200

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S10 (200)

Simply delightful, the way the series chose to celebrate it's 200th episode is to truly celebrate the series in as many different ways as possible, couched in a story about the TV show 'Wormhole X-Treme!' being turned into a film. Martin Lloyd, the alien who lives on Earth and wrote what we learn was a three-episode failure (that sold well on DVD, according to Teal'c), comes to the base to get SG-1's ideas for improvements to the script on the very day the Stargate breaks down and they're stuck there. Was it all a plot to get everyone together for a party, and if so was it more than just celebrating Mitchell's 200th trip through the 'gate? Whatever, it was actually quite emotional to see 'SG-1' old and new walking up that famous ramp into the Stargate: the new team, the old team, even Walter the technician. And O'Neill, they had to bring him back! I thought at first (knowing very little about the episode other than there would be some kind of 'Farscape' skit and puppets), they were just going to tease us, starting off as they did with a flashback to an 'untold adventure' when he became invisible. It was a good trick, until he actually speaks so you think if they got his services to provide the voice surely they'll have him there in person. But no, he shows up voicing a puppet version of himself from the pilot in a 'Thunderbirds' version of the series, poking fun at some of the lines (Carter's ridiculous 90s 'equality' springs to mind), and the young(er), fresh-faced team that started this whole thing ten years before.

With all the fun and games, countless in-joke after in-joke that laughs at both the series, its history, the genre, other sci-fi series', and the industry itself, you could forget what an immense achievement it was, and still is to this day, for a TV series, particularly science fiction, to last as long as it did. 'Smallville' may have matched it a matter of a few short years later, and other series' have since surpassed the record, but this was the first continuous series with original cast members still starring (others, like the 'Star Trek' franchise and 'Dr. Who' did many more episodes across spinoffs or continuations), to reach that milestone and it was right that they applauded themselves by taking an entire episode out. Right from the opening scene we're seeing a 'recap' of past events and then the Furlings show up, those mythical creatures named as one of the four major races who (I think, my 'Stargate' lore is a little lacking), co-created the Stargates, whom we were never going to see because they sounded so silly, and for a moment they had me. I was genuinely wondering if I'd missed something because I never remembered them being in… ah, it's all an idea for the film! Very clever, poking fun at their own lore, while giving us what we wanted to see: oversized teddy bears that are very reminiscent of large Ewoks, and I think it's fair to say that they were the call-out to 'Star Wars' in the episode, which also referenced both 'Farscape' (which, lest we forget, two of the current cast played the main characters), and 'Star Trek' (which they've often aped, in reality, though this time they're playing on the original 60s series, even recreating a little part of the Engine Room!).

Smile after smile lights up your face, and that's how it should be. Every other scene is 'worth the price of admission alone,' whether that be Vala's reimagining of 'The Wizard of Oz' (Teal'c as Tin Man was superb!), the teen version of 'SG-1,' recast with younger actors who are more emotional and always having personal issues (not so funny when you realise this joke became reality with 'Star Trek XI,' which came out around two years after this so they'd have been aware of its development at the time), to the great ideas bursting out of it. As much fun as it was to bring back some or all of the 'Wormhole X-Treme!' cast from the episode of the same name (I don't know the actor's names, although the woman was recognisable, but I assume they probably did get them back), I would have preferred the episode to end not with that cast doing DVD extras and being interviewed about their experiences (especially as it was ruder than the rest of the episode), but blink out with that shot of everyone going through the 'gate. I'm sure it'll be affecting when it finally comes time to watch the last episode of the series, except that I know there are still two TV films with the characters, and that most show up here and there as late as 'Stargate Universe,' so it's not truly goodbye. But if they can make it as beautiful an ending as the walk through the 'gate it'll be really something.

They got O'Neill back, they had Don S. Davis to voice General Hammond, or the puppet version of him, and they have a few other characters you'd expect (Siler's line about things always happening to him is fun), and I don't think they could have topped it for ideas. I just wanted to see more of them as 'Farscape' characters, and especially amusing that Ben Browder wasn't in his original role. Indeed (to quote Teal'c), my face threatened to explode with smiling so much and it's just so much fun. I do sometimes think they were a little too obvious, like pointing out this is 'The Wizard of Oz,' or this is 'Farscape,' but I suppose they didn't want to frighten away the casual viewers - though if there were casual viewers of the series tuning in for a tenth season you'd think they'd get the references that fall outside it, at least! But a real pleasure throughout and if I had the time I could go through and point out every funny thing, but if I was to do that I might as well just watch it again. The only sting in the tail, and I believe this is true, but I'm not a hundred percent certain, is that during the filming of this episode they were told this would be the final season. That seems incredibly insensitive to drop on a cast and crew when they've put so much effort into celebrating the series and it sounds ironically like the exact sort of thing the higher-ups would do. But there's still two-thirds of the season to go, so it's nose back to the grindstone and I hope they create more episodes as good as this to finish out with.

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