Cameron Mitchell (Stargate)

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Stargate character

Colonel Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell
Race Human
Gender Male
Rank Lieutenant Colonel (SG-1 Episode 9.01-10.20; Stargate: Ark of Truth)
Colonel (Stargate: Continuum)
Birthplace US, Earth
Relatives Unnamed grandmother,
Frank Mitchell (father, alive),
Wendy Mitchell (mother, alive)
Portrayer Ben Browder
First appearance "Avalon Part 1"

Cameron Mitchell is a fictional character in the American Sci-Fi Channel television series Stargate SG-1, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices. Played by former Farscape actor Ben Browder, Cameron Mitchell is introduced as a main character in the Season 9 premiere "Avalon" (2005), holding the military rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Ben Browder continued to play the character in Season 10 (2006–2007), and in the direct-to-DVD films Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum, scheduled to be released on DVD in 2008. The character is promoted to the rank of Colonel in the last film.[citation needed]

After the SG-1 team has gone separate ways after the Season 8 finale of Stargate SG-1, Lt. Col. Mitchell is assigned as new commanding officer of SG-1 in "Avalon". The first episodes of the ninth season show Mitchell's struggle to reunite the former SG-1 members under his command. With the aid of Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, the silent Jaffa Teal'c, and the sexy alien thief Vala Mal Doran, Mitchell attempts to stop the Ori threat to the Milky Way galaxy, which started in "Avalon" and concludes in Stargate: The Ark of Truth.

Contents

[edit] Concept and creation

With actor Richard Dean Anderson's departure from the show in 2005, Stargate SG-1 saw cast changes at the beginning of Season 9. When the producers were looking to fill the void, Ben Browder had been working in Australia for a long time due to his work on Farscape.[1] Browder knew Claudia Black (Vala Mal Doran) from starring on Farscape, and had met Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) on a plane ride before starting work on SG-1. Browder had met Stargate producer Brad Wright at Comic-Con when promoting Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, and also knew Stargate producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie from the Saturn Awards before. When the first talks of introducing a new character to the SG-1 team came up, Browder got on the phone with the Stargate producers.[2]

Browder had sporadically watched episodes of SG-1 over the years. To catch up with the show, Browder watched all 174 episodes of the first eight seasons of SG-1 in a few weeks,[1] which was turned into a recurring in-joke in the show by stating that Browder's character read every mission report of the SG-1 team before joining the team.[3] Even months after Ben Browder had been cast, he did not know his character's name because of clearance issues, but was told that his initials would be "M.M.". Browder considered it a "huge challenge" and "scary task" to walk on to a long-running show, and although he put the character's direction into the hands of the writers, he hoped "that the character is interesting and adds to the sum total of Stargate SG-1, as opposed to standing outside. I hope that the character offers interesting possibilities to the stories, and how he interacts with the characters."[1] The name of the character was later decided to be "Cameron Mitchell". His callsign is "Shaft", from camshaft, a pun on his first name.[4]

[edit] Character arc

Information about Mitchell's past is revealed over the course of several episodes. "Collateral Damage" flashbacks to Mitchell's father, a pilot for the Air Force whom Mitchell would admit years later for his scoping with losing both legs in an accident.[5] The episode "Bounty" reveals that Cameron graduated in 1987 from a high school in Auburn, Kansas, which is where his parents currently reside. During high school, Cameron had a crush on one Amy Vanderburg, which he only finds out at their 20-year reunion that the crush had been mutual.[6] Mitchell sometimes mentions his Bible-thumping grandmother.[7] However, almost immediately after Mitchell fired, the orders were withdrawn because the convoy was actually refugees fleeing to safety. With the bomb finding its mark, Mitchell was still wracked with guilt and almost resigned.[5] The premiere of season 9, "Avalon", flashbacks to Lt. Colonel Mitchell leading the squadron of F-302 fighters in the battle against Anubis' forces in Antarctica at the end of Season 7, where he was shot down. Severe injuries risked his ability to ever walk again, but he was promised any assignment he wanted should he recover, and chose to take a place on SG-1.[8]

Upon making his entry at the SGC in "Avalon", Mitchell is assigned as SG-1's new commanding officer. Learning that the rest of SG-1 has moved on, Mitchell makes several valiant attempts to lure them back to SG-1 but remains unsuccessful at first. Mitchell leads former SG-1 team members Daniel Jackson and Teal'c, and a human alien named Vala Mal Doran on a quest for knowledge (and riches),[8] but it is not until the threat of the Ori becomes a real threat to Earth that former SG-1 member Samantha Carter joins them.[4] SG-1 reunites under his command in the seventh episode of Season 9, "Ex Deus Machina".[9] After Mitchell becomes the first human to make contact with the legendary Sodan, a group of Jaffa, in "Babylon", he is also present when the Ori kill the race in "Arthur's Mantle".[10][11] In "Collateral Damage", Mitchell is implanted with a memory of bludgeoning a woman to death and must defend himself against accusations, but his innocence is later proven.[12]

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[edit] Development

Besides Ben Browder, Beau Bridges joined the main cast as General Hank Landry in season 9. At the same time, the producers re-introduced Vala Mal Doran (played by Claudia Black) in a six-episode story arc to cover for the maternity leave of SG-1 regular Amanda Tapping (Lieutenant-Colonel Samantha Carter).[13][14] Browder saw part of the challenge with playing Mitchell to "becoming accostumed to being outwardly military and yet figuring out who he is inside and not letting him be entirely dictated by miliary terms." Browder summarized that whereas the other SG-1 team members already were heroes, Mitchell was still only "a hero in the making".[2]

Browder saw differences in Mitchell's personality depending where he is (on-base and off-world) and who he is with. Browder described his character's leadership style as different from Jack O'Neill, as playing to the strength of the team doesn't necessite ordering people around. Mitchell still "maintains a level of decorum around [General] Landry that he doesn't with his team", where he is more laid-back.[15] Michael Shanks and Browder decided to not repeat the original dynamic of military versus diplomatic, as had been between Daniel and O'Neill for eight years. They saw it as cliché and repetitive and instead opted to "find some commonality and still have an entertaining rapport with each other."[16] Amanda Tapping (Carter) stated in hindsight that Season 9 did not develop the relationship between the new characters and the established ones as much as she had hoped, because the stories had been too big and focused on the new Ori threat. She nevertheless hoped that the producers would make SG-1 more of an "ensemble team [in Season 10] where there is no patriarchal line of command, or maybe Mitchell and Carter could share the leadership responsibilities." Her favorite scenes with Browder were some "neat sibling-type moments" between their characters in "Arthur's Mantle".[17] Christopher Judge (Teal'c) stated that his on-screen niche with Browder was their characters both being warriors and leaders, although Teal'c reacted taken aback to Mitchell's gung-ho-ness at first, since he was more used to O'Neill's reserved attitude.[17]

Because Ben Browder and Claudia Black were well-known for formerly starring as star-crossed lovers in the cult sci-fi series Farscape, the Stargate producers refrained from emphasizing the pairing of Mitchell and Vala beyond in-jokes.[18][19] The producers instead opted to further the comedic chemistry between Claudia Black and Michael Shanks.[20][21] When Vala's relationship with her team members evolved in Season 10, the producers grew comfortable with pairing Browder's and Black's characters more often, and even teased (and misled) viewers about them "end[ing] up in a motel room bed together" in the episode "Memento Mori", involving underwear, "handcuffs as well as creamy Twinkies".[22] A scene in the milestone episode "200" also parodied the show's connection to Farscape.[19] Until the middle of Season 9, Michael Shanks (Daniel) was unsure whether the rapport between his character and Mitchell would have an antagonist relationship or a positive one, although he considered the dynamic playful.[20]

Writer Paul Mullie considered "Collateral Damage" one of his favorite Season 9 episodes, but was concerned that fans may be put off by the violence and darkness of the story. To not shortchange Mitchell's emotional journey in the episode, the producers chose to not shy away from violence and make it a real statement.[23]

Browder enjoyed the physicality of the role. When Browder joined SG-1, he told the producers that he wanted to do his own stunts as much as possible as he was comfortable and happy falling down and taking hits. He also believes that a scene will turn out better the more an actor is capable of doing stunt-wise. In "Avalon", Browder had to play a swordfight with a hologram, and Browder considered it tough to act and swordfight at the same time. Browder had trained swordfighting at drama school but had never had the chance to apply his skills during his career until this episode.[15]

[edit] Reception

While TV Zone's Stephen Graves believed that Ben Browder's and Claudia Black's first post-Farscape encounter in "Avalon" "somewhat underplayed", he considered Mitchell's "excruciating interviews with potential new recruits a particular highlight."[24] By Season 10's "Memento Mori", TV Zone's Anthony Brown felt that "Ben Browder and Claudia Black have [...] reached a point where they can play out an amusing take on Misery without you feeling that [their Farscape characters] have somehow starbursted onto SG-1's Earth".[25] Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune called Browder's and Black's interaction in Season 10 "great fun; the rapport they developed on the stellar Farscape was still much in evidence, even though they played radically different characters on SG-1."[26]

For his portrayal of Cameron Mitchell, Ben Browder was nominated for a Saturn Award in the category "Best Supporting Actor on Television" in 2006.[27] Cameron Mitchell ranked first (27%) out of five in the viewer-voted 2006 Spacey Awards for "Favourite New TV Character".[28] Per popular demand, Diamond Select Toys included Mitchell in their third series of Stargate action figures.[29]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Crossing over – GateWorld talks with Ben Browder. gateworld.net (January 2005). Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
  2. ^ a b Eramo, Steven (July 2005), “Ben Browder – Work in progress”, TV Zone (no. Special #64): 12–16 
  3. ^ "Avalon" audio commentary.
  4. ^ a b "Beachhead". Brad Turner, Writ. Brad Wright. Stargate SG-1. Sci Fi Channel. 2005-08-19. No. 6, season 9.
    • Pendergast: "Shaft... Welcome back to the Prometheus." / Mitchell: "Thank you, Colonel." / Carter: "Shaft?" / Mitchell: "My call sign. Cam. Shaft."
  5. ^ a b "Collateral Damage". Stargate SG-1.
  6. ^ "Bounty". Stargate SG-1.
  7. ^ "Origin". Stargate SG-1.
    • Mitchell: "My grandma was a bit of a Bible-thumper. Weekends at grandma's meant long, long Sundays at St. Hilda's Church of the Grand Epiphany."
  8. ^ a b "Avalon". Stargate SG-1.
  9. ^ "Ex Deus Machina". Stargate SG-1.
  10. ^ "Babylon". Stargate SG-1.
  11. ^ "Arthur's Mantle". Stargate SG-1.
  12. ^ "Collateral Damage". Stargate SG-1.
  13. ^ Sumner, Darren (February 22, 2006). Black's Vala returns to SG-1 ... with big news. gateworld.net. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  14. ^ Robert C. Cooper and Peter Woeste. (2006). Audio Commentary for "Crusade" [DVD]. MGM.
  15. ^ a b Eramo, Steven (December 2005), “Producer's Choice – Collateral Damage”, TV Zone (no. Special #67): 24–28 
  16. ^ Eramo, Steven (December 2005), “Michael Shanks – Team Player”, TV Zone (no. Special #67): 38–40 
  17. ^ a b Eramo, Steven (December 2005), “Amanda Tapping – Coming Home”, TV Zone (no. Special #67): 30–33 
  18. ^ Black, Browder Talk New SG-1. scifi.com (May 6, 2005). Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  19. ^ a b Upon meeting Mitchell for the first time in the Season 9 premiere "Avalon", Vala remarks "I know we haven't met. That I'm sure I would remember." The episode "200" features a short parody segment where Vala imagines the SG-1 members playing various Farscape characters. Vala plays Black's old role of Aeryn Sun, while Mitchell (Browder) plays the Farscape character Stark. Daniel (Shanks) plays Browder's old role of John Crichton.
  20. ^ a b Eramo, Steven (July 2005), “Michael Shanks – Curious Mind”, TV Zone (no. Special #64): 40–42 
  21. ^ “Black To The Future”, Verbatim (no. #8), October 2005 
  22. ^ Eramo, Steven (July 2006), “Preview Season 10”, TV Zone (no. Special #74): 40–52 
  23. ^ Eramo, Steven (December 2005), “Producer's Choice – Collateral Damage”, TV Zone (no. Special #67): 19 
  24. ^ Graves, Steven (December 2005), “Season Nine episodes 1–10 Reviews”, TV Zone (no. Special #67): 20–22 
  25. ^ Brown, Anthony (January 2007), “Stargate SG-1 Season 10 Reviews On the Air...”, TV Zone (no. Special #74): 18–20 
  26. ^ Ryan, Maureen (June 21, 2007). Time's not on the side of 'Stargate SG-1,' which ends Friday. chicagotribune.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
  27. ^ Fetter, Sharon (February 21, 2006). SG-1 earns three Saturn nominations. gateworld.net. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  28. ^ 4th Spacey Awards. Presented by Space on May 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
  29. ^ Stargate SG-1 Series 3 Cameron Mitchell Figure. diamondselecttoys.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-10.

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