It’s only natural on a long-running franchise:  cast members decide they're done with the show  

before the show is done with them. Whether  they’re moving on to new opportunities,  

ready to retire from show business, or  are driven away by conflict on the set,  

there are moments in the life of a hit show  where the actor leaves but the show must go on.  

As a result the characters we've come to  know and love themselves set out for greener  

pastures. Or are recast with another actor.  Or, worst case scenario, they get killed off.  

Stargate SG-1 was no exception. Running for 10  years across both Showtime and the SCI FI Channel  

in the United States, the series certainly saw  its fair share of cast changes over the years.  

In each case the writers had to think creatively  to write the character out of the show – and in  

a few cases to bring them back again later. In fact, every single member of the show’s  

original cast ended up written out at one time  or another. Everyone, that is, except for one.  

#1 – Michael Shanks (“Daniel Jackson”) The fifth year of Stargate SG-1 signaled a  

turning point for the show. After five successful  seasons Showtime decided it had had enough,  

and wouldn’t be bringing the show back  for a sixth. Key storylines from the pilot  

had been resolved, and series co-creator  Jonathan Glassner had already moved on.  

Canadian actor Michael Shanks had taken on the  role of archaeologist and linguist Dr. Daniel  

Jackson, played by James Spader in the Stargate  feature film. And though he started out with a  

spot-on impression of Spader’s Jackson, over  the years Shanks made the character his own.  

Daniel got a haircut and hit the gym, learned  to use military weapons, and started taking  

antihistamines for those allergies. By  Season Five he was a real action hero.  

It was at this point that Shanks  decided to move on with his career.  

He was looking to try other things, and also  not shy about the fact that he felt the show’s  

writers as of late hadn’t been giving Daniel  a lot of distinctively “Daniel” things to do.  

Maybe he'd reached the end of where this  character was going. And the end of the series  

on Showtime felt like a natural time to move on. MGM, though, wasn’t ready to let the show go yet.  

They convinced SCI FI Channel to pick up SG-1 for  a sixth season. Taking Daniel’s place on the team  

would be the Kelownan wiz kid Jonas Quinn, eager  and enthusiastic and played by actor Corin Nemec.  

Jonas was introduced in the episode that saw  Shanks written out: Season Five’s penultimate  

story “Meridian.” After SG-1 finds a planet  experimenting with a highly volatile variation  

of naquadah, Daniel exposes himself to a lethal  dose of radiation in order to prevent an explosion  

and saves the Kelownans from their own hubris. It looks to be a grisly end for the person who is  

the heart of the SG-1 team, until the ascended  being Oma Desala turns up and offers to help  

Daniel ascend to a higher plane of existence.  In the end he voluntarily chooses to go,  

asking the team to stop trying to save  his body so that his spirit can move on.  

Daniel’s journey was just beginning. And after  numerous guest appearances in Season Six,  

Michael Shanks was back on the call  sheet full time in Season Seven.  

#2 – Corin Nemec (“Jonas Quinn”)  

Jonas was the young guy coming onto the  team to take Daniel’s place in Season Six,  

but at the age of 31 Corin Nemec was already a  veteran actor with dozens of credits to his name.  

Nemec had the unenviable role of stepping into  the shoes of a beloved character on a popular TV  

series. He was no Daniel Jackson, but the show’s  writers made every effort to make Jonas likable.  

He studied Dr. Jackson’s journals  and read every mission report,  

and had a photographic memory. He was affable  and curious, and didn’t just fall into his place  

on the team but had to earn the respect of his  teammates ... especially Colonel Jack O’Neill.  

Jonas Quinn grew over the course of the  season, as fans got to know the character.  

When the show was renewed for a seventh  season, producers extended an olive  

branch and invited Shanks back. He agreed. That meant there wasn’t space on the team for two  

characters who essentially provided the same  function (let alone room in the budget for  

another salary). After one year on the  show, Nemec’s contract was not renewed.  

Jonas and Daniel did get a great  team-up in the opening two-parter,  

as Daniel returned to his mortal form and Anubis  moved to seize control of Jonas’ home planet.  

After Anubis’ ship is destroyed and the villain  is sent running, Jonas returned home – it seemed  

somewhat reluctantly – to help his people to  rebuild and unite with their rival nations.  

#3 – Teryl Rothery (“Dr. Janet Fraiser”) Technically, actress Teryl Rothery was never a  

part of SG-1’s main cast. But she was so essential  to the core of the show that she deserves an  

honorable mention here. Rothery wasn’t in the  main credits, but was a frequent guest star –  

introduced early on in the show’s first season. As Stargate Command’s chief medical officer,  

Dr. Fraiser appeared in around half  of the episodes in a typical season.  

As the show began production on Season Seven,  the writers had every intention of this being  

the show’s last year. A plan was already forming  for an SG-1 feature film about the discovery of  

the lost city of the Ancients, which would set  the stage for a spin-off: Stargate Atlantis.  

The fact that the show was only going to  air a handful of episodes after the fateful  

two-parter “Heroes” is cold comfort, though.  Somewhere between network executives at SCI FI,  

and writer-producer Robert C. Cooper, the decision  was made to kill off a key member of the team.  

This served a dramatic purpose for “Heroes,”  a M.A.S.H.-inspired look at the dangers and  

sacrifices of military service from the  vantage point of an outside camera crew.  

Cooper was convinced that, in order to have  its desired emotional impact, the episode  

needed a death that mattered to the audience.  A guest star or supporting player wouldn’t do.  

The lot fell to Dr. Fraiser, who is  killed by a Jaffa staff blast while  

providing aide to a fallen soldier in the  field of battle. Truly a hero’s death.  

Rothery was understandably disappointed to  be written off, and other members of the  

cast – who by now had become like family to her  – were sometimes vocal in their disappointment  

over the decision. But it did make “Heroes” an  indisputably powerful two episodes of television.  

By the end of the season, though,  cast and crew heard the news:  

the network wanted them to come  back for yet another year anyway.  

#4 – Don S. Davis (“General George Hammond”) Don Davis was a natural father figure for every  

member of the SG-1 team. General Hammond  was on the verge of retirement when asked  

to take charge of the new Stargate program,  and for seven years he brought his courage,  

strength, and wisdom to this front-line command. Davis had previously worked with Richard Dean  

Anderson on the set of MacGyver, where he was  a stunt double for series co-star Dana Elcar.  

Hammond’s exit from Stargate  Command felt organic to the story,  

if somewhat abrupt. A new president was elected,  and after learning the astonishing truth about  

the Stargate program he set about taking stock  of what it was and what it ought to be doing.  

Although the Air Force would continue  to serve at Stargate Command, President  

Hayes put a civilian in charge: Dr. Elizabeth  Weir, a diplomat with experiencing bringing  

different nations to the table in common cause. The President recognized General Hammond’s service  

and his ability, though, and gave him a new  mission. After sending good men and women out  

into the field to risk their lives every day,  Hammond himself got to take on a task vital to  

Earth’s survival. With Anubis’ fleet bearing down  on Earth, he took command of Prometheus – Earth’s  

most advanced ship. He and the crew engaged  the enemy during the Battle of Antarctica,  

risking their lives to protect SG-1 while the team  uncovered an Ancient weapon buried under the ice.  

After his heroics Hammond would not return to the  S.G.C. Actor Don S. Davis was forced to reduce  

his workload due to ongoing health concerns. He  made several return appearances in later years,  

commanding Prometheus again in “Prometheus  Unbound,” giving a speech for the Air Force  

in “The Fourth Horseman,” and playing an alien  version of General Hammond on Stargate Atlantis.  

He even voiced Puppet Hammond in  SG-1’s two-hundredth episode.  

Don Davis’s final appearance on Stargate came in  the 2008 movie Stargate: Continuum. He passed away  

in June of that year of a heart attack, at the  young age of 65. Stargate paid him a final tribute  

by naming a ship for him – the U.S.S. George  Hammond, commanded by Colonel Samantha Carter.  

#5 – Richard Dean Anderson  (“General Jack O’Neill”)

It’s not a stretch to say that Stargate SG-1  became the hit that it was in large part due to  

its leading man. Already a household name as TV’s  Angus MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson took over  

from Kurt Russell and made Colonel Jack O’Neill  a deep and complex character, whose humor and wit  

concealed a deep and personal family trauma. Anderson gave his all to the series for five  

long years, helping to establish Stargate as a  top-tier science fiction series and a pillar of  

the Vancouver film and television community. In Season Two of the show he and his partner  

welcomed a daughter, Wylie. That’s why Jack is  sidelined at the start of the episode “Spirits.”  

Anderson got a few days off from filming. In Season Six the actor agreed to stay on  

for another year, to help the cast and crew  transition to the SCI FI Channel. But he  

wanted more time at home with his family in Los  Angeles, and so his deal included more days off.  

In this season Jack was sidelined several times,  and even written out of one episode entirely.  

This continued into Season Seven, when  Anderson agreed to sign on for another year.  

His promotion to command the base in Season Eight  was also part of the strategy to keep the actor  

around for just one more year. The newly promoted  General O’Neill would take over for Hammond,  

sending the team on missions ... but rarely going  off-world himself. That kept the beloved actor  

and character on the show, but gave Anderson  far fewer shooting days to spend in Canada.  

By the end of the eighth season Anderson  was ready to bid the show farewell,  

so that he could be at home to help  raise his now 6-year-old daughter.  

General O’Neill was off to Washington to take  charge of Homeworld Command. But Anderson would  

be back for numerous guest appearances on SG-1,  Atlantis, and to help launch Stargate Universe.  

#6 – Amanda Tapping (“Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter”)

Although today she’s known as  a prolific Canadian director,  

Amanda Tapping is synonymous with the character  she played on Stargate for more than 12 years.  

She was a main cast member on SG-1 for  all ten seasons, after which she joined  

her cast mates in two movies – Stargate:  The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.  

When SG-1 ended and Tapping still had one year  left on her contract with MGM, she even crossed  

over to take charge of Atlantis as a full-time  cast member during that show’s fourth season.  

So if Amanda Tapping was a part of the television  franchise from the very start to the very end,  

what’s she doing on our list? Colonel Samantha  Carter had taken command of SG-1 back in its  

eighth season ... but then, the writers were faced  with the prospect of temporarily writing her out  

for the first five episodes of Season Nine. Tapping and her husband had a child during  

the break between filming, and she received some  well-earned maternity leave. As the season begins  

SG-1 has disbanded, with Jack off to Washington,  Teal’c helping to establish the new Free Jaffa  

Nation, and Daniel getting ready to finally  visit Atlantis. Colonel Carter has taken a  

new assignment with Area 51, leading  Stargate’s research and development.  

She has a short video chat with Cameron Mitchell  soon after he arrives at Stargate Command.  

But otherwise Carter is gone for the  first five episodes of the season.  

(Claudia Black was brought in for an arc  to replace her on a temporary basis.)  

Fortunately, Tapping was written out of  Stargate only temporarily. By the time we get  

to “Beachhead” and the Ori are trying to invade  our galaxy, Sam is back to help save the day.  

So who’s the only member of Stargate SG-1’s  original cast who never had to be written  

out? Of course it’s Christopher Judge, who  played the stoic Jaffa warrior Teal’c day  

in and day out for 11 years. That’s all  ten seasons of the television series,  

plus the two SG-1 movies. Judge also made a  couple of guest appearances on Stargate Atlantis,  

including his very memorable match-up with Jason  Momoa’s Ronon Dex in the episode “Midway.”  

Visit us at GateWorld.net to explore  more about the history of Stargate.  

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