Unending (1020)

[Elite Anubis Guard]

I thought it was Rod Stewart. Great song though, very fitting for the finally of SG1.


Ya know i was thinking, with the Asgard dead what does this mean for the SG:Worlds game? They hinted that you might encounter em in the game but i geuss now they're changing their story around.

Nothing. The game is set in S3-8.

[jbw]

The whole us being the 5th race and getting the title, and the asgard legacy... its retarded as mentioned above how we dont even have a grasp of our own problems.

Them saying we were the only ones is not true either. The Nox should have gotten the legacy. After all, they were one of the asgards allies in the alliance.

[LadyWolfie]

i almost cried at the point when Sam said she had given up. She has always been a sort of powerful woman role model and hearing her say that was just torture!

[Cameron Mitchel]

What? They can't change their style? Maybe that was the reason why they couldn't kill the Ori ships before... Beams >>> Pulse.

And of course no one was satisfied... None of them got any for like, 60 years... Well except Daniel and Vala...

The energy weapons the Asgard placed on the Odyssey were their latest tech. They hadn't developed it back in Camelot.

[Integrabyte]

i almost cried at the point when Sam said she had given up. She has always been a sort of powerful woman role model and hearing her say that was just torture!

I admired her when she said that. She wasn't cocky like McKay and admitted it is beyond her capabilities. Landry on his deathbed encouraged her to keep trying because he has faith in her.

I thought it was Rod Stewart.

He did a remix to the original song. CC Revival sing it better.

Totally agree with you; love watching the scene; you can watch it over and over and over again!

Every time I see it i am blown away. Shanks did it so well I was shocked in my chair, however, he is not the first guy to be played by a girl so I knew it was a defensive reaction . How did I know?Let's just say I had my Vala ...

[Ziykuna]

Is there anyone who can tell me from whom the music ist. Especially im am intrestet in the song in the middle where we get to know more about the circumstances at the ship. (Christmas Party, ....)

[Integrabyte]

Are you referring to CC Revival-Have you ever seen the rain?


Damn, this is such an old song and I used to listen to it so many times, it seems that with one episode and it is back in the "charts"

[kgirluvr]

The last ep was a good one, but not the best.

My thoughts are... SG1 has all of asgard technology? it seems to give SGC too much power. I dont know what the writers were thinking. I mean you dont find like 30 ZPMs or keep a Ancient war ship because you dont want to give the "heros" too much power.

I know the writers are killing a crap load of people off like Natan , and the asgard, but yea teh asgard as advanced as they are should have did some damn time traveling to save their race, they give up so easily and they cant ascend too, that suks.

Teal'c and sam saves the day is a good ending to the episode, though i thought his gone symbiot allows for longer age ? oh well. Thanks to tealc sg1 survives another day! woot.

This ep also coincides with SG atlantis that the asgard satellite weapon could easily be made if people asked teh asgard, but since they are killed off it causes problems.

Some questions i still have though,

asgard had energy weapons, but didnt help sg1 when the orai first came through the super gate in teh ep camelot. I did see as asgard ship, but it didnt do crap. Way to go allies!

orai ship finally destroyed, up till this ep i didnt think many weapons could kill an orai ship. I mean a ship that survives a ship to ship collision has amazing shields.

and is adrea an ascended orai that lives in the upper plane? or the orai galaxy , she just got promoted to the top of the chain.

orai defeated in the movie means, vala leaves sg1? she only joined by request and cuz her daughter is the leader, tealc should probably leave sg1 too theorically one day.

what is with the ascheN? they have a planetary confederation and were way more advacned than earth technologically. i gues the writers didnt care.

[lizzy4ever]

It was awesome, brilliant, amazing, really a great ep!! I almost cried though the entire ep!!!! hope will kick ori's asses for what they did. The asgard's farewell was truly beautiful...

One thing, though: I really expected Jack to come back for this episode. It was a really good "unending", yet I think it really lacked Jack's presence.

[Integrabyte]

The last ep was a good one, but not the best.

My thoughts are... SG1 has all of asgard technology? it seems to give SGC too much power. I dont know what the writers were thinking. I mean you dont find like 30 ZPMs or keep a Ancient war ship because you dont want to give the "heros" too much power.

I know the writers are killing a crap load of people off like Natan , and the asgard, but yea teh asgard as advanced as they are should have did some damn time traveling to save their race, they give up so easily and they cant ascend too, that suks.

Teal'c and sam saves the day is a good ending to the episode, though i thought his gone symbiot allows for longer age ? oh well. Thanks to tealc sg1 survives another day! woot.

This ep also coincides with SG atlantis that the asgard satellite weapon could easily be made if people asked teh asgard, but since they are killed off it causes problems.

Some questions i still have though,

asgard had energy weapons, but didnt help sg1 when the orai first came through the super gate in teh ep camelot. I did see as asgard ship, but it didnt do crap. Way to go allies!

orai ship finally destroyed, up till this ep i didnt think many weapons could kill an orai ship. I mean a ship that survives a ship to ship collision has amazing shields.

and is adrea an ascended orai that lives in the upper plane? or the orai galaxy , she just got promoted to the top of the chain.

orai defeated in the movie means, vala leaves sg1? she only joined by request and cuz her daughter is the leader, tealc should probably leave sg1 too theorically one day.

what is with the ascheN? they have a planetary confederation and were way more advacned than earth technologically. i gues the writers didnt care.

You dont bother to read what other post. We just spoke about what you said a couple pages back...shame...everyone comes and asks the same questions over and over....

[Integrabyte]

It was awesome, brilliant, amazing, really a great ep!! I almost cried though the entire ep!!!! hope will kick ori's asses for what they did. The asgard's farewell was truly beautiful...

One thing, though: I really expected Jack to come back for this episode. It was a really good "unending", yet I think it really lacked Jack's presence.

RDA is like Bruce Willis, he would have saved all of them.

[boberth2o]

Now it seems we are on our own. No big brothers to help us, no heros to go to if we're in trouble. I thimk that now we are the most powerful and influencial race for good in the galaxy. Now Earth must take on everything that is bad in the galaxy, the FJN is crumbling, the asgard are dead, the to'rak are beginning to die out, the tollans are dead, the Nox are hiding. obviouly the asgard believed that we could handle the burden of the galatic problemssingal handedly. what do you think?

[meredithchandler73]

I've posted some of my thoughts in the other threads, but why not put all my thoughts in one place!

I really enjoyed this episode.

--I loved the team moments - laughing around the dinner table (was anyone else thinking "are they laughing in character or as themselves at something funny"?) and Christmas.
--I loved all the interaction between the various characters - especially Sam. I think she's the only one that had one-on-one moments with everyone else - even Thor!
--I never really considered myself a shipper, but I liked the Daniel/Vala ship a lot here. The big scene was so great. My heart was breaking for Vala when Daniel started his rant.
--All the actors put in fine performances, but I was especially impressed with Claudia and Amanda. Claudia had wonderful dramatic moments ("the scene" with Daniel) and humorous and fun bits (pink nightie and handcuffs! rollerskating!). She's wearing a tiara at the end! Vala is definitely one of a kind!
--You could see that Sam felt so guilty for not being able to figure out a way off the ship. I loved Landry's quiet acceptance and support. Notice when Sam talks about how it might take a while for her to recreate the out-of-phase technology and the good news being there's food and water for 3 months. Everyone is stunned, but Landry recovers first with a it'll-take-as-long-as-it-takes attitude. When Cam keeps harping on how they're stuck on the ship, Landry says to give Sam time. I for one thought it was nice to have Sam at Landry's bedside when he died.
--Loved the choice for Sam to learn the cello. (I actually played the cello for about 6 years as a child! Squee! It's a beautiful instrument.)
--I'm SINCERELY hoping there will be deleted scenes included on the season 10 DVDs because there *had* to be some scenes cut from this episode. For one thing - I think there must have been something more to the brief scene between Sam and Vala. (Sam is alone in the mess hall and Vala comes to say she wants to help.) Don't you think there was probably some sort of scene about how Sam is feeling stuck or something like that? I also wonder if there wasn't more to the Vala crying in Daniel's arms scene.
--I liked that Vala asked how you can tell the Asgard apart and Daniel says, "the voice." Michael Shanks is the voice of Thor. Hee hee.
--Loved the "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" montage. It was so atypical of Stargate and I loved it.


I wonder how long it will take before I stop watching the episode at least once a day...

[the fifth man]

I wonder how long it will take before I stop watching the episode at least once a day...

Probably a while. But hey, there's nothing wrong with that. It was the last episode. And a great one at that.

[golfbooy]

Well, that's it. SG-1 as a weekly series is dead. I think that deserves a cheer. Huzzah! Huzzah! Yeah!! Seriously, don't be sad. It's a good thing, and it was a long time in coming. SG-1 has long outgrown its original format. 20 single, relatively stand-alone episodes per year is too difficult to write at this point in the show's existence. It was too hard all the way back in seasons seven and eight when two-parters abounded and big stories were the order of the day. To make seasons nine and ten a reality the writers have been purposefully holding the show back, telling an enormous amount of throw away episodes that contribute nothing to either the characters or the show. Humor, instead of being a subtly added touch to episodes, became an unwelcome houseguest who just wouldn't go away. The end result was that overall quality went down. But rejoice, for those days of overbearing constraint and unwanted network influence are at an end. SG-1, whatever its future is, will no longer be forced to limit the places it can go; whatever stories the writers want to tell can be told, almost regardless of the consequences. Characters can now develop and change rather than remain stagnant for next week's episode. The story will be unencumbered by filler episodes or time constraints. So, I say again, don't be sad. SG-1's future is brighter than it has been in two years. Raise those flags, let loose a whoop. It's not all that bad.

So, right, Unending. It was good, no doubt. In the heirarchy of New Stargate episodes, I'd probably put it third, after Pegasus Project and well behind 200, which occupies the top slot. I'm not too happy about some of the decisions made in Unending, and I'm definitely not happy about some of the glaring exclusions made from the episode, but nonetheless, it did play well. Whatever you may think of Rob Cooper's performance as showrunner, I still think it's undeniable that he is a fine scriptwriter. The pacing for the episode during SG-1's time on the ship was excellent. The montages of SG-1 living out their years was well put together and appropriately moving. And, wonder of wonders, everyone actually seemed to be in character. In those regards, Unending managed to succeed where so much of seasons nine and ten have failed. Understandably, people were going to be emotional over this episode. But, there's more than mere nostalgia or melancholy going on here. Unending, to the credit of Rob Cooper, resonates emotionally with the audience. We don't just watch SG-1 get stuck, live their lives, and then get unstuck. No, here we feel what they're going through. The inherent lonliness and frustration given the situation really comes through over the course of the episode and connects with the audience. And it has been that connection to the show that many fans have missed for the last two years. It's that great intangible, the x-factor that makes or breaks shows. Why was SG-1 so universally loved for eight years? Why are people still so passionate about the characters, even after some less than stellar episodes? It's because SG-1 had "it". And for the briefest time during Unending, SG-1 managed to find "it" again. It's a shame that it took the series finale for that to happen.

Lest I come across as too postive, Unending was also spectacular for all the wrong reasons when it comes to the omission of Jack O'neill from the story. It is truly heinous, a terrible occurrence that savagely curtails any sense of reality and plausibility that might otherwise inhabit Unending. Short of actually featuring an appearance by Richard Dean Anderson, a couple mentions of the man who led both the team and the show for the majority (and certainly best part) of its run should have been in order. Mysteriously, inexusably, there were none. The story itself, featuring the destruction of the Asgard as a race and the long overdue return of Thor, seems to have been molded around including Jack O'neill on this mission. Why or how he didn't even warrant an allusion, even in passing, by one of the orginal three characters during the long fifty years spent in the time dilation field is irrelevent. The simple fact is that it taints the entire episode with an air of outright incredulity, leaving the sort of aftertaste usually associated with only the most awful of meals. The episode is unsatisfying in every regard due Jack O'neill's absence, almost a sham perpetrated on the audience. The idea that we are supposed to accept that SG-1 as a team exists in this sort of O'neill-vacuum, where fifty years of their lives, their whole existence, can go by without some sort of reflection to Jack O'neill is the most inglorious of insults. Thanks, TPTB, but nothing could have made me more gleeful over the show's cancellation than this. Everyone who had a hand in Unending was entirely aware of the audience's hopes and expectations regarding Jack in the finale. It was a wilful (and seemingly malicious) decision not to give fans any satisfaction in that quarter. Anyone who is curious as to why so many fans have left the show or as to why it was cancelled need look no further than such classless behavior as this.

The other awful aspect of Unending is the treatment of the Asgard. Never in all my years of watching SG-1 would I have believed that the Asgard would be given such an ignoble and senseless end by the writers. There is no value in the total destruction of the Asgard. It was included merely for the shock and reaction it would elicit from the audience, not out of a desire to do right by the show or the characters. The SG-1 universe just lost a great deal of its richness and depth, all frittered away in one giant explosion of ship-based wanktech crappiness. Don't fool yourselves, this wasn't a bold move meant to fearlessly move the story forward. All this does is make fans once again question the absence of the Asgard for the last two seasons and their seemingly mysterious non-involvement in the Ori storyline. Yes, as it turns out the Asgard could have kicked the crap out of the Ori at any time. How about that. And guess what? The Asgard have decided that their policy of not disemminating their technology to other less advanced races was just silly. We now get it all. WTF? And, and, just to make the whole series of events even more painful to watch, the Asgard have suddenly developed a never before mentioned or alluded to disease that will soon wipe them all out. After not having any real Asgard episodes for two years this is just too much. But, thankfully, the Asgard are a noble race that treasures knowledge and science. Surely they'll intrepidly continue striving for a cure with the help of Tau'ri, right? Wrong. The Asgard, emotionally unstable little buggers that they are, have instead thrown up their hands in despair and decided to end it all with a big bang. Again, I ask, WTF? All that intricate Protected Planets Treaty/Goa'uld stuff, the long war with the Replicators, the search for a suitable solution to the cloning problem; all of that texture is rubbed out in one ten minute sequence of "cool" that makes no sense in the episode and serves no purpose. It's a horrendous decision to have the Asgard gift the Taur'i all their knowledge and technology, and it is abysmally out of sync with the rest of the series.

(cut for obscene length)