The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

[Romulan_spy]

If I remember, he called her also a dumb blond. I was shocked at that scene.

I just looked it up and watched the scene again. It's the scene in the cafeteria where Carter and McCay are arguing. Carter realizes that McKay came up with the 48 hours deadline because he believes Tealc will already be dead. She says "God, you are a jerk!" and gets up to walk away. McKay replies "I wish I did not find you so attractive. I always had a weakness for dumb blondes." She replies "go suck a lemon" and walks away in disgust.

 

[Jayson1]

I guess I never saw McKay as sexist so much as someone who is insecure around people who might be smarter than him not to mention having a complete lack of respect for military and authority figures early on and sort of expresses it through false bravado. A extreme narcissist who thinks he is the greatest scientist since Einstein or someone really big like that. It's never felt like he every singled anyone out just because they were a woman. The irony is he seems to go harder on Carter is because he does like her and even knows inside she is smarter. But that is something common even in later years with the character. He doesn't feel comfortable being sincere and resorts to snark a lot.

Jason

 

[Romulan_spy]

@tomalak301 I'm eagerly awaiting your review of the big mid season two parter, Summit + Last Stand.

 

[tomalak301]

@tomalak301 I'm eagerly awaiting your review of the big mid season two parter, Summit + Last Stand.

I just saw it.

Summit & Last Stand

Wow so much happened in these two episodes. They felt like a big season finale themselves with bringing a lot of the different elements of the series together. We see the System Lords gathered in one place, we see an introduction of an old Gao'uld named Anubis who was banished from the System Lords a thousand years ago and his representative is Sara/Osiris at the meeting. We also might have seen the end of the Tok'ra and a very sad ending to Elliot's arc that started in Proving Ground.

These two episodes pretty much had it all. This introduced Apophis's replacement, the unnamed Goa'uld that Tanith talked about named Anubis. I would have thought maybe we would have finally seen him but I anticipate that will be the finale. I do wonder if Daniel should have gone with the mission to eliminate all the System Lords though, Sarah included. She's no longer Sarah, and to have all of them in one place seemed like a no-brainer to me. I understand why they decided not to do it that way, but now the Goa'uld have gotten stronger and it looks like only Jacob is left of the Tok'ra.

The reason they didn't use the poison was actually because of my favorite part of the episode, which was Elliot's arc. The show has propped this guy up in Proving Ground for this moment and it didn't disappoint. It also allowed for some finality between Sam and Martouf, and I am satisfied with how both arcs ended, by both going out in a blaze of glory and taking as much Jaffa as they could with him. The scenes between him and Sam were so sad and it just seemed like Sam finally understood him better.

I'm curious if this is the end of the Tok'ra, and what is Jacob going to do now? Now that we have this new, more powerful Goa'uld, it seems like the only friends Jacob has left is SG-1 and the sharing of information and technology is more crucial than ever. It also feels like the series in these two episodes wanted to close some of these arcs so they could focus on some of the others, and in a way it addressed my concern during Desperate Measures that the story was starting to spread too thin.

Also, I was looking up something last night in terms of when did this series shift from Showtime to Sci-Fi (I refuse to label it the way it is currently, and besides, I'm watching SG-1, so in a way I'm still living in 2002) Channel. That is going to happen after Season 5, which is kinda like how Buffy transferred from WB to UPN after Season 5. I wonder if the finale will have some "series" finale vibes to it. I will find out in 6 episodes.

 

[Jayson1]

It's also easy to tell when they switch to Sci-Fi because the show starts being shown in widescreen plus the use of a newish character in a important role.


Jason

 

[Romulan_spy]

I just saw it.

Summit & Last Stand

Wow so much happened in these two episodes. They felt like a big season finale themselves with bringing a lot of the different elements of the series together. We see the System Lords gathered in one place, we see an introduction of an old Gao'uld named Anubis who was banished from the System Lords a thousand years ago and his representative is Sara/Osiris at the meeting. We also might have seen the end of the Tok'ra and a very sad ending to Elliot's arc that started in Proving Ground.

These two episodes pretty much had it all. This introduced Apophis's replacement, the unnamed Goa'uld that Tanith talked about named Anubis. I would have thought maybe we would have finally seen him but I anticipate that will be the finale. I do wonder if Daniel should have gone with the mission to eliminate all the System Lords though, Sarah included. She's no longer Sarah, and to have all of them in one place seemed like a no-brainer to me. I understand why they decided not to do it that way, but now the Goa'uld have gotten stronger and it looks like only Jacob is left of the Tok'ra.

The reason they didn't use the poison was actually because of my favorite part of the episode, which was Elliot's arc. The show has propped this guy up in Proving Ground for this moment and it didn't disappoint. It also allowed for some finality between Sam and Martouf, and I am satisfied with how both arcs ended, by both going out in a blaze of glory and taking as much Jaffa as they could with him. The scenes between him and Sam were so sad and it just seemed like Sam finally understood him better.

I'm curious if this is the end of the Tok'ra, and what is Jacob going to do now? Now that we have this new, more powerful Goa'uld, it seems like the only friends Jacob has left is SG-1 and the sharing of information and technology is more crucial than ever. It also feels like the series in these two episodes wanted to close some of these arcs so they could focus on some of the others, and in a way it addressed my concern during Desperate Measures that the story was starting to spread too thin.

Also, I was looking up something last night in terms of when did this series shift from Showtime to Sci-Fi (I refuse to label it the way it is currently, and besides, I'm watching SG-1, so in a way I'm still living in 2002) Channel. That is going to happen after Season 5, which is kinda like how Buffy transferred from WB to UPN after Season 5. I wonder if the finale will have some "series" finale vibes to it. I will find out in 6 episodes.

I am glad you liked this two parter. SG1 is always really good at the big two parters. Yeah, there is definitely a lot that happens. I believe this episode is the first one that shows us the System Lords all gathered togethr in one place. It was neat seeing all the System Lords with their different cultural costumes. Some looking like African leaders, some looking Egyptian leaders, etc...

I won't say anything about the Tok'ra right now because that would spoil things.

But as I mentioned in a previous post, I think the second half of Season 5 is consistently really good.

 

[tomalak301]

I am glad you liked this two parter. SG1 is always really good at the big two parters. Yeah, there is definitely a lot that happens. I believe this episode is the first one that shows us the System Lords all gathered togethr in one place. It was neat seeing all the System Lords with their different cultural costumes. Some looking like African leaders, some looking Egyptian leaders, etc...

I'm glad we were finally able to. It widend the scope of their power in the Galaxy and yeah the culture diversity was one of the first things I noticed.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's also easy to tell when they switch to Sci-Fi because the show starts being shown in widescreen

Actually, that's not so obvious with home media. I don't know about streaming services, but the DVDs for the first five seasons/the Showtime years were still done in widescreen anyway.

 

[tomalak301]

Fail Safe

This felt like Stargate doing Armageddon. I think the important thing about this episode was there are still Tok'ra around and the Asgard are kinda useless. They have their treaty that doesn't allow them to get involved, yet I can understand why Jack is pissed off at them. You'd think after saving them from the replicators the Asgard could "throw a bone" to earth. I wonder if they will ever find out the Asteroid was artificially created by the Goa'uld to get around the treaty. It's a shame this episode wasn't more specific on that point though.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Fail Safe

This felt like Stargate doing Armageddon. I think the important thing about this episode was there are still Tok'ra around and the Asgard are kinda useless. They have their treaty that doesn't allow them to get involved, yet I can understand why Jack is pissed off at them. You'd think after saving them from the replicators the Asgard could "throw a bone" to earth. I wonder if they will ever find out the Asteroid was artificially created by the Goa'uld to get around the treaty. It's a shame this episode wasn't more specific on that point though.

I think it was heavily implied that Anubis was behind the asteroid attack. Remember in "Last Stand", Osiris says that Anubis has a plan to destroy Earth. She was probably alluding to this asteroid attack. Also, we see in this episode that the asteroid had a core of Naquadah which is not natural, implying Anubis took an asteroid and filled it with naquadah to increase the destruction potential. Lastly, the whole point of an asteroid attack was to circumvent the treaty with the Asgard since the treaty says that the Asgard can intervene only if it is an attack from the Goauld but can't intervene to stop natural disasters. By using an asteroid, Anubis is making it look like a natural disaster so that the Asgard won't intervene. If Anubis had attacked with ships, the Asgard would be allowed to intervene to stop him.

 

[bigdaddy]

I wonder if the finale will have some "series" finale vibes to it. I will find out in 6 episodes.

SG-1 had at least 4-5 series finales. I'm curious to what you think about the last few episodes leading up to season 6.

 

[David cgc]

Actually, that's not so obvious with home media. I don't know about streaming services, but the DVDs for the first five seasons/the Showtime years were still done in widescreen anyway.

Streaming, too, I just checked. The show was always filmed in widescreen (though only at DVD-resolution, until later seasons went up to 720p). IIRC, the original Showtime broadcasts actually showed them both ways, with the second broadcast being the widescreen version (since, you know how cable channels used to love airing their original programs over and over because of time-zones and schedules and whatnot). I'm not sure why the Sci-Fi (and OTA) reruns for the early seasons only used the 4x3 versions, though. Especially since SG-1 became one of their flagship shows, you'd think they'd get the reruns in widescreen for consistency, if it was an option and didn't cost some kind of premium over the 4x3 reruns.

That does bring to mind something I always appreciated about Stargate, that I don't believe any other show or franchise has done. Since the first few years were broadcast on a premium cable channel with no commercials, there are no commercial breaks on the home video releases. Beginning early in the show, they started editing two versions of the episodes, with and without commercial breaks (they didn't do it immediately, I don't remember when it started but there were a number of season 1 episodes I saw on TV where the commercial breaks were unnaturally abrupt, the way they are when a movie is being shown on TV).

The nice thing is, they continued the practice even after they went to first-run on the Sci-Fi Channel, when there was no longer a commercial-free premiere broadcast, and even continued it on Atlantis (and, I think, Universe, but I never got around to buying that one on DVD, so I'm not sure), so it was just with an eye toward making watching the show on DVD a little more cinematic. I guess most shows don't think it's worth the effort (including certain other "Star"-titled shows that are optionally streamed without commercial interruption), but I always appreciated that little extra bit of polish (though I do remember one specific scene that had a very dramatic act-out, which is completely deflated by immediately continuing the scene after the swelling music comes to a sudden stop in the DVD version).

 

[tomalak301]

The Warrior & Menace

Both these episodes were just decent. The Warrior was kinda predictable with Teal'c and Bra'tac kind of acting a little out of character. No way would they so blindly follow someone who just strapped a suicide bomb to one of his other followers, especially Bra'Tac who knew Apophis was a false god in the Threshold episode. I did like the scene with Sam showing off the guns though.

Menace was basically lets have the Replicators invade the base and start shooting. I think the highlight of this episode for me (As someone who watches The Flash) was a very young DA Cecile Horton as the robot Reese. I knew Nicolet was coming in an episode, but if I hadn't looked it up, I wouldn't have been able to tell.

@Romulan_spy

I know it was heavily implied that Anubis sent the Asteroid. What I mean though is it just seems like the Asgard look favorably on earth but choose not to help them when they can. I think I said it at the time they were negotiating the treaty, but this seems like a pretty bad treaty from Earth's perspective. I guess it protects them, but we've seen a few times the Goa'uld are able to find loopholes to go after earth anyway. It just seems like what Samantha and Jack did during the whole Replicator incident should grant some leeway in terms of helping Earth at least once.

The Sentinal

Another episode that follows up a prior episode and ties up loose ends. This one followed up Shades of Grey, where Jack worked for the NID rouges for a brief time. This one wasn’t all that special but it was still decent.

 

[DonIago]

With regards to "Menace", IIRC by the end of the episode I was left wondering how Jack and Daniel were ever going to be able to work together in a civil manner again. Of all the disagreements they'd had previously, this seemed to be one of the worst ones.

 

[tomalak301]

With regards to "Menace", IIRC by the end of the episode I was left wondering how Jack and Daniel were ever going to be able to work together in a civil manner again. Of all the disagreements they'd had previously, this seemed to be one of the worst ones.

It did feel a lot more hostel than most. I think it goes back to one of my observations from earlier in the season that for some reason Jack does seem more angrier than in earlier seasons. They both have been through a lot though.

 

[The Wormhole]

The nice thing is, they continued the practice even after they went to first-run on the Sci-Fi Channel, when there was no longer a commercial-free premiere broadcast, and even continued it on Atlantis (and, I think, Universe, but I never got around to buying that one on DVD, so I'm not sure),

SGU definitely had commercial break pauses inserted in the show. I remember one time for some reason the Space channel in Canada interrupted the show in the middle of scenes for commercial breaks, then when the show came back, about a minute or so in came the proper moment for the commercial, and we'd get the fade to black for a few seconds and then continue on.

 

[Romulan_spy]

@Romulan_spy

I know it was heavily implied that Anubis sent the Asteroid. What I mean though is it just seems like the Asgard look favorably on earth but choose not to help them when they can. I think I said it at the time they were negotiating the treaty, but this seems like a pretty bad treaty from Earth's perspective. I guess it protects them, but we've seen a few times the Goa'uld are able to find loopholes to go after earth anyway. It just seems like what Samantha and Jack did during the whole Replicator incident should grant some leeway in terms of helping Earth at least once.

Well, they do say in the episode Fair Game, where the treaty is first negotiated, that it is a big bluff because the Asgard are fighting the Replicators and actually can't really enforce it. So they are betting that just the threat of enforcement will keep the Goauld at bay. But I definitely see your point.

I guess the real explanation is that the writers did not want to use the Asgard as a convenient deus ex machina to save SG1 in this episode like they did in previous episodes. The writers wanted SG1 to come up with a clever solution on their own this time. I do think that having SG1 figure out a solution is better than just having the Asgard swoop in a stop the asteroid at the last minute.

That is part of the problem with having a powerful race like the Asgard is that it will inevitably raise questions why didn't they just save our characters. So the episode does address this issue and comes up with a reason for why the Asgard can't help. Not saying the reason makes total sense but it's there.

I will say that the finale Revelations does address this issue of enforcing the treaty. Suffice to say that the Asgard do enforce the treaty when they can. But I will leave it at that so as to avoid spoilers.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, I think it is "48 hours" where McKay calls Carter "hot" to her face. It is totally unprofessional.

Spoiler: upcoming appearance

In the season 6 premiere "Redemption", there is a nice scene where McKay confides to Carter about his insecurities. There is also a nice moment at the end where Carter gives him an innocent little kiss on the cheek and he says "you don't hate?" and she winks as she walks by and says "Too bad for you. I think I was more attracted to you when I hated you"

In 48 Hours he also says "I've got a thing for dumb blondes" in response to her saying something he disagrees with about the Stargate.

 

[Romulan_spy]

In 48 Hours he also says "I've got a thing for dumb blondes" in response to her saying something he disagrees with about the Stargate.

Yes. I posted the specific dialogue in another post, see below:

I just looked it up and watched the scene again. It's the scene in the cafeteria where Carter and McCay are arguing. Carter realizes that McKay came up with the 48 hours deadline because he believes Tealc will already be dead. She says "God, you are a jerk!" and gets up to walk away. McKay replies "I wish I did not find you so attractive. I always had a weakness for dumb blondes." She replies "go suck a lemon" and walks away in disgust.

 

[Romulan_spy]

@tomalak301 Looks like you have finally arrived to the big last two episodes of season 5, Meridan + Revelations. Enjoy!