Stargate S.G - 1: Season 5 (Vol. 23)

Amazon.co.uk Review

Stargate SG-1 is the TV spin-off from the 1994 big-screen movie. In the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible.

Episodes on this DVD: "Summit", "Last Stand", "48 Hours" and "Proving Ground". In a daring Tok'ra mission, Daniel Jackson is sent to infiltrate and attend a Goa'uld "Summit" disguised as a manservant. With a lot of sneaking around and a little technobabble thrown in to explain how he isn't recognised, things come to a head with the unveiling of who the secret new baddies are and how they affect Daniel personally.

In a direct continuation from "Summit", SG-1 make what they hope is a "Last Stand" against the System Lords. Similarly, the Tok'ra stand together on planet Revanna where O'Neill and Teal'c have a crash course in alien technology as they learn how to grow different types of tunnel from crystal.

It's been a while since someone made the analogy of the Stargates operating like a telephone exchange. "48 Hours" traps Teal'c within the system, and the team have only two days to find a way to reconnect him. Unfortunately, this requires the aid of the Russians who are more than a little reluctant about giving up their private dialling device. This episode also features terrific cameos from the slithery Maybourne and Simmons (John de Lancie).

Inevitably there needs to be a next generation of SG teams, so Jack and co take time out from their missions to train up some newbies. "Proving Ground" is all about who can make the grade, and in particular they have their eyes on the brilliant Jennifer and headstrong Elliot. The tension is really piled on in this show as layers of reality build to confuse the kids and the audience as to what's really happening to them. --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews:

Good Episodes.......2003-09-29

In a season that has taken a marked change from the Season 1-3 style, a little of the old spark actually appears in some of these episodes. Proving Ground is the strongest episode of the four, ironically putting back in the old team sparkle we saw in the first couple of seasons without the Big Four even necessarily being together, and the new recruits were pretty interesting in their own right, which definitely helped. 48 Hours is possibly the weakest, mainly because I've found one of the strengths of Stargate over most Sci-Fi is that there's less emphasis on technobabble, and when it's required it's usually got a solid base in reality, or at least the reality of real life theoretical science.

In 48 Hours, however, one or two of the explanations came across as slightly more Star Trek than Stargate but without going completely down that long, dark road. It does have some very good Jackson-Davis-Chekov dynamics that more than make up for the slightly lowered quality of technobabble.

Summit is a good Daniel episode, although Jacob fans might be a little frustrated at the relegation of his role to "getaway driver", there definitely could have been more from him given the reasons for him being present in the first place. However, Daniel being chosen did make perfect sense, and it was nice to see him struggling to make the right decisions when morality and necessity conflict, especially when he's forced to think on his feet whenever anything unexpected happens. It's even nicer to see that Jacob knows him well enough by now to actually have some doubts as to whether he can trust Daniel to actually carry through the Tok'ra's morally ambiguous plans as well.

The Goa'uld known as Yu is intriguing as always, but I find the Tok'ra sections of Summit to be the weak link. That's not to say they're bad, they're just not as great as they could be. This problem does improve in Last Stand, which is the second half of Summit.

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