The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough
- Thread starter tomalak301
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It was the 90s, they were doing what was considered standard by that time. And they still had noticeably fewer episodes per season than Star Trek did in the 90s.
And this series has seen a lot of character development in 16 episodes. You lose the filler, you lose getting to actually know these people. It's one of the downsides of the current Star Treks. They feel rushed to the point where you don't feel a connection to the characters. Despite my qualms with Singularity, I liked what it did for Samantha. In a sense that elevator scene reminded me of Ripley from Aliens. I also liked seeing the planet who accused Teal'c kill his son be convinced that Teal'c had really changed. Filler is such a negative term when it comes to TV shows, but it really shouldn't be.
Yeah, that episode reeks of a good act 1 & 2 pitch that ended up painting them into a corner in act 3 because there's no way they can actually kill a kid, nor can they have the hero leave her to die alone, and there just isn't enough drama to just pull some tech solution out of their arse.
I sometimes wonder if the first season was rushed out the door since a LOT of the early season one episodes follow this pattern of scripts that needed a few extra drafts, or should have been scraped altogether.
There's kind of a similar episode later on down the line with Sam befriending a young girl, with a much more poignant and meaningful conclusion. On reflection it really feels like a second run at this concept because that time around they seemed to have learnt their lesson and the result is a much better, more complete story and character piece that manages to hit a lot of the same character beats.
It also serves to show just how much the show grew in the first two or three seasons.
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Solitudes
Stargate does reveals really well. I loved that twist ending, that there was a second Stargate in Antartica and we even got to know more about how it works. Was this the episode where the O'Niell/Carter ship was born? Is there even such a thing?
Stargate does reveals really well. I loved that twist ending, that there was a second Stargate in Antartica and we even got to know more about how it works. Was this the episode where the O'Niell/Carter ship was born? Is there even such a thing?
Yes, this episode definitely started the O'Neill/Carter ship.
There But For the Grace of God
SG-1 raised the urgency quotient big time in this episode. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Yesterday's Enterprise, with Daniel going to an alternate reality where earth (The Federation) is on the brink of annahilation and Daniel (Or the Enterprise C) has to do whatever it takes to survive and put the reality back to where it was. It also introduced a Stargate version of the mirror universe, and it was one of the most exciting episodes of the season so far. The way it ended was ominous with Daniel saying "They're coming". It feels like the season has been a little bit of a slog to get through, but they finally raised the bar with this episode, and I loved seeing what could happen if the Goua'ld actually do invade earth.
This just took the #1 spot for best episode of the season.
I've also been meaning to mention this for a while, but I would love to see General Hammond go through the Stargate, or just something about him other than being a general. We got a little of it in the previous episode, but I remember the sadness Stargate Fans felt when Davis passed away and I guess he turned into a popular character but I'm not entirely seeing it yet.
Politics
Ronny Cox playing a senator a few years after he played Jellico feels very appropriate. I haven't seen him in anything else other than TNG's Chain of Command.
TNG had a clip show to end season 2. Stargate SG-1 has a Clip Show to end season 1. The finale better be costly because I have a hard time believing a show airing on Showtime was running out of money.
SG-1 raised the urgency quotient big time in this episode. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Yesterday's Enterprise, with Daniel going to an alternate reality where earth (The Federation) is on the brink of annahilation and Daniel (Or the Enterprise C) has to do whatever it takes to survive and put the reality back to where it was. It also introduced a Stargate version of the mirror universe, and it was one of the most exciting episodes of the season so far. The way it ended was ominous with Daniel saying "They're coming". It feels like the season has been a little bit of a slog to get through, but they finally raised the bar with this episode, and I loved seeing what could happen if the Goua'ld actually do invade earth.
This just took the #1 spot for best episode of the season.
I've also been meaning to mention this for a while, but I would love to see General Hammond go through the Stargate, or just something about him other than being a general. We got a little of it in the previous episode, but I remember the sadness Stargate Fans felt when Davis passed away and I guess he turned into a popular character but I'm not entirely seeing it yet.
Politics
Ronny Cox playing a senator a few years after he played Jellico feels very appropriate. I haven't seen him in anything else other than TNG's Chain of Command.
TNG had a clip show to end season 2. Stargate SG-1 has a Clip Show to end season 1. The finale better be costly because I have a hard time believing a show airing on Showtime was running out of money.
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I love parallel universes! So that episode was one of my favorites!
General Hammond is going to have more than a couple good moments over the years.
General Hammond is going to have more than a couple good moments over the years.
Within the Serpent's Grasp & The Serpent's Lair
Well, that's an awesome way to spend a Friday night in Quarantine. This series feels so different from the first 18 episodes of the series to this finale arc. Heck, I'm even going to say Politics was not as bad understand the context of the story with the overall arc. This series is actually reminding me of Farscape in a way. You get the first several episodes of the season to have it find it's legs, and then the final four, plus Season 2's Mind the Baby, feels like you're watching a different show. It's like Stargate SG-1 found a new kind of confidence with the alternate reality episode and the show just took off being some of the most fun TV I've seen this year. There was action, adventure, some damn good dialoge (Jack's bad day lamenting, Bra'tac and Jack comparing grenades) and a realistic portrayal of government (arrogant naive idiots). I had a ton of fun watching that entire thing. The stuff with Jack and Skarra (Klorel) was fantastic too.
In terms of season 1, again, it felt like Farscape in a way. It took a little bit to find what it wanted to be, but it wasn't bad. We got to meet the characters, there were some great episodes, and I'm feeling really good about Season 2. My 5 favorite episodes of this season:
The Cold Lazarus
The Goua'ld invade Earth arc (I want to give some love to other episodes, but this arc was fantastic)
The Torment of Tantalus
Thor's Hammer
The Enemy Within
Looking forward to what's in store for Season 2.
Well, that's an awesome way to spend a Friday night in Quarantine. This series feels so different from the first 18 episodes of the series to this finale arc. Heck, I'm even going to say Politics was not as bad understand the context of the story with the overall arc. This series is actually reminding me of Farscape in a way. You get the first several episodes of the season to have it find it's legs, and then the final four, plus Season 2's Mind the Baby, feels like you're watching a different show. It's like Stargate SG-1 found a new kind of confidence with the alternate reality episode and the show just took off being some of the most fun TV I've seen this year. There was action, adventure, some damn good dialoge (Jack's bad day lamenting, Bra'tac and Jack comparing grenades) and a realistic portrayal of government (arrogant naive idiots). I had a ton of fun watching that entire thing. The stuff with Jack and Skarra (Klorel) was fantastic too.
In terms of season 1, again, it felt like Farscape in a way. It took a little bit to find what it wanted to be, but it wasn't bad. We got to meet the characters, there were some great episodes, and I'm feeling really good about Season 2. My 5 favorite episodes of this season:
The Cold Lazarus
The Goua'ld invade Earth arc (I want to give some love to other episodes, but this arc was fantastic)
The Torment of Tantalus
Thor's Hammer
The Enemy Within
Looking forward to what's in store for Season 2.
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I've been following this thread waiting for you to get to this point. Back when Stargate began, I missed the pilot and tried to watch a few episodes but gave up on it for a few years. A friend eventually convinced me to watch the series by telling me it was the spiritual successor to Star Trek. In the early 2000s I forced myself to sit through the first season and then was blown away by the final arc. The seasons get progressively better for most of the series.
Smallville had a similliar episode, but where the boy did blow up. When I first saw that episode it was really emotional.
One of my favourite episodes of the whole show and right up there for season 1. I have a soft spot for survival stories and contained character pieces (for reference, one of my favourite things in B5 involves Londo & G'Kar trapped in an elevator together) where you get to see characters out of their comfort zone and react to things we're not used to seeing them deal with.
Small side note: you might not think it, but this episode introduces and *major* plot thread that'll be with not just this show but the entire franchise right until the end...but it'll take a few seasons for that to become clear.
Although a lot gets said about how the show is a spiritual successor to Star Trek (even more that 'Enterprise' that this show both preceded and outlived), in terms of the cast dynamic it has a little more in common with M*A*S*H, where the main focus in on the underlings and the CO is more of a paternal overseer. Obviously Hammond is more of a Potter than a Blake, but you get the idea.
To answer your question though, yes he does get a little more to do over time, though the affection doesn't come from the quantity of his work but the quality. Whereas Jack's the every-man hero (though that evolves in ways I won't spoil), Sam's the brain and courage, Daniel's the heart, wonder and conscience, Teal'C is the Honorable Warrior™, Hammond is kind of the show's centre of decency and integrity. A fixed point that can always be relied upon to be there...until he wasn't anymore.
Not a bad comparison, though I think for Farscape it was about fine finding a tone that worked to modulate the utter bedlam. For Stargate it seems to me like the revelation wasn't so much the tone but the mission statement. They spent a year throwing things at the wall to see what stuck and picked a more thought out direction from there on out.
Though I will say that there is one fairly major similarity between the two shows which was a rarity back then: forward momentum and consequences. SG1 may have found it's groove but it didn't just sit there twiddling it's thumbs. Like Farscape it kept pushing the world forwards. Things changed. Actions had consequences. Stakes got raised pretty consistently and circumstances evolved.
There is ONE other similarity between the two, but I won't spoil that for you...
Honestly most of Smallville is kind of a blur to me (and I never did get around to watching the first season) but it terms of tone I think it's much more akin to 'Buffy' so it can get away with just blowing past that kind of thing, whereas SG1 leans much more towards a Star Trek-ish type sensibility.
I think "There But for the Grace of God" and the finale really work in showing how powerful the Goauld are compared to Earth and the SGC at that time. The audience definitely takes the threat seriously. So when Daniel says "they're coming" there is a genuine ominousness to it. We believe it. The high stakes are real. There is a genuine sense that Earth could lose. And that makes the victory even better, especially since it is hard fought and earned by the courage and ingenuity of our main characters.
There is ONE other similarity between the two, but I won't spoil that for you...
If you're talking about Browder and Black joining the cast, I know about that one. I think SG-1 was airing at the same time BSG was just starting so I remember how big of a deal it was that when Farscape ended Browder and Black joined the SG-1 crew for the final few seasons.
...no comment.
Serpent's Lair is actually the season 2 premiere.
I am so glad you are enjoying SG1. It is a great show. You are in for a treat for season 2. It has a couple standalone stinkers but it also has some great standalone episodes and also introduces some very important new elements to the world building that are really great.
IMO, "Bane" and "Spirits" are the two weakest episodes in season 2. But all the other eps are really good.
But my top favorite episodes of season 2 are:
- The Serpent's Lair
- The Gamekeeper
- Secrets
- The Tokra part 1 & 2
- The Fifth Race
- A Matter of Time
- Serpent's Song
- Out of Mind
Stargate's clip-shows (and there were a lot of them) were generally well-regarded, since they tended to having the framing sequences involve fairly momentous (or, at least, fan-servicey) plot-moves, so they didn't feel disposable. The last one they did is particularly interesting, if only because of how few clips it used and most of it was a fun little side-story.
On the other hand, I think the producers really felt bad about what they had to do with the next clip show...
On the other hand, I think the producers really felt bad about what they had to do with the next clip show...
...in making it the season two finale. It is a pretty good cliffhanger, but it's clearly very cheaply done, so they really pulled out all the stops for the season 3 premiere to make up that. Come to think of it, the season 3 premiere is the very first episode of SG-1 I ever saw, on a Saturday in syndication, without even knowing what it was. A while later, I saw a season 5(?) episode under the same circumstances, though I'd started to hear people rave about Stargate, and another year or two after that, my folks got us cable, and I started bingeing the entire series on Sci-Fi (which was fun, because they had two out-of-sync cycles going on simultaneously one; an episode every weekday, plus a marathon of three episodes on Mondays, so I might be seeing stuff from early in the show most of the week, and then a bunch of episodes from a totally different place in the run on Mondays, and then the new episode on Friday; also, the timing meant I still haven't seen most of season six and seven, never mind whatever oddball episodes I missed from the first five years).
I know, but I was wanting to talk about the overall arc, so that's why I put them together.
Didn't they mention a macgyver system or something?
Wasn't that a behind the scenes parody thing? If it was in the episode I might have missed it, but I did hear what you were talking about.
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