Politics

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S1 (Politics)

On the one hand you have the dreaded clips show, an excuse to save money and repeat parts of previous episodes. On the other it's an opportunity to recap events from the season, and put everyone on the same page ready for the last episode, while adding some pre-finale tension about the future of the series itself. I find myself pulled in both ways, but although I usually find clips episodes a real drag, I did enjoy the verbal sparring around the edges, as SG-1 unite against Senator Kinsey. It makes sense to remind viewers of some main points and characters of the season, but as proof for and against the Stargate program it seemed there wasn't really enough material to definitively decide, which was a weakness of the central idea.

I feel it would have worked better if they'd done such a story later in the series' run when there were more pertinent points to include. As it is, the clips aren't too long and arduous, and we're nicely set for the final episode, but it pretty much is just people talking in a room, and you kind of sense the idea could have been improved. I expect at the time, not knowing if the series would survive, it could have been an effective cliffhanger, and maybe the series would have ended with this kind of threat, had Season One been a failure, but knowing that all the characters will be around for some years does lesson the impact quite a bit.

**