The Stargate franchise was almost the only reason why I paid for a more expensive cable package. In fact when the last of the spin offs ended, so did my cable subscription. In my new abode, we get cable as part of our condo fee, and there is nothing on the Syfy channel that has my interests. So yes I am a fan. It is my intention to slowly collect all of all of the Stargate broadcasts, and I am happy with season I.



The movie was fair enough. We get the introduction to an ancient instant super light speed travel system that takes our main characters to places, people and action zillions of miles from earth. It lacked the humor that begins in season one and ripens as the program matures. Now that I am familiar with episodes, having this set makes it easier to notice things. For example in year one it is clear that the production company did not have budgets like the folks behind Star Trek and Star Wars. True, Star Trek had some of the same cheesy sets, and they seemed to orbit the same planets, usually varied only by the direction of the orbit or the color, but SG-1 gets around that by not being in orbits.



Hard to imagine now but in 1997 a new show with no proven audience was expected to fill 20 hours of television. Twenty episodes in one year, a lot of television. Still looking closely you can see how much the technical staff, Art Department, Costume designer managed to deliver a lot while cutting the dollars fine. If you don’t each disc comes with one of these adulatory specials made to allow the behind the scene people to get in front of the camera.



The show is largely built around its one major star, the former Mr. MacGyver himself, Richard Dean Anderson. Here he is the smarter than he looks Air Force Colonel Jack O’Neil. His team includes the standard issue nerd linguist/archeologist and resident humanist, Michael Shanks, as Dr. Daniel Jackson along with the typical alien emotionless warrior Christopher Judge as Teal’c. The surprise is the woman in the typical eye candy role is the attractive, but never anyone’s sex toy, Amanda Tapping, as Capt. later Maj. Samatha Carter Ph. D.



What I am enjoying is the start of a system of Sci-Fci television that begins a little unsure of itself and heavily dependent on writing to cover for limited special effects and set design. I know that these elements will get better even as the writers learn to expand their characters and play with the theme.



If I do have criticisms from watching the shows for a second time: a lot of decisions are made not just because the situation is as it always is desperate, but because they have no time for another plan. Granted they are taking on a new set of unknowns every week, but the learning curve is not always apparent. Too often something comes back with the team. Something that does not belong on earth. Too often the team goes out with weapons too short on stopping power even if every good guy shot hits. Just like Storm Troopers everywhere the highly trained, soldiers for life, enemy Jaffa are terrible shots.



When necessary things do blow up good. But more than the war of the blipping lights, Stargate SG-1 has heart. It is peopled with people (almost always races originating on earth) who tend to be believable. Episodes often have problems that cannot be solved by a fast draw and a keen shooting eye.

I am looking forward to “catching them all’.