25 years of Stargate SG-1 – paying tribute to a perfect TV show

I’ve talked a lot about my love for my favourite film franchise, Star Wars, on this blog down through the years, but, despite starting this site with an article titled “Celebrating 20 years of Stargate: The franchise’s 10 best episodes” way back in 2014, I’ve talked very little about my favourite television franchise, Stargate, on here, which is largely due to the fact that, disappointingly, there’s been very little in the way of new Stargate content since the franchise’s third live action TV show ended over a decade ago in 2011. However, once upon a time there was an uninterrupted 14 year period during which Stargate content was produced continuously, and that near-decade-and-a-half period began exactly 25 years ago on this very day (July 27^th, 1997) with the airing of “Children of the Gods”, the absolutely epic feature-length inaugural episode of my all-time favourite TV show by far, so I’ve decided to use that show’s 25^th anniversary as an excuse to make up for the lack of Stargate-related posts on this site by writing an article that pays tribute to what is and always will be, as far as I’m concerned, the greatest series ever produced for the small screen, the utterly incomparable Stargate SG-1.
Like the other “paying tribute to…” articles on this site, this article will be part-reminiscences, part-retrospective review, part general-discussion and, on the whole, basically a love letter to an entertainment medium that I adore, which in this case is of course Stargate SG-1. And, like the Star Trek: The Original Series tribute article I wrote last year, while I will mention and share thoughts about the other shows in the franchise to which the show that is the focus of this particular post belongs over the course of the following paragraphs, I’m going to keep the spotlight primarily shining on the franchise’s first TV show in this article. And, by the way, before you proceed any further, be warned that there will be spoilers for the entire Stargate franchise scattered across the rest of this post.
Okay then, with that final chevron of my introductory paragraphs locked in place, let’s cross the event horizon of the main body of this article and begin my discussion about SG-1.

The first time I heard the word “stargate” was when my mother, who had previously seen the 1994 movie that is the seed of the franchise, recommended I watch Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s sci-fi action/adventure movie of that name when it aired on television back in the very same year that SG-1 began stateside, 1997. And I loved it. I loved the characters, I loved the mythology, I loved the action, I loved the idea of the stargate itself – I just loved the movie in general. So when Sky One over here (in Ireland) started advertising a new show based on that movie in early 1998, I was very excited to see it, and when SG-1’s feature-length first episode aired on Sky in, I think, May of 1998 at 8pm on a Wednesday, you better believe I was watching it! I recall watching the show’s inaugural instalment with my dad, with instructions from my mam to record it because she was out, and I also recall the panic that set in when sometime in the middle of the show, I think while the characters were on Abydos, what we referred to back then as “the piped telly” cut out for half an hour and by the time it returned, the setting of the episode had shifted to Chulak. A frustrating occurrence to be sure, but it wasn’t hard to pick up on what was going on when the picture returned, and, despite the unwelcome interruption of my first SG-1 experience, I was immediately besotted with the show, and that 8pm Wednesday timeslot on Sky became a very special part of my week as I enthusiastically consumed every episode of SG-1 going forward. I recall the show’s first two seasons aired back to back on Sky without a break in between, which meant more than 40 straight weeks of SG-1 excellence, and in my young naiveté, during that period Stargate became such a big and dependable part of my life that I just assumed it would go on forever without pausing! So you can imagine my shock and suspense when it suddenly ceased on a cliffhanger following the airing of its second season finale, “Out of Mind” – perhaps most memorable to me during that first run because of Daniel’s then-new haircut! – and didn’t return for several months when its third season arrived. However, it did return. And it continued to do so for a full decade from the time I was a primary school student, throughout my secondary school years and until the last semester of the final year of my undergrad course at college, meaning that I quite literally grew up watching SG-1, and during that period, I lived for that weekly 8pm timeslot that for 10 years promised new adventures and time spent with Jack, Daniel, Sam, Teal’c and all of the show’s various other beloved characters. I can honestly say that I’ve never looked forward – and highly likely will never look forward – to an episode of any television show as much as I used to look forward to every episode of SG-1 during its at the time unprecedented ten year run. In fact, over the course of the airing of its 214 episodes, I only missed two on their first airing – season one’s “Tin Man” and season two’s “Thor’s Chariot”, the former of which I first saw when I used confirmation money to buy it on VHS, which included “There but for the Grace of God”, in the Virgin Megastore that was in the Blanchardstown Centre at the time, and the latter of which I caught on a rerun in my grandparents’ house. And while I was deprived of half an hour of “Children of the Gods” during its first airing, I eventually had that blank filled in when Sky One re-aired it in, I’m pretty sure, December of 1998. Not so easy to catch up on a missed episode of a show back in the pre-streaming and on-demand days! But I managed it nevertheless, and every other episode of SG-1 I caught as it aired for the first time, whether I was at home, or elsewhere – I have a very vivid memory of being in my granny’s house watching “Within the Serpent’s Grasp” and my granny not believing me when I said during the scene in which Apophis’s Ha’taks pass Saturn that Saturn is a real planet! No doubt because I seemed to her like an overly imaginative twelve year old with his head in the clouds at the time!
But not only could I not resist watching SG-1 every week while it aired, I was – and still am! – a sucker for any kind of merchandise and memorabilia based on the Stargate franchise. In fact, in the very room in which I sit typing this, there’s a shelf full of SG-1 and Atlantis action figures including all of each show’s main characters as well as other key elements of the franchise such as Earth’s and Atlantis’s stargates themselves among other related items, and I recall asking for and receiving the 1994 movie on VHS at Christmas in, I think, 1998. And that movie became the very first DVD I ever bought when I purchased it in my local Xtra-Vision store around Christmas time 2001 or January 2002. It came in a box that could be transformed into a pyramid, a box that still sits on a shelf with the rest of my Stargate DVD collection to this day. But from action figures to VHS tapes to every single issue of the official Stargate and Stargate DVD Collection magazines to Stargate special issues of other magazines such as TV Zone and Dreamwatch to novels and comic books to the boxsets of every season of all three live action Stargate series to date to signed photos of Michael Shanks and Paul McGillion, both of whom I had the pleasure of meeting  when they each appeared for meet and greets in Forbidden Planet Dublin on separate occasions, I’ve invested heavily and happily in Stargate products down through the years, and treasure every item of Stargate memorabilia that I own.

But backtracking to the topic of the franchise’s first TV show itself, you might be wondering why exactly I love it so much. Well, the truth is there are a number of reasons. For starters, I love the mythology aspect of it and how it ties real life myths and legends into its stories and paints a fascinating fictional picture of our planet’s history as a result, with the gods of Egypt and other cultures being ancient aliens that influenced our world’s development in centuries and millennia past. I also learned a whole lot about real-life mythology and cultures from watching SG-1, which sparked in me a real passion for Egyptology in particular that I still have to this day. Among my favourite mythology-focussed episodes of SG-1 are its aforementioned first episode, “Children of the Gods”, which established that the 1994 film’s villain, Ra, was only one of many of his race who became worshipped as gods by the ancient peoples of Earth, and began to expand the exceedingly fascinating picture of Egyptian mythology that the 1994 film painted; the aforementioned “Thor’s Chariot”, which expanded the show’s ties to Norse mythology in a big and hugely intriguing way by introducing important SG-1 ally Thor and linking him to real-life accounts of “Roswell greys”; “Secrets”, which continued to expand the show’s Egyptian mythology element in a fascinating way while doing a great job of recapturing the feel of the 1994 film; “The Curse”, which expanded the Egyptian aspect of the show even further; “Summit”, which featured “gods” from an assortment of mythologies around the world; “Full Circle”, which unleashed ancient Egyptian deity Anubis in all of his terrifying might and also started the franchise’s tie with the mythical lost city of Atlantis; and “Avalon”, which introduced Arthurian mythology into the realm of SG-1 and cleverly tied it to the Ancients – the race responsible for building the stargates in the first place. Speaking of which, I also love the fictional mythology Stargate built around the creators of its titular interstellar transport device. Tying them to famous Earth legends such as the aforementioned Atlantis and King Arthur among other cultures and using them to explain why there are so many humans, human-like lifeforms and Earth-like planets in the universe by establishing that the Ancients were the original humans who came to the Milky Way many millions of years ago and terraformed worlds everywhere they went before kickstarting human evolution on Earth among other worlds, with the Goa’uld later spreading humanity even further across the cosmos, the mythology of the Ancients in Stargate is one of the franchise’s most intriguing, enduring and clever creations.

Something else I love about SG-1 is the fact that, while it has plenty of enthralling standalone episodes, right from the start it had an ongoing narrative that always made the show feel like it was leading somewhere and that the stakes were high. The idea of an ongoing storyline in a TV show was something that was largely alien (no sci-fi pun intended) to me at the age I was when SG-1 started, and I really loved that there were consequences to the events of most episodes and everything wasn’t reset to zero when the credits rolled. There were plenty of continuing arcs that arose and were resolved over the course of SG-1’s ten year run, but for most of its run, the major ongoing narrative was that of the war with the Goa’uld, which, narratively speaking, I to this day think is SG-1’s most exciting aspect and one of the most thrilling, tension-filled, suspenseful and spellbinding stories in the history of storytelling, giving rise to some truly astounding action scenes, battles and visuals that are among my favourite small and big screen set-pieces of all-time, as did the ongoing conflicts with the Replicators and, later, the Ori, all of which made SG-1 a whole lot more epic than any other television show that has ever been produced and most movies, in my opinion at least. Some of the show’s most outstanding ongoing narrative/war episodes for me include “Children of the Gods”, which began the Goa’uld war with a riveting battle on Chulak; “Within the Serpent’s Grasp” and “The Serpent’s Lair”, which saw Apophis set out to attack Earth in a nail-biting two-part tale; “The Devil You Know”, which shook up the balance of power among the Goa’uld in a thrilling way; “Exodus”, which sparked a suspenseful climactic confrontation with Apophis; “Full Circle”, “Fallen” and “Homecoming”, which demonstrated that Anubis was a true force with which to be reckoned while featuring some jaw-droppingly epic battle sequences; “Heroes Part 2”, which included a stunningly large-scale and ultimately extremely gut-wrenching ground battle; “Lost City Parts 1 and 2”, which featured a story and action that were as ambitious and exciting as an epic big screen sci-fi movie; my personal favourite two episodes of the Stargate franchise, “Reckoning Parts 1 and 2”, which brought the wars with the Goa’uld and the Replicators to a mind-blowingly epic and utterly electrifying head; and “Camelot”, which culminated in one of the best space battles I’ve ever seen.

However, SG-1 wasn’t all mythology and action. It was also freakin’ hilarious! In fact, I’d go so far as to say that SG-1 is my favourite action, drama and comedy show all at the same time. Now, don’t get me wrong if you’ve never seen it, SG-1 is a serious show and takes itself so. But it’s also packed with laugh out loud humour that’s incorporated very naturally and works wonderfully without ever undermining the seriousness of its stories or making it feel too silly. Most of this humour arises in regular episodes thanks to charming character interactions and dialogue, but there are some episodes that are largely light in tone throughout and shine as a result such as “Zero Hour”, which offers a highly amusing look at a day in the life of the commanding officer of Stargate Command, but the absolute best episode in this category for me, as I’ve no doubt it is for a lot of fans, is season four’s “Window of Opportunity”, during which Jack and Teal’c get stuck in a time loop and decide to take the opportunity to do things that they’d never get away with otherwise, and hilariousness ensues.

Speaking of Jack and Teal’c, let’s shift the spotlight to another one of the things that makes me love SG-1 so much – its incomparable and incredible characters and cast.

Like my favourite film franchise, I’ve talked a lot about my love for my favourite film character, Han Solo, on this blog down through the years, but, like my favourite television franchise, I’ve talked very little about my favourite TV character – and, indeed, my favourite fictional character of all-time just behind Han – Colonel/Brigadier/Major/Lieutenant General Jonathan J. “Jack” O’Neill. Taking over the reins from Kurt Russell, who portrayed the character in the 1994 film, the renowned and all around excellent Richard Dean Anderson stepped into Jack’s shoes when SG-1 started, and very quickly and adeptly transformed the serious and comparatively cold version of the character that Russell portrayed in the feature film that began the Stargate franchise into a hilariously witty and frequently side-splittingly sarcastic yet wonderfully warm and endearingly compassionate individual who it is impossible not to love. And if you say you don’t like RDA’s Jack, then I believe you’re lying, because I genuinely cannot believe that anyone could dislike him! Anderson’s transformation of Jack into a much more witty, sarcastic, warm and compassionate individual than the Jack of the 1994 Stargate movie not only made the character irresistible lovable, it also felt like a very natural transition for the first leader of SG-1, because in the movie the character had just lost a child and was understandably in a very dark place at the time, with his arc in the film being about finding a reason to want to live again, which he does by building up a touching bond with young Abydonian Skaara and subsequently saving Skaara and his people, and, in retrospect, this combined with the occasional sarcastic/comedic comment as the film unfolds, such as saying “How you doin’?” with a cheeky smirk before shooting a Horus guard and “Give my regards to King Tut, asshole!”, very much suggested that the alluringly light-hearted and fantastically caring personality with which RDA endowed Jack in SG-1 was lingering beneath the character’s surface during the 1994 film, but was largely buried beneath his grief over his son’s death before he found a renewed purpose in life and gradually began to regain his will to live, which he has completely recovered by the time SG-1 begins. And in addition to effortlessly making the character tremendously funny and wonderfully warm, RDA also effortlessly makes Jack seem fantastically formidable and like a more than capable military commander who, despite liking to have fun whenever he can, you would not want to face in a fight, because there’s a good chance he’d either kick your ass or use his immense tactical skills to outsmart and defeat you! All of this makes Jack O’Neill an utter joy to watch whenever he’s onscreen, and even when he’s not, such as during SG-1’s last two seasons when the character went from being a main character to a recurring one, Jack still feels, to the writers’ credit, like an extremely important presence in the franchise, so while I missed, and still do miss dearly, seeing Jack O’Neill light up my television screen every week, SG-1’s ninth and tenth seasons were still colossally enthralling, with the Ori arc of the show’s two mostly – but thankfully not completely! – Jackless seasons being exceedingly epic, and Jack did show up for most of the show’s remaining major moments, including SG-1’s landmark 200^th episode, the climax of the Sangraal storyline, which marked a massive turning point in the Ori arc, and the execution of the last Goa’uld System Lord and the end of SG-1’s last major lingering plot thread, and when he wasn’t there, he was often said to be the one giving the most important orders behind the scenes, not just in SG-1, but also in Atlantis and Universe, so in some ways his departure as a full-time character made him feel like an even more important character to the franchise as a whole, if not its most important character altogether, and I can never praise or thank Richard Dean Anderson enough for his truly superlative and impeccable work throughout the Stargate franchise and for giving rise to a character that I love dearly and who has given me so much joy since I was a child and continues to do so to this day.

Additionally in relation to Jack, Richard Dean Anderson has absolutely excellent onscreen chemistry with Michael Shanks, which results in what is undoubtedly the best and most touching friendship in the Stargate franchise – that of Jack and Doctor Daniel Jackson, who are arguably the heart and soul of Stargate. The pair’s easy and extremely charming banter together and obvious familial bond combined with the very natural and altogether superlative chemistry between the actors who portray them made their interactions in SG-1 – and, indeed, during the all-too-short but oh-so-sweet screentime they shared in episodes of SG-1 spinoff shows Atlantis and Universe – one of the brightest highlights and most entertaining aspects of not just SG-1, but of the Stargate franchise as a whole, and seeing them interact, whether it’s serious or light-hearted, is always both an absolute pleasure and a true delight. As for Daniel himself, beginning SG-1 as an endearingly awkward archaeologist – just like his portrayal in the 1994 film; in fact, Michael Shanks emulated the character’s movie portrayer, James Spader, so well in “Children of the Gods”, I recall thinking Daniel was played by the same actor in the movie and the TV show – and gradually evolving into a delightfully confident and wonderfully witty individual as the show progressed, and being lovably warm and compassionate throughout, Michael Shanks made Doctor Daniel Jackson consistently charming, easy to like and compelling right from the first moment he stepped into the character’s shoes in the Abydonian stargate chamber in SG-1’s first episode.

Another character with whom Daniel has a touching relationship is his SG-1 teammate, Sam Carter, with whom he builds up a beautiful and very natural-feeling brother-sister like bond as SG-1 unfolds. And speaking of Sam, if you ask someone who their favourite female sci-fi character is, a lot of people will probably say the likes of Leia Organa, Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor or Kathryn Janeway – and understandably so, they’re all great characters, especially Leia, who’s one of my all-time favourite movie characters – but if I were asked that question, I would say Captain/Major/Lieutenant Colonel/Colonel/Doctor/theoretical astrophysicist Samantha “Sam” Carter, who, in addition to being both arguably the most intelligent ordinary human the genre has ever seen and the character who has the distinct honour of appearing in the most episodes of the Stargate franchise, having appeared in every season of Atlantis including as a series regular in season four and one of Universe’s two seasons as well as being a main character in all ten seasons of SG-1 and its two movies, has single-handedly come up with ways to save the day, and quite often life as we know it, more times than I care to count by figuring out how to sever stargates from blackholes and blow up suns among many, MANY more ingenious solutions to mind-meltingly complicated problems. And through it all Amanda Tapping effortlessly makes Sam a completely believably exceptionally intelligent, fantastically formidable, wonderfully warm and magnificently caring individual who it is extremely easy to adore.

Backtracking to the topic of sibling-like relationships, Sam also develops an exceedingly touching brother-sister like bond with Teal’c over the course of SG-1’s ten seasons that makes the pair’s interactions extremely heart-warming, and using that point to segue into a discussion about Teal’c himself, SG-1’s ever reliable resident Jaffa member is undoubtedly my favourite character on the show after Jack. Christopher Judge does an absolutely excellent and irreproachable job of evolving Teal’c from being an initially very reserved and quiet individual into a wonderfully amiable and witty warrior throughout SG-1’s run while effortlessly making the character come across as splendidly intimidating and terrifically loyal and honourable throughout, and, despite his relatively reserved demeanour, Teal’c is responsible, unwittingly or otherwise, for some of the show’s most uproarious moments – “What is an Oprah?” or “A Serpent guard, a Horus guard and a Setesh guard meet on a neutral planet” anyone?! Also when I think of classic Teal’c comedy moments, his swiping a tub of ice-cream from Jack in “Unnatural Selection” enters my mind too! All of this makes Teal’c an absolute blast to watch whenever he’s onscreen as well as irresistibly endearing and compellingly complex from the moment his Serpent guard mask opens to reveal his face for the first time during the opening moments of “Children of the Gods”. And he also gets brownie points for being a fellow Star Wars enthusiast!

Of course, sibling-like bonds weren’t the only familial-like bonds prevalent on SG-1. Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal’c also had an amazing father figure in the form of Major/Lieutenant General George Hammond, who Don S. Davis endowed with a tremendous amount of warmth during all of his appearances as the character, while also effortlessly making him come across as an extremely capable and experienced commander, and there was never any doubt that George would do whatever he had to to ensure his subordinates’ well-being, much like a father will do anything to protect his children, and it was exceedingly easy to warm to Hammond as a result. And given the close bonds George built up with Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal’c during SG-1’s run, it was both enormously moving and very fitting that Sam was eventually given command of a BC-304 that was named after him, and this also paid touching tribute to both Hammond and the late, great Don S. Davis. Of course, while I haven’t talked specifically about each of the original five main SG-1 characters’ bonds with one another, all five characters and the individuals who portrayed them had superb onscreen chemistry together, and the above mentioned characters all felt like a very natural, loving and tight-knit family unit as a result, which added a whole wealth of depth to SG-1. But they weren’t the only main characters the show had during its ten-year run.

Corin Nemec’s Jonas Quinn replaced Daniel for season six and I absolutely loved the character. Nemec endowed the Kelowna native with a terrifically enthusiastic, amiable and wide-eyed personality that makes him immensely likable, and I really wish we’d gotten to see more of the character post-season seven, especially when it was mentioned his homeworld fell to the Ori and the planet featured in an episode of Universe. But Stargate franchise producer/writer Joseph Mallozzi has said that he believes that Jonas survived the Ori invasion of Langara, which I’m taking as canon and choosing to believe he’s still alive and well and prospering following the Ori’s defeat.

Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell became the second character to replace an original member of SG-1 when Jack departed at the start of season nine, and Ben Browder made Cam come across as delightfully down-to-Earth and had very easy chemistry with the show’s other cast members, which made Cam easy to warm to.

Major General Hank Landry joined Cam in taking up a position at the SGC in season nine, setting up shop in the base’s commander’s office, and Beau Bridges did a great job of making Landry seem like a father-like figure and capable commander similar to Hammond as well as of conveying that the character cares for those under his command, which made Landry easy to warm to too.

And, of course, mischievous former Goa’uld host Vala Mal Doran joined SG-1 in the show’s tenth season after recurring in the previous two seasons, with Claudia Black always seeming like she was having a great time bringing the crafty character to life, which was fun to see, and the delightfully quirky personality with which Black endowed the character as well as Black’s extremely charming onscreen chemistry with Michael Shanks made Vala very entertaining to watch.

The above nine characters may have been the only ones who were officially main characters throughout SG-1’s run, but they were far from the only characters that regularly appeared on the show. By far my favourite recurring character and favourite Stargate character after the original four members of SG-1 is Teal’c’s mentor and old friend, Bra’tac. Appearing frequently in all ten seasons of SG-1 – with the exception of season four, during which the villainous Terok claimed he was dead, almost giving me a heart attack, but thankfully it turned out to be a lie! – Tony Amendola makes the 130+ year old Jaffa warrior come across as marvellously formidable, endearingly virtuous and magnificently courageous, and I always got even more excited about an episode of SG-1 when Bra’tac was involved.

My second favourite recurring character is Jacob Carter/Selmak. Carmen Argenziano endowed Sam’s father with a fantastically witty, lovably warm and delightfully down-to-Earth personality that makes him exceedingly likable, and the close, familial bond he had with not just Sam, but all of the original SG-1 team and Hammond made every episode in which he appeared an extra special treat. Which is why perhaps the most disappointing and heartbreaking moment of SG-1 for me was his unexpected departure from the show towards the end of season eight.

Of course, I can’t write an article paying tribute to Stargate SG-1 and not mention Doctor Janet Fraiser, who, despite not being billed as such, was basically a main character during SG-1’s first seven seasons, and Teryl Rothery endowed the SGC’s long-serving chief medical officer with so much wonderful warmth and compassion that you couldn’t not love her. Suffice it to say then, the events of “Heroes Part 2” pack a tremendously powerful emotional punch.

I also really love Thor, whose wise and warm personality and charming relationship with Jack made all of his appearances very enjoyable, and his connections to Norse and “Roswell grey” mythology added a whole lot of terrific intrigue to the show.

And heroes aside, SG-1 featured some of my favourite fictional villains of all-time. Peter Williams’s superbly intense Apophis always injected a lot of magnificent tension into the show as its first primary antagonist. David Palffy’s Anubis was a splendidly unsettling opponent for SG-1, whose non-corporeal and compellingly enigmatic nature and extreme power made him my favourite of the show’s villains. And what SG-1 fan doesn’t love Cliff Simon’s charmingly impudent Baal?! These and all of the above characters are just some of the SG-1 villains and heroes that I love. If I were to talk about every SG-1 character that made a positive impact on me, this article would become a thesis. But I will throw in honourable mentions of Tom McBeath’s Harry Maybourne, Colin Cunningham’s Major Paul Davis, Alexis Cruz’s Skaara, Obi Ndefo’s Rak’nor, Gary Jones’s Chief Master Sergeant Walker Harriman (aka Chevron Man!), JR Bourne’s Martouf/Lantash, Jay Acovone’s Major Charles Kawalsky, Eric Breker’s Colonel Albert Reynolds and Douglas H. Arthurs’s Heru’ur, because they are all also SG-1 characters that stand out positively for me for various reasons.

Another of the reasons I love SG-1 so much is that it was set in the present day, with all of its events happening without the general public knowing. This allowed it to have fascinating other world exploration and adventures like Star Trek and big, epic sci-fi battle sequences like Star Wars while being anchored in the real world and feeling like it could conceivably be happening right now, which, coupled with the fact that its characters use stargates rather than spaceships to traverse the galaxy at extreme speed, both made it feel refreshingly unique and a lot less fantastical and a lot more grounded than most sci-fi offerings of its kind, and I really loved – and still do love – that.

My love of Stargate isn’t limited to SG-1 though. The franchise’s first TV show was followed by two movies named The Ark of Truth and Continuum, which I enjoyed and which provided satisfying conclusions to the Ori and Goa’uld war arcs, respectively.

And going beyond SG-1-related offerings, my all-time second favourite TV show is SG-1’s first spinoff show, Stargate: Atlantis, which, like its superb parent show, boasts an absolutely brilliant blend of mythology, action, comedy and characters, including extremely lovable SG-1 analogue Major/Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex.

And while I wasn’t initially a huge fan of Stargate’s third live action show, Stargate: Universe, because its considerably darker, more downbeat tone made it feel jarringly different to SG-1 and Atlantis, over time I began to enjoy it more and more, as it delivered some very absorbing storylines, and characters such as Colonel Everett Young, Sergeant Ronald Greer, Chloe Armstrong, Eli Wallace, who is definitely the most relatable character in all of Stargate for me personally, and even the often nefarious Doctor Nicholas Rush gradually grew on me and earned my adoration, and even though its mythology aspect is not as heavy as those of SG-1 and Atlantis, it is still present in that the show’s primary setting is a spaceship constructed by the stargate builders, whose capital city was the fabled lost city of Atlantis, and it finally addressed the long-mysterious ninth chevron function, so I gradually came to hold Universe in high regard as well.

Then there was also the short-lived animated show, Stargate: Infinity, which, let’s just say, wasn’t great, and leave it at that. It’s not considered canon anyway, so not much need to worry about it!

But, despite the enormous amount of Stargate content that was produced in the nineties and noughties, there’s been a prolonged drought when it comes to Stargate content since Universe ended in 2011. We did get a series of short online episodes called Stargate: Origins in 2018, which made up an interesting standalone tale set decades before SG-1, Atlantis and Universe, but Origins was more of a brief curiosity than a return of the franchise. However, there has been talk as of late of SG-1, Atlantis and Universe co-creator Brad Wright getting a fourth live action Stargate show off the ground that would be set in the same continuity as its three predecessors and would feature appearances by familiar characters from past shows. I hope and I pray that that will become a reality and that the franchise won’t remain permanently shelved or be completely rebooted. I’m sure no one will be surprised to hear at this point that I have many thoughts I could share about what I would like to see in a new Stargate show, and many more thoughts about all of the non-SG-1 Stargate offerings mentioned above. However, since the primary purpose of this article is to pay tribute to SG-1 specifically and celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the airing of its first episode, I’ll leave it at the above regarding the Stargate franchise outside of SG-1, and at this point, I think I’ve said more or less everything I wanted to say about SG-1 too, so time to sum up.
Stargate SG-1, as far as I’m concerned, is a shining example of a perfect television show. Presenting truly fascinating, terrifically imaginative and extremely well-developed fictional explanations of many of our world’s ancient myths and legends, featuring a profusion of immensely spellbinding storytelling and utterly electrifying and visually stunning action, not to mention a delightfully rousing theme tune composed by Joel Goldsmith, and boasting an ensemble of irreproachably-performed, excellently-developed and enormously endearing main characters, it’s television and entertainment at their absolute finest, and it’s been a continuous source of extreme joy for me for most of my life and undoubtedly will be until the day I follow in the footsteps of the Ancients and depart corporeal existence, and I and everyone else out there whose lives have been positively impacted by it are greatly indebted to Brad Wright, Jonathan Glassner, Robert C. Cooper, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Martin Wood, Peter DeLuise, Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Don S. Davis, Corin Nemec, Ben Browder, Beau Bridges, Claudia Black, Tony Amendola, Carmen Argenziano, Teryl Rothery and everyone else who was involved in bringing it to life and making it such a joy to watch for a full decade. And of course I rate it a resounding and extremely emphatic 10/10.

Thanks for reading. Tek’ma’te.

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