Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series Box Set
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Indeed. The character of Teal’c, a Jaffa warrior formerly in the service of the Goa’uld Apophis, who switched sides to join O’Neill’s team, pretty much started out from the same mold as Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Mr. Worf: the big, quiet yet fierce alien warrior--a former baddie who now fights on the side of the angels. But Christopher Judge managed to breathe life into Teal’c in a such a way that he’s become one of the most popular--and familiar--characters in TV SF. The writers have also wisely mined the depths of this character, giving Teal’c a rich family and societal life outside of the SG-1 team, as well as giving Judge as an actor many fine moments to shine. Judge would become so involved in his character that he would go on to contribute storylines and scripts to the show, one of which was the superb The Changeling.

You need an all-purpose, anti-Jaffa weapon that also cleans rugs and does the windows? Just give me twenty minutes, General! The fourth member of SG-1 soon became my favorite character from the show. Samantha Carter started out in the pilot as both a Captain and as a one dimensional character. Carter’s ‘I-am-woman, hear-me-roar’ speech to O’Neill in the pilot is hysterically lame and very cliché (it was even made fun of by the SG-1 writers themselves in later episodes). But--much like Teal’c--Carter soon evolved into a more fully humanized character--thanks to the writers, and especially the actress who played her, Amanda Tapping. Tapping has an extremely amiable presence on screen, which made it very easy to like Carter even from the start. As the resident "egg-head" of the SG-1 team, Sam was very knowledgeable concerning all things scientific, yet thankfully she lacked any arrogance. An Air Force Captain who was later promoted to a Major, and then much later to the rank of Lt. Colonel, Carter had indeed proven herself as being more than O’Neill’s equal, becoming his close friend, and--as suggested in many episodes--their feelings for each other soon ran much deeper than just that. Tapping would eventually direct an episode in the seventh season, which was written by Michael Shanks.

After seven years of working with her, General Hammond realized something: Dr. Fraiser was hot! With this close-knit quartet of O’Neill, Daniel, Carter and Teal’c firmly established within the first season, Stargate SG-1 became a popular hit when it first aired on the pay-cable network Showtime (the episodes later aired in national syndication, which also helped to broaden the show’s appeal). Don Davis, starring as the father-figure General Hammond, and Teryl Rothery, as the maternal Dr. Janet Fraiser, would soon be considered to be as much a part of the "family" as the regular SG-1 team. And it wasn’t long before Stargate had reached such a level of acceptance among its fans that it rivaled Star Trek in popularity. But then, at the end of the fifth season, two things occurred which threatened to derail this popular and profitable franchise: Michael Shanks left the show, and the series itself was cancelled by Showtime.

I figure to hell with Jack O'Neill and his mixed signals, you know? I'm a woman with needs! The Sci-Fi Channel came to the rescue, agreeing to air Stargate: SG-1 for its sixth season, and Shanks’ Daniel Jackson--who had "ascended" to a higher plane of existence--was replaced by Jonas Quinn, a bland carbon copy of Daniel who was earnestly played by actor Corin Nemic. It wasn’t Nemic’s fault that the Quinn character was so unmemorable--he’s a fine actor who did what he could with a thankless role. Whatever blame for the failure to come up with a viable replacement for Jackson lay with the Stargate: SG-1 powers that be, who were seemingly hell-bent on not rocking the boat anymore than they had to. Still, the sixth season had an interesting, season-long story arc in which Jonas tried desperately to be accepted as an equal within SG-1--oftentimes risking his life in the process. And when Jonas finally did earn this much deserved acceptance and respect from other SG-1 team members…Daniel Jackson returned at season’s end. Bye, Jonas; don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

To Boldly Go...where Kirk has gone before. Something else very interesting occurred during the sixth season of Stargate: SG-1. Up to now, the team relied on the stargates to get from point A to point B, an aspect which gave the series its unique appeal. But season six brought the introduction of an earth-built space fighter, along with a starship, eventually named the Prometheus. Which only makes the point I made earlier about how the SG-1 writers pay attention to their own history. After five years of SG-1 and other stargate teams bringing alien technology back to earth, it makes sense to finally start seeing some results of the research and development that had been taking place. But the series also lost its original uniqueness by soon having our heroes zip around the galaxy in starships, and sprouting techobabble about how the emission shields on the hyper-drive were operating at uneven levels thanks to the tachyon fields--in short, it began to dangerously emulate all the worst qualities of some of the worst TV science fiction, such as Star Trek: Voyager.