Stargate Guests

As I continue to make my way through Stargate SG-1, I continue to see a lot of familiar faces and, in some cases, hear familiar voices. I'm working my way through Season 6 right now, and while it's probably the season I'd seen the most of in syndication, it makes more sense in context after watching the complete first five seasons leading up to it. I've had a lot of moments where I nod and think, “So that's why that guy was all glowy and not technically dead.” If you've seen the show you know what that means; if not, I won't spoil it.

There's definitely been a lot of cross-pollination with other geek or popular shows. In some cases, these actors were already well-known from prior dips into science fiction, while in others they were just starting out with bit parts on SG-1. This is by no means a complete list, as I have four-and-half seasons to go. I'm trying not to spoil some details for myself, although I am aware of new cast members in seasons 9 and 10 and what other shows they were famous for. There will be some regulars on this list, but the majority are guests who might have had as little as one appearance.

1) Richard Dean Anderson: Before becoming Colonel Jack O'Neill, you probably knew him better as MacGyver. My fellow nerds and I used to make a lot of rubber band and paper clip jokes when I was in middle school, but I've really only seen bits and pieces of that series and was surprised to learn it ran for like seven years. I probably should add that to my list of shows to catch up on.

2) Corin Nemec: Before joining the team in season six as the alien Jonas Quinn, I knew him best from Parker Lewis Can't Lose.(Synchronize Swatches!) You might also remember his memorable turn as Harold in The Stand miniseries.

3) Michael Shanks: He's probably better known for the role of Daniel Jackson than James Spader. That happens when you play the same character for 10 years that another guy played in one movie. I never would have guessed that he voiced the alien Thor as well, though, and I'll mention that he played a very different role for a few hours of 24 last year. I feel like I haven't seen 24 in forever; 2009 is so far away. But I digress.

4) Lexa Doig: I know she becomes the new doctor in the last two seasons of the show, so I'll try to avoid stumbling across what happened to the old one. Besides being married to Shanks, I know her best as the ridiculously hot artificial intelligence of the ship Andromeda.

5) Gary Chalk: He's probably not a household name, nor someone you'd recognize. I'd actually seen him in the role of Colonel Chekov more than once before I noticed his name in the credits. I never would have guessed that behind the thick Russian accent he used for the character was the voice of Optimus Primal. He's not the only Beast Wars veteran to get screen time on Stargate though.

6) Venus Terzo: She had one role in the episode Frozen as a doctor stationed at an arctic station where an amazing discovery is made, but her animation credits range from Beast Wars' Blackarachnia to the X-men Evolution incarnation of Jean Grey.

7) Blu Mankuma: He's not as well-known as Keith David, who's had as much prominence in front of a camera as in a sound booth, but his signature tones put him in a similar league. When I saw him credited in the episode Nightwalkers, I knew as soon as I heard his sheriff character speak, there was no mistaking the voice of Tigatron.

8) Ronny Cox: He was Dick Joooooones in RoboCop, and went on to play Senator Kinsey, a politician whose interest in the Stargate program often clashed with the team's.

9) John de Lancie: Best known for portraying the omnipotent Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent shows in that franchise, he made life tough for the SG teams as Colonel Simmons, a corrupt officer seeking to procure alien technology without regard for other cultures or SG-1; on one occasion he actually shoots Jack! He's hardly the only Star Trek alumnus to appear on the show, not by a longshot. These next few could take a while...

10) Armin Shimerman: He was the bartender Quark on DS9 and later ditched his bigger ears to play the principal on Buffy. On Stargate, he shows up in the first season as one of the Nox, forest-dwelling folk with some secret advancements.

11) Marina Sirtis: For years she squeezed into a leotard onesie as Deanna Troi on Star Trek: TNG, but would later play a Russian doctor who seeks the team's help with a Stargate problem. Since I mentioned animation credits earlier for some of the other guest stars, I'll throw in her notorious role as Demona on Gargoyles.

12) Dwight Schultz: Before a recurring role as Reginald Barclay on various Star Trek series, I knew this crazy fool best as Murdock from The A-Team. In the second season episode The Gamekeeper, Shultz plays the title role as an alien who traps SG-1 in a virtual reality of their own memories where they're forced to relive defining and tragic scenarios from their past.

13) Rene Auberjonois: I love this guy's voice. I remembered him from Benson before he played the shapeshifter Odo on DS9, and he has impressive animation voice credentials as well. He was in a particularly powerful episode in season 4, The Other Side. SG-1 initially helps his people, and while the show never outright calls Auberjonois' faction Nazis, their war for genetic superiority draws plenty of parallels. It doesn't end well for him once Jack and the others realize why he's fighting his war.

14, 15, & 16) Jolene Blalock, Robert Picardo, and John Billingsley apparently show up at some point, but since it hasn't happened in the first six seasons I'm avoiding reading where at this point.

17 & 18) Before becoming regulars in the last two seasons, Claudia Black and Ben Browder were on a cult-hit I've never seen, Farscape. If that show used puppets, chances are I did catch it once while flipping channels, and kept flipping.

19) Grace Park: She showed up as a young SGC cadet in training in Proving Ground, and went on to more prominent roles on Battlestar Galactica, primarily Sharon Agathon.

20) Aaron Douglas: Best known as Galactica's Chief Tyrol, he showed up in one season 6 Stargate episode as a nameless Jaffa and apparently in a different role a few seasons earlier, though I didn't notice it.

21) Dean Stockwell: The list of Galactica people who've shown up on Stargate is actually longer than the Star Trek list, but I fear getting ahead of myself. I will mention Stockwell though, Galactica's Brother Cavil, since he achieved science fiction fame earlier as Al on Quantum Leap and since the 72-year-old has been acting for 60 years. He shows up in the episode Shadow Play, which coincidentally is the one I'm about to watch.

22) Vanessa Angel: Bringing Kelly LeBrock's Lisa from Weird Science to life in the TV series was no easy task, but this British beauty was more than up to the challenge. On Stargate, she had a memorable arc as Anise of the Tok'Ra. Her accomplishments include giving the SG-1 team temporary super powers and attempting to seduce Jack.

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I see plenty of names in the cast and guest lists that I recognize, including a couple of Firefly stars and Erica Durance of Smallville fame. In hindsight, maybe I should have written about this after I'd seen all 10 seasons. On the other hand, this might be just the material I need for a slow night in about a month or so.