Icon is episode 5 of season 8 of Stargate SG-1, first aired in 2004.
On Tegalus, SG-1's arrival through the gate acts like a match in a powder keg: the Rand Protectorate and the Caledonian Federation, two blocs at daggers drawn, go up in flames, and a zealot named Soren turns the ring of the gods into an end-times religion. Daniel, trapped in a civil war he unwittingly triggered, refuses to leave until he has made amends.
Why it matters to the mythology
A standalone episode with lasting consequences: Tegalus will return, and so will the question of our responsibility in first contact.
The review
Stargate looks its blind spot in the face: sometimes, just opening the gate is enough to destroy a world. The Tegalan cold war tipping into religious apocalypse is depressingly realistic, and Soren, a tin-pot prophet built on a cosmic misunderstanding, is a chillingly banal antagonist. Daniel staying amid the ruins out of moral duty embodies the series' best conscience. A serious episode, with no miracle solution, that does the house proud.
Written by Sebastian
Founder and editor-in-chief of Stargate Initiative
Gallery · 2
Stills from the episode, via TMDb.
The community watches the episode
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