Michael Shank's acting muscles

[Yammosk]

I was just watching some old stuff (found my season 2 and 3 dvds) and I was blown aways by Shank's performance, particularly in "Need" and "Legacy". When he breaks down because of his addiction...what a powerful scene! And when Daniel goes "nuts" (O'Neill) in "Legacy"...wow!

I also remember him fondly in "Meridian", but other than that, there are not many moments that come to my mind spontaneously. Maybe him yelling at Morgan Lafey in "The Pegasus Project" recently, although that wasn't as strong as his stuff back in season 2 and 3. Anyone else feels that Shank's acting skills have been neglected lately?

Greetz

Yammosk

[The Signal]

Season 5 also had Menace. All of his S6 apperances, Abyss (powerful episode that has grown on me a lot), Changeling, Full Circle, most of his Season 7, Lifeboat was fantastic. Erm... Reckoning and Threads are obvious picks for S8, to a lesser extent Avatar, he did a lot of good stuff in Prometheus Unbound though it was admittedly out of character. Season 9 Doci scenes in Origin, and the courtroom scenes in The Powers That Be, nothing really noticable since then... perhaps Ethon, certainly to a lesser extent than the others. Thats about it for the last year or so.

[Sprinkles]

He is a fantastic actor.
Need and Legacy are two of my favourite episodes MS acting wise. I also love Absolute Power because of nuances MS added to create Evil Daniel, those that PtahTheCreationGod metioned and many other moments in different epsidoes e.g.Secrets and Forever in a Day.
I think (with the exception of Lifeboat) Daniel hasn't been given those angst ridden episodes MS is so good at either because:
a) Daniel has been written as more confident and unphased and therefore it would be illogical for Daniel to reacte to those situations in the same way.
b) or (which is more my interpretation of Daniel) that he has had hunkered down inside himself in order to protect and deal with the things that have happened to him over the years.
c) both
This shouldn't mean there won't be any more senarios in which MS would be able to 'stretch his acting muscles'. I look forward to situations where all the things that make Daniel who he is and that he has guarded himself against recently will surface and be revealed again in future episodes.

Thats why I am especially interested in (spoilers for the rest of season 10):

Spoiler:

Epsiode 200! Which looks like it will give all the cast opportunities to stretch the acting muscles by playing various characters.
and
'The Shroud' (Daniel becomming a prior) which I would think has emense potential for MS to show how Daniel deals with a potentially devastating life experience. That is IF thats what the episode focus will be, here's hoping

[Daniel's shadow]

Season 5 also had Menace. All of his S6 apperances, Abyss (powerful episode that has grown on me a lot), Changeling, Full Circle, most of his Season 7, Lifeboat was fantastic. Erm... Reckoning and Threads are obvious picks for S8, to a lesser extent Avatar, he did a lot of good stuff in Prometheus Unbound though it was admittedly out of character. Season 9 Doci scenes in Origin, and the courtroom scenes in The Powers That Be, nothing really noticable since then... perhaps Ethon, certainly to a lesser extent than the others. Thats about it for the last year or so.

Oh most defnitely Ethon should be on the list especially his portrayal of when he thought that his friends had died along with Prometheus.

Also don't forget Season 4's The Other Side, Absolute Power, Scorched Earth, The Light, The First Ones.

[DysfunctionalVeteran]

What REALLY drove home his skills for me was watching the Stargate Movie and thinking that James Spader acts JUST like Michael Shanks.

[Admiral Mappalazarou]

He's done 10 seasons of SG-1, his acting may be a little rough but it works - it shows that the character's getting older as well as the actor, lol.

I loved 'The Pegasus Project' and the things he said to Morgan about persuading the ancients to join the fight - brilliant writing.

[Sprinkles]

He's done 10 seasons of SG-1, his acting may be a little rough but it works - it shows that the character's getting older as well as the actor, lol.

I loved 'The Pegasus Project' and the things he said to Morgan about persuading the ancients to join the fight - brilliant writing.

I've never considered his acting as 'rough' but thats prehaps because I am used to his style of performance and can usaually understand the motivations behind his scenes. I remember reading that Ben was once given Michaels script instead of his own and said he admired that Michael still made such detailed notes after so many years of performance as the same character.

[nunuu]

MS definitely seems to be the one that has the most amount of acting diversity among the SG-1 crew. However, for portrayals of various different types of people (for example, that lifeboat episode & Mar'cello from whatever episode that was), I definitely prefer someone like Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) over him.

About his character in Prometheus Unbound -- I don't really think it was that out of character but more of the circumstances he was in and the atmosphere. I suppose he just had to react and reciprocate Vala's energy in a certain way.