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(More customer reviews)Looking back on the seventh season of "Stargate SG-1" it seems clear that the show was caught between the idea that this was the final season and an impulse to retool the series to keep in going into an eighth season. In short, I think if they knew then what they know now they would have done things differently, especially with the question of Richard Dean Anderson's status for season nine. When the new president made Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Jessica Steen) the new civilian head of the Stargate project that had a lot of interesting possibilities, both because of her gender and because she had an extensive background in diplomatic negotiations. But the two-part "Lost City" that ends this season becomes more about stopping Anubis from destroying the Earth than retooling the show and Weir is going to end up on "Stargate: Atlantis" (to be played by Torri Higginson). There is a lot that happens in those last three episodes, when President Hayes (William Devane) takes office and Anubis attacks, with the potential for more all sorts of interesting ramifications, more so than with what happens when the season starts.
That is when Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) returns from being an ascended being, albeit on an alien world without his memory ("Fallen"). This required getting rid of Jonas Quinn (Corin Nemec) to get the old gang back together again, which happens when Anubis download Jonas' memory and the Goa'uld attack Kelowna ("Homecoming"). Wisely, this is not the last appearance of Jonas for the season ("Fallout") as he becomes another one of recurring guest characters that are a major strength of the series. There are several Daniel Jackson stories that make a point of giving the actor interesting things to do, such as "Lifeboat," where his mind becomes a resting place for a bunch of alien minds, "Enemy Mine," which requires Jackson to show diplomatic skills, and big time flashbacks in "Chimera," to before Daniel first saw the Stargate. Overall, Jackson comes running to the rescue more often than any other character during this season (e.g., "Resurrection").
I understand now that Anderson had a reduced workload for Season 7 of "Stargate SG-1," and there are some interesting attempts to make the best of that situation, as when O'Neill is transformed into a teenage boy ("Fragile Balance"). For the most part the main tactic is to make O'Neill a supporting character and let the other characters do the heavy lifting. But when I look over the 21 episodes for the season it becomes clear that Teal'c (Christopher Judge) is primarily a supporting player for the year as well, with "Orpheus" and "Birthright" being the only episodes to really focus on Teal'c. You do have to admit, that nobody on the show milks a stare better than the big fella.
Overall, Season 7 is really Samantha Carter's season and Amanda Tapping has several episodes where she pretty much goes it alone. "Space Race" has her joining an alien pilot for a little intergalactic competition, while "Death Knell" finds Carter being hunted by the supers soldiers of Anubis after an attack on Earth's secret off-world base. In "Grace" Carter literally ends up alone when the Prometheus is attacked and she wakes up to find herself the only one on a ship drifting in deep space. The other characters show up as the angels of her better nature, which is the only way that Sam and Jack are ever going to have an honest conversation. She even has an actual boyfriend for an episode "Chimera," in a concerted effort to get rid of the "black widow" label that has plagued Carter. The unrequited love between Carter and O'Neill is pitch perfect, so just let them keep their unspoken thoughts and give this woman a social life. Of course we have to take this to an extreme and that would be the fantasies of Jay Felger ("Avenger 2.0").
The whole Anubis/Lost City bit ends up being equal parts time to beat another bigger and badder system lord and find a fitting end point for the series that can also work as a transition to the spinoff. In your free time you can speculate as to what they would have done differently knowing that there was going to be an eighth season of "Stargate SG-1," but I have to think there would have been some significant changes that would not have wrapped up things so quickly and conveniently. Besides, having read my Dante I have been patiently waiting for Robert Kinsey (Ronny Cox) to receive his comeuppance, and with everything that was happening in those final episodes that was a notable anticlimax.
The two main tensions in Season 7 are between the need to keep coming up with a bigger threat for SG-1 to face and the desire to keep the characters real. The former is represented by the super soldiers engineered by Anubis ("Evolution, Part 1") and Kinsey becoming Vice President ("Inauguration"), while the latter is at the heart of the two-part "Heroes," when reporter Emmett Bregman (Saul Rubinke) shows up at Cheyenne Mountain to document the Stargate project for some future posterity. The episode underscores the dangers inherent in what Stargate does, an idea which is revitalized by having the off-world focus being on SG-13, led by Colonel Dave Dixon (Adam Baldwin). The subtext for the episode is honoring the unsung heroes of the American military in the real world, and it certainly accomplished that goal and the performances are particularly memorable. Of course, the cast is given ample motivation given the script and the episode's emotional payoff.
While "Stargate SG-1, Season 7" is one of the weaker seasons for the series, it is still a pretty good science fiction show on a par with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Farscape." The common denominator, of course, is that the best stories are character driven and not just dressed up by computer-generated special effects. Part of the problem at this point is that the characters are so comfortable with each other that pushing them to new levels becomes extremely difficult. But at least with "Heroes," they proved that SG-1 can still make the effort and meet the challenge.
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