Hard as it is to believe, STARGATE SG-1 — one of the longer-running offerings in the sci-fi universe – has been airing for 10 years. However, that all comes to an end tonight with the series finale (airing at 8 p.m. ET on the Sci-Fi Channel), titled, appropriately enough, “Unending.” We say “appropriately enough” because the title works on several levels. First, to anyone not enamored of the series, the episode certainly feels as if it will never reach a conclusion. The plot might best be summed up by a line Lt. Colnel Cameron Mitchell (aka Ben Browder, who seems to still be playing Crichton, his role on the far superior FARSCAPE… and that’s a good thing): “It only sounds ridiculous until you hear yourself say, ‘I am stuck on a spaceship in a time dialation field.’” Perhaps to those who can’t get enough of the genre’s most over-used lingo (hyperdrive, time paradoxes and, of course, the ever-present-but-always-on-the-verge-of-failing shields), this will somehow be appealing. And about half-way through the finale, the plot — which involves Ori and altarian’s and ancients, oh my! — takes an interesting twist which, while not exactly original (FARSCAPE fans will no doubt be reminded of the classic episode “The Locket”) provides a glimpse into the future which will no doubt thrill fans… who probably won’t be all that surprised by the resolution which is both predictable and inexplicable in the way that only works of science fiction can be. Don’t expect a sentimental ending, or even the tying up of loose threads (after all, those can always be addressed in later movies or on the spin-off, STARGATE: ATLANTIS, which continues to chug along, airing its third season finale immediately following the mothership’s conclusion). But for those who’ve followed the show over the past decade, I suspect the episode will satisfy in a way that those of us who don’t know a Goa’uld from a Jaffa will never really understand. 
