Unending (1020)

[abehost]

Well, I finished. Finished as in, I've seen every episode. Finished watching 1020 the other day. I watched the series from beginning to end, not missing one episode along the way. Its been fun, and I must say I miss it.

I started watching the show a few years ago, and began watching a few episodes every time I had some free time. Though I had been kept busy with other things, of course, since I started watching, I always managed to keep watching.

I needed to say something to someone about this to get it off my chest. I look forward to the movies.

[Andy1]

Well it was a good episode, clever concept, kind of reminds me of a short sci-fi story I read a while back. One big problem though, it's riddled with plot holes:

1) In the season 4 episode 'The Light' we learn that Teal'c is 101 soon to be 102 (actually it might be 81/82 but I don't think so). If 50 or 60 years go by on the Odyssey then Teal'c is now 155-165 or around about. Does this seem right? Bra'tac is about 140 and he's close to death. Teal'c says on 'Unending' "I will continue living for many more years yet" or something along those lines.

2) Still with Teal'c.. so he now has 60/70 years of experiences with SG-1, 50 to 60 of those being stuck on the Odyssey, again, this just seems ridiculous.

3) I'm going to assume that the Asgard beam weaponry on the Odyssey is a recent breakthrough in technology, which makes sense considering they upgraded the Odyssey to leave a legacy of their proudest achievements etc. I just thought I'd bring this one up because we have never seen these weapons before, and if the O'Neill Battleship at P3Y-229 had these weapons the Ori would of lost at least one battlecruiser. Perhaps this new weapon was specifically designed for use against Ori Vessels, exploiting the weakness in their shields (Marks says that the Ori Ship's shields are "fluctuating", the same word that was used to describe what happened to the shields when the main weapon was fired). This whole thing is explainable if you think about it but we shouldn't really have to rationalise this stuff ourself.

4) I am (or should I say I was?) getting a bit tired of this idea of beaming off the Odyssey's crew leaving only SG-1 and in this case Gen. Landry aboard. Why exactly is this done? Because the writers want the main cast all on their own together. As usual it's hopelessly staged. It doesn't make much sense, the crew of the Odyssey know the ship better than anyone, they have much more experience with its systems etc., and what happened to Davidson, is he on a leave of absence or something? I can believe keeping Carter aboard, but, for example, why keep Vala aboard? What purpose does she serve except to be a pain in the rear and hook up with the first guy available? Sorry if I went off on one there but stuff like this really annoys me.

5) EDIT: OK I missed a plot hole. Have TPTB forgot that Orilla is in one of the Asgard galaxies? If not then have they forgotten that the Ori Ships need a Supergate to go this far? So we assume that the Odyssey was travelling for several weeks to get to Orilla? Infact I thought that the whole opening section was badly done. Jumping in an out of hyperspace all the time, it's another one of those things that is too often used to solve the team's problems. I was pleased when the hyperdrive was damaged when they were trying to escape from Orilla. So the Ori Ships can quickly track down the Odyssey now that it has Asgard stuff aboard. It will be interesting to see if they still have the Asgard core in the movie/s. They were saying that they can't use the Asgard core because the Ori can track them down.


Some good points now:

1) OK, the basic idea of the episode is excellent. It really gets at you deep down and you can't stop thinking about it long afterwards, it's one of those things that really moves you. I mentioned it at the start but there is a short sci-fi story I read about a guy on a ship in deep space who was woken from stasis ahead of everyone else by accident, and he basically spends the rest of his life on the ship. Now this was perfectly executed, and 'Unending' does a good job as well, perhaps if it had been slightly longer...

2) My favourite part/parts of the episode was Mitchell running around the ship. I know a little odd but this is what reminded me of the thing I read, it was just a nice touch.

3) Daniel and Vala. Although I don't much like the idea of these two together, I have to say that the scene when they first get together is quite frankly, brilliant. When this scene started I thought that it echoed of 'The Ties That Bind', and the director/writers seemed to get that as well.

4) Teal'c's last line, "Indeed". Again, a nice but expected touch.

5) The scene with Teal'c in the time bubble and the ship blowing up and then reassembling, excellent. I can tell they really saved up the budget money on this one. And the music for it is the same music when the Warships first come through the supergate which was outstanding. Another good use of it here.

6) The way the episode generally unfolds, slow at first and then the years start to skip ahead a lot. Again, if the episode had been a bit longer this could of been done to perfection.

Right, that's it. A good send-off for SG-1. I was kind of hoping for a 'Camelot' style cliffhanger of an episode but they chose the other option and ended it properly while still leaving things open for the first movie. Just don't disappoint please TPTB!!

[Integrabyte]

Did he?

EPISODE NUMBER - 617
ORIGINAL U.S. AIR DATE - 02.14.03
SYNDICATION AIR DATE - 03.08.04
DIRECTED BY - William Gereghty
GUEST STARRING - Ronny Cox (Senator Kinsey), Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), Garry Chalk (Colonel Chekov), Michael Shanks (Voice of Thor)


Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard arrives in a flash, and the ambassadors are stunned to see a real alien sitting amongst them. Thor thanks General Hammond for the S.G.C.'s continual assistance of the Asgard, including SG-1's recent efforts to help save their entire galaxy from the Replicators ("Unnatural Selection").In return, the Asgard will outfit Prometheus (the X-303) with Asgard shields and weapons.


source: http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s6/617.shtml

See Disclosure again mate . Thor wants to give us shields and weapons. He ends up giving us, only, beaming technology, hyperdrive, shields, and some other gizmos but no weapons as he states. Why? The HIGH COUNCIL believed we would use the technology against them. Therefore, the supreme commander of the Asgard fleet followed orders...

How about them apples?

[Lieut-Col. P@rick Durden]

See Disclosure again mate . Thor wants to give us shields and weapons. He ends up giving us, only, beaming technology, hyperdrive, shields, and some other gizmos but no weapons as he states. Why? The HIGH COUNCIL believed we would use the technology against them. Therefore, the supreme commander of the Asgard fleet followed orders...

How about them apples?

dude, remeber when the prometheus got hijacked the first time they didn't have any weapons or shields so in disclosure they did give us asgard weapons as well as shields and all the other good stuff. we may not have had the greatest asgard tech but they at least gave us their hand -me -downs. but anyway... SG-1 had a good run the asgard needed to die because they couldn't ever solve their genetics problem the movies should tie up more plot and the real essential purpose on unending is to make us fans go back and enjoy all of our fav eps and not so fav eps like "a hundred days."

but in all seriousness the english just wish George Washington was their dad.

[jenks]

How about them apples?

What? Do you always get this excited when you answer a question? Need a tissue?

[Dusk]

Incredible!

I'm so glad to have been there with the team since day one. The last ten years have been amazing, a truly wonderful time!

May the show, its superb cast, and dedicated crew, all go down in the history books as giving the world such a thrilling and rewarding science-fiction gem.

There is so much I could say, but I think it's summed up best by simply saying Thank You! SG-1, you shall not be forgotten.

[Integrabyte]

What? Do you always get this excited when you answer a question? Need a tissue?

Keep ure pants on. No need to become feisty...

[scarimor]

Pants off... tissues... *wonders where this is going*

[Amaunet]

Unending was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT, I truthfully thought it was a fantastic way to end SG1! It gave it the send off it deserves!

[section31]

What a way to end 10 years for Stargate SG-1. Fantastic episode. 10/10. finally got to see the romance between daniel and vala.

Fantastic way to end Stargate??? Not really. I can’t believe the writers killed off the Asgard five minutes into the show! It wouldn’t hurt to make the SERIES FINALE longer, like they did in Threads but that’s beside the point.

What really pisses me off is the fact that Richard Dean Anderson appears in “200”; but doesn’t bother to show up for the LAST episode of the LAST season of Stargate! Anderson had better have a good reason for not participating in the series finale. We supported him through eight seasons. He owes us that much!

How can you possibly end the series without the star of the show?Colonel Jack O’Neill !

[majorsal]

What really pisses me off is the fact that Richard Dean Anderson appears in “200”; but doesn’t bother to show up for the LAST episode of the LAST season of Stargate! Anderson had better have a good reason for not participating in the series finale. We supported him through eight seasons. He owes us that much!

How can you possibly end the series without the star of the show?Colonel Jack O’Neill !

maybe *he* wasn't invited/asked back? rda wanted to do some sg1 eps, so they gave him 2 and put him over on atlantis for 3. why atlantis? and who's to say rda didn't want to do the last ep ever, but just wasn't asked...

we don't know.




sally

[PG15]

That, and he was contracted to only be in 5 eps BEFORE the cancellation order came down. It was probably too late to renegotiate everything for the episode, which was being shot only a month or so later.

[randy]

Yeah in Thor's opinion we are. We earned his respect. And technically we are the fifth race, regardless of the Asgards fate or the Ancients.

Well, it depends on view point. The fact that the show revolves around Earth and the Tauri, it would seem obvious they (Tauri) would be regarded as "the fifth race" based on the general plot, and subplots involving the first contact with the Asguard. However, the writers could've just as easily given the title to another advance race that the late Asguard deemed "older" in terms of the makeup of a society, and had the Tauri riding on their coat tails.

[Mitchell82]

That, and he was contracted to only be in 5 eps BEFORE the cancellation order came down. It was probably too late to renegotiate everything for the episode, which was being shot only a month or so later.

Thats the way I fiugured it happend. As much as I love RDA and do believe he made SG-1 what it was IMO he would have served no purpose in this ep.

[section31]

Well O'Neill is a two star general and the head of Homeworld Defence. Surely this would be ample reason for him to be on the mission to Orilla.

Perhaps if there was more time for the writers to renegotiate Anderson's contract and what not, they could have rewritten or create a different series finale with O'Neill in it.

Does anyone know why Anderson will only be in one Stargate movie? A least they had Walter in the series finale.