TV Show : Stargate sg1 (part 1)

TV Show : Stargate sg1
Duration : 214 episodes (X 42 minutes), 2 straight-to-dvd movies, spread from 1997 to 2008 

Following the Stargate movie, the first spin off tv show was Stargate SG1, which lasted 10 seasons, starring Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Don S Davis (several changes occur later on).


The first season starts the first arc (out of 3): the Goa’uld, a parasitic alien race, which look rather disgusting (the scenes with implantation, especially in the early part of the show stirred my stomach too often, and as I am extremely sensitive, I wouldn’t look at it happening when I first watched the show. Later, it became more tolerable as the show became less graphic and focused on the ugly parasites a lot less (did the producers get letters from parents saying their kids have nightmares?).

These parasites need a host to live: the hosts are most often humans, whose personality dies off, overtaken by mad, aggressive and oppressive parasites…

Although overly militaristic and American-centric patriotism, and in spite of a graphic first season (especially the original version of the pilot ‘’children of the gods’’), I ended liking a lot in the show. It offers a totally altered take on mythology: our ancient gods were actually powerful aliens. Some were good, some absolutely evil…

This approach isn’t totally new, in fact. The idea that aliens could be seen as gods to a local, not so evolved population was presented once in Star Trek the next generation, season 1 episode 8 : Justice, aired November 9 1987, several years before the Stargate movie and show.

The main difference lie in the fact that ‘Justice’ happened in the future (in the year 2364), on a distant planet, whilst for Stargate it takes place on earth’s ancient, and present history, as well as on other planets.. and on a different scale : in TNG Justice, one alien ship is seen, the race itself isn’t. in Stargate the movie we had encountered more aliens, including their military, and subsequently in SG1, the scale is even larger as we get numerous goa’uld, their military systems, ships… and the aliens are many earth’s ancient gods from several mythologies, especially the Egyptian.

As I grew up with MacGyver, when I saw a Sci-Fi show coming up with Egyptian take to it and Richard Dean Anderson, I thought yay this should be good. My favorite character, however, is Dr Jackson (James Spader in the movie, Michael Shanks in SG1). Actually, I think he was the fav of many fans. He is the most humane character in the bunch, and is a nerd, just like me. I won’t spoil it to the ones who didn’t watch this show yet, but his story is quite interesting indeed…

I saw some newer pics and interviews with Amanda Tapping. I have to say that she looks a lot hotter now, and not a flat actress. I didn’t like the flat character she played in SG1 : Samantha Carter, a nerd, a bit butch, but naive and too often a damsel in distress… a card the writers played way too often, it is overly cliche. There were a few episodes she was almost outstanding, but the majority she was just a flat character, written by men…

Christopher Judge was amazing as Teal’c, I find him a great addition to the cast. His role had many episodes to explore Teal’c in depth, and Christopher did a great job.

I particularly love the people met in season 1 episode 8 ‘the nox’ with Armin Shimerman as a guest star (Quark, from Star Trek Deep Space 9). On this and other fav episodes, on a future post.