Stargate: SG-1: Ninth Season Premiere: Avalon, Parts 1 & 2: SCI FI Channel Original Series Episode Review

Title: Stargate: SG-1: Ninth Season Premiere: “Avalon, Parts 1 & 2”

Stars: Ben Browder, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, and Beau Bridges

Guest Stars: Claudia Black, Richard Dean Anderson, and Lexa Doig

Writer: Robert C. Cooper

Director: Andy Mikita

Executive Producers: Robert C. Cooper, Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi, and Paul Mullie

Running Time: 60 minutes with commercials per episode

Media: SCI FI Channel Original Series (NTSC DVD Screener)

Ninth Season Premiere Friday, July 15, 2005, at 8pm (ET/PT)

Network: SCI FI Channel (Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)

TV Rating: Not Available At The Time Of Review

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

The ninth season of “Stargate: SG-1” gets a running start with the introduction of Ben Browder as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell, the newest member of the SG-1 assigned by General O’Neal (Richard Dean Anderson) to put together a new team of explorers. The problem is that the team Mitchell had in mind was O’Neal’s original SG-1 team and they have all moved onto other assignments with the exception of Doctor Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), who is due to join the crew of the Daedalus, which is departing to the Pegasus galaxy for Atlantis. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) is away on assignment while Teal’c (Christopher Judge) is overseeing the leadership of the united Jaffa nation now that the Goa’uld system lords have been cast out into chaos in the wake of the defeat of Anubis. The new head of the SGC is General Hank Landry (Beau Bridges) and while he understands Mitchell’s expectations to be a part of the original SG-1 crew he helped save during the Antarctic battle against Anubis little more than a year earlier, he does offer him his pick of best the SGC has to offer outside of the original team.

Then suddenly an SG team returns through the gate with the beautiful thief Valla (Claudia Black reprising her role from season eight), who has stolen a tablet she believes holds the secret to a buried treasure she thinks Doctor Jackson can help her discover. To ensure his cooperation and her share of whatever might be discovered, she places a bracelet upon Dr. Jackson’s wrist and one upon her own, not realizing that the bracelets could kill them both if they are separated by anything more than a few feet from each other. When Doctor Lee (Bill Dow) is unable to remove the bracelets and even Teal’c cannot offer any suggestion regarding how to safely remove them, Jackson is forced to work with Valla to discover the location of the hidden treasure, which brings Teal’c and Mitchell along to a remote dwelling deep within the Earth where clues regarding another race of ancients and their relationship to the legends of King Arthur opens a doorway to a whole new adventure.

The ninth season premiere of “Stargate: SG-1” is actually a multipart storyline with a second installment airing the following Friday, July 22, 2005, at 8pm (ET/PT) and continuing onward from there in that regular timeslot of as a part of SCI FI Fridays. There is a subtle joke or two regarding the previous onscreen chemistry between Browder and Black, since there are both alumni of “Farscape.” The episode also has a bit of humor and even a little Saturday morning matinee style action in it, but the big question is how does Browder fill in Richard Dean Anderson’s shoes? The answer is he doesn’t, but he does bring his onscreen charisma that works relatively well with the veteran cast members. Claudia Black is kind of cheeky, but she is so damn sexy to look at I can excuse some of her character’s childishness. Beau Bridges is a bit more upbeat at the new commander of the SGC, but his role in the season premiere is too small to accurately get a feel for his character though I’m sure we will gain a better understanding of him as the season continues. While Browder starts off being a bit more weighted down in the episode’s early moments, he kind of falls into his “John Crichton” shtick a bit too fast and while I understand to a certain point that is what audiences want to see, especially if they were “Farscape” fans, I hope his new role on “Stargate: SG-1” isn’t just another version of the same character he played on “Farscape” because both shows are different with various reasons for why they have developed dedicated fans and I just feel “Stargate: SG-1” can evolve, but it should never lose it’s identity as one of the most successful science fiction adventure programs to ever air on television and now it also ties with “The X-Files” as the longest running single sci-fi series to air on television.

I thought Michael Shanks looked a bit bored at times, but Christopher Judge still brings freshness to his character. Recurring guest stars in season nine include Michael Shanks’ real life wife and “Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda” alumni Lexa Doig as Doctor Carolyn Lam and Lou Gossett Jr. as Jaffa leader Gerek, who vies with Teal’c for political control of the new emerging Jaffa nation. Watching both parts of the ninth season premiere of Stargate: SG-1” left me wanting to see more so be prepared to go through the gate this summer with excitement when “Stargate: SG-1” begins it’s ninth season of a part of SCI FI Fridays on July 15, 2005, at 8pm (ET/PT).

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