Hi. l'm Amanda Tapping at the Bridge Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Join me for an exciting look at the adventures that await SG-1 ...
..and the rest of the members of the SGC during the fifth season of Stargate SG-1.
Since its first season Stargate SG-1 has become...
..one of the most successful sci-fi series in production,...
..capturing the imaginations of audiences around the world.
Prepare to go beyond the Stargate for an unprecedented journey...
..with the people who have shaped Stargate over the last four seasons,...
..and get a fascinating glimpse of what lies ahead in the fifth season for all of us.
From the dangers and challenges of distant worlds...
..to the mysteries of inner space,...
..the Stargate has propelled us to the most spellbinding corners of its universe.
Here's a look at some of the new worlds and cultures awaiting SG-1 in season five.
The fifth season of Stargate SG-1 will challenge all the characters...
..with adventures that even the most experienced members find surprising.
ln terms of the broader arc of Stargate and our ongoing battle with the Goa'uld,...
..we are introducing a new villain.
ApparentIy the one he serves has no name.
(distorted) Oh, he has a name.
The Iikes of you are simpIy forbidden to know it.
We haven't given him a name and we may not give him a face for some time.
Not just to build the suspense and build the mystery,...
..but this is gonna be our last big bad guy and he is, so far, far more powerful.
We've just decided to bring in a bad-guy Goa'uld...
..more formidable than any we've met so far.
We're gonna find a lot more humour in our show and more situations where...
And you can only save the Earth and the universe every other week.
This week you gotta save the Earth, next week the universe,...
..then regroup and just save the Earth the week after that.
Teal'c, as the shol'va, the one who defied his god,...
..has become a famous figure amongst the Jaffa - an infamous figure -
..and some of them are starting to think maybe there is something to this idea...
..that we don't have to be slaves to the Goa'uld.
He's becoming a heroic figure, and in season five we explore that more...
..and see the development of a ground swell of a movement amongst the Jaffa...
..to be in a permanent state of rebellion against the Goa'uld.
Nobody really dies on Stargate,...
..but when a character really does die,...
..when someone disappears and doesn't come back,...
..then it adds a pall to everything that you do from that point on.
lt gets darker and the question is always there:
OK, now we're in a situation where this person might disappear.
ln year five, more than any other time, people start to disappear...
..and they don't come back.
ln season five's opener ''Enemies'' - the conclusion to ''Exodus'' in season four -
..the stakes have never been higher,...
..as SG-1 battle two of their most dangerous enemies...
..and deal with the fact that they may have seen Earth and Teal'c for the last time.
Less than four minutes before the sun supernovas.
DanieI, just get me the heII outta here.
Engaging hyperdrive.
- Sir, where's TeaI'c? - I think he's dead.
Teal'c in the very first show...
..has a change that happens to him that the audience will not expect.
When it happens it leads itself from a two-part series into a three-part series...
..just to resolve this problem he's got.
I am picking up a ship on the sensors.
Someone must have escaped Apophis's ship before the bugs took him.
- Who? - It's a Goa'uId cargo ship.
Hey!
Buddy!
What you got going here, TeaI'c?
Throughout the series the team has seen alien technology...
..vastly more advanced than anything Earth possesses.
ln the episode ''2001'' we glimpse what could happen...
..if some of that technology was made available to us.
What kind of defence technoIogies are we taIking about?
Space guns, force fieIds, motherships?
This is an exampIe of a bio-weapon...
..we can make avaiIabIe to you.
A Iiving, radioactive genetic materiaI...
..that may be designed to attack and destroy the specific DNA of your enemy.
We have a number of efficient deIivery systems.
You've got shades of They Live, First Wave, Earth: FinaI Conflict,...
..in so far as an alien race is going...
..''We're here to help you. Look, we've got trinkets and baubles.''
And they're really there to take over.
Why have these friends of Earth not aIready provided you...
..with the defence technoIogies that you seek from us?
Most of the races we befriended hesitated to share their technoIogy with us...
..for fear that we couId use it to destroy ourseIves.
True friends wouId endeavour to prevent that.
You have changed the way in which we view the universe.
Do not underestimate what we offer in return for that gift.
Extraordinary civilisations, fascinating new worlds and dangerous adventures...
..have taught all who step through the Stargate to expect the unexpected.
For SG-1 this can often mean the difference between death or survival.
''Beast of Burden'', l think, is my favourite this year...
..because it addresses some concerns that the audience members have had,...
..which is we always win.
And in ''Beast of Burden'' it becomes a question ''Are we gonna win?''
(Iow growI)
Do not fear. It's dead.
Generations ago the beasts ensIaved our forefathers through oppression.
They served the one with the gIowing eyes.
And what happened to him/her?.
No one knows. One day he went away, did not return.
Our forefathers Iearned how the beasts' weapons worked and Ied an uprising.
The war was bIoody. It waged for many years,...
..but eventuaIIy the sIaves triumphed and the masters became the sIaves.
Since then the beasts have served us.
Daniel Jackson has a very different take on things in a couple of episodes,...
..that are not standard textbook Jackson ways of looking at things.
You don't understand. This one's name is Chaka and he is coming with me.
- DanieI. - Jack.
Why don't we discuss what we can offer the man in return?
l think too often in this kind of show when you go into a self-destruct sequence...
..the audience sits there and says ''They're not gonna blow up the base.''
''You're not gonna kill that character.''
ln ''Beast of Burden'' we don't know.
All through ''Beast of Burden'' you ask yourself ''Who's right? Who's wrong?''
''Who's the good guy? Who's the bad guy in this?''
And we have real trouble figuring it out until the very end.
ln the end we come up with an answer but it may not be the one the audience wants.
What begins as a tense partnership...
..becomes a mission requiring two sides to work together...
..if anyone plans on getting out of the tomb alive.
Look, Zukhov, Iet's get something straight here.
I'm the ranking senior officer in this mission.
This is a joint operation, and we are of equaI rank.
Which means you shouId appreciate the need for a cIear chain of command.
- Of course. - CoIoneI.
- Is there a probIem? - (in unison) No, sir.
Directing ''The Tomb'' was fun because it drew upon lots of classic horror formulas.
Two factions coming together to defend themselves against a common enemy.
We have the Russians, who ran their own Stargate programme.
Now we've come together with them to figure out how to rescue their comrades,..
..who have gone on a mission and gone missing for quite a long time.
And we find ourselves stuck in this ziggurat,...
..which is the name of just a very cool ancient building,...
..and there's a creature that eats people that's stuck in there with us.
There it is again.
(Carter) I don't see anything.
It's around here somewhere.
ln ''Ascension'' my character, Samantha Carter,...
..becomes an object of intense alien desire,...
..and must choose between her personal feelings and her loyalty to SG-1 .
How are you?
Fine. How are you?
Good.
Nice to meet you.
Yeah... Are you from around here?
Sam Carter is stretching in ways that we've never seen her stretch,...
..not just being brilliant, she's more than just brilliant.
She's coming up with new character things that are not standard things.
We go to her house. We see her relationship.
My kind use a IeveI of communication that shares our innermost essence.
TeIepathy.
Reading someone's mind is an invasion of privacy.
It's not about specific thoughts or memory.
It's a sort of exchange of spirit.
There is a love scene in it, which we don't normally do on Stargate.
And that love scene is startling in the way that it transpires.
We get to see parts of Sam that are not military, that aren't staid.
She's not the cut-and-dried person that we thought she was.
What?
I'm sorry. If you haven't turned me in by now, there must be a reason.
I'd feeI bad betraying you - that's aII. Nothing more.
- You Iike me. - OrIin.
You Iike me.
I can teII.
You Iike me a Iot.
Although Stargate SG-1 is on the cutting edge of modern science fiction,...
..the inspiration for stories sometimes comes from the most surprising places...
..and often draws on subtle elements of ancient and classical mythology,...
..as seen in the episode ''Red Sky''.
I am Freyr. For what reason have you come before me?
Oh, Lord Freyr, forgive us for disturbing you, but we seek your wisdom.
The arrivaI of these outsiders has caused the Eye of Odin to grow dim.
We fear it is Ragnarok.
You are wise to seek my counseI,...
..but onIy through faith wiII you prove worthy of my benevoIence.
The probIem grows ever worse as Iong as you are here.
If you can't see that the gods wish you to Ieave, we'II make it cIear on their behaIf.
Jack O'Neill is getting more and more a curmudgeon with some things he does,...
..but also more of what he does as a Special Forces person comes out...
..because he's having a struggle internally with...
..''Can l be a Special Forces military and a humanitarian at the same time?''
- You stupid son of a bitch! - The gods have spoken.
You just kiIIed two of my men and screwed your whoIe pIanet!
Two of our brothers aIso gave their Iives to serve the gods.
You coward!
- Why didn't you do it yourseIf?. Why? - I wouId gIadIy die to serve the gods.
Maybe you shouId.
- No! No, Jack! - Sir!
Bringing a series like Stargate SG-1 to life poses very unusual challenges,...
..demanding the best from the imagination of our special-effects team.
Year five for Stargate, more than any other, we've been experimenting a lot.
ln the first show of the year, ''Enemies'',...
..the script was huge in terms of visual effects...
..and we looked at it and said ''Can we do this?''
And we got the thumbs up to do it and to do what we wanted to with it,...
..which means doing something never done on TV before.
lt's a hand-held shot with CG bugs in it.
All we do is we run with them in the halls, look back at what they're shooting,...
..and this dust is shaking out of the walls because these guns have such a power.
lt's one of the most spectacular sequences of visual effects...
..mixed with physical human activity that incorporates so many different elements.
lt incorporates explosions. lt incorporates gunfire.
lt incorporates cameras running with our characters, who are running to get away.
And imagine you're a camera operator running with the hand-held camera.
He was padded out like a riot policeman.
And they're being chased by creatures that don't seem to have an end...
..and don't seem to die.
Over four seasons Stargate has pushed the boundaries of science fiction,...
..lifting the veil on a universe limited only by the imagination of those who create it.
The beauty of science fiction is the palette is so broad.
There are so many ways, we can go so much farther and explore so much more...
..because we can go to the extremes of the human and alien conditions.
We can look at the human condition from an alien point of view.
Just fix the damn sun!
UnfortunateIy we cannot.
Why not?
(converses in foreign tongue)
It wouId be in vioIation of our treaty with the Goa'uId.
What?
The treaty states that the peopIe of a pIanet categorised as protected...
..wiII be free from Goa'uId domination.
However, subsection 42 states that the peopIe on those pIanets...
..cannot be artificiaIIy advanced through Asgard technoIogicaI means.
Using our technoIogy to prevent a naturaI disaster...
..wouId be a vioIation of that order and wouId nuIIify the treaty as a whoIe.
The Goa'uId wouId be free to invade any of the protected pIanets,...
..incIuding Earth.
Oh.
Season five of Stargate SG-1 also marks another great milestone for our series,...
..with the filming of SG-1's 100th episode.
For everyone involved the making of our 100th episode, ''Wormhole X-treme'',...
..was an occasion that will always be remembered.
I wanted to caII the show ''Going To Other PIanets'',...
..but research says that shows with x in the name get higher ratings.
Why aren't the aIiens ever in camouflage?
No. Look at my Iips: bigger.
l'm Amanda Tapping. From everyone at Stargate SG-1 we thank you.
And we hope you enjoy watching season five as much as we've enjoyed making it.