TVSquad

Syfy will air a ten-hour Stargate SG-1 marathon on Sept. 25 in anticipation of the Oct. 2 premiere of Stargate Universe. Like I mentioned earlier at SciFi Squad, the network is asking fans to pick their ten favorite SG-1 eps for inclusion in the marathon.

I was never a big SG-1 fan, but I'll be popping in and out of the marathon to catch some of the series' more popular eps. Hopefully, Syfy will do fans a solid by capping off the marathon with Stargate Continuum, last year's excellent Stargate DVD movie.

Like Joss Whedon's Serenity, Continuum (released in 2008) offers a fantasy world that feels lived-in and characters that feel like real people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. The members of the SG-1 team might not be as colorful as Whedon's Browncoats, but they're fun to watch and they feel far from stock. That's a testament to the film's great script (by series writers Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner), which blossomed out of the series' vast mythology and the camaraderie of the deeply committed cast.

The film's opening shot, an ambitious single-take featuring shout-outs to the series' past ten years, sets up director Martin Wood's scope. It's big, and the story is fun, action packed and even offers some well-earned philosophical debate.

Continuum is a straight-to DVD flick, so some of the visual effects are far from cinematic. Still, they're serviceable, and the sheer number of sci-fi concepts put to good use here -- time travel, space flight, alien invasions, alternate realities, future technology -- should please even the most pessimistic geek. If you can't wait for Syfy to re-air Continuum, you can find it on DVD or download it from iTunes.