h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I did Stargate a dishonour in not mentioning the exceptional writing talents of Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie in my last review. How could I forget writers that have brought us such excellent episodes as 'Window of Opportunity', 'Point of No Return' and 'Summit'? I'm sorry, I truly am.

Mallozzi and Mullie are back with this episode to save Stargate's sixth season, and cheekily, they do it with a clip show! In a mediocre season, whose high-point was almost certainly 'Abyss', 'Disclosure' is a beautifully written episode. Stargate has a penchant for clip shows, and after 'Politics' in season one and season two's 'Out of Mind', I personally wished there would be no more to come. Having fought the urge for four series, we get another one thrown at us, but this time it's worth watching.

It had to happen, the existence of the Stargate programme is to be disclosed to (some of) us foreigners out there in the big world, and neccessarily, an episode that deals with this subject requires a lot of scenes of people sitting around a big table looking either serious or confused. It's a recipe for disaster, or at the least boredom. So why not remind the viewers of what they're supposed to understand? Clips from old episodes are chosen well, and none are extraneous or go on for too long. People who watch the series avidly will already know everything that these clips contain, but that doesn't mean the show isn't worth watching. The dialogue round the 'big table' is very well written (although you get the feeling that this sort of thing couldn't happen in the world's current political climate. Ahem. Enough said).

'Disclosure' lifts the standard of SG 1 again and brings hope for the future, seeing as Mallozzi and Mullie seem to be heavily involved now in planning story arcs. We can only hope that this standard will be maintained - and that we don't see another clip show too soon.

R25968 16:26 24/1/03