Robert, You talk about character development and we're going back to Woolsey - what adjustments will we see as Woolsey takes over as the new leader of the Atlantis expedition versus previous appearances where he was a little indecisive or trying to take control, et cetera? What adjustments will we see?

Robert Picardo: Well, the - Woolsey appears briefly at the end of the season opener, Search and Rescue, which is a very exciting, action-oriented episode. He comes in and rather abruptly relieves Carter of command with his - you know, with the - with his characteristic gruffness and lack, I think, of interpersonal skills.

So that's your first experience of him. In the very next episode, which is called The Seed, he faces the first major crisis at his new command. It's a very dramatic outing for the character. It's - there's not really much humor in that first one.

And he learns the lesson that he can't simply follow the rulebook and do this job. I mean, he - by his own estimation, he's broken protocol about five times in his first crisis.

And that puts him -- at the end of the show -- in a personal crisis because he's always sort of defined himself as someone who knows the rulebook, evaluates others ability to live by it and now in his first series of, you know, crisis command decisions he's broken his own, you know, his own commitment to protocol and - in order to save a beloved member of the crew.

So he learns and in so doing - and so having that conflict, I think he earns the respect or the beginning respect from Colonel Sheppard because he demonstrates a capacity that he hasn't shown thus far.

The very next episode of Broken Ties, although there's plenty of adventure in the A story, there's also kind of a B story of Woolsey getting used to the technology of the base.

And he's - you know, he's the kind of guy who will end a briefing room meeting and tell everybody what to do. And then because they are - he's a little late following everyone out the door, it's because he's collecting his notes.

Then he doesn't know how to get out - he doesn't know how to open the door. I mean, he's running the base but he doesn't know how to use the technology yet and literally can't get out the door.

And there are two or three quite humorous moments, I think, throughout that episode. So that - and what was gratifying for me as the performer is that I shows right off the bat that the character has the gravity in the dramatic situations but they can also use, you know, his settling in and his own character (foils) to get some, you know, some comic moments as well.

Joseph Mallozzi: One thing I want to add with regard to those three comic beats - well the last one I don't want to give too much away, but it's a last scene were we find Woolsey in his quarters.

It was actually pitched out by Bob at the beginning of the season and he said you know what I think would be great for the character? I would love to do this and, you know, we thought about it. I pitched it out in the room. I said, you know, Bob pitched this and everybody loved it, and we worked it into Broken Ties.

So, you know, when you watch that moment just keep in mind that that was Bob's idea.

Robert, are you worried at all about the shoes that you have to fill with Amanda being such a loved part of Stargate?

Robert Picardo: Of course. In the same way that when I got my role on Voyager as the artificial intelligence character in that cast, I was concerned that I would be measured against Brent Spiner's character because he'd been the android on the Next Generation and now I was the hologram on Voyager.

But nonetheless, there were - we were going to mime some of the same issues and storylines. And I thought he had done that so successfully and was so popular that I would inevitably be measured against him.

Fortunately in that case, I was defined by the writers and as much as I could by my own work as differently as I could be from him, and it turned out to be a non-issue, I think.

And I am - I not only am a fan of Amanda as a character on the show -- I think her work is wonderful -- I'm a huge fan of her personally. She is one of the loveliest people you will ever meet and work with.

So there's a lot - both as an actor and as a character, there's a lot - it's a loaded situation to walk into. Fortunately, the rest of the cast has been very welcoming to me and also Amanda left, of course, for a spectacularly successful reason and that is to star in and produce her own new series for the Sci-Fi Channel.

So it was a very - although it's daunting to replace such a popular character, I like to think that I'm not replacing her, that I'm simply - you know, that she's moved on.

There's always the hope that she'll come back and make guest appearances on the show and that the, you know, that the audience will not only enjoy watching me in the role and develop it - to see a character who's not really cut out to be a leader try to build himself into one.