Warning! Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk!
Ah… The joys of being able to watch a TV season straight through without all that waiting around a week or a summer to see the next episode. Prior to Netflix we would have had to buy a season of a show or borrow it from a friend, both of which we have done, to have such an experience.
Season three of SG-1 was good. I did feel it dropped off in quality overall this season, but only very, very slightly. This show has been amazingly consistent so far between seasons. SG-1 continued its diplomatic efforts with the Asgard and other races, and its fight against the Goa’uld by killing off Hathor and Seth. It also seems like Sokar is dead too, but you never know. And man, how about that Apophis? He’s harder to kill than a Scream villain.
Ok, now for a few minor complaints:
They changed the opening titles and I didn’t like that. Sure, the season one and two opening titles were pretty standard TV show fare: The names of the cast members fade in and out as images of the characters flash across the screen, ending in that awesome shot of the Death Glider crashing in a fiery explosion. For season three they changed it to a copy of the opening titles of the movie: cast members names appear and disappear on the screen as the camera pans across some ancient artifact to finally zoom out to reveal that it’s like a mummy mask or something. I dig the consistency with the movie, but it just wasn’t as fun.
Ok, this next thing is more of an observation, not necessarily a complaint. It seems like writers can’t come up with a major baddie that isn’t in some way like the Borg from Star Trek. After all, the Goa’uld steal the bodies of humans and use them for hosts. They’re scary for the same reason that the Borg are scary: they steal their victims’ individuality. The season finale then introduces us to a new baddie: the Replicators. These guys are little robotic spiders that that just exist to consume resources and multiply, and they act as a collective. I know I’m jumping ahead a little bit, but in episode one of season four Teal’c even advises some Air Force dudes that the Replicators will leave you alone if you don’t pose a threat to them.
I have to confess that I really don’t care for the Replicators as a bad guy. They just come across as goofy. They’re about as scary as your kid’s toys would be if they came alive and started attacking you. Wait, come to think of it that’d be pretty frightening actually… At least the Goa’uld are interesting. They pose as ancient Earth gods and therefore bring in some culture to the show. And since in ancient days they took tons of humans through the Earth stargate and made slaves of them on hundreds of worlds they give the SG-1 team new people to get to know.
Anyway, still enjoying it. Can’t wait to see what all season four has in store!
