Sci-Fi Friday

Stargate SG-1:
It started with Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, played by former Farscape star Ben Browder, having flashbacks about his big air fire-fight over Antarctica during the end of season 7. He was badly injured and lost many friends that day. Now that he is fully recovered, physically at least, he is reassigned to SG-1. He get all fanboy crazy when he gets their but is fantasy is dashed as he learns everyone has left to do other things. Gen. Jack O'Neill retired, Lt. Col. Samantha Carter was reassigned to Area 51, Dr. Daniel Jackson left for some other dumb reason and Teal'C is off world commanding the Jaffa.
All of the characters make an appearance in this episode although Carter only appears in flashbacks.
Another new character is the new head of Stargate Command Gen. Hank Landry, played by Beau Bridges. Bridges seems uncomfortable in the role he was good in Into The West recently but he is awkward in this role. Browder gets some quotes in that are straight out of Farscape yet he is very comfortable in his role.
He gets more comfortable after the plot of the episode is revealed. The plot is that Vala a former Goa'uld host and current sexpot, she did Dr. Jackson is the running joke, comes to talk about a treasure buried on Earth. To convince Jackson to hunt with her she slap on ancient handcuff bracelets to herself and Jackson the will kill them if they separate. Teal'c rejoins them as they search for the treasure. The hunt leads them to Merlin of King Arthur fame who maybe an Ancient and the team gets trapped in an Indiana Jones type puzzle room complete with resizable ceilings. We are cliff hung until next week to see if they get squished.

Stargate Atlantis:
They spent more on the special effects budget then SG-1. As the Wraith close in on Atlantis the Army comes in and with Asgard help and they blow-up many big ships. This doesn't stop the Wraith the keep showering Atlantis with missiles, very pretty. Eventually the decide to do an old Star Trek trick of blowing up a bomb outside the shields and cloaking the base. They do it and it works because apparently the Wraith have never heard of recovery or sifting through debris, nope they just scratch themselves and leave.
Meanwhile Lt. Aiden Ford aka the black guy was half eaten buy a Wraith and emerged with superhuman powers and an attitude. He flees his post and Atlantis setting the stage for new character next week Ronan Dex, who looks like Tyr from Andromeda. You probably refer to him as the new black guy because as everyone knows science fiction writers can't write for two black men in one show.
Mitch Pileggi of X-Files fame joins the cast as Col. Steven Caldwell the commander of the shiny new ship the Daedalus. He also seems at home on the show.
Dr. Rodney "Coward" McKay is really getting on my nerves I hope they shoot him.

Battlestar Galactica:
The best of all of them, the best special effects and the best story line.
After Commander Adama was shot by Cylon hottie Lt. Sharon Valerii everything gets worse. The Cylons start an attack so the entire fleet jumps to the next quadrant of space but Adama's ship is separated from the rest because of a wi-fi mishap.
Now under command of Col. Saul Tigh they are confused but after a nifty praise-Adama-speech they head back to the Cylons to track the lost fleet. They succeed with no loses but a strange new Cylon ship crashes in them and we see those red Cylons pouring out the back boarding the Galactica.
On Caprica Cylon hottie Lt. Sharon Valerii(the pregnant one) is trying not to get killed by lady Starbuck and distracts them long enough to steal the Cylon ship and blast off to places unknown.
Meanwhile Dr. Gaius Baltar is marooned on a hostile planet dreaming of Cylon half-breeds and nursing an injury. His team is annoyed with him and the Galactica crew don't miss him either.

These shows tend to be very cliche. They type cast everyone on the show as the computer geek or the black guy or the hottie or the cowardly doctor. Battlestar Galactica does better in that department but only slightly. I see a bright future for Battlestar Galactica but if Stargate Atlantis doesn't resolve the Lt. Ford storyline I doubt it will last another season. Write multilayered characters ignore their skin color and stop making the black man so angry and humorless. I've yet to see the new character in Atlantis but hopefully he can crack a joke.