The Teal'c Detail That Annoyed Christopher Judge On Stargate: Atlantis

Christopher Judge's Teal'c of Chulak remains a fan-favorite "Stargate SG-1" character to this day. Even if you've never seen "Stargate SG-1," chances are that if you were around in the early 2000s you remember the image of Judge in full Teal'c makeup, complete with his golden forehead tattoo, as part of the cultural wallpaper of the era. Judge went on to appear as the character in two episodes of the spin-off series, "Stargate Atlantis," as well as the direct-to-DVD movies "The Ark of Truth" and "Continuum," cementing his status as a series-spanning "Stargate" legend.

Judge also pitched a "Stargate" spin-off that would have changed the franchise and was envisioned as, in the actor's words, "Stargate's take on 'Black Panther.'" As it stands, Teal'c's final appearance was in season four, episode 17 of "Stargate: Atlantis," entitled "Midway," which debuted the same year as "The Ark of Truth" and "Continuum." "Stargate: Atlantis" was canceled by the Sci-Fi channel following its fifth season and, as such, "Midway" marked the last year we saw Teal'c on-screen. That must have been a bummer for Judge, who is still best-known for playing the Jaffa warrior — or perhaps as the voice of Kratos in the "God of War" video games.

Still, at least the actor no longer had to deal with one particularly annoying detail about his "Stargate" character, which plagued him ever since "SG-1" wrapped up.

As a Jaffa, Teal'c had a much longer lifespan than a regular human, and was imbued with powers as a result of the Goa'uld in his pouch. During "Stargate SG-1," the character was roughly 100 years old and in the final episode of the series, "Unending," he aged another 50 years after volunteering to stay outside of Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapper)'s time reversal field. By the end of the episode, his extra five decades have manifested in the character's hair, which featured a gray steak on Teal'c's right side — a feature that became a real pain for Christopher Judge.

Speaking to fan site GateWorld, Judge revealed that this gray streak was just plain "irritating" when it came to him reprising the role of Teal'c for "Stargate: Atlantis." The actor explained:

"It's irritating. I actually did an episode of 'Atlantis.' My hair's longer, so I went up to Joe [Mallozzi] and Paulie's [Mullie, Atlantis Executive Producers] office, and Carl [Binder], who wrote a fantastic script. The debate was I thought it was going to be whether I had to cut my hair or not. The debate was whether or not to keep the gray streak in. So I thought it was going to go away, and Brad and Coop said "No, no, for continuity for 'SG-1' we had to keep the gray streak in."

Judge recalled watching the "Atlantis" episode in question and while he "really loved" it, the actor admitted, "the thing that bugged me was that damn gray streak."