Stargate SG-1 Minicaps / Season 2, Eps. 21-22 and Season Two Overview

The Stargate SG-1 Season Two Minicaps only used that extra Gate once, and it was for business purposes only.

The Stargate SG-1 Season Two Minicaps time traveled to 1999 to write this.

Stewart here…

This season, SG-1 managed to fight and destroy Apophis as a System Lord. Of course, they’ve had to contend with other System Lords in the interim, meet new allies (like the Tok’ra and the alien Asgard), and deal with enemies way foreign and domestic. So where will the remaining episodes of season two leave our heroes?

“1969”

A solar flare messes with SG-1 going through the gate on a regular trip and they end up in 1969. They need to locate the Stargate and recreate the event that sent them there in order to get home. They get some help, from a van of hippies, a young Hammond & Catherine, and a few surprise people that complete their journey back. It’s a fun episode, if leaving some questions about how it all makes sense in the end.

“Stop! In the name of me destroying you!”

–There’s a lot of unusual questions this time travel episode brings up, like Hammond’s note to the team (and ultimately his younger self), and how (or when) did it come to be. It’s a bit of a time conundrum in him writing a letter to his younger self about people he’ll meet then and at a later date that he has to help return to their own time. I’m not sure that last sentence makes any sense.

–Old Cassandra pops up to help get the team back to the present. As most things with future people, she doesn’t reveal much about what happens to them.

–The events of this episode also get referenced to humorous effect in a season ten episode involving one character we haven’t met yet in this series.

–“Now, are you gonna listen to yourself or not?”

–“My name’s not Kirk. It’s Skywalker. Luke Skywalker.”

“Out of Mind”

O’Neill awakens in what seems to be Stargate Command, to learn he’s in the future, and his team is dead. Funny thing, though: the people running the place are awakening Carter and Daniel, and telling them the same thing. And Teal’c? He’s come to in the SGC we know, with no clue where his team is. What’s going on here?

Before you can say, “This smells like a Goa’uld plot”, we find out our trio is in fact, trapped in a Goa’uld plot. And not just any Goa’uld, but Hathor from season one, who wants intel from the team, or if she can’t get that, make them her Jaffa. So we get a decent season-ending cliffhanger with SG-1 trapped by Hathor and Teal’c leaving Stargate Command to find his friends. Onward to season three from here!

“Yes, I have a new symbiote here in this Jaffa’s stomach, just waiting for–(squish)–oh, so that’s where I left my purse!”

–So, we get some flashbacks to previous episodes (like season one’s “Politics”) buried in this episode, although there’s a bit more action here with the team escaping their imprisonment.

–If it wasn’t for the credits up front listing the actress who played Hathor, it would have been a bit more surprising dramatically to see Hathor as the architect of this operation.

–I will say, spoiling a bit about the season opener, “Dr. Raully” plays a more interesting role in that episode than this one.

–Aw, Teal’c got a military salute on way through the gate. Don’t worry, he’ll be back.

–“You know…you should really do something about the breath.”

And that’s it for the season two minicaps of Stargate SG-1, but before we leave, here’s some highlights of the season:

–BEST EPISODES:

“The Serpent’s Lair”, “The Tok’ra”, The Fifth Race”, “1969”

–WORST EPISODES:

“The Gamekeeper”, “Need”, “One False Step”

–THINGS WE LEARNED THIS SEASON: Not all Goa’uld are bad guys, you can get all kinds of Goa’uld stuff from just hosting one, and O’Neill needs a vacation. Seriously, he’s been through a lot this season.

–SAMANTHA CARTER BOYFRIEND COUNTER: Besides Carter’s meet cute with that Tok’ra guy, that’s it.

–TEAL’C’S ‘INDEED’ COUNTER: Zero. This must improve soon.

–PREDICTIONS FOR SEASON THREE: More action and quips. And what about Skarra and Sha’re? Just saying, some resolution there would be nice.

–SEASON TWO ANALYSIS: As much as season one started to set up the vastness of the Stargate universe, season two of Stargate SG-1 really blew open a lot of doors to explore. We got major developments with the introduction of the Tok’ra as allies for out heroes and the resolution (for now, hint hint) of the fight against Apophis. On the other hand, we did fall into a occasional bit of character peril that often seemed excessive (there’s a good few episodes in a row that have O’Neill getting impaled or injured severely by an alien device). But season two is a welcome expansion and improvement over season one.

Now with their main adversary dead, that left a vacuum that is now filled by other System Lords and still some lingering plot points from the last two seasons. Season three would bring some tragic resolution to one lingering plotline along with the introduction of one of SG-1’s most lethal villains.

About eight more seasons of this? Groovy, man.

NEXT TIME: Season three of the Stargate SG-1 Minicaps begins as O’Neill and company try to escape Hathor’s grasp in “Into the Fire”, a Goa’uld is found as a religious cult leader on Earth in “Seth”, a treaty negotiation at Stargate Command gets deadly serious in “Fair Game”, and parasites make the team have a bad trip in “Legacy”.