Evan Lorne - Conceptual History

Conceptual History

The character was introduced in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Enemy Mine". Kavan Smith had formed a close relationship with director Peter DeLuise before being cast. When the development of the episode was finished, there were no plans of expanding Lorne's role in the franchise. Smith himself felt the part would not "necessarily" lead anywhere big. Sometime after shooting "Enemy Mine", the producers wanted to talk to Smith about the possibility of having him return to the spin off series, Stargate Atlantis. After the talk, Smith auditioned for a part, he won and received a different character. According to Smith, this character was more of a "military guy", but the producers eventually decided to give Smith back his old character, Lorne.

When talking about season two of Stargate Atlantis, staff writer, Martin Gero said Lorne had become the most notable recurring character of the series. In an interview with Smith, it was revealed that Lorne's first name was decided to be "Evan", later confirmed by executive producer, Joseph Mallozzi. While fans on the other hand, have given him the first name, Marcus, the producers or writers have not responded to this. In the episode "Spoils of War", a character was going to call him "Uncle Evan", this scene was cut off, because of time constraints.

At first, plot information about the episode, "Coup D'etat" was a bit scarce. Many fans speculated that they were going to kill Lorne off the show. Smith went and had a brief talk with the writing staff, responding to his worries that it was a part of a "cliffhanger". According to Smith, the only reason for making Lorne a recurring character was of the positive feedback from fans. "Sunday" became the first episode to reveal information about Lorne's backstory. Smith described Lorne as "that sort of faithful, loyal guy that everybody kind of knows," and representing a "steady constant." On his own weblog, Joseph Mallozzi said that Lorne as a character would become more active during season 5.