Biggest Night of Sci Fi Ever March 11

Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
Battlestar Gallactica

SG-1

Good stuff. Last week ended a two-parter in which the universe was saved from an invasion by the replicators. Also, the Jaffar, a race of symbiot warriors who had been deceived by and enslaved to the gouaould for centuries finally won their freedom by recapturing the sacred temple which housed the weapon that destroyed the replicators.

This week was a 90 minute special. Major themes were Daniel Jackson's ordeal, Col Samantha Carter, her dad and Gen. O'Neill and also the Jaffar had to make a choice about governance.

Daniel Jackson was killed in the last episode by Replicator Samantha clone, who had tried to dig into his mind to steal info. In this episode, he is in an intermediate stage. He has the option of going on to "ascension" which is a higher state of being and he could joint he venerated Ancients as such, or he could choose to die. He finds himself in a restaraunt and his waitress is an Ancient who he is familiar with and who had helped him ascend the last time he died. Obviously, she brings him here again and gives him the choice. However, he senses that something's not right. Why is she doing this, why is she frustrated at him? why does she keep saying that she won't do this again, when she's the one extending this grace to him in the first place?

As he tries to dig for answers, there is an obnoxious customer who keeps yelling for coffee and she ignores him or snaps at him. All this is occuring in that semi ascended state.

In the meantime Annubis, the bid bad dude, reveals his grand design. He used the SG-1 folks to destroy the replicators and provide him with control over all the stargates and now he plans to wipe out all life in the universe with his new found control.

The Jaffar are now free and Teal'C has been asked to serve on the high council. Sg-1 and the Tokrah are very concerned that the weapon used to destroy the replicators is now solely in the hands of the Jafar. They ask the jafar to destroy but they refuse to. It turns out to be a costly decision because Annubis tricks the Jafar fleet into pursuing his forces at a different location and then sends a different fleet to retake the sacred temple and possession of the weapon. He is succesful and now Annubis has the weapon. The is no ambiguity in Annubis' intentions, everyone knows that he plans to wipe out all life and then start all over again in creating new life subject to him.

As for Col Sam Carter, she is set to get married very soon but is having trouble actually going through with it. Her dad who is actually the Tokrah guy . . . actually, he is her dad with a Tokrah symbiot in his brain, is very sick. He reveals that the Tokrah symbiot is close to death and has been holding on. They tried to hold on till the wedding but it wasn't going to happen. Her dad met with the fiancee and obviously was not thrilled especially when the guy goes, "So you have that thing in your head?" The symbiotic relationship is as close as anything and her dad did not appreciate that. Anyway, her dad tells her that she shouldn't let rules get in her way. Basically, what has kept Gen O'Neill and Col Carter apart are Air Force regulation that prohibit relationships in direct command situations. Her dad was trying to tell her not to marry the wrong guy, but the one that she really loved.

O'Neill at the time is dating a lady who works at SG-1 and she finally comes into the office and breaks off the relationship. She says that it is obvious that he loves Col Carter and that it is stupid that they let rules get in the way of love. One of the previous scenes had Col Carter stop by O'Neil's house after she had broken up with her fiancee. She walks in on him as he is charring steak on a grill. She reveals that she has been sitting in his driveway for 10 minutes and needs to talk to him about something that she should have a long time ago. At that moment, O'Neill's girlfriend walks out to the patio and it is an akward situation. Sam didn't know she was there.

The big scene for them was as Sam watched through the glass as her father was dying and giving instructions to another Tokrah, O'Neill came and sat behind her and in a sweet gesture holds her as she watches her dad. There was some dialog which I can't remember, but we made it obliquely clear that he is always there for her, or otherwise phrased in normal parlance as "I love and will love you always."

Back to Daniel Jackson who is in the restaraunt setting pondering ascension. Daniel finds out that Annubis plans to wipe out all life and is furious at the Ancient that she'd let it happen. She counters that she is powerless to stop it. Well, what about the other Ancients? They want no part of it. The universe is such a tiny part of the existence of the ascendent that it is no big deal to them. Meanwhile, he has a couple of conversations with this obnoxious coffee yelling customer who reveals that the Ancient lady he'd been talking to is being punished by the Ancients because she's been helping people ascend against the wishes of other Ancients. Jackson also finds out from this guy that Annubis was a gouaould who she helped ascend but in a state of partial ascension, he turned to the dark side. Thus, Annubis is a partially ascended being and is unkillable, which accounts for his powers. Further, in a well choreographed scene, it is revealed that this obnoxious guy is Annubis. The Ancient lady's punishment is that since she cares so much for the universe then she condemned to watch it and worry about it and the reason she's being invovled with Daniel jackson was to find a way to undo the damaged caused by her creating Annubis.

At this point, in the universe, we are minutes away from Annubis' annihilation of all life. Stargate's the universe over have been activated and Annubis is about to send destruction. At that moment, the Ancient lady says she's going to stop him. He replies that she can't destroy him. "But I can fight you and you'd have to fight back." She then transforms in a beam of energy as does Annubis as their eternal struggle ensues. In the mean time in the universe, SG-1 and the jafar are perplexed that Annubis's forces have suddenly withered and the stargate action has ceased. As a result the Jafar destroy the weapon at the sacred temple, ensuring that Annubis cannot use it ever.

And, Daniel Jackson rejects ascension and is returned, naked, to SG-1.

Stargate Atlantis

Continuing the theme from last week, the Wraith are on their way to Atlantis and there is an impending sense of doom. On Atlantis, Tela is having nightmares, she is a human native of this part of the galaxy and not from earth unlike the rest of the Atlantis crew. In her nightmares, she is seeing the Wraith and in one she sees herself as Wraith.

Through counseling and some research, they find out that she does have latent Wraith genes in her and that some of her ancestors had been experimented on by the Wraith who were looking for a way to make them more edible. These genes account for how Tela has always been able to sense the Wraith. They find that the reason the Wraith stopped the experiments was that it gave humans access to Wraith thoughts but not vice versa. So using this ability, Tela is hypnotised and taps into the Wraith consciousness and is able to see their plans. The Wraith not only plan to capture Atlantis, it appears that they now know that the Atlantis crew is from earth where there is an abundant food supply . . . us.

So stay tuned for the next two weeks. If the Atlantis crew can stop the Wraith, then we'll all be alive in three weeks.

Battlestar Galactica.

This episode was much better than last week's oversexed show. This week, they find a cylon fuel depot and the show is about the plan to destroy it. It was pretty good. Much of the show was about the planning. Also, Starbuck, who is the ships' best pilot wants to go on this mission which is extremely delicate, but her knee hasn't healed quite yet and so she has to trust the other guy, who knows that everyone doubts him and compares him unfavorably to starbuck. But at the end of the day, he pulls some nifty maneuvers and destoys the Cyclon fuel depot.

This was Galactica at its best, focusing on the story, the tensions, the people, the science, and less on sex. Sorry, last week was just simply unbelievable how far they went.

The next two weeks, i think are season finales for all three shows, so it should be all good.