From Children of the Gods' first airing in '97 I was hooked on Stargate SG1. While dramatically removed from the universe that had been established in the preceding theatrical film, it was a stunningly imaginative series that overshadowed every other airing series at the time. As the years, and the seasons, passed ; the series seem to excel at updating itself and avoided becoming stagnant or stale at any point in it's long run, even managing to present some of it's all-time great episodes at points in it's production where both primary and regular supporting characters were missing or lost.

Even season nine's dramatic shift in direction, both from a character stand-point and series direction, felt like a natural step as opposed to an effect of necessity.

Right the way up to series ten's finale, 'Unending', you would have had to hold a gun to my head to have me say an ill word about the series.

And then it went 'ohhhh so wrong'.

From the release of the first… more »

From Children of the Gods' first airing in '97 I was hooked on Stargate SG1. While dramatically removed from the universe that had been established in the preceding theatrical film, it was a stunningly imaginative series that overshadowed every other airing series at the time. As the years, and the seasons, passed ; the series seem to excel at updating itself and avoided becoming stagnant or stale at any point in it's long run, even managing to present some of it's all-time great episodes at points in it's production where both primary and regular supporting characters were missing or lost.

Even season nine's dramatic shift in direction, both from a character stand-point and series direction, felt like a natural step as opposed to an effect of necessity.

Right the way up to series ten's finale, 'Unending', you would have had to hold a gun to my head to have me say an ill word about the series.

And then it went 'ohhhh so wrong'.

From the release of the first trailers, something seemed seriously amiss with Ark of Truth. Nevertheless, I was naturally excited that my Stargate SG1 collection would once again increase and characters so familiar that they seemed like old friends would be returning to my TV screen for a new adventure.

As the release date edged closer and closer I became more an more excited. And, when the DVD was finally in my hands, I put off watching 'til I was able to actually retreat (phone off, etc) and enjoy it. An hour and a half later I came to the disheartening realisation that I actually HADN'T enjoyed it. Not even partially.

After mulling it over for a while, all I saw the film boasting was awkward scene progression, rushed story telling, bad attempts at building upon the series' dramatic themes, uncomfortable block-buster rip-offs and the return of drastically over-cooked foes.

From start to end, Arc of Truth felt like one long trailer for a longer story rather than the story itself.

Already pushed for time and clustered, the story brings back the replicators and uses up unavailable time in an unimaginative rehashing of story-lines already told, many times over. And, the sci-fi'd Frankenstein's Monster was actually frustrating.

The overly ambitious attempts at scope have the opposite effect and serve only to leave the film feeling rushed and under-developed, and the character focus abandoned - disappointing for a series that has excelled at character development and depth over the years.

By the time the far from unexpected return of a certain series ten character came about it was actually unwelcomed, and I was crying for something unpredictable, anything even mildly unexpected to happen.

A disappointing end to the Ori story arc and a disappointing beginning to a new format for SG1.

I sincerely hope Continuum has more to offer.