Stargate SG-1 Season 9
Executive producers: Robert C. Cooper, Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie
Original air dates: July 15, 2005 – March 10, 2006
Mission briefing. Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell was the Commander of the Air Group supporting Prometheus in “Lost City” against Anubis over Antarctica. His 302 was shot down, and he spent a year recovering and re-learning how to walk. For his heroism, O’Neill, the newly appointed head of Homeworld Security, gives Mitchell his choice of assignments, and he chooses SG-1.
So he’s kinda surprised when the new head of the SGC, General Hank Landry, informs him that he has to pick a new SG-1. Jackson has been reassigned to Atlantis, Carter has taken over R&D of Area 51, and Teal’c has returned to Dakara to help form the first-ever Free Jaffa government. Mitchell tries to convince all three to come back—he wanted to serve with those three, not form his own team—and fails.
At least at first. When Vala Mal Doran shows up with a treasure map to Avalon, Landry, Mitchell, and Jackson are intrigued. And Vala slaps a pair of Goa’uld bracelets on her and Jackson that tie the pair of them to each other—if one gets too far from the other, they both collapse—which strands Jackson on Earth as Daedalus wends its way to Pegasus.
They discover that Merlin of Arthurian legend is actually an Ancient who returned to Earth from Atlantis way back when (also known as Myrddin and Moros, seen in Atlantis‘s “Before I Sleep“), and he hid treasures in Avalon below Glastonbury. They find them—and also Ancient communication stones (like the ones seen in “Citizen Joe“), and it switches Jackson and Vala with people in another galaxy, where they discover the Ori.
The Ori are ascended beings who split off from the Ancients and demand worship from the humans they helped evolve. Learning about the Milky Way from Jackson and Vala, they start sending their missionaries, called Priors, to our galaxy. But their methods are especially brutal: worship the Ori, or be destroyed. Several worlds give in to Origin, some willingly, some by force—and others are utterly wiped out.
Several of the free Jaffa, including the leader of the council, Gerak, become intrigued by the Ori, though Teal’c and Bra’tac view it as simply exchanging one set of false gods for another. Gerak at one point becomes a Prior. In addition, a legendary group of Jaffa known as the Sodan, who had thrown off the Goa’uld centuries ago, initially succumb to Origin, but eventually refuse it—paying for that refusal with their destruction. One of their methods of destroying a heretical world is to hit it with a plague—they try that on Earth, and it’s barely stopped by the Ancient Orlin, returned to corporeal form to help Carter against the Ori and provide useful intel, with help from a repentant Gerak, who pays for his betrayal of his Prior-ly duties with his life.
Another target of the Ori is the Rand Protectorate, and they ask Jackson for help, even though SG-1 was responsible for their war against each other back in “Icon.” That only results in more tragedy, including the destruction of Prometheus.
The Goa’uld are not totally gone, of course. Ba’al has taken refuge on Earth, and created several clones of himself, later trying to brainwash members of the Jaffa council. SG-1 stumbles across one of Anubis’s hybrid experiments, and Ba’al’s former chief scientist Nerus is conscripted to assist the SGC, and even imprisoned by them for a time. In addition, a loose alliance of privateers have banded together to form the Lucian Alliance, using plundered Goa’uld ships and equipment.
SG-1 does have their usual trials and tribulations. To find a way out of the bracelets that bind Jackson and Vala together, SG-1 has to perform a variety of tasks—to no avail, as it doesn’t work. A visit to an alien world results in Mitchell being accused of murder. Several alternate versions of SG-1 wind up coming through the gate. And a tour of the Gamma Site given to IOA oversight committee members almost ends in tragedy as a bunch of bugs get loose.
The Ori attempt to construct a “Supergate,” a massive Stargate that can transit instantly between galaxies. Their first attempt is stopped by what appears to be a suicide run by Vala—though later we learn she survived and wound up marrying an Ori disciple named Tomin. She marries him because she’s pregnant, and wants Tomin to believe it’s his, but she’s truly been impregnated by the Ori themselves.
Undaunted by their first failure, the Ori construct another Supergate. And this time, despite having gathered several devices created by Merlin (including “Arthur’s Mantle,” which sends Mitchell and Carter out of phase), SG-1 is unable to stop them from sending a massive fleet of ships through…
Best episode: “Camelot.” An intense season finale that gives us lots of Stargate twists on Arthurian legend, including setting up the quest for the Holy Grail (or Sangraal) next season, with the added bonus of John Noble being, well, John Noble. On top of that, we get a thrilling space battle as Odyssey and Korolev are joined by Free Jaffa ships and Lucian Alliance ships, as well as Kvasir of the Asgard, to try to destroy the Supergate—or face the fleet that comes through it if they can’t. The end result is a nasty cliffhanger, as Carter is left stranded in space watching in horror as the Ori fleet comes through, and in the fleet, Vala is equally helpless, watching just as her water breaks…
Runners up: The tense two-parter “The Fourth Horseman,” which is worth it just for the confrontation with William B. Davis’s Prior, with Mitchell’s recipe swapping, Jackson’s overwhelming snark, Orlin’s tragic recitation of the Prior’s, uh, prior life, and the first indication of hope against this foe. Also the cliffhanger of Gerak as a Prior is devastating, as is his redemption.
“Ethon,” a particularly depressing episode, as they double down on the tragedy of “Icon” in its sequel. The Prometheus‘s destruction is an unexpected shock, and having greats like John Aylward and Ernie Hudson elevate the material even further.
“Crusade,” an excellent vehicle for Claudia Black, and a nasty look at the reality of life under the Ori.
“The Ties that Bind,” a delightful cascading favors episode in the vein of M*A*S*H‘s “The Price of Tomato Juice” and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s “In the Cards.”
And the “Avalon” two-parter and “Origin” do a very nice job of introducing the new status quo of SG-1, complete with Blues Brothers references and entertaining snark from all parties (“New guy!” “Bullets bounce!” and Vala’s limited gene pool line).
Worst episode: “Collateral Damage,” a depressingly paint-by-numbers sci-fi-twist-on-a-murder-in-which-our-hero-is-framed plot that was hoary and stupid when Voyager did it in “Ex Post Facto” a decade previous.
Runner up is “The Scourge,” which isn’t any less of a retread of “Bane” and “Sight Unseen” for taking place on the Gamma Site.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The Ancients didn’t just hide a base in Antarctica, they also hid an entire treasure trove under Glastonbury. The SGC only is able to detect it with Prometheus‘s Asgard-enhanced sensors.
It might work, sir. Carter spends the first several episodes of the season heading up research and development at Area 51. The out-of-the-box explanation was to accommodate Amanda Tapping’s pregnancy; the in-character reason was that she needed an always-on-planet assignment for a while to help Cassandra deal with some stuff (probably related to the death of her adoptive mother Frasier in “Heroes“).
Indeed. The Jaffa have a difficult time adjusting to being free—as Mitchell puts it to Teal’c in “Avalon,” politics suck everywhere—and many of them wind up diving full tilt into Origin.
I speak 23 different languages—pick one. Jackson’s plan to join Atlantis is foiled by Vala’s trickery, and he winds up being as much at the vanguard of the fight against the Ori as he was against the Goa’uld, at least in part because they’re the enemies of the Ancients and Jackson is the leading expert on that stuff.
The man doesn’t even have a decent pie crust. Mitchell is an SG-1 fangoober, having memorized all their mission reports like a comics nerd who can quote issue numbers of Amazing Spider-Man. He’s so disappointed that he can’t serve with SG-1 that he moves heaven and earth to make it happen anyhow—aided by Vala’s tricking Jackson and the pair’s discovery of the Ori.
You can go ahead and burst into flames now. Landry is gruffer and blunter than either Hammond or O’Neill, and isn’t as good with interpersonal relations as they are—this extends to his daughter, who’s the new base doctor...
Let’s make babies! Vala coerces SG-1 into helping her by literally bonding herself to Jackson. We learn that the con artist/thief/smuggler was also once the host of a Goa’uld named Qetesh, a role she assumes in “The Powers that Be.”
You have a go. Hammond appears in “The Fourth Horseman,” wearing civilian clothes. He has retired from the Air Force and now serves as an advisor to President Hayes.
For cryin’ out loud! With Hammond’s retirement, O’Neill is promoted to the position of Head of Homeworld Security, and now works out of the Pentagon. We find out that he never bothered to open any of his desk drawers during his year in charge, and he forgot to mention to Mitchell that Carter and Jackson had been reassigned and Teal’c had left the SGC when he told Mitchell he could serve in SG-1.
Wayward home for out-of-work genre actors. Besides the obvious—Farscape alumni Ben Browder and Claudia Black joining the cast—we’ve also got William B. Davis (the Cigarette Smoking Man on The X-Files) as a Prior in “The Fourth Horeseman,” former Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda co-star Lexa Doig in the recurring role of Dr. Lam, Tony Todd (star of the Candyman films and regular Star Trek guest as Kurn and old Jake Sisko) recurring as Haikon, Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters) playing Pernaux in “Ethon,” Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Highlander 2, among many others) playing Seevis in “Crusade,” Wallace Shawn (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Princess Bride) inconceivably appearing in “The Ties that Bind,” Tamlyn Tomita (of Babylon 5 and The Burning Zone fame) kicking off her recurring role as Shen, John Noble (Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and future star of Fringe and Sleepy Hollow) playing Meurik in “Camelot,” Serenity‘s Yan Feldman and future Dollhouse and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actor Reed Diamond guest starring in “Stronghold,” plus veteran actors both in and out of the genre, Julian Sands as Doci, Lou Gossett Jr. as Gerak, John Aylward as Nadal, and Maury Chaykin as Nerus. Plus Obi Ndefo (Rak’nor) and Robert Picardo (Woolsey) are back for more. Just in general, the quality of guest actor is kicked up a notch in this season…
Trivial matters. Ben Browder and Beau Bridges join the opening credits as Mitchell and Landry, respectively, and this is the first season that doesn’t lead off with Richard Dean Anderson’s credit. O’Neill appears in only the opening two-parter, passing the torch to the newbies, though he’s mentioned any number of times.
In addition, this season introduces the Ori as the new bad guys, establishing their connection to the Ancients and to ascension. Since Egyptian mythology had been pretty well mined by the Goa’uld, they turned to the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic mythology of the King Arthur legend to provide the backbone of the storyline.
This season airs alongside Atlantis season 2. There are no direct crossovers on SG-1, beyond Jackson’s assignment to Atlantis being curtailed and the information about Merlin/Myrddin/Moros coming from the sister show’s database.
“The Fourth Horseman” marks the final appearance of the mainline Hammond. He appears in “200” as a puppet in season 10, and alternate timeline versions appear in both “The Road Not Taken” and the movie Continuum.
Claudia Black appeared in the first six episodes, as well as the final two, as a semi-substitute for Carter while Amanda Tapping was pregnant. Ironically, when she came back for the final two, Black was pregnant, but they wrote that into the storyline.
For the first time since the sixth season, the producers did not write the season finale as if it could be the series finale. In fact, it ended on rather a nasty cliffhanger, so it was a good thing the show was renewed for a tenth season…
Chevron seven locked. Opinion is heavily divided among Stargate fandom regarding SG-1‘s final two seasons. There are those who actually prefer the Mitchell era to the O’Neill era—or, at the very least, welcomed the arrival of Ben Browder to replace a Richard Dean Anderson who was clearly phoning it in the past two seasons—and there are those who disdain everything that happened after the Goa’uld were taken care of.
And then there are some who like it all. I fall into that camp. I recognize that the producers were stuck between a rock and a hard place. After all, when the channel that hosts your show tells you they want another season, it’s really hard to say no. Most TV shows don’t make it past their first season, and these guys were being asked for a ninth!
But they also had to deal with the loss of their lead actor, who had become almost as synonymous with this franchise as he had MacGyver. In Browder they got someone who was of a similar personality to Anderson—indeed, it’s a type common to pilots, seen also in Sheppard on the sister show—but who had his own foibles and ticks.
Best of all was making Mitchell an SG-1 fangoober. That softens the blow of having him inserted into the team: he doesn’t want to lead these people, he wants to follow them. Of course, while he’s nominally in charge, nobody actually listens to him. Teal’c and Jackson don’t have the respect for him that they had for O’Neill, he and Carter are of the same rank, and Vala doesn’t listen to anybody. He’s less a CO of a military unit and more the glue who holds the team together. Hell, he pretty much reassembles the team by force of will.
Still, I mourn for what might have been had Amanda Tapping not gotten pregnant. That kept her out of the first half-dozen episodes, and while it did pave the way for Claudia Black’s Vala to recur, it also pretty much guaranteed that Carter would be removed from her rightful place as SG-1’s CO in favor of an O’Neill retread. (That being the legitimate gripe of many SG-1 fans who objected to the final two seasons.)
Vala herself is a welcome injection of chaos into the orderly world of the SGC. Her chemistry with Michael Shanks was just sparkling in last season’s “Prometheus Unbound,” and it picks right up magnificently in “Avalon.” She also fares better than Mitchell in the let’s-give-the-new-person-a-storyline derby, as both characters have episodes obviously written to spotlight them and give the new characters a chance to shine. “The Ties that Bind” is a delightful romp, and she shows her versatility in “The Powers that Be.” For his part, Mitchell’s spotlights include the season’s low point in “Collateral Damage,” as well as the paint-by-numbers plots of “Babylon” and “Stronghold,” but those two are mostly elevated by magnificent performances by two great guest actors, Tony Todd in the former, Reed Diamond in the latter.
In addition, this season shows exactly how closely Teal’c is tied to the Goa’uld. Without them as the bad guy, Teal’c’s presence on the SG-1 team is absurd. Yes, the politics of the Free Jaffa Nation are irritating, but that’s Teal’c’s place. After all, he was the one who started the revolution. His place is on Dakara, and the shoehorning of him into SG-1 missions is clumsy at best. Teal’c certainly has his moments—particularly in “The Fourth Horseman,” both when he convinces Bra’tac to take over as leader of the council from Gerak, and when he confronts Gerak and forces him to realize what he’s done. But overall, Teal’c is a fifth wheel in this season, and would have been more valuable as a recurring role rather than a starring one.
And far too many stories just don’t work. As an example, “Ripple Effect” has its fun moments, and it’s nice to bring Teryl Rothery and JR Bourne back as alternate versions of Frasier and Lantash/Martouf, and the “Aunt Emma!” exchange between the Mitchells is one of the season’s high points, but the episode falls flat once the plot kicks in.
However, ultimately, what I like about the story is that it takes a much harsher looks at the dangers of religious extremism by giving us false gods that can’t be dismissed as “mythological” the way you can with the Egyptian gods. The Ori are much closer to the more popular modern religions: The Book of Origin has its similarities to the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc., ascension is very much an analogue for going to heaven when you die, it’s tied to the very Christianized King Arthur legends, and we’ve even got a virgin birth.
Keith R.A. DeCandido‘s short story collection Without a License is now on sale from Dark Quest Books. It includes nine stories from throughout his twenty-plus years of writing, plus brand-new tales in the Dragon Precinct and Cassie Zukav milieus. You can order the trade paperback from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or directly from the author; the eBook edition will be on sale soon.
Say what you will about the season, but that last line is likely patently false…Vala can be described by many words, but I’d be shocked if “Virgin” was one of them!
While I liked having the Ancients’ backstory explored and tied to Arthurian mythology, I’ve never liked the ‘interstellar refugee’ retcon.
They were always more interesting as the first evolution of humanity, though I appreciate the gravity of why they falsified their history.
“Virgin” in this case is an adjective modifying the word “birth,” not Vala herself. :)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
My friends (well, the ones that watch SG-1) all find it very amusing that of all the things that as a group we agree are wrong with series 9 & 10, the one I constantly harp on about is the fact that letting a bunch of foreigners take the stuff from under Glastonbury Tor is totally illegal, as it’s clearly Treasure Trove. It should have been declared to the local coroner, an inquest should have been held as to its provenance, it should have been valued by independent experts and offered for sale to museums. And I just cannot believe the British Museum would have turned it down. And as it was on National Trust land, the National Trust would have got the money if a museum bought it or had the rights to the treasure if no museums were interested.
I don’t like Mitchell. Nope. I like Vala, but not Mitchell. This is where the show jumped the shark for me, because of Mitchell. I kept watching but wasn’t as into it. Like you say, Keith, an involved Browder is better than a disinterested RDA, but I just didn’t like the character. (Though I didn’t like Reyes and Doggett so much in X-Files, either, so perhaps I’m just not fond of change.)
Those of you who remember my grumbling about Antarctica – I won’t repeat it about Merlin. Same thing, though. I just don’t like piling on mythoi.
As for quoting issue numbers of Amazing Spider-Man, I find it no more nerdy than busting out the fact that “Rascals” is the TNG episode where they turn into kids. C’mon, we all knew that, and we’re not…oh, wait, yes we are…
While I agree with most of what Keith says about the season, the new characters, and the new status quo, the one thing I hated (along with Mr. Magic) was the retconning of the Ancients’ origins. The whole “life here began out there” trope is ridiculous. Humans are clearly part of the same evolutionary heritage as the rest of Earth’s biosphere, so the idea that we were seeded here by ancient astronauts is idiotic. The one thing that kinda vaguely salvages it is that at some point, the show establishes that the Ancients used some kind of machine to create all life in the galaxy to begin with — which is still incredibly silly and ignores so much about the fossil record, but at least it doesn’t deny our common origin with the other species living on Earth. But it’s really trading one bit of evolutionary silliness for another.
I did find the Ori concept rather daring for its commentary on religion and fundamentalism; it’s more relevant today than ever, sad to say. There was more intelligence and social commentary to it than there was to the old “Hey, turns out the Egyptian and Norse gods that nobody worships anymore were really aliens, how about that?” premise.
Meanwhile, Mitchell was fun — a funny and snarky character, but in a fresher way than O’Neill, who’d really become irritating by this point. And Vala was a breath of fresh air. But yes, in an ideal world, Carter would’ve led the team and Teal’c would’ve taken his rightful place at the head of the Jaffa nation. Arguably, Teal’c’s insistence on slumming around with SG-1 led directly to the disasters resulting from Gerak’s submission to the Ori, because none of it would’ve happened if Teal’c had been the leader.
But really, if you want to talk about a character who was just spinning his wheels rather than having a good reason to be there, that pretty much defines Daniel Jackson ever since Sha’re died. They kept trying to give him new arcs to justify his presence, like the thing with his other love interest who got taken as a host, and the thing with him dying and being resurrected two or three times, and now tying him to Vala and giving him a new mission with the Ori, but it all felt like excuses for keeping Shanks around. It might’ve been preferable if they’d just dropped all the original leads and started fresh with a whole new cast to go along with the new storyline.
I love the backstory that they created for Cam Mitchell and I enjoy the character (I kinda expected him to take out an Al’kesh on foot after his 302 crashed and Dak died in the back seat). They definitely bungled his intro to the SGC though. All they really had to do was make him a Major and tell him that Carter is stuck off world because the Prometheus broke down so he is interim commander till she gets back. Or they could have just said Carter is pregnant so you will have to lead SG-1 till she gets back.
Also, as much as I would have preferred Carter in the lead, as it is presented in “Avalon”, Mitchell is clearly the senior officer since he was already a Lt Col. during the battle over Antarctica. The military has thought about what would happen when two people hold the same rank in the same command (DoDI 1310)…it is just TV but that really bugs me for some reason.
In General, I think I wish they just let this series go and focused on Atlantis. It would have been awesome replaced Sheppard with Mitchell as a consequence for his actions in “Hot Zone”.
Given how you felt about the Pah-Wraith, I’m really surprised you had no similar tirade regarding the Ori, as they’re pretty much the same thing. The ascended Ancients at this point were starting to have been shown as neither really good or bad, but kind of a neutral off doing their own thing on a totally different plane. They have even been painted as somewhat assholish. Though, on the one hand, I can kind of get behind a non-interference thing, but they are almost too standoffish about it. And there’s the fact that they let Anubis run amok on our plane just to punish Oma. And inasmuch as there were rebellious or outcast ascendeds, it DOES show that there was already diversity amongst the ascended beings in our galaxy in terms of views. But then you have the Ori, which on the one hand are maybe a natural progression of the storyline, but are kind of this whole !SUPER!EVIL! version of the Ancients. And then that kind of has the implication that the Ancients maybe necessarily default into being the “good” half. Or even worse, there is just evil and neutral, and no good. Complete with their representation by fire, which is something that was also done with the Pah-Wraiths, I might add. I realize that the Goa’uld (and especially) Anubis became really over-the-top cliche to the point of where they hung a lantern on it numerous times, but at our introduction to the Ori, they are already too much of a joke with the cliches.
And that includes the mess of all the Prior business. The “Christians were bad in the Middle Ages” had already been done on this show with less than stellar results, and now they are making it a staple of the season. And it’s just not an interesting story trope. It also has the unfortunate implication of equating all missionaries with certain groups of European conquerors of the Americas, for example, painting them as these “convert or die” types. Whereas missions have done a lot of good in building schools and hospitals and such in impoverished countries and have committed themselves to trying to eliminate that poverty.
I realize they were probably trying to make points simply about fanaticism, and such groups as the Westboro Baptist Church or ISIS. They even had Daniel make a point about hell being symolized with fire as a possible reference to the Ori, thus implying that the Ori are more of a stand-in for the Enemy of the Christian faith rather than the source of it. However, a problem with what they may or may not be trying to do is that the Priors and the followers of the Ori are not merely extremist groups following ascended beings whose will and motives are interpreted differently by other groups. They are not accidentally following the Ori while thinking they follow the Ancients. They are *actually* following the Ori, and their deeds are *actually* the will of the Ori. So there’s a dangerous reading here that the symbolism of the Ori and the Priors is a generalization of all Christians. Or perhaps that was really their intent after all.
As I’ve said before, I really did not like Vala’s character (again, nothing against Claudia Black, as I really liked her portrayel of Qetesh in Continuum). I was going along season 9 seeing her as just a sub while Amanda Tapping was on maternity leave, and when she sacrificed herself and Sam came back, I was like, awesome, now we get to have Carter back and no more Vala. But then Vala came back…
And from a virgin birth, as it were. If I wanted to keep talking about over-the-top cliches…but really? I did not realize that Claudia Black was pregnant and that was why, but they might have thought of something else (such as NOT having Vala come back…).
And now that other people have also said it first…I didn’t really care for Mitchell either. Again, I’m sure Ben Browder is a really great guy. But as you said, he’s kind of this pilot archetype that we already got in O’Neill and Sheppard. But we already got a new one of those in Sheppard (whom I actually like) a year previous. So throwing in a third one now seemed a bit too much. He just didn’t seem like enough of his own character. And then there’s the fact of Carter not being in charge, etc., but you even mention in your review that no one seems to follow him and he is more like the glue than the leader. And I think that’s a problem, because there needs to be a clear chain of command. So if he’s going to be the leader of the team, he NEEDS to be the leader. But then I’d still have a problem with this stranger being the leader instead of Carter.
I liked Landry well enough, and while his character had some differences from Hammond, I didn’t feel he was different *enough* and we were being dished with just another replacement. Which in general is how I feel about a lot of the new cast–they feel like *replacements*, and like they were kind of being shoved down our throats and we had to accept them just like they were old friends who had been on the show all along. I don’t have a problem with new characters in principle. But I also really liked Jonas, and his arc was one of trying to find acceptance, especially with O’Neill. The new characters on season 9 (and there were A LOT) felt like they were trying to tell us to pretend they were the old characters or that they had been there all allng. And we still haven’t (and won’t) ever see Jonas again since his ONE post-opener episode of season 7. And he actually felt like an old friend the show should’ve stayed loyal to.
And I had forgotten that Daniel was slated for Atlantis before the big excuse of the season came up, and I guess I would’ve rather seen Daniel on Atlantis, since I feel like he belongs there. But he keeps getting shafted out of it (which is maybe a little more like real life, I guess). And @6 regarding Daniels arc: I partially agree, but I feel like they should’ve maybe just focused on him accepting SG-1 as something he also really liked to do by the time Sha’re died, instead of having to give him some big thing. I think they mainly did this with Orpheus, but they could’ve done it sooner. “It might’ve been preferable if they’d just dropped all the original leads and started fresh with a whole new cast to go along with the new storyline”–I agree with this sentence but not in the way you mean; I think they should’ve dropped SG-1 and focused on Atlantis. Atlantis seemed like the natural culmination of the show up through season 7 anyway, probably because it was intended to be.
I also agree with the Ancients coming from another galaxy retcon thing as something else I didn’t like about this season.
Also, then there’s the matter of the communications stones, which in “Citzen Joe” made a little more sense. But now you can not only see memories, but actually swap bodies in another galaxy. The stargate can go to other galaxies near instantaneously, but it requires a huge power source. What the heck power do the little stones use? Granted, to do the body swap thing they needed the other little plate device, but is there like a ZPM in there?
Ok, I’m not sure this post needs anymore from me, but also, you say that RDA was phoning it in during the last two seasons (didn’t really notice, but whatev) but in seasons 9 and 10 I feel like Amanda tapping was maybe phoning it in a little. At least, she started to seem less like Carter and more like Amanda Tapping (and again, Tapping seems really cool from the interviews I’ve seen of her). And while characters can be allowed to change as a show goes on, I just felt like it was a little bit of a boring change, like there wasn’t as much energy there. I just really feel like the show was pretty dead by this point and the stupid station execs should’ve let them end it.
Carter had been leading SG1, if anything her coming back after working as head of research in Area 51 was a relative demotion. Her moving to head up Area 51, while technically not a promotion in rank, was a promotion in terms of responsibility and authority which are prerequisites for a promotion in rank. It was a significant, and logical, career move; Tapping’s pregnancy or not. Plus, head over heart here but Carter was never really cut out as a field commander. In a lab, she could lead, in the field she really only could lead in the science focused missions and tended to be more of a specialist consultant with a gun on the others. That isn’t a bad thing, no military runs well when it has only field officers and quarterdeck breeds, it needs those who can lead in other ways. Carter’s science focused career path really did make more sense with a brief tenure as field commander to gain that prerequisite and then moving on and up to a science and technology research command.
@8/crzydroid: I’m no fan of the Pah-wraiths myself, but for me, that’s because the later DS9 writers took something that was originally alien and novel and interesting and superimposed a traditional Western/Manichaean religious framework onto it. Stargate, by contrast, has always been rooted in mythical and religious traditions from Earth history, and the Ancients were explicitly related to humans to begin with, so it wasn’t out of place in this particular context.
And was it “dangerous” to paint religious conversion in a bad light? Maybe, but what’s wrong with a work of fiction being dangerous? The question is, dangerous to whom? Usually, ideas are only dangerous to those who don’t want people to question the status quo. The Ori and Priors are just that kind of people — those who insist that everyone has to believe exactly what the Book of Origin says and that any other ideas are “dangerous” and must be silenced.
It seems obvious to me that the Ori and Priors do not represent Christians specifically, and certainly not “all Christians” — which is a nonsense phrase, since there’s enormous diversity of belief and practice among people who use that label, just as there is in any other religion. The Ori and the Priors represent the oppressive and intolerant approach to religion, something that’s found in most faiths. People’s religions don’t make them good or bad; people make their religions good or bad by how they wield them.
As for Mitchell and Sheppard, they may be the same “archetype,” but for me, Ben Browder made it a lot more fun and appealing than Joe Flanigan did. The advantage to using a basic archetype is that it leaves a lot of room for the actors to bring their own individuality to the roles.
As for the communication stones, it’s minds, not bodies, that are being swapped. We just see the swapped characters in their “original” bodies as a dramatic conceit, the same one Quantum Leap used, so that the original actors can continue to play the characters even when they’re in someone else’s body. Since the switch is only mental, it wouldn’t take as much energy as physical Stargate travel. And I think they explained the communication stones as being based on quantum entanglement, which is independent of distance; two entangled items could interact as instantaneously and easily if they’re a billion parsecs apart as they would if they were five millimeters apart.
@10/tt34: Interesting perspective. Maybe, instead of keeping Carter on SG-1, they should’ve promoted her to the SGC’s head of research, say, and put her in charge of the day-to-day operation of SG missions, answering to Landry. So she would’ve been everyone’s boss, all the SG teams — at least the research-oriented ones. Maybe that could’ve been a reorganization resulting from the apparent end of the Goa’uld threat, reorienting the SGC with a stronger scientific role and a more limited military role. Of course, the military role regained importance once the Ori started invading, but the reorganization could’ve persisted anyway.
So maybe this whole-new-team premise I’m thinking of could’ve had Mitchell in charge of an all-new SG-1, answering to Carter in the equivalent of the Hammond role, with Teal’c having a recurring role as the Jaffa leader and Daniel showing up when there was some useful role he could play.
crzydroid: As Christopher said, my issue wasn’t with the Pah-wraiths as such — it was that they took the really nifty wormhole aliens, who were truly alien, and made them significantly less interesting, culminating in giving them an “evil” counterpart, which was just lazy writing. It was particularly disappointing coming from a show in DS9 that favored nuance and less obvious definitions of good and evil.
Stargate, on the other hand, rarely dealt with shades of gray. The Goa’uld and the Ori are uncategorically evil. The ascended folk didn’t start out interesting and then become boring, they were the same way all along. The Pah-wraiths were a regression; the Ori were in keeping with what SG-1 had done all along.
You also said, “The new characters on season 9 (and there were A LOT) felt like they were trying to tell us to pretend they were the old characters or that they had been there all along,” and I don’t agree with either statement, either. Nobody was ever pretending that Mitchell was O’Neill or that Landry was Hammond or that Lam was Frasier — they were their own characters, having replaced ones who had been promoted or died, which is what happens in the military. And just because we didn’t see folks before doesn’t mean they weren’t there — after a few years there were over 20 SG teams, and we saw very little of them, not to mention a huge support staff in Cheyenne Mountain, and all the folks involved back at the Pentagon (it wasn’t just Major Davis).
tt34: I disagree with you 100% about Carter’s lack of leadership skills. When the writers bothered to actually put her in a leadership position, she generally did quite well: “Hathor,” “Foothold,” “Watergate,” “A Hundred Days,” “Prodigy,” “The Sentinel,” “Nightwalkers,” “Prometheus,” “Space Race,” “Avenger 2.0,” “Icon,” “Endgame,” and “Reckoning,” to give assorted examples from the first eight seasons. (Of course, there are exceptions, like “Paradise Lost” and “Gemini.”) Those were not all “science focused missions,” and you’re also forgetting that she’s an ace pilot and a superb markswoman (as seen particularly in “The Warrior”). So I reject your premise, though you do have an excellent point about how going back to SG-1 is a demotion from heading up Area 51….
Muswell: They did mention contacting the British government, and since the British are in on the Stargate program and part of the IOA, I suspect that the entire thing was deemed classified and therefore would never be revealed to any coroner nor would any public inquest be done. It’s stupid, but it’s consistent with everything else regarding the unnecessarily obsessive secrecy about the SGC.
Christopher: I also disagree with you 100% about Jackson. He was an integral part of the Stargate program before he even met Sha’re, and while his initial reasons for being part of SG-1 was to find her, his importance had grown way beyond that by the time “Forever in a Day” rolled around. He’s an important and valuable part of the SGC in general, and he also actually is from Earth and has a vested interest in helping protect it. (Plus, it’s not like he can actually go back to his life as a crackpot archeologist anyhow….) Teal’c doesn’t have any of that stuff — there are several reasons for Jackson to remain part of SG-1 after Sha’re died; there are no reasons for Teal’c to do so once the Jaffa are free.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@12/krad: True, maybe Daniel had functional reasons in-story for staying affiliated with the SGC, but for much of the run of the series, it just felt to me that, from a dramatic standpoint, he didn’t really have much personal, emotional investment in anything that was going on. At least when O’Neill was still heading the team, Daniel’s friendship and gadfly role toward Jack gave him an investment. And sure, he was friends with Carter and Teal’c, but not in the same way. By this point, the personal stakes for him didn’t seem all that strong — or at least it felt that the writers were periodically trying to invent new excuses for him to have personal stakes. And by this point, I feel Shanks was phoning it in as much as anyone. Or at least that’s how I seem to remember it. (Still haven’t gotten around to starting my own rewatch.)
I mean, heck, this is a season that started out with Daniel wanting to leave the team to go to Atlantis and being frustrated that he had to stay. Whatever his reasons for staying with the SGC, it didn’t feel like he had that great a reason to stay on SG-1 itself, either the team or the show.
@CLB: Thanks for giving me the chance to clarify my statements in regards to the world “dangerous”–I actually didn’t even remember using it and had to go back and read my comment to see what part you were referring to. So I guess I was using it rather loosely, as kind of a phrase, or maybe it was the first somewhat negative sounding adjective that popped into my head, but I can’t see myself meaning it in a literal sense too strongly. Perhaps dangerous to send a potentially off-putting message to many viewers? I think the main point of what I was trying to get at was that I feel there are certain groups of people that try and equate all religious people (see, now I’m extending it even further) with the kinds of activities they show the Ori doing. And yeah, I agree with you that it doesn’t seem like that’s what they are intentionally doing on the show. It’s just that I get this tingly feeling from it, sometimes, even though I think it IS bad when religious people use their religion in the way depicted by the Ori. I think the problem I have is that people make simple connections too often rather than thinking through things, and thus many people of the world might get painted in a bad light who don’t necessarily deserve it. Though that fault lies mostly with the people doing these things very visibly, and thus giving a bad name to their own religion.
That’s interesting about how the communications stones work. But when I said “swap bodies,” I was inadvertently reversing the semantic meaning by what was happening because I think I was putting the focus on the minds independent of location–ie, their minds have gotten new bodies. But yes, I fully understand that physically it is their consciousnesses that are being swapped across galaxies.
@krad: I also wasn’t trying to say that the show runners were intentionally trying to make us think they were replacing the old characters, merely that it *felt* like it, in regards to my own personal feelings towards them. I also didn’t mean that they felt like I was being told they were with the SGC all along, but I meant on the show. But that brings up the point that in generally I would’ve liked to have seen more characters from the SGC–I’m extremely fascinated by the other SG teams, so whenever we got to see one I always got a little excited.
RE: Daniel, I kind of agree with both of you. I feel like Daniel had other things to contribute to the team, and from what we learned in “Meridian,” he had serious doubts about himself and feelings of not belonging, despite his friends disagreeing. I thought that was a huge insight into his character and possibly even mitigated trying to give him the harsiesis storyline as a new motivation. We see that he still has this characteristic in the opener of season 7, when he’s afraid he won’t like the person he was (when he still hasn’t regained his memory). Like I said above, in “Orpheus” he seems to come to the resolution that he really does belong on SG-1. And that’s what I think he could’ve realized sooner–before the movie, and if he had never even MET Sha’re, you would think that this would’ve been his dream job. So of course he should’ve had other motivations even after she died. Like I said above, maybe by “Forever in a Day” he should’ve realized that he just liked being on SG-1. Granted, immediately after that he was pretty wounded, so.
But I also agree with Christopher that after season 8, or even after season 7, he should’ve really been moved to Atlantis.
I actually agree that moving Shanks to the spinoff from jump would’ve made more sense — and even if it didn’t, they could’ve easily done it for SGA season 2 (since I suspect the main reason for not doing it was to avoid breaking up the excellent chemistry between Anderson and Shanks, but that wasn’t a factor in SG1 season 9).
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@krad – Oh, I’m not saying it’s not consistent with the show. It’s just that while I’m rarely consciously aware of US laws the SGC are breaking, and the majority of British involvement can be happily filed under “Official Secrets Act”, this is the active and deliberate breaking of a British law with the assistance/approval of Her Majesty’s Government. And it’s a law that every few years becomes a bit of a talking point due to the discovery of some random pile of treasure in a field, not an obscure law.
I can’t help feeling that when the Stargate programme goes public, this is what’s going to annoy a significant proportion of the British public (particularly those with metal detectors, and Arthurian enthusiasts). It won’t be the aliens, it’ll be the big shiny treasure the British public were robbed of. The Greeks will probably find that hysterically funny, too.
Well, I am among those who like seasons 9 and 10, as well as those preceding them. I like the new characters, on the whole. Lexa Doig could been more involved though…
ValMar: Pregnancy dogged the female actors on SG-1 — Doig was pregnant during the time she was on the show, which caused her to miss significant screen time she might have otherwise gotten.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
And I think we’ve just discovered the key to all the riots in next season’s “The Road Not Taken”. It isn’t, as much as the gate-verse government want it to be, the discovery of aliens. It is all the lies piled upon lies piled upon lies. The Stargate ought to have gone public around season 3 at the latest, you can excuse them keeping it a secret up until then after that they are just keeping it a secret because they are scared of the consequences of having kept it secret. Something which gets worse and worse the longer it goes on, kinda like what happens if you put off getting a suspicious mole checked out; at first you aren’t sure if it is changing or whether it needs attention, then when the penny drops you put it off and put it off because you are now scared of what the doctor might say. Top tip; get that suspicious mole checked out ASAP people, trust me on this. And don’t let the off on government lying to you either, but really get that mole checked out.
That was a reply to @16 there btw.
krad @@@@@ 18
Thanks for the info. Damn you Shanks! Who needs IVF, just sent the missus to work for the SG-1 production. Tapping, Black, Doig… all pregnant in the same season. Coincidence? ;)
Well you can count me among the minority here, I loved seasons 9 and 10. I felt like it was exactly the new life the series needed after retreading the same ground so much. I liked the new blood of Jonas Quinn in season 6 and I like the new blood here. The new bad guys were great. Instead of just a bunch of pompous villains playing god, we got villains who practically were gods to an extent. I loved the spin on Arthurian legend. For the most part, the setup and introduction of this new threat was good, though I’d say the communication stones were the weak link in that setup. (Of course, the communication stones would go on to be the worst part of SGU.)
What can I say? I really enjoyed this revitalization of the show. I hear that at one point, the series was going to be renamed to Stargate Command from here on out, with that very title even getting name dropped in the first episode or so. Sometimes I wonder if that would have allowed the most outspoken opponents of seasons 9 and 10 to accept it as not SG-1, but a show that picks up immediately after SG-1.
I’d stopped watching SG1 a long time ago by this point, particularly because it wasn’t carried by any of the channels I had in my cable provider. Then this season was, and I tried to watch… and what the hell was this? Who is this Vala? She was like Quark with nice legs, and less funny than Armin Shimerman… and yeah, Browder seems like a nice guy, but Mitchell felt like a cheap O’Neil replacement. The Ori? Ho-hum.
I might enjoy the season more when I watch it as part of my full SG1 rewatch, but I did not like what I saw back then. Maybe it was the fact that, since I had only regularly watched the first couple of seasons, to me the Goa’uld were an integral part of the show, I had not seen much of the Replicators and such, so this was like having a Star Trek show without space travel, or a western show without guns. :)
@krad: Just a little note… referring to the Lucian Alliance as made up of “privateers” strikes me as wrong, since they were smugglers and other criminals, while privateers are actually pirates that have a letter of marque from a government to attack that government’s enemies.
Also, no reason for Teal’c to remain with SG-1? How about gratitude? He might not have felt cut out for politics, and felt more at ease fighting and exploring to help protect the Tauri, and by extension, the Free Jaffa Nation, as part of SG-1.
As for Shanks, I wouldn’t have moved him to Atlantis, it would have overshadowed the scientist characters there.
I just finished Season 9 yesterday. I did enjoy it more this time around, but still not as much as earlier seasons.
All the new characters walking around the SGC like they had been there the whole time did seem a bit off to me as well, but also did give a thought to the fact that there are a lot of people working on a project like this. They act familiar with the place, because they are. Though I really don’t like Dr. Lam being Landry’s daughter. It just seemed shoe-horned in to give Landry some more drama.
Vala was less annoying to me this time around as well. I really liked her strolling through the men’s locker room in the beginning on the finale 2-parter and whistling at Mitchell. Hilarious.
The Ori as the new big bad works out OK for me. I would have liked to see them get away from the false gods thing, but I think a more traditional enemy would have felt a little out of the show’s character.
I enjoyed Ba’al a little more this time around as well. Not so much the bunch of Ba’al clones running around, just the “being in on the joke” kind of vibe I got from him this time around.
Overall I liked it more this time around and I think watching SGA in between season 8 and 9 helped. I had not watched SGA up until a couple weeks ago for this rewatch. The fresh new sets and characters helped break up the fatigue that sets in when binge watching over 200 episodes of the same show/characters. I hope it similarly helps make season 10 better than I remember.
Hey folks. I’m afraid the Atlantis season 2 rewatch won’t happen until the 26th of June. Our dog, Scooter, died a week and a half ago — the full story can be found here on my blog — and it’s had a cascade effect on other things in our lives, one of which being that I need another week to prep the Stargate Rewatch. My apologies. I’ll be back on Tuesday the 23rd with the Star Trek TOS Rewatch of “The Menagerie,” and then Atlantis season 2 on Friday.
Edited to add: the link to the blog….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
KRAD — condolences on the loss of Scooter. It’s so hard when one of our fur children crosses the Bridge. I hope you can find comfort in all the good memories.
I really didn’t like season 9 or season 10 of SG-1. Although I normally like Beau Bridges, his Gen. Landry left me cold. It seemed like he was always in a hurry to get off-screen. Ben Browder — decent substitute for RDA. I liked the the backstory developed for him and the Arthurian legend episodes were excellent. HATED the Ori. Really didn’t like Vala. She was like a brass horn blaring off-key in the middle of a symphony. Claudia Black is an excellent actress and was perfect as Aeryn in “Farscape” but here — no. I don’t know how much of the story line was dictated by her real-life pregnancy, but it just didn’t seem to fit into Stargate.
The real problem that I suspect folks had with Browder was the episode where they shoe-horned him in as this integral aspect of the victory over Anubis in Antartica, all the essential ret-coning of him into importance. It was just so painted on, like a very bad, excessive make-up job. The show went on too long without figuring out a way (such as kicking RDA up-stairs and say promoting Carter). And yes, I’d be a person that would agree that moving Daniel to Atlantis would have made more sense – and frankly, keeping a Free Jaffa nation with a former SG member and friendly person would have created potentially more interesting interaction.
The saving grace of the season was a really spectacular group of guest stars, like Hudson, Davis and Shawn, in some really good parts for them as well (such as for Davis) and some nostalgia goggle moments (the excessive number of SG-1 crew people from other universe – even though in a genuinely real “life” example of physics, Mitchell should not have been in some of those teams and a younger RDA (they would have needed the EFX cash Fox used with Magneto and Professor X to de-age him) “clone” or two on a few of the teams that popped in.
I saw most of the episodes but that was because I had the cable service (and free as far as I was concerned) and SciFi repeated them so frequently. I frankly found the Ori annoying.
FDS: did you think all those 302s were flying themselves? *laughs* I had no problem with the retconning of Mitchell into the battle over Antarctica because there were tons of people involved in it whom we did not see at all in “Lost City.” We basically saw SG-1, Hammond, one or two people on the bridge of Prometheus, and that’s it. We saw several 302s shot down, and having one them survive and recover and be rewarded for his bravery is not only completely in character, it’s something we should’ve seen more often.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido