Which season finales were planned series finales?

[Snowman37]

"Unending" ended up being the series finale, but their were four season finales that could have played out as series finales. The first obvious one is Season 6's "Full Circle" which would have lead to the movie Stargate: The Lost City. The other would be Season 8's "Moebius, Parts 1&2." After the defeat of Anubis, the Goa'uld, and the Replicators; we get to see O'Neill join SG-1 in the field one last time to find a ZPM for Atlantis. Lots of guest stars and a throw back to the movie and first episode. That was truely a great way to end the series. However, this leaves me scratching my head on Season 5's "Revelations" and Season 7's "Lost City." I've read that "Revelations" was going to be the series finale before SciFi picked up the sixth season. However, I've also read it was just a season finale that avoided a cliffhanger ending due to the network move. I've also read that "Lost City" was an aborted movie who's script became the season finale due to the show being renewed and Atlantis going into production simultaneously. This lead to SGA being retooled to the Pegasus galaxy so both shows could continue without having SG-1 constantly showing up to aide Atlantis. However, I've also read that "Lost City" was planned to serve as a series finale just in case SciFi backed out of the Season 8 renewal.

So... the question begs... were "Revelations" and "Lost City" ever planned to be series finales?

[thekillman]

i believe the answer is yes

[Snowman37]

In regards to "Lost City" how can it be a series finale if it was reworked from a movie script to a season finale script due to being renewed for an eighth season?

[Gen. Chris]

I would have been mad if the eighth season had been the last...That would have been one lame series finale.

[Snowman37]

Why no love for "Moebius?" It ties with "Lost City" as my favorite season finale.

[Gen. Chris]

Why no love for "Moebius?" It ties with "Lost City" as my favorite season finale.

As a regular two part episode, it was okay. But for a series finale, I wouldn't have liked it. I don't like time travel episodes all that much to begin with, so for a series finale, I wouldn't have enjoyed it all that much.

I LOVED Lost City though.

[Snowman37]

Ah, the time-travel element is what you took issue with. They went with that, because it allowed them to revisit Ra from the movie and use an alternate timeline to revisit events from the first episode. I always liked SG-1's time-travel episodes, and these two are quite simply the best time-travel story the show ever did. Continuum was good, but I take issue with it for it borrowed too much from "Moebius."

[Fan-e-Gate]

I'm fairly sure Moebius was the only one they had for a possible series finale.

[Gen. Chris]

Ah, the time-travel element is what you took issue with. They went with that, because it allowed them to revisit Ra from the movie and use an alternate timeline to revisit events from the first episode. I always liked SG-1's time-travel episodes, and these two are quite simply the best time-travel story the show ever did. Continuum was good, but I take issue with it for it borrowed too much from "Moebius."

Yeah I suppose. I liked Full Circle a lot, which revisited the beginning, though not Ra. I liked 2001 and 2010, which was kind of a cross between alternate timeline and alternate reality. It's mainly when I try to think about it too much that I don't like it...Lol.

[Jedi_Master_Bra'tac]

Each season from 5-8, TPTB thought the series would be cancelled, so the season finales of these seasons, "Revelations", "Full Circle", "Lost City" and "Moebius" were intended to be series finales. This is the reason the season finales of S1,2,3 and 4 ended in cliff-hangers and these ones didn't. As we know, the series wasn't cancelled.

When they got to season 9, they had to reinvent the show alot (Reckoning/Threads/Moebius had really wrapped things up, they nearly renamed the series "Stargate Command"). They decided at this point that instead of assuming the show would be cancelled, assume it would carry on and end the season with a cliff hanger. They were counting on a season 11 and were going to end season 10 with a cliff hanger, but they were informed of the cancellation before they'd finished filming S10 and produced Unending as the finale.

Then of course we had Ark of Truth (containing the planned plot of S11) and Continuum

[Snowman37]

Each season from 5-8, TPTB thought the series would be cancelled, so the season finales of these seasons, "Revelations", "Full Circle", "Lost City" and "Moebius" were intended to be series finales.

I agree with you on "Full Circle" and "Moebius, Part 2." However, I read that when "Revelations" was produced, SciFi had already picked up the show for a sixth season. How can the episode be a series finale? As for "Lost City," the script was for a movie that would serve as a transition between the SG-1 finale and premiere of Atlantis. When both SG-1 Season 8 and Atlantis were ordered by SciFi, the movie script was reworked as SG-1's Season 7 finale. How can it be a series finale, especially when it ends with a cliffhanger (the fate of O'Neill)?

[CompanionCube]

To my knowledge every season finale starting with "Full Circle" were planned as finales.

[DigiFluid]

To my knowledge every season finale starting with "Full Circle" were planned as finales.

Yep, with the exception of Camelot.

Obviously every year they ended up getting reworked slightly in order to be a season finale, but every year except 9 and 10 were expected to be their last. Again--with the exception of Seasons 9 and 10--you can even see in the development of plot points over each year that they were trying to wrap things up.

Unending is the odd man out here, not quite fitting into the mold for either 'position'. IIRC they got the cancellation news when they had written up to episode 18 or so, so the season was not written as an ending, but they had time to write the finale as one.

[Jedi_Master_Bra'tac]

I agree with you on "Full Circle" and "Moebius, Part 2." However, I read that when "Revelations" was produced, SciFi had already picked up the show for a sixth season. How can the episode be a series finale? As for "Lost City," the script was for a movie that would serve as a transition between the SG-1 finale and premiere of Atlantis. When both SG-1 Season 8 and Atlantis were ordered by SciFi, the movie script was reworked as SG-1's Season 7 finale. How can it be a series finale, especially when it ends with a cliffhanger (the fate of O'Neill)?

I think a lot of these episodes were produced when they knew they'd be a new season. I think they planned S5 to be the end before Sci Fi picked them back up.

Lost City was intended to be the end of SG1 and the start of Atlantis, obviously this was reworked when they got the news about S8.