Stargate Universe

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[Season 5, Episode 1] Enemies
Shown
reviewed 11th December 2001 [Tuesday]
reviewed 3rd May 2002 [Friday]

SG-1 discover that they are in a different galaxy. Worse, this is the Replicators' galaxy! Worse still, when SG-1 try to help Teel'c they discover that his loyalties lie elsewhere!

The good news is that Apophis comes face to face with the Replicators. Yes, finally he meets a life-form that he cannot enslave or intimidate. For some reason they want his technology, so they can incorporate it into their own.

[Season 5, Episode 2] Threshold
Shown
reviewed 12th December 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 6th May 2002 [Monday]

Teel'c is still brainwashed into believing that Apophis is his god. Only Master Breytag can deprogram him - by removing Teel'c's symbiote and allowing him to descend into a coma.

Teel'c has a number of flashbacks that depict his gradual fall from Apophis' worshipper to his enemy.

[Season 5, Episode 3] Ascension
Shown
reviewed 13th December 2001 [Thursday]
reviewed 7th May 2002 [Tuesday]

Carter gets a love interest of a sort, though given her record (and Daniel's, and Teel'c's) he does not have much of a life expectancy.

The team discover a devastated world. While Carter is examining an alien super-weapon, and an energy being attaches itself to her and follows her home. It turns into Sean Patrick Flannery ( Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ). She is creeped out by him, since he is in her home without her consent. However, nobody else can find any trace of him. Everyone thinks she must have let the stress get to her. O'Neill and Teel'c offer to share pizza and watch Star Wars with her - it is Teel'c's favourite movie.

The NID, in the form of eeevil Colonel Maitland (John De Lancie - Star Trek: TNG ) keep Sam under surveillance and try to capture her BF for dissection. He wants to re-activate the alien super-weapon, even though it may be linked to the destruction of the lost civilisation.

[Season 5, Episode 4] The Fifth Man
Shown
reviewed 14th December 2001 [Friday]
reviewed 8th May 2002 [Wednesday]

Teel'c, Daniel and Carter retreat through the Stargate. O'Neill has stayed behind with the fifth member of the team. Yes, SG-1 has memories of a fifth member - but nobody else does. They

O'Neill is injured, hunted by Jaffas and partnered by someone who may be an alien with a secret agenda.

Meanwhile, SG-1 are interrogated by the NID, in the form of eeevil Colonel Maitland (John De Lancie - Star Trek: TNG ). Hammond is unhappy about having the interloper on his base. However, the Colonel has skills as an interrogator and is able to give a dispassionate investigation into SG-1's strange behaviour.

The Colonel uses SG-1's history of alien possession against them. This highlights the recurring use of brainwashing and other techniques of alien infiltration. SG-1 and their love interests have been compromised several times.

[Season 5, Episode 5] Red Sky
Shown
reviewed 17th December 2001 [Monday]
reviewed 13th February 2002 [Wednesday]
reviewed 9th May 2002 [Thursday]

SG-1 arrive on a new world where the people dress like the Amish, and attend a Christian-style Church where they worship the Asgard. However, to get to the planet the SGC had to bypass several security protocols on the dialling computer. As a result, SG-1's wormhole affected the planet's sun and shifted the visible light to the red spectrum. As a result, photosynthesis becomes impossible - all plant life will die, and then the oxygen will run out ...

O'Neill petitions the Asgard High Council for help, but they say that the treaty with the Ghouls forbids them from interfering. If they break the treaty, there is nothing to prevent the Ghouls from attacking Earth again.

Carter's option is to build a rocket, Daniel tries to persuade the locals to relocate, and O'Neill tries to convert them to Atheism. Teel'c provides moral support.

[Season 5, Episode 6] Rite of Passage
Shown
reviewed 18th December 2001 [Tuesday]

Cassandra, now a teenage girl (and Doc Frasier's adopted daughter) is undergoing certain ... changes. Her body's bio-electric field is affecting electrical appliances.

It turns out that Cassandra was part of a Ghoul experiment to create super-humans for use as hosts.

[Season 5, Episode 7] Beast of Burden
Shown
reviewed 17th October 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 19th December 2001 [Wednesday]

The episode starts with some stone-age ugly lizard men (great make-up) getting captured by redneck slave-traders, led by Larry Drake ( Darkman ). The rednecks have Ghoul weaponry, and have set out to enslave and domesticate the non-humans.

The problem is, the lizard that Drake captures is a friend of Daniel's. Yes, there was a village on the isolated world where Daniel got kidnapped. Daniel convinces the General to send SG-1 through the Stargate so they can retrieve the lizard-man. Luckily Drake and his people speak American English. However, things do not go smoothly ...

The episode was written by Peter DeLuise, possibly the guy from SeaQuest DSV .

[Season 5, Episode 8] The Tomb
Shown
reviewed 24th October 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 20th December 2001 [Thursday]

SG-1 discover that a Russian team has been exploring an alien ziggurat. It turns out that the SGC has not been keeping the Russsian government informed, even though there is an international agreement to do so. Hammond orders them to team up with a small Ruskie Special Forces unit. Unfortunately, they get trapped in the ziggurat and paranoia sets in.

The episode is more or less an Aliens rip-off, with lots of stalking through shadows, heavily-armed and paranoid soldiers against an unseen flesh-eating monster.

[Season 5, Episode 9] Between Two Fires
Shown
reviewed 31st October 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 21st December 2001 [Friday]

SG-1 are summoned to a highly-developed human society similar to the Federation in Star Trek . They have a Prime Directive that forbids them from giving technology to less developed societies such as Earth. Since this technology includes phase-shift bracelets (so they can walk through walls) and Ion cannons that can take out a Ghoul mothership in orbit.

The society's leader is dead and the new rulers have decided to give Earth some Ion cannons. However, Samantha Carter's male friend is suspicious. He believes that the the leader was murdered - and worse, that the new rulers are part of a Watergate-style cover-up.

Tanith (Peter Wingfield - Highlander ) pops up as a Ghoul ambassador. He is working for another senior Ghoul, now that Apophis is gone, but refuses to name his new master.

[Season 5, Episode 10] 2001
Shown
reviewed 7th November 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 24th December 2001 [Monday - Xmas Eve]

SG-1 has discovered some new allies, a highly advanced race of humans. However, O'Neill does not trust the allies, who are unemotional (like Vulcans). They are a race that SG-1 previously encountered in [Season 4, Episode 16] 2010 , in an alternate future. Of course, since that is an alternate future nobody knows what would have happened.

SGC sends an ambassador through the Stargate to make a treaty. He gets a couple of scenes with Carter, acknowledgement that he was her love interest in the alternate future. The alien race insist on making a deal with ALL Earth, a nice acknowledgement of the dubious nature of American Imperialism.

General Hammond discovers that the aliens are hiding something, tipped off by the message from the future that O'Neill had apparently sent to them seven months earlier. O'Neill tries to convince the US President not to make the treaty, but Evil Senator Kinsey (Ronny Cox - Robocop, Total Recall ) is way ahead of him.

Teel'c and Daniel discover the allies' secret. This leads up to an explosive climax. Of course, the events of this episode will never be mentioned again.

[Season 5, Episode 11] Desperate Measures
Shown
reviewed 14th November 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 25th December 2001 [Tuesday - Xmas Day]

The Russians have yet more Stargate-related secrets. Unfortunately they may be able to hide things from the SGC but they are vulnerable to greedy bastards.

Carter is at her fitness club, twelve blocks from her house. For some reason she felt the need to drive there in her car. Perhaps if she walked the twelve blocks there and back she could get fit the natural way, and thus save on the expensive fitness club membership costs. Anyhow, she gets kidnapped by a group of black-clad ninja-looking types. O'Neill calls upon the assistance of ex-Colonel Mayborne, who was formerly a villainous NID Agent and now on the run.

The first suspect is Mayborne's slimy ex-boss, Colonel Maitland (John De Lancie - Star Trek: TNG ). However, he can easily point the finger right back at Maybourne. There seems to be some uneven characterisation going on. Maitland is a slimy bureaucrat who wants to exploit the Stargate by any means necessary. In other words, exactly what Maybourne used to be. And now Maybourne is an honorable mercenary who has a somewhat friendly relationship with O'Neill.

It turns out that the villain is a Bill Gates type Billionaire, who is suffering from a disease that only a Ghoul symbiote can cure. Of course, the human doctors have no idea of how to remove it. They might find out, but they will need to dissect Carter's brain first!

Since O'Neill is now buddies with Maybourne, he does not want to turn him over to the FBI for execution. As a result, instead of using a proper SWAT team to save Carter he just calls in Daniel and Teel'c for backup.

[Season 5, Episode 12] Wormhole X-Treme!
Shown
reviewed 21st November 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 26th December 2001 [Wednesday - Boxing Day]

This is the 100th episode of the show, and the production team took the opportunity to do an excellent parody of their own show. The only problem with the episode is that it is the sequel to a previous episode.

An alien spaceship is discovered approaching Earth. Its pilot, Martin (Willie Garson - X-Files ), was located by SG-1 in a previous episode. They track him down again, and discover he is creative consultant to a TV show named Wormhole X-Treme!.

Peter DeLuise and his brother Michael last worked together on SeaQuest DSV . While Peter is the show's Creative Consultant, he managed to get cameos for himself and his brother as the director and star of Wormhole X-Treme!.

O'Neill is assigned as the show's technical advisor, while Teel'c is employed among the catering crew. Daniel and Carter keep surveillance on Martin, in order to pick up on the NID MIBs who are up to no good.

On the TV production set, we get stacks of in-jokes. People note that the aliens all speak English and the phase-shift devices do not let the wearer fall through the floor.

[Season 5, Episode 13] Proving Ground
Shown
reviewed 28th November 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 27th December 2001 [Thursday]

SG-1 are tasked with training a bunch on new recruits. For some reason, the Top Brass have not assigned Special Forces veterans. No, they have chosen a bunch of sub- Space: Above & Beyond teenagers as the new line-up!

The kiddies are coping badly training sequences. Worse is to come - O'Neill is attacked by some SF guards who have apparently been taken over by Ghoul nanites. Yes, O'Neill and four teenagers must take on the entire Ghoul-controlled SGC. Good job they have some MP5-looking Jaffa training weapons with a stun setting.

Of note, one of the rookies is Grace Park . She was also an X-5 super-soldier in Dark Angel before she became a super-soldier in Battlestar Galactica (2003) .

[Season 5, Episode 14] 48 Hours
Shown
reviewed 5th December 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 28th December 2001 [Friday]

SG-1 make a quick retreat through the Stargate. Teel'c lingers a second to take a pot-shot at Tanith (Peter Wingfield - Highlander ). However, something goes wrong with the Stargate (hmm) and he gets trapped in the pattern buffer. Very Trek!

General Hammond has to deal with the devil. Well, Colonel Maitland (John De Lancie - Star Trek: TNG ) of the NID.

Colonel O'Neill has to deal with his personal devil - Maybourne! Yes, this is a sequel to the episode Desperate Measures [Season 5, Episode 11] . We get to find out what happened to that episode's Ghoul.

Daniel and Major Davis (Colin Cunningham - Falling Skies ) are sent to Moscow to bargain for access to the Russian Stargate. Yes, we get conclusion to that arc as well.

Carter has to work with Area 51's top theoretical physicist, Rodney Mackay. He is an arrogant nerd who thinks he knows more about the Stargate than she does!

[Season 5, Episode 15] Fail Safe
Shown
reviewed 12th December 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 31st December 2001 [Monday]

An astronomer detects a gigantic asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. The Tok'Ra are too busy elsewhere, and the Asgard cannot intervene in natural events as that would be a breach of the treaty.

SG-1 retrieve and refit a crashed Ghoul cargo ship. Their plan is to land on the asteroid, then plant a naquata-enhanced nuke. However, things do not go smoothly.

[Season 5, Episode 16] Summit
Shown
reviewed 19th December 2001 [Wednesday]
reviewed 9th January 2002 [Wednesday]

Daniel Jackson has had awful luck with women. In the pilot episode his wife was taken as a host for a Ghoul. Recently his ex-girlfriend was taken as host for Osiris, who has been recruited by Anubis. This is a Ghoul who was exiled by the System Lords a thousand years ago, and has somehow been amassing strength that whole time.

The Ghoul System Lords have arranged a top-level Summit. The Tok'Ra send Daniel as a spy, posing as Hu's slave. Carter's father tags along, keen to use a Ghoul-killing poison. Apparently the Tok'Ra's long-term plan has always been (for the last 2000 years) to wipe out the entire Ghoul species, starting with the leaders. This means genociding the Jaffa

Of course, Anubis sends Osiris as his personal representative. Her mission is to get him restored to his former rank as a System Lord.

O'Neill, Carter and Teel'c hang out in the Tok'Ra base. They have brought along another team, including the Lieutenant who passed the exam a few episodes ago. His team carry MP5s while SG-1 still use P90s, so they do not even have the ability to share ammunition if they end up in a prolonged battle.

The Tok'ra have a female scientist in charge of things. It is not Anise, who has not been seen or even mentioned on the show for a Season or two. However, we find out what happened to the symbiote of Martouf, Carter's male Tok'Ra friend.

However, the Tok'Ra base falls under attack from Anubis' forces. To be continued ...

[Season 5, Episode 17] Last Stand
Shown
reviewed 9th January 2002 [Wednesday]

Zipacna (Kevin Durand - The Strain ) has located and attacked the Tok'Ra base. The rookie Lieutenant is the only survivor of his unit, but he is severely injured. Martouf's symbiote manages to keep him alive for the meanwhile.

Back on the space station, Daniel Jackson decides to change the plan. He is okay with genocide, but not if it means killing his ex-girlfriend. Instead he decides to kidnap her in the hope of getting the Tok'Ra to later extract her symbiote. Even though he knows the Tok'Ra have been attacked and even in the best case will not be at the top of the scientific ability for quite some time. Yes, he decides to ruin the only chance to take out the main System Lords (including Baal). Worst of all, he ruins a chance to take out potential allies of Anubis.

[Season 5, Episode 18] The Warrior
Shown
reviewed 16th January 2002 [Wednesday]

A charismatic Jaffa Prime named Kitano (Rick Worthy - Supernatural ) has started his own army of free Jaffa. He is a bald African-American, and he gets on well with Teel'c. However, in this kind of story such a character is usually too good to be true.

O'Neill is a typical cultural supremacist. He wants the Jaffas to stop using brutality in their training methods. However, Teel'c points out that the Jaffas are super-soldiers and their symbiotes will heal any injuries during training.

The Jaffas want help, specifically a supply of staff weapons. In response, O'Neill orders Carter to give them a demonstration in sharp-shooting with her P-90. However, this does raise an important question. Every other episode, SG-1 has the opportunity to recover a dozen staff weapons from the Jaffas they defeated.

Breytag is keen enough to help Kitano. Teel'c seems to be going native, although the only reason he joined SG-1 was to help free his own people. In fact, Kitano has had more success at achieving Teel'c goal than Teel'c himself did.

Kitano has built an army, and uses suicide bomber tactics. Again, O'Neill takes a dim view of this and Teel'c chooses his own culture over the Earthling's friendly advice. Kitano chooses Teel'c for a one-man attack on Lord Yu. Teel'c blindly accepts the mission, even though Yu was the only System Lord to vote against Anubis - which makes him the least worst of them.

O'Neill points out that, by growing his army and power-base, Kitano is basically doing what the System Lords already do. Of course, this ignores the idea of informed consent. Kitano cannot conscript conquered Jaffas against their will. Instead he can only voluntarily recruit them. Also, any one of them can make a challenge for leadership. Unfortunately this challenge is not through the secret ballot, but by the undemocratic process of a fight to the death.

The story was written by Christopher Judge, though the Teleplay was written by Peter DeLuise (who also directed).

[Season 5, Episode 19] Menace
Shown
reviewed 16th January 2002 [Wednesday]

SG-1 visit a planet with the remains of a long-dead civilisation. The only survivor is a teenage girl ( Danielle Nicolet ) who is actually an android. They take her home and manage to start her up. The good news is, she speaks fluent English. The bad news is, she refuses to accept that she is an android.

It turns out that the civilisation was probably wiped out by Replicators. The robot might actually be the key to destroying them. However, the Asgard are busy actually fighting the replicators so they do not have time to respond to the Earthlings.

The SGC is overrun by Replicators. Daniel tries to talk to the robot girl, while O'Neill and Teel'c give covering fire. Hammond and Carter set the self-destruct, and set it on a five minute timer.

[Season 5, Episode 20] The Sentinel
Shown
reviewed 23rd January 2002 [Wednesday]

The episode starts with a flashback to an episode where SG-1 and the Asgard defeat the NID's off-world team. The team were arrested for High Treason, as was Colonel Mayborn.

A planet that the NID team visited is under attack by the Ghouls. The planetary defence network, The Sentinel, is not working as intended. It was probably somehow accidentally taken off-line by the NID's meddling. Now SG-1 have to get two NID officers from Death Row (!!!) and repair the Sentinel.

O'Neill tries to persuade the planet's ruler (Henry Gibson - The Burbs) to evacuate his people before they are enslaved. Meanwhile, Daniel tries to get the NID officers to repair the machine. The good news is, one of them is Christina Cox .

It is a bit creepy that the US Military-Industrial complex has the power to conduct secret death-penalty trials in order to keep the Stargate secret. One has to question how fair such a trial would be. Also, the NID's agenda was the same as the SGC's - the only difference was their methods. This begs another question. When the SG-1 show reached its natural end at the climax of Season Three, would it have been possible to replace it with an NID-based spin-off?

[Season 5, Episode 21] Meridian
Shown
reviewed 30th January 2002 [Wednesday]

Daniel Jackson is evacuated through the Stargate with lethal radiation poisoning. In a flashback it is explained that SG-1 travelled to a world technologically and politically similar to Earth in the 1940s. The natives are building a super-nuke, and they are accusing the dying Daniel of sabotaging it.

Daniel ascends to a higher plane of being, where he must decide whether he deserves enlightenment.

This is the first appearance of Jonas Quinn (Corin Nemec - ), a nerdy Naquata scientist from the planet where Daniel got radiated. Yes, this is a setup so Daniel can be replaced next Season.

[Season 5, Episode 22] Revelations
Shown
reviewed 6th February 2002 [Wednesday]

Thor of the Asgard confronts Osiris (Daniel's ex-GF Ghoul). However, her ship has now got shields strong enough to survive his weapons. Thor ends up MIA.

The Asgard have nobody to spare for the rescue, so they call in SG-1. The main priority is to rescue the scientist and information that Thor was protecting. The scientist's mission is to secure the genetic future of the Asgard species.

We finally get to see Osiris' boss, the arch-enemy Ghoul Anubis. Sort of. His face is hooded, masking some hideous disfigurement, but the fact that he has such incredible technology means that there is only one person this can be.

Stargate SG-1 [Season 5, Episode ]
Shown
reviewed th March 2006 [Tuesday]