The First Commandment is episode 5 of season 1 of Stargate SG-1, first aired in 1997.
Captain Jonathan Hanson, leader of SG-9 and Carter's former fiancé, has gone over the edge: on a primitive, sun-scorched world, he has himself worshipped as a god and has doubters executed. SG-1 is sent to bring him back, and Sam finds herself facing a man she once loved and no longer recognizes. The rescue mission turns into the trial of a would-be tyrant.
Why it matters to the mythology
An adventure of the week, but the theme of the self-proclaimed god foreshadows the series' whole critique of the Goa'uld.
The review
A golden idea, a tin-plated execution. A broken soldier's god complex is THE perfect theme for Stargate, and the episode skims over it in forty minutes with a villain too cartoonish to be unsettling. A shame, because it asks the right question, and the series will ask it again far better later on with the Ori. What remains is some nice tension for Carter and an ending that's surprisingly brutal for its time.
Written by Sebastian
Founder and editor-in-chief of Stargate Initiative
Gallery · 2
Stills from the episode, via TMDb.
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