Changes abound in and around the SGC with the aftermath of the battle for Dakara and the attack by the Replicators on the base. Major General Jack O’Neill has moved on and his chosen replacement Major General Hank Landry has taken over and is having running battles with his “psychic” assistant one Master Sargent Walter Harriman. Lt Colonel Cameron Mitchell recovered from the battle over Antarctica against the forces of Anubis has taken over the command of SG1 and expected to be working with Sam, Daniel and Teal’c but they like Jack have moved on. He valiantly attempts to get the band back together but is getting nowhere until one Vala Mal Doran visits the SGC with a tablet and the promise of technology and treasure and low and behold everyone is off on a mission to track down the old haunts of Merlin and the buried secrets of the Ancients in and around Glastonbury.
A slight technical issue…
Well season nine heralds some significant changes for the show with Richard Dean Anderson becoming nothing more than an occasional guest and thus a full time replacement in the big chair is presented to use with Hank Landry played by Beau Bridges and in the field Cameron Mitchell played by Ben Browder. Vala Mal Doran played wonderfully by Claudia Black also has a strong presence in this season as is the move away from the tradition religions and cultures by embracing a more western European and more specifically Arthurian legends and myths.
Merlin Sword, Sword Merlin
It was certainly interesting to see how quickly the last three members of SG1 quickly looked to break away from the SGC, after so many years of blood, sweat and tears you can understand why they all may think they have done enough however Teal’c perhaps more than the other two has accepted a path which is more demanding and maybe just as dangerous, politics with starships as collateral in decision making. As with many of the two part stories within Stargate this first part is laying a lot of the groundwork for the pay off in the second and it needs it, it’s easy to get washed away with all the changes to characters and tweaking of the long established mythology but it will all pay off.
One huge decision by the producers and writers was to make sure the episode had it’s fair share of out and out humour and not ignoring the obvious Farscape connection between Ben and Claudia as well as playing up the concerns over the similar look/style of Michael and Ben. As we look back at this episode and ninth season we know many fans had issues and some never got over losing Jack as a focus for the show or even the use of Farscape talent to fill the gaps. I’ve no doubt the casting of both Ben and Claudia brought in some Farscape fans and it was probably a good marketing move but scifi fans can be picky, it’s always tricky dealing with change and the consequences but we did get more Stargate and is not a bad thing.
Now I know how River felt…
Huge thank you to Brad and GateTechAlfaSix for the audio feedback and everyone who posted on Facebook, G+ and on Twitter, the wrap up shows and poll results were well received and we are now back into the swing of things and will handle Alan’s moving home in our stride. Please feel free to get in touch with any comments about Stargate, Gatecast or scifi in general, we certainly do appreciate talking to people who share our enthusiasm for Stargate and the scifi/fantasy genre and an itunes review/rating is always appreciated:)
This weeks promo is for Aaron’s SciFiDig and next week we begin the second season of Stargate Atlantis, we hope you can join us for that.
Promo…
Links…
- Avalon Part 1 IMDB
- Avalon Part 1 Wiki
- Beau Bridges
- Ben Browder
- Claudia Black
- Obi Ndefo
- Gary Jones
- Bill Dow
- Martin Christopher
- Matthew Walker
- Claude Knowlton
- Tyler McClendon
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