Stargate In Significantly Fewer Seasons, Season 4: Lost Cities

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.

The first three seasons focused on SG1 and their battles against the Goa'uld and the Replicators.  We lost a team member, and then he came back. This season we meet a whole
new crew, universe, and alien races.

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Season Four:
Lost Cities

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Episode 1: Lost City
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Hammond, Harriman, Bra'tac, Weir, Anubis)

At the end of season one, O'Neill merged with technology and met the Asgards who were able to seperate him from the technology before it killed him. So it's deja vu all over again with the added pressure of an imminent attack on Earth by Anubis. Also, the lost city of Atlantis is...across the galaxy? in Antarctica? Oh, and Hammond has been promoted, and the new head of SGC is...a bureaucratic doctor?


Episode 2: New Order
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Hammond, Harriman, Weir, Thor, Fifth)

With O'Neill indisposed, Weir and SG1 have to deal with the post-Anubis Goa'uld system lords while Carter and The Asgardians deal with the time-distilled Replicators.


Episode 3: Rising
(O'Neill, Jackson, Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Beckett)

Weir hands over control of the SGC back to O'Neill, and takes a whole new crew to the lost city of Atlantis. But the trip requires so much power that it might be a one way trip. Particularly after the technology keeping Atlantis running starts to fail.  Oh, and they meet The Wraith who are more sharpy goth vampire than the Goa'uld, Asgardian, Jaffa, or Replicators.


Episode 4: The Storm
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Beckett, Zelenka, Cowen, Kolya, Radim)

The Wraith aren't the only problem in the new universe, there's also the Genii, a race of humanoids intent on dominating the galaxy through war, oh, and there are hurricanes. Giant hurricanes threatening to destroy Atlantis.


Episode 5: The Eye
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Beckett, Zelenka, Kolya, Radim)

A group of Genii soldiers have invaded Atlantis, and Sheppard is alone on the front lines against them. Also, those hurricanes are still bearing down on the city.


Episode 6: Prometheus Unbound
(O'Neill, Jackson, Hammond, Harriman, Novac, Vala)

Problems on Atlantis have reached the ears of the SGC, so Hammond, Jackson, and Harriman take a crew onboard the Prometheus bound for the other Stargate show, but their voyage is derailed by one of those there Goa'uld super solidery things, which hijacks Prometheus but, for some reason, doesn't kill anyone.


Episode 7: The Defiant One
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford)

On a routine mission, Sheppard and McKay run into a seemingly abandoned Wraith ship on a desolate planet. Perfect opportunity for some calming research into their technology.


Episode 8: Before I Sleep
(Weir, McKay, Sheppard, Teyla, Ford, Beckett, Zelenka)

Those wacky ancients left behind a city rife with problems and the crew at Atlantis keeps having problems figuring out how the city works. Luckily, they discover that the Ancients left behind someone to help them out. But that someone is...Dr. Weir?


Episode 9: Reckoning
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Carter/Selmac, Bra'tac, Harriman, Thor, Replicarter, Ba'al, Yu, Anubis)

The Replicators, commanded by Replicarter have become such a threat that the Goa'uld have asked to form an alliance with humanity and the Jaffa in order to destroy them. The Jaffa appear to have found a weapon powerful enough to end the conflict once and for all.


Episode 10: Threads
(O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Carter/Selmac, Bra'tac, Harriman, Ba'al, Anubis)

Fallout from Reckoning means that the survivors have to deal with what to do now that the major war they've been fighting since the first season appears to be over. Meanwhle, Daniel might be ascending again, but until he figures out what to do, he's cursed to spend the rest of the time in...the set to Dead Like Me?