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What Is It? A gateway that allowed ancient aliens to travel to Earth is discovered and Stargate Command is established to monitor activity and guard against hostiles that present a threat to the planet. Several teams are set up to travel through the gate and explore new worlds with the primary team, SG-1, consisting of Colonel Jack O’Neill, Captain Samantha Carter, scientist Daniel Jackson, and the alien Teal’c. They travel to the worlds that the ancient aliens had previously visited while also defending against threats such as the Goa-uld, the Replicators, and the Ori. The series is a continuation of the 1994 film Stargate.
Aired: Showtime / The Sci Fi Channel, 1997-2007, 10 Seasons Totaling 214 Episodes
Starring: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Don S. Davis, Ben Browder, Claudia Black
Created By: Brad Wright, Jonathan Glassner
Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi? Yes. Stargate established itself as a major sci fi television franchise and SG-1 is arguably the strongest of the series produced thus far. It delivered well-developed characters, an expansive mythology, and excellent sci fi stories, and it also managed to hold up its quality throughout its ten-year run.
The Skinny: This show arrived on television at a time when the Star Trek franchise dominated the airwaves among genre offerings and was already on its third sequel series. The bar had been set pretty high, but Stargate SG-1 proved up to the challenge. It did not have the same space travel feel as the Star Trek shows (the gateway allowed for quick hops from planet to planet), but it still had a grand scope of its own as it explored new worlds and established formidable adversaries such as the Goa-uld. The series carried on from the 1994 movie–which was actually just an okay sci fi film–expanding on and truly tapping into the potential of the initial story. I would actually argue that the pilot episode surpassed the film and got the series off to a very strong start.
Essential to this show are the central characters and the actors that portrayed them. Richard Dean Anderson (ex-MacGyver) and Michael Shanks replaced Kurt Russell and James Spader in the roles of Jack O’Neil and Daniel Jackson respectively and quickly made the characters their own. Christopher Judge took on the expected gruff alien role but managed to steer clear of making it a Worf redo. And Amanda Tapping proved that she could hold her own next to her male co-leads, providing a strong female presence in the series. Don S. Davis’ George Hammond is also essential to the team, and later season players such as Ben Browder, Beau Bridges, and Claudia Black proved good additions to the show as well.
The rich mythology and world-building contribute to the appeal of the show as it establishes a vast cosmology and an interesting alternate take on the history of Earth. Yes–this series says–those tales of ancient aliens are real! And this show took up the challenge of exploring what that meant. Some consider the first five years of the show to be its best (its original run on Showtime) because the core team was in place throughout those seasons. But the second half of the series has plenty to offer as well, and Stargate SG-1 definitely counts as an important science fiction television series that stands proudly next to the other major franchises such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar: Galactica, The X-Files, and more.
Cancelled Too Soon? Not necessarily. This series originally aired on Showtime and was made available in syndication six months after the initial broadcast of each season. The Sci Fi Channel was also airing the encore runs and Showtime offered to let the cable net continue the series starting with its sixth season after the premium channel decided it was no longer bringing in enough subscribers. Sci Fi continued the series for five more years and it amassed 214 episodes, a record for a U.S. science fiction show at that time. It’s hard to say that any show that achieved that milestone was cut short, but MGM and the creative team were still willing to do an eleventh season. They decided to do direct-to-DVD movies instead and carried on the adventures of SG-1 with Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum. More were planned, but MGM determined that the movies were not profitable enough and decided not to go forward with any additional films.
Should It Be Rebooted / Revived? Definitely no on the reboot. The characters and the actors who played them were always a vital part of the series, so recasting those roles would be a serious injustice to a classic television show (there were talks of a big-screen reboot, but that has fallen through). A revival is another story, and there have been talks of bringing back the original characters and/or continuing with another sequel series. The Stargate universe is vast and very rich, so another series would certainly be welcome at some point (and perhaps at least a movie to give Stargate: Universe a better conclusion).
Interesting Facts: Stargate SG-1 set a record as the longest-running U.S. sci fi / fantasy television series with ten seasons and 214 episodes. Smallville surpassed that just barely in 2011 when it completed its tenth and final season with 217 episodes. Supernatural has since passed them both with 327 total episodes across fifteenth seasons. The longest-running sci fi series worldwide is of course Doctor Who which is currently at 38 seasons with over 870 episode.
Where Can You Watch It? The entire series has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. It is currently available for streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video along with the movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum as well as the sequel series Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate Universe. The original movie is streaming on MGM+ and you can also watch it for free (with ads) on services like The Roku Channel and Tubi TV.
Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com
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SG1 IN BLURAY NOW!!!
Great show, but IMHO they missed the mark with SGU by straying too far from the original formula. Would love to see a continuation of the story line…maybe delve into Greek or Roman mythology…
Great Show!