Stargate SG-1’s Worst Episode Saved The Series

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated 1 hour ago

Every TV series stumbles a little out of the gate as the cast and crew get to grips with the story they want to tell and how the characters should behave in different situations, and the greats of science fiction don’t is an exception. Star Trek: The Next Generation stumbled with Season 1 Episode 4, “Code of Honor,” and the worst episode of Stargate SG-1 It came early with Season 1’s “Emancipation.” As it turns out, both episodes share the same writer, but the latter is directly responsible for setting up the underdog sci-fi series to achieve greatness

Emancipation Is the worst Stargate SG-1 episode

Labeling any episode as “the worst” usually leads to fierce debate among fans, but as far as the Stargate SG-1 fan base is concerned, “Emancipation” is really bad. The episode begins with the gang encountering a planet where women are not allowed to show their faces or dress like men, which sounds horrible at first but keeps getting worse as Samantha Carter of Amanda Tapping being forced to dress as one of these. their women and become the property of the tribe. Worse, none of the SG-1 crew protested, and in fact, they like the new outfit.

By the time Carter was sold to the local warlord for 300 gold pieces, any message “Emancipation” was trying to convey was lost. There is a kernel of a smart story buried under Carter’s objectification, namely, how the militaristic SG-1 reacts to different cultures as this was, after all, their very first mission to a different planet through the Stargate. With no Prime Directive to guide it, “Emancipation” could have been a great episode to show how the series differs from Star Trekbut instead, the worst came from Stargate SG-1 and left everyone involved shaking their heads in astonishment and disgust.

It’s not just fans who hate him

In later interviews, Amanda Tapping has been kind to the worst Stargate SG-1 episode by politely saying he “missed the mark.” At the time, the reception of the episode was so bad that the producers and writers disguised and redesigned the character of Samantha Carter, transforming her into the clever, capable, multifaceted character that fans came to know over the rest of the series. If not for “Emancipation,” Carter might have been reduced to the token “hot girl” role common in most shows, who somehow finds herself in a different cosplay outfit every other episode.

It’s not just fans which considers “Emancipation” the worst episode of Stargate SG-1but also the writers. You can tell, in the back half of Season 1, how the cast are starting to get a handle on their characters and their weird moments, like Jack O’Neil (Richard Dean Anderson) and Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) ogling Carter. This step had to happen in order for everyone to learn the correct notes to hit, it’s ironic how similar it is to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 debate.

The Honor Code And Emancipation Are The Same

“Code of Honor” involves the Enterprise crew encountering a alien culture influenced by ancient culture, Chinese in this case, compared to Stargate’s Mongolia, with a female officer, Tasha Yar, considered the consort of the local warlord. In both episodes, there is a knife fight where a woman comes out on top and changes the alien civilization forever. The two worst Star Trek: The Next Generation a Stargate SG-1 chapters end with the acquisition of a local plant that promises to be a medical breakthrough.

Katharyn Powers went to two different ones sci-fi shows and wrote the exact same third episode for both of them, but she broke her streak by writing a “Past Prologue” for Star Trek: Deep Space Ninethe episode that introduced the world to Garak, a simple tailor. At least you can somewhat defend her streak of worst episodes ever by saying that when they were written, the characters of both The Next Generation a Stargate SG-1 not yet established, so it was impossible for them to behave wildly out of character. And then, you can say that the episodes were so bad that he forced the characters to be established very quickly to make sure that nothing embarrassing would ever happen again.

Guided to the Best of Stargate SG-1

If fans did not experience the worst Stargate SG-1they would never have been able to enjoy the best episodes, of “Heroes” to “Windows of Opportunity” or even “200,” which manages to be one of the best celebrations of a show to air within a show. “Emancipation” had to happen, and we can’t all be as classy as Amanda Tapping, but she managed to get away from Samantha Carter who lets a stranger study her every pore before selling her for gold to the Samantha Carter from “Space Race,” which saw fans embrace her need for speed, to “Death Knell,” which has her at the center of the game. Every show stumbles, but not every show ever goes on to become a genre classic.