We left season 3 with Jack, Sam and Teal’c having just destroyed Thor’s ship to try and destroy the Replicators, but did our heroes get off via stargate?? We know at least one of the replicators survived… and we start the fourth season in a Russian submarine hearing weird things. More importantly Daniel has had a time to get a sleek haircut, around dealing with the consequences of not staying in bed after his appendicitis. And Teal’c has a WEIRD BLONDE SUPER-SOUL PATCH BEARD THING? (Which fortunately only lasts less than half the season.) And I think Sam has had a haircut too – well, it’s longer, and more curly. (And she gets a cute little pixie a bit later in the season, too, which really works for her.)
ANYWAY. We also learn that the most advanced Asgard ship is The O’Neill. THAT is hilarious – and the only thing funnier is that Sam tells them to use it as a bait and blow it up.
The episode with the Eurodans (which WordPress just autocorrected to European, which is… appropriate) is one of my least favourite episodes: the grotesque nature of Alar and his people is so insidious, and Jack is so easily swayed – until his buddy Teal’c is a problem – that I find it really hard to watch. BUT the immediate next episode is where the team gets magic strength armbands and that, too, is hilarious. As is Jack and Daniel’s competition for Anise’s attention. Anise/Freya’s outfits get outrageous across this season. I mean… And, of course, this brings us to the episode that sparked one million fan fics, because both Jack and Sam have to admit their feelings for one another. OOOOH. And it’s followed by the other episode that spawned a million fics, with Jack and Teal’c going all groundhog day. This is probably the episode I rewatched the most, back in the day. It’s just so funny (mostly). (There are, I think, a number of Daniel/Jack moments in this season that must also have launched a million fanfics, but I’m not as good at seeing those.)
Last season I commented there were no significant cameos, but then we get Deanna Troi! Marina Sirtis! With a Russian accent! Because of course the Russians found the stargate and got it open. This episode aired in 2000, which makes the maybe-friendly maybe-enemy storyline with Russia really quite fascinating. Meanwhile, there’s some other BSG alum – Alessandro Juliani, a Cylon (Matthew Bennett), and the fabulous Lorena Gale is briefly an archivist. And Steven Williams, whom I recognise from many shows, got to play a general. And holy shit General Michael E. Ryan who was an actual Chief of Staff of the US Air Force plays the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force. What. Even.
With such a long-running arc in terms of villainy – and the fact that the Goa’uld are a society, rather than just being Blofeld – I increasingly appreciate that the show occasionally pays attention to them as such. So you get the discovery that the Goa’uld originally took Unas as hosts, and then in this season the discovery of the probably Goa’uld home world – not to mention the history of the Tok’ra, plus the arguments between System Lords. Let’s be honest, SG1 is sometimes a very silly show, but there really are some deeply fascinating and thoughtful ideas throughout it.
The somewhat shocking threatened change in this season is Gen Hammond apparently getting shot of sending people off to die, which brings in Gen Bauer, who immediately splits up SG1 so he’s clearly a knob. And it leads to Jack making a deal with Maybourne, which I kinda love – he’s so spectacularly paranoid – but also talking to Senator Kinsey, which I could always do without. Although Hammond immediately comes back when his grandkids are not being threatened, it does subliminally signal that not all of these characters will last forever…
Given my comments on season 3, there’s remarkably little about children in this season. Shan’auc regards her symbiont, with whom she’s been communicating, as her child; Jack mentions his son once. And then you get the episode “2010” which sees Earth stealthily taken over by an apparently beneficent alien race that actually sterilises the population – which we learn because Sam is married but not to Jack, and trying for children. And then there’s the episode with young Loran, who’s somehow been surviving in the Goa’uld pleasure-palace by himself for ?years. Then, 2/3 through the season, we flip back to the Harcesis arc: the team meets Shifu, who gives Daniel information that would help against the Goa’uld and then an insight into what it might do if Daniel were to use it… and so Shifu goes on his way and Daniel acknowledges he needs to change. But still: not so many children.
There is, though, a bit more focus on Earth politics than previously. The Tok’ra and the US president meet, to come up with an accord; the Americans do some coordination with the Russians (and Maybourne, that arse, was already playing with them).
On a structural level: there’s a new credit roll. I dunno, does that mean they didn’t want to focus on a particular person on the cast anymore? Are they preparing for someone leaving? It’s a curious choice, anyway – having a faux-Egyptian sarcophagus (Osiris?) as the entire opening? – given that the Goa’uld had slowly seemed to be moving away from being the focus of the show. I’m also fascinated by the fact that the opening scene – the prologue, before the credits – doesn’t seem to be a uniform length. Have I actually timed their lengths? Of course not. But they feel like they vary. And I don’t usually pay attention to the directors with tv shows – it’s just not a focus for me – but I did notice that Michael Shanks directed an episode, which is cool.
DVD extras:
Mostly a bit dull and I didn’t bother watching, TBH, and the set up (Hammond and Frasier ‘talking to the screen’) is a bit cringey. However the one I did watch taught me that the Antarctic episode was shot with real ice and snow, and Sam’s falls down the “glacier” were real; and Daniel’s appendicitis was because Shanks had actually had appendicitis so they had to figure out what to do.
Stats:
- Sam gets a raw deal for being female: 0 (I’m keeping this in just so I can hold the show accountable)
- Someone falls madly in love Sam: 1 (we don’t see the falling in love, but she is married in the future…)
- Sam reciprocates: (as above… we assume it’s a love-match…)
- Jack gets seduced: 0.5 (because he manages to resist Freya)
- Daniel gets seduced: 0 (it’s a close run things with Sarah but then she turns into Osiris)
- Sam gets seduced: 0
- Teal’c gets seduced: 1 (mutual seduction, hello Shan’auc / goodbye Shan’auc)
- The team brings dangerous stuff back to Earth: 0 ( a fascinating change – they’re learning not to bring things back through??)
- Something timey-wimey happens: 2
- Daniel apparently gets killed: 1
- Jack apparently gets killed: 1
- Sam apparently gets killed: 1
- Teal’c apparently gets killed: 1
- Jack gets replaced / mindwiped: 1.5 (the androids are back! briefly, mostly to Teach Jack A Lesson, I think)
- Sam gets replaced/ mindwiped: 2.5
- Daniel gets replaced / mindwiped: 1.5
- Teal’c gets replaced / mindwiped: 1.5
- Everybody else at the SGC gets replaced: 0
- Sam and Jack have A Moment: 6 (sometimes they’re really brief but I see them)
- Maybourne gets thwarted: 1
- Extra special episodes where it’s not Maybourne’s fault / he actually helps: 1
- Specific human cultures represented:
- NONE! This is an improvement!
- Goa’uld encountered:
- Tanith, you arsehole
- Osiris (and Isis, I guess, although only as a dead parasite)
- Heru’ur (RIP)
- A newly sybaritic Apophis (will you not DIE?!
- Chronos (RIP)
