"This year has been the greatest of my life, personally as well as professionally. I mean, I've had more fun and laughed much more than I have in quite a while. I've been able to spend more time with my kids, I have a great girlfriend, and a fantastic job with people that I truly love to be around and work with. How lucky can a guy get?"
"We [Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping] walked onto the Abydos set where they had the Stargate set up. Talk about being overwhelmed. When we saw the gate room for the first time we just stood there in awe and looked at it. The sets were built on such a grand scale - like the ones used for the old MGM movies of the '40s and '50s - that it made us think, 'Wow, we're about to become part of something special'.
"I knew we'd achieve some modicum of success thanks to the Stargate movie and, of course, having Rick as the star of the series. However, I never thought it would become as popular as it has or that my character would become so widely accepted. My oldest son was just five years old when the show began airing. One day a group of children at his school were talking about the series and he nonchalantly said, 'My dad plays Teal'c', and no one took him seriously. When I got home from work that night he said to me, 'Daddy, you have to take me to school tomorrow'. I asked, 'Why?' and he told me, 'Because no one believed me when I told them you're Teal'c.' So I took him to school and it was as if I was the Pied Piper. I think children can see the child-like qualities in Teal'c, which is great. Little things like that are what make this job so rewarding."
"It's funny, after year five I think a lot of us were ready for the series to end because we were all tired. Then we were given a sixth season and from a personal standpoint I think it's been our best one yet. As a cast and crew, not to mention a 'family', we've all gotten along fantastically. I admit I was a bit apprehensive of Michael Shanks being gone, but he came back for so many episodes that it really worked out beautifully.
"Character-wise, when I started season one I had a four-or-five year plan in my head of who I wanted Teal'c to be. And now, including the sixth season, his development has been exactly what I envisioned it being in a perfect world. He's become a lot more Human, his input into the proceedings as a whole is a lot more substantial, and he even laughs and jokes on occasion. I'm very happy."
"I'd actually pitched another story involving Amazonian mythology, but I was having a hard time selling [Executive Producer] Brad Wright on the concept. One morning I was on my way to my third meeting with Brad when I suddenly came up with this other idea of, 'What if Teal'c was in a situation where he could be a normal man?' I got to Brad's office and after we'd talked about the Amazon story I told him about this new idea I had. Brad said to me, 'Forget about the Amazons and let's concentrate on this new story.
"Probably my biggest challenge when writing the script was trying to fit everything I wanted into a 44-minute format. We were still on our summer hiatus when I finished the first draft, which still ended up being far too long, and e-mailed it to Brad and also Martin Wood, who'd be directing the episode. I was on pins and needles waiting to hear back from them. When I did, they both told me how much they enjoyed it. I was so happy as well as relieved. Brad then took my script and polished it, which brought the story to the next level. During the subsequent filming of it, Martin came up with some shots that blew me away. There were some moments when I was almost moved to tears just by the extra effort that everyone was putting into the episode. My girlfriend and both my sons were in it, which was really neat. Words can't begin to express how I felt that week."
"I'd like to see the humanisation of Teal'c to continue. Maybe he could become involved with an Earth woman and we can explore the ramifications of that. I also had an idea for the end of The Changeling that, not surprisingly, Brad nixed. It had to do with Teal'c gaining all the knowledge of the Goa'uld. Wouldn't that be a fun thing for the writers to pursue?"