Stargate SG1

The Scourge

Welcome to a new episode of the Stargate Archives and Tim joins me once again and we discuss the Season 9 SG1 episode “The Scourge”. An unprepared SG1 are assigned a last minute mission to “babysit” members of the IOA who are going to visit the Gamma site home of classified scientific experiments, Richard Woolsey is heading the delegation along with representatives from China, UK and France.

The Gamma site is an unremarkable looking complex but houses many ongoing projects including the research into an alien “bug” named R-75 which is proving to be a serious threat to agriculture on the various worlds it has been see upon leading some to believe it may be an Ori weapon. Dr. Myers discovers the bugs have become carnivorous before they breach their containment unit, he is bitten by one and the next day collapses in agony. The base is locked down and Myers ( Tony Alcantar ) is placed in a medical pod to be sent home but then hundreds of bugs burst out of his body and break the seals and flood the base. Faced with this onslaught the IOA and SG1 are sent to a nearby research facility while Colonel Pearson ( John Prowse ) and his men fight to save the base. As the IOA and SG1 along with a couple of marines trek towards well let’s call it safety they learn that the bugs have breached the base and can travel very quickly through the ground attracted by vibration, one of marines falls to the bugs soon after. They take shettle in a cave (surrounded by solid rock which provides safety) but the next morning the other marine is gone and is later found very very dead. A large explosion is heard which signals the base has fallen which negates the option to obtain some 302’s so together the survivors head towards the research base and fighting off bug “attacks” as they near. Sam attempts to establish communications with the Odyssey which they believe will arrive soon to investigate the loss of comms but for now SG1 has to fight for their lives…

The Scourge was selected by Tim who joined me over skype for this episode of the Stargate Archives and is a fairly average episode of the show but doesn’t really shine being in season 9 rather than an early season which was more friendly to standalone stories. That said there was great chemistry between Daniel and Shen Xiaoyi ( Tamlyn Tomita ) and also between Teal’c and Cameron, surprisingly Woolsey also benefited from some good character development. Alas the budget or time constraint didn’t provide the episode with good CGI for the bugs, they were to put it mildly embarrassing given what the inhouse artists were capable of and that really hurt. However over all a solid yet unspectacular episode of SG1.

As always any reviews and ratings as well social media sharing is appreciated and of course if you want to join me on the podcast to talk Stargate or Stargate related media then get in touch and we will sort something out. No idea what I will be doing next but plenty of content that features the main cast to talk about and even more which feature regular and semi-regular cast members so maybe dip back into the scifi/fantasy “b” genre and see what can be found.

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