Stargate: SG-1 Seasons
Season 1: If Stargate: Atlantis can be likened
to a combination of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager,
then Stargate: SG1 is like a combination of Star Trek: The Original
Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first season is all about
the discovery of alien worlds and their culture. You can tell their
budget starts small with all of the cheap props in the first few
episodes. They establish the characters very well and continue showing
their creative writing genius in their dialogue. It seems like there is
very little they understand as they are but "children who don't listen"
among species that far outmatch their technology.
Memory Test: 3/21 One Word Theme: "Weird" Best Episode: Episode 11 "Bloodlines" where we discover Teal'C awesome mentor.
Season 2:
We know about the SGC and their fight against the Goa'uld, but do we
really know all the players? It reveals the Asgard and the Tok'ra and
shifts around the power of the System Lords. This season also likes to
play tricks on the mind. There are a couple episodes that deal with time
travel and invisibility. A lot of the episodes are highly memorable for
their humor and character acting.
Memory Test: 8/22 One Word Theme:
"Strange" Best Episode: Episode 15 "The Fifth Race" Jack downloads
Alien Database into his head.
Season 3: The series sort of
sidelines into telling morality questions of what is right and wrong,
what symbolizes as heaven or hell, and who can be determined as an angel
or demon. A lot of the episodes in this season are hard to watch for
they force these themes without considering whether the episode holds up
in itself. The writers try out their hand in showing a little more
about Earth and telling stories that last over long periods of time. The
season ends with the introduction of the Replicators.
Memory Test: 8/22 One Word Theme: "Surreal" Best Episode: Episode 16 "Urgo" The team shares an obnoxious AI.
Season 4:
I think the writers developed some sort of bipolar disorder for half of
the content in the next two seasons is brilliant and the most
interesting to watch while the other half seems to draw more from the
X-Files conspiracy theory rotation than exploring the universe Star Trek
style. Actually, there is a reason why the seasons are so split. The
company MGM was trying to move the series from Showtime to the Scifi
Channel. In the process, they also wanted to mix up their audience by
adding more attractive female actresses to appeal to younger (and
perhaps older) males. Thankfully the fourth season holds up a lot of the
better episodes with the introduction of the Russian Stargate and a
preview into the many character flaws of SG1.
Memory Test: 7/22 One Word Theme: "Manipulation" Best Episode: Episode 6 "Window of Opportunity" Day repeats itself.
Season 5:
If you haven't noticed by now, Stargate loves to build upon their
stories. If you could take all the episodes from each season and line
them up, you'll see a pattern emerge. The sad part is that the fifth
season barely develops any original ideas. Most of the episodes are
followup stories to the previous seasons. With the troubles starting in
the previous season, at least they can celebrate their 100th episode by
mocking their own show. One crippling blow is the release (literally) of
Daniel Jackson (played by Michael Shanks) through ascension. At the
time this made a lot of people angry. The good news is he sticks around
and eventually returns to play his role again in the seventh season.
Memory Test: 1/22 One Word Theme: "Sequel" Best Episode: Episode 2 "Threshold" Teal'C Backstory
Season 6:
By now you may have noticed the series develop a very bad habit of
telling brief, complicated stories without holding a strong introduction
or conclusion. They throw you in a situation without any setting and
end with a footnote of what should happen. Season 5 Episode 16 "Last
Stand" is a perfect example where the episode fades to black with a
young man telling the rest of the team to move on without him as he
holds a bomb in his hand. This season curbs the stories by telling them
from a unique setting from the get-go. At least this way it gives
satisfying conclusions. The biggest difference is they are able to
transverse between worlds by the use of their spaceship. The bad news
is, as usual, their Earth technology still isn't perfect. Without Daniel
Jackson, Jonas Quinn joins the team. They also seem to throw in the fact that Teal'C doesn't have a symbiote anymore and Jack was saved by having one implanted inside him momentarily.
Memory Test: 4/22 One Word Theme: "Space" Best Episode: Episode 6 "The Abyss" Jack doesn't know why he breaks in a prison.
Season 7:
Stargate returns to its roots of trying to branch out the small and
insignificant Stargate Command. The writers attempt very radical and
unique story-telling with individual episodes that fall in no particular
order (and can be labeled as fillers). Each episode relies too heavily
on one aspect of the show - CGI, acting, character development, theme,
moral - and falls short overall. Although several episodes tie-in with
earlier ones and show off unexplored areas, many of the stories are far
too different to require a viewing of the previous episode. They bring
back Daniel Jackson to the team with a faulty memory and say farewell to
Jonas Quinn. Season 7 finale paves the way to Stargate: Atlantis with a
new woman leading the SGC and new technology from the Ancients.
Memory Test: 4/22 One Word Theme: "Secrets" Best Episode: Episode 4 "Orpheus" Teal'C goes after his son at a mining camp.
Season 8:
If there ever had to be a season to wrap up Stargate nicely, it would
have to be this one. The situation exuberates to a point where
everything is finally resolved. The stories of Daniel and Anubis
Ascension, System Lords, Jaffa Resistance, rogue-NID, and Baal all come
to an end. The stories of the Tok'ra and the Super Soldiers sort of die
out. Because of the epilogue style of the season, many episodes try to
answer the question: What do the characters of the Stargate series do
after it's all over? Because of that, there are many episodes revolved
around love, marriage, and settling down somewhere. A few interesting
changes include Teal'C growing out his hair, a different actress coming
in to play the character leading Stargate Command (which she quickly
leaves to join Stargate: Atlantis), and Jack O'Neill becoming Brigadier
General of the whole operation. Hammond, as shown in the last season
finale, commands Prometheus (the giant spaceship). The season finale is
broken up as a 2-parter and an hour long special, followed by a 2-part
bonus episodes exploring an alternate timeline.
Memory Test: 1/20
One Word Theme: "Connections" Best Episode: Episode 1 "New Order Part 1"
System Lords seek an alliance with Earth
Season 9: With
Season 8 wrapping things up so nicely, they could have easily renamed
Seasons 9 and 10 as a completely different series. Instead, I feel the
writers were desperately trying to come up with something to keep the
show going. Jack leaves the program (to give more time to his daughter
in real life) and we get Cameron Mitchell, Henry Landry (not Laundry),
and a manipulating annoying thief called Vala. A less interesting and
more aggravating villian than the Goa'uld called the Ori do everything
in their endless power to absorb people's servitude (literally). The
writing gets very sloppy as the S.G.C continue to "hesitate" in
decisions that could have prevented huge catastrophes. On the other
hand, some episodes do stand up on their own even after scrutiny. The
new animation for transversing between Stargates is neither better or
worse but simply interesting. However, the new CGI introduction is
dreadful when compared to the previous seasons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gNWd-SqkLg.
I'm glad they decided to redo the Ra-Mask slide transition for the new
action shots seen in the link above when it came over to the SciFi
Channel.
Memory Test: 0/20 One Word Theme: "Truth" Best Episode: Episode 8 "Babylon" Mitchell must battle an elite Jaffa to the death.
Season 10:
Season 10 follows Season 9 very closely. The treasure hunting, Medieval
connections, Ori conflict, and main cast are all there. Even our
touting thief seems to consistantly change personalities depending on
her hair style - pigtails for childlike, ponytail for adolescence, curvy
for authoritative, and straight for flirtatious. Amusingly Claudia
Black, who plays Vala, really did have a baby. That's why she
temporarily left the Stargate series in Season 9. I guess the writers
felt it necessary to add her having a child in the series too. Season 10
Episode 6 "200" is the 200th episode and makes a mockery of the show.
Season 5 Episode 12 "Wormhole Extreme" had the same formula as the 100th
episode. Season 8 Episode 15 "Citizen Joe" also played a similar format
but focused more on highlighting key aspects of the show than poking
fun at them. Sadly even though they received news of the series
cancellation right after the 200th episode aired, they decided not to
tie up all loose ends in the season finale. Without watching the movie
Ark of Truth, many plot points go unresolved and the story leaves one
unsatisfied.
Memory Test: 1/20 One Word Theme: "Principle" Best
Episode: Episode 6 "200" The writers poke fun at themselves with mocking
writer plot holes and solutions to real life dilemmas.
Ark of Truth: Whatever you felt needed to be finalized in Season 9 and Season 10 of Stargate:SG-1 can be found in this movie. The Ori are defeated... and that's about it. I seriously think they could have squeezed the resolution into a 2-part season finale when looking back at some of the non-essential episodes in Season 10, but I guess they wanted to make the effort in making a full-length movie.
Continuum: When you are going to base your movie on time travel, you better do it right. This movie had some of most logical and transparent story-telling I've seen in Stargate: SG-1. It also had the most realistic and awesome scenes I've ever seen. Although Michael Shanks was unable to make it to the Arctic, they made it work. Even the shots of the very real submarine was beautiful. My only gripe, like all time travel stories, is the long list of paradoxes and ripple effects. In fact, my time with watching Star Trek: Voyager has made me slightly agitated to know when everything that just happened didn't really happen... because it did? You see where my brain explodes? Otherwise, I'm very happy I watched this movie as the grand finale with all my beloved characters included.
8-16-2016