"Jackson is an outsider in terms of the academic community, somebody who really doesn't have a place in the profession that he has chosen. In his mind, he has a very clear direction, but the world gets in the way. Suddenly, the academic questions that have been his obsession become very real. The StarGate opens a door to allow him to actually see and explore his dreams, as opposed to just imagining them. But sometimes it isn't a good idea to find your heart's desire. Well, Jackson not only finds it, but it's sitting right there in his lap - much bigger, grander and more complex than he ever imagined."

"He has spent his life studying centuries, entire cultures and civilizations. "The span of one lifetime is meaningless to him and I don't think even his own lifetime has much meaning for him. It's a tremendously freeing way of looking at his own life and the circumstances he finds himself in. He is quite fearless. It's very odd, because at the film's beginning, Colonel O'Neil is obviously a suicidal character. Daniel is not unlike him in that his life is unimportant to him. But Jackson's encounters on the far side of the StarGate - including Sha'uri, all the rest of the culture and even his fellow team members for Earth - all have a profound impact on the detached academician. It sort of creeps up on him unknowingly. He discovers the value of one life and one lifetime - that they're as important as a century and a culture, because that culture is made up of thousands of single lifetimes."

James Spader

Starlog Article: James Spader as Daniel Jackson
The Official StarGate movie magazine, 1994
By John Sayers