(no subject)
Really liked that Nerus wasn't the typical melodramatic Goa'uld bad guy, but kind of a third string player who makes himself useful through means other than emoting evil. It was interesting to see how this minor Goa'uld is going about manipulating himself a place in the face of the collapsed Goa'uld empire.
Ha! The phone call. Poor Jack. It's like this is the only way he can have fun anymore.
You know, I'm really starting to like Landry. Largely because he isn't Papa General Hammond. He's got a very different dynamic and style for running the SGC that isn't the sort of parent-and-favorite-child thing (which I loved, because that's what worked for S1-S7 Stargate), and yet he doesn't come across as a cardboard hardass that is there only to be mean to SG-1.
OMG! Sam! Yay! (Um, I'm kinda ashamed to admit that with Stargate this season, I'm becoming, just a little, that person who is watching a show mostly for one character. I overcame my hate and now really do like Daniel, but he's never been my favorite. Mitchell is still not doing enough for me to get a good feel for him. Vala I like well enough, but in limited doses. And okay, I love Teal'c lots and lots, and I hope they let Chris Judge write another episode this season so we get more Teal'c love. But Sam's my girl and I have missed her.)
Backup singer, heh.
Team! Yay!
Camshaft. Oh, my, the innuendo possibilities.
So far I miss the Goa'uld as the big bad. The Ori just fall flat for me as Stargate villians. Too much pomp, not enough... I dunno. It's like I know they should be scary, but they just aren't. And stop with the evil dramatic Ori orchestral theme, already. The Goa'uld had moments of scary because most of their danger was personal and petty and selfish, greedy children run amok with really powerful weapons. And the Replicators were scary (well, before the human form versions showed up) because of the Borg-like relentlessness. And both fit into the sense of space-opera-adventure that marks a lot of dramatic moments in SG-1.
The Ori come across like a mix of the relentless force of the Replicators and the power-hungry entitlement of the Goa'uld, but one that's missing some essential qualities that made the other two work as engaging enemies.
Hm. It'd be interesting to see the Jaffa vs. the Tau'ri end up as the next big galactic war. Given Gerak's single-minded adherence to doing things the Jaffa way, and Nerus' comment to Landry at the beginning about how the Tau'ri have made the galaxy they now live in, and how they are responsible for it. And dude, imagine the Teal'c angst if it came to that.
"Well, we wanted to send them a message." Vala vs. the Ori. It could be its own spinoff. Honestly, while I don't think Vala would work at all with the SG-1 team dynamic, I would totally watch a show with her as the main character, wreaking havoc across the known galaxy. Or I'd take her as part of SG-1, if there was an apocalypse and SG-1 ended up as space pirates in leather pants.
Ahem. Anyway.
Overall, the episode fell flat and forced as far as the "OMG biggest threat to the galaxy evah!" Trying to ratchet up the tension by introducing the "even more powerful bad guy!" just feels ridiculous at this point in the series (though dude, creating a giant Stargate by collapsing a planet - Though would a planet have enough mass to create a singularity... Wait. This is Stargate *handwaves the science* - COOL).
But great to have Sam back, and can't wait for some SG-1 team stuff in the future.