Stargate SG-1 (season 8)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stargate Season 8
Region 1 DVD cover art
Country of origin	United States,  Canada
Network	SCI FI
Original run	July 9, 2004 (SCI FI) – February 22, 2005 (Sky One)
No. of episodes	20
DVD release date	Region 1: October 4, 2005 Region 2: February 27, 2005 Region 4: August 17, 2006
Previous season	Season 7
Next season	Season 9

Season eight of Stargate SG-1, an American-Canadian television series, began airing on July 9, 2004 on SCI FI. The eight season concluded on February 22, 2005, after 20 episodes on British Sky One, which overtook the Sci Fi Channel in mid-season. The series was originally developed by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, and Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper served as executive producers. Season eight regular cast members include Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, and Michael Shanks. The eighth season begins with the SG-1 team trying to revive Colonel Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) after the events of the seventh season. At the end of the two-episode season opener, Colonel O'Neill is promoted to General and assumes command of Stargate Command, while Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) is promoted to Lieutenant Colonal and assumes command of SG-1. The season arc centers around the growing threat and seemingly final defeat of the Goa'uld and the Replicators, races who had been introduced in the first season and third season of the show, respectively.

Contents 1 Main cast 2 Episodes 3 Production 3.1 Cast and characters 3.2 Writing 3.3 Filming 3.4 Sets and locations 3.5 Design, props and special effects 3.6 Cultural references and self-references 4 Broadcast and reception 4.1 Television broadcast and ratings 4.2 DVD releases 4.3 Critical reception 4.4 Awards 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Main cast

• Richard Dean Anderson as Colonel/Brig. General Jack O'Neill
• Amanda Tapping as Major/Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter
• Christopher Judge as Teal'c
• Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson

[edit] Episodes

#	#	Title	SG Wiki	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate
155	801	"New Order (Part 1)"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie	July 9, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Daniel Jackson and Dr. Weir have a meeting with the Goa'uld System Lords Camulus, Amaterasu and Yu at Stargate Command, and they negotiate how best to destroy Ba'al who gained power after the defeat of Anubis ("Reckoning)". Realizing that the Goa'uld are testing Earth's newfound militaric power, Weir orders their arrest. Meanwhile, Samantha Carter and Teal'c travel to the Asgard world Halla in an attempt to save Colonel O'Neill, who is still frozen in Antarctica ("Lost City"). Thor informs them that the human-form Replicator s have escaped their time-dilation field ("Unnatural Selection"). At this point, some Replicators board Thor's ship, and Carter is beamed away to Fifth's ship. The ship can be destroyed before reaching the new Asgard homeworld Orilla.
156	802	"New Order (Part 2)"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Robert C. Cooper	July 9, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
While the other Goa'uld leave Earth, Camulus requests asylum. Thor reaches Earth and beams both Daniel and frozen O'Neill aboard. O'Neill's mind is connected with the ship computer in the hope to let his Ancient knowledge build a weapon to fight the Replicators. O'Neill is barely able to finish a disruptor weapon when an emergency measure forces him to be woken up. In the meantime, Fifth has unsuccessfully attempted to fool Carter into believing to lead a happy life on a farm on Earth. As the Replicators have taken control of Orilla, SG-1 beams down on the planet to find Carter, and Thor activates the massive disruptor to destroy all remaining Replicators on the planet. Back on Earth, O'Neill is promoted to Brigadier General and replaces Dr. Weir as commander of the SGC. His first command is to promote Major Carter to Lieutenant Colonel. O'Neill still reports to Hammond, the new chief of homeworld security. The last scene shows Fifth aboard his ship with a new completed human-form Replicator: RepliCarter.
157	803	"Lockdown"	SG Wiki	Will Waring	Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie	July 23, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Several months after the destruction of Anubis' fleet, Col. Vaselov, a Russian astronaut from the ISS, asks General O'Neill for a place in SG-1. When Vadelov's body shows signs of extensive viral damage, O'Neill orders the base to be shut off. It turns out Vaselov was possessed by Anubis, and now Anubis takes over SGC personnel including each member of SG-1. Although Anubis does finally escape Stargate Command through the Stargate, he ends up on a freezing planet where the temperature freezes Vaselov's body, and Anubis cannot re-dial the gate.
158	804	"Zero Hour"	SG Wiki	Peter Woeste	Robert C. Cooper	July 30, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
While O'Neill finds himself faced with the tasks of his new position as a general, SG-1 go missing on their off-world mission. Ba'al contacts Stargate Command and suggests an exchange of the captured SG-1 against Camulus. With the help of Camulus, a ZPM device is found and brought back to Stargate Command. Meanwhile, a quickly growing alien plant causes a temporary electricity failure, and O'Neill write a letter to General Hammond to inform him of his resignation. Although Camulus leaves Earth, Ba'al does not send back SG-1. SG-1 however returns later and reveals that they were never captured by Ba'al but instead were trapped in a secret base. O'Neill attests new SG-1 leader Samantha Carter's positive leadership skills. The President is about to arrive, and O'Neill's new adminstrative aid Gilmor expresses his respect.
159	805	"Icon"	SG Wiki	Peter F. Woeste	Damian Kindler	August 6, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Daniel is trapped when civil war breaks out on the planet he's visiting. Daniel manages to coordinate a secret strategic attack from the SGC by sending a radio message through the Stargate in Goa'uld, and is rescued.
160	806	"Avatar"	SG Wiki	Martin Wood	Damian Kindler	August 13, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Teal'c is trapped in a VR training machine that delivers electrical shocks when he fails his objectives. Daniel enters the game in an attempt to save Teal'c from cardiac arrest and together they fight against the increasing difficulty of the game.
161	807[1]	"Affinity"	SG Wiki	Peter DeLuise	Peter DeLuise	August 20, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Teal'c moves into an off-base apartment, where he becomes involved with Krista, his neighbor, who has an abusive boyfriend. Teal'c is charged with murdering the boyfriend and Daniel disappears while trying to prove Teal'c innocent.
162	808[1]	"Covenant"	SG Wiki	Martin Wood	Ron Wilkerson	August 27, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Alec Colson, the powerful leader of aerospace and biotech conglomerates, holds a press conference to announce that aliens exist, that they've already attacked Earth once, and that several governments are aware of this fact. Colson gives the governments involved 24 hours to tell the truth. When the time expires, he shows a living Asgard to the media.
163	809	"Sacrifices"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Christopher Judge	September 10, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Rya'c plans to marry a woman of the Hak'tyl, which makes Teal'c angry. Ishta brings the Hak'tyl to the SGC because they believe that their location has been compromised. Carter attempts to find a suitable planet for them. Moloc captures Ishta.
164	810	"Endgame"	SG Wiki	Peter DeLuise	Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie	September 17, 2004 (Sci Fi Channel)
Having recently acquired the Tok'ra symbiote poison, the Trust plans to steal the stargate and eliminate the Jaffa.
165	811	"Gemini"	SG Wiki	Will Waring	Peter DeLuise	December 14, 2004 (Sky One)
Replicator Carter informs the SGC that Fifth has made all Replicators immune to Jack's disruptor, and promises to help them modify the weapon. In fact, her presence was needed to develop the immunity. She destroys Fifth and escapes to lead the replicators.
166	812	"Prometheus Unbound"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Damian Kindler	December 21, 2004 (Sky One)
Prometheus's crew are incapacitated and removed, exept Daniel, when it is hijacked by Vala, a pirate. Vala wishes to trade the ship for Naqahdah, but Daniel succeeds in retaking control of the ship. Vala escapes.
167	813	"It's Good to Be King"	SG Wiki	William Gereghty	Michael Greenburg, Peter DeLuise, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie	January 4, 2005 (Sky One)
SG-1 finds that Harry Maybourne has become king on the planet where he took forced retirement. The planet is now under a Goa'uld threat, but Maybourne has found writings by a time-traveling Ancient that prophesy SG-1 will defeat Ares.
168	814	"Full Alert"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie	January 11, 2005 (Sky One)
Russia and the United States reach DEFCON 1 because Goa'uld may have compromised both governments via the Trust, which has been entirely assimilated. War is avoided, though Robert Kinsey, now a Goa'uld, escapes.
169	815[2]	"Citizen Joe"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Robert C. Cooper	January 18, 2005 (Sky One)
An Indiana barber who carries the ATA Gene has his life ruined when, through an Ancient device, he begins to have visions of SG-1's missions. His life is given back to him when O'Neill informs his nearly-divorced wife of what had been going on.
170	816[2]	"Reckoning (Part 1)"	SG Wiki	Peter DeLuise	Damian Kindler	January 25, 2005 (Sky One)
Teal'c is preparing the Jaffa rebellion to capture Dakara. Daniel is abducted by RepliCarter so she can discover the location of the Dakara Superweapon in his subconscious. Ba'al also moves his forces to Dakara by the order of Anubis.
171	817[2]	"Reckoning (Part 2)"	SG Wiki	Peter DeLuise	Damian Kindler	February 1, 2005 (Sky One)
Struggling with RepliCarter, Daniel halts the Replicators long enough for Sam, Jacob Carter, and Ba'al to use a combination of the device that dials every gate in the galaxy and the Superweapon to destroy all Replicators. But RepliCarter kills Daniel Jackson.
172	818[2]	"Threads"	SG Wiki	Andy Mikita	Robert C. Cooper	February 8, 2005 (Sky One)
Daniel Jackson must choose death or powerless Ascension whilst Anubis plans to end all life in the galaxy using the Dakara Superweapon – until Oma Desala stops him. Jacob Carter and Selmak are in trouble. Daniel is returned to human form on Earth.
173	819	"Moebius (Part 1)"	SG Wiki	Peter DeLuise	Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper	February 15, 2005 (Sky One)
SG-1 learns of a Zero Point Module in Ancient Egypt and use a Puddle Jumper they found to travel back in time. They are successful in retrieving the ZPM, but their cloaked Jumper is discovered by enemy forces. Unwilling to upset the future, SG-1 decides to live out the rest of their lives in the past. However, an alternate timeline is created in which the Stargate was never discovered, and the Stargate Command does not exist. After finding a Puddle Jumper and the Antarctic Stargate with the help of a canopy that real SG-1 left behind thousands of years ago, Alternate-Daniel and Alternate-Carter take it upon themselves to restore the proper timeline.
174	820	"Moebius (Part 2)"	SG Wiki	Peter DeLuise	Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper	February 22, 2005 (Sky One)
After the scientists working on the recovered Puddle Jumper cannot make it work, Alternate-O'Neill (with the Ancient gene) is called in and he makes it work. He leads the team including Alternate-Daniel and Alternate-Carter, in this ship, through the Stargate to find Alternate-Teal'c. On Chulak, the team gets caught. Alternate-Teal'c defects to their cause to help them escape, but Alternate-Daniel is killed. They escape in the Alt-Puddle Jumper, but are chased and damaged by Death Gliders. The only way they can survive is to Time-Travel, back to Ancient Egypt, where they meet Daniel, who tells them that the rest of SG-1 were executed after an attempted rebellion. Trying to prevent a renewed loss of Earth's Stargate, Alternate-SG-1 and Daniel incite a second rebellion, which ultimately succeeds, but not before Alt-Carter and Alt-O'Neill fall in love and kiss. The team leaves a videotape for the SG-1 of the future to find, telling them never to go back in time. However, they also leave the ZPM. Finally, the true SG-1 of the present day receive the videotape and the ZPM left for them a few weeks before they were to go back in time. Thus they do not do so, and have gained a ZPM free of charge.

[edit] Production

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (January 2008)

This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available. (January 2008)

[edit] Cast and characters

The season eight regular cast members are Richard Dean Anderson as Colonel/Brigadier General Jack O'Neill, Amanda Tapping as Major/Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, Christopher Judge as the alien Teal'c, and Michael Shanks as civilian Dr. Daniel Jackson. After O'Neill's promotion to commander of Stargate Command, Carter assumes command of SG-1, now consisting of herself, Teal'c and Daniel Jackson. Despite being the leading man, Richard Dean Anderson's shooting time was further reduced from previous seasons, and he worked 3.5 days out of 5 working days a week.^[3] Some episodes only feature little of him, such as the two-parter "New Order" where he was only available for 1.5 shooting days.^[4] After seven years of baldness and begging the producers, Christopher Judge was granted his wish to have hair in Season 8.^[5]

The first season of Stargate Atlantis was filmed in parallel to the eighth season of SG-1, and aired in the time slot right after SG-1. Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks appeared in its pilot episode. Beginning with "New Order" and continuing into the spinoff series Stargate Atlantis, Torri Higginson replaced Jessica Steen as Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Ellie Harvie, who first appeared in "Prometheus Unbound" as Lindsey Novak, later became a recurring character on Stargate Atlantis.

Among the notable guest stars in season eight were Steve Bacic, whom Robert C. Cooper already had in mind for the part of Camulus in three of the first four episodes of Season 8.^[6] Bacic is known for playing Gaheris Rhade and Telemachus Rhade on Andromeda, and previously played SG Team leader Major Coburn in "Maternal Instinct" and "The First Ones". "New Order" also marks the first appearance of Colonel Lionel Pendergast (Barclay Hope). "Prometheus Unbound" guest starred Claudia Black of Farscape fame as Vala Mal Doran. Black had originally been considered for the role of Krista in "Affinity", but her schedule did not allow it. Krista was then played by Erica Durance of Smallville as Lois Lane^[7] and Black would later join the cast of Stargate as a regular, playing Vala in Seasons 9 and 10. Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson on The Simpsons, guest starred as Joe Spencer in the episode "Citizen Joe". Charles Shaughnessy, known from The Nanny as Maxwell Sheffield, appeared as Colson in "Covenant". Tony Amendola appears again as Bra'tac, and Carmen Argenziano as Jacob Carter/Selmak. Another recurring actor is Mel Harris as Oma Desala in "Threads". David DeLuise appears as Carter's lover in "New Order", "Affinity", and "Threads".

With the defeat of the Goa'uld in "Reckoning"/"Threads", several actors make their last appearance in season eight. Yu as the longest running Goa'uld recurring character dies. Season eight also sees the final defeat of main villain Anubis. After David Palffy played Anubis from seasons five through seven, the entity that made up Anubis was portrayed by Michael Shanks, Gavin Hood, Holly Ferguson, Amanda Tapping and Richard Dean Anderson in "Lockdown", by Dean Aylesworth and Rik Kiviaho in "Reckoning", and finally by George Dzundza in "Threads". "Moebius" was supposed to be the Stargate SG-1 series finale (like the two previous season finales before), and as such many actors reprised their roles from past episodes: Don S. Davis as George Hammond, Peter Williams as Apophis, Colin Cunningham as Major Davis, and Jay Acovone as Charles Kawalsky. "Moebius" marked the last episode to feature Richard Dean Anderson as a main cast member.

The main technician who sported the name "Norman Davis" on his uniform for years, played by Gary Jones for seven years, received an official name as Walter Harriman, changed from Walter Davis as established in previous episodes. Joseph Mallozzi explained the resulting incongruity as that Harriman is Walter's married name.^[8] Gary Jones, an SG-1 semi-regular technician who , received a new name in this episode: "Walter Harriman". In the episode "2010", O'Neill had referred to him as "Walter". Simply renaming the character to "Walter Davis" did not clear, so he was renamed to "Walter Harriman" after Hammond had called him "Airman" (sounding like "Harriman") in the pilot episode.^[9]

One scene in "Zero Hour" featured Pierre Bernard as the technician. Bernard is a graphics designer for the NBC show Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and got the cameo on SG-1 after a rant on Late Night where he said the show was better without Daniel Jackson. They named his character "O'Brien" as a tongue-in-cheek reference.^[3][8][10] The Stargate producers would invite Bernard back to the set for doing a scene in the 200th episode of SG-1.^[11]

[edit] Writing

After production wrapped on Season Seven, the writers came together and pitched out ideas for Stargate's eighth and presumably final season.^[6] Seasons five through seven had previously been expected to be the last, but the show got renewed each year.^[12] They ultimately agreed on about ten initial episodes, two of which should make a two-hour premiere to address a left-open issues of the season seven finale.^[6]

In the first draft of "New Order, Part 1," Richard Woolsey would assume command of the S.G.C., but the writers decided in the end that the character of Dr. Weir better suited the story because of her background in diplomacy. She also offered a link to the Atlantis spin-off and was seen as a better candidate to offer O'Neill his promotion.^[6] The end of "New Order" with Fifth creating Replicator Carter was also not in the original outline. Robert C. Cooper came up with the twist while he was writing the script.^[6]

Originally, Anubis was planned to end up on a fiery planet at the end of "Lockdown", but Joseph Mallozzi opted for the frozen world instead.^[13]

The idea for "Icon" came from Damian Kindler pitching a story in Season 7 "in which Carter is stranded off-world, struggling to survive, while the rest of the team mounts a desperate bid to rescue her." In preparation of Season Eight in November 2004, the writers felt that they already had enough Carter stories and attempted to redress the balance by making it a Daniel story with the working title "English Patient Daniel."^[14]

"Affinity" was originally intended to air after "Covenant". As a result, Daniel (in the van scene) already knows their new name.^[7]

The writers always wanted to do a "fish out of water" story wholly dedicated to Teal'c and his attempts to fit into Earth society, but later felt that the only opportunity would have been in Season 1.^[7]

One of the problems with writing "Full Alert" was the big military build-up and a potential confrontation was happening all over the world, but that there was only a limited budget to show that. As such, screens were erected to sell the point of an impending military conflict on a global scale. Furthermore, stock shots of jets landing of air carriers and missile silos opening were used to accommodate financial concerns.^[15]

[edit] Filming

The eighth season of Stargate SG-1 was filmed over an eight months period, with twelve-hour days five times each week. Filming started at 7.00 a.m., breaked for a half-hour lunch break in the afternoon, and ended 7.30 p.m."^[4] The directors got their script usually around two weeks before they started shooting.^[16] Early seasons had 7.5 days to shoot an episode but with careful planning, Season 8 reduced this time to six days.^[16] Richard Dean Anderson only worked 3.5 days out of 5 working days a week during Season 8 and due to his limited availability, some episodes, like "Zero Hour", were shot over longer periods of weeks.^[3] "Zero Hour" was shot as the seventh out of the 20 episodes of Season 8.^[3] The producers do not treat two-part episodes as a different episode but as one big enormous episode, while the episodes are still legally broken up into two episodes, e.g. paying actors twice.^[17]

Stargate SG-1 has several regular directors. Andy Mikita is known to shoot much coverage because he likes having the choices when cut-and-edit. Peter DeLuise however lets the cameras roll, which is hard for the script supervisor and the editors later.^[15] The video tapes are not re-usable and are archived in a library.^[15] "Lockdown" was the first SG-1 episode to be shot in HD instead of on 35 mm film.^[16] Since no-one was used to filming in HD, they had to get a new HD crew and lost about an hour per day.^[16] The HD video tapes cost around 50 dollars, and previously 7000 feet of film were shot each day, costing possibly a million Dollars a year of film.^[15]

To save money, some episodes like "Zero Hour" and "Prometheus Unbound" took place mostly on standing sets like Stargate Command or the Prometheus.^[3] At other times, the actor's time was split between different episodes. E.g. "Gemini" centered around Amanda Tapping as Carter and her alter ego, RepliCarter, and Michael Shanks (Daniel) did not appear in this episode. Meanwhile, Shanks filmed "Promethues Unbound" in the absence of the Carter character. The money was then spent on time-consuming techniques like Motion control in "Gemini", so that two people in the same shot are seamlessly filmed on different passes. Split screens with locked-off cameras and different shots with stand-in actors were used whenever possible, but still cost much time for wardrobe changes and blocking.^[12]

The first episode filmed after the hiatus was "Lockdown", which would air third. The writers thought it would be fun to test O'Neill as his new position as general of the SGC early on and prove his worth.^[13]

The episode "Avatar" served as an introduction for a Stargate game that was produced at the time, and much of the story was filmed from a first-person perspective.^[5]

"Zero Hour" is also the last episode to have CRT monitors in the briefing room and the control room.^[3]

Amanda Tapping originally hoped to direct another episode after her director debut in Season 7's "Resurrection",^[18] but she became pregnant late in the season.

[edit] Sets and locations

Sets from previous seasons were reused. The Goa'uld transport ship, a standing set in the NorCo Studios, was originally built for a Season 1 particular episode and was still used in "New Order". Despite its cool looks, it is hard to shoot in.^[4] The Stargate franchise also got a new set. They acquired the set of Blade: Trinity and used it as Thor's ship in "New Order".^[4] They were able to make the set taller and had big arches and silver tilework for it. They also created a special command post for Thor and raised it of the ground so that the actors' eye lines with Thor was a little higher.^[19] The Blade 3 effects stage was also used for the F-302 scene in "Covenant".^[20]

Art director James Robbins designed the set for Fifth's space ship,^[19] which was only about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide.^[4] For the scene where Carter is embedded in Replicator tiles, the model shop used cut-out vacuform pieces and slabs that had been made to fit Amanda Tapping.^[19] The Prometheus set, the producers' answer to the Goa'uld ship design, was used in several Season 8 episodes. Instead of big empty rooms, the Prometheus set had seats, screens, buttons and switches.^[15] "Endgame" required the interior of a Goa'uld ship to hold a Stargate, which has not been done since season 1.^[21] The Puddle Jumper space ship, usually part of Stargate Atlantis stories, also had its first appearances in SG-1 in "It's Good to be King" and "Moebius". "Threads" used the diner set from Dead Like Me.^[22]

Although "Lockdown" was filmed mainly on the existing Stargate Command set, the story made it necessary to have the SGC broken into segregated zones. The set decorators changed the graphics and lighting to make the set look like 28 different levels that the SGC is supposed to have. In the same episode, O'Neill's new office was slightly redesigned to mirror the history of the character.^[23] The carpet in the Briefing Room was replaced every second year early in the show, but when the renewal of the show changed from a two-year basis to a yearly basis, the carpet was never renewed again.^[4] When SG-1 was renewed for an eighth season, the carpet was finally replaced, and the floor in the halls got repainted."^[16]

The idea for the plants in "Zero Hour" came from Brad Wright, who in Season 4 had the notion of the SG being overrun with plant life and the gate being literally buried under foliage run amok.^[8]

For "Icon", one of the used locations was a house built in the early 1900s.^[24]

Like "Birthright" one year before, exterior scenes for "Sacrifices" were filmed at High Point Properties in Langley, British Columbia. The Goa'uld ceremonial tent in the episode was designed to be re-usable., with the concept loosely based on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.^[25]

In "Reckoning", where Carter is trying to get the Ancient Wall to open, was filmed at a sound stage at NorCo Studios, a former bicycle factory. The ventilation is questionable, and when the director decided to add smoke for the light to catch to give a dramatic dusty air feeling, the oxygen supply decreased, which made acting harder.^[17]

Daniel's class room in "Moebius" were shot in the conference room of the Outer Limits production at Bridge Studios near the set of SG-1. The SG-1 had originally scouted a real school to do the show but lost that location. Carter's office room in the same episode was right down the hall of the conference room.^[26]

Stargate SG-1 was shot in Vancouver, Canada. As Vancouver is still getting developed, Tynehead Park is one the few locations where the SG-1 team can still film alien locations. Other Vancouver locations include a set of roads at a Vancouver airport for the episode "Full Allert". The roads were closed-off to regular traffic so that the filming could take place without police escorts and other difficulties that come of blocking the traffic.^[15] Desert locations were shot at the Richmond Sand Dunes, a cement factory that is slowly using up all the sand. What is seen in the "Moebius" desert is all that is left of the dune. The horse shoe form of the dune had been established by another television project called Legend of Earthsea.^[26] O'Neill's house, which was first seen in Season 1 was used in two episodes in Season 8, "Full Alert" and "Citizen Joe". Since the house is inhabited in real-life, the producers have looked for alternatives, but so far have been unsuccessful.^[15]

For "Zero Hour", the SGC set was decorated with various plants and vines. Some plants were plastic, but for the torching scenes, real plants were used to not burn the whole set. Everything was sprayed to be flame retardant.^[3][27]

[edit] Design, props and special effects

Before the season began, director Martin Wood spent a whole weekend at Cheyenne Mountain (where the fictional Stargate Command takes place) and filmed new angles at night time, daytime, and emergency situations. The producers had previously re-used stock footage from Season 1 for the last seven seasons.^[22]

To save money, props and footage were re-used from previous seasons. The chairs used in "Avatar" are the same from the Season 2 episode "The Gamekeeper", but since they had been cut up and changed around completely for a previous SG-1 episode, and re-adjusting them would have cost as much money as building them new, they were used like they were.^[28] Catherine's amulette that was shown in "Moebius" is the one from the movie.^[26] In "Reckoning", some shots of the replicators in the SGC are re-uses of footage from the episode "Menace".^[17] At other times, whole scenes were cut. The original scripted teaser for "Lockdown" would have cost US$100,000 for visual effects, with Anubis in the space ship.^[16] The falling Replicator chips and the resulting mess on the ground in "Reckoning" however was animated in VisFX because it would have been more expansive to have the mess be tracked."^[17] Image Engine created the bug effects in "New Order". One scene involved hundreds of Replicator bugs running in a forest, for which they went from singledly hand-animated bugs to replicated effects.^[15]

Season 8 was the first year that used a rear screen with an LCD projector projecting the puddle for the Stargate wormhole effect. Before that time, this was too expensive and not bright enough.^[12] The outside of the Puddle Jumper space ship in "Moebius" also used a rear screen projection, for which a dune at a real location was filmed, and then projected on a screen behind the Puddle Jumper windown. This allowed to move the camera around and not be locked off. The on-set Puddle Jumper is only about 2/3 the size of that of the actual space ship.^[26] For dramatic effect, the episode "Zero Hour" had longer scenes filmed in green.^[3] "Gemini" had scenes filmed in infrared.^[12]

[edit] Cultural references and self-references

In "Avatar", Teal'c says "I play Def Jam Vendetta". This was a late addition by actor Chris Judge who provided the voice for D-Mob in the video game of the same name.^[29] Several members of production made cameo appearances. Digital effects supervisor Bruce Woloshyn appears as the garage sale homeowner who sells Joe Spencer the Ancient stone device in "Citizen Joe". In the episode "Prometheus Unbound", Daniel introduces himself to two aliens as Hans Olo, a word play on the Star Wars character Han Solo.^{[citation needed]}

Previous seasons established The Simpsons as O'Neill's favorite television program was.^{[episode needed]} When Dan Castellaneta guest starred in "Citizen Joe", the episode made several puns on Simpsons, including an analogy of Burns as Goa'uld. Richard Dean Anderson would guest star on the Simpsons episode Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore the following year. O'Neill's last line in "Moebius", "close enough" is an homage to The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror V" that involves Homer Simpson time traveling and unintentionally making numerous changes to history; upon returning to a timeline where his family have snake tongues but everything else is otherwise normal, he says "eh, close enough". In the same SG-1 episode, the name of O'Neill's boat "Homer".^[4]

There are also cross-references to events in SG-1's sister show Stargate Atlantis. In the episode "Threads", Daniel reads a paper with a headline Wraith on the way to Atlantis. This piece is followed to a screenshot of the Atlantis Deep Space Scanner display from the Atlantis episode "The Brotherhood", showing the trio of hive ships that assaulted the city in the Atlantis episode "The Siege".

[edit] Broadcast and reception

[edit] Television broadcast and ratings

New Order earned a 2.4 Nielsen Rating, a new record high for the show during its run on cable, which has since been tied, but never beaten. It also became the most-watched regular series episode ever for the Sci Fi Channel and the highest rated episode in the history of Stargate SG-1, drawing 3.22 million viewers.^[30]

The episode "Threads" originally aired as a 63-minute piece on Sci Fi Channel, but an edited 45-minute version exists for syndication. The 45-minute version omits the "previously on Stargate SG-1...", the opening scene between Ba'al and the decaying Anubis, the scene when Daniel first enters the diner, along with Oma explaining where exactly Daniel was and how he got there, the entire scene of knighting Bra'tac and Teal'c on Dakara, some bantering between Pete, Carter and jacob at SGC, all scenes of Bra'tac and Teal'c on a ship, O'Neill waking up with Kerry in his bed, Daniel trying to talk to the other Ancients in the diner, the phone call from Pete, the florist scene and driving to the new house, and Sam waiting in the car outside Jack's house.

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] DVD releases

DVD Name	Region 1	Region 2 (UK)	Region 4
Stargate SG-1 Complete Season 8	October 3, 2006	February 5, 2007	August 16, 2006
Vol. 44 (4 eps.)	—	March 27, 2006	—
Vol. 45 (4 eps.)	—	April 24, 2006	—
Vol. 46 (3 eps.)	—	May 22, 2006	—
Vol. 47 (3 eps.)	—	June 19, 2006	—
Vol. 48 (3 eps.)	—	July 17, 2006	—
Vol. 49 (3 eps.)	—	August 14, 2006	—

The Season 8 DVD releases in Europe and Australia switched the order of "Gemini" and "Prometheus Unbound", and put "Citizen Joe" after "Reckoning"/"Threads". Contrary to the Region 1 DVD, Region 2 did not offer commentaries for "It's Good to be King" and "Citizen Joe". When the season was initially released on DVD in Region 1, the release temporatily contained the shortened 45-minute version of "Threads" until MGM gave in due to complaints.^[31] The slimline re-release contains the full 63-minute episode. Neither region has commentaries for "Threads". According to Gord Lacey at tvshowsondvd.com the release of Stargate SG-1 Season 9 was being held up due to the fact that MGM is changing its home distribution company from Sony to Fox.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Critical reception

TV Zone's Jan Vincent-Rudzki called "Lockdown" "an interesting episode, although it dips in the middle."^[32] Vincent-Rudzki saw O'Neill's portrayal as the new leader making "the Goa'uld threat [...] a laugh" and "an amazing change from the events from the series' early days" if even O'Neill does not take this race seriously.^[32] Fans regarded "Reckoning", the climax of plots including the Goa'uld, the Replicators, and the Jaffa Rebellion, as two of the most popular episodes of the series.^[33]

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] Awards

In 2005, the second part of the season opener "New Order" was nominated for a Gemini Award in the category "Best Visual Effects". "Reckoning, Part 2" was nominated for both an Emmy Award in the category "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series" and a Leo Award in the category "Best Visual Effects". Peter DeLuise was nominated for a Leo Award in the category "Dramatic Series: Best Screenwriting" for "Affinity", while Christine Mooney was honored with a Leo Award in the category "Dramatic Series – Best Costume Design" for the season finale "Moebius, Part 2". For the episode "Threads", actress Amanda Tapping won a Leo Award in the category "Dramatic Series: Best Lead Performance – Female", and Michael Shanks was nominated in the Leo category "Dramatic Series: Best Lead Performance – Male". The episode "It's Good To Be King" led to three Leo Award nominations: Jim Menard in the category "Dramatic Series: Best Cinematography", Christine Mooney for "Dramatic Series: Best Costume Design", and Tom McBeath in the category "Dramatic Series: Best Supporting Performance – Male".^[34]

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Season 8 on stargatesg1.com (Official site)
• Season 8 on GateWorld
• Season 8 on IMDb
• Season 8 on TV.com
• Season 8 on Wikia

v • d • e Stargate Franchise Stargate · Stargate SG-1 · Stargate Atlantis · Stargate Infinity  · Stargate Universe · Stargate: The Ark of Truth · Stargate: Continuum · Stargate Worlds · Comics · Literature · Audiobooks Fictional Universe Aliens races · Elements and Materials · Planets · Starships · Technology · Ascension · Atlantis · SG-1 · The SGC · The Stargate Ancients · Asgard · Asuran · Athosian · Genii · Goa'uld · Jaffa · Lucian Alliance · Replicators · Ori · System Lords · Tau'ri · Tok'ra · Wraith SG-1 Cast · Episodes (Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10) · Stargate: The Ark of Truth · Stargate: Continuum · Human civilizations Samantha Carter · George Hammond · Daniel Jackson · Hank Landry · Vala Mal Doran · Cameron Mitchell · Jack O'Neill · Jonas Quinn · Teal'c Atlantis Cast · Episodes (Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5) · Human civilizations Samantha Carter · Ronon Dex · Teyla Emmagan · Rodney McKay · John Sheppard · Carson Beckett · Aiden Ford · Elizabeth Weir · Richard Woolsey · Radek Zelenka