Episode 1: Air

After an attack by The Lucian Alliance, a ragtag group of military and civilians who were touring a Stargate facility, escape through the gate, only to arrive on an Ancient ship on the other side of the universe. They find themselves unable to go back, and must figure out how to surive. Featuring a guy who's good at video games, a mad scientist, Carter and O'Neil from SG1, a high ranking military officer with trust issues, an overzealous senator, the well-meaning daughter of the overzealous senator,  and the vastness of space.


Episode 2: Space
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Way back in season five, we were introduced to these little stone things that allow a person's consciousness to travel across space and interact with people on other planets. Luckily, the crew had some of these plot devices handy when they ended up on the ship, so they can communicate with Earth and Stargate Command. After leaving the mad scientist behind on a planet, the military commander decides to check in with SGC, only to find his consciousness on a different alien ship, along with some familiar hostages.


Episode 3: Incursion/Intervention

As they are trapped on a spaceship that only allows them periodic trips through the Stargate to visit nearby planets for supplies, there isn't a lot of room for bad guys on this show. It's mostly about the power struggle between the various crew members, none of whom are evil, though a few are misguided. To help make this more interesting, the writers fling The Lucian Alliance across space and on to the ship, making the show Even More Like Voyager, as we now have a crew of American Military and Civilians (Federation) and a crew of Lucian Alliance (the Maquis) forced to integrate in order to survive while they figure out a way home. This episode also features the final time a cast member from SG1 appears.


Episode 4: Awakening

Destiny (the name of the Ancient ship) comes across another Ancient ship. Sadly, instead of hijinks ensuing, broodiness ensues. But it's, at least, interesting broodiness.


Episode 5: The Greater Good

Another abandoned ship? Man, aliens are Wasteful. Let's hope this one turns out to be less troublesome than the one from the last episode.


Episode 6: Twin Destinies

Rather than introduce an alien race for the crew of Destiny to have to battle with, the chief antagonists, as the series winds down, is a fleet of drones. They don't know if there's an alien race tracking them, or whether the drones are a new type of life form. All they know is that every time they come out of hyperspace, drones are waiting to attack them. It's a pretty nifty way to keep the Cast In A Bottle premise while still having an Outside Of The Bottle threat. This episode also features one of those cool Time Travel Means There Are Two Versions Of The Same Character storylines.


Episode 7: Common Descent

While trying to work out a new way to avoid the drones, a landing party from Destiny discovers...their descendents. Yea, turns out that the events from the last episode that resulted in two mad scientists actually created an entirely different timeline, wherein the crew didn't stay on Destiny, and were forced to build a new society on another planet. And because time is wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, they now have the opportunity to meet their own descendents. This would have made an excellent end to the entire series.


Episode 8: Epilogue

The crew and their descendents find a library where they all get to see how they lived and how they died in the alternate timeline. This would also have made an excellent end to the series.


Episode 9: Blockade

Still unable to avoid the drones, the mad scientist, the gamer, and the scientist who the gamer ended up marrying in the alternate timeline run the ship on a risky maneuver through a star while the rest of the crew is evacuated to a planet where, surely, no drones will be around. This would have also also made an excellent end to the series.


Episode 10: Gauntlet

Despite all the opportunities in this season for an excellent conclusion, this episode manages to be The Best. The only solution to the drone problem that the crew can come up with is to go into stasis for a thousand years. The problem being that there aren't enough pods for everyone, and in order to keep the pods running, the ship will only have two weeks worth of life support for anyone who stays behind.

While I was living in the intolerable flesh oven of Mesa, Arizona, I worked for a family who obsessively watched Stargate. I liked the family, and I liked the episodes, but it was the  fifth or sixth season, and things were constantly being explained to  me. Things I probably didn't need to know.

I'm not sure what possessed me to trackdown the movie, and start to watch the series it inspired, but I've decided to do another condensed series chronology a la my Star Trek and Doctor Who recommendations. I'm aiming for ten seasons of ten episodes each, but there's always some wriggle room.

Stargate is basically Star Trek where Earth is the ship most episodes originate from. There's a ton of classic sci-fi tropes, conspiracy theories, and completely incorrect science. For this chronology, I'm focused on interesting character studies, cool (even if technically incorrect) science, and drama that isn't quite melodrama (despite the swelling Stargate theme). I've left out some major episodes that introduce characters and plots that come up later because I care more about where a story goes than when it  begins. But each of these episodes should be easy to follow,even if you've never seen any previous episode.

Season seven saw the end of the main SG1 story, and a more in-depth Atlantis storyline. This penultimate season will see the end of what we've come to know as Stargate, there will be one more season but it will mostly feature entirely new characters, and it is hella darker than what we've experienced so far. So enjoy this final fun sci-fi season with O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Weir, Sheppard, McKay, Mitchell, Hammond, Harriman, et. al

Episode 1: Midway
(Carter,  Teal'c, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Lee, Chuck, Kavanaugh)

Wraiths on a plane! Ok, in a stargate. This might have been a sort of ho-hum formulaic Atlantis adventure except for the first time Teal'c meets Dex and the two of them don't precisely hit it off. There's also the fun, never before been explored interactions between Sheppard, McKay, and Lee from SG1, but the Teal'c/Dex interactions are the true highlight. If they'd killed every other character in the universe off and turned the final Atlantis season into a Teal'c/Dex buddy cop show, they would have been renewed for an additional ten seasons.


Episode 2: Search & Rescue
(Carter,  McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Woolsey, Keller, Caldwell, Lorne)

Atlantis crew members get trapped under rubble during a mission, Michael's hybrids attack, Teyla is having her baby, and Carter is replaced as Atlantis's first in command. Her replacement is familiar but unexpected. Dun dun dun?


Episode 3: The Ark Of Truth
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Hammond, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Ellis, Merlin, Adria)

The end of the Ori storyline! This is sort of a neat little bow to the final few seasons of SG1 with a bit of fan service. It's pretty good, but not the stellar ending that the series deserved. Still, it's nice to know how the storyline would have panned out if they'd had another season.


Episode 4: Continuum
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Hammond, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Apophis, Ba'al)

This is the sendoff the show deserved. The Jaffa track down the final Ba'al clone and invite SG1 for the ceremony where they remove and kill the final Goa'uld symbiote. But, uhhh...Ba'al had some serious plans for this, yo. It's an alternate timelin/time travel adventure with all of the major players from the series except Bra'tac. It's hugely fun with a definitive ending that isn't doom and gloomy nor does it completely shut the door on the characters if they ever decided to do have another run at it.


Episode 5: Daedalus Variations
(McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Zelenka, Lorne)

Continuing with alternate timeling adventures, a small crew of SGAtlantis finds an alternate version of the Daedalus ship and hop on it, only to find that it's continually jumping to different dimensions. Can they get back to original flavor Atlantis, or will this be used as a cool device to bring back Weir, Carter, and other characters who have moved on from the series?


Episode 6: Ghosts In The Machine
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Woolsey, Zelenka, Chuck)

Oh shit! Weir IS back. Kind of? Maybe? Ummm...Replicators are certainly back.


Episode 7: First Contact/The Lost Tribe
(Jackson, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Woolsey, Caldwell, Keller, Zelenka, Todd)

All Daniel Jackson has wanted to do since season four is get to Atlantis. And while he did get to spend some time there in season six, this is his first adventure with members of the Atlantis staff. And they discover a whole new alien race who will change every...aren't there only a couple of episodes left? Wouldn't this be easier if they turned out to NOT be an entirely new race? Oooh, ooh! Or they could be the blue people from Deadalus Variations. Who even were those aliens?


Episode 8: Prodigal
(McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Woolsey, Zelenka, Lorne, Michael)

Michael the Hybrid has been a pain in the tuchus since his inception. He's now invaded Atlantis to steal Teyla's baby. I mean, also to destroy Atlantis, and kill everyone, but mostly to get the baby.


Episode 9: Vegas
(McKay, Sheppard, Woolsey, Zelenka, Lorne, Todd)

This is a weird episode. I mean Very Weird. Especially so late in the series. Instead of a Stargate episode, it's a CSI Las Vegas episode.  No, really. The zippy transitions, rock and roll cliche soundtrack, the visual flash over the clues. It's totally CSI Las Vegas but with Sheppard as the detective, Kellar as the morgue technician, and McKay and Woolsey as FBI agents. It's completely weird. But it does invovle the Wraith, and it does have very severe consequences that set up the final episode. But, like, imagine if the second to last ever episode of the X-Files had been Law & Order Area 51 with Mulder as the district attorney, Scully as the morgue technician, Skinner as a judge and The Lone Gunmen as the detectives who find the body of Cigarette Smoking Man. It would have been weird, right?


Episode 10: The Enemy At The Gate
(Carter, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Woolsey, Beckett, Harriman, Zelenka, Caldwell, Ellis, Lorne, Kavanaughm, Todd)

This is it. The end of Stargate Light. Thanks to the wacky Las Vegas episode, the Wraith learned the location of Earth, and they're going there for a feeding frenzy unless the Atlantis crew can stop them. Or if Carter can stop them from Earth's Stargate Command. Someone has to stop them or the whole Stargate franchise will be forced to become all mopey and dark.

Episode 1: Counterstrike
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Bra'tac, Mitchell, Val, Landry, Harriman, Adria)

Having spent the previous six seasons fighting for their freedom from the Goa'uld, the Jaffa have decided they are not going to sit around and wait for the Ori to enslave or kill them, and they're not going to wait for us Earthlings to act, either. Is this the end of the alliance?


Episode 2: The Quest
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Val, Merlin, Adria, Ba'al)

Is this the beginning of a new alliance? The weapon necessary to defeat the Ori is protected by a...dragon?A super unlikely teamup with The Most Cloned Goa'uld Ever and Val's Very Difficult Daughter get together. Maybe there's hope for the future?


Episode 3: The Shroud
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Val, Woolsey, Landry, Adria)

The Ori colonize planets by sending Proctors with doomsday messages to convert the natives. But there's a new proctor with a new approach making the rounds. It's....Daniel Jackson? Are we in dark time line territory?


Episode 4: Sunday
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex,  Zelenka, Chuck, Lorne)

After all the SG1/Ori drama, it's time to check back in with Atlantis, where it's a nice and calm day with no Wraith or Replicators. Just the residue of something Ancient that certainly won't blow up in their faces. At least not literally. 


Episode 5: First Strike
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex,  Zelenka, Keller, Chuck, Lorne, Ellis, Oberoth)

Pre-emptive strikes are usually bogus reasons for going to war with a perceived threat. So when a new ship arrives from Earth and tells Weir and Atlantis they're going to launch a pre-emptive attack on The Replicators, they are not welcomed as heroes. 


Episode 6: Adrift/Lifeline
(Carter, Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex,  Zelenka, Keller, Lee, Ellis, Chuck, Oberoth)

The....uhhh....pre-emptive attack didn't go well, and now Atlantis is at war with The Replicators, and they're going to need to find an entirely new way to defend the city.

​
Episode 7: Dominion
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Val, Landry, Adria)

A "chicken cordon bleu of enemies" is created when Adria is captured by Ba'al and implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote. We don't know whether or not the Ori were destroyed by Merlin's weapon, but a new superrace of two of Earth's largest threats can't be good.
 

Episode 8: Unending
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Val, Landry, Harriman, Thor)

The Asgard are ready to ascend their entire race, which means they are finally willing to give all of their technology and knowledge to Earth. Unfortunately, right after the exchange is made, the Ori show up. This was the last ever episode of SG1, though there are two movies, and several cameos of the original cast waiting in season eight.


Episode 9: The Seer
(Carter,  McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Woolsey, Keller, Chuck, Todd)

Carter is the new head of Atlantis. Teyla is pregnant. The Wraith are still a threat. SO Teyla brings a pyschic to see how Atlantis can survive going forward.


​Episode 10: Be All My Sins Remembered
(Carter,  McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Zelenka, Keller, Caldwell, Ellis, Chuck, Todd)

We end the season with the alliance between Atlantis and a faction of The Wraith against, well, other factions of The Wraith. It wouldn't have been a bad ending for the entire series, but we still have two more seasons to go.

 Episode 1: Ripple Effect
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Frasier, Martouf, Harriman, Landry, Lam, Lee, Ksavir)

My favorite episode ever. That whole black hole suctioning the Stargate from season one is still causing problems. This time, it's allowing SG1 teams from multiple dimensions to end up in the main universe. So many Carters, Jacksons, Tealcs, Mitchells, and even some familiar faces who died in previous seasons. 


Episode 2: Sateda
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex, Beckett, Caldwell, Chuck)

Khal Drogo's tragic backstory is revealed when he is recaptured by the Wraith and returned to his life as a runner.


Episode 3: Crusade
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Chekov)

I've avoided some of the tropiest of episodes, even though they are often fan favorites. This episode features a good old fashioned Freaky Friday body switch between Vala and Jackson, as we learn more about the Ori's plans. Oh, and the Russians want their Stargate back.


Episode 4: Camelot
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Chekov, Merlin, Ba'al, Adria)

We're Knights of the Round Table,
We dance when ere we're able,
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable.
We dine well here in Camelot,
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot. 

The team find the planet of Merlyn
They send his defenses swirlin'
Mitchell has to fight
The Damned Black Knight
before the plot starts unfurlin'.


Episode 5: Flesh & Blood
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Vala, Bra'tac, Landry, Harriman, Woolsey, Chekov, Adria)

It's a baby shower for Vala's rapidly aging Orichrist! And there's a whole fleet of Ori ships in our galaxy to help us celebrate!


Episode 6: Progeny
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex,  Zelenka, Chuck, Oberoth)

Wraith wraith wraith. Wraith wraith wraith. Wraith Genii Wraith. Wraith wraith rut. Atlantis needs a new enemy. SG1 had a really cool backup alien race for when the Goa'uld saga got boring. Atlantis decides to visit the Ancients to get cool new enemies of their own.


Episode 7: Common Ground
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex,  Beckett, Chuck, Kolya, Radim, Todd)

Those damned Genii rebels capture Sheppard and put him in a cell with his new prison buddy, Todd The Wraith. 


Episode 8: McKay & Mrs Miller
(Carter, Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Dex,  Zelenka, Chuck)

I tend to skip episodes that focus on Rodney McKay, as he's easily the most annoying main character in Stargate history, but the story about his sister's achievements is fun, as it includes a less annoying alternate version of Rodney McKay because Stargate loooooooooooves alternate versions of main characters.


Episode 9: Pegasus Project
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Vala, Weir, Mckay, Harriman, Woolsey, Zelenka, Merlin, Emerson, Chuck)

The first full crossover of the two Stargate shows! (Carter helped McKay in the last episode.) Daniel Jackson finally gets to Atlantis while searching for Merlyn's weapon. Both the Ori and the Wraith wreak havoc on oppoiste sides of the supergate.


Episode 10: Return 
(O'Neill, Harriman, Woolsey, Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Lee, Dex, Beckett, Zelenka, Chuck, Radim, Todd)​

The Ancients return to reclaim Atlantis, and they want Stargate Command gone. This episode also serves as a crossover as a long unseen SG1 character returns to end the season. 

While I was living in the intolerable flesh oven of Mesa, Arizona, I worked for a family who obsessively watched Stargate. I liked the family, and I liked the episodes, but it was the  fifth or sixth season, and things were constantly being explained to  me. Things I probably didn't need to know.

I'm not sure what possessed me to trackdown the movie, and start to watch the series it inspired, but I've decided to do another condensed series chronology a la my Star Trek and Doctor Who recommendations. I'm aiming for ten seasons of ten episodes each, but there's always some wriggle room.

Stargate is basically Star Trek where Earth is the ship most episodes originate from. There's a ton of classic sci-fi tropes, conspiracy theories, and completely incorrect science. For this chronology, I'm focused on interesting character studies, cool (even if technically incorrect) science, and drama that isn't quite melodrama (despite the swelling Stargate theme). I've left out some major episodes that introduce characters and plots that come up later because I care more about where a story goes than when it  begins. But each of these episodes should be easy to follow, even if you've never seen any previous episode.

With the Goa'uld and Replicators defeated last season, we have some new enemies put on the board. And this season, we see two major warfronts, as both SG1 and Atlantis begin focusing on being more of a miltary drama. Think of the evolution from Star Trek The Next Generation to Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

Episode 1: Seige (Parts 2 & 3)
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Beckett, Zelenka, Chuck, Caldwell)

The Wraith have discovered the location of Atlantis, and are now searching for Earth, so it's up to the Atlantis crew to either destroy the Wraith, or themselves.

Episode 2: Runner
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Beckett, Dex, Caldwell, Lorne)

You know all those 21st century YA novels and film franchises where there is a corrupt government who hold sporting events where they force children to try and escape death while running away from their deathtraps? Well, it's that story but with The Wraith instead of a corrupt government, and with Khal Drogo/Aquaman as the dude trying not to die.


Episode 3: Lost Boys/The Hive
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Dex, Caldwell, Zelenka, Lorne, Chuck)

During the seige, Ford became addicted to Wraith enzymes, and fled Atlantis. In fact, the whole last episode only happened because they thought Aquadrogoman was Ford. Well, now they have found Ford and his gang of Wraith enzyme-addicted Genni, who are determined to take out a Wraith ship and get in the good graces of Atlantis.  

Episode 4: Avalon
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Lam, Lee, Merlin)

It's retcon time! Remember last season when all was doom and despair and O'Neill and SG1 saved the universe from the Goa'uld, and there was champagne and fireworks, and probably a baby boom nine months later? Well, one of the major players in that episode was Cameron Mitchell. Don't remember him? Well, that's because he wasn't in the original episodes. But now he's been selected to create a new SG1 team. All he wants is the old SG1 team, but Teal'c is now a politician, O'Neill has been promoted beyond the Stargate program, Carter is working for Area 51 in space, and Jackson still wants to go to Atlantis. Also, Val has come looking for Jackson...and treasure...oh, and there's a whole new race of fake gods trying to dominate the universe.  Can Mitchell get the original SG1 team back together?


Episode 5: Coup d'Etat
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Dex, Beckett, Lorne, Chuck, Cowen, Radim)

You know how there are a billion SG teams that we never get to see on SG1? Well, it's less true on Atlantis, but there are still a bunch of teams. When one of them goes missing, our usual characters go off in search, only to find themselves in the midst of a Genii political upheaval featuring the guy who is always trying to kill them, and one of the crew who laid seige to Atlantis during the hurricanes last season.


Episode 6: Beachhead
( Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Gerak)

The war with the Ori has officially begun, as the Ori have sent a Prior to destroy a Jaffa homeland, and even a surviving Goa'uld puts its snakey fingers into the brimming pot of fuckery. Plus, we're not just dealing with Stargates anymore, there are now Supergates!


Episode 7: Michael
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Dex, Beckett, Michael)

Atlantis thinks they've developed a vaccine that can evolve Wraith into humans.


Episode 8: Inferno
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Dex, Beckett, Zelenka, Caldwell, Chuck)

With the Wraith being the only big threat left after the Genii coup, the SGA team has more time to explore other planets, and ohhhh shit, have they found another planet of The Ancients? *Spoiler alert* Not precisely.


Episode 9: Allies/No Man's Land
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Dex, Beckett, Zelenka, Caldwell, Chuck, Michael)

Michael's back with a proposed alliance with...the...Wraith? Yea, apparently the Wraith are in a series of civil wars and Michael's faction would like to conquer the other Wraiths.


Episode 10: Fourth Horseman
(Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Hammond, Bra'tac, Mitchell, Vala, Landry, Harriman, Lam, Lee, Chekov)

The Proctors of the Ori have unleashed a plague intended to wipe out every non-believer. Also, one of Tealc's rivals for control of the Jaffa government has become a prior of the Ori himself.