10 Worst Episodes Of Otherwise Excellent Sci-Fi TV Shows
6. Stargate SG-1 - “Emancipation”
Stargate SG-1 is a great series that lasted for ten seasons and spawned multiple spinoffs to create a relatively large franchise. The series has a stinker or two spread across its 214 episodes, but the one that most fans point to as the worst is "Emancipation" from the first season.
The episode finds the team on the planet Simarka, which Daniel concludes was settled by people taken from the Mongol civilization. This becomes a bit of a problem when Sam is seen by the locals, who don't accept women being anything but utterly subservient to men.
Sam is traded like a commodity, and while she's not willing to let this go without a fight, she ultimately relents to buy time. She's a strong female character, and seeing her treated like that should have gotten the episode's message across, but all it really did was frustrate the fans.
"Emancipation" had a good concept in its take on the issue of women's rights in society, but it was executed poorly. This was especially true, seeing as it is only the fourth episode in the entire series. It might have worked better had the writers pitched this one much later when the series found its footing.