Vancouver: At press time, Stargate SG-1 was in production with its seventh episode of its ninth season – yet another season of 22 one-hours ordered by Sci Fi Channel that keeps the successful franchise alive. For those of you counting, that’s at least two more seasons than most observers and many insiders gave the series.

With the onset of spin-off Stargate Atlantis last year and the dwindling role of original star Richard Dean Anderson because of family commitments in L.A., it was expected that season eight would be, for certain, the final step through the gate for SG-1. But with huge Sci Fi audience numbers (the series ranks number one for the channel, followed by Atlantis and Vancouver-shot Battlestar Galactica), Sci Fi’s longest running series is nonetheless back with some changes.

Ben Browder (Farscape) and Beau Bridges (The Ballad of Jack and Rose) have joined the SG-1 cast, which includes veteran stars Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge. Lou Gossett, Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman), Claudia Black (Farscape) and Lexa Doig (Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda) will have multi-episode roles. Anderson, whose character was given a new and less prominent role screen-time-wise last year at SG-1, is scheduled to make guest appearances over the first few episodes.

Meanwhile, Atlantis was in production with episode six of season two at press time.

Stargate Atlantis debuted last July and generated 4.2 million viewers, shattering the previous record for a Sci Fi series.

Reprising their roles for season two are Joe Flanigan, Torri Higginson, David Hewlett, Rainbow Sun Francks, Rachel Luttrell and Paul McGillion. New to the series this year is Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files) and Jason Momoa (North Shore).

Production on both MGM series continues until Oct. 17.