I slacked on blogging, but not on episodes!

Before diving in, I want to prep the reader that I am trying out some formatting changes.  Let me know if they help read what’s important (my prose), or if it’s too DiStRaCtInG.

Stargate SG-1
Season 2 – Episode 1
44mins
“The Serpent’s Lair” – As a fleet of Goa’uld warships heads toward Earth, threatening to destroy it, the Stargate facility prepares for the worst, sending the best and brightest of American society through the Stargate to a safe Alpha site.
-          Stargate writers should offer a course on how to properly resolve the perfect season ending cliff-hanger in one episode.  We get to see the first death of Apophis (yay), silence some SGC program nay-sayers (yay), and save the entire freakin’ planet, all in one episode.   Oh, and Daniel dies for the 2^nd time.  Don’t worry, he comes back, glasses and all….

Stargate SG-1
Season 2 – Episode 2
44mins
“In the Line of Duty” – O’Neill and the SG-1 team are on a mission to Nasya, hoping to rescue the survivors or a planet that has been attacked by the Goa’uld.  During the rescue, Dr. Samantha Carter’s body is taken over by a Goa’uld, which returns to Earth.
-          Tok’ra!  I guess I should have started that with *spoiler alert*, but the only people reading this have either seen every episode of Stargate ever, or don’t give a crap.  We get our first glimpse of the Tok’ra, first Goa’uld assassin (Ashrak), and the writers come through yet again by expanding ideas from this episode and establish a huge chunk of Stargate cannon.

Stargate SG-1
Season 2 – Episode 3
44mins
“Prisoners” – While exploring a seemingly insignificant planet, O’Neill and the SG-1 team are approached by a ragged figure who pleads for their help from a pursuer named Taldor.  They try to defend him, only to discover that the man is a fleeing murderer.
-          Beware Linea, destroyer of worlds!  (apparently I’m just starting them all this way)  SG-1 gets imprisoned for trying to help some scared dude and escape with some frail, old lady who has licked cold fusion (who knew a ficus was the solution to all our problems) and turns out to be a mass murderer on a global scale.  Way to go team!

Stargate SG-1
Season 2 – Episode 4
44mins
“The Gamekeeper” – O’Neill and the SG-1 team travel to P7J989, where they discover a beautiful garden and a dome full of strange metallic chambers, each containing an unconscious person.  As the team inspects the chambers, they are trapped and knocked unconscious.
-          Ok episode – fun play with multiple levels of reality.  Very little from this episode really “matters” in the grand scheme of the show though.  We learn more about Jack’s and Daniel’s past (not that they taste great with Coke).  The “Gamekeeper” is unable to read Carter’s mind, making this the first time we’ve been told that there was some sort of lasting effect from when Jolinar occupied Carter in S2E2.  Writers must run out of ideas a few seasons down the road because they have the SGC “adapt” the VR technology from this episode for military training purposes (who thinks THAT’S gonna work out…?).  More to come!

Wrapping Up Season 1

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 19
44mins
“There But for the Grace of God” – Daniel Jackson is pulled into an alternate reality where he sees Earth being invaded by the Goa’uld.

-          Awesome episode! This episode exemplifies nearly everything that is great about the show as a whole. Alternate-Reality and Time-Travel episodes are definitely the best episodes in the show, and this is the first of many. This episode starts a chain reaction/thread that leads to the season 1 finale, and did I mention that it’s awesome?

 

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 20
44mins
“Politics” – A powerful U.S. Senator vows to shut down the Stargate project despite Daniel Jackson’s warnings of an eminent Goa’uld invasion.

-          Senator Kinsey sucks. That’s the only thing to be gleaned from this episode.  Oh, and clip shows suck too. But, this episode is semi-necessary for the upcoming Season 1 finale, so I’ll let it slide…this time. Unfortunately for all of us, Kinsey weasels his way into 10 more episodes in the shows run. I don’t remember what happens to him in the end, but I like to imagine that he was eventually taken over by the Goa’uld and shot by Jack

 

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 21
44mins
“Within the Serpent’s Grasp” – As the government prepares to mothball the Stargate project, O’Neill and the SG-1 team take an unauthorized trip through the gate in an attempt to stop the Goa’uld invasion.

-          The season 1 finale is probably one of the biggest reasons the show lasted for 10 seasons, spawning 2 movies and 2 spin-offs. SG-1 go rogue and set off to destroy Apophis once and for all (oh really?), in order to save Earth from complete destruction! Seriously, watch this one.  I am posting this as I’m just getting the episode started because I don’t want any distractions for it, so you KNOW it’s awesome.

Yay good part of Season 1

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 16
44mins
“Enigma” – The SG-1 team rescues a group of highly advanced aliens from a collapsing world, but must risk court-martial to prevent the aliens’ technology from falling into the wrong hands.

- Here we meet the Tollan people, a race run in this episode by Jigsaw.  Yeah, that creepy guy from the Saw movies.  He’s a jerk here too, but eventually comes to trust Daniel Jackson because come on, who doesn’t love that guy?  Must be the glasses.  Oh, and we meet Col. Maybourne for the first time.  He plays a pretty big part in some of the upcoming seasons.

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 17
44mins
“Tin Man” – A strange man implants the consciousness of the SG-1 team in robots.

- SG-1 eventually find out their consciousness has been cloned and implanted into robots.  Good episode, they call back the clones later.  Oh, the Teal’c clone gets killed because the 10,000 y/o dude who cloned them (Harlan) didn’t realize that the Goa’uld in his pouch wasn’t good, so he merged their consciousnesses…what a tool.
Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 18
44mins
“Solitudes” – A Stargate malfunction leaves O’Neill and Carter stranded in an icy crevasse on an unknown planet.

- It’s Antarctica!  We learn that there’s another gate on Earth and it’s been buried under ice in Antarctica for some time now.  OH!  And the writers explain why the Stargate no longer vibrates (a concept never previously explained, most people just ignored it) and they actually USE IT AS A PLOT POINT!  I’m sure there’s a writing term for magically explaining something away (we installed frequency dampeners).
One of the best lines in the show comes out of a blooper from this episode:
Carter – “we got belt buckles, shoelaces and a piece of gum. Build a nuclear reactor, for cryin’ out loud! You used to be MacGyver, MacGadget, MacGimmick… now you’re Mr. MacUseless… Dear God, I’m stuck on a glacier with MacGyver!”

**UPDATE**
I published this post before I finished the last episode but made an amazing connection during the final scene!  As Carter and O’Neill are being rescued there’s a theme being played that I quickly recognized as being way to close to the main theme used in Independence Day.  Enter IMDB and I’ve now learned that the SAME GUY DID THE MUSIC FOR BOTH!  He ripped off his own theme from ID4 and used it 2 years later as a mini-theme in SG-1 (his name is David Arnold if you want to check).  I should probably have known this already, but he’s the composer of the SG-1 title theme.

I can go to sleep happy now

I’ve seen this 1,000 times…

Ok, I’ve already skipped some episodes.  But I promise to watch them again later!  I’ve watched most of season 1 within the last 4 months so I didn’t really feel like rewatching them so soon.  Jessica authorized the skippage!

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 15
44mins
“Singularity” – The SG-1 team rescues a little girl, the sole survivor of a disease that wiped out a planet, only to find she’s a human time bomb, designed by the Goa’uld to destroy the Stargate.

- This episode becomes semi-important in later seasons as Cassandra (the little girl mentioned in the description) helps SG-1 get back to their correct year when they accidentally time travel in “1969″ (that sentence makes me happy)

Last one for the night…

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 3
44mins
“Emancipation” – Capt. Samantha Carter fights for true love on a world where for equality women are treated as property.

- I may stop posting the Netflix descriptions for these episodes if they continue to completely suck…  She doesn’t fight for true love, she fights because the planet they travel to is run by jerks.  I’m not going to spend much time on this review because it’s really not one of my favorite episodes.  The show takes a while before it comes into it’s own and this episode is a prime example of just how cheesy the show can be.

Stargate SG1 – Getting Started!

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 1
1h 36mins
“Children of the Gods” – (Netflix description for this episode just describes the show)  ”Stargate SG-1″ the television series, picks up where the blockbuster film left off.  Col. Jack O’Neill and his SG-1 team – Daniel Jackson, Teal’c and Capt. Samantha Carter – set out to explore the mysteries of the Stargate.

- I’ve seen this episode more times than any other save 1 (Window of Opportunity is awesome).  I have to admit that I typed throughout most of the episode and even gave Lilly and Rose a bath in the middle.   But I’m considering it watched, don’t judge me.  #OffToAGreatStart…

Stargate SG-1
Season 1 – Episode 2
44mins
“Enemy Within” – Doctors discover a Goa’uld larvae has attached itself to Kawalsky’s brain and the soldier must undergo a risky operation.

- This episode always makes me a little sad because I really like Kawalsky’s character in the show.  The opening dialogue between O’Neill and Kawalsky sets the tone for the whole series:

Jack – “You know, I’m kind of partial to P3A-575 if you don’t mind taking P3A-577
Kawalsky – “No I’ll take 577
Jack – “I’m not married to it”
Kawalsky – “No, no it’s…”

Typing that out makes me think you just have to watch it to catch the humor…

Another Season Down

Just wrapped up season 6 of Smallville and have to admit that while it slowed down a little near the end of season 5, these last few episodes of season 6 have been some of my favorites.  Lionel Luthor forces Lana to marry Lex and she stays in the marriage to help keep Clark safe.  Lana slowly discovers all of Clark’s powers, which leads to her leaving Lex after a few months while he slowly becomes more evil, Clark telling her that he’s from Krypton, and her eventually being killed by a car bomb.  BOOM!   Don’t worry though, she faked her own death, believing that was the only way she could truly be free of Lex.  I think it’ll be quite a while before Clark learns she’s alive though, so for now he’s convinced Lex killed her and wants him dead.
Here’s my progress since the last post:
125 Freak
126 Promise
127 Combat
128 Progeny
129 Nemesis
130 Noir
131 Prototype
132 Phantom