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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Full Alert

Stargate SG-1Kinsey comes to O’Neill with a warning about two threats: the Trust, and the increasingly suspicious Russian government. He warns that Russia feels that the United States isn’t holding up its end of the technology and information-sharing agreement that brought a new stargate to the SGC after the destruction of the original. And the Trust wants to meet with Kinsey, which is suspicious at best after his hasty expulsion from the organization. O’Neill isn’t exactly receptive to Kinsey’s plea for help, and instead intends to send him to meet with the Trust – fully wired for surveillance. Moments into the meeting, the signal is jammed, and before Colonel Carter and the rest of SG-1 can intervene and save Kinsey, he and the agents of the Trust vanish. Colonel Chekov arrives from Russia to try to negotiate with O’Neill, bringing news that the Russians believe the senior officials of America’s government have become Goa’uld hosts. Teal’c is assigned to the Promtheus, which lifts off to patrol near-Earth space for any sign of an imminent attack, while Daniel is sent to Russia to try to negotiate with their government. But when Daniel uncovers signs that the Russian President may be a Goa’uld host, mutual distrust escalates dangerously between the two countries – along with the level of military alert on both sides.

Order the DVDswritten by Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Francoise Robertson (Captain Veronakova), Garry Chalk (Colonel Chekov), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Ronny Cox (Kinsey), Lucas Wolf (Jennings), Barclay Hope (Colonel Pendergrast), Chelah Horsdal (Comm. Officer), Mike Dopud (Colonel Chernovshev), Joey Aresco (Mr. Parker), Hiro Kanagawa (Mr. Wayne), Allan Gray (Mr. Kent), Dmitry Chepovetsky (Russian Soldier)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Citizen Joe

Stargate SG-1An armed man barges into O’Neill’s home, accusing him of ruining his life. Seven years ago, this small-town barber picked up a mysterious object at a yard sale, an item which gave him vivid, recurring visions of SG-1’s exploits. Joe tells his son bedtime stories about Colonel Jack O’Neill, Teal’c and their comrades, and tells his customers at the barber shop an endless series of tales too. Finally, at his wife’s somewhat irritated urging, he begins writing these stories down and submitting them to science fiction magazines. When he sees the premiere of a new TV show called “Wormhole X-Treme,” Joe sues the show’s producers for stealing his ideas, but nothing comes of it and the show is cancelled after one episode. Joe continues his compulsive writing until his family leaves him and he loses his shop and his home. Now Joe wants his life back – not that anyone can figure out how to do this without blowing the SGC’s cover.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Damian Kindler
story by Robert C. Cooper
excerpts written by Robert C. Cooper, James Crocker, Peter DeLuise, Jonathan Glassner, V.C. James, Damian Kindler, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie and Brad Wright
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Dan Castellaneta (Joe Spencer), Deborah Theaker (Charlene), Eric Keenleyside (?), Louis Chirillo (Bert Simmons), Chad Krowchuk (Gordie Lowe), Alex Ferris (Andy), Mark Hansen (older Andy), Andy Thompson (Calvin), Beatrice Zeilinger (Cindy)

Note: Dan Castellaneta is best known for providing the voice of Homer Simpson, patriarch of the animated series “The Simpsons,” of which O’Neill is apparently a fan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Reckoning Part 1

Stargate SG-1In deep space, Baal makes a power play for dominion of the entire Goa’uld race, offering the other System Lords their continued survival in exchange for their capitulation. Baal’s representative attempts to demonstrate his power by presenting the other System Lords with a prisoner – Captain Samantha Carter – but what they don’t know is that this is the Replicators’ clone of Carter, though she makes her true nature known quickly enough.

Aboard the flagship of the rebel Jaffa fleet, Daniel and Carter are acting as observers as Teal’c and Bra’tac prepare to launch their strike on the System Lords, but another Goa’uld ship emerges from hyperspace and fires on them. Replicators board the ship, and just as they prepare to abandon it to the boarding party, Daniel disappears in a flash of light, taken prisoner by the Replicators. Back on Earth, Carter begins working on a new way to disrupt the Replicators, with Thor’s help. Carter’s father reappears, with news from the Tok’ra: the Replicators have launched an all-out, galaxy-wide assault on the Goa’uld, and in the face of the overwhelming odds, rebel Jaffa are renouncing their quest for freedom and seeking the safety of the System Lords again.

Teal’c and Bra’tac convince O’Neill to give his blessing to a new strategy. With Baal’s forces spread thin, battling a Replicator-controlled fleet, the remaining rebel Jaffa will launch a new strike to take the Temple of Dakara, the symbolic seat of Goa’uld power. As Baal struggles to regain control of the situation, Anubis abandons his damaged body and takes on a new host, assuming control of the Goa’uld forces personally. And aboard a Replicator ship, the clone Carter begins her interrogation of Daniel Jackson, uncovering faint memories of an Ancient weapon that could still destroy the Replicators. And this weapon is buried on the Goa’uld world of Dakara.

Order the DVDswritten by Damian Kindler
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter / Selmak), Cliff Simon (Baal), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Samantha Banton (Goa’ud Lieutenant), Mel Harris (Oma Desala), Isaac Hayes (Tolok), Jeff Judge (Aron), Dean Aylesworth (Old Anubis), Rik Kiviaho (New Anubis), Vince Crestejo (Yu), Kevan Ohtsji (Yu’s First Prime), Emy Aneke (Baal’s Jaffa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Reckoning Part 2

Stargate SG-1The race is on to Dakara. Carter and her father join Teal’c and Bra’tac, where they make a shaky start on deciphering the writing on the temple that the Jaffa freedom fighters have taken over. Anubis has sent Baal and his fleet to retake the temple and end the Jaffa rebellion. And using the knowledge that the clone Carter has ripped from Daniel’s mind, the Replicators are converging on Dakara to destroy an Ancient weapon which could seal their doom. When Carter and her father manage to awaken the Ancient technology, they set about try to figure out how to make it do precisely that.

Replicators open the stargate at the SGC and quickly overrun the gate room. O’Neill seals the mountain and orders all hands to evacuate, and begins preparations to reduce Cheyenne Mountain to a smoking hole in the ground rather than allowing the Replicators to seize it. Over Dakara, three fleets engage in a pitched battle – the Jaffa rebel fleet, Baal’s forces, and Replicator-controlled Goa’uld ships. Carter manages to strike a brief truce with Baal, assuring him that the Jaffa and Goa’uld forces should join up to hold the Replicators away from Dakara. Just after a huge Replicator lander takes up a position just outside the Temple of Dakara, all of the Replicators across the galaxy freeze up: Daniel has managed to to turn his interrogation against his captors, turning the tide of battle even though it will cost him his life.

Order the DVDswritten by Damian Kindler
excerpt written by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter / Selmak), Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), Cliff Simon (Baal), Erik Breker (Colonel Reynolds), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Isaac Hayes (Tolok), Jeff Judge (Aron), Dan Shea (Sgt. Siler), Emy Aneke (Baal’s Jaffa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Threads

Stargate SG-1In the wake of the successful Jaffa revolution and the final destruction of the Replicators, Teal’c and Bra’tac are honored as heroes, but the Jaffa retain control of the Ancients’ weapon on Dakara. Teal’c and Bra’tac reluctantly contemplate their future as leaders of a new Jaffa government even as the rebel Jaffa fleet sets off to pursue Anubis’ forces. Daniel finds himself in a limbo that curiously resembles a diner, and Oma is there too, though she isn’t exactly forthcoming with any details of whether Daniel is closer to life or death. The only other person in the diner who will pay Daniel any heed is a garrolous patron who seems to be almost too eager to tell Daniel what’s happening – particularly with regard to a ruse that Anubis has used to lure the Jaffa into a trap. And at the SGC, Carter’s father reveals that his symbiont’s imminent death will mean his own – and urges Carter to seek out happiness before she, too, is facing down her own mortality.

Order the DVDswritten by Robert C. Cooper
excerpts written by Damian Kindler
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Isaac Hayes (Tolok), Mel Harris (Oma Desala), George Dzundza (Jim), Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter), Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), David DeLuise (Pete Shanahan), Clare Carey (Kerry Johnson), Gary Jones (Chief Sgt. Walter Harriman), Cliff Simon (Baal), Rik Kiviaho (Anubis)

Notes: Two versions of this episode exist, the 90-minute version originally broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel, and a one-hour version prepared for syndicated broadcast; the first copies of the Season 8 DVD boxed set mistakenly included the syndicated version rather than the full original episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Moebius Part 1

Stargate SG-1An English teacher named Daniel Jackson – fallen from favor in his career as a linguist and archaeologist – is summoned to a top-secret facility at Cheyenne Mountain, as is a junior government aeronautics employee named Samantha Carter. Once they sign confidentiality agreements, a man named General Hammond finally reveals why they’ve been brought there: an archaeological expedition in Egypt made an unusual discovery – an intact camcorder containing an intact tape. The tape shows Jackson and Carter, but radically different from the sheltered, routine lives they live now. On the videotape, Daniel Jackson claims to be a member of an elite team called SG-1 which travels through a device called the stargate; he also says that a timeship carried them into Earth’s past on a risky mission recover an alien artifact called a zero point module. Also on the tape is Jack O’Neill, a retired Air Force general, and a hulking humanoid alien named Teal’c. Apparently, the taped message was left in the event that the mission failed, resulting in radical changes to the timeline. The expedition also uncovered the time travel vehicle mentioned in the tape, which O’Neill supposedly has a unique ability to control. With no experience, and highly skeptical of what they’ve been told, it’s now up to this unlikely handful of adventurers to restore what may – or may not be – Earth’s real history.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Jospeh Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
story by Jospeh Mallozzi & Paul Mullie & Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
directed by Peter Deluise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: David Hewlett (Rodney McKay), Don S. Davis (General Hammond), Robert Wisden (Major Samuels), Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), David Lewis (Cameron Balinsky), James Purcell (Dr. Hersfield), Alessandro Juliani (Katep), Georgia Craig (Sabrina), Jay Williams (Ra), Benjamin Easterday (Ra’s Jaffa Commander), Neil Schell (Mr. Crandall)

Notes: Though he has appeared in Stargate SG-1 before, this was guest star Alessandro Juliani’s first appearance in the series since becoming a regular on Sci-Fi Channel’s new version of Battlestar Galactica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 08 SG-1 Stargate

Moebius Part 2

Stargate SG-1O’Neill commands the first flight of the timeship through a stargate located in Antarctica thanks to runes deciphered by Daniel. Despite General Hammond’s grave misgivings, Daniel and Carter accompany O’Neill’s team on a mission to find and recruit the alien called Teal’c. But on the planet where they find Teal’c, Daniel is interrogated and then released. Teal’c does find appeal in the idea of freeing the Jaffa from Goa’uld “gods” like Ra, and helps O’Neill’s team escape. But as the now-completed team returns to the timeship, Teal’c suddenly shoots Daniel, claiming that he’s been infested with a Goa’uld – and that with the knowledge extracted from Daniel’s mind, the Goa’uld will now be targeting Earth for an attack that, in this timeline, it can’t repel. O’Neill decides to risk it all to go back 5,000 years and complete SG-1’s original mission – even though he barely knows how to pilot the timeship, let alone change the course of history.

Order the DVDsteleplay by Robert C. Cooper
story by Jospeh Mallozzi & Paul Mullie & Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
directed by Peter Deluise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay), Don S. Davis (General Hammond), Peter Williams (Apophis), Alessandro Juliani (Katep), Jay Acovone (Major Kawalsky), Benjamin Easterday (Ra’s Jaffa Commander), Sina Najafi (Egyptian Boy), Christopher Pearce (Bosworth), Rob Fournier (Airman Mansfield)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

Avalon – Part 1

Stargate SG-1The members of SG-1 have moved on to new assignments – Carter is now working at Stargate R&D full time. Teal’c has his hands full with the internal politics of the new Jaffa nation. Daniel Jackson is preparing to join the Daedalus on its trip to Atlantis. The SGC itself has a new leader, General Hank Landry. Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell arrives to join SG-1, eager to work with “the best of the best.” Critically injured leading the fighter squadron that protected SG-1 during Anubis’s assault in Antarctica, Mitchell was promised his choice of assignments by General O’Neill. But it falls to Landry to provide the details that O’Neill left out: Mitchell isn’t at SGC to join the existing team. He’s there to form and lead the new SG-1.

A disappointed Mitchell tries to convince the original team to reunite. Despite their gratitude and respect for Mitchell, he is unsuccessful – at least until Daniel’s old acquaintance Vala returns, claiming to have stolen a tablet that leads to an Ancient treasure. In order to ensure that she profits from the venture, Vala uses Goa’uld bracelets to link Daniel and her – neither can go very far from the other without falling ill. Having missed his trip on the Daedalus, Daniel turns his attention to the tablet. It suggests that the legend of Merlin and King Arthur has some link to the Ancients. The Prometheus‘ scanners find a large underground network of tunnels in England, hidden from Earth surveys by Ancient technology. Mitchell, Daniel, Vala and a visiting Teal’c ring into the complex and soon face a sword in a stone and a holographic message that their knowledge and character will be tested. And the consequence for failure is grave indeed.

Season 9 Regular Cast: Ben Browder (Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell), Amanda Tapping (Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), Beau Bridges (General Hank Landry), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson)

Order the DVDswritten by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith
excerpts written by Robert C. Cooper & Brad Wright
main theme adapted from music by David Arnold

Guest Cast: Claudia Black (Vala), Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill), Obi Ndefo (Rak’nor), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Matthew Walker (Merlin), Tyler McClendon (Lt. Banks), Mar Andersons (Air Force Official), Claude Knowlton (Doctor), Wendy Russell (Nurse), Donna White (Crying Mother), Penelope Corrin, Alistair Abell, Robert Clarke (Science Candidates), Jason Benson, Sean Arnfinson (Military Candidates), Scott Owen (Technician), Michael Jonsson (F-302 Pilot)

Appearing in footage from “Lost City, Part 2”: Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), Don S. Davis (General Hammond)

Notes: Mitchell was injured in the seventh-season finale Lost City, Part 2; his flashbacks are a combination of excerpts from that episode and new footage. Jackson first encountered Vala in the eighth season episode Prometheus Unbound. Sam Carter’s reduced role in this episode is due to Amanda Tapping taking some time off after the birth of her daughter. Beginning with this episode, the opening title sequence was cut to a brief 10-second clip with the actor credits over the episode itself during Sci Fi’s broadcasts. The series’ producers prepared a full one-minute title sequence for syndication and other uses.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

Avalon – Part 2

Stargate SG-1Daniel solves the riddle contained in his chamber, allowing him to escape with Vala and provide Mitchell the hint that lets him solve his own puzzle. Having passed this test, Mitchell removes the sword from the stone – at which point an energy construct of a knight forms and begins dueling the colonel. Teal’c attempts to come to Mitchell’s aid, but the sword passes through his hands – no one else can wield it. The knight gets the best of Mitchell, but when Teal’c attempts to lift him up in order to evacuate him, Mitchell recalls his rehabilitation and refuses to surrender until his enemy is vanquished. The chamber itself then begins to crumble, until Mitchell returns everything to its rightful place and the treasure of Avalon appears.

In addition to the usual gold and buried loot, the vault includes an old text which suggests that the race that evolved into the Ancients was once called the Alterans, and traveled to Earth from a distant world. The team also finds an Ancient device which appears to work with the communication stones such as those that once linked Jack O’Neill’s consciousness with another man. Daniel theorizes that when used with the new device, the stones might allow someone to contact the original home world of the Ancients’ forebearers. He and Vala place the two stones into the device and quickly fall unconscious. Dr. Lam, the SGC’s new chief doctor, reports to General Landry that the two appear to be in something resembling a dream state. When Landry asks the doctor how she’s adjusting to her new position, she admits that it takes some getting used to – even moreso because it involves serving under Landry.

Teal’c returns to Dakara to find that a Jaffa named Gerak is close to cementing his hold on the High Council. Teal’c’s friend Rak’nor wonders why he continues to risk losing his influence by spending so much time with the humans. Teal’c responds that beyond his understanding that the humans played a major role in helping the Jaffa win their freedom, there is the strategic fact that knowledge of the Ancients proved vital in defeating the Goa’uld and the Replicators and will likely continue to be useful going forward. Whatever the merits of the argument might be, they aren’t enough to stop Gerak’s ascension to leadership.

In another galaxy, Daniel and Vala find that their consciousnesses now inhabit the bodies of a married couple, Harrid and Sallis, on a world whose technology and culture resemble medieval Earth – a far cry from their expectations. Their first instinct is to try to fit in to their surroundings, so they join their fellow villagers during a lengthy worship service to the native’s deities, the Ori. A fellow worshipper named Fannis invites them to a secret meeting in hushed tones – their first sign that their “hosts” are not ordinary villagers. Another comes when Vala finds two communications stones hidden in the bedroom. And yet another comes when Fannis shows up at their door, obviously worried about all their safety. Daniel and Vala explain the truth behind their strange behavior, and in turn Fannis explains that all three of them are members of a secret groups of researchers, looking for clues as to their people’s past and evidence that the sacred texts passed down by the Ori are not completely accurate. Daniel and Vala’s odd behavior has already begun to draw suspicion to them – and when Vala fails to observe the proper rituals, the situation quickly spirals out of control. Daniel must watch as Sallis is sentenced to trial by flames; as her body is consumed, the doctors at SGC are unable to save Vala’s physical body or retrieve her consciousness. But more powerful forces may yet intervene.

Order the DVDswritten by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Claudia Black (Vala), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Lexa Doig (Dr. Lam), Obi Ndefo (Rak’nor), Stephen Park (Harrid), April Amber Telek (Sallis), Paul Moniz de Sa (Fannis), Greg Anderson (Administrator), Mark Houghton (Prior Or Ori), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Silya Wiggens (Therapist), Brahm Taylor (Villager), Nick Harrison (Knight)

Notes: O’Neill and the SGC discovered the nature of the communications stones in the eighth-season episode Citizen Joe.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

Origin

Stargate SG-1Vala’s rescuer reveals himself as a Prior of the Ori, and uses alabaster rings to bring her and Daniel to Celestis, a city in the sky. There Daniel has time to study the Book of Origin and attempt to convine the Prior that they’re explorers and not really in the market for a new belief system. The Prior appears to be more interested in the idea that there are more unbelievers where they came from. Daniel manages to arrange an audience with the Doci, the enahnced human who ranks above the Priors. There he realizes that like the Anicents, the Ori have ascended to a higher level of existance. Unlike the Ancients, they want to guide other races there. Rather forcefully, if necessary. The Ancients had apparently hidden the existence of life in our galaxy from the Ori. But thanks to Daniel and Vala’s visit, the veil has been lifted. And the Ori are determined that all will be rescued from evil and led to enlightenment – or destroyed, lest they corrupt others.

At Stargate Command, General Landry interrupts Mitchell’s vigil over Daniel and Vala to ask him to investigate a report from an Earth anthropologist of an unknown missionary appearing through the Stargate on another planet. Mitchell and Landry discuss their concerns that in the power vacuum left behind by the Goa’uld, unscrupulous individuals might try to take advantage of the situation. Similar concerns motivate Landry to invite Gerak to a conference on Earth. Teal’c agrees to relay the invitation and shares his misgivings about Gerak. The Jaffa asceneded to leadership of his troops after an ally of Bra’tac and Teal’c, who shared their vision of a democratic Jaffa nation, mysteriously disappeared. There is no evidence linking Gerak to the disappearance . . . but Teal’c can not help but wonder.

Mitchell assumes his best down-home manner and introduces himself to the missionary – another Prior. When he mentions Earth, the Prior responds with Daniel’s name, prompting Mitchell to bring the Prior back to SGC at the same time that Landry’s meeting with Gerak is going not altogether smoothly. The Jaffa requests the opportunity to meet and possibly challege this would-be prophet, as they are understandably leery of anyone claiming godhood.

Daniel and Vala are returned to their village, presumably to lead the Ori to other nonbelievers. Reluctant to do so, they must nonetheless try to find another Ancient communication device in order to warn Earth. They resolve to set off alone, but Fannis insits on helping them, despite the risks. They are able to make contact with Stargate Command, but only briefly – then the Prior and the townspeople arrive to recapture them. This time both Harrid and Sallis are sentenced to perish in the flames – and unless Mitchell and Teal’c can find a way to disrupt the connection, Daniel and Vala will share their fate.

Order the DVDswritten by Robert C. Cooper
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Claudia Black (Vala), Richard Dean Anderson (Maj. Gen. Jack O’Neill), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Lexa Doig (Dr. Lam), Louis Gossett, Jr. (Gerak); Gardiner Milla (Yat’yir), Mark Houghton (Prior Or Ori), Julian Sands (Doci), Larry Cedar (Prior #2), Paul Moniz De Sa (Fannis), Greg Anderson (Administrator), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Stephen Park (Harrid), April Amber Telek (Sallis), Penelope Corrin (Dr. Lindsay)

Notes: This episode is considered the third part of a three-part episode, along with Avalon Parts 1 and 2.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

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Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

The Ties That Bind

Stargate SG-1Daniel sees Vala off from Stargate Command, relieved to be rid of a perpetual distraction. When he collapses soon after, Dr. Lam theorizes that he and Vala are still linked. With Dr. Lee unable to find a way to dissolve the bond, Daniel and Mitchell turn to Arlos Kadavam, the scientist from whom Vala originally stole the bracelets. He theorizes that a massive energy surge might have caused the link to persist even without the bracelets – such as that caused by the Ancient communications device. But he will only help break the link if Vala returns another item he stole – his mother’s necklace.

So begins a sequence of escalating deals. To get the necklace, Vala must return a power coil. To get the power coil, she must return a cargo vessel. To get the cargo vessel might be a bit trickier, as it’s in the hands of the Lucian Alliance, a group of smugglers attempting to make themselves a force to be reckoned with in the post-Goa’uld galaxy. Since Daniel and Vala ruined one deal with them, they’re not very likely to cooperate. In fact, they very much want Vala dead. And Gen. Landry is not inclined to provoke any kind of confrontation.

That is, until Vala sabotages a meeting with the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman that already wasn’t going well. With the Goa’uld and the Replicators no longer a threat, with the need to construct more ships like the Daedalus, and with the international community placing its full emphasis and backing on the civilian-led multinational Atlantis project, Stargate Command faces serious budget cuts and a curtailment of its exploration efforts. Frustrated by Vala’s impolitic comments, Landry permits Mitchell, Daniel, and a visiting Teal’c to try and steal the cargo ship right out from under the Alliance by offering them what they want – Daniel and Vala. It’s a plan just crazy enough to work – but will it get them the information they need?

Order the DVDswritten by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
directed by Will Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Claudia Black (Vala), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee), Lexa Doig (Dr. Lam), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Wallace Shawn (Arlos), Malcolm Scott (Caius), Michael P. Northey (Inago), Geoff Redknap (Jup), Eileen Peddy (Maj. Gibson), Bruce Gray (Sen. Fisher), Morris Chapdelaine (Tenat), Darren Moore (Vosh)

Notes: The prior deal with the Lucian Alliance referred to in this episode is Vala’s attempt to steal the Prometheus in season 8’s Prometheus Unbound.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

The Powers That Be

Stargate SG-1Dozens of Priors have made contact with worlds across the galaxy, spreading the word of Origin. Vala urges Mitchell to take some kind of stand against the Ori, and has a particular planet in mind – a world where, she claims, the natives trust her. That gets Mitchell’s attention, and he gets Gen. Landry’s approval to bring Vala, Teal’c and Daniel with him to the planet. Once there, Vala impersonates Quetesh, the Goa’uld she once hosted. After the Tok’ra removed Quetesh from her, Vala used this planet as a base – it was sufficiently out of the way that it did not know Quetesh had been defeated, and continued to worship her as a god.

Vala’s real motive in returning to this world was to pick up some treasure she had been hoarding. But the others will not let her continue to dupe the natives – especially with the Ori already making inroads through displays of power and healing. Daniel convinces Vala to admit the truth, hoping that it will encourage skepticism. Instead, the betrayed natives sentence Vala to death. Mitchell is able to convince them to hold a maldoran instead – a judicial proceeding instituted by Vala herself. As Daniel mounts his defense and urges the natives to reject the Ori, a Prior enters the chamber. Daniel recognizes him as the town leader who oversaw Harrid and Sallis’s execution, now elevated by the Ori.

At Stargate Command, Landry and Lam have a tense exchange over lunch; Lam’s relationship with Landry, her father, has been strained for some time. She gets a distraction from her family problems when Mitchell reports that the natives have started to fall ill. Vala attempts to treat them with a Goa’uld healing device, but the villagers are falling faster than she can heal them. Lam brings a medical team to the planet, but is unable to find any way to stop the disease. Daniel and Teal’c note that it is similar to the plague that once afflicted the Ancients, and which the Stargate program encountered in Antarctica a few years ago. That knowledge, however, doesn’t stop villagers from dying, or Mitchell from becoming infected. Daniel and Vala use words and weapons to try and overcome the Prior, but it soon becomes clear that only a mass conversion will stem the tide of death.

Order the DVDswritten by Martin Gero
directed by Will Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Claudia Black (Vala), Lexa Doig (Dr. Lam), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Cam Chai (Azdak), Greg Anderson (Prior), Pablo Coffey (Vachna), Nicola Correia Damude (Play Vala), Matt Johnson (Play Warrior), Chad Hershler (Villager Aide), Michael Coleman (Med Tech)

Notes: The plague that afflicted the Ancients was discovered in season 6’s Frozen.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

Beachhead

Stargate SG-1The Ori send a Prior to a world inhabited by free Jaffa. When the Jaffa refuse to accept the way of Origin, the Prior erects a force field around himself and the Stargate. A minor Goa’uld named Nerus makes contact with Stargate Command. His observational satellites over the Jaffa world are but one of his technological innovations, and he offers his assistance against the Ori. He provides intelligence that indicates the field is expanding and that somehow, the Ori are keeping the Stargate open indefinitely. Vala warns Gen. Landry not to trust any Goa’uld. But when the Jaffa high council does not respond to his messages, Landry feels Earth must do something to stop the Ori incursion. He sends Mitchell, Jackson and Teal’c to rendezvous with the Prometheus and then make contact with the Ori. Mitchell has orders to use any means necessary to stop the Ori, which includes using the Mark IX, a naquaddah-enhanced nuclear device capable of destroying a Stargate. Landry requests, and is granted, Carter’s assistance on the mission. Vala reluctantly joins as well because although the effects of the Goa’uld bracelets are weakening, she and Daniel still suffer ill effects when separated.

Mitchell delivers the ultimatum to the Prior. While the team is on the planet, Gerak arrives with a fleet of Jaffa ships to bombard the forcefield. Col. Pendergast aboard the Prometheus gets Gerak to stop in order to beam the team back aboard, but Gerak is upset at losing the element of surprise and at the humans’ seeming inactivity. Shortly thereafter, the Mark IX detonates. But the Stargate is not destroyed, and the force field expands more rapidly. Gerak resumes his bombardment and demands that the Prometheus join the assault. Mitchell authorizes the ship to do so, until Carter realizes that the force field is drawing upon the energy involved to fuel its expansion. Furthermore, the planet itself is collapsing. Carter theorizes that the Ori are using a black hole in their galaxy to power the wormhole, and are now forming one in the Milky Way to add power on both ends. Nerus has lured them into providing the Ori the power necessary to establish their beachhead. And now, unless the team can stop them, they will build a giant gate in space, capable of transporting a full-scale invasion fleet from their galaxy to ours.

Order the DVDswritten by Brad Wright
directed by Brad Turner
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Claudia Black (Vala), Barclay Hope (Col. Pendergast), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Maury Chaykin (Nerus), Louis Gossett, Jr. (Gerak)

Notes: Nerus claims to have assisted Ba’al, the Jaffa, and the SGC defeat the Replicators in season 8’s Reckoning.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

Ex Deus Machina

Stargate SG-1A Jaffa is killed in a hit and run car accident in Virginia. Teal’c identifies the warrior’s tattoo as from a group of Jaffa loyal to Gerak, and returns to Dakara with Mitchell to investigate. Gerak is warning the council against developing close ties with the Tok’ra when Teal’c enters the chamber, pleading with his fellow Jaffa to build their new nation on a foundation of trust and cooperation. Mitchell tries to echo the point, but Teal’c interrupts; the council is not considered a place for outsiders. After the meeting, Gerak denies any knowledge of the dead Jaffa, but neither Teal’c nor Mitchell believe him. Another member of the council, Ka’lel, provides the important clue – Gerak has sent men to Earth in order to capture Ba’al. By doing so, he would sway even more Jaffa to his side.

Daniel, meanwhile, has discovered a connection between the Jaffa, a missing executive from defense contractor Farrow-Marshall, and the Goa’uld-infiltrated Trust. He meets with the executive’s wife, who tells him that her husband had started displaying strange behavior before he disappeared, and a private investigator she hired to follow him dropped the case after only a few days. Gerak’s troops break into Farrow-Marshall and get into a firefight. Soon after, Ba’al contacts Stargate Command with an offer: if Earth will allow him to live out his life in peace, he will obey Earth laws. But if the SGC or the Jaffa come after him, he will detonate a naquadah bomb hidden somewhere in the United States.

On Dakara, Gerak continues the hunt for Ba’al by torturing the missing executive, who is in fact now a Goa’uld host. Carter, Teal’c and Daniel officially agree to rejoin Mitchell on the SG-1 team, and then immediately split up. Carter and Daniel coordinate with NID Agent Barrett to try and track down Ba’al in order to kill him with the symbiote poison. Teal’c and Mitchell board the Prometheus to search for Gerak’s command ship. They find it, but are unable to convince the Jaffa in command to allow Earth to handle the matter itself. Ba’al, assuming the role of corporate executive, holds a news conference announcing a new acquisition, hoping that the publicity will make it difficult for SGC to simply have him disappear. SGC launches an attack anyway, which fails. So Ba’al tells them they will have to pay the price, and begins the countdown to detonate the bomb.

Order the DVDswritten by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Louis Gossett, Jr. (Gerak), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Cliff Simon (Ba’al), Sonya Salmoaa (Charlotte), Peter Flemming (Agent Barrett), David MacInnis (Agent Cortez), Kendall Cross (Julia Donovan), Barclay Hope (Col. Pendergast), Chilton Crane (Sharon), Gardiner Millar (Yat’yir), Diego Klattenhoff (Team Leader), Simone Bailly (Ka’lel), Martin Chritopher (Lt. Marks), Kevin Blatch (Tobias), Adrian Hein (Runner), Ken Dresen (Alex Jameson)

Notes: The Goa’uld infiltrated the Trust in season 8’s Full Alert. The N.I.D. developed cloning technology for Goa’uld in season 7’s Resurrection. SGC received the symbiote poison, developed by the Tok’ra, in season 5’s Summit.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Categories
Season 09 SG-1 Stargate

Prototype

Stargate SG-1When Tok’ra intelligence detects a developing black hole, Sam fears that the Ori might be trying to build another supergate. She takes SG-5 to P3X-584 investigate, but quickly dials back to SGC – the team was sent to a completely different planet. Her investigation reveals that the gate at their destination has been altered to require an access code – travelers who fail to provide the code are shunted to another destination. They are able to crack the code, and SG-1 accompanies SG-5 to 584. Once there, they find rings that transport Mitchell, Daniel and Teal’c into an underground genetics lab, where it looks like a Goa’uld may have been trying to develop an advanced host. Daniel discovers notes written in Ancient, while Mitchell revives a man kept in a stasis chamber.

A medical team brings the revived man, Khalek, to SGC, where he claims to have been an involuntary test subject for some sort of experiment. Daniel translates enough of the notes in the lab to know better. Khalek is a genetically altered clone based partially on Anubis’s pre-ascension DNA. He has superhuman abilities, with a level of brain activity far beyond human norms. He has Anubis’s inherited genetic memory, ensuring that he will seek to conquer as his ancestors did. And he’s growing stronger – soon, perhaps, strong enough to reach ascended status on his own. Daniel argues that Earth can not afford to allow another Anubis to come into being – Khalek must at the very least be returned to stasis. And perhaps, Daniel says, SGC should strongly consider killing him outright.

Before Gen. Landry can make a decision, Richard Woolsey arrives representing the International Oversight Advisory (IOA) committee. The advanced Khalek has similarities to the Priors. Woolsey suggests that SGC study Khalek in hopes of finding a way to neutralize the Priors’ ability. If SGC is incapable of doing so, then the oversight committee will reconsider its funding. Even after Khalek nearly escapes once, Woolsey is determined to proceed. On 584, Sam discovers that Khalek will not be powerful enough to ascend without more treatments in the lab. When Khalek overhears her report, he becomes more determined than ever to escape, no matter how much of SGC stands in his way.

Order the DVDswritten by Allan McCullough
directed by Peter DeLuise
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Neil Jackson (Khalek), Robert Picardo (Woolsey), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman), Lexa Doig (Dr. Lam)

Notes: Members of SG-1 refer to the Goa’uld Nirrti, whose genetic experiments in search of a better host were discovered in season 6’s Metamorphosis.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer