Stargate SG-1: “Proving Ground”
Stargate SG-1‘s fifth season introduced some terrific recurring characters to fill out the show’s larger universe, and one of our favorites was Lt. Elliot – the young S.G.C. trainee and “future of the program” played by Courtenay J. Stevens.
After leading a team of recruits in the episode “Proving Ground” he would return for a very special role in the two-parter “Summit” and “Last Stand,” helping to provide some closure for an old friend. (He also turned up on Stargate Atlantis, as Keras in the early first-season episode “Childhood’s End.”)
“I had auditioned several times for other episodes, so they were interested (is what it felt like) — and then ‘Proving Ground’ came along,” Stevens told “Dial the Gate.” “I thought, ‘Oh, this is a good part. I really want to dive into this.’”
Stevens talks about Lt. Elliot, what the show meant to him, and eventually becoming host to a Tok’ra symbiote. Check out this clip from the conversation:
The team of S.G.C. cadets also included Elisabeth Rosen’s Lt. Jennifer Hailey (who had been introduced the previous season); David Kopsa’s Grogan, who landed a spot on SG-9 and returned for the episode “The Sentinel”; and Grace Park as Lt. Satterfield. While her character never returned to Stargate, the actress went on to stardom as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii on Battlestar Galactica and later Kono Kalakaua on Hawaii Five-0.
Experimenting with these new characters gave Stargate’s writers an opportunity to think about the future — including where the franchise could go in future years.
“As I understood it at the time, it was like a pilot within the series,” Stevens said. “This was pre-Atlantis. So the idea was, OK, we’re going to see if these four characters can become a new squad, and it will be a spin-off. I think that’s what they were exploring with ‘Proving Ground.’ I don’t know if that’s fact or not, but that’s what I remember at the time.”
Stevens’ character returned just a few episodes later, in “Summit” and “Last Stand,” where Lt. Elliot became the accidental host to Lantash (the Tok’ra symbiote once blended with Martouf) after the Tok’ra base is attacked. That rewrite was necessary after Martouf actor J.R. Bourne was unable to appear in the episodes due to a scheduling conflict.
A gravely injured Lt. Elliot helps SG-1 make their way to the surface. From “Last Stand”
“I think they changed their mind on where the pilot was going to go, what Atlantis was going to be, and then they plugged us into some other storylines,” Stevens said.
It sure would have been interesting to see the cadets used more in later seasons of the show, and even included in a spin-off. (Stargate Atlantis launched two years later.) And as fans speculate on how the Stargate story might continue under Amazon’s new ownership of the franchise, conversations often turn to young characters from the original shows and what part they might be playing in the Stargate program two decades later.
Visit “Dial the Gate” on YouTube to find the full interview with Courtenay Stevens. While you’re there, subscribe to GateWorld’s YouTube channel for more Stargate each week!