This is a rewatch of the old Sci-fi standard, Stargate SG1. Originally aired in 1997, Stargate was something of a sleeper. It came on the downslope of the mighty Star Trek juggernaught, which was firmly in the throes of ST: Deep Space Nine (1993-99) and Voyager (1995-2001). ST: Enterprise (2001-2005) was still on the horizon for Star Trek fans. Babylon 5 (1993-98) still had another season to run and it was also up against Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Farscape (1999-2003). If you were inclined to watch Sci-Fi TV, you had plenty of options to choose from.
In short, Stargate came out in a field crowded with already powerful science fiction properties and some strong new contenders. It was building on the groundwork laid by James Spader and Kurt Russell in the movie Stargate (1994) but the film had done very little to create a coherent universe, having traveled to a single planet beyond Earth. As a result, this new series had to capture the feeling of the movie but build an entirely new world in which to place its adventures.
The show bridged several transitions in the TV storytelling medium. The first seasons were 4:3 boxes of low resolution and weakly saturated color, for example, while the later seasons were high-res, richly colored widescreen panoramics. The most important change, though, was the transition from episodic, status-quo episodes to fully written seasons that are now released all at once. Traditional TV established a status-quo, a steady state of character and world development to which the story always returned before the end of each episode. The following episode started out in exactly the same place as the one before it. That gave shows like ST: The Next Generation a comfortable and familiar feel.
In the nineties, though, shows like the X-Files and especially Babylon 5 began to write metaplot arcs that were visited throughout each season. Events in earlier episodes were maintained and developed in later episodes in a way that could substantially change the steady state of the universe. SG1, because it had a significant world-building task, used this technique almost from the beginning to develop long reaching story lines and character arcs. Characters like Samantha Carter and Teal'c were given time to grow with the seasons, and because we saw their origins, we were more closely identified with their victories.
The very first episode of Stargate SG1 attempts to create a bridge to the prior film. The first scene shows the stargate activated, the serpent-head guards and the face of Apophis. But it also introduces Teal'c as the leader of Apophis' soldiers and we get a few revealing touches of his character. For example, when the Jaffa open fire and the US soldiers return fire, Teal'c had ahold of the female soldier. Rather than subject her to machine gun fire, Teal'c turns around to shelter her behind his metal armor. I think this reflects his instinct to protect rather than destroy, and even in the opening scene gives us a glimpse into his future character.
As an aside, in this scene we see Apophis' party come through the gate and watch it disengage behind him. Then, despite the fact that the US gate has no dialing device, when we next see the Jaffa, they have managed to redial their own homeworld and escape through it.
I love the way we build the team. We start with Jack O'Neill and establish a relationship with General Hammond. Both of them go through the process of putting up an abrasive front that harbors something more heroic and caring underneath. Jack could have kept his secret and let Hammond send the nuclear bomb through the gate, leaving Daniel to his fate. Instead, he revealed his duplicity and accepted the consequences. Similarly, Hammond could have proceeded with the bomb, following his orders. Instead, he chose to preserve the life of 5,000 people on the other side of the gate as well as that of Daniel Jackson.
Before we get to Daniel, however, we take a scene to introduce Captain Carter. The writers go out of their way to escalate the tension between Jack and Carter. Initially, we feel like the conflict is because Samantha is a woman, and O'Neill only respects men. Carter certainly feels that is the case and this allows the writers to introduce her history as both an accomplished pilot (100 hrs over the Gulf War) and as the premier scientist with knowledge of the stargate. Jack reveals that he is actually more concerned about her status as a scientist, whom he dismisses as "dweebs." Carter's aggressive self-defense, though, earns Jack's begrudging respect
It reveals another side of Samantha Carter. It feels like Carter has continually been in a position where she needs to defend her record and capabilities. She suggests that she should have been on the initial stargate mission but was passed over, possibly unfairly. And certainly the sentiment in the conference room reflects her fears. Carter has plenty of self-confidence. She knows that she knows more than anyone else in the room. But she's worried that once again she won't be given the credibility she deserves.
Next, we go through the gate and find Daniel. After our heartwarming reunion, and Stargate does that better than anyone, we move into the next scene that has become a classic SG1 storytelling device. Daniel has discovered a room with a cartouche that unlocks the mystery of stargate navigation. The cartouche (which in this case is simply a stone tablet with written information on it) gives thousands of gate addresses, revealing that the stargate isn't simply a doorway between two planets, but an entire network of planets, each with its own gate and gate address. This is a puzzle that Hammond and O'Neill hadn't fully grasped earlier. They thought that if Apophis came through the gate, it must be from Skarra's world. With this new information, which Sam and Daniel work out, the gate becomes a doorway to those thousands of planets. In this one scene, the writers have clearly defined and expanded the Stargate universe, informing not only the current episode but the entire series.
This type of lore drop, the Cartouche scene, occurs throughout the seasons, and they are sometimes hard to pick up on the first time through. The writers like to obscure the true impact of the scene by interjecting humor or impatience from Jack, or by elevating the tension in the background. The writers also like to limit their new-found knowledge by destroying the key artifacts before they can be fully studied.
While the SG team is off looking at the cartouche, tragedy befalls the rest of Skarra's people. The Jaffa visit the planet and abduct both Skarra and Sha're. In this brief scene, we have given motivation to Daniel and Jack that pulls them through the next several seasons.
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