Unending
Encyclopedia
"Unending" is the season finale
of the tenth season
and series finale
of the science fiction
television series Stargate SG-1
, and the show's two-hundred sixteenth episode overall. Written and directed by Robert C. Cooper
, the episode originally premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky One
on March 13, 2007, and in the United States on June 22, 2007 on the Sci Fi Channel
. The episode attracted approximately 2.2 million viewers on its American broadcast, a ratings success for the Sci Fi Channel.
The episode begins with the mass suicide of the Asgard race, who try to preserve their legacy by giving their entire knowledge to the SG-1 team and the crew of the Earth ship Odyssey. When the ship is attacked by Ori warships, Lieutenant-Colonel Samantha Carter creates a time dilation field that speeds up time within the ship, and it takes fifty years until a defense against the Ori weapons can be found.
) are travelling on the Earth ship Odyssey to the Asgard home world, Orilla, when the Asgard
Thor beams aboard. He reveals that after millennia of genetic manipulation, a disease has brought his race very close to extinction, and SG-1 accepts his offer to upload the sum of all Asgard knowledge into Odyssey as a way to preserve the Asgard legacy after their mass suicide. However, Orilla and Odyssey are soon attacked by Ori
warships. Orilla erupts with huge explosions, and after Odyssey escapes to the next planet with a Stargate and beams the bulk of its crew down, the Ori fire a final energy beam upon the ship. Lieutenant-Colonel Samantha Carter
(Amanda Tapping
) activates a localized time dilation field that makes time look frozen outside the field to give SG-1 and Landry time to find a defense.
During the initial months on board, Vala Mal Doran
(Claudia Black
) repeatedly tries to seduce Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks
). Daniel finally confronts Vala for what he believes to be her insincerity, teasing, and mocking of him. Vala's upset reaction makes Daniel realize the honesty of her feelings, and they share a passionate embrace. As the years pass, each team member attempts to deal with the isolation. General Landry develops a gardening hobby; Carter learns how to play the cello
; Daniel continues the translation of Asgard information in the database and develops his relationship with Vala; and Cameron Mitchell
(Ben Browder
) and Teal'c
(Christopher Judge
) exercise and train while Mitchell is growing more frustrated and angry. After many years, General Landry succumbs to old age and dies.
After fifty years Carter has devised a way to reverse time within a localized field, however the Odysseys power source (ZPM) is almost completely depleted from maintaining the time dilation field for fifty years. Cameron however hypothesizes that the power of the Ori energy beam could provide the required energy to reverse the time. This, however, will mean the loss of any memories of the last fifty years. Teal'c, who as a Jaffa has a much longer lifespan than the other team members, volunteers to remain behind and perform the rescue, protected within a separate field. As the group prepares their plan, Vala and Daniel exchange a last embrace, assuring each other of their love. When everything is in place, they deactivate the time dilation field and, after the normal timeline is restored, Teal'c prevents Colonel Carter from activating the time dilation field. Odyssey leaves before it is destroyed, saving SG-1 and the Asgard's legacy.
Back at the SGC (Stargate Command), Teal'c refuses to reveal any of the events on the ship, much to Vala's disappointment. As the episode, the season and the series come to a close, SG-1 contemplates Teal'c's joking words of wisdom in the gateroom and says "indeed" all at once. General Landry wishes the team God-speed, and SG-1 steps through the gate on their next mission.
, and the second episode of the series directed by Cooper. Being the series' tenth season finale, "Unending" was the fifth season finale to potentially serve as Stargate SG-1' s last episode, although the writers originally anticipated another renewal of the series and planned to end the season with a cliffhanger
. However, the Sci-Fi Channel announced the series' cancellation in August 2006, approximately one month before "Unending" was written. The network opposed the idea of a cliffhanger leading up to a possible movie, and since the producers never intended "to blow up the SGC and kill everyone", the episode's theme and name were chosen to give "a sense of ending without it being an ending". This move also allowed for the fan conspiracy theories surrounding a possible real Stargate
under Cheyenne Mountain
to continue. The option to end the series with a two-parter was considered but rejected, as Cooper felt this would have made the ending less special. The buildup of the Ori arc in Seasons 9 and 10 would eventually get a pay-off in Stargate: The Ark of Truth
, a film produced after the end of the show. The cast and crew knew by the end of the episode's filming on October 5, 2006 that more films would be produced.
Robert C. Cooper intended the episode as "an emotional tribute to the ten seasons that [had] come before" and "the last chapter in the book – but not necessarily in the series of books. It was a chance [...], using science fiction, to show people one version of what the future might be like for these characters that they've spent so much time with and loved so much." By killing off the Asgard race, Cooper gave the episode an element of tragedy that reflected his feelings at the time. Producer Brad Wright
wanted all of the characters to get a last shot in the spotlight instead of focusing on only one character. Because of fan vocality about team episodes, Cooper decided to put the characters through several decades of life and see their relationships develop and evolve. The references in "Unending" to the events of season 2's "The Fifth Race", another Cooper-penned episode often named as a fan favorite, were intended, as were the callbacks to season 9's "The Ties That Bind" (the Daniel-Vala argument, see below) and season 10's "Line In The Sand" (the solution of using the Ori beam). The period aboard the ship was originally significantly less than fifty years, but the actors' last-stage makeup, which Cooper only saw minutes before filming, looked so old that Cooper was forced to increase the number of years in the script.
Cooper originally wrote the developing romance between Daniel and Vala in "Unending" by having them have sex without a confrontation. Claudia Black and Michael Shanks protested against this intended story, as Shanks felt that "[t]here's always been this underlining, keeping [Vala] at arms length because of the fear of getting too close." Cooper rewrote the scene to show Vala's vulnerability to Daniel, and have Daniel share his true feelings of a relationship. The actors decided to play the confrontation scene as genuinely as possible, with both characters being neither completely in-character nor totally out-of-character. The scene was rehearsed a lot and was filmed over the course of six hours. Cooper was nevertheless concerned that Daniel appeared too edgy and mean, although his feelings were motivated by the two years of torment with Vala, and losing his wife nearly ten years before. Daniel's line, "You better not be messing with me", was only said in one take by Michael Shanks. Since Cooper prefers to follow up on such emotional scenes with a laugh, the immediate next scene shows Vala coming out of Daniel's room, where she encounters a disbelieving Mitchell jogging by. In Cooper's mind, Daniel held a crying Vala in another scene because she had gotten pregnant and had lost the baby. To contrast the obvious relationship between Daniel and Vala, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge subtly played their scenes as if their characters also had a romantic relationship.
To give the Odyssey an unnatural ghostship feeling of solitude, many wide angle shots and VisFX matte extension were used with no additional music. Robert C. Cooper often listened to the CCR
song "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
" during the making of the episode and decided to play it over the first montage, showing the passage of time. The tone of the second montage was set with a cello
. Stargate composer Joel Goldsmith
later accompanied the hand movements of the hired cellist with different music during post-production. A third montage was filmed but not included in the final cut of the episode since the last table scene already supplied the needed sentiment. Each time period included the same shots to help the audience focus on the differences that characters have gone through. The last scene at Stargate Command was the last filmed Stargate SG-1 scene, shot at two o'clock in the morning, for which every member of the crew came back.
on March 13, 2007 pulled in around 518,000 viewers, making Stargate SG-1 the third most-watched program for Sky One during that week. "Unending" attracted approximately 2.2 million viewers on its first American broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel
on June 22, 2007, the best performance for SG-1 since the September 22, 2006 mid-season finale.
Reviewers were generally satisfied with the conclusion, and some like Bill Keveney of the USA Today
felt the episode does not stray far from "the series formula – a mix of sci-fi adventure, relationships and humor". Jason Van Horn of IGN
enjoyed the humor, "the amount of heart and pure emotion running rampant this episode", which he thought served as a symbol for the entire show that will stay in the public mind through re-runs and DVDs. Two scenes that stood out for him as "powerful", "heart-wrenching" and "the icing on the cake", were Mitchell's breakdown and Vala's seduction of Daniel signaling "the beginning of a very long lasting and loving relationship". Vala's emotional response to Daniel was interpreted as an example of her character growth, while another reviewer felt the "Vala/Daniel argument [was] a tad overwrought [although] the motivation is clear". The emotional death of Landry appealed to several reviewers, as did the resolution via Teal'c's heroic sacrifice.
The "clever, ground-breaking", "fitting" and "hugely satisfying" episode reminded hdtvuk.tv's Ian Calcutt of Star Trek: The Next Generation
's finale "All Good Things...", while TV Squad's Richard Keller noted strong similarities to a two-part episode of Star Trek: Voyager
named "Year of Hell". He was "extremely sad to see [the series] go", but could not overlook the mediocrity, predictability and lack of originality of the series finale. TV Zone
's Anthony Brown, who considered the episode "curious[ly] low-key", regretted the planned direct-to-DVD films, as "the whole thing inevitably loses its punch as the reset button's pressed [...], rather than providing the genuine emotion of an actual ending". Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune thought that the episode went out on "a strange note" with a disappointing last "string of banal clichés" dialogue exchange, although the cast and the established goodwill of their characters could partly make up for it. Mary McNamara of Multichannel News lauded Cooper's direction, lighting, costuming, the "haunting" music and sound, the production values and special effects. She acknowledged the SG-1 finale as a "true ensemble/team piece" with "a poignant and satisfying conclusion", and despite not making it into the top ten of series finales, the episode was "very good" and "respects and rewards the ten year commitment viewers have made to the series". David Bianculli from the New York Daily Times gave the episode two and a half out of five and saying the franchise stopped "Without warning" thanks to this episode.
Season finale
A season finale is the final episode of a season of a television program...
of the tenth season
Stargate SG-1 (season 10)
Season ten of Stargate SG-1, an American-Canadian television series, began airing on July 14, 2006 on Sci Fi Channel . The final season of the series concluded after 20 episodes on March 13, 2007 on British Sky One, which overtook the Sci-Fi Channel in mid-season. The series was developed by Brad...
and series finale
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
, and the show's two-hundred sixteenth episode overall. Written and directed by Robert C. Cooper
Robert C. Cooper
Robert C. Cooper is a Canadian writer and producer best known for his work in the Stargate franchise. He was formerly an executive producer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis until both series conclusion and currently holds the same title on the third Stargate series Stargate Universe...
, the episode originally premiered in the United Kingdom on Sky One
Sky One
Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...
on March 13, 2007, and in the United States on June 22, 2007 on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
. The episode attracted approximately 2.2 million viewers on its American broadcast, a ratings success for the Sci Fi Channel.
The episode begins with the mass suicide of the Asgard race, who try to preserve their legacy by giving their entire knowledge to the SG-1 team and the crew of the Earth ship Odyssey. When the ship is attacked by Ori warships, Lieutenant-Colonel Samantha Carter creates a time dilation field that speeds up time within the ship, and it takes fifty years until a defense against the Ori weapons can be found.
Plot
The members of SG-1 and General Hank Landry (Beau BridgesBeau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
) are travelling on the Earth ship Odyssey to the Asgard home world, Orilla, when the Asgard
Asgard (Stargate)
The Asgard are a fictional highly advanced race in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. They are first mentioned in the episode , and first seen in . In the series, the Asgard gave rise to Norse mythology on Earth, as well as accounts of the Roswell "Greys"...
Thor beams aboard. He reveals that after millennia of genetic manipulation, a disease has brought his race very close to extinction, and SG-1 accepts his offer to upload the sum of all Asgard knowledge into Odyssey as a way to preserve the Asgard legacy after their mass suicide. However, Orilla and Odyssey are soon attacked by Ori
Ori (Stargate)
The Ori are fictional characters in the science fiction television series, Stargate SG-1. They are a group of "ascended" beings who use their advanced technology and knowledge of the universe to attempt to trick non-ascended humans into worshipping them as gods.They first appeared in the ninth...
warships. Orilla erupts with huge explosions, and after Odyssey escapes to the next planet with a Stargate and beams the bulk of its crew down, the Ori fire a final energy beam upon the ship. Lieutenant-Colonel Samantha Carter
Samantha Carter
Samantha "Sam" Carter is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction Stargate franchise, appearing in television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. SG-1 and Atlantis are both about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien...
(Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping is an English-born Canadian actress, producer and director. She is best known for portraying Samantha Carter in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis...
) activates a localized time dilation field that makes time look frozen outside the field to give SG-1 and Landry time to find a defense.
During the initial months on board, Vala Mal Doran
Vala Mal Doran
Vala Mal Doran is a fictional character in the American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices. Played by former Farscape actress Claudia Black, Vala was created by...
(Claudia Black
Claudia Black
Claudia Lee Black is an Australian actress and voice actor, known for her portrayals of Aeryn Sun in the science fiction television series Farscape, Vala Mal Doran in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, Chloe Frazer in the Uncharted series, the witch Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins and...
) repeatedly tries to seduce Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
). Daniel finally confronts Vala for what he believes to be her insincerity, teasing, and mocking of him. Vala's upset reaction makes Daniel realize the honesty of her feelings, and they share a passionate embrace. As the years pass, each team member attempts to deal with the isolation. General Landry develops a gardening hobby; Carter learns how to play the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
; Daniel continues the translation of Asgard information in the database and develops his relationship with Vala; and Cameron Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (Stargate)
Cameron "Cam" Mitchell is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
(Ben Browder
Ben Browder
Robert Benedic "Ben" Browder is an American actor and writer, best known for his roles as John Crichton in Farscape and Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
) and Teal'c
Teal'c
Teal'c is a fictional character in the military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Played by Christopher Judge, Teal'c is a Jaffa warrior from the planet Chulak. As a Jaffa, Teal'c is a genetically modified human with an abdominal pouch that serves as an incubator for a larval Goa'uld...
(Christopher Judge
Christopher Judge
Douglas Christopher Judge is an American actor best known for playing Teal'c in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. He attended the University of Oregon on a football scholarship and was a Pacific Ten Conference player.-Early life:Christopher Judge was...
) exercise and train while Mitchell is growing more frustrated and angry. After many years, General Landry succumbs to old age and dies.
After fifty years Carter has devised a way to reverse time within a localized field, however the Odysseys power source (ZPM) is almost completely depleted from maintaining the time dilation field for fifty years. Cameron however hypothesizes that the power of the Ori energy beam could provide the required energy to reverse the time. This, however, will mean the loss of any memories of the last fifty years. Teal'c, who as a Jaffa has a much longer lifespan than the other team members, volunteers to remain behind and perform the rescue, protected within a separate field. As the group prepares their plan, Vala and Daniel exchange a last embrace, assuring each other of their love. When everything is in place, they deactivate the time dilation field and, after the normal timeline is restored, Teal'c prevents Colonel Carter from activating the time dilation field. Odyssey leaves before it is destroyed, saving SG-1 and the Asgard's legacy.
Back at the SGC (Stargate Command), Teal'c refuses to reveal any of the events on the ship, much to Vala's disappointment. As the episode, the season and the series come to a close, SG-1 contemplates Teal'c's joking words of wisdom in the gateroom and says "indeed" all at once. General Landry wishes the team God-speed, and SG-1 steps through the gate on their next mission.
Production
"Unending" is the fiftieth Stargate SG-1 episode written by Robert C. CooperRobert C. Cooper
Robert C. Cooper is a Canadian writer and producer best known for his work in the Stargate franchise. He was formerly an executive producer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis until both series conclusion and currently holds the same title on the third Stargate series Stargate Universe...
, and the second episode of the series directed by Cooper. Being the series' tenth season finale, "Unending" was the fifth season finale to potentially serve as Stargate SG-1
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
. However, the Sci-Fi Channel announced the series' cancellation in August 2006, approximately one month before "Unending" was written. The network opposed the idea of a cliffhanger leading up to a possible movie, and since the producers never intended "to blow up the SGC and kill everyone", the episode's theme and name were chosen to give "a sense of ending without it being an ending". This move also allowed for the fan conspiracy theories surrounding a possible real Stargate
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
under Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain
Cheyenne Mountain is a mountain located just outside the southwest side of Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., and is home to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and its Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, formerly known as the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center .Throughout the Cold War and...
to continue. The option to end the series with a two-parter was considered but rejected, as Cooper felt this would have made the ending less special. The buildup of the Ori arc in Seasons 9 and 10 would eventually get a pay-off in Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Stargate: The Ark of Truth is a 2008 Canadian-American military science fiction film written and directed by Robert C. Cooper. The film is the conclusion of Stargate SG-1 Ori arc, and picks up after the SG-1 series finale, but takes place before the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis. The Ark of...
, a film produced after the end of the show. The cast and crew knew by the end of the episode's filming on October 5, 2006 that more films would be produced.
Brad Wright
Brad Wright is a Canadian television producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known as the creator or co-creator of the television series Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe...
wanted all of the characters to get a last shot in the spotlight instead of focusing on only one character. Because of fan vocality about team episodes, Cooper decided to put the characters through several decades of life and see their relationships develop and evolve. The references in "Unending" to the events of season 2's "The Fifth Race", another Cooper-penned episode often named as a fan favorite, were intended, as were the callbacks to season 9's "The Ties That Bind" (the Daniel-Vala argument, see below) and season 10's "Line In The Sand" (the solution of using the Ori beam). The period aboard the ship was originally significantly less than fifty years, but the actors' last-stage makeup, which Cooper only saw minutes before filming, looked so old that Cooper was forced to increase the number of years in the script.
Cooper originally wrote the developing romance between Daniel and Vala in "Unending" by having them have sex without a confrontation. Claudia Black and Michael Shanks protested against this intended story, as Shanks felt that "[t]here's always been this underlining, keeping [Vala] at arms length because of the fear of getting too close." Cooper rewrote the scene to show Vala's vulnerability to Daniel, and have Daniel share his true feelings of a relationship. The actors decided to play the confrontation scene as genuinely as possible, with both characters being neither completely in-character nor totally out-of-character. The scene was rehearsed a lot and was filmed over the course of six hours. Cooper was nevertheless concerned that Daniel appeared too edgy and mean, although his feelings were motivated by the two years of torment with Vala, and losing his wife nearly ten years before. Daniel's line, "You better not be messing with me", was only said in one take by Michael Shanks. Since Cooper prefers to follow up on such emotional scenes with a laugh, the immediate next scene shows Vala coming out of Daniel's room, where she encounters a disbelieving Mitchell jogging by. In Cooper's mind, Daniel held a crying Vala in another scene because she had gotten pregnant and had lost the baby. To contrast the obvious relationship between Daniel and Vala, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge subtly played their scenes as if their characters also had a romantic relationship.
To give the Odyssey an unnatural ghostship feeling of solitude, many wide angle shots and VisFX matte extension were used with no additional music. Robert C. Cooper often listened to the CCR
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
song "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" is a song written by John Fogerty and released in 1970 on the album Pendulum by American roots rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song charted highest in Canada, reaching number one on the RPM 100 national album chart in March 1971. In the U.S., it peaked at...
" during the making of the episode and decided to play it over the first montage, showing the passage of time. The tone of the second montage was set with a cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
. Stargate composer Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith is a composer of film, television, and video game music. He is the son of renowned composer Jerry Goldsmith. He was the main composer for the TV series Stargate SG-1, although the main titles were written by David Arnold...
later accompanied the hand movements of the hired cellist with different music during post-production. A third montage was filmed but not included in the final cut of the episode since the last table scene already supplied the needed sentiment. Each time period included the same shots to help the audience focus on the differences that characters have gone through. The last scene at Stargate Command was the last filmed Stargate SG-1 scene, shot at two o'clock in the morning, for which every member of the crew came back.
Reception
The broadcast of "Unending" on the British channel Sky OneSky One
Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...
on March 13, 2007 pulled in around 518,000 viewers, making Stargate SG-1 the third most-watched program for Sky One during that week. "Unending" attracted approximately 2.2 million viewers on its first American broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on June 22, 2007, the best performance for SG-1 since the September 22, 2006 mid-season finale.
Reviewers were generally satisfied with the conclusion, and some like Bill Keveney of the USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
felt the episode does not stray far from "the series formula – a mix of sci-fi adventure, relationships and humor". Jason Van Horn of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
enjoyed the humor, "the amount of heart and pure emotion running rampant this episode", which he thought served as a symbol for the entire show that will stay in the public mind through re-runs and DVDs. Two scenes that stood out for him as "powerful", "heart-wrenching" and "the icing on the cake", were Mitchell's breakdown and Vala's seduction of Daniel signaling "the beginning of a very long lasting and loving relationship". Vala's emotional response to Daniel was interpreted as an example of her character growth, while another reviewer felt the "Vala/Daniel argument [was] a tad overwrought [although] the motivation is clear". The emotional death of Landry appealed to several reviewers, as did the resolution via Teal'c's heroic sacrifice.
The "clever, ground-breaking", "fitting" and "hugely satisfying" episode reminded hdtvuk.tv's Ian Calcutt of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
named "Year of Hell". He was "extremely sad to see [the series] go", but could not overlook the mediocrity, predictability and lack of originality of the series finale. TV Zone
TV Zone
TV Zone was a British magazine published every four weeks by Visual Imagination that covered cult television. Initially, it mostly covered science fiction, but branched out to cover other drama and comedy series.-History:...
External links
- Unending at mgm.com
- Unending at syfy.comSyfySyfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
- Stargate SG-1 Farewell at GateWorldGateWorldStargate fandom is a community of people actively interested in the military science fiction film Stargate and the television shows Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Infinity , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate Universe and their spin offs...