The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

Luckily, next season has the excellent "Window of Opportunity" which handles the comedy a lot better.

 

That's why I said that addressing my idea would necessitate retooling the Tok'ra. The Tok'ra hosts exist in a symbiotic relationship with their Goa'uld, whereas I was postulating Goa'uld that were parastic but because they felt they had no other choice. Put another way, what if the Tok'ra option to 'share' the host wasn't an option? What if even well-meaning Goa'uld still dominated their hosts to the point that it couldn't reasonably be called symbiotic, but that the more benevolent ones felt it was a necessary evil to combat their more malevolent kin?

The reason why I compared that idea to the Vidiians was because all of the Vidiians were suffering, but some of them struggled to maintain their principles despite the situation they were faced with, even while others (most?) preyed on other species as a result of their crisis.

 

A Hundred Days

I loved that episode. I've always wondered what would happen if SG-1 was on a mission and something would cause the Stargate to be destroyed or highly impacted. We get to see a personal side of Jack, someone who might need to build a new life because he couldn't go through the Stargate back home. I loved his chemistry Liera, and I hope we see that civilization again. They were charming people.

 

That was season 3? Oh, wait, I'm thinking of "Brief Candle," where all the people lived for a hundred days, not the one where Jack was stranded for a hundred days.

 

I'm in Season 3, yes. This was the one where a meteor shower impacted the gate forcing Jack to stay on a planet for a few months. He had to make a life and the episode ended with Liera having a child.

 

Shades of Grey

Well, that was about a 100x better than the TNG title with the same name.

I kinda predicted halfway through that what Jack was doing was all a ruse, but how it played out, with him joining Maybourne's group and then seizing everything they stole was awesome. I also loved that this was a sequel to that Second season episode Touchstone and we find out where that crew went. The ending was comedy done well, with Daniel telling Jack they had to draw straws and he lost so that was why he had to go visit him. Other than Urgo, these episodes this season have been great from Forever in a Day up to now.

 

Maternal Instinct

That episode was really really cool. First of all, the Monk was the same guy who was in Season 2 and 3 of The Expanse so it was great to see him again. I loved the mysticism in this one, learning from the monk and then finding out the alien goddess (At least it seemed like an alien goddess) had all the power and the Harsisis child is in very good hands. The scene when she turned to energy was really impactful. I have to think we will see her again. It was also great to see Bra'tac again, and the Jaffa know that Apophis is alive and we got confirmation that Sokar really is dead.

 

I haven't seen this episode, but from what I saw on the wiki, it looks like this episode introduces a concept that will end up being huge as the show goes on.

 

Yes we will see that being of pure light again. It's going to be a big deal in the rest of the series.

 

Crystal Skull

Another episode where the ending brought some really interesting mysticism while developing Daniel Jackson's character and giving General Hammond a little bit of a personal side that this show desperately needs. I'll start with the General Hammond thing first. His phone call with his granddaughter was nice. We always see the General in a professional role and I think one of the issues I do have with this show is we barely see a personal side, but when we do it's nice. Anyway, as for the rest, this was your typical "The Next Phase" story with a nice twist at the end with Daniel's Grandfather being able to see him and being allowed to continue his life's work with the new light being. They even brought back The Fifth Race music, which was nice. If I had one criticism, it was the episode felt like it ended too abruptly. We see the Giant, they form relations, but I would have liked a final scene with Teal'c, who wasn't impacted by the Skull's phasing. Teal'c just walks off and I guess things are ok. Still, that's minor and this was another great episode heading into the finale.

 

We do get to see more of Gen. Hammond personal life later in the series.

And now... the finale Nemesis. I can't wait for you to see this episode.

 

Although it's from a later episode, it doesn't give away any plot points, so I'll post it uncoded. One of my favourite looks into Hammond's personal life, mostly because it's a pretty amusing scene:
O'Neill: "General, I think you'd better go to your office and press one on the old speed dial."
Hammond: "My grandchildren?"
O'Neill: "Two, then? I think the President is going to want to hear this."

 

I guess I have seen at least a couple Season 3 episodes, I've seen the one with Dom DeLuise, and Crystal Skull. So far none of the others have sounded familiar, so I think those must be the only two I've seen.

 

Nemesis (Season 3 Finale) & Small Victories (Season 4 Premiere)

Stargate meets Terminator/Aliens. This was a pretty interesting way to end the season and then start the new season. The Asgard said there was a race more powerful than the Goa'uld and they weren't joking with the Replicators. We start on Thor's ship where the replicators have pretty much consumed it and I really liked how this episode focused a lot of problem solving. Every action in this episode felt really meticulous and these "giant techno-bugs" just could not be killed. Then they go with the ultimate action, which was to bring the ship into an uncontrollable entry into earth's atmosphere, they beam up SGC's stargate, that is how they escape, which was a pretty ingenious plan. I was surprised with as surrounded as SG-1 was around the Stargate, none of the replicators actually went through the gate, thereby getting to earth and maybe infecting SG Command.

Then we have the premiere episode dealing with the replicator that did escape and infected a Russian sub. This was basically an action thriller episode and I especially loved the plot with Thor and Carter, and Thor having to rely on Carter's stupid plan to take the most technological ship (aptly named the O'neill) of the fleet and feed it to the bugs and set the autodestruct. I loved the dialouge between Carter and Thor, which I thought was pretty fun all the way through.

Overall, I will go back to how I started this review. This felt like Stargate meets Terminator (The replicators who can't be killed), and Aliens (The Queen on the Sub and the Replicators who took over the Asgard ships). It was a fun finale and premiere, and it was very different from what came before. Did I like it better than Serpants Grasp/Serpent's lair? I'm going to say no, as I felt the first season finale was a great wrap up to the first season, while this one introduced a new storyline for the series (To go along with Daniel's storyline with the kid). I did love it better than the Clip Show and Into the Fire though.

Overall, Season 3 keeps the series progressing favorably. I will say though the first part of the season was widely inconsistent but the second half was really good, give or take a few episodes (And I might have been a little hard on Urgo, but I still thought it was annoying). The universe keeps expanding and the characters are as always great. I mentioned this with Hammond earlier and I think it applies with all the characters other than Jack. I would like a little more about the characters outside of work. We started to see it with Jack and I think Daniel was the MVP this season, but I would love to see more stuff with Samantha Carter, General Hammond, and Teal'c, at least from an Earth point of view. Still, this was a damn good season and I'm still really enjoying the series.

Favorite episodes from Season 3:

Forever in a Day: I've been wanting an episode to wrap up Daniel's wife storyline and give him a new goal and this episode did that in spades. Also, the way it was done was a great mindbender and like I said, the best use of a reset button since DS9's The Visitor

Joliner's Memories/The Devil You Know: The simple fact that the first episode ended with Apophis being alive was a holy shit moment. The mind torture in the second episode was great.

Shades of Grey: You can kind of guess that everything was a set up, but it was a damn good set up

Maternal Instinct: The introduction of the energy being adds a lot more to the mythos of this series and I find that really interesting.

Nemesis: I'm looking forward to more Replicators because how this season ended added some much needed sci fi urgency to everything.

 

Getting close to Window of Opportunity. That’s easily Stargate’s French Mistake.

 

Window is one of the best episodes of the series IMO. Completely ridiculous.

 

The Other Side

What is the price for technology to help you against an enemy? That is the central question of this episode and we see both sides come through between Daniel and Jack. The race they are helping has been an involved in a decades long war, but they find out the "enemy" they are fighting are "breeders" while the race they are helping believe in genetic purity. This was a strong issue episode dealing with race and bigotry. I love what this does between Jack and Daniel, where once Jack sees what is really going on, he actually apologizes to Daniel and starts helping the other side against the people who offered them all the technology they could ask. Pretty powerful stuff and the strong start for Season 4 continues.

Oh, and one of the things I looked forward to when I started this was finding the Star Trek connections in this franchise. I think one of the reasons I am looking forward to Atlantis is to see Connor Trinneer and Robert Picardo. Well, in this episode, Odo (Rene A) is the main guest star. He was very good as the main "white supremacist".

By the way, I'm not sure if I like Teal'c's new beard "landing strip". It looks a tad weird.

 

Don’t worry. The beard doesn’t last long.
There’s another big Star Trek alumni coming up soon.

 

Upgrades

I think if that episode of Stargate SG-1 aired today, it would have fit right in with the CW shows, specifically The Flash. Basically, a member from the Tok'ra High Council named Anise comes to SGC and wants to run an experiment on the SG-1 team, having them wear arm bands that inject super powers (And a lot of adreniline) into their system. That leads to many hyjinks ensuing, especially a mission to take out a high powered Apophis ship in which the armbands ware off. Overall, it was a decent episode though it was the weakest of the 3 so far. They even state the message of the episode, absolute power corrupts absolutely, especially the scene at the restaurant.

 

^While I pretty much agree with everything you said here, there's a fair amount of subtext going on in the episode as well. I especially like Hammond calling Anise out, but there's another element you didn't touch on here, and while I can't recall whether it seemed minor at the time, it...well, you'll see.