Stargate SG-1 - Season 1 [DVD]

Like the very best of SF TV, Stargate SG-1 began very simply. Of course it had the benefit of a movie preceding it--in which the alternate universe, its rules and its characters were largely established--so this premiere season was therefore able to concentrate on good storytelling.

In 1997 not every new show was obsessed with securing a syndication-guaranteed franchise (same goes for Buffy debuting the same year), instead one-off episodes were the way of things, exploring interesting scenarios and conundrums. Naturally there were allusions to the feature film, but most were subtle and inspired. For example, a trip to retrieve the trapped professor who'd worked on the Gate decades ago was an unusual way of tying up loose ends. Some groundwork was laid for continuation should the show be renewed into an ongoing series. Knowing that these elements were pure wishful thinking at the time makes the tapestry of System Lords and the interlinks with our history and mythology all the more enjoyable in revisiting the show from its beginnings. With Richard Dean Anderson, leading the team in a far more charismatic and empathetic way than Kurt Russell in the movie, the series also benefited from some spot-on casting that instantly won audiences over. Special effects and use of studio sets may be less dazzling in these initial shows, but its solid grounding in old-fashioned SF won for the show a loyal audience. --Paul Tonks

The complete first season of the popular space opera. In 'Children of the Gods - The Next Mission' the SG-1 team discover a host of new Stargates and a deadly enemy on the planet Chulak. 'The Nox' sees members of the SG-1 team killed in an ambush and then brought back to life by the peace-loving Nox. 'Bloodlines' has Teal'c face a dilemma when he returns to Chulak to save his son, Rya'c, from the Goa'ulds. 'The Broca Divide' finds Teal'c and Jackson racing to find the antidote to a virus which has infected the rest of the team and caused them to regress to the level of savages. 'The First Commandment' sees the SG1 team sent on the trail of the missing SG-9 crew, whose leader has become a power-mad despot after being welcomed as a god on another world. In 'The Enemy Within' a Goa'uld larvae invades Kawalsky's brain in the hope of finding a passage through the Stargate. 'Emancipation' finds Carter battling for women's rights on the hostile planet of Simarka. 'Brief Candle' has Colonel O'Neill begin to age rapidly after being seduced by the beautiful Kynthia on the planet Argos. 'Thor's Hammer' sees Carter and Daniel attempt to rescue Teal'c and O'Neill from the underground lair of the evil Unas. In 'The Torment of Tantalus' Jackson discovers that a young professor who was sucked into the Stargate back in 1945 is still alive and trapped in a decaying fortress. The SG-1 team are then joined by the man's now elderly fiancée in their attempt to rescue him. 'Cold Lazarus' finds O'Neill replaced by a doppelganger, who leads the SG-1 team back to Earth to look for O'Neill's son - can the real O'Neill stop him in time? 'Fire and Water' has the SG-1 team encounter the last survivor of an aquatic race. 'Hathor' sees the male members of the team seduced by the evil Gou'ald, Hathor, who uses them in her bid for world domination. It is therefore left to Samantha Carter and the women of SG-1 to save the day. In 'Singularity' the returned Carter forges a strong bond with a little girl she has rescued from a planetary plague and is therefore shocked to discover that the child is carrying a time bomb planted by the Goa'uld. 'Cor-Ai' finds Teal'c placed on trial for murder in Chartago after he is recognised as former head Jaffa to the Goa'uld Apothis. 'Enigma' has the SG-1 team attempt to rescue the inhabitants of Tollan, whose legendary knowledge must not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. 'Solitudes' sees Carter and a wounded O'Neill stranded on an ice world. In 'Tin Man' the team find that their minds and spirits have been transferred to the bodies of androids. 'There But For the Grace of God' finds Jackson transported to another dimension, where he attempts to save an alternate Earth from the same fate that befell his own planet. 'Politics' has Daniel Jackson raise warnings of an imminent Gou'ald invasion, while General Hammond makes moves to have the SG1 team disbanded. Finally, 'Within the Serpent's Grasp' sees the SG-1 team disobeying orders in an attempt to repel the Gou'ald.