Stargate SG-1 : season 9 review

2004

20 50 minute episodes

SF elements

hostile alien contact; FTL travel

Review

O'Neill turns up only in rare cameo now. Colonel Mitchell has taken over SG-1, and General Landry is in charge of SG-C: they and make a good stab at it. We have a new super-duper villain, even more powerful than the Goa'uld: the evil extra-galactic Ori. The action and set pieces are still good, with a higher dose of wisecracking humour (particularly some banter with the Asgard), and still the good use of the series history, and more Terrestrial mythology (Arthurian legend, now).

Ben Browder makes a good Col Mitchell, although the character shares a certain style and body language with John Crichton . Claudia Black guest stars as Vala, who is totally different from Aeryn Sun.

So, the first 8 seasons are about how it's wrong to worship false gods, and the struggle for liberation from them. Season 9 is about how it's wrong to worship true, but evil, gods, and the struggle for liberation from them. (Minor theological point: true gods in the sense of god-like powers; not true gods in the sense of creator of the universe.) Will season 10 have a theme about whether to worship true, and good, gods?

Rating: 3

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

reviewed 4 November 2006