time to do something different, even to do something different with SG-1, whether it be TV movies or a feature. TV movies, in my humble opinion, would be perfect because we’d have a bit more of a budget and we’d be able to tell bigger stories.

Have you enjoyed this year as much or has it been tempered with sadness since learning of the cancellation?
Well, we didn’t really know what was happening. Every year we don’t know what’s gonna happen and we really didn’t know until, I guess, just before our 200th party that we weren’t gonna go for another season. So we just go about every year the same way, not knowing what’s gonna happen and trying to enjoy ourselves. This year feels a lot different from last year in that Claudia’s [Black, Vala] now a permanent cast member and it feels like we’ve all come together. So we’re actually having a great deal of fun.

Didn’t you always, though?
You know what? Yeah, we really have. I’m not gonna lie and say the whole 10 years has been absolutely fantastically, gorgeously fun non-stop, but really, for the most part, it’s pretty close to the truth. I don’t know that anyone can say that in any job that they’re in or career they choose. I think Stargate is an anomaly; all the other people I talk to who’ve been on series are like, ‘No, come on. You guys still aren’t having fun after 10 years. Come on.’ And yeah, we really are. Sadly. Maybe we’re all just losers. [laughs] We don’t know any better so we just think this is great! There always has been, from the very start, something kinda magical about this show and maybe that’s why we lasted 10 years. I’m honestly not trying to give you the pat, hokey publicist answer, it’s genuine. I wouldn’t get away with it with you, anyway.

by Paul Spragg

Read the full interview in
Cult Times Special #41

Photo © The Sci-Fi Channel
Feature © Visual Imagination 2006. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Cult Times Special #41
Stargate Special 2006
ships from Oct 4 2006
News-stand Price
UK £4.99 / US $9.99

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