Stargate SG-1: Season 8 [DVD] [2004]

After the stunning final two-part episode 'Lost City' from Season 7, the story quickly progesses to another threat - The Replicators.

The opening two-part story 'New Order' also deals with many new story fronts and is the foundation for spin-off series Stargate Atlantis.

There's a multitude of creative stand-alone episodes, such as 'Avatar', a semi-sequel to Season 2's 'The Gamekeeper' in which Teal'c is trapped inside a virtual reality simulation; 'Prometheus Unbound' introduces a brilliant character pairing when Daniel must stop a woman named Vala (played by Farscape's Claudia Black) from stealing the Prometheus; 'Citizen Joe' is a welcome walk down memory lane when a civilian named Joe Spencer (played by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson) has visions of various Stargate missions since almost day one of the series, and we see how his obsession with it gradually ruined his life.

There are several big story arcs this season, specifically the Replicators and the Jaffa Rebellion. The former includes episodes such as 'Gemini' where Carter learns that Replicator leader Fifth has made a copy of her; and two-part episode 'The Reckoning', where the Replicators begin a full scale assault on our galaxy. The latter also comes to a head in 'The Reckoning', which is probably one of the most significant episodes in the entire series. One of the highlights of this season however, is the preceding episode 'Threads', that deals with the aftermath of 'The Reckoning' in a special 90-minute episodes (which I'm glad to say IS included on this dvd, and not the cut 60 minute version like on the US release). The season ends with a derivative but very enjoyable two-part episode 'Moebius' that deals with an accidental change in the timeline, but also rewards the team with something that sister show Atlantis needs for one of their important episodes! (the ZPM)

I could chat for several more paragraphs about this season, so it just goes to show that even in it's eighth year, Stargate continues to deliver the goods and has righly earned itself the respect of many sci-fi fans from across the world. Let's hope this continues in it's ninth and tenth seasons...!

Since season seven, there has been more of a focus on characterisation and a tad bit more humour: and i for one welcome this, as the characters have always been the best aspect of the show: season eigght continues this trend, and also the trend of even better quality than ever before!

there is only two weak episodes in here: *its good to be king and *Sacrifices, that is all, only two. the rest are a great bunch of mostly stabnd alone episodes which are, although stand alone in nature have links to the main story arc. The quality is simply stunningly consistent, with a remarkable quality of writing, story, acting and characterisation and excitement present all of the season.

Highlights include the opening two parter: *New order Parts one and Two which is very exciting with plenty of plot twists and has some absolutley lovely character moments: jack taking control of the asgard ship (!) and carters "talk" with teal'c. *Affinity is another highlight for me as it is an eoisode with very little action, it is a mystery with a huge focus on characterisation and intrigue, and manages to be very intriguing, with, again, some brilliant little character moments, such as, wel, basically every darn scene teal'c is in! *Promtheus unbound is a highlight, as it barely feels like a ep of sg-1! it is so silly, it is almost like some sitcom (albeit set in space) but it WORKS! very well, in fact and is stuffed with brilliant scenes, and of course, Claudia black who is great in it: not exactly an exciting ep, but VERY VERY funny, and extremely enjoyable. *Reckoning parts one and two are possibly the best episodes of stargate ever made; they wrap up most of the majore storylines, bringing the end to both the main enemies in the show, and are impossibly epic: there is so much going on, so much peril and a sense of doom, that you are kept on the edge of your seat the whole time, with some humour (as always) thrown in for good emasure, to lighten you up at te more darker points: watch out for the secenes where the replicators swarm about stargate command! aboslutely terrifying. *threads is basically a continuation of reckoning and wraps up the whole anubis/ascended daniel mystery, and although not as action packed or tense as the previous two parter is JUST as good, if not even better, as it is basically one big drama (big being the operative word, as it is an extended episode) but still manges to be so exciting! it is a great drama, and i think that that, or reckoning should have been the season finale, as *moebius parts one and two", while brilliant episodes, dont really have a big "Season finale" feel, while threads and reckoning do, doenst really matter thoygh, you can just switch the dvd's around, and pretend Threads is the season finale, it doesnt make a bit of difference.

To conclude this (unfortunately, sorry) long review, let me just say that this IS my faveourate season of stargate, simply because of the quality level, and its consistency of that quality. this was a stunning season, the best, and i hope my review encourages others to buy it!