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For a time travel episode, it wasn't half bad.
I generally hate time travel episodes. Either the timeline twists back on itself so much that the plot doesn't make sense, or the episode wastes enormous amounts of time as the main characters try to explain they're from an alternate reality to people who don't believe them; sometimes, both. Stargate Continuum did suffer from a bit of both, but it also had a unique take on the subject that other time travel episodes on various shows haven't done enough with.
Usually, after much arguing, the main characters manage to convince someone they're telling the truth and gain an ally in returning time to its regular course of events. In Stargate Continuum, the main characters were told off for their arrogance in asking 6 billion people to give up the only lives they've ever known, since 'reality' is a matter of perspective. Who could blame Jack O'Neill for not wanting to restore a timeline in which his son had died? Of course, we in the audience know that nothing good could come of letting the new timeline play out, but it was realistic that SG-1 couldn't get anyone to help them and were forced to spend a year leading quietly mundane lives before the opportunity to restore the timeline presented itself. It made sitting through the whole 'we're from an alternate timeline, no really' part of the episode more tolerable.
There were other things that made this episode more tolerable, as well. One was seeing characters that haven't been on the show in awhile, some of whom were deceased in the current timeline. Another was seeing alternate versions of current characters. The writers have made Jack O'Neill a walking punchline for so long that it was awesome to see Special Forces Jack again. Also, Vala spent much of the episode as Quetesh, so she had less screen time than she would have had if she'd been with SG-1, and she was exhibiting Quetesh's personality, which is considerably less grating to me than Vala's.
Overall, Stargate Continuum wasn't as good as the first 6 seasons of Stargate SG-1, but it was better than most of seasons 7-10 and it was better than Stargate: The Ark of Truth.
I generally hate time travel episodes. Either the timeline twists back on itself so much that the plot doesn't make sense, or the episode wastes enormous amounts of time as the main characters try to explain they're from an alternate reality to people who don't believe them; sometimes, both. Stargate Continuum did suffer from a bit of both, but it also had a unique take on the subject that other time travel episodes on various shows haven't done enough with.
Usually, after much arguing, the main characters manage to convince someone they're telling the truth and gain an ally in returning time to its regular course of events. In Stargate Continuum, the main characters were told off for their arrogance in asking 6 billion people to give up the only lives they've ever known, since 'reality' is a matter of perspective. Who could blame Jack O'Neill for not wanting to restore a timeline in which his son had died? Of course, we in the audience know that nothing good could come of letting the new timeline play out, but it was realistic that SG-1 couldn't get anyone to help them and were forced to spend a year leading quietly mundane lives before the opportunity to restore the timeline presented itself. It made sitting through the whole 'we're from an alternate timeline, no really' part of the episode more tolerable.
There were other things that made this episode more tolerable, as well. One was seeing characters that haven't been on the show in awhile, some of whom were deceased in the current timeline. Another was seeing alternate versions of current characters. The writers have made Jack O'Neill a walking punchline for so long that it was awesome to see Special Forces Jack again. Also, Vala spent much of the episode as Quetesh, so she had less screen time than she would have had if she'd been with SG-1, and she was exhibiting Quetesh's personality, which is considerably less grating to me than Vala's.
Overall, Stargate Continuum wasn't as good as the first 6 seasons of Stargate SG-1, but it was better than most of seasons 7-10 and it was better than Stargate: The Ark of Truth.
