Stargate In Significantly Fewer Seasons, Season 9: A Bleaker Voyager

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.

Unlike the previous seasons, this final season takes place almost exclusively on a spaceship. One where the characters are flung across the universe, and are trying to figure out a way back home. That's right, the final season of Stargate is essentially Star Trek Voyager. But darker.

I'm not listing the cast for this season because, apart from two appearances of some SG1 characters, the cast is the same in every episode. Because they're all stuck on a ship together.

Season Nine:
A Bleaker Voyager

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.