Entertainment
How The Worst Star Wars Movie Gave Us A Great Stargate SG-1 Episode
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is not a great movie; it’s a decent film with two great sequences. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn facing off against Darth Maul, and podracing, that’s it.
The latter helped inspire one of Stargate SG-1’s writers to create the 2003 Season 7 episode, “Space Race,” an infectiously fun episode that stands out by letting Samantha Carter cut loose and have fun. Part podracing, part Wacky Races, it’s become a fan-favorite and an example of the sci-fi hit getting better with time.
Major Carter’s Need For Speed
“Space Race” is a sequel story to Season 6’s “Forsaken,” but this time, the Serrakin Warrick needs assistance in winning the Loop of Kon Garat, an annual race sponsored by his planet’s largest corporation. The rules are that the ship must arrive first and intact.
If Stargate Command helps him win, well, there’s no way he can stop them learning about the technology of his home planet in the process, and when he was stranded in “Forsaken,” Carter (Amanda Tapping) restored the engine, so he could use her help. That’s when Carter, smiling and beaming already, convinces him to let her be his co-pilot because she knows the engine and can help run it on the fly.
Warrick’s offer happens to be perfect for Carter; not only can she acquire new tech for Stargate Command, but as she admits to Daniel Jackson, it’s going to be fun. The first part of the race is surviving a gauntlet of heavily armed drones, which the Sebrus handles with ease, but the second part is a race along the surface of a sun. The rest of the Stargate SG-1 team gets involved when it’s clear that Warrick’s ship has been sabotaged, uncovering a corporate conspiracy to fix the race.
It seems high-stakes in the moment, but it’s a relatively low-stakes episode of the series. Jackson and Teal’C’s involvement takes a backseat to the sheer joy and excitement radiating from Amanda Tapping’s performance as Major Carter, who ends the episode promising to come back and kick butt next year. Sadly, the series never returned to the Loop of Kon Garat, but fans never forgot how great it was to see the usually buttoned-up and stoic Major cut loose with her need for speed.
Sci-Fi Fans Can’t Escape Podracing
In Stargate SG-1: The Illustrated Companion: Seasons 7 and 8, writer Damien Kindler (who also wrote an episode of Relic Hunter and The Lost World, along with other beloved SG-1 episodes) came right out and said that the podrace sequence from The Phantom Menace provided the perfect inspiration. “Space Race” aired in 2003, back when every sci-fi series was introducing its own version of podracing, proving that no matter how horrible the dialogue and CGI were, The Phantom Menace would have a lasting impact on the genre.
Kindler also made it his mission to develop more episodes centered around Major Carter, who had been a supporting character in early seasons, often serving as a technobabble and exposition dump. Not only did he succeed in his goal with a standout episode, but years later, Kindler wound up creating the SyFy series Sanctuary, starring none other than Amanda Tapping. He did such a good job of giving Tapping episodes to showcase different sides of Carter that the two worked together for over a decade.
When it first aired, “Space Race” polarized the Stargate SG-1 fanbase right down the middle, with some loving it because it’s an episode that exists purely for fun, and others disliking it because it’s a throwaway filler episode with no impact on the larger story. Much like the series itself, time has been kind to the episode, and even detractors have come around on it purely because of Tapping’s exuberant performance. Major Carter would eventually become Colonel Carter and have plenty of other high-stakes, dramatic moments, but as Kindler intended, there’s nothing wrong with kicking back and having fun.
