Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Foundation Season 3 Episode 2.

A lot happened during Foundation‘s Season 3 premiere — understandably, since last week had 152 years’ worth of events to cover on top of keeping up with current events. Those current events, like the Mule (Pilou Asbæk) emerging from the shadows, threaten to doom the entire galaxy. No big deal, right? This week’s episode, “Shadows in the Math,” written by Leigh Dana Jackson and Caitlin Parrish and directed by Tim Southam, slows down the pace somewhat. Episode 2 gives its ensemble a chance to breathe, even though most of them don’t find any rest or solace. Instead, they calculate strategies against an unknowable enemy and wrestle with their mortality. It’s grim but gripping, and no less urgent — or surprising — for sitting with the quieter character moments.

Episode 1 ends with Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) waking from her cryosleep, all too aware that the dreaded “herald of darkness” has finally arrived. Before Foundation advances that cliffhanger, “Shadows in the Math” fills in some blanks by flashing back 151 years earlier to Gaal and Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) establishing the Second Foundation on the planet of Ignis. Mentor and protégée have a lot of damage control to do in order to shift the galaxy back onto the Plan, so they keep themselves suspended in cryosleep except for a few weeks each year. When they’re conscious, Hari teaches psychohistory to the Mentalics while Gaal demonstrates how they can harness their psychic abilities against the Mule. Their preparations extend past Ignis, too, recruiting more Mentalics from across the galaxy and enhancing both the First and the Second Foundation’s strength. Unfortunately, time has morphed into an enemy rather than an ally. They need more of it for humanity to stand a chance of surviving past the Third Crisis. Hari volunteers to stay awake, a choice Gaal detests but understands, given her future date with the Mule.

The next time Gaal exits cryosleep, 148 years have passed. Hari, now visibly elderly with his white hair, age lines, and slow movements, stayed alive virtually uninterrupted. When Gaal finds him in the forest, he muses how, despite his best-laid plans, the future keeps shaping itself around Gaal; her importance surpasses his own. Hari entrusts Gaal with a Radiant containing his accumulated data about the Eight different Crisis. What he neglects to tell her, however, is how close he is to drawing his last breath. During the night, he and the Prime Radiant’s physical embodiment (Rowena King) leave for Oona’s World through a portal — and, for now, the great Hari Seldon seems to have finally embraced death instead of cheating it. The next morning, Gaal quietly grieves her teacher and surrogate father, a man she’s fiercely admired, resented, and adored. She wants to create a statue of Hari like the three he hand-carved, one each to honor the loved ones they lost: Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), Yanna Seldon (Nimrat Kaur), and Raych Foss (Alfred Enoch). Turns out, Hari already memorialized his image through a statue, because, of course, he did.

The Mule’s Influence Spreads in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 2

With that loss, we return to the present timeline. As the Mentalics’ leader, Preem Palver (Troy Kotsur), shows Gaal the same disruption in the Radiant that Demerzel (Laura Birn) noticed, the robot majordomo and the Cleons continue their discussion from last week. Brother Dawn’s (Cassian Bilton) strategic mind wants to fix the problem. Unfortunately, psychohistory can’t repair a disaster this expansive, especially since, according to Demerzel, “something has been casting shadows in the math for years.” Resigned to their collective doom, Day (Lee Pace) sprawls on the floor, takes a hit from a spore drug, and points out the irony that spending a century following the Radiant’s guidance has gotten them nowhere. Dusk (Terrence Mann), already struggling with his swiftly approaching death, takes issue with the fact that an unanticipated cataclysm has rendered his and Demerzel’s lives (his brief, hers infinite) “pointless.” As Demerzel turns away, Dusk argues that this disaster warrants a stay of execution, as it were; rather than killing him in 10 days, concurrent with Dawn’s ascendancy to the throne, Demerzel needs a partner for the upcoming battle. She denies Dusk’s plea with her own frosty barb: “I am the clock for every Cleon’s life. And the time I keep is exact.”

Swooping over to Kalgan, the source of all this trouble, the Mule struts into one of the palace’s massive, ornate rooms. A table is laid out for a feast, while a line of servants stand waiting. Skirlet (Isla Gie), the late Archduke Bellarion’s (Ralph Ineson) young daughter, attests to loving the Mule — her father’s murderer — “more than anything.” Striding past the assembled servants, the Mule explains that although he can coerce people into adoring him, his gift is like a muscle, and muscles grow tired from overuse. “Fortunately,” he declares, just this side of giddy, “I can convert some by way of demonstration.” He orders Skirlet to put her father’s gun to her temple and pull the trigger. She happily complies. Thankfully, for her sake, the gun is empty. His point made, the Mule settles down for a delicious meal.

The Cleons Grapple With Death, Destiny, and Defiance in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 2

Meanwhile, two new characters debut as a pair. Toran Mallow (Cody Fern) has zero interest in upholding either the business or political legacy of his famed ancestor, Hober (Dimitri Leonidas). Toran does, however, enjoy the benefits of his generational wealth (provided by the Alliance of Traders), as does his newlywed wife, Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen). The two are enjoying their honeymoon until the shadow of the Mule’s ship, the Blacktongue, disrupts their sunbathing. Aside from losing their light, the happy couple aren’t worried about the Mule’s coup — they’re “too complicit” in the safe cocoon of their privilege to worry about a would-be tyrant terrorizing Kalgan’s innocent civilians. Neither are they intimidated by Captain Han Pritcher (Brandon P. Bell) dropping by unannounced. The pair is young, blithe, and selfish, but they’re not fools, quickly realizing the Foundation intelligence officer wants to recruit them as spies. Their name recognition means they received an invitation to an upcoming party celebrating the Mule’s takeover, and Pritcher intends to be their plus one.

Back on Trantor, Day deals with humanity’s downfall by gambling with soldiers. This must be an established routine, since a bar full of officers respects the Emperor without fearing him. To be fair, Day doesn’t cut an intimidating figure when he’s leaning against people’s shoulders and discussing their sick children with familiarity and compassion. Later, Day warns Song (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing), his lover, that everything is about to go up in smoke. He’d prefer to flee before it happens, and Song’s home planet is his ideal destination. Dusk interrupts his younger self’s romantic impulses. Since Demerzel denied Dusk even a few more months of life, he asks Day to reverse the decree that shortened their life cycles, under the guise of letting Dusk assume Day’s unwanted “burdens.” Day sees through his intentions without a second thought. “We’re ragdolls dressed up as kings,” the reluctant ruler states. “Monsters.” To underscore his point, he slices open his entire forearm. The nanobots inside his body race to heal the wound, as both brothers knew they would. Day flicks his blood onto Dusk in a final spiteful gesture — leaving Song, who witnessed the exchange, distinctly unsettled.

Deadly Threats and Surprising Alliances Emerge in ‘Foundation’ Season 3 Episode 2

Finally, Dusk completes his rounds by rendezvousing with Dawn. This time, however, Dusk doesn’t plead his case. Instead, he promises to stand in for an absent Day at the robe transfer ceremony and smooth the way for Dawn’s leadership. Dusk’s plans to help the future Empire involve a secret gift Dusk managed to keep under Demerzel’s radar. What kind of gift, you ask? Cut to an engineer assuring Dusk that the Novacula, a “black hole bomb,” works as promised. A demonstration ensues: a single ray of blue light bursts from the circular-shaped device and melts an entire planet, leaving a cluster of stars behind. Unlike, say, the Death Star, the planet still exists — but its matter has been permanently rearranged. Dusk, although thrilled with the results, insists the Novacula is an emergency deterrent for Day to keep in reserve. The engineer disagrees: “People will know I put death in your hands,” he says, proud of his work.

One mind-bending game-changer follows another during a dinner with Dusk, Dawn, and Ambassador Quent (Cherry Jones), whom Dusk considers a good friend despite her devotion to the Foundation (or more than a good friend; they sit close enough to snuggle). The civil conversation circles its way to the pirate who seized Kalgan. Dawn prefers to “be prepared” to face the Mule, not because a dictator has usurped law and order, but in case the Mule poses a direct threat to the Empire; he doesn’t like people capable of disrupting Hari’s predictions. With that, Dawn excuses himself to his room. He activates a private messaging system and greets a holographic image of none other than Gaal Dornick. “The Mule,” he says, all smiles. “I expected your call as soon as I heard the name.” No-nonsense, Gaal replies, “Time to make yourself useful, Empire.”

Foundation Season 3 is available to stream on Apple TV+.

Stargate is one of my all-time favorite movies, but somehow I missed the bus on Stargate SG-1 when it originally aired. Now that the show is easily accessible on streaming services, I’ve slowly worked my way through it—and I’ve been missing out!

While there’s a lot of 90s and early 2000s sci-fi TV cheese here (and I’m here for it) there are some truly standout episodes, and would you look at that I’ve put them in an easy-to-read list.

You can stream Stargate SG-1 on Amazon Prime Video. The list is compiled based on the episodes I liked the most, but I did have a look at which episodes fans have rated highly over the years too. Nonetheless, this is my personal list. Episode numbers might differ from streaming services because of two-parters being combined. The list is not ranked.

7

Window of Opportunity (Season 4, Episode 6)

To be blunt, this episode is essentially SG-1’s take on Groundhog Day, but that doesn’t do Window of Opportunity justice. The gist is that Teal’c and O’Neill are caught in a time loop after visiting planet P4X-639. They keep getting looped back to breakfast on the day of the mission, and have to figure out how to break the time loop.

Of course, it’s Jackson and Carter who are the brains of the operation, but they aren’t in the time loop so they can’t retain any memories or information that would let them solve the puzzle. So O’Neill and Teal’c have to painstakingly learn an alien language over several months of their time so that Jackson can help them solve the puzzle of ending the time loop.

What makes this episode great is that the unlucky pair use the time for other things as well, such as learning pottery, and playing a few rounds of golf through the stargate. It’s a very funny episode, and it’s also notable for advancing the romance subplot between Carter and O’Neill with an on-screen smooch—which Sam obviously won’t remember.

I read up a little on the production of this episode, and it turns out that the episode was going to run short, so a lot of the wacky inserts that make it fun and memorable are only there because they needed to stuff the episode with random skits to make it long enough—legendary.

6

The Fifth Race (Season 2, Episode 16)

This episode of SG-1 reminds me a lot of The Nth Degree, a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where Lt. Barkley gets his brain upgraded by an alien device that gives him all sorts of new knowledge and abilities, eventually making him construct a mysterious device that leads him to an ancient race. In The Fifth Race O’Neill has his brain upgraded by an alien device, which gives him all sorts of new abilities and makes him construct a mysterious device which leads him to a race of ancient aliens—see what I mean?

All jokes aside, this episode is pretty awesome, and it’s one of the most important ones when it comes to uncovering the deep lore of the show. By the way, the “Fifth Race” is us—human beings—who are apparently almost ready to join some sort of alien federation. Dammit, Trek again?

5

The Torment of Tantalus (Season 1, Episode 10)

This is one of the earliest episodes of SG-1 and really shows off the potential for horror and dread the stargates bring. Dr. Jackson uncovers the fact that the stargate was actually successfully activated once before the events of the original movie, but this leads to a tragic accident where Catherine Langford (the woman who recruits him in the film) loses her lover Ernest in an “accident”. What Catherine didn’t know is that Ernest stepped through the gate, and there was no effort made to retrieve him.

Jackson figures out the address Ernest was sent to by studying the file footage from that day, and they travel through the gate to find Ernest alive, but old and mentally unstable. He’s almost lost the ability to speak, and has been hallucinating that Catherine has been with him all this time. As luck would have it, the place he’s been living in contains important information Jackson wants, but the building is on the verge of falling into the ocean, and the team has to escape, leaving this treasure behind. Luckily Ernest took many notes.

What I like most about this episode are the implications that dawn on you as the story progresses, and how messing with the stargates can go very, very wrong indeed. It’s a good setup for the darker parts of the series down the line.

4

1969 (Season 2, Episode 21)

You know how in Star Trek there are a few episodes and movies where the crew of the ship go back in time to the 21st century? Yeah? No reason, just asking.

Anyway, in 1969 SG-1 gets sent back to Earth in 1969 due to a freak accident, and then get mistaken for Soviet spies as they try to find a way back to their present. Lots of 60s hijinks. Though weirdly, O’Neill gives his name as “Captain James T. Kirk” when questioned in 1969, which the soldier in question doesn’t seem to recognize. Weird considering TOS came out in 1966, but maybe the guy isn’t a Trekker.

The team hitchhike and catch a ride in a hippie bus with a couple on the way to Woodstock. Spock has to wear a silly bandana to hide the fact that he isn’t human. I mean Teal’c, Teal’c wears a silly bandana.

3

2010 (Season 4, Episode 16)

Episode 2010 is directly connected to 1969 except we are now in the future, the distant year 2010. About a decade ahead of the “present” timeline of SG-1. Here we see an Earth blessed with technology and peace, thanks to a race known as the “Aschen” who helped defeat the Goa’uld.

Everything seems to be going great, but (surprise) it turns out that the Aschen aren’t as altruistic as they seem, just very patient. So Sam Carter needs to use the exact same method of time travel we saw in the previous 60s episode to send a warning back to General Hammond, preventing Earth from making contact with the Aschen in the first place.

I like this episode simply because it has a cool alien invasion angle that’s quite smart for a TV series from the 90s, and it’s a great example of the writers just having fun with a “what if” style episode that doesn’t really impact anything. Well, except the meeting with the Aschen happens anyway in a later episode, (2001, Season 5, Episode 10) with a smart callback to the man who was Sam Carter’s husband in this episode. So either way, the dark Aschen future is avoided.

2

Fragile Balance (Season 7, Episode 3)

You know those anime storylines where an adult gets to go through high school again, but they have all the knowledge and skills of being an adult? Well, Fragile Balance ends where those plots begin, but with a lot of twists to get there.

The episode opens with a teenager claiming to be Colonel O’Neill showing up at the secret base, and after a lot of back-and-forth it turns out that he’s a clone, and that he’s dying. The plot thickens when it turns out that an Asgardian named Loki has been abducting people for years, swapping them out with a short-lived clone and then returning them later after doing his research. Except, in this case the clone didn’t age correctly, exposing his whole deal.

Thor, another Asgardian alien, manages to stop the degradation in the O’Neill clone, and that version of O’Neill decides to go back to high school, never to be heard from or mentioned again. Also, all the creepiness of a man in a child’s body ogling high school girls is on full display—hey 2003 was a different time, I guess.

1

Pretense (Season 3, Episode 15)

What’s a 90s/2000s sci-fi show without a court case episode? While it doesn’t quite rise to the level of TNG’s The Measure of a Man, Pretense is a pretty good episode where we get to see a debate about free will, how humans treat livestock, and who has the right to the body of a boy named Skaara—the host or the parasite? It’s not the most fast-paced episode, but I really like it when a series intersperses all that sexy P90 action with something more cerebral.

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There are over 200 SG-1 episodes, so I almost certainly didn’t get your favorite episode, and who knows if my opinion will change with repeated future viewings? One thing I can say is that SG-1 has aged pretty well, in the opinion of someone who didn’t watch it when it was airing. Catching up with this gap in my sci-fi history was daunting, but I’m glad I did it. Maybe I’ll even try to find a physical box set to go with my Star Trek collection.