“New Order” is the two-hour premiere of Stargate SG-1’s eighth season and its third as an original series for the Scifi Channel. Since moving to there from Showtime three years ago, the series has been a ratings success for Bonnie Hammer and company and the season opener for season 8 looks to carry on that success.

New Order, directed by Andy Mikita with part one written by the team of Joe Mallozzi/Paul Mullie and part two written by show runner Robert C. Cooper, takes place after the dramatic season seven finale where the SG-1 team used knowledge of the Ancients, which was downloaded into the mind of Col. Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), to create a weapon to save Earth from the invading forces of System Lord Anubis. The price they pay for the success of this ploy is having to leave Jack O’Neill frozen in bio-status to save his life. Now Earth is safe from Anubis, however a new threat is emerging as other System Lords seek out the SGC’s help in defeating Lord Ba’al who has taken Anubis place as a threat to both Goa’uld and human alike. The remaining members of SG-1, Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Teal’c (Christopher Judge) are faced with a more direct problem, they have not been able to contact the Asgard whom they hope can save the cryogenically frozen Jack O’Neill by removing the Ancient’s knowledge from his mind.

The SGC, now under the command of Dr. Elizabeth Weir (formerly played by Jessica Steen and now played by Torri Higginson) a civilian diplomat appointed by the president to oversee the program, enlists the help of Dr. Daniel Jackson to broker a treaty with the arriving Goa’uld delegates, while Carter and Teal’c undertake a dangerous mission to fly an untested ship to the distant home world of the Asgard. While Daniel and Weir deal with untrustworthy adversaries on Earth, Teal’c, Carter and the Asgard Supreme Commander Thor (voiced by Michael Shanks) fall under attack from another old enemy, the Replicators led by the humanlike one known as Fifth (Patrick Currie) and Carter is taken prisoner.

With Carter gone, Thor and Teal’c return to Earth to retrieve Daniel Jackson and the cryogenically frozen O’Neill in the hopes that interfacing O’Neill’s mind, which holds the Ancient knowledge, with the computer system of Thor’s ship ’THE DANIEL JACKSON’ they will be able to create a weapon to stop the replicators once and for all and that the process will not kill Jack in doing so.

TV shows tend to lose creativity and originality as they get older, yet sometimes something rare and amazing happens and a TV show regains it’s magic and produces an episode that reminds the viewer of what caught their attention to begin with. "New Order" possesses that kind of rare magic and offers long time viewers of the series a wealth of character interaction reminiscent of the height of show’s character development and chemistry. Returned are scenes of friendship and interaction between the characters of Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson. Sam Carter is returned to the smart, capable and strong individual she started out as her scenes on the cargo ship with Teal’c discussing personal issues, possible disaster with the engines and ’keeping a positive attitude’ show us a more human, fallible side to the character that takes the edge off the idea of ’Super-Sam’ (and she looks fabulous with the hair extensions they gave her for the fantasy sequence of life on the farm with Pete).

What also contributes to the magic that makes Stargate:SG-1 come alive in this episode is a new twist, in which the character of Teal’c is given a solid and more prominent role in the story line, This episode utilizes both the character and his actor to their full potential. Teal’c has more than just hair in this episode, he shown to be the savvy, no nonsense warrior and vital member of SG-1 that he is. Teal’c is large and in charge.

New Order has crisp, creative writing with things like Weir coming up with demanding that Earth be allowed to claim Ba’al’s resources and armies if they defeat him. It has strong direction and great character interaction. I have to say I was a little leery of the change in actresses for the role of Dr. Elizabeth Weir for the episode (and the upcoming spin-off series Stargate:Atlantis) but Torri Higginson more than proves that the production team made the right call and her version of Weir is instantly likeable as a supporting character and she plays well off of SG-1 veteran actor Michael Shanks and his character of Daniel Jackson and one was never overshadowed by the other

I also found it refreshing that they have chosen to go back to having System Lords that have a believable presence and depth to them instead of the cartoony over the top characters last seen in season 5’s Summit/Last Stand story arc. I was particularly delighted to see my favorite, Lord Yu and his aide returning to the series and new System Lord Camulus proves to be adding an interesting twist to the arc of the Goa’uld storyline.

It remains to be seen what the production team of Stargate SG-1 will do with the rest of season 8 and if it will continue on with the wealth of potential and renewed creativity in the storylines and character utilizations/interactions that shine through in New Order, but they certainly have created a great start for themselves with new weapons, new directions for the characters and yet a seemingly positive return to the roots of what made the series a viewer favorite way back on Showtime.

This isn’t to mean that the episode doesn’t have its flaws and those who watch the show for the presence of series star Richard Dean Anderson may find the first hour or so without him not quite as enjoyable as the second hour when Jack makes his appearance, but I can tell them to take heart because it’s worth the wait. Jack is as irascible as ever and only Jack would ask an Asgard for an aspirin, yet there is a subtle tempering to it that brings back the Jack O’Neill from the beginning.  Some may feel the idea of sending three remaining SG-1 team members in separate directions in the story arc doesn’t make sense and normally I would agree as the show is about a team, but the process works and the sense of team remains and eventually draws them back together to renew their commitment to each other and that returns the show to the premise on which the foundation of the success of the series was built.