Stargate SG-1: Season 03 (1999-00)

SG-1: Season 03 (1999-00)

Dirs. Various | 22 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

The Season 02 finale didn't have an actual 'To be Continued...' ending, but the first episode of Season 03 continues the story as if it had done, and it almost manages to make up for the first half being a disappointing clips-show.

Thereafter things progress steadily, with the search for new alliances and technology that can be used and/or adapted to combat the diabolical Goa'uld System Lords being the primary driving force for most of the Tau'ri (humans from Earth).

Well, that's true for the higher-ups. But for Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), the non-military member of SG-1, the member that typically serves as conscience and compass in times of moral conflict, his primary goal is to find his wife Sha're (Vaitiare Bandera), who was taken by Apophis in the Season 01 Pilot episode.

As understandable as it would be, it would get annoying if Daniel was constantly pinning for his lost love, so most of the time it focuses on his thirst for knowledge and his bleeding-heart sensibilities, both of which frequently put him in opposition to Jack (Richard Dean Anderson).

"Has anyone seen my wi— Oh, look, a shiny cartouche that needs translating..."

On a basic level Daniel is the 'clever nerd' type, but good writing and characterisation take him quickly beyond that. His linguistic and anthropological skills make him an invaluable member of the team, with the added advantage that he's not US military, so can make choices and/or decisions that Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter are denied and can say things that would be 'out of turn' for the soldiers. For many people he's the member of SG-1 that they identify with.

SG-1 isn't like Babylon 5 wherein every episode adds something to the ongoing arc, but a lot of episodes do have such importance. The ones that are crucial to the arc this season are:

Ep. 03: Fair Game rewards someone for their contribution to the team and alludes to a non-Goa'uld threat that'll feature heavily in later episodes.

Ep. 15: Pretense gathers some past characters together to comment on an underlying concern. It's a little like Star Trek: TNG's Season 02 episode The Measure of a Man, but not quite as good.

Ep. 22: Nemesis, the season finale, takes place in some new repeating corridors and has one of my favourite non-human cast members. The enemy that the team must face is numerous, which is a challenge in itself, but their design also taps into a very primal fear that a significant amount of the population share, making them seem even more menacing.

Of the 'smaller' episodes, I really liked Ep 05: Learning Curve with its smart kids; Ep 06: Point of View was a good old sci-fi alternate reality story; and finally Ep 21: Crystal Skull had some very dodgy green screen that reminded me of Knightmare, but ultimately it had real heart.