"Stargate SG-1" The Scourge (TV Episode 2006) Poster

(TV Series)

(2006)

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7/10
An alien marabunta. Oh, joy...
owlaurence12 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I should have paid more attention to the title and NOT watched this before going to bed. Seriously, the bug factor creeps me out. It's absurd that I could stomach worm-like Goa'uld and even spidery Replicators, not to mention viruses and other nice alien beasties -but flesh-eating cockroaches? I'm out of here. (By the by, it's all because of a McGyver episode involving carnivorous ants: see the continuity here?)

Anyway, after about 5mn of light-hearted jokes about the latest diplomatic review of SGC, the scourge definitely goes out of control. It becomes clear rather quickly that nothing can really be done against those bugs, so SG1 spends most of the episode merely running for their lives -or rather, for those of their annoying and completely useless charges. Not to gripe, as Mitchell would say, but this gives the show a looot of opportunities for clichés, and it doesn't pass even one up. Bugs exploding out of a corpse? Check. Crawling under an unsuspecting person's skin? Check. Killing everybody BUT the heroes? Check (I could have told that poor USAF officer that he was cold meat). Oh, and while we're talking clichés: in the name of all French people, I am officially offended by the ambassador character. I wished he would be eaten so I'd spend less time grinding my teeth.

Oddly enough, Woolsey is at the other end of the spectrum. He is annoying, bureaucratic and somewhat stuck up, but he's fundamentally honest and well-meaning (and he runs in a totally undignified way that is absolutely hilarious). There's also some unclarified matter with the Chinese ambassador, but I guess we'll learn more later on (oh, and nice touch to have Mitchell speak Mandarin: you'd never expect that from him, unfairly enough).

Then you have SG1. They'd rather explore worlds than dabble in politics. They'd much rather fight than flee. And in tense situations, Carter and Daniel keep finding reasons to assume the worst, Mitchell insists on talking movies and flats, while Teal'c bears it all stoically. (I really missed O'Neill's quips here). Deathly situations or not, it's all business as usual for them, and after nine years of this, you can understand why they would end the day going to movies while I am still freaked out.
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8/10
1950's horror "meats" 2000's sci-fi action
Mischief81013 August 2014
Remember the 1954 film, "Them!"? How about the 1958 flick, "The Blob"?

Combine some old-school, B-rate horror flicks with a science fiction/action series, and "The Scourge" is what you get. This would have been a lot more fun if it had aired around Halloween.

Trust me--this is not an episode you want to watch late at night.

The creepiness of carnivorous bugs, along with the darkness of the screenplay make this an episode you want to watch with the lights on or when the sun is still high in the sky.

The directing could have been better, and some of the clichés thrown about in the script can produce an eye roll or three. But it's still a decent yarn. It's totally believable that the Ori--who already engineered a virus designed to destroy mankind--could also engineer a meat-eating insect.

"We" did it in "Them," after all, right?
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8/10
The Alien Bug R-75
claudio_carvalho23 February 2022
The SG-1 is assigned to protect four diplomats from the International Oversight Advisory formed by Richard Woolsey (from USA), Shen Xiaoyi (from China), Jean LaPierre (from France) and Russel Chapman (from United Kingdom) in a tour to Gamma site. They meet first the scientist Dr. Myers, who is researching the alien bug R-75 that was developed by the Priors as a plague to destroy the crop of planets. Dr. Myers decides to give a piece of his meatloaf to the insects and soon they multiply and escape from the lab, eating human flesh. The Stargate is shut down for security reason and the SG-1 and the bureaucrats are forced to flee to a cave to seek-out protection. Soon the SG-1 finds that the base is lost and they have to find means to save the diplomats and themselves before the destruction of the planet.

"The Scourge" is a great episode of "Stargate SG-1", despite the annoying diplomats - mostly the French one. The plot really recalls those old sci-fi / horror movies and is very enjoyable. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "The Scourge"
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Worst opening scenes in history of SG-1
UpRightApe26 August 2006
When I first saw the opening scenes, I wondered if the episode was supposed to be some sort of satire or comedy.

I was wrong. The acting and writing really were that bad.

The show starts with the team walking down a hallway as they provide us with a hurried summary of events associated with the Ori. They sound as though they're reading from a teleprompter that's running too fast.

Shanks practically stutters as he flies through lines like "Be damn sure they're thinking up ways to keep spreading fear and destruction throughout this galaxy." Ugh. Sounded like an intro to a b-movie serial from the 40's.

Then, as the team heads up the ramp, Browder says "All right, let's move out. These ancient ruins aren't going to explore themselves." What the hell happened? Mallozzi and Mullie have much better writing credits than this for the various Stargate series. Is Girotti that bad at directing, or did the whole team just fall flat on its face for some reason? The only things I can imagine is that they all partied the night before, or they received news that they were out the door soon.

Either way, if they keep churning out this sort of brain-dead dialog and sloppy acting, this show is done for no matter what the studio's agenda is.
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6/10
Scarabs
Calicodreamin11 April 2022
While an interesting concept, the new characters were annoying and not worth all the trouble to save them. Effects and CGI worked well, storyline was mostly filler.
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6/10
Shut Up and Let Her Do Her Work
fcabanski6 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The episode opens with talk of curing the Ori plague and the priors ramping up the rhetoric about some big event: the forces of light defeat the dark. It's clearly time to get back to the central story. The Ori are coming! While it's a plague of devouring bugs, it is the Ori that sent them. The only defense against them is a neurotoxin that also kills humans. Running works too. Shooting the ground scares them off for a few seconds. SGC will have its hands full coming up with something to counter this latest attack. It turns out to be a good thing the scientist studying them fed them meat. Otherwise those bugs may have done a lot of damage around the galaxy before anyone noticed or made a connection to the Ori.

IOA, International Oversight Advisory, might as well be named the Board of Bureaucrats. They want a tour of the Gamma Site, so it's up to SG-1 to babysit. What follows is not great, but it's not bad.

Miss Shen, China, tries to impress with her knowledge of Daniel's background. It's not too impressive, since it's his background only up to figuring out the stargate. She doesn't go into any of his achievements while with SG-1. Also, the info she gives could be the result of reading a one paragraph biographical summary. Daniel reveals he knows as much about Shen as she knows about him. Maybe he read a summary on the board members. Shen also hints that China may be planning a play to take over the SGC.

For some reason Shen, like many aliens including the Goa'uld, speaks with a generic European accent. "Maybe they won't have much choice in the mattuh." There's a nice nod to Star Trek. Woolsey, played by Robert Picardo who also played Voyager's EMH, expresses unease at having his molecules disassembled and reassembled. He asks what are the chances of incorrect reassembly. It's like Doctor McCoy, the first Star Trek doctor, not liking his molecules scrambled by the transporter.

One big fumble is Shen hurting her ankle in a fall as they make a final run to a radio building. Oh no, the bugs will get her! Wolsey once again proves his mettle. He goes from constant requests that SG-1 coddle the delegates to shouting "shut up, let her do her work" at the annoying French delegate. Way to go Wolsey! Even the French delegate shows some character change and growth. After Wolsey shouts at him, the French delegate tries hard to keep himself under control. He bites his hand to stop himself from whining.

The episode's threat is a poor man's replicator. But at least the episode is about facing an Ori engineered weapon. People who don't like bugs will find this episode pretty creepy. But a force of nature enemy, like bugs, just does its thing. It doesn't want to defeat you or kill you. That's why the Replicators, as cool as they were, needed the Human Form Replicators to continue as a compelling enemy. This is an episode featuring a weapon as a villain.
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10/10
If your a fan of B Rate "horror" movies
edwardhunts-654073 February 2021
You'll love this rehash of several classic horror film stories!
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