Stargate SG-1 Minicaps / Season 5, Eps. 1-4

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 Five Minicaps is considering hitching a ride with the USS Voyager to get back home.

Stewart here…

Last season, our heroes had to deal with the growing threat of Apophis, and his growing army. This led to a deadly gambit where SG-1 would destroy a sun as Apophis’ fleet was lured into that sun’s solar system. But, Teal’c was wounded and taken onto Apophis’ ship, and then the team’s escape from the supernova ended up putting them in another galaxy. As if things weren’t bad enough, Apophis’ flagship arrives with them as well! So how does SG-1 get out of this pickle?

“Enemies”

Picking up from last season’s finale, SG-1 and Apophis are stranded in another galaxy with little hope of going back home alive. Enter a problem that confounds both groups: they are in a galaxy occupied by the Replicators! Add to that Teal’c is alive, but re-brainwashed to serve Apophis! Will the team be able to save themselves from Apophis and the Replicators, save Teal’c, and somehow make it back to their own galaxy? Well, yes, duh.

RRRAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDD!

–Say farewell to Apophis as our Big Bad, as he meets a permanent end with his Replicator infested ship crashing into that planet. That’s not to say we won’t see him again though…

–And Teal’c is still brainwashed when this episode ends. Suffice to say, we will deal with that immediately.

–Leave it to advanced Replicators to warp that pyramid ship with our crew back to their home galaxy.

–Hey, Hammond, usually you’re the optimistic one about SG-1’s chances of being alive, not some random Tok’ra rep!

–“I’m enjoying their style. Shoot first, send flowers later. It works.”

“Threshold”

The team is trying to destroy Apophis’ brainwashing on Teal’c with little to no effect. With the possibility of having to imprison their comrade forever, Bra’tac arrives to the SGC with an extremely risky chance to undo Apophis’ work: bring Teal’c to the brink of death. While this procedure is occurring, Teal’c flashes back to his early years under Apophis’ rule as he comes to a difficult decision that will define who he becomes. This is certainly one of the better Teal’c-centric episodes of SG-1, especially with its ultimately tragic flashback.

“Do not leave me hanging, Bra’tac.”

–Some nice tension comes up with Dr. Fraiser being really against this whole taking Teal’c to the edge of death deal, even threatening to leave if it goes bad.

–The tragic irony of Teal’c letting the friend he was supposed to execute escape to a neighboring village that he would haze later (and kill his friend for real) was a rough one to take.

–Bra’tac mentions in two years, he’ll probably die because of being unable to mature symbiotes inside of him. Now if you’ve seen the whole series, you know how that omen of death ultimately pans out.

–Commentary note: director Peter DeLuise mentions how he wanted Bra’tac’s screaming at Teal’c in that climax to be like the climax of The Exorcist.

–O’Neill shooting down brainwashed Teal’c’s claim of working for Apophis all these years: “I mean, that would make you the most ineffective double agent in the history of double agenting!”

“Ascension”

While SG-1 is investigating an alien device, Carter is found unconscious, with no memory of how it happened. It’s chalked up as exhaustion, but during some downtime, Carter starts noticing something else: a man only she can see. What seems like an vivid hallucination is an ascended being with a warning not to switch on the alien device, or it’ll lead to grave consequences! So now Carter has to convince the team of her invisible friend and stop a catastrophe, so yeah, so much for some time off.

“Shhhhh, don’t tell Teal’c about his attire. I got a great prank lined up.”

–So we get an appearance from John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek: TNG) as Colonel Simmons, the Pentagon guy who thinks turning in this mystery weapon in this decimated alien planet is a good idea. It’s clearly not.

–Orlin, the polite ex-ascended kinda Carter stalker, is pretty crafty, making a mini-Stargate in Carter’s basement (more to the point, her and no one else bothered to look down there?). Too bad he gets gunned down stopping the weapon. But he gets ascended again, so its not all bad news.

–By the way, how did Orlin pay for all those supplies for his DYI Stargate? With Carter’s credit cards. He did apologize for the bill at least.

–Teal’c in a cowboy hat. And a 8 (9!) time watcher of Star Wars, which makes it more than the zero times O’Neill has seen it.

–“I have read of a place where humans do battle in a ring of Jell-O.”

“The Fifth Man”

SG-1 escapes a vicious Jaffa attack, but is forced to leave O’Neill and Tyler behind. Tyler who? Well, that’s the question since Hammond hasn’t assigned a Tyler to SG-1, and the rest of the team believes Tyler’s a team member. Either way, O’Neill’s stuck evading Jaffa patrols with an injured “Tyler”, as SGC tries to figure out what has happened. Also, we get another investigation into the SGC’s loyalties, so there’s that to also deal with.

A clip from the new Cops spinoff, Space Cops. Coming this fall on Fox.

–Simmons returns from the last episode, and surprise, he’s the investigator questioning SG-1, albeit for a clearly politically motivated inquiry (yeah, probably asshat Kinsey).

–So “Tyler” is part of a race of aliens who can chemically trick you into seeing what they want you to see. That explains why the Goa’uld might be so interested in his race, and why they’ve gone into hiding.

–This won’t be the last time we see that alien chemical at work, and we’ll see it sooner than you think.

–Teal’c’s got a new super blaster, which comes in handy in destroying the baddies who capture “Tyler”.

–“Well I wasn’t going to let you die, Lieutenant. It’s like… a ton of paperwork.”

NEXT TIME: SG-1’s arrival on a religious planet portends actual doom in “Red Sky”, Cassandra’s puberty may lead to catastrophe in “Rite of Passage”, Daniel fights to save a Unas ally from enslavement in “Beast of Burden”, and a rescue mission leaves the team trapped with a hungry monster in “The Tomb”.