Well, after not being able to stand watching this show on free to air, or even on SKY, I have now successfully traversed all 10 series of Stargate: SG1, thanks to the wonders of the DVD age and a friend who had purchased them all.
And the thing I will miss most about the series? That awe-inspiring theme tune.
Really, that opening title theme is awesome - a huge orchestral adventure, reminiscent of the classic Star Wars opening, and it always managed to get me primed for a story of wonder and mystery.
Of course, the stories themselves seldom lived up to the promise of that opening opus. There were lots of obviously cheap to make or rather uninspired episodes, Richard Dean Anderson's more pompous moments as O'Neal and Michael Shanks' bouts of overacting left me wondering whether their heads would be able to fit through the Stargate, and some of the storylines seemed to come and go with little thought to how it fit in with the Stargate universe as a whole. This suspicion was apparently confirmed while watching the commentary on the final "normal" episode ("Unending") when the writers made a huge change to the Asgard because they though it kind of fit with that story, whereas I think it would have been more honest if they had said it was for the development Stargate: Atlantis - or at least, I would have hoped it was for that.
There was of course the big cruising lull around the 7th season, with the winding down of RDA's unmulleted involvement before the installation of Ben Browder into the team leader role. There was also the strange "brain replacement" season, when Michael Shanks was replaced by Corin Parker Lewis Nemec, and then was hastily (and sadly) removed from the team when the powers that be decided Daniel needed to come back.
But there were moments of brilliance. Claudia Black's Vala brought a regular dose of insanity to the proceedings in later series, replacing the warm hearted centre that Don Davis had provided as General Hammond in earlier seasons. The characters mocked themselves ("Indeed") as often as not. The value of Earth-style machine guns over the alien staff "blast" weapons was demonstrated in such a convincing way that it had me rethinking my "why don't they just use the energy weapons?" incredulity. And, try as I might, I can't go past the wonderfully mad episode "200" which brought wonderfully realised (and mocking) supermarionation to SG1 (check it out on YouTube here - it is hilarious), and also a brilliantly bizarre reference to Browder's and Black's old show, Farscape.
It was a fun ride and I was glad I finally got to watch them all. But I have to say, I was not convinced to go out and get the series for myself. I may attempt Stargate: Atlantis, though I may need to take a break before I try that one. And as for Stargate: Universe - well, I watched season one, and the jury is out on that one, though so far, the verdict does not look promising. Speaking of which:
Verdict: Stargate: SG1 was fun, though the invention of the fast forward button assisted in skipping through and over the bits that were not so. And it did manage to make it all the way to 10 seasons, which is a remarkable achievement, though one that is also shared by Smallville, which is dreadful, despite me being addicted to it. But I digress: 5 chevrons out of 7.
1 comment:
Stargate worked for me because it didn't take itself too seriously most of the time unlike it current spinoff. I loved the light hearted way it went about exploring the galaxy. I loved that Jack the warrior was a jokester with soft spot in his heart for kids and a certain blonde genius. Daniel and later Jonas were the conscious of the team. Teal'c was the loyal sidekick who the team focused on what was their true mission, defeating the Go'auld.
Myself, I try to forget that season 9 and 10 even happened. The series became something totally different and it was not what I loved about my Stargate SG-1.
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