Spoilers below. Be warned.

I like watching Sci-Fi on TV, and have long enjoyed Stargate SG1. After seeing most of the first 7 series on TV I gradually bought the DVD sets. Then about a year ago I bought Season 8. Somehow between being busy and temporarily going ‘off’ Stargate I hadn’t got around to watching them until this last week, when I’ve watched almost all the S8 episodes over 3 or 4 viewing sessions.

At the end of S7 the team locate the Atlantis stargate, opening the way for the Stargate Atlantis series that was presumably filmed at the same time as Season 8 of SG1. There has to be something that explains the incredibly patchy nature of S8, along with its strange plots that seem to reflect budget problems.

At the beginning of the Season O’Neill is promoted to general, so the lovely Samantha Carter is promoted to lead the SG1 team. Her team goes off through the gate to do something I don’t recall, but they promptly fall down a hole or something and get ‘lost’, which leaves all the action to their ‘backup’ team. Not a good start for Sam.

Then, for no apparent reason, the SG1 team spend the nest few episodes doing not a lot, hanging round the base. Not a good follow-on for Sam, though occasionally she gets to wear some really great gear.

Presumably the budget was being spent on Atlantis. Finally there’s some action. Cool! Explosions, gun fights and all that. The lovely Claudia Black appears too. Apparently in later Seasons she will be a recurring character.

Then we have several weird do-nothing episodes, a couple of them nothing more than clip shows. Yawn. I haven’t season the two-part season ender yet, but let’s hope it shows off Sam’s leadership skills.

Oh, along the way we’ve seen Carter’s evil twin: Replicator Carter. She’s pretty cool, although most of her evil ways involve plunging her hand into people’s foreheads to extract their thoughts and memories.

Still, for all its flaws, S8 has reminded me that I do enjoy Stargate SG1, so I’ve bought S9 too. I won’t be waiting so long to watch that. In fact, I foresee a fun weekend of DVD viewing ahead.

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