SAN DIEGO -- The setting, even for a city with glorious seascapes, was breathtaking, taking the stars of "Stargate SG-1" where few premieres had gone before: aboard the USS Midway in San Diego harbor, for a red-carpet walk and special screening of "Stargate: Continuum."The straight-to-DVD movie, in stores this week, had taken the cast through a time-traveling adventure and far, far away from this breezy, clear sky -- to the Arctic.With help from the U.S. Navy, director Martin Wood and stars Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder and Amanda Tapping landed in the Arctic Circle, where polar bears and frostbite were constant dangers and a nuclear submarine hit its mark, crashing through the ice for a rescue scene in the film.Wood and Browder were frostbite buddies. They were happy to discuss issues pertaining to that, or the beauty of the Arctic landscape, take your pick.It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something that's rare when you've been an actor in sci-fi shows for as long as Browder, who starred in "Farscape" before taking the role as Col. Cameron Mitchell in "Stargate SG-1" when Anderson left the show after eight seasons.Browder had to wear facial prosthetics to play different versions of himself in "Continuum," which he didn't see as a problem. "It wasn't just on 'Farscape,' where I did that a few times. I did that in the series finale (of 'Stargate SG-1'), too," when the entire cast had to age decades for some scenes.Browder, Tapping and Michael Shanks had a short-lived chance to play regular folks adapting to circumstances beyond their control in the midst of "Continuum." It was a missed opportunity on some levels for Shanks, whose Daniel Jackson loses a leg in the course of the story."It would have been great as an actor to explore that story line, but I understand this is an action-driven show, and sometimes character development is going to be sacrificed to the action," he said as he and his co-stars moved along the deck of the Midway toward the giant screen that would show "Continuum."Shanks is already at work in a new role, following another sci-fi favorite, Tricia Helfer of "Battlestar Galactica," onto the USA Network show "Burn Notice" this season."I just finished filming my first episode," he said, but added with a smile that he couldn't reveal anything about his story arc, although it's been reported that he will play another "burned" spy in the series. Last year, he was a guest star on "24."Never count out the "SG-1" franchise, which jumped from 10 seasons on television to two DVD films. The first, "The Ark of Truth," had impressive sales on Amazon.com, both here and in the UK.One thing you won't see again, says Anderson, is the return of MacGyver, which he has parodied in commercials and on "The Simpsons.""I'd love to return to 'The Simpsons.' Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson) is my hero. We met on 'Stargate,' " when Castellaneta was a guest star.Also on the red carpet, Dan Elggren, senior producer of "Stargate: Worlds," was on hand to talk up the multiplayer online role-playing game. "Worlds" will provide an immersive experience for fans familiar with "SG-1" and "Atlantis" while emphasizing weapons that exist in the "Stargate" universe, where there are still many worlds to explore.(Entertainment editor Sharon Eberson can be reached at seberson(at)post-gazette.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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