User Reviews

The surprisingly-personal and somber ending for StarGate SG1 lacked the high stakes and computer-created action one would expect from a science fiction adventure program. From before the beginning theme, Thor forces us to say goodbye, and acknowledge an ending that has been a long time coming. The Ori are not eradicated once and for all in a huge final battle; instead we are left to feel assured it will happen later, in yet another impossibly entertaining battle with the existence of the universe itself being decided. We see it only in our imaginations. Hey, we've been there, we've done that, loved it all.

Instead, we confront the most difficult REALITY of inevitable death, seeing an unalterable conclusion and being powerless to change it. Legacy, the Asgard living beyond death, in the minds of those who remember. Frustration, rage even, aimed at a situation you cannot bear but cannot control. It makes Cameron throw furniture across the room. Personal solace, reflection on friends we've known for what seems like forever, but have difficultly admitting even to ourselves that maybe we've grown a little weary of their company after so long. A secret taboo thought that maybe we should have let the end come years ago, instead of enduring silent meals together. But we hold out extinction because, like Daniel, there are genuine feelings unearthed in an altogether unexpected place.

But then there must be an acceptance. Not a giving up, but an uneasy yet compliant embracing of the inevitable. It's not really all that important, to save all this, is it? It's not actually a big deal, or at least it shouldn't be. It would be nice to go back and revive it all. Perhaps stave off oblivion. But we can't go back. The past is gone and we're at an end.

'Unending' is not simply a marker as the last episode; it is a symbolic statement about the series itself.

And for all its subtext, it still manages to fit in character, humor, and space combat with big-honkin' explosions. Vala's tears got to me, Teal'c made me laugh, and I silently cheered when they took out an Ori ship. This will not sit well with everyone; the true ending we're given is one that is reflective, emotional, and even a bit poetic. But I would take emotional closure over an attempt at intellectual closure that couldn't possibly deliver in capping a decade's worth of story.

This is far from the expected: This is an ending.

The final scene in the gate room, listing off clichés that O'Neill would hate so much, missed one, perhaps purposefully: "All good things must comes to an end". Unless you're Carter, then you get to go on forever, it seems. And on a side note, Carter and Vala's bodies were awesome at 80-90 years old. Asgard wonder-bra technology, I guess. And the underexposure of Teal'c, I must note, keeps it from a perfect score.

But it truly is an unending. We can go back. We have magical devices known as DVD players, portals in time called reruns, and two movies in the making that will further the adventures through the Ol' Orifice.

And we never had to pay a dime for any of it. Mitchell: ...the best things in life are free.

I am bias, I absolutely love Stargate SG-1. While I am saddened by the ending of this show. I have to say they ended it with class and elegance.

Long story short the episode put the characters of SG1 in a time dilation field and they spend the next 50 years together, them and only them. Then Poof everything is back to normal. It was interesting seeing how the characters develop over 50 years of being together. Their are parts that are funny as hell and other parts that are somber.

But there is a perk, in April of 2007 they will make the first of what I hope to be many Stargate SG-1 Direct to DVD movies. So I seriously doubt this will be the last we see of SG1.

However Amanda Tapping is going to Stargate Atlantis for season 4 and it doing 14 episodes. So this is not the end of Samantha Carter.

After I have seen all 10 seasons of SG-1, I was very disappointed when I realized that this was the very last "Episode" of SG-1. I have been seeing this program for 7 years now, and it just got better, and with the Goa'uld gone, and the Ori arrival. Though it sounds like a Hollywood thing, just to continue the series, the Ori treat really continues the series in a very positive way, it is like they have arranged the Ori comeback for several years ago in production.

In this episode we see the Asgard in their most trueful version ever, even though they are one of the 4 Races, they are just as week as every other race in the Universe. And with this said, I uttermost recommend to listen very closely to each of the Asgard sentences, because atmonst them is a very special line, which never should be forgotten!

With the Tauri(earth offcoruse) getting advantage of some Asgard technology, they get stuck in a time dialation field when they are attacked by Ori vessel's. Though the combat seems very entertaining, the real dynamite in this episode is the time SG-1 spends together. They spend fifty years together(because they are stuck in the time dialation field), where you can see how they evolve, and what their innermost person really are. Carter, Jackson, (Not Teal'c he lives for several hundred years anyway), Mitchell, Landry, and Vala each evolves very drastically. This(beneath this) will sound like a huge spoiler, but the sheer enjoyment of seeing how the persons really are, anstonish even me. I have seen the episode 5 times now, and even got the CCR song. Though I miss O'Neill here, but Michtell retains his place like I have never seen him before. I have never seen such strong emotions from all of them, with Vala hitting on "someone", Mitchell going crazy from depression of all those years, Jackson realizing him self, Landry being such a soft person, Carter ultimately changes herself, and Teal'c well... you know him haha.

This is one episode that never should be forgotten, this is one of the best series ever in Sci-Fi, and it finishes with a Grand Finale. But hey there will come 2 more movies. :D

I loved this series. I loved the characters. I did find some of the episodes to be unimaginative given the endless possibilities of the Stargate universe.

But this episode was very satisfying. The writing, acting, direction, and production all worked to draw me in.

The impression of years passing was surprisingly convincing considering the 1 hour run time.

Still, it would have benefited from being a 2 hour episode to more completely tell the story of the Asgard and the Ori pursuit.

One of my favorite series finales.

While the episode itself feels a bit dragged out it serves perfect as an ending.

The asgard are gone, humanity finally has the tools to battle the ori an even tho that epic final battle isn't shown here the idea that everything will be resolved is given.

Jackson gets a fitting end in general, if the character were to be brought back in a future series i hope it starts to align to this.

Only detail is that the ending could have used Oneill just to see if the ship would sail, Sam and Mitchell are not lost but missing something which is understandable for the episode although maybe boring but worse when it is known that is the ending.

Teal'c sacrifice and his aproximation to ascention or at least attempt to is as perfect as it gets.

Overall, really glad the end episode is like this, with arguably futurama vibes, you spent a life with the characters and while their adventures will continue they will not be the focus of the universe. Since then most have make cameos in the other series.

Being a fan of Stargate SG1 series for years, I was saddened that we will see the team in their last hurrah in Season 10. I've got to say here that this was one of the best well thought out and brilliantly conceived endings to a brilliant series which still stands the test of time today. In this final episode segment, the SG1 crew inherit the Asgard's technology, but they can't use it. As Thor installs the new tech, this ultimately leads the SG1 team to confront something they've never experienced before...getting stuck in a Time bubble aboard the ship together and all age 50 years. The dialog is funny and the scene between Vala and Daniel Jackson in his quarters during their time of imprisonment, was one of the best scenes in this episode. The best scene was when Thor beamed on the ship. Sam knows which Asgard it is, as Vala asks, "Out of curiosity, how can you tell the difference?" And Daniel always says "The voice". It's no coincidence that actor Michael Shanks has always done the voice of Thor. Sad to see it go....

I don't really know how to feel about this final Finale. Mainly because it doesn't FEEL like a finale. I mean, I was expecting... I don't know, catharsis, drama, explosions, Earth about to be destroyed, maybe BEING destroyed because after all Stargate doesn't always go for the happy ending. Instead, Unending is more like the last part of "A Space Odyssey": a symbolic sequence that you have to watch several times to fully appreciate. At first, I was merely disappointed. Now, in retrospect, I'm starting to see the intention behind that odd ending. It's all about the meaning of life and of Stargate SG1.

Along with the series, this is the (really dismal and brutal) end of the Asgaard, the first race and Earth's best ally since the first season. This moment symbolically marks the coming of age for all mankind as they inherit both the power and the responsibility of defending the universe, preserving life and, hopefully, not repeating the same mistakes their predecessors made. Unfortunately, repeating the same thing over and over is what SG1 -and Landry, for some reason- are doomed to do since they're now in their own time loop, much like the Replicators were once (ha! karma really is a b**ch.) So in a way, this is the "happily ever after" we might have wanted (be careful what you wish for...): no more danger, no more Ori, no more adventures to go on. Just life as it is, sometimes boring, sometimes exciting, watching death inch ever closer through the window, knowing there's nothing you can do to stop it, and wondering what you're going to do with what little time you have: run in circles; fight the same fight over and over again; learn new things, fulfill forgotten dreams; create new bonds. And ultimately, grow old together. For a moment, I even thought that the show would really end like this. I would have been crushed, but as endings go, it would have been meaningful, in a grim way.

But "happily ever after", fortunately, has never been what Stargate-SG1 was about. It's always been about stepping through that Gate day after day without knowing what lay on the other side, and hopefully bringing back something good (a beautiful metaphor for life, if you ask me). Not about contentment, but about hope: so I really like that once again, they find a solution at the last moment, all together. This way, we got to see what MIGHT yet happen, but nothing is set in stone and it's left to us (and to Teal'c) to guess whether Daniel and Vala will really get together one day and so on. For now, the Ori are still out there, Ba'al and Adria might not have said their last word, and who knows what else may lurk beyond the next wormhole. Unending.

Now to the bad points, because there definitely are some. First, the simple fact that cheering at the instant annihilation of an Ori ship is not enough catharsis for me. Then, the last scene where they list clichés really feels like useless padding. Then again, I really wish they would have brought back Jack for that scene (maybe put the group trip offworld from "200" here?). Finally, and mainly: WHO wrote that speech of Daniel's? He is my favourite character ever on the team; so it really hurts that for 3 minutes there he turned into such a mean jerk that I absolutely loathed him. It's so totally NOT Daniel -neither his personality nor his feelings. And I can't see how Vala could forgive him that easily after being sneered at by the one person she trusts most in the world.

Anyway, it's starting to look like this review might be called Unending too, so I'll leave it at that and switch to Atlantis, which I haven't started on yet. Because for good or bad, this episode just does not feel like The End.

All in all this episode was an utter disappointment. I give it a six out of ten because of the acting and witty dialogue. The story was terrible. The Asgard decide to totally annihilate their own population and give all of their knowledge in one handy little computer core to Stargate Command, and upgrade their starship's weapons and technology. This alone seemed a little contrived... then suddenly the Ori have the ability to follow SG-1's ship wherever they go and attack. The Asgard technology upgrades seem to be capable of destroying an Ori ship handily. This makes the past 2 seasons a little confusing...

If the Asgard had the ability to defeat the Ori, why did they not help the Tauri with that technology before? Plus when they were backing up the Tauri when the Ori succeeded in entering the galaxy via the Super Gate why did they get their butt's kicked?

Moving on... They have three Ori ships following them, which proves to be too much. Then comes the really disappointing part of the story. They defeat two of the three ships but their shields take a beating. When their shields are depleted Sam turns on a time dilation bubble thanks to the Asguard technology. Which gives them all the time they need to come up with a way out. She tries to come up with a way to phase the ship into another dimension but the beam is too close... they can't beam off because again the beam is too close. She says the shields can't take one more hit. So... she takes 50 years to come up with a way to reverse time, separate the Asgard computer core and jump to hyperspace. I am completely stunned that they didn't come up with the quickest solution... fix the shields! Fix the shields, destroy the last ship, then separate the computer core and jump to hyperspace. Sam has fixed shields in a flash in many previous episodes. Why was it not an option here? Over 50 years she didn't come up with that simple solution. If there was a reason why they couldn't get the shields back, they didn't explain it.

Anyway... enough of my rant... I'm just extremely disappointed. The whole story felt contrived and was a horrible disappointment for a last episode of one of my favorite shows of all time.

It's fitting the final episode of Stargate SG-1 has no meaningful stargate travel in it. Sure, there's mention of a stargate to get home from being stranded on a planet. But there's no stargate travel shown in the episode proper. There's stargate travel at the end: sending SG-1 onto their continuing adventures.

Stargate began with the stargate. It was a mystery and a wonder what they would find on the other side of the gate. There were ships, but they weren't the focus. Over time, ships became more and more prevalent. In seasons 9 and 10 the stargate was almost an after thought. After all, the whole Ori threat was set up by travel via stones. Most of the mystery and wonder of the series were gone, replaced by a poor man's Star Trek or Star Wars "universe" beyond Earth.

Why Teal'c at 157 looks far younger than Bra'tac at 133 is a mystery. At least this episode sets Teal'c up for the made for TV movies. Between the end of season 9 and the beginning of season 10, there was some heavy makeup used to make Teal'c look younger. The actor had aged, but Jaffa aren't supposed to age that quickly, even without a symbiote. It was a shock to see Teal'c looking like he had plastic surgery in the hours between the last episode of season 9 and first episode of season 10. Now he can look his age for the movies.

Apparently there are no scissors on board the Odyssey. Or, at least, Sam, Cam, Daniel and Landry forgot how to use scissors. Overall, the makeup work to make characters look older is awful.

Thank goodness SG-1 got a fresh outlook with the bigger budget, longer movies. This episode is awful.

I found the episode to be a bit of a let down. I say this because the beginning and middle of the episode were so good that you were expecting a thrilling ending. Instead you got a bunch of clichés and teal'c with a gray stripe in his hair.

Things I liked about this episode:

1. Great character development.

We get to see the characters we have all grown to love progress overtime emotionally and physically. 2. Asguards go out with a bang. Literally. :)

After not hearing from them much since season 8, they sure do know how to pump up an episode with kick ass Asguard technology (I cheered when they took out the Ori mother-ship with the new weapons, and a final goodbye to the race. 3. CCR

"Have you ever seen the rain?" is my favorite CCR song and one of my personal favorites. It added such great emotion to the story and was an excellent departure from a variation of the main theme being played again. (You real fans know what i'm talking about. :) They must have done at least 30 variations of the same basic melody throughout the seasons) 4. Vala Maldoran (Claudia Black)

Do I need say more? 5. Sam's Cello

Being the music nerd I am, when Sam materialized the cello on the ship, I laughed out "Its a f****** cello, NICE!". She builds some nasty chops on that thing, although its probably not Amanda Tapping playing. (If it is, please correct me)

Things I didn't like about this episode.

1. Underexposure of Teal'c, as usual.

I can understand how it is hard to write for him, but he is such and interesting character I just want to see more of him. 2. Daniel Jackson's freak-out on Vala

Through all of the seasons, we have learned that Daniel Jackson is essentially the moral base of the team. He is the most understanding and compassionate character, even through times of high stress and conflict. And to see him flip out on Vala like that was completely out of his character. There was always an underlying tension between the two, and I personally thought they could make a good couple, but not like that. I can see why Black and Shanks both protested the scene. It was terrible. 3. Cliché'd ending

This was the most painful. The ending consisted of overused sayings, so called words-of-wisdom, to sum up something the whole team, with the exception of tealc, doesn't even remember happening.

On another note, the use of the CCR song got me thinking it was near over. I think in that part of the episode, if Sam said something along the lines of, "Thats it, there are no more options we can do" and then like Mitchell said "Well we gave it one hell of a shot guys...." and they all died, it almost would have been better.

Now I'll admit I do enjoy this cheesy B grade sci-fi show, despite it's contrived happy endings and ridiculous character development. But the problem with this finale is that they take this production way too seriously culminating in a ridiculously bad, pretentious montage to a misplaced, overplayed classic rock song. This was such bad art it made me cringe to watch this sequence, and this music just totally didn't belong here. Clearly the writers and production staff are B grade too. We also got more typical bad makeup jobs of our main characters growing elderly in a time dilation field and putting on razzie worthy, tear jerking scenes of pretentious sentimentality. Thrown in is possibly the worst bit of dialog I've seen since the Star Wars Prequels where for some reason Daniel goes on a ridiculous rant rejecting Claudia Black's character's sexual advances towards him. Who on Earth wrote this scene? They have absolutely no understanding of what a man would do in such a situation. Daniel is supposed to be Nerdy, but Nerds aren't against sex, often it's all they think about (i.e Revenge of the Nerds.) Nerds are just socially awkward and don't know how approach women, often harboring secret fantasies of the woman being the aggressor.(i.e Crumb) When Daniel Jackson instead went to deliver an idiotic moralistic speech following Vala's come-on I was overwhelmed with shock just how bad this bit was and that the production staff previewed this yet still allowed it to air. You'll have to see this to believe it, one of the all time worst love scenes in the history of entertainment. Staggeringly bad it makes the dismal, contrived teen love affair in The Great Outdoors seem Oscar worthy in comparison. A truly disappointing finale to this series, the silly but fun "class reunion" episode a few weeks before would have made a better send off than this atrociously bad effort to produce "art".

Just finished watching SG-1 and my take on the ending is that, this series though far from perfect with many flaws, loopholes and contradictions is a OK if we set it a certain standard which I wouldn't rate as bad.

The alien race Azgards is poorly constructed (I would have given them telekinetic powers to make up for their frail bodies and some clothes..), very less explained and the way they finally end is quite unrealistic. The Ancients are ascended, the Nox are conveniently MIA and the Furlings.. well they are absent, leaving Earth (ie US military) to save the universe from powerful forces such as the Wraith, Ori etc. At the beginning, things are quite believable.. a single device Stargate, unknown to the public and used by the military to explore the universe secretly; but towards the later part & the end, what with the flying ships, beaming transporters etc a question comes to mind, is this set in our reality or some other! Surely with so much advanced technology we could fix a lot of problems in our world with very less efforts but that is not so.. Like this I can go on with the many short comings of this series but as I said before Stargate is far from perfect and if we just watch it as a mere entertainer without thinking too much this show is actually quite OK.

Guess in the end the final episode is kind-of based on the famous saying "the show must go on.." and it also sets as a platform for future movies/TV shows on Stargate. The Azgard farewell (however unbelievable) and Teal'c sacrifice in saving SG-1 inputs an emotional factor to the end of this long running series.