Stargate SG-1: Thor's Hammer

 "Teal'c, I think we got the answering machine."

This may not hit the heights of the last extraordinary episode- the friendliness of the Cimmerians is a little too trite and convenient, while events play out predictably. But this continues a streak of strong episodes and gives me something I'm growing to live for- the drip, drip, drip of lore as the series progresses. And I'm willing to forgive the moments of dated, '90s storytelling and conventions. Yes, we get a crap rubber monster... but, on the other hand, it's voiced by James Earl Jones.

Perhaps Daniel's theory based on ancient Norse myth is a little unconvincing and convenient, too... but this is a universe where Erich von Daniken and that lot were sort of right, and pagan "gods" were in fact ancient aliens. So let's just acknowledge the triteness of the plot and get into the exciting lore, shall we?

In Cimmeria (Robert E. Howard's grave stirs a little, the gang genuinely have some nice Viking friends with whom they would be wise to stay in touch, as well as the possibility of one day removing the Go'auld hosts from  who are Sha're and Skara. And it seems that, indeed, there are benevolent, powerful aliens who are hostile to the Go'auld and... well, is "Thor" a long dead powerful spacefarer, as the recorded message may suggest, or an actual sky god in the here and now, as Kendra's thunder suggests? I must sheepishly admit, though, that it feels weird seeing the god Thor in a non-Marvel context. Kudos for the mythologically accurate ginger hair though.

Then there's the mysterious Unas, the Go'auld's mythological first host. And, dammit, so much lore and backstory. I really hope all this gets properly followed up.

Stargate SG-1: Brief Candle

 "It's a paradise."

"Yeah, sure, have an apple. What could happen?" 

From the blurb this looks as though it's going to be a standard bit of high concept '90s telly sci-fi. But it's so much more than that, genuinely deep and psychological, and utterly superb telly. Yes, sometimes an episode of television which takes its title from a well-known Shakespeare quote can be extraordinary rather than pretentious...!

The concept is deeply horrific. The Gou'auld once kidnapped a population from pre-Homeric Greece (the actual Argos?) and modified them by means of nanotechnology to have shortened lifespans of just one hundred days just to experiment with speeding up human evolution over the very long term. Cruelly, the people have no idea that longer lives can happen, and worship their alien exploiter as a god.

And yet, they love and cherish every day of their short lives. And so, as Jack ends up sleeping with a local lady (always unwise...) and having his own lifespan shortened, he learns the value of existence. These people do far more with one hundred days than either Napoleon or FDR.

Yes, it's a cop out at the end to have Jack's aging reversed, but this is '90s episodic sci-fi telly. And we do rather gloss over how these people learn to speak, cook, and exist in such a short span. But there are so many ideas in this clever little episode.

Stargate SG-1: The Nox

 "The young do not always do as they are told..."

A rather interesting and different episode, this. A world on which there lives a mysterious race called the Nox who at first appear to be strange, primitive, helpless yet also with wondrous abilities such as healing and invisibility. Throughout the episode we slowly discover that they are not what they seem, that their pacifism arises from wisdom and confidence, and that the Go'auld are no threat to them. 

Indeed, we end with a reveal to the gang that, invisibly, the Nox in fact possess hidden yet impossibly advanced technology. To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, any suffociently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This episode is a rather successful example of the trope that arises from that, and one of the stronger episodes thus far.

It also develops the lore and season arc rather nicely. The US government are now starting to have doubts about the Stargate project due to the poor results in terms of advanced alien tech. Plus we get to see Go'uald again... and Apophis! It is, admittedly, something of a coincidence that they're all on the planet at the same time. Still, a rather strong episode, with Armin Shimerman in it to boot.

Stargate SG-1: Cold Lazarus

 "Your world is a strange place..."

Concept-wise, this is pretty simple- the gang explore a world and find some crystals, some of the crystals disguise themselves as Jack. So, early on in this series, this seems to be another example of an episode in which the point is not so much exploring the Stargate but rather with a threat which they bring back to Earth with them.

Except there's more. This episode deepens the series not so much by exploring the lore as exploring character, as the crystal entity is introduced to Jack's tragic backstory- the fact that he carelessly left his gun around, that his son thereby accidentally used the gun to tragically shoot himself, leading to devastation and the collapse of the marriage.

This episode uses the conceit of the crystal entity to explore this, as we meet Sara, Jack's ex-wife, and the two reconcile against the odds, with it looking as though they may even get back together. It's well-handled, well acted, and it's clever how Sara interprets the entity's clueless statements and questions as being deeper than they are.

And yet... it may hit differently in the USA, with its extremely permissive gun laws but, to me, there can be no forgiving what Jack did. You can't have guns in a domestic setting, and leaving it lying around for kids to find is utterly beyond the pale. Yet Sara is not angry at him...?

Still, the episode is well done, and there are consequences perhaps for Jack's personal life but also in that the team now all know of his dark past. As ever, it's fascinating in these early episodes seeing the series explore what it wants to be. 

Stargate SG-1: The First Commandment

 "We're off to see the wizard!"

A decent episode this time, based on a concept that was bound to come up at some point- an officer on one of the Stargate teams setting himself up as a god to the hunter-gatherer peoples of one of the worlds. And this plays out decently enough in its Man Who Would Be King sort of way, complete with the inevitable comeuppance for the captain concerned. And there's a little extra drama from the fact that this is Carter's ex.

Beyond this, though, there's more subtle world-building. The Go'auld usually terraform planets. The people on this world know of the Jaffa from legend, although they hadn't seen one before. It's all nicely Erik von Daniken, with the local legends giving clues to the Go'auld tech that can save their people... preferably without working the poor people to death to build a "temple".

At this point the SG-1 gang is bonding nicely, with mutual respect. They're a team... although no one simply just does what the Colonel O'Brien says! This is all very '90s, but the show is developing nicely in these early episodes.

Stargate SG-1: The Broca Divide

 "You referred to me as Lucy!"

It's fascinating seeing these early episodes and seeing what the format's going to be. This is, of course, an American network show from 1997, so there are twenty-odd episodes a season. So not every episode can be part of the arc where we learn more about the Stargates, the Goa'uld, and all that lovely lore stuff. We're going to get episodes of the week, like the last one. And like this.

This episode is entertaining, yes. but it can be summed up pretty simply- the team explore a new world, which is interesting, with areas of permanent day and permanent night. The culture seems to be descended from that of the ancient Minoans. And... there's this plague that turns people into wild, unhinged hominids which infects most of the team, until a cure is found. That's pretty much it.

Yet, more importantly, it further develops the relations between the characters. It establishes yet again that not every episode (perhaps not most?) will involve the Go'auld. And it's established- from the president, no less (Clinton, presumably), that the team are in fact expected to study the cultures they find. It's a good episode, but perhaps more important for the subtle things it establishes about how this show is going to be.

And yeah, I didn't expect to see General Major Briggs like that... 

Stargate SG-1: Emancipation

 "What is an Oprah?"

A fairly straightforward episode, this, as the gang enter a stargate and find a human civilisation once deposited there by Go'auld, leading to an adventure with a clear social subtext- in this case the societal oppression of women which has existed to extreme degrees in certain society and which, alas, is still with us to a degree in the West in 2026. 

Is this going to be a typical example of the format, or at least one of the formats, I wonder? I note that difficulties in translation English to a language similar to mediaeval Mongolian have been quietly handwaved away. And, although "demons" (Gou'ald, I assume?) were presumably responsible for bringing these people to this world, they are now long gone. And these Mongols were seemingly removed from Earth a mere thousand years ago, long after the Egyptians seen previously?

So the team meet a tribe who make women wear veils, practse polygamy, and generally fail to be anywhere near to gender equality (cue some very '90s "humour" amongst the team) but at least their chief (played by the late, great, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), is trying to improve things. Sadly, Sam Carter ends up sold as a slave to the truly evil chief of a much more misogynistic tribe.

All is neatly resolved at the end, perhaps too conveniently, but this was an interesting insight into what the format is going to be, despite being a decent but fairly ho-hum episode. 

Stargate SG-1: The Enemy Within

 "That's right, Dorothy. It was all a dream."

This may, perhaps, have been a bit of a breather, an episode to slow down a bit after the eventful and no doubt expensive pilot... indeed, this is almost a bottle episode as, unlike the pilot, it takes place wholly on the existing sets, with no location filming at all. And the premise- Major Kawalski is infected by a Go'auld that seeks to destroy the team from within, and the ensuing ethical dilemma of how to deal with him- is an intrinsically good one.

Yet the execution (SPOILERS) is even better. There's lots of tension. Colonel Kennedy is used as an antagonist so that none of the regulars have to show disloyalty to their friend. The operation seemingly going well offers hope, of course, for the team's missing friends. But the final twist- the Go'auld remained in Kawalski's brain even after the op- is a deeply effective shock, as is the very early death of what seemed set to be a series regular, reminding me of Jesse from Buffy.

Again, the use of Colonel Kennedy also allows the episode to deal with the question of how teal.c is to be treated, going from prisoner and potential lab rat to trusted team member. I notice also that he's an ever-convenient source of exposition, but he's also beginning to learn more about his ancestral homeworld.

A bottle episode, then, but one that has some massive twists and is vitally important for setting up our initial staus quo. I'm still very much enjoying this. 

Teal'c also as exposition. 

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods

 "Many have said that. But you are the first I believe could do it."

Yes, I know. After a few months of not blogging much, then of not blogging much telly, I'm back, so much so that I'm starting another show. And why not? After all, I enjoyed the film and recently found out that my wonderful partner has seen this. So here goes.

First impressions are how very '90s television sci-fi this is, from the cinematography to the orchestral theme to the amusing fact that both Colonel Jack O'Neil and Daniel are now played by much cheaper actors. There's a new scientist character, Captain Samantha Carter, so cue some very '90s battle-of-the-sexes dialogue. It all looks cheaper than the film, as you'd expect, although it's impressive for '90s telly. And, from the evidence of this pilot, at least, we're looking at a slow, unfolding story arc rather than the story of the weewk format one might expect in 1997.

Oh, and the new general is Major Briggs from Twin Peaks! I'm minded to refer to him as General Major Briggs from now on. 

This pilot was double length and establishes lots of further lore in order to justify a long running series. Hence we have a huge map of potential stargate locations, and we discover that Ra is just one of many Go'auld, who are nasty creepy crawly things that burrow into the intestines of human servants called Jaffa, which is... uuuurgh, especially if one happens to have had surgery for umbilical and inguinal surgery in recent weeks...!

Yes, we as viewers damn well know that the gang were always going to get through the stargate in the very nick of time at the end, as that trope is always compulsory. But this is a strong pilot in terms of cast, world building and big, big ideas. Let's see where this goes...