Unending

"Unending"

"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 fourteenth 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 Earth ship Odyssey. But, en route back to Earth, the ship is attacked by Ori warships. Samantha Carter creates a time dilation field around the ship to freeze time everywhere except inside the ship, but 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 Bridges) are travelling on the Earth ship USS Odyssey to the Asgard home world, Orilla, when Thor beams aboard and reveals that after millennia of genetic manipulation, the Asgard are very close to extinction. Thor offers the Asgard knowledge to be uploaded into the Odyssey, and the SG-1 accepts. However, the Odyssey is soon attacked by Ori warships. As the Ori fire a final energy beam upon the Odyssey, Colonel Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) activates a localized time dilation field that freezes time around the ship to give the crew time to find a defense.

During their 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 make Daniel realize the honesty of her feelings, and they share a passionate embrace. As the years pass, each team member attempts to deal with their isolation. General Landry develops a gardening hobby; Carter learns how to play the cello; Daniel continues the translation of 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.

Carter realizes after fifty years that the power of the Ori energy beam enables the reversion of time within a localized field. However, this will mean the loss of any memories of the last fifty years. Teal'c, whose Jaffa orgins made him age much less than the other members of the team, 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. The Odyssey leaves before it is destroyed, saving themselves and the Asgard's legacy.

Back at the SGC, Teal'c refuses to reveal any of the events on the ship to the others, much to Vala's disappointment. As the episode—and the series—comes 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 series' tenth season finale, and the fifth that the show's writers thought might end up serving as Stargate SG-1's last episode. It was the fiftieth episode of the series written by Robert C. Cooper, and the second episode of the series directed by Cooper. The writers originally planned to end the season with a cliffhanger finale as they anticipated another renewal, but the Sci-Fi Channel announced the series' cancellation in August 2006, approximately one month before "Unending" was written. The network did not want a cliffhanger. The episode's name was chosen to give "a sense of ending without it being an ending" since the producers never intended "to blow up the SGC and kill everyone". 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. According to Robert C. Cooper, "Unending" was intended as "an emotional tribute to the ten seasons that have come before" and "the last chapter in the book—but not necessarily in the series of books. It was a chance to show, 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." The reference to the events of "The Fifth Race", another Cooper-penned episode often named as a fan favorite, was intended. Because of fans being vocal about team episodes, Cooper decided to put the characters through several decades of life and see the relationship develop and evolve. The writers originally intended for the crew to be stuck on the ship for far less than fifty years, but when they saw the actors in their oldest makeup ready to film their scenes, the makeup made them look too old. As it was too late to redo the makeup, the number of years on the ship was increased in the script. Claudia Black found that the prosthetics made her "look like a ghoul from Tales from the Crypt". Producer Brad Wright wanted all of the characters to get a last shot in the spotlight instead of focusing on only one character.

The developing romance between Daniel and Vala in "Unending" was originally written to have Vala and Daniel sleep together without a confrontation. Claudia Black and Michael Shanks protested 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 be truthful about his 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. Robert C. Cooper envisioned that in his mind, the scene of Daniel holding a crying Vala was caused by Vala having gotten pregnant and losing the baby. Amanda Tapping envisioned Teal'c and Sam forming a romantic relationship, and she and Chris Judge subtly played their scenes that way to contrast the obvious relationship between Daniel and Vala. Although the cast and crew were tired and emotional at the ending to the shooting of the episode, they knew at this point that more films would be produced, which made their parting easier for them.

Reception

The broadcast of "Unending" on the British channel Sky One on March 13, 2007 pulled in around 518,000 viewers, and was the third most watched show for Sky One during that week. On its first airing in the US on the Sci Fi Channel on June 22, 2007, "Unending" attracted approximately 2.2 million viewers on its American broadcast, the best performance for SG-1 since the September 22, 2006 mid-season finale.

Bill Keveney of the USA Today thought the finale "follows the series formula — a mix of sci-fi adventure, relationships and humor." Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune said, "It's sort of a strange note to go out on, though the episode itself passes painlessly enough, thanks to the skills of the able cast and the goodwill their characters have built up over the years. And I can understand the desire on the part of the show’s creative team to try to make the last outing with the Stargate characters “Unending”. [...] Still, it’s a little disappointing that the final exchange of dialogue on the show is a string of banal clichés. I think SG-1 deserved something more in its closing minutes as a TV show."

Mary McNamara of Multichannel News stated that "Unending" was "unheralded for the most part and Sci Fi appears to be letting go quietly." Unlike The Sopranos finale, McNamara called the SG-1 finale "a poignant and satisfying conclusion" and "a true ensemble/team piece." She lauded Cooper's direction, lighting, costuming, the "haunting" music and sound, the production values and special effects. However, she felt the "Vala/Daniel argument [was] a tad overwrought but the motivation is clear." Finally, she admitted that "this unsung episode may not be a top-ten ranked series finale, but it certainly ranks as one that's very good - and as one that respects and rewards the ten year commitment viewers have made to the series."

Jason Van Horn of IGN found that "The episode was a great symbol of the show itself, in how the show will always truly be 'unending'" as long as it stays in the public mind via re-runs and DVDs. Also mentioning the humor in the episode, "it is the amount of heart and pure emotion running rampant this episode, that really seals the deal and reminded us why we care so much about this show, and that we will truly miss it from being on the airwaves. The two most heart wrenching moments was Vala's seduction of Daniel and Mitchell's breakdown. [...] The subsequent tears that flow from Vala's eyes are the icing on the cake, which really got us and Daniel as well, as it soon signaled the beginning of a very long lasting and loving relationship. When the two say their final goodbyes as this long couple before time gets rewound, though they don't ever come out and say they love each other, you just know it. Watching the cool Mitchell go crazy with rage at the situation of being stuck in time, including the destruction of his quarters, was a powerful moment of energy, rage, and loss. Even the death of General Landry, though we never cared much about him during his run, hit us thanks to the acting by Amanda Tapping crying over him." He found that Teal'c's sacrifice at the end "isn't a cheap resolution in any way".

Richard Keller of TV Squad was "extremely sad to see it go", but described the series finale as "extremely predictable" and not "original enough" except for the resolution with Teal'c because "the premise of the episode has been done to death in nearly every single science-fiction series ever made." He noted an "extraordinarily similar[ity]" with the two-part episode of Star Trek: Voyager named "Year of Hell". He liked the team's reaction to the imprisonment on the ship, especially Mitchell, and Vala's emotional response to Daniel after he put her down. "With this episode you could tell that she had really grown as a character." He felt "It could have been better" and that "something a bit stronger should have been put on the screen. Instead, we got a mediocre finale that sort of plodded along to its conclusion. One can only hope that the DVD movies pick up the pace a bit in the storytelling field."

Ian Calcutt of hdtvuk.tv found that Stargate SG-1 "certainly goes out with a bang, several of them in fact." "Stargate has shown that it can still pull off a clever, ground-breaking episode right at the end of its run; though by spanning the years it is, perhaps suitably, reminiscent of Star Trek: The Next Generation's finale "All Good Things". Apart from the lack of a cameo from Richard Dean Anderson, which would have been a nice gesture, Unending is a hugely satisfying conclusion to this ten-year show. Both epic and intimate, it gives an unimaginable piece of heroic character development for Teal'c and provides a fitting series finale, while leaving the way wide open for the planned spin-offs."

External links

• Unending at IMDb
• Unending at scifi.com
• Unending at mgm.com
• Stargate SG-1 Farewell at GateWorld