The Stargate franchise is one of the most successful movie-to-TV transitions ever, spawning an animated series and three successful TV serials: Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. Arguably Atlantis and Universe are more eligible for the “spin-off tag” than the “TV version of movie” tag, and since the animated series really is best forgotten, I’m going to focus on the premier TV serial: SG-1.

Ah, Stargate SG-1. How I love thee, let me count the ways. OK, so I admit this entire review could just be a gush of adoration more appropriate for a teenage girl crushing on the school hunk, given my deep and abiding love for this show. So I warn you before I start in earnest that this could get sappy.

Let me begin with the absolutely fantastic cast. Casting the insanely hot Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver fame as acerbic Colonel Jack O’Neill was the first win; casting three equally fantastic (and insanely hot) actors (Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Chris Judge) to form the rest of the SG-1 team from which the title got its name was the next. The four principle actors had an amazing on-screen chemistry that money just can’t buy.

But it wasn’t just these four that were great; Teryl Rothery, Carmen Argenziano, Tony Amendola, the late Don S Davis, and a host of others all lent their talents to the show. A special mention too for Corin Nemec, who had the unenviable task of taking over in the wake of Shanks’ departure; in my opinion, Nemec doesn’t get enough credit for what a brilliant job he did. The later additions of Ben Browder, Beau Bridges and Claudia Black just added even more quality to the SG-1 cast.

And if the casting was brilliant, the characters they played were awesome. It might have been easy for the TV show to just have kept the buddy-buddy element of the movie but broadening the concept out to a team of four was genius. The combination of Jack O’Neill, Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal’c proved to be more than the sum of its parts. SG-1 felt like a team who really loved one another; who would really fight for one another. The bonds of friendship between them all (and for some of us viewers the will-they/won’t-they tease of Sam and Jack) was a large part of the show’s success.

It would be remiss of me not to give a huge shout-out for the crew of SG-1 because everything was usually fantastic on that front, from the musical underscore to the costuming to the lighting to the set design to the award-nominated special effects to the directors to the camera work to…well, you get the idea. Yes, there was the occasional dodgy CGI or prop vs dialogue fluff-up or costuming mistake, but overall, it was just quality.

Which brings me neatly onto the writing and production. I think it’s fair to say that some of the writing wasn’t great. Over two hundred hours of entertainment is bound to deliver the odd one or two stinkers. For every “Threads” (08.18), there must be “The Tomb” (05.08); for every “Lost City” (07.21 & 07.22), there must be an “Insiders” (10.04). Yet there are stand-out shows that are, frankly, brilliant: fan favorite ‘Window of Opportunity’ is one of these. An homage to Groundhog Day, it combines the light-hearted and witty humor at which Stargate SG-1 excelled at threading through its show with the angst of loss, and learning life has to continue. For me, it’s this mix of light and dark that made the show so accessible and easy to watch – in the exact same way the movie provided serious elements wrapped up in something non-confrontational.

Real credit for the success of the transition of this Movie-to-TV adaptation has to go to the series’ original creators and Executive Producers, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner. They shaped the series after seeing potential in the movie – a Stargate that could literally go to thousands of places. They changed just enough to make the TV concept work, including making the Goa’uld an alien snake-like race of many (whereas the movie has Ra the last of his kind and much closer to the Roswell style alien), travel by Stargate within a galaxy when seven symbols are combined, and the odd name tweaking (O’Neill vs O’Neil, Sha’uri vs Sha’re).

It would be remiss of me, though, not to mention the disaster that was Season Nine. Before I get yelled at, I’m aware some fans loved it: I didn’t. I have some sympathy with the producers; they had to reboot the show after the departure of Anderson and tie up many of the story arcs, plus juggle SG-1 with Atlantis. And I’ll say the opening episode “Avalon” (09.01) was great, and will even admit that the back half of the season recovered post the dreadful two-parter “The Fourth Horseman” (09.10 & 09.11). But it was too little too late. The show had come too close to losing the glorious SG-1 teaminess, the Ori were too boring as an enemy, the characterization of new character Cameron Mitchell, from a writing perspective, was all over the place (not even Browder’s excellent portrayal could make up for it), and the effective demoting in-story of Sam Carter from position of SG-1 team leader was frankly one of the most disappointing moments ever in the history of the show.

I almost walked away; many fans did. However, season ten was a comeback, buoyed by the addition of Black’s Vala Mal Doran and corrections in-story of the major issues - importantly: the sense of team. I was genuinely disappointed (there may have been weeping into my pillow) when SG-1 was cancelled. Luckily though, I do have ten season box-sets, two additional TV movie DVDs, the TV reruns and fanfiction with which to console myself.

And on that note; I’m off to rewatch, or maybe write some fanfic…

  -- Rachel Day