Stargate: Continuum is a brilliant, poignant and bittersweet film, both for its remarkable story and for the fact that it is the last of the Stargate films ever made. It is the ultimate "You can't go home again" tale, as Cameron Mitchell finds himself trapped in an alternate timeline and eventually, the past, unable to ever see his friends or family again.

The main photo from Ben Browder Network on this post shows one of the more heartbreaking scenes. Ben as Cameron is trapped in an alternate timeline of the evil Goa'uld System Lord Baa'l's own making. Everything is wrong: Cameron is separated from his friends Samantha and Daniel; there was never an SG-1, and neither General Landry nor Jack O'Neill knows them; Vala was never liberated and is still the enslaved host to Qe'tesh; Teal'c is still a First Prime and the Jaffa are not free; and somehow, amidst a host of other changes, Cameron Mitchell was never born. Here he stands on the farm in Kansas, staring at what was once his home. He is likely hoping to find his father Frank Mitchell, but Frank isn't there and instead Cameron meets a farmer who doesn't know him. Ben infused this scene with such sorrow and loneliness that I cried the first time I watched the movie.

The story is intricate and is perhaps one of the finest "alternate timeline" tales told within the Stargate universe. It begins when SG-1 is attending Baa'l's extraction ceremony on the Tok'ra home world. No one is completely at ease with the situation; they believe they've caught the last of the Baa'l's, but are not entirely certain. Baa'l warns them that he has a plan in place, and suddenly everyone in the chamber begins to vanish. Cameron, Samantha and Daniel make a run for it to the Stargate but soon find themselves transported to a ship frozen in the Arctic. They quickly realize they're aboard the Achilles, and that Baa'l has altered time. Intense drama ensues as Daniel's leg gets wet and Cameron and Samantha are forced to leave him on the ice in an effort to get help, knowing their friend might die.

They eventually run into an alternate Jack O'Neill, and are reunited with Daniel, whose leg is unfortunately going to be amputated. As they try to reason with Jack and later General Landry, explaining their situation, they soon realize that even the few people who half believe them - Landry among them - are not going to let them fix the timeline. No one believes they have the right to alter the lives of billions of people on Earth again. Yet Cameron and his friends know that Baa'l will be coming to invade Earth, and when he does, the planet will be enslaved.

The scene where the friends are separated and sent to different places is very sad. Ben's expression as Cameron rides on the bus to his new "home" is one of complete despair. He doesn't see his friends and teammates for over a year, until the President calls them in to help with the very invasion Cameron and the others tried to warn them about.

The reunion is bittersweet; Earth is essentially doomed if they can't undo the damage Baa'l has done. But Cameron does not give up hope, and through every obstacle - including trying to convince a bemused Teal'c that he needs to help, trying to avoid the clutches of Qe'tesh, and worse, the death of Samantha and Daniel - Cameron Mitchell prevails.

Ben's performance in the scene in Baa'l's time machine chamber when Daniel and Samantha are killed is award-worthy. He barely has time to react yet his cry and the look on his face when Samantha falls has always stayed with me.

Ultimately, Cameron sacrifices everything to restore the timeline, and eventually does, living in wait ten years for the chance to board the Achilles and lie in wait for Baa'l as he enters the Stargate on the original date of 1939, when he and his loyal Jaffa killed the crew including Cameron's grandfather and prevented the Stargate from ever reaching the United States. But this time, Cameron is there waiting. Cameron shoots Baa'l in the head, killing him and returning time to its proper history of WWll and the development of the Stargate Program.

And then, his task complete, he goes to stand with his puzzled grandfather and stare out at the sea, likely contemplating his "future." He has no way of returning to his present and wouldn't even if he could; he must leave it all behind and live the rest of his days in the past, taking comfort in the knowledge that his friends and family (and his now younger self, as is the way with alternate timeline stories) are safe and will continue on their adventures, possibly never knowing the truth of what almost destroyed them all. A lonely, heroic tale of an extraordinary man and leader, superbly acted by Ben.