First we had Ra. Ra was big, Ra was powerful, until his ship was blown up with him inside of it by Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neil (Only One "L" originally).
The one thing that was established in the Stargate Film that was passed into the series, was that Ra, while being powerful and big, and possibly even intelligent, was also fairly stupid. At least, stupid as far as Homo Sapiens are concerned- Humans who blew him to atom-sized smithereens in that film's too-easy conclusion.
Then in 1997 "Children of the Gods" debuted on Showtime, and it became known that Ra was only one of many parasitic Alien "Gods" (named "The Goa'Uld"), and from there Stargate SG-1 was a series of by-the-skin-of-the-teeth escapes from extinction, while the bad guys escalated until SG-1 and their allies faced Anubis and Replicators at the same time. Remember that The Goa'Uld were easily defeated by "The Asgard" and that The Asgard were getting their Pale Skinny Lil Arses beat by The Replicators, who in turn were susceptible to the technology of "The Ancients" (aka, The Alterrans)- Making the Alterrans (Ancients) the most powerful god-like aliens of SG-1.
The story of the Ancients had been woven in to the series since the first season, finally it appears we will get to see them. That was why I was excited about these next three episodes. And at first it seems like we are to be rewarded our 8 years of waiting by finally meeting "The Ancients".
The show had more shocks added, SG-1 had been broken up, Daniel on his way to Atlantis, Teal'c occupied with the Free Jaffa Nation on Dakara, and Carter burying herself in Technobabble.
But thanks to the cancellation of Farscape and the re-assignment of it's two principle actors Ben Browder and Claudia Black, SG-1 is saved from retirement, thanks to Colonel Cameron Mitchell (Browder) and Vala Mal Daran (Ms. Black). We remember Vala from "Prometheus Unbound" when she kind of claimed Daniel forever, here she returns to Stargate Command to enforce that claim. Mitchell's introduction is a series of "Flashbacks" which kind of insert him into the story during the last part of "Lost City".
At the end of Season 8 all of the bad guys had been beaten. Hooray, the show could have ended when Richard Dean Andersen semi-retired. But what we have here is Richard's role reduced to special guest appearances, a slight change in production, and of course they had to create a brand new Wormhole Effect. And, least but not Last, they had to come up with Bad Guys that were worse than Replicators + Goa'Uld combined. But this first part merely hints at such things, yea verily: In a way, this first part is Arthurian Misdirection, to get us off balance when the new bad guys are revealed. "And then there's cake".
The one thing that was established in the Stargate Film that was passed into the series, was that Ra, while being powerful and big, and possibly even intelligent, was also fairly stupid. At least, stupid as far as Homo Sapiens are concerned- Humans who blew him to atom-sized smithereens in that film's too-easy conclusion.
Then in 1997 "Children of the Gods" debuted on Showtime, and it became known that Ra was only one of many parasitic Alien "Gods" (named "The Goa'Uld"), and from there Stargate SG-1 was a series of by-the-skin-of-the-teeth escapes from extinction, while the bad guys escalated until SG-1 and their allies faced Anubis and Replicators at the same time. Remember that The Goa'Uld were easily defeated by "The Asgard" and that The Asgard were getting their Pale Skinny Lil Arses beat by The Replicators, who in turn were susceptible to the technology of "The Ancients" (aka, The Alterrans)- Making the Alterrans (Ancients) the most powerful god-like aliens of SG-1.
The story of the Ancients had been woven in to the series since the first season, finally it appears we will get to see them. That was why I was excited about these next three episodes. And at first it seems like we are to be rewarded our 8 years of waiting by finally meeting "The Ancients".
The show had more shocks added, SG-1 had been broken up, Daniel on his way to Atlantis, Teal'c occupied with the Free Jaffa Nation on Dakara, and Carter burying herself in Technobabble.
But thanks to the cancellation of Farscape and the re-assignment of it's two principle actors Ben Browder and Claudia Black, SG-1 is saved from retirement, thanks to Colonel Cameron Mitchell (Browder) and Vala Mal Daran (Ms. Black). We remember Vala from "Prometheus Unbound" when she kind of claimed Daniel forever, here she returns to Stargate Command to enforce that claim. Mitchell's introduction is a series of "Flashbacks" which kind of insert him into the story during the last part of "Lost City".
At the end of Season 8 all of the bad guys had been beaten. Hooray, the show could have ended when Richard Dean Andersen semi-retired. But what we have here is Richard's role reduced to special guest appearances, a slight change in production, and of course they had to create a brand new Wormhole Effect. And, least but not Last, they had to come up with Bad Guys that were worse than Replicators + Goa'Uld combined. But this first part merely hints at such things, yea verily: In a way, this first part is Arthurian Misdirection, to get us off balance when the new bad guys are revealed. "And then there's cake".