I recently discovered that iTunes has this season’s episodes of Stargate SG1 available for download, so when I realized that I’d missed the TV airing of the 200th episode, I thought, "Man, I don’t want to wait for the DVDs on that one; I ought to download it!"
So I did.
WOW!
That has to be the most . . . what’s the term? . . . psychedelic? . . . parody-filled? . . . loony? . . . oh, heck, I don’t know. But it was the most SOMETHING episode ever.
The 200th episode–titled "200" (a number they give a meaning to within the episode itself)–is a sequel to the show’s 100th episode, which was not titled "100" but "Wormhole X-Treme!", which hilariously parodied not only Stargate SG1 itself but also the way the cable TV industry works.
This time, they go beyond that, doing parodies of, well . . .
1) Stargate SG1 itself,
2) Stargate SG1 parodying itself as Wormhole X-Treme,
3) The TV industry,
4) The movie industry,
5) Detective shows
6) Stupid efforts to revamp shows to make them younger and hipper
7) Star Wars,
8) Star Trek,
9) Farscape,
10) The Wizard of Oz, and . . . and . . .
11) a parody of something that is so BIZARRE that I’m not even going to tell you what it is so that it won’t spoil the surprise.
The last of these involves a re-envisioning of SG1’s origin that, once again, has a tongue-in-cheek return of the absolute WORST, MOST HORRIBLE, OVER-THE-TOP line EVER written in Stargate history. It originally appeared in the pilot episode and was delivered by (then) Capt. Samantha Carter. The actress who plays her–Amanda Tapping–complained so much about the line that now whenever we see an alternate version of the team’s origin (whether in another timeline or whatever) they bring back the line to mock how horrible it was.
They also (sorta) fulfill the promise to let us finally see the missing "Fifth Race," the Furlings–who we learned existed back in Season 1 and have never seen even though we’re now in Season 10. (Personally, I’m disappointed with what they did on this one, though it was funny, and I hope they fix it before the end of the current–and last–season.)
This episode, for fans of the series, is simply amazing. The amount of parody crammed into it is stunning, and they even managed to pull off a thoughtful ending (pictured, believe it or not, above).
Now, for those of you who missed the episode and don’t have iTunes . . . YouTube to the rescue!
This has to be one of the most heavily YouTubed TV episodes of a show ever, and–in fact–it seems you can watch the whole thing via YouTube:
PART ONE / PART TWO / PART THREE / PART FOUR / PART FIVE
…Providing that one can access YouTube at all.
What was the line Amanda had to say that was so horrible?
The infamous line was, “I’m an Air Force officer just like you are, Colonel. And just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside doesn’t mean I can’t handle whatever you can handle.”
I really enjoyed the parody and fun they had with that episode especialy the Wizard of Oz takeoff and the puppet version.
Too bad SciFi channel is giving the show the ax and that this is the last season. Stargage Atlantis will be the only Stargate. Though the producers of the show have hinted at continuing the series on another network.
I remember the first time they came up with the Zat, one shot stuns, two shots kills and three disinegrates. That last part just killed me as oh so bad writing. Now they make fun of that as well.
What an incredibly great bad line of dialogue! And she said that with a straight face?
I just saw that line for the first time (a friend lent me Season 1 on DVD last week). Yes, Larry0, she says it with a straight face. Remember that these episodes were being filmed in the mid 90’s, the era of “GI Jane.” In those days they felt it necessary to make a big deal of having strong women in traditionally male roles.
So in addition to being perfectly crude and inappropriate to the context (she’s supposed to be a military professional speaking to another military professional at a briefing), it also completely dates the episode.
defending the Church…
But then watching shows and promoting shows contrary to the Church,
at a minimum lack of Catholic Spirit.
So Jimmy’s a bad Catholic because he watches a few sci-fi series?
nope, just one like us, unperfect sinful and vile.
Its just its not a good idea to promote shows depicting demonic-creatures (Demons (all angels) can manipulate matter, so those alien encounters, could be diabolical) living with humans.
If you are not doing the best things in the world, don’t promote it.
So weird looking creatures equal demons and fictional advanced technology equal demonic arts? That’s just silly.
I think the way they ended “200” summed up what science fiction is rather nicely:
“Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said, ‘Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today—but the core of science fiction, its essence … has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.'”
Having seen most of the SG-1 episodes, I’d have to say that the show comes a far cry closer to making some really good Catholic points than a lot of shows out now. Am I the only one who saw the anti-contraception theme peeking through in “2010”? Not trying to say that the show is perfect…but is it really *that* bad? Just a thought…
One could argue that SG-1 adheres to a sort of modern day, yet sci-fi-y gnosticism. But I think if you look hard enough, you can find notions of God, at least in a “man behind the curtain” kind of way.
My main case in point is ascension. Ascension requires knowledge that can only be attained in two ways: one, being significantly “evolved” enough to comprehend, or two, assistance from an already-ascended person. Dr. Daniel Jackson has many times referred to the Ancients as being “more evolved” than present day humans. Scientifically speaking, evolution is genetic adaptation to an environment that promotes survival, whereas Stargate seems to treat it as a means to an end. What does that leave us with? Intelligent Design.
Then again, there’s also the fact that I spent the time to extrapolate a rather silly, illogical statement on a television show into something that made sense instead of doing one of the gazillion more important things I need to do. Oh well…
Then there was the episode on a Catholic planet that had had no lawfully ordained clergy for many hundreds of years. They should have ended with a side angle shot of Fr. Pacwa heading through the gate 😉
The puppet version was hilarious! After they went through the wormhole, I had to hit the pause butting until I stopped laughing so I could watch the rest of the show. Thanks for the links Jimmy.
Butting? Wha? I haven’t had my coffee yet.
Button.
I also liked the episode (I don’t remember which one) in which a character explained why the evil alien race impersonated various gods but never Christ.
David Seifker-2010- is that the one where the aliens come and solve all their problems- such as aging and disease, ect but at the expense of destroying womens reproductive organs- when the future Sam and her husband try to have a baby they finally find out that her ovaries were damaged and in fact the birth rate had declined 90% on earth? That the aliens were killing them not outright but causing no human to be able to reproduce?
Maybe I should give SG1 another try!
When it first came out, I though it sounded interesting, but I came into the room when some of my family was watching it, and I arrived in the middle of the first episode, just in time to hear that absolute WORST, MOST HORRIBLE, OVER-THE-TOP line EVER written in Stargate history. I think I left Stargate then and never came back.