The season seven finale is a two-parter that not only advances the story for SG-1, but also sets up Stargate: Atlantis, despite the fact that there will be some recasting before the show launches the following season.

Written by Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright, Lost City: Part 1 first aired on 12 March, 2004.

Dr. Weir (Jessica Steen) is being briefed by Vice-President Kinsey (Ronny Cox) about the Stargate program before she meets with President Hayes (William Devane). It seems Hayes wants Weir to run the Stargate program.

They plan to relieve Hammond (Don S. Davis) and shutter the program for three months to reevaluate it. But will Kinsey be able to control Weir?

Meanwhile, Daniel (Michael Shanks) believes he’s found one final clue about the Lost City, and it’s in an Ancient repository device – something O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) has had experience with. With a couple of SG teams in tow, SG-1 heads to the planet only to fall under attack by Anubis’ (David Palffy) forces.

To stop Anubis from seizing control of the device, O’Neill is going to have to take on the repository and its huge memory dump, again. The clock is ticking for O’Neill. Soon he will start to lose control of his language skills, and be unable to express himself completely. Daniel should be able to translate but with no way to remove the information dump, O’Neill’s life may be forfeit.

As Stargate Command is shut down, O’Neill’s life is hanging in the balance, and the threat of the Goa’uld hangs over everything as revealed by Bra’tac (Tony Amendola) who warns they will be arriving in days, which brings us to a To Be Continued!

There’s some great character moments, the whole Carter (Amanda Tapping) and O’Neill crossword puzzle is great, not to mention their conversation over a beer (which expands nicely to include the whole team). There is also the fun banter between all the SG-1 members. There’s a real sense of camaraderie, friendship and something more here.

Lost City: Part 2 was delivered a week later on 19 March, 2024. It was also written by Cooper and Wright.

Daniel and Carter are attempting to help O’Neill access the repository’s knowledge and they think they may have finally stumbled on some final clues to the Lost City.

Using a transport, Bra’tac, Teal’c, Carter, Daniel, and O’Neill head off in search of the Lost City. But the clues lead them to a devastated world. Is there anything there? Yup, buried under tons of magma, is a remote station, and a galaxy map that reveals the location of the Lost City – Earth. Or is it just an outpost that could lead to Atlantis?

It’s been under our noses the whole time – it’s Atlantis. And it’s under the ice in Antarctica!

Unfortunately, the Goa’uld have sent an armada of attack ships to Earth. Are the Prometheus, X-302s and 303s going to be enough to hold off Anubis?

Will they be able to discover and use the city? Will they be able to stop Anubis’ attack on Earth? And what of O’Neill’s mind? And Hammond’s retirement? And Kinsey?

The Battle of Antarctica begins! And all of it is to just hold off Anubis so that SG-1 can claim Atlantis, and perhaps find something in the Ancient city to help save the planet. Powering up the outpost, it’s defensive capabilities come on line and save the day. And end Anubis?

But O’Neill? To save his life he needs to be put in stasis.

It’s an action-packed season finale. It also suggests that when season eight gets underway things are going to be a lot of changes at Stargate Command.