When the beloved SYFY original series Farscape wrapped up its run in 2003, star Ben Browder (who played astronaut John Crichton) didn’t take long to land his next gig at the network, joining original series Stargate SG-1 for that show’s final two seasons.

But how does one prep for a dense, mythology-filled sci-fi series when joining as co-lead Cameron Mitchell during the show’s ninth and tenth seasons? A marathon binge session. In a 2005 interview with Gateworld, Browder revealed he took it upon himself to binge essentially the entire series up to the point of his character’s introduction, just so he’d know as much as possible before diving into the parallel sci-fi franchise.

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Ben Browder Binged Eight Seasons Worth of Stargate SG-1 to Prep for Playing Cameron Mitchell

“Well I had to hunt around,” Browder said, in regards to tracking down the DVD season collections in a pre-streaming world. “Over the last two weeks I’ve watched 130 hours of Stargate … [T]hey didn’t ask that. The idea of me actually watching them may have scared them. There are few things worse than an actor who has an idea! No, I just feel that in order to go on to a production which has gone on that long, I want to know the story thus far.”

Farscape ran for four seasons from 1999-2003, and wrapped up with the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries (stream the entire series run and miniseries right now on Peacock), while Stargate SG-1 ran from 1997-2007. Both series were a staple of SYFY’s 2000s slate of originals. Both shows were incredibly different, and Browder managed to bring a unique energy to Crichton and Cameron along the way.

Stargate alums created SYFY's The Ark

If you’re looking for more modern sci-fi adventures, the masterminds behind the Stargate film and SG-1 series reunited to create the ongoing SYFY original series The Ark, which returns this summer for Season 2. The future-set series, from producers Dean Devlin (Stargate the film) and Jonathan Glassner (Stargate SG-1), follows the crew of a space ship sent to establish a new human colony. But along the way the mission goes sideways, with the surviving crew members forced to find a way to survive.

The Ark stars Christie Burke, Reece Ritchie, Richard Fleeshman, Stacey Read, Ryan Adams, Christina Wolfe and more.