We’re celebrating 20 years of Stargate SG-1 by counting down 20 of the show’s finest hours — as voted on by you! Click here to start at the beginning of the countdown.
#11. THE TOK’RA, PART 2
Score: 9.31 (out of 10)
Season Two’s mid-season two-parter was so huge at the time because Earth gained a powerful ally in the Tok’ra, a band of rebel Goa’uld who did not lust for power but shared Earth’s desire to topple the System Lords. But even the spies have spies in their ranks. Sam tries to work through her former symbiote’s feelings for Martouf, and Jacob Carter’s life is saved by blending with the Tok’ra symbiote Selmak — making Sam’s dad a sort of ambassador between the two peoples.
#11. RECKONING, PART 2
Score: 9.31
Tying up the eleventh spot with an equal score is “Reckoning, Part 2” — an episode so big it easily could have served as a series finale. The story of the first eight years of SG-1 comes to a head as Earth, the Tok’ra, and Baal join forces against the Replicator invaders while a captive Daniel fights back against RepliCarter … and behind the scenes Anubis tries to pull everyone’s strings. The Jaffa win their freedom as the millennia-long Goa’uld empire collapses.
#10. A MATTER OF TIME
Score: 9.36
A truly great sci-fi hour, this Season Two episode saw the S.G.C. subject to the growing effects of time dilation after dialing the Stargate to a world on the edge of a black hole. An SG team is lost, Jack must work alongside a man who once left him for dead (Marshall Teague as Colonel Frank Cromwell), and Carter must flex her genius under pressure to come up with a solution. (Fun Fact: It’s also the first episode for Colin Cunningham’s Major Davis.)
#9. THE PEGASUS PROJECT
Score: 9.42
Daniel’s long-held dream of visiting the lost city of the Ancients is finally realized when SG-1 travels to Atlantis in this funny and exciting crossover adventure. With some help from Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) the team uses the Odyssey to dial the Supergate and prevent the Ori from connecting their own wormhole to the Milky Way Galaxy. Back on Atlantis, Daniel and Vala go looking for intel and wind up meeting a real, living Ancient — Morgan Le Fay.
#8. ENEMIES
Score: 9.43
The only representative from Season Five on this list is the epic premiere, in which SG-1 and Jacob find themselves on a cargo ship stranded millions of light years from home … alongside Apophis’s mothership. Their only hope? Replicators! The little buggers infest the enemy ship and juice up its propulsion drive, allowing them to return home just in time to deal a death blow to the most powerful Goa’uld in the galaxy. Teal’c, meanwhile, succumbs to brainwashing and has to be taken out …
#7. LOST CITY, PART 2
Score: 9.44
The final hour of Season Seven has everything: adventure, secrets, betrayal, combat, character moments, and tons of heart. SG-1 races to Proclarush Taonas to recover an ancient power source (our first look at a Z.P.M.), then must make it back to Earth and plug it into the Ancient weapons platform buried beneath the ice of Antarctica before Anubis conquers the planet with his massive fleet — all while the knowledge of the Ancients threatens to take Jack O’Neill away from his friends forever. Don Davis captains the Prometheus in his final episode as a series regular.
#6. THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
Score: 9.55
SG-1 went to hell in the third season two-parter! After infiltrating Sokar’s prison moon Ne’tu in the previous episode, the team failed to escape with Jacob and Martouf and fell into the hands of a resurrected Apophis. While the enemy plots to secure his own freedom (eventually taking over Sokar’s forces) the team fights against Apophis’s brainwashing and escapes by the skin of their teeth.
NEXT: The Top 5 Episodes
Nice job Darren!
Great stuff! Love all these episodes….
1969 and Mobius parts 1&2
1969 and Urgo are 2 great ones
Good job. However a few honorable mentions: Foothold, The Nox, Deadman Switch, Fair Game, New Ground and Evolution Part 1. The list is almost endless. So many good episodes to choose from. Again good Top 20 picks
I must protest. The Lost City, Part 2 is NOT the first time we encounter a ZPM. At least, not entirely.
What O’neill creates in The Fifth Race is essentially a makeshift. primative ZPM to allow him to power the gate enough to reach the Asgaard homeworld in the Ida Galaxy. The devices are even shaped similarly, although they are made out of different materials, and obviously use different principles to produce their power.
Carter then later fixes it with the help of Mirror Carter to allow the Mirror world to contact the Asgaard as well.