My Journey through Stargate SG1 - episode by episode.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Oh, yes indeed. Although I do believe SG-1 as a whole never really fell apart much at all. The last few seasons develop into something more different from their earlier forms than the previous seasons did from one-another, but again, such is the nature of long-running franchises.

More on-topic, perhaps -- these early-episode reviews are really making me want to kick it old-school sometime soon. My girlfriend got into the series recently because she watched SGU's premiere a couple of weeks ago and then sat through all of SG-1 Season 9 with me (oops) and is going into Season 10. When she's done with 9, 10 and the two telefilms, I plan on journeying backwards some twelve years to the movie and first season. Then she'll be doing what you're doing!

[magictrick]

Its funny because I'm actually re-watching the series right now and I just finished watching the Tok'ra 2-parter. Season 2 has some really good episodes, Tok'ra being one of them and also The Fifth Race which is one of my personal favorites from all of Stargate.

Its always cool to read the reviews of someone going through the series for the first time, I know there have been some other threads like this one and they are all fun to read.

[TryWhistlingThis]

2.14: Touchstone

Now this is what I consider to be a classic! Every moment of this episode had me hooked. It was actually the first episode in this series which made me look at my watch and think "that was 42 minutes?". I'm definitely a sucker for conspiracy stories, so I felt right at home here when they set it in Area 51, even though it didn't quite reflect how I expected it to look. They even threw in my favourite character of all time that I love to hate: Commander "shut your face" Maybourne I'm glad that they left a few things a mystery as it will make for some very interesting follow up later. Who does (or did) Maybourne represent? Where did the guards dial off to? This is my favourite SG1 episode of all time so far. Less about the action, more about the suspense. This is the stuff which makes sci-fi great, at times, moreso than the shooting and CGI. I loved it! I might even watch it again tomorrow.

6 out of 5

[Jeff O'Connor]

Wow, well I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love that episode too, it just doesn't get enough admiration. I was very interested in seeing your thoughts on it!

[lkg1980]

This has been a joy to read. Keep up the hard work and dedication, and above all, enjoyment.

I'm most excited to see what you think of the last couple of seasons. Some feel they weren't up-to-snuff with earlier years, but I disagree. That's the nature of such a long-running franchise, though, eh?

Season 8 was originally the final season the 2 parter The Reckoning was supposed to be the finale. Season 9 and 10 were a little stale not because of the writing but because they had so much to do Atlantis, Amanda Tapping Pregnancy, Claudia Black Pregnancy, New Villain, 4 New Characters in so little time (40 episodes) I thought they did a pretty good job but Season 8 is where SG-1 really ends.

- Christine

[Jeff O'Connor]

Season 8 was originally the final season the 2 parter The Reckoning was supposed to be the finale. Season 9 and 10 were a little stale not because of the writing but because they had so much to do Atlantis, Amanda Tapping Pregnancy, Claudia Black Pregnancy, New Villain, 4 New Characters in so little time (40 episodes) I thought they did a pretty good job but Season 8 is where SG-1 really ends.

- Christine

I concur, really. I've always liked and will continue to like 9, 10 and the telefilms, but 8 has such awesome closure. The last five episodes of that season provide us quite a bit of finality and character goodness.

[missmobius]

I love this thread but then it's cause my fave series is SG1!

the winning character combo, O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Hammond and others is what makes this series so SPECIAL and makes me re-watch it over and over again, especially the first 5 years, Just like the winning combo on Seinfeld (very hard thing to combine 4 lovable strong characters), the SG1 combo is just next to impossible to duplicate (like they're failing with on SGU, hope they bring in some lovable character combos in that one very soon).

[EvilSpaceAlien]

Season 8 was originally the final season the 2 parter The Reckoning was supposed to be the finale. Season 9 and 10 were a little stale not because of the writing but because they had so much to do Atlantis, Amanda Tapping Pregnancy, Claudia Black Pregnancy, New Villain, 4 New Characters in so little time (40 episodes) I thought they did a pretty good job but Season 8 is where SG-1 really ends.

- Christine

I agree. For me it feels like the "old" SG1 ends with Season 8 and the "new" SG1 starts with Season 9. Too bad that it ended with Season 10. We barely had enough time to get get to know all the new characters.

[TryWhistlingThis]

2.15: A Matter of Time

Frankly, i'm getting a little concerned at just how consistently good this season has been. Another outstanding episode. How long can this spell of quality last? While this week the episode will not get a perfect score, it's definitely a Season highlight for me. I suppose I need to remove a point for the resolution as it was a little unclear to me. But, time and relative dimensions is something which many Universities accross the world devote 5 year long courses to, so it's no surprise.

From my understanding: the gate was charged with an explosive with the intention of replicating a similar outcome to that seen in Solitudes whereby the traveller (in this case a black hole) is thrown off course from the target gate in which they are travelling toward. So, in other words, they used an explosive to shove a black hole back into a worm hole? That doesn't seem feasible given that the anomalie was about to absorb a minimum of two planets which is a massive amount of energy and gravitational pull. But, I could also have it very very wrong too as I wasn't a keen science student in my secondary schooling period. Please correct me here.

There were also a few slow spots which, excuse the pun, slowed the momentum of the episode a little. But for the most part, the episode worked really well. I also believe that this is the first ep to not have an alien adversary, rather, one of nature. Love it.

4 out of 5

[EvenstarSRV]

2.15: A Matter of Time

From my understanding: the gate was charged with an explosive with the intention of replicating a similar outcome to that seen in Solitudes whereby the traveller (in this case a black hole) is thrown off course from the target gate in which they are travelling toward. So, in other words, they used an explosive to shove a black hole back into a worm hole? That doesn't seem feasible given that the anomalie was about to absorb a minimum of two planets which is a massive amount of energy and gravitational pull. But, I could also have it very very wrong too as I wasn't a keen science student in my secondary schooling period. Please correct me here.

From what I remember of Solitudes, as Carter and O'Neill went through the gate it was hit with a massive amount of energy, which cause the other end of the wormhole to jump from the SGC gate to the Antarctica gate.

So in this episode, I believe they were trying to use the shaped charge at the SGC gate to make the other end of the wormhole connected to the gate near the blackhole jump to a different gate. This would then leave the outgoing wormhole from the SGC connected to another gate, which they'd then just have to shut down.

I'm glad you're enjoying this season, it's one of my favorites, and this episode in particular is one my favorites from the whole series.

[Pic]

Glad to see you're still sticking with it (and enjoying season 2). One of the things I like about these early episodes is that Carter is still proving herself, but I kinda get tired of people always punching down her technobabble. She's the Carter! Trust in the Carter, the Carter is good.

In 2.15 A Matter of Time, she had a great quote:
"They don't really know what the hell's going on so they're just going to blow it up and there doesn't seem to be a damn thing I can do about it."

Of course, Jack had a good one, too:
(to Hammond when he returns from flying to Washington and back, been gone 18 hours) "I thought you were on the phone"

[TryWhistlingThis]

Sorry for the late post, i've just been really busy the last week but I should be back on track


2.16: The Fifth Race

The juggernaut continues! I really can't imagine Season 2 for this series being surpassed in future seasons as it has just been so darn consistent with the good quality. Richard's performance in this one was spot on and as with some of the classic episodes, didn't need much action to do the story telling.

I suppose my only disappointment was O'Neill's memory loss at the end of the episode which effectively renders the event as never really happening since they no longer have the technology to unlock the eighth cheveron or any intel from the world O'Neill visited. If they pick up on this again, it will be interesting to see how they legitimately return to it all given that everything that took place within the episode was more or less a fluke.

The only other thing I didn't like was the talking grays. I have nothing against them having the ability to communicate, but the mouth-sync didn't do much for me. It would have been more interesting to maybe have the the voices inside O'Neill's head as a form of telepathy.

But all round, very strong.

4 out of 5

[Jeff O'Connor]

That does become an important episode in franchise mythology. I'll say that, and only that.

[magictrick]

You gave Bane 4.5 and The Fifth Race 4??? Outrageous! Just kidding

A lot of people dislike Bane for some reason, probably because of the nasty bug things, but I enjoyed that episode so its good to see someone else does too.

[Jeff O'Connor]

I like 'Bane', but I'd only give it like a 3. I'm also a tough critic, though, or so I like to think at least.

[newbeestl]

Cool post. I'm actually watching SG-1 for the "first" time too. I caught episodes here and there but that was about it. I have the 1st series right now and so far have watched the pilot and episodes 1 and 2. I like following along with your reviews. Thanks!

[TryWhistlingThis]

2.17: Serpent's song

Ok, i'm clearly not understanding the series the way I should be. I just saw another perfect episode. This was brilliant - series defining brilliant. Season 2 cannot do any wrong. I can't even remember anything from season 1, it's just such a better show. The highlight of this episode would have to be Peter Williams performance of Apophis where he was experiencing the traumatic breakdown of his human body and host.

The story also brilliantly established a higher villain which will no doubt be picked up on in future seasons. The CGI was great, the tone, the mood - everything worked.

5 out of 5

[jelgate]

Its generally accpeated then S2 outshines S1. As for Serphent's Song its been awhile but I remember it being a good and thought provoking episode

[Jeff O'Connor]

The first season has a few absolutely amazing episodes, but it's surrounded by decent ones, subpar ones and a few in which personally I avoid like the plague whenever possible.

By contrast, even the very worst of the second season is somewhere in-between subpar and decent for me, and the very best makes me forget the first season ever even happened. Well, it would if the show wasn't so great about constantly connecting with itself at every turn!

[Pic]

I'm glad you're enjoying season 2 so much! Some of the season1-2 story arcs remain my favorite.