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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Review by Garnet Brooks
I started re-watching the first two seasons of Stargate SG-1, the science fiction series. Originally it was on Showtime and later was taken up by the Sci-Fi Channel. It is a long running, popular mainstream series which generated a likeable spin off, Stargate Atlantis. Each season makes a nice boxed set. The discs are in separate laminated cases not the yucky fold out paper containers.
The first few episodes of Season 1 follow the plot of the original Stargate film quite closely. In Roland Emmerich's film, the archeologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is the focal character. In SG-1 he is second banana to Colonel Jack O'Neill. O'Neill's character is substantially reworked. In the film Kurt Russell's portrayal has emotional intensity. His facial expressions convey the sadness and despair of a man who has lost his son and his will to live. Richard Dean Anderson's Jack is less emotive but engaging. Though different interpretations they are both viable. The TV series team gets girl power with the addition of Captain Samantha Carter, both scientist and Air Force military. They recruit Teal'c a man who saves them in episode one. Teal'c is a Jaffa, a servant of the enemy, who has turned rebel and is trying to free his fellow Jaffa. A few of the characters from the film get carried over to series. Daniel's wife is taken by a Goa'uld as host as is one of the adolescents befriended by Jack.
The team gets to travel to other planets by way of a Stargate, a portal which generates a stable wormhole. Here again the series inherits the splendid visuals of the film. Jack describes it as a sideways flush but this does not do justice to the swirling blue water which is supposed to be the fluctuating event horizon of the wormhole. It has been created by an unknown race referred to as the Ancients and is appropriated by an evil race, the Goa'uld, who are parasitic and take human's as hosts. The bad guys are arrogant and dramatically bad. They have cool glowy eyes though. As the series progresses over time the non-human races begin to emerge. The first is the Nox, a nature friendly, grass wearing but technologically advanced race with a city in the sky and the ability to disappear at will. The second alien race is the Asgard, grey not green but little men with buggy eyes. The Asgard are at war with the bad guys and are protectors of man. Another race they encounter are the Tolan who want nothing to do with humans. Like in the original film, many of the aliens take on mythic personas. The Goa'uld, the evil guys, often assume Egyptian guises. In this first year the enemy is Apophis. Others arise bearing names from the Egyptian pantheon like Hathor, a sort of parasitic queen bee. The Asgard appear to human's initially in the guise of Nordic gods.
One of the best things about the series is its set design. The TV series creators Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright got to borrow the lovely, lush introductory clip with its eerie, golden Egyptian design. There is a gorgeous simplicity in its design. Much of it was done by Emmerich's wife Ute. The bad guys travel through space in slick gold pyramids that dock with ancient ruins on earth. The interiors especially of the ships usually look like a big budget went into them with the exception of the tunnels of the Tokra (Goa'uld but good guys) and these tunnels look like big chunks of plastic.
Season 1 sees the SG teams beginning the exploration of the universe. The Stargate is housed deep underground on earth inside Cheyenne Mountain. General Hammond the base's commander is a trustworthy leader respected even by Colonel O'Neill who is cynical and a tad rebellious. Inside the military and out though are unscrupulous forces trying to either shut down the program or steal alien technology for dubious purposes.
Season 1 has a good cliffhanger ending. The SG-1 team transport aboard one of two Goa'uld ships heading for earth so they can bomb it to Hell. Daniel got wind of the plot in a prior episode by traveling to a parallel dimension.
Season 2's first episode is the conclusion to the cliffhanger where of course the earth is saved and the aliens and their ships get blowed up. Stargate is nothing if not action based. They tote serious fire power and always have a bit of plastic explosives at hand.
Season 2 further develops characters and delineates alien races. There is a double episode featuring the Tokra who are a resistance group infiltrating the Goa'uld ranks to eventually free the many planets enslaved to these beings. Samantha Carter is briefly a host to a Tokra and retains memory of the being long after it is gone. An alliance between earth and the resistance movement is formed when Samantha's father agrees to become a Tokra host. Jack has further contact with the Asgard during this season and we see something of their advanced culture and technology finding that they were once in an alliance with the still mysterious Ancients.
Season 2 has two outstanding episodes. In the first, the Stargate dials a planet which is about to be consumed by a black hole. The SG team on the planet cannot be saved and the earth is almost sucked into the black hole through the gate.
In the second episode the SG-1 team is transported back to 1969. They struggle to find a way home and the usual paradoxes ensue. The real draw of this episode is its 60's panache. The team gets to wear great threads and hitch a ride with a couple of hippies heading for Woodstock. Who doesn't love those rose colored glasses?
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