Stargate SG1, season 1

1997
In the universe of TV sci fi, being second-rate is nothing to be ashamed of (a lot of the stuff that makes the air is a cut below that, even). SG1's writing could be simplistic, and touches of religiosity might test your patience. It sometimes lacked in emotional resonance, never possessed a clearcut voice, and skimped on character depth, but could be fun.
SEASON 1
FOUR STAR
-Children of the Gods
The two-hour pilot episode. What a lovely little ride. Following in the trail of the very good movie, expect to be surprised at how absolutely worthy this is. One year later, another alien of Ra's race appears. Col. O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson, MACGYVER) comes out of retirement, to return to the stargate planet and enlist Daniel's help. They tried to make O'Neill a hybrid of Kurt Russell abrasiveness with MacGyver sensitivity. Anderson could have played either of those directions, but the hybrid character feels faintly unreconcileable. Michael Shanks is the new James Spader, the team's resident linguist - with sixteen million unemployed actors in LA alone, they couldn't have found one who was actually capable of pronouncing a couple alien words?? A pretty boy whose biceps are incongruously bigger than the star's? That plus the casting of Amanda Tapping as the female lead makes me wonder whether the casting director wasn't a woman with a casting couch and an (understandable) bone to pick with the 95% of all female roles in the history of Hollywood going to dim, sexy twentysomethings. This casting director simulataneously rights a wrong (by female-casting not based on sexiness), and gives men a taste of their own medicine (by ill-casting a male whose chief qualification seems to be his 8x10 glossy). Amanda is a capable actor, but comes off as a bit tepid and obligatory, mostly because there's no discernable chemistry with her and anyone else. Returning from the movie is Alexis Cruz as the alien teen Skaara. His presence is no small part of the reason why the episode earns four stars. Vaitiere Bandere as Shau'ri is also unforgettable (warning: keep your hands cupped under your eyes, as they might pop out). Christopher Judge is solidly imposing as the alien warrior Teal'c, who dedicates his life to fighting his former leaders. It's wonderful excitement with fine touches of humanity (but you might want to hang the cinematographer in effigy for the excruciatingly amateurish final shot). Make sure you don't see the Final Cut version, as the forces of priggishness loomed large.
NOTEWORTHY
-The Broca Divide ***
A charming slice of sci fi. The stargate base is imperiled by an alien infection which turns people into violent, mindless brutes. Daniel gets his ass kicked, which you enjoy almost as much as Neelix's multiple deaths on VOYAGER. Richard Dean does great caveman.
-Brief Candle ***
The team discovers an idyllic planet where the inhabitants have a thirty-day lifespan, as the result of experiments by the Goa'uld. One of their women sexually infects O'Neill with the condition. As he ages rapidly and shatters their illusions about gods, Anderson is given fine material to work with.
-Thor's Hammer ***
Touches of dipsy-wipsy spirituality, but a rollicking time as Jack and Teal'c are trapped in a labyrinth, hunted by a hulking alien who refuses to die (voiced by James Earl Jones!). To save Teal'c, Daniel destroys a portal that could save his wife's life. In one scene with him, Amanda almost visibly shows her frustration with this idiot actor, by over-clearly enunciating an alien word whose simple pronunciation eludes him. You can almost imagine a conversation they had between takes:
AMANDA: Michael? Sweetie, say "go".
MICHAEL: Go.
AMANDA: Say "ah".
MICHAEL: Ah.
AMANDA: Say "oold".
MICHAEL: Oold.
AMANDA: Say "goa'uld".
MICHAEL: Gould.
AMANDA: AHHHHHHH!
-The Torment of Tantalus ***
Sappy, but charming. Daniel tells Catherine Langford (the science team leader from the movie) that they've discovered the government did experiments with the gate in the forties. She realizes that her fiance was lost through the gate, not in an explosion as she'd been told. They all go to a desolate planet where naked Dr. Littlefield (Keene Curtis, CHEERS) has been alone for fifty years.
-The Nox **
Armin!!! In an episode that plays up pacifism (but makes Anderson seem too dumb and coarse), DS9's barkeep plays a sweet prosthetic-less alien.
-Singularity ***
The first episode to provoke an emotional response...and also feel like something we've never seen in sci fi before. They bring a girl, the sole survivor of a plagued planet, back to Earth, only to discover she's a goa'uld booby-trap nuclear bomb. She and Samantha have become inseparable, and Sam must take her to an underground bunker to leave her to die. Wrenching.
-Enigma ***
A sweet offering. SG1 rescues the sole remnants of an advanced race. Their leader treats humans with disdain and mistrust. One (Garwin Sanford) befriends Samantha, and they fall in love. Genuinely touching. It's tempting to find this scenario not entirely credible...but then realize how we accepted Daniel and Shau'ris' love, and perhaps our hesitation to accept this new romance tells us something about prejudice, even our own. Of course, the fact that Shau'ri is more of a sexpot than Sam might also be a factor in that argument.
-Solitudes ***
An accident strands Jack and Sam on a mysterious ice world. Daniel tirelessly tries to discover what world they are on. Jack is seriously wounded, and after Sam's agonized, failed efforts to fix the gate, he sends her off to try to save herself. Dramatic and edgy. All the time, they're on Antarctica, at an unknown second Earth gate.
-Tin Man ***
The team unknowingly has their consciousnesses replicated into android bodies, who don't know they're not the real thing. They go back to Earth, but cannot long survive away from the energy source where they were created. Another episode that feel like nothing we've ever seen in sci fi before. Be careful with this late-season run of near-excellence, SG1. You might force me to re-think my decision to not watch the later seasons.