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Stargate SG-1: Season Six

The sixth season of Stargate Sg-1 was marked by change to a new network, along with the death/ascension of a beloved character (Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson, replaced in the lineup by Corin Nemec) and a new approach to the show as a whole. Having moved to the Sci-Fi Channel, the Stargate writers made a subtle but notable move to telling more stories about the overriding plot elements (the ongoing attempt of the Goa'uld to take over the universe, for example), more stories based back home at Stargate HQ and more entertaining one-shot shows than the lengthy, almost soap-ish plot lines about the characters' interpersonal relations that had threatened to take hold. Some of this was undoubtedly to please the execs at their new network, but it was also simply time to shake things up — this was the show's sixth year on the air, after all, so trying to keep things fresh was a smart notion. In the season's two-part opener, "Redemption," Teal'c (Christopher Judge) discovers that his wife has died and that his son blames him for her fate, while the team discovers a plot by the show's new Big Bad, Anubis. Among the more interesting episodes this season include "Abyss," in which O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) is captured and tortured by a Goa'uld who repeatedly kills him and revives him in a sarcophagus, with the ascended-to-a-higher-being Daniel Jackson popping in to try and help him; "The Other Guys," which lampoons "Star Trek" with the SG-1 team getting help from some nerdy scientists; "Prometheus," which brought back John de Lancie as the smarmy Col. Simmons; and "Unnatural Selection," with those devious Replicators morphing onto humanoids. The season's excellent finale, "Full Circle" — in which the team race to keep an artifact called The Eye of Ra out of Anubis' hands — was originally planned to close out the series and set stage for a feature film; the decision to come back for a seventh season, however, changed all that. MGM again does the show justice with Stargate SG-1: Season Six offering all 22 episodes on five discs in gorgeous, letterboxed widescreen (1.78:1) transfers with richly detailed Dolby 2.0 Surround audio. Extras include commentaries on all 22 episodes, twelve behine-the-scenes featurettes looking at individual episodes ("Redemption," "Descent," "Frozen," "Night Walkers," "Abyss," "Shadow Play," "The Other Guys," "Allegiance," "Cure," "Prometheus," "Metamorphosis," and "Full Circle"). Five keep-cases in a paperboard slipcase.
—Dawn Taylor


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