cast: Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks, Christopher Judge

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Rated: TV14

reviewed by: Charity Bishop

Season eight of this wonderful program faced one enormous challenge -- the departure of Stargate Commander General Hammond, and the "semi-retirement" of its leading team member, Jack O'Neill. Even though I missed the interaction of Jack and his team members in traveling through the Stargate together, it is a surprisingly good season all around.

Earth has been recently rescued from alien invasion thanks to the intervention of Colonel O'Neill (Anderson) in discovering and piloting an Ancient weapon in Antarctica. With advanced alien technology overcoming his mind, he has been placed in status until his team members, Samantha Carter (Tapping), Daniel Jackson (Shanks), and Teal'c (Judge) can gain the assistance of the Asgard in restoring his health. But the Asgard face their own threat in the form of the Replicators, an alien race devoted to the gaining of knowledge, often at the expense of various civilizations, who have just launched course for the new Asgard home world. In the meantime, their defeat of Anubis has disconcerted the Goa'uld System Lords, who are interested in peace negotiations with Earth. Stargate Command's new leader, Dr. Weir (Torri Higginson), is convinced she cannot trust them, but little realizes that the System Lords intend to take the Ancient weapon by force.

That becomes the least of their problems when they discover Anubis is not dead after all, and when the Replicators turn against the Goa'uld, Earth may have to form unfortunate alliances in order to defeat their enemies. This season has moments of greatness and overall there is not a single weak episode, but one of the things I most liked about it was that it addressed once again the fondness between Sam and Jack. For the first four seasons we were teased by their mutual affection and then it faded from the script, but here it comes back in full force as Sam faces a proposal from her boyfriend and must choose in which direction to take her life. While Jack is no longer a member of the team (presumably due to Anderson's injury during the hiatus, which forced him to take an early retirement from the show), he does have some wonderful moments with his cast members. It was an ingenious move to promote him into Hammond's old position and force him to deal with the responsibilities of total control. In one particularly funny episode, a giant plant is attempting to take over the base and Jack spends his off-time attempting to write a hilarious resignation letter.

Not all is lost, however -- Jack does go through the Stargate on a couple of missions and continues to be funny throughout, whether it's telling off the Russians or sitting through a boring speech on alien life forms. The shipper in me especially enjoyed the two-part season finale which involves time travel. Inadvertently, the team messes with their own timeline and wind up with alternate personalities -- but strangely, Sam and Jack are still interested in one another and engage in a major celebratory lip lock toward the end. We also meet a future member of the team, Vala, in one very funny episode. The writers poke a little good-natured humor at themselves and the fans in "Citizen Joe," in which a barber receives transmissions of SG-1's adventures via a small alien communication device. There is further character development for Daniel and also Teal'c when he must overcome his animosity toward his son's impending marriage. We do lose one beloved character, but also learn a bit more of the Ascended Beings.

For the most part the content this season was minimal but a couple of things bear mentioning. It's implied that Teal'c has an intimate relationship with a young woman (Erica Durance) in "Affinity." Innuendo pervades "Prometheus Unbound," in which Vala cannot decide if she wants to kill or kiss Daniel. (They engage in violent hand to hand combat and wind up in a passionate kiss.) We briefly see a naked Daniel curled up in a fetal position in a flashback from the earlier season. A woman's undressed back is seen. The Replicators enjoy torturing people by putting an electronic probe into their brain, which constitutes as torture. There is further discussion of the Goa'uld as false gods, but nothing threatens Christianity. (There is one minor remark toward the end of the series that references evolutionary beliefs.) The customary mild language is no heavier than usual, but there is a great deal of combat violence. People are injured and/or killed by staff blasts, gunfire, and massive explosions.

I was a little sad to reach the end of this season knowing that Jack's character has been written out of later installments, but I was happy with the sense of completion and closure it brings. There is no cliffhanger, so fans can choose to stop there if they wish, but I'm curious enough to try out the new team members, although I doubt they will ever be as memorable to me as the one and only original SG-1.