Stargate Continuum

Aug 13

Spoilers ahead for the new Stargate movie, which aired on Sky One last night.

The latest TV movie from the Stargate SG-1 team finds our heroes once again up to alternate timeline hijinx. SG-1 head to the Tokra homeworld for the extraction ceremony of Baal. As the last surviving System Lord (well, until someone comes up with a killer idea for another TV movie with a System Lord in it anyway ) its a bit of a big deal, however Baal claims that he is merely another clone, and the original Baal is still out there.

Flashback to 1939. The Stargate is being transported to America on a ship captained by Ben Browder buried under some latex (I was hoping that the fact this was Ben Browder wasn’t going to be a plot twist, fortunately its revealed shortly afterwards that its Mitchell’s Grandfather). Sure enough, the gate is activated, and out steps Baal, who sends his Jaffa to kill the crew and plants a bomb on the ship. Fortunately Mitchell’s Grandfather is quick on the uptake, survives the attack and manages to chuck the bomb overboard. However, the damage is done as the timeline shifts around SG-1, and they sprint for the gate and dial Earth.

Finding themselves on an alternate Earth where the gate was never discovered after being lost at sea, Daniel, Mitchell and Carter find themselves relocated under new identities, and barred from having anything to do with the Stargate project. While the US Government takes their information to launch a new Stargate program, they refuse to allow them to alter the timeline. In a brilliant scene, Landry tears into them for their arrogance in assuming that their timeline is better than the current one, forcing the trio to realise that they may be trapped.

Of course, Baal eventually turns up with his fleet and our heroes are quickly called in to help save the day.

I really enjoyed this. Its chock full of Go’auld cameos and the dilemma is really interesting as we see Daniel, Carter and Mitchell forced to face the possibility of living out their days in anonymity.

However, if I was to have a problem with the story, its that it really felt like it should’ve been a two-part miniseries. There’s a lot of story to be had, and the resolution ended up feeling slightly rushed. After an interesting setup, it would’ve been interesting to have more focus on the new lives SG-1 had to live with. Also, while Landry’s speech was brilliantly done, you never feel like we’re given enough of a reason not to want the old timeline back. Granted, we know that the proper timeline has advantages for other races out in the galaxy (the Jaffa being free for example), but on Earth, aside from the reference to Jack’s son being alive, there’s no real reasons for our heroes to care about this timeline. It would’ve been more effective if there’d been a real sense of loss to SG-1 saving the day.

Of course, it also suffers from that old time travel problem, in that about 5 minutes in, you know a reset button is going to be hit by the end of it. Its become too much of a Sci-Fi cliche these days, and Stargate has become particularly fond of time travel in its later years, with this story getting a lot of comparisons to the likes of the Moebius 2-parter.

None-the-less, this is a great story, and a good, fun movie. And mention must go to the effects. Stargate’s benefited a lot from top notch CGI for years, but it really shines in this movie.

Stargate, Television

Comments

Pie Man 70

August 15th, 2008 at 12:00 PM

Caught this as well, an enjoyable romp, and we had Vala Vamping it up which is always welcome.

Ok, it was obvious we were going to get a reset button, but it was cool to see an unprepared Earth go to war.

I would have been interested if Baal had succeeded in his Come in Peace tactic. It coudl ahve been a good 2 part movie if the cliffhanger had been mitchell, jackson and carter the only ones saying “No, he’s evil”

Nothing origional but then agin Stargate’s best strength is that it does unorigional very well.
Alan

August 15th, 2008 at 12:55 PM

I agree. I was slightly surprised when Evil-Valla offed Baal so suddenly. It really felt like there was another 90 minutes to be had out of this story.

There’s a side of me that finds Baal’s eventual demise a bit of an anti-climax for such a popular villain. However the other side absolutely loved the way his expression switched from supremely smug to “Oh $%*#!” as he suddenly noticed his guards are dead. Cliff Simon always played Baal brilliantly.
David

August 27th, 2008 at 3:40 PM

I’ve just started watching this, and somethings seem… off. Although I’ve missed quite a bit of SG-1 since Jack left the main cast, the white streak of hair on Teal’c makes me blink and I have to wonder why Baal’s voice doesn’t have the familiar Goa’uld tone to it or the flashing gold eyes. I realise he is a ‘clone’ but surely if he has a symbiont to be ‘extracted’ during the ‘extraction ceremony’ then surely he should have the typical Goa’uld signs.

I’m only ten minutes into the film though so I can’t really make too much of a fuss.

Can’t wait to see General Hammond again, rest in peace Don Davis…
Alan

August 27th, 2008 at 5:21 PM

In the last episode of the regular series, SG-1 got stuck in a timebubble and lived out their lives trapped there. Eventually Sam figured out how to send Teal’c back to fix everything so they never got trapped, but the side effect was that Teal’c is now a lot older than he was in the regular series, hence the white streak in his hair.

Baal not doing the obvious Go’auld things is more from character progression. After Anubis was defeated, he ended up hiding out on Earth for some years, during which time he seems to have gotten used to not bothering with the scary voice or glowing eyes. From a character point of view, I get the impression that he enjoys appearing human so as to throw people off.
David

August 27th, 2008 at 5:56 PM

Well, I’ve just finished watching it, and I was pretty impressed. I liked the ending, though there were quite a few things that didn’t really seem to work.

One such thing, just a little niggle, but I wondered some, was the hole in the ship at the beginning. It was created by a Stargate event horizon being established. So when it was frozen over, that hole should have been re-opened by SG-1 coming through it the second time, the ice shouldn’t have had to have been blown up by Mitchell.

Another was how the changing of the present was handled, it didn’t really seem to make much sense, the entire present should have changed instantly, also travelling through the Stargate network shouldn’t really have saved SG-1, otherwise it would mean anyone (at anytime after the point in which time had been changed) who had travelled through a Stargate should have arrived in the altered timeline.

Despite this I enjoyed Continuum greatly, and after the incredible performance given by Cliff Simon as Baal, I really want to watch the final series just to see him as the main baddie. I was also annoyed at how quickly he was removed from his own ‘master plan’ as I was intrigued by his subtle plans and got the sense that the Goa’uld fleet pretending to come in peace would have been very interesting.

For some reason, in the beginning when the Baal clone was speaking to SG-1 just before the extraction, I had the revelation that this actor would have made a brilliant Master in Doctor Who. ^^
Alan

August 28th, 2008 at 1:59 PM

Cliff Simon really was excellent as Baal. He’s probably the returning villain I tended to most look forward to throughout the later years of SG-1.

Very good point about him playing the Master. He’d be brilliant as a Delgado-style Master (actually there’s a fair amount of similarity between the Delgado Master, and Baal’s portrayal now I think about it).

Reilly2040's Blog