SG-1 Rewatch: "Solitudes" and "There But for the Grace of God"
Quick comments on "Solitudes".
Jack and Sam are damned lucky, all things considered. Lucky the Gate wasn't so completely buried that there was no air, or only bad air, in the cavern. Lucky they could find the DHD, as well.
I do like the way that Daniel solves the problem, even without Dam's scientific genius. But with Siler's help!
Siler facing down Hammond and telling him that 24 hours is 24 hours is just priceless. He's not Montgomery Scott, and Sgt. Siler does not pad his estimates!
We do learn a bit more about the way the gate system works, I guess, and we get a reminder that the Goa'uld didn't build the gates. Useful information, that.
And we get a fair amount of character stuff. There is some solid grounding here for Sam's crush on Jack, although rather less for the emotion to go the other direction.
"There But For the Grace of God"
I love that the aliens who built this place left everything intact. No dust, no rubble, all the lights work. It looks like they just went out for an office party and will be back soon. Doesn't anyone find this worrying?
Jack foolishly assumes Daniel will listen to him because he says so; but in non-life-or-death situations, Daniel's far more likely to dig in his heels. Hell, even in life-or-death situations! So of course he dillies and dallies, touching things he shouldn't, and get into trouble.
Naturally, he goes home. Whoops.
… On later review, I do rather wonder why they let Daniel through the gate at all, because they certainly knew SG-1 wasn't off-planet. So either it was pure curiosity, or their system is set up to have the GDO signal automatically open the iris.
I love that Hammond isn't a General, and with the benefit of hindsight, it must have something to do with his experiences in 1969. Without that interaction with SG-1, he never got advanced enough to be promoted to general. (Although realistically he would instead have been pushed out: if you don't make General, they don't keep you around as a Colonel forever, because there are younger officers down the line who might be able to use that spot. A Hammond who didn't make the promotion list would have been encouraged to retire and find a home in the civilian world.)
Anyway, at this point in the original broadcast, tens of thousands of fans started bouncing with delight, because they would know this signaled an alternate reality storyline. And who doesn't love an alternate reality story? (This kind, not the "everyone's a barista" type, which do have their adherents.)
Because this SGC is under attack and way more paranoid, there's not even a pretense of making nice: they immediately hustle Daniel off to Medical, and restrain him. (Nice camera angle there, making the world tilt as much as Daniel must feel it is.)
And he's back in the secured quarters, a place that must be becoming familiar.
Hey, it's Catherine! I forgot she was in this. Always nice to see her (although I retain a lingering fondness for the pricklier version we got in the movie).
I do enjoy the way Daniel starts sing-singing his story--he must have repeated it a lot already.
… And the business with Sam not being in the military--I wonder what happened in this timeline that made Sam not join the Air Force, Jack make General, and Hammond never get promoted. I don't remember the point of departure, but maybe we'll learn it in the episode.
So while Daniel is ranting at Jack and Catherine--and foolishly giving them the gate address for Chulak--Sam comes in, and he begins to discover that something very much more important is going on. If this episode took place a season or two later, Daniel would likely have been far less chatty.
I'm amazed the television broadcast is able to be done at all--certainly the Goa'uld would have destroyed the communications networks first.
… And now Daniel learns the price of talking too quickly. There's damn little Daniel could have said that would have stopped Jack from sending the bomb to Chulak.
I'd forgotten that part of what proves Daniel is telling the truth is the videotape from his off world mission.
And… I find it astonishing that this Jack is willing to take that leap. OTOH, maybe it's not so unbelievable--Jack in CotG was in dire straits, facing a complete massacre, when he appealed to Teal'c. This is much the same situation, although with the added element of having his fiancee be at risk alongside him.
Except Jack's appeal is negated by his own hard-headedness: sending the bomb to Chulak was the Wrong Idea. And now Jack is dead.
"I also wish to blow us all to hell." Oh, Sam.
At least they don't show us Catherine's death.
There's no reason for Teal'c to delay here, other than he finds Daniel no threat. And… Boom.
And back in "our" reality, SG-1 is totally looking for Daniel. Which it's nice they're looking out for him, but it does rather make his whole, "This happens all the time!" thing ring pretty hollow. Poor put-upon Daniel.
Next up is "Politics"; I'll watch it, but see no reason to do comments.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.
Jack and Sam are damned lucky, all things considered. Lucky the Gate wasn't so completely buried that there was no air, or only bad air, in the cavern. Lucky they could find the DHD, as well.
I do like the way that Daniel solves the problem, even without Dam's scientific genius. But with Siler's help!
Siler facing down Hammond and telling him that 24 hours is 24 hours is just priceless. He's not Montgomery Scott, and Sgt. Siler does not pad his estimates!
We do learn a bit more about the way the gate system works, I guess, and we get a reminder that the Goa'uld didn't build the gates. Useful information, that.
And we get a fair amount of character stuff. There is some solid grounding here for Sam's crush on Jack, although rather less for the emotion to go the other direction.
"There But For the Grace of God"
I love that the aliens who built this place left everything intact. No dust, no rubble, all the lights work. It looks like they just went out for an office party and will be back soon. Doesn't anyone find this worrying?
Jack foolishly assumes Daniel will listen to him because he says so; but in non-life-or-death situations, Daniel's far more likely to dig in his heels. Hell, even in life-or-death situations! So of course he dillies and dallies, touching things he shouldn't, and get into trouble.
Naturally, he goes home. Whoops.
… On later review, I do rather wonder why they let Daniel through the gate at all, because they certainly knew SG-1 wasn't off-planet. So either it was pure curiosity, or their system is set up to have the GDO signal automatically open the iris.
I love that Hammond isn't a General, and with the benefit of hindsight, it must have something to do with his experiences in 1969. Without that interaction with SG-1, he never got advanced enough to be promoted to general. (Although realistically he would instead have been pushed out: if you don't make General, they don't keep you around as a Colonel forever, because there are younger officers down the line who might be able to use that spot. A Hammond who didn't make the promotion list would have been encouraged to retire and find a home in the civilian world.)
Anyway, at this point in the original broadcast, tens of thousands of fans started bouncing with delight, because they would know this signaled an alternate reality storyline. And who doesn't love an alternate reality story? (This kind, not the "everyone's a barista" type, which do have their adherents.)
Because this SGC is under attack and way more paranoid, there's not even a pretense of making nice: they immediately hustle Daniel off to Medical, and restrain him. (Nice camera angle there, making the world tilt as much as Daniel must feel it is.)
And he's back in the secured quarters, a place that must be becoming familiar.
Hey, it's Catherine! I forgot she was in this. Always nice to see her (although I retain a lingering fondness for the pricklier version we got in the movie).
I do enjoy the way Daniel starts sing-singing his story--he must have repeated it a lot already.
… And the business with Sam not being in the military--I wonder what happened in this timeline that made Sam not join the Air Force, Jack make General, and Hammond never get promoted. I don't remember the point of departure, but maybe we'll learn it in the episode.
So while Daniel is ranting at Jack and Catherine--and foolishly giving them the gate address for Chulak--Sam comes in, and he begins to discover that something very much more important is going on. If this episode took place a season or two later, Daniel would likely have been far less chatty.
I'm amazed the television broadcast is able to be done at all--certainly the Goa'uld would have destroyed the communications networks first.
… And now Daniel learns the price of talking too quickly. There's damn little Daniel could have said that would have stopped Jack from sending the bomb to Chulak.
I'd forgotten that part of what proves Daniel is telling the truth is the videotape from his off world mission.
And… I find it astonishing that this Jack is willing to take that leap. OTOH, maybe it's not so unbelievable--Jack in CotG was in dire straits, facing a complete massacre, when he appealed to Teal'c. This is much the same situation, although with the added element of having his fiancee be at risk alongside him.
Except Jack's appeal is negated by his own hard-headedness: sending the bomb to Chulak was the Wrong Idea. And now Jack is dead.
"I also wish to blow us all to hell." Oh, Sam.
At least they don't show us Catherine's death.
There's no reason for Teal'c to delay here, other than he finds Daniel no threat. And… Boom.
And back in "our" reality, SG-1 is totally looking for Daniel. Which it's nice they're looking out for him, but it does rather make his whole, "This happens all the time!" thing ring pretty hollow. Poor put-upon Daniel.
Next up is "Politics"; I'll watch it, but see no reason to do comments.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
comments; comment here or there.