Cast chemistry keeps `Stargate’ appealing
By Maureen Ryan
Tribune staff reporter
Some older TV shows — and we’re too kind to name names here — settle into a state of suspended mediocrity, puttering along and recycling old stories as they wait for someone to cancel them.
“Stargate SG-1,” which is in the middle of its eighth season, is not one of those. The episode airing at 7 p.m. Friday on Sci Fi is a treat, and it should be as much fun for “Farscape” lovers as for “SG-1” fans.
Claudia Black, the steely Aeryn Sun of Sci Fi’s canceled cult series “Farscape,” guests as Vala, a wily woman who manages to hijack a spaceship that belongs to Earth’s secret Stargate program, which battles various baddies across the universe. When not shooting at him or otherwise trying to take him down, Vala also attempts, with some success, to seduce “Stargate” scientist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks, at his bemused best).
Given the chemistry between Black and Shanks, things should get mighty interesting next season, when Black is set to appear in at least five episodes of “SG-1.” Not only will the delightfully devious Vala return, but Ben Browder, Black’s love interest on “Farscape,” joins the cast of “SG-1” next season as well. Is it any wonder that some sci-fi mavens have jokingly begun to refer to “SG-1” as “Fargate”?
The truth is, “Stargate SG-1” has always had a good measure of what made “Farscape” such fun: an irreverent attitude, a sprinkling of pop-culture references (watch for an amusing Han Solo mention) and a cast whose chemistry is almost palpable. And though the long-running program may not often show the wild inventiveness of “Farscape” at its best, clearly the “SG-1” producers know when to mix things up — heck, even the desk-bound Gen. Hammond (Don S. Davis) has some commando-style adventures on Friday’s episode.
Read the review at Chicago Tribune online
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