I’ve been waiting to write this review forever! Last Christmas, my mother didn’t surprise me with this gift as she called me one day asking me which season my favorite episode was in. Dur, I wonder what she’s buying me right now? That doesn’t mean I was any less excited when I tore open the wrapping paper to find Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks, and Christopher Judge staring back at me. Whoo hoo!

Is it weird that I never paid this series any mind until my parents said I should watch it?

If you are new to Stargate: SG-1, here’s the rundown. The series is based off the movie Stargate, in which we humans find a large ring buried in Egypt that is actually an old alien device that creates a wormhole and connects to other planets with, what we came to call, Stargates. So a team has been assembled that acts as the first contact team and explores worlds before other teams go in. This group is known as SG-1, lead by Colonel Jack O’Neill, and with the brilliant scientist Samantha Carter, archeologist Daniel Jackson, and the Jaffa named Teal’c (his is a long story for season 1), they encounter all sorts of different alien planets, lifeforms, and harrowing situations. Their ultimate goal is to keep Earth safe from the Goa’uld, parasites that take humans as hosts and enjoy huge armies, slavery, and power.

Sounds like fun doesn’t it? It is. Those of us familiar with Stargate: SG-1 know it’s the best thing to come out since Star Trek.

I know, it may seem weird to start on season 4, and I would have been just as happen with season 1 since I like to start at the start, but this season has one of my most favorite episodes on it. With the whole season 4 package you get all 22 episodes on 5 discs, complete with a few extras on them, such as commentaries on every episode. I’ve seen a lot of the series, but there were plenty of episodes on here to delight me that I hadn’t seen before, or some of which I’d seen parts of and was never able to finish on the television. And it is really nice not to have commercials either. I like to lay back in bed late at night after work and pop in a disc to watch an episode or two.

Always did love the acting. Each actor that is a part of the SG-1 team plays his or her character to perfection. I’ve seen some MacGuyver episodes, but Richard Dean Anderson is always O’Neill to me. Casual, slightly surly, and smarter than he lets on. Amanda Tapping is perfect as Carter because she’s a fantastic mix of brains and beauty. I always get happy when she and O’Neill have obvious tension between them since they like each other. Michael Shanks as Daniel does the character complete justice since the original Daniel (James Spader) from the movie was just like this, and only slightly less cool (I still love ya James). Great casting. You will also really like Christopher Judge as Teal’c because it’s so much fun having someone unfamiliar with Earth and Earth sayings and items around. Watching him on the vibrating bed in “Point of No Return” is hilarious. He’s Teal’c through and through, again, great casting. I also have to mention Don S. Davis as General Hammond, Teryl Rothery as Doctor Frasier, and a lot of the other minor characters that always make repeat appearances, such as Dan Shea as Siler, who is also the stunt coordinator for Stargate: SG-1.

Sometimes the special effects may seem corny, but many of them are very, very good for your everyday television show. If you’ve ever seen a Scifi made for TV movie, holy cow, any Stargate: SG-1 episode would blow the entire movie out of the water. I think as their budget went up, so did their room for special effects. Computer graphics are streamlined and are quite pleasing (I loved the light machine in “The Light”), makeup is quite outstanding and I’m sure takes a great deal of time (for the Unas in “The First Ones”), and sets can become quite detailed and surprisingly complex looking (such as that freaky computer setup for “Entity”).

Here’s a look at a few specific episodes I enjoyed or didn’t enjoy as much.

Favorite Episodes:
“The Other Side” – I’d never seen this one before but I thought it was pretty good. A world at war asks for our help, and for a while it seems like they’re the good guys…but maybe not.

“Window of Opportunity” – I think that is a lot of people’s favorite episode and I went through a lot of work to try and figure out the name of the episode. If you’ve seen Groundhog Day, then that should give you an idea. O’Neill and Teal’c get stuck in a 6 hour time loop – reliving the same day over and over, and eventually end up doing crazy things, i.e. hitting golf balls through the Stargate. It’s a hilarious episode and so much fun to watch the characters do crazy things.

“The First Ones” – Daniel gets abducted by a strange alien and of course, everyone has to save him. Reminds me vaguely of Enemy Mine, and it’s mostly a lot of Daniel Jackson fun. Girls, just so you know, Michael Shanks is a cutie, haha.

“Absolute Power” – Evil Daniel Jackson! Mwahahaha! What happens when Daniel gets too much power in his hands.

“The Light” – I really liked the effects for the light machine in this one, as well as the concept behind it. Very interesting, and with some unique problems to overcome.

Not So Favorite Episodes:
“Divide and Conquer” – That government conspiracy crap really grates on my nerves. Can’t we have at least one scifi show that doesn’t involve some annoying conspiracy? Ugh. And crap that happens on Earth is boring anyway.

“Point of No Return” – Though it does have some laugh out loud parts, overall that episode just says “lame” to me. It’s really not all that bad and the concept behind it is pretty good, it’s just a little goofier than I think it could have been. Oh well.

“The Curse” – Have I mentioned that stuff that happens on Earth bores me? Haha.

"2010" - I’ve never liked this one for some reason. It was second in Scifi’s top 10 favorite episodes picked by fans (“Window of Opportunity” was first of course), but I just never got into it. It bothered me for some reason. Maybe because all the characters change a little since life is so different.

Even episodes I’m not that big a fan on are still interesting in their own way. Almost all the other episodes are worth mentioning, or have some really cool stuff going on (the “water” in “Watergate” or the freaky computer thing in “Entity” that reminded me of the movie Virus) , but that’s a lot for you to read and I’m sure you’d like to discover a lot of the fun on your own. Another thing I really enjoyed were some appearances by other well-known actors, such as Rene Auberjonois (Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Boston Legal) in “The Other Side” and Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation and the voice of Demona in Gargoyles) in “Watergate.” At one point we even got an actual military leader at one point, one General Ryan.

Commentaries are fun, I enjoyed the insights provided during “Window of Opportunity,” such as all that crazy extra stuff got in there because they needed more film time to fill in the extra space leftover. I’m probably never going to listen to the commentaries on everything, and may eventually look at the other extras (but usually I’m not all that interested in them).

If you’re a Stargate: SG-1 junkie and don’t mind starting your collection at a number other than 1, by all means, get this season. It’s going to leave on a cliffhanger, but they all do, don’t they?

NT

P.S. The Tok’ra suck.

Episodes:
#1 - Small Victories
#2 - The Other Side
#3 - Upgrades
#4 - Crossroads
#5 - Divide and Conquer
#6 - Window of Opportunity
#7 - Watergate
#8 - The First Ones
#9 - Scorched Earth
#10 - Beneath the Surface
#11 - Point of No Return
#12 - Tangent
#13 - The Curse
#14 - The Serpent's Venom
#15 - Chain Reaction
#16 - 2010
#17 - Absolute Power
#18 - The Light
#19 - Prodigy
#20 - Entity
#21 - Double Jeopardy
#22 - Exodus

Check out Stargate Season 1:
Stargate SG-1: Volume 1
Stargate SG-1: Volume 2
Stargate SG-1: Volume 3
Stargate SG-1: Volume 4
Stargate SG-1: Volume 5

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV