I just realised I should have started this rewatch next year… for the thirtieth anniversary of season 1.

Across this season, many things have happened! There’s a lot of Teal’c background, which I find fascinating: we meet his mentor, Bra’tac, who will become much more important across the seasons; and also his son, Rya’c, and wife, Drey’auc. There’s a whole episode about whether Teal’c is responsible for the deaths that he caused in the service of Apophis, which is a rather remarkable focus for an episode of 1997 television. There’s Daniel’s pain at losing his wife Sha’re, which is an ongoing feature across this season – Daniel is driven by the desire to get her back. There’s also an episode on Jack and his pain at the death of his son Charlie. Interestingly we get basically no background on Sam: there’s a brief mention of her having a brother, and that she misses her nieces, but that’s all. No tragic backstory! Oh also Sam has an ex-fiance, but given he goes fully Kurtz on an ultra-UV planet, that’s no loss.

Meanwhile, the SG1 team destroy a Goa’uld trap in order to rescue Teal’c, challenge the legal structure of another society, and get totally condescended to by the Nox because humans are still incredibly juvenile (but they’re a lot nicer about it than the Tollans). A new sarcophagus is discovered – surprise, Egyptian hieroglyphs rather than Mayan ones! – and it contains Hathor, who proceeds to entrance every man on the base; it’s unclear whether there are no lesbians or bi women, or if Hathor is just regressive. Also we get an episode featuring Catherine, the woman who brought Daniel on to the Stargate programme in the first place – and she’s definitely got a little intergenerational crush on Jack. I appreciate this further nod to the film enormously. And this episode is when we properly understand there’s more aliens out there – there was earlier the suggestion of Thor and his kin, but here we see script from four races that sends Daniel into conniptions. And ah, the Antarctic episode.

And then you get Senator Kinsey, asking questions about the Stargate programme – and for all he’s presented as a bit venal, a self-serving politician who cannot possibly understand the heroics of SG1… it’s hard not to see that he kinda has some points about military secrets, and the military wanting to spend money on fun new toys, etc. My goodness why am I now half on Kinsey’s side?? Do I miss this sort of filler episode? I really do not. Do I understand why they made them back in the day? Sure.

We learn there are more women in the SGC than Sam, Janet, and a few nurses!

Maybourne arrives!

Chris Judge’s downturned mouth gets more and more ridiculous across the season!

And in this season Richard Dean Anderson is the age I am right now.

Stats:

• Sam gets a raw deal for being female: 1
• Someone falls madly in love Sam: 1
  • Sam reciprocates: 1
• Jack gets seduced: 2
• Daniel gets seduced: 1
• Sam gets seduced: 0
• Teal’c gets seduced: 0
• The team brings bad stuff back to Earth: 3 (sorry Cassandra)
• Daniel apparently gets killed: 2
• Jack apparently gets killed: 1
• Sam apparently gets killed: 1
• Teal’c apprearntly gets killed: 0
• Jack gets replaced: 2
• Sam gets replaced: 1
• Daniel gets replaced: 1
• Teal’c gets replaced: 1
• Sam and Jack have A Moment: 2 (not including alt!Sam & Jack)
• Maybourne gets thwarted: 1
• Specific human cultures represented: Mongols, Mycenaean, Minoan, Norse
• Goa’uld encountered:
  • Apophis
  • Hathor (dec.)
  • Nirrti, indirectly
• Things I hadn’t realised turned up this early:
  • The Nox
  • Replicators
  • Teal’c’s cap
  • Daniel’s bandana