Stargate SG-1: Season Five

I know this isn't everyone's opinion, but for me, each season gets better and better. Writers and actors get to know the characters and a story more when they've made over 100 episodes with them. (Episode 100 is included in this set, an episode where the writers just decide to mess around and have a good time)

Season 5 introduces some very key characters and situations:
--Colonol Frank Simmons
--Explanation of the ascended being ("Ascention" and "Meridian")
--The jaffa rebellion ("The Warrior")
--Further Russian entanglements including the fate of the Earth DHD ("48 Hours")
--The introduction of Anubis ("Last Stand," "Revelations")
--The fate of the Tollan ("Between Two Fires")
--The temperary departure of Michael Shanks ("Meridian")
--The method of Asguard reproduction ("Revelations")
--Jonas Quinn ("Meridian")

All of these situations play key in the epic saga of the Stargate universe, providing for plot variations and new ideas in later seasons. The new ideas are still there. The humor is still there. Over 100 episodes in, Stargate is still going strong in this collection.

I am looking forward to adding this 5th boxed set to my other four boxed sets.

I enjoyed Season 6 even better. Season 7 is still blowing my mind. Let's have those as boxed sets soon as well.

Season five could have been so much better. The writers had so much to work with, and instead chose to fall back into old story lines. For me, a long and faithful SG-1 fan, it was a bitter disappointment, especially Meridian. It had such potential to be the best Stargate episode ever, if only they'd paid a little more attention to the emotions involved. I mean, the SGC was losing a valuable player. Jack O'Neill was losing his best friend. Daniel was there, then he wasn't, and then he was forgotten, essentially. And for what was to be Michael Shanks last season, at the time, he did very little throughout the season. One liners are hardly laying the ground to such a shattering moment. I'm sure most Stargate fans were deeply grieved at Doc Jackson's loss... and we seem to be the only ones! Definitely not one of the better seasons. Whether it was a season finale, or a series finale, as rumoured at the time, it was simply crushing all the way around. A friendship that most of us have watched and enjoyed for years simply slipped away with barely a whisper. Really, guys. You could have done better!

Sadly, the fifth season of Stargate: SG-1 broke the streak of progressively better seasons that had been going on ever since the first season. The year began with a cool premiere, "Enemies", but the next couple episodes sucked. For example, the episode "Beast of Burden", which deals with Daniel Jackson's (Michael Shanks) Unas friend, Chaka, was terrible. Personally, I also hated the episode "The First Ones" from last year which began the Chaka thread. I mean, I haven't seen episodes this bad since Season 1 (many of the Season 1 episodes, while good, are far inferior to the episodes of Seasons 2-4). Once you reach the third disc, beginning with the episode "Between Two Fires", the episodes become good again. However, the bad episodes weren't the only problems that this season faced. Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) seemed to regress a little bit because he seemed a lot less tolerent of Daniel than he had been in the last two years (he does, however, reveal his true feelings about Jackson in the episode "Meridian"). Teal'c (Christopher Judge) and Dr. Janet Frasier (Teryl Rothery) were underused, as were the Asgard, who seem to have put politics ahead of real problems.
However, when this season was good, it was REALLY good. There were some amazing story developments this year, beginning with the final demise of Apophis (Peter Williams), the Goa'uld System Lord who has been making life difficult for the SGC ever since the first season. Next, the Tollan, an extremely advanced race of humans who are allied with Earth, begin acting suspiciously, the SGC begins recruiting new officers, the motives of the Aschen from last season are revealed, the Tok'Ra are nearly destroyed, and the Jaffa rebellion begins to truly become a problem for the System Lords. And then, Daniel is brought to a System Lord summit where he has the chance to wipe out the Goa'uld threat forever, that is until he learns of the return of Anubis, an ancient System Lord who was banished for his horrific crimes. Also, we finally learn the origins of the Replicators. Finally, SG-1 must endure a change that they never thought would happen in the episode "Meridian", and then, Anubis and Osirus (Anna-Louise Plowman) reveal plans to attack the Asgard. But the most pivotal plot twist involves the new series-within-a-series, WORMHOLE X-TREME!!! Just kidding.
This is a very important season, so despite its poor opening, I still reccomend it. Just be ready to be underwhelmed by the first few episodes. But after you get past those, enjoy! Some good episodes include: "Enemies", "Threshold", "Between Two Fires", "2001", "Wormhole X-Treme", "Proving Ground", "Summit", "Last Stand", "The Warrior", "Menace", "Meridian", and "Revelations".