The fifth season of Stargate SG-1 was huge and important in a number of different ways. A lot of stuff happened in this season, and even the minor stand-alone episodes often continued the stories of stand-alone episodes from previous seasons (such as the return of Cassandra and Nirrti in “Rite of Passage,” the unas Jackson befriended in “Beast of Burden,” present day SG-1 meets the Aschen in “2001,” Osiris returns in “Summit.”). SG-1 even visits Tollana again to attend the funeral of Omac in the episode “Between Two Fires,” and well Tollana is destroyed by the forces of Anubis (who I’m about to get to), in this case the gou’ald Tanith (previously aligned with Apophis).
More importantly, this is the season that begins with Teal’c brainwashed and back in the service of Apophis, and it is in this season opener that Apophis is finally killed for good. That’s huge in Stargate since Apophis had been the primary villain since the pilot episode. A new bad guy takes his place though, of which there is a slow build to.
Indeed, it is this season that Anubis begins making his moves and lets the System Lord’s know, through his servant Osiris, that he is back (they all thought him dead). He even tries to take out Earth in a move that would have looked like a natural disaster in the episode “Fail Safe” when he put a huge asteroid laced with naquadah on a collision course with Earth.
Anubis, through Osiris, will even manage to capture and torture the Asgard Thor in the cliffhanging season finale “Revelations.” So this is an important season in that Anubis becomes known and he will be the main villain until the end of season eight, and it sets in motion the eventual finding of the Lost City of the Ancients (in season seven) which leads to the Atlantis spin-off.
The big thing with season five though, to me anyway, is the death and ascension of Dr. Daniel Jackson. Michael Shanks’ portrayal as Dr. Jackson made that character a favorite of mine since the pilot (even though I did like the character when James Spader played him in the movie). Of the core group of the show, he was and is the best actor of the bunch (and they’re all pretty good). His death, the first seemingly lasting death of an SG-1 member, comes in the episode “Meridian” right before the season finale. SG-1 visits a planet where a civilization similar to ours is building a huge weapon of mass destruction, and Jackson ultimately receives a lethal dose of radiation while trying to save people. It’s this episode we meet Jonas Quinn, who will become Jackson’s “replacement.”
At this point in the series’ history, season five was the best season yet and continued the trend of great seasons that began with season three. It is again one of the most important seasons in the show’s history, and obviously is one that every fan, either die-hard or casual, should absolutely have in their collection. Unfortunately, the sixth season wasn’t a good follow up and snaps the streak, but I’ll get to that one soon enough.
Stargate SG1 Season Five gets a four out of five: GREAT.
