“STARGATE” (Showtime TV) review by Susan Granger
Sci-fi fans alert: if you were blown away by the ancient and alien magic of “Stargate” (1994), tune in Showtime TV on Friday nights for the new, original “Stargate SG-1,” which takes up where the Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin movie ended, following the exploits of a military team that travels to other worlds instantaneously through a mysterious portal known as a stargate. Think of space travel and combat integrated with intellectual detective work, or “The Outer Limits” combined with “Sliders.” As the expedition leader, Richard Dean Anderson (“MacGuyver”) is no Kurt Russell but he makes up in competence and an acerbic comic cynicism what he lacks in charisma. Nor is Michael Shanks any James Spader, as the eccentric Egyptologist, but he’s joined by Amanda Topping, as a no-nonsense astrophysicist. There will be 44 of these supernatural action/adventures initially in this expensive new series with each episode running about $1.3 million and filmed in Vancouver. Some of the snake-headed aliens are quite grotesque and, since Showtime has wisely slotted this new series at 10 PM, there is occasional nudity and some horror elements, definitely not aimed at a juvenile audience.