User Reviews

First of all, I must mention the fact how perfect idea MGM had to shoot a sequel to the original movie with Kurt Russel. Although there are some goofs in the plot (e.g. no one in the original movie said that the planet they've visited is called Abydos; how could Apophis dial address back on his homeworld from Earth without the DHD /Dial Home Device/; or the fact that there was no DHD on Abydos in the original movie), in general, the directors keep the plot line. Special effects are very good, the first time I say the Goa'uld symbiont sneaking out of the Jaffa woman and entering Shau're, I was really pretty scared. Now, comments to some particular scenes: -The opening scene where Apophis and his Jaffa enter the gateroom in the SGC, kidnap the female sergeant and kill the other soldiers is very strong and very well done, it all happens very quickly, but the consequences are huge. -When Kowalski and O'Neill talk in the cell and Kowalski hears what happens to O'Neill's son, Richard Dean Anderson's acting is really very good, his face says very much. The same goes on the scene in his house when he's talking with Daniel about what happened with his wife. -The scene where Cpt. Carter enters the briefing room is very funny, Kowalski and Ferretti look like two little boys as they giggle and talk about Major Matt Mason. -On Chulak, the scene in the prison, when Apophis orders Teal'c to kill the remaining people. O'Neill's "Help me!" and Teal'c's answer are so strong, I just sat and watched them holding my breath. -Attack of the death gliders and then the battle at the stargate is cool, I love Kowalski's happy smile as he shoots at the Jaffa. O'Neill staying as the last one - good leader! -The final scene, discovering that Kowalski is a Goa'uld... very big shock. Perfect movie at all, as the whole series.

I was very impressed with the way this was handled. I hear a lot of criticism over the original film, but I watched it when I was younger, and I really enjoyed it, not just because of my love of sci-fi, and my interest in Egyptology.

It was successfully put together in such a way that explains briefly the events of the original film, just enough for 'newbies' to understand the history, and still enjoy the pilot without getting too confused. Something which some shows converting from film to television don't always get right. It's something to be congratulated.

The actors replacing old characters are to be congratulated. The balance of being true to their characters portrayal in the film, and adding in personalty traits they didn't have before, is quite honestly, in my opinion, not only believable, but necessary. No one could go through those events unchanged. I don't see why these characters should either.

As for the new regular characters brought into the show, I think that was handled equally as well. Adding them all together, goes into making a well rounded, diverse team of characters, that portray a successful sci-fi show, set in a way that could be classed as believable set in our time.

The transitions along the way on discovering new technologies was handled well, the use of our own mythologies is a great idea on the part of those that created Stargate. And not just Egyptian mythology I might add.

I particularly found the time spent on Abydos well written, and the showing of Dr Daniel Jackson's discovery of the cartouche that allows the show to kick start it's adventures in exploring the galaxy. The kidnapping of Sha're and Skaara, that sets Daniel on his path to join SG1 in their exploration, and his personal mission to find and free Sha're from her captivity, was very well done. It's telling of new "Gods" that are out there wanting to bring about the same slavery that Ra used to exploit the people of Abydos in the original film, was very importantly touched on by the introduction of Apophis, and the exploration of the Jaffa and the portrayal that they are also, essentially slaves that have been brainwashed into believing that they are serving all-powerful Gods, and how new regular character Teal'c, finds his way out of slavery, and on his own mission to bring down Apophis, and free his people, the Jaffa, from their slavery.

All in all, I would say this is a successful introduction to a television series that I believe to be a great show, and a great follow up from the film.

This one and half hour long episode is a really strong continuation from the movie, a few actors have been replaced but you get over that pretty quickly. Kurt Russell is an amazing actor but Richard Dean Anderson's Jack O'Neill is so much more charming and i'm glad he got to change up O'Neill a bit to suit him better as an actor. The chemistry between Kurt Russell and James Spader was good in the movie and the chemistry between Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks who now plays Daniel Jackson looks really promising in this first episode as well.

Our heroes are once again going back to Abydos and we see a few familiar characters from the movie. Kawalsky (Jay Acovane) and O'Neill work great together and it's nice seeing Kawalsky get his own team even if i would have liked to have Kawalsky with O'Neill as much a possible, maybe they are to similar for it to work. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) is a great addition to the series as she will be able to have good conversations with both Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill. She's physics doctor and captain in the Air Force so she's kind of the one who knows a bit of everything.

Don S. Davis plays General George Hammond a tough general but at the same time he seems to care about his people very much and i look forward to seeing his interactions with Jack in the future. The villain is a character very similar to Ra in the movie, his name is Apophis (Peter Williams) and thanks to him we get a new fascinating character introduced Teal'c (Christoper Judge) and is going to be interesting to see how he fits in with the rest of these characters. Overall a good first episode to continue where the movie left of and both the new actors and the new characters is interesting

Score: 7/10 Good

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After finishing season 1 of transporter series, I wanted to see some fantasy, science fiction. I watch series season by season, so after watching one season, I will move to another series.

I usually watch old series. 1990-2010 mostly. This series starts at 1997. So, it will be interesting.

I did not watch star wars movies, I hope it does not create any lack of knowledge for me.

Episode review:

Different story, different universes. I like it. It was long, 1.5 hours but it was not boring.

This review HAS spoilers in it. There's not much that needs to be said that hasn't already. Both episodes are relatively enjoyable, but each have a horrendous that you'd never ever see coming, and only expect from a TV show like game of thrones. And unfortunately do a great deal to not only ruin both pilot episodes, but for me it also somewhat tarnishes the reputation original movie (Kurt Russel) as well. The title of this review may seem shocking, and that's because these episode are.

Make sure the kids are well hidden for this one, because I'm not joking when I say that, in each episode, a woman is kidnapped and thrown into some sort of a harem holding bay of other women. Then, at the end of each episode, one of those women is selected, stunned with some sort of lazer hand device (thank goodness this small part wasn't too violent) stripped completely naked by male guards, (at least in the first episode the camera work is somewhat careful, but the second time, forget it, its all on display...), in front of the new snake god human male villain, and its implied that they are being selected to be 'implanted' with some worm like creature. To me... it kind of looks like rape, but make of it what you will. To put the cherry on top, the first woman (who was from earth) when her entire team of incompetent colleagues were, for whatever reason, unable to defend her from her sociopath kidnappers), she very unfortunately isn't reached in time by the well-to-do but severely delayed SG1 team, before the new son of a bitch evil as all hell villain (who would actually be the series villain for years to come), murders her using that same lazer hand device, in cold blood as she lay naked on a table, as I guess she's no longer any use for him and he couldn't be bothered returning her. The premise of this episode was for the SG1 team to reunite and rescue her. But that was all quite arguably an epic fail, and the whole thing seems like a bit of a farce to be honest. Although this plot device would become the basis for the rest of the TV series. In other words, her sacrifice became the TV shows gain. It would've been nice if they did rescue her, but the writers had other things in mind. There really is no reason in hindsight why she needed to die, but the more than likely all misogynistic male writing team was high on something when they designed this fate for her.

Of course, in the second episode, its actually Daniel Jackson's beloved wife sha're who is put through this same gruesome, gratuitous and terrifying procedure. Poor Daniel Jackson! I couldn't think of anything worse that could happen to a man to be honest, to have his wife stolen then raped by a worm under the supervision of some over-powered dirt-bag, but anyhow, fortunately for her shes not murdered (at least not at the end of this episode) though unfortunately that worm drives itself right into her back, again naked on the table being held down by male guards, while she makes blood curdling screams. Forget what you saw in the movie, sha're now belongs to a new man. Again, the SG1 team don't save her, this time however its not due to lack of time or resources, but because they just don't care enough as its not one of their own now. Even though she doesn't die in this episode, shes basically thrown in the bin like the first woman.

Why the writers chose to go so ALL OUT on these episodes is so well beyond me even as I write this as a 31 year old, but I can only imagine, ratings ratings ratings. You would see nothing even remotely close to this for the rest of the entire SG1 series. Its okay to be a little shocking and present something new, but this went a bit far in my honest opinion.

If that's your thing, fair enough. But you can imagine my confusion originally watching this when it premiered on national television as a 12 year old (to be fair, I only saw that first episode where while gratuitous, wasn't as bad as that second), just keen to get in on some sci-fi action. Boys really shouldn't be exposed to this kind of thing. Back then and even now, I still can't decide whether or not I was watching some sort of snuff porn horror movie, or a sci-fi one. Even know its kind of difficult to watch, and I only do so out of a perverted sense of curiosity, but for some reason I can't help but feel somewhat guilty like Im doing something wrong. Less stuff like this on TV, I believe, would've gone a long way to helping to curb the male on female assault and harassment epidemic that's been plaguing our society.

What I've said here might very well procure negative reactions, but I don't care. If the producers went out of their way to remove as much of this gratuitous porn from the re-release, it goes a long way to show that they must've regretted it to some extent later on (they even cut some of the sexual swearing from this episode as well). Hey Im just calling a spade a spade, but nonetheless SG1 would go on to be, actually kind of an enjoyable show, with the benefit of hindsight, they did get rid of anything that was even remotely related to sex or nudity, but as a young lad, I must confess that I was somewhat frightened and confused about these scenes and remained that way for a while. Thanks for reading and best of luck.

Col. Jack O'Neill retired from the military a year ago. Just before he left the service, he led an expedition through the stargate, an ancient portal that allows instantaneous travel to other galaxies. He is called back to duty by Gen. Hammond when a group of aliens emerge from the stargate, kill the soldiers guarding it, and kidnap a female guard. After seeing the aftermath of the alien attack and the strange bodies they left behind, O'Neill confesses that he defied the order to destroy Abydos, the world he visited via the stargate. He reveals that Dr. Daniel Jackson, the scientist who was thought to have died on that mission, is alive and living on Abydos. It is also clear that these aliens are not from Abydos. O'Neill is reunited with his old comrades Kawalsky and Ferretti and joined by Capt. Samantha Carter, an astrophysicist. SG-1 returns through the stargate to Abydos. They discover that Jackson has taken an Abydonian wife, the beautiful Sha're, and that Skaara, the young Abydonian boy whom O'Neill cherishes like a son, has grown into a fine young man. They also see Jackson's latest discovery: a giant cartouche covered in hieroglyphics that seems to be a map of many stargates throughout the galaxy. As they marvel, however, the aliens, led by the handsome but evil Apophis, are making use of a similar map. They emerge from the stargate on Abydos, and, after a brief battle, kidnap Sha're and Skaara. Ferretti, who was wounded in the firefight with the aliens, has seen the hieroglyphic code that indicates the aliens' destination. O'Neill and Jackson are determined to follow the aliens and to save their loved ones. With a troop of soldiers from Earth in tow, they track the aliens to the planet Chulak. There they discover that Sha're is now Apophis' queen; her body has been taken over by a hideous snake-like creature, one of a species known as the Goa'uld, who rule this planet and collect life-forms from around the galaxy to use as hosts. Jackson and O'Neill know that they can't save Sha're — but can they save themselves and Skaara before they're killed by the Goa'uld's guards and before Gen. Hammond sends a nuclear weapon through the stargate to destroy the planet?

Despite sneaking away with a rating of PG Stargate SG-1 contains graphic nudity with not just the butt-cheeks but breasts and vagina being visible as well which is a horrible way to start off a series especially one their trying to pass off as PG. It also contains graphic scenes kids and perhaps even some adults would find disturbing such as when the Gou'ald enter someone's body. This is a serious issue since there are many shows out that have a more lenient rating than they should such as Jaws(lots of blood and gore/pg rating), Poltergeist (nightmare central/pg rating), Gremlins(lots of swearing and violence/pg) etc.