Season nine got underway with Avalon: Part 1 on 15 July, 2005. It was written by Robert C. Cooper with excerpts written by Cooper and Brad Wright. And it is not the show it was at the end of the last season.

Season nine features some big changes for the series. Sure we had Jonas Quinn (Corin Nemec) join SG-1 for all of season six, but the changes that go into effect here will last until the end of the series.

We’re introduced to Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder) and a new head of Stargate Command, Major General Hank Landry (Beau Bridges), remember, O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson, who makes a brief appearance) has retired. So it’s all new, and yet familiar.

That also means a new credit sequence.

Mitchell was apparently one of the pilots leading the X-302s in the battle of Antarctica, and he’s now been moved onto SG-1.

Sounds like an ideal assignment, but it seems that Teal’c (Christopher Judge), Carter (Amanda Tapping – who was pregnant at the time, so she was only kept to headshots and out of most of the action), and Daniel (Micheal Shanks) are all getting ready to leave to do other things. Mitchell wants to keep the band together.

We get tons of flashbacks to Mitchell’s actions during the battle, and we see what earned him his opportunity to take command of SG-1. We also see him interviewing potential teammates.

Oh and how about a Farscape reunion? Vala (Claudia Black), last seen in Prometheus Unbound, arrives at the SGC. She’s the one who gets the story into gear with a tablet and cipher that could lead to something fantastic. Vala believes it’s a treasure. And she’s going to get Daniel to help her, whether he wants to or not.

In fact, because of a binding bracelet, it looks like the new gang is going to be getting together to search for Vala’s would-be treasure. And the treasure could have something to do with… Merlin? LIke King Arthur’s Merlin? Apparently he was an Ancient! And the treasure, under Glastonbury.

As they head to the underground trove, they find themselves separated and trapped in traps which leads to the first To Be Continued of the season!

There’s a lot going on in this episode, it has to reintroduce all the familiar characters, incorporate the new ones, and set up the new season arc. And it actually does it pretty well.

Avalon: Part 2 aired a week later on 22 July, 2005 and was written by Cooper.

The two pairs of teams are able to figure out their respective traps, proving themselves worthy to Merlin. Amongst the treasure is a book that tells the story of how the Ancients came to Earth.

They also learn of Ancients were called Alterans, and it seems they came from *ahem* a galaxy far, far away.

They find in the treasure trove some kind of device. It works in conjunction with the Ancient communication stones introduced in Citizen Joe. Vala and Daniel activate it, and have their essences transported across the universe to find themselves in the bodies of two residents of a medieval society.

And the society is overseen and ruled by the Ori, a race of ascended beings. But there are those who are working against them, and are aware of some of the Ancient technology. They study and investigate their own history, something that the Ori have been deemed heresy.

The Ori were the ascended beings left behind by the Ancients, and they have installed themselves as rulers, posing as gods. When Vala is rumbled not to be the person she is supposed to be and has a horrifying execution carried out.

She is burned alive, and then, an Ori Prior (Mark Houghton) arrives, restoring her to life, showing the powers they have. He takes Daniel and Vala away and gives us yet another To Be Continued!

We learn that there is trouble in the new Jaffa council, and that there is a new doctor at the SGC, Dr. Lam (Lexa Doig – who is married to Shanks).

Man, they are having fun with the new season already! The villain is evil, using religion to control people, and our heroes have a lot on their plate. There are character arcs at work, politics, and the new characters are fitting in nicely with familiar favourites.