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August 19, 2006
TV : Best … Episode … Ever
Watched the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1, and it was a hoot. The kind of episode only they could get away with, and certainly a worthy celebration of this long-lived TV series. While I think the quality of the show has been variable in later years, I still watch it on and off, and it was good to see them having fun.
The series is about how an ancient alien artifact was found buried in Egypt from the time of the Pharaohs. The artifact turns out to be a 'stargate', which allows you to dial up another stargate and transport yourself (via a stable wormhole) to that other location in the universe. The US Government uses it to run a secret project (managed by the Air Force) to explore the universe through the 'gate and to protect Earth from various alien threats.
There were a couple of episodes several years back which dealt with them discovering an alien living on earth who has been brainwashed by others of his kind into thinking he was a human. The alien did however have these vague memories of the existence of Stargate Command, and ended up writing and producing a TV show "Wormhole Extreme" based on his clouded memories - Wormhole Extreme is essentially a bad parody of Stargate SG-1 itself. The team helps him regain his memories; and the Air Force allows the show to continue production because it gives them plausible deniability about the real Stargate program (anyone who leaks anything about the real thing could be dismissed as having been inspired by the show).
So, for the 200th episode, the story is that a "Wormhole Extreme" movie is in production, and the alien writer/producer comes to the team for help on the script. The show essentially becomes the ultimate exercise in self-parody, as they the characters talk about everything that is cliché, overdone, silly, and otherwise humorous about their own show. The inside jokes and writers tricks fly fast and furiously. The stage scenes with the Stargate SG-1 characters that they could never actually do on the real series; but can here in the context of pitching ideas for "Wormhole Extreme". The ending of the episode is interviews with the actors in "Wormhole Extreme" on their 200th episode, allowing them to say the things which everyone assumes the actors on Stargate SG-1 would love to say but never would.
All in all, a perfect self-parody without anyone having to actually break character. The best celebration show I have seen on any TV series.
Posted by Steven at August 19, 2006 03:33 PM
