Stargate SG-1 "Children of the Gods" - A Through the Gate Review
*Warning: Spoilers*
Welcome to the second instalment of ?Through the Gate?, a series of reviews covering the Sci-Fi phenomenon that is Stargate. The goal is to cover all 17 current seasons of the four Stargate series along with the movies and expanded universe materials to see if they deserve the awards and large fanbase that has been garnered over almost 16 years. The reviews will include summaries of the major plot points and so there may be spoilers, particularly in some of the more in-depth reviews like this one. In this review we shall be looking at the feature length pilot episode of Stargate SG-1 called ?Children of the Gods?. In fact there are a couple of different versions of this, but are all basically the same. Recently a ?Final Cut? was released on DVD that cut a few scenes, added a couple more, re-recorded certain lines of dialogue and updated some of the special effects. This version is more of a stand-alone feature as the original tied directly into the next episode. The syndication broadcast version (that you will see if it?s on TV) also omits a particular scene that I?ll discuss when we come to it. For this review I watched both the ?Uncut? and ?Final Cut? versions. Anyway enough preamble let?s get started!
Previously on Battlestar Galactica Stargate: An alien device was found in the sands of Egypt that can transport you to another world. A team lead by Colonel Jack O?Neill and Archaeologist Daniel Jackson travelled through the Stargate and discovered another race of humans. Long story short space aliens in the body of that guy from ?The Crying Game? tried to blow up the earth, they stopped him, and Daniel stayed behind with his hot new wife while the others went home. For a more detailed Synopsis read my review <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.196497-Stargate-1994-A-Through-the-Gate-Review> here, or see the film (it?s quite good). Children of the Gods takes place a few months later as we see a group of guards sitting in the Gateroom, with the Stargate covered by a tarp, playing cards with one another. The Stargate opens all of a sudden and the female guard walks towards it like an idiot. This impression is further confirmed as a small ball comes through the gate, she picks it up and it stuns her. Then a group of the Snake helmeted warriors we saw in the movie come through and proceed to shoot the other guards. One person finally rises the alarm and more guards come to their aid along with a bald General, the commander of the base. One of the warriors removes his helmet and is eyes glow like Ra?s did in the film. They pick up the unconscious guard and take her back through the Stargate. How they did this is a mystery as one of the rules of Stargate is that you can only travel one way; if you want to go back you have to redial the Stargate from your end, and none of the warriors left the room to do so. Anyway it is obvious that shit?s gotten real and there?s only one man for the job; Jack O?Neill (now spelt with two L?s and played by MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson).
<img height=250>http://www.gateworld.net/gallery/albums/sg1_season1/101-ChildrenOfTheGods-FinalCut/PDVD_0421.jpg
Our Hero, now with a Personality!
Brought out of retirement for the second time Jack is taken to Cheyenne Mountain where Stargate Command is situated in a secret bunker underneath NORAD; that way if Aliens invade through the Stargate they?ll have control of our nuclear missile command centre as well (smart move). Here Jack meets the new head of Stargate Command General George Hammond (played by the late Don S Davis). Analysis on the dead warriors reveals they are not human, and have some sort of pouch in their stomach that is present on both Males and Females (this is a continuity error with the later seasons as the females can?t become warriors). It turns out that Jack lied to everyone after the events of the movie and said he blew up the Stargate and all the villagers as he was supposed to do (in fact he just blew up Ra's space ship). General Hammond gets ready to send another nuke through the Stargate, but Jack confesses and tells them Daniel and the Villagers are still alive. They decide to send a team through to find out who it was who attacked them. This team consists of Jack, the team from the movie and new character Captain Samantha Carter (played by Amanda Tapping); a woman!
Sam (as she likes to be known) is, in the early episodes at least, too good of a character (bear with me). Having a useless female character that can?t fight and is always in need of rescuing is something I hate, and is seen as quite sexist. Sam, on the other hand, is too capable. She?s a fighter pilot, theoretical astrophysicist, super mechanic, hard fighting Air Force Captain. It comes off as a bit unbelievable at times. In her introduction I think the writers try a little too hard to establish her as not a ?Girly Girl? by playing Sam very aggressively and with the cringe worthy line to Jack ?Just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside doesn't mean I can?t handle whatever you can handle? (a line thankfully removed in the Final Cut DVD release). After that discussion of genitalia General Hammond gives them 24 hours to go to Abydos (the planet in the movie that was actually never given a name) and find Daniel Jackson to see what?s going on or he?ll send through the bomb.
Traveling through the Stargate the team meets up with Daniel (now played by Michael Shanks) and some of the villagers from the movie. Jack walks straight past Daniel and gives Skarra (a boy from the movie who helped them out) a big hug, and thus gives Jack far more character than Kurt Russell ever did. I turns out that no one has been through the gate from Abydos and they must have come from elsewhere as Daniel has discovered a room full of different Stargate addresses for other worlds. While they are there looking at the walls the bad guys from the beginning arrive through the Stargate and take Daniel?s wife Sha?re and Skarra; shooting several people in the process. One of Jack?s team sees the Stargate address of where they went to, but he is badly injured. Jack and Sam take the wounded team members along with Daniel back to Earth.
<img height=250>http://www.gateworld.net/gallery/albums/sg1_season1/101-ChildrenOfTheGods-FinalCut/PDVD_1071.jpg
They look so happy. One of them's bound to die
Meanwhile on a distant planet? The female guard from the very start is placed on some sort of altar. The glowy eyed man from earlier brings forth a woman who has a pouch in her stomach like the dead warriors. From it some snake like creature with point jaws emerges, looks at her, makes a noise, and recedes back into the pouch. The woman is killed while the camera does a close up on the face of one of the guards who watches with a look of concern.
Jack takes Daniel to his house where they share a few beers, and Daniel talks about Sha?re and how he fell in love with her. This is quite important as if you hadn?t seen the movie then you would feel no connection to her at all as she gets little screen time in this (or subsequent) episodes. Jack also talks about how him hand his wife got divorced soon after the death of his son, and how he can never forgive himself for what happened. This is another example of how Richard Dean Anderson is FAR better than Kurt Russell in this role. In the move Jack was quite a forgettable emotionless character, and had no real personality beyond stereotypical action movie cliché. RDA plays him as quite a light hearted guy who can be tough and serious when the situation calls for it.
Enough mushy feelings let?s get back to the action! Under orders of the President 9 teams are created to conduct missions through the Stargate, and Jack is put in charge of SG-1 along with Sam and Daniel. In the meantime Sam has put all the Stargate addresses from Abydos into the base?s supercomputer, and it should calculate their locations, and churn out 2-3 usable addresses a month (except on mid and end of season breaks where it?s used for the SGC?s bi-annual Starcraft tournament).
It is now Sha?re who is taken before Glowy eye guy (okay he?s called Apophis), and like before his guards tear her robe off and? WOW! That was unexpected! This is one of the most controversial scenes in Stargate and is omitted in the Final Cut and subsequent TV airings; even some of the DVD box sets don?t include it. Mine does however and let?s just say I was shocked when I saw it. Sha?re is totally naked, you see it all. In the previous scene like this the woman is covered up by camera angles, but not here. Now I?m not a prude, and I do have a certain fondness for the female form, but I hate this scene. While I saw some of the original TV runs I mainly know this show through the DVD releases, and Season 1 was one of the later seasons I bought (don?t ask me why) so this scene is TOTALLY out of place in SG-1, even in context of the episode it comes the hell out of nowhere. There is no other ?Adult? material in any other part of the episode or season. It was added because Showtime (the network that originally produced and aired the show) is a premium channel and the executives really wanted some nudity in it for the male viewers. The producers and writers hated the idea, but rolled with it as they wanted their show on the air. As such they shoved it in, and never came back to it. I?m glad it was cut from later versions, and don?t blame the producers or writers for it. Anyway same as before the woman with the snake comes out and rather than go back to the pouch it crawls up her body, in between her breasts (way to keep it classy Showtime), and enters into the back of her neck. The guard again looks very uncomfortable; mirroring my expression as I look around to see if my mother will walk through the door at any moment.
Puppies!
After that? incident SG-1 and SG-2 travel to the planet where Sha?re and Skarra were taken to rescue them. The planet (called Chulak) is full of evergreen forests; as is most of the galaxy since Vancouver only has so many different filming locations available. A group of pilgrims points the way to a nearby city as SG-2 stay and guard the Stargate. Yet again mistaken for gods SG-1 are invited to a banquet held by *dramatic music* Apophis! He shows off his new queen Sha?re who has been taken over by the alien parasite. Daniel goes to grab Sha?re, but is knocked to the ground by an energy wave from a device on Apophis? hand. Sam and Jack go to help but are also incapacitated by the guards.
They wake up in a large prison cell with two dozen other prisoners including Skarra. This touching reunion is cut short as Apophis and Sha?re enter with a troop of bodyguards and take some of the prisoners to become ?Children of the Gods? (see what they did there?) I.E. be implanted with an alien symbiote like Sha?re was. Daniel asks one of the guards if anything of the host survives, and he says no, and Daniel offers himself up for implantation. He is not taken, but Skarra is. During this the worried looking guard from earlier named Teal?c notices Jack?s digital watch and asks him where they come from. Daniel shows him by drawing the ?Earth? symbol from the Stargate in the sand despite the very same symbol being SEWED INTO SG-1?S SHIRT SLEEVES! Apophis takes Skarra and orders the guards to kill the rest. The guards advance and Jack shouts to Teal?c (who is in command of the guards) words to the effect of Jack: ?Don?t kill us? Teal?c: ?Ok? and Teal?c shoots the other guards while Jack blasts a hole in the wall with a fallen weapon and escapes with the rest of the prisoners and Teal?c. Now I know there was some foreshadowing with Teal?c looking unsettled before, but this heel turn is just too sudden for me. He only just met them, and he betrays his entire race and gods to go with these people that have done absolutely nothing to impress him besides wearing a digital watch; I guess he knows a good watch when he sees one. To be fair later episodes flesh out the period that lead up to his betrayal and showed why he did what he did, but in this episode it comes on too sudden. Also Jack instantly trusts him, and doesn?t think it?s a trick or deception.
<img align=right height=250>http://www.gateworld.net/gallery/albums/sg1_season1/101-ChildrenOfTheGods/photos/101_childrenofthegods_08.jpg
The group escapes and meets up with SG-2 before heading to the gate. Teal?c reveals that he is a Jaffa bred to serve their gods the Goa?uld of which Apophis is one. The Jaffa store immature Goa?uld (the snake like symbiotes) in their stomach pouches until they are mature enough to be implanted into a Human host. In return the Larval Goa?uld gives the Jaffa long life, improved strength, and perfect health. Apophis, Sha?re and Skarra are already at the gate and it is revealed that Skarra is evil now as well. They escape through the gate before Jack can see where they went to, and there is no way to find them. They have bigger problems as two Death Gliders (a sort of Alien fighter jet) attack the group, but they are brought down by SG-2?s rocket launchers. This was only the start as a force of ground troops advance towards them as they are totally outnumbered Daniel starts to dial the gate back to Earth. The battle scene that follows is actually pretty good as SG-2 use hidden Claymore mines to take out the first waves of troops as bullets and energy blasts are traded between the two groups. They manage to retreat through the gate, but Major Kowalski is knocked down and a Goa?uld form one of the dead Jaffa leaps out and jumps into him. They all make it through and congratulations all round as the team poses in a group shot in front of the Stargate. The camera then moves to Kowalski looking sinister as his eyes glow, and setting up the next episode (in the Final Cut the whole Kowalski Goa?uld part is cut to make the episode a more distinct narrative).
THE END
And that?s the very first episode of Stargate SG-1. Who would have though back then that it would last for 10 seasons and three spin off shows? So how does it stand up? Well I think it is a brilliant episode, and if you watch the Final Cut DVD it makes a good movie too. Now it is missing some of the grand scale of the Stargate move, but it didn?t have $50 million to kick about, and in many ways it?s better than it. The acting for a start is a lot better, particularly Richard Dean Anderson?s Jack O?Neill who actually has a personality now. Michael Shanks does a very good job of portraying Daniel Jackson, and it is almost exactly the same as James Spader?s performance (which was very good) it isn?t until later seasons that Shanks really makes Daniel his own, but never the less there are no complaints. Amanda Tapping does a good job as Sam Carter, despite a quite aggressive introduction. Again it takes a little while before the writers and the actor decides what to do with her. Christopher Judge doesn?t get much screen time as Teal?c, but he?s all right; he gets better as time goes on.
The sets are nice, the story is good, and doesn?t seem as rushed near the end as the movie did. The new musical score from Joel Goldsmith, while not as sweepingly grand as David Arnold?s in the movie, is tighter, and more focused on the character moments than the scenery. In fact that sentence does a good summation of the episode in relation to the movie. Where the film had big spaceship sequences and desert scenes with lots of extras ?Children of the Gods? is tighter and has more character development. As a TV pilot it does set up the rest of the show such as where Jack talks about the risk of the Goa?uld just sending space ships to destroy us without using the Stargate (a plot thread that hangs around the show for a while and is prominent in the Season 1 finale), and the search for Sha?re which is Daniel?s driving force for many seasons.
Overall I rate it as an excellent episode, and one that I tend to watch quite often (and not just for the Boobs).
-thenumberthirteen is the current owner of the <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Stargate-Fan-Club>Escapist Stargate Fan Club
Next time on Through the Gate: Stargate SG-1 Season 1
